socaljake

Usually we would use a CRA to collect faxes instead of MB's, but either will work. If you have 1 DID for both FAX and voice then it gets tricky, but if the DID's are dedicated to each use then you can use a CRA with great success. Just create one, put a greeting in the day/night fields (anything with audio will do) and populate the email address field.

Let me know if you have a 1 DID does all situation. I have a trick. You did say NT, as in VPU and not EM, right?

acejavelin

Yes, this is an NT based VPU, not EM, and yes I am trying to do a 1 DID solution.

I would love to hear your solution for that, if you will share please.

Thanks in advance...

socaljake

Here goes. VPU's store recordings in .r24 format. These get assigned a name generated by the AVDAP software you can't control (like 26.r24 for example). These associate with a number in DB programming (like 500 for example). Here are the important parts:

1. In DB prog, choose an unused recording number to use (ex. 500)
2. Start AvdapMon and make sure you can see events in the window
3. Call in and record "blah blah blah" for exactly 6 seconds on greeting number 500.
4. AvdapMon will show you the filename it assigned to the physical file (ex. 26.r24).
   
   Now you know the file to pick on.
5. Extract the attached zip file. Take the file "ringback.r24" and rename it to match the filename from step 4.
6. In Explorer go to \avdap\db\rcrdings
7. Copy out the file named in step 4 somewhere safe
8. Copy in the renamed attached file overwriting the original.
   
   Almost done.
9. Create a new Call Routing Announcement (ex. 2520)
10. Assign greeting number from step 1 to the day and night fields.
11. Program the destination email address accordingly.
12. Set the digit translation timeout to transfer to the desktop extension.
13. Kill the Auto Attendant Transfer Prompt on the mailbox associated to the extension in step 12.
14. IC the CRA from step 9. Do you hear ringback? You should hear the normal double IC ringback followed by 1 full cycle. Outside callers will only hear the full cycle.
15. Point the DID to the CRA added in step 9.
    
    DONE!!!

Now callers will dial DID xxx-xxx-xxxx, hear a fake ringback tone (from the work completed here) and if no fax tone is detected by the CRA the call will transfer to the desktop extension as a voice call. The first ringback tone should be enough to trick older fax machines to begin transmitting. You will probably want to experiment with the name of the CRA as it will show up as the transfer source on display phones for voice calls.

Honestly, this is how we solved the Tech Support CNG nonsense for a lot of years! The beauty is callers never know their call was stalled one ring because this r24 sounds so close to Telco ringback that only Telco jerks like us will know it's just a bit off!

Let me know if you need more explaining!

Attached Files

ringback.zip (4.5 KB, 9 views)

acejavelin

Awesome!!! That sounds MUCH easier than what tech support said, will try it next week and let you know if I have any problems.

Thanks Again!!!

mstaffeld

hmm.... I might be trying this too...

acejavelin

Hmmm... I must have done something wrong. We followed your instructions, but when a person calls in and it plays the recording you provided, you just hear a strange burst of static instead of ringback tone, then the call routes through. I didn't try faxing, but a voice call routes properly after hearing the noise (greeting) of the CRA.

Any ideas? Not sure what the problem is, gonna play with it more later this week.

socaljake

I still have the source .wav so I'll re-R24 it tomorrow. I've not heard it do what you described ever.

acejavelin

OK, that would be great. I have tried a few things and it is just garbage sound in the CRA and if you play the greeting by number.

Perhaps they changed the encoding in release 11 (or another version) of the VPU?

What is the format of r24? Is there a tool I can get to encode or decode this to standard WAV or MP3 format? I tried to open it with a few different tools and got nothing but invalid file format.

socaljake

I put the attached file (even used the one I posted here) on my lab VPU at v11 and all is good. The format is Rhetorex 24 bit.

I don't know what to say.

Just to recap. You recorded 6 seconds of nonsense to audiotex XXX, retrieved the real file system name zzz.r24, then renamed my file to match zzz.r24, right?