System Hardware

[MikeSr]

The phone system technology is relativaly new to me. Our business currently has a Toshiba Stratta 4 lines, 12 extenions. It is now an older system, and I want the capabilities of this software. But I don't see any documentation regarding systems architectures. In other words Do I use the existing sytem and and the majic Dialogic type card ? To I loose the Old Toshiba ,and run the extentions to the majic card ? I can't seem to find any examples of common architectures used.

This is where my confustion begins. Can any one help. I want to get started , but until I understand what is needed , it is not possible. HELP ......

 

Regards

 

MikeSr

[SupportTeam]

Just connect the Dialogic card's ports to the PBXs extensions. Just like you would an answering machine etc. Then setup your PBX to route incoming calls to the extensions attached to the Dialoigc card.

[MikeSr]

Thanks for the reply, but either I am missing something , or the architecture theme is lost here ! Example.

- Dialogic board accepts **** direct phone lines inputs ????

- Phone extentions are connected to ?????

- Typical ananlog installation would be ***** ?

- Typical VOIP installation would be ******?

 

At the risk of sounding rude, I can't seem to find anyone who will either return a call ( great image for comm providers huh ) some even have crappy responce systems, and they are trying to sell you ???? what ????

 

Look, you have great reviews, sounds promissing, but I just don't get it . I mean what are my hardware options starting from scratch or utilizing what I currently have ??? Please help

 

 

MikeSr

[SupportTeam]

From your descripton it sounds like you have a basic analog PBX. (You may want to confirm this by looking through the PBX manual or by speaking with the PBX supplier).

 

To attach an IVR system to the anaolg PBX you just need to use a basic analog Dialogic card. See the Recommneded Hardware page on our WWW. The leads that would be plugged into the back of the analog phone get plugged into the back of the Dialogic card and the Dialogic card answers calls arriving on those lines. Thats it...

[ferret]

Im looking at purchasing this software also. I have a Nortel BCM into which an ISDN30e cable plugs in providing 16 lines. Would I just buy a BT Speedway Internal ISDN PCI Card, plug that into a pc then connect one of the telephone extensions to the PCI card similar to MikeSRs analogue setup?

Thanks!

Ferret

[ktruk]

You need to find out if your PBX either has internal ISDN BRI bus (S0 connections) and/or 'ISDN to the desktop'. You may find that this either built-in already, an optional extra, or not available. The BT Speedway is BRI card with 2 channels, if you only need 2 channels, then good, but you won't get 16 channels from a PRI connection using one card - and you can only use 1 speedway card in 1 pc. Also, you may find it difficult to transfer calls - so if only answering calls, that will be okay. Finally, you will need to buy ComISDN to interface VG software with speedway hardware. Also note: internal S0 connections do not always work like a phone, they may not support certain call-features or have other limitations. If you need more channels, look at Eicon BRI 8M cards, these give 8 channels a card, but cost a hell of a lot more than a speedway, but you can fit 2 cards in one PC, or look at Dialogic PRI cards, but most PABX don't have internal PRI connections.

[ferret]

Thanks for the reply!

 

Thats a lot of technical stuff there! I have to admit to not understanding a lot of it. I found this document ( only 4 pages ) http://www.bcm400.com/pdf/bcm400_technical...cifications.pdf

which is information on the system I have. I have a bunch of TAPI programs which I use on my desktop PC to control my phone and voicemail etc if thats of any relevance?

I can log in to my BCM using my pc over the network and change all the configuration/settings etc so theres possibly something in there that would tell me what I have if I knew where to look (theres a lot of info).

 

Ferret

[ferret]

I meant to say that the BCM 400 has built in IVR but after skimming throught several hundred pages of incredibly complicated looking explanations I decided not to go down that route.

[ktruk]

I suggest the best thing you can do is describe what you want to do first. Just what do you want to do with voice guide? Explain how many lines you wish to manage at any one time, and what service you wish to provide to your callers.

 

If you didn't get my last posting, then I have to warn you that you should expect a steep learning curve.

 

The good news is that on page 2 of that PDF document it states that there is a module "BRIM" - Basic Rate Interface Media" module, that supports 8 'BRI' channels. This has to be fitted to the PABX to connect basic-rate ISDN equipment, such as a BT Speedway card. Only 2 of these channels can be used at any one time with a speedway card. All 8 channels can be used with other cards from other people. The 'S/T' (also called S0/ess-zero or T0/tee-zero) connections carry 2 channels on each line, thats why there is 4 connectors on the module. A speedway card can connect to 1 line only and use 2 channels.

 

VG needs ComISDN to connect ISDN/Speedway to TAPI (see http://www.comisdn.com). Effectively, ComISDN provides a VG compatible TAPI driver for a speedway card or other ISDN hardware that is designed for other interface standards (mostly CAPI).

 

Accessing TAPI apps via PC or over a network doesn't have that much relevence for VG, other than proving that your PABX is tapi compatible.

 

As I said, tell us what you are trying to do and maybe we can get a better feel of how to help you.

[ferret]

Basically we want our customers to call our "hotline" which will be answered by the IVR. The customer will enter a sequence of characters which the IVR will look up in a database. The customer will then enter either their postcode or address details or their name (still to be finalised by my bosses!) which will be entered into the database . Once entered the IVR will read back from the database an activation key (just a value we have already put in the database). Its for an insurance document that contractors issue to their customers and their customers call us to activate their policy.

 

I would think that we would need 3 simultaneous lines as we expect a lot of calls (50-100 a day?).

 

Im in the IT department so Im pretty good with technology although I have limited experience with telephone systems. Ive set up CCR trees, DDIs and that sort of stuff on our system.

 

Thanks!

 

Ferret

[MikeSr]

Great post !! But still, I am a bit confused. I think what I need to do is , Trash my Toshiba system and start from scratch. I say this because programming this beast is awefull. Thus my question, If I were to build a VOIP based system ( not sure I completely understand hardware required) and use my existing analog lines with the appropriate converter, would I not have a less complicated hardware based system, that is far more flexible (software) than the alternative hardware based systems ?

 

What I am trying to find is an system diagram with some dialog regarding such a system.

 

Ex analog line in ------- Analog to Ethernet converter ( FXO ) -- Router --- (Dialogic Card / PC)

IP Phone-----------------| |

IP Phone--------------------|

How does fit in with VoiceGuide ? Is the architecture valid ? What am I missing ?

 

Thanks in advance for any clarity you can offer.

 

MikeSr

[ferret]

Hi Mike,

apologies for hijacking your thread! I think I understand your setup. I could use analogue lines and get this IVR working but I need to be able to transfer calls from the IVR to staffs desks and expext a large call volume so it makes sense to use idsn.

It sounds like all you need to do is to put one of the dialogic cards into a PC then connect the card to one of your telephone sockets using the appropriate cable and your off! Of course this would mean you would be 1 telephone line down, so you could just call your telephone company and ask them to install a new analogue line for you and use that instead.

Sorry if im being to simple here! Lets hope we can both get it sorted!

Cheers

Ferret

[SupportTeam]

VG needs ComISDN to connect ISDN/Speedway to TAPI

Eicon's BRI cqrds come with TAPI/Wave drivers so you would not need to buy ComISDN if you select Eicon as the BRI card.

 

Using analog extensions for smaller systems is easiest and works just as well unless you need to route calls based on DNIS/Indial or CallerID - in which case you would need to use ISDN lines...

 

Note that getting call transfers on BRI sometimes gets very technical. BRI is far from being 'Plug and Play'. Getting Call Transfers working on Analog systems is much easier.

 

Any VoIP lines would bneed to be converted over to analog or BRI qnd the plugged into the Analog ort BRI card controlled by VoiceGuide...

[MikeSr]

Ok, Now I am completely confused. The ISDN , BRI data rate , What ever, All I am trying to understand here is a simple concept. Traditional analog phone lines come into our existing pbx. Their are four lines. I will use those four lines for this application. I want to add the correct hardware to the PC to build a flexible software based solution. The architecture that seems to make sense to me is the VOIP methodology. Thus, IP phones, Router PC, with correct hardware installed, and lastly, the converter (linksys / cisco) SA3000 analog phone line to ehternet converter. (sold by most VOIP providers).

I gather that the phone extention routing, / transfer may not work as easily as it seems ? Once again I am less that a rookey here, but I would think that IP mapping and other IP based routing would make this methodology easier. But I have never had my hands on any of this hardware ..... So VG offer up an explanation

[SupportTeam]

the converter (linksys / cisco) SA3000 analog phone line to ehternet converter.

The output of which can be plugged into any analog Dialogic card, eg: D/4PCIU or D/41JCT or similar.

See: http://www.voiceguide.com/suppRecomHardware.htm for links to Dialogic cards.

 

Stick with using analog and VoIP<->Analog converters where needed. Sounds like you do not need to use BRI ISDN on your system.

[ktruk]

Eicon's BRI cqrds come with TAPI/Wave drivers so you would not need to buy ComISDN if you select Eicon as the BRI card.

I had numerous issues with various Eicon TAPI Drivers working with VG and different releases of hardware - as previously described in several postings. I think there were some minor changes to VG as a result and providing your system is fairly simple, running the latest hardware and v8+ drivers it should work. In the end, I bought ComISDN as the simplest solution as the Eicon drivers would not work reliably and fixes to VG had not been completed at the time and I could not get call-bridging to work with Eicon drivers or call recording. The bottom line is: IF you go BRI and need call transfer and wave recording; don't expect that the native Eicon drivers will deliver, be prepared to test thoroughly and have a little extra budget just in case.

 

Couple of other quick points: BRI (PRI) gives clearer call quality, avoids tone-definition problems, provides specific hangup detection and is more suited to higher volume call handling, (line answering/turnaround) plus gives DNIS. (but you may be able to get DNIS via your pabx using a secondary CTI link if you go the analog route). Most modern pabx support S/T (or internal S0) connections, with Explicit Call Transfer (ECT) so call transfer is less of an issue.

 

Given a choice, BRI does provide a better solution than plain old analog telephone lines at the moment. As for VoIP - I can't comment at the moment.