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Using a point‑of‑sale machine with VoIP

A point of sale (POS) machine was originally used to electronically process credit cards, debit cards, and check transactions. Its use has evolved to also support gift cards, age verification, and employee time clocks. POS machines can either be wireline or wireless.

When you use a POS machine with VoIP, you may occasionally run into problems. A POS machine may fail to connect or may not find a valid number to complete a transaction. Here are some things you can check to help ensure that your POS machine works correctly with VoIP.

To troubleshoot a point-of-sale machine with VoIP:

Turn off V.90 or V.92 protocols and set speeds that run over 33.6Kbps.
Make sure that the vendor has preprogrammed your POS machine’s dialing pool to include:
- 10-digit phone numbers or to include a # after a dialing string. (Some devices are preprogrammed to dial only 7-digit numbers, so 10-digit numbers may fail.)
- Active phone numbers. (To help ensure a successful connection, remove the old phone numbers from the dialing pool.)
Other factors that may prevent a POS machine from completing a transaction include:
- The quality of service for the underlying carrier’s network (and their underlying carriers).
- Most of the POS devices dial 8XX numbers to avoid long-distances charges. The toll-free numbers are prone to the same potential issues as dialing as other numbers.