I know just enough with our Nortel equipment to be dangerous, so bare with me. We have a couple of locations that are experiencing an issue with their Nortel phone when they go to use their intercom lines. Whenever they initally press this button, the phone displays LINE IN USE. We are in the process of migrating to a VoIP solution when this problem started to happen. We essentially have 3 different systems: Avaya Definity (Main office) Shoretel switch (main office) and Nortel MICS at remote locations. Currently, a call from our main office routes from the Avaya to the Shoretel and out to the Nortel. It seems as though the problem lies only at the remote location because I can call from our main office to the remote location with no problem. If you need more detail on the problem please let me know and I will do my best to explain it further. Thanks for the help.

Sounds like you need to add more "Intercom" buttons on their phones.

Dave --

That is a good point. However, I do not believe that the existing buttons are able to be used at all. Can you think of any reason why these existing intercom buttons would not work? Thanks for the response.

• when you say "intercom", do you mean tie line?

• verified the MICS telephone button programming is what you think it is by using "Button Inquiry"?

• could it be the tie lines are all in use? (what does ShoreWare Director indicate at that time?)

• if you're using T1 between the MICS and the ShoreTel -- is the T1 happy?

• when your user/s cannot dial out on the MICS...can you dial in via the ShoreTel system?

Definitely. Even though the buttons are physically on the phone, depends on how the phone was programmed. Get a qualified Nortel tech in there to set it up the way you want. Not a huge job or expense for that.

You'd be surprised at how many times we walk into a new client's office & find that kind of thing. Either lazy on the original installer's part or someone mucking around in the programming , not knowing what they're doing.

Might want to start thinking of other duties to get him/her to do for you while he/she is there.

royb --

They are the TIE lines. We did the button inquiry and the setup looks correct. It looks as though there are 4 TIE lines setup and it only grabs TIE4 when you try to dial out. The line pool is set for Pool B for all TIE lines, yet it only grabs TIE4. I am not sure about the T1 if it is happy or not. Unfortunately, we do not have a Shoretel system setup at our remote locations as of yet. We are just trying to integrate the 3 systems until we completely cut over.

MooreTel -- It might not be a bad idea to think about that, especially since I might be the one mucking up the system.

Line pools are for out bound calls. If there are 4 lines set in in Pool B, then, yes, it will start with the 4th line within Pool B, unless others are using the pool at the same time.

Pick up pool B from one phone it'll go to the 4th line. Place on hold and access Pool B again. It'll go to the 3rd line within Pool B.

update --

I was able to make it to our remote location today and as soon as I dial the access code for the TIE line, it tells me Line In Use and cancels the call. Any ideas anyone?

If the TIE lines are on a T1 what is the status of T1? Lights on the DTI card?

Telemarv --
We checked the CSU/DSU history and it had some frame slip errors. I just checked what I believe to be the DTI card and it has a green light indicating connectivity?

You are going to have to check the card in "Maintenance". Try disable - enable.

Have you changed providers? If so you may have to reconfigure the card to match the new provider.

this is a point-point T1 between sites, yes? directly connected between the two systems, or do you mux the circuit to run both voice and data?

get on your network with your PC, login to ShoreWare Director, make sure you have green, happy lights on your Quick Start page. you can drill down to the ShoreTel switch that connects to the MICS and look at status and error counts.

if you only have the one T1 card in your MICS, then it will get its timing from that T1 circuit. be sure to setup your ShoreTel switch to be the "master".

setup a phone on the MICS system to have "Appear Only" for each of the four tie lines. this lets you manually select each line for testing -- and you can see whether each tie line is idle, or seized. will help troubleshoot. then you can attempt to make your tie line calls as you normally would, and watch the line indicators.

this is obvious, but make sure all four lines that should be in Pool B really are.

if you have it, you can use your Norstar Remote Utilities to do all of this, too. you don't have to be on site at the MICS location. conversely, you can Remote Desktop into your Shoreware server, and use the Trunk Test Tool to watch the tie lines in real time, and/or also to make test calls. ShoreWare Director's Quick Start/Switch Maintenance page also gives good information.

Telemarv --

We have not changed provider, however we did think about having the provider test the T1 circuit. If I power cycled the switch, would that be the same as disabling the card?

royb --

I have looked at the Shoretel switch and it "appears" that everything is ok. We can call from our main office to the remote location internally (4 digit extension) with no problems. I did notice though that the clock source is set to SLAVE on the Shoretel system. However, there are severaly other remote locations connected to that Shoretel switch that do not have an issue with their TIE lines. Does that make sense?

if you can call into the MICS successfully from the ShoreTel, then at least one tie line is working. can you make simultaneous calls into the MICS?

if you have several remote locations running through the same ShoreTel T1 switch, sounds like your T1 is muxed (Adtran 800, 550, etc). might look at that device, make sure you're not experiencing slips between it and the MICS -- and/or clear your CSU history on the MICS end to see if you're still taking errors). if you are muxing the circuit into the MICS site, then verify your digital cross-connect mapping at the mux site. ShoreTel might help: Use ShoreWare Director/Quick Look/Switch Maintenance to see that each channel on the T1 switch is up and running. this is just to be sure your MICS T1 is happy, not taking errors. makes troubleshooting less complicated if this part of the equation is taken care of.

after verifying your digital cross-connect mapping: your ShoreTel side is Digital Wink Start, as is your MICS side? unused channels on the MICS are unprovisioned, or placed into an unused Pool?

you still might either add tie line appearances to a MICS telephone, or use the Remote Utilities program to do the same to a virtual telphone. this allows you to visually verify operation of each line. and do verify each tie line is in the correct Line Pool.

royb -- Shoretel T1 channel is up and running. I made simultaneous internal calls to the remote location and was able to get through with no problem. Both systems (Nortel and Shoretel) are set to wink start.

Unfortunately I do not have remote utilities so I am going to go the remote site this morning to try and disable/enable the T1 card.

Found a workaround solution. Assigned TIE 1 and 2 lines to designated phones. Tested internal calls on TIE 1/2 and both are working. My colleague noticed that there are only 2 channels setup for that remote location, so we are thinking that we 2 more channels setup for those remote locations. Does that sound right?

(Correction) Sorry, there are only 2 channels setup on the Shoretel switch. So we think there needs to be 2 more additional channels setup on the Shoretel.

channels do need to match. also, MICS phones require access to the Line Pools. should have seen "Denied in Admin" on the telephone display if this was part of your troubles, however.

Telemarv -- I did disable the card this morning as well, but unfortunately that did not work. However, I believe the overall problem was that I did not see that only 2 channels were available and that the 2 TIE lines that needed to be used did not have access outbound. Thanks again for the help.

royb -- I will make sure that the additional channels are assigned to the system for those TIE lines. I really appreciate the help this week. Thanks again.