FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a mobile app?
Very soon. Testing now.
Is there an Apple/Mac version?
Not yet.
Does it contact Law Enforcement/911?
First, law enforcement dispatch centers (911) rarely take any messages directly from alarm or duress programs. Instead, messages are sent to a call monitoring center which then calls the 911 center. This call monitoring is done through any 3rd party service – an alarm monitoring center. As ePanicbutton will not have its own center, you can work with whatever one that you choose. You may have your own service now for access monitoring? Anyway, it depends on how the monitoring service likes to get the notice. Some centers accept text messages sent to them and we can do that right now. Of course, they may take emails as well but them to get the pop up message on their station, we need to have the program installed at their place too and add them as receivers of the pop up alert. There may be other ways for the center to accept messages, we just need to ask them how but it if takes further coding development work, we will need to see what is involved.
What if multiple people send a message at the same time, such as a mass shooting, where there are multiple ePanicButton activations?
Each ePanicButton activation from the different stations will send a unique and separate message of each type of message. Here’s how it works:
Sender 1 activates the program –
Unique email and text sent to all email/text receivers with the message and the sender’s identifying info.
For the desktop alerts receivers, they will get the pop up with the message and the sender’s identifying info.
Now, Sender 2 activates the program –
Unique email and text sent to all email/text receivers with the message and the sender’s identifying info.
For the desktop alerts receivers, if the previous pop up is still up, the info will change to have the latest sender’s info.
If the alert receiver window has been shut down, it will pop up again with the latest sender’s info. There is also an Alert List link in the upper left that opens a table of the last 10 alerts received. The same will continue with each subsequent sender.
Is an internet connection required to send messages?
Yes, but there is a pop up message notifying the user if the connection is lost.
Can you only send alerts to people in the same group?
No, you can send emails, text and desktop alerts to anyone, regardless of group or network.
Sending voice-calls to multiple phones?
Configure a single email to separate the different phone numbers with the # sign like this-
5551234567#5551212121@tts.message-service.org
Does it work with a terminal server/thin client environment?
Not yet.
Does it work for multi-user stations like a Front Desk?
The program identifies with the workstation, regardless of who is logged in. For multi-user stations, provide the location or function for the name (i.e., Front Desk for name).
NOTE- the program currently only works with one person logged in. If more than one user is logged in, the program will NOT work for anyone after the first logged in user.