Confused over ERL and ELIN? Demystify e911 with Our Video Guide

[KyriakosP]

At 3CX we take your workplace safety and security seriously. The e911 features delivered with v16 Update 5 Alpha and Alpha 2 can greatly help your organization on the way to full compliance with this important safety regulation. We have prepared a new e911 video guide to help you understand and apply the e911 regulation. It will assist you with the...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[giwm]

This is great, and much appreciated.

• Is there any thought on decoupling the 911 update from the requirement for HTTP/2 support update for APN? One seems frivolous compared to the other, but if they're both in the same update that requires Windows 10/Server 2016, then it'll hamper the rollout. Perhaps the e911 can be included in a minor revision to 16.0.4 as well?
• How is 3CX addressing 911 calls from the various 3CX clients, all of which allow the call to be made off-prem?

 

[Evolute IT]

Is there any thought on decoupling the 911 update from the requirement for HTTP/2 support update for APN?

They can't. The upgrade to HTTP/2 is to allow compatibility with the new APNS. The old infra is getting shutdown so even if they split those into two, it wouldn't help you.

 

[giwm]

I'm saying separate 911 from HTTP/2. Not HTTP/2 from APN.

 

[Evolute IT]

I'm saying separate 911 from HTTP/2. Not HTTP/2 from APN.

And that's what I mean. It wouldn't help because 3 weeks later they would need to upgrade again to HTTP/2.

 

[giwm]

If you're not using Server 2016 or Windows 10, upgrading for HTTP/2 is not an option. So at least we'd have 911 functionality.

 

[RJansen]

Why can we add multiple Emergency numbers but is the optional audio announcement always the same for all added emercency numbers?
If we call the fire department its usefull to also play a audio alert to the extensions or page group to leave the building and go to the designated area.
But if someone only needs a emergency doctor we dont need the audio announcement to leave the building.

 

[cobaltit]

So you want to configure your phone system to automatically alert the entire building if someone calls the fire department? Do you not have a fire alarm?

 

[RJansen]

Maybe not automatically but what i was hoping for is that we and our customers can create a couple of emergency numbers with different audio alerts. For example:
Fire alert number 1234 - audio message slow whoop sound with evacuate building message
Tornado alert number 5678 - audio message to seek shelter
Panic button on phone in a doctors office to alert a colleague

 

[pmterp]

Additional options for the audio/call alert would be very helpful. Maybe based on groups like the push notification. For multi-floor buildings users would be alerted that there is a situation on the xth floor. Same for multiple buildings, etc.

 

[Thiek]

I would like to install this update for the 911 features, however, all of our 3CX sites/installations are running on Windows Server 2012 R2 and upgrading the OS for each site will take some effort and time to get completed. We do not have any Apple Devices so I'm guessing we do not use Apple Push Notifications, unless this APN is what is used for 911 notifications? If not, is there any issue with installing this update on Win 2012 R2 ?

 

[cobaltit]

I'm not sure it will even let you install but if it does, the issue is it's not tested or supported.

 

[StefanW]

@Thiek be advised that we do not test U5 or later on any other version of windows then declared as supported. The inline update most likely will work but a clean install later will be denied. The switch to Linux is quite simple to do and saves you the cost for the Win License (unless you use datacenter edition).

 

[Thiek]

Thanks for the feedback. Question, our server engineering team told me that going from a Win2012 r2 server to Win2016 means I would have to re-install any software on the server, i.e. 3CX. It appears I can upgrade to the latest 3CX Update (Update 5 Rollup) with no issues but like you said I get the below warning which is fine since we don't use iOS. I'm guessing all I need to do is get to the latest update level, take a backup, save it offsite, install 3CX on the new Win2016 server and restore the backup? Cross my fingers licensing errors or something like this doesn't cause things to not work.

WARNING: If you continue to run 3CX on your current OS, your users will stop receiving notifications for incoming calls and chats on their iOS smartphones.Switch to Windows 10, Server 2016 and later to avoid this happening.

 

[StefanW]

I would strongly advise against this!

 

[Thiek]

I'm confused, so what is the recommendation by 3CX?

 

[James Sanfilippo]

And when can configure E911 by extension? With whole offices working from home over the past few months - every extension has a different address! (or did i miss an existing way to do this?)

 

[cobaltit]

And when can configure E911 by extension? With whole offices working from home over the past few months - every extension has a different address! (or did i miss an existing way to do this?)

Watch the video in the blog link.

 

[James Sanfilippo]

Well ya, but that's an alpha release - and that was March. Is this feature already in the latest stable release - ready for production?

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Well ya, but that's an alpha release - and that was March. Is this feature already in the latest stable release - ready for production?

Yes it is included in the stable update 5 release.