What Is The Best Modem Set Up For Voice

[Guest shaun palmer]

Dear Sir

 

I purchased an Internal PCI 56K V92 Capable Fax Modem (product No XH1154) with Microphone and Speaker Capability

 

This product was purchased with the intention of making phone calls from my PC. Much to my disappointment, although the phone on the receiving end rings, when the person answers that phone, there is absolute silence. In other words, the phone is exactly like a dead phone.

 

I have followed the instructions set out in the book that came with the product. Yet still cannot get the response I'm after. We did achieve a whisper at one point. The person on the receiving end could only hear a whisper - even though I spoke in a loud voice! Yet, we have had outside calls coming through and that same person has had no problem answering. That tells me, the problem is Technical - not the Telephone line itself.

 

I have my Computer Headset plugged into the Microphone and speaker of the Modem. The Phone line is plugged into the line. Under Administration-Computer Management, there's a section called services in my M.S,XP. I switched on to automatic all the appropriate protocolls.

 

I would like to know how to achieve the best result for PC phoning And Auto dialing.

 

 

 

There is obviously a serious problem with my setup. Is a powered Switching unit required to run this Modem e.g a headset unit? I have had success in connecting to the Internet and there is a dial tone from the speaker. The people can be heard clearly from my headset when I'm at the Computer. The Port settings have been checked thoroughly and no problems have appeared. Auto dialing features of Voice guide certainly make Telephoning Counld good option. But unless my Modem is set correctly so that the person on the receiving end hears me, it makes the job difficult.

 

What is the best Modem set up for Voice Guide.

 

Is it a hardware or software Modem? I currently have this internal Modem (refer top of page). It has been suggested that I use an external Modem. What I need to know is, will this setup be any better? The Current protocols for data flow in New Zealand is 90. The new standard is V92. I am concerned about the bearing of the product in New Zealand. Your advice would be appreciated.

 

You might ask yourself why I have to do Computer dialling. It is for sales purposes in other words, Telemarketing for new business and Outbound Phone Surveys Voicemail Systems Information Lines Fax On Demand Over The Phone Data Entry A track in the Database must be kept along with recording purposes for training. Message , Auto Dialer Price/Stock Enquiries and many many more .......

 

 

 

Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

 

 

shaun palmer

[Guest shaun palmer]

to us e-mail shaun-palmer007@hotmail.com

[Guest Rahul Mangaldas]

Most modems can be classified with these characteristics:

 

Data/fax

Data/fax/voice

Data/fax/voice/speakerphone

Voice generally means that the modem is capable, with appropriate software, of supporting telephone answering machine functions: the modem can 'record' and 'play' to the Windows wave device. The answering machine software will also use the sound card on the machine to play and record. The software may also include functions to dial or answer calls using your sound card's microphone and speakers or headphones.

 

Windows comes with a Phone Dialer. This utility will dial a number with any type of modem; after Phone Dialer dials a number, you use any normal phone (connected to the 'Phone' jack of the modem) to complete a voice call.

 

All modems are also capable of supporting voice functions provided by 'Internet Telephony' - the modem is connected to your ISP in data mode, and software on your system sends and receives voice-encoded data to a compatible telephony server to complete a call. (Many of these services used to be free.) Some providers include: PhoneFree, Dialpad, IConnectHere and Net2Phone.

 

A modem that includes speakerphone capability will have additional audio components on the modem to provide an interface for a microphone and speaker or headset. This allows the modem to dial or answer and provide high-quality full-duplex voice functionality.

 

Full duplex means you can talk and hear at the same time. Many 'voice' modems when used on voice calls will provide only half-duplex functionality: at any instant, you can either be talking or listening. The quality of the audio produced using a voice modem is often a problem.

 

Voice modem chipset makers include in the driver or firmware code to interface to the wave device, but do not develop the software that provides voice functionality. The modem makers generally bundle "compatible" third-party voice modem software. Some voice modem software offerings: Ring Central, BVRP, and Messaging Software.

 

CALLER ID is not automatically supported by all modems. In most cases, data/fax modems will not provide any caller id support. The chipsets for voice, speakerphone and even most data/fax modems are capable of caller id, but the modem must include additional components: the caller id signal is sent by the phone company between the first and second rings while the phone, or modem is still on-hook. Modems that support caller id must have a circuit to receive the caller id information without taking the modem off-hook.

 

DISTINCTIVE RING - Many modems are capable of supporting distinctive ring - see the Distinctive Ring & Modems.

 

After years of trying to get distinctive ring to work properly in Windows, I finally bit the bullet and did some heavy-duty research to figure it out:

First, you need to understand the difference between Distinctive Ring (DR) and Call Discrimination (CD).

DR is a service you buy from your telephone company. It assigns multiple numbers to your telephone line, and each number rings with a different ring pattern (e.g., my main number rings with one long ring, my first DR number rings as two short rings, and my second DR number rings as one short ring, one long ring, and one short ring). Getting DR is usually very easy: just call your telco and order it.

CD is the process of routing different types of call (voice, fax, data) to the software that handles that type of call, and this is what most people are interested in; DR is just a convenient, but not the only, way to get CD. Another (clunky) way to handle CD is with Microsoft's Operator Agent, which is a small program that voice prompts the caller to press a key on his telephone keypad to indicate the type of call, and routes the call to the proper TAPI application based on the caller's response.

In order to enable CD with DR (CD/DR) under Windows, you need a modem that supports DR, a modem driver (INF file) that allows you to enable DR, and software that supports CD, either natively or with help from the Windows Telephony API (TAPI). If you have a voice capable modem, it almost certainly supports DR; some non-voice modems also support DR, especially the "soft" or "Win Modems". You can find out whether your modem supports DR by connecting to its COM port via HyperTerminal and issuing the appropriate AT command; if it responds with an "OK", it does, otherwise it does not. The AT command to enable DR depends on the modem's chipset: for the 3Com/USR/TI chipset it is "ATS41=1", for the Rockwell/Conexant chipset, it is "AT-SDR=7", and for the Lucent/Agere chipset it is "AT+VDR=1,0".

Each chipset handles DR differently.

3Com and Rockwell report ring codes ("RING A", "RING B", "RING C" for 3Com; "RING 1", "RING 2", "RING 3" for Rockwell), while Lucent reports the actual ring cadence (the duration of the ringing and the silent periods) with DROF/DRON messages. For example, 3Com reports two short rings as "RING B", Rockwell as "RING 2", and Lucent as "DRON=5", "DROF=11", "DRON=5", "DROF=34" (for every "ring" made up of two short rings).

The 3Com and Rockwell reporting methods are very easy for software developers to implement, and are the ones required by most applications that natively support CD/DR. However, it is limited, and if the ring patterns provided by your telco don't match the ones recognized by your modem (usually two short rings for "RING 2"/"RING B", three short rings for "RING 3"/"RING C"), you are out of luck.

The Lucent method is much more powerful, as it allows you to select from many more ring patterns (and it complies with the ITU-T V.253 standard). However, as far as I know, it is only supported by certain versions of TAPI. I'm certain it is supported by Windows 98 SE, and I'm fairly certain it is supported by Windows 95 (OSR2), 98, and Me. If your version of TAPI does support it, you will be able to select ring patterns from Morse code like symbols (for example, ".." for two short rings, ".-." for one short ring, one long ring, one short ring) on the "Distinctive Ring" tab of your modem's properties page and assign them to different call types.

OK, so how do you get CD with DR? It depends.

If your application communicates with the modem directly, instead of via TAPI, you're out of luck, unless it supports DR natively.

If your applications are TAPI compliant, all you have to do is set up the call type assignments on the "Distinctive Ring" tab of the modem properties page (for example, "Single Ring" or "-" to "Voice" and "Double Ring" or ".." to "Fax"), and launch the respective applications. When a TAPI application is launched, it registers itself with TAPI and tells TAPI what types of call it can handle. When you get a call, TAPI identifies the ring pattern, figures out the type of call based on your ring pattern assignments, and routes it to the application registered to handle that type of call. The applications themselves do not have to support, or even be aware of, DR. However, you must launch the applications and leave them running, as TAPI will not launch them for you.

You cannot mix TAPI and non-TAPI applications on a single modem (for example, you can't use CD/DR with a TAPI voice mail application and a non-TAPI fax application). As far as I know, you also cannot have a TAPI application respond differently based on the ring pattern. For example, if you use DR for distinguishing between personal and business calls, you cannot set up a personal and a business greeting on your voice mail and have the appropriate one play depending on the ring pattern.

[in theory, you could accomplish that if you have two DR capable modems installed, let's call them A and B. On modem A's "Distinctive Ring" tab, assign your personal ring pattern to "Voice", on modem B's, assign your business ring pattern to "Voice"; you can select either modem to handle your fax and data calls, if needed, and assign the appropriate ring patterns on that modem, leaving them "Unspecified" on the other modem. Then, launch two instances of your voice mail software, one to handle your personal calls, the other to handle your business calls. The instance that handles personal calls should listen on modem A, the one that handles business calls should listen on modem B, and TAPI will route the calls to the appropriate instance based on the ring pattern. If you want to get really fancy, and can get six DR numbers, you could distinguish between personal and business fax and data calls as well! Where I live, you can have at most two DR numbers per line, so that's not possible.]

Kudos & Thanks to Rahul Mangaldas for this article which appears on Modemsite with the author's permission.

[SupportTeam]

The only approach is to try a number of modems, the list at teh top of the forum lists some modem which other users had success with...

 

I'd strongly recommend just getting a Dialoigc card...

[Guest Martin]

I have exactly the same problem as shaun palmer, can anyone please provide information for solving this problem?

[SupportTeam]

If the modem does not play the sound files loud enough then really your only option is to get another modem.

 

See: http://voiceguide.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=135

[Guest John Dold]

I am new to realy how to set my system yo the way I would like, any info would be very good thank you.

[SupportTeam]

As per previouis posts you can see that we recommend just going straight to using a Dialoigc card...