Caller ID problem / Smartnode 4114

[RobertKroll]

Hello,
I have been searching for awhile to find the solution to this, but have not yet found an answer. I am hoping that upgrading to v.9 will change things. Here goes:

I set up my smartnode 4114 to pass Caller Id to the phone system. Voila, it all seemed good, people were calling and id's were coming through. Then somebody walked into my office and asked if we were still in business. Turns out that we have MANY providers in our area (Optimum, Cox, Verizon, Verizon FIOS, multiple cell carriers). Each one seems to send the Caller ID in a different format. So when I checked the logs, I found that two of the telephone providers must have had an id schema that was not understood, and the phone system rejected the transfer from the FXO.

I recently purchased a cheapo Grandstream for some additional telephone lines, and oddly enough...it seems to be working flawlessly (though I am not 100% certain because we hardly get calls on those lines).

My question is: I have noticed the Caller ID reformat function, but I have not seen a detailed instruction on it, nor do I have the built in knowledge to know how to manage this option. Is v.9 set up to handle this issue better than v.8?

Any help is appreciated.
Thank you very much.
Bob

 

[leejor]

Turns out that we have MANY providers in our area (Optimum, Cox, Verizon, Verizon FIOS, multiple cell carriers). Each one seems to send the Caller ID in a different format. So when I checked the logs, I found that two of the telephone providers must have had an id schema that was not understood, and the phone system rejected the transfer from the FXO.

So, the caller ID format, (I'm assuming its' the name portion), is causing some calls to be rejected by 3CX? The format itself has to adhere to a set of rules to be Bellcore compliant, and since it is coming to you from your one provider (I'm assuming that your PSTN trunks are from one source), it should be standard. Your provider receives the name and number from other providers/companies and passes it on to you.

There have been some people having issues with "special" characters that are inserted in the name. Things like a dash or comma. It sounds like it's probably not a 3CX problem as the Grandstream trunk seems to work correctly. You should probably try to figure out what specifically is causing the problems, once you find a caller that fails on the Patton, test the incoming call on the Grandstream. Could there be a firmware update that might correct the issue?

 

[RobertKroll]

First, thank you for the quick reply.

I called patton, and they logged into the unit and got the logs. It showed that the call wasn't "accepted" by the voip system (For lack of a better term). The grandstream is significantly less sophisticated, but I am not sure if that plays into it. As for our "trunks", we actually have three different providers that seem to transmit the information in three different ways. The one provider sends the telephone number, while the other sends a name.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[leejor]

In North America the format for sending name and number works like this...http://www.tech-faq.com/caller-id.html
There is a set of rules that caller Id has to follow or the display devices would not work.

There are two types of Caller ID, number only caller ID, the older one is called Single Data Message Format (SDMF), which provides only the caller's telephone number, the date and time of the call. The newer type, which has been around for quite a while is called Multiple Data Message Format (MDMF), which can also provide the name along with the number. Some of the early, number only display devices will not work with the new MDMF format. MDMF is what most, if not all providers send these days. It could be that one of your providers hasn't felt the need to update their equipment to send the name, or, they don't want to pay the fee for each "dip" into the name database. That might be causing the problems.

If Patton is claiming hat the VoIP system (I assume that they mean 3CX) is not accepting some of the calls, then you need to get a log showing what is actually being sent on to 3CX in the case of a working and non working call. Perhaps there needs to be an adjustment to accommodate a slightly different format? However, If the format is non-(industry) standard, then don't expect too much.

 

[robertrm3]

I had the same problem, sent the logs to Patton and Daniel the tech support person, sent me updated firm ware and that took care of the problem. we are using ATT and Cox for PSTN

 

[RobertKroll]

Thanks much...

I called Patton, and they were instrumental with solving the problem. Turns out it was a firmware issue that was remedied in milliseconds with an upgrade.

Community support WORKS...thanks all for the input!