Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : VOIP etc : Want to begin something like: Voip/wake up call wakeupland.com/services.html

[spel]

Hi,

I want to begin a company something like the following websites:

http://www.wakeupland.com/services.html

and http://www.iping.com/mrwakeup_menu.asp

I want to make a website, where people can sign up for 'Wake Up Calls' (This is the perfect solution for anyone who needs a wake up call for one specific date and time.)

I have searched a lot on the web, is there a hosting company who offer something like that. I contacted www.800pbx.com but they don't have that service (wake up calls).

I know asterisk does.

Thanks in advance.

[IRCCo Jeff]

I can't imagine relying on some random company to initiate a wake up call. Server goes down, I don't wake up and that's bad news.

[chillipc]

A Wake up call service, good luck with that sorry for sounding harsh. But like a fellow forum buddy had said what happens if the server goes down lol?

Personaly I prefer the good old alarm clock!.

[IH-Rameen]

I don't understand why you wouldn't just use an alarm clock? Or say you are on the move - why not the alarm clock on your cell phone? Or say you're at a hotel or something - why not use the wake up call service they provide?

Seems like a pretty redundant service to provide.

[spel]

Originally Posted by IRCCo Jeff

I can't imagine relying on some random company to initiate a wake up call. Server goes down, I don't wake up and that's bad news.

Of course not, it's just your second alarm. What if there is no power or something else.

Originally Posted by cobra-internet

A Wake up call service, good luck with that sorry for sounding harsh. But like a fellow forum buddy had said what happens if the server goes down lol?

Personaly I prefer the good old alarm clock!.

It's a second alarm, well what if the Internet provider has problem with their server, what if, what if...

Originally Posted by IH-Rameen

I don't understand why you wouldn't just use an alarm clock? Or say you are on the move - why not the alarm clock on your cell phone? Or say you're at a hotel or something - why not use the wake up call service they provide?

Seems like a pretty redundant service to provide.

Everybody has his own opinions, that is humanly.

This is just a extra service which folks can take.

The problem is i want to begin something like this, but i have searched google for many hours and other websites, i just don't know where to begin...


Look at the other sites, who provide this:

http://www.wakeupland.com
www.iping.com
www.snoozester.com

[chillipc]

@spel

I can understand where you are comming from yes every one has their own opinion, but where are just helping you not to waste your time for example

like you said what happens if the power goes off, true but modern alarm clocks use bateries as well as a power supply,

and another thing you will have to remember is not everyone has a telephone in their bedroom for example in my house we have 2 down stairs one in the front room and one in the kitchen, the only phone I have in my bedroom is my mobile phone and yes that is my alarm clock too.

at the end of the day I dont want to sound harsh but doing a business like this will most 100% fail.

to answer your question just hire loads of staff keep them on caffeen and lets say a user contacted you saying can you wake me/her up at 6:00 am they give you there number and you or your staff member dials that number at 6:00am shouts down the line "Get up you lazy sod" thats the way I would do it.

thanks

[spel]

Originally Posted by cobra-internet

@spel

I can understand where you are comming from yes every one has their own opinion, but where are just helping you not to waste your time for example

like you said what happens if the power goes off, true but modern alarm clocks use bateries as well as a power supply,

and another thing you will have to remember is not everyone has a telephone in their bedroom for example in my house we have 2 down stairs one in the front room and one in the kitchen, the only phone I have in my bedroom is my mobile phone and yes that is my alarm clock too.

at the end of the day I dont want to sound harsh but doing a business like this will most 100% fail.

to answer your question just hire loads of staff keep them on caffeen and lets say a user contacted you saying can you wake me/her up at 6:00 am they give you there number and you or your staff member dials that number at 6:00am shouts down the line "Get up you lazy sod" thats the way I would do it.

thanks

Well, i have given you the websites that also provide that service. Of course everybody uses his alarm clock, it's logical. But if you have a very very important meeting tomorrow, it is handy to take 2 alarm clocks. And there are many companies how became successfully with this kind of services.

There are people who are heavy sleepers, it's handy for them.


"to answer your question just hire loads of staff keep them on caffeen and lets say a user contacted you saying can you wake me/her up at 6:00 am they give you there number and you or your staff member dials that number at 6:00am shouts down the line "Get up you lazy sod" thats the way I would do it."

Hahaha, that was very funny. The problem with that, it cost extra staff, why not with an automatic system, i know these websites do it automatically.. I thought it would not be that difficult.
wakeupland.com
ping.com snoozester.com

[chillipc]

Originally Posted by spel

There are people who are heavy sleepers, it's handy for them.

If they are heavy sleepers, then how will there hear your wake up call My cousin is one the only way you can wake him up is it you punch him in the rips lol, Not sure if your clients would want that to happen to them.

I am not sure how they do it, cant you ask some of the companies what they use as there beckend software, but make sure you come accross as a protential client and want to know how there system works etc...

If you do go ahead with this business I hope you make it, and succeed if you do, I will eat my hat! and send you proof of me doing it.

[Adam-AEC]

Something to get you started in the right direction:

You will use Asterisk and a termination service like Les.net for the phone calls.

You will need some way to set the wakeup call. I see a web interface being the easiest to implement.

The web interface will store the necessary wakeup calls in a database, and parse the database via cronjob/daemon for any calls that need to be placed. Asterisk can also handle calls scheduled for the future, so you could go that route.

Have the cronjob/daemon place a file in the Asterisk spool folder to make the wake up call (read: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/A...+auto-dial+out)

Security will be important. You would obviously not want people setting wakeup calls for strangers at other numbers. You could require authentication with an automated call to them with a keycode that they have to confirm on the website to make the phone # active.

You will also want to take into consideration timezones, international calls, etc. If you have no experience in web development, you will need a developer than can work with user-set timezones, and if you can't set up Asterisk contexts, you will probably need someone familiar with Asterisk to help you code the wakeup call context.

This could also help you out.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/A...ke-Up+Call+PHP

[rpsfan]

Glad to have found this thread. We are just about to jump into creating something similar.

Great info, Adam! I am wondering about les.net? Are they a PSTN service? With a wake up call service being used by POTENTIALLY thousands or more, I am thinking the cost would get exorbitant? Also, I would assume a service like les.net would allow hundreds to thousands of outgoing calls at the same time? Are these assumption correct?

Would recommend any other service provider for sending out the call into the PSTN network?

Thanks

[Adam-AEC]

Les.net offers origination and termination services. You would be using the termination part of their services. They allow you to use SIP or IAX to place calls over a POTS line.

Figure 0.015/minute in costs for dialing out to North America. I dont' believe they have a limit on the number of outgoing channels, but you'd probably want to advise them that you will be using a lot of channels simultaneously.

[rpsfan]

Thanks again, Adam!

We are planning on using Asterik hosted on a dedicated linux box. Is SIP or IAX something we configure on our box through Asterik and then it connect to Les.net. Maybe SIP and IAX is something Les.net uses and we just connect our VOIP server to?

[synapse]

Hello,

This is quite easy to setup and there are many more features that are simple to add (such as a text to speech message with the wakeup call).

Any good VOIP host would be able to help you get this going. Here is a reminder system for asterisk that works well and has nice features:
http://bestof.nerdvittles.com/applications/reminders4/

Good luck!

[luki]

I think due to the nature of this service you will run into scalability problems. Here's why.

Your call volume will be very peaky. Most calls will be between 6 am - 12 pm EST (assuming you are targeting the US). Most users will want a call at a full hour or half hour or something like that, not at 7:17 am. When they request a call at 7:00 am, they want it at 7:00 am and not at 7:04 am. If you cannot achieve this precision, then they may as well just just a plain old alarm clock.

Now let's assume you have 10,000 calls/day over 5 hours, in essentially 10 peaks (half and full hour). That's 1,000 calls to make at once. One Asterisk box won't handle (good luck pushing it to >200 calls). You need >60 Mbps of bandwidth to achieve that with a standard G711 codec.

Good luck finding a provider that will want your business. Letting you use 1000 DS0 channels for a hand full of minutes every day just isn't worth it considering the revenue (say 10,000 calls * 0.2 min/call * $0.01/min = $20), especially when you can get the same with <10 DS0 channels and "normal" users.

[kavvalos]

Every body who need wake up services can download the
Wake up Easy ver 1 - Voip Alarm Sip Service