We're looking at adding an intercom solution to facilitate conversation between our operators on one side and on the other side truck drivers that are waiting on a truck scale while product is being loaded. I can work with a direct point to point intercom or we do have a FreePBX phone system and the operations room already has a phone in that location that could be used for that side of the link.

The concern I have though is that the speaker/microphone on the truck scale side will be in a fairly noisy environment since even idling those trucks generate a fair amount of noise. The proposed mounting position for the equipment on the truck scale will be a good 3-4 feet from the driver as they are sitting in the cab of their trucks and I'm concerned that may be too far away for them to hear or for the microphone to pick up what they are saying.

Has anyone worked with a vendor that makes an intercom speaker/microphone solution that would work well in a noisy environment such as this? I would prefer a SIP solution but would consider other if that's what is needed.

We're going to be outfitting our conference rooms with some Crestron equipment. One aspect is that the Crestron devices will appear as extensions on our phone system and the vendor has asked for some configuration information including the "server realm" for the phone system.

This was new to me as I don't remember needing this when we set up our FreePBX systems. From what I have seen by googling it appears to be a way to have separate authentication domains. As best I can tell the realm is used when registering to FreePBX in the form of <extension>@<realm>. On our systems, all of our devices are registered in this format with the realm parameter being the IP address of our FreePBX system.

Would I be correct to say then that the realm of our system is simply the IP address (or FQDN) of the phone system?

I have 3 sites that I manage, 2 of which are using FreePBX and the other using a system from emetrotel which I believe to be a knockoff of FreePBX (many of the configuration pages are very similar to FreePBX; it is definitely asterisk based since I can get to the asterisk console).

One aspect of the emetrotel system that is different though is how the conference bridges work. In FreePBX it doesn't appear that you can schedule conference calls by time nor assign a different meeting ID for separate meetings occurring on the same bridge. On the emetrotel system we can do this. For instance I can set up a number such that the caller is asked to enter a code to identify the meeting and then a PIN for that meeting (which can be different for the call leader). Is there similar functionality in FreePBX?

With the FreePBX implementation the same PIN is set for every call that occurs on a particular conference bridge which would seem to be a security concern. For instance, you host a non sensitive call and give out the PIN and then later host a call that may contain sensitive discussion for which you wouldn't want callers from the previous call to be able to join even though they would have the PIN. I could use the leader wait option to try and limit the possibility that this could happen but that doesn't seem clean to me.

Am I overthinking this threat? For those that are using FreePBX for their conference call needs how are you managing setup and scheduling of calls to prevent unauthorized participants and also to keep different conferences with overlapping time periods from trampling each other?

@flaxking said in Cell signal boost in area with limited connectivity ...:

Some companies around here will install a booster on every vehicle in their fleet.

That's a really good idea. I hadn't even considered it from that perspective. I'm going to look into this possibility.

@Dashrender said in Cell signal boost in area with limited connectivity ...:

What about doing outdoor WiFi for those phones? Might be easier than cellular frequencies.

I wish that I could but the devices in the trucks are cell only and that's the primary use case. We have units in the trucks that keep up with driver logs, location, engine issues, etc ...

That all gets reported back to a database over the cell network and we access the information from a web portal.

Does anyone know if there is a way to boost cell signal strength in an area where connectivity is very limited. One of our plants is in a very rural area and cell connectivity is spotty at best. Sometimes it seems to work a little, other times, no connectivity at all. I know there are those indoor type units that connect to a LAN and get out over IP but we really need an outdoor rated unit that can cover a large part of our property. The primary use case is for a transportation system that we use where the units in the trucks connect over the cell network. Our drivers have trouble logging in and doing other functions because the units won't connect to the cell network while on our property. They have to drive a little ways down the road most of the time to ensure a successful connection.

If it matters we're with Verizon for our company cell phones but they have been no help at all, having only suggested the indoor units for inside the plant which is not what we really need. Some folks who have US Cellular plans are also able to have some limited connectivity at that site but it's still poor.

Are there 3rd party solutions available to address this kind of need? What I'm wondering is if we could erect a small tower on top of our building or something that could connect to the cell network and provide us coverage on our property.

@thecreaitvone91 said in Verify authenticity of a text thread from a screenshot ...:

Is is a straight SMS? not an iMessage etc.. Most carriers log these and the accuser could request a log for them in offical form however, they usually have to be within the last 30 days. I'm not sure if they provide these to consumer accounts, We can get them through both Verizon and AT&T for bussiness provided phones (and it's in the Use policy of accepting employer paid phones that we can)

It is SMS I believe. The accuser has an iPhone but the alleged perpetrator appears to have had an android so I think that means it was SMS although I may be wrong on that.

I did suggest to HR what @scottalanmiller mentioned; to ask to see the actual phone and not just pictures of the conversation. My understanding is that the accuser did subsequently allow HR to access their phone and it was verified that the screen shots were legitimate from the text messaging app on the phone. That may not be 100% proof but it seems likely that it was not faked.

The matter is in HR's hands now and I am not involved anymore.

@scottalanmiller

Yep, that what I meant. Sorry I wasn't very clear in my response. That site makes it easier to fake an image of a conversation.

So to your earlier point, the best bet is to see if the accuser will share a physical look at their phone for verification to remove at least the chance that it is from image manipulation.

@scottalanmiller

Yep.

I have found that there are web sites that allow you to fake text message threads also, so it wouldn't even really need any image editing to make it convincing.

https://ifaketextmessage.com/

@scottalanmiller

Ok, Thanks. I thought that was likely true.