yip_e

Bear with me, I'm an end-user. We have a Nortel MICS 5.0 system that we have upgraded to use ISDN PRI. The system works most of the time. We have an odd problem where, intermittently, you place a call and after the last digit is dialed, the phone immediately goes back to idle. You can do this over and over and the problem can be cleared by dialing into your phone from an outside number. Needless to say, our equipment vendor and service provider have been pointing their fingers at each other for several months. Here's the latest: Our equip. vendor hired a ringer who's very familiar with Nortel equip. who got on the system via the RAD and found that all but four of the channels showed "Far end out of service". What's odd is that we can still make calls out most of the time unless we have this intermittent problem. We discovered today that the MICS 5.0 is set for NI2 protocol and the equipment in the CO is set for "standard" (not sure what that means, but I think they said it was an AT&T 5E?) They asked if the key system could be programmed for "5ESS" to which the Equip. vendor tech. replied, "Yes, but it would take 2-3 hours of programming." The service provider tried to change to "custom NI2", but without success. I'd like to know the difference between "FAS 23B+D" and "NFAS 23B+D" and if that's related to the protocols described above (i.e. NI2, 5ESS). Also, what's the diff. between ESF/B8ZS and D4/AMI and is that related to the protocols. If neither of those dictate a certain protocol, then there was no place on the order form we filled out for the service provider where we could indicate the protocol. The Equip. Vendor is trying now to recoup some troubleshooting hours for this issue and the service provider wants to maintain their innocence and I'm just trying to figure out if anyone's at fault or everyone or if it's just because telephony is so insanely confusing that there's no option but failure. And where do we go from here. Right now we're right where we started. Two pieces of equipment apparently speaking languages that are close enough to carry on a conversation, but different enough that one sometimes tells the other that their mother smells of elderberries by mistake. Thoughts???