Getting the M7208 to work

Hard to answer because your problem description does not match the part.
Nortel Meridian M7208 Corded Phone is a digital phone which works off a phone system.Also note that the carrier controls the rollover, not the phone or its system.

Once you have more/proper details maybe you can be helped.

Press Feature * 3
press the 5th line key you want to use for paging
enter the page-all code (feature 601-603 as you wish)

try another M7208 phone using the same connection including the same line cord, if that phone works then the first phone is bad, if not then look for trouble at the outlet or line cord

No, the M7208 is a propriatary set which requires the PBX to function, whereas the aastra phone is a stand alone set which requires a standard telephone line and a power source.

There are a few other things you need before it will just work on your phones. You need to get Caller-Id activated by your carrier on each of the 4 lines. You also need to make sure your system has a Trunk card capable of Caller-Id. The card in your systems should be labeled CID.

After this you still need to program the lines for Caller-Id in the configuration section of programming.

Sounds like it might be a telco problem. Do lines 3 ,4 work on the other phones?
Switch lines 1 and 3 to see if the problem changes.

Dear sheryl498,

Your phone is designed for a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) unit like the Compact ICS or the 6x16 TCU that was at the office. It is not compatible with regular POTS lines or standard home lines.

Increase the contrast of display of ur phone it might fix the problem

Reboot the phone system.

Unplug the main control unit.

Your Nortel M7208 phone is plugged into your Norstar phone system (not the phone line) You would not be able to use DSL on the same phone port used by the M7208 phone. A filter connected to that port would not solve a DSL issue and could only cause problems with the M7208 phone. You may need to put the filter on the phone lines before they connect to the Nortel phone system... I don't know which system you have or how it is wired up so I am not sure how easy that would be for you.