Installing v5.x (TAPI version) on systems using Voice Modems

Please note that we do not recommend using voice modems. Voice modems are not really designed to implement professional IVR/Voicemail systems.

Many voice modems have one or more of the following problems:

• Poor sound quality/volume.
• Unreliable DTMF tone detection.
• Cannot do call transfers as hookflash length is too long or too short.
• Mistakenly detect a disconnect tone while playing or recording messages and hangup a call halfway through playing/recording of sound file.
• Unable to interrupt the playing of a sound file halfway through.

As the modem models on the market change frequently we cannot provide a definitive list of current 'best' modems. We have found that the quality of sound playback and recording can vary between different releases of the same modem. When selecting your voice modem we recommend trying a few modems if possible and choosing the best one. For help on choosing the current best modem its probably best to ask for some help at a large computer shop in your local area. They will be able to advise which modems can correctly recognize your local telephone company's CallerID signaling, and which have a good reputation for sound quality. A discussion thread on which modems other users have found satisfactory is running on the VoiceGuide Support Forum.

The sound quality of various modems varies greatly. Most Rockwell based modems will give good results. US Robotics / 3Com modems generally have poor voice quality. In general external modems work better then internal modems.

When installing Voice modems ensure that the Voice modem's Wave Driver has installed correctly. Without this driver installed VoiceGuide will not regard the modem as a Voice Modem.

As the modem models on the market change frequently we cannot provide a definitive list of current 'best' modems. We have found that the quality of sound playback and recording can vary between different versions of the same modem, and it will sometimes depend on which version of Windows the modems is installed. When selecting your voice modem we recommend trying a few modems if possible and choosing the best one. The problems faced by many users in finding an adequate sounding voice modem is the reason why many users opt to use telephony cards instead of modems.

Voice modems can be used under Win98/ME, Win2000 and WinXP.

Running the Setup Wizard

Next you need to select the Scripts which will be used by VoiceGuide when an incoming call arrives on the selected devices. To begin with we'd recommend you select the demonstration script in VoiceGuide's "/Scripts/Credit Card Payment" directory:

When Setup Wizard configuration has completed you should now be able to start VoiceGuide and call into the system to hear it answer the call and lead you through the selected VoiceGuide script.

You can open the "/Scripts/Credit Card Payment" in the Graphical Design Environment to see how the script has been put together.

Sound file format

When using a Voice Modem all sound files (Wave files) should be in format: PCM 8kHZ, 16 bit, Mono.

Voice Modem .INF files

Some users have in the past edited the .INF files which where supplied by the modem manufacturer to fix various issues/bugs with the modems. Description of modem .INF files which are used by Microsoft's UnimodemV to control the voice modems can be found at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/modem/hh/modem/modemhdr_09t3.asp