Alcatel OmniPCX Office Small - ISDN to UPC?

charlie_says

Hi,

I folks, hope you can help me. I have inherited a Alcatel OmniPCX Office Small which is connected to 4 ISDN lines via CAT5 cables. There are about 20 phones coming off this Alcatel box. Unfortunately I know very little about the box and don't have admin access to it at the moment as the company who originally installed it are out of business and the employee responsible before me does not know the login anymore. I don't know what modules are installed in it either - I assume there are ISDN modules installed?

We recently got UPC broadband and phone installed on this premises and will be porting the numbers over from Eircom to UPC. Obviously I need to somehow hook up the Alcatel box to the UPC phone modems.

Does anyone know if this is possible:

• With this equipment at all? Would I need a different module for the Alcatel?
• Do I need the admin password to configure this?

I am assuming that UPC run their phone service through IP....?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as this has all fallen into my lap recently and I know very little about office phone systems, but am confident at configuring devices once I have an idea where to go.

Many thanks

DieselPowered

Its not clear from your post if you even know what the telephone numbers are going into the phone system. The presence of 4 cat5 cables means x2 ISDN boxes which have 2 numbers each (4 numbers in total) supplying the phone system. If you need to check the numbers, check the ISDN boxes and usually they will have the numbers wrote directly on them (sometimes in marker).
The numbers will also usually be in sequence.

(numbers not referencing any business or place)
ISDN box #1 numbers - 01-1234567/01-1234568
IDSN box #2 numbers - 01-9876542/01-9876543

At any one time you can only have a maximum of 4 outgoing calls active, so
these 4 lines are shared amongst the 20 telephone users. (having one line per
telephone is very expensive).

If you are porting these numbers from Eircom to UPC, depending on how UPC present the physical connection to you will depend on how you need them configured.
As they are currently using RJ45 (socket type) for the ethernet Cat5 cables on the ISDN boxes, if you could get UPC to also present to you as RJ45 then it may be just as simple as moving the cables from the Eircom ISDN boxes to the new UPC box.

If you do manage to access the system, there is an installation guide here

MLC61

As the previous poster said, you have 2 Basic rates connected to the system.

You need to ascertain if UPC are supplying you with Basic Rate ISDN (i would very much doubt it).

Before you port your numbers to UPC, get them to confirm exactly what they are providing. After porting will be too late.

Bear in mind that with the 4 Basic rates (4 channels) you probably have DDI's associated with may of the extensions. Check the bill from your current supplier.

charlie_says

Thanks for the responses.

At the moment (and I haven't ported yet) there are 8 phone numbers on the eircom bill. I know what they are.

There are 4 separate ISDN boxes connected to the Alcatel box via 8 CAT5 cables.

UPC installed 3 separate Cisco cable modems, with one marked as broadband which works fine connected to my switches. The other two are marked as UPC phone and have not been connected yet.

I believe there are no direct lines to the phones on site they all share the pool of lines.

DieselPowered

Can you post a photo of the new UPC modem's?
I don't know if UPC deliver digital or analogue modem lines by default.
(you need digital lines, same as the ISDN's from Eircom)

MLC61

The key to this would appear to be to get UPC to confirm what they are delivering. Or, you must have an order form - see what you requested.

You may also find that you have analogue devces running off the system - fax machines, and you will need to check will they work over the UPC circuits.

charlie_says

Yes, I will call them.

I hope I don't have to purchase an expensive module for the Alcatel!

MLC61

Post when you know what you are connecting to.

Worst case - you might have to get a SIP gateway to connect the UPC trunks to the Alcatel.

Either way its pretty certain that you will have to have the login to the PBX or get someone who has it to do it.

charlie_says

It's compatible with UPC and they are sending a technician around to hook it up, thank God!

Phew.

Yeah, you are right mate, I just need the bloody admin login

MLC61

Have you googled the factory setting for the admin username and password? Failing that there must be an Alcatel Lucent agent in the area?
I wouldn't be all that confident about UPC connecting anything to a PBX.

Mr. G

MLC61 wrote: »

Post when you know what you are connecting to.

Worst case - you might have to get a SIP gateway to connect the UPC trunks to the Alcatel.

Either way its pretty certain that you will have to have the login to the PBX or get someone who has it to do it.

I've asked upc about sip trunks, they said it would be next year before they'll have them.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=83973052#post83973052

If you want to cut down on line rental digiweb do sip trunks with no monthly fee. Just pay for calls.

wandererz

As others have mentioned, you need to find out what telephony connections UPC is providing exactly.

The OmniPCX Office was (and probably still is) a great system. There would have been options for basic rate and primary rate cards and possibly also SIP (voip) connectivity. It depends on how old the hardware and software is.

Give NextiraOne in CityWest a call. They are the Alcatel provider in Ireland, they were previously part of Alcatel and introduced that product to Ireland as well.

They should be able to help you.

charlie_says

wandererz wrote: »

As others have mentioned, you need to find out what telephony connections UPC is providing exactly.

The OmniPCX Office was (and probably still is) a great system. There would have been options for basic rate and primary rate cards and possibly also SIP (voip) connectivity. It depends on how old the hardware and software is.

Give NextiraOne in CityWest a call. They are the Alcatel provider in Ireland, they were previously part of Alcatel and introduced that product to Ireland as well.

They should be able to help you.

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely check them out.

MLC61

There are companies closer to your home that look after Alcatel - I am nearly sure that there is a company in Galway.

gctest50

charlie_says wrote: »

...........

Yeah, you are right mate, I just need the bloody admin login

look around for default passwds - might be lucky



http://open-sez.me/passwd-alcatel.htm

charlie_says

Guys, everything is sorted. I had a long discussion with a telephone technician and we are agreed that everything is green to go for the port.

My box is compatible and the technicians will hook me up the day of the porting is active.

Thanks for all your help and input.

Mainly I was worried about putting in the documents and then the port happened with the Alcatel not being able to handle it. Since I have just taken on this client I was freaking out a bit about buggering it all up :pac:

MLC61

charlie_says wrote: »

Guys, everything is sorted. I had a long discussion with a telephone technician and we are agreed that everything is green to go for the port.

My box is compatible and the technicians will hook me up the day of the porting is active.

Thanks for all your help and input.

Mainly I was worried about putting in the documents and then the port happened with the Alcatel not being able to handle it. Since I have just taken on this client I was freaking out a bit about buggering it all up :pac:

What business are you in?
I would still be cautious. If UPC are like any of the providers, they will have to cancel the hunting across your lines some time before they port. You will miss a lot of incoming calls.
Is the telephone technician from UPC? If so he wont have a clue on how to make programming changes to your system.