What is a VoIP phone? It is the unassuming phone on the edge of your desk, or the one sitting in the conference room. It looks like any other simple office phone, but the infrastructure behind it is not so simple. It is rather complex, and people tend to overlook the truth behind what it takes to maintain campus phones and campus fire alarms and emergency phones.
One of the common misconceptions of VoIP phones is that they are a sort of “plug and play” type device. That is to say that people believe they can simply pull the cord from the wall and move it to another room or location without circumstances. This is not so. Phones are assigned to specific jacks. Each phone has its own number that it is associated with. It is impossible to assign a different number to a set with an already existing number attached to it. When these sets are moved without proper procedure, more problems will present themselves.
If Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI) is not properly informed of this move, it could affect E911 information, billing, and repair services. If it has been moved and has not been reflected in our system, we cannot carry out proper procedures to address the problems that arise.
MSU has always prided itself on the safety and care of its faculty, staff, and students. The phones are an integral part of this and when these phones are disconnected or moved improperly, it creates a gap in our safety net.
A good rule of thumb for troubleshooting VoIP phones is to always reboot the set. Oftentimes a proper reboot can do wonders for correcting the inner workings of the set. Otherwise, submitting a ticket and communicating the problem as precisely as possible helps us to serve you better and correct the problem within a reasonable amount of time.
ITI serves as the middleman between you the client and C-Spire, our network provider. Some specific problems are outside of our sphere of troubleshooting and when these problems arise, we communicate with C-Spire to get them solved. One of these examples is scheduling for holidays. If we are not informed of the holiday schedules in advance, we cannot communicate these new times to C-Spire. It is imperative that communication between the three parties (client, ITI, and C-Spire) is clear, concise, and as prompt as possible.
These are just a few of the many ways that ITI and the VoIP phones are important to the MSU way of life. It is crucial that these communicative networks are kept under the watchful and knowledgeable eye of the Technical Support Specialists and the Field Technicians of the Information Technology Infrastructure group. http://servicedesk.msstate.edu/TDClient/45/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=1658
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