sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Telrad Telephones & Systems BX system

My company has BX system from 1994 and an old PC that came with it. We are afraid that PC may die any moment and we would be without phone service. Is there a way of using newer PC instead of old one and install software on something with Windows 2000/XP? We have SB 3.05, IVM/SMDA 3.5c. They are all written for DOS. Do we need to buy additional hardware to do it?

Hi AMTS and to the forums.
The computer your referring to is the voice mail, if it dies you won't be with-out phone service, you'll just lose voice mail/auto attendant.

No...You can't use a new type computer or platform.

Is there any way to get a newer voice mail system for that system? As I understood, the computer has ISA card to connect voicemail to the BX system. So, is there any updates for that card and voice systems to connect to the BX box? Or we really have to bay the whole PBX to have up-to-date hardware?

Your best bet would be to find a hard drive and mirror it then set it aside for back up, and maybe a power supply for the computer, (watch eBay) not too much else can go wrong. It would be worth the money to get a newer one (it would only be a couple if years newer)

To get a newer one what? What is the IVM card on PC? Is it some kind of special card or just two serial ports? I got SB program working on PC, and I may get IVM software working and just worry about hardware part. Is there PCI card I can buy to make IVM work?

sorry AMTS
where I said: It would be worth the money to get a newer one
it should have said:
It wouldn't be worth the money to get a newer one

and it was referring to the IVM voice mail system.
You can get the voice mail interface card (2 or 4 port) then install it on a computer with the older DOS as it's running platform (what ever version your running currently) and create it that way as long as you have the software, yep...that's all you need.

If you would like to see some of the new options contact me by PM. Telrad had a buy back program this past summer to announce the release of E2E-3 products. If you want to upgrade a little to save a few bucks Sundance is the place.

I highly recomend upgrading at least to sb7.32 and either Telrad's ImaGen v7 or the newer linux based EmaGEN. The ImaGen is a little more administrator friendly, but in 2 to 3 years you may run into similar problems. The only issue that i have noticed with the EmaGEN is that sometimes there is a few hour delay from the time a msg is left and when it lights the MWI light on the ext. The EmaGEN provides a Web Browser interface for programming with separate logins for admin and users. I work with these every day and have many happy customers.

Your system is fully upgradable all the way to the new AdvanceIP 3. You can even use all your current digital phones! The buyback option, if it is still available, is an exellent way to upgrade, and totally worth the cost in every scenario that I have witnessed.

Good Luck