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I have been doing some testing on a Lync phone system specifically with response groups and call queues to try to figure out the most appropriate way to design our incoming call routing once we completely migrate to the Lync phone system. The response group features provide most of the features that you need to create basic call center-ish call routing, queuing, and end-user call route feedback. You can configure your response groups to pick up an incoming call and then play a recorded message. You can then configure the response group to provide callers with routing options (like press or say 1 for sales….press or say 2 for support…stuff like that).

My goal was to imitate the current phone system setup as much as possible. Right now, when someone calls the main number (during business hours), it just rings back to the caller until one of the call operators answers. One of the operators must be “online” to receive the call. In Lync, the equivalent of this functionality is to have a response group configured to receive the inbound call and then ring all users who are “logged in” to the response group. The desire was expressed to make sure SOMEONE (not something) be the first to answer the phone. So, from the Lync configuration side, this is basically a response group with no recorded greeting and no user call routing options….the incoming call rings, Lync answers and places the call in the response group for someone to pick up.

The problem is that when Lync picks up the call and transfers it to the response group, it terminates the ring-back to the caller and since the call was transferred to the response group, it starts playing music on hold.....(it’s nice music on hold but could be very confusing to the caller). I struggled with how to fix this and still have the caller have the impression that they were not “talking to a machine”. The solution is somewhat lame, but what the ears hear, the mind believes. Basically, I called into our current phone system, put my phone on speaker and recorded the ring-back with my cell phone. Then, I created a .wav file of the ring-back and set that .wav file as a looping auto greeting for the response group. So, when an incoming call comes into the response group, the caller gets the impression that the phone is still ringing…just waiting for someone to answer. Problem solved.

Networking, Lync, VoIP,
 

  • Citrix and TS do not support scanner redirection out of the box. There are a number of 3rd party utilities that will do this.
  • Depending on your scanner, the types of features you're looking for, citrix client (9.x+) and XenApp (4.0) versions, you may be able to utilize the out-of-the-box TWAIN redirection feature of Citrix XenApp.
    • XenApp and the ICA protocol can redirect client-connected TWAIN imaging devices, notably document scanners, from the client to the server, regardless of connection type. This allows users to control client-attached imaging devices from applications that run on the server and the redirection is transparent.
    • Version 9.x or later of the ICA Client for 32-bit Windows is required for this feature.
    • 16-bit TWAIN drivers are not supported
    • The image acquisition software must be installed on the XenApp Server. Examples of supported applications include Microsoft PictureIT, OmniPage, PaperPort, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro
    • Image acquisition software that provides the USB device drivers must be installed on the client platform.

How it works [more]

To capture an image, users connect to a server from a client machine that has an imaging device and the associated vendor-supplied TWAIN driver installed locally. When the TWAIN application is run from within this session, the application detects and interacts with the client-side device. The server-based application that is accessed runs as a client-based application.

Enabling TWAIN redirection

You enable the redirection of TWAIN devices by enabling the policy rule Configure TWAIN redirection.

  1. Open the properties of a policy in which you want to control TWAIN redirection.
  2. Enable the rule Client Devices > Resources > Other > Configure TWAIN redirection.
  3. Use the options to allow and disallow TWAIN redirection, as well as control the level of data compression.
Networking, Citrix,
 

iPhone screen captures:  If you want to capture the iPhone screen, hold down the power/lock button on the top of the phone, then press the “menu” button. The screen will flash white and the screen capture will be added to the Camera Roll.  Earlier incarnations of this feature said you need to hold down the menu button then press the power/lock button. This sequence does not work on the newer 4 and 4s models.

General, Apple, iPhone,
 

You can edit existing emails, although usually this would not be a good idea since you probably want to preserve the exact email you received.  You can add something to the subject line without even choosing to edit it.  Categories are fine for a preset list, but sometimes I like to make a comment and save it with the email to make it easier to find later.  Sometimes the subject is blank or created programmatically with little relevance (like voicemails).  So I add something to the subject, marking it with something identifiable so I can clearly see what was added.  It was pointed out in the meeting that changing the subject line will break the default behavior for the built in search for “messages in this conversation” since it has to match the subject exactly (well, except for RE:, etc.).  Keep this in mind if you use that feature.  I usually just use the regular search feature, which just finds anything that includes that string.

General, Outlook, e-mail,
 

Recently, I was working with someone who receives a lot of email. Because of the sheer amount of email she receives, she must prioritize what messages she can read in order to continue working effectively. The request came in to see if it were possible to auto-categorize emails in Outlook based on the sender of the email so that one could simply glance through the inbox and see (by color) what emails had come in. After looking at it for a bit, we set up a Outlook Rule to color categorize an email as soon as it came in if the email was on a list of senders manually added to the rule. This worked fine until we reached the size limit of the Outlook Rule.

The fix is quite simple. Create a new local Address Book with all the recipients you’d like to color code. Then, set your Outlook Rule to scan the address book for a sender to color code the email. [more]

General, e-mail, Outlook 2010,
 

Recently I got assigned a task to investigate why users could copy/paste from their laptops to their View machine, but were unable to copy/paste in the opposite direction.  After doing some research I found out that this option is disabled for security reasons, but figured out how to fix it.  There are VMWare View Group Policy templates located on the View Connection Server in: c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\extras\GroupPolicyFiles\ .

The policy for the “Configure clipboard redirection” is in the pcoip.adm template.  I added the policy to the VMWare View machines group and enabled it.  There are several different choices to pick from and I chose to “Enable it in both directions”.

After I added the policy to the VMWare View machines, I ran a “gpupdate /force” on my machine and noticed it didn’t fix the problem.  You have to restart the View machine in order for the policy to work.

Networking, VMware View, group policy,
 

My IP Communicator continually hung at "registering."  I found a post where someone was experiencing the same issue, and could resolve it by deleting the HKCU\programs\cisco inc\ip communicator registry settings each time before running the software.  So far, I've only had to delete the registry key once.

Networking, IP Communicator, Cisco,
 

I had recently upgraded Adobe Reader to version 10.1.2 and my printer would only print a blank page when I tried to print a PDF document.  The printer lights would blink, and all print jobs after that would not print until I physically rebooted the printer.  I thought there might be something wrong with the PDF that I was trying to print until it happened to me again with another file.

I came across a knowledge base article from Adobe last updated 1/25/2012, http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/928/cpsid_92870.html that gives a link to a patch for being unable to print at all, and it mentions that Duplex is set to “ON” by default after the upgrade. 

Unchecking the Duplex option allowed me to print successfully.  The patch may help others in troubleshooting print problems.  As Adobe Reader updates get installed on our customers’ PCs, we may have an increase in support calls.

Networking, Patch, PDF, Adobe Reader, Adobe, printing,
 

When roaming profiles are loaded and saved from and to the server over the network, sometimes the profile will load as temp or local.  The type and status should be roaming.  After renaming or copying the old profile and then recreating it, it works for a few times, and then same thing happens over and over.  You can spend a lot of time recreating profiles and fixing other things that might break when going from profile to profile.  The trick is to check the cable back to the switch.   Check the client on another run if possible, or use a fluke to test the cable(s) and connections.  The cable might test good one time and bad the next.  This is where just enough packet can be lost to corrupt the profile being saved or loaded. 

Networking, Profile, Windows,
 

I needed to extend a component HD video connection between rooms and wanted to find a solution that would do this over Cat5e/6 UTP.  The solution I found (http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtSeriesID=977&txtModelID=4597) referred to something that I hadn't heard of before, low-skew or zero-skew UTP.  After more research I found the following:

Common CAT 5e/6 cable can have internal twisted pairs that vary greatly in length, which is good for eliminating cross-talk in Ethernet use, but causes image distortion in video over UTP applications. A difference in length in one twisted pair will produce a noticeable misalignment of the primary colors displayed.

The extenders are rated up to 300ft and it's working fine for my 60ft run of Cat5e.  The cost of the zero-skew cable is about double that of Cat5e, but I didn't test what it classifies as on a Fluke.

Networking, video, UTP,