atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems Connect to Elitemail w/ Cosessions

I am at my wits end with this. It has been eight hours now, and I am almost nowhere ahead of where I was when I started. I cannot believe how poorly designed and non-user friendly this whole setup is--the Electra Elite system and the voicemail system alike. Although I will admit it is quite customizable, by far, this equipment is the least user friendly and least user intuitive piece of technology I have ever touched by far.


Now that I'm done ranting, I'd very much appreciate some assistance with the following:

What I need to do:

Connect to the voicemail card via Cosessions 7.0 Remote Viewer to default the voicemail system so that I can make programming changes.

About my equipment:

NEC Electra Elite 48 system with two DTU16 display sets. System was purchased from a recycling company, and according to the voicemail recordings it was originally installed at a Texas energy company office.

Voicemail: Elitemail VMS U10/20 w/ 2GB solid state hard drive and COM port

All of the DIP switches are in the OFF/left position. The voicemail system is only accessible by phone when the Make Busy switch is set to ON, which frankly makes zero sense to me. The voicemail system is definitely working as I am able to record messages on the mailbox I set up on extension 100 for myself.

Here's what I've done and tried so far:

I've been using the following documentation I managed to scrape out of the bowels of the web:

Link 1

Link 2

First tried installing Cosessions on my XP machine, and the software refused to install completely or work.

After some digging, I managed to find my old Windows 95 Compaq laptop, and was able to install Cosessions there with no problem (after transferring the files over from the Dell via dial-up modem and Hyperterminal via my Merlin Legend system, thank goodness I have analog ports!), and I can open the Remote Viewer application and it recognizes my modem/serial port(s) just fine.

My laptop is connected via serial DB9 cable directly to voicemail card.

Here's what isn't working:

Everything that I need this software to do.

I cannot seem to be able to actually connect to the voicemail card.

One of the manuals I linked to says, "when prompted, choose the default direct connection COM port and set the baud rate to 57,600."

My settings are currently set at:

Communications type: Serial/Modem

Com Port: COM1 | Baud Rate: 57600 | Data Bits: 8

Stop Bits: 1 | Parity: None | Flow Control: RTS/CTS

Modem Name: Generic High Speed (also tried Direct-Connect, didn't work)

Notes:

So, I cannot connect to the voicemail card. In addition, I'm getting conflicting information regarding the default username and passwords to log onto MS-DOS on the card.

I really would very much appreciate it if one of the NEC gurus could help me out on this, because I am, for the first time in a while, completely stymied by this system. All I want to do is reset the voicemail completely to default settings, and I've been told (and discovered with research) that this ancient Cosessions application is the only way to do it.

Thank you all in advance for your time and insight.

V/r,

Scott Bonk

Hey:
I have cosessions working just fine on my windows 7 laptop. I can't remember what I done to get it installed, other than I probably setup in some compatibility mode.
Anyway, I looked at my elite mail settings for several different customers, and I found some at 57600 and some at 19200, so I think it's the model or vintage of the elitemail card.
Also. in the viewer section, the logon name is support, the password is voice .. this is standard across most active voice apps, from ad8 on up.
Hope this helps...and I can't remember if I have to go null modem cable or not...lol...I think I screw with that every time, because I dont have a 9 pin to 9pin cable, I hook up two regular 9-25 cables together using various adapters .. I can usually get the right config in a couple of trys.

Thanks for the response. The only way that would work is if you had a 32-bit Windows 7 system. Under Properties for the application there's a Compatibility tab where you can specify for Windows to run/emulate the program as if it was being run in Windows 95, 98, 2000, et cetera.

I'll try the different baud rate now.

Scott

Cosessions can be installed in a virtual machine on windows 8 64-Bit See here.....

https://www.australiancommsforum.co...ne-6788777?pid=1281823981#post1281823981

Still no go on the login. Although I certainly appreciate the input regarding running Cosessions on a newer system, it's working fine on Windows 95...and I wouldn't touch Windows 8 with a ten foot long pole.

Here are some pictures of my voicemail card and system. Maybe something here isn't set up right?







Does everything look right here? The voicemail is operating normally with it the way it is right now. I just still can't get anything with Cosessions. It just says it received no data from the host.

Null modem?

yup...I'm betting a cable problem ... or something silly in the win95 port settings .. xon/xoff instead of dtr or something

Yes, it is a null DB9 serial cable (refer to my photos).

Alright... Still haven't gotten anywhere. Going to post the results of EVERYTHING I try and log it here as I do it.

The voicemail card is booted and ready, according to the green "BCLR" LED.

For these tests, the modem name will be set to Direct-Connect...


Test 1:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = RTS/CTS.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login, "attempts to retry the login procedure." I get an error in the Remote Viewer window that says, "A DSR timeout has occurred."


Test 2:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = Xon/Xoff.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login, "attempts to retry the login procedure." I get an error in the Remote Viewer window that says, "The login attempt has failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 3:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = None.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login, "attempts to retry the login procedure." I get an error in the Remote Viewer window that says, "The login attempt has failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 4:

Settings: COM1, 57,600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = RTS/CTS.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login, "attempts to retry the login procedure." Connection session window (the black DOS window) closes out before it even tries to retry the login. I get an error in the Remote Viewer window that says, "A DSR timeout has occurred."


Test 5:

Settings: COM1, 57,600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = Xon/Xoff.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login, "attempts to retry the login procedure." It runs through the three login attempts, and returns with, "The login attempt failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 6:

Settings: COM1, 57,600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = Xon/Xoff.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login, "attempts to retry the login procedure." It runs through the three login attempts, and returns with, "The login attempt failed. No response was received from the host."

Test 7:

Settings: COM1, 57,600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = None.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login, "attempts to retry the login procedure." It runs through the three login attempts, and returns with, "The login attempt failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 8:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = RTS/CTS.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login after the first attempt, and then the DOS window closes out, not having completed all three attempts. "A DSR timeout has occurred."


Test 9:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = Xon/Xoff.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login after the first attempt, and retries three times. "The login attempt has failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 10:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = None.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login after the first attempt, and then retries three times. "The login attempt failed. No response was received from the host."

I've run out of things to try with this modem name. Time to try the other option...
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

The tests from here on out will be conducted with modem name set to Generic High Speed...


Test 11:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = RTS/CTS.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login after the first attempt, and then the DOS window closes out, not having completed all three attempts. "A DSR timeout has occurred."


Test 12:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = Xon/Xoff.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Program fails to login after the first attempt, and then retries three more times. "The login attempt has failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 13:

Settings: COM1, 19,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = None.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. The DOS window opens and closes immediately, and returns "A DSR timeout has occured." Clicked Call button again. Runs through three failed login attempts. "The login attempt has failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 14:

Settings: COM1, 57,600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = RTS/CTS.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. The DOS window opens and closes immediately, and returns "A DSR timeout has occured." Clicked Call button again. Runs through one failed login attempt, and then closes out before it completes the second. "A DSR timeout has occurred."


Test 15:

Settings: COM1, 57,600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = Xon/Xoff.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Runs through three failed all login attempts. "The login attempt has failed. No response was received from the host."


Test 16:

Settings: COM1, 57,600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Flow control = None.

Terminal type username = support, password = voice.

Clicked Call button. Initialized modem. Runs through three failed all login attempts. "The login attempt has failed. No response was received from the host."


My god this is such a nightmare. This is beyond so ridiculous, all this BS just to connect to the voicemail card, and all just so I can reset the damn system to defaults!!!!


I am out of ideas. I have literally nothing left that I know of to try. I'm tempted, as we say in aviation maintenance, where I work, to just "remove and replace," this whole thing. But at the same time, I'd really rather not be defeated by this 15 year old voicemail system.

You guys are my only hope left here. What now?

Ok then did you try a straight through cable then? I've been working on active voice systems for 19 years and somewhere you have something simple wrong. You should be using direct connect on cossesions FYI. There are other baud rates as well. I personally would try 2400, 9600 and 38400. But first test that cable.

If by straight through cable you mean the DB9 cable plugged in in the photos I posted, then yes. Otherwise, I'm unsure what you're referring to.

I will try the other baud rates right now and post the results.

Thanks.