What do I need for VOIP call-out notification?

What do I need for VOIP call-out notification?

For many years TopView has supported voice call-out notification over traditional phone lines but, due to both hardware and software developments, voice notification via TAPI modems is much less reliable than it used to be (see the reliability section below for an explanation). With TopView VOIP notification you can perform the same functions over your network without voice modems or TAPI devices.

Requirements

TopView VOIP notification requires a VOIP service that provides a SIP server and a network connection to that SIP server.

VOIP service options

A SIP server can be provided by: Costs range from option to option, so investigate each option to see which one best fits your business's requirements on functionality and cost.

Why is notification via TAPI less reliable?

TAPI notification is less reliable because the software systems are less reliable, on multiple levels:
  • Soon after its release, Windows 10 experienced TAPI issues for a year before they were fixed
  • TAPI hardware drivers may be highly dependent upon Windows versions and updates
  • Using USB devices on VMs can be problematic
We find that the time spent setting up, testing, and supporting TAPI hardware and software through its issues is far more expensive than VOIP.

    • Related Articles

    • DTMF detection issues for VOIP calls (e.g. using key presses to acknowledge alarms over voice calls)

      DTMF  (Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling - Wikipedia) is responsible for communication of key presses over the phone call. TopView can use these key presses to allow calls to proceed, or to acknowledge alarms via voice notifications. Here are some ...

    • VOIP Phone call register/unregister issues

      Overview TopView Voice Notification makes VOIP phone calls for alarm notification. The VOIP protocol is SIP. TopView is a "SIP client" that connects to the SIP Server to make phone calls. Each phone call in TopView is made by a separate call process ...

    • VOIP and SIP issues

      If test voice notifications via VOIP are experiencing difficulties, we recommend the following tests and procedures: Make sure you're running the most recent version of TopView possible, along with any patches for that version. Verify that the ...

    • Voice Notification: What hardware do I need?

      TopView 6.25 dropped support for voice notifications using TAPI modems and it will not be supported for future versions Due to the dwindling hardware and OS-level support for these devices we no longer support TAPI as a notification method. We ...

    • Why does my notification include a time that's not included in notification message template?

      When using a notification message template to send consistent notifications for alarms, you may notice a timestamp at the start of the notification that isn't in the template. This is due to an outgoing email setting, and can be suppressed. To remove ...