sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems Avaya won't send DTMF to my fax board

Hi folks,
I'm a frustrated technician installing a Captaris RightFax fax server for a client. I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

For several hours the "lead technician" with my client's telecom vendor was unable to configure the Avaya Definity Proligix to send DTMF tones to my system.

The switch is digitally trunked and gets CNI (called number info) from the carrier.

We want to direct calls from any of a block of DID numbers available in the switch to any of the four analog fax lines servicing my Brooktrout Fax board and RightFax server.

The switch properly routes the designated dialed numbers to one of four analog lines servicing the fax board.

I know the fax board is detecting the tones because when I dial into the system using a phone, and press buttons once connected I can see the "routing code" digits popping up in the fax software.

We've had no luck getting the switch to "echo" the last 4 digits of the dialed number as DTMF tones on the analog lines after connection.

This is a tried and true method of emulating DID routing by using DTMF signalling.

Can anyone provide or point to a resource where we can find specific steps for configuring the switch to produce the desired results?

I'm really not excited about telling this client to "trade down" to a 2DID, 2 Loop Start configuration and pay the local carrier for DID numbers when their switch has the capability.

RightFax wasn't able to provide any "switch specific" guidance. I'm betting that there's someone here who knows how to accomplish this.

I'm told this is a common feature used to interface with voice mail and other attached systems.

Make my day! Thanks for any/all feedback. Send email to me through this forum.

Gkar will probably chime in on this. As far as sending the DTMF digits, I am not sure about the Prologic, but on the Merlin Legend and Magix, in order to do this, the fax ports have to be assigned into a hunt group.

To set you in the right direction what you want is digits after ring. This can be accomplished with the Definity using vector steps. Assighn the analog extensions in a hunt group and use a "converse on" step to route the calls to the hunt group.

Thanks to both of you for the replies. I believe that we've already got a "hunt group" established (If my undertanding of telecom terms is accurate) as all the calls to any of the DID numbers are being routed to one of the four analog lines (on the PBX) that service the BrookTrout fax board.

The problem is that once connected we've been unable to have the PBX provide DTMF tones representing the last four digits of the dialed number. Can you provide any specifics on how to accomplish this step?

I'll repeat that when I dial one of these numbers manually and wait for a connection, I can dial the digits on my phone and the faxboard will recognize them.

That indicates to me that all we need to do is teach the PBX to send DTMF representing the last four (or whatever) digits of the dialed number down the line once connected.

Am I in a fantasy world? Or isn't this something that is commonly done?

You all have my gratitude for your willingness to help!

The inbound DID's need to route to a VDN. the VDN needs a vector. The vector should "converse on" and route to the huntgroup. That will repeat the dialed number to the station in the huntgroup that answers the call.

Update on this situation:
After relaying the information you folks provided here on the forum to the technician responsible for the switch, the vendor tells me that "the only way to accomplish this is with vectoring. Unfortunately this feature requires a software upgrade...Call Center with Vectoring".
The price tag? 28,370.00!
I'm floored.
Is this guy shooting straight with me?
At this point I'm looking to CO Office DID on two dedicated DID trunks.
Any feedback from an informed perspective would be appreciated.

Does your Prologix have mode codes enabled? (you would find this in "system-parameters customer options) If so I believe you could set up the hunt group as a generic VM and create a phantom extension that matches your DIDs then give it coverage to the hunt group.

david61364,

Thanks for the feedback. I don't know the answer to your question but I've passed it up the line to see if mode codes are anabled. I'll post the verdict here when I get it.

I've actually seen another approach taken on another switch where all the DID calls are routed to a single extension and a CTI applet "forwards" these calls via DTMF providing the necessary "post connection" DTMF tones that RightFax picks up and uses to route. (at least I think that's how it works!)

Thanks again. Any further thoughts are appreciated.

Final resolution:

Thanks to all who spent their precious time addressing my dilemma.

In answer to David61364, the Mode Codes solution is apparantly "incommpatible" with the present PBX/Voicemail configuration. To quote the technician:
"We cannot use mode code because our voicemail system uses DNIS to communicate with the pbx"

We've decided that we'll split the load and manually route the incoming faxes. Sad, to use a human instead of a machine to perform a mundane function...sigh*

...but, on the other hand, I can get on with my life!

Again thanks to all who participated in this discussion. I'm a better person for having met you.

Regards,

Generator