We have a Partner Mail VS System. The boards on the wall say 206E and 4.1 on them. I dont know much about this old system but can provide more info as requested.

So today I setup a new extension. It was a previously unused one that we ran a cable for. All seemed fine during initial setup. But after the first call I got a complaint. It appears whenever he answers the phone, it immediately sounds like its dialing a number.

We have confirmed there is no forwarding setup and have reinitialized that extension. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!

Thanks,

-John

Partner Mail VS is not the system, its the voice mail. What verison processor do you have. 206 cards are very old. It could be a port problem.

Try moving to another extension port.

-Hal

You have programmed the extension into Hunt Group 7, which is reserved for Voicemail Ports only. You were probably wanting to assign Auto VMS Coverage, which is #310. But first, do #206-7-(Ext. No.)-2 to get it out of the group.

Well, I suggested moving the extension to another port because I assume this guy knows nothing about programming and that port was programmed that way, perhaps for an old Partner Mail.

-Hal

Moving it to another port still has at least one erroneous port in the hunt group, which will delay voicemail answering each time it cycles through this extension number. A better approach is to use Extension Copy from a working extension to this new one, which will solve the problem of not knowing the ins and outs of system programming.

While not an expert with this phone system I know enough to hop on ext. 10 and do some basic stuff. I do know how to follow direction and can look up the proper terms in the manual.

Once I remove it from Hunt Group 7, how do I assign it auto VMS #310. Is that through the ext. 10 menu system?

Automatic VMS was assigned to this extension. I got confused when I used #206 though. It wants a LINE where you mention Ext. No. It gives me angry beeps when I try to input 35 (Ext. No) when it is asking for a LINE. I didn't want to screw something up from the different terminology so I canceled out.

what I would do is go into system programing (at ext 10 or 11
) , look at what extensions are assigned to hunt group 7 and be sure that only the voice mail extensions are assigned

simplest way to find the vm extensions is to dial extensions until VM answers

all programs can be accessed via phone programing

Sorry Skip, but that confuses me more. I guess Hunt Group 7 is whats confusing me. I know it is for voicemail, but thats it. Do all extensions that use voicemail get assigned to this group? I assumed ALL extensions would want voicemail. Is Hunt Group 7 an extension number for the VM system? Or is it just a randomly assigned group number?

I hope we're going off-topic here because I just wanted to get rid of some odd beeps. I wasn't expecting a lesson on 20 year old phone equipment. :-)

I typed wrong when I wrote #206 - that is the line side of vm.

Feature 00
Left Intercom Twice
#505-7-(extension number)-2 (unassigned)
Feature 00

The Partner may have been around for more than 20 years but it is still a current system as a version of the IPO. That should attest to it's design as opposed to the IP and other crap we get shoved down our throats by greedy manufacturers today.

For your enlightenment, since I realize it difficult for IT people to grasp these things:

LINE is what comes from the phone company and has a phone number assigned to it.

EXTENSION is one of the phones that sits on your desk and also has a number.

HANDSET is the part of a phone that you pick up with your hand and hold to your ear.

-Hal

John, don't cause more problems then you need. For a few dollars you can get a pro to talk you through this and get it done right the 1st time.

Thanks to Touch Tone Tommy's suggestions I have got it working. I actually just copied the settings from a working extension. I did the #505 command at the same time, though. It was one of those things that fixed it!

BTW hitechcomm, I have used the services of other users here in the past. Its how I became even remotely familiar with these systems and why I posted here again.

No thanks to hbiss for his unhelpful and condescending comments.

We all learn things from this site.

Good job. Glad we could help.

I think that's enough. Everyone to a neutral corner.