Using secondhand VoIP phones

As part of our work to support the local Covid-19 support group we are lending VoIP phone handsets to some of the organisers. The handsets are programmed to use the special range of distinctive numbers allocated by us to the team. To ensure good quality voice on the phone we are using Polycom desktop handsets, these are business quality devices designed for office use.  Once programmed by us, it should be just a matter of plugging the devices into the the RJ45 LAN outlet on the broadband router in the home and, after power is supplied, the devices automatically connected to the Sipgate service. The organiser team then obtain the full facilities of a distributed office PABX in their own home. It also protects the personal phone numbers of the organisers from general public exposure. There always are some weirdo's who would want to exploit personal phone numbers.

When purchased new, these handset have a price of circa £75 - £100 as they have quite powerful micro computers embedded in the device. In order to keep costs down we've purchased secondhand units from Ebay. These are fully functional older units no longer required by businesses, but look like new devices. They cost less than £20 to purchase including delivery.  The particular model we are purchasing have dual power options. You can either buyer dedicated mains power supply units delivering 24V, or they can use PoE (Power over Ethernet cable) which has power delivered via the network cable. The PoE option greatly tidies the cabling associated with using the phone, all that is needed is a single CAT5e network cable plus, in the home environment, a power injector unit close to the Broadband Router.

When used in conjunction with the Sipgate web browser interface you get "click and call" facilities from the VoIP phone with no need to dial the phone number via the handset keypad. You just click on the number and your handset rings. As soon as you pick up the phone handset, or press the speakerphone button, Sipgate will connect the call.

Well, that's all of the theory, now for the practice. When we received the secondhand devices, we found the units still had their programming from their previous owners. Some the previous programming was quite specialised. Normal configuration programming by us did not allow the phones to function correctly and connect to Sipgate. After a lot of research, we realised we had to completely wipe the memory on the phones, not just a standard "factory reset", we had to reformat the memory using a well hidden function on the phones. We then set up a FTP software server to hold the appropriate historic version of the software and basic configuration files. We were able to track the software and files down on the Polycom support website. It took quite a lot of Google research and the downloading of multipage administrator manual pdf files. Normally telecoms engineers go on training courses to learn these processes, we didn't have that luxury and spent about five hours hard work and experimentation to getting it done. Now the phone automatically visit the servers via the Internet, to pick up the latest configuration when they are powered up or restarted.

However once we'd "cleaned" the handset memory and reloaded the phones with new copies of the software they work just fine. Now that we understand the process, it is quick and easy to remotely program the handsets. It was time well spent. We're about to handover the devices to the volunteers, plus network cables and power units, all suitably sterilized with isopropyl-alcohol wipedown and exposure to UV-C disinfection lamp. 

We already use VoIP phones in the holiday cottage, but there we'd installed a brand new handset so we didn't have any configuration problems.

Edit: 21st April 2020
The only remaining problem is get the recipients of these VoIP handset to plug them in and to use them  So far the reprogrammed handsets have not been connected following delivery. There are no reported problems.

Edit: 26th April
The recipients of the VoIP phone have called in an engineer to sort out network problems in their own home.

Doing our bit for Wirksworth

We don't live in Wirksworth, but we do own a holiday cottage here, so we do feel some sense of community with the people whose homes are in the town. We live just eight miles down the road in Belper.  To keep in touch with what's happening I keep an eye on the main Wirksworth Facebook group. I noticed a local group had formed to coordinate volunteers to help others during the Covid-19 outbreak. They were looking for people to help with their phone communications. By sheer luck I've a lot of experience of setting up Information Technology Infrastructure for large organisations around the globe. Part of that work used to involve supervising the provision of office phone systems, so while I'm not a telecoms engineer I do have some depth of understanding of the capabilities of the technology. I've also set up telephone systems for my own company during major projects.

Over in Belper, a couple of weeks previously, I'd helped the local Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group by setting up a phone system complete with voicemail for them, including a distinctive easily remembered contact phone number I'd acquired a couple of years ago for the cottage.  The system made life a lot easier for the Belper organisers who had previously struggled with just three mobile phones.

I made contact with the organisers of the Wirksworth Group, and after some discussion about their requirements set up a similar phone system for the team. It provides seven phone lines, each with distinctive phone numbers, a central help line (01629 888112), a voicemail system and the ability to redirect calls at a moment's notice. The whole process took just a few days to become operational, including me giving some training sessions by video conference. It is relatively low cost and can be easily expanded or contracted at short notice. Their system is based around Sipgate.

UV-C Sterilising Holiday Cottage

Our rental holiday cottage is closed at the moment due to the Government legislation to reduce the spread of Covid-19 infection. So no bookings are being accepted by Sykes. We've been planning for when bookings are once again allowed. Holiday makers will no doubt be nervous about using premises that will have been used by strangers just a few hours before. We'll be planning on having a minimum of a one day gap between bookings. This will give us the chance to give the property a good wipe down with  good disinfectants. We're also purchasing an Ultraviolet lamp (UV-C) to help sanitise the property. 

We've had one on order from China for some weeks now and a package arrived a few days ago. Unfortunately they sent the wrong device, a small USB 5 watt lamp, which is not suitable for sterilizing rooms. We've reordered an even more powerful lamp. This one will be 60w and should be able to treat each room in less than an hour, though we'll need to ventilate the rooms for a few hours to vent the ozone produced by the lamp.  We've already purchased some UV-C safety goggles as this light can severely damage unprotected eyes.

Edit: 26 April 2020

The re-ordered bulb has arrived and is undergoing trials (it turns out to be a fake, see below). It has multiple small UV-C LED chips on it's surface giving a total of 60W (230 VAC) of light.The cost including shipping was less than £30. In terms of electric lighting it is very bright and powerful, given that normally we might have only 4 x 5 watt LED bulbs lighting a room. The UV-C lamp we've obtained has a remote control switch which makes it a lot easier to use safely, but we always wear protective goggles if power is connected to the unit even if the lamp itself is "switched off".  It is a very easy way to sterilise keyboards and mobile phones without causing damage.

Combining UV-C lamp with wiping down key surfaces with disinfectant, we should be able to make our cottage safe for new guests within a couple of hours. According to the manual it only needs 15 minutes exposure in a room, but we take 2 or 3 sessions with the lamp located in different positions to avoid shadows.

Edit: 20 May 2020

It turns out the 60W UV-C light is a fake and produces no UV-C light. The classic Chinese supplier using Ebay to distribute goods. We're still investigating, so more on this later.

Edit 26 June 2020

We found a genuine UV-C lamp with a UK supplier. Details here.

Edit 6th July 2020
We now have a proper UV-C meter to check exposure levels. Details here.

Edit 25th July 2020
We've located and ordered some UV-C dosimeter labels to help us check the correct ultraviolet treatment has been delivered to the rooms.

Redecorating during Covid-19

With the lockdown on holiday homes and suspension of bookings we taken the time to redecorate our holiday home. We already have a cache of paint and started work until the rules tightened preventing non-essential travel. We now visit once a week to comply with insurance obligations, but that is just one person alone in the car and a door to door trip, not interacting with other people.

However when we were preparing to decorate we found a pair of the bed pillows tucked away out of sight in one the high cupboards in the cottage. One of our guests had used them as a dog bed without any protective covers. The pillows are covered with dog hair and will have to be binned. Another £20 down the drain. I'm beginning to wonder if the majority of guests think it acceptable to behave anti-socially. We should perhaps cease to allow guests to bring their pets to stay at the cottage.

Derbyshire Dales Council not helping local business

We just had an annual reminder to complete a business waste collection form for the local council. As our cottage is open all year, it is treated as a business for taxation purposes. This means we have to pay for trade waste collection of the rubbish generated by our guests. A sneaky note in the letter mentions that the price to collect a single green trade waste bin bag has increased to £2.84 each. That represents an 11.8% increase. These are not massive bags they hold about 90 litres max, probably closer to 50 in usage.   Last year they made the collections once every two weeks, rather than weekly, so effectively halving service levels.

A pity that the rentals we are paid have not increased in three years.

I have this theory... about bad guests

When I upgraded the WiFi network for the holiday cottage I gained the ability to monitor the identity of the devices accessing the network. I can tell when a device attaches and leaves the network. I can also see how much data the device has loaded.

As the WiFi network for the cottage is a private password protected network, I'm able to work out when our guests are using the network. If necessary I can access journal records to detail exactly which device accesses the network at any given time.

I've noticed a correlation between bad guests,  (i.e. they moan about issues without good cause) and the amount of use they make of the Wifi they use during their stay. Most people come for a holiday and are out of the cottage a lot of the time, these people complain the least and usually give us a good rating.  People who stay inside the cottage most of the time have a tendency to moan, but people who do not use our WiFi network often moan about minor things. 

It's early days yet, but it will be interesting to see how this theory stands up to the test of time.

Planning for Coronavirus / Covid-19 in the holiday home rental

We've done some planning in preparation for Covid-19 in relation to our holiday home. We're assuming business as usual, but have already topped up with supplies such as guest soap, toilet paper, disinfectant.  This is the notice that will greet our guests in addition to the normal handbook:

Covid-19/Corona Virus guidance

The holiday cottage is a low risk location of exposure to the virus, but as it is effectively a public space some measures are in place as a precaution. It is believed the virus is mainly spread by the droplets from coughs and sneezes. These droplets land on the person or on surfaces a person may touch. Infection may occur if you breathe in the droplets or touch your mouth, eyes or nose with infected hands. It is believed the virus can remain active for 10 days on surfaces.

For Guests

Please wash your hands frequently for 20 seconds with soap and water if you’ve been in public areas which might have been infected. Do this also before meals. before preparing food and after using the toilet.

If you cough or sneeze, direct it into a tissue, then dispose of the tissue.

If you believe you may have been infected and show symptoms during your stay, or within 10 days after your departure. Call 111 on your phone for advice and then please let the cottage owners and Sykes know immediately.

We have provided a water based biocide in a spray bottle kept under the kitchen sink. It can be used to treat hard surfaces. Do not use it on food, electrical items, fabrics or naked skin. Do not breath in the spray or get it in your eyes. Wipe off after use with a paper kitchen towel.

By the owners

As routine we clean the premises between guest stays in the cottage. We swap out bed linen and towels. We clean the bathroom and the kitchen surfaces. We also check crockery, saucepans, cutlery, etc. and clean as necessary.

While there is a Covid-19 alert, during the end of rental “turn-around” we will treat additional areas that are exposed to human touch. We use a professional antibacterial/biocide which is effective on virus. We’ll leave a checklist for the guests, but typically this will include door and equipment handles, table tops, work surfaces, bathroom fittings, furniture handles, stair bannisters, light switches, phone, TV controls, key safe, equipment controls, brush handles, bin lids.

All left over food stuffs, cans, packets will be disposed of or cleaned as appropriate.

In the event of a known or suspected infection linked to the cottage, we’ll advise guests via Sykes Holiday Cottages. We will then arrange for the cottage to be closed for deep clean, unless special arrangements are required for self-isolation.

Note: having had sewer/river flooding in our home during last November has given us too much experience of safely clearing up smelly infectious surfaces. A deep clean in the cottage is relatively straight forward in comparison, but it will take more than the three hours allowed for a normal changeover.

What the virus could be like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x1aLAw_xkY

Edit 26/5/20: more recent news on the precautions is listed here: https://www.warmbrook.co.uk/2020/05/cleaning-cottage-in-covid-era.html