Connecting to and disconnecting from an autodialer

You can use the Dialer Administration main screen to carry out the following tasks:

▪connect to an autodialer, so that it is able to generate calls for telephone interviewers

▪disconnect from an autodialer, so that it is no longer able to generate calls

To use an autodialer, you also need to specify for each of your telephone interviewing projects that an autodialer should be used. For more information, see Interview Settings.

The real-time display contains one record for each autodialer and shows information such as the number of active calls on an autodialer or the number of times that the connection to the autodialer has failed.

The autodialer name as specified in the dialer configuration file.

The current state of the autodialer, which might be Starting, Active, Stopping, Stopped, or Failed.

For an autodialer in the Active state, this field shows the number of interviewers who are dialing a participant or who are connected to a participant. To see the number of interviewers by project, expand the node to the left of the status. For an autodialer in the Failed state, this field shows the number of times that the connection to the autodialer has failed.

Button	Description
	Connect to this autodialer.
	Disconnect from this autodialer.
	Remove this autodialer from the Dialer Administration activity.
	Refresh the real-time display.

Note The real-time display is refreshed only when you click one of these buttons. Click the Refresh button periodically to keep the display up-to-date.

When you connect to an autodialer, it is able to generate calls for telephone interviewers that request them. When you disconnect from an autodialer, it is no longer able to generate calls, but it does allow any active calls to finish. If a telephone interviewer requests a call when the autodialer’s current state is Stopped or Failed, a message will explain that the autodialer is unavailable.

1 In the Real-Time display, select the check box on the left of the autodialer you want to connect to. Only select an autodialer if its current state is Stopped or Failed.

Note To connect to more than one autodialer, select more than one check box. To select all autodialers, select the check box on the left of the header row.

The autodialer state changes to Starting and after a short pause changes to Active. The autodialer is now able to generate calls.

1 In the Real-Time display, select the check box on the left of the autodialer you want to disconnect from. Only select an autodialer if its current state is Active.

Note To disconnect from more than one autodialer, select more than one check box. To select all autodialers, select the check box on the left of the header row.

The autodialer state changes to Stopping and the autodialer is no longer able to generate calls. When all active calls have come to an end, the autodialer state changes to Stopped.

You can remove an autodialer from the Dialer Administration activity. Before you do this, be aware of the following:

▪If you need to restore an autodialer after removing it, you must import a dialer configuration file that contains an entry for that autodialer.

▪When you remove an autodialer, all positions specified for that autodialer are also removed. To continue to use autodialing at those positions, you must associate them with another autodialer. For more information, see Creating a dialer configuration file.

▪You cannot remove an existing autodialer by deleting its entry from a dialer configuration file and importing that file. Instead, follow the steps below to remove an autodialer.

1 In the Real-Time display, select the check box on the left of the autodialer that you want to remove. Only select an autodialer if its current state is Stopped or Failed.