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Podcast – Common Engineering Questions – How to Implement InformaCast

Brad Parkel — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Are you about to implement an instance of Singlewire InformaCast in your organization? Are you concerned about what issues you might discover and you install and begin testing? Want to know more about what needs to be configured on your network?

We’ve put this question to Peter Lord, one of Singlewire’s Senior Solution Architects. He discusses the common problems network admins run into and details the simple fixes to bring resolution. For over a decade Peter has been implementing the InformaCast mass notification and emergency communication software in organizations large and small. Peter’s list of certifications include: CCDP, CCNP-V, CCNP, CS-CIPTDS, CS-CIPCCES, CS-CUSS, CCDA, and CCNA, in addition to certifications in Microsoft and CompTIA.

Listen to the podcast below or read the transcript to learn more about the common network engineering problems when installing InformaCast for the first time.

I'm here talking with Peter Lord, Solutions Architect at Singlewire Software. The long and short of it, you are very familiar with technical implementation of InformaCast. In organizations you're a guy that's on site in many cases. And in previous jobs you were actually that person pulling the levers and making things work.

Right, I bring an integrator, a network engineer perspective to the Informacast installation and sales perspective. OK, what we're looking to talk about today are just common technical problems that maybe you've seen when you've been out in the field or an end user would see if they're sitting down to implement InformaCast for the first time.

Alright so, what are some of the things that you see as major technical hurdles that you know an engineer might find when their looking to implement? Well, the great thing about our documentation is that it's really thorough. The downside to that is our documentation is quite long. But people who are familiar with InformaCast and our documentation and follow through it step by step.

Really get through the install process and things just work. The downside is that we're dependent on a lot of other pieces, there's a lot of moving parts to Informacast installation.

So the first common issue that I see is that a lot of people don't have one web access enabled on their phones. And two, that the authentication URL is not set under the enterprise perimeters on CUCM. Both of those settings require phones to be reset.

So what people end up seeing then is they install InformaCast, they think they have everything configured properly. And then they go to do a test and when they do that test, nothing happens. So the two common causes for that are the web access not being enabled and the authentication URL not being set at the phone level.

The next most common problem is that when somebody does do that test, they install InformaCast, do that initial test. The phone gets the text and the lights come on and makes a little beep noise but none of the audio comes out and this is the big red flag that says multicast routing is not enabled.

Because the phones got text but the phone did not get the audio. The only piece of InformatCast broadcast that uses multicast is the G.711 u-law multicast audio stream.

Another common question that people have is what platform should I use to run InformaCast? InformaCast runs on Windows or we also have a virtual appliance which has a Linux backend. The major difference between these two is that, with the Windows installation you have administrator access to the server, so you can do what you want on that server.

Where the virtual appliance there is no root access, so what comes on that server is what's available on that server. Nothing can be added minus a plug in. So the real difference between the two then is if I have a new installation of InformaCast and I don't need any other peripheral applications, like the Legacy Paging Interface, CallAware and PushToTalk.

The virtual appliance is a very easy way to get an InformaCast server up and running very quickly. If I have an InformaCast installation that's going to require the functionality of CallAware, Legacy Paging Interface or PushToTalk. It starts to make more sense just to use a single Windows server to host all those applications.

So those are probably the places where people should look to when their starting out, just to being aware of kinda those as the common pitfalls or, or problem areas. Precisely, and we do have a compatibility matrix on our website as well that shows what versions of InformaCast work with what version of Cisco Call Manager, Call Manager Express and the Cisco IP phone models.

And you mentioned documentation at the beginning that is something where you can find answers to all these questions and troubleshooting and those types of questions and answers.

Very much so, there is a lot of very good documentation on our website. Not only the software installation manuals but a quick start guides, video tutorials, tools and other tips to get people moving in the right direction.

And maybe we should mention here too if there are problems or questions, customers with a extended maintenance contracts can contact us here at Singlewire Software. We have a support team in place that can walk through and point people in the right direction and get 'em going pretty quick.

RemotePhoneControl for iOS Video Demonstration

Brad Parkel — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:41:51 +0000

Watch this video to learn more about RemotePhoneControl for iOS

RemotePhoneControl for iOS is a great way for network and phone administrators to test your Cisco IP phones. It’s also a great tool for remotely training your staff on how to use their phones.

Learn more about RemotePhoneControl for iOS

Hi, I'm Pat Scheckel with Singlewire Software. I'm going to show you our RemotePhoneControl for the Apple iPad.

You can see here that we have a software representation of the screen of this phone. And anything that I do on the screen here will take place on the phone as well.

So, first thing I can do is I can zoom in. I can get a closer look at the screen and see how it resizes. It will also adjust if I rotate, as will most applications on the iPad.

Next, if I go ahead and go off hook, I'll very easily be able to control the phone, make a call, look at settings. Anything that I can do by sitting in front of the phone, I can do from this RemotePhoneControl application. So in a help desk type scenario or in a upgrade of a communications manager scenario, CISCO collaboration engineers around the world are able to use this application to very easily take control of a phone that's far away and test to make sure that any changes that were made were successful.

And you can see how it dials the phone. Now I'm going to hang that up. If you're interested in learning more about this application, you can look us up at Singlewire.com. Or you can download it at the Apple app store. Thank you.

Multicast for Singlewire Application Whitepaper – Now Available

Allie McGuire — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:00:00 +0000

How often do you have questions about multicast ranging from “why” to “how” to “help”? Probably a lot!
Singlewire put together a whitepaper to target many audiences and help answer the questions they have about multicast and how it works with Singlewire Applications.

That whitepaper is available for download here: http://info.singlewire.com/multicast-for-singlewire-applications-whitepaper

Brandeis University is Provided “GREAT” Support from Singlewire During Recent Upgrade

Brad Parkel — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:40:42 +0000

“Jared from [Singlewire Software] support is GREAT! We ran into a few minor roadblocks during the upgrade and Jared walked us right through it. We thought you guys were great anyway, but he was really helpful and got me out of the office at a reasonable hour… so I wanted to make sure someone heard that.”

David M. Finstein - Associate VoIP Network Engineer, Brandeis University – www.brandeis.edu

Extrateam Receives “Excellent Service” from the Singlewire Support Team to Resolve Issues During Implementation

Brad Parkel — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:14:53 +0000

“I recently opened a support case with your company and received simply put ‘Excellent Service.’ Robert [from Singlewire] helped me get through some difficult issues installing and configuring Informacast. He handled each situation with relative ease due to his deep knowledge of your product. He then proved your product is working as expected all the way down to the packet level by using Wire Shark to capture and view the packets going in and out of the server. This lead me directly to where my other problems were in my own network and I was quickly able to complete the entire project less some customer customization by today’s deadline. Robert’s dedication to customer service is something that should be recognized by your team and then used as an example to all other service reps. If other companies had knowledgeable staff such as Robert then maybe I wouldn’t dislike calling support so much. He made me want to use your product and reach out when I need help.”

“As an engineer, I appreciated a few other things he did as well. First, he spoke in clear English and second, he explained several of the items and protocols as he was solving my issues so that I could help myself in the future. After our call was done, I used some of his techniques to understand when my multicast was working from the speaker perspective. It was very helpful.”

- Scott Dashiell, Senior Network Engineer CCIE, CCDA, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, VCP, www.extrateam.com

New InformaCast Support Tutorials

Allie McGuire — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:11:13 +0000

The Singlewire team has been working on new support videos to help you install and use InformaCast. These new updated videos have information on the newest features available in InformaCast 7.0 as well as step by step instructions to help you install the software. You can find the videos on the InformaCast support page along with the installation and user guides. We will post more videos with tips on using InformaCast’s latest features, so check back often. If you have just received your product key and are wondering where to start, view the Getting Started with InformaCast video.