Dialogic board not working in Windows?

How can I get my Dialogic board to work in Windows and for that matter, with your predictive dialer?

My first response is generally “Our software doesn’t need any additional hardware to run”. But alas, the plot thickens. As of late, this has been a very common question. I can only imagine that this is mostly due to the impending ammendment by the FTC to the auto dialer telemarketing laws. People seem to be flocking to Ebay and taking advantage of what would appear to be a great deal on old Dialogic boards. We are receiving numerous inquires regarding whether or not our software (Voicent Agent Dialer) will work with the older (and newer) Dialogic boards and how to get these Dialogic boards to work and/or be recognized by Windows. The answer is “yes we can” IF 1) You can get the operating system to recognize the hardware, and 2) If it supports/uses TAPI driver. Generally this means I need to explain that our software was designed to replace this legacy hardware setup with software that will run on your average PC without any additional hardware. For some that have been using this type of setup for years this sounds like crazy talk. You do indeed already have the hardware you need. Likely the one you are reading this on right now will work just fine. No additional hardware, no headaches. With that being said, let us dig into what consumers can/will face when trying to go the Dialogic board route shall we?

Couple of issues our customers are finding here. Dialogic nolonger sells or allows you to download the older version 5 driver, from what we understand. Rather, they are pushing consumers to purchase version 6 of the driver (yes, purchase a driver) which, unfortunately, does not support TAPI. In addition, most Windows operating systems do not support the actual board meaning it will not show up under device manager as a supported device. Problem with this is that most software running on Windows pulls what hardware is installed on any given system from Windows. One customer reported that there are some 3rd party developers claiming that if you purchase their product they can trick the operating system into recognizing the hardware with what I am assuming is a dummy .inf file. Personally, I prefer for my system to be stable and if the hardware isn’t supported or recognized by the operating system perhaps there is a good reason for it? Not to mention, hack job inf files to get hardware to work? Does that come with a warranty and does it extend my registry?

“So what should I do if I can’t get Windows to recognize my Dialogic board?” You might ask? Honestly? Go the software route and use what you already have. Save yourself hours of headaches and troublshooting. Save yourself some money. If you have purchased one of these old Dialogic boards off Ebay because like most (including myself) you can’t pass up a sweet deal, put it back up on Ebay and buy a software based predictive dialer. You don’t necessarily have to buy our Voicent Agent Dialer (although likely your best bet *wink*) but please do your research before investing in old computer systems packed with legacy hardware. You (or your IT guy/gal) will thank me for it.