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Receiving Hardware Guide

Helpful hints and criteria for equipment to receive transmissions from Dig|Safely. New York .

All information on this page is for reference only. NO ENDORSEMENT of any kind is implied.

E-mail Qualifications and Guidelines:

• Dig|Safely. New York will make absolutely no attempt to bypass any spam filtering when delivering tickets via e-mail. This includes us "replying" to any challenge/response schemes, or partaking in any "Turing" test. You will need to make certain our mail servers have been whitelisted to prevent false-positives, for example, when someone is "Replacing Curb Cocks". Have your email Admin contact us for strategies, if needed.
• You must maintain your own E-Mail server, so you can detect any failed deliveries... since we cannot. Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, GMail, AOL, TW/RR... bad ideas.
• You must state in writing that your E-mail Server administrator will be responsible for monitoring all incoming stake-out request transmissions. This signed document can be sent to Dig|Safely. New York via U.S. mail.
• You must inform Dig|Safely. New York when your E-mail transmissions have failed. We cannot detect when e-mail delivery doesn't work.
• You must have a completed, current Member Profile with us before activating an E-mail based destination.
• Email deliveries are sent by an automated batch job. Please do not reply to it, as your replies will be discarded.
• Once received, if you intend to forward or relay these emails with your own automated job, you will change the "Mail From:" address to your own. Dig|Safely. New York should NOT suffer any reflections or bounces if one of your downstream mailboxes is hosed up.

SOAP/XML Qualifications and Guidelines:

• One should understand what a WSDL file is, and how to create one. If not, then this option is not for you.

Fax Qualifications and Guidelines:

• If you will receive over 1,200 tickets per year, fax delivery is not allowed.
• Faxes connect at 9600 or 14.4, Group 3, Class 2.
• Combo-Fax/Answering Machines only work if the fax answers within 45 seconds of our calling (e.g. the greeting on your machine must be 30 seconds or less)
• Combo-Fax/Answering Machines only work if no pressing of digits is required to start the fax (e.g. "Leave a message or press * to send a fax" WILL NOT WORK.)
• Brother fax machines often do not work correctly. Please avoid them.
• Canon FaxPhones often do not work correctly. Please avoid them.

Modem Qualifications and Guidelines:

• Modems connect anywhere from 300 to 33.6K BPS.
• Wordsize/etc. can be 7 data bits, Even parity, 1 Stop bit (7E1) or 8 data bits, No parity, 1 Stop (8N1).
• Error correction (MNP / bis) is supported.
• Modems should hang up and not answer when printer runs out of paper. This is normally done by hooking modem's DTR to printer's PaperOut or Select pins. Modem init string to enable DTR is AT&D2 for most Rockwell and USR chipsets. Other settings may apply.
  In short, if the printer errors or is offline, we do not want the modem to answer the phone.
• Modem / Printer (or software) must use Xon/Xoff flow control to keep Dig|Safely. New York from overflowing your buffers.
  The Xon/Xoff is between the printer and Dig|Safely. New York, not the printer and the modem!

Things That Work Great With Dig|Safely. New York:

Situations Which Have Not Worked Well With Dig|Safely. New York:

• Using a PC with a FaxModem to receive Dig|Safely. New York Faxes is not as great of an idea as it sounds.

  The PC must be left on (and not crash) with your software running 24hrs a day. While many people think they have tight enough control over their machine to ensure this, most do not. Either another user or they themselves inadvertently shut it off or windows does something which requires a shutdown.

• Canon FaxPhones are not quite as "standard" as they claim to be.

  Dig|Safely. New York uses fax cards that convert text to a fax-format, instead of the host computer doing it. Until these Canon FaxPhones came out, our fax cards have worked with every other fax on the market. Getting these Canons to work is and continues to be a tedious process. Please avoid them.

• Brother fax machines seem to have issues.

  They'll print out half of a fax perfectly, and unexpectedly fail or chop the rest of the transmission. Avoid using a Brother fax machine to receive notices.

• Attempting to put together your own modem/printer combo can be difficult.

  Even if you're familiar with both, the process ordinarily ends up being a nightmare. In the long run, purchasing a complete modem/printer combo is often more economical in terms of time, money and frustration.

• Sharing a phone line between a telephone and a modem/fax...

  This sometimes prevents Dig|Safely. New York from successfully delivering a ticket to your device. Although others may be able to deliver a fax, Dig|Safely. New York's fax units are very strict about the transmission quality. Additionally, NYS law requires the member's to take responsibility to establish a reliable means of receiving Dig|Safely. New York excavation notices. Shared lines do not fall under this requirement.

Testing Your Setup Before You Buy:

Dig|Safely. New York can test receiving equipment in any place that has access to a phone line, be it a fax, modem printer, or entire software suite. If a local vendor claims their equipment can be made to work within 30 seconds of being taken out of the box, call them on it. Actually, call us on it and we'll call them with a test delivery while you watch. Where possible, get the configuration exactly the way you want it, and have it tested while you watch before you accept delivery from the vendor. Avoid accepting a unit with a promise that "they'll make it work tomorrow."

Common Problems and How to Avoid Them:

Faxes

• Make sure it is turned on, when you show up and when you go home, in short Leave it on.
• Paper's cheap. Keep it full, and check it before you go home.
• Avoid sharing fax lines with voice phone lines. If you do share the fax with a voice line, be certain the fax is set to auto-answer when you go home.
• Faxes are not allowed as a delivery method if your call volume exceeds 1200 tickets per year.
• Combination Fax/Answering Machines cannot require the caller to press a button to send a fax.
• Combination Fax/Answering Machines cannot have a greeting more than 30 seconds long.
• If you will be storing your faxes for archival purposes, get a plain paper fax. Thermal faxes fade.

Modem/Printer combos

• Leave it on.
• Make sure it has paper.
• Make sure it is "On-Line"
• Make sure it's plugged in.
• Make sure the light switch doesn't turn it off.

Email Delivery

• We cannot, and will not attempt to navigate any spam filtering on your end. You are responsible for making sure the messages get through.
• E-Mail delivery failures may take up to five days (or more) to detect.
• Some email delivery failures will *never* be detected.
• If your receiving software or MTA either relays or forwards the email to one or more people, it must NOT impersonate the original "Mail From:" sender (digsafelynewyork.com or ufpo.org). If one of your downstream recipients decides to bounce the message, it should bounce to YOU, who forwarded it. Bouncing mail to us that YOU have originated is and will be treated as a reflection attack, and your MTA will be submitted to every RBL we can find. In short please change the "Mail From: Field before forwarding.

Problems Dig|Safely. New York IS and IS NOT responsible for

• Dig|Safely. New York is not responsible for making your equipment work. We will do our best to help, when possible, but the receiving equipment was your purchase and your responsibility.

• As a general rule (with a few exceptions), if you are experiencing problems receiving location requests, your equipment is probably at fault. If Dig|Safely. New York is having a problem, everyone (all 2,500+ receiving stations) will have that problem. If, on the other hand, you are the only one, and the other 2,499 stations are fine it certianly indicates the difficulties are not with Dig|Safely. New York.

• If you encounter a problem receiving location requests, by all means call Dig|Safely. New York after you have checked for the obvious (is it on? have paper? etc.) We will be glad to help you as best we can, and can activate an alternative means of delivery until the problem is resolved.

Got a question?

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