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APX Voice Messaging

The NBX 100 features APX Voice Messaging, an integrated voice mail system. APX Voice Messaging requires minimal setup. You can change the global capacity settings for mailboxes, enable and configure Offsite Notification, and change the extension numbers for the voice mail ports, but these are optional tasks.

When you add a new user to the 3Com NBX 100 Communications System, you automatically create the user's mailbox. No other configuration is necessary. Each user must record a personal greeting and create a password before they can retrieve messages, but as the administrator, you do not need to perform any further setup.

In addition, you can create Phantom Mailboxes. You cannot dial directly into a Phantom Mailbox because it has no telephone, but you can send a message from within the voice mail system, and the Automated Attendant can specify the mailbox as a destination for voice messages. For example, you can create a Phantom Mailbox as a "general mailbox" as an option in your Automated Attendant main menu so callers can leave a message without addressing it to a specific person.

APX Voice Messaging Extensions

The number of voice messaging sessions that can take place at one time is dependent on the number of APX Voice Messaging ports you have on your system. The basic NBX 100 includes four APX ports. You can purchase additional capacity if needed.

Each APX port has an extension number. The system uses extensions 651-662, but you can change these numbers. See Managing Extension Lists for more information.

APX Voice Messaging Passwords

To retrieve voice messages, a user must provide a username (their extension) and a password. The password is a four- to ten-digit number. The password provides access to both Personal Settings in NetSet and to voice mail.

Notes on Passwords

  • If a user forgets their password, the administrator can reset it to 0000 (four zeroes).
  • For more information about the APX menus and features available to users, see the appropriate telephone guide.

Configuring APX Voice Messaging Settings

You use the APX Voice Messaging Settings tab to configure system-wide settings for users' voice mailboxes, including:

  • the maximum length of greetings,
  • the number of greetings that may be stored,
  • time limits for storing messages.

Notes on Mailbox Settings

  • If you exhaust the system's message storage space before individual users reach their capacity limits, you should either lower the Mailbox Settings or upgrade your message storage option.
  • Each voice messaging extension (port) enables one voice message session. If all voice mail extensions are in use, call behavior differs depending on the operation. If the Attendant Console is forwarding calls to the Automated Attendant, and all voice messaging extensions are in use, a caller from outside the system hears ringing but no answer until an extension is free. If you transfer a caller to voice mail, but no voice mail extensions are available, the call rings back to your extension.
  • Decreasing Mailbox Settings does not affect data already in storage. If you exhaust the storage space, you must have users delete messages.
  • A typical voice message lasts about 20 to 30 seconds.

To Modify APX Voice Messaging Settings

1. Click the APX Voice Messaging icon.

2. Click the Settings tab. The tab displays any existing settings.

3. Make changes as necessary. Refer to the table below.

4. Click the Apply button. The changes take effect.

Field

Purpose
Max Number of Messages Specifies the number of messages, regardless of length, that any
use can have in their mailbox.
New Msg Retention (day) The maximum number of days that a new message may remain in a mailbox before being automatically deleted.
Msg Retention (days) After a message has been accessed by the user, the maximum
number of days that it may remain in the user's mailbox before
being automatically deleted.
Max Incoming Msg Length (mins) The maximum message length, in minutes.
Voice Mail Compression Format

Specifies the type of compression used by APX for voice prompts and messages. MuLaw provides slightly better sound quality, but requires more bandwidth (about 80 Kbit/s). ADPCM decreases the amount of bandwidth required to about 40 Kbit/s. This setting affects APX messages only--the system uses MuLaw for normal audio packets.

CAUTION: Do not change the Voice Mail Compression Format unless you are preparing to boot an older version of NetSet (prior to 1.1.0) and plan to migrate your current APX prompts and messages into the older database. NBX 100 releases prior to R1.1.0 do not support ADPCM, and R1.1.0 does not include APX system prompts in MuLaw format.

On Disk Voice Mail Format The type of compression currently used for APX messages and prompts 
 Disable AA Transfer Prompt Disable prompts when a call is transferred to the Automated Attendant.


APX Voice Messaging Phantom Mailboxes

A Phantom Mailbox is a User profile with no phone association, a phone number but no phone. You cannot dial directly into a Phantom Mailbox because it has no telephone, but you can send a message to it from within the voice mail system, and the Automated Attendant can specify the mailbox as a destination for voice messages.

To Create a Phantom Mailbox

1. Log in to NetSet using the administrator username and password.

2. On the main menu, click the User Configuration icon.

3. On the Users tab, click the Add button.

4. On the Add User dialog box, specify profile information.

In the Extension Number box, specify an unused extension.

Class of Service specifies the calling permissions for this user. a Phantom Mailbox cannot initiate a call, so this setting has no effect.

The First Name and Last Name appear in lists that show User Profiles. Title, Location, and Department can help you identify the mailbox owner.

Make sure that the Fwd to Auto Attendant check box is cleared.

The Telephone Group specifies telephone button mappings. A phantom mailbox has no phone, so this setting has no effect.

In the Associated Telephone list, click none.

Before you can use the Phantom Mailbox, you must initialize it.

To Initialize a Phantom Mailbox

1. From any NBX phone, lift the handset, and then press the MSG button.

2. At the password prompt, press the * key.

3. At the extension prompt, enter the extension for the Phantom Mailbox.

To Retrieve Messages from a Phantom Mailbox

1. From any NBX phone, lift the handset and then press the MSG button.

2. At the password prompt, press the * key.

3. At the extension prompt, enter the extension for the Phantom Mailbox.

Notes on Phantom Mailboxes

  • A Phantom Mailbox is not associated with a physical device so the system cannot provide a visual indication of a new message. You should have someone periodically check Phantom Mailboxes for new messages, or you could use an email client to retrieve the messages. (For more information, see IMAP (Integrated Voice Messaging).

IMAP (Integrated Voice Messaging)

Advanced PowerMail eXchange employs an IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) server; users can access and manage their voice messages through an IMAP-compliant email client. Although there is no configuration required on the NBX 100 for this feature, as the administrator, you might be asked by your users to help configure email clients.

APX messages appear in a user's inbox as mail messages with .WAV file attachments. Double-clicking an attachment activates the computer's media player and the voice message plays through the speakers or earphones. After you listen to a message, it loses its "new" status, but it remains on the server until you delete it, either through the email client or by accessing voice mail using the telephone.

Each email client has a unique configuration interface, so the following procedure is presented in general terms only. See your email client's documentation to determine how to accomplish a specific task.

To Set Up an Email Client to Access APX Messages

1. Determine if the email client can communicate with an IMAP 4 server.

Microsoft Outlook 97 and Outlook Express, Netscape Communicator 4, and Eudora 4 all support IMAP. Check the documentation that came with your email package to determine if it supports IMAP.

2. Set the Incoming Mail Server to the IP address or host name of your NBX 100.

You can set the Outgoing Mail Server to the mail server you use for regular email or the NBX 100 IMAP mail server.

The NBX 100 IMAP server cannot perform address translation, so you cannot use the NBX 100 as your company email server.

3. If necessary, identify the server type as IMAP.

4. For the user name, specify the user's telephone extension number; for the password, specify the user's NetSet/voicemail password.

Some email clients do not require the password in the configuration settings. The user is prompted for a password when checking mail.

Notes on IMAP

  • The computer you use to receive APX messages must support multimedia, that is, it must have a sound card and either speakers or headphones.
  • You cannot use the NBX 100 to send new messages. However, you can respond to and forward APX messages.
  • To process both email and voice mail on one computer, you need an email client which can connect to two servers or two instances of the email client.

Configuring Off Site Notification

You can configure the NBX 100 APX Voice Messaging system to notify users when they have received voice mail using Off Site Notification. APX Offsite Notification allows a user to receive notification of new voice mail through any of the following notification options:

  • A call to a paging service
  • A call to a specified phone number
  • An email

Off Site Notification can let you know that you have a message. It cannot provide the contents of the message.

The administrator can enable or disable Offsite Notification system-wide, specify the number of APX ports available to the notification process, and specify an outdialing prefix. You can also control access to this feature through a Class of Service setting. Individual users set up their own notification options through NetSet Personal Settings.

The Off Site Notification button in the APX Voice Messaging Settings window allows you to:

  • enable or disable Offsite Notification system-wide,
  • set the maximum number of out-calling ports system-wide,
  • assign a system-wide out-dialing prefix for Offsite Notification.

To Configure System-wide Offsite Notification Settings

1. Click the APX Voice Messaging icon.

2. Click the Settings tab.

3. Click the Off Site Notification button. The System-wide Settings screen appears.

4. Make changes as desired. Refer to the table below.

5. Click the OK button.

 

Table 34 - Off Site Notification

Field

Purpose
Enabled

When selected, this enables Offsite Notification throughout the system.

Note: A Class of Service setting can also be used to enable or disable Offsite Notification; however, this system-wide setting takes precedence.

Max Out-calling Ports

The number of APX ports available for use in Offsite Notification. 

The basic NBX 100 system is shipped with 4 ports; upgrades may enable 6 or 12 ports.

Out-dialing Prefix

A prefix for every call made by Offsite Notification; may be a line card port extension, an APX port extension, or a line pool prefix.

If this setting is blank, the call uses only the information specified by the user.


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