[VoIP] The Mighty Comdial

[John Novack]

My few and far between experiences with Comdial do not match yours.
I found the earlier ones awful to program, and only ever installed 3 
Comdial systems after the 1A2 days. I used the S-C then Comdial 1A2 sets 
with the ITT 601 version of the shoebox, and except for the power supply 
blowing its top on power surges and such in construction trailers, had 
few problems. I soon went to E-Key style systems for their ease of 
installations. ( 2 pair instead of 25 pair )
The Comdial systems I did install were JUNK The Executech 2000 with 67xx 
series phones was an embarrassment to me, and though I didn't change 
that one out due to my inability to eat the cost, I never installed 
another one. Very poor audio quality, mostly due to the 67xx series 
phones. AFAIK that system is still in and working though, so from a 
reliability standpoint it was certainly fine.
The last one I did was their DX-80. THe only good thing about it was the 
in skin voice mail with Keyvoice DOS based software. The phones were 
junk made in Bangladesh? and the KSU required a modular plug for each 
station, 8 per card! Never again.
Comdial bought Keyvoice some years ago for their Voicemail system, and 
almost immediately after moved to Sarasota and installed the Keyvoice 
CEO as their CEO.
Comdial is now part of Vertical, who also bought Vodavi.
My quip at that event was " now all the awful Key system manufacturers 
are under one name"
I long ago switched to TIE/Nitsuko/NEC with stellar results. 
Unfortunately the later NEC in skin voice mail systems  were not written 
by Keyvoice. Though they work well they are harder to configure and use 
by the customer.

End of Comdial rant.

John Novack


Greg Blakely wrote:
> Well, I'm impressed.
>
>  
>
> About 12 years ago, I installed a Comdial Impact key system in my house.  It
> was cutting edge at the time; it had caller ID, and it ran on a single pair
> of wires.  (My old Comdial Key system used two pairs:  one for voice, and
> one for data)
>
>  
>
> This past weekend, my son came bounding up the stairs to tell me that things
> were flooding in the basement.  After running down there, I saw that the
> pipe that went to the outside faucet was spraying water all over the furnace
> room - spraying right into my Comdial key system, as well as an Ethernet
> switch, and all the "valuable" stuff we had in boxes along the walls.
>
>  
>
> I yanked the power cord into the electronics, hoping against hope that I'd
> gotten there in time to avoid permanent damage.
>
>  
>
> I've replaced my share of Mitel SX20 or SX100 consoles because a careless
> desk clerk spilled coffee or pop into them.  Opening them up, there was
> always a green trace of oxidized copper following along the route of the
> spilled liquid.  And I was able to salvage darn few of them.
>
>  
>
> Back to this past weekend.  After four hours of a fan blowing into the KSU,
> I powered it up, and was dismayed to see every one of my key sets displaying
> the message "No Communication."  I unplugged it again, and left the fan
> going over night.  I was astonished to see that, in the morning, every phone
> except one was fully functional, and, by noon, there was nothing at all that
> wasn't functioning.
>
>  
>
> So, 12 years old.  Is this descendant of the Stromberg Carlson telephone a
> "legacy" system yet?  Maybe not, but, as well as it has performed in a
> pinch, I have no doubt that it will one day pass whatever line exists that
> we use to designate a phone or phone system as a piece of history.
>
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