On Sun, 19 Nov 2000, Eliot Moore wrote:
> False start. The Strata XXe is [just] a key system, has no native
> single line or voicemail/auto-attendant support. You'll need the
> "off-premise" station cards (MOPU/MOPX?), and it can only provide six
> ports that way. Good luck finding them.
There's also a plug-in voicemail card that you can stick into one of the
slots of the chassis, but I'm sure this is still a high-ticket item
(unless you can find a used one for cheap, but my guess is that it would
still run in the hundreds of bucks).
One of the better cheap key systems for home use that you hack with a bit
is the Panasonic KX-T1232D (also the KX-T616, which is just a smaller
configuration of the 1232). It's really a hybrid, a cross between a key
system and a PBX. The 1232 can have 12 CO trunks and 32 stations. The
stations can be either proprietary digital or regular analog phones (and
there's no need to specify this in the configuration, it's auto-sensing!)
It can also do programmed call routing, so you can specify where calls on
each trunk will ring to, and is pretty flexible in programming. You can
transfer calls around to other phones. It has call forwarding capability,
three-way (conference) calling, call waiting, etc. The features are a
royal bitch to use from an analog touch-tone phone so having the
proprietary sets helps a lot.
I really like this system for what it can do as basically a lowly key
system, but it has it's drawbacks. I was able to integrate it with the
voicemail system I designed at my last job, but being that it has no
in-band signaling you couldn't do blind transfers if you wanted the call
to forward to voicemail after so many rings. Well, this is starting to
get into babble that not many people on a computer mailing list will
understand so I'll quit for now.
Anyway, I upgraded from the Panasonic to an eOn (Cortelco) Millennium, a
128 port fully digital switch. It's pretty much a miniature CO. I could
run my entire block off of it if I wanted to, and provide all the same
features as the phone company, even Caller ID (I'm so cool!) I'm still
waiting on the Clock Card that will allow me to use the T-1 card so I can
interface it to my voicemail system completely digital (no transfer
glitches and much faster call routing :)
Phone systems are my other geek passion. I actually have a small
collection of older systems as well, including an AT&T Horizon (yes, it
shares a name with a computer) circa 1975ish. The Horizon, incidentally,
also runs off an 8080 :)
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Sun Nov 19 2000 - 23:59:24 GMT