What do you do when your phones aren’t working?

Here’s a potential scenario:

You arrive at the office Monday morning, grab a cup of coffee, and discover the phones aren’t working.

So what do you do… besides freak out?

Your first thought may be that your phone system is down, and you need to contact IDeACOM.

Contacting IDeACOM Support is not a bad idea.

But…

I’d like to point out a few things you can try first.

After all, with cloud based phones, your phone system is always online.

However, it’s your access to your cloud system that may be impacted or compromised.

And that’s where this post will help you get to the bottom of it!

For starters, do you have Internet access on your computer? Remember, your phones require good quality Internet service to function properly.

If you discover that the Internet is not working, do the following:

• Reboot your broadband equipment to see if that clears the issue.
• Contact your Internet service provider to report the outage. And be sure to have your account number handy.

If the Internet is working, here are a few other things you can do or check:

• If it’s isolated to one phone, reboot the phone. Rebooting power solves a lot of problems.
• Check for a power issue at the phone or in the IT rack. You should see blinking lights in the rack.
• Notify your internal IT team or outside vendor. They can check your firewall and network switches to determine if they are at fault.
• Does anyone work remote? Contact them to check status of their phone.
• If all else fails, log into your mobile app until the situation is resolved. But you may need to disable Wi-Fi on your cell phone if your Internet or network equipment are causing the issue.
• And this one sounds obvious but check the power cord connections, which may be a power strip or battery backup unit – to make sure they are firmly plugged in.

I know, this last one sounds stupid. But we’ve seen it happen on a few very rare occasions.

And finally, if all else fails, report the issue to IDeACOM.

Often times, the problem is transitory and can be quickly and easily resolved.

But sometimes it’s completely out of anyone’s control. As evidenced by the occasional regional or widespread outages – most recently with Verizon and AT&T. These issues can wreak havoc, especially when it involves an underlying backbone provider.

Today’s technology is incredibly versatile and resilient, but not bullet-proof.

IDeACOM is always here to assist and we hope this post empowers you to take action when you need to, while helping to remove any fear, uncertainty, and doubt when you’re facing a challenge.