Manual
 

Installation

With MCE Caller ID you use your default PC, that has a connection to your telephone system, to act as a server. This server sends notifications of incoming telephone calls over the computer network to other PC's.
Your Media Center PC will act as a client. It will show a notification every time you receive a telephone call.

The whole setup will look like this:

Download the MCE Caller ID Server application, and install it on the machine that is going to act as the server.

Download the MCE Caller ID Client application, and install that on your Media Center PC that is going to act as the client.

 

Configuration of the server

When you start the MCE Caller ID Server application, it will appear as an icon in your system tray:

By double-clicking the icon, a window will appear that can be used to configure the server.

 

"Client" settings

First of all configure which client computers should receive a notification every time you receive an incoming telephone call:

Add Press the "Add" button to add a new client computer:

You can specify:

  • The computername or IP address of the client PC
  • The language in which notifications should be formulated
  • The number of seconds after which the notification should disappear again

Add one client for each computer that should receive notifications of incoming phonencalls.
Edit By pressing the "Edit" button you can edit the parameters of the selected client.
Remove By pressing the "Remove" button you can remove the selected client.
Test By pressing the "Test" button you can send a test notification to each of the clients you defined to test whether all connections work correctly.

 

"Phonenumber" settings

Use the Phonenumber tab to specify information about your own telephone numbers:

Add Press the "Add" button to add a phonenumber:

You can specify:

  • The telephone number itself
     Make sure to enter it without any leading zero's
  • The description of the telephone number
     This description will be shown in notifications of incoming phonecalls to this phonenumber
Edit By pressing the "Edit" button you can edit the parameters of the selected phonenumber.
Remove By pressing the "Remove" button you can remove the selected phonenumber.

 

"Telephony" settings

The computer running the MCE Caller ID Server application must be connected to your telephony system.
Use this tab to specify the type of connection should be used:

CAPI Select "CAPI" if a CAPI-compatible ISDN modem is connected to your server PC, or if it has a built-in CAPI-compatible ISDN card.
TAPI Select "TAPI" if your server PC has a TAPI-based connection to your telephony system.

If you select TAPI, then also select the TAPI device that should be used in the drop-down list.

 

"Outlook" settings

The MCE Caller ID Server application uses Microsoft Outlook 2003 to lookup names and pictures of the people who call you.
If you make use of multiple Outlook profiles, then use this tab to tell the server application which profile it should use:


Note:

For MCE Caller ID to be able to retrieve names and pictures from Outlook, it is very important that Outlook 2003 is installed on the PC that acts as the MCE Caller ID server.
Moreover it is important that Outlook contains information about your contacts.
So if you've not done so yet, startup Outlook 2003, go to its Contacts section and create a contact for each person whose name and picture you want to see when this person calls you.
When entering phonenumbers, make sure that the area code and extension are entered without any spaces or dashes in them.

 

Using MCE Caller ID

Once the server is installed and correctly configured and the clients are installed, you can start using MCE Caller ID.

When you receive a telephone call, a notification will be shown on your Media Center PC:

You can get an overview of the phonecalls you received, by going to the "More programs" page in Windows Media Center Edition. Select the program called "My phonecalls":

And you will see an overview of the phonecalls you received, that will look like this:

 

Notes

  • When you have installed the MCE Caller ID Client application on your Media Center PC, then the first time you startup the Media center application the firewall will show a dialogbox to ask you if you want to allow the Media Center application to connect to the network.
    You should press the "unblock" button to allow this because if you don't, the client application cannot use the network to listen for incoming notifications of telephone calls.
  • Once you have installed the MCE Caller ID Client application you will find that closing down the Media Center application will take a few seconds more than before.  This is normal behaviour.
  • For MCE Caller ID to be able to retrieve names and pictures from Outlook, it is very important that Outlook 2003 is installed on the PC that acts as the MCE Caller ID server.
    Moreover it is important that Outlook contains information about your contacts.
    So if you've not done so yet, startup Outlook 2003, go to its Contacts section and create a contact for each person whose name and picture you want to see when this person calls you.
  • When entering a phonenumber in Outlook, make sure that the area code and extension are entered without any spaces or dashes in them.