sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Nortel Telephones & Systems Hooking Answering Machine up to CICS

Just had someone in another department advise us that we're possibly going to have to hook up an answering machine to the 30 or so CICS we have floating around. Did some reading and found that each of the CICS should have a I-ATA which is good.
But it also has prompted some questions:

1.) If I have 2 lines going into the system, can I hook up the the answering machine to the I-ATA and have it answer calls after 4 rings (assuming I have the phones ring long)?

2.) Just trying to confirm which pair I'd be connecting the fax to? It looks like it would be the 20th pair on the Telco block? Or is it the 25th pair on the extension block?

Most of the systems are CICS w/ 1 LS/DS card, no expansion cards and v6 of the software I believe (some were installed before I came onboard).

You can use the I-ATA. Your answering machine will answer any line you program to ring on the ATA. However it, (the answering machine) can only answer one call at the time, no matter how many lines you have going into the CICS.

That makes sense. So I can have Line 1 ring 4 times on a phone and then go to the ATA or does it have to go straight to the ATA?

If it's the later I'll probably have to hook up the answering machine before the CICS and set it to 5 rings and set the system to 6.

Either way will work. You can use DRT setting to transfer unanswered lines after X rings to the IATA DN.

Perfect. I'll be going to one of our remote sites today to give this a try. Thanks.

I have to hook up the answering machine to Port 117 (20th pair) on the block w/ the external lines correct?

Went to a site earlier to give this a try and was unsuccessful. I think I hooked up the ATA to the wrong port so I'll go back on Monday to try again. I did have a couple of questions though:

1.) The DN length is 2 digits w/ a prime set of 21. Do I need to change the CFNA for 21 to 29, same for busy? Then just copy that to all the phones.

2.) Is there a way to do this on the line itself rather than a set?

The IATA is DN 37. All you have to do is program 37 for RING ONLY on any lines that you want the machine to pick up on, set the answer machine to pick up after 4 rings, and you are done.

Thanks. I thought my documentation I had for the CICS had the IATA DN as 29, guess I was mistaken. Hopefully get to try this on Monday. The answering machine should then be hooked up to the last pair on the extension side of the distribution block or the 20th pair on the Telco side?

Looked over the documentation I had, I see where 37 is now. Guess I was just reading too quickly.

Did you get it to work like you wanted?