Predictive Dialer

Predictive Dialer Tips

Tracing Spam Hacks with Postfix

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

Many Asterisk servers will have Postfix installed to accommodate the mail function (FreePBX, Elastix, A2Billing etc.). Any server open to the web with Postfix is especially interesting for lamers and injecting spambots.
If your server has been infected, finding a particular spambot script is easy.
Step 1: Temporarily stop Postfix

service postfix stop ~or~ pkill -9 postfix

Step 2: Show entire Postfix queue and select a random spambot-generated email:

postqueue -p

Step 3: Locate the script generating the spam email by tracing the email ID. Example:

postcat -q EMAILIDHERE 37D

Step 4: Clean or remove the infected script completely and start the Postfix service

 

Updating all user and phone password in ViCiDial from the command line

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

To simultaneously update all of the username and phone passwords in ViCiDial, please log in to your MySQL (or PhpMyAdmin, if available) and run the following SQL statements:

UPDATE phones set pass='Your_Password',conf_secret='Your_Password' where user_level=1;
UPDATE vicidial_users set pass='Your_Password',phone_pass='Your_Password' where user_level=1;

 

Deleting ViCiDial list records with missing information

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

Some list vendors will often sell low-quality dialer lists with a lot of missing information. As an example, here is a command to delete all records with missing Last Name field within the list '123'. You can permutate last with first or any other column:

DELETE from vicidial_list WHERE list_id='123' AND last_name='';

To run a similar query which would delete all records with a certain string in the Last Name field within the same list, use the following SQL:

DELETE from vicidial_list where list_id='123' and (last_name LIKE '%is_name%' OR first_name LIKE '%STRING_HERE%');

 

Removing a valid IP from IPTables

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

To remove a valid IP address from the iptables, log in via SSH and enter the following commands:

iptables-save > tmp_file
nano tmp_file

Remove / delete the line containing the valid IP address

iptables-restore < tmp_file & iptables-save

 

Exporting all Callbacks

Searching for a string in Asterisk

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

If you wish to search for a certain string in Asterisk only (Example: only show carrier congestion), launch the Asterisk CLI along with the grep command, i.e.:

asterisk -rvvvvv | egrep -i "string"

Example (showing only congestion notices / errors)

asterisk -rvvvvv | egrep -i "congested"

 

Deleting recordings older than X days

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

To remove recordings older than X days (i.e. 30 days), SSH into your dialer and run the following campaign:

find /var/spool/asterisk/monitorDONE/MP3 -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

 

Resetting only specific call statuses within a specific campaign

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

Sometimes, admin would like to change / reset only specific dial statuses within only specific campaign - i.e. Reset all NA, NI, NP and similar statuses while keeping others (like DNC, SALE etc.) intact.
To do so, log SSH in and open mysql:

mysql -ucron -p1234
use asterisk

Afterwards, run the following command (Example - reset all statuses for all lists in campaign ID 4000 except for leads, callbacks and DNC):

update vicidial_list set status='NEW' where list_id in (select list_id from vicidial_lists where campaign_id='4000') and status not in ('DNC','DNCL','CALLBK','CBHOLD','SALE');

 

Database Size and Deleting Logs

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

Small, clean database will always perform better than a huge one.
In order to see what is the total size of all the databases in the dialer, log in via SSH and run the following command:

du -kh /var/lib/mysql

To check the size of the asterisk database only, you can run:

du -kh /var/lib/mysql/asterisk

To delete logs, run the command below:

TRUNCATE `vicidial_user_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_monitor_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_log_extended_archive`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_log_extended`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_log_archive`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_email_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_email_list`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_did_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_dial_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_cpd_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_closer_log_archive`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_closer_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_carrier_log_archive`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_carrier_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_api_log_archive`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_api_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_agent_skip_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_agent_log_archive`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_agent_log`;TRUNCATE `vicidial_admin_log`;TRUNCATE `user_call_log`;TRUNCATE `recording_log`;TRUNCATE `park_log`;TRUNCATE `call_log_archive`;TRUNCATE `call_log`;TRUNCATE `callcard_log`;

Warning: You will not be able to recover the logs afterwards, meaning, all of your call logs will be permanently deleted after this.

 

ViCiDial / GoAutoDial Suppression List

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

Creating a suppression list can be very useful when ordering new data / lists from data providers, helping you avoid purchasing duplicates.

To create a suppression list, login via SSH and run the following commands:

mysql -uroot -p
When prompted, enter your password. The default for GoAutoDial is vicidalnow, ViciBox - blank.
use asterisk;
SELECT distinct phone_number INTO OUTFILE '/var/www/html/vicidial/suppression.zip' FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'   LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n'  FROM vicidial_list;
If you would like to create a suppression list for a single campaign only (in this example, campaign 1234, pelase run the following query instead:
SELECT distinct phone_number INTO OUTFILE '/var/www/html/vicidial/suppression.zip' FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'   LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n' FROM vicidial_list WHERE list_id in (SELECT list_id from vicidial_lists WHERE campaign_id=1234);

When the command has finished, open your browser and navigate to http://your-dialer-ip/vicidial/suppression.zip and download the file.

Rename the file from .zip to .csv.

 

Monitor / Barge Problem on GoAutoDial 3.3

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

GoAutoDial CE 3.3 monitoring and barge function do not work out of the box. To fix this, log in via SSH and run the following commands:

yum install glibc.i686
Answer all prompts with "Y"
usr/share/astguiclient/ip_replay/relay_control start

Voila!

 

Updating to GoAdmin 3.3

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

1. Append the goautodial-testing repo

# nano /etc/yum.repos.d/goautodial.repo

2. Update Vicidial to 2.7RC1

# yum -y update

Make sure to check the active version:

# cat /usr/src/vicidial/version

...and to change your MySQL password to your original password, if needed

# mysqladmin -pvicidialnow password "myoriginalpassword"

3. Update GOautodial-CE package

# yum -y update goautodial-ce --enablerepo goautodial-testing

 

GoAdmin 3.3 "No Live Calls" Problem

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

After updating your GoAutoDial 3.0 CE to the GoAdmin 3.3, some users experience that although calls seem to be going fine in the Asterisk CLI, the agent screen (or the AGC) serve no live calls to the agent. If so, please check the following:

1. That you have updated your Asterisk to 1.8
2. That you have updated ViciDial to 2.7

If any of the two hasn't been completed, follow the steps below:

 

Update GoAutoDial 2.1 CE to 3.0

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

1. Backup your data

Ideally, export your whole database

2. Check if your running version

Your version GOautodial CE 2.1 and your MySQL password is the default "vicidialnow".

# cat /etc/vicidialnow-release

# mysqladmin password vicidialnow -p

Enter password: ...

3. Install the GAD yum repository

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/

# wget http://downloads2.goautodial.org/centos/5/goautodial.repo

4. Remove conflicting packages

# rpm -e dahdi-linux dahdi-linux-devel dahdi-linux-kmdl-2.6.18-238.9.1.el5.goPAE dahdi-tools munin munin-node --nodeps

5. Update system

Install GOautodial specific configuration and reboot (answer prompts with Y)

# yum update

# yum install goautodial-ce goautodial-ce-config

# reboot

6. Edit your PHP configuration

# nano /etc/php.ini

Make sure your config is as follows:

• memory_limit = 128M
• short_open_tag = On
• max_execution_time = 360
• max_input_time = 360
• post_max_size = 64M
• upload_max_filesize = 64M
• default_socket_timeout = 360

 

Installing Fail2Ban on a CentOS server

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

If you are running a predictive dialer (or any kind of Asterisk server) or a web hosting server, you have probably experienced often hacker/lamer brute force attempts. These attacks can be easily blocked by implementing optimal server configuration, using a good Firewall (i.e. SonicWall, PfSense, Tomato) etc. A very useful method of blocking brute force attacks is installing Fail2Ban, which will block the attacker from accessing your server through SSH, Asterisk... for a specified period of time after a number of unsuccessful login attempts.

The following guide explains installation of Fail2Ban service on a CentOS server.

1. Install

If you haven't done it already, download the EPEL repository:

# rpm -Uvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

When the repository has been downloaded, install fail2ban:

# yum install fail2ban

2. Configure

Editing the main config file (jail.conf) is not something you should do. Create a local copy of the jail file:

# cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

Setup your preferences by editing the jail.local file:

# nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

You will find the Asterisk section around the middle. Make sure that you whitelist your own external IP address and to keep the 127.0.0.1 in place. We strongly suggest setting the bantime to a much higher value (i.e. one week - 604800 seconds)

3. Restart Fail2Ban

Restart Fail2Ban:

# sudo service fail2ban restart

Voila!

 

MySQL Repair Function

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

When experiencing database problems, most often manifested by an outbound dialing issue or a time syncronization issue, try running the following command from your SSH client:

mysqlcheck -u cron -p 1234 --auto-repair --check --optimize --all-databases

 

Resolving the problem "Extension not found" on ViCiDial

Predictive Dialer Tips

Written by ProDialers

With certain dialer installations experiencing problems with outbound dialing, the dialing process can be slow or the calls might not go through at all. In this case, open your SSH Client (i.e. we use Putty) and connect to the Asterisk CLI:

asterisk -vvvr

If your CLI gives you an error/notice similar to: "Extension not found" or similar, please:

1. Check if your dialplan is correct and you are not dialing more or less numbers than you should be
2. Make sure that your lists contain only numbers of the correct length.

I.e. USA numbers are always 10 digit long. To make sure that all of the numbers in your dialers' lists are 10 digit numbers, log on to your PHPMyAdmin (if installed) or use SSH to connect to the MySQL:

mysql -uroot
use asterisk

When connected to either, run the following command:

delete from vicidial_list where length(phone_number)!=10

This will remove any rows from the vicidial_list table containing numbers which are shorter or longer than 10 characters, that is, digits.

Voila!