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Table of Contents

Release Notes for Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3)
Contents
What's New in Personal Assistant 1.2
Hardware Supported
Software Compatibility
Important Notes
Application Known Problems
Application Fixed Problems
Related Documentation
Obtaining Documentation
Obtaining Technical Assistance

Release Notes for Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3)


These release notes provide important compatibility specifications, bug and work-around information, and documentation details for Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) software.

To install Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) on a system, you must have Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2 installed and configured on that system.

Contents

This document contains the following sections:

What's New in Personal Assistant 1.2

Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) and Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(2) are maintenance releases to the base 1.2 software. This section describes the major changes in Personal Assitant 1.2 and its maintenance releases.

You must install and configure Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2 before you upgrade to Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) or Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(2).

What's New in Personal Assistant 1.2(3)

Personal Assistant 1.2(3) has these changes:

What's New in Personal Assistant 1.2(2)

Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(2) is a maintenance release to the base 1.2 software. Personal Assistant 1.2(2) has these changes:

What's New in Personal Assistant 1.2

Personal Assistant 1.2 has these major changes:

End User Features
System Admin Features

Hardware Supported

Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) is supported on the following Cisco Media Convergence platforms:

The Cisco MCS series is a high-availability server platform for Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data) and the supported platform for a variety of Cisco AVVID applications. Cisco MCS series servers provide customers with a Cisco end-to-end solution and single point of contact for server/software support issues.

Additionally, Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) is supported on the following Cisco certified platforms:

Software Compatibility

Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) works with the following versions of Cisco CallManager, Unity voice mail, and Microsoft Exchange software:


Caution   Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) is not compatible with versions of Cisco CallManager that precede release 3.1. Use Personal Assistant 1.2(3) only in conjunction with Cisco CallManager release 3.1 or later [3.1(x)] releases.

Important Notes

The following provide important notes about using Personal Assistant 1.2(3):

Estimating Simultaneous Sessions and User Capacity for Personal Assistant Servers

Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide includes information on estimating the number of simultaneous sessions a server can support for Personal Assistant, and how to use these estimates to determine the number of servers you need. This section includes the most up-to-date estimates, and changes how to estimate usage based on call interception (interceptor ports). Use these numbers instead of the examples in the administration guide.


Note   The number of media ports you can configure is determined by the speech-recognition license you purchase for Personal Assistant. If you purchase a 20 session license, you can configure only up to 20 media ports, even if a server platform supports more than 20 ports.

The Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide describes how to estimate simultaneous session support for two types of Personal Assistant usage:

The administration guide explains how to calculate the number of required simultaneous sessions for each of these usage types to help you estimate the number of users you can support on a single server.

Cisco is changing the recommendations on calculating these estimates:

When you determine the number of users per server you can support for call interception, configure the interceptor ports based on that number. Assign each Personal Assistant server a collection of interceptor port patterns that matches the number of users. For example, interceptor port 1XXX applies to 1000 possible interceptor ports (1000 to 1999). Thus, if you want to support 2500 users on a server, configuring these three interceptor ports would accomplish the task (assuming the underlying phone numbers are all assigned to users): 1XXX, 2XXX, 35XX.

Or, to reverse the calculation, if you need to support 4500 users, you need a total of 90 media ports. Because no single-server configuration can support as many as 90 media ports, you would require at least two servers, depending on the server platform you select.

Table 1 and Table 2 show the estimated number of sessions and users based on server type, speech recognition package version, and the size of your corporate directory. Personal Assistant determines the best speech recognition package to use during installation based on the server. Although not recommended, you can change this setting by modifying the \program files\cisco systems\personal assistant\etc\PABootstrap.properties file. The file includes instructions for updating the SPEECH_PACKAGE property.

The default speech packages are:

Table 1   Server System Capacity using Acoustic Model English.America.1 (10,000 Names in Corporate Directory)

Server Installation MCS-7825-800 MCS-7835-1000
Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1 Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2 Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1 Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on different systems of the same type

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

60

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

88

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on the same system

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

48

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

52

1Divide the busy hour call attempts (BHCA) by the expected number of calls per person per hour to arrive at the number of users a Personal Assistant server will support for call interception. Cisco suggests that you estimate 6 calls per person per hour.

2Cisco suggests that you estimate approximately 50 users per media port.

Table 2   Server System Capacity using Acoustic Model English.America.3

Server Installation Approximately 20,000 Names in Corporate Directory Approximately 40,000 Names in Corporate Directory
Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1 Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2 Personal Assistant Users (Interceptor Port Load)1 Simultaneous Speech Sessions (Media Ports)2

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on different MCS-7835-1000 systems

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

88

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

72

Personal Assistant server installed on MCS7825-800 server, speech-recognition server installed on MCS-7835-1000 server

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

88

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

72

Personal Assistant server and speech-recognition server installed on the same MCS-7835-1000 system

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

48

15,000 busy hour call attempts (BHCA)

40

1Divide the busy hour call attempts (BHCA) by the expected number of calls per person per hour to arrive at the number of users a Personal Assistant server will support will support for call interception. Cisco suggests that you estimate 6 calls per person per hour.

2Cisco suggests that you estimate approximately 50 users per media port.

Installation Issues

Cisco Personal Assistant and Cisco IP Phone Productivity Services should not be installed on the same system.

Personal Assistant cannot be installed on a system which is a domain controller. A domain controller system will not let you log on as a local administrator.

If the Personal Assistant server belongs to a domain that has no administrator password, the Personal Assistant System Administration interface allows the administrator to log in using any password.

Configuring Personal Assistant with Multiple Cisco CallManager Clusters

When you install a Personal Assistant server or a Personal Assistant speech recognition server, you associate that server with a specified Cisco CallManager server database. The Cisco CallManager server that you specify must be a publisher. There is only one Cisco CallManager publisher for each Cisco CallManager cluster. The other Cisco CallManager servers in the cluster are subscribers.


Note   The Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide uses the term "primary CallManager" instead of "publisher" in the section about how to install Personal Assistant.

If you did not associate each Personal Assistant server and speech recognition server in the Personal Assistant cluster with the same CallManager publisher database, your Personal Assistant servers in that cluster do not point to the same Cisco CallManager cluster. We refer to this set up as "multiple Cisco CallManager clusters."

To install Personal Assistant 1.2(3) with multiple Cisco CallManager clusters, you must perform some additional configuration steps for speech recognition to work correctly. These steps ensure that the ODBC data sources on all server systems in a Personal Assistant cluster point to the same publisher database.

Perform these steps on each Personal Assistant server and each speech recognition server in a Personal Assistant cluster:

Procedure

Step 1   Select Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Data Sources (ODBC).

Step 2   Click the System DSN tab.

Step 3   Double-click on PACCMDB.

Step 4   In the "Which SQL Server do you want to connect to" field, enter the IP address or hostname of the Cisco CallManager publisher database to which you want all of your Personal Assistant servers in the cluster to point. Personal Assistant will store all dynamic grammars (such as rule-set names) there. Click Next.


Note    Make sure that the ODBC sources on all systems in the Personal Assistant cluster use the same publisher database hostname.

Step 5   Click Client Configuration and in the Network Libraries section, select TCP/IP.

Step 6   Click Next until you get to the last page, then Click Finish. In the dialog box that appears, click Test Data Source. Make sure that you see "TESTS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY!" on the results page.

Step 7   Click OK to complete the configuration.



Configuring Personal Assistant Interceptor Route Points

When you configure the Personal Assistant interceptor route point, set the line Calling Search Space to the device Calling Search Space. Do not leave the line Calling Search Space as <None>.

Upgrading to Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3)

In order to upgrade your system from Cisco Personal Assistant 1.1 to Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3), you must first upgrade your system from Cisco Personal Assistant 1.1 to Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2.

When you upgrade your system from Cisco Personal Assistant 1.1 to Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2, you must re-enter your voice mail server settings using the Personal Assistant System Administration interface.

Netscape Directory Issues

To use the Netscape Directory for your corporate directory, you must have the directory plug-in that ships with Cisco CallManager 3.1(2c).

If you use the Netscape Directory for your corporate directory, on the Corporate Directory Settings page of the Personal Assistant System Administration interface, change the entry in the Directory Search Filter field from "(objectclass=person)" to "(objectclass=inetorgperson)".

Active Directory Issues

To use Active Directory for your corporate directory, you must have the directory plug-in that ships with Cisco CallManager 3.1(2c).

If you use Active Directory for your corporate directory, manually change the Full Name field to user ID when you create users. Or, you can select a different unique field for Personal Assistant. When you create new users with Active Directory, the Full Name field is auto-generated when you fill the user's Firstname and Lastname fields. If you do not change the Full Name field to user ID, Personal Assistant uses the auto-generated Firstname-Lastname pair as the unique ID. This requires the user to use his first and last name to log in to the Personal Assistant user web interface rather than using a shorter user ID.

Personal Assistant and Cisco Unity

Before you use Cisco Unity for voice mail browsing with Personal Assistant, make sure that the Personal Assistant server has been added to the Unity server's domain.

When you configure Cisco Unity on the Messaging Configuration page of the System Administration interface, the Name field in the Voicemail Server Attributes section says "Unity Messaging" by default. The online documentation incorrectly says "Unity Messaging System." If you have only one Unity server, use the default mailbox name, "Unity Messaging." If you have more than one Unity server, use "Unity Messaging System - VMServer1" where VMServer1 is the host name of one of your Unity servers.

For browsing voice mail using Personal Assistant, the user ID should be the same in the Cisco CallManager directory and the Unity Exchange server.

To use Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) with Cisco Unity 3.0 and Microsoft Exchange 2000, you must configure Microsoft Exchange such that the Microsoft Exchange administrator can access all of the Microsoft Exchange user mailboxes. Otherwise, Personal Assistant will not be able to access the Microsoft Exchange user mailboxes.

Procedure

Step 1   Select Start>Programs>Microsoft Exchange>System Manager to bring up the Exchange System Manager window.

Step 2   On the Exchange System Manager form, under <your organization>, select Servers. <Your Exchange Server> displays.

Step 3   Right-click on <Your Exchange Server> to bring up the Properties form. The Properties form displays.

Step 4   On the Properties form, click the Security tab.

The Form displays Name and Permissions boxes.

Step 5   In the Name box, select the Administrator user (domain-name\Administrator).

Step 6   In the Permissions box, enable the Allow field for Receive As and Send As fields.

Step 7   Click OK.



If you have multiple Unity servers with Microsoft Exchange, there will be multiple accounts called "Unity Messaging" with the server name as the suffix. In this case, Personal Assistant is not able to disambiguate the mailbox name and login to Calendar fails.

To work around the problem, use one of the following solutions to fill in the calendar mailbox name field:

Rule-Based Routing to Voice Mail

When you use rule-based routing to voice mail, the messages you receive from callers in your corporate directory may be marked from an "outside caller." To ensure that they are marked with the sender's name, use the Cisco CallManager Administration interface to set the Voice Message box to blank for all Personal Assistant media ports and route points. To blank the media ports, go to Media Port>Phone Configuration>Line 1>Voice Message box. To blank the route points, go to Route Point>CTI Route Point Configuration>Line 1>Voice Message box.


Note   Make sure that you do not have any special handlers for the mailboxes on your voice mail system. If you have set up special handlers, a caller may not be able to leave you a message after Personal Assistant has re-directed the call to your voice mail box.

Cancelling a Call When Dialing by Name

When a Personal Assistant user places a call using dial-by-name, Personal Assistant says the name of the called party just before placing the call, for example, "Calling John Doe." To stop the call to this party, the user can say "cancel" right after the party's name is said.

Increasing the Call Pick-up Time-out for a Cell Phone

The call pick-up time-out feature controls how many seconds Personal Assistant rings each destination in a destination group before moving on to the next destination.

The default setting for the time-out feature is eight seconds. Because each ring takes about three seconds, the eight second default setting means that Personal Assistant allows approximately two to three rings at each destination before trying the next destination in the group.

A cell phone company's call set up time may take longer than Personal Assistant's default time-out of eight seconds. If you have a call forwarding rule with a destination group that includes a cell phone, you may want to increase your call pick-up time-out value.

Documentation Errata

On page 3-14 of the Cisco Personal Assistant Administration Guide, Step 7of the procedure for adding media ports for Personal Assistant says "Enter the extension, such as 4001, assigned to this port in the Directory Number field."

These instructions should say "Enter the extension, such as 5001, assigned to this port in the Directory Number field."

Application Known Problems

Known problems are both expected behaviors and defects in software releases for a product. Table 3 contains information about known problems for Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3).

Additionally, you can search for known problems on the Cisco bug tracking system tool, called Bug Navigator. To access Bug Navigator, enter http://www.cisco.com/support/bugtools in your web browser.

Table 3   Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) Known Problems

Bug ID Symptom Explanation

CSCdv25189

When you synchronize your Personal Assistant Personal Address Book with your Microsoft Exchange Contacts list, a duplicate entry is created if either the First Name, Last Name, Work Number, or Address field is blank.

Personal Assistant compares these four fields to determine whether a record in your Personal Address Book is the same as one in your Microsoft Exchange Contacts list. If at least one of them does not match, Personal Assistant sees them as different records.

To work around the problem, make sure that each of these four fields is populated in both your Personal Assistant Personal Address Book and your Microsoft Exchange Contacts list.

CSCdt03273

Personal Assistant does not notify users when a conference call participant exits the conference.

This is normal behavior. Once a conference call is successfully set up, Personal Assistant ends its participation in the call. Therefore, Personal Assistant is not available to notify users when one caller in the conference hangs up.

CSCdt44942

Personal Assistant continues to list or read voice mail messages from User X after you have asked it to begin listing or reading messages from User Y.

You cannot use the list-read command to access messages from a particular user from menus other than the voice mail main menu.

For example, if you are listening to messages from User X and tell Personal Assistant to "list messages from User Y," Personal Assistant continues to list messages from User X.

To work around the problem, say "cancel" to exit the list-read menu and to return to the main menu. Then give the command, "Read (or list) messages from user Y."

CSCdt56899

Personal Assistant sends or forwards "silent messages" (messages that have no audio content) without alerting the user.

Personal Assistant does not distinguish between a "silent message" (a message with no audio content) and a successfully recorded message when sending (or forwarding) messages from one user to another. Therefore, if a user provides no spoken message, or if the mute feature on user's telephone is engaged, a silent message is apparently "recorded." Personal Assistant does not alert the user that the message contains no audio content before sending or forwarding the silent message.

CSCdt58084

The Personal Assistant user web interface does not copy some selected entries from the corporate directory into the personal address book.

The Personal Assistant user web interface will not copy some selected entries from the corporate directory into the personal address book if the selected entries span more than one page.

A list of users that results from a search could span several interface pages, depending on the search string that is specified. If the user selects entries in several pages and adds them to the personal address book, only those entries selected from the last interface page are added.

To work around the problem, narrow the search string used to generate relevant entries from the corporate directory. If the generated entries span more than one page, select entries from one page only before initiating another search.

CSCdt62080

There is no prompt for an incoming caller to record his or her name when the calling party's call screening feature is active.

Personal Assistant does not prompt the calling party to record his or her name in cases where:

  • caller ID is available and the caller is not a corporate user
  • the caller is a corporate user but has not established a recorded name with Personal Assistant (required upon initial log in)

Personal Assistant prompts a caller to record his or her name if caller ID is not available and the caller is not a corporate user.

CSCds82898

Placing a call with directory dialing results in Personal Assistant calling an out-of-service or incorrect number.

This can occur when user information changes in the corporate directory database, and when such changes are not reflected in the cache.

User information is cached by Personal Assistant every time a user makes a call via Personal Assistant. For example, if the phone number 1-2-3 for User X is modified in the corporate directory to 4-5-6, and a call is placed to User X via Personal Assistant before the cache is refreshed, Personal Assistant calls the original number for User X (1-2-3), and not the modified number (4-5-6).

The problem is resolved upon the next system refresh. By default, a system refresh is scheduled to occur daily at 2:00 am. However, a system administrator can modify the refresh schedule.

CSCdt83361

Personal Assistant appears to fail to delete voice mail messages.

Personal Assistant will continue to list recently deleted voice mail messages among current message headers if the user has not logged out of voice mail or said "cancel" to return to the main menu after giving the deletion command.

Personal Assistant marks messages for deletion and then deletes them when the user logs out of voice mail or exits the current menu.

To work around the problem, say "cancel" to exit the list-read menu and return to the main voice mail menu. Then return to the list-read menu by saying "list messages." The messages marked for deletion are not listed.

CSCdt90040

An inadvertent message from Personal Assistant is recorded in user's voice mail. The message content might indicate that Personal Assistant is attempting to reach the user for call screening purposes.

Both the Personal Assistant call pickup timeout value (specified in the Settings page of the Personal Assistant user web interface) and the JTAPI call pickup timeout value (specified in the Miscellaneous Settings page in the Personal Assistant System Administration interface) must be shorter than the Cisco CallManager CFNA timeout setting. Otherwise, an inadvertent Personal Assistant message may get recorded in the user's voice mail when Personal Assistant attempts to transfer the call to multiple destinations.

To work around the problem, make sure that the values for both the user's call pickup timeout and the administrator's call pickup timeout are shorter than the CFNA setting in Cisco CallManager.

CSCdt60817

Initiating a search of the corporate directory with either blank search fields or with only a wildcard symbol (*) in the search fields prompts an error message.

Personal Assistant prompts the user to provide a more specific search pattern in order to narrow the pool of names in which Personal Assistant conducts its search.

CSCdt33151

The Personal Assistant user web interface allows the user to duplicate personal address book entries without alerting the user.

The user web interface does not provide a warning about duplicate entries in the personal address book. Therefore, a user can add two or more identical entries in his or her personal address book without prompting a warning from Personal Assistant.

CSCdt64365

The user receives an error message when attempting to log in to the user web interface.

When a Personal Assistant user web interface session times out, the next login attempt fails.

This means that if a user logs into the user web interface and remains inactive for 30 minutes, the session automatically expires, or "times out." The next time the user tries to login, the login attempt will fail. However, subsequent login attempts will succeed.

To work around the problem, log in twice following an automatic time out.

Application Fixed Problems

This section describes the problems that were fixed for Personal Assistant 1.2(3) and Personal Assistant 1.2(2).

Fixed Problems for Personal Assistant 1.2(3)

Table 4 lists problems that were fixed for the Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) release.

Table 4   Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(3) Fixed Problems

Bug ID Symptom Explanation

CSCdv66910

A user's name continues to be played after he activates a Follow Me from a conference room or other public phone.

When a user activates a Follow Me rule-set from a phone that is neither a personal destination nor a phone in the corporate directory, Personal Assistant greets a subsequent user of that phone with the first user's recorded name. This persists until the first user logs into the Personal Assistant user web interface after the Follow Me duration expires.

This problem has been fixed and this no longer happens.

CSCdv66952

During multiple destination call screening, if one of the destinations is a cell phone, the call pickup timeout does not work.

When Personal Assistant processes a call to a cell phone, it starts the call pickup timeout after it detects that the call setup is complete.

Previously, if Personal Assistant did not detect that the call setup was complete, it waited the DEFAULT_TIMEOUT(60 seconds) and then sent the call to the next destination.

Personal Assistant now starts the call pickup timeout ten seconds after the beginning of a call, whether or not it detects that the call setup is complete.

CSCdv84659

A call is stuck in an endless loop.

A Personal Assistant user might activate call forwarding rules that trap a call between two destinations. For example, if a call is placed to his cell phone, forward it to his work phone. If he does not answer his work phone, forward the call to his cell phone.

This is no longer a problem because Personal Assistant now only redirects a call to the same number up to three times in thirty seconds, after which it drops the call.

Fixed Problems for Personal Assistant 1.2(2)

Table 5 lists problems that were fixed for the Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(2) release.

Table 5   Cisco Personal Assistant 1.2(2) Fixed Problems

Bug ID Symptom Explanation

CSCdv23826

You cannot page a user after you update the user's record in your Personal Address Book.

The pager attribute is hidden, so you do not see it in the Personal Assistant user web interface.

Personal Assistant copies the pager number, along with the other attributes, from the Corporate Directory into the Personal Address Book

  • when you click Copy Callers from the Address Book page of the Personal Assistant user web interface
  • when Add to my Address Book is checked on the Settings page of the Personal Assistant user web interface and you successfully complete a call to another corporate user

When you update that Personal Address Book entry, the user's pager number is deleted so he cannot be paged.

CSCdv24857

When you are logged in to the user web interface and you change your call forwarding over the phone, clicking the browser's reload button does not update the screen information.

This is normal behavior. When a Personal Assistant user web interface session is running, clicking the browser's reload button loads the screen from the local machine's cache.

To work around the problem, reload the screen by re-selecting it from the main menu.

CSCdu09192

Installation fails with the following error: "Please enter valid administration login credentials for the service account."

Installation fails in this case when the Personal Assistant system belongs to a domain that has no administrator password, even if the local administrator account on the Personal Assistant system has a valid password.

If you receive this error message during installation, go to the "Service Log on Account" section of "Cisco Personal Assistant Components" installation screen to see if the "use a domain account" check box is selected with no password entered.

If so, perform the following work around: On the Personal Assistant system, map a drive from any host in the domain using the domain administrator name and password. Once the drive is mounted, continue with installation. The password for the domain should appear on the "Service Log on Account" section of the "Cisco Personal Assistant Components" installation screen.

Related Documentation

These are the other documents available for Cisco Personal Assistant:

This location, and the online help, includes a PDF version of the entire manual.

This location, and the online help, includes a PDF version of the entire manual.

You can access information about Cisco IP Phone Productivity Services at

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/assist/assist2/prod_ser/index.htm

Obtaining Documentation

The following sections explain how to obtain documentation from Cisco Systems.

World Wide Web

You can access the most current Cisco documentation on the World Wide Web at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com

Translated documentation is available at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/public/countries_languages.shtml

Documentation CD-ROM

Cisco documentation and additional literature are available in a Cisco Documentation CD-ROM package, which is shipped with your product. The Documentation CD-ROM is updated monthly and may be more current than printed documentation. The CD-ROM package is available as a single unit or through an annual subscription.

Ordering Documentation

Cisco documentation is available in the following ways:

http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/order/order_root.pl

http://www.cisco.com/go/subscription

Documentation Feedback

If you are reading Cisco product documentation on Cisco.com, you can submit technical comments electronically. Click Leave Feedback at the bottom of the Cisco Documentation home page. After you complete the form, print it out and fax it to Cisco at 408 527-0730.

You can e-mail your comments to bug-doc@cisco.com.

To submit your comments by mail, use the response card behind the front cover of your document, or write to the following address:

Cisco Systems
Attn: Document Resource Connection
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134-9883

We appreciate your comments.

Obtaining Technical Assistance

Cisco provides Cisco.com as a starting point for all technical assistance. Customers and partners can obtain documentation, troubleshooting tips, and sample configurations from online tools by using the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) Web Site. Cisco.com registered users have complete access to the technical support resources on the Cisco TAC Web Site.

Cisco.com

Cisco.com is the foundation of a suite of interactive, networked services that provides immediate, open access to Cisco information, networking solutions, services, programs, and resources at any time, from anywhere in the world.

Cisco.com is a highly integrated Internet application and a powerful, easy-to-use tool that provides a broad range of features and services to help you to

You can self-register on Cisco.com to obtain customized information and service. To access Cisco.com, go to the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com

Technical Assistance Center

The Cisco TAC is available to all customers who need technical assistance with a Cisco product, technology, or solution. Two types of support are available through the Cisco TAC: the Cisco TAC Web Site and the Cisco TAC Escalation Center.

Inquiries to Cisco TAC are categorized according to the urgency of the issue:

Which Cisco TAC resource you choose is based on the priority of the problem and the conditions of service contracts, when applicable.

Cisco TAC Web Site

The Cisco TAC Web Site allows you to resolve P3 and P4 issues yourself, saving both cost and time. The site provides around-the-clock access to online tools, knowledge bases, and software. To access the Cisco TAC Web Site, go to the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/tac

All customers, partners, and resellers who have a valid Cisco services contract have complete access to the technical support resources on the Cisco TAC Web Site. The Cisco TAC Web Site requires a Cisco.com login ID and password. If you have a valid service contract but do not have a login ID or password, go to the following URL to register:

http://www.cisco.com/register/

If you cannot resolve your technical issues by using the Cisco TAC Web Site, and you are a Cisco.com registered user, you can open a case online by using the TAC Case Open tool at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/tac/caseopen

If you have Internet access, it is recommended that you open P3 and P4 cases through the Cisco TAC Web Site.

Cisco TAC Escalation Center

The Cisco TAC Escalation Center addresses issues that are classified as priority level 1 or priority level 2; these classifications are assigned when severe network degradation significantly impacts business operations. When you contact the TAC Escalation Center with a P1 or P2 problem, a Cisco TAC engineer will automatically open a case.

To obtain a directory of toll-free Cisco TAC telephone numbers for your country, go to the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/687/Directory/DirTAC.shtml

Before calling, please check with your network operations center to determine the level of Cisco support services to which your company is entitled; for example, SMARTnet, SMARTnet Onsite, or Network Supported Accounts (NSA). In addition, please have available your service agreement number and your product serial number.

This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.

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All other trademarks mentioned in this document or Web site are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (0110R)

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All rights reserved.


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Posted: Wed Apr 2 15:23:10 PST 2003
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