atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Systems For Beginners

Also...the extensions are only 2 digits long. Still, the Partner ACS R7 or R8 (current release) would be a fine system to learn.

The Merlin Legend and Magix as well as the IP Office are much harder to program so it might be best to zero in on the Partner ACS.

Thanks for the recommendations. It seems like Avaya Partner is my best shot- there are a lot of people on here who install Avaya systems so it would be easy to get quick help.

Is this a good example of what I should get:

https://cgi.ebay.com/Avaya-Lucent-P...main_0?hash=item35a878de90#ht_500wt_1182

Thanks everyone! :thumb:

The system your looking at there wouldn't be worth the shipping cost.

mdaniel: I was considering that myself- but everything in the auction is obviously in good and working condition and it comes with everything I would need, and the Avaya manuals are available online on their website. Also the included cabinet leaves the option for me to purchase additional feature cards that I can just insert into the carrier. I have about 10 other bookmarks of other systems, and I'm going to take and compare them together. Thanks for your input!

If you can get it for next to nothing than it'd be fun for you to mess around with. You're right about Avaya they've always been very generous about sharing system information on line. Most do not. I do agree with Mike, if they want an outlandish amount to ship it, which happens a lot on Ebay, it wouldn't be worth it.

I know you looked for free earlier, but if you have a few bucks to spend why not try again in buy/sell to see if a board member has something they can work out with you. It would be a whole lot safer than Ebay.

Actually X16 is a nice little home system, I think your folks would like it, maybe you could talk them into it? Go to their WEB site and print out a a brochure.

I don't know how inexpensive it would be, but the TransTel, Lynx needs minimal programming out of the box...the ultimately unsinkable partner is another good one.

The only problem with XBlue in my opinion is that the telephones are very brightly colored and it would definitely not get approval from Mom. A major part of my system preference is based on the designs of the telephone sets, and I can't say I particularly care for their designs. I personally, as much as this may sound silly, prefer the more bland and basic proprietary phones, such as the AT&T/Lucent/Avaya MLS phones.

Justbill: I am still trying to convince my dad to let me buy a phone system at all, and he's pretty closed-minded when it comes to giving out our address/personal info on the web. He has let me buy phone equipment (my first system, the 1A2) online before, and hopefully I can re-convince him. Thank you for the suggestion regardless.

JordonJ: I will take a look at TransTel online. Thank you for your suggestion.

the Partner system you linked to or the Partner ACS that has been recommended will also work with single line phones so you can give mom a phone she likes (or she can keep using the one she has now )

Great! Thanks Skip! Do you know if that auction includes the special card you need for SD phones, or can you just plug it in into one of the extension ports on the main processor? Mom is insisting on keeping a cordless phone in the house :rolleyes: so I would have to be able to plug in analog phones. Also, since we subscribe to Caller ID, and the cordless phone system reads Caller ID, would the cordless phone still be able to receive the CID information through the phone systems without any special cards? Thanks for your input!

Save your money and hang around here with this bunch and you will be able to learn a lot from the best in the business. Before you jump into getting a phone system you should be practicing your cabling and terminations. Pick up some 66, 110 and BIX blocks and practice, practice, practice. You can download many manuals to read and ask questions here. Once you get to know the other members and learn what they work with you will have a better understanding of what systems will fit your needs. I'm also sure that if you take your time and learn this industry the correct way there will be many members that offer to help you.