gil@limbic.ssdl.com (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) (11/06/90)
In regard to strange codes from PBX stations: At the office, we have a Centel PBX system. I'm wondering if anyone can pass along what the following means: If I dial '87' on the phone, I get a second dial tone. This isn't the same as dialling '9' for an outside line -- it also sounds like a standard dial tone. However, it performs some funky dialing depending on what I do. For example -- if I dial NNX-YYYY-111-1111 it seems to dial the standard NNX-YYYY -- but I do need to dial the 7 ones after it. Even more interesting still, if I dial '87*', I get a **LOUD** rushing noise which sounds similar to a combination of a 2400 baud modem tones, and Telebit PEP noises. Pressing any touch-tone key at this point temporarily termninates the noise, and gives me a dial tone which lets me do nothing. Could this be the trunk access code? What happens if you plug an analog phone onto a T1 trunk? Last bit of information, and something which I would like clarified a little -- we have a whole block of numbers from the local telco, which I assume is a DID arrangement. Of course, we'd need to be able to program the PBX switch to handle the direction of each number in this range. I'm assuming that this is all handled by some signalling from the CO. How is this transmitted to the PBX (in-band, or some kind of digital signalling?) My apologies for the length of this, but I think that although the information will be specific to this PBX, everyone else will learn from the concepts involved. Gil Kloepfer, Jr. gil@limbic.ssdl.com ...!ames!limbic!gil Southwest Systems Development Labs (Div of ICUS) Houston, Texas
lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen) (11/13/90)
In article <14463@accuvax.nwu.edu> gil@limbic.ssdl.com (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) writes: >At the office, we have a Centel PBX system. ... >If I dial '87' on the phone, I get a second dial tone. This isn't the >same as dialling '9' for an outside line -- it also sounds like a >standard dial tone. However, it performs some funky dialing depending >on what I do. For example -- if I dial NNX-YYYY-111-1111 it seems to >dial the standard NNX-YYYY -- but I do need to dial the 7 ones after >it. This sounds like the access code to a software defined network. Is your facility a pampered engineering unit in an otherwise cheapskate large corporation ? The data communications company that I work for, is owned by Rockwell, which is a large aerospace company. We recently were merged into Rockwell's MCI based software defined network. Where we used to dial long distance the same way as local (just hit "9" for an apparently outside dial tone, which was really generated by the PBX so that the numbers dialled could be validated/translated/routed), this will now only work for 911, 411 and a specified lit of local prefixes. Everything else must use the "COMNET" access, which is very much like the above. The "111-1111" corresponds to our personal access code, which is like a calling card. Our facility gets a phone bill from corporate telecom each month for each access code. So instead of going straight into MCI's local POP (point of presence), we now send them to Rockwell's switch in Seal Beach (near Long Beach) where the access code is validated, and then they are splashed to MCI down there. The obvious bad part is that it's a pain in the butt to remember yet another code. The good part is that we will increase our volume discount from about 15% to about 20% by joining a larger pool. My guess, is that when you dial as above, the calls get charged to some other division of your corporate parent. 111-1111 should not have been enabled; it's probably owned by the telecom unit as a test code. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer CMC Rockwell lars@CMC.COM