sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Basic Telecom training

I am a Web Administrator who has also workd with our phone systems (InterTel Axxess) for the last 3 years. I was informed yesterday that Web functions are going to be passed along to someone else and I am going to be a "full-time phone guy".

This being the case, I am interested in getting some basic telephone system trainging in the Dayton OH area. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Maybe your local Inter-Tel office would be interested in providing some training...

The certification classes you can take (I've been to Avaya, Mitel, Nortel, and Panasonic) are good but are always product specific and usually about admin, learning how to read their manuals, and not as you say, basic telecom. Most phone guys, if not all, get basic knowledge from hands on trial and error. I was fortunate enough to start at a company where the telecom manager had been in the business for a while and showed me how to do stuff.

I think you could start asking questions right here and you would have several good answers in a hurry.

Color code? What is a 66 block, what is a 110 block? Ground start trunks vs loop start trunks? What is a T1? That sort of thing.

Richard

Hit google as well their is a lot of information available, but their is no substitute for hands on training. One piece of advice, If you are not sure of something you may want to contact someone who is,this may require contacting a vendor, thier are plenty of people on this board who would be able to assit you. You can often do more harm then good if you do not know what you are doing.

Yeah, I have a somewhat functional knowledge, but just enough to get myself into REAL trouble. Thanks for the input. I'm sure I will become a regular here for a while.

Check out Mike Sandman in Chicago. He has some training stuff that he sells. Books and videos.
www.sandman.com. I got some fiber instruction from him. It gave me a good introduction. I did take a hands on seminar on fiber by another company. That was pretty good also. A local eletrical supply house gave a CAT-5 seminar (free and included a dinner) a few years back. A lot of these guys are trying to sell their product but you can learn stuff.