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Important
The most recent version of this FAQ is located on-line at http://www.voicecallcentral.com/faq.htm. Please check the online version for the most recent information.
1. You may have a modem that does not support voice. Solution: try using TAPI mode to make sure.
2. You may have selected an incorrect modem. Solution: refer to this article.
Caller ID is a telephone company service. It provides the identification information of persons calling your telephone number. The Caller ID information is supplied by the telephone company between the first and second ring as a series of special codes. The information includes the time and date of the call, the telephone number of the caller, and, in some areas, subscription name.
The program uses this Caller ID information to provide with detailed information on your incoming calls. Without Caller ID from your telephone company the program cannot determine the telephone number of incoming calls.
The program requires the use of a modem that supports Caller ID. If your modem does not support Caller ID, the caller identification information supplied by the telephone company will not be available to the program software. Please be advised that the most compatible Caller ID standard is Bellcore, used in the US, Canada, Australia and some other countries. If your country employs other Caller ID method (like British Telecom CLIP or a widely accepted DTMF Caller ID), you should consult your local phone company if your modem can handle the Caller ID information provided.
In some areas the telephone company provides Caller ID with name service. In these areas both the telephone number and name of the calling party are supplied. The program software is compatible with such service and can use the name information supplied if your telephone company and modem hardware support it. If your Caller ID service does not include name, you should disable name extension. Go to Options -> Caller ID and select 'Number Only Caller ID Service' check box.
Please check these links to learn more about Caller ID service:
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Canada: try selecting the ETSI Caller ID type at Advanced Call Center -> Options -> Caller ID. Or read more information here. |
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Italy: http://www.telefonino.net/ |
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The United Kingdom and the United States: http://www.ainslie.org.uk/ |
| General: http://www.markwelch.com/callerid.htm |
| Possible reason | Suggested solution |
|---|---|
| You are not a Caller ID service subscriber | Calling Number Delivery (also known as Caller ID) service is a paid service offered by telephone companies. One must subscribe for Caller ID from the telephone company. |
| You have selected wrong modem | Try changing the modem you selected. Open Options -> Telephone Device and re-select your modem. |
| Your modem is not Caller ID capable or does not support your country Caller ID scheme |
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| Number-only Caller ID service | If you don't have Caller Name Delivery (only a caller's number is delivered), be sure to check the box "Phone number only Caller ID service" in the Options -> Caller ID. |
| Modem IRQ conflict |
Be sure that no IRQ conflicts exist between the modem and any other device. A shared IRQ will cause the program to completely cease functioning. You modem may seem to function normally in Internet or FAX applications, but a conflict will prevent the program from working. Windows 95:
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| Your modem does not reply | If the program is unable to get a response from the modem, check the COM port number in Advanced Call Center and compare it with the port number the modem is hooked to in the Windows Control Panel. The problem usually appears when an IRQ conflict is detected. |
Your modem manual or box should contain information about Caller ID capability of the device. Sometimes, however, a modem detects Caller ID without any notice in its documentation.
With some modems you can easily tell if it is Caller ID capable if you have Windows 95/98:
- go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Modems -> Diagnostics
- click on the COM port that your modem is hooked to
- click More Info
- see if Caller ID is mentioned anywhere in the list. If it is, then your modem is Caller ID capable. If it is not, that does not mean anything.
If your modem manual or box does not mention Caller ID capability of the device, or if you want to make sure your modem is Caller ID compatible, please perform the following test.
| Command | Comments |
|---|---|
| AT#CID=1 | Used in U.S.Robotics, Texas Instruments, Rockwell compatible modems (excluding software modems and Rockwell HCF), Hayes, several Pace modems, PowerBit, GVC, PCTel, IDC (VR series) devices, Diamond Supra (Rockwell compatible). |
| AT+VCID=1 or AT+FCLASS=8;+VCID=1 |
All IS-101 modems, Lucent LT, Rockwell HCF (V.90 or K56FLEX, e.g. PCI modems from Creative), some Pace modems (IS-101 compatible), MultiTech, IDC, Cirrus Logic, most of IDC modems. |
| AT#CLS=8#CID=1 | Caller ID in voice mode, met in some 56K U.S.Robotics modems, some Rockwell compatible (Boca Research, Cardinal, voice Zoom). |
| AT#CC1 | Older non-voice Aspen modems, older Cirrus Logic, Motorola Voice Surfer, Phoebe. |
| AT*ID1 | Lot of Motorola devices. |
| AT%CCID=1 or AT%CCID=3 |
Practical Peripherals modems. |
| ATS40.2=1 ATS41.6=1 ATS42.2=1 |
All ZyXEL modems. |
| RING |
| DATE=1002 |
| TIME=1105 |
| NMBR=5421873005 |
| NAME=JOHN SMITH JR. |
| RING |
| RING |
or like that:
| RING |
| TIME: 02-04 11:25 |
| CALLER NUMBER: 2014893483 |
| CALLER NAME: JOHN SMITH |
| RING |
| RING |
You may receive a caller's name or number as Out Of Area or Privacy strings (or O and P letters correspondingly). The data can have many different formats. Just be sure that some data received between the first and second rings that could be interpreted as the caller's phone number or name (latter if you have the name service available).
If no Caller ID data is available after the first RING, try typing ATA immediately after the RING. Several areas exploit Off-hook Caller ID (Type II) method; in this case the callers number delivers after going off-hook.
If Caller ID is not working, you will only see the word RING for each incoming ring. In that case, try another one of the Caller ID commands suggested and try to receive a call again.
If there is some data between the first and second ring but the program does not show an appropriate information, your modem is probably not supported by the program. Please copy the result of this test and send an e-mail. I will try to add support for your modem to my program.
Probably you're using a greeting message recorded in another application. It is essential that the message is recorded with the same sample rate as your modem operates.
The key words are PCM and sampling rate - your message is probably recorded with higher frequency than your modem can support. See the documentation for your modem sample rate. Often it is one of following:
You can check your modem's sampling rate under Options -> Telephone Device -> Developer Mode -> Sample rate.
Most modern voice modems will capture the telephone line and block the handset hooked to the modem. That is by design. You can only talk through the modem internal microphone/speaker.
Solution: connect the devices - a modem and a telephone - in parallel. Plug the phone cord independently in the wall jack. Do not plug your phone cord into the modem jack.
You can perform several commands in Windows HyperTerminal to make sure. Please refer to the question #3 on how to work with HyperTerminal.
| Command | Result | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rockwell, U.S.Robotics / 3COM, PCTel etc. | ||
| AT&F | OK | Initializes the modem, which must return OK. |
| AT#CLS=8 | OK or ERROR | If OK, then your modem is definitely a voice modem. Probably it's built with Rockwell, U.S.Robotics or PCTel chipset. |
| AT#VCL=1 | OK or ERROR | If OK, your modem is a voice modem and probably built with Cirrus Logic CL-MD1414 chipset. |
| AT#VCI? | list of voice compression methods or ERROR | Either lists the available voice codecs or returns ERROR. |
| Modems with IS-101 command set (AT&T (Lucent), Rockwell HCF, ZyXEL etc.) | ||
| AT&F | OK | Initializes the modem, which must return OK. |
| AT+FCLASS=8 | OK or ERROR | If OK, then your modem is definitely a voice modem. Probably it's built with AT&T (Lucent), Rockwell HCF chipset or is a ZyXEL modem. |
| AT+VSM=? | list of voice compression methods or ERROR | Either lists the available voice codecs or returns ERROR. |
| AT+VLS=? | list of voice line sources or ERROR | Either lists the available voice line sources (VLS) or returns ERROR. |
If your modem replies ERROR to all the commands [ AT#CLS=8, AT#VCL=1, AT+FCLASS=8 ], then it is probably NOT a voice modem. If at least one of the commands returned OK, then your modem supports voice.
In this case you won't be able to talk with the other party. Most modems have a half-duplex voice circuit, which means that they can either receive (record) or transmit (play back) digitized voice. You can only talk through internal or external microphone attached to the modem.
Your modem must support a speakerphone mode, which is intended to provide a full-duplex, hand-free telephone emulation. Usually a speakerphone support is declared on the modem box or in the name of the modem. Press 'Speak' button to enter speakerphone mode.
Clear out Options -> Sounds -> Incoming Ring. If you will need a particular caller to sound a ring, you can add the sound to the caller's properties at any time (Address Book).
They behave differently for normal, black-listed and white-listed
callers.
Normal
This is the default priority for all users. The pop-up notification
dialog will be displayed on an incoming call from a 'normal' caller. An
'incoming ring' alarm sound will be played back (unless you are in 'Occupied'
or 'Do not disturb' mode).
Black list
The pop-up notification dialog will still be displayed on an incoming
call from a 'black listed' caller. However, the program will not
alert you with a sound (unless you directly assign a sound file for that
specific contact). Answering machine will not start for a black
listed caller.
White list
The pop-up notification dialog will be displayed on an incoming call from a 'white listed' caller and play back a ring alarm sound, even if you set up the program for 'Occupied' mode. It will still display a tool tip with caller's name and number when you are in 'Do not disturb' mode.
Generally, the more strict option you select, the less disturbance you get on a call.
Answer from the Caller ID FAQ: http://www.ainslie.org.uk/callerid.htm (Copyright 1998-9 Alastair Ainslie)
This question becomes very common after all. Unfortunately, the only modems to support Call Waiting are the American Actiontec ones, while the Call Waiting tones often force modems to drop the line. Some people want this, but it is possible to get modems and Call Waiting ID boxes to coexist, or you could try the US$50 Webs Call Waiting Detector, a device designed to do just this. Recently, several schemes have sprung up that send the number of a waiting caller to your computer. They rely on the 'Divert When Busy' service to forward callers to a central computer, which takes their Caller ID and sends it to you over the Net. As currently these services are confined only to N. America - Internet Call Manager and Pagoo are the best known (see this article for a comparison), but look at Busybuster too. For people in the UK, all I can suggest is that if you can't get your modem to tolerate a CWID box on the line, you'll have to go for another line with auxiliary working :-( or some kind of digital link. But this is no problem for ISDN users!
If you want more details on this subject, I strongly recommend that you to read this article:
http://www.aimnet.com/~jnavas/modem/faq_a.htm#CallWaitingand/or the less comprehensive but more detailed one:
http://www.56k.com/reports/callwait.shtml
Advanced Call Center currently can't work while you're on-line (that is, your modem is busy with Internet). On-line Caller ID / answering machine requires either a dedicated box and a Call Waiting service, or a dedicated paid Internet server.
Visit Internet services like:
Internet Call Detect hardware designed specifically for that purpose will be offered soon. It should cost about US $20 and will include a light version of this software.
Advanced Call Center does not support a built-in sending and receiving faxes. Advanced Call Center can pass any incoming fax calls to the fax program of your choice. Advanced Call Center was tested with Microsoft Fax.
Click here to learn how to configure Microsoft Fax to work with Advanced Call Center.
Important
You should set Advanced Call Center to the TAPI mode before attempting to configure it to handle fax calls correctly. Set Advanced Call Center -> Options -> Telephone Device to TAPI.
Now enable fax calling tone monitoring at Advanced Call Center Options -> Fax.
Note
Please note that your FAX application must be running in the monitoring mode to be able handling FAX calls when Advanced Call Center will pass them a handle. Set it to automatically answer incoming calls.
Also please remember that current version of Windows TAPI is not stable enough, thus your FAX software may not return modem control to the Advanced Call Center.
More Information
Please read this articles on how to set up faxing with MS Fax on Windows 95 and 98:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/services/msfax.htm
http://www.worldowindows.com/fax/faxrec.html
This article describes faxing on Windows 2000:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/services/msfax.htm
During setup, the Advanced Call Center provides with selection of one of two modes: direct COM port access or standard TAPI interface. Later you can change the mode in Options -> Telephone Device. TAPI stands for Telephony Applications Programming Interface. Your selection is critical both for compatibility and for troubleshooting.
In few words, the difference is as follows:
| Advantages | Drawbacks | |
|---|---|---|
| Direct COM port access | Full support of all modem features. | Modem is grabbed by the Advanced Call Center and is not available for other applications. |
| TAPI | Modem is easily shared between multiple applications. | Most (yet not all) features are supported. |
The direct COM port access allows full use of all modem features. In case you decide to use this mode, it is critical to specify your modem type correctly to let the program make use of all its enhancements, because each modem type possesses its own directive set (often incompatible with others). It is true even for modems of one family (made with different revisions of the same chipset)! There are tons of various different modems in the world, thus the program often fails recognizing a rare brand correctly. As a result, the program operation may fail.
Theoretically, one can avoid all these problems by using Telephony Applications Programming Interface (TAPI) standard. The idea of such an interface is not revolutionary but yet quite smart. However, this interface implementation is yet far from ideal. For example, faxing is not provided at all, voice operation is quite unstable, etc. But - now a software needs not to know about modems, phone sets, etc. (including ISDN, DSL, and modem raiser cards)! TAPI will do everything to let a software work with all hardware brands in the same way.
Unfortunately, all this is too theoretical and academic by now. In practice, however, modems are often supplied with wrong drivers, of these drivers operate wrong, or the OS itself is wrong. For instance,
Windows 95 supports voice modems only after installing Unimodem/V module you need to download from Microsoft server.
Windows NT 4.0 does not support voice modems at all.
Windows 98 has a complete set of drivers and is the only OS of Windows family that operates normally in TAPI mode (provided you install the right driver correctly).
Windows 2000 requires several updates of voice mode drivers in comparison with '98, so voicing is still in question here.
So if one mode does not work, select another at Options -> Telephone Device.
The good news for TAPI is that one great problem gets resolved: sharing your modem between software applications. Thus, in TAPI mode you can login to the Internet or get a FAX via any other application - without exiting Advanced Call Center (the direct COM access mode prevents other programs from accessing your modem when Advanced Call Center is run).
Current Advanced Call Center version does not support following features in TAPI mode:
Please refer to the appropriate How To section.
PIN stands for Personal Identification Number.
You use this option to request an identification code from incoming caller. The implementations are different and various -cutting off all incoming callers except those who input the correct access code (i.e. PIN), recording digital coded messages, requesting PIN to identify the calling person if his caller ID is blocked, etc.
In a word, this option allows the program receiving a series of digits, storing them and notifying the input digits (e.g. when notifying you via pager or e-mail). For using PINs with the program, please refer to the Actions -> PIN section of Options.
To access ISDN equipment, the COMMON-ISDN-API (CAPI), an application programming interface standard, is used. Advanced Call Center currently does not support CAPI. However, ISDN devices are still possible to use with Advanced Call Center through AVM ISDN TAPI Services for CAPI [Windows 98 / NT 4.0]. The program must be set to TAPI mode.
Get AVM ISDN TAPI Services for CAPI from http://www.avm-usa.com/english/papers/r0399-1e.htm
Quote: "AVM ISDN TAPI Services for CAPI are a universally employable driver implementation for the use of TAPI telephony applications with AVM ISDN-Controllers based on Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0".
Note
Future versions of Advanced Call Center may include native ISDN equipment support through CAPI interface.
DSL is not exactly a modem, it is a network interface (like your Ethernet card), despite the fact it connects to your telephone line. Advanced Call Center requires an analog voice modem to work with telephony, like 56K, 33.6 or 28.8 modem.
Advanced Call Center uses Microsoft Text-to-Speech engine version 4, while newer operating systems have version 5. Those versions are not compatible. Please get TTS 4.0 files from www.voicecallcentral.com/download.htm#tts (at the bottom).
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