We have an Mitel (Inter-tel) 5000 running 5.0 OS with an SLM-4 connected to a Perle multiport fax modem. We have a PRI providing our dial tone and I'd like to take advantage of some of our unused channels to give some of our staff personal fax lines like an eFax service.

My question is how can I configure my 5000 to forward the DTMF tones to the modem? I've only got a few modem ports available but I'd like to run 5-10 personal DIDs. My fax server software supports DTMF routing as does the fax modem, but all my reading hasn't been able to help me configure the 5000 to hand off something I can use to identify which DIDs are being dialed. Has anyone ever successfully attempted something like this? Or am I just wasting my time?

Okay, if I'm reading this right -- and I might not be, as it's Friday Night -- you want to find available DID numbers in your range, and use them as fax extensions on your PRI into a Mitel 5000.

So, if I'm reading you right, you want a user to dial a DID number, it comes over the PRI, hits the 5000, which transfers it automatically to a fax modem.

Okay, this is do-able. To find your DID range, you need to go into the 5000 programming and see what DIDs are already in use.

DIDs are sold in blocks of 20 or 100. They typically start with xxx-xx00 and go to xxx-xx99, but you might get a block of 20 from xx20-xx39, xx40-xx59, etc. So one step to start with would be to write down every DID you know -- check business cards -- and see what the range is.

Then call the "skipped" numbers in the range, or look for them in the programming of the 5000.

In the 5000, create a virtual or a phantom extension with the number that matches the DID (for example, if your DID is 123-4567 and you receive 4 digits from telco, you would make extension 4567, 3 digits from telco would be x. 567, etc.). Then forward that to your unused Fax server ports.

Bob's your uncle.

Wow, that was a quick reply. I suppose I should have been more thorough in my explanation. I already have loads of unused DIDs. I have modem cabled up to the SLM-4 and can already do DID:modem of N:1 by just setting the patterns in the call routing table.

What I can't do so far is get the fax modem to know what number was dialed so that it can route xxx-1234 to Jane Doe's email address and -1235 to Mary's address via the same modem port. Right now I can only do 1 user per modem port because the PBX isn't telling the modem that specifically xxx-1234 was dialed. I need the PBX to give a "smarter" handoff to the modem. You're saying that just forwarding a phantom with a name matched to DNIS would accomplish this?

I'm more of a network/server guy and our phone vendor wasn't sure how to do this, but he was theorizing about jumping collected digits between routing tables.

Well, when Mitel hands CID info around internally, it calls DNIS "CLASS" but depending on the fax server and it's integration, it may be able to pick up the CLASS information.

I assume that the Fax Server recognizes CID or CLASS. If not, I'd need to know more about the Fax Server.

If you can use your SLM-4 ports like an analog voice mail then you can programin system speed dial the number that is dialed in and hav it dial the number of the port the modem is on and then insert a pause and then the DID number. I have done this on a couple of SX2000 and a 3300 for fax servers. I usually put the modem numbers ina a hunt group and use that as the access number too.

Might be a little late but...

We are doing this now and was doing it on an AXXESS system as well.

Inter-tel, er Mitel, is horrible about sending down DNIS and CID to analog ports. So what I did was create a phantom ext for each of the DID numbers. So lets say the DID is 555.1234 i created a phantom ext of 171234 and had that forward to a hunt group of my analog ports that our fax server is on. The fax server can see the "CID" of the call being 171234 so i can route my faxes to users based upon that. This works well so far for 100+ fax users but not my ideal solution. For us the next step is using a PRI for our fax server by itself.

Thank you for the replies. The consensus online and offline to my query seems to be phantom extensions. I've made a few attempts but so far have been unable to get it to work properly in a multi-DID scenario. I'm not sure yet if the failure point is Inter-tel, Perle modem, or fax software (Active Fax server).

I put the project on the backburner for a bit, but I plan to return soon. I have picked up single port Multitech modem that should be DTMF capable and I plan to test a couple different software packages. Zleviticus, what software and fax modem(s) are you using?

are you making individual phantom extensions per did then forwarding to a hunt group for the modem lines?

I tried phantom to single modem port. I haven't tried hunt group yet. Does that make a difference in the parameters Inter-tel passes?

no unfortunately not that i know of.