atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Toshiba Telephones & Systems Phantom 911 calls- Angry cops

I have a job where the system keeps calling 911, and the cops are really getting upset.

It is a DK40 with Stratagy Flash. Here's what I have done: I disabled outdialing on the flash, and tested every analog port. No outside line is possible for the VM. You get a busy tone if you try. I actually restricted the phone system so even the handsets can't call 911.(temporary test) Cbeyond is the provider, and the lines are coming in on a T1 over a channel bank. They sent a report showing the calls are coming from no specific number, it's any of their lines that could be calling. That rules out a fax or other line specific gadget.

The customer said she called in to the VM and while in a mailbox, she dialed 911. She did this three times, and the 911 center said they got three 911 calls at that time.

So I built a 911 mailbox to intercept calls in case someone was dialing those digits. If they do, it goes to that box and hangs up.

After all this, I left yesterday, and they promptly had five more 911 calls. Can the Cbeyond router be causing this? It started the day they installed a replacement router, but of course they swear it can't be their equipment.

If no phone and no analog port can possibly dial 911, how can this still be happening? Can a system call 911 during an active call, if someone dials it? Or if a phone number happens to have 911 in the string, such as 591-1234, could that trigger it? I'm at a loss.

This may not apply since you said you disabled access from the voicemail system, but if mailbox 991 was reset and had 991 in extension field and DND off, then the voicemail could be dialing 911 from the auto attendant, ( 1st 9 gets an outside line, then 91, then another 1 added by VM system).

Thanks for your reply. Box 991 has DND on, since it is a routing box. And I do have the analog ports blocked from dialing out. This is really a baffling issue.

do they have a burg alarm

They do have an alarm, with a RJ31X tied to a specific line. That was my first thought alarm=911. But it's on one line only, and the calls are originating from any of their lines, in no particular pattern. And the alarm company said the dialer would call them, not 911. Good thought, but I don't think it's the alarm.

I guess a way to test if it is the Cbeyond router is to disconnect the DK from the router. I assume that Cbeyond router is splitting off a couple of analog lines that are plugged in to the DK so it would be as easy as unplugging the lines. Im not very familiar with the DK products but the CTX/CIX has and emergency call destination that will ring a certain ext when 911 is called (x200 by default). Do the DK's have this same type of feature?

No Travis

Thanks for mulling it over. I guess I'm left with asking Cbeyond to swap out the router and see what happens. I can't think of any more programming tricks to block 911 calls.

can you get the customer to shut the system down overnight or over a weekend to see if there are any calls with it shut down ?

Absolutely what Skip said. For the time being, connect them to some single line sets and see if it happens then. Take the phone system 100% out of the equation. Then add things one at a time and see what causes it. Sounds like VM is the culprit.

It does seem that way. But I can clip onto each analog port and dial "9" and I get a busy signal. If the VM is the culprit, it would have to first figure out how to bypass my line access restriction, and then bypass my toll restriction on 911 callouts. Also, I swapped out the first Flash unit just to see what happened with a fresh unit, and the problem persisted. It seems that the problem only happens during the day when they are in the office. At night, they plug the VM back in and it works fine with no issues. Then, they get a string of 911 calls during the day when the office is busy. Could it be the Cbeyond router?

Put in a TSIU card and hook it to a printer. If the Toshiba is calling out, there will be a call record.

Here is the latest- After replacing the VM and restricting all outgoing calls failed to stop the problem, I decided to default the DK40 and start over from scratch. I know, a long shot. I got that done on Monday, did some tweaking today and left. This afternoon, the police came by again.

Cbeyond refuses to swap out their router, claiming it is impossible for their equipment to be causing the problem. Yet, the problem started the very day they installed their router. True, I also upgraded an existing VM that day, but even so, all my equipment has been swapped out or programmed from scratch.

I am out of ideas.

You restricted outgoing from the vm or from all phones? The last time I ran across anything like this it was a rogue employee who hated their job...just a thought. The way we tracked it down was to put in a tty connected to the smdr output and that pretty much nailed it.

[Cbeyond refuses to swap out their router, claiming it is impossible for their equipment to be causing the problem. Yet, the problem started the very day they installed their router.]

That's a very big red flag

Seems to me by reading this thread you have done everything but swap it out. My other thought was the same as the above comment about a worker doing it sense it only happens during the day, hooking up for call record would prove where it's coming from.

Everyone is in agreement - as THE Bunnie said previously, install a TSIU PCB in the base cabinet and connect to either a serial printer or an old PC using hyperterminal. The Toshiba DK40 will send a call record out the SMDR port for all calls originated through the KSU. I may have a spare if you don't have one.

Thanks for the suggestions. Today we finally got Cbeyond to swap out the router. I will know tomorrow if it took care of the issue, and I will let you all know. And yes, I restricted all 911 calls from any phone and it still happened. No rouge employee to blame here. In all the hundreds of Toshiba installs I have done, I have never heard of a system or VM outdialing on it's own, much less through a wall of restrictions. I really hope the router fixes it. If not, the TSIU will be next.

Well, no luck. The police showed up again today. The customer said that when she unplugs the VM, the problem stops. I think I am going to install another brand VM and try that. I've tried two Stratagy Flashes, and it didn't help.

OK, assuming for the moment that the culprit IS the strategy Flash, did you default and install the programming in the second Flash from scratch, OR did you load a copy or even part of a copy from the first flash?

AND, is there ANYTHING else connected to the flash, through a network connection, modem, whatever?

I installed the new Flash unit from scratch to avoid contamination, and there is nothing else connected to the unit. I tested each analog port and got a busy when I dialed 9 for an outside line. I know, it seems impossible, but it still happens. I will know more after I try putting in an Aleen VME unit. I will keep everyone posted who has offered help here. Thanks for your suggestions.

There are some similar posts on cordless phones and the dialing of 911. In those posts, it was discussed that sometimes a noisy cable pair will cause the CO to default and cause a call to go to 911. Is the cross-connect securly connected from Cbyond to your CO port or could the Toshiba CO port be ptting noise on the line when idle? Of course, this would suggest that the calls could occur any time of day or night.

Dave, that sounds very logical.We had a CTX100 that phantom dialed on digital ports, because of RF interference. If that's the case, it shouldn't matter if the vm system is in or not... unless it is the source of interference.

Did the dispatcher at least give you the Caller ID information? Some lines have individual caller id instead of a Site Id..

I installed the Aleen unit, and within 10 minutes the cops called again. I just pulled it out ans reinstalled the Flash since that obviously made no difference. Then I went to program *45 and set up 911 as a restricted digit code, and went to each phone and made sure 911 got a busy, which it did. It was Friday afternoon, so I will have to wait until Monday when they go back online to see if that worked. Interesting tidbit- the last 911 dispatcher said she could hear background chattering, as if a phone had called 911 itself and broadcast normal office talk, with no real caller on the line. Also, they only get 911 calls on the day greeting (991, greeting 1) and not the night message (greeting 2). I will let everyone know what happens Monday. Oh, the caller ID info from 911 was from any of their numbers, not a specific one.

Why do you not install a SMDR and get a report?

As annoyed as the cops are, I would think it would be reasonable that you take my former and current suggestion.

You are spending a lot of time there and annoying the police and just so you can't bother to put in a SMDR card?

Today I swapped out the DK40 for a DK280. I will know tomorrow if it solves the problem.

I have had this problem. It was on 2 digit systems. Calls going to any station 10 -19 would dial 911 when the follow on ID code of 91 was used and a CO caller would hang up just while the call was being transferred back to VM on NA condition. I changed the "leave message" code to 93 and programmed #656 to 93 and had no more problems.

Now you tell me. That sounds like a plausible explanation. But wouldn't that be a common problem on all DK40s that use the 91 ID code? What unique circumstance do you think triggered the issue on your system, but not on others?

No 911 calls today. I did change all the 3 digit extensions to two digit, so they could keep their same numbers, so I wonder if the same issue would apply here? I'm not sure whether to burn the old DK40 or just default it and use it somewhere else.

Common on DK16, DK16e, DK40, & Dk40i when you are using 2 digit station numbers. The only other contributing factor I could think of is the disconnect signal (or lack of) from the CO.

Where do you change the "leave message" code to 93?

The customer reports 911 calls again. I replaced the VM and phone system, so there is nothing left for me to try. It has to be the alarm system.

You really need to install SMDR - at least temporarily. Any device that is on the DK40 that dials 911 will send a call record to the SMDR port. Just make sure you change the threshold timer to 1 second in Prog 60-2.

Do you know, or can you find out, if all the calls are going out the same line and if the alarm is attached to that line?