Technical Terms

IE - There are issues with the Internet Explorer where the longer you use it, the more memory it eats up. To avoid the problem Vicidial is designed to work with Firefox. Further, IE does not either fully follow the W3 standard which requires web designers to come up with special solutions for IE. At this point we are not quite there in regards to this help page. You can however keep this page open, maybe shrink it to a smaller window to fit next to your normal browser window.


Quick Lookup
agent   analog   Asterisk   backbone   campaign   channel bank   digital   Digium   dual core   echo canceller   GPL   hard drive   hot swap   Linux   OpenSource   PBX   PCI   PCI bus   PCI Express   phone card   port   power supply   predictive   PRI   protocol   rack mountable   RAID   rail   RAM   redundant   SAS   SATA   SCSI   seats   server grade   secure shell   T1   tcp   telephony   udp   VoIP  


Agent - is the person sitting in a seat, manning the phone. Also known as telemarketer.


Analog - is a term used to indicate what you see in the physical universe, unlike a digital representation. The hands on a mechanical watch are an example of analog, and the digits on a digital watch are - digital. An analog change can be infinitely gradual, whereas a digital change is either on or off and subsequently has a very abrupt change.


Asterisk - is a software PBX which flexibility is only limited to the imagination of the user. Vicidial controls and uses Asterisk to make and recieve calls.


Backbone - is a term that in this case refer to an Internet cable that circles the US. From it there are connections into cities and residential areas. It also interconnects with other backbones. It is very expensive to establish and is only done by very large companies, like the phone companies. The term backbone comes from the fact that the Internet depends on having at least one where other smaller networks can connect, similar to our skeleton.


Campaign - is the name for the method of managing calls. Each campaign uses certain lead lists to feed calls to certain (or all) agents. A campaign can be made for outbound as well as inbound calls.


Channel bank - is a telephony device which converts a T1 (or PRI) connection into 24 separate connections. This is usefull to connect your dialer to 24 normal analog phones. Usually used by agents.


Digital - is a representation of something using digits (numbers).


Digium and Sangoma cards - Expansion cards that will give you the ability to connect to the telephone network, where you can make and receive phone calls.


Dual core - A processor has what is called a core. By adding another core you get something which is similar to two processors, but without the extras needed to have another chip in the server.


Echo canceller - is used to cancel out echo on the phone lines. Whenever analog lines to the phone company are used, the possibility for echo is present. An echo canceller will remove that echo.


GPL - is the acronym for General Public License. It is a license for computer programs, which mainly offers freedoms to do, but comes with a few stipulations of what you have to and cannot do to ensure GPL code cannot be locked down, and retains its freedoms. Linux is mainly using the GPL. The GPL is the most adopted license by the Open Source community.


Hard drive - is a storage device which unlike RAM retains the information when you turn off the power. Hard drives have some moving parts and are more subject to wear and tear than electronic parts. This makes it more important to have server grade drives in servers.


Hot swappable - means it can be replaced without turning off the power.


Linux - is an operating system, just like Windows. An operating system is the interpreter between the physical computer and the programs running on it.


Open Source - is term that refers to code which you can modify and distribute on a license which has a lot of freedoms.
Computer programming is done using english terms like 'if' and 'then'. That code is called source code as it is where the computer instructions originate.
Many programs that are written do not offer the source code as that would allow anyone to see how it is written (good or bad) and make their own changes. This is referred to as closed source. You pay for closed source programs. In open source the source code is available and you can make any changes you want to.
There are different licenses that govern open source code, most notably is the General Public License (GPL). Open source has gained a lot of followers and almost entirely used in Linux. Currently we are aware of about 90,000 open source applications. To be noted is that open source is not the same as free. It is mostly available for no fee, but you are still governed by the license it is released under which has certain stipulations.


PBX - is a phone system which supports multiple extensions that can talk directly with each other as well as making and receiving phone calls. The term PBX is made from the phone company's point of view. It stands for Private (as in not owned by the phone company) Branch (branching off their phone network) eXchange (since it can exchange calls to and from the public network.


PCI - is a type of connector used in computers where expansion cards are plugged in to. It is an older development compared to PCI Express.


PCI bus - connects to a PCI connector, where PCI cards are inserted. The bus is the internal "freeway" where information is flowing in the computer between devices.


PCI Express - is a type of connector used in computers where expansion cards are plugged in to. It is a newer development compared to PCI.


Phone card - is an expansion card that goes into a server giving it the ability to connect to phone lines.


Port - is the term used to separate each type of communications over the Internet. The ports range from 1 to 65535. Web browsing, for example, is done over port 80.


Power supply - is a unit which converts the 110Volt from the wall socket to 5V and 12V used by the server. This is an internal device built into each server.


predictive - Predictive means that it will compute how many calls it needs to make, to keep all agents busy all the time. Unlike the common misconseption, it has nothing to do with if you are automatically playing a message to people or not. (Which is mostly illegal as of Oct 1 2008.) It simply means that it is calling in a very effective way.


PRI - is a telephony term and stands for Prime Rate Interface. It is basically a type of T1 which offers features specifically useful in a call center environement, such as no charge for connecting to busy or invalid numbers and modifiable Caller ID. To provide these and other features, one channel is used up and you only have 23 channels available versus the 24 on a nomal T1. However the loss is easily made up by the flexibility and lower cost.


Protocol - is the standard or rules that you follow when you communicate. Computers follow different protocols when communicating. For example the protocol to communicate over the Internet is called Internet Protocol, or IP. There are many other protocols like tcp and udp.


Rack mountable - means that the server can be mounted in a tall metal structure that usually is 19" wide, 4' deep and 6' tall. It allows devices to be independently mounted on top of each other, thus saving floor space. Often with closed sides which provides controlled air circulation.


RAID - stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives. An array of RAID drives offers redundancy where a drive can fail without the loss of any information. There are several levels of RAID, each offering its advantages and disadvantages.


Rail - is mounted on the side of the server case and allows it to slide in and out of the rack.


RAM - is short term memory in a computer. Is stands for random access memory as the computer can access any part of if randomly (directly), vs sequentally.


Redundant - in this case means there is a duplicate backup device available should one fail.


SAS - is the name of a type of connection used for hard drives. It stands for Serial attached SCSI (Small Computer Simple Interface, see below) and is today a class of drives which are built to run at full load 80% of the time, compared to the normal types which are build to run at full load 20% of the time. Thus the reliability on SAS drives is much higher. The 'serial' part comes from using the same type of connector as SATA drives.


SATA - is the name of a type of connection used for hard drives. It stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (aka S-ATA) and is a class of drives which are built to run at full load 20% of the time, compared to SCSI/SAS drives which are build to run at full load 80% of the time. Giving it a much lower price.


SCSI - is the name of a type of connection used for hard drives. It stands for Small Computer Simple Interface and is today a class of drives which are built to run at full load 80% of the time, compared to the normal types which are build to run at full load 20% of the time. Thus the reliability on SCSI drives is much higher.


Seats - are used by agents or telemarketers, thus 23 seats allows for 23 agents to be on the dialer.


Server grade - is a type of computer designed specifically to work under the harsher conditions and requirements that servers require. Most computers are designed as a desktop grade.


Secure Shell - is one of the most secure method of communicating over the Internet. All Call Center servers uses Secure Shell. Generally referred to as ssh.


T1 - is a telephony term for a method of transporting 24 lines (or channels as they are more accurately called) over one or two pairs of wire. A T1 is a digital connection which has superior quality compared to normal analog lines. As any channel can be used for the same or different phone numbers they are called channels instead of lines.


TCP - is a network term and stands for Transport Control Protocol. It is one of the major types of protocols used to ensure no traffic is lost. Used on, for example, web traffic, where any loss can result in a corrupt page. TCP requires an acknowledgement from the receipt point that all was received well. If not received it will continue to re-transmit the data. This consumes more time and resources. Compare with udp.


Telephony - is things related to telephone technology.


UDP - is a network term and stands for User Datagram Protocol. (Datagram means a small part of a communication.) It is one of the major types of protocols used when you can allow some information to be lost. Mainly used on things like voice traffic where minor losses are not audible. UDP does not require and acknowledgement that data was received properly, which makes it faster and use less resources. Compare with tcp.


VoIP - is a method of using the Internet to transfer phone calls. P is for protocol and is the standard for how you communicate. You follow a certain protocol when speaking to the King, for example. Computers, being basically without real intelligence, are sticklers for protocol. I is for Internet and with the P is the standard for how to communicate over the internet, Internet Protocol. V is for voice and you have Voice over Internet Protocol, written as VoIP.