VoIP QuickStart

Thank you for choosing VoIP services with BitBlock!

As you probably already know, VoIP can provide many enhanced services that a regular telephone cannot - and also saves you money! Before you can fully enjoy many of the benefits of our VoIP system you will need to understand the new features, so you can make the most of them. Our VoIP phones are made to operate in a very similar way to how a regular telephone does. This hides much of the underlying complexity and makes them comfortable to use in an office setting. This introduction will help direct you to the wealth of VoIP related information we have on our website, and will help you learn to master your business's newest tool.

Links on this page will open in a new tab to make it easy for you to keep track of where you are in the process.

Setting up.

If you have not already done so, you will need to plug in your VoIP phone, you can learn how to do this here. Your phone will likely already be initialized. You can confirm this by looking at the phone display. In the upper left corner you will see the current date and time, and in the upper right corner you should see an extension label (see below). You should also see one or more line buttons lit up. You can find a basic overview of one of our preferred VoIP phones here.

If your phone has been initialized, but not assigned you may notice the extension is listed as "NEW". If you do not have dial tone when you lift the receiver the phone may not be initialized yet. If we need to correct an assignment please contact support - it should only take a few minutes to sort out.

Your first phone call.

All you need to do is pick up the phone and dial!

To call one of your office extensions, simply dial the 4 digit number.

To call a regular telephone number (local or long distance) just dial the 10 digit number. If you forget to put the 1 in front it will be added for you.

To call an international number, the exit code is 011 - dial that first, and then the rest of the number starting with the country code. For more information please refer to this note.

9-1-1 and Emergency Services.

VoIP phone services have a special form of 911 which is mandated by the CRTC. BitBlock is compliant and in many cases exceeds the requirements of these services. For more information, refer to:

• VoIP Enhanced 911
• Applying 911 labels on your phones

Supplying proper labels and training is nessecary to be compliant with CRTC regulations. Please let us know if you need any assistance, and please inform us immediately when equipment changes locations.

Phone Features.

Once you have your VoIP phone set up, it will be time for you to familiarize yourself with its features, abilities and layout. Our web site is the best place to do that. Our system supports a wide variety of telephone hardware and our support information is customized to address the way the phones are programmed to work. In many cases, the manufacturers documentation can often be overwhelming as it will reference multiple options for configuration and may not be relevant for your installation.

First, lets deal with your Message Center or Voicemail. Most extensions will have one, but it is not required. If you are concerned about people leaving messages where no one will listen to them (on a boardroom phone or kitchen phone for example) then it's best to have us turn off the Message Center on that extension. When setting up your Message Center please keep in mind there are several greetings. At a minimum please record the standard (unavailable) greeting, the busy greeting, and your name. Please refer to these docuements for details:

• Initializing your Message Center/ Voicemail
• Accessing your Message Center

Here is a list of links to documents that will help you become an expert at using your new VoIP phone:

• What is my extension?
• For Cisco phones, please review the list of phone features here. Specific examples include:
  • How do I use Call History?
  • How do I adjust call volume and muting?
  • How do I transfer calls?
• For Yealink phones, please review the list of phone features here. Specific examples include:
  • How to provision or initialize a Yealink phone.

Frequently Asked Questions and Knowlege Base Sections

Frequently Asked Questions, are generally short, point form, quick-references. The FAQ contains:

• VoIP Services relate to the phone services in general.
• VoIP PBX Features are related to functions of the phone system / application platform.
• VoIP Phone Features are related specifically to functions and operations of the phones themselves.

The Knowledge Base contains more in-depth and cross referenced materials and is divided into a number of different sections:

• VoIP Services relate to the phone services in general.
• VoIP Phone Features are specific to phone models or manuacturers.
• VoIP Fax Features are related to sending and receiving faxes.

Share the information.

Located here is a short document that you can send along with any phones you may be sending to a satellite location, or for inclusion with your internal documentation and training guides.

Contacting Support.

If you need us, we are just a phone call or email away. From our hosted phones you can reach us at 6-1-1. Or you can find complete contact information here.

If you have a question that is not answered by our documentation, please ask us - we'll be happy to help - and your feedback will help us improve this reference for you.