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Frequently Asked Questions

Before I signup I'd like to know... I'm already a user can you help me with?

How much do the phone and fax numbers cost ?

You can have 070058 and 070059 personal numbers for free ! We also provide 0800, 0845, 0870, 0871 & 0207 for which a fee is charged, take a look at Numbers page for full information.

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How can you give away Personal Numbers for free?

We are a communications company, and like most communications companies, we make a little money on the call traffic.

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How much does it cost callers to phone my numbers ?

This depends on the type of number yoou have and which phone network the caller is calling from, however as a guide, the following are the call costs from a standard BT landline.

Number Type Rate Type Daytime Cost Evening Cost Weekend Cost
0800 Freephone 0 0 0
0845 Local 5 1.5p 1p
0870 National 7.91p 3.95p 2p
0871 National 10 10p 10p 10p
020 7 Central London 5p to 7.91p 1.5p to 3.95p 1p to 2p
070058 D Rate 16.7p 9.8p 9.8p
070059 K Rate 37.5p 25p 12p

These costs are of course subject to change by the callers phone network and will vary according to which network they are on.

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What's an easy way to get started with live call divert?

Just login and select the 'Number Divert' tab. Click on Home, Office, or Mobile to divert your number to that destination. See the dmNotes getting started page for more info.

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Are there any hidden charges?

There are no bills, no contracts, no credit checks, no admin fees, no obligation to purchase a hidden product. When you get the account that’s it.

The only obligation is that you use the account.

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What kind of numbers are these Unified Messaging accounts on?

The most recent accounts will have 070058 or 070059 prefixes, 070058 numbers arer charged at BT´s D rate and can divert to UK landlines only and 070059 numbers are charged at BT´s K rate and are more flexible as they can can divert calls abroad and to mobile phones.

The most recent accounts will have 07020 or 07050 prefixes, 07020 numbers arer charged at BT´s D rate and can divert to UK landlines only and 07050 numbers are charged at BT´s K rate and are more flexible as they can can divert calls abroad and to mobile phones.

Calls at BT´s 'K' rate - which is 12.5p, 25p, 37.5p incl VAT (weekends, night, day) pence per minute before discount. Calls from other types of phones are approximately the same as calling a mobile phone.

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What about the Year 2000 number changes

The 07XXX number range was not affected by these changes, as they were part of the "new wave" of UK number ranges.

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How big are the the messages

Voice

We use the Real-Audio format. This is a good balance between quality and compactness. The average short phone message is about 10 secs, and 20 secs is quite a long message. Our system will by default take messages up to 2 minutes but you can choose to increase this if you want, but that is a very long message.

You should allow about 2KBytes per second, and this means that on a good line your message will download twice as fast as it takes to play.

We have recently addes the option to receive voicemail in .WAV or MP3 formats if you prefer.

Fax

Fax varies with the page contents. There is also the option to have the fax "zipped". If the page has pictures/halftones or comes from a dirty fax machine, or paper that is not white, then the amount of "information" rises. We deliver the fax dot for dot as we receive it. A faxed page of text with a signature at the end would take about 30-40KBytes so that on a good dial up internet connection each page takes about 10 seconds, assuming that it has been "zipped".

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What software systems can I use it with?

Internet Browsers

We have tested the applications on IE4 and Netscape 4.5 onwards.

Email Software

You can use any email software that allows you to receive file attachments to emails. Our recommended email software programs are Outlook Express and Netscape Messenger, which are included in their respective version 4 browsers.

Fax Viewing on a PC

You can use Win95, Win98 or WinNT 4.0 or later. These operating systems have a program called Imaging with which you can view your faxes (you can open it by going to <Start>/<Programs>/<Accessories>/<Imaging>).

In the Windows 98 version of Imaging you should set the default to Imaging mode (<tools>/<General Options>/[_I_maging]).

Fax Viewing on a Mac and others

Please contact us with details of your operating system, and any other information that will help us to help you.

Voice Message Playback

When someone leaves you a voice message it is quickly sent to your email address as RealAudio (*.ra) or alternatiively a *.wav or *.mp3 file attached to an email. To playback your voice messages you will need;

You can also listen to your messages from any phone by dialling your control number.

  • A sound card
  • Speakers or headphones
  • Either RealAudio, RealPlayer, or RealPlayerG2. These software programs can all playback files with a *.ra extension. If you don't have this software, don't worry, after you have signed up you will receive instructions on how to get hold of it. Alternativel, if you can play *.wav or *.mp3 files you can choose to receive voicemail in these formats instead.

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How do I control it?

You can control it through a phone line, there are voice "menus" with help buttons [0].

Also there are also WWW controls, so you can see a graphic of how your account is configured.

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My Login ID is rejected

When you first signup for Unified Messaging, our system registers you as a dmClub member, and then creates the Voice and Fax accounts that you requested. Your ID as a member is the email address you entered in the signup form, and is also your Login ID. If you change the email forwarding address for your voice or fax messages, this does not change your Login ID. If you have changed your email forwarding address and forgotten the email address you signed up, i.e. your Login ID, you will need to email your Unified Messaging Provider and ask them to tell you your Login ID. In the email you should say i)your name, ii)your Voice and Fax numbers, iii) your date of birth, iv) your mother's maiden name.

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What other fax to email formats are available?

Our current default format for faxes is Zipped DCX.

For any fax format we can also forward the fax unzipped, with the obviously much larger file size.

We have a 2MB maximum size for fax and voice to email messages, but can set this to be smaller on request.

The DCX format was chosen partly because Win95, 98 and NT come bundled with the program 'Imaging' which Windows automatically uses as the default DCX viewer. This way most of our customers are not required to purchase/obtain any new software. DCX is also one of only a few formats which can handle multiple pages in a single file, and it has a satisfactory compression level. Besides the DCX format, you can also choose to receive their faxes as PCX ( note: DCX is the multipage version of PCX), or TIFF-F (beware, though, many TIFF viewers don't support this type of TIFF).

At present these settings can only be changed by a dmClub Operator, so please email your Unified Messaging Provider to request this change. We will shortly be allowing users to change the image format themselves, so if you've a favourite format do let us know.

If you run any version of Windows and still have trouble viewing your FAXes in DCX format, we recommend you try a program called "Irfanview" which is free for non-commercial use and very cheap even for commercial use ! You can download Irfanview here.

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How can I send faxes from my email address?

With Free Unified Messaging there is no facility for sending faxes from your email address. We have a product in development at the moment which will provide this service so keep an eye on the website for product news.

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How can i get my voice messages over the phone?

You can dial your control number and collect your messages from there. This is useful if you are away from your computer/Internet access.

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Why do I have to press # to accept the call?

Requiring you to press # to accept the call is the way our system ensures that the call is connected to a real person, rather than possibly being intercepted by say, a BT network announcement, or your company's voicemail system - which means you have much greater control over what happens to your calls. You can turn it off if you wish by disabling 'Smart Hunt' in your Voice number controls, but we warn you that sometimes you may not get your Voice messages come through to your email address.

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How can I get another Voice or Fax account?

There is a limit to the number of accounts you may have - we want to ensure that there are enough to go around, but given that you are under the limit you may signup for additional Voice and/or Fax numbers. To do so, login to dmClub (using your Login ID email address) and click on the dmUnified logo under the My Links section. You won't have to fill in all your details again, but we'll display them in the signup forms and you can change them if needed or just click Next.

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The Imaging program only prints part of the first page

There is a problem with the Imaging program in that by default it opens a fax in Preview Mode, which does not seem to have the option of changing the print zooming.

Follow these steps for fix the problem once and for all:

  1. Select File | Open Image for Editing
  2. A dialog box should pop up, Accept the invitation to open images in edit mode
  3. Observe that you are in editing mode now
  4. Select File | Print Options and set the print format 'fit to page'.

If this doesn't fix the problem, contact technical support for Unified Messaging Provider and forward them by email the entire fax message, along with a detailed description of what you experience.

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Can I program my own divert sequence?

At present there is no facility for programming your own divert sequence. What you can do however is reorder your existing presets so that the current Program diverts the way you would like. For example; say you want the system to always try your home number first, and then try your mobile number second. To achieve this simply program your home number into your Mobile setting, and your mobile number into your Home setting. See Advanced Diverts for more details.

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