sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Comdial Telephones & Systems Comdial DXP + Execumail

Comdial dealers say our system (1995) is so far out of date it's unsupported. Oh well. On my arrival at the company I was told voice mail was dead and since I took over managing the thing I have discovered a 486 PC with a fancy board in it but no hard drive. It's labelled "Voice Mail - Do not switch off"! And there are some Execumail manuals but no disks or anything.

I am a little concerned that no spare hardware is available for the DXP although I have easily obtained suitable phones for just over $100 - someone out there must still be interested .

If I dig the voicemail thing out of storage and get some numbers off it is there any possibility of one of you guys more familiar with these systems telling whether there's anything worth resurrecting or maybe whether there's an alternative voice mail system which can be used with a DXP?

Seems to me that the biggest problem they have had with it all is the fact that nobody ever read the manual and simply answered any questions the users had with "Can't be done".

Thanks for any ideas you can offer, I'm not exactly a newbie but I am not familiar with Comdial at all.

Charlie

Its not so much about the 486 its about the voice card and the dongle. !st id the type of voice card it should be dialogic or rhetorex. Then check for a plug in key on the parr. port on the back of the 486 the numbers on that will tell you what type of system it is. Hope for a # that starts with a 212 that will be a dos based keyvoice. For your sake I hope its not an execumail with a missing hardrive. If you decide to replace it a key voice will work well. John

Thanks, next time I go to our storage site I'll check... actually I do recall seeing a dongle but it's been a while.

The hard drive is definitely gone - I was told it had "Crashed" but in any case it was long gone before I got there so there's no hope of recovering anything, and of course no original disks or CDs. It's also possible of course that there's something wrong with the other hardware but I won't know that until I try I guess.

The key point is that the DXP might accept some other voice mail system and it helps a lot to have someone with a bit of knowledge and experience to ask! My general computer knowledge isn't bad but I figure it's prohbably unwise to enter the Indy 500 in a car you've never driven before .

All other suggestions still welcome of course but having discovered Sundance it seems our system may have some life in it yet.

Charlie

Do you know what software level the DXP is? And, how many members do you need voicemail for? It would be helpful to know a little about your business, there are many voicemail systems that are compatable but it depends on what you need it to accomplish for you.
I think it's safe to say that resurrecting the dead execumail is a waste of money, if not a waste of money at least a giant headache. You have many other options.
Mark


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Reliable Telephone Service

I have to agree with Markk on all accounts.
Execumail is not Y2K compliant, this will be an issue if you want a different greeting on week-ends.

I will look at the DXP and see what software it is before going any further. You have both kindly answered the main question which was whether there are other options for voice mail and clearly there are so no point in messing around with the old box if it was execumail.

We are a nursing home with capacity for about 150 residents. The way it's wired at the moment is:-

9 external Telco lines

About 30 comdial phones for the business.

About 50 residents' phones (1 wing of 3) are wired as ordinary extensions so incoming calls are routed by reception while outgoing is limited to local and direct dialled.

The other 2 wings are provided by the local Telco and we manually rewire those from the Telco demarkation each time there's a room change. They are basically organized by the residents / families themselves.

The only info I have learned about the DXP is from reading the manual, and there's not always much time for that but such things as call billing are not configured at all and there are a few things I don't really understand which have been done in the past. (I mean I don't know why they were done )

The only interface is the supplied keyboard and dumb terminal on a com port, although I could obviously use my PC for that if I wanted.

One or two of the rooms in the "Other" wings were wired to it at some time or another, perhaps they all were, but I don't know why that was discontinued and I don't know if the system could handle all the rooms because wing 3 has been added and maybe lack of capacity is why they changed it. As you can see the only time it gets any consideration is when it quits working and then of course everyone asks me

Nobody seems to recommend another Comdial system unless we really want to keep the phones and since the phones are the part that gets the abuse and wear that seems a bit of a poor reason, however I don't see corporate office wanting to spend a lot of money at this time. I think you guys might agree that there are only two choices - either try to improve / prolong the life of what we have or else start over and do it properly.

Anyway, speech over, thanks again for the really helpful responses and if they do decide to change things I certainly know who to recommend for proposals. To be fair we do have one very helful local company but they are definitely not stocking any hardware spares or anything so we'd be in trouble if a failure occurred.

Charlie

You may have Comdials Avalon Package for assisted living. I maintain many of these installs. Send me an e-mail with all your info on the system. We take care of more than just the DXP, we take care of nurse-call, pendents and door alarms as well.