PhrontLine FAQ

Questions

1) How do I install TAPI 2.1?

2) How do I install UniModem/V?

3) I get an error saying "Can't link to ..." when I try to run PhrontLine. What's wrong?

4) When PhrontLine answers the phone no 'voice' is heard. What's wrong?

5) PhrontLine refuses to answer the phone. When an incoming call arrives no 'Ringing...' indicator appears in the 'Answering' panel.

6) What modems do you recommend for PhrontLine?

7) What's the difference between PhrontLine Lite and PhrontLine Professional?

8) What databases does PhrontLine Professional support?

Answers

1) How do I install TAPI 2.1?

First, download the TAPI21.EXE from our web page under PhrontLine... Downloads. Next double-click on (or run) this program file and it will ask you where to decompress the TAPI 2.1 files to. Select something simple like C:\TAPI. Next, run the TAPI2195.EXE program by double-clicking on it inside of your newly created C:\TAPI directory. You will receive acknowledgement that TAPI 2.1 has been installed. Please note that only Windows '95 users need TAPI 2.1 as Windows '98 comes with TAPI 2.1 (and UniModem/V).

2) How do I install UniModem/V?

First, download the UniModemV.Exe file from our web page under PhrontLine... Downloads. Next created a new folder like UNIV on your C drive (i.e. C:\UNIV) and copy the UniModemV.Exe file into this directory. Next, find the file called UNIMODV.INF, right click on it and select the Install menu item. UniModem/V will be installed. Please note that you only need to install UniModem/V if you are running a version of Windows '95 prior to OSR2.

3) I get an error saying "Can't link to ..." when I try to run PhrontLine. What's wrong?

You do not have TAPI 2.1 installed (properly). See answer #1 for details on TAPI installation.

4) When PhrontLine answers the phone no voice is heard?

UniModem/V is either not installed properly OR you do not have the current version of UniModem/V installed. To check your UniModem/V version look in your Windows System directory for a file called UNIMODEM.VXD and right click on it. Select Properties and then choose the 'Version' tab. For Windows '95 the version required for voice applications like PhrontLine is 4.10.1343 (this is the version available on our web site). For Windows '98 the version included with the Operating System is correct and should be 4.10.1998.

5) PhrontLine refuses to answer the phone. When an incoming call arrives no 'Ringing...' indicator appears in the 'Answering' panel.

This is due to either 'old' drivers for your voice modem or a modem that doesn't support voice. First check under Start... Settings... Control Panel...  System... and choose the "Device Manager" tab and look under "Sound, video, and game controllers". Do you have something like "Wave Device for Voice Modem" installed? If not then you either need a 'voice' driver for your modem or your modem doesn't support voice.

If you have a 'voice' driver installed then you may not have a current driver. Please contact your modem manufacturer for an update. For example, we've seen situations where a Supra modem was installed with wave drivers... Supra has a utility called KWIX.EXE (that you can download from their web site at www.diamondmm.com which eliminates old driver files and allows your modem's voice drivers to be properly updated.

6) What modems do you recommend for PhrontLine?

PhrontLine has been tested on most popular brands including Supras (Diamond Multimedia), Creative Modem Blasters, Zoom, US Robotics, and many generic modems that come bundled with PCs. Voice quality does seem to vary and we recommend those with the Rockwell chipset installed which includes Supra, Creative, and Zoom.

You can also purchase dedicated voice boards from Dialogic which offer superior voice quality for around $300 for a board with two ports.

7) What's the difference between PhrontLine Lite and PhrontLine Professional?

There are two major differences at present: PhrontLine Professional supports database access and speech synthesis (text-to-speech). The addition of text-to-speech allows PhrontLine Professional to also support macros (that do out database questions, say the current time, ...etc), allows for remote retrieval of messages, and other features that require the computer to be able to say words instead of relying on pre-recorded messages.

8) What databases does PhrontLine Professional support?

PhrontLine Pro uses BDE which stands for the Borland Database Engine for database access. This allows access to a wide range of databases including Paradox, DBase, Interbase, and any ODBC data source such as Excel, Access, Oracle, flat file text, ...etc.