How To Setup Auto Dialer

The Auto Dialer in Collect! works with your Windows Dialer or TAPI settings. This document describes how to connect your phone lines, your computer's modem and telephone handset, and then enable the auto dialer.

If you can dial a number using the Windows Phone Dialer, then you can also dial using Collect!.

Please ensure that you have installed the Phone Dialer that is part of your operating system software. Check that this feature is functioning outside of Collect!. If it is not installed or does not work, it will not work in Collect! either.

Connecting Phone Line And Modem

Connect the phone line from the wall to your computer modem's Line input.

Connect your telephone to the modem's Phone input.

The manual you received with your modem will show exact wiring requirements and diagrams. Please follow those instructions.

If Your Computer Does Not Have A Modem

If you are on a network, there are alternative ways to set up auto dialing.

Multi-line business phone systems cannot be used with modems, which require a single telephone data line to operate. Some multi-line phone systems will support a computer's phone dialer, and some will not. You will need to consult your telecommunications service provider to determine this in your own case.

Another way of setting up the auto dialer on a network-wide basis is to use "Voice Over IP" (VOIP). This passes the telephone voice signals over your IP (Internet) connection, thus integrating your telecommunications and computer network systems. Setting this up is beyond the scope of this document, but a wealth of information on this subject is available on the Internet, and from your telecommunications and Internet service providers.

If your phone provider has a TAPI driver which allows you to dial a number using the Windows Phone Dialer (dialer.exe), then Collect!'s Auto Dialer will work transparently for you.

Collect! can also communicate with the softphone of your choice, provided your O/S is configured already to handle the softphone communication protocol you specify. Please refer to Help topic, Softphone for further details.

Set Up The Auto Dialer

Select System from the top menu bar and then select Preferences and then select Auto Dialer Setup.

OR

From the Main Menu, choose System Administration. Then, from the System Administration menu, choose Setup and Configuration. Then select Auto Dialer Setup when the System Setup menu is displayed.

Make sure any settings you want customized are correct for your operations. All other settings should be left as they are.

Click on OK to save the settings.

The Device and Modem Control Strings are not used in the Windows dialer functions. For Windows 2000/2003/XP Pro and newer, we use the TAPI32
interface. To configure your TAPI interface use Control Panel.

Collect! can also communicate with the Softphone of your choice, provided your O/S is configured already to handle the softphone communication protocol you specify. Non-TAPI systems can also use Auto Dialer. Please refer to Help topic, Softphone for further details.

Set Up Operators Using Auto Dial

From the menu path "System\Preferences\Plans and Reference Tables", select WIP Options.

Enable this feature by checking the box labeled Automatically Display Dialer.

If all other click-to-dial functionality has been configured on your site to allow Operators to dial their phones directly from a Collect! window, then enabling this preference switch and clicking to Save as Default for the company will invoke Collect! to automatically dial the phone number when an Operator is in their WIP list and the Contact Event which has presented on their screen is a Phone Type.

As of version CV11.6.2.8, the Auto Dial functionality has been enhanced for URL softdialing with compatible phone systems, allowing the use of an IP Address to dial their API from Collect!.

Operator Setup and Requirements:

1. 'Use softphone for dialer' must be selected on the Operator Detail tab
2. The Operator Detail Note 2 field must begin with the 4 letters 'http' for the string to be interpreted correctly
3. If the dialer string is too large to fit in the Note 2, then the question mark portion (?) portion of the URL can be placed in Note 1. If the Note 1 field does not begin with a question mark (?) character then it is not considered an extension of the Note 2 field. In order to extend into the Note 1 field, the phone system you use must use a question mark as part of the URL.
4. The Operator Detail Note 1 or Note 2 field must contains the '@phone' command where the actual phone number is to be inserted. If the @phone command is not present an error will occur.

Example using Grandstream GXP2160:

NOTE1 ?phonenumber=@phone&account=34& password=bigguy

NOTE2 http://192.199.9.990/cgi-bin/api-make_call

See Also

- Auto Dialer Preferences
- How To Auto Dial
- Softphone