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Sistem
News, Telephony Edition
January,
2002
Phones: Proprietary or
Standard, It's Your Choice
By Eric Muench, President
One of the main features that attracted me to AltiGen
and BizFon is the ability to use standard off-the-shelf
analog phones on their systems. I can remember my old
Executone phone system with its nice executive desk
phone set. After a few years, we needed more extensions
and were surprised to find that the phones we needed had
doubled in price and it was the only phone that
would work on our system. Interestingly enough when we
went to trade in this system a few months later the same
dealer told us that these phones were not worth much… (I
guess unless you want to buy one!)
Today you can buy anything, even a $10 desk phone that
you would use at home, and plug it right into an AltiGen
or BizFon switch. Of course, if you want message waiting
lights, buttons for hold, forward, and transfer, you
need to buy a phone that has some programmable buttons.
However, you are not forced into expensive proprietary
phones. Any phone that has some programmable buttons
(usually called speed dial buttons) can be programmed
for these basic functions.
Below are some examples of phones that will work on
AltiGen or BizFon. To make this point clear, look at the
last one. It is an M&M Candy Phone. We have it plugged
in as our “Guest” phone in our lobby area. A major
savings is in cordless phones. Proprietary ones are 2-5
times the price of a standard cordless phone.
This is just another reason to break the chains of
proprietary phone systems and consider the newest
technology offered by Genesistems.
Hardware Hints: Silent System
Parking
By Rick
Rekkerth
AltiWare is a rapidly evolving product. Since OE was
introduced, many undocumented features have been added.
One of them is #73 or Silent System Park. Normally, when
you park someone using Flash #41, the AltiGen responds
with "Call parked at 00". This works well for most
office users, but for busy receptionists or users that
handle multiple calls, calls need to be parked quickly
and efficiently so that the next call can be retrieved.
The Silent System Park allows the receptionist to take
the next call very quickly.
If you have this feature turned on together with
multiple call waiting, the receptionist can have a speed
dial on her set that is programmed for flash #73. This
button will then park the current call and immediately
pickup the incoming call with a single efficient button
press for the receptionist.
AltiWare and Anti-Virus
Software
By Rick
Rekkerth
Recently there have been a number of viruses, notably
the Nimda and Code Red viruses, that focus on exploiting
weaknesses in the web-hosting and browser interfaces in
Microsoft products.
AltiGen utilizes the Windows NT Server and Windows 2000
Server operating systems as a platform for the AltiGen
telephony system. AltiGen's native architecture does not
perform any tasks that will contribute to the spread of
viruses. However, the virus examples previously
mentioned exploit the weakness in Microsoft's browser
and Internet Information Server components which could
become infected and contribute to the spreading of such
viruses in an AltiGen phone system.
We at Genesistems recommend that users of the AltiGen
telephony solution deploy Symantec's Norton AntiVirus
Corporate Edition v7.6 on their Windows NT or Windows
2000 platform where the AltiWare has been installed.
For more information, please feel free to call us at
(585) 475-9180 and select David Levine's extension
number 215 or Rick Rekkerth's Extension 211. |
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