Whether you are a small school, or a large campus of buildings, you need to know immediately who dialed 911. With 3CX Emergency Notifier, your emergency responders will know exactly where to go.
With 3CX Emergency Notifier, you will have complete control over 911 notifications. You can control the content of notifications, who is notified, and how they are notified (email, SMS, and phone call), in addition to informing emergency responders exactly where the problem is located. This is a “MUST HAVE” solution for educational facilities and businesses with multiple buildings.
3CX Emergency Notifier is a onetime installation process. Once you install it, the product allows you to gain complete control over 911 notifications using a simple web portal.
Before you begin with the installation steps mentioned in this guide, you need to ensure that your computer meets the minimum requirements mentioned below for installing 3CX Emergency Notifier.
3CX Version V18 (Professional or Enterprise Version Only)
Windows 10 or above / Windows Server 2012 or above
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 or above (Including the free SQL Express edition)
You can order 3CX Emergency Notifier on-line at voiptools.com. Your order confirmation email will include your license key and a link to download the software.
There are a number of prerequisites that must be installed prior to installing 3CX Emergency Notifier. These prerequisites include Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and Microsoft SQL Server
This User Guide contains step-by-step instructions to successfully install 3CX Emergency Notifier. Begin by extracting the installer from the downloaded zip file (Step 1 above), then run the setup program named EmergencyNotifierInstaller.exe
You must register your license key to activate 3CX Emergency Notifier. Your license key is included in your order confirmation email, and can also be found in your order history on our website.
Find the software download link in the Order Confirmation Email, or you can find it in your order history on our website and download the 3CX Emergency Notifier application.
In the Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, click the More Info option.
Figure 1: Microsoft Defender: More info
Click the Run Anyway option to start the installation.
Click on the software installer downloaded in Step 1. The installation wizard will automatically identify the prerequisites and assist you with each installation required to 3CX Emergency Notifier. It includes .NET Framework (Web Installer), SQL Server Express (Web Installer), and SQL Server Management Studio.
Click the downloaded installer executable to launch the Prerequisites Setup Wizard and click Next.
Figure 3: 3CX Emergency Notifier Setup Wizard
In the Prerequisites window, install all the required prerequisites identified by the installer, or select/ unselect the applications based on your requirements and click Next to continue.
Figure 4: Prerequisite installation Selection
The installer will download and install the selected applications. It may take several minutes to complete.
Figure 5: Prerequisites Installation in progress
The Microsoft SQL Server License Terms page gets displayed if you install SQL Server Express. Click Accept to acknowledge the license terms and continue.
Figure 6: Microsoft SQL License Terms
In the Media Location field, browse to change the location and click Install to begin the installation of SQL Server Express.
Figure 7: SQL server selects media download target location
Installation is in progress. It may take several minutes to complete the installation.
Figure 8: Microsoft SQL downloading install packages
Click Yes in the Confirmation Message Box to reboot the computer.
Click Next on the 3CX Emergency NotifierSetup Wizard screen.
Figure 10: Emergency Notifier setup wizard
On the Select Installation Folder window, the Folder field displays the path where the 3CX Emergency Notifier gets installed. You cannot change the location path.
Click Next to continue
Figure 11: Emergency Notifier selects the installation folder
In the 3CX Relay Services window, in the Relay Host field, enter the FQDN of your 3CX server.
Enter 8801 in the Relay Port field.
Enter the JWT public key you took from VoIPTools Relay services in the Public Key text area. Click here to know more.
Figure 12: Configure Relay services
Click the Test Relay Settings to confirm ‘3CX Emergency Notifier’ can communicate with the Relay services running on the 3CX server.
If the ‘3CX Emergency Notifier’ is successfully able to communicate with the Relay services that run on the 3CX server, a Success message box appears. Click OK. If the test fails, you will not be able to continue until communication with the relay is established.
Figure 13: Test Relay Success
NOTE:
You must set the Relay Port to 8801.
If the Relay test fails, you cannot continue the installation until you establish communication with the Relay. If your Relay test failed then confirm the following conditions,
Confirm you have the correct firewall port open (default TCP 8801) on the 3CX server and the firewall protecting the 3CX server.
Confirm that you have entered the correct FQDN for the 3CX server.
Confirm that the 3CX Emergency Notifier and Relay use the same port and protocol.
On the SQL Database window in the Server field, select the desired instance of SQL Server.
To use SQL Authentication, uncheck the Trusted Connection checkbox.
In the Username and Password fields, enter valid SQL login account credentials.
Figure 14: Configure SQL database
NOTE:
We recommend you use SQL Authentication rather than Windows authentication. Many of our tools leverage a Call Flow Designer (CFD) application running on the 3CX.Frequently our CFD applications require access to a SQL database. If the 3CX server and the database server are not in an Active Directory domain, Windows authentication will fail.
To use SQL Authentication, you must configure the SQL server to run in Mixed Mode. If you install SQL Server with our tools, we configure SQL in Mixed Mode.
To use Windows Integrated Authentication (not recommended), check the Trusted Connection (Windows integrated authentication) checkbox.
NOTE:
In the Database field, the installer will automatically display the default database name. We encourage you to use the default name. To upgrade or reinstall 3CX Emergency Notifier, select the current database name from the list.
Click the Tool buttons to confirm connectivity to SQL Server. and click OK on the Test Results message box.
Figure 15: TOOL connection to database results
Click the CFD buttons to confirm connectivity to SQL Server and click Ok on the Test Results message box.
Figure 16: CFD Test SQL connections results.
NOTE:
You can use the public IP or FQDN of the 3CX server to test the connectivity.
Registration is required to authorize your software. Registering also makes it possible for VoIPTools to provide a replacement key if your license key is ever lost. Also, it enables VoIPTools to notify you of any product updates.
Click the 3CX Emergency Notifier desktop icon to launch the web application.
On the Login page, log in with your credentials.
In the 3CX Emergency Notifier web portal, hover over the mouse on the Settings tab and from the drop-down menu, select Emergency Notifier Settings.
Figure 31: Select – Emergency Notifier Settings
In the Settings screen, click the License tab
In the Registration section, enter your License Key and other details appropriately and click Registeto complete your registration.
Figure 32: 3CX Emergency Notifier Registration
Step 8: Check for default data in the database server #
To verify if you have successfully installed 3CX Emergency Notifier application, you need to log into the data base and check for default data in the basic tables.
Log into the SQL database.
In the Object Explorer accordion, expand Databases and then expand Tables
From the tables list
Open dbo.EmergencyNumbers table to see the emergency contact number “911”
Open dbo.Messages table to see message type for the emergency number as Email, SMS and Email Subject.
Open dbo.NotificationSettings table to see the emergency contact number “911”
Open dbo.Settings table to see the default database settings.
In addition to sending emergency notifications by phone, email, and SMS text, you can also receive notifications on your desktop.
The following instructions outline how to install the desktop notification application:
NOTE:
Before you launch the application, you must ensure Microsoft .Net Framework 4.6.1 (x86 and x64) is installed in your device. If the above component is already installed, you can launch the application. Otherwise, follow the instructions as outlined below to install the component.
The Desktop Notifications application receives events and client software updates from the VoIPTools server. You will need to configure your public facing and Windows firewalls to open ports 5600 TCP and 5610 TCP.
In the File Explorer, navigate to C:\\ProgramData\VoIPTools\Data\Http\wwwroot\3CX Emergency Notifier\Alert
Figure 21: Navigate to ‘3CX Emergency Notifier Alert’
Double-click EmergencyAlertUpdater to display Emergency Alert URLUpdate popup.
Figure 22: Emergency Notifier Setup
In the Emergency Alert URLUpdate popup, enter your URL in the format http://localhost:5600/Alert/EmergencyAlerter.htm and click Update.
Figure 23: Update the URL
NOTE:
It is important that your FQDN resolve to an IP address that is accessible by your client workstations. If, for example, your VoIPTools server is hosted in the cloud, the FQDN should resolve to the public IP address of your VoIPTools server. It may be necessary to update your DNS, or you can update the workstation’s Host file to map the FQDN to an accessible IP address.
To access the folder, ‘3CX Emergency Notifier’ ensure that you have full admin rights.
In the Emergency Alert Application Update URL popup, click OK.
Figure 24: URL to install prerequisites
Open web browser and in the address bar, type the URL: http://localhost:5600/Alert/EmergencyAlerter.htm
NOTE:
Replace with your local host value in the place of URL mentioned above.
The following web page appears:
Figure 25: Install Prerequisites
Click Install to install the prerequisites.
On the taskbar and in the notification area, click the Show Hidden Icons icon to display notification area overflow
Figure 26: Show hidden icons: Notification Area Overflow
In the notification area overflow, right-click on the Emergency Alerts icon and in the right click menu, click Preferences.
Figure 27: Notification area overflow: Emergency Alerts: Preferences
In the Preferences screen and in the Server URL field, enter the URL:
NOTE:
In the URL mentioned above, replace with your FQDN value.
Figure 28: Server URL
Click Save to save the url and then click Close to close the Preferences screen.
In the notification area overflow, right-click on the Emergency Alertsicon and in the right click menu, click Exit to exit from the Emergency Alerts.
Figure 29: Notification area overflow: Emergency Alerts: Exit
On the desktop, click the 3CX Emergency Notifier icon to launch the application.
NOTE:
Emergency Notifier gives you an desktop alert whenever you recieve a call to the emergency number. The ALERT popup has the following details,
To access the 3CX Emergency Notifier web portal, click the Web Portal button on the configuration program, or click on the desktop icon that was created during the installation process (3CX Emergency Notifier Web).
A windows Service (3CX Emergency Notifier) runs in the background monitoring for emergency calls. You can monitor the status of this service here (Running, Stopped, Unknown).
Refresh
Link will update the status if changes to the service status were made directly in the Windows Service Snap-in.
Status
Shows the current state of the Windows service (Started/ Stopped).
Figure 33: Configure General Settings
NOTE:
If you make changes to ‘Settings’, it is necessary to stop and start the service.
In the User Extension field, enter the extension number having a registered functioning phone.
NOTE:
You must ensure use a physical phone to test the working of 3CX Emergency Notifier
The User Extension must be a member of a dedicated test extension group.
In the User Phone list, select the type of phone that you have configured the User Extension.
Figure: Select user phone
NOTE:
Automated Test supports Desktop phone, soft phone, mobile phone and electron phone.
In the Emergency Number field, enter the emergency number for Automated Test.
Figure: Select the emergency number
NOTE:
You must configure specific contacts to recieve test notifications. Click here to know how to configure contacts to recieve test notifications in the 3CX Console Management.
You can schedule an automated test using the Task Scheduler. Follow the procedure to schedule an automated test,
In your device, open the Task Scheduler application.
In the Task Scheduler Library dropdown right-click the Microsoft folder.
Click the Create Task option to create a schedule.
Figure: Create Task
On the General tab, in the Name field, enter a name for the task.
Figure: General tab
In the Triggers tab click the New button to create a new trigger.
Figure: Add a new trigger
In the Start field, set the date and time at which you want to start the automated test and click the OK button.
Figure: Start schedule
In the Action tab, click the New button.
Figure: Actions tab
In the Programme/Script field, click the Browse button enter the file location and click the OK button. The default file path is “C:\Program Files\VoIPTools\3CX Emergency Notifier\EmergencyNotifierTestIVR\EmergencyNotifierTestIVR.exe.”
In the Email tab, under the Email Server section, in the Server field, enter the IP address or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of your email server. Examples: 192.168.1.20 or mail.mydomain.com
In the Port field, enter the SMTP Port number. The default port number is 25.
In the From Email: field, enter the reply email addresses for email and SMS notifications.
In the Authentication section, enter Username and Password.
Click the Test button to test if Email Server is able to communicate with 3CX Phone System.
3CX Emergency Notifier can call your contacts and “play” a recording. The recording can be prerecorded, or dynamically created using Text-To-Speech. A dynamically created recording can list information about the extension where the emergency number was dialed. The following settings make it possible for you to modify some of the attributes of the voice used to make dynamic recording.
Select TTS Type: Windows TTS if you want to create dynamic play files by using the voices installed in your computer.
Select the preferred culture in the Locale dropdown.
From the Voice Name drop-down list, select the voice that you want to use for dynamic recordings. Usually, this field displays all of the voices installed on the computer.
From the Gender dropdown, select Male or Female so that the Emergency Notifier will play the .wav file in a male or female voice.
From the Volume drop-down list, select the volume that you want to apply for your recording.
From the Speech Rate drop-down list, select the desired speech rate to adjust the speed of the speech.
Click the Test button to test your settings or click the Save button to save your settings.
Select TTS Type as Amazon Polly if you want to create a self Identification Message (.wav file) using Amazon Web Services.
Select the preferred culture in the Locale dropdown.
From the Voice Name drop down list, select the voice that you want to use for dynamic recordings. Usually, this field displays all of the voices installed on the computer.
In the Amazon Id and Amazon Key fields, enter valid details. To learn how to create Amazon Web Services (AWS) account and generate AWS access key ID and secret key id, click here.
Click the Test button to test your settings or click the Save button to save your settings.
Log screen displays list of all the event logs since the time you have installed 3CX Emergency Notifier. The information includes event date and time, extension, phone number, floor, pilar, cubicle, street, city, state/ province, and postal code details.
In the Extensions screen you can import extensions from either 3CX phone system or CSV file, and export the extension records in the available various formats like pdf, xls, xlsx, rtf or csv.
When a ‘Speed Dial’ group receives a call, all the contacts in the group will receive the notifications. The notifications include email or SMS or both. Simply check the email and/ or SMS check box to apply the notification type for the speed dial group.
‘Voice App’ and ‘Alarm’ are the two CFD extensions created manually with a unique id. ‘Voice App Extension’ is programmed on phone and its purpose is to connect the call to its associated contacts. Once the contact receives the call, the ‘Voice App Extension’ internally activates its respective ‘Alarm Extension’ so that it plays the respective audio file for the contact that has received the call.
Only ‘Voice App Extension’ is revealed to the customer and ‘Alarm Extension’ is confidential.
In the Speed Dials screen, click the Add button to add a new speed dial
Enter valid Voice App Extension and Alarm Extension fields respectively
In the Description field, enter the description for the speed dial call
Check Email and/or SMS checkboxes to apply the notification type for the speed dial call
NOTE:
You must ensure that there is not restrictions on outbound rules on groups and extensions to make external calls.
Check Repeat check box if you want to repeatedly play the ‘Audio’ file for the speed dial call
From the Audio drop down, select the audio file that you saved on your computer. This file will play as the alarm for the speed dial call
Click Publish link to create ‘Voice App Extension’ and ‘Alarm Extension’ in the PBX system
NOTE:
Once you publish the speed dial, ‘Voice App Extension’ and ‘Alarm Extension’ will be created in the PBX system with the name same as that of ‘Description’ you mentioned for the speed dial, extended by the terms ‘Notification’ and ‘Alarm’ for ‘Voice App Extension’ and ‘Alarm Extension’ respectively.
In the Emergency Numbers screen, you can view the list of all the emergency numbers. You can also create a new emergency number here. When an emergency number receives a call, the notification is sent to all the extensions of the extension group to which the emergency number belongs to.
Create New Emergency Number
In the Emergency Numbers screen, click Add to add new emergency number.
In the Number field, enter valid extension number.
In the Description field, enter valid description in brief.
In the Play File field, select the audio file that you already uploaded.
Click Save to save the data.
NOTE:
If you have not selected any audio file in the ‘Play File’ field then, the ‘SMS’ notification that you set for the extension will play as voice file for all the extensions that received the notification.
Messages screen enables you to create an email and SMS to send as notification for a specific speed dial group or emergency number. Here you can either create a new email and SMS message, or edit an existing one.
In the Messages screen, under Notification Messages, select the extension from the extension drop down to which you want to send the email notification
In the Email Subject field, enter the subject of the email
In the Design editor, type the email content that you want to send as notification to the selected speed dial group or emergency number
The ‘Locations’ screen enables you to create a location (building) by associating an IP address range to the desired group. When a user moves from one location to another, the ‘3CX Emergency Notifier’ automatically updates the group based on the IP address of the phone.
Figure 50: Locations Screen
Create Location
In the Locations screen and on the column header, click Add button.
From the 3CX Emergency Group dropdown list, select the desired group to which you want to add IP address range.
NOTE:
‘3CX Emergency Notifier’ retrieves the ‘Emergency Group’ details from ‘3CX Management Console’ and displays them in the ‘3CX Emergency Group’ dropdown list.
In the IP Address field, enter the IP Address range in either of the two supporting formats as mentioned in the example below:
For Example:
Format 1: 192.168.5.0/24 which means that the IP range is from 192.168.5.0 to 192.168.5.24
Format 2: 192.168.5.0-192.168.5.24 which means that the IP range is from 192.168.5.0 to 192.168.5.24
At the footer of the Locations page, click Save.
Figure 51: Select ‘3CX Emergency Group’ and Associate ‘IP Address’ Range
NOTE:
In a subnet, if you want to associate a specific single IP address to a different location, then you will need to divide the IP address range and then associate to different locations. For instance, in a subnet mask with range 192.168.5.0 – 192.168.5.254, if you want to associate specific IP address 192.168.5.100 to a different location then, create one location for IP range: 192.168.5.0 – 192.168.5.99, another location for IP 192.168.5.100 and another location for IP range 192.168.5.101 – 192.168.5.254
Generate Amazon Associate Product Advertising API Keys #
Click here to know how create an Amazon Web Services account and generate Amazon Web Services Access Key IDs and Secret Key IDs.
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NOTE:
to launch the web application.
to complete your registration.
icon to display notification area overflow
Emergency Alerts icon and in the right click menu, click Preferences.
option.
application.
button to save the data.
button to test your settings or click the Save 
button to add a new extension.
button to add extension groups.
to add a new extension group.
to save the extension group.
