I don’t think there has been a day where I haven’t cursed my TELES ISDN system.
In theory, the specification is perfect for me, working from home and needing two business lines, a fax line and a residential line, all on different numbers, in addition to needing fast internet access.
The system comes as two separate boxes. The iPBX/4TR box connects directly to the ISDN port on your wall, and converts that into four analogue phone lines (two line version also available). Each of these can be assigned a different MSN (Multi Subscriber Numbering). You can do all the things that you could do on the more sophisticated PBX systems in modern offices, including internal calls (ideal for the wife letting me know when dinner’s ready :-), call pickup, call transfer, music on hold and a lot more that I haven’t figured out yet.
The other box connects directly to your second ISDN port in the wall (assuming you have two?), and to the computer via a parallel port. I chose this option rather than an internal card, as I needed it to connect to a laptop. This enables you to connect to the internet at either 56K or 128K when using two channels simultaneously (at the time of writing, few ISPs offer this service. You also ring up twice the phone bill). You can also do direct ISDN file transfers at up to 128K.
So in theory, it sounds like the perfect system. What lets it down is the software.
Ever since installing the TELES software, I have suffered twice daily BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) crashes, and instability in Windows95. Also, about once a week, suddenly all analogue calls going through the PBX become so distorted that the caller cannot hear a word that I am saying. Rebooting the computer (which is only connected to the PBX via the ISDN line) resolves the problem. I even managed to crash one of the systems at my local exchange, taking my line down for two days while BT tried to resolve the problem (I guess it’s difficult to be sure that the TELES caused this, but even so…).
The comes with a suite of software, including an voice answering machine, a fax, and ISDN file transfer software. The answer machine and fax work reasonably well except they must be left running all the time (on the menu bar, not the system tray!) and give a significant resource drain on the machine. I only ever tried to use the file transfer software once, trying to transfer an image to a local printing firm. I failed to get it to talk to the other company’s machine and so instead had to send it on disk.
A word of warning: TELES are releasing new driver versions and new software releases all the time. This usually amounts to about 28Mb of download, which you have to download using ISDN file transfer from their support server (no internet download available). The catch is that their server is in Germany, and on a premium rate phone number. There is no warning of this anywhere, and I only found out after receiving my phone bill with a 50 pounds charge for the call. A representative for TELES said that these premium rate calls are used to subsidise the cost of the software development. I think that the underhand way in which this is charged is disgusting.
Finally, a note about Electronic Frontier, the UK distributors for TELES products. They have been more than helpful to me over these painful experiences, offering telephone support, and a email list for customers. I have always found them polite, knowledgeable and helpful. Unfortunately, they are at the mercy of TELES themselves (a German company), who have yet to find a solution to my problems.
Nice idea, shame about the software.
Never owned
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