Merlin 410

Greetings.

I am working in a small business that, in a small dusty closet, has a merlin 410 control unit that organizes the calls that are distributed to and made by 4 merlin 3160-111 handsets.

We want to now move over to use VOIP and cast this old technology into the fires of Mordor.

We have in place cable internet that is broadcast wirelessly to the pc's in the office. So, I am presuming that this will be as easy as contacting AT&T or vonage or whoever and getting them to send us a VOIP box which we can pass our cable through and then plug the phones we need into this box.

Will the existing Merlin handsets be able to plug into the VOIP box or do you think we will have to invest in completely new phones?

I am presuming, when we have the VOIP box plugged into the router and the new phones off this (we will be keeping the old numbers if we can) ... then what do we do with the Merlin 410 in the closet? I presume we can just turn it off and unbolt it from the wall and chuck it in the bin or is this rather simplistic?

Any help anyone can give would be much appreciated as I am clueless about such old systems like this merlin thing. Basically, what's the best way of moving from the merlin system to voip i suppose is what i'm asking (we don't mind the handsets really so if we can use these with the voip then that would be ok).

Thanks all!

Neil

Reply to
Neil
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Thanks Tony,

Being a luddite, could you tell me what CO ports are? also, any ideas where I would connect the router into the 410 as the 410 looks pretty old and as far as I know I would only have something like an ethernet cable that would allow a connection to the router to take place and I don't see anything ethernet cable hole like in the 410?

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated!

Reply to
Neil

Having though about this a bit and looking at the manual

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I right when I say that this arrangement is as simple as the phone line comes into the building (near to the box) and then a telephone cord runs from the wall point into the 410 box.

So, all I have to do then is unplug the line from the wall from the

410, then take the line from the router that i would normally connect to a phone and connect it into the box and it should all work?
Reply to
Neil

Also, I have three lines coming into the building, two main lines and a fax line, does anyone know if a voIP provider can allow me to have these three lines into one router that I can then pass into the 410 box?

Reply to
Neil

More than likely the CO ports on your Merlin system are loop start meaning you can just connect your VoIP router into the 410.

Reply to
Tony P.

Thanks Carl..

The whole voip plan is to save money. We make about $200 of local calls a month which we want to reduce. If we can save money and not use voip then huzzah but how? I like the idea of testing before committing that's a good plan but can i pipe my two lines through one voip box when the time comes to commit? or will i need two boxes, one for each line? Out of interest why keep the fax as a telco line? we rarely receive meaningful faxes (only junk) and use it predominantly for faxing out, can this be done via voip do you know?

Reply to
Neil

Indeed. That's your Central Office (CO) port.

Reply to
Tony P.

Quick, what's that fancy VOIP going to do for you?

Assuming that you hve some sort of pressing desire to use it, you might add a SINGLE VOIP box as the 3rd or 4th line of your Merlin 410 box. Use it for outgoing calls, test it thoroughly before you commit to switching all of your lines to it.

Another thing, keep the fax as a telco line.

Try

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and consider grabbing the residential box for a "test". Now you're only out $20.

Carl Navarro

Reply to
Carl Navarro

You can port your local lines to VOIP, but it seems that adding a VOIP line or two might be a better way to go.

VOIP doesn't work well with fax because of bandwidth issues. The format G.711a requires 80K to properly send faxes, pretty tough if you're trying to run 2 or 3 VOIP lines on DSL with 128K up :-). Take your test box and make sure you get a reasonable percentage of completions before you try to switch your fax line.

Also, 911 service does NOT go to your local PSAP. If you need emergency service, you're liable to get routed to someone is East Jesus Idaho who doesn't have a clue about where you live.

You will need a box or jack for each line. Some of the adapters are two port, but in Vonage's case, they don't use the second port. Uniden makes the DTA 200 2-port VOIP box, but I'm not sure who supports it. If you Google voip 2-line ATA, you'll get enough reading material to keep you busy for a while.

Carl Navarro

Reply to
Carl Navarro

Is it your building, because you'll have to disconnect those lines to convert to VoIP. Most VoIP TA (telephone adapters) have the ability to do Two lines...

Reply to
Rick Merrill

- theoretically! But not all numbers can be ported to all VoIP providers in all areas, so check THOROUGHLY with your VoIP provider. I was given bad info by one operator - trouble report to a second CSR (customer service rep) resulted in the cancellation of the first order.. result was that I had outgoing ONLY service for four weeks before it could all be fixed (and ported correctly).

Good suggestion, but it has limitations.

And compression protocol issues: ASK your VoIP provider if your particular fax machines are supported - the odds are good, but you must check with your particular service and machine(s).

That is a distinct caution, but it is also a rapidly changing situation as some VoIP providers are addressing the problem.

I will bet that they will be using the second port soon.

I use a Dlink and it can support 2 lines. - RM

Reply to
Rick Merrill

This is true in 99% of the states but RI actually gets to the correct PSAP. I suppose that 92 cents a month we'd been paying to Verizon for years paid off. Not only does the system play nicely with VoIP, it also had GPS capabilities before pretty much any other PSAP in the country.

If you turn the other line on Vonage does indeed use the 2nd port.

I will warn folks though. The RT31P2 that Vonage currently ships has a problem. There's a slight hiss in the background, this is cured by putting a 620 ohm resistor on an RJ-11 plug and inserting it into the

2nd unused port. It simulates an off hook phone.

Supposedly there was a manufacturing problem and Vonage is aware of it and will be shipping new ATA's. We're also supposed to finally get anonymous call rejection. Oh happy day.

Reply to
Tony P.

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