Setting up QOS on your routers to support ShoreTel VoIP across a WAN connection requires that you employ some creativity in your configuration.   Think of Class Marking as a way of “coloring” packets so that the routers no how to treat the packets when there is any kind of congestion.   We want voice packets to have a priority over data packets, so we color them and tell the carrier or WAN router which color is voice.   Generally, QOS strategies employ [...]

It really doesn’t matter what VoIP system you installed they all generally have one architectural characteristic in common; the configuration database.  Depending on the system, you might find a database engine that ranges in complexity from an Access Database to a full blown SQL database.  The database will store configuration information, status information and often, call detail records that document phone system activities.   The characteristic of the database that is consistent across all architectures is the fact that there can [...]

If you have been following our tech tips, you know that route points in the ShoreTel IPBX have a matching IRN in the Contact Center. If you want to route a call to a different destination based on the date and time that a call hits the Contact Center, how and where would you apply the schedule? Technicians familiar with the ease of creating schedules in the ShoreTel IPBX, might immediately apply a schedule to a route point. After all, [...]

Trouble Shooting VoIP issues in a multi-site deployment is a challenge to even the most talented network engineer. It is often difficult to determine what is a voice equipment issue and what is an issue aggravated by a network conditions. As network engineer trouble shooting an issue, having access to network monitoring tools is essential. Sometimes we have to use the basic ICMP tool sets and ping our way through a trace route, but network connectivity is only one element [...]

How many people hit the Auto Attendant and then dialed one for Sales? One of the most requested reports from ShoreTel clients is the analysis of Automated Attendant key strokes. With in the ShoreTel iPBX there are probably several ways to implement this, but we prefer the use of “route points” (see past blog). “ Thank you for calling our company during our normal business hours. For Sales Press 1, for Service Press 2 or stay on the line and [...]

To the sales team, I sound like a broken record as I repeated the engineering driven mantra: “A VoIP solution is only as good as the network it is build on”.     No matter how many times we tell clients that you can not obtain reliable, predictable toll quality voice communications over the public Internet, they insist on having us implement it.   The old marketing adage “you do not give customers what they need, you give them what they want” clearly [...]

Stuck on how to get a WAV file of a professionally recorded voice mail greeting into the right ShoreTel Voice Mail box? After all there is no import utility as there is during the creation of an Automated Attendant. I can’t speak for you, but I was curious to know if I could just copy the WAV file to the mailbox? Where was the mailbox anyway? Now that you mention it, where are the voice messages. ShoreTel has always had [...]

Caller ID is an interesting area and we see a variety of client request regarding this functionality. On analog lines, there is not much room for configuration. Generally this information is transmitted as FSK (i.e. modem tones) in either the SDMF or MDMF format, in the silent portion of the phone company “ring cycle”. For this reason, if you answer an incoming call before the ShoreTel has an opportunity to capture the CID information, you may not see it displayed. [...]

Thecr ShoreTel IPBX “Route Points” are powerful configuration tools, generally used to enable third party applications.  Using route points, an external application can gain complete call control.  For example, when you configure a ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center, you will use route points to control call flow, media and routing options.  The interaction with the route point is generally through TAPI and TAPI wave, but route points can be used to create other options for call control including call deflection and [...]

An assumption in this blog  is that if your company has a  ”network administrator”  on staff, you have a network that is large enough to require constant  ”care and feeding”.    As such dumping a bunch of VoIP phones onto your network without VLAN’s  would never happen.  After all,  the fist job of a network administrator is to make the network broadcast space smaller and smaller.  That is why we subnet!   Take a typical Class C network with 100 [...]