Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] ECS + PBX Reddy Biggs Tue, 18 Aug 1998 20:49:30 -0500

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As far as digital Vs analog, I have owned both.

Advantages of digital over analog

Proprietary phones have an XDP jack you can use to plug in modem, fax,
cordless phones, etc.
Programmable from a PC by a DOS software program.
Caller ID can be added so that all phones display caller name and number.
Can add voice mail
Can have DISA.
Proprietary phones use only 1 pair. (2 pair if you use the XDP jack).

Advantages of analog over digital
Less expensive PBX
Less expensive phones (Although the digital system can use the analog phones
as well)
Programming is from a proprietary phone at jack 1.
Proven durability.
Used systems available.

I have used both with ECS. As phones, they both work great, and sound great.
The digital programming seems easier, but this may be because I became
proficient at programming the analog system for 5 years.
Really you can't go wrong either way. I went with a digital system to get
the caller ID option when I needed to increase the number of extensions over
16.  It's not cheap though. If you are on a budget, and have other options
for caller ID like ECS, the analog is entirely satisfactory. I'm not sure
the Caller ID was worth the extra money.



-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Dubay <ddubay@umich.edu>
To: ecs-list@vancouver.ml.org <ecs-list@vancouver.ml.org>
Date: Wednesday, August 19, 1998 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: [ECS] ECS + PBX


>Reddy,  Thanks for all the info.  I was planning on getting the analog
system
>(61611 or something like that).  Do you recommend the new digital system?
The
>features sound great.
>
>Dan Dubay
>
>Reddy Biggs wrote:
>
>> As far as groups of phones, this is easy to do. You can assign each
>> extension to a group. You can page the whole system, or a subset of
phones,
>> or an individual phone. To page all phones in my system dial 330. To call
>> group 1 dial 331, group 2  - 332 , etc.
>>
>> ECS does this as easily as it can call an individual extension.
>>
>> I do use it for ECS to announce the caller's name. The connect time is
only
>> the time ECS spends sending touch tones. Of course the caller ID is sent
>> between ring 1 and ring 2. Thus I use the PBX to delay ringing the phones
>> until ring 2, and it gives everyone the impression that ECS announces the
>> name BEFORE the phone ring. Very cool..
>>
>> The voice quality is excellent, certainly better than the Bigmouth card
or
>> my Sound Blaster that generates the sound to begin with.
>>
>> The advantage here is you can, of course, use the phones manually,
outside
>> of ECS. My wife appreciates rounding up the kids by paging the whole
house
>> this way.
>>
>> There are different tones sent in different situations.
>>
>> If you call an individual extension, and "Auto answer" is off, it merely
>> rings the phone with a distinctive 2 short ring pattern. If "Auto answer"
is
>> on, it gives two beeps over the speaker, and you are connected.
>>
>> I looked into disabling the beeps. This apparently is a security feature
to
>> allow allow people near the phone to know it is active, and thus someone
on
>> the other end could be listening. Thus it can't be disabled.  I can tell
you
>> after 5 1/2 years it is not annoying to me or my family.  It can wake up
a
>> baby, so when we used it as a baby monitor we called from the baby's room
to
>> our room to avoid that problem. (They make terrific baby monitors, BTW.
You
>> can mute out your end so the baby doesn't hear you, but you can hear
baby. )
>>
>> If you call as a group page, you get one slightly longer beep.
>>
>> If you call from a doorphone, you get 3 beeps or rings.
>>
>> I have noticed on the newer digital 7230 models they still beep, but at a
>> much lower volume. In fact, I can barely hear the beep on them sometimes.
>>
>> Reddy
>>
>> >The plot thickens.  Any thoughts Reddy?  Also can you page all phones at
>> once?
>> >I would use it for caller ID announce.  Is there much of a delay?  Yes a
>> loud
>> >tone would not be good.
>> >
>> >Thanks for the info.
>> >
>> >Dan Dubay
>> >
>> >don.sb.net@sb.net wrote:
>> >
>
>
>
>

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