I have a customer who uses a Pitney Bowes Postage Machine. The machine is hooked up via an Analog Station through a Samsung phone system. The customer's trunking needs grew to the point that they upgraded from 12 analog lines to a PRI. Now the Pitney Bowes won't finish it's download. When listening to the line I hear what appears to be handshaking between the modem in the Pitney Bowes and the data center. After roughly 1.5 minutes there is a disconnect.

When I spoke with tech support at Pitney Bowes they said the machine needs a "Dedicated Analog Line", which is absolutely ridiculous.

Has anyone successfully connected a Pitney Bowes postage machine over a digital line? Any suggestions? I'm thinking it's a timer issue which is going to be a trial and error process.

Thanks - Tom-

I have these machines connected through a Comdial FXII and Legend R7. Both are PRI and have never had any issues. I do recall having to adjust the baud rate at the Legend site though.

I know the Pitney Bowes machine we have is notorious for having exactly the problem you describe and it's connected to a POTS line. Eventually it does finish. Does yours act like that or does it never work?

-Hal

I had a customer with a pitney bowes machine that never worked right, and it was connected to POTS.

Once the owner found out how much they were paying for it they went back to stamps, so the problem got solved.

If I remember correctly they would have to retry half a dozen times or so till it would reliably connect.

Is the machine working off of an analog port on the Samsung? If so, make sure that you have the clocking set on the PRI card.

I've had a lot of problems with Pitney Bowes in the past. Just to keep things simple I usually split the fax line and use it. I try not to connect analog devices through the phone switch unless I have to, there are too many variables that can cause problems and the first thing any manufacturer is going to do is point at the phone switch.
Another thing I always insist on is at least one analog line no matter how many PRI's the customer has.

I run into this often with my Avaya Communications Managers. The problem is the analog card that connects to the pitney bowes is never in the same gateway as the PRI. So the call must travel between gateways via IP. This can cause issues. The fix is usually to adjust the IP codec settings and allow modem calls to "pass through". This probably doesn't help you with your Samsung issue, but it's my $0.02...

Wow - I really appreciate the feedback. The Pitney Bowes was working on POT lines, yes phonemeister it is connected to an analog station port (SLI) on the Samsung, Cracker the customer does not have ANY analog lines so it has to run via the phone system, and Hal it NEVER finishes it's download now.

I will see if I can get on the phone with the engineers at pitney bowes. My guess is it's a timing issue since it appears to timeout and disconnect.

By the way here's a good chuckle: Pitney Bowes phone tech in response to the customer not having an analog line "What I think you should do is take the machine home at night and plug it in there, it will download the rates and you will be all set for the next day." :rofl:

-Tom-

What system are they using? If its a 100, i have had problems with certain PRI cards in certain cabinets and using SLI. They have noise on the single line ports. It has something to do with a circuit on the cabinet, or so i was told. Make sure the PRI is up to date and you can try switching to a different PRI card to see if it helps.

We had a Pitney Bowes that WASN"T connected to a phone line and was CRAP......

Had the same problem the other day, machine would sound like it was handshaking but never would connect, and it was a analog station using a PRI. Pitney also told the customer to take it home to use a POTS line.

PB knows their equipment is obsolete to the point that they need a redesign. Note that they are NOT saying, 'It's your phone system'. Point out to customer that fact and turn it around to say " Their equipment is unable to communicate using your MODERN equipment!'. Lay it back on PB, especially the fact that PB is Forcing your customer to use antiquated communication methods! Obviously, it would be even better if a CCV and a fax machine did work and P-B wouldn't work, even on those ports! John C. (Not Garand)

PB knows their equipment is obsolete to the point that they need a redesign.

To the point where it is unreliable on a POTS line I would agree that work is needed. But what else could they provide except a dial-up modem? What else is even needed? Ok maybe provide an ethernet port also but that's going to go over the heads of a lot of people.

Unfortunately dial-up modems are going to be with us for such devices as alarm panels, CC terminals and postage meters. If a company has no POTS lines and one or more of these devices somebody dropped the ball.

-Hal

Someone here said this once.

Analog to the co, from co to the pri digital, from the pri to the system digital, from the system to the sli analog. In other words 56k to 64k to not better than 48k. I would guess the handshake is having trouble shaking at the same speeds.

just a thought

Wrichey - I agree it definately is a timing / speed issue. I've been playing phone tag with an engineer at PB and he said that there might be a few things we can tweek. I will let everyone know once I actually speak to the guy.

-Tom-

Who is the carrier for this client? I have lots of CC terminals, postage machines, faxes, etc. working off SL ports through a PRI. However, I never had issues until some clients started signing up for AT&T's BVOIP PRI. Now these devices won't work. You hear what appears to be the handshake, but it never connects. I usually route a DID to my internal modem card, but can't conect on these circuits.

if the PB device will allow it, slow the modem to anything below 9600 baud. Once 2400 baud is passed, modems are just multiplexing channels, many 2400 baud channels. Slowing the modem speed can remove most common issues, since the fault tolerance at the lower speeds is so much greater. Shoot, we used to use them audio-couplers to get 110 and 300 baud (back in the day)

I have a PB machine working on a D-I-D line on a Definity running over a T-1 line. Works just fine. No hangups or issues reported by the mail room clerk.

I do not believe that the problem is with the PB machine. I have numerous customers with SLT ports going out on PRI circuits just fine. However, I do have a few sites where modems (credit card, postage and fax machine, dial back-up) do not connect and fail during handshake or shortly thereafter. Faxes will transmit partially then drop. And yes, we have played with modem settings, baud rates, switching PRI cards, etc... I would recommend talking to the carrier/tester. Other than that, go to analog.

Tom I had the almost the same problem with a fax on an SLI port with PRI. It was a rev problem with the PRI board and R2 OS100. I have it working fine for years on an R1 100 with PRI.
the R1 site is using fax and BP machine. Only programming to check is ISDN timers.

1. Plug an analog phone into the line and see if you hear a clear dial tone. Perhaps make a call and see if you hear any interference on the line.

2. Try to connect the line to a different SLI Port. There are times when particular ports can have issues.

I have a massive fax server with over 60,000 faxes received so far and its all running off the Samsung SLI lines using a C.O. PRI line.

DHL told me that I needed a dedicated analog line to download information from a computer they gave my shipping department. I just connected it to the Samsung SLI port and never had any issues.

Please let me know the outcome of your situation.

Thank you