“Voice-over-Internet-Protocol, or ‘VoIP’ service, is delivered directly over the Internet, and is becoming popular because of the considerable cost-savings some VoIP service providers enable. In this lesson, I’ll show you how to configure two types of services: analog and Voice-over-IP.”

“If you have analog phone service, then you’ll need to connect it into Response Point using a hardware device called an ‘analog gateway.’ I’ll show you a couple of examples of this. Some base units come with analog gateways built in. The one I’m using in this lesson has two built-in gateways, each of which has four ports. You can see this by looking at the back of the base unit hardware, by looking or in Administrator. If you have a built-in gateway, just plug your phone lines directly into the base unit and you can make and receive calls.”

“Some Response Point manufacturers also provide stand-alone gateways. I’m going to show you how to add one of these to your system. The first thing you should do is to plug the gateway device into your network, and plug your analog lines into the back of the device. Then, go into Administrator and click Add Voice Service. You should see the new gateway device listed. Just select it and click OK. Administrator will lead you through a sequence of pages to configure the device.”

“The first page displays background information about the device. The next page lists all of the ports on the device. In this case, I’m adding a four-port gateway, which means I can plug in up to four analog lines. Just enable the ports that you’ve plugged in, and give each of them a label.”

“The labels are for your own reference, so just enter something that’s meaningful to you. For example, each of your analog lines has its own phone number, so you may want to just type in the phone number as the label. On the right-hand side, you’ll see a column called Block Outbound Calls. This is useful if you want to reserve one or more lines to be available for incoming calls to your business.”

“Next, just give the device a name. This is the name that will be displayed in Administrator. It’s for your own reference, so just choose something that’s meaningful to you.”

“On the final page, you have the option to make emergency calls go through the analog service wherever possible. This is useful if you have more than one type of service. Check your service providers’ policies regarding emergency service calls to decide whether or not to check this box.”

“Once you click Finish, Response Point will connect to the new analog gateway, configure it, and wait for it to connect into the system with its new settings. You now have analog service that you can use to make and receive phone calls.”

“The other type of service I’d like to show you is Voice-over-IP. We’ll start by clicking Add Voice Service. For some VoIP service providers, Response Point can connect to them directly. For others, Response Point connects via a separate hardware device provided by the service provider. In this example, I’ll assume your service provider is one that Response Point can connect to directly, since this is the more common scenario.”

“The first page asks you which service provider you’re using. The easiest option is to choose a service provider that Response Point has partnered with. These are all listed on this page. I recommend you look through this list, and examine each one. Each has a Web link and a phone number to sign up for service or learn more information. Some of them will also automatically download their configuration settings to Response Point, making your configuration task much easier.”

“You don’t have to use one of the listed service providers. You can select Other Service Provider and provide the configuration details yourself. Response Point has a certification program, and service providers who have passed the certification tests will be listed on our Web site, which is linked to from this page.”
“If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can try using a service provider that hasn’t been certified. Response Point uses standard Voice-over-IP protocols, so that this may indeed work for you, but the standards vary widely, and not all services will work, so I strongly recommend you use one of our partner or certified service providers if you can.”

“On the next page, you’ll need to provide the account information you received from your service provider. If you’re curious to know what each field means, the Help page provides a good reference.”

“Start with the address of record or URI, which looks a lot like an e-mail address. Once you enter it, some of the other fields are filled automatically with likely values. Not all service providers follow the same conventions, so you should double-check these.”

“The proxy server address is the server that Response Point will connect to in order to receive service. Your service provider will tell you what proxy server to use.”

“You’ll also need to find out whether your service provider requires in-band DTMF. DTMF is the technical term for touch-tones – the beeps that you hear when you dial the keys on your phone. The term ‘in-band’ means that touch tones are transmitted mixed in with your voice. The opposite of this, “out of band,” is where the tones are not mixed with your voice. Out of band is generally more reliable. But in any case, just find out whether your service provider only supports in-band, and if so, check this box.”

“Enter the password you received from your service provider. In most cases, it’s fine to just leave the other fields with their default values, and click Next.”

“With a VoIP service, you can assign individual phone numbers to individual users, rather than sending all calls to the receptionist or speech recognition system. These are commonly called ‘direct-inward dialing,’ or ‘DID numbers.’”

“To assign a DID number to a user, just click Add, type in a phone number, and select the user you want the number to belong to. Do this for as many DID numbers as you want to assign. When you’re done, click Next.”

“The next page talks about caller ID. Caller ID is the phone number your service provider attaches to your outgoing calls, so that the people you call can see the number you’re calling from. Most VoIP service providers just provide your caller ID automatically whenever you make a call. But some require you to include it in your configuration. If you have one of these service providers, you should type your caller ID here.”

“Next, you should provide a name for the VoIP service. This is the name Administrator will use when referring to the service, so just pick something that’s meaningful to you.”

“Finally, just as we saw with the analog gateway, you can decide whether or not you want emergency calls to go through this service whenever possible. Refer to your service provider’s emergency calling policies before deciding whether to check this box.”

“One other thing you’ll notice on this page is that you can choose a dialing prefix. Response Point allows you to have two types of voice services at the same time. You select one service by dialing a 9 first, and the other by dialing an 8 first. This page lets you choose whether you want the service you’re configuring to be selected by dialing 8 or 9.”

“When you click Finish, Response Point will attempt to connect to the VoIP service provider to confirm the settings you provided. If that succeeds, it will save the settings and enable the service. For this example, since I used a made-up service provider, I’ll just cancel out.”

“So, in summary”:
•    “Response Point supports three types of services: analog, digital, and Voice-over-IP.”
•    “If you want to use a Voice-over-IP service, we strongly recommend that you use one of the preferred service providers listed as part of the Add Voice Service process, or at least a service provider that has passed Response Point certification.”

“Thanks for watching this lesson.”