Subject: From: Date:

RE: [ECS] ECS phone support stability R. Tinker Mon, 27 Nov 2000 20:15:33 -0500

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Mark,

I am not sure how you are communicating with the modem currently, but A.J.'s
more detailed information sure helps to explain it.  When you are playing
back audio (the outgoing greeting) you are probably not receiving data from
the modem, so you would not see the 'h' (or whatever the modem reports) when
the remote handset was hung-up.  The modem also cannot do silence detection
if it is opened in half-duplex mode (e.g. able to play audio only as opposed
to playing audio at the same time it is receiving it from the other end).

If the time between the hang-up and the end of the outgoing greeting is long
enough, then even silence detection would not work as the recording would
come on quickly, but my guess is that silence detection, if working
properly, would help this situation.  Are you using it currently?


Rick


-----Original Message-----
From: A.J. Griglak [mailto:aj@griglak.com]
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 5:44 PM
To: ecs-list@netbloc.com
Subject: RE: [ECS] ECS phone support stability


Oh, no... I wouldn't dream of giving up now...  ;-)  No refund necessary.

One thing I've noticed with regard to ECS recording silence:  It will only
record silence if the caller hangs up before the beep.  If the caller
listens to your entire outgoing message, hears the beep, and then hangs up,
ECS will correctly detect that the caller has hung up.  What is happening
differently between the outgoing message and the recording of the incoming
message?

-=A.J.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Gilmore [mailto:omnip@usit.net]
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 3:57 PM
To: ecs-list@netbloc.com
Subject: [ECS] ECS phone support stability


Hi all/A.J. :-),
I feel the need to address A.J.'s stated desire for a
"stable" phone system:

As I understand it, we have 3 phone-related issues:

1) WANTS: Local DTMF detection, etc.

2) PROBLEMS: ECS sometimes records silence or dialtones after caller
hangs up.
   NOTE: Upon detection of silence or a dialtone, the modem is SUPPOSED
   to report this to ECS. ECS cannot "divine" that the caller has hung
up -
   it can only react to what the modem tells it. So this is not really
the
   fault of ECS, though I readily admit that I should spend some time
   attempting to determine why some modems occasionally fail to report
   such status.
   And regarding TAPI, I seriously doubt that inserting a layer of
   software btw ECS and the modem will correct this problem.

3) FAILURES: ECS occasionally fails to record messages or answer the
phone.
   These (and ONLY these) would render phone support "unstable".

Now to the best of my recollection, NO ONE has reported failures
other than A.J., who has been plagued with modem-related problems
from day one. To his great credit, he has tried some 3-4 DIFFERENT
modems, and has even had ECS periodically reset the modem (with no
effect).

I have therefore been forced to conclude that A.J.'s modem failures
are due to some kind of hardware "anomaly" with his particular PC
and/or phone-lines. If any of these failures were reproducable, I
would gladly expend as much effort as it took to help him find the
TRUE cause of the problem. Otherwise, I AM HELPLESS.

A.J.: If you want a refund, you are welcome to it (and YOU DESERVE IT,
as ECS as not performed properly with your particular system). But it
really serves no purpose to repeat horror stories which are caused by
a problem which I am simply unable to address at this time. And it can
give potential customers the false impression that the ECS phone support
could be unstable for THEIR system.

I hope my position was stated with sufficient diplomacy :-).
Regards,
--
Mark Gilmore
Omnipotence (ECS home automation software)
http://omnipotencesoftware.com
423-745-0026
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9AM-8PM/EST

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