Yep. Looks like we were a bit too optimistic about our Internet being stable. After everything looked like it was working the way it was supposed to, we had more connection issues yesterday and today.
At the risk of jinxing ourselves, our Internet is mostly working. We do have the occasional dropout but most of the time it seems to be working okay.
We are working through the support requests that were received by our online helpdesk system while we weren’t able to connect to it. If you’ve been waiting for a reply then please know that we will get to you as fast as we can.
If you haven’t had a reply to your support requests from us over the last 3 or 4 days it’s because we had no Internet.
We have had issues with the Internet since the end of last week. Sometimes we could get connections but most of the time we couldn’t – well, we could but they wouldn’t go anywhere due to DNS problems with our ISP (a couple of days ago there was a well publicized national outage).
Over the last couple of days we have been unable to get a stable connection – we had frequent drop outs (eg. every few seconds). This made it impossible to do anything, including uploading a new release. This was very frustrating as I’m sure you can imagine.
Things seem stable as of right now so hopefully we’re back in business.
We are pleased to announce the release of PhonePad Version 5.58.0.
Changes in This Release
ADDED – Auto-Refresh button to MessageSender Queue in Control Center.
ADDED – Date column added to MessageSender Queue in PhonePad and Control Center.
ADDED – SQL Performance Monitoring has been added to PhonePad for use by administrators.
FIXED – “ERROR E127: spGetGroupFoldersForUser: Field ‘FolderTypeID’ not found” and “ERROR E828: TdmMain: spGetGroupFoldersForUser: Field ‘FolderTypeID’ not found”.
FIXED – Some contact files would not import.
Minor fixes and improvements.
Installation Information
Please note: Server Updates must be installed on your Server or Host PC, not your workstation (unless your workstation is also the Host PC) – they cannot be installed directly on your workstations. Make sure all users are logged out of PhonePad as the PhonePad Server will be stopped during the update and then restarted once it has completed. Workstations will be automatically updated when PhonePad 5 Workstation is started on each workstation. Important: When downloading and installing an update from your My PhonePad account, make sure it’s actually the update and not the server setup program.
How Updates Work
You do not need to install every update between this one and the last update you installed. PhonePad uses a smart update system that compares your current PhonePad system with what’s in the update, and then works out what changes are required, then makes those changes.
Updates and Anti-Virus Software
Depending on the anti-virus software you use, when you install a Server Update your AV software may class the updated software as a different program due to the change in binary signature. If you experience speed or freezing issues after an update, you may need to reconfigure your AV software to stop real-time scanning of PhonePad. This may need to be done on the both your Server or Host PC, and your workstations.
Downloading the Update
You can download the update from your My PhonePad account or by selecting Server Updates from the System Admin menu and clicking Check for Update (you will need to log in as an administrator). If you are a trial user you can also download the update by selecting Server Updates from the System Admin menu and clicking Check for Update (you will need to log in as an administrator). Please contact Support if you have any problems or questions.
Installing Updates
You will need to have a current Update Plan to install this update. If your Update Plan has expired, you will need to renew it before you can install this update.5.58.0
We get asked these questions a lot: “Do you have a calendar program?” and “Will you be building a calendar”.
Ex-Phoneslips customers, and soon-to-be ex-Phoneslips customers, in particular ask these questions a lot.
The answers are “No” and “Yes”.
Here’s a sneak peak of an appointment calendar we are building for PhonePad as an add-on application (much the same as MessageSender is an add-on).
The new program, cleverly named Appointment Calendar 🙂 , will tightly integrate with PhonePad and the PhonePad database, avoiding unnecessary repetition of data and effort. This will also result in some really cool features that only an integrated system can provide.
A couple of things to bear in mind. The main user interface shown in the screenshot may change as development progresses. In fact, this is the 3rd or 4th user interface we have made, scrapping all of the ones before it. It’s possible that the final version may look completely different.
The other thing is we don’t have a definite time frame for release. You wouldn’t believe how complex it is to develop a good calendar system. Lots of time and effort, and a tremendous amount of head banging and hair pulling is involved.
It’s one of those things you think to yourself “why on Earth did I ever start this project?”. 🙂 But never fear, we’re committed to getting this done. There’s no backing out now.
If you tried to access our website over the last couple of hours and your browser reported that our website was not secure, it was because we had some issues with updating our SSL certificate.
The SSL certificate has now been updated so everything should be back to normal, but please let us know if you experience any issues.
We are pleased to announce the release of PhonePad Version 5.57.1.
This is an important update for some clients. The issue fixed in this release doesn’t affect everyone as it only occurs in certain situations. If you are getting this error message when starting PhonePad then please install this update.
Changes in This Release
FIXED – When searching for a PhonePad Server, in some situations PhonePad incorrectly reported that the Auto-Discovery port was blocked.
Minor fixes and improvements.
Installation Information
Please note: Server Updates must be installed on your Server or Host PC, not your workstation (unless your workstation is also the Host PC) – they cannot be installed directly on your workstations. Make sure all users are logged out of PhonePad as the PhonePad Server will be stopped during the update and then restarted once it has completed. Workstations will be automatically updated when PhonePad 5 Workstation is started on each workstation. Important: When downloading and installing an update from your My PhonePad account, make sure it’s actually the update and not the server setup program.
How Updates Work
You do not need to install every update between this one and the last update you installed. PhonePad uses a smart update system that compares your current PhonePad system with what’s in the update, and then works out what changes are required, then makes those changes.
Updates and Anti-Virus Software
Depending on the anti-virus software you use, when you install a Server Update your AV software may class the updated software as a different program due to the change in binary signature. If you experience speed or freezing issues after an update, you may need to reconfigure your AV software to stop real-time scanning of PhonePad. This may need to be done on the both your Server or Host PC, and your workstations.
Downloading the Update
You can download the update from your My PhonePad account or by selecting Server Updates from the System Admin menu and clicking Check for Update (you will need to log in as an administrator). If you are a trial user you can also download the update by selecting Server Updates from the System Admin menu and clicking Check for Update (you will need to log in as an administrator). Please contact Support if you have any problems or questions.
After posting this post a few days ago about getting your Update Plan extended by 2 years for free, we have had many requests asking if we could provide a little more time. Many businesses are only just getting back on their feet as COVID-19 restrictions are gradually lifted, and they need time to get organized.
Being the really nice people that we are (patting selves on our backs), we have changed the requirement to get the free 2 years. Instead of needing to have a current Update Plan on June 15, 2020, we have changed it to be between June 15 and June 30.
So, if your Update Plan is current between June 15 and June 30 (2020), we will extend your Update Plan for another 2 years.
That means, if your Update Plan has already expired, or will expire between June 15 and June 30, then you will need to renew your Update Plan by June 30 to get the extra 2 years.
At midnight on June 30 (or shortly afterwards), we will automatically extend all current Update Plans by 2 years at absolutely no cost to you!
This is a one-time offer so now is the time to act.
Of course, if you have just purchased PhonePad 5, purchased it less than 12 months ago, or will purchase it by June 30, then you will have a current Update Plan and so will get the extra 2 years for free too.
When we release a new version of PhonePad, it’s released in the form of a server update. This means you install the update on your Server or Host PC, and not on your workstation.
When workstations connect to the Server after a server update, the Server will automatically update them with the latest version. This means you don’t have to walk around to each computer and update it manually.
Do I Need to Install the Latest Server Update?
Only if you are after new features in the update or are affected by any bugs that have been fixed. If you are perfectly happy with your currently install version and are not affected by bugs fixed in subsequent releases and don’t want the new features, then there is no need to update unless you want a newer version.
Do I Have to Install Every Update Between the Version I Have and the Latest Version?
No. If you are on say Version 5.40.0 and want to update to Version 5.57.0, there will have been quite a few releases between these two versions.
You don’t need to install all of these releases to get to the version you want. You only need to install the version you want to update to, eg. Version 5.57.0.
This is because PhonePad has a smart update system that checks the version you have installed and works out all the required changes needed to bring it up to the version you are installing. To look at it another way, each version contains all of the updates of previous versions.
So if you wanted to update from Version 5.40.0 to Version 5.57.0, for example, you would just install the server update for Version 5.57.0. There is no need to install the releases between those versions.
We are pleased to announce the release of PhonePad Version 5.57.1.
New Update Plan Refresh Button
A new Refresh button has been added to the Update Plan screen (accessible from the Help toolbar and menu).
The Refresh button will connect to the update plan system and retrieve your current update plan details, and store them in your PhonePad database. So what it does is refresh the Update Plan information in your PhonePad database to ensure it’s up to date.
If you have renewed your Update Plan and haven’t received an email from us with the details, clicking Refresh will grab them from the update plan system for you.
With the current special offer that extends your Update Plan for free for 2 years on June 15, you can also click the Refresh button to update the information on your system.
Changes in This Release
ADDED – Refresh button added to Update Plan screen, allowing the current Update Plan information to be retrieved from the Update Plan system and updated on the PhonePad Server.
FIXED – The options to remove messages from the Message Queue screen in PhonePad and Control Center were not working correctly.
FIXED – Replied and forwarded messages were not being sent by MessageSender.
FIXED – Issue with Category names that are longer than 30 characters. Category names can now be a maximum of 50 characters
Minor fixes and improvements.
Installation Information
Please note: Server Updates must be installed on your Server or Host PC, not your workstation (unless your workstation is also the Host PC) – they cannot be installed directly on your workstations. Make sure all users are logged out of PhonePad as the PhonePad Server will be stopped during the update and then restarted once it has completed. Workstations will be automatically updated when PhonePad 5 Workstation is started on each workstation. Important: When downloading and installing an update from your My PhonePad account, make sure it’s actually the update and not the server setup program.
How Updates Work
You do not need to install every update between this one and the last update you installed. PhonePad uses a smart update system that compares your current PhonePad system with what’s in the update, and then works out what changes are required, then makes those changes.
Updates and Anti-Virus Software
Depending on the anti-virus software you use, when you install a Server Update your AV software may class the updated software as a different program due to the change in binary signature. If you experience speed or freezing issues after an update, you may need to reconfigure your AV software to stop real-time scanning of PhonePad. This may need to be done on the both your Server or Host PC, and your workstations.
Downloading the Update
You can download the update from your My PhonePad account or by selecting Server Updates from the System Admin menu and clicking Check for Update (you will need to log in as an administrator). If you are a trial user you can also download the update by selecting Server Updates from the System Admin menu and clicking Check for Update (you will need to log in as an administrator). Please contact Support if you have any problems or questions.
The CloudMail system has just been updated so if you are using it with MessageSender to automatically forward messages by email then you will need to do the following:
Install PhonePad Server Update Version 5.57.0.
Install MessageSender Version 6.16.0
Create a new CloudMail account.
Creating a CloudMail Account
Under System Admin/Communication Settings/Email/CloudMail/CloudMail, enter a valid Reply to Email address then click the Create CloudMail Account button.
When your account has been successfully created, the status should change to Access Created and Account Active.
Click the Send Test Email button to send a test email to the reply email address to ensure it’s working correctly.
