Welcome To Voice Terminal Service

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

What is Voice Terminal?   (Back to Top)
Voice Terminal is the successor to Email-By-Phone services. in addition to allowing access to your email functions, any time, anywhere, Voice Terminal opens up access to the contents of the Internet to you wherever you are, with the ease of a telephone call.

What services are available?   (Back to Top)
The December 2008 release of Voice Terminal still contains the Email-by-Phone functions that you are used to using. In addition, you can listen to latest news headlines, get a current weather report (based on your ZIP code), hear current (delayed 20 minutes) stock prices and set up stock price alerts, listen to your daily horoscope forecast, access your Google Calendar by voice and play a fun game of Blackjack in the Virtual Vegas Casino " Entertainment section.

What sort of News Headlines can I hear?   (Back to Top)
The News Center currently provides headline news for these areas:

National news - latest-breaking Items of national Interest.
Local news - tell us your ZIP code and hear what's happening near you.
Entertainment news - the current buzz in music, tv and film.
Business news - What's happening now in business and finance
Sports news - stay up-to-date on what the teams are doing.
Offbeat News ? Strange and Funny Items
Health News ? The latest in the Health Care field.
Product Recall ? stay safe by knowing what products to avoid.

What if I'm on the road? Can I find out what's happening where I am now?   (Back to Top)
Yes! Local news items and weather reports are based on ZIP code. You can get local news and weather conditions for wherever (currently, in US only) you are, or, wherever you are headed.

I don't travel much. Do I have to say my ZIP code every time? How do I change my preferences?   (Back to Top)
No. You can go to your VoiceTerminal News Preferences page and set your Default ZIP code there. You may also set your horoscope sign, and turn on or off any of the options on that page. You can access your personalized options by saying "My Weather", "My News", ?My Stocks? or "My Horoscope". You can also uncheck any available option, and it will not be offered as an option when you use the keyword "My". Account Profile Page

A news headline caught my interest. How can I read more?   (Back to Top)
Just say "send me a link" and Voice Terminal will send an email to your email inbox containing a link to the web address of the full text content of the headline story, so you can get all the information you want.

Why are stock prices delayed 20 minutes?   (Back to Top)
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires this delay in information feeds which are not directly supplied to registered clients by licensed Stock Brokers. All public feeds must, by law, be delayed at least 20 minutes. If the law changes, you will get prices faster. Until then, we have to obey the current law.
Does it cost anything to play the Blackjack game?   (Back to Top)
No! There is no money, betting or gambling involved at all. The game is provided strictly for entertainment purposes, so practice your calculating skills, or just spend some idle time with everyone's favorite blackjack dealer, "Five-Finger Al" at the Virtual Vegas Casino.

Does this service use speech recognition?   (Back to Top)
Yes.

How much does Voice Terminal cost?   (Back to Top)
You can find the cost of Voice Terminal service here.

Do I need special equipment in order to use this service?   (Back to Top)
No. All you need is a computer that is connected to the Internet in order to sign up. Once signed up, you can call the service from any telephone. If you reply to a message, the recipient needs to be able to play their sound files on their computer. Messages are stored in .wav format that is supported by most media players.

What are the System requirements?    (Back to Top)
Any Computer that is connected to the Internet and has a Web browser can be used to manage your account. Any telephone (land-line or cellular) can be used to access the voice services.

How do I sign up?   (Back to Top)
You may sign up right here. (http://www.voiceterminal.net/)

What information do I need before I sign up?   (Back to Top)
Before you start filling out the Sign Up form, you will need to have a few pieces of information available:

Your Email address (and your username, if it is different from your email address - some ISPs, notably ATT Worldnet, give each user a numeric userID, in addition to th e'normal' email address username)
Your email password
The name/IP address of your mail POP server

Whhere do I find the sign-up information? (Back to Top)
This information should have been provided to you when you first obtained your email account. If it is unavailable, you may have to contact your service provider and request the information.
If you normally access your email using a POP client, such as Outlook Express/Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird, the POP server's address can be easily-located, as follows:
Windows Mail

Open Windows Mail (or Outlook Express) as usual.
On the "Tools" menu, click "Accounts" to bring up a popup window of all your email accounts.

Windows Mail menu

Select the email account you want to voice-enable, and click the "Properties"button.

Windows Mail account list

Select the "Servers" tab, and copy down the server name and user name for later reference.

Windows Mail account details
Mozilla Thunderbird

Open Thunderbird as usual.
On the "Tools" menu, click "Account Settings" to bring up a popup window of all your email accounts.

TBird menu

Click th e"Server Settings" link for the email account you want to voice-enable and copy down the server name and user name for later reference.

TBird account list

To Obtain your email password, select "Options" from the "Tools" menu.

TBird options menu

Go to the "Privacy" tab, select the "Passwords" sub-tab and click "Edit Saved Passwords"

TBird account details

Click and confirm th e"Show Passwords" button to view the password in plain text.

TBird account details
Why can't I use my Yahoo email address? (Back to Top)
Free Yahoo email addresses are not capable of being accessed by the industry-standard Post Office Protocol (POP). Yahoo! Plus (paid) email addresses can use POP. If you have a Yahoo! Plus paid email account, it can be accessed via POP, and Voice Terminal will be able to access your mail.

Using Voice Terminal

Is there a limit to the amount of times you can check your email?    (Back to Top)
No,VTS customers can make an unlimited number of calls to check e-mail, within the time constraints of your selected Service Plan.

Can this service be used from outside the US?    (Back to Top)
No.

Can touch-tone commands be used instead of voice commands?   (Back to Top)
Only to enter your login/pin info. However all other features are voice command only.

Can this service be used to send faxes?   (Back to Top)
Yes. Just say "Send to Fax" to forward your email to any fax machine by using your Voice Terminal connection.

Do I get alerts when a new email arrives?    (Back to Top)
Yes. The Voice Terminal service offers up to 50 combined incoming and outgoing notifications per month. You will receive notifications once you've set up your watch list http://www.voiceterminal.net/accountProfile.jsp.

Can Voice Terminal be used for multiple email accounts?   (Back to Top)
Yes. You can change the e-mail address however it is limited to only one e-mail account at a time. If you voice-enable a GMail Account, GMail can be used to consolidate your other email accounts in one place for Voice access.

Can I check email for all email accounts?    (Back to Top)
Yes, however, Voice Terminal utilizes the most recent version of the POP protocol (Post Office Protocol 3) for receiving e-mail. A number of service providers that don't use this protocol, I.e. Hotmail, MSN and AOL. To Voice-enable a GMail account, you must first enable the POP protocol for your GMail account. Instructions here.

If I read my email using my computer, would I still have it available over the phone?   (Back to Top)
The service provides you the flexibility to remove or keep the emails you've already listened to them. Please visit, http://www.voiceterminal.net/AccountProfile.jsp. To keep emails on the server, uncheck the message deletion box. To remove emails from server, check the message deletion box. Please note that if your email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) deletes emails from the server after downloading, the messages may no longer be available to be found by VTS. Account Profile Page

How frequently can I check for new emails using Voice Terminal?    (Back to Top)
The Voice Terminal checks for new mails every 10 minutes.

Managing Email with Voice Terminal

Can I save my email and listen to it later?   (Back to Top)
Yes. Emails can be saved up to a maximum of 14 days.

What happens to attachments?   (Back to Top)
Names of attachments will be read out, but contents of attachments will NOT be read out.

What happens when I delete email on my computer?   (Back to Top)
The emails will be available over the phone as long as they are available on the server.

What are the other options I have on my email?   (Back to Top)
Functional options:

Save
Delete
Reply
Compose
Forward
Help

Navigational Options:

Skip
Next
Previous
Repeat
Go to Saved Messages
Good Bye
Voice Terminal (main menu)

Can I send outgoing notifications?   (Back to Top)
Yes, you can send outgoing notifications using the Outgoing Notifier™ feature.

How many outgoing notifications can I send?   (Back to Top)
Voice Terminal service offers up to 50 combined incoming and outgoing notification calls per month. For example, one Broadcast, sent to ten recipients, uses ten of the fifty quota. Unlimited Service Plan Customers do not have any monthly quota for broadcasts or alerts. Please note that the Outbound Notifier™ may NOT be used for commercial sales purposes.

Can I save an already saved message?   (Back to Top)
Yes. This is one smart way to keep extending the 14 day window and retain saved messages beyond 14 days.

What happens if I hang up the call midway through a message?   (Back to Top)
All operations completed prior to hang-up will be committed. The message that was being played will remain in the original status.

How do I import my Address Book?   (Back to Top)
Most CSV files that cannot be imported into the Address Book are not properly formatted. Even if a file has the .csv file extension, it may not be in the correct format for the Address Book. The file has to be exported as an Outlook CSV file to work with the Address Book.
If you are using Microsoft Outlook, here are the steps for exporting an Outlook CSV file:

Open Microsoft Outlook.
From the File menu, select the "Import and Export" option.
Select "Export to a file" and click "Next."
Select "Comma Separated Values (Windows)" and click "Next."
Select your Contacts folder and click "Next".
Enter a convenient file location and name and click "Next."
Click "Finish."

You can check whether your CSV file is properly formatted by opening the file using Microsoft Excel or the free Open Office spreadsheet application . If there is no bold "header" at the top of each column, the file is not properly formatted.
Note the header at the top of each column (Title, First Name, Last Name, etc.). The Address Book import tool uses those headers to recognize the data in each column and import the data into the correct fields in the Address Book. (For a list of column headers that supports, see the bottom of this page). Here are some tips for ensuring that files exported from Outlook and other email programs and services are properly formatted:
Outlook: When exporting from Outlook, be sure to choose the "Comma Separated Values (Windows)" option when you are prompted to choose a file type.
Yahoo! Mail: When exporting your contacts from Yahoo! Mail, be sure to choose the "Microsoft Outlook" export option.
Mozilla Thunderbird: Choose the "Comma Separated (*.csv)" option when exporting your contacts. (Note: Thunderbird 2.0 and later supports the correct headers. CSV files exported from older versions of Thunderbird omit the headers and cannot be imported into without adding the column headers manually).
Once you have the CSV file created, simply login to your VTS account, and choose the Import tab on the Address Book page. Address Book screenshot

The import process is successful, but email addresses in your Address Book appear improperly formatted. (Back to Top)
After importing your contacts into your Address Book, you may notice that email addresses in your Address Book look something like this:
/o=SomeName/ou=First AdministrativeGroup/cn=Recipients/cn=@domain.com
The example above is a Microsoft Exchange-formatted email address.
To make sure that your Address Book data is in the correct format, open your CSV file , using Microsoft Excel, or Open Office before you import it into and verify that all the columns contain information as you want it to appear in your Address Book. You will need to edit any improperly formatted entries manually before trying to import the file into your Address Book.

What are the Supported CSV Column Headers? (Back to Top)
Here are the Outlook CSV column headers that the VTS Address Book supports:
Title
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Suffix
E-mail Address
E-mail 2 Address
E-mail 3 Address
Business Street
Business Street 2
Business Street 3
Business City
Business State
Business Postal Code
Business Country
Home Street
Home Street 2
Home Street 3
Home City
Home State
Home Postal Code
Home Country
Other Street
Other Street 2
Other Street 3
Other City
Other State
Other Postal Code
Other Country
Company
Department
Job Title
Assistant's Phone
Business Fax
Business Phone
Business Phone 2
Callback
Car Phone
Company Main Phone
Home Fax
Home Phone
Home Phone 2
ISDN
Mobile Phone
Other Fax
Other Phone
Pager
Primary Phone
Radio Phone
TTY/TDD Phone
Telex
Assistant's Name
Birthday
Manager's Name
Notes
Other
Address PO Box
Spouse
Web Page
Personal Web Page
Anniversary
Profession
Nickname
Nickname
Birthday
Categories

Managing Your Google Calendar with Voice Terminal (new!)

How can I access my Google Calendar with Voice Terminal?(Back to Top)
If you specify a Google GMail address as your Voice Terminal email address, you are already 90% of the way to having your own personal Calendar, that cane accessed anywhere, from the Web or from your phone, via VTS.
The simple steps for creating a new Google GMail account can be followed at the GMail Help Site's Creating a GMail Account Page.
The only remaining step to take before changing your Voice Terminal email account to your new GMail address is to enable the POP Protocol on your GMail address, so Voice Terminal can read your email. Instructions for doing that can be found at the Google Help site, as well, on the Enabling POP Page.
Now, all you have to do is go to your Voice Terminal Profile, and change the email address and password.

How can I get a Google Calendar to use with Voice Terminal?(Back to Top)
Once you have a GMail address, all you need to do to take advantage of your Calendar is to activate Google Calendar for your new GMail address. Instructions for getting a new Google Calendar activated can be found at the Google Calendar Help Center
Because of security and identity-theft concerns, we are unable to automatically create GMail Accounts and Calendars for Voice Terminal subscribers. If you require assistance in getting a either or both created, please call our Support Center at 866.545.1560 and say "Tech Support". We will gladly help you with the Google Account Creation process.

How do I hear a Daily Agenda list?(Back to Top)
To get to your Google Calendar, simply say "calendar" from teh main menu. To hear the list of scheduled events for any date, just say the command "Agenda" and a date, such as "Today's Agenda" or "Agenda for January 2nd, 2009". Voice Terminal will raed you the list of every Event scheduled for that day.

How do I add a Calendar Event?(Back to Top)
To add a new Event, simply say "Add Event" after the Google Calendar prompt. You will be prompted for a date, a srat and end time for the Event, and you may record a description of the event, that you can hear when the event is read to you. You will be able to review, re-record, save or cancel the event. Once you say 'save', the event will be added to your Google Calendar.

Can I remove a Calendar Event?(Back to Top)
Removing a calendar event is simple. Just ask for the agenda list for the day of the event (e.g. say 'Today's Agenda') When you hear the event that you wish to remove being read to you, just say 'delete'. You will be asked to confirm that you are sure you want to delete it, and if you say 'yes', the Event will be removed from your Google Calendar.

What's a Quick Add?(Back to Top)
Quick Add is a fast and easy way to add Events to your Google Calendar. You can think of Quick Add as your 'fast expert mode'. Rather than prompting you for date, times and description, you can simply say one sentence to add the Event. The syntax for adding is based on the web version of Google Calendar. Simply say "-your event type- ON -your date- AT -your time-" , such as "Meeting on January 10th, 2009 at 1:30pm".

What Events does Quick Add understand?(Back to Top)
Because Voice Terminal's Quick Add has to rely on a limited vocabulary, to provide speed and convenience, the event types that you can say in a Quick Add are:

meeting
conference
seminar
breakfast
lunch
dinner
party
medical appointment

What about dates?(Back to Top)
In addition to formal dates, such as January 2nd, 2009, Voice Terminal is able to understand a few 'special' dates, based on the way Google Calendar's Quick Add function interprets dates.

Today
Tomorrow
Day of Week (Monday, Tuesday, etc) - this is the upcoming instance of that day of week
Next Day of Week (Monday, Tuesday, etc) - this is the second upcoming instance of that day of week

b>Can I get a phone reminder for upcoming events? (new!)(Back to Top)
Yes. Just say "add reminder" when you hear any event, or create a new one, and you will be asked:

How long before the event to call you?
What phone number to call for your reminder?

Using Google Directory Assistance with Voice Terminal (new!)

Will I be charged for Directory Assistance.? (Back to Top)
No. This is a free service, provided by Google's Goog411.

How do use Directory Assistance with Voice Terminal? (Back to Top)

Say "go to Directory Assistance" or say "Directory Assistance from the main menu.
Your call will be transferred to the Goog411 Service, where you can say a City, State and Business name or category.
You will be read a list of businesses that fit your search.
Choose the number of the choice that fits best, and you will be connected to that phone number.
When your call is complete, allow the business recipient, to hang up, and you will be returned to Voice Terminal. You may then say "Voice Terminal" for the main menu.

Security and Help for Voice Terminal

Is my user information secure?   (Back to Top)
The sign-up process for Voice Terminal is secure. Emails listened to over VTS are accessed from a POP3 server will have the same security provided by POP3 channels. In other words, all the security protocols that you're used to, will work on Voice Terminal. In addition, be assured that only our 'robots' - software programs - access your email. No live human ever sees or hears your email messages without your permission.

Every time I access the Voice Terminal, I find that there are no messages. But I get emails on my computer. Why can't I get emails over Voice Terminal?    (Back to Top)
Please check your email client settings. You may be deleting emails off the server when reading them on your computer. If messages have been deleted before our server polls your mail, they cannot be read to you.

How do I get help on Voice Terminal and what are the options?   (Back to Top)
You can say "HELP" at any time to get help over the phone.

I changed the password for my email on the computer. How does this affect Voice Terminal? (Back to Top)
Whenever you change your email address password, please make sure to go to http://www.voiceterminal.net, log in and update the email mailbox password box. Otherwise, Voice Terminal will not be able to retrieve messages from your mail server.