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Why You Can Stick To iEnsemble! Gateway

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
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  • #21698
    Kang Zeng
    Guest

    * Web based interface to set the parameters, also support serial port and telnet maintenance;

    * Configurable FXS/FXO from web interface(most other VOIP gateways can’t do this) ;

    * Built-in Switching Chip support any call switch between FXS/FXO/IP channels (most other VOIP gateways have no switching ic);

    * Powerful Script Language-you can almost do what you can image for your VOIP applications by write your own script to allow iEnsemble! do any actions;(most other VOIP gateways fix the working mode);

    * Built-in Phone Directory, support flexible phone number matching syntax to build the dial plan as you want; (most other VOIP Gateways haven’t so powerful and flexible directory system)

    * Provide Billing System Solution Bravo, can work in post paid or prepaid mode, ideal for small VOIP carrier; (most other 4-8 port VOIP gateways can’t provide Billing solution)

    * Configurable Call Progress Tone settings from the web interface – including the tone frequency, Gain and Pattern etc. (so you can use it in any country)

    * Others like :
    Support Net2Phone outgoing call, by getting an account from net2phone, you can call to any place in the world without putting another gateway at the destination city at very low cost;
    Support T.38 Real-Time Fax – Different to Store-and-Forward IP fax, it’s real-time, need only about 20kb/s bandwidth for one Fax channel;
    Support Click&Talk and Show&Tell, with the plug-in provided by the manufacturer and iEnsemble, you can easily improve your website by adding live talking ( call from customers’ web page to your pbx system ) and live web navigation (the customers can see exactally same web sites to what you are browsing) in 10 minutes !

    * Most important is, they have plan to release a new firmware in coming month to fix all major problems reported by current users;

    Welcome any opinions.

    Regards

    #21699
    Kang Zeng
    Guest

    By the way, their website is http://www.vive.com , welcome to discuss if you are using or plan to use this product;

    Regards

    #21700
    iEnsemble victim
    Guest

    Hello Kang Zeng,

    Do you have some form of agreement with Flashline to say all this?

    This is the same wording Vive used to advertise the iEnsembles. Very ambitious features, they ALMOST implemented them.

    BUT!

    1) Configurable FXS/FXO interface from the web? Sure, but you have to reset the iEnsemble after such a change. Soft resets aren’t reliable in the iEnsembles. You have to do a hard reset. What’s the use of a remote way to change the ports when you have to be next to the iEnsemble to reset it manually?

    2) The scripting is a good feature. Allows for flexible operating mode. This is also a major point of failure. It is so complicated that you can easily make a mistake. You have to change many settings to bring the iEnsemble back to normal operation (including unpluggin it for 5 minutes perhaps). Also, there is the chance that the iEnsemble will not work properly after a script compilation and you have to reset it manualy. So, you have to be there, next to it. Where is the remote administration now?

    3) Billing platform VERY limited. Have you tried importing rates for many destinations? It simply doesn’t work. It doesn’t have a proper way to view in details the messages that are exchanged between the iEnsemble and the billing PC. The interface to view the messages is cumbersome and laughable! Was it programmed on Windows 3.1???

    5) Also, in order to have proper billing the iEnsemble must be able to properly detect ansering & hanging up on IP and FXO ports… This is a major problem causing wrong billing.

    6) The lack of proper documentation is crippling. What is the use of debug operation mode in the iEnsemble if you can’t understand the messages you see on the screen because they are not included in the documentation?

    6) The T.38 fax option created many problems that were not present when the fax mode was transparent. So, in effect, the T.38 mode is non-existant.

    7) I don’t have personal experience from the Show & tell features, but there are reviews on the web saying that installation on the web server side was difficult and the reviewers had to ask for help from Vive. They said that there were no detailed or correct(?) instructions.

    8) You say that most important is that they plan on releasing new firmware to correct the past problems. You probably don’t know that the old clients of Vive have to PAY for support from Flashline in order to get the firmware. So, what’s the good news in this?

    In my opinion, the MOST IMPORTANT is that we were tricked into buying crappy equipment that promised a lot of features, but few of them were working properly.

    Now since you probably work for Vive/Flashline, please relay to your managers these words.

    Cheers.

    #21701
    Kang Zeng
    Guest

    Sorry, I don’t know the name of the people who wrote above reply, but I can answer some of his questions, by the way, I have no agreement with its current manufacturer. I think it is a good and powerful product, it have some bugs in old firmware, but we are glad to see the company are keeping improving it;

    1) Yes, after change FXS/FXO type for each channels from the web interface, you need reset the iEnsemble to make the new configuration work, just like in windows 2000, sometimes after you make some hardware change, you need restart the computer to make the new setting work, because some hardware initialization must be done in system bootup; And in iEnsemble, Soft reset will do exactally same work as hard reset (or power on reset ), just like we can’t feel any different between restart your win2k and just power on your computer to start your win2k;
    If you can share with me your experience what problems you met after software reset, maybe I can help you finding out the real reasons;

    2) Thanks, you agree the script is a good thing; Yes, the script is complicated, only because it is So powerful and flexible, that allow you implement almost any VOIP applications you will meet; if you can’t understand some grammar, you can see just-in-time help text or manual/web online help or just refer to their factory default reference scripts for FXS/FXO/IP; even you made mistake, you can easily restore the good one by Paste old script text in to the left edit box; change scripts will never make iEnsemble stop booting up, you will only need to unplug the iEnsemble’s power for 5 minutes( when the firmware didn’t work for error firmware upgrade operation) to active it’s default boot loader code so you have change to write again the firmware;

    Sorry, I have other things to do now, I will reply your other questions tonight;

    Regards

    #21702
    Kang Zeng
    Guest

    Sorry, I didn’t find time to reply to your last questions till today:

    3) As I know from others users that most powerful feature and most advantage funtion the iEnsemble users like is the support to their own Bravo Billing Software- flexible, low cost, support pre-paid and post-paid, can easy generate invoice etc.

    5) Detecting answer and hanging up always have no problem with IP side when use H.323 protocol because the Q.931 standard support it ( especially in Fast Start mode ); for FXO port, all of VOIP Gateway with FXO port will meet the same challenge – how to detect the call answered or ended by the remote side? iEnsemble use AudioCodes hardware DSP chip which always get best accuracy when doing the call progress tone and VAD detection; ( about 70% VOIP Gateway use AudioCodes Chip as their CODEC hardware )

    6) When use transparent with T.38, you use select G.711 codec ( 64K bps ), how can you use G.723.1 ( only 6.3K ) to transfer real-time Fax data?

    7) You needn’t install anything for Show&Tell, it was embeded into the iEnsemble, with their VOIPower Plug-in, setup everything need only 5 minutes;

    8) As I know, you needn’t pay any cost to get the new firmware, you can confirm this with their support engineers again;

    Again, I still have no any contract with them till now 🙂 Above post is just For Your Information;

    Regards

    #21703
    Nasir
    Guest

    Dear Kang Zeng – 8 Jul 2002

    I am totally agreed to iEnsemble victim – 30 May 2002
    He is right we all of us are suffering from this WONDERFUL product called iEnsemble
    I purchased the iEnsemble last year it was a bad choice, Tried to put it on line and found it is not what VIVE is advertising, It hangs a lot, Call get stuck, etc
    When tried to contact VIVE for help desk came to know that vive is no more in market, another option was Baher to support us, More ever Baher started asking cash to provide the support (he was providing help desk from home so it was his right) Any was I switched off the Gateway, few of us have sold them on half price just to get rid of it.
    But few were waiting like me that when vive will be back they will start it again .Was surprised to know that vive is back once again with a new name I tried to contact them find their reply at the end of these lines.

    iEnsemble indeed is a good product But this is fact that it was on beta test, 80% it was not working, its user friendly, It works perfect as iEnsemble to iEnsemble.

    Now Flashline says they are not VIVE why they still use the contact numbers, staff and even site of VIVE. If they want to use the http://www.vive.com it means they want old customers they must then they must provide free of charge support to old customers.
    They must put manuals of Brave and iEnsamble .

    http://www.voip-calculator.com/forum/voip/thread.htx?thread=265

    Hi Nasir,

    Thank you for your request.

    Pls let me know the country you are in, so I can forward your request to the appropriate sales person within FlashLine.

    Waiting for your feedback,

    Regards,

    Niko FRASHERI
    Technical Sales

    FlashLine Inc.,
    1600 Aimco Blvd., Unit 9
    Mississauga, ON L4W 1V1, Canada
    Phone : +1-905-238.7080 (ext. 109)
    Fax : +1-905-238.7088
    Email : niko@flashlinevive.com
    WWW : http://www.flashlinevive.com

    —– Original Message —–
    From: nasir_jawaid@hptmail.com
    To: support
    Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2002 11:25 AM

    Dear Sir
    I am willing to get some tech help for my iEnsamble GW , whome should i
    contact
    regards
    And this was the follow up from tech

    Hello Nasir,
    Thank you for contacting Flashline Inc. for technical support. The following are some information about the company as well as our technical support policy.

    Flashline Inc., the company who bought the assets of VIVE Synergies Inc. is pleased to offer its service to all former VIVE customers. We are committed to solving your technical issues, and to help you setup your application/business using our products. However we wish to emphasis an important fact, that we are not obligated to honor the warranty given by Vive Synergies, as we are totally different company.

    We extend Technical Support service in units of 30 minutes. The hourly Charge per hour for our service is $80 USD
    As a promotion to our loyal customers we are pleased to offer 3 months of free* technical support from May 15, 2002 to August 15, 2002. To enjoy our services customer should register with us.

    Registration requires transfer of $240 USD to us. This will be kept in the customer’s account, and nothing will be deducted from it until our promotion expires (*either 3 months or 3 hours of free technical support whichever comes first)
    You are free to use part of the money from your account in buying new products. Provided that you keep some funds to cover your support.

    There are a lot of other benefits you gain when you register with us, like free Firmware upgrade to our latest version, and receiving latest information and promotions about Flashline Inc. products.
    Please send me your agreement by e-mail, to open an account for you. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any question.

    Regards,

    Baher Y. Ibrahim

    1600 Aimco Blvd. Unit 9
    Mississauga, Ontario CANADA L4W 1V1

    Tel. +1-905-238-7080 Ext. 120
    Fax. +1-905-238-7088

    email: baher@flashlinevive.com

    —–Original Message—–
    From: NASIR ABDUL REHMAN [mailto:nasir_jawaid@hotmail.com]
    Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2002 11:26 AM
    To: support
    Subject:

    Dear Sir
    i am willing to get some tech help for my iEnsamble GW , whome should i
    contact
    Regards

    #21704
    Kang Zeng
    Guest

    When time comes to today the iEnsemble! finally become a mature VOIP Gateway with high flexibility and stability with their new firmware;

    I don’t know how Nasir get the result “It hangs a lot, Call get stuck, 80% it was not working…” but I believe the former iEnsemble! owners who sold them at half price will regret their decision soon;

    The new company use new company location, new phone/fax numbers, new web site and lot of new employees to continue the business, so remember, don’t look FlashLine as old VIVE, they have totally different concept how to make best product and how to serve better for the customers;

    I confirmed that it’s real FREE to get their newest firmware released by the FlashLine company for old VIVE iEnsemble! customers, so don’t worry too much, only email/phone call support and trouble shooting for iEnemble! usage in customers’ applications need buy the technical support package; As I know soon they will have an online Forum system on their website to support all current and old customers by FREE, you just post what problem you have, their suport will reply it on the forum in 72 hours, yes, FREE is always great for users;

    Regards

    #21705
    iEnsemble victim
    Guest

    It looks like Kang Zeng is still trying to misinform the people:

    So, you don’t understand what Nasir says “It hangs a lot, Call get stuck, 80% it was not working…”. Then how come everyone has experienced resets for no reason? How come it doesn’t detect the call progress tones when it does termination, as well as myriads other problems, small an big?

    Vive was not decent enough to provide the latest firmware before they closed. In fact they left us with no support and unaswered emails for more than a month until they decided to inform us that they closed. they were giving this firmware for free anyway, why didn’t they give it to their customers before they closed then?

    And they put the blame for closing down on the incidents of September 11th! As if Vive’s finaces were so badly hurt by that incident! I can’t believe this is the reason. the reason was that their product was in beta stage and they were selling it in the form. I wouldn’t be surprised if VIVE was closed due to debts from lost lawsuits from buyers.

    You say that the iE has low cost billing pre and post paid.

    BUT! Can you explain why the billing software dictates to the iE that a call should last for 10 minutes and the GW lets the call last for much more??? I’ve seen this “rare” case happen quite a few times.

    Giving away a free firmware upgrade is considered something that we should be grateful? Not by far. Who is going to compensate us for loss of income and lost time? A firmware upgrade (downgrade perhaps? read below) is the least that Flashline can do.

    Actually, I’ve been told that they are going to decrease the features of the iE in the next firmware upgrades because they want to make it more stable. I think this tells the tale for the iE stability, doesn’t it?

    Scripting: Yes, scripting can do a lot of interesting things,

    BUT what if you want to work with 5 or 10 different carriers who need separate prefixes each? Have you seen how long and complicated such a script can get? It probably will get larger than the script limit size. What if we need to change routing on the spot? Then we have to make a new script, wait until there is no call going on just to be sure, compile, reset and test.
    This is a lot of time spent.

    Concerning the billing again: low cost yes. Flexible, no. As I said, it looks like it’s in beta stage. There are many features that are not working. You can’t import rates. I had to insert ALL rates by HAND! Neither iBravo nor the iE give us the capability to know which port has an active call, which PIN is using which port, which number is being called on that port.

    Also, we can’t terminate a call manually.

    The debugging messages are useless in the form that they are presented in the windows of iBravo. If you have 2 or 3 simultaneous calls you CAN NOT understand which message goes where!

    The same goes for the mesages on the console when you issue an xversion p-p command… There is NO documentation for these.

    when you do xversion monitor, you don’t know which port is calling where.

    As for low cost: it was low cost when you bought it. Now it’s cost is rising. Do you know that if you had a crashed hard drive or any other problem on the PC where your iBravo was installed, Flashline will give you a new activation key only if you PAY 50% of the list price? This is for something that you have ALREADY BOUGHT! And they ask you to pay half its price to use it again!

    Also, the billing for FXO to FXO calls is not acurate, because it cannot bill properly for calls termianting on FXO. I have put the ABSOLUTE tone settings for my country. I have used the settings from ITU and I have measured them myself. They are NOT the tone settings that VIVE recommended. Now, after the settings that I made a channel hang seldom happens.

    BUT:
    Having said this in order to show that there is no mistake in the tone settings, you probably know that the iE is NOT programmed to identify when to start billing for FXO to FXO calls. This is why we have to wait for the timer to expire and this gives WRONG billing! If the call is answered and a short conversation happens, and the user hangs up before the timer expires, NO CALL IS BILLED!

    On the other hand, if the other party takes a long time to answer the phone and the timer expires, the CALL IS BILLED even if the other party never answered!

    Also, you seem to know lots of technical info about the iE, for example, the fact that they use Audiocodes hardware. Together with the fact that you seemd to be the only supporter of the iE, clearly says that you have ties with the company.

    You should know then that the iE

    DOES NOT HAVE VOICE ANSWER DETECTION!

    It does NOT detect voice. It does not even detect tones when it does termination, let alone voice! It detects tones only for incoming calls on the FXO ports!

    As for the T.38 FAX have you read in the manual what it is supposed to do? It is supposed to SWITCH codecs during the call. Not to mention that, if you have the T.38 mode and not the transparent mode, the iE is NOT stable!

    For show & tell: perhaps there is nothing to be installed on the iE, but you certainly have to do much tinkering on the web site. This is what the review was saying.

    You say: “usage in customers’ applications need buy the technical support package”. This is what I have to say:

    I PAID FOR SUPPORT WHEN I BOUGHT MY iENSEMBLE. I AM NOT GOING TO PAY FOR SUPPORT TO ANOTHER CROOK, AND I AM CERTAINLY NOT GOING TO BUY ANYTHING ELSE FROM THEM.

    Enough said.

    #21706
    iEnsemble! Supporter
    Guest

    Hi, everyone ! Yes, I am an iE! supporter 🙂 , otherwise I won’t use so many time to post my experience and viewpoint at here;

    First, we should say that the last iE! firmware released by VIVE ( 1.4.4 ?? Oct , 2001 ) is still not so stable, but the good news is : The new company FlashLine Inc. who took over all VIVE’s business from March, 2002 just released a new version 1.5.0 recently, which is quite rubust and stable, and is FREE to upgrade even you are VIVE’s old customers ( also soon they will provide FREE support forum system [post your problems and they will answer your questions on the forum] on their web site, but seems no direct SUPPORT [phone call or email] if you are VIVE’s old customers except you purchase additional support package) ; So why not contact to this company now to get an update asap? I can sure you won’t feel disappointed with the performance of their new version; NOTE: in the new firmware some unimportant features were removed like “Dyndns.org support, Dial-up connection support” etc., so you’d better get to know more about what’s existed in this version before the upgrade;

    I feel FlashLine Inc. is a serious company which is totally different from the old VIVE Synergies Inc., in the first time after bought the VIVE back they promised that they will only delivery GOOD product to their customers, you will believe what they said after trying their first released iE! version;

    Hi guys, I just want to share some informations with you, tell you something different and exciting things, so PLEASE, don’t tell me any complaint about your problems when using the old VIVE firmware any more, Why don’t you try the new company’s firmware first and then complain if the problems are still there? I am just interested to share experience from you regarding the new company, I have change to use their under testing new firmware month ago, it really change the iE! to a new and very good voip gateway;

    My opinions are : why not go ahead to get something update from the new company but keep complaining the old VIVE’s product at here? Does this fix your problems? You should feel happy because with the new company appear, you can save your investment and use this VOIP gateway again to save/win more money for youself or for your business;

    Regarding detecting the Call Progress Tone, my experience is : if you set the right parameters for High Freq/Low Freq/On1/Off1/On2/Off2/Total Energy Threshold/Low Energy Threshold/Twist from the web site according to your country’s PSTN ( or your PBX) Call Progress Tone specifications , you won’t meet problems in the new firmware;

    As my test, in new firmware, most of settings are work on the fly, means you just change it on the web, and new settings work without restart the box, like compiling the script, change script number , change codec etc.

    By the way, I found you can terminal a FXS/FXO call or an IP call manually in new version now;

    I didn’t use Billing system by myself, but the new company said they improved the iE! billing module a lot;

    In the end, why I know they use AudioCodes chip? Any one can know the Codec chip brand if you just opened the box, I also know they use PowerPC as the CPU 🙂

    Sorry I have no time to convience you regarding each subject you mentioned, I hope all guys see this post understand what I am saying and will feel better when see his iEnsemble box ^_^, good luck !

    Regards

    #21707
    Cortes Gabriel
    Guest

    I need the new firware ( 1.5.0 ) work with net2phone.

    #21708
    Nasir
    Guest

    Hi iEnsemble! Supporter – 10 Jul 2002

    Gentelman man i know who wrote these lines , Can i contact the FlashLine Inc as you have mentioned above you can get my email in the forum plz let me or Vlasis Hatzistavrou know who are you soo we all contact you or Hlashline Inc for thee said above
    thanks a lot for trying to help the Victums of VIVE

    #21709
    iEnsemble! Supporter
    Guest

    Hi, just send email to their support@flashlinevive.com, you can get what you want;

    Regards

    #21710
    Abu
    Guest

    After reading the various messages regarding Iensemble and Bravo. I want to know if it is worth buying the package and have the problems some people have mentioned been sorted out? The price looks tempting, and does any one out there want to sell?

    #21711
    NASIR
    Guest

    Dear Abu
    See I did not Upgrade the Firmware still , But got feed back that New Firmware is stable and it worths to upgrade it

    #21712
    F. Ahmed
    Guest

    Hi

    Does anybody has experience about new iEnsemble Firmware? Does it really solve all the problems discussed above? I need to buy a affordable prepaid calling card platform. pls advice me.

    Regards

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
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