Topic: Talkswitch CO line issue

[EV607797]

The landlord for our office has a small Talkswitch system in their office and they asked me if I had any ideas to address an issue that they're having.  They have a Fortinet/Talkswitch CT.TS001.1 and are using a Netgear POE switch with FON350i sets, and four POTS lines.

Sporadically, they go to make an outgoing call and it never goes through.  After a few seconds, the line just drops off.  My first thought was that the first digit is being sent before the CO line is ready to receive digits, but the lines are fake ones (FiOS), so I doubt that's the issue.  Besides, they never hear anything.  Just silence until the line releases.  I'd still like to see them insert a pause in front of the dialed digits just in case, if that's even possible.

The customer has used the system's internal resources to 'optimize the lines', but that doesn't seem to affect anything.  He will reboot the unit and it seems to do OK for a few days.  He has also upgraded the firmware.  I don't see them having an issue with bandwidth since they are a relatively small operation.  I don't think that the POE switch ports have anything to do with this since all of their other devices on it work fine.

Can anyone offer any suggestions that I might be able to present so that I don't look like a complete imbecile?  I told him that I don't know their system, but the truth is, I don't have a clue where to begin with that thing. 

[tonyburkhart]

Firstly, is there any manufacturer support with that system? I'd go that route first

Secondly, make sure firmware is upgraded on EVERYTHING across the board, because this does sound like a firmware or buffer overflow issue where a device clears out after a reboot. Check the ISP/modem, Edge Device (I'm assuming a Fortinet Router), Switch, Phones, and even WAP if they're PoE. ANy one of those could be sending bad packets, have a firmware upgrade, or a NIC going bad that is causing this.

Then, after all of those are confirmed, run a packet capture with wireshark right after they start having the problem again (if it crops up, after the verification of upgrades across the board) and see what packets are dropping, or what errors persist on the network.