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Setting Up and Using Your Voicemail

Every district phone number has a Cisco Unity voice mailbox that needs to be enrolled once before it will take messages in your own voice. This article covers first-time enrollment, checking messages from anywhere, the phone menu map, transferring callers into a mailbox, and building private distribution lists.


First-time enrollment

Do this from your own desk phone.

  1. Press the Messages button.
  2. Enter the default password 3432 followed by #. (3432 spells "fhda" on the keypad.)
  3. Record your first and last name only when prompted.
  4. Record your standard greeting.
  5. Set your own password — minimum 4 digits.

Note: your voicemail PIN and your Phone Services PIN (used for the Personal Directory on your desk phone) are two separate settings. They can be the same number, but changing one does not change the other.


Logging into voicemail

From your own phone

  1. Press the Messages button.
  2. Enter your password followed by #.

From another district phone

Use this when your mailbox extension is different from the phone you're standing at.

  1. Press the Messages button.
  2. If prompted for a password, press *.
  3. When prompted for your ID, enter your voicemail extension followed by #.
  4. Enter your password followed by #.

From outside the district

  1. Dial 650-949-7899.
  2. Press *.
  3. When prompted for your ID, enter your voicemail extension followed by #.
  4. Enter your password followed by #.

From Cisco Jabber

Click the voicemail icon on the left of the Jabber window to see your message list and play messages. If the list won't load, click Call Voicemail to dial in instead. See Troubleshooting Jabber.


The main menu

Once you're signed in you'll hear four options. If you have no new messages, the prompts start at option 2. You can press 0 for help at any time.

Press For
1 New messages
2 Send a message
3 Old messages
4 Setup options

Listening to messages

Press While the message is playing After the message has played
1 Restart message Replay message
2 Save Save
3 Delete Delete
4 Slow down Reply
5 Volume up / down Forward
6 Speed up Save as new
7 Rewind Rewind
8 Pause / continue
9 Fast forward Date and time stamp
# Skip to end of message Skip to next message
* Exit Exit
0 Help Help

Sending a message from within voicemail

  1. From the main menu press 2.
  2. Address the message to one or more recipients or to a private list. Press ## to switch between addressing by extension number and by spelled name.
  3. Press # to record your message.
  4. After recording, press # to send, or * to cancel.

Options after recording include reviewing the recording, changing recipients, and special delivery choices — urgent, return receipt, private, and future delivery.


Setup options (press 4)

Press Takes you to
4 → 1 Greetings — re-record greeting, switch between standard and alternate, edit other greetings, hear all greetings
4 → 2 Message settings — message notification, full/brief menus, private lists
4 → 3 Personal settings — password, re-record your name, directory listing

Transferring a caller into a voice mailbox

Sends the caller straight to someone's voicemail without ringing their phone.

  1. With the caller on the line, press the Trnsfer softkey.
  2. Press * followed by the extension or voice mailbox number.
  3. Press the Trnsfer softkey again.

Leaving a message without ringing the phone

  1. Press * followed by the extension or voice mailbox number.
  2. Record your message.

Private distribution lists

A private list lets you send one voice message to a group — your whole team, for example — without addressing each person individually. Lists are private to your mailbox.

Create a list

  1. Log into voicemail.
  2. Press 4 for Setup Options.
  3. Press 2 for Message Settings.
  4. Press 4 for Private Lists.
  5. Press 2 to change the private list name / edit names.
  6. Choose a list number. For your first list, choose 1; for later lists, choose the next available number.
  7. Enter an extension number to add, followed by #. Keep entering extensions, pressing # after each. Press ## at any point to toggle between addressing by extension number and by spelled name.
  8. When you've added everyone, press *.
  9. From the menu that follows, press 4 to record a name for the list.
  10. Record the name at the tone — something you'll recognize, like "Accounting" — and press # to save. Press 1 to re-record or * when you're happy with it.
  11. When the list editing menu plays again, you can hang up.

Recording a name for each list is worth the extra step — without it, you'll be guessing which numbered list is which the next time you send a message.

Note: if a list needs more than 25 members, contact ETS.

Lists from the old Fujitsu system

Distribution lists created on the previous telephone system could not be migrated. They must be recreated on the Cisco system using the steps above.


Part-time faculty voice mailboxes

Setting up your mailbox

  1. Obtain an extension voice mailbox number from your Division Administrative Assistant.
  2. Dial 650-949-7899 to reach the voicemail system.
  3. When asked to enter your ID followed by pound, enter your voice mailbox extension number then #.
  4. When asked for your PIN, enter the default 3432 (which spells "fhda") then #.
  5. The system steps you through setting your own PIN and recording your greeting.

Instructions to give students and others leaving you messages

  1. Call 650-949-7899.
  2. Press the pound key twice: ##.
  3. Enter the four-digit extension number.
  4. Follow the prompts to leave a message.

It's worth putting these three steps on your syllabus and office door.


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