Category: Voip Service & Solutions

V Switch Schedule does not change Automated Attendant?

Posted on by DrVoIP

This is one of those trouble tickets that keeps an engineer awake at night. A V switch was installed at a remote site to provide Automated Attendant and Voice Mail services for that site.   The V switch was one of three switches at that site and each switch had analog CO lines connected.   For reasons that nobody could explain, the observed behavior was that the AA would not change from On Hours to Off Hours as scheduled. An observed behavior, does not really state the problem!  (read: lesson learned) What we learned is that the AA did in fact actually change per the schedule, but only the lines connected to the two other non V switches received the correct prompt per the schedule.   The CO lines connected to the V switch, (which included the main number and next three lines in hunt, but of course) ,  did not get the correct AA greeting.    Now, as nightmares go, this was about as difficult as they get when you are attempting to distill a problem statement.   As everyone called the main line,  everyone thought the AA was not changing per schedule.   Only by calling lines not terminated on the V switch did the real problem statement emerge.

ShoreTel has now assigned a known defect number to this behavior. “The issue you are experiencing has been addressed in defect 1-34192469.  The defect has been corrected and is pending a patch release.   Once the patch release hits our QA group for testing and validation, we will be able to provide a rough estimate on a release date”.

I could have listened to my mother and finished law school, but no.  I wanted to be a telecom entrepreneur ……

Analog lines in the 21st Century?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Getting old is a pain in the neck!   Literally and figuratively!  I am trying to figure out the benefits of getting older and I am not coming up with a very long list.    You built a library of experience, I guess that must count for something.   There is new generation of telecom professionals that have no idea what a cross bar switch is, but so what.   Nobody is really missing buggy wips either.   In the old “Bell System”  (I have really dated myself now, as google demographics tell me my readers were born post breakup) there was a specific regulation against the interconnection of analog telephone lines on an PBX.  Now part of that restriction was the Bell System being a bunch of anti-competitive jerks, but there were also real technical issues for not doing so.   Analog lines are most useful in man to man communication.   The issue here is the concept of “answer supervision” and “calling or callED party disconnect”.   

When you answer the ringing phone in your house, the answer supervision is actually your ear.   You can “hear” the other party.  yes, there is a line reversal or voltage change but being a two wire loop is nothing like being a trunk line.   For that reason we use trunks to interconnect machines to machines.   Every go to make an outside phone call, and find someone on the line?   Great example of “glare” the concept of a call ringing in just as you where grabbing it to make an outside call.   Analog lines are good for key systems with winking and blinking line keys that show everyone who is on what line, but they are a real annoyance on a PBX system.

Answer supervision is poor if it exists at all and glare can be a real issue.   Throw a couple of Centrex lines in the mix and you will get some real extra fun features.  Nothing like having analog lines connected to your PBX that have feature treatments you did not know about.   It is always phone when the phone companies VM picks up before your ShoreTel VM system does!  As a rule you might like to have one analog line at a site for 911 and power failure, but the idea of running a ShoreTel PBX with a rack full of analog lines, actually makes me ill.   Judas Grunt,  it is the 21st century already!   Can you spell SIP?

ShoreTel does a reasonably good job with analog lines given the real disadvantage they have in the area of answer supervision, etc.   ShoreTel actually goes off hook on these lines at timed intervals.  If it does not “hear” dial tone, it marks the line out of service.  If you are really cleaver, there is a trick to recording the sound made when the line goes “off-hook” so you can retrieve the wav file and play it back locally.  A great life saver when you are in Portland and your trouble shooting a local loop in a remote site, just outside Minute, ND and nobody is in the office.

It amazes me that we still have analog lines on PBX systems, but as long as we do, we might as well learn how to deal with them.

Does the ShoreTel Server Stream Media at G711?

Posted on by DrVoIP

You have dutifully enable Differential Service Control Points on you WAN network, to enable EF for voice traffic!  This is the minimum daily adult requirement for QOS on a WAN connection.   Prior to Version 9+ ShoreTel did not mark all traffic with a DSCP value, only media traffic between end points.   If you think this through, what happens to the media stream played out by the ShoreTel server during Automated Attendant of Voice Mail use?  Would this media stream across the WAN using the inter-site codec setting, typically a G.729 vocoder?  Or would it stream at G.711?   Given that there is no DSCP value on this media stream, that might be a QOS problem across a WAN connection.   Would it be possible to set up a  MATC H for the source IP address of the ShoreTel Server and through these IP packets into the EF queue?

To improve this situation, ShoreTel enabled “media proxy” on the Fuji or full size 19” switches that have been shipping prior to Version 7.    In this configuration, if a caller across the WAN reached an extension at another site, and that extension RNA forwarded to the VM system, the media stream would be have different end points.  At first you would think that the media stream would be between the originating extension and the Voice Mail server, but it is not.  It is in fact, between the originating extension and a switch at the HQ site (one of the reasons you always need a switch at the HQ site).  A switch at the HQ site would then proxy the media stream to the VM server, transcoding G.711 and G.729 to assure the correct vocoder across the WAN.   In this way the, the source IP address of the server is irrelavent for QOS purposes!

Now with the introduction of the ½ size switches, this is no longer the case.  Apparently with the release of 7+ the server is capable of streaming G.729.   So we need to be aware that an installation using the new switches, will no longer proxy for the VM media stream.    Additionally, there is a requirement that you set the number of media streams that can be transcoded at any one time.   This setting is in the registry of the ShoreTel Server and should look something like this:

Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Shoreline Teleworks\TDIMedia

Key: MaxNoOfG729Channels

Type: DWORD

Default Value: 40

This setting is suppose to be enabled on versions 7+, but if you are upgrading you may have to create and set it manually.    Clearly, optimizing your WAN for QOS is an essential element of providing toll quality voice on any VoIP solution.   Knowing what is class marked with DSCP and what is not, is an important element of achieving the desired result.   Check this issue carefully!

Memorial Day and ShoreTel Holiday Greetings Schedules!

Posted on by DrVoIP

It happens every year, every holiday at exactly the same time.  Usually, at 4PM the day before the “holiday” that everyone know was coming, your entire client base calls to ask you how to change the Automated Attendant for a holiday greeting!  One of the features that every ShoreTel System Administrator truly appreciates is a fully automagic Automated Attendant! The means it knows when it is a holiday and it changes the greeting automatically!  ShoreTel does a really great job with this feature. You can set up your entire holiday schedule for the year and then forget about it. Each Automated Attendant can have a schedule applied to it that can even include Custom or half days.  You can record a generic holiday greeting:  “You have reached at a time when we are close for the holiday”, which saves you the effort of having to record a special greeting for each holiday, but the schedule can automate the entire process and save your service organization a lot of time repeating the programming instructions!  In fact, we have recorded the instructions we have given them so often.  We have an automated holiday greeting that says “press 1 if you are calling to learn how to change your holiday greeting”!

Have a great Memorial Day holiday and remember that this is weekend is not all about life at the beach.   Memorial day is the day we honor those who did not come home;  those who gave their life in the service of their country so that we could enjoy the tremendous benefits of living in America.

ShoreTel holiday schedule

Deploying the ShoreTel Personal Call Manager through AD Group Policy!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Installing a ShoreTel IPBX solution is a process not an event. I have previously published a book entitled “VoIP System Planning Guide” that can be download from the DrVoIP site. This guide covers the basics for planning and managing a VoIP deployment in general and a ShoreTel solution in particular. The “devil is in the details” however and though the process can be understood, the individual tasks required to complete the process generally prove there is no substitute for hands on experience!

Every installation technician comes to that fork in the road that deals with the deployment of the ShoreTel Personal Call Manager software. Deploying the actual telephone instruments is a pure act of labor, but the Personal Call Manager is an act of commitment! Each desktop in the installation will need to be touched by someone, and I do not consider an installation complete until the Call Managers are deployed and operational. There is a component of this effort that involves interVLAN routing, (e.g. getting from the desktop data network to the phone server), but I am now focused exclusively on the actual installation of the PCM software.

There are three strategies that are generally employed to accomplish this. The first strategy is obviously to visit each desktop with a DVD or Thumb drive and load the software! For the installer this is very labor intensive and requires that the install have administrative desktop privileges or maybe even domain privileges. The second option, is to push the software out to the desktops through and email link set from the ShoreTel Director portal to each ShoreTel user. This is a bit less labor intensive, but it still requires the desktop users to have administrative installation rights to their own desktop computers. Most large IT environments do not grant this privilege to plain vanilla users!

The third option, however, has the most promise as being both labor economical while maintaining network security. We can create and Active Directory Group Policy to push the PCM out to the user and have it installed without user involvement. To do this you will need to create a few objects, modify the organization unit containing the computers and users that will be effected by the new group policy. (Refer to Microsoft Knowledge base article 816102). First you create a Distribution point; the create a Group Policy Object, assign a package and then publish your installation package. This strategy is the preferred implementation practice for deployments of any scale and installation technicians should become familiar with the basics of implementing this solution. We will publish a video on both the blog and the DrVoIP site that will demonstrate this solution.

Live Answer or Autoamted Attendant?

Posted on by DrVoIP

The genius mathematician and founder of the area we know as Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener coined the phrase “the human use of human beings”. Writing post WW2, his frame of reference was societies growing concern with automation. The concept should now be understood as “using computers to free humans for more productive work”. So when we encounter an automated attendant or “robot receptionist”, we should remember that the repetitive work of greeting, screening, routing, message retrieval and message acquisition are sometimes best done by a machine. We are often asked when setting up a new phone system if we should use “live operator’ or an “automated attendant”. It has been my experience that quality call handling is best done by a human and I would go with live answer. There is a trade off however and here is how you might manage that trade off.

It is generally recognized, unfortunately, that seven out of ten phone calls to our place of business are not clients! They are friends, family, vendors and generally people who know exactly who they want to speak with. If we could free up our human receptionist to answer client calls, the thinking is that we might make both a more efficient call processing mode and at the same time make a much better “first impression”. For this reason, we encourage clients to setup up a “side door” that is always answered by an Automated Attendant. Publish a phone number to “insiders” that routes them through the automated attendant. Publish the company’s main number only to clients. Hopefully this will free the human receptionist to give quality call handling to the most important callers, your clients as that person is now free of the other 7 out of 10 calls.

Trends – Part 3 The Growth of WiMax

Posted on by DrVoIP

The key word in wireless is “mobility”. Broadband wire line, WiFi, WiMax and even dial-up are technology enablers that provide a solutions for the increasing need to be “connected”. There are issues with each one: broadband service can be expensive, depending on the provider, and it certainly isn’t available in many rural areas; WiFi has very limited range, again limiting coverage, and dial-up is simply slow and can’t come close to meeting requirements for today’s applications. WiMax has gone through a number of changes and with the introduction of WiMax 4G promises to be a viable solution for PBX connectivity independent of location. Ultimately, a network of connected WiMAX towers will drive the deployment of an 802.20-based Global Area Network (GAN), closely resembling cellular networks, but with far fewer towers required to provide the same coverage. This will allow true ubiquitous access across the country or region, providing bandwidth comparable to cable Internet service, at the very least.

The concept of “fixed mobile convergence” moves form concept to reality with WiMax. The ability to move freely from your office PBX extension to your cellular phone number, completely transparently and seamlessly brings the “mobility” functionality into high relief. Companies like ShoreTel already have location based services that enable a PBX telephone extension user to have calls manipulated based on location. Simply stated, when I am in the office my cell phone is a PBX extension, when I am out of the office my PBX extension is a cell phone number. This is completely transparent and requires no change in the users call handling methods. The network sorts it all out for your you.

In today’s market, dual mode phones are already available. I my self use an Apple IPhone (seach “ShoreTel iPhone” on YouTube.com) for video presentation which is a dual mode phone. In the office the iPhone links automatically with our in-house network using an 802.11g WAP. I can retrieve my email, for example, through the wireless access point. When I am outside the office, I can sync with my email using the AT&T cellular network. In the office I have a SIP softphone running on my iPhone and it becomes my PBX extension. When leaving the office, using the ShoreTel “office anywhere” functionality, my iPhone cellular number becomes my PBX extension. This technology will mature with the growing acceptance and availability of WiFI in general and WiMax in particular. As a result, PBX applications will become hardware independent and provide feature functionality that is geographically and device independent.

Trends – Part 2 the impact of SIP

Posted on by DrVoIP

Lets take a look at the impact of SIP – Aide from the pure technology play, SIP represents a fundamental change in the economics of the telecommunications market. The carriage of telecommunications has been in transition with a steady migration for distance sensitive to usage sensitive pricing. Historically there where three components of the cost of a telephone call: origination, interexchange (e.g. Inter-LATA) and termination. The US telecommunications market has been moving toward a consolidation of service providers. Local Exchange Carriers (LEC) and competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) is becoming as consolidated and the Inter-Exchange (IXC) carriers. Where do we draw the line on Enhanced Service Providers?

Generally, throughout the rest of the planet, telecommunications services are still owned and operated by government monopolies. Rural telecommunications for much of the planet is predicated on the payment of termination fees. If your favorite telephone company wants to interconnect with your parents in another country, they must pay a termination fee to the phone company in that country. This is not unlike the model of a US based LEC paying the IXC who paid a fee to terminate your phone call in another LEC. A complex price model and tariff structure exists even with the current “bucket of minutes” concepts borrowed from the wireless carriers.

At issue here is the impact of SIP phone calls made through the internet, both public and private. With the growing acceptance of SIP trunking and the development of E164, internet alternative carriage is also pressuring the move from TDM to VoIP. The Electronic Numbering Mapping System (ENUM) provides users with, what marketing people would call “experiential compatibility”. Being able to dial a phone numbers in the manner that users have become comfortable is absolutely essential to the success of the migration to and the adoption of VoIP solutions. SIP and ENUM work together to accomplish this.

The impact on the economics of telephony services is dramatic, both at the infrastructure level and and at the usage level. The cost of building packet switch networks, like the cost of build out wireless networks requires significantly less capital investment. The cost to the users will certainly not be distance based; but access and bandwidth based. SIP also provides for the increased use of multimedia communications solutions, also a bandwidth intensive application.

Trends in the PBX equipment market – Part 1

Posted on by DrVoIP

From time to time a new technology comes along that causes a dramatic paradigm shift with significant economic impact. As it relates to the customer premise telecommunications world, there are a number of trends that have the potential of dramatically altering the telecom equipment market place.   Many industry executives have witnessed the switching equipment transition from electro-mechanical technology to solid state and stored program control switching. Clearly the migration from circuit switch to packet switched technology is reaching Tsunami proportions.  So what happens next?  There are three trends coming into high relief on the technology adoption radar screen  that will have significant impact on the telecommunications marketplace, the economics of the marketplace and ultimately define the employment requirements in that market place.  I would summarize and simplify these trends as the commoditization of PBX hardware; the increased acceptance of SIP and the explosion of high speed wireless technology.  The next few blogs will briefly examine each of these trends at the 100,000 foot level.

This blog will take a look at the commoditization of PBX hardware.  Unlike circuit switched technology, packet switched communications demands that the enormous economic investment necessary to the creation of high speed digital signal processing and the supporting semi-conductor technology be rewarded with high volume production.  Production is a factor of demand and to increase demand, prices must be continually reduced.  This reduction in price is achieved in large part by the adoption of the core technology by a wider base of equipment designers.   This is an economic over simplification for purposes of blogging, but  you do not need an MBA in economics to understand why the  Apple Mac is now built on Intel chip technology.   Nor do you need an MBA in marketing to understand the challenge of trying to convince an increasingly savvy consumer market that your brand of laptop is better than the other guys laptop brand!

As goes the PC hardware market, so goes the media gateway market.  Demand for gateway interoperability will make it increasingly more difficult to differentiate one box of DSP’s from another.   For this reason telephone system manufactures will have to make a fundamental decision:  are we in the the hardware business or are we in the software business?  Are we planning to become the low cost, high performance provider of the VoIP building blocks?  Or are we focusing on the applications (read software) that drive the need for building blocks?   It is my assertion that you can not do both and be successful.   A free market place will demand that “PBX” hardware be separated from “PBX” software.   

Consequently, the skill sets of VARs will be tested yet again.   With the transition form TDM to VoIP, traditional PBX vendors had to develop network engineering expertise.  In the near future, before many VARS have made this first transition, they will be asked to make yet another transition.  Application level software integration expertise will become the underlying skill set demanded of the more successful VAR.   So are you in the business of who can sell a ShoreTel SGT1 cheaper than CDW? Or are you in the business of executing the delivery of underlying technology and application solutions?  Both the supply chain and the distribution channel will once again be redefined and that only question remaining is: just how fast will this transition occur?

   

ShoreTel Star Codes!

Posted on by DrVoIP

starcodes

Though I know we have readers out there who have never seen a rotary dial telephone (or a 33 RPM record), many readers will be familiar with “star codes”. Star Codes have been generally well known to most phone users since the inception of DTMF dialing. Who has not done the old *82 to block caller ID? In the ShoreTel system, basically, every feature has a star code making it possible to use a simple single line telephone set to do advanced features. If you do not have a list of these codes, send support@drvoip.com a request and we will send them right along. The characteristic of star codes that has me excited is how ShoreTel uses start codes with its “office anywhere” functionality. Many systems have the ability to forward a call to your cell phone (pun intended), but generally, the call dead ends there in your hand. How wonderful it would be to be on your cell phone and be able to transfer the caller to another team mate BACK IN THE OFFICE PBX! ShoreTel has a number of start codes that enable you to do jus that. In fact, **+Extension number+## will do just that! There are also star codes for conference e, hold, and access to the other star codes we talked about earlier. Now that it some powerful call processing, would you not agree?