atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Shoretel Telephones & Systems Shoretel

I have worked with Shoretel for six months and find it to be a very sound system; out of the box it can do a lot more then most of the IP based systems.
ALLN1: vm is not all you will lose if the server goes down, you will lose your auto-attn, any work groups, route points. But you are going to have faults with any system if you really look hard enough.

royb -

I have never worked with Shoretel so I have no idea about the product. But in reading you thread it seems to me the problem lies in the MPLS cloud. Let me give you as simple a description as I can. If you have MPLS sites that have a CIR of say 1.54 symmetrical and your head end is a 10 meg pipe, when the 10 meg pipe communicates back to the T1 site the site gets overwhelmed. The same thing happens when two T1 sites are communicating to the same T1 site the remote site gets overwhelmed. If you are not marking packets BEFORE they enter the MPLS cloud AND you carrier is honoring those markings within the cloud you will be continually plagued with these issues. The same thing happens when you have a DS-3 communicating back to a DS-1 with frame-relay. You have to deploy some sort of mechanism (BECNs) to circumvent the issue. Many carriers will be able to do this for you. Here is the syntax for the markings (your carrier may use something else).

!
policy-map wsu_qos
class voice_transport
priority 192
set dscp ef
class voice_control
bandwidth 8
set dscp af31
class class-default
fair-queue
set dscp default
!

CANGIN - Interesting that you had a problem with a simple 100 phone deployment. Has anyone done a network eval for you? Has QOS been implemented properly? We have several 400 + shoretel systems and have no problems. Sounds like maybe the dealer didn’t do there homework before deploying your system. Even we have requirements that customer along with our data group or the data group of the customer’s choice has to meet before install.

Welcome to the board. Please note the dates on the posts. You are responding to a 3 year old post.

Just out of curiosity how does Shore-tels Phones laid out? I come from a primarily Tadiran and Mitel VOIP background where 20+ Buttons are common on their IP Phones, these are Busy Lamp field buttons, Status of Forwarding indicators, controlled from the PBX, not speed dial or code saved in the phones config. Anyone else have statics on VOIP sets with usuable buttons?

I too work on Tadiran as well as other TDM and hybrid systems. I also work on Shoretel
One thing that I find with TDM switches is that there IP phones are more robust than Shoretel's where buttons are concerned.
However, I have yet to see a Call Manager that matches the Shoretel's from any TDM switch.

The one issue with the Shoretel phones' button programming is the lack of forwarding indicators for hunt groups and a lighted button on all phones for a monitored mailbox.

That is the whole purpuse of the client software (PCM). If you use the call manager you dont need the buttons, lights, or even pickup your handset.
You can do and see everything from your desktop.
Why would anyone spend $400 for a phone with 25 buttons when you dont need to.

Because not everyone wants to use their computer or lack thereof to have dss capability. While the client software, IMHO, is the best in the VOIP world right now, it's also its downfall having to require a computer to get a decent dss read for capability that should be on the instrument itself. If anything is weak on the ShoreTel is its lack of phone models (and looks) and the capabilities in a stand alone functionality.

You can always add 24 button modules to a phone if you want all the DSS buttons. I personally advise using the Callmanger for integration.