Which lines do I need - Analogue or Digital?
SoHo Phone Systems are designed for standard analogue lines, such as you would have installed in a home or small office. Most SoHo phone systems will also work with BT® Featureline® installations.
ISDN2e lines require more advanced system, such as those available from our sister website www.businessphonesystemsdirect.co.uk.
Analogue lines can share one number, so that a business can have multiple simultaneous calls. These are called primary, and auxiliary lines.
Whilst call quality is slightly better on ISDN2e lines, the primary difference between the two line types is that analogue lines cannot offer DDI numbers. However analogue phone systems are typically cheaper than their ISDN2e equivalents.
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How do I install a TalkSwitch?
Installing a TalkSwitch phone system is very easy. The best advice is read the manual! The TalkSwitch manual (unlike many others we have seen) is very well put together and explains in simple, easy steps how to unbox the system and perform the initial setup.
What do I need?
- Standard BT Line(s)
- Analogue phones (or order the phones with the system)
- A Windows® PC or laptop for configuration
In simple steps…
In the easiest of steps, once the system is unboxed, take the lead that comes with the system and plug it into the telephone wall socket and into Line 1 on the back of the TalkSwitch. Now plug a phone into one of the extension sockets of the TalkSwitch. Plug the TalkSwitch in and the system will now be working.
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Is VoIP cheaper than analogue?
This is quite a difficult one to answer. First we need to start with some explanations. Sometimes people can confuse VoIP phones with VoIP lines. When talking about a phone system (as opposed to home VoIP lines or Skype®) VoIP phones simply means phones that run over your computer network as opposed to a dedicated telephone wiring network in the office. The nice feature of VoIP phone is that they can be easier to c up, and can be used in remote offices or home locations without incurring call diversion charges. If this is important to your business, then the TalkSwitch can support this. The downside to VoIP handsets is that they take a little more configuring than analogue phones.
When talking about VoIP lines, this is the equivalent of taking your standard analogue phone line and running it over your ADSL internet connection. There is usually a monthly line rental (which can be much lower than your normal analogue rental) and you can typically have more than one line per ADSL connection. This means that you can have mix of VoIP lines and an analogue line all running over the one line you may already have installed…. And the good news is that the TalkSwitch supports this as well! Be warned that there is a limit to how many VoIP calls can be made over a single ADSL connection before call quality is affected.
Call charges over the VoIP line are sometimes slightly cheaper than normal call charges, and international rates can offer significant savings.
If you are considering VoIP phones or lines and would like a little more help, please give us a call on 0845 070 4274.
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How many phones can I use with the TalkSwitch?
All of the TalkSwitch systems support up to 16 handsets, in a combination of analogue and VoIP.
The following table shows how many analogue devices each system can support.
| 240vs and 248vs | 4 analogue devices | | 480vs and 488vs | 8 analogue devices | | 840vs and 848vs | 4 analogue devices |
The number of VoIP handsets a system can support is 16, less the number of analogue devices attached. For example, if you have 1 analogue phone and a fax attached to a TalkSwitch, it will support 14 further VoIP handsets.
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How to control a call at a remote extension
If the calls are forwarded to the remote site over 2 lines then the user can hit ** to place the call back on hold at TalkSwitch.
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How to setup direct dialling - not pressing 9 for an outside line
To enable direct outbound dialling, this is done on a per-extension basis. In the TalkSwitch Configuration tool, go to System Information>Local Extensions.
For each extension that requires direct dialling, click “Additional Settings” (the button is in the middle of the tab).
Check “Enable direct line access using” and ensure Hunt Group 9 is selected (assuming that your system is setup in the default manner, using 9 for an outside line).
Note: If this is enabled, to make a local extension call, the user will need to press ** first.
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How do I pickup a ringing line or ringing extension?
There are 2 pickup commands, *9 and *7 + Ext.
*9 grabs the first ringing CO (line), where as *7 + Ext grabs a ringing extension. Therefore if you called from one extension to another extension *9 will not work, however if you dial *7 + Ext you will grab the call.
If you dial *9 and there are no ringing calls from incoming lines, you will hear the message "I am sorry, there is no matching entry for those digits".
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What is the difference between the TalkSwitch 9133i and the Aastra 9133i?
The TalkSwitch branded IP Phones contain unique firmware to enable additional functionality.
The Aastra models of IP phones are not "supported" with any auto-configuration capability. You can do a basic setup by configuring them as an "other IP Phone" to manually configure them for basic calling capability, but functionality will be limited.
Features such as TalkSwitch auto-discovery, auto-configuration, hands-free intercom, line/extension/queue appearances/busy keys are unique to the TalkSwitch TS-9133i when used with TalkSwitch.
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How many VoIP extensions can the 48CVA and 48CA range support?
The 48 series units support 8 analogue extensions and 8 IP extensions. The analogue extensions can be switched to IP extensions so a total of 16 IP extensions are available on the system.
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I am running the TalkSwitch from analogue lines off of another phone system. How can I detect hang-up?
By default is a drop in current, which is classified as a CPC \ Disconnect Clear signal. The default for that is 250 ms in duration, so basically anything longer then that would clear the line. However the TalkSwitch does support Line Reversal on the phone lines and is available within the GUI on the Telephone Lines page, by default they are set to Ignore. TalkSwitch will also look for tone detection if a call is in voice mail, Auto Attendant or on Hold. Some PBX systems dont play the correct regional tones on the extensions so it is sometimes tricky to detect them correctly.
If this does not work, try the following diagnostic techniques:
- Call through the host phone system into TalkSwitch and connect to a Local Extension.
- Hang up the outside caller, but keep the Local Extension off hook. Does the front LED of TalkSwitch go out? What does the extension hear, silence or a tone? Did they hear a click or clunk when the caller hung up?
- If they hear a tone, have them hit Recall on the phone to place the line on Hold. Wait 5 seconds, does the TalkSwitch LED go out?
If the line light does not go out at all, and the caller hears a tone then most likely the TalkSwitch is not detecting the frequency of signal being generated. The best thing to do would be configure a voice mail box with email notification, then call in and go into the voice mailbox and hang up. TalkSwitch will record the tones as a voice mail message and the customer will get emailed this recording. From this you can determine the frequency and cadence of the tones and see why the TalkSwitch is not detecting it.
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Does Group Paging work with all TalkSwitch phones?
The Group Paging feature is where one extension can call a group of extensions to broadcast a message over their speakerphones without them answering the phone.
This Group Paging feature is only supported with our Analogue telephone sets TS400/TS600 and no the TalkSwitch IP Phones.
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Using Centrex or FeatureNet Lines without pressing 9 twice
Centrex or FeaturNet Lines require 9 to be pressed to signify that an external call is being made. As the Talkswitch has already required a line hunt group to be selected (commonly 9) we can use the Auto Route Selection (ARS) feature to automatically insert the digit required by the Centrex or FeatureNet lines.
The Line Hunt Group has already been selected so those digits are ignored by the ARS. An entry is required for each possible digit of the actual number dialled. This is 0 to 9 as local numbers can be dialled without any code. Each entry prefixes itself with the required 'carrier code'.
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Flash Recall Settings
The TalkSwitch places IP and analogue phone calls on hold based on a message sent from the phone to the TalkSwitch system. If the settings are not correct the call will not be held.
The settings can be configured using the Talkswitch administration program.
Launch the Talkswitch administration program and navigate through the menu to:
Troubleshooting > Extensions > Regular Analogue Extensions
UK Settings are:
MIN = 50ms
MAX = 120ms
Click and save your configuration.
Test this setting by making calls between extensions and placing the caller on and off hold.
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Does TalkSwitch Support Windows 7?
TalkSwitch 6.11 is not compatible with the Windows 7 OS. Compatibility will be provided in a future software release of TalkSwitch.
As soon as we have an ETA we will post this to the site.
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How to locate the TalkSwitch model number
Open the TalkSwitch management tool and navigate to Global Settings > About
The units model number can be found on the right hand side of the page under System Information > My TalkSwitch System
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