Hi All,
I apologize in advance for the long post.
I have a location that has a Toshiba CIX100 with a fractional PRI (16 B Channels all for Voice, No data). There are about 25 DID numbers for this circuit. The complaint I am getting is during busy periods they will get a busy signal on the main DID number but you can still call in on other DID numbers and get through. So I know that all channels are not in use. All calls are answered by the AA (8 port). The AA/Voice mail system hunt group is setup so that if all 8 ports are busy the calls will camp until a port becomes available. I have talked to Windstream numerous and they say that there is nothing wrong on their side. Any suggestions?
Thanks for all of your help in advance.
Are you sure that all of the numbers are pointed at the same trunk group within the PRI? On a 5ESS office, they can point particular DID numbers to specific PRI channels by setting up separate trunk groups. I have some customers (mainly law firms) who insist upon square key system line appearances. In doing so, calls to a specific firm's main number can only arrive to the number of channels that have been allocated.
Just another idea to explore.
Thanks for the idea ED. I will give them another call tomorrow. I know that the CO is on a 5ESS switch. I think its more of a matter of actually getting someone on the phone that actually knows something about trunks. I will keep you updated.
Thanks
What voice mail unit do you have?
Ok so I finally called Windstream today and they told me that there is nothing in their switch that could cause this and that they would need to send a tech out with a t-berd to confirm. Why is it that when Windstream transfers you to a "Switch Tech" They never really know what they are doing?
I would try by-passing the AA just to eliminate it as a potential cause. The other DID's terminate to ext's, correct? Perhaps the VM camp-on feature is not working?
Thats the funny thing about it is that all calls go to the AA no matter what DID. I have checked to make sure that the camp on feature is working properly and it is.
If all did calls go to the AA then something is programmed wrong
1 how many did its is the carrier sending
2 how many digit ext number.
It sounds like that's where the problem is
The did from the carrier Idoes not know where to go
Programming problem
hitech - Sorry I should have been more clear we have around 20 DID's most of which are not being used and are just pointed at the main AA (a couple of DID's are programmed to go to specific ext's and those work)
The carrier is sending 3 digits
Our Ext's are 3 digits
There are 2 main DID's that they have published
1 - The Call Center XXX-XXX-X731 - Routes to AA then UCD queue
2 - The Admin Offices XXX-XXX-X403 - Routes to AA then General VM Box
All other DID's point to 1 above (with the exception of a few routed directly to extensions)
The problem that we are running into though is that each DID will only take 5 inbound calls at a time then give busy until one of the 5 calls that came in on that DID has been hung up. But we have 16 channels on the PRI and you can call one of the other DID's that has the same routing while the other is giving busy and it will go through just fine. That is why I believe it is a carrier issue and not a programming issue.
I have also double checked to make sure that the proper amount of channels is active in the Toshiba.
What I would do is hook up a serial connection to the xPTU card with a PPTC9 adapter and use Hyperterminal to see the data coming out of the xPTU. Do your test where you tie up 5 channels and when the 6th call comes in, does the xPTU report it on Hyperterminal? If not, then the call does not even hit the Toshiba and is then a carrier issue. If it does report it, you should see the caller-id plus the DID/DNIS digits in Hyperterminal in which case it's on the Toshiba side.
Thanks Phonemeister! I called Windstream back today as I knew that it had to have something to do with trunk groups as Ed mentioned above. Ans sure enough at some point they added more channels and never got the trunk groups setup correctly.
Thanks for everyones help!
I had a problem with a T-1 that terminated on a D-4 channel bank. Any 4?, 6? Channels would work - but no more. It didn't matter which channels, you could busy out any 18/20/whatever channels and the others would work fine.
The carrier of course blamed us. We insisted on a stress test and sure enough it failed.
Test the span! I cannot be more clear. All 1's, then all 0's, then 3-24 or 2-23 and then QRS. Minimum of 15 minutes each.
Sam
The answer was in the first post "I called Windstream........" That sums it all up.
Silversam is correct. When I have an issue with Windstream, I take the Tberd, hook it up, record the findings, and then wait for Windstream to fix the problem. In the past, I wasted a lot of time and put a lot of miles on trying to argue with them. Now, they have no room to wiggle out of it. Just make sure you learn how to use the Tberd because, chances are, the Windstream tech won't know how to test the span.
Rcaman