Release Notes 5.2.0

Phones

For Polycom phones, we don’t provide the firmware any more. The newer Polycom firmware versions can do this on their own. This avoid the complicated setup of a firmware collection in the tftp folder.

For Yealink phones we have added the support of the extension board

When calling an extension, the PBX now tries to preserve the alias information in the To-header, so that the called party can see which number has been called. This requires that the phones are able to show not only the From header, but also the To-header.

For snom phone provisioning, when sending the PBX address instead of the IP address, the phone was leaving it to the service provider to set up DNS NAPTR, SRV, AAAA and A records. This proved to be a lot of work with no obvious advantage. Now the PBX provisions the phones to use only DNS AAAA and A records, simplifying the set and increasing the overall system stability (less queries to the DNS server).

Snom 715 support was added. However there is no firmware available yet. Because of this the PBX will not provide a firmware download link.

The provisioning for Grandstream phones was improved.

Generally, the PBX now uses a new mechanism to indicate the caller-ID. This increases the chance that the phones will show the other party for example after an attended transfer or a call pickup.

Mailbox

When reading out message that are longer than 5 minutes, the PBX was disconnecting the call unless the user pressed a key during the playback.

When offering the cell phone option in the mailbox, the prompt was not played back. Apart from that the prompt itself was missing and may still not be available in most languages.

Outbound calls from the mailbox are not allowed any more. The reason is that too many users are using trivial PIN codes. Having the option to call into the PSTN from the mailbox is a high risk, even if the PBX is operated in the LAN.

We have added a new option that calls the cell phone if the user does not retrieve a mailbox message after so-and-so many minutes.

Web Interface

The product now uses the Vodia branding. In several areas, images were changed. Also the login screen was redone, so that the “keep me logged” in option works smooth. This makes it possible that agents are staying logged in for weeks, dramatically increasing user acceptance. The PBX now contacts vodia.com for licenses, not snomone.com any more.

The default configuration has been removed. Instead the PBX behaves smarter in situations where the next step is predictable. For example, when a trunk is being created without a dial plan in the domain, the PBX automatically generates a dial plan in the domain or creates a domain when the license key is activated.

In the user mode, we have added a wall board for the ACD. Agents can now see which calls are waiting, which calls have completed and statistics about the group during the day.

The playback of voicemail and recordings from the user portal in a web browser was causing problems which should be fixed now.

The default values in the user mode were not set unless the user has saved them before.

We have added a new page that shows the DNS cache of the PBX. This will help to troubleshoot DNS-related problems.

In domain mode, music on hold can be uploaded by the domain administrators now. The music on hold has domain scope only, making self-administration easier in multi-tenant environments.

We have updated some trunk provider settings, notably sipgate.de.

Changes that are made to extensions are now logged with a timestamp and who performed the change. This will make it easier to find out what the problem is when the end user has changes something with unknown consequences.

The reboot actions were scattered all around the web interface and functionality depended on the operating system. In the new interface, there is only one place that controls when the system gets restarted.

When importing CSV text to create new accounts, extra whitespace behind the column names was considered part of the name. In the new version, that extra whitespace is being stripped.

Redirection

We have added additional settings to the redirection settings that may control when the redirection is enabled. The redirection may be based on a service flag; but users can also set the redirection per account. Currently, the redirection can only be set from the domain interface. When settings a redirection from the phone either though dialing a star code or through the feature synchronization, the time-based settings are not changed. Also LED are not updated during redirection off-hours. This might be changed in later versions.

ACD

We have added a JavaScript-based wall-board (see above).

The position announcement was broken and should be working fine again.

Address Book

When using ActiveSync, the PBX was always checking the certificates. While this is the behavior how it should be it proved to be a pain in real-world, in-house deployments where servers have automatically generated certificates that are difficult to import. A new setting makes it possible to skip the certificate check.

When there is no CMC set in an address book entry, the PBX must not include that entry in the search. This is relevant for outbound calls that require a CMC in the dial plan.

Text Messaging

In addition to the HTTP-based text messaging (SMS), we have also added email-based text notifications for administrative users. In many cases this is a lot easier than using HTTP-based services and it is free of additional charges.

Conference

There is a new mode for settings up conferences. Now it is possible to invite conference participants by just calling a conference room up. The PBX will then call the participants up and get them into the conference. This is useful for example for emergency response groups where conferences must be setup very fast.

Logging

The PCAP tracing in Linux was using high-resolution timestamps for incoming packets. However the clock was not always the same as the local clock, so that the PCAP traces were garbled up and the PBX was sending lots of false alarms regarding one-way audio.

We have added a new and hopefully finally new CDR format that reports all call-related information in one JSON object. This change also deals with the problem that parts of the CDR were deleted while other parts were still referencing them. For the night CDR emails, we have added additional logging in case the system picks the wrong times for looking calls up.

The call recording could write files into garbled directory names. In the new version the directory names are like they are defined in the setting. Also there were problems playing the envelope information for recorded calls that should be fixed now.