sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Mitel Telephones & Systems Remote access

I am new to the hotel industry and I am learning our phone system as each day goes. I recently had a problem where certain phones in certain rooms were "sistered" onto our main control panel and several phone calls were made that my wife and I did not make that cost us a lot of money. We blocked those lines and redirected them, but I need to know if someone can remotely access our system(by cell phone, another landline, or even their phone in their room)? If so how do I stop them from getting into our system.

If there is a modem on your system -- it would need to be plugged into the maintenance port on the actual box on the wall, and then connected to a phone line -- then someone could dial in.

If you have an ICP and the network hub for the Call Accounting and PMS interfaces was connected to an outside network (i.e. had internet access) AND you had no firewall or other protection on your network, then it is possible that someone might be able to access your system from the internet, but this is very remote. Still, having the Mitel on a network not shared by any other systems is a good idea.

A more likely intrusion, given the "twinning," is that someone got access to your front desk Console and entered programming from there. Perhaps the agent stepped away for a moment, or perhaps a front desk agent is in collusion with the persons who "twinned" their phones to yours. Or, if there is a console in the phone room, someone might have found the phone room unlocked and made the programming changes there.

I recommend the following:
1.) Turn off "Twinning" if you don't normally use it.
2.) Make certain that your phone room (where the phone system physically lives) is physically secured.
3.) Have your local certified Mitel technician come out and review the security of your system. He should be able to make the changes in programming to turn off "twinning" for example, or to check for modems, or to change the system passwords -- it is important to change them from factory default, in case the console is left unattended for a few minutes.

NOTE: If you change the Mitel passwords from default, write them down somewhere secure (NOT on the wall, under the keyboard, or on the edge of a monitor).

Also, to be secure, you must change five passwords in total:

For CDE, change "Installer" and "Maint1."
For Maintenace, change "Installer," "Maint1," and "Maint2."

Your dealer may tell you that it is sufficient to change both installer passwords. This is incorrect. even from Maintenance-Maint2 the database can be downloaded, defaulted, and re-loaded.

Also ask your Certified Mitel Dealer to verify that SMDR is turned on for all trunks and that no phones have a special COS with "No SMDR."

I live and work at the hotel and it is Wapakoneta, OH(about an hour north of Dayton), would you be able to recommend a Mitel tech near me?

Click on the INSTALLERS link (top of this page)--then OHIO---then DAYTON. Looks like there are 3 companies that might be somewhere in your area that seem somewhat familiar with Mitel.