Every office on the main campus is equipped with an Avaya telephone. Information about basic phone use is provided below, and there is a diagram attached to this message which explains what all of mysterious buttons are used for. As always, if you have any questions about the phone system, please contact techservices@richland.edu
How do I get an outside line?
Press 8 to get an outside line.
How do people call me from outside of the college?
External individuals should call the college's main number: 217-875-7211 Then, when prompted, they should dial your extension.
How do the speaker / mute / headset buttons work?
The speaker & mute buttons operate in a similar manner; if the button is lit up with a red light, the feature is active (i.e. you are muted when the button is red). We aren’t trendy enough to have Avaya-brand headsets, so that particular button isn’t used for anything.
How do I adjust both the ringer & in-call volume with a single volume up/down button?
The volume control is context-sensitive; pressing it while the phone is ringing will adjust the ringer volume. Pressing it during a call will adjust the in-call handset (or speakerphone) volume.
Is there a way to quickly find someone’s extension?
Press the Contacts button to access your phone’s built-in directory; all of the visible (non-classroom) phone extensions are listed here. You can scroll through the entire list with the up/down buttons. Or, to search for an extension, simply start typing the first name (or room name) using the number pad (e.g. press 2,4,7 to look up Bistro 537, or press 5,6,4 to look up everyone with a first name of “John”)
I’m lost in the onscreen menu. How do I get back to my “home” screen?
Push the Phone button (the one that looks like a telephone) at any time to return to your main screen.
I know that I missed a call, but the caller didn’t leave a message. How can I find out who called me?
Push the Call History button. Every call you have missed, sent, or received, is logged in the history screen. Use the right & left arrow buttons to switch between the different types of calls. You can call an extension back directly by highlighting it in the history menu & pressing the “Call” softkey. This will not work for external numbers (unless you are re-dialing an external number that you have previously called).
What are the softkeys & how do they work?
The softkeys are the 4 gray rectangular keys below the display screen. They allow you to perform different functions when you are on a call, and when you are in the menu system. The softkeys’ purpose will change depending on what you are doing (their purpose is always listed on the bottom line of the display). If you are on a call, they function as transfer, hold, etc., buttons. In voicemail, they allow you to play & delete messages. They have other functions depending on where you are in the phone menu.
What is the deal with the “Line A”, “Line B”, Line C” on my phone display?
Your phone has multiple “phone lines” connected into it. This allows you to do all sorts of nifty things, such as put someone on hold & call someone else, or start a conference call, etc. When you start to make a call, you will normally do so on “Line A”. While you are on the call, someone can still ring your phone on “Line B”. To answer the “Line B” call when you are talking to “Line A’, push the “Hold” softkey & then press the flashing button next to “Line B”. Your “Line A” call will stay on hold until you switch back to them (by pressing the button next to “Line A”), or until the person on the other end hangs up.
How do I transfer a call to someone else?
Press the “Transfer” softkey & dial the other person’s extension. You can wait for the other person to answer the phone (if you want to). Press the “Transfer” softkey a second time to pass the call to the other extension.
I have a button on my display labeled “DND”. What does it do?
It stands for Do Not Disturb (not all phones have this feature). When the green button next to the “DND” is lit up, all of your calls will go straight to voicemail; you will not receive any notification that someone is attempting to call you. Push the green button again to disable this feature.
I have a button on my display labeled “FWD”. What does it do?
It enables & disables forwarding. You can program your phone to forward to another extension if needed (for instance, if you cover a different desk while a staff member takes lunch). Once you forwarding options are set (more on this below), you can push the button next to “FWD” to enable forwarding. Push the green again to disable this feature.
If I know that someone is not at their desk, can I leave a voicemail message without having to wait for their phone to ring 4 times?
Yes. Before dialing their extension, dial the pound (#) key. That will force the call to go directly to voicemail. You can also use this trick to transfer a caller directly to another person’s voicemail.
How can I tell where a call is coming from?
When you receive a call, the CallerID information will always appear at the top of the display. For internal calls, you will see an extension and a name. For external calls, you will see a 10-digit phone number (or whatever data the phone company sends over). If the call is being transferred to you, or the call is coming in on a group number (for example, if someone is calling the main Enrollment Services extension), you will see the original number as well as the call’s current location (something like 8765309>Alice Smith) would indicate that an employee named “Alice Smith” is transferring an external call over to you.
Can I configure a “speed dial” entry on my phone?
Sort of. If you press the Contacts button, there will be a softkey labelled “New”. You can use this feature to add your own contacts into your personal phone directory. These entries will be sorted alphabetically in with the names that already exist in the directory. However, if you enter a zero as the first character of your entries’ name, it will appear on the top of the list. You can use this trick to add any numbers that you commonly dial into the top of your contact directory. If you do add in custom entries, make sure that you put an “8” at the beginning of any external phone number! Without it, the system will think that you are trying to dial an extension!
I came into my office this morning (or my phone just did a strange thing), and now it’s asking me to log in. What do I do?
Occasionally, we need to reboot the phone system (we try really, really hard to not do this during business hours). After the phone system starts up, all of the phones in the building are supposed to automatically “log in” to the central system (it’s part of a feature that is designed for larger companies which we really don’t need). Unfortunately, the phones sometimes get confused and fail to log in properly. If this happens, enter in your 4-digit extension and press OK. Then enter 1234 for your phone’s password and press OK again. The phone should log in & display your normal screen.
There is a button on my phone with a little “A” symbol on it that looks awfully tempting. What is it used for?
That is your configuration menu. You can customize on your phone (different ringers, lighting levels, etc.) and configure user-specific options, such as forwarding. Most of these settings are fairly straightforward; please contact techservices@richland.edu if you have any questions!