sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Inter-Tel Telephones & Systems Premier System

Has any one dealt with the Premier telephone system? How does it perform? Is it hard to program? Is it hard to install?

Yes to all questions. It is a 3 pair system with the first pair being reversed. Also many fuses get blown because of shorting out the first pair, sometime just by plugging in a phone. Programming is hard to navigate using procom plus. Replacement parts are hard to find as system has not been made in 15+ years, and most refurbished parts do not last long if they do work. In its day it was a good system, but unless free and with free support, pay more for something newer.

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Voice and Data Cabling in DFW, [email protected]
DnR Communications

I agree with DnRComm 100%. Also, the phones are clunky and the bases usually break so they dont stay on the phone very long. Forget about wall mounting these phones unless you have superglue and extra drywall screws.

The best thing is to avoid this system, I will be glad when these are all gone.

Wow. I guess I've just been very fortunate with ours. Two of our locations still have the Premier system and for the most part they are maintenance free. I actually learned Inter-tel on the Premier and I found it to be very user friendly as far as programming goes, but I actually prefer command line programming over graphic user interface anyday rather it's phone systems or networks. I had one in my offices until about 4 years ago that was hooked to a Call Express Voice mail system. Very similar to the one that one of my clients currently uses. It started out as a 12/24, then I moved it up to a 24/60. I have to say that the 3 pair cabling was a bit of a pain but nothing too bad. Every now and then you'll pick up a phone and hear an osicillating noise and you will know you have a broken wire at the jack. Oh, don't try to use RJ45 Jacks!!!!! It's not worth the headaches. Use a good 3-PAIR jack like a 3-pair Leviton.

As for the phones, if you're a very big operation you can pick up a lot of the 8 button turbo phones very cheap.

Also, keep in mind that the Premier will NOT pass Caller ID. If that is an issue for you then pass. Oh and one last thing. Premiers HATE brown outs!!! One reason we've had such good luck with all of ours is that they are behind a good UPS. When I say a good one I mean a lot of UPS's aren't always on. There is actually a gap be it ever so small between the time the power goes out and the time the battery kicks in. You won't notice it, but the Premier will. Enough of those and you will be replacing cards.

Good Luck.

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There are only 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand binary & those who don't.

Worked on several and still have a few in operation. I had one school system that had 9 ESP systems until about 3 years ago. The 3 pair is a pain and the DC power on b/w causes problems for the untrained tech. The basic programming is easy but advanced features can be tricky. This is old stuff but it was a nice system.

We have this beast.

KSU has the following markings on it

Premier ESP
Inter-Tell 18/36/84 Model IMX-612/1224/2460

Most of our phones are marked as 660.7200

Anyone know how old this thing is?

Is this one of the 3 pair systems with the first pair reversed using ProcomPlus to program?

I can only assume there's an rs232 port on the ones that do use ProcomPlus.

If so, does it use a regular serial cable, a nul modem cable or custome pin out cable; and what are the communications config parameters for Procom Plus to get a console prompt?

The next problem will be knowing the password to get to the programing.

What voltages should be on that first pair?

Sorry for all noob questions, I'm really an IT guy that inherited this thing.

Great forum and TIA for any input on this.

cef1000

The system is 10-12 years old. The RS232 port will use a regular serial cable from your laptop to the CPU card. The you have to roll one pair as I recall if you're connecting to a modem for remote programming but not when you're on site.

Another thing though. There is a jumper on the CPU card that sets the baud rate. Make SURE you set your connection rate from the laptop the same. If you're remote programming make sure the modem and the jumper are set the same.

As for the password, most don't have one, but if it does you can get past it. You'll lose the settings but you can pull the strap and initialize the card. You'll just have to start from scratch but no biggie. You can use a copy command programming goes quickly.

Procomm is good, but if you need it I have a small one file program written at Inter-Tel that is good for back-ups etc.

Thanks very much MacGyver, appreciate it.

What's the typical port settings?

9600 8 None 1 Xon/Xoff?

If I could back the config up first that would be my first choice, unless I missunderstood what your saying about the Inter-Tel program. ;-)

Regardless, I'm certain to have to find some installation and programming manuals for this thing.

We need to keep this running another couple of years and then replace it.


cef1000

They're solid systems. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if you got another 10 years out of it. As for the speed, I think 4800 baud is the fastest jumper but I could be wrong. I haven't changed one of the setting in a long time but I think the options are 300, 1200, 2400 & 4800.

You should be able to find a manual with little trouble. If I had any extras I'd send you one. Unfortunately I only have a hard copy on the Premier.

You can back up with Procomm as well. It's been a while since I did it that way and I remember there was always one thing on back up that I would confuse but it always got done. In fact now, the locations that we have that are running Premiers have a dedicated terminal and are running Hyperterminal.

If you have trouble want to PM me an email address I can send you the KSU program. It's just 30KB but it is an .exe file. If your firewall won't allow it I can upload it somewhere for you to download at your conveinence. It does run in DOS though! Just let me know if you need it.

Does anyone know of someone in Charlotte NC who is good at installing/servicing the Premier esp/mdx systems?