In this economy there are a growing number of mergers and acquisitions, or “marriage by shot gun”. When companies combine they have the challenge of integrating their data and telecommunications systems. For example, we have witnessed an increased demand in companies seeking technical assistance in merging ShoreTel systems. There are two basic options for doing this and the choice often depends on resource requirements and “dial plan” conflicts. To illustrate these options let’s assume Company A merges with Company B. [...]

This is a follow up post to an earlier post on LLDP-MED. VoIP phones on the market today follow the same basic boot and operations process: 1 – Wait for an LLDP packet from the Ethernet switch 2- Send a DHCP discovery packet to find the DHCP Server 3- Send a DHCP request to the DHCP server to get an IP address 4- Send an LLDP-MED packet to the Ethernet switch 5- Wait for an LLDP-MED packet from the Ethernet [...]

We see a lot of request that can be summarized as   “can we dial from within<(insert your favorite application here>?   Outlook, for example, has an ability to let you select the ShoreTel TAPI line so that you can dial from a Contact.  Here is how you set it up.  First, in the tool bar of the Outlook Contact, you should  see a PHONE ICON.  Selec the Icon to open configuration options: The select the “Dialing Options”.  In the [...]

A typical trouble ticket might sound like “when another extension calls me, I can hear them, but they can not hear me”!  Actually, one of my personal faviroites.  Over the years I have come to learn that this is usually the result of one of two issues: someone has the wrong default gateway; or port 5004 is being blocked by some firewall in one direction.  As we move more and more toward SIP and media streams move away from a [...]

Most ShoreTel System Administrators learn early on that the “Quick Look” link in the ShoreWare Director is your best friend! After all, telephony trouble indications are easy to spot: Green is good, Red is Bad and yellow means “something needs attention”. At the first report of a trouble indication, a System Administrator will bring up a browser and get to the log in screen of the Shoreware Director portal. Quick Look, Under the Maintenance section of the administrator portal, provides [...]

In both ShoreTel Release 8 and 9 there is a very interesting behavior that will ultimately bring a client call to your support center.   The behavior is most obvious in a multi-site deployment in which there is only one HQ server providing voice mail services.    A call to a user at a remote site, is RNA (i.e. ring no answer) transferred to the voice mail system.   The call entered the system on a PRI at the remote [...]

This is one of those trouble tickets that keeps an engineer awake at night. A V switch was installed at a remote site to provide Automated Attendant and Voice Mail services for that site.   The V switch was one of three switches at that site and each switch had analog CO lines connected.   For reasons that nobody could explain, the observed behavior was that the AA would not change from On Hours to Off Hours as scheduled. An [...]

Getting old is a pain in the neck!   Literally and figuratively!  I am trying to figure out the benefits of getting older and I am not coming up with a very long list.    You built a library of experience, I guess that must count for something.   There is new generation of telecom professionals that have no idea what a cross bar switch is, but so what.   Nobody is really missing buggy wips either.   In the [...]

You have dutifully enable Differential Service Control Points on you WAN network, to enable EF for voice traffic!  This is the minimum daily adult requirement for QOS on a WAN connection.   Prior to Version 9+ ShoreTel did not mark all traffic with a DSCP value, only media traffic between end points.   If you think this through, what happens to the media stream played out by the ShoreTel server during Automated Attendant of Voice Mail use?  Would this media [...]

It happens every year, every holiday at exactly the same time.  Usually, at 4PM the day before the “holiday” that everyone know was coming, your entire client base calls to ask you how to change the Automated Attendant for a holiday greeting!  One of the features that every ShoreTel System Administrator truly appreciates is a fully automagic Automated Attendant! The means it knows when it is a holiday and it changes the greeting automatically!  ShoreTel does a really great job [...]