Category: Voip Service & Solutions

ShoreTel Tools for Checking remote dial tone?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Sometimes there is nothing like a telephone lines mans test set to hear exactly what is going on! VoIP solutions have a double challenge: First it is hard to put a butt set on an IP connection; and secondly what happens when that connection hits a gateway at a remote site? This is always a fun situation. ShoreTel has a “trunk test tool” that has some usability. You can actually bring up the test tool, and right click a particular telephone line and place a call. If you are really in the fast reader group, you can set the test tool options to point the call at your own remote handset. In this way, you are sitting in NY, dialing out on a SF analog telephone line.

ShoreTel has another debug tool that is very useful for “hearing” what is happening on a remote analog telephone line at a site that you just cant get a handle on. You can literally telnet into the switch and setup up a recording session and capture the analog line sounds to a file back at your location. This will enable you to listen to the error message or lack of dial tone, locally enabling you to make the right decision about how to handle the trouble ticket.

The audio output of the analog trunk port is saved on the HQ or DVM server that controls the switch. To do this, follow this procedure:

From the start menu, navigate to the Control Panel> Administrative Tools and locate the IIS Manager;
Right-click on the IIS manager and select Properties. Then enable the ability to write to the FTP server by selecting the Write checkbox and clicking OK. This enable the ability to write to: C:\Inetpub\ftproot
At the command prompt, run the following VXWorks commands: Record2File2 (1, 60, “test” ) Audio data from running this command is stored in the file test_rx.pcm and file test_tx.pcm in the C:\Inetpub\ftp which will be stored as 8000Hz 16bit, Mono and can be listed to using a standard audio application.

Give this a shot the next time you are trying to “hear” if an analog line out at some remote location has any dial tone!

Least Cost Routing?

Posted on by DrVoIP

At one point in the evolution of telecommunications features, least cost routing was so sophisticated a function that it required an external processor. In the early 80’s when most large multi site telephone system installations were based on point to point, private T1 tie-lines the need for cost effective routing between sites was in such demand that a stand alone company of scale was formed to meet that need. In San Antonio Texas, a company still in existence today but with a much different agenda was formed to bring the Infoswitch Share family of products to market. These systems consisted of a rack mounted shelves of T1 telephone interfaces, that communicated with a centralized computer over a proprietary data link.

Most intersite dial tone was provided based on human selection. You might dial 81 for the tie line to New York; or 82 for the tie line to the Chicago office. Once at the other site you would then dial access the telephone lines connected to the pbx at that remote site. The decision making as to what facility to access was left entirely to the user and whatever printed instructions might be made available Scotch taped to the side of the phone. The Infoswitch Share family changed all of that! Infoswitch would accept interfacees from the systems at remote sites and using a stored program that reflected the various rate centers reachable by each end point; or the WATTS lines that might be available at a particular facility, it would route user requests for service.

VoIP solutions generally available today have to address the same circumstances. A primary driver of VoIP solutions is that they seamlessly integrate geographically dispersed workgroups into a single image phone system. The central “soft switch” has an intimate understanding of the PSTN facilities at each end point. Trunk groups are created with dialing definitions that enable the entire system to facilitate least cost routing at a level of accuracy that has become increasingly more complex as we add new exchange codes. Back in the days of the Infoswitch, all area codes had either a 1 or a 0 in the second digit, making area code recognition a breeze. Today we not only have to figure out what is an area code, we have to figure out what can be dialed as a local call and what is a long distance call. Long distance also has a new litany definitions as terms like “local long distance” creep in our vocabulary.

ShoreTel has a reasonable least cost routing facility. You have the ability to create trunk groups and assign dialing rules to those trunk groups. In an area like San Diego we have four area codes (see previous post) that might at one time or another be consider either a local or a long distance call. Lets consider an installation in which we have two site. One site in the 619 area code and the other site in the 858 area code. Both sites have PRI lines to the phone company. One of the benefits of having a multiple site system is that if one PRI goes off line, the system should be able to re-route calls through the other site. In this example, we have a couple of interesting warts to deal with. Lets assume the 858 PRI goes down. A caller at that site, picking up a handset and dialing any area code and number other than 858 will have no problem, the call will go out the 619 PRI. At that same site, had they dialed a 7 digit local number, the system would not allow the call without some advanced dialing rule programming. The reason for this is that the ShoreTel will consider the 858 a “cost promotion” if it was to go out the 619 PRI and this is not normally allowed.

There are ways around this, a custom dialing rule access can be enabled on the ShoreTel trunk group. We can create trunk group preferences and to some extent we can generate new dialing patterns. As the national dialing plan moves closer to a 10 digit rule for all phone calls, the subject of least cost routing and programming will continue to be an area that requires considerable planning, design, implementation and testing. When you through SIP trunks into the mix, complete with remote area code origination, the possibilities become endless.  Stay tuned and keep your hands and feet in the car at all times!

How to get your iPhone running SIP on your ShoreTel IPBX!

Posted on by DrVoIP

If you are and iPhone aficionado, you absolutely want your iPhone to work  on your ShoreTel IPBX! I recently downloaded VeNetCorps SipPhone fromt the iPhone App store! There are several SIP phone apps at the store, but most have a pre-programmed domain name for the sip registration proxy server. If you want to use your own SIP proxy there was no easy way to change the IP address so you had to hack your DNS to get it to point to the ShoreTel SIP proxy. Also you need at least iPhone firmware 2.2 as previous versions had WiFi connectivity challenges that negatively impacted the potential for using a SIP softphone. After the iPhone WiFi acquired an IP address, if you attempted to ping the address you would see latency in excess of 300ms. With version 2.2 this issue has all but become unnoticeable. As with any SIP extension setup on ShoreTel, you need to assign sip extension proxy resources on a ShoreGear switch. In the sites section of the ShoreWare Director, make sure you assign a virtual IP address. This is the address you will use for your “domain’ when you setup the Iphone SipPhone. Clearly you will need a User setup with a SIP phone password defined in the individual user section of the ShoreWare Director.

Clearly the assumption here is that you have a WAP that your iPhone can connect to. Also that that wireless connection can route to your ShoreTel network! Once the ShoreTel SIP user, virtual IP address and proxy resources are configured it is time to configure your iPhone SipPhone! After you down load the application and tap to activate the application you will get a screen that lists the options: Dialer, Recent, Contacts, Accounts and Settings. Hit the Accounts tab and you will then EDIT a new SIP account. To get this app to work on ShoreTel you need to enter only three values. First you need to enter the domain name, we have previously defined in the ShoreTel Director as the Virtual IP address. The Username and password are also as specified in the individual user setup in ShoreTel. Hit the DONE tab, and the phone should register and you can make and receive calls from your ShoreTel. I put together a video clip that covers this so you can see that it accutaly works! The video suggests that you enter the user name, but if you want to call the iPhone from a ShoreTel extension, enter the user’s extension number instead.  This was just a fun project and latency on the iPhone WiFi is still a challenge for SIP phone usage.  I suspect that Version 3.0 of the iPhone will fix this small issue, but it was a blast trying it out!  Enjoy!


Add your iPhone as a ShoreTel SIP extension!

Add ShoreTel Extension Lists to your Automated Attendant

Posted on by DrVoIP

Extension Lists are a unique solution for a variety of challenges in the Call Flow War! Does your Automated Attendant have a “spell by name” directory? Does the CEO want to be listed in the spell by name directory? In ShoreTel it is easy enough to disable a name from appearing in the directory, but what about that nasty ability to take action on the famous “if you know your parties four digit extension number, dial it at any time during this greeting….”. Think about it, anybody can bounce around the company telephone system after they hear that announcement! Sooner or later they may even find the CEO! So what is to be done about this possibility? In ShoreTel, you can create Extension Lists.These lists can be used for setting up paging groups, but they can also be used in the Automated Attendant.When setting up the Automated Attendant you have a drop down list of each of the digits and the ability to define what should happen when someone pushes that digit(i.e. send to a menu, transfer to an extension, take a message).There is a special entry list that includes what to do if the caller “Time Out”; or “invalid entry” or hits “multiple digits”.Typically, this last option: “multiple digits”, is set through the drop down menu to “Transfer to Extension” echoing the digits the caller entered.If look at the right of that drop down list, similar to the other menu items, you can click and select an Extension List!How wonderful!You can actually create a list of extensions that the caller can dial and limit the digits that the Automated Attendant accepts to only the extensions on that list!This assures that the caller will not accidentally hit the extension that activates the overhead paging system or ring the CEO’s office!

ShoreTel AA drop down list!

Admission Bandwidth Control?

Posted on by DrVoIP

In a VoIP environment the WAN circuit is generally engineered to handle X phone calls of a specific codec. For example you might plan out a circuit that supports 10 simultaneous phone calls across the WAN between sites. You select the G711 codec and plan each phone call at 82KPS per call. This would require that there be a minimum of 820KB of bandwidth available or approximately 55% of a full T span. Given that the WAN connection also supports data applications, we want to assure that Voice does not take all available bandwidth! Interestingly when people complain about the bad quality of a VoIP call, it is generally the result of exceeding a bandwidth limitation, If you engineered the circuit for 10 calls, when the 11th call is placed, not just that phone call is trashed, but all 11 phone calls are destroyed! For this reason VoIP systems in general and ShoreTel in particular have strategies for limiting the number of calls across the WAN. In ShoreTel there is a parameter entitled “Admission Control Bandwidth” located in the Sites definition in the ShorewareDirector administrative web portal. This parameter assures that a call will not be set up between this site and another site, if that phone call would exceed the bandwidth setting. This generally eliminates the 11th phone call on a circuit designed for 10 simultaneous phone calls! ShoreTel switches or media gateways, know about the bandwidth they would consume when setting up a phone call and can take action based on this ACB parameter. We need to apply solid WAN engineering practices to the circuit planning however, as the ShoreTel switches will not know if that bandwidth is actually available! So it is possible that the ABC parameter will allow a call to be setup, but bandwidth may not actually be available as other data applications might be consuming more than planned bandwidth at that point in time. For this reason, we need to prioritize voice and data with queuing strategies in our WAN routers, the subject of yet another blog!

Is the Economy good for VoIP?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Has the economy hit VoIP? My thinking is that it has and in a very positive way for both integrators and voip service providers. Throughout my career I have always been amazed at the number of traditional key telephone systems sold into the small business segment of the telephone equipment market place. If you added up the numbers as published by the publically reporting companies in this segment, extrapolated an average SBE equipment size requirement you would conclude that every man, woman and child in this country already owns a telephone system! So where do all the new SBE phone system come from? Having said that, this number is getting harder to calculate as the companies that you could track in this segment (e.g.. Vodavi, Comdial, etc) have morphed into something else and generally as a direct result of the increasing acceptance of VoIP in that market segment (e.g. Covad, Packet8, Vonage et. Al). The economy even when it contracts, causes companies that survive to change their shape and size. We have witnessed a growing demand for companies seeking to spin off a branch office as a standalone business. If you have a CISCO Call Manager, for example, and you were running SRST at the branch office, we are servicing requests to convert the branch to a standalone CCME. Business Partnerships dissolve, the partners create new entities and split a perfectly good ShoreTel IPBX in two! Service providers in general, seem to be showing increases in VoIP revenue segments, specifically in the SIP environment. Cbeyond (CBEY) seems to be trading at near its 52 week high. Generally, my thinking is that VoIP is a good place to be no matter which way the economy moves!

760 Area Code Change to 442 – San Diego

Posted on by DrVoIP

760 AREA CODE

Who Will be Affected? All customers with a 760 number will have to change the way they dial. The new 442 area code will serve new customers in the same geographic region as the current 760 area code, which extends from Bridgeport in the north, south to the Mexican border, Camp Pendleton on the west, and east to the state line.

What Will be the New Dialing Procedure? To complete calls from a landline phone, the new dialing procedure requires callers to dial 1 + area code + telephone number. This means that all calls in the 760 area code that are currently dialed with seven digits will need to be dialed using 1+ area code + telephone number.

When Will the Change Begin? Beginning May 2, 2009 … you should begin using the new dialing procedure whenever you place a call from the 760 area code. If you forget and use the old dialing procedure of dialing just seven digits, your call will still be completed.

Beginning October 24, 2009 … you must use the new dialing procedure for all calls. If you do not use the new dialing procedure, your call will not be completed, and a recording will instruct you to hang up and dial again.

Beginning November 21, 2009… new telephone lines or services may be assigned numbers with the 442 area code.

What Will You Need to Do? In addition to changing your dialing procedure, all services, automatic dialing equipment, or other types of equipment that are programmed with a 7-digit telephone number will need to be reprogrammed to use the new dialing procedure. Some examples are life safety systems, fax machines, Internet dial-up numbers, alarm and security systems, gates, speed dialers, mobile phone contact lists, call forwarding settings, voicemail services, and similar functions. Be sure to check your business stationery, advertising materials, personal checks, and your personal or pet ID tags to ensure the area code is included.

What Will Remain the Same?

· Your telephone number, including current area code, will not change.

· What is a local call now will remain a local call regardless of the number of digits dialed.

· The price of a call, coverage area, or other rates and services will not change due to the overlay.

· You can still dial just three digits to reach 911, as well as 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711 and 811.

Who May You Contact with Questions?
contact support@drvoip.com for assistance in programming any changes to your ShoreTel phone system!

SIP Softphone on Asterisk, CISCO and ShoreTel

Posted on by DrVoIP

Configuring SIP extensions has become one of the most requested support questions we receive. Asterisk, CISCO and ShoreTel all support SIP extensions. Candidly, SIP is an excellent protocol and one that most IT professionals are already familiar with. This is an application level protocol and looks an awful lot like HTTP etc. Ever go to a webpage and get a 404 error, “page not available”? Well SIP error messages are very similar. If you get a 404 SIP error message, it means phone not available. Though H323 and MGCP are certainly more mature protocols, they are most useful for “call processing”. SIP has the added dimension of being useful for presence information. Setting up SIP extensions on ShoreTel is a breeze and we have setup up everything from CISCO through Polycom desk phones and a handful of wireless handsets as well. ( I am working on getting my iphone connected to ShoreTel using a wireless SIP phone and I am breathlessly awaiting the release of 3.0). X-Lite makes a great SIP softphone on ShoreTel and I have included a soundless SIP configuration video for those of you familiar with ShoreTel administration. This configuration is built using cally the same in 8.1 so enjoy!Version 9 of ShoreTel, but it is basically the same in 8.1 so enjoy!

ShoreTel Sip and Free X-Lite Softphone from CouterPath.com

VoIP and Microsoft Outlook Integration?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Does your Microsoft Outlook Integrate with your phone system?   This functionality is getting to be the “minimum daily adult requirement” feature in the VoIP vendor space.   We all just expect that our phone system “knows” about our “contacts”.   We don’t dial phone numbers anymore!  We enter Names and the phones system gets the number out of our contact list and places the call.  Often, an incoming phone call to our desktop, will cause our contact information to be displayed.    Some integrations enable your phone system to change user profiles and call handling modes based on your Outlook contact.   Of late I have been wondering how far this integration can go?  I mean, if I have a conference call scheduled in my Microsoft Outlook, shouldn’t the phone system know about that?  My thinking is the phone system should just call me and remind me of the conference and then ask me to approve joining the meeting! 

 

ShoreTel Contact Center – Integrated Agent Tool Bar

Posted on by DrVoIP

ShoreTel Contact Center Agent Tool Bar
The ShoreTel Contact Center provides two strategies for call management at the desktop.   We have found that the basic ‘agent tool bar’ is an excellent solution for call center desktops in which different shifts sit at the same desk, use the same computer and phone.  It is easy enough to program the tool bar to prompt the agent for there log-in information.   In this way, you can set up your phones with extension numbers that multiple agents can use.  When an agent reports to work, they go to their assigned desk and log-in, using an extension that might have been used by a different Agent on the previous shift.  The ShoreTel Contact Center keeps track of what agent used what extension during what time slot.   On desks that are dedicated to an individual agent, the agent tool bar can be integrated into the ShoreTel Personal Call Manager.   The Personal Call Manager looks like a Workgroup Agent call manager, but the tool bar indicates “contact center” and the drop down list contains information that is appropriate to the ShoreTel Contact Center or Enterprise Contact Center.    There is one additional advantage of the stand alone Agent Tool bar.   You can push custom parameters, named “call profiles” in ShoreTel documentation, to the Agent Tool bar.  We find that you do not have the same flexibility with the Integrated Tool Bar inside the ShoreTel Personal Call Manager.

ShoreTel Personal Call Manager with Integrated Contact Center