sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems ESI DP 1 eavesdropping capabilities?

Is it possible to listen in on a conversation off another handset without the other person knowing? Our office has had some changes in reception and we think our new receptionist is listening in on conversations.

There is a feature called service observe(which would have to be enabled),and the receptionist would have to push some buttons to use it, so if she is new I dought she is using that.

What you are describing is called "service observe" or at least that is how ESI refers to it in their techno description. That ability is very common in many phone systems not just ESI. I am sure you have called somewhere before and heard this:

Your call may be monitored for quality assurance!

That ability can be turned on or off in system programming. Perhaps it has always been possible but the most current receptionist was able to figure it out. Either way your system installer can deprogram the system for you.

You do have a phone guy, right?

We do...THX

If 'privacy release' is enabled, it would be possible also.

This is easy enough to test. Have someone make a call on your phone, go to the receptionists phone, press the line key (not the DSS key) that is in use. If 'privacy release' is disabled (default), at the receptionists phone you will get a busy tone; if it is enabled you will be connected on the line. This is intrusive and should be noticed on the existing call in progress. But if done quietly can be done with little evidence.

Privacy release is not silent and sooner or later the employees will all be listening to each others calls or barging in by accident.

Service Observance is the right way to do this.

It would help if we knew the system instead of just the phone. Due to the reference to DP1 I was thinking of a 128 which I don't think had Privacy Release as a feature. :shrug:

Yep..privacy release is fairly recent...ala gen 2 feature set 2 or somewhere around that time frame. If it is an older ivx 128 it won't do it....but i think you may need the 128 plus to do service observing.

No system type was mentioned. Only the phone type. Gen II will support DP phones, both scenarios are "possible".