Q: My dongle doesn't work; what should I do?
Q: How do I find out my dongle number and other information about my dongle?
Q: Can I stop and start PhoneSweep without losing Call Results?
Q: I get the error "Cannot connect to MySQL." What should I do?
Q: I suspect my profile is corrupt. What should I do?
Q: Why can't I run the Excel Chart on my XP system?
Q: I'm getting a TIMEOUT on a number I know a modem is attached to. When I personally call the number from my telephone it just rings and rings, and never answers. I can see the modem attached to the system. Why doesn't PhoneSweep report that the modem is there?
Q: I'm using a Seaport 4-port USB device, and I'm having troubles running PhoneSweep. Do you have a solution?
Q: I am getting errors when I try to generate a report in PhoneSweep. What can I do?
Q: My company has an automated system for answering phones which prompts dialers for extensions. Can PhoneSweep dial internal extensions through such a system, or will I always get a "VOICE" response?
Q: I'm running PhoneSweep 4.4 and am having problems producing a differential report. What can I do?
Q: Can you tell me more about PhoneSweep's Timing issues?
Q: When PhoneSweep is shut down, a Microsoft Error Reporting message is displayed: "mysqld-opt.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close". What can I do about this?
Q: I have installed PhoneSweep 5.4 and my DELAY command is running too quickly. Is there a fix?
Q: What do I need to do to run PhoneSweep on Microsoft's Windows Vista operating
system?
Q: Will PhoneSweep work with ISDN lines?
Q: Will PhoneSweep work with IP Telephony systems?
Technical FAQ answers
Q: My dongle doesn't work; what should I do?
You can download Sandstorm's dongle troubleshooting
application. The zip file contains the necessary programs and
drivers, and a README.txt file with instruction. (Basically, it tells
you to run dongle_diag.exe.) All dongle drivers need to be installed
from a user with Administrator rights. Make sure your dongle is
placed in the proper port: either a parallel (printer) port or the USB
port. If you're still having troubles, contact Sandstorm Support.
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How do I find out my dongle number and other information about my dongle?
There are three ways to find out a dongle number:
- Your dongle number is printed on a sticker affixed to your dongle, so simply look at the dongle.
- Open PhoneSweep. In the Help pulldown menu, select About...
Find the words "Hardware Serial Number:". Your dongle number is the number AFTER the first dash. For example, if your Hardware Serial Number was 123-4567-89 your dongle number would be 4567.
- You can run Sandstorm's dongle troubleshooting application. This application is also supplied with PhoneSweep and is accessible via the Start menu. When you run it you will
be told much information about the dongle, including how many modems you can use with both Sandtrap and PhoneSweep, and how many PhoneSweep numbers you can dial in each profile.
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Q: Can I stop and start PhoneSweep without losing Call Results?
Yes. PhoneSweep is designed to immediately store call results
so that you can stop PhoneSweep without losing any data. This will
allow you to use your PC for general work between scans. When you
need to restart the current sweep, you need only click on the Start Button
or set the Scheduled Start Time.
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Q: I get the error "Cannot connect to MySQL." What should I do?
Sandstorm has developed a Fixing MySQL Error document which should
answer your questions around this message.
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Q: I suspect my profile is corrupt. What should I do?
Sandstorm has developed a Fixing Corrupt Profiles document which will guide you in determining if your profile is corrupt, and help you remedy the situation.
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Q: Why can't I run the Excel Chart on my XP system?
This a known problem that has been fixed in version 4.4 of PhoneSweep.
If you have an earlier version of PhoneSweep, to get the chart to work with Office XP, download the file
chart2KXP.zip to a temporary location, unzip chart2KXP.reg from this archive, then double click on it or run it
from Start menu -> Run. This will install the proper registry key. You can
then delete the file.
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Q: I'm getting a TIMEOUT on a number I know a modem is attached to.
When I personally call the number from my telephone it just rings and
rings, and never answers. I can see the modem attached to the system.
Why doesn't PhoneSweep report that the modem is there?
PhoneSweep was designed to be an auditing tool. It points out
vulnerabilities within companies via open modem lines. When the modem
is configured to never pick up the phone, there is no vulnerability.
PhoneSweep can only report the result that the modem supplies
to it. Therefore, if the phone never picks up but merely rings, you
will get a TIMEOUT result. There is no known existing technology that
can force a modem configured to never pick up the phone to respond.
If you are concerned about a modem potentially being turned on, you do have some options. You can:
- have your telecom department make that phone line "dialout only" so it will never be able to accept incoming calls (not useful if the modem is used for valid incoming calls, such as faxes)
- perform more frequent PhoneSweep scans, perhaps at various times during the business day, after work, or on weekends to ensure the modem was not turned on
- have all users of that system agree to a Modem Use Policy and make
it a condition of their employment that they keep that modem properly
secured at all times. Sandstorm has made a sample Modem Use Policy
available on our Downloads web
page which you can use for a template for your own company's policy.
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Q: I'm using a Seaport 4-port USB device, and I'm having troubles running PhoneSweep. Do you have a solution?
This is a known problem that will be fixed with a future Sealevel
driver. To identify if you have this problem, examine the CD that
came with your SeaPORT device. The problem is with a driver on the
Sealevel Disk version 2.01.04. If you have installed the
drivers from that disk, you need to download the file seacom-2K.zip to a
temporary location, unzip the files from this archive, and run the
install.bat file. This will install an older version of the
affected driver, thus enabling your SeaPORT to operate properly. This
download/install procedure MUST be done AFTER installing the
faulty drivers to work properly. Also, this problem appears to not
affect Windows 98 machines, but does appear on Windows 2000 and XP
installations.
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Q: I am getting errors when I try to
generate a report in PhoneSweep. What can I do?
Open your ReportTemplate.rtf file (in the directory where you
installed PhoneSweep). If that file looks corrupt, is empty, or is
missing, you can copy the original from your PhoneSweep CD. If you
are still having problems or don't have your original CD handy, you
can call or e-mail support@sandstorm.net.
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Q: My company has an automated system for answering phones which prompts dialers for extensions. Can PhoneSweep dial internal extensions through such a system, or will I always get a "VOICE" response?
To scan extension lines, you need to dial the number, have it pause
for a little, then dial the extension number. For example, if your main number was 800-555-1212 and your extension
was 1234 you would enter the number into PhoneSweep as
800-555-1212,,,1234
The commas are a pause. You will have to experiment on some sample
extensions to see how many commas are necessary for your system to
work properly. What this does is call the main number, then pause
while the phone picks up and plays the recording "Welcome to our
company, please dial the extension" (or whatever the telephone switch
automatically says). You have to time it so that you are certain the
telephone has been answered and is awaiting the dialing of the
extension.
If a human answers the main number, or if the telephone does not answer
consistently (like sometimes it answers on the first ring, and
sometimes on the 5th) then it will be more difficult, if not potentially
impossible, to have PhoneSweep estimate the ring time. At this point,
you may have to be forced to perform those sweeps at a time of day or
time of week when the telephone is answered by an automatic device (such
as after work or weekends) when no human receptionist is present.
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Q: I'm running PhoneSweep 4.4 and I'm having problems producing a differential report. What can I do?
Sandstorm Enterprises has seen a Microsoft Word error occur on some
installations which states that the newly created differential report
file cannot be opened. If this happens, you can be assured that the
report was successfully created and can be viewed using an alternate
word processor such as Wordpad. To prevent this error from recurring,
you need to replace your current RTF_Template.rtf file. The replacement file
(zip format rtf-template.zip) can be downloaded
from here or use
a copy of RTF_Template.rtf from an older version of PhoneSweep
(version 4.0 or 4.02 will work fine). This file is present in the
directory you installed PhoneSweep into, normally c:\Program
Files\Sandstorm\PhoneSweep.
After downloading the file, unzip, copy RTF_Template.rtf to the correct location, and restart
PhoneSweep to accept the new template file.
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Q: Can you tell me more about PhoneSweep's Timing issues?
Sandstorm has developed a Timing Overview for
PhoneSweep document which was designed to help PhoneSweep users
better understand various Timing issues in PhoneSweep.
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Q: When PhoneSweep is shut down, a Microsoft Error
Reporting message is displayed: "mysqld-opt.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close." What can I do about this?
If you encounter this message, you can be assured that nothing has
occurred that will harm your system or your data. You may safely
exit out of the message screen with no harm to PhoneSweep, its
components, or your data. We have seen this problem occur with Windows
XP Service Pack 2, in conjunction with PhoneSweep version 5.0 and
prior versions. The fix requires that PhoneSweep's MySQL
components be upgraded to version 3.23.58, which interacts with XP
Service Pack 2 properly. This fix can be done in one of two ways:
- If your support contract with us is up to date, you can contact
Sandstorm and we will send you a CD with PhoneSweep version 5.01, which
fixes this problem.
- To manually correct this, perform the following steps.
- Download the zip file mysql32358.zip.
- Shut down PhoneSweep (Exit from the program)
- Locate your main PhoneSweep directory. By default PhoneSweep is installed in C:\Program Files\Sandstorm\PhoneSweep.
- Under your main PhoneSweep directory:
- rename the directory dbm\bin to dbm\oldbin and
- rename the directory dbm\share to dbm\oldshare.
- Unzip the downloaded file into C:\Program Files\Sandstorm\PhoneSweep\dbm.
This should create new bin and share directories under dbm.
- Restart PhoneSweep.
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Q: I have installed PhoneSweep 5.4 and my DELAY command is running too quickly. Is there a fix?
The DELAY command distributed with PhoneSweep 5.4 was erroniously
counting by seconds instead of by hours. To fix this either download
Delay.zip or you
can use an older DELAY command from any prior distribution CD of
PhoneSweep. Please delete the delay.exe that was installed with
PhoneSweep 5.4 and replace it. The new DELAY is included in
PhoneSweep 5.41 and later releases.
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Q: What do I need to do to run PhoneSweep on Microsoft's Windows Vista Operating
System?
Windows Vista is not fully supported by PhoneSweep 5.4 and earlier. The simplest fix is to
upgrade to PhoneSweep 5.5, which has complete Vista support. If you must use PhoneSweep 5.4
or earlier on Windows Vista, the dongle driver needs to be updated. To install
PhoneSweep and the new drivers on a Windows Vista machine, perform the following actions:
- Install PhoneSweep on the Windows Vista machine from your
PhoneSweep 5.4 or earlier CD. Follow the directions to install the
dongle drivers for the older version.
- Delete the file Install.exe from your main
PhoneSweep directory, which is normally found in C:\Program
Files\Sandstorm\PhoneSweep.
- Download the installation program for
the Windows Vista dongle drivers. Extract Install.exe from the downloaded zip file and put it in the main
PhoneSweep directory.
- You will find a file Readme_dongle.txt in your main
PhoneSweep directory, which was installed with your PhoneSweep installation. Follow the instructions in that document to
remove the old driver, then install the new one. Note: The
installation script for the new driver will cause an error dialog,
which can be safely ignored. The text of the error message is
Desktop Window Manager stopped working and was closed. A problem caused the application to stop working correctly. Windows will notify you if a solution is available..
To confirm you have the new driver installed, follow these steps:
- Open the directory C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\.
- Locate the file USBKey.sys, and right-click it. Select Properties.
- The dates for "Created", "Modified", and "Accessed" should all be the date that you
installed the driver.
- A Version tab should appear in the Properties box. Select that, and verify that the
version of USBKey.sys is 2.24.2006.
Note: If you don't see a "Version" tab, or any dates ("Created", "Modified", or
"Accessed") are from the year 2003 or earlier, you do not have the current driver installed properly.
Please repeat the installation, paying strict attention to the directions as found in the
Readme.dongle.txt file, and ensuring you are using the correct Install.exe
program.
A final note on Vista: Sandstorm currently does not recommend
the use of Vista with PhoneSweep 5.4 and earlier because there may be
a delay of up to 15 minutes between launching the PhoneSweep
application and when the GUI opens. This is corrected in PhoneSweep
5.5
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Q: Will PhoneSweep work with ISDN lines?
PhoneSweep is an application designed for use with analog telephone systems. If you are intending to use this to dial using the analog channel on an ISDN Terminal Adapter (TA), Phonesweep will work in the following cabled configuration:
Wall ISDN line -> your ISDN TA -> analog modem (plugged into your TA's analog port) -> your computer.
Attempting to use PhoneSweep in any other configuration is unsupported by Sandstorm, since your results will likely be unsatisfactory.
Our list of recommended modems and TA's is located at http://www.sandstorm.net/support/phonesweep/recmodems.php.
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Q: Will PhoneSweep work with IP Telephony systems?
PhoneSweep communicates with other computers and modems through the
COM ports on the computer and analog telephone lines connected to
analog modems. PhoneSweep uses the expanded AT command set to send
information requests to the modems and faxes and waits for responses.
We at Sandstorm know of no IP telephony system that deals properly with COM ports
and the AT command set to enable PhoneSweep to perform phone line
auditing properly.
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