Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!usc!elroy!ames!killer!vector!telecom-gateway From: roy%phri@uunet.uu.net (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: How to put an answering machine on a System 25 Message-ID: Date: 23 Jun 89 08:20:18 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC, NY Lines: 28 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 208, message 2 of 3 At work, we've got an AT&T System-25 PBX. It supports two kinds of lines and phones. The first is the plain old 2-wire tip/ring DTMF set (although, it will recognize pulse dialers as well). The second is a new-fangled multiline setup which replaced the old key sets. These lines use 3 pairs. I believe they are tip/ring, power, and some sort of digital 2-way communication between the phone (er, excuse me, "voice terminal") and the switch. How does one hook up something like an answering machine or a fax machine to one of the 3-pair lines? We've tried the obvious; just pulling tip and ring out to an RJ-11 and plugging the answering machine in, but that didn't work. In retrospect, I don't suppose there was any reason to think it would work; what I'm calling tip and ring really aren't tip and ring in any normal sense, just the voice signal for the currently active conversation. All the contol information (ring, off-hook, etc) probably go over the digital control pair. What we ended up doing was running an old-style line into the office where our main number is and putting the answering machine on that. When the office staff leaves for the day, they forward the main number's calls to the other line so the answering machine can catch them. It seems like there has to be a better way. Is there? -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu "The connector is the network"