Offline MLS financial assistance

[davidcprice]

Our meetinghouse internet has been experiencing a network outage for a week now, and our ISP says they have no idea when it will be back up. In the meanwhile, we have checks we've written and a deposit we've made -- but cannot transmit them. I have called the help line dozens of times and gotten the message every time that the call volume is too great and they cannot answer the call -- which is extremely frustrating.

Since MLS has a messaging feature in it, would it be possible to set up the messaging feature inside the Leaders or Clerk Resources of the web page? Then I could send a message to Church HQ from home, providing the essential information, and not have the frustration of trying to get through on the phone line?

[russellhltn]

Seems like that's more work then using the phone line.

[lajackson]

You could send them an email from your home computer, but as RussellHltn said, it is probably easier just to use the phone line to Send/Receive until your ISP repairs your high speed line. (Unless, of course, you are on DSL and your phone lines are out, also.)

[davidcprice]

It would be much less work than the *hours* I've spent trying to get through on the phone line. If the church were a business with as much difficulty getting through to customer service that I've had, I would never do business there again!

[russellhltn]

It would be much less work than the *hours* I've spent trying to get through on the phone line.

What seems to be the problem there? Busy signal?

[lajackson]

It would be much less work than the *hours* I've spent trying to get through on the phone line. If the church were a business with as much difficulty getting through to customer service that I've had, I would never do business there again!

I was not speaking of using the phone line to call Local Unit Support. I was speaking of using the phone line to transmit your MLS data, just as we did before the switch to high speed internet access. Are you not able to do that? The computers in Salt Lake do not care if the information comes via phone line or Internet. The phone line is just a little slower, that's all.

[davidcprice]

I was not speaking of using the phone line to call Local Unit Support. I was speaking of using the phone line to transmit your MLS data, just as we did before the switch to high speed internet access. Are you not able to do that?

And this is why I *really* appreciate this forum and the wiki. I was not aware that the old phone line modem system was possible. So I found the instructions in the wiki, and just now went to the church, and made the system option change, and transmitted. Thank you!

Russell -- the problem was the standard 'too many people calling' message. I got through once and the recording said the wait would be about 5 minutes -- 15 minutes later I still was not connected so I gave up because I had someplace else to be. After that I got the recordings and never did get in the queue again.

[russellhltn]

I was not aware that the old phone line modem system was possible.

It never went away. Glad we worked out what kind of phone call we were discussing. <gin>

[gregwanderson]

Everyone should check their MLS computer under "System Options" and then under "System" to make sure that the "Dialer Options" are set correctly. I'd say it's best to use "Auto Detect" and I would hope that's the default. But I seem to recall the last time we got a new MLS computer there was no information in the "Dialer Number" box. If you don't know the number for your area, find it. Auto Detect is great! (Incidentally, our computer was a bit slow to connect via the modem so I had to add four commas after the phone number to make it work better.)

[russellhltn]

I'd say it's best to use "Auto Detect" and I would hope that's the default.

It may have improved, but at one time the Auto Detect didn't work very well and would switch to modem when there was a perfectly good broadband connection available.