Administrator Guide: net.Desktop 2.27

Introduction

The net.Desktop is an application offering a graphical user interface for users to perform several tasks related to its Unify Communication account.

This document specifies all the steps to setup the application. The following topics are covered:
  • net.Desktop requirements regarding the installation
  • net.Desktop module installation and configuration
  • SOP configuration

Limitations, known issues and frequently asked questions

net.Desktop 2.27.2 known limitations

  • Some options related to classic login are still available when winlogon is used (M4146)
  • My group and Media might not contain the right entries when multiple identities are used (M5795)
  • Outlook contacts without extension cannot be added into buddy lists (M6289)
  • Personal contacts cannot be added into buddy lists and number field cannot be empty (M6347)
  • In some cases, it is possible to activate the group pickup on buddy list (M6804)
  • Calls recorded through net.Desktop will be presented as received voicemails when the voicemail is called (M6300)
  • An error pop up may appear when the user stop a video chat (M5811)
  • The conversation information is not updated after a canceled transfer using net.Desktop (M6326)
  • Right and left click behaviors are inverted on OSX M4980
  • net.Desktop does not detect duplicate contacts in Exchange public folders M5087
  • Search with multiple keywords (separated by spaces) does not always give the expected results M5685
  • The call history will only show the received call and not the placed call after a transfer M5688
  • User get a notification (red !) after a voicemail has been moved from inbox to old M5719
  • Some options are greyed out and cannot be edited even if the rights were given to the user M5727
  • Close net.Desktop contact after inactivity of X seconds does not always work M5728
  • When checking the capability of the remote user, we do not check the permissions defined in the X500. We only check if the remote user is a X500 or not. M5815
  • Outlook contacts disappear if the Outlook authorization is cancelled. M6116
  • A X500 user can open the video chat tab while chatting with a X350 user. M6564

net.Desktop 2.27.1 known limitations

  • Some options related to classic login are still available when winlogon is used (M4146)
  • My group and Media might not contain the right entries when multiple identities are used (M5795)
  • Outlook contact cannot be added into buddy lists (M6289)
  • In some cases, it is possible to activate the group pickup on buddy list (M6804)
  • External calls picked up using net.Desktop are shown as received calls in the call history (M6298)
  • Calls recorded through net.Desktop will be presented as received voicemails when the voicemail is called (M6300)
  • An error pop up may appear when the user stop a video chat (M5811)
  • The conversation information is not updated after a canceled transfer using net.Desktop (M6326)
  • The conversation information is not updated after transfers or forwards to external numbers (M6327)
  • Right and left click behaviors are inverted on OSX M4980
  • net.Desktop does not detect duplicate contacts in Exchange public folders M5087
  • Search with multiple keywords (separated by spaces) does not always give the expected results M5685
  • The call history will only show the received call and not the placed call after a transfer M5688
  • User get a notification (red !) after a voicemail has been moved from inbox to old M5719
  • Some options are greyed out and cannot be edited even if the rights were given to the user M5727
  • Close net.Desktop contact after inactivity of X seconds does not always work M5728
  • When checking the capability of the remote user, we do not check the permissions defined in the X500. We only check if the remote user is a X500 or not. M5815
  • Outlook contacts disappear if the Outlook authorization is cancelled. M6116

Call history

  • The call history shown in net.Desktop cannot be deleted.
  • Call history contents might not be accurate in the following cases:
    • When you are transferring, or you are getting transferred with net.Desktop (Entry does not show up in the call history tab)
    • When some one gets transferred to you using a blind transfer (Entry does not show up in the call history tab)
    • When you get called then you blind transfer that person (Entry is displayed as missed instead of received)
    • When you get called and you are blind transferred (Two entries appear, one placed and one received instead of one received entry)
  • Certain call history entries only appear after a synchronization, or when the next call is hung up:
    • When you receive a voicemail
    • When you are the person doing an attended transfer
    • When a call on your phone has been picked up by someone else

XML source for contact

  • The contacts coming from an XML source must be encoded using valid XML. For instance they cannot contain the characters "[" or "]" as this is not valid characters in XML. If you have this problem (netDesktop stop syncing for example) you can :
    • remove the "[" and "]" from the contacts
    • or if you really need those characters, replace "[" by "[" and "]" by "]"

Citrix support

Please refer to the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Application Note.

Video is not supported in a Citrix environment. You can disable it by using netDesktop X500 resource 1.12 or higher.

Quick dial through a keyboard shortcut is not supported in a Citrix environment.

Video

Video is not supported in a Citrix environment. You can disable it by using netDesktop X500 resource 1.12 or higher.

Directory

  • Directory is limited to 30000 contacts (in total, CRM plus SMP contacts, plus Outlook)

Java Webstart

  • If you are starting net.Desktop with the JNLP, you should always fetch the file from the SOP. Never save the file locally since it does not contain the updated information. See the confirmed Java bug report.
  • If you have just updated and you are starting net.Desktop with the icon created by the JNLP you need to clear your cache. After clearing your cache, if you click on the new JNLP file net.Desktop will install and create a new desktop icon.

On Windows:
  1. Go to Control Panel
  2. Open Java Preferences.
  3. In Temporary Internet files, press Settings...
  4. Press on Delete Files button.
  5. Make sure to select Applications and applets checkbox and click on OK.

On Mac OS X:
  1. Go to Java Preferences
  2. Go to the Network tab
  3. Press on Delete Files button.
  4. Make sure to select Applications and applets checkbox and click on OK.

On Linux:
  1. Go to Java Sun 6 Control Panel
  2. In Temporary Internet files, press Settings...
  3. Press on Delete Files button.
  4. Make sure to select both Applications and applets checkbox and click on OK.

Outlook

net.Desktop 2.26 was validated against Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Outlook 2010.

Outlook directory synchronization is supported on Microsoft Windows platforms only.

Extensions

Extensions associated with net.Desktop must not start with a zero, e.g. 039. Extensions cannot be hidden.

Pickup

For the pickup to work when the call comes from a queue, the Queue resource version must be at least 1.4. You can only pickup calls from your own SOP, you cannot pickup calls across SOPs.

Uninstall of the net.Desktop

If you do a quiet uninstall of the net.Desktop via the command "msiexec /x pathToMSI /quiet /norestart" the Quick Launch shortcut will not be removed.

Java compatibility

net.Desktop currently isn't compatible with Java 7. For Mac OS X we recommend rolling back to Java 6.

Multi-extension support

It is not recommended to be the owner of several extensions if you are using net.Desktop. This feature is not fully regression tested and might be removed in the future.

Asterisk 1.2 support

The net.Desktop 2.27 is currently foreseen to be deployed with the Communication Server 2. Official support is nevertheless foreseen in a further release.

Other known issues

The set of known issues that were discovered during acceptance are listed in the net.Desktop 2.27 acceptance document.

Requirements

Client requirements

Processor Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or equivalent
Memory 1GB RAM
Hard Disk Space 500MB
Operating system* Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows 10 (netDesktop v2.28+), Apple Mac OS X or Ubuntu Linux
Connection IP network connection (broadband, LAN, wireless)
Graphics DirectX 9 compatible video card on Windows
Soundcard (optional) Full-duplex, 16-bit
Webcam (optional) DirectX 9 compatible webcam on Windows OS

  • On Ubuntu, video chat is currently unsupported.
  • On Ubuntu, quick number option is currently unsupported.
  • On Mac OS X, quick number option is currently unsupported.
  • Microsoft Windows 8 does not support plug-ins in the Start screen and therefore net.Desktop will not run in the Start screen. You will have to switch to the Desktop screen to run net.Desktop.

Operating system requirements

  • Local firewall disabled or open to allow ports and traffic mentioned in the previous section.
  • QoS DSCP video packet tagging on Windows Vista and beyond requires admin privileges. This is not required on Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS X or Linux. See Microsoft KB 248611.
  • Permission to create application data folder in users home directory: e.g. C:\Users\username\.escaux on Windows Vista and Windows 7, /home/username/.escaux on linux and /Users/username/.escaux on MacOS X. This folder is used for caching of contact information and storing application preferences.

Network requirements

If the users have the net.Desktop application running on their computer and a firewall is present between the users' LAN and the SOP, the following firewall configuration is required:

Protocol From To Destination port(s) Explanation
TCP Client SOP 4445 net.Desktop - sop event communication
TCP Client SOP 4446 net.Desktop - sop other communication
TCP Client SOP 4559 Outgoing FAX server communication
TCP Client SOP 25 Outgoing FAX server communication (new since 2.28 when using quick fax)
UDP Client:5060-5070 SOP 5060 SIP net.Desktop User Agent
UDP Client:5060-5070 Client 5060-5070 SIP chat peer to peer
UDP Client:4569 Client 4569 Peer to peer video

Note that there must be a direct IP route between the net.Desktop clients' IPs for the clients to be able to chat. Therefore, net.Desktop clients will not be able to communicate if Network Address Translation is used.

Modules, resources and actions requirements

Modules

When you install a module you should also install its dependencies, they are listed in the release notes.

Resources

Callflows

  • Callflow *234 which can be found here. (Updated 15-03-2013)

Actions:

Requirements for optional features

Requirements to send faxes

net.Desktop is compatible with the FAX Server. If you have installed and configured the FAX Server and use net.Desktop X500, you can send PDF files from your computer. The PDF files (faxes) are read from the outgoing directory, this directory can be configured in net.Desktop. When a new fax is detected, the user is prompted for a destination, when the user confirms a FTP connection is established to the SOP. This connection can be either Active or Passive and can be configured in the net.Desktop resource.

Active connection:

In the case of an active connection, net.Desktop will initiate a control connection to the SOP. The local net.Desktop port for FAX will be randomly chosen, the destination port at the SOP is 4559. Next a data connection will be established from the SOP to net.Desktop, the local SOP port will be randomly chosen, the net.Desktop port for the data connection will be sent to the SOP over the control connection, and is also randomly chosen.

Passive connection:

In the case of a passive connection, net.Desktop will initiate a control connection to the SOP. The local net.Desktop port for FAX will be randomly chosen, the destination port at the SOP is 4559. Next a data connection will be established from net.Desktop to the SOP, the local net.Desktop port will be randomly chosen, the SOP port for the data connection will be randomly chosen by the SOP and communicated to net.Desktop through control connection before opening the data connection.

The data connection is kept during the whole transfer. When multiple connections occur at the same time the same data destination port at the SOP is kept.

The firewall must me configured to allow one of the modes above either by opening described ports and ranges, or by enabling FTP connection tracking on the firewall on the port 4559.

Cluster mobility requirements

Cluster mobility is a useful feature if your users roam between sites that are served by different SOPs.

The installation wizard configures net.Desktop to connect to the SOP (lets name it A) where the installation wizard was downloaded from. Usually users from SOP A will use that computer. Cluster mobility, allows a user from a different SOP in the same cluster, to use net.Desktop on that computer. Provided that:
  • the connection between the computer and the SOP where the installation wizard was downloaded from meets the network requirements for net.Desktop.
  • the connection between the computer and the SOP of user wanting to log meets the network requirements for net.Desktop.

Roaming profile requirements

A roaming user profile is a concept, in the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems, that allows users with a computer joined to a Windows Server domain, to log on to any computer on the same network and access their documents and have a consistent desktop experience: such as applications remembering toolbar positions and preferences; or the desktop appearance staying the same.

If your users are using roaming profiles, you can reduce the size of the roaming profiles by excluding the following directories from the roaming profiles:
  • .escaux/ndesktop/fax/sent
  • .escaux/ndesktop/__all__
  • .escaux/ndesktop/logs

Call transfer requirement

  • If you want to use reinvite please make sure to use asterisk-1.2x v2.32.6 or higher
  • If you want to have the extra 'via' information displayed to the consulted party, the phone of the consultee must not resolved the name against the local contact information. For Polycom phone phones this means that the local diractory must be disabled in the Polycom phone resource or the option must be desabled in the module (the option is available in the Polycom Phone Support module v4.3.2 an higher).

Connected Line Update

Connected line update is available if you use the Communication Server Module 2.2.0 instead of Asterisk 1.2 Module. Connected line suppport was added in net.Desktop 2.27.

Installing the following modules will enable the connected line update feature:
  • Communication Server Module 2.2.0
  • SOP API Module 4.1.0
  • net.Desktop Module 2.27.0

Internationalization

As of version 2.27.0 net.Desktop supports multiple languages for the profile parameters and the statuses. Use the SMP interface to translate your statuses and profile parameters, then apply changes.

Once the user changes its language, and restarts net.Desktop, he should see the statuses and profile parameters in the new language.

Service enabling

This section describes all the steps required prior to configuring the net.Desktop user base.

SOP/SMP

Module installation

Install the modules listed under the module requirements section.

Callflow configuration

Import callflow *234 using bulk administration. ALERT! This callflow has been updated since net.Desktop 2.24, make sure to update it properly.

DONE Navigate to:  Callflow Editor > Callflow > *234 > Bulk admin

The file containing the updated callflow is here.

User configuration

The following tasks must be performed at the SMP:

  • Create an individual account
  • Assign an extension to the individual account.
  • Create a net.Desktop resourceID
  • Create an association between the account and the resource ID

Repeat the user configuration step for each user that is going to use net.Desktop.

Create an individual account

DONE Navigate to: Directory > Users

You need to create an account, which can be used by the user to login in the net.Desktop application.

  • ALERT! Please, be sure that you have 1 account per net.Desktop instance.
  • ALERT! All extensions owned by a net.Desktop user must be visible.

DONE Navigate to: Directory > Internal Directory

You need to set the owner of the phone extension to the user newly created. This extension must at least have a primary phone.

Create the net.Desktop resource

net.Desktop needs its own resource like any phones to works on the SOP and this is where all the parameters can be set for a particular net.Desktop account.

DONE Navigate to: Resources > Desktop Applications

  • Click 'Add'
  • Select 'net.Desktop X100', 'net.Desktop X300', 'net.Desktop X350' or 'net.Desktop X500'
  • Click 'Create'
  • Consult the Resource Reference Guide to learn more on how to configure the net.Desktop resource

Permissions

Create an association between a User account and a net.Desktop resource.

DONE Navigate to: Resources > Permissions

  1. create the association
  2. select the fields that individual net.Desktop users may change and press 'Save'. All unselected fields will appear as unwritable by the net.Desktop user via the net.Desktop preferences interface.

Set up InternalNumberLength global variable (new in 2.26)

net.Desktop uses the length of the number, in order do decide if a number is an internal extension or an external number. net.Desktop uses this information when you use the Quick Number feature, it will prefix your the selected number with the PBX prefix if the selection matches an external number.

If you do not set the InternalNumberLength variable, which defines the maximum lenght of an internal number, net.Desktop will use 6 as a default value, in this case numbers with more than 6 digits will be prefixed with the PBX prefix.

DONE Navigate to: Callflow Studio > Global Parameters > Reserved

  1. Look for the InternalNumberLenght parameter
  2. Edit it
  3. Set the value to the length of your longest extension. You should use extensions with a smaller length than external numbers.

Apply the changes

Apply the changes you just made.

DONE Navigate to: Apply changes > Apply changes

Client

  • You must synchronize net.Desktop at least once after the installation or update.
  • When updating from a previous version of net.Desktop, the user preferences are kept. It means that some new features (like the display of a new column) will have to be activated by the user, after updating.

Installation

INFO Please note that allthough the net.Desktop user can install the net.Desktop application himself, there are situations in which a silent/mass installation might be preferred. This section explains the manual installation for a single user.

Microsoft Windows

Fresh installation:

To install the net.Desktop, download the installer from http://sop_ip/netDesktop/netDesktop.msi where sop_ip designates the IP address of the SOP appliance on which your user account has been registered. Once saved, run it and walk through the installer wizard.

An automated install can also be performed with the following command: 
msiexec /i netDesktop.msi /quiet /norestart

Upgrading from a previous version:

Mac OS X/Ubuntu Linux: Java Webstart installer

To install or upgrade, launch the webstart net.Desktop application via http://sop_ip/netDesktop, where sop_ip designates the IP address of the SOP appliance on which your user account has been registered, and click on the link 'Launch'. Press 'OK' when you are prompted to launch the 'net.Desktop.jnlp' with 'Sun Java 6 Web Start'. Now net.Desktop is launched and a desktop icon is created to launch the application in the future.

Upgrading from a previous version:

Uninstallation

Microsoft Windows

To uninstall net.Desktop, launch the uninstaller from the 'Start Menu' or go to 'Control Panel' and launch 'Add or Remove Programs', then select 'net.Desktop' and click the 'Remove' button. Optionally, you can also clear all Java Web Start applications, by clicking on 'Start', 'Run' then type 'cmd' and press enter. Then type the command 'javaws -uninstall' which will uninstall all existing application

An automated uninstall can also be performed with the following command: 
msiexec /x netDesktop.msi /quiet /norestart

Mac OS X/Ubuntu Linux: Java Cache removal

To uninstall the net.Desktop webstart application go to the 'Java Cache Viewer' of Java. You can access it by launching the Java control panel and click on the 'View...' button in the 'General' tab or by launching the command 'javaws -viewer'.

In the 'Java Cache Viewer' select 'Applications' in the top left dropdown box and select 'net.Desktop' in the list of application. Then press the 'delete' button to remove the selected application. Select 'Deleted Application' in the dropdown box and repeat the previous step. net.Desktop webstart is removed from the system.

Re-assignment

If you want to assign an existing net.Desktop resource to another user, only the permission has to be adapted:

DONE Navigate to: Resources > Permissions

  • The permission may be modified by clicking the "Change" icon (first one of the line).

DONE Navigate to: Directory > Internal Directory

  • For all impacted extensions, adapt the owner field by clicking the "Change" icon (first one of the line).
  • Apply changes

Extension settings documentation

The profile parameters can get complex if you allow a lot of customization. To guide the user when he opens the Extension settings window, net.Desktop can display a help page.

You create the documentation, the documentation should be an HTML document, only simple markup is allowed, no JavaScript is allowed, images are allowed. You write one document per profile: User, Manager, Receptionist...

This documentation should be sent to ESCAUX, so that it can be added on the SMP. Adding the documentation of your Profile Parameters must be done by Escaux Support.

When this documentation is present on the SMP, you need to assign each a document to a profile, can be done in:

DONE Navigate to:  Callflow Studio > Profile > Edit

Minimum requirements

  • SMP 4.8.0 or higher
  • net.Desktop 2.26
  • DB Schema Module version 1.19 or higher
  • SOP API Module version 2.33.4 or higher

Logging an issue

When reporting a net.Desktop issue, please provide the following :

  • The description of the net.Desktop host
    • Hardware (CPU, RAM)
    • How is the PC connected to the network (Wifi ?)
    • Operating system version
    • Antivirus brand and version

  • An exact description of the issue

  • Log files containing data when the issue occured and time of occurence(s)

User Guide

A user guide can be found here. It also explains how to install the net.Desktop application.

User Acceptance Test

A user acceptance test can be found here. It provides a list of use case and describes the expected result.
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