Activate and Manage Unified Messaging (new ETH Voice-Mailbox)

ETH provides a new voice-mailbox system which can be activated for ETH phone numbers and act like a telephone answering machine.

Service Information can be found here: https://ethz.ch/services/en/it-services/catalogue/communication/telephony.html

1. Login to https://password.ethz.ch with your NETHZ account
2. Go to Meine Services
3. Click on Phone
4. Activate Service by clicking on Dienst aktivieren

1. Now login to https://mail.ethz.ch with your NETHZ account
2. Click Options (DE: Optionen) in the top-right corner
3. In the expanded menu click See All Options…¹⁾
4. In the left menu pane click Phone²⁾
5. Here you find any options needed to configure your voice-mailbox

Currently the option Call me to play or record the selected greeting…³⁾ within your Greetings⁴⁾ Options in Outlook web access (mail.ethz.ch) does not work. Follow these steps to record a message:

1. Call '39990' from your phone and enter the PIN (should be sent to you by email)
2. Change your PIN as requested
3. Say “Personal Options” ⁵⁾
4. Press 2 to get to the menu to record your geetings
5. Press 1 to record your personal greeting⁶⁾.
6. Press 2 to record your Greeting for when you are way⁷⁾

There are actually two greetings you have to define. The first one is personal greeting⁸⁾ which is going to be played when you forward your phone to the voicemailbox as usual.

The second greeting you can define is the Greeting for when you are way⁹⁾. This Greeting is going to be played, when you enable the Out-of-Office-State in your Outlook or Outlook Web Access (mail.ethz.ch)

To enable your voice-mailbox you need to forward all calls to 38880 (was 39990 before). To disable just disable the forward.

How to configure a forward to your phone can be found in https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/associates/services/Service/IT-Services/files/catalogue/communication/telephony/optipoint_500.pdf for the ETH standard phones (Section “Feste Anrufumleitung”). It is also possible to configure one of the quick dial keys of your phone to allow to enable/disable the forward function very easy. Just seek the manual for the specific options.

• With the new Unified Messaging voice-mailbox you can not disable the recording function after your greeting. This was possible with Xpressions. A solution for this problem has been found but has to be coordinated by the central IT at D-BAUG. Just contact us for further assistance: Departmental Level IT Contact

• You can enable to receive an email notification even if the caller did not record a message but just hung up before the recorder can start. This can help to better track caller who tried to call you during your absence. This behavior can be controlled in the phone settings in your https://mail.ethz.ch/ options in the section Notifications. Just enable Send an e-mail message to my Inbox when I miss a phone call

• If you want to have the voice menu in German, you have to switch your localization settings within the Outlook Web Access (mail.ethz.ch) to Deutsch (Deutschland) not Deutsch (Schweiz). When Deutsch (Schweiz) has been selected, the voice menu is still given in English. Same for French and Italian; Francais (France) or italiano (Italia). To choose your language option follow these steps:
  1. Login to https://mail.ethz.ch with your NETHZ account
  2. Click Options (DE: Optionen) in the top-right corner
  3. In the expanded menu click See All Options…¹⁰⁾
  4. In the left menu pane click Settings¹¹⁾
  5. Click on the Regional tab ¹²⁾
  6. Choose the languages described above to switch the voice menu language from the Language¹³⁾ drop down menu

There are different ways, how to listen to the messages left by caller:

• Each message, recorded to the voice mail box by a caller, is sent to your email address as an MP3 attachment along with a message containing information about the caller ID and calling date. You can just play these MP3 attachments with a regular audio player on your computer.
  • For this please keep in mind that when you are using speakers to replay the message, other person can also listen to the voice mail which is unwanted for confidential messages.
  • Using a head set ist recommended to avoid privacy problems when playing voice messages
• If you are also receiving your mails on your mobile or smart phone, it is very comfortable to listen the voice mail attachments on your mobile phone since this can be done just as a regular phone call.
• You can also listen to your voice mail box by calling 39990
  • enter your personal pin
  • Speak “Voicemail”
  • Now you are in the voice menu to listen to the voice messages