hardarso@weiss.cs.unc.edu (Kari Hardarson) (06/09/90)
I work for a company that has ten employees, including the boss. We
have a modem and a fax, and a Novell network. We started out with two
telephone lines and ordinary telephones. Needless to say, we quickly
bought a telephone switch. The manufacturer is a Japanese firm named
Kanda. It had five lines and a maximum of sixteen extensions. It
turned out not to be a wise choice -- after a while you get a craving
for all sorts of advanced features; this switch did not supply them
and it has no expansion capabilites. Right now we have four lines
connected to it, the fifth line is run throughout the building and
connected to ordinary phone sockets. If someone wants modem access, he
has to get the modem (physically) and plug it in. Same thing holds for
the answering machine.
So much for flaming. Here comes the question:
Has anyone seen a telephone switch which has the following features:
o Cheap... < 5000$ (Why not? That should be possible...)
o Hands-off-operation: speakers built into the handsets
o Do-not-disturb: The Kanda switch required removing a link from the board..
o Not too many wires in the connections to the phones. Also: standard
type sockets: ours has three twisted pairs, star configuration.
o Call-Forwarding, to an employee's home if neccessary
o Makes the bell ring, first at the secretary's, then in preprogrammed
locations one after another: Ours rings everywhere unless DND is on, and
if it is the call cannot be forwarded there once someone else has answered.
o Conference calls. Ours can make 2 to 1, 1 to 2.
o Expandable for voice-mail
o Allows RS-232 connections and/or Ethernet connections to be integrated,
so that cables don't have to be run separately. I don't really know what
I'm asking for here.. ;->
o Knows about the existence of add-ons such as:
Faxes,Modems,Answering Machines
o Programmable from terminals, i.e. soft-configurable.
I want to be able to say, for example: CALL JOHN. This would run a
batch job that told the switch to make a call, and ring my phone when
the connection is made. If I move, I don't want to open the switch
and mess around with circuit boards.
o Expandable to ISDN when the time comes? How does X.25 fit into this
picture?
Am I missing some features? Am I being unrealistic? I would
appreciate hearing from small companies, the pros&cons of their
switches. I will compile the results and post them, of course.
PS: I am working in Iceland, our phone system confirms to CCITT
standards, so BELL systems may not work there, I wouldn't know.
Kari Hardarson
217 Jackson Circle
27514 Chapel Hill, NC davep@u.washington.edu (David Ptasnik) (06/12/90)
In article 6632 of comp.dcom.telecom, hardarso@weiss.cs.unc. edu (Kari Hardarson) writes: >Has anyone seen a telephone switch which has the following features: >Cheap... < 5000$ (Why not? That should be possible...) >Hands-off-operation: speakers built into the handsets >Do-not-disturb: The Kanda switch required removing a link from the board.. >Not too many wires in the connections to the phones. Also: standard >type sockets: ours has three twisted pairs, star configuration. >Call-Forwarding, to an employee's home if neccessary >Makes the bell ring, first at the secretary's, then in preprogrammed >locations one after another: Ours rings everywhere unless DND is on, and >if it is the call cannot be forwarded there once someone else has answered. >Conference calls. Ours can make 2 to 1, 1 to 2. Almost any good phone system can do the above, Northern Telecom, Toshiba, Inter-Tel (Premier), and Iwatsu (Omega) can all handle these needs. The AT&T Merlin doesn't do the call forwarding, and would really require re-wiring. >Expandable for voice-mail There are several ways to access voice mail. The best way requires that you be able to have single line telephones on the system. This generally takes extra cards, a ring generator and a touch tone reciever. Check with your dealer about cost at time of purchase, and after the system has been installed. These prices are usually different. They charge you more later, because they can. >Allows RS-232 connections and/or Ethernet connections to be integrated, >so that cables don't have to be run separately. I don't really know what >I'm asking for here.. ;-> It is possible to integrate voice and data on the same cables. Genreally it is consuidered too expensive and/or slow to do through a telephone system. If you are really interested in this you probably need to look at a PBX rather than Key System. This will almost certainly exceed your price limit. One possible exception is the Tadiran family of products. It starts with a small digital key system, and using the same boards and phones can be expanded to a multi-thousand station ISDN compatible PBX. >Programmable from terminals, i.e. soft-configurable. >I want to be able to say, for example: CALL JOHN. This would run a >batch job that told the switch to make a call, and ring my phone when >the connection is made. If I move, I don't want to open the switch >and mess around with circuit boards. >Expandable to ISDN when the time comes? How does X.25 fit into this >picture? Once again the Tadiran switches do these things. They are particularly terminal/network friendly. For example, if your receptionist takes a message, she can activate a light on your phone, or place the full text directly into an internal E-mail. Her PC Console also tells her when people are in or out, and lets them leave special messages for specific incoming callers. They also database phone numbers for outgoing calls and autodialing. The whole thing is done on two pair wiring. >PS: I am working in Iceland, our phone system confirms to CCITT >standards, so BELL systems may not work there, I wouldn't know. Tadiran is an Israeli company, with an significant Euorpean market, so should conform to all standards.