Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] ECS phone support stability Mark Gilmore Tue, 28 Nov 2000 08:36:58 -0500

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I don't know why the modem would fail to report the
silence status under these conditions, but I'll try
to re-create this.
-- 
Mark Gilmore
Omnipotence (ECS home automation software)
http://omnipotencesoftware.com
423-745-0026
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9AM-8PM/EST


"A.J. Griglak" wrote:
> 
> 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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