Pitney Bowes Postage Machine & Vonage

Posts: 249

Uh-Oh,

I am in the midst of porting my copper line to Vonage. I happened to think of my Pitney Bowes Mailstation K-700 this morning. It needs to talk to it's mama to update postage and ect. I just tried plugging the phone line into Vonage. It will not connect and gives an error signal. Thumbing through the manual it says that it must have an analog connection.

Any ideas other then stringing a phone line to my neighbors?

Thanks,

Posts: 423 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 423

If you were calling me, I would troubleshoot this as any fax/modem/tivo issue. keep codec set to high, try smaller packet size, possibly adjust jitter levels, DSL filter on the phone line, new shiny phone cords, etc...

Posts: 249 · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:35 pm Post subject: Thanks Cold Gin

ColdGin wrote:

If you were calling me, I would troubleshoot this as any fax/modem/tivo issue. keep codec set to high, try smaller packet size, possibly adjust jitter levels, DSL filter on the phone line, new shiny phone cords, etc...

Thanks for the advice Cold Gin!

I do hesitate though... I have had Vonage over 12 months with no problems at all! Everything worked right out of the box. I hate fixing anything that ain't broke. I have had some past experience that makes me cautious.

The machine came with a "pregnant Guppy" on one end of the phone cord. I think I will speak to PB before changing anything. There is nothing I can adjust on the machine. Even the number that it calls is built in. I did learn from the manual that it only needs to call home once a month or when adding postage.

I had absolutely forgotten about it being on the telephone line because it does not require you co consiously call in. The whole machine was designed by a genius to be operated by an idiot and I appear to qualify. Sure wish it ran on superheated steam.

Posts: 60 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 60

if your calling PB, make sure to ask them what speed it transmits at. The max for Vonage is 14.4, although things are much more reliable at 9600.

Posts: 249 · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:55 pm Post subject: Pitney Bowes Reply

I contacted PB via e-mail and received this reply:

Quote:

Thank you for your inquiry. There are a few things that need to be done if trying to connect to a high speed internet connection. First off you need to get a filter from Vonage to connect to the phone line. If this is not done, it may damage your meter. The second thing that needs to be done is when the message comes up “need number to reach an outside line,” you would need to put in *99. If this didn’t work there is one more number you can input instead of the *99, #777 can be put in. In order to get the * or # symbol, you need to push the 1 key repeatedly until you see the correct symbol. If the meter does not get a connection this way, the meter would need to be taken home to try to connect to a non-digital, non-rollover type of line.

Some of it makes sense to me. Some seems off base. Obviously I don't have to take it home. That's where I am. There is no outside number to dial.

I don't think Vonage supply's any filters. What kind of filter would she be talking about here? I can find no way to change the number that the machine dials. When I turn it loose all I get is a message that the phone connection has been dropped.

I will try to call PB for assistance soon but would like to have a better idea of what their talking about, especially this filter thing before I talk to them.
Thanks for the help gents,

Posts: 109 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 109

the filter they are refering the filter you put on all your phones if you have dsl... (i read that some hook the filter up backwards and have better success... i don't know because i've never had dsl

the *99 outside line is just tells Vonage to use full bandwith for this call.

and you are in effect dialing

*99,1-888-???-????

Posts: 249 · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:47 am Post subject: Postage Meter problems

Dang,

This is getting to be a serious problem now as my number was ported over over a week ago. Qwest is no more.

I had to haul my meter over to a neighbors house yesterday for it to get it's "Fix" from PB. That got a good laugh at my expense Embarassed

PB isn't much help. and I still have 6 months on the lease. Has anyone out there had any experience in making these things work on Vonage??

Posts: 249 · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 4:37 pm Post subject: Done & Did!

Between me and a PB CS rep we got it working. Basically you must change the prefix to *99 then remove local access number then remove the "1" from the postage access number. Sounds easy except it requires a lot of scrolling and changing to accomplish.

If you need to change the PB machine to Vonage best to call PB as each model is different to operate. They were quite helpful at 800-468-8454.