programing a VERY old AT&T/Lucent PBX/telephone system - PBX Info :: Your Free PBX, PABX and Telephone Information Resource

Anonymous · 12-10-2003, 07:33 PM

in our office we have a very old system which i beleive is a PBX but am not 100% sure made by AT&T that was installed in the late 80s. The system is falling apart -- its obviously been out of waranty for a couple years now and it needs to be replaced. however getting my bosses to switch to something better is gonna be an uphill battle that i just now preparing for.

in the meantime i need some help with possibly programing the thing. i'm not at work right now and i never bothered to right down model tho i will get it tomorrow when i have a chance.

anyway... here's what's happening.. we are trying out a new long distance carrier that has promissed to slash our bill for international calls and so far the numbers are promissing. however, we've had our current LD carrier MCI for many many years and want to try this new guy (who is a Quest wholesaler) on a few of our lines.

i'v switched 3 of our 12 analog lines to the Quest guy and kept the rest as MCI. but as the PBX automatically connects the analog line with each internal extension whenever i dial for an outside line-- and it does so by simply connecting the first available analog line. i would like to know if there is any general rule for progarming the phone to give a particular line.

when the PBX was 1st installed, i was shown how to do this, but this was 15 years ago and i was nearly 10 years old. i'm kicking myself here b/c i dont remember but i do recall that it was rather simple to program the PBX to give you the "outside line" of your choice. Our "IT" person who was around at the time that the system was deployed has long since left the office.

again this is a 15 year old AT&T\Lucent PBX that i believe has maximum capacity of 10 lines. any and all help would be apreciated. i will of course post the model number of our telephone system as i'm sure it would help. but i dont beleive

**rixride** · 12-10-2003, 09:17 PM

Can you upload a picture of it?

Anonymous · 12-11-2003, 05:24 AM

probably the 1030/30/70

Anonymous · 12-11-2003, 11:51 AM

i posted something late last night but for some reason it didnt show up. i did some research on the net and came up w\ a lot of stuff, including the 180 page manual for our telephone system which i realise is the

MERLIN LEGEND MLX-10D... our Zero Extension/Opeator has the MLX 20L (the one w\ the larger display)

i couldnt believe how much information i found online. i even found a 3rd party tech support website that will answer all my questions for $100 an hr. (i hope i dont have to resort to that just yet)

the strangest thing about the whole deal is that this telephone line is digital. whereas i always thought it was analog b/c our phone company bills us for "12 analog lines"...

For anyone familiar w\ this phone system, our line buttons are of the SA or System Access veriety, and there are 3 of them... SA Ring-O, SA Ring-I, and SA-Voice. the manual says that buttons programed as 212-555-1234 are direct outside line mumbers but it doesnt mention how to actually program a button w\ such a function.

i know its possible b/c our 0 extension is programed w\ a bunch of these line buttons, but also b/c one of my bosses has a personal direct line that rings only to his phone when someone calls in oh this number.

so does anyone know how i can program some of my buttons (which are now programmed as outdated speeddial buttons and will be deleted shortly) as "outside line" numbers for a specific line? i wish this information was in the manual, but i am gonna have to look around some more.

thanks in advance for any help u can provide.

galve.

sjforcum · 12-12-2003, 10:46 AM

It's been a LONG time since I've actually done any programming on a Legend PBX, but if memory serves you'll need to do your programming from the console or a PC which would be directly connected to the PBX.

PD · 12-12-2003, 02:20 PM

We still have several Legends that are still working. sjforcum is correct. The programming is done from the console or a PC but you will need software for the PC....Its called WinSPM. You can also WinSPM to dial in remotely. I have a copy of the software but will have to find it.

Good Luck!

SilentWind(but_deadly) · 12-15-2003, 08:41 AM

Hey galve., do you still need help?, I can give you specific
Merlin info if you're still out there somewhere.

Anonymous · 12-15-2003, 03:46 PM

yes, i am still here.. i guess i should break down and just Register for my own personal username and account so you all can PM me, but i dont really need extra emails being sent to my already spam infested personal email box.

anyway... fyg i dont have any software for programing the PBX tho i am sure i can find it if i look around.. my problem is connecting my PC to the PBX which is in our closet and not so easy to get to.

(the PBX is 15 years old... i wonder if i can add a wi-fi PC card to the thing so i can access it without having to get up there ever again... wouldnt that be amazing)

otherwize, can i assume that a regular cat5 cable w\ an RJ45 connection will plug into the PBX? i can use my laptop (i hope to connect to the PBX and program it -- i just have to find the passwords and stuff)... whatever you do, please dont tell me i have to use a serial connection to do the programing... that would be a serious roadblock.. and oh yea.. please tell me this software will run on win2k pro... finding a laptop that still runs win98 is gonna be a problem...

FYG i took a meeting w\ some company that sells/leases PBXs and he had a lot of good things to say for our PBX. so much so that he even recomended symply replacing the handsets/telephones around the office (which are malfunctioning in one way or another) rather than replacing the entire system and starting from scartch.. which is a relief.

he did ask me to open the PBX up to see what kind of cartrages and other stuff was already included. i didnt do that yet tho i will sometime in the next few days. i can say that our setup is rather basic -- ie although we get our lines from a T1, the T1 doesnt plug directly into the PBX... it splits into 12 analog lines that then plug back into a second thing that looks like a router and then into the PBX. so we have a digital to analog to digital conversion going on... my guess is that the PBX doesnt include the hardware for accepting a T1 directly b/c when we 1st installed the PBX, we were using 12 analog verizon/NYNEX lines and not a T1. (the guy made it sound like the T1 compatability was an optional feature which we may or may not have so he wanted to open up the PBX to check)

secondly, only 10 of the 12 lines plug into the PBX, the other two plug into faxes around the office so it may not have made sense at the time to plug the T1 into the PBX and have to deal w\ rerouting the last 2 lines to the faxes.

anyway, back to programing the thing. will i not be able to do so from the MLX 20L operator console? this would be much easier for me.

thanks again for your help and for taking the time to read all of this...

galve.

sjforcum · 12-15-2003, 05:26 PM

There is a product called WinSPM (notated in this thread) which allows you to dial into the system.

You should check out www.metrolinedirect.com. They offer the software as well as a converter which will give you administration access over your LAN (although I have never used this).

P.S. I have yet to receive any unsolicited email from this site / forums....

Anonymous · 12-16-2003, 12:47 PM

If need be another legend tech can dial into that system remotely. If you need further assistance Email me.

MFurrer@Charter.net

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