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Frequently Asked Questions
Q.
What is UtilityPhone?
A. UtilityPhone is a client-server application that allows 2 people
to communicate peer-to-peer using audio, text and file transfer.
The server component stores your contact list so you could install
and setup UtilityPhone on any computer, at any time and still access
your account and contacts. The server also notifies you of your
contacts communication status and manages your subscription to the
service.
Q.
How does UtilityPhone differ from other messaging products?
A. Other products are primarily text based by default where UtilityPhone
is audio centric and also includes text based online / offline messaging
and file transfer abilities. The major difference is that you can
optionally secure all of your communications by creating a key and
exchanging this with your contact. You could even have a different
key for each of your contacts if you wish.
Q.
What is a secure key?
A. UtilityPhone uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (A.E.S.) algorithm
which can take keys up to 256 bits in length. All text, audio and
files are encrypted by the algorithm, using the key that you have
created (an alpha-numeric string that you make up), and is decrypted
by the recipient because you have told them what your key is. They
must also tell you what key they have created so that you can decrypt
anything they say or send to you. These keys must be entered into
the Security Settings tab for each contact on your list. If no keys
are entered, you can still communicate with your contacts but the
calls will not be encrypted. Further information on A.E.S. can be
found at: http://www.UtilityPhone.com.
Q. Why should I
care about security?
A. Security is a personal preference. In an ideal world you should
never have to worry about what you are saying during a conversation
or what you are typing to someone else. Personal information should
be protected including confidential documents that you may wish
to electronically transfer to another party. With identity theft
at an all-time high and the lack of security that exists by using
email or other messaging products, this problem will just get worse.
UtilityPhone provides the peace of mind that your communications
are protected by the highest level of security on the market today
so that you never have to worry about tomorrow.
Q. Are there any
geographical limitations?
A. The UtilityPhone service is only limited by a persons’
ability to connect to the Internet. So as long as both parties are
connected then they could be anywhere in the world.
Q. Do I need broadband
to use the service?
A. UtilityPhone will work just as well over a dial-up (50k) connection
and will even work over a 9.6k connection. You have the ability
to alter the bandwidth speed that you allow UtilityPhone to utilize,
the higher speed, the faster files can be transferred and the better
clarity of the conversation. For optimum performance set the speed
at both ends to the lowest speed of either party, for example if
you have a dial-up connection at 28k and the other party has a 512k
broadband connection, then both parties should choose the 26k setting,
otherwise one party will try to transmit more information than the
other can receive.
Q. Can I try the
service for FREE?
A. When you install and setup UtilityPhone for the first time a
FREE 7 day account is created for you so you can try the service
without any obligation and there are ZERO setup fees.
Q. How do I install
and Setup UtilityPhone?
A. Simply download the application from:
http://www.utilityphone.com/download.php by clicking on the Download for Windows O/S link on that page. If
asked to ‘Save’ or ‘Run’ the application,
select ‘Save’ and remember the location on your local
hard drive where you are downloading the file to. Once the file
is downloaded, execute the installer by double-clicking on the file.
The default installation settings should be left as-is unless you
are experienced with storing programs in other locations.
• After
installation you will have a new UtilityPhone icon on your desktop.
Double click this icon so start the setup process. Make sure you
have an Internet connection before you continue.
• First of all you must tell UtilityPhone how you are connected
to the Internet, by Dial-Up using a modem or over a network i.e.
Cable, DSL or LAN.
• Next you will be asked if you wish to setup a new account
for an existing account. Choose New Account if you have not used
the service before, this will result in a new User IDentification
number (U.I.D.) being issued to you. If you already have an account
then you can simply verify your U.I.D., Nick Name, and Password
in order to re-setup that account and continue to use your previous
U.I.D.
• For a New account, choose a Nick Name, enter your First
Name, Last name, and E-mail address. At this time you can choose
not to have your email address published.
• Next, enter your choice of password and country of residence.
Click the ‘Register’ button to transmit this information
to the global contact server so that a New U.I.D. can be issued
to you.
• If successful, then a message will be displayed with your
New U.I.D. It is important to make a note of your U.I.D., Nick
Name and Password as these will be needed to login each time you
wish to use the service. Re-enter this information to login to
the service for the first time. You can select the checkbox, on
the login screen, so that this information is remembered.
• You should now see the main interface with an empty contact
list.
Q. What does
UtilityPhone look like?
A. A simple to use interface lists all of your contacts and their
communications status.
Q. How do I add
a New contact to my list?
A. For security purposes you must know the U.I.D. and the E-mail
address of the contact you wish to add to your list. Click on the
Contacts>Add Contact by U.I.D.>, or click on the green ‘+’
icon. Enter the U.I.D. and the email address of the New contact
and the click the ‘Retrieve’ button. If the U.I.D. and
E-mail combination is correct then you can click the ‘OK’
button to add the contact to your list.
Q. How do I communicate
with a contact on my list?
A. You must first off all select the person that you wish to talk
to, do this by clicking once on their name in your list. Once you
have selected a contact, more icons at the top of the screen are
activated. The first (microphone) icon is to connect or disconnect
to that contact for an audio call. The inbound party hears the PC
ring like a telephone and a message is displayed that says there
is an incoming call and the recipient can choose to accept or reject
the call. The second (camera) icon is to connect or disconnect to
that contact for a video and audio call (coming soon). The third
icon is to change the security settings for that contact. The fourth
icon is to add a new contact and the fifth icon is to change the
bandwidth speed depending upon who you are communicating with. During
an audio / video communication session you can also chat using text
by entering your text into the bottom window and pressing enter
when done.
Q. Can I communicate
with a contact if they are OFF-LINE?
A. Both parties need to be ON-LINE for you to communicate, but you
can double click on the contact name in the list and send them a
message (OFF-LINE messaging). This message will be stored for you
on the server and will be delivered to your contact once their status
changes to ON-LINE.
Q. Can I securely
send a file to a contact?
A. During a communications session, i.e. while you are talking to
someone, you can send or receive a file to/from the other. This
option is under the Contacts>Send File> menu item. The recipient
must accept the file before it is transmitted.
Q. I have over thirty
contacts on my list and it is distracting to see the notification
pop-up every time one of them goes ON / OFF-LINE, can I turn these
activity notifications off?
A. By selecting the contact in your list and then by clicking on
the Security Settings icon, you will see a checkbox which allows
you to turn activity notifications OFF for that contact.
Q. What are the
optimal settings for clear communications?
A. Make sure that you have both set the bandwidth speed to the lowest
common speed between both parties. Set the UtilityPhone speaker
volume control to approx. 50%. Set the UtilityPhone microphone volume
control to 100%.
Q. I can hear my
contact but the cannot hear me?
A. Open the ‘Windows Volume Control’ panel and under
‘Recording Controls’, make sure that your microphone
is selected as the recording input device. If you have an advanced
button underneath the microphone slider, you may also have the option
to select Microphone Boost, this works well as long as you do not
have speaker volume turned up too high.
Q. Can I increase
the quality of the audio?
A. Audio quality is a function of your connection speed and the
quality of your headset microphone. For better audio quality over
dial-up, make sure that you have a 48-50k connection instead of
a 26-28k connection, then set your bandwidth speed inside UtilityPhone
to 48k. If you use a noise and echo canceling headset microphone
this will also increase the quality of the audio considerably.
Q. Can I change
the ring-tone that I hear when I get an incoming call?
A. Yes, the audio file is external to the program and it lives in
the ‘C:\Program Files\HotHostPro\UtilityPhone\Audio’
folder. Simply replace this file with your own file of the same
name.
Q. Where can I get
a deal on a good headset microphone and a good web video camera?
A. UtilityPhone constantly tests new headset microphones and cameras
for optimal performance and value for money. Once approved they
are made available in the UtilityPhone store which is at the following
address:
http://www.UtilityPhone.com/catalog/index.php.
Q. I am an Internet
Service Provider and my subscribers would love to utilize a service
such as this. Can I distribute UtilityPhone to my subscribers and
can the branding be changed to my branding?
A. Yes we are constantly looking for new distribution partners.
The brand-able areas are on the login screen and the logo area of
the main interface. These areas use remote html files so they can therefore contain hyperlinks, rotating banners, animated gifs and flash
Q. As a distribution
partner, can I change the branding without building a new version
of the software?
A. Because the brand-able areas are remote html files, we would
just need to give you control over these files so you could change
the branding messages any time you wish.
Q. If I were an
ISP distribution partner for UtilityPhone, how do you track, in
your systems, where the subscribers came from if we distribute a
branded version?
A. When we deliver a branded version to you, we embed a Vendor I.D.
(V.I.D.) into the software so New users are created with this information
in their account record. We would then run reports against your
V.I.D.
Q. How is UtilityPhone
supported?
A. UtilityPhone is supported through this ever-expanding FAQ, an
online tutorial and through email support. We also train our distributors
so that they can offer telephone support through their own call
centers if they wish.
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