Reference
Glossary
VICIdial + dialer terminology, plain English. Every entry links to related concepts so you can browse from one to the next.
carriers-sip
10DLC
10DLC, or 10-Digit Long Code, is a registered standard ordinary local phone numbers in the US must follow to send business text messages legitimately.
ANI
ANI, short for Automatic Number Identification, is the phone number your call carries as its source, which the person you dialed usually sees as caller ID.
Call attestation
The confidence rating a carrier attaches to a call under STIR/SHAKEN, saying how sure it is that you actually own the number you are calling from.
Call blocking
Call blocking is when a carrier, app, or device stops your outbound calls from reaching the person you dialed, often because your number looks like spam.
Calls per second (CPS)
A limit on how many new calls your carrier lets you start each second, used to protect their network and keep your dialing from getting throttled.
Carrier
A carrier is the phone company that actually carries your calls onto the public phone network — VICIdial dials, the carrier delivers.
Channel
A single call path on your trunk, where each live call uses exactly one channel, so the channel count is the cap on how many calls can run at once.
CHANUNAVAILABLE
CHANUNAVAILABLE is a hang-up reason meaning VICIdial couldn't get a usable line to place the call, usually a carrier or trunk problem.
CID (caller ID)
CID (caller ID) is the phone number you show on the screen of the person you're calling, set per campaign or per list in VICIdial.
CNAM (caller ID name)
CNAM (caller ID name) is the text name shown next to your number on the called party's phone, looked up from a national database — not something you set in VICIdial.
Codec
The method that compresses and decompresses voice audio for a VoIP call, trading off between sound quality and how much network bandwidth each call uses.
Concurrent calls
The number of separate phone calls running at the same moment on your system, which sets the real ceiling on how busy your call center can get.
CONGESTION
CONGESTION is a call result meaning the network couldn't complete your call — usually a carrier or routing problem on your side, not the number you dialed.
Dialplan
The set of rules in Asterisk that decides what happens to each call, matching the dialed number and sending it to the right place step by step.
E.164
E.164 is the international standard for writing phone numbers with a plus sign, country code, and subscriber number, giving every number one clear global format.
G.711 codec
A barely-compressed voice codec that delivers excellent call quality at about 64 kilobits per second, using more bandwidth than compressing codecs.
G.729 codec
A compressing voice codec that shrinks each call to about 8 kilobits per second, fitting many more calls on a connection at a small cost to audio clarity.
IAX2
Inter-Asterisk eXchange version 2, a call-signaling protocol built for Asterisk that carries both signaling and audio over a single port.
IP authentication
A way for your carrier to recognize your dialer by its public IP address instead of a username and password, so calls connect without login credentials.
Jitter
Jitter is the uneven arrival timing of voice packets on a call, which can make audio sound choppy or robotic even when little data is actually lost.
Least-cost routing
A way of automatically sending each call out through whichever carrier is cheapest for that destination, lowering your total call costs without manual work.
LIDB
Line Information Database, the carrier-run lookup system that maps a phone number to the name shown as outbound caller ID.
MOS (mean opinion score)
MOS, or mean opinion score, is a one-to-five rating of call audio quality, where five is perfect and anything below about three sounds noticeably bad.
NAT traversal
NAT traversal is the set of tricks that lets a phone behind a home or office router send and receive VoIP audio across the wider internet.
One-way audio
One-way audio is when one person on a call can be heard but cannot hear the other, almost always a problem with how the audio stream is routed.
Packet loss
Packet loss happens when voice data packets fail to reach their destination, leaving gaps that sound like clipped words or robotic, broken audio.
Registration string
The line of settings — username, password, and server address — that tells your SIP device or trunk how to log in and announce itself to a provider.
RTP
Real-time Transport Protocol, the stream of small packets that carries the actual voice audio of a VoIP call between the two endpoints.
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
The standard signaling protocol that sets up, manages, and ends internet phone calls — how VICIdial talks to phones and carriers.
SIP 503 Service Unavailable
SIP 503 Service Unavailable is a response code meaning the server you reached cannot handle the call right now, usually from overload or capacity limits.
SIP over TLS
SIP over TLS wraps the call-setup messages in encryption so nobody can read or tamper with who is calling whom on your VoIP network.
SIP peer
A SIP peer is any single phone or trunk the server knows how to talk to, with its own name, credentials, and connection settings.
SIP registrar
A SIP registrar is the part of the phone system that records where each extension currently is, so incoming calls know which device to ring.
SIP response code
A SIP response code is a three-digit number a system returns to explain what happened to a call, similar to the status codes used on the web.
SIP trace
A SIP trace is a captured log of the signaling messages exchanged during a call, used to see exactly where and why a call failed.
SIP trunk
A virtual phone line over the internet that connects your dialer to a carrier, letting you place and receive many calls at once without physical wires.
Spam Likely label
A warning that phone carriers display on incoming calls they think might be unwanted, which sharply lowers how often people pick up your calls.
SRTP
SRTP is the encrypted version of the protocol that carries call audio, scrambling the voice stream so nobody on the network can listen in.
STIR/SHAKEN
A system carriers use to digitally sign caller ID, proving a call really comes from the number it claims, which helps cut down on spoofed and fraudulent calls.
Toll-free number
A toll-free number is a phone number, often starting 800 or 888, where the business pays for the call instead of the person dialing in.
Trunk
The connection between your VICIdial server and your phone carrier that actually carries calls in and out of the system.
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol, the technology that sends phone calls as data packets over the internet instead of over traditional copper phone lines.
compliance
3% abandonment limit
The abandonment limit caps the share of answered calls a predictive dialer may drop without an agent, commonly set at three percent per campaign per day.
Call times
Call times are the rules that say which hours of the day a campaign is allowed to dial, so you don't call people outside legal or sensible windows.
Caller ID spoofing
Caller ID spoofing is sending a false or misleading number on outbound calls so the recipient cannot see who is really calling, which is broadly illegal.
Calling curfew
A calling curfew is the band of hours during which outbound calls are allowed, typically blocking early mornings and late evenings in the lead's local time.
Cellphone calling rule
The cellphone calling rule requires prior consent before an autodialer or prerecorded message reaches a mobile number, separate from the rules for landlines.
CRTC (Canada)
The CRTC is Canada's telecom regulator that enforces the national Do Not Call list, calling-hour limits, and caller identification rules for outbound campaigns.
DNC (do not call)
DNC (do not call) is a list of numbers VICIdial must never dial — people who opted out or are legally off-limits — checked before every outbound call.
DNC litigator
A DNC litigator is a person who deliberately invites or logs unwanted calls so they can sue dialers for Do Not Call and consent violations.
Express written consent
A signed, clear agreement from a person that you may call or text them with automated or recorded marketing, naming your company and the number you'll use.
FCC
The FCC is the US agency that regulates phone networks and writes many TCPA rules, including consent, robocall, and caller-ID requirements that dialers must follow.
FTC
The FTC is a US agency that enforces consumer-protection rules for telemarketing, including the Telemarketing Sales Rule and parts of the national Do Not Call list.
FTC Safe Harbor
A US rule that protects a telemarketer from abandoned-call penalties if it keeps its drop rate below a set limit and follows the message and record-keeping rules.
GDPR
The European Union privacy law that controls how you collect, store, and use personal data, including phone numbers and call recordings of people in the EU.
National DNC Registry
A US government list of phone numbers whose owners asked not to receive telemarketing calls, which marketers must scrub their lists against regularly.
Ofcom (UK)
Ofcom is the United Kingdom's communications regulator that polices abandoned calls, silent calls, and caller identification from outbound dialers.
Permitted calling hours
The window of time during which the law allows telemarketing calls, set by the time zone of the person you are calling, not your own location.
Reassigned Number Database (RND)
A US lookup tool that tells callers whether a phone number has been given to a new owner since a date, so you do not keep calling someone who never consented.
Robocall
An automated phone call that plays a recorded message or dials by machine, often without a live agent on the line when the call connects.
Safe Harbor message
A recorded notice played when a dialer connects a call but no agent is free, identifying who called and why, to limit liability for the dropped call.
State DNC list
A do-not-call list kept by an individual US state, which marketers must honor in addition to the federal registry when calling residents of that state.
TCPA
The TCPA is a US law restricting automated calls and texts, requiring consent before dialing cell phones with autodialers and limiting when and how often you may call.
TRACED Act
A 2019 US law that strengthened robocall enforcement, pushed carriers to verify caller ID with STIR/SHAKEN, and raised the penalties for illegal calls.
Two-party consent
A rule in some US states and other countries that everyone on a call must agree before it can be recorded, not just the person doing the recording.
Compliance
Abandoned (call abandonment)
Lead picked up, no agent connected within drop SLA, dialer hung up.
Drop SLA
How quickly an agent must connect after a lead answers — TCPA caps abandonment at 3%.
Reassigned Numbers Database (RND)
FCC's mandatory pre-dial check for numbers reassigned away from prior consent-givers.
inbound
Abandoned call
An abandoned call is an inbound call where the caller hangs up while waiting in the queue, before any agent answers.
After hours
After hours is the period when your call center is closed, when inbound calls are routed to a special message, voicemail, or callback instead of agents.
Agent rank
Agent rank is a number you give each agent in a queue so VICIdial offers waiting inbound calls to higher-ranked agents before lower-ranked ones.
AGENTDIRECT
A VICIdial mode that lets inbound or callback calls be routed straight to one specific agent, rather than to the next available agent in a group.
Auto attendant
An auto attendant is the recorded menu that greets inbound callers and lets them press a key to reach the right department or queue without a human operator.
Blended dialing
Blended means the same agents handle both inbound calls and outbound dialing, switching between them automatically as inbound traffic rises and falls.
Call menu
A call menu is the "press 1 for sales, 2 for support" prompt that greets inbound callers and routes them to the right place before an agent picks up.
Call queue
A holding line where inbound callers wait until an agent is free, with their place in line, hold music, and routing rules managed while they wait.
Callback queue
A callback queue holds requests from inbound callers who chose to be called back instead of waiting on hold, then feeds those requests to agents when they are free.
DID (direct inward dialing)
A DID (direct inward dialing) is a phone number you own that routes incoming calls straight into VICIdial, usually to a chosen inbound group.
DID route
The rule that tells VICIdial what to do with a call arriving on a particular inbound phone number — send it to a menu, an agent group, or a recording.
DNIS
DNIS (dialed number identification service) tells VICIdial which of your numbers an incoming caller dialed, so the same server can route different lines differently.
Estimated hold time
Estimated hold time is the system's guess of how long a waiting caller will sit in the queue before reaching an agent, often announced to the caller.
Filter phone group
A filter phone group is a named set of inbound phone numbers you can apply rules to as a batch, so several DIDs share the same routing or screening behavior.
In-queue callback
An in-queue callback lets a waiting caller hang up but keep their spot, so an agent calls them back when their turn arrives instead of holding.
Ingroup
An inbound group in VICIdial that routes incoming calls to a pool of agents, the inbound counterpart to an outbound campaign.
IVR (interactive voice response)
An automated phone menu that greets callers and lets them press keys or speak so the system can route them, answer simple questions, or collect information.
Music on hold
Music on hold is the audio inbound callers hear while waiting in the queue, often mixed with periodic announcements about their wait.
Next agent call
Next agent call is the VICIdial setting that decides which free agent gets the next waiting inbound call, picking among methods like longest-idle, fewest calls, or ranked order.
Place in line
Place in line is a caller's numbered position in the waiting queue, often announced so they know how many callers are ahead of them.
Queue overflow
Queue overflow is a backup plan that moves callers out of a full or stalled inbound queue and into another destination so they are not stuck waiting forever.
Queue priority
Queue priority ranks waiting calls so higher-value ones connect to agents first, letting some callers move ahead of others in the same queue.
Ring-all
An inbound queue setting that rings every available agent at once for a call, so the first one to answer takes it.
Service level
Service level is the percentage of inbound calls answered within a target time, such as 80 percent answered within 20 seconds.
Skills-based routing
Skills-based routing sends each inbound caller to the agent best equipped to help, matching the caller's need against the specific skills each agent has been tagged with.
Virtual queue
A virtual queue holds inbound callers who are waiting for an agent, ordering them and tracking their wait while they listen to messages or hold music.
Welcome message
A welcome message is the recorded greeting an inbound caller hears first, identifying your company and setting up what happens next in the call.
dialing
Abandonment rate
The percentage of answered outbound calls that ended without the caller reaching a live agent — closely tied to, and often used alongside, drop rate.
ADAPT_AVERAGE
An adaptive dialing algorithm in VICIdial that paces calls based on the average performance of the campaign, smoothing out short-term swings in answer rates.
ADAPT_HARD_LIMIT
A VICIdial adaptive dialing method that paces calls automatically but will never let the campaign's drop percentage cross the limit you set.
ADAPT_TAPERED
A specific VICIdial adaptive-dialing mode that eases the calling pace down as a campaign runs, spreading drops out instead of bunching them up.
Adaptive dialing
A family of VICIdial modes where the dialer keeps adjusting how many calls it places based on live results, instead of using one fixed setting.
Auto dial level
A VICIdial setting that lets the system raise and lower the dial level on its own to keep agents busy while holding the drop rate in check.
Available-only tally
A VICIdial pacing option that counts only agents who are truly available when deciding how many calls to place, ignoring those still wrapping up.
Broadcast dialing
Broadcast dialing places calls with no agents involved and plays a recorded message to whoever answers, often with a press-1 option to connect.
Campaign
A campaign is the container that ties together your lead lists, dialing rules, agents, and disposition options for one outbound calling effort.
Dial level
The number of calls VICIdial places for each available agent — the main dial controls how hard the dialer pushes ahead of your team.
Dial method
The setting on a VICIdial campaign that decides how the system places calls, from manual one-at-a-time dialing to fully automatic adaptive pacing.
Dial prefix
A short string VICIdial adds to the front of every number a campaign dials, used to route the call out a specific carrier or trunk.
Dial timeout
The number of seconds VICIdial lets a call ring before giving up on it, balancing the chance of an answer against agent and line efficiency.
Dialer pacing
The general idea of how fast a dialer places calls relative to available agents, balancing keeping agents busy against the risk of dropping calls.
Drop percentage limit
The maximum share of abandoned calls a VICIdial campaign is allowed to reach, used by adaptive dialing to cap pacing and stay within the rules.
Drop rate
The share of answered outbound calls where no agent was free to talk, leaving the caller hanging — a number regulators cap and watch closely.
Hopper
A staging table where VICIdial pre-loads the next batch of leads to dial, so the dialer always has fresh numbers ready to go.
Lines per agent
A rough way of describing how many simultaneous calls a campaign places for each logged-in agent, closely tied to the dial level.
Live answer
When a real person picks up the phone rather than an answering machine, fax, or busy signal, marking the moment an agent should be connected.
Manual dialing (click to dial)
A mode where the agent triggers each call one at a time instead of the system auto-dialing, often used to meet compliance requirements.
Maximum adapt dial level
A ceiling on how aggressively the adaptive dialer is allowed to pace, capping the dial level even when the math wants to push it higher.
Nuisance call
A call where a person answers but no agent is ready, so the system hangs up or plays a recording, which regulators count against your campaign.
Omit phone code
A campaign setting that strips a leading country or area code from stored numbers before dialing, so you do not double up digits on the way out.
Power dialing
A dial method that places a fixed number of calls per available agent automatically, dialing faster than preview but without predictive forecasting.
Predictive dialing
A dialing mode where VICIdial places more calls than there are free agents, predicting how many will connect, to keep agents busy.
Press 1
A campaign style where a recorded message asks the person to press 1 to connect to an agent, instead of dialing live agents directly.
Preview dialing
A dial method where the agent sees the lead's details on screen first and then decides when to place the call, giving full control and no dropped calls.
Progressive dialing
A dial method that automatically places one call per available agent, dialing the moment an agent frees up but never overshooting the agent count.
Ratio dialing
A dialing mode that places a fixed number of calls for each available agent, set by a dial level you choose, instead of predicting demand.
Robo-dialing
Automatically dialing numbers and playing a recorded message with little or no live agent involvement — heavily regulated and easy to misuse.
Survey dialing
A VICIdial mode that calls numbers and plays a recorded prompt, letting people respond by pressing keys instead of talking to a live agent.
Inbound
system
Agent
An agent is a person who talks to your customers on the phone, logged into VICIdial through a browser screen that VICIdial drives for them.
Agent API
A set of VICIdial URL commands that control an agent's session from outside the screen, letting you pause, dial, hang up, or set a disposition programmatically.
AGI (Asterisk Gateway Interface)
AGI is a way for VICIdial's underlying phone engine to hand a call off to a script, so custom logic can run in the middle of a call.
API (application programming interface)
An API is a set of web addresses you can call from another program to make VICIdial do things or hand back data, without using the screen.
Asterisk uniqueid
A unique label Asterisk stamps on every channel it creates, so each leg of every call can be tracked, matched to records, and found in logs.
CRM
A CRM (customer relationship management system) stores your contact and deal records; VICIdial can hand calls to it or pull data from it through links and the API.
Non-agent API
The non-agent API is a VICIdial web interface that lets outside systems read data and trigger actions, like adding leads or pulling stats, without an agent logged in.
QueueMetrics
A separate reporting product that reads Asterisk call data to produce detailed call-center reports, often used alongside VICIdial for richer dashboards.
ra_call_control
A VICIdial API function that controls a call for a remote agent — one who takes calls on an outside phone instead of the browser softphone.
Scheduled callback
A scheduled callback is a future appointment an agent sets so the dialer calls a lead back at a specific date and time.
Server trunk
A trunk defined on a specific VICIdial server, telling that box how to hand calls to a carrier so outbound calls can leave by the right path.
Session ID
A short number VICIdial assigns to an agent's live screen session so its background commands and softphone line stay matched to the right person.
Settings container
A reusable block of phone or device configuration in VICIdial that you define once and attach to many phones, so changes are made in one place.
Timeclock
The timeclock is VICIdial's built-in punch in and out system that records when each agent starts and ends their shift.
TTS (text to speech)
Technology that turns written text into a spoken voice, so VICIdial can read out names, numbers, or messages without a recorded audio file.
URL (in VICIdial)
A web address VICIdial can open automatically during a call, usually to pop a customer record or pass data to an outside system.
User group
A label you attach to agents and managers in VICIdial that bundles them together for permissions, reporting, and which campaigns or recordings they can reach.
Web form
A button on the agent screen that opens an outside web page in a new window, passing lead fields in the URL so an external system can show or update that record.
Webhook
An automatic HTTP message VICIdial sends to a URL you choose when something happens, so an outside system learns about an event without polling for it.
reporting
Agent performance
An agent performance report ranks each agent over a period on calls, talk time, sales, and pauses, so supervisors can coach and compare fairly.
Agent utilization
Agent utilization is the share of an agent's paid time spent on productive call work — talking, waiting for a dial, and wrapping up — versus idle or unavailable time.
Answer rate
Answer rate is the share of dialed calls that connect to anything at all — a person, a machine, or a fax — before any human filtering.
Average handle time (AHT)
Average handle time, or AHT, is the mean time an agent spends per call, including talk time plus any after-call wrap-up work.
Average speed of answer (ASA)
Average speed of answer, or ASA, is the mean time callers wait in queue before an agent picks up, measured across all answered inbound calls.
Close rate
Close rate is the share of live conversations that end in a win, measuring how well agents turn a reached person into the result you wanted.
Contact rate
Contact rate is the share of dialed numbers that reach a live person, telling you how much of your list and dialing is actually producing conversations.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate is the share of conversations or contacts that end in the outcome you wanted, such as a sale, an appointment, or a qualified lead.
Cost per acquisition
Cost per acquisition, or CPA, is the total spend on a campaign divided by the number of sales or signups it produced, giving the cost of each win.
Dials per hour
Dials per hour counts how many phone numbers a single agent's calls reach in sixty minutes, a quick pulse on raw dialing throughput.
First-call resolution
First-call resolution is the share of customers whose issue is fully solved on the first contact, with no callback or transfer needed.
KPI
A KPI, or key performance indicator, is a single number you track over time to tell whether a campaign or agent is moving toward its goal.
Real-time report
A real-time report is a live screen that refreshes every few seconds to show what every agent, campaign, and queue is doing right now.
Revenue per agent
Revenue per agent is the total sales value a campaign produced divided by the number of agents who worked it, showing how much each seat earns.
Schedule adherence
Schedule adherence measures how closely agents follow their assigned shifts — logging in, taking breaks, and going on calls at the times the plan expects.
Service level agreement (SLA)
A service level agreement, or SLA, is a written promise about how fast or how well you will answer calls, measured against agreed targets.
Whiteboard report
A whiteboard report is a stripped-down, large-format screen showing a handful of key numbers, built to be read across the room on a wall display.
agents
Agent script
An agent script is the on-screen text and talking points VICIdial shows the agent during a call, often filled in with live lead details.
Agent session
The stretch of time from when an agent logs in to when they log out, during which VICIdial tracks every call, pause, and status change they make.
Barge-in
Barge-in lets a supervisor join a live call as a full participant, so both the agent and the contact can hear and talk with them.
Call monitoring
Call monitoring lets a supervisor silently listen to a live agent call for quality checks, without the agent or contact hearing them.
Closer
A closer is an agent who takes warm, transferred calls — usually a sale or a qualified lead handed over by a fronter who screened the call first.
Cold transfer
A transfer where the agent sends the customer to another destination and drops off immediately, with no introduction to whoever picks up next.
Disposition
A disposition is the short code an agent sets at the end of a call to record what happened — sale, no answer, callback, not interested, and so on.
Fronter
The first agent on a call who qualifies the prospect, builds interest, and hands a warm caller off to a specialist to close.
Hotkeys
Single-key keyboard shortcuts that let an agent disposition or move a call instantly instead of clicking buttons on the agent screen.
Not ready
Not ready is any agent state where they are logged in but unavailable for a new call, such as during wrap-up, a break, or a manual pause.
Occupancy
Occupancy is the share of an agent's logged-in time spent actively working calls, including talk and necessary wrap-up, rather than waiting idle.
Pause code
A pause code is the short label an agent picks when they step away from taking calls, recording the reason so you can see where paused time actually goes.
Ready state
Ready state is when an agent is logged in, unpaused, and available to be handed the next call by the dialer or queue.
Remote agent
An agent who logs into VICIdial from outside the office — usually from home — connecting their phone and screen over the internet.
Shrinkage
Shrinkage is the share of paid or scheduled time that agents are not available to take calls, such as breaks, training, meetings, and absences.
Soundboard
A soundboard is a panel of pre-recorded audio clips an agent can play on a live call, letting one person voice many scripted lines on cue.
Status (lead status)
A short code attached to a lead that records what happened on the call — like sale, no answer, or callback — driving how the lead is handled next.
Talk time
Talk time is the total time an agent spends actually connected and speaking with contacts, separate from waiting, paused, or wrap-up time.
Three-way call
A call where an agent connects a third person onto the live line so the customer, the agent, and the new party can all talk together at once.
Warm transfer
A transfer where the agent stays on the line to introduce the customer to the next person before handing the call over and dropping off.
Whisper coaching
Whisper coaching lets a supervisor speak privately to an agent during a live call, audible to the agent but not the contact on the line.
Wrap-up
Wrap-up is the short stretch right after a call ends when the agent finishes notes, sets a disposition, and gets ready before the next call comes in.
Wrap-up time
Wrap-up time is the number of seconds VICIdial gives an agent to finish post-call work before it either prompts them or automatically makes them ready for the next call.
Metrics
AHT (Average Handle Time)
Talk time + hold time + wrap-up. The standard call-center efficiency metric.
Connect
A call where the lead picked up — distinct from "answered" (which can include voicemail).
RPC (Right Party Contact)
A call where the agent reaches the actual intended person — the foundational outcome for outbound campaigns.
leads-lists
Alternate phone number
A secondary phone number stored on a lead, used as a backup to reach a contact when the main number does not connect.
Called status
A flag on each lead that marks whether it has already been dialed in the current pass, used to decide whether the lead is eligible to be called again.
Campaign DNC
A Do Not Call list scoped to a single VICIdial campaign, blocking a number for that campaign only while leaving it callable elsewhere.
Custom field
An extra data column you add to a VICIdial list to store your own information beyond the standard name and phone fields.
DNC list
A Do Not Call list of phone numbers that should never be dialed, checked automatically before VICIdial places a call to protect you legally.
Drop list
A list VICIdial moves abandoned or dropped calls into, so you can track or recycle the leads that the dialer connected but could not staff with an agent.
Duplicate check
A loader setting that stops the same phone number from being imported more than once, keeping your VICIdial lists clean and avoiding repeat calls.
Filter
A filter is a rule that controls which leads in a campaign get dialed — letting you target or exclude records by state, status, time zone, or any field.
GMT offset (lead)
A number stored on each lead that tells VICIdial the lead's local time zone so the dialer only calls during the hours allowed for that area.
Internal DNC
A system-wide Do Not Call list inside VICIdial that blocks a number across every campaign on the dialer, not just one.
Lead
A single contact record in VICIdial holding a phone number plus fields like name and address, the basic unit your campaigns dial.
Lead filter
A SQL-based rule on a campaign that decides which leads the dialer is allowed to call, narrowing a list to only the records you want.
Lead list
A named collection of leads that campaigns dial from, identified by a list ID and assigned to one or more campaigns.
Lead loader
The VICIdial tool that imports a file of phone numbers and contact data into a list, mapping each column to the right database field.
Lead owner
A field that assigns a lead to a specific agent or user so that lead can be routed to or reserved for that person rather than dialed by anyone available.
Lead recycling
Automatically re-dialing leads that got a non-final result like busy or no answer, after a set wait, without resetting the whole list.
Lead source
The origin of a lead, such as a web form, purchased data, or referral, tracked so you can measure which sources produce the best results.
List ID Override
A campaign setting that moves a lead into a different list after it's dialed, based on the disposition the agent selects.
List mix
A campaign feature that blends several lead lists together and lets you set what percentage of dials each list gets, so the dialer pulls from them in the ratio you choose.
List order
A campaign setting that decides the sequence in which leads are pulled for dialing — newest first, oldest first, by penetration, or in random order.
List reset
Clearing the called flags on every lead in a list so the whole batch becomes dialable again, used to start a fresh pass over old data.
Phone Code Override
A list setting that forces a specific dial prefix or routing code onto leads, so a list can be dialed differently from the campaign default.
Phone Number Prefix
Digits VICIdial adds to the front of a lead's number before dialing, used to add area or country codes or to route through a carrier.
Vendor lead code
A free-text field on each lead that holds the original ID from whoever supplied the lead, used to match records back to the source vendor or system.
amd
AMD (answering machine detection)
Answering machine detection is the dialer feature that listens after pickup to guess whether a human or a machine answered, then routes the call accordingly.
AMD false positive
An AMD false positive is when Answering Machine Detection wrongly tags a live person as a machine, hanging up on a real prospect who was ready to talk.
Answer supervision
Answer supervision is the carrier signal that tells your system the exact moment a call is truly answered, which everything else times its actions from.
Beep detection
Beep detection waits for the tone at the end of a voicemail greeting so a recorded message starts after the beep instead of talking over the greeting.
CPD (call progress detection)
Call progress detection is the dialer's read of what happens after dialing — ring, busy, answer, or fast-busy — so it knows how each outbound call ended.
Fax detection
Fax detection identifies the tones a fax machine sends when it answers, so the dialer can hang up and mark the number instead of wasting an agent's time.
ViciAMD
ViciAMD is VICIdial's built-in answering-machine and call-progress detection engine that classifies each answered call as a human, a machine, or a tone.
Voicemail drop
Voicemail drop plays a pre-recorded message into a contact's voicemail box, freeing the agent to move on to the next live call.
telephony
AMI (Asterisk Manager Interface)
AMI, the Asterisk Manager Interface, is a control channel that lets software watch live call events and send commands like originate or hangup to Asterisk.
ARI (Asterisk REST Interface)
ARI, the Asterisk REST Interface, is a modern API that lets developers build custom call logic by controlling channels and bridges through web-style requests.
Asterisk
Asterisk is the open-source telephony engine that VICIdial runs on, handling the actual placing, bridging, and recording of calls beneath the dialer's logic.
Call park
Call park puts a live caller on hold in a numbered slot so any agent can pick the call back up from another phone, instead of a transfer tied to one person.
Conf file
A conf file is an Asterisk configuration text file that defines settings like trunks, extensions, and dialplans, telling the phone system how to behave.
ConfBridge
ConfBridge is the modern Asterisk conference bridge that joins multiple callers into one audio room without the special timing hardware that older MeetMe required.
DTMF
DTMF is the system of audible tones a phone sends when you press its keypad, letting callers navigate menus and enter digits during a live call.
Extension
An extension is a short internal number that identifies a single phone, agent, or destination inside a PBX so calls can be routed to it.
Failover
Failover is an automatic switch to a backup route, server, or carrier when the primary one stops responding, so calls keep flowing instead of dropping.
Hangup cause
A hangup cause is a numeric code Asterisk records when a call ends, explaining why it stopped, such as normal clearing, a busy line, or an unreachable number.
Hardphone (deskphone)
A hardphone is a physical desk telephone with its own hardware that connects to the phone system over the network, as opposed to phone software on a computer.
Keepalive
A keepalive is a small repeated signal or background process that confirms a connection or service is still alive and triggers a fix when it goes quiet.
Latency
Latency is the delay between speaking and being heard on a call — the time audio takes to travel across the network, measured in milliseconds.
MeetMe conference
MeetMe is the older Asterisk conference room engine that lets several callers share one audio bridge, long used by VICIdial to connect agents and leads.
PBX
A PBX, or private branch exchange, is the phone switch that routes calls inside an organization and connects them out to the public telephone network.
Phone registration
The process where a softphone or SIP device announces itself to VICIdial so the server knows where to send the agent's calls.
Softphone
A softphone is phone software running on a computer or mobile device that makes and receives calls over the internet instead of using physical desk-phone hardware.
Webphone
A webphone is a softphone that runs inside a web browser, letting an agent take VoIP calls with nothing to install beyond the browser itself.
Operations
Barge
Supervisor enters a live call as an audible third party.
Conference
Three-way calling in VICIdial — agent + lead + supervisor or third party.
Monitor
Supervisor listens to a live agent call without participating.
Recording
VICIdial recording config — what gets recorded, where it lives, retention.
Transfer
Warm vs cold transfer in VICIdial.
Whisper
Supervisor talks to the agent without the lead hearing.
platform
Branded subdomain
A branded subdomain is the custom web address, secured with HTTPS, where your agents and managers log into your own VICIdial server.
BYOI (bring your own infrastructure)
BYOI, short for bring your own infrastructure, lets you run the VICIfast managed VICIdial stack on a server you already own instead of one we rent for you.
Factory reset
A factory reset wipes your VICIdial server back to a clean install, removing all leads, campaigns, and recordings so you can start fresh.
Managed hosting
Managed hosting means VICIfast rents the server, installs and secures VICIdial, and keeps it running, so you only deal with the dialer, not the operating system.
Provisioning
Provisioning is the automated process that turns a paid order into a working, secured VICIdial server reachable on your own subdomain.
Server snapshot
A server snapshot is a saved copy of your whole VICIdial server at a point in time that you can restore later if something goes wrong.
Single tenant
Single tenant means each customer gets their own dedicated server, so your dialer, data, and recordings never share a machine with anyone else.
VPS
A VPS, or virtual private server, is a slice of a physical machine that behaves like its own dedicated computer with its own operating system and resources.
recording
Call recording
Call recording captures the audio of a conversation to a file, so a call can be reviewed later for coaching, quality checks, or compliance.
Call transcription
Call transcription turns the audio of a phone call into written text, so conversations can be searched, read, and analyzed instead of replayed end to end.
DTMF muting
DTMF muting silently strips the touch-tone digits a caller types from the call recording, so card numbers and PINs are never captured in the audio file.
On-demand recording
On-demand recording lets an agent start and stop recording a specific call by hand, instead of recording every call automatically from start to finish.
PCI pause
A PCI pause lets an agent temporarily stop a call recording while a customer reads out payment-card details, then resume once the sensitive part is over.
Recording delay
Recording delay is the short gap before audio actually starts capturing, which can clip the first words of a call if it is set too long.
Recording format (WAV/MP3)
Recording format is the file type your call recordings are saved in — usually uncompressed WAV for quality or compressed MP3 for smaller files that save disk space.
Recording retention
Recording retention is the policy that decides how long call recordings are stored before they are automatically deleted, balancing legal needs against storage cost and risk.
Stereo recording
Stereo recording stores the agent and the caller on separate audio channels, making it much easier to follow who said what when reviewing a call.
Voice analytics
Voice analytics automatically scans call audio or transcripts for patterns like sentiment, keywords, talk-over, and silence to surface trends across thousands of calls.
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