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From a quick check if you go to App Volume and Device Preferences (just search app volume) it looks like you can configure the output and input for multiple programs.
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Sep 17, 2021 14:01
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:I guess my question is, is there some way in Windows 10 to have audio play through the laptop speakers even when headphones are plugged in? That way she can both hear the phone ring while the earbud is plugged in, and also quickly put the earbud in her ear to talk to the person. If you can't run arbitrary software, you definitely can't make this happen with the single sound device built into the laptop. It is more likely to be possible if you add another sound device (on USB, no drivers needed). With that, if you use the windows control panel to set the laptop speakers as the default sound device, and the USB device as the default communication device, hopefully it will just work. Maybe. It depends on the Cisco software and whether it respects the communication device setting for the phone call. (With the ability to run other software, it is sometimes possible to make multiple output lines of a sound device -- for example the headphones and the speakers -- active at the same time.)
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Sep 17, 2021 14:09
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Otherwise, if the software can't be configured for it, consider getting a speakerphone device. Try making the workplace pay. I know several in my org have good success with the Jabra Speak series, and Poly also have similar devices.
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Sep 17, 2021 14:28
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nielsm posted:That depends on the softphone used. What do they use to make/take calls? It's a Cisco IP phone emulator. Unfortunately there's no options I can find to separate ringer and headphone sound sources, which is why I was hoping there was something in Windows that could be done. Even if it was something as janky as "have all sounds play through speaker and headphones even if headphones are plugged in". Klyith posted:If you can't run arbitrary software, you definitely can't make this happen with the single sound device built into the laptop. It is more likely to be possible if you add another sound device (on USB, no drivers needed). Yeah you legit cannot plug anything into her laptop other than an external mouse or keyboard. She once got a very threatening e-mail for plugging in a wifi dongle to see if it would help with her range. CFox posted:From a quick check if you go to App Volume and Device Preferences (just search app volume) it looks like you can configure the output and input for multiple programs. Thanks for the suggestion but I tried this, and even with the headphones plugged in, the only options for Cisco IP Communicator are Speakers and Microphone. The phone software DOES play out of the headphones when plugged in, but she needs to be able to hear the ringer when the headphones are plugged in which she unfortunately cannot do. nielsm posted:Otherwise, if the software can't be configured for it, consider getting a speakerphone device. Try making the workplace pay. I know several in my org have good success with the Jabra Speak series, and Poly also have similar devices. I appreciate the advice, unfortunately this would not work for 2 reasons. One, it looks like those are USB devices. She literally gets written up for plugging in a USB device that is not a mouse or keyboard; I am not kidding. She accidentally plugged her phone in once to charge it and they reprimanded her for it (it's actually a decent job, they are just absolutely crazy about security). Second, the way her set up is now, she leaves the laptop around and is always within earshot if it rings, so she can run like a crazy person into the master bedroom, lock the door, and take the call (due to the fact that we have 3 small kids that scream all day). One of those devices would be really cumbersome to have attached to the laptop all day. Again it's a moot point anyway because she's not allowed to plug anything into the USB ports. Chumbawumba4ever97 fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Sep 17, 2021 |
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Sep 17, 2021 14:32
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lol sounds like you're hosed! So what happens if you leave the headset unplugged, and then plug it in at the start of the call? Hopefully it doesn't drop the call or some dumbass poo poo like that. Then she can answer the call and have it with the bad laptop speakers & mic during the initial "hello thank you for calling Dumbshit Corp" part and then click in the headset? But actually I think the problem here is that Dumbshit Corp still hasn't thought about their WFH setup that well, and she should email her boss with the problem and ask if they have approved speakerphone devices. Maybe that would get the ball rolling.
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Sep 17, 2021 15:06
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Klyith posted:lol sounds like you're hosed! When she plugs the headphones in the Cisco IP phone software locks up for like 10-15 seconds, I am guessing while it "switches" to a different audio device or source or whatever. It's a problem because people don't hear her for the first 10 seconds or so and 7 out of 10 times they hang up. If she could just keep it plugged in 24/7, but still hear the phone ring, that would be awesome and would solve everything. Even if her IT department permitted the install of the speakerphone, it wouldn't really work with her workflow. She literally balances the laptop on a stack of books while making dinner, brings it with her into the bathroom even if she's just washing her hands, runs to escape to a quiet part of the house when the phone rings, carries it tethered to her cell phone when she walks the kids to school, and so on, so having a big speaker dangling from a USB port would be incredibly cumbersome unfortunately. This would be completely resolved if there was just some way in Windows to have audio play both out of the speakers and headphones at the same time. I just can't find anywhere to do that.
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Sep 17, 2021 15:15
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:This would be completely resolved if there was just some way in Windows to have audio play both out of the speakers and headphones at the same time. I just can't find anywhere to do that. Nope. As I said it's a thing that sometimes is possible, but it depends on the sound hardware. If possible it needs a software poke to active both outputs at once, but isn't a supported thing in windows because it's not universal. Maybe she should ask about bluetooth headsets? That would count as the second audio device you need and be hands-free which sounds like a plus for the circumstances. Given their restrictive policies I wouldn't try to connect a bluetooth headset until you got approval though. (Also I think she probably needs to re-think some of the work/life stuff you're describing because that is crazy. Carrying it into the bathroom because she's afraid to miss a call is like way over-stressed. But then making dinner while you're supposed to be working is nuts in the opposite direction. I dunno how the arrangements are made for this job, but the general expectation for WFH jobs is you clock out when you're not working.)
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Sep 17, 2021 15:49
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The Cisco soft phone emulator is end of life years ago if I remember correctly and hasn’t been updated for a long time. Ask me about Cisco call centers cause I admin one. Anyways, not much you can do with that piece of crap.
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Sep 17, 2021 15:52
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Why not plug in only a microphone and do the calls through that and the laptop speakers, if it's only the built-in mic that particularly sucks in the first place.
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Sep 17, 2021 17:26
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She needs to contact her IT department and make them provide her with a solution. If that isn't resolved in a satisfactory manner, she needs to escalate to her boss. And I'd echo the comments that that sounds like a really bad work/life balance, although I don't have 3 kids so I guess maybe its possibly that that's just life with 3 kids.
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Sep 17, 2021 17:33
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Flipperwaldt posted:Why not plug in only a microphone and do the calls through that and the laptop speakers, if it's only the built-in mic that particularly sucks in the first place. I didn't realize that was an option. Is there a microphone that clips around your ear or something? And having a mic plugged in will not kill the speaker audio even though it's the same plug as the headphone one? Klyith posted:Nope. As I said it's a thing that sometimes is possible, but it depends on the sound hardware. If possible it needs a software poke to active both outputs at once, but isn't a supported thing in windows because it's not universal. It's funny because when googling this problem, I got the opposite. A lot of people complaining that they have headphones plugged in but audio is still playing through the speakers. Unfortunately no one was looking for what we wanted. Bluetooth isn't a bad idea except her shifts are 12 hours and I doubt any bluetooth headsets would last that long. The reason she has to carry the laptop literally everywhere is because she is sort of an emergency line for her company's employees. The phone only rings maybe 5 times a day but she absolutely has to be available to answer it. It's a good gig, I am just making it sound bad.
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Sep 17, 2021 17:43
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:I didn't realize that was an option. Is there a microphone that clips around your ear or something? And having a mic plugged in will not kill the speaker audio even though it's the same plug as the headphone one? You can go one step further and keep using just the mic of your current headset with presumably a trrs plug, if in addition to the above adapter, you buy the one that does the opposite. Plug the headset into this one, plug the other adapter into the computer, and only connect the microphone plugs of the adapters. Can confirm that electrically this is sane and all works fine on my machine, though I don't have your software to see if it throws up any unexpected roadblocks. Links are just examples of the type of thing you need, I'm not specifically endorsing these brands or products.
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Sep 17, 2021 18:49
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Brilliant! I am buying both of those. Thank you so much!
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Sep 17, 2021 18:54
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Internet Explorer posted:She needs to contact her IT department and make them provide her with a solution. If that isn't resolved in a satisfactory manner, she needs to escalate to her boss. And I'd echo the comments that that sounds like a really bad work/life balance, although I don't have 3 kids so I guess maybe its possibly that that's just life with 3 kids. This is the real solution uncle at nintendo
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Sep 17, 2021 19:19
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I appreciate the concern but it's a great job, she just has to be 100% available during her shift if the phone rings because they are typically for extremely urgent or emergency matters. It beats the hell out of her having to commute 2 hours a day since the job became permanently work from home. Also we're saving $20,000 a year in daycare. No complaints here!
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Sep 17, 2021 20:15
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:I didn't realize that was an option. Is there a microphone that clips around your ear or something? And having a mic plugged in will not kill the speaker audio even though it's the same plug as the headphone one? Ok, if speakers audio + headset mic is good enough, you may not even need the adapter. Check and see is a realtek control panel is in the system tray, or if "realtek HD audio manager" is in the start menu. If you have that, and a panel like this:  Double-click on that black 'audio jack' icon and it will give you a option to choose between headphone and speaker out. (There is also, either in that panel or with the "device advanced settings" area, an option to make it always pop up and ask which one you want when you plug it in. That would be a good thing to turn on, for when the headset gets unplugged and plugged back in.) Is the jack on the laptop a single TRRS, or does it have separate headphone and mic jacks? If it's the single TRRS, I'm not sure that the Y splitter will work by itself to keep it from auto-switching to headphones. On my lovely laptop with a realtek chip that doesn't work, but I have the lowest-grade realtek version. Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:I appreciate the concern but it's a great job, she just has to be 100% available during her shift if the phone rings because they are typically for extremely urgent or emergency matters. Ok, that sounds like a weird enough special case that it's more like being a doctor on call or something. IMO they should just get her a cell phone and route her calls to the cell rather than this cisco nonsense, but not my job.
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Sep 17, 2021 20:49
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She has set hours, but yeah it's kind of like an on call job where she has to be there if someone calls. It's no different than when she was in the office. Obviously this is way better for us. Unfortunately the Realtek app IS in fact on the laptop, but when you try to run it, nothing happens.
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Sep 17, 2021 21:08
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:Unfortunately the Realtek app IS in fact on the laptop, but when you try to run it, nothing happens.  welp.Is it the locked-down corporate crap IT blocking any software not on a whitelist, or just realtek being unreliable garbage? Impossible to say!
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Sep 17, 2021 21:51
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The laptop I successfully tested this on has a conexant audio chip and works with the generic Microsoft driver. I really don't have a clue if it not working with realtek is universal, in which case, commiserations. I've hated that plug in detection poo poo since Windows 98 times or whenever.
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Sep 17, 2021 22:24
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I'd say Bluetooth is still perhaps the best option, but it does get a little more complicated if the laptop has separate headphone and microphone jacks. There are a lot of 3.5mm to Bluetooth adapters out there, but the need for both mic and sound makes it difficult to search up one that would obviously work. It would be easy enough to just use a 3.5mm adapter so the headphone jack transmits over Bluetooth.
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Sep 17, 2021 23:58
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Why the hell don't they just get her a real goddamn phone?
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Sep 18, 2021 02:54
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Hipster_Doofus posted:Why the hell don't they just get her a real goddamn phone? No one really has desk phones anymore. We migrated our call center to the same software she is using but this was years and years ago. It worked fine, but it's EOL and hasn't been updated in ages. Cisco then migrated over to Jabber, which is current and works way way better as a softphone. Now they're moving over to Webex Teams for calling. We migrated all our call center to Webex Teams and I'm currently working on migrating the rest of the org too. It also works way way better and has basically no issues. All the settings missing from the old CIPC is in Jabber and Teams. All our call center agents use Jabra wireless headsets. The bases are USB.
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Sep 18, 2021 03:05
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I have a couple Jabra Talk 25s and a Poly Voyager 5200 I use over Bluetooth, and have Bluetooth earbuds and several sets of Bluetooth headphones. I can't imagine going back to wired headsets willingly.
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Sep 18, 2021 03:28
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:Brilliant! I am buying both of those. Thank you so much! Adding to Flipperwaldt's suggestion, a simple solution could be a separate computer speaker with a headphone output. Normally the audio would come out from the speaker, but when you plug in the headphones it will mute the speaker. The Cisco software should not be able to detect this switch and cause the lock up. Biggest issue might be forgetting to unplug the headphones when leaving the computer.
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Sep 18, 2021 09:26
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Is call forwarding not an option?
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Sep 18, 2021 13:25
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CaptainSarcastic posted:I have a couple Jabra Talk 25s and a Poly Voyager 5200 I use over Bluetooth, and have Bluetooth earbuds and several sets of Bluetooth headphones. I can't imagine going back to wired headsets willingly. I have a wired headset with separate pluggable 3.5” microphone/earphone jacks. It has a 10’ cord, and the main reason I have them is because I wanted to save an empty USB 3 slot. Same reason my wired keyboard is using the single ps/2 slot (it’s old): I have a bunch of USB 3 slots, but also stuff like IDE>USB, SATA>USB, DVD writer>USB, etc so 80% of my slots are already full. If I can use something with an in-place-on-the-motherboard plug and save the slot for a USB peripheral I probably will. Just a personal quirk, but my two rigs before this one didn’t have many and some hardware would have to be plugged and unplugged to use.
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Sep 18, 2021 15:37
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Call forwarding is not an option because the Cisco phone records the calls which is a requirement for her job. I doubt they'd be willing to give her a rooted Android phone to get around that. I got the two cords from Amazon today and unfortunately it doesn't solve the issue. With either of the two cables plugged in, sound is disabled on the speakers. It thinks headphones are plugged in when either of the two cables are plugged in, even if headphones aren't plugged in at all.
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Sep 18, 2021 15:39
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Maybe with a few more dongles. Or she could just tell her boss the mic is unintelligible and she needs the right equipment to enable her to perform her job duties.
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Sep 18, 2021 15:51
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Don't listen to them, I think we've almost got it.
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Sep 18, 2021 16:00
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She tried that but the replacement laptop is a Surface with a keyboard cover which means you literally can't use it on your lap. Also she's my kindred spirit and loves the trackpoint as much as I do, which Surfaces don't have. Edit: ironically this entire thing wouldn't be an issue if they didn't combine the headphone and mic ports and kept them separate like they used to be. Chumbawumba4ever97 fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Sep 18, 2021 |
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Sep 18, 2021 16:08
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I don’t have a good solution that hasn’t already been suggested, but seriously if it’s business critical that she is available when on call, the IT department should equip her with a locked down phone for that purpose. Talk with the manager and the IT department if that fails. It’s in the interest of the business. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.
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Sep 18, 2021 16:30
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if the company literally can't provide a USB mic or wireless headset, an average pair of bluetooth headphones these days gets like 30 hours of use off a full charge, they should be adequate for a full workday. i recommend sony h.ear on 2, they're $80 refurb off ebay, but almost any name brand headset will be adequate
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Sep 18, 2021 16:31
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Jenny Agutter posted:if the company literally can't provide a USB mic or wireless headset, an average pair of bluetooth headphones these days gets like 30 hours of use off a full charge, they should be adequate for a full workday. i recommend sony h.ear on 2, they're $80 refurb off ebay, but almost any name brand headset will be adequate I had Sony WH1000XM3 headphones for a year and its microphone was so garbage I never used it after first two times because people just couldn't understand half of what I was saying. I doubt their "lesser" headsets have better microphones.
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Sep 18, 2021 16:35
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:I appreciate the concern but it's a great job, she just has to be 100% available during her shift if the phone rings because they are typically for extremely urgent or emergency matters. Honestly, this sort of position doesn't sound like a good fit for WFH. From the employer's perspective: if it's that important, with as many restrictions as they have, you probably want butt in seat for the shift. There you can have full equipment control, and no distractions for the employee. Sorry for the devil's advocacy. It's just an odd situation that gave me pause.
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Sep 18, 2021 16:59
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Sininu posted:I had Sony WH1000XM3 headphones for a year and its microphone was so garbage I never used it after first two times because people just couldn't understand half of what I was saying. I doubt their "lesser" headsets have better microphones. I had the hear.on 2s for the first several months of working from home during the pandemic and no one remarked on the quality (or lack thereof) of my audio.
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Sep 18, 2021 16:59
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:Edit: ironically this entire thing wouldn't be an issue if they didn't combine the headphone and mic ports and kept them separate like they used to be. I have a Logitech (G2?) headset with an extremely long cord that I’ve used for years. It has separate inputs for microphone and headphones to plug into the pink & green jacks on the motherboard’s back side. I also have a really good sound system for music and games that the speakers plug into a single (green) jack on the front. I use a third party program called SoundSwitch that is small and works perfectly to switch headset to speakers and back, just by pressing CTRL + NumPad 0 to flip. It works really well and I went from the download to using it in about 45 seconds. See if she can get permission to use it: it’s not a piece of company destroying malware. It’s also open-source freeware (or it was when I got it a couple of years ago). Ask officially through her equivalent IT or procurement office on the record. I cannot see it not working in her use case.
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Sep 18, 2021 17:00
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Sininu posted:I had Sony WH1000XM3 headphones for a year and its microphone was so garbage I never used it after first two times because people just couldn't understand half of what I was saying. I doubt their "lesser" headsets have better microphones. i guess they do, everyone I talk to can hear me great
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Sep 18, 2021 17:13
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Saukkis posted:Adding to Flipperwaldt's suggestion, a simple solution could be a separate computer speaker with a headphone output. Normally the audio would come out from the speaker, but when you plug in the headphones it will mute the speaker. The Cisco software should not be able to detect this switch and cause the lock up. Biggest issue might be forgetting to unplug the headphones when leaving the computer. This sounds like the right solution. Also, does Cisco not have a voip app she can run on her phone that connects to the work voip exchange? My work voip extension rings a physical handset on my desk and also an app on my phone, but it’s not Cisco so I don’t know how their stuff works.
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Sep 18, 2021 17:38
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I think I am going to try the Bluetooth earbud idea. I had no idea they lasted that long. I figured it was 3 or 4 hours tops. That way she can keep it in her ear all day, and won't have to drag the laptop with her when she goes to go put one of the kids down for a nap or something. If the Bluetooth thing doesn't work out (battery dies too early, callers can't hear her well, etc) then we will probably just use the wired earbud thing again, and when she answers a call she will just have to say something like "please hold for about ten seconds while I plug in my headset" or something.
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Sep 18, 2021 17:51
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Homie don't get earbuds, get over the ear headphones. Earbuds do have lovely battery life. The headphones I suggested even have "ambient sound" mode that pipes through outside noise if blocking out surroundings is a concern
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Sep 18, 2021 18:09
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