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“Through the use of Asentria’s SNMP-Link, we can now remotely survey our entire network, including our security, power and alarm equipment. Their products are seamlessly integrated into our network, and help us avoid expensive labor and installation costs.”
Jim Wemette, Manager of Systems Engineer at Burlington Telecom


TeleManagement Frequently Asked Questions:


 


Note: These are generic questions, which are common to most Asentria products. For more specific information, or if the information here does not resolve your problem, please contact Tech Support at (206) 344-8800 or by email.


What do I do when everything appears to be connected and configured to my buffer box properly, but:

Boot up Problems

1) Unit does not boot up properly - Power LED is flashing once/second
The Power LED flashing once/second is an indicator that the boot up process did not complete properly. Normally, the Power LED should flash once every six or seven seconds. Asentria Tech Support should be contacted immediately.

2) Unit does not boot up properly - 25%, 75%, 100% LEDs are lit
These LEDs being lit indicate that the unit has lost its firmware image for some reason, and is now in “loader mode” meaning it is waiting to have a new firmware image loaded. Asentria Tech Support should be contacted immediately.

3) Unit boots up properly but Alarm LED is flashing
The flashing Alarm LED is an indicator of some event (data or sensor) having gone into an alarm state. Connect to the unit to determine which event it is and take action to take it out of the alarm state.


Data Collection Problems

1) Unit is not collecting call records via serial port
Check each item below and move to the next one whenever the answer is “yes”
a) Is the unit powered on?
a. If not, apply power.
b) Is the cable securely connected to the switch port and the buffer box port?
a. If not, connect securely to the correct port of each device.
c) On the front panel, is the RX LED for the serial port lit?

If not, the DTR signal from the switch is not being received. If the cable is a null modem cable, either add a null modem adaptor or switch to a straight-thru cable. If the cable is a straight-thru cable, either add a null modem adaptor or switch to a null modem cable.

d) If you can communicate with the unit via serial port, modem or telnet, connect to the unit and type BYPASSn from the command line, where n is the number of the serial port into which the records should be coming. Can you see call records on your terminal screen?

If not, disconnect the cable from the buffer box serial port and connect it to a laptop or PC port, open a terminal emulator (HyperTerminal, ProComm, TeraTerm, etc), set the baud rate and parity to match that of the switch port, and verify that records are indeed coming from the switch. If no records are seen, contact your switch manufacturer to determine why the switch is not sending call records.

e) If records are seen on laptop or PC, reconnect the cable to the buffer box serial port and return to your serial, modem or telnet connection. From the command line, type ? or STATUS to display the Status Screen. Look in the column under the serial port that should be collecting the call records. Do the baud rate and parity settings for that port match that of the switch port?

If not, type SETUP, select the Serial Settings option, and navigate the menus to set the correct baud or parity for this port.

f) While in the Serial Settings menu for that port check the “Store Data To” option. Is it set to store data to at least one file in the buffer?

If not, set it to the file that corresponds with the receiving port and check to see if records are now being received.

g) While in the Serial Settings menu, check the “Port Mode” option. Is it set to “Data”?

If not, set it to Data and check to see if records are now being received.

h) Press <enter> until you return to the Main Setup Menu, then select the Alarm/Filter Definitions menu. Look at the setting for Data Filter Action. If there are no filter definitions configured for this unit, is this set to Reject?

If not, change it from Accept to Reject and check to see if records are now being received.

i) Contact Asentria Tech Support for troubleshooting steps to try beyond this point.

2) Unit is not collecting call records via IP
Check each item below and move to the next one whenever the answer is “yes”
a) Is the unit powered on?

If not, apply power.

b) Is the network cable securely connected to the hub or router port and the buffer box Ethernet port?

If not, connect securely to the correct port of each device.

c) If the cable is connected, is the Link Ethernet LED lit?

If not, remove and reinsert the network cable, replace the cable, or verify the port on the hub/router it is connected to is active.

d) Can you communicate with the buffer box via the network from a laptop or PC on the network (either telnet connection or ping)?

If not, make a serial or modem connection to the buffer box, access the Setup menus and confirm that the network configurations (IP address, subnet mask, default router address) are correct.

e) Assuming the network configurations in the buffer box are correct, can you ping the default router or other IP address on the network from the command line of the buffer box?

If not, contact your network admin to help determine why.

f) Select the IP Record Collection setting from the Network Settings menu and look at how the connection to the switch is configured. Is everything in this menu configured correctly?

If not, contact your network or switch admin to determine what the
correct settings should be.

g) From the command line, enter the command IPRC and look at what the response is. (The IPRC command asks the buffer box for the Status of the connection to the IP-enabled switch, and may give some clues as to what is wrong, depending on what type of switch it is). If the response gives you a good indication of what is wrong, proceed to fix it, otherwise contact Asentria Tech Support for further assistance.


3) Unit was collecting call records but is no longer doing so
a) Follow the troubleshooting steps described in Data Collection Problems 1) and 2).
b) If none of those steps resolve the problem, consider “what has changed?” between
now and the last time call records were successfully collected:

a. Has there been a change to the PBX/switch?
b. Has there been a change to the network?
c. Have there been any hardware changes involving either the PBX/switch or buffer box?
d. Has there been a change to configurations in the buffer?

c) If nothing has been changed, contact Asentria Tech Support for troubleshooting steps beyond this point.

4) Call records stored in memory are "garbage"
This is usually due to a mismatch of the baud rate/parity settings on the buffer box, and the PBX/switch.
a) Confirm what the baud rate/parity settings are on the PBX/switch SMDR port.
b) Check the buffer box serial port settings menu to confirm that the baud rate/parity settings match what they are on the PBX/switch. Adjust if necessary and check the incoming records to see if this has corrected the problem.
c) If the baud rate/parity matches, check the Data Type setting for the buffer box serial port to be sure it is set to ASCII.
d) Contact Asentria Tech Support for troubleshooting steps to try beyond this point.


5) Call records have letters between fields instead of spaces
This is usually caused by the Compression setting being set to ON. Compression replaces spaces between fields in a call record with letters that correspond to the number of spaces. For example, one space would be replaced with an “a”, two spaces replaced with a “b”, three spaces replaced with a “c”, and so on.
a) Enter the command COMPRESS OFF to turn off Compression
b) Contact Asentria Tech Support for troubleshooting steps to try beyond this point.


Network Problems

1) Unit does not communicate on the local area network
Check each item below and move to the next one whenever the answer is “yes”
a) When the unit boots up, does the Active Ethernet LED on the front panel light up for a few seconds?

If not, contact Asentria Tech Support

b) Is the network cable securely connected to the hub or router port and the unit’s Ethernet port?

If not, connect it.

c) If the cable is connected, is the Link Ethernet LED lit?

If not, remove and reinsert the network cable, replace the cable, or verify the port on the hub/router it is connected to is active.

d) Assuming the network configurations in the unit are correct, can you ping the default router or other IP address on the network from the command line?

If not, contact your network administrator to help determine why.

e) Contact Asentria Tech Support for troubleshooting steps to try beyond this point.