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Internet Messaging
Internet Messaging for the Intuity AUDIX builds on the multimedia capabilities of Intuity AUDIX to provide exchange of voice, fax, text, and binary components over the Internet.
- Internet Messaging Features
- What Internet Messaging Can Do for You
- Web-based Administration
- Planning
- Security Issues
Internet Messaging Features
Internet Messaging has the following characteristics:
- Internet Gateway
AUDIX subscribers gain an Internet email address and can send or receive messages over the Internet. Internet Messaging uses Extended Simple Mail Transport Protocol (ESMTP), a standard TCP/IP-based mail protocol.
- Mailbox access through POP3 clients
In addition to the telephone user interface (TUI) and Intuity Message Manager 4.3 and greater, subscribers can also select one of the currently available POP3 email client programs to check their messages. For example, Netscape Mail or Microsoft Outlook can be used to receive and respond to messages through the Intuity AUDIX server.
- Avaya Voice Player
With this player, Internet email users can play and respond to messages received from Intuity AUDIX senders. If subscribers have a microphone, they can create voice messages directly on their personal computers.
- Web browser administration of Internet Messaging
Internet Messaging features can be updated or changed through a Web-based graphical user interface (GUI). This simplifies administration, since Web browsers can display visual information, link easily to other relevant screens, and be used from any location with a modem and Internet access.
What Internet Messaging Can Do for You
- Provide access for Intuity AUDIX subscribers to any of the more than 60 million email users worldwide through the Internet.
- Increase the number of choices that subscribers have to access messages, including telephone, Intuity Message Manager, and industry-standard email platforms.
- Save costs by allowing message transport through existing, shared Internet facilities.
- Simplify administration of the feature through a Web-based, graphical user interface.
- Simplify distribution of the Voice Player through an automatic email response system.
Sending and Receiving Email
Internet Messaging gives Intuity Message Manager and Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) client subscribers full Internet email capabilities through the Intuity AUDIX. Multimedia messages can be sent from the Intuity AUDIX to any email address. The recipients can access these messages as multipart MIME messages using commercially-available email software. Voice components are played with the Voice Player (VP), which is distributed without charge and uses the same voice compression algorithm as the Intuity AUDIX system.
- Message Manager subscribers can send and receive all four component types to and from Internet email users, as with any other Intuity AUDIX destination. These component types include voice, fax, text, and file attachments.
- POP3 client subscribers can use their browser to access their Intuity AUDIX mailboxes. The LVP plays and records voice components, with the right computer hardware configuration. Graphics programs display fax files. Text and attached files are handled as with any other email.
- Non-Intuity AUDIX users access messages using the same message-rendering tools as POP3 client subscribers, except the messages are delivered through their own Internet service provider.
Email Access Through the Telephone
With Internet Messaging for Intuity AUDIX, subscribers can use the telephone to manage messages received at their AUDIX mailbox. The MWI is activated to alert the subscribers to the arrival of new messages.
The message can contain up to four media types, specifically voice, text, file attachments, and fax. However, message feature operation varies little from that of voice or fax message handling. From the telephone, subscribers can:
- Receive an email message that can contain up to four media type components.
- Listen to a voiced rendering of the text component (if the Intuity AUDIX Text-to-Speech feature is available).
- Print the text and/or fax component of an email message to a fax machine.
- Reply to an email message at the sender's address on the Intuity AUDIX network or to an Internet email address.
A message is treated as a single entity when accessed via a telephone. Thus, when subscribers access their mailboxes to listen to a message, all components that can be voiced are played in serial fashion. When subscribers play a message that contains a voice, a fax, a text, and a file attachment component, they will hear the voice component, followed by a voiced summary of the fax component, followed by the spoken translation of the text component (if enabled), followed by a voiced summary about the attached file.
Optional Email Features
Two features, if not already purchased for use with other Intuity AUDIX features, provide additional, useful access to message information.
- Text-to-Speech (TTS) conversion is an optional feature that enables subscribers to listen to a voiced rendering of email and Intuity Message Manager text messages received in their AUDIX mailboxes.
Message components are rendered as follows:
- The subject line of an email message is read as part of the message header.
- The body of the text message is voiced.
- If a file attachment is included in the email message, that component is not voiced. The subscriber hears summary information regarding the size of the file.
- Fax components are also summarized regarding the number of pages contained in the fax.
- Text-to-Fax (TTF) enables subscribers to print the text and/or fax component of an email message to a printer or fax machine. For the text component, the Intuity AUDIX system uses the Text-to-Fax feature to translate the component into printed form.
Messages are printed in plain text, that is, without formatting and special attributes such as bold type and tab settings.
Web-based Administration
Although it is possible to administer Internet Messaging through the Intuity AUDIX system console, a simpler graphical interface has been developed for you to use with a Web browser. This tool enables you to accomplish administration with these additional capabilities:
- A common interface across platforms
- Remote access from any location using a telephone line, a modem, and an Internet connection
- Graphical displays of data that show relationships between variables that cannot be derived through a textual interface
- Electronic links to and from additional screens or useful locations
- Context-sensitive Help, with online, interactive procedures and troubleshooting steps
The following browsers are known to function properly for Internet Messaging administration:
Planning
Before you install Internet Messaging, there are several things you should do:
- If you purchased an offer from Avaya Netcare Services, an appointment with a consultant should have been scheduled in advance to assist with the activation. Contact your account representative, if you did not contract with Netcare Services) to have Internet Messaging activated and administered.
- Either confirm the availability of or schedule the purchase of two additional trusted servers. Trusted servers are an additional, software-only security feature required for communication between systems. Internet Messaging requires two dedicated trusted servers. If they are not available, schedule their purchase and activation with your account representative.
- Check with your account representative to confirm whether a sufficient quantity of additional IMAPI sessions are available. IMAPI sessions are required for use with trusted servers.
- Determine whether a TCP/IP host address must be added.
Note: If you currently use Intuity Message Manager, the TCP/IP host address has already been added.
- If you plan to enable Text-to-Speech (TTS) capability through the Telephone User Interface (TUI), schedule the purchase and activation of TTS with your account representative.
- Plan for security issues. Decisions must be made about how Internet Messaging is operated. Some of the decisions could require compromises that management might not want to make. See Security Issues for more information.
- Use the Internet Messaging Worksheets to gather detailed information required during the activation and administration of Internet Messaging.
Email Message Size
Email messaging can have a significant impact on the size set for a subscriber's mailbox. An email message can be a short memo or can include attachments of software files of considerable size. If subscribers send fax and voice messages, planning is more difficult.
AUDIX converts all message components into seconds of space in the mailbox.The following table shows some typical average mailbox sizes and corresponding maximum email and maximum message length capacities.
LAN Impact
Use the following table to calculate how much of the LAN traffic on the system will be comprised of email messages (including email with attached components).
2 1-KB packets
1-KB packets
1-KB packets1
Subscriber Planning
Prepare subscribers by taking the following steps:
- Give the messaging trusted server name (established during Internet Messaging installation) to Intuity Message Manager subscribers for use in addressing their Internet-bound messages.
- Allow Intuity Message Manager subscribers to add email addresses to their personal address books or their Intuity AUDIX lists to simplify addressing.
- Determine whether to allow Intuity AUDIX subscribers to access messages in their Intuity AUDIX mailbox with a POP3 email program. The Intuity AUDIX system can send messages similar to any mail gateway, but allowing this access presents certain security risks. See Security Issues for more information.
- When a message is sent from an AUDIX subscriber to recipients in both AUDIX and the Internet, the AUDIX recipients are not listed on the Internet recipient's email To: list. Therefore, the email recipients do not know which AUDIX subscribers also received the message and cannot use the email application's Reply All function to send a reply to the AUDIX recipients of the original message.
Security Issues
Toll fraud is the theft of long distance service. When toll fraud occurs, your company is responsible for charges. See Overview of Security or the BCS Products Security Handbook for information on how to prevent toll fraud, or call the Avaya Technologies National Customer Care Center at 1-800-643-2353.Using Internet Messaging and the Internet presents certain security issues. Your company is responsible for any damages that could arise as a result of the use of Internet Messaging. However, you can administer your system to minimize these risks. You need to be concerned with:
- Disabling POP3 Access
On the General Options and Settings screen, if the
POP3 enabled?field is set to Yes, hackers could determine a subscriber's login name and password, and then commit toll fraud through the subscriber's mailbox. Use Internet Messaging only behind a corporate firewall and restrict external Internet access to the POP3 port.If your company is concerned with subscriber login security, consider turning the POP3 interface off or exclusively using POP3 clients such as Qualcomm's Eudora client that support the APOP (encrypted password) login mechanism.
- Login requirement
On the Login Requirement screen, if the
Require Administrators to Login?field is set to No, any subscriber with the correct URL can log in to the Intuity AUDIX system and change the Internet Messaging options.The default setting is Yes. Use the Administration interface only behind a corporate firewall.- Viruses
The ease with which messages can be broadcast and transmitted over the Internet simplifies the distribution of computer viruses. Enact a policy to ensure that subscribers check incoming messages and files for viruses.
- Spoofing or Sending Email Under a False Name
Internet email addresses are not validated for identity. As a result, the identity of the message sender is not guaranteed. Warn your subscribers not to respond to messages from unverified sources, especially if the message contains requests for private information or any form of payment. The name of the machine that delivered a message to the Internet Messaging server can be checked by reading the message's header information.
http://www.avaya.com Avaya UCS Information Development |
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