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.

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.

Button	Description
	Connect to this autodialer
	Disconnect from this autodialer
	Remove the autodialer from the Dialer Administration activity
	Refresh the display

When you connect to an autodialer, it can generate calls for telephone interviewers that request them. When you disconnect from an autodialer, it is cannot 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 explains that the autodialer is unavailable.

1 In the Real-Time display, select the autodialers that you want to connect to.

The autodialer status changes to Starting, and then changes to Active. The autodialer can now generate calls.

1 In the Real-Time display, select the autodialers that you want to disconnect from.

The autodialer state changes to Stopping and the autodialer is no longer able to generate calls. When all active calls have stopped, the autodialer status 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, see To remove an autodialer.

1 In the Real-Time display, select the autodialer that you want to remove. Only select an autodialer if its current status is Stopped or Failed.