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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)Telephone Services | SLAC Phone Request System (SPRS) | SLAC Telephone Users' Guide | Voicemail Quick Guide Welcome to our prototype FAQ page for SLAC phone users. If you have a FAQ (with or WITHOUT an answer), please use our prototype submission form (must be accessed from the SLAC internal network). |
| Voicemail | Phone switch (PBX) | Phone Requests |
Phone Switch | Phone Requests | Voicemail: Customizing | Express Messages | Greetings | Help | Messages | Miscellaneous Voicemail | Name Dialing | Passwords | Problems | Other Voicemail Topics
The customer operator facility offers callers the option of leaving a message or speaking to a person at a number specified by you. The default number specified is 0. You can change this number by dialing into voicemail, pressing 8 0 for the mailbox options, and then pressing 1.
If you need assistance with defining remote notification send email to SLAC Phone Administrator. If the telephone or pager number where you want to be notified is in not in the 650 area code, then a 1 and the area code must be included.
Yes, this is referred to as Express Messaging. You dial 4555. Enter the voicemail box which you want to leave a message in or enter 11 to use name dialing to find their mailbox number. You can also use this feature to check that your own voicemail box is working, by express messaging a message to yourself and checking that you receive it and the timestamp is correct etc.
The Internal voicemail message is used as the Greeting message for internal SLAC calls, and the External message for calls received from outside SLAC.
Then the External message will be used to Greet both inside and external (to SLAC) callers.
While logged in to Voice Messaging, press 82 3 for temporary greeting with expiration date. If an expiration date is not set, the temporary greeting will remain in effect until you delete it.
Contact your ATOM to send in a Feature Change Request.
At whatever level you are in voicemail, press the asterisk (*) and you will get a list of options available.
Send email to SLAC Phone Admininstrator giving your SLAC bin number and we will send you a small booklet entitled Meridian Mail Voice Messaging User Guide by internal mail. Also see the Voicemail Quick Guide.
Ten minutes.
New messages are kept until you listen to them.
"Read" messages retention days is 14. After that they are automatically deleted. Since we don't back up the messages, once they are deleted either by the system or the user, they can't be restored. If messages need be retained until you delete them manually or to change the number of days, please send email to SLAC Phone Administrator.
Usually this occurs because someone was trying to leave you a message in your voice mail box, or was simply forwarded to your voicemail after 4 rings, but the person did not hang up. So the voice mail box got full listening to background noise. Thus there was a message, but it contained only background noise. The long background noise message should be deleted in order to clear space in the voice mail box and to get rid of the warning message.
We do not back up messages so a deleted message can only be restored within the current session.
By default, a caller can leave a message up to 3 minutes long. After that, a recording notifies the caller: "You have reached the limit to record". If you need a longer limit on individual messages then please contact SLAC Phone Administrator.
To play a message faster, press 2 3; to play a message slower press 2 1 while listening to the message.
After listening to a message, pressing 9 automatically places a call to the sender of the message. This applies to internal calls only.
After leaving a message to voice mail user, press # and 8 1 to log in to voice mail.
The SLAC phone switch does not have the capability to provide caller ID from external numbers, thus for all external calls, it identifies the call as being from an "Unknown number".
Instead of fowarding your phone to x 4242 for voicemail, temporarily forward it to an answering machine.
You can ask your ATOM to request an Equipment Change for a single line phone with message waiting light. You will receive a new phone with a message waiting light.
Alternatively you may want to order a Message Alert 300 from hello-direct.com. This is a little box that is placed between the phone and the wall outlet and flashes automatically once a message arrives. It is listed at about $35.00.
The Cortelco phones have a sliding switch on the bottom labeled M/W with 2 settings T/R and Y/B. Make sure this switch is set in the T/R position.
You can forward all calls to voice mail without ringing as follows: Lift handset, enter: #1 or 674 on rotary set.... listen for regular dial tone. Enter: SLAC extension or pager number where calls are to be forwarded and hang up.
TO CANCEL THE FEATURE: Lift handset, enter: #1 or 674 on rotary set.... listen for regular dial tone and hang up.
Dial 8777, then follow the instructions.
This happens occasionally. Please hang up and try again. The bug has been reported to WilCom. We have checked the error logs in the voice mail and can find no correlation. Please use the Repair Request form to report the problem. Hopefully, if we get enough reports, we will be able to detect some pattern that will be useful to the engineers.
The recommended way to disconnect from voice mail is to press 83, to log off at the end of the session. This will guarantee you are logged off, rather than waiting for the system to time out. It will also allow you to log in again right away, rather than risking a state where the call has been disconnected, but the voice mail system has not yet logged you out (and voice mail forces you to wait until the system discovers the problem and cleans it up).
Dial into voicemail. Enter 8, then 4, and then enter an asterisk (*) to get help.
The minimum is 6, the upper limit is 16. If you already have a 4-digit password, the system recognizes it; but if you want to change the password or add a new voice mail, the password must be at least 6 digits long.
Do not enter your password incorrectly more than two consecutive times during a single logon session. If you enter an incorrect password for the third time, the mail system will lock you out, that is, not allow you to access your mailbox until your password has been changed. If you’re not sure you remember your password correctly, try it twice (or two different passwords once each); hang up; log on to voice mail again if you want to try two more passwords. If you are locked out or simply can’t remember the password, leave a message to that effect at ext. 2200, the telephone trouble call number. Give your mailbox number and the name and extension of the person that SCCS should call with your password. SCCS does not have a record of your password but will change it to a new password within three hours of your call assuming you call during business day before 2 p.m. If you can't log on using the new password email phone-admin@slac.stanford.edu for assistance.
No, no no! SLAC provides 'name dialing' services and the only way this can work is if the name on the voicemail box is correct. We require the voicemail box name to match exactly what is in the SLAC Phone Directory. I am sure you can see how there would be problems if we just take a voicemail box and let someone else use it. Request your ATOM to submit Feature Changes to request the recycling of a voicemail box for a new person. Telecom will delete the old voicemail box and create a new one under the new person's name. They will let you know the new password.
Part of the voicemail system is not working.
The voicemail system is down.
The number you called is probably a "virtual" number (e.g. a secretarial line set roll-over number that is not advertised) and these do not have voice mail associated with them. If so then you need to call the real number associated with the person which will usually have voice mail associated with it.
The recommended way to disconnect from voice mail is to press 83, to log off at the end of the session. This will guarantee you are logged off, rather than waiting for the system to time out. It will also allow you to log in again right away, rather than risking a state where the call has been disconnected, but the voice mail system has not yet logged you out (and voice mail forces you to wait until the system discovers the problem and cleans it up).
If you have questions on the following topics or others, contact your local ATOM or SLAC Phone Administrator.
Voicemail | Phone Requests | Phone Switch (PBX): Calling/Credit Card Calls | Long Distance & International Calls | Miscellaneous PBX | Other Phone PBX Topics
You can make calling card calls from telephones with any class of service. If you have a calling card from AT&T, call 1-800-225-5288; for MCI, call 1-800-674-7000; for Sprint, call 1-800-877-8000.
You can also use calling cards from many other carriers. Contact your service provider for additional information.
Telephone carriers will not allow you to charge calls to restricted countries to a calling card; you need to bill it to your home phone number instead. (The designation restricted changes frequently; you can find out by simply calling the country by the usual procedure.)
You can make long distance calls by simply dialing: 9 1 aaa nnnnnnn (where aaa is the area code and nnnnnnn is the number in the area). Most SLAC phone lines have the ability to place National calls by default. If your phone does not have the ability to make long distance calls, then you need to ask you ATOM to request a feature change to enable long-distance dialing.
You can look up the dialing code for the country at http://www.construction-site.com/int_dial.htm. Armed with the dialing code, and assuming your phone is authorized to make international calls, then dial 9 011 ii nnnnnnnnnn (where ii is the 1-3 digit international dialing code and nnnnnnnn is the number of the phone in the country). If your phone does not have international dialing access, you will get a fast busy signal. Unfortunately you may also get a fast busy if all trunk lines to country are in use (see above). If you need international access, contact your ATOM who can make the call on your behalf or request international access for your phone (this will need authorization from your group/department leader).
Usually fast busy means this phone is not authorized for international access. The Guard gate at x2551 should be able to place an international call for you. There is a very small possibility that all 19 of the trunks from SLAC to our international call service provider (STS) are busy. Even then it should automatically overflow onto the Pac Bell trunks. You can call the number on an external phone line (one connected directly to Pac Bell, e.g. a pay phone) to see whether you still get a fast busy. Otherwise, telecommunications needs to investigate this problem while it is happening (i.e. something is still busy); thus try to make direct contact with one of the telecommunications people: Brenda Eberle (x 2321, or page 962-7383) or Les Cottrell (x 2523, page 962-7386) or SLAC Phone Administrator.
These people will then verify that the phone does have international access. If it does then they will use a direct access code to make the call avoiding the SLAC trunks. Unfortunately this will use a different provider (probably AT&T) and set of trunks and so is of questionable value. It might help us to ensure that the problem is not a busy SLAC trunk to STS. If it is not a SLAC trunk that is busy, then Telecommunications will need to report the problem to STS. If it appears to be a SLAC trunk that is busy, please report this to Brenda Eberle via email. Make sure the time, date, phone number being called, the extension called from, and the contact person are included in the email. We need to track such occurrences to determine whether the number of fast busy is above the threshold levels that our providers commit to.
International access is granted by phoneset, so if your secretarial phoneset does not have international access then you can't make international calls from it, even for someone who has international access on their phoneset.
Call the Guard gate at x2551 from the phone in question. They will see the number calling them on a red LED on their phone set and can read it back to you.
Submit a repair request via http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/comp/telecom/phone/ or call x2200 identifying the prefix and area code. Also provide a number to test with.
Probably the PBX has not been configured to know about the exchange that you are dialing. It is probably a newly introduced exchange or an exchange whose number has been changed. You can dial "0" to get the Guard gate operator to place the call for you. You should also submit a repair request via http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/comp/telecom/phone/ or call x2200 identifying the prefix and area code, so we can correctly configure the PBX. Also provide a number to test with.
When the switch sees a lot of noise on a phone interface to a card, then the switch disables the interface or the complete card. The noise may be caused by a bad phone instrument, a bad connector, cable, patch etc. Often noise occurs following rain when cables or connectors or splices may get wet. A card contains 16 interfaces, so 16 phone interfaces are disabled if a card is disabled. These phones may be located anywhere at SLAC, and are unlikely to be located close to one another. Some phone lines are "bridged" so the same number can appear on multiple physically separated phones. In this case if the interface is disabled then all the bridged phones will be disabled. If an interface or card is disabled it requires manual intervention to re-enable it. We keep track of these re-enables and watch for repeat occurrences, so we can re-enable things quickly.
Sounds like the phone has been somehow set to do pulse instead of tone dialing. There is probably a small switch or instructions (e.g. on the AT&T 925 phone it tells you that for TONE dialing you need to "Lift handset Press PROG # # # 8) on the side or the bottom or somewhere that allows you to switch between the two dialing modes? If you can't fix then bring the phone in and we can look at it.
You may be experiencing interference with another device that uses the 900MHz frequency range. One possibility is a Metricom Ricochet modem that is being used in a nearby office. We recommend using a higher frequency cordless phone.
Calls to 1-900 numbers are blocked at the switch and will result in a busy tone. Most 900 numbers are not business related. If you want to call a 900 number for some type of support services, we do not consider that a Telecommunications expense. You should put the charges on a purchase requisition or a corporate charge card and charge the expense to the appropriate SLAC account.
Area Code 809 is located in the Caribbean. There are many 900-number "look-alikes" that are set up within this area code. These International numbers are not subject to requirements for 900 numbers operating within the United States. As a result, there is no announcement about the cost of the call and there is no opportunity to disconnect without being billed for the call. Charges for the calls can be exorbitant. In some cases, users are tricked into making the calls when they receive voice mail or pages. Because the area is known for the high incidence of toll fraud and because we have few business connections with the area, we have blocked the entire area code from the SLAC switch. If you have a legitimate business reason to call this area, please call 0 for calling assistance. You may also charge business calls to a SLAC calling card.
If you send us (phone-admin@slac.stanford.edu) the telephone number that you are calling, we can check how it is routed. We made some changes when we cleaned up the routing after the telephone switch upgrade. Pacific Bell should show the number of the telephone making the call for local calls. For calls to Area 408, they may display the trunk number or simply "US GOVT DOE SLAC." STS, the vendor who carries our local toll calls is not able to transmit the caller ID through their network, so that might result in the "Unavailable" message. STS was not previously getting all of the calls that should have been routed to them. MCI/FTS2001 should show the number of the telephone making the call for inter-LATA calls. There are no common standards for what gets passed or displayed. It depends on the service providers involved, what their networks can transmit, and how they pass information through the interfaces between service providers. The variations are not something that individual users can control. The decision to use STS was made before we were able to pass number identification on outgoing calls. We use them in large part because they offer very competitive rates and provide good customer service. If you have specific reasons for needing to receive caller ID, we would be happy to get an explanation. We can then keep the documentation to consider when we renew our contracts.
If you have questions on the following topics or others, contact your local ATOM or SLAC Phone Administrator.
Voicemail | Phone PBX | Phone Requests: ATOMs | How long to complete requests | Special Phone Lines | Other Phone Request Topics
This is described in the SLAC Phone Users' Guide at http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/comp/telecom/phone/phoneusersguide/TableofContents.htm under "Services" (click on "ATOM Services").
Send an email to Atom Update.
Our goal is to complete 85% of the requests in the following amount of time or better:
Repairs 1 working day Software orders, voicemail adds/changes, directory changes 5 working days (1 week) Hardware orders, relocations, disconnects, installs 22 working days (1 month) If you have a critical request, then you may request a priority for the work, in which case it may be scheduled on overtime, and an account is needed to charge the overtime back to.
Submit a request through your ATOM who will submit an Equipment Change request.
Contact your ATOM and they will make a New Install request.
Contact your ATOM. She/he will submit a phone Feature Change request via the Phone Request System. In addition your ATOM will send an authorization email to Phone-Admin and "cc" your group/department leader. If the group/department leader does not object to the international access, then it will be activated. The authorization email will need to identify the phone extension number for which the request is made, together with an account to potentially charge the International calls. The authorization email must be sent within a month of the Feature Change request.
The available free numbers can be found in http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/telecom/slaconly/reports/free_dn. You may select any number or sets of numbers from that list. If you want to get some hints on what a phone number would spell then see PhoneSpell. Currently we do not reserve numbers for future possible use.
These phonesets are no longer manufactured, we have a few spares left, but they are becoming increasingly unreliable. We recommend you move to a refurbished Nortel M2616 secretarial phoneset.
M2616/ -- 16 programmable keys:
Handsfree/Display = $165.00
If you want to see what the models look like contact the Telephone Administrator at x2254.
For questions on the following topics or others, contact your local ATOM or SLAC Phone Administrator.
Owners: Les Cottrell and Teresa Downey