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From: AI.CLIVE@mcc.com (Clive Dawson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: What Happens When a Phone Hangs Up?
Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0435m03@vector.dallas.tx.us>
Date: 7 Oct 89 16:50:53 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 435, message 3 of 7

I've had several years of trouble-free operation from my Panasonic
KX-T2425 phone answering machine.  This changed about a month ago; it
now exhibits some very annoying behavior, but I'm not sure if this is
a problem with the machine, or whether it is caused by a change in the
behavior in the central office switch, or whether it is caused by a
change in the length of my outgoing message.  (This last possibility
didn't occur to me until just now, and may be the most likely.)

What happens is that anytime somebody decides to hang up and not leave
a message, I get a "message" anyway consisting of:

	One ring tone
	"If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again.
	 If you need help, please hang up and dial your operator."
	One minute's worth of the loud, fast tone denoting that
	your phone has been left off-hook.

Skipping past as many as 5 or 6 of these a day is getting to be a pain.

Questions:

       -- Is it possible that my machine has lost its ability to
          detect a remote hang-up?  Do Panasonic machines detect
	  remote hang-ups, or do they simply detect silence on the
	  line in order to decide whether/when to start/stop recording?

       -- Is it correct for the off-hook warning stuff to be triggered
	  under these circumstances?  Is this the norm?

       -- Is the length of time before the off-hook warning triggers
	  a settable parameter in ESS switches?  The current timeout
	  seems to be 30 seconds, which is precisely equal to the
	  maximum length of an outgoing message on many (Panasonic, at
	  least) answering machines.  This means that the warning
	  starts just when the machine goes into record mode, checking
	  for sound on the line in order to decide whether somebody is
	  leaving a message.

       -- Would it be wishful thinking to believe I could convince
	  the Telco folks to lengthen this timeout period to, say,
	  45 seconds or a minute?

       -- Do other people have this problem?

I suppose the obvious thing to try is to reduce the length of my
outgoing message.  Maybe if I can get a few more seconds of silence
before the off-hook warning starts, the machine will properly conclude
that no message is forthcoming and hang up.

Any help/comments/suggestions appreciated!

Clive