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- Last Updated: 26 Jun 95
-
- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR PHONE BLASTER
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- This is a frequently asked question document for the Creative
- Phone Blaster audio/telephony card. This document summarizes many
- frequently asked questions and answers about the Phone Blaster.
- If you have a question, please check this file before calling
- Creative Technical Support as you may find the answer contained
- in this document.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- This FAQ is organized into the following sections:
-
- * [A] General information about Phone Blaster
- * [B] Hardware Related Questions
- * [C] Ancilla v1.51 Questions and Answers
- * [D] Using the Phone Blaster with Third Party Communication programs
- * [E] Using Ancilla/Phone Blaster with other operating systems
-
- Before you continue ...
-
- This document mainly covers the modem/telephony side of the Phone Blaster,
- not the sound card portion. The sound card side IS a genuine SB16 card, and
- so in general, whatever applies to the SB16 applies equally to the Phone
- Blaster.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Contents
-
- SECTION A - General information about Phone Blaster
-
- 1. What is the Phone Blaster?
- 2. What is the Target Audience?
- 3. Where can I find Phone Blaster?
- 4. Is the Phone Blaster available outside the U.S.?
-
- SECTION B - Hardware Related Questions
-
- 1. What are the Phone Blaster's default hardware settings?
- 2. Is the Phone Blaster Plug and Play compatible?
- 3. What kind of CD-ROM drives does the Phone Blaster support?
- 4. Can I connect my Omni-2X to the Phone Blaster?
- 5. Does the Phone Blaster support wave table synthesis?
- 6. Can I have an AWE card, or other Sound Blaster card, and a Phone
- Blaster at the same time?
- 7. Will the Phone Blaster work with all my current games and applications
- that are Sound Blaster compatible?
- 8. Is the modem on the Phone Blaster DSP based?
- 9. What chipset does the modem use?
- 10. Is the Phone Blaster upgradeable to 28.8?
- 11. How many phone lines does the Phone Blaster support?
- 12. What are the data compression and error control standards supported by
- Phone Blaster?
- 13. Does the modem support Hayes commands?
- 14. What class fax mode command and fax machine group are supported in fax
- mode?
- 15. Does Phone Blaster support standard and enhanced caller-ID?
- 16. Will Phone Blaster work with a laptop computer?
- 17. How should I configure the SBIDE.SYS driver?
-
- SECTION C - Ancilla v1.51 Questions and Answers
-
- 1. Will Ancilla hang up if there is a certain amount of silence when a
- caller leaves a voice mail message? How much silence?
- 2. How long can messages be?
- 3. How much hard drive space does Ancilla use per minute of recording?
- 4. Does Ancilla get rid of silence in a voice message or play it back?
- 5. Is there a limit to the amount of messages that can be saved on the
- system?
- 6. Can you limit the HD space Ancilla will use?
- 7. How many mail boxes does Ancilla support?
- 8. Can you import or export wave files with Ancilla?
- 9. Does Ancilla support fax on demand or fax back?
- 10. Is it illegal to record a telephone conversation?
- 11. Can I import information from other applications such as Lotus or Act
- into the Ancilla phonebook?
- 12. Do I need the hardware provided by the phone company to use caller ID?
- 13. Does Ancilla support message forwarding and pager or cellular phone
- notification?
- 14. What is VoiceView?
- 15. Is VoiceView shipping with the product?
- 16. How does VoiceView work?
- 17. Does Ancilla support music on hold?
- 18. Is remote access done through DTMF tone or text to speech?
- 19. What is the default data init string for the terminal program in
- Ancilla?
- 20. How do I increase the volume for speakerphone calls?
- 21. I cannot hear dialtone, dial or connection sounds using the Phone
- Blaster. It will connect and the speaker phone works fine. How can I
- hear Ancilla dialing?
- 22. When I click on the Ancilla icon, the program says it is
- intitializing, then it gives the following error: "could not
- initialize modem, no response from the modem." What is causing this?
- 23. How do I change the default Ancilla voice prompts?
- 24. I set the Pulse dial option within the Modem section of the Ancilla
- v1.51 System Setup, but Ancilla continues to dial in tone and not
- pulse. What's wrong?
- 25. Caller-ID does not work. What is wrong?
- 26. How can people with rotary phones leave messages with Ancilla v1.51?
-
- SECTION D - Using the Phone Blaster with Third Party Communication programs
-
- 1. Can I use other voice messaging software with the Phone Blaster?
- 2. What modem brand do I chose in 3rd party communication and online
- (CompuServe WinCIM, America Online, etc.) software packages?
- 3. Can I run Ancilla v1.51 to receive voice calls and another program to
- handle faxing at the same time?
- 4. How do I setup the Phone Blaster in Trumpet Winsock?
-
- SECTION E - Using Ancilla/Phone Blaster with other operating systems
-
- 1. Does Ancilla work in DOS, OS/2 or Windows NT?
- 2. Is Ancilla compatible with Windows 95?
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section A - General Information about Phone Blaster
-
- 1. What is the Phone Blaster?
-
- Phone Blaster is an add-in board combining both our standard Sound
- Blaster 16 digital audio and FM synthesis technology, an upgradeable
- 14.4 modem, a full duplex speakerphone, powerful telecommunications
- software, and Enhanced IDE CD-ROM interface.
-
- Three Key Messages:
- o The Phone Blaster is an advanced telephony board with powerful
- integrated Ancilla software for a professional sounding voice
- mail answering system and fax management.
- o The Phone Blaster gives small business a big corporate look and
- feel.
- o The Phone Blaster saves users time and money.
- + All hardware is on one board (Sound Card, Modem, IDE CD-ROM
- Controller).
- + All functions are done through a single phone line (Voice,
- Fax, and Data).
-
- 2. What is the Target Audience?
-
- The Phone Blaster is geared towards Small Office and Home Office
- users.
-
- 3. Where can I find Phone Blaster?
-
- Phone Blaster can be found at all large computer retail chains as well
- as at smaller resellers across North America.
-
- 4. Is the Phone Blaster available outside the U.S.?
-
- Currently, the Phone Blaster is available in Canada and Singapore.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section B - Hardware Related Questions
-
- 1. What are the Phone Blaster's default hardware settings?
-
- Sound Blaster 16 (Optional settings in parenthesis)
-
- I/O Address: 220h (240h, 260h, 280h)
- Interrupt: 5 (2, 7, 10)
- DMA: 1 (0, 3)
- MIDI Port: 330h (300h, Disabled)
- High DMA: 5 (6, 7, Disabled)
- Adlib: 388h
- Joystick: 207h (Disabled)
-
- IDE CD-ROM Interface (Optional settings in parenthesis)
-
- I/O Address: 170h (1E8h, 168h, Disabled)
- Interrupt: 15 (10, 11, 12, Disabled)
-
- Modem (Optional settings in parenthesis)
-
- I/O Address: COM3/3E8h (COM1/3F8h, COM2/2F8, COM4/2E8h)
- Interrupt: 11 (3, 4, 10)
-
- 2. Is the Phone Blaster Plug and Play compatible?
-
- The Phone Blaster will work in a Plug and Play system, but you will
- need to manually configure it. The Phone Blaster itself is not a Plug
- and Play card.
-
- 3. What kind of CD-ROM drives does the Phone Blaster support?
-
- Phone Blaster supports Enhanced IDE CD-ROM drives. Our current
- SBIDE.SYS driver (available on the BBS, CompuServe, and FTP site as
- SBIDE.EXE) supports the following CD-ROMs directly:
-
- SBIDE.SYS version 1.08 supports:
- o Creative: CD220E
- o Goldstar: R540B
- o Mitsumi: FX400
- o NEC: CDR271, CDR272
- o Panasonic: CR574B, CR581
- o Toshiba: XM5302
-
- 4. Can I connect my Omni-2X to the Phone Blaster?
-
- Owners of other Creative Labs non-IDE CD-ROM drives can call Customer
- Service at 1-800-998-1000 to obtain low cost stand alone CD-ROM
- controller card, such as the CT1810 which works with our
- Creative/Panasonic CD-ROM drives.
-
- Note: Also available from Customer Service is the CT1830 which has
- both a Creative/Panasonic and Sony CD-ROM interface. The Sony CD-ROM
- interface will work with the Sony CDU-33A CD-ROM, which was packaged
- in some of our earlier Multimedia Upgrade Kits. This card is currently
- sold standalone without documentation or CD-ROM drivers. It will
- default to having the Creative/MKE(Panasonic) interface enabled with
- the Sony interface being enabled after a jumper change (add a jumper
- to JP2). All hardware settings are printed on the card.
-
- 5. Does the Phone Blaster support wave table synthesis?
-
- Wave table synthesis is available as an upgrade. The Phone Blaster
- features a Wave Blaster connector to upgrade for wave table synthesis
- using the Wave Blaster II. For questions relating to the Wave Blaster
- II, see our Wave Blaster II FAQ, available on Creative's BBS
- (405-742-6660), CompuServe Forum (GO BLASTER), and FTP site
- (ftp.creaf.com) as WB2FAQ.EXE.
-
- 6. Can I have an AWE card, or other Sound Blaster card, and a Phone
- Blaster at the same time?
-
- This is not supported. Two Sound Blaster cards generally cannot
- function together in the same system. Remember that the Phone Blaster
- is a SB16 card.
-
- 7. Will the Phone Blaster work with all my current games and applications
- that are Sound Blaster compatible?
-
- The Phone Blaster is 100% Sound Blaster compatible; therefore, it will
- work with all of your games and applications that are Sound Blaster
- compatible.
-
- 8. Is the modem on the Phone Blaster DSP based?
-
- At this time we can provide a more cost effective solution to our
- customers by implementing both audio and the modem functionality in
- discrete silicon. We do however believe in DSP technology and use it
- on other advanced multi-function products.
-
- 9. What chipset does the modem use?
-
- The Phone Blaster uses a Rockwell Voice Modem chipset.
-
- 10. Is the Phone Blaster upgradeable to 28.8?
-
- Yes. We will announce when the upgrade is available.
-
- 11. How many phone lines does the Phone Blaster support?
-
- The Phone Blaster supports a single phone line only with automatic
- fax-voice detection.
-
- 12. What are the data compression and error control standards supported by
- Phone Blaster?
-
- Phone Blaster supports V.42 bis/MNP5 data compression and V.42/MNP4
- error control.
-
- 13. Does the modem support Hayes commands?
-
- Yes. Phone Blaster is fully compatible with Hayes standard commands as
- well as the extended AT command set, making it compatible with all
- common applications.
-
- 14. What class fax mode command and fax machine group are supported in fax
- mode?
-
- Phone Blaster supports class 1 and class 2 fax commands and Group 3
- fax machines.
-
- 15. Does Phone Blaster support standard and enhanced caller-ID?
-
- Yes. It is a standard feature on Phone Blaster as long as the user
- subscribes to caller ID via their local phone company. Standard
- Caller-ID supplies the Date, Time, and Phone Number. Enhanced
- Caller-ID supplies the Date, Time, Phone Number, and Name.
-
- 16. Will Phone Blaster work with a laptop computer?
-
- No. The Phone Blaster is an internal ISA card. However, the Phone
- Blaster will work with most docking stations.
-
- 17. How should I configure the SBIDE.SYS driver?
-
- The SBIDE.SYS line in the CONFIG.SYS should look something like this:
-
- DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\SBIDE.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:170,15
-
- You will also need to make sure you have the following line in the
- AUTOEXEC.BAT:
-
- C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /M:15
-
- Explanation of parameters for SBIDE.SYS:
- /D:drive_name
- the device name of the CD-ROM drive. The device name can be
- anything; however, it needs to match the same /D: parameter of
- the MSCDEX driver in the AUTOEXEC.BAT.
- /P:XXX,YY
- XXX is the IDE port address, in this case 170h, and YY is the IDE
- port IRQ, in this case IRQ 15. This parameter needs to match the
- IDE port settings of the Phone Blaster.
- /V
- Verbose listing for drive information.
-
- Explanation of parameters for MSCDEX.EXE:
- /D:drive_name
- the device name of the CD-ROM.
- /M:NN
- Amount, in 2k chunks, to set aside as a CD-ROM buffer. 8 is
- usually a good number.
-
- Type C:\DOS\HELP MSCDEX.EXE for further details on this driver.
- (MS-DOS v5.0 does not have this help file.)
-
- For other Enhanced IDE CD-ROM drives, use the CD-ROM manufacturer's
- supplied CD-ROM driver. You may have to reconfigure third party CD-ROM
- drivers to match the hardware settings of the Phone Blaster.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section C - Ancilla v1.51 Questions and Answers
-
- 1. Will Ancilla hang up if there is a certain amount of silence when a
- caller leaves a voice mail message? How much silence?
-
- Yes, Ancilla will hang-up after an amount of silence determined by the
- "recording silence timeout" setting. The minimum is 1 second, and the
- maximum is 30 seconds.
-
- 2. How long can messages be?
-
- The maximum message length can be set anywhere from 10 seconds to 999
- seconds (over 16 minutes).
-
- 3. How much hard drive space does Ancilla use per minute of recording?
-
- Ancilla will use approximately 250 Kb per minute at the 4 bits per
- second record setting, or 125 Kb per minute at the 2 bits per second
- record setting.
-
- 4. Does Ancilla get rid of silence in a voice message or play it back?
-
- Ancilla automatically deletes the silence at the end of a message.
- Pauses within the message are left intact.
-
- 5. Is there a limit to the amount of messages that can be saved on the
- system?
-
- No. Ancilla's message limit is dependent upon the system's hard disk
- space.
-
- 6. Can you limit the HD space Ancilla will use?
-
- You can reduce the amount of hard disk space each message occupies by
- using the 2 bits per second record setting and lowering the maximum
- allowed message recording time.
-
- 7. How many mail boxes does Ancilla support?
-
- Ancilla supports 9000 passcode-protected mailboxes.
-
- 8. Can you import or export wave files with Ancilla?
-
- Yes, if the wave file is 8 or 16 bit, 11 or 22 kHz, mono, and
- uncompressed.
-
- 9. Does Ancilla support fax on demand or fax back?
-
- Yes. Ten documents can be set up for each mailbox, making a total of
- 90,000 fax on demand documents.
-
- 10. Is it illegal to record a telephone conversation?
-
- It is legal as long as the remote party is informed that the call is
- being recorded. Three beeps are played by Ancilla announcing the
- beginning of a recorded conversation.
-
- 11. Can I import information from other applications such as Lotus or Act
- into the Ancilla phonebook?
-
- Yes, if the application can export data to comma delimited text, which
- Ancilla will then be able to import. For example, the file should look
- something like this after it is exported from your application:
-
- "DOE","JOHN","405","555-1234",...
- "DOE","JANE","123","456-7890",...
-
- 12. Do I need the hardware provided by the phone company to use caller ID?
-
- No, because Ancilla provides the functionality within the software.
-
- 13. Does Ancilla support message forwarding and pager or cellular phone
- notification?
-
- Yes. Ancilla does support message forwarding and pager notification.
-
- 14. What is VoiceView?
-
- VoiceView lets you exchange files with another user while maintaining
- the current voice connection. While the file is being transferred, the
- phone will be silent. When the transfer has completed, voice
- conversation can be resumed. This eliminates the need to make three
- separate phone calls.
-
- 15. Is VoiceView shipping with the product?
-
- Yes. It is a standard feature on Phone Blaster.
-
- 16. How does VoiceView work?
-
- VoiceView must be used with the handset only. It cannot be used with
- the speakerphone. The remote system has to support VoiceView in the
- hardware and any type of file can be transferred.
-
- 17. Does Ancilla support music on hold?
-
- Yes, Ancilla can play WAV files, MIDI files, or CD Audio while the
- caller is put on hold.
-
- 18. Is remote access done through DTMF tone or text to speech?
-
- Remote access is done through DTMF tone. This means that when you
- check your messages remotely, you will use the touch tone keys on the
- phone to navigate Ancilla's menus, as a caller would to leave a
- message.
-
- 19. What is the default data init string for the terminal program in
- Ancilla?
-
- AT&C1&D2W1X4S38=0S7=60S11=60
-
- 20. How do I increase the volume for speakerphone calls?
-
- Speakerphone volume may be increased with the Modem/PC speaker and
- master volume in the Creative mixer. Also, with the volume control at
- the bottom of the dialer. You may want to check JP25, and JP26 to make
- sure they are on the bottom two pins (see manual) so that the internal
- amplifier is enabled.
-
- 21. I cannot hear dialtone, dial or connection sounds using the Phone
- Blaster. It will connect and the speaker phone works fine. How can I
- hear Ancilla dialing?
-
- The default setting for the speaker volume is off. If you are having
- trouble hearing the Phone Blaster, turn the Modem/PC Speaker volume
- up.
-
- 22. When I click on the Ancilla icon, the program says it is
- intitializing, then it gives the following error: "could not
- initialize modem, no response from the modem." What is causing this?
-
- This is probably the result of a COM port and/or IRQ conflict. You
- will need to change the IRQ and/or COM port settings of the Phone
- Blaster so that it does not conflict with existing hardware. It may be
- necessary to disable a COM port that is not being used in the system,
- and then set the Phone Blaster to that COM port's settings. Our
- Diagnose Program, which is documented in the Phone Blaster's Getting
- Started book, can help you locate an available COM port.
-
- 23. How do I change the default Ancilla voice prompts?
-
- o Start the Ancilla Dialer by clicking on the phone icon of the
- Ancilla "scoreboard".
- o Select Options - System Setup.
- o Select the Prompts tab. This brings up the prompts menu with
- recording capability. It lists the "number" on the left, and the
- "prompt name" on the right in columns.
- o Click the "Number" button. Ancilla will sort the prompts by
- number.
- o You will see the following in the list:
-
- 1 Good Morning
- 2 Good Afternoon
- 3 Good Evening
- 4 Prompt for touch tone
- 10 System Greeting
- 11 Greeting for main menu
- 20 Enter Mailbox Number
-
- and so on...
- o Generally, you will want to re-record numbers 1,2,3,10,11, and 20
- with your own voice. You will probably want to personalize the
- system greeting to suit your needs.
-
- Note: the Greeting for main menu can also be changed in the
- main menu setup screen.
-
- Note: Ancilla's message structure cannot be changed or
- re-arranged. If you don't want Ancilla to play a particular
- prompt, you can record silence over the prompt. You cannot
- change the structure of the system, other than the main
- menu.
-
- 24. I set the Pulse dial option within the Modem section of the Ancilla
- v1.51 System Setup, but Ancilla continues to dial in tone and not
- pulse. What's wrong?
-
- The updated Ancilla v1.51b upgrade/patch will correct this.
-
- 25. Caller-ID does not work. What is wrong?
-
- Ancilla v1.51 will only work correctly with Standard Caller-ID. The
- updated Ancilla v1.51b upgrade/patch will work with both Standard and
- Enhanced Caller-ID.
-
- 26. How can people with rotary phones leave messages with Ancilla v1.51?
-
- The updated Ancilla v1.51b upgrade/patch will allow callers with
- rotary phones to leave a message in the simple answering machine.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section D - Using the Phone Blaster with Third Party Communication programs
-
- 1. Can I use other voice messaging software with the Phone Blaster?
-
- You should be able to use other voice messaging software with this
- modem if the third-party software supports the Rockwell Voice chipset.
- However, third-party software may not support all of Phone Blaster's
- features.
-
- 2. What modem brand do I chose in 3rd party communication and online
- (CompuServe WinCIM, America Online, etc.) software packages?
-
- Try the following modem selections:
-
- Supra FaxModem 144I
- Hayes V-series v.32bis
- Zoom 14.4
- Other Rockwell chipset based modems
- Class 2 Fax/Modem in Fax software
-
- The default initialization strings will be fine.
-
- 3. Can I run Ancilla v1.51 to receive voice calls and another program to
- handle faxing at the same time?
-
- No, you can only run one communication program at a time. Two
- communication programs cannot share the same physical COM port.
-
- 4. How do I setup the Phone Blaster in Trumpet Winsock?
-
- Edit the login.cmd file in the trumpet directory. Near the beginning
- there will be an "atz" string. Replace it with this string. Please
- note that this string is optimized for 14.4kbps only!
-
- AT S37=11 S46=138 S48=7 W1 L3 N0 &R1^M
-
- For a description of the above AT commands, please consult the Phone
- Blaster's AT Command help-file. The help-file is accessed by clicking
- on the AT Command ICON located in the Phone Blaster Windows Group.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Section E - Using Ancilla/Phone Blaster with other operating systems
-
- 1. Does Ancilla work in DOS, OS/2 or Windows NT?
-
- Ancilla is a Windows based product. Ancilla does not work in DOS
- although the Phone Blaster will work with other DOS compatible
- communications programs. We do not support Ancilla under OS/2 or
- Windows NT.
-
- 2. Is Ancilla compatible with Windows 95?
-
- Ancilla works in some versions of Windows 95 Beta. An upgrade should
- be available after Windows 95 ships.
-
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Creative Labs Technical Support
-