[JugglingReferee]

The subject is self-explanatory.

They currently e-mail voice mails, so how difficult can it be to include active calls, once the active call is complete?

 

[notsure]

Shouldn't you be logging this request with VoIP.ms instead of here?

Not a bad idea though. Don't know how the legalities would work.

 

[JugglingReferee]

Of course I logged it with them!

Posting here for discussion.

 

[Mango]

It's not difficult to do, but it requires extra storage space and processing power. Did you submit this feature request from within the VoIP.ms portal? They're pretty good about implementing them.

Edit: You guys are too fast for me

If anyone's curious, here's one way to do it with Asterisk. This requires app_mixmonitor.so.

exten => 200,1,Answer()
exten => 200,n,Playback(beep)
exten => 200,n,MixMonitor(/recordings/${UNIQUEID}.ulaw)
exten => 200,n,Wait(900)
exten => 200,n,Playback(beep)
exten => 200,n,Hangup()

m.

 

[hugh]

Most softphones have that capability.

Issues:

Legal - recording conversations without users permission is unethical and possibly illegal. Does VoIP.ms want to be involved in a lawsuit?

Bandwidth and Server space - I imagine recording calls could be very costly because it require a lot of server space and bandwidth. A 30 minute call would take up a lot of space and then emailing it would use a lot of bandwidth.

 

[JugglingReferee]

Yes, I did log it with VoIP.ms.

I'm sure they could add a bunch of 2 TB drives in RAID 5 or something to store the WAV files, then after they've been e-mailed out, delete them from their system.

 

[JugglingReferee]

Legal issues aside, I believe that the hardware cost would be minimal.

Eight 2 TB drives in RAID 5 gives 2 TB * 1024 GB/TB * 1024 MB/GB * 7 drives / 38.32 MB/hr = 383,000 hours of G.711 codec audio. Even only using 80% of the drive space is over 300,000 hours of audio.

I'm pretty sure that's enough drive space.

The bandwidth is likely the tough point. Maybe a small charge for the service is possible.



12pm Edit: Just watch a video on YouTube. The TekSavvy exec said that it costs up to 3 cents per GB of bandwidth.

The 3,500 incoming minutes permitted in an "unlimited account" would cost 3,500 minutes / 60 minutes/hour * 38.32 MB/hr * 1/1024 GB/MB * 3 cents/GB = 6 cents in bandwidth. If the user also uses 3,500 of outgoing minutes, add an additional 6 cents. That's 12 cents in total for 4 hours/day of talking. The bandwidth is peanuts. If VoIP.ms wants to, they could add a 49 cents/month charge for the service. I'd gladly pay it.

 

[hugh]

Legal issues aside

That's a pretty big aside.

 

[JugglingReferee]

I agree hugh. But I do believe the two issues are separate, and my post was meant to provide proof that the hardware cost is minimal.

 

[glasgow]

I would love to see record on demand, I mean if I want to record a call I just send some sort of command such as * sequence during a call to activate that, then I will get the file in my email. Maybe I am just dreaming. LOL

 

[OakvilleGuy]

The key is only one person on the line has to consent.

Post a sticker on the phone - all calls will be recorded. Then poof legal issues are gone.

 

[DrSat]

You can record calls yourself using wireshark on the same network the voip call is taking place. Google "wireshark record voip calls" and you should find several sites that explain how to do it.

 

[grog]

my post was meant to provide proof that the hardware cost is minimal.

Except you haven't proven anything. There's a lot more involved in providing telco-class storage than picking up a bunch of hard drives from Best Buy and stringing them together. The kind of equipment telcos and enterprises use to run a business on easily costs 10x what consumer-class hardware does, if not more. You've also ignored the fact that voip.ms has 11 server locations so to properly roll out a feature like this would require additional hardware in all of those locations.

As for the bandwidth, you can't just use a 3 cents/GB number from TekSavvy and assume that's the average cost for everyone. The average cost of bandwidth goes down as you buy more so for an ISP like TekSavvy who surely has multi-gigabit bandwidth needs their costs can be that low but you can't assume it's the same relative cost for someone like voip.ms. And again, if they need to upgrade their infrastructure to provide the additional bandwidth they need to do it across 11 sites.

Finally, your math assumes enough people sign up for the feature to cover all of those costs. What if they spend all of the time and money upgrading their infrastructure and only 10 people sign up for the feature? 49 cents/mth certainly wouldn't cover their costs in that case.

I'm not saying it doesn't make sense for voip.ms to provide such a feature and they may just do that, but don't assume you have anywhere near the necesarry knowledge of their infrastructure and business to understand what it may cost them to do so.