Yes on the E-MetroTel UCx you can mix Norstar digital phones and Meridian 1/CS 1000 digital phones. You would need to have 2 different digital gateways to do that; and another thing to keep in mind is that the Gayway software for supporting the Meridian 1/CS 1000 phones is only supported on the UCx450, UCx1000 or UCx1000E appliances.
+Chris Edwards Yes, the UCx is very exciting. Where else can you integrate so many types of handsets under one system? Thanks Chris, so happy to have your knowledgeable comments on my channel. Every little bit helps the Nortel user community!
I'm glad to see Joe is back to making UCX videos again. He started out strong a couple years ago and then took a hiatus. He's got a really nice lab rig.
He hasn't gone back to making videos. I learned that from his videos that are 2 years old. I really hope that he will make another video at some point since I have loved his videos.
oh, yes, My mistake. That was just a blog post, me made. I would like to make videos like that too, but personal time is scarce. Plus, I don't own a CS1000, nor an IP Office as he does.
After some research, this is basically an Asterisk PBX with additional modules that can handle Nortel phones :-) Since I already have an existing Asterisk PBX, any idea if I can just get the separate module to handle Nortel phones?
I dont think I will be getting rid of my nortel mics. I hate to say this but ,I think voice over ip is very unreliable becuase if the network goes down no phones I just think traditional pbxes are more reliable than voip and and more secure as well meaning you can't tap into conversations on internal calls like a hacker could do on voip
I agree with you there. My three main objections to voip are: 1. If a voip PBX is connected to the same network and (as you mentioned) if that network goes down your phones go down, I guess there are some redundancy options like a backup switch and having a second network dedicated solely to the pbx and phones but I'm not sure if that would be efficient or cost effective. 2. Having a network with insufficient bandwidth can lead to latency issues (delay) and can cause issues like people to talk over each other during a conversation and creating an awful echo effect while making a paging announcement. 3. When upgrading from a traditional KSU/PBX whether it's a good ol' Nortel system or Avaya Partner or Magix system, upgrading to a system that is all about voip such as Cisco, can be costly as not only the digital phones have to be replaced but also all the RJ11 jacks and wiring as well. The E-MetroTel UCx/Galaxy system is undoubtedly an awesome product but it along with it's expansion modules rely on the network. For example the Galaxy Express expansion module/gateway, which takes DSM16 digital line cards and FXS16 analog line cards, connects to the UCx via LAN. And unlike on other hybrid PBX's where if the network goes down the voip phones go down but the digital and analog phones remain unaffected, if a LAN that a UCx with gateways is running on goes down not only do the voip phones go down but the digital and analog phones go down as well! Scary! Fortunately there are alternatives out there for people that don't want a voip PBX either because their network doesn't have sufficient bandwidth or other limitations that are beyond their control, or simply because they're not a fan of voip. My workplace has a Panasonic KX-NS700 hybrid PBX which was installed in 2018. All digital phones with the exception of one analog phone, 1 PRI and is completely independent of the network. Remote programming is achieved by "off-line" programming software which is installed on a PC at the company who maintains the PBX and the programming data is sent via PRI to the PBX. As far as I know the Avaya IP Office can be used as a non-voip pbx independent of the network with digital/analog phones but I'm not 100% sure if it has the same "off-line" remote programming capabilities via PRI connection as the Panasonic PBX.
I now stand corrected on the E-MetroTel DSM16 module. I talked to E-MetroTel on UA-cam today and they said on the Galaxy Mini, which is a migration path for Norstar & BCM systems with 32 stations or less and has LAN & WAN ports, you can use the LAN port and connect it to your LAN solely for programming via the GUI web interface while on the WAN port you can simply use a single ethernet cable to connect one end to the WAN port on the Galaxy Mini and the other end to the port on the DSM16 without having anything to do with the LAN infrastructure. So the digital phones should work flawlessly even if the LAN happens to go down.
Hello! Thank you for creating this video! Here is our response to "yvr2002rtw"... Your comment “basically an Asterisk PBX with additional modules that can handle Nortel phones” is a good observation, it is not entirely accurate. There are effectively 2 parts to making the Nortel digital telephones (and analog) work - the physical and the logical. As you know, digital and analog devices (sometimes called TDM [Time Division Multiplexing] devices) use circuit-switched technology…every device requires termination on a physical port. The Gateway (UCXDGH - stands for UCX Digital Gateway Hardware) provide the physical termination point and the little blue box (UCXDGS - stands for UCX Digital Gateway Software) is the first step in the logical part of the gateway. Effectively it is a pointer that directs the UCXDGH to the primary UCX Server that is providing all the feature capabilities, the set provisioning, call control, etc. While Asterisk does indeed form the basis of the UCX Server (and any SIP phones, devices, trunks that run on Asterisk can run on UCX, only the UCX can support Nortel IP and Digital phones - that is the rest of the logical part for making those phones work. So while a UCX system can support all that can be supported on Asterisk, the reverse in not true…Asterisk cannot support the full implementation of Nortel IP phones and a UCX Digital Gateway so even if we were to send you a UCXDGH, it would not function on his Asterisk PBX.
+E- Metrotel hey, thanks for chiming in with that clarification. You answered the comment way better than I could have since I am still learning about your system. Please feel free to comment more as we move forward with additional UCx videos. :-)
How much was this unit? Will it support the Option 11 phones? I really like the Option 11 phones, and I'd love to be able to lose the huge cabinet in my closet for something small like this, but keep the same phones.
yes, they have a version that supports the PBX phones (option 11, 81, etc.). I don't know if you can mix the meridian phones and norstar phones on the same system or not. I can hook you up with my contacts if you want to know more. send me an email to steve@nortelguy.com or call my office 321-574-2699.
Thanks for the fast response. I would only be using the Option 11 phones, i.e. 2008/2616/3903. Does it support the M3000 Touchphone? I have one of those also. I already contacted a guy I know at Callisto Communications, I'll give him a chance to email me back. I'll shoot you an email anyways, though. Thanks!
+telecomguy10 - You wouldn't be loosing the cabinets though. You'd swap out the CPU, wether its in the PBX or it's on its separate server. Joe the UCX guy on YT also has videos and I think he's a potential sales guy when you check out his blog. I'm just in envy from an Avaya Red POV, Avaya has also abandoned their legacy roots from the Lucent days. I'm glad I have an old Avaya PBX, but I can't run newer software without those pesky crypto licensees! I'd love to see second lives on first gen 4600s, and Merlin and 7400 sets, rather than scrapped for parts. Or even those MET sets. ~Steven/The Museum of Telephony
I have noticed that Duane Reade and Costco used to have nortel phones and now these use cisco phones. I get frustrated when I see those since I like looking at nortel phones and because I know they can upgrade. I am scared that other organizations like marshall's will also do that? Is there anyway I can encourage businesses to get the ucx?
I feel on that Phoneguy. To my mind, the biggest value at of E-metrotel's solution is on large installations. Where upgrading the wiring and replacing all the handsets would be enormous. Here's an example - Bank of NY Melon has thousands of NT meridian phones. Many of which I am sure are running on a single pair. Can you imagine replacing all those handsets with Cisco?
@@thenortelguy The Calgary International Airport did just that back in 2014-2016 when the new international terminal was being built. The airport's large Meridian 1 system (either Option 61C or 81C) which dated back to the 90's and consisted mostly of M2000 series digital sets was completely replaced with a Cisco system and I don't know whether or not they abandoned any of the existing RJ11 jacks and wiring in the old domestic terminal or replaced them with RJ45's but if they were all replaced the cost would've been astronomical. And yes I do get rather irked when I find out about any kind of Nortel equipment getting replaced with Cisco. Last year my local hospital replaced their Norstar 0x32 system which was installed circa 1998 and consisted of a little over 100 phones (I'm guessing) with an Avaya IP Office with mostly 9500 series digital sets, I guess it wouldn't have been that expensive to replace as the IP Office supports digital sets and the most of not all of the wiring doesn't have to be replaced. I don't mind the IP Office as it's feature rich and I see it's fairly easy to program but I have heard of it's cons such as the expensive licensing and from what I've heard there are several basic settings that require a system reboot in order for any changes to take effect. So correct me if I'm wrong but while upgrading a Norstar 0x32 system with 100 sets or more (as I mentioned above) to an Avaya IP Office with digital sets (or any other system that still supports digital sets such as NEC, Panasonic etc) may not be as cost effective as upgrading to an E-MetroTel system as you have to replace the Norstar sets (yes I know the IP Office supports the Norstar sets but then they won't work the way they did on the Norstar/BCM), it would be less expensive than upgrading to a Cisco system or any other system that is all about voip because you don't have to replace not only the digital sets with voip sets but all of the wiring as well.
Yes on the E-MetroTel UCx you can mix Norstar digital phones and Meridian 1/CS 1000 digital phones. You would need to have 2 different digital gateways to do that; and another thing to keep in mind is that the Gayway software for supporting the Meridian 1/CS 1000 phones is only supported on the UCx450, UCx1000 or UCx1000E appliances.
+Chris Edwards Yes, the UCx is very exciting. Where else can you integrate so many types of handsets under one system? Thanks Chris, so happy to have your knowledgeable comments on my channel. Every little bit helps the Nortel user community!
Meridian/CS 1000 phones also can be supported pn the UCX 50. If you watch joetheucxguy's videos, you will see that he has them on his ucx 50.
I'm glad to see Joe is back to making UCX videos again. He started out strong a couple years ago and then took a hiatus.
He's got a really nice lab rig.
He hasn't gone back to making videos. I learned that from his videos that are 2 years old. I really hope that he will make another video at some point since I have loved his videos.
oh, yes, My mistake. That was just a blog post, me made. I would like to make videos like that too, but personal time is scarce. Plus, I don't own a CS1000, nor an IP Office as he does.
After some research, this is basically an Asterisk PBX with additional modules that can handle Nortel phones :-)
Since I already have an existing Asterisk PBX, any idea if I can just get the separate module to handle Nortel phones?
I dont think I will be getting rid of my nortel mics. I hate to say this but ,I think voice over ip is very unreliable becuase if the network goes down no phones I just think traditional pbxes are more reliable than voip and and more secure as well meaning you can't tap into conversations on internal calls like a hacker could do on voip
I agree with you there. My three main objections to voip are:
1. If a voip PBX is connected to the same network and (as you mentioned) if that network goes down your phones go down, I guess there are some redundancy options like a backup switch and having a second network dedicated solely to the pbx and phones but I'm not sure if that would be efficient or cost effective.
2. Having a network with insufficient bandwidth can lead to latency issues (delay) and can cause issues like people to talk over each other during a conversation and creating an awful echo effect while making a paging announcement.
3. When upgrading from a traditional KSU/PBX whether it's a good ol' Nortel system or Avaya Partner or Magix system, upgrading to a system that is all about voip such as Cisco, can be costly as not only the digital phones have to be replaced but also all the RJ11 jacks and wiring as well.
The E-MetroTel UCx/Galaxy system is undoubtedly an awesome product but it along with it's expansion modules rely on the network. For example the Galaxy Express expansion module/gateway, which takes DSM16 digital line cards and FXS16 analog line cards, connects to the UCx via LAN. And unlike on other hybrid PBX's where if the network goes down the voip phones go down but the digital and analog phones remain unaffected, if a LAN that a UCx with gateways is running on goes down not only do the voip phones go down but the digital and analog phones go down as well! Scary!
Fortunately there are alternatives out there for people that don't want a voip PBX either because their network doesn't have sufficient bandwidth or other limitations that are beyond their control, or simply because they're not a fan of voip. My workplace has a Panasonic KX-NS700 hybrid PBX which was installed in 2018. All digital phones with the exception of one analog phone, 1 PRI and is completely independent of the network. Remote programming is achieved by "off-line" programming software which is installed on a PC at the company who maintains the PBX and the programming data is sent via PRI to the PBX. As far as I know the Avaya IP Office can be used as a non-voip pbx independent of the network with digital/analog phones but I'm not 100% sure if it has the same "off-line" remote programming capabilities via PRI connection as the Panasonic PBX.
I now stand corrected on the E-MetroTel DSM16 module. I talked to E-MetroTel on UA-cam today and they said on the Galaxy Mini, which is a migration path for Norstar & BCM systems with 32 stations or less and has LAN & WAN ports, you can use the LAN port and connect it to your LAN solely for programming via the GUI web interface while on the WAN port you can simply use a single ethernet cable to connect one end to the WAN port on the Galaxy Mini and the other end to the port on the DSM16 without having anything to do with the LAN infrastructure. So the digital phones should work flawlessly even if the LAN happens to go down.
Hello! Thank you for creating this video! Here is our response to "yvr2002rtw"...
Your comment “basically an Asterisk PBX with additional modules that can handle Nortel phones” is a good observation, it is not entirely accurate. There are effectively 2 parts to making the Nortel digital telephones (and analog) work - the physical and the logical.
As you know, digital and analog devices (sometimes called TDM [Time Division Multiplexing] devices) use circuit-switched technology…every device requires termination on a physical port. The Gateway (UCXDGH - stands for UCX Digital Gateway Hardware) provide the physical termination point and the little blue box (UCXDGS - stands for UCX Digital Gateway Software) is the first step in the logical part of the gateway. Effectively it is a pointer that directs the UCXDGH to the primary UCX Server that is providing all the feature capabilities, the set provisioning, call control, etc.
While Asterisk does indeed form the basis of the UCX Server (and any SIP phones, devices, trunks that run on Asterisk can run on UCX, only the UCX can support Nortel IP and Digital phones - that is the rest of the logical part for making those phones work.
So while a UCX system can support all that can be supported on Asterisk, the reverse in not true…Asterisk cannot support the full implementation of Nortel IP phones and a UCX Digital Gateway so even if we were to send you a UCXDGH, it would not function on his Asterisk PBX.
+E- Metrotel hey, thanks for chiming in with that clarification. You answered the comment way better than I could have since I am still learning about your system. Please feel free to comment more as we move forward with additional UCx videos. :-)
Definitely looking forward to seeing more of your videos!
How much was this unit? Will it support the Option 11 phones? I really like the Option 11 phones, and I'd love to be able to lose the huge cabinet in my closet for something small like this, but keep the same phones.
yes, they have a version that supports the PBX phones (option 11, 81, etc.). I don't know if you can mix the meridian phones and norstar phones on the same system or not. I can hook you up with my contacts if you want to know more. send me an email to steve@nortelguy.com or call my office 321-574-2699.
Thanks for the fast response. I would only be using the Option 11 phones, i.e. 2008/2616/3903. Does it support the M3000 Touchphone? I have one of those also. I already contacted a guy I know at Callisto Communications, I'll give him a chance to email me back. I'll shoot you an email anyways, though. Thanks!
+telecomguy10 - You wouldn't be loosing the cabinets though. You'd swap out the CPU, wether its in the PBX or it's on its separate server. Joe the UCX guy on YT also has videos and I think he's a potential sales guy when you check out his blog.
I'm just in envy from an Avaya Red POV, Avaya has also abandoned their legacy roots from the Lucent days. I'm glad I have an old Avaya PBX, but I can't run newer software without those pesky crypto licensees! I'd love to see second lives on first gen 4600s, and Merlin and 7400 sets, rather than scrapped for parts. Or even those MET sets.
~Steven/The Museum of Telephony
+The Nortel Guy From what I've seen from Joe the UCX guy, it is totally true to mix M1 and Norstar sets.
That's awesome! Thanks for contributing.
I have noticed that Duane Reade and Costco used to have nortel phones and now these use cisco phones. I get frustrated when I see those since I like looking at nortel phones and because I know they can upgrade. I am scared that other organizations like marshall's will also do that? Is there anyway I can encourage businesses to get the ucx?
I feel on that Phoneguy. To my mind, the biggest value at of E-metrotel's solution is on large installations. Where upgrading the wiring and replacing all the handsets would be enormous. Here's an example - Bank of NY Melon has thousands of NT meridian phones. Many of which I am sure are running on a single pair. Can you imagine replacing all those handsets with Cisco?
@@thenortelguy The Calgary International Airport did just that back in 2014-2016 when the new international terminal was being built. The airport's large Meridian 1 system (either Option 61C or 81C) which dated back to the 90's and consisted mostly of M2000 series digital sets was completely replaced with a Cisco system and I don't know whether or not they abandoned any of the existing RJ11 jacks and wiring in the old domestic terminal or replaced them with RJ45's but if they were all replaced the cost would've been astronomical. And yes I do get rather irked when I find out about any kind of Nortel equipment getting replaced with Cisco.
Last year my local hospital replaced their Norstar 0x32 system which was installed circa 1998 and consisted of a little over 100 phones (I'm guessing) with an Avaya IP Office with mostly 9500 series digital sets, I guess it wouldn't have been that expensive to replace as the IP Office supports digital sets and the most of not all of the wiring doesn't have to be replaced. I don't mind the IP Office as it's feature rich and I see it's fairly easy to program but I have heard of it's cons such as the expensive licensing and from what I've heard there are several basic settings that require a system reboot in order for any changes to take effect.
So correct me if I'm wrong but while upgrading a Norstar 0x32 system with 100 sets or more (as I mentioned above) to an Avaya IP Office with digital sets (or any other system that still supports digital sets such as NEC, Panasonic etc) may not be as cost effective as upgrading to an E-MetroTel system as you have to replace the Norstar sets (yes I know the IP Office supports the Norstar sets but then they won't work the way they did on the Norstar/BCM), it would be less expensive than upgrading to a Cisco system or any other system that is all about voip because you don't have to replace not only the digital sets with voip sets but all of the wiring as well.