Block Unwanted Calls in Teams: Say Goodbye to Distractions with Our Powerful Call Blocker Tool

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Common reasons for blocking SPAM calls

  • Reduces unwanted distractions and interruptions during work.
  • Protects against security risks such as malware and phishing.
  • Improves productivity by allowing employees to focus on tasks.
  • Simple and effective way to improve efficiency and security of the organization.

There are several options available to block SPAM calls in Microsoft Teams:

  1. Microsoft Teams Tenant level Call Blocking Rules: Set with PowerShell using Regex expressions. This allows you to set up call blocking rules to block specific numbers or number ranges. You can also block entire countries, regions etc.
  2. Microsoft Teams Direct Routing: This feature allows you to connect your existing PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) infrastructure to Microsoft Teams, allowing you to use your existing (Carrier provided) call blocking and filtering solutions.
  3. Third-Party Call Control: Microsoft Teams also supports integration with third-party call control solutions, such as those provided by companies like Ribbon Communications and AudioCodes. These solutions allow you to use advanced call blocking and filtering features.
  4. Teams Client Side Call blocking: Done by the user from Call History or Contacts.

The Teams Call Blocker Tool focuses on the first option above, simply put, the PowerShell is wrapped in a GUI to simplify the management.

Blocking Numbers with PowerShell makes use of the CsInboundBlockedNumberPattern command.

CsInboundBlockedNumberPattern is a PowerShell cmdlet used in Microsoft Teams to block incoming calls from specific phone numbers or patterns of numbers. The calls that are blocked are determined by the number patterns specified in the cmdlet.

For example, if you run the command New-CsInboundBlockedNumberPattern -Identity "+1234" -Pattern "+1234*", it will block all incoming calls from phone numbers that start with +1234.

Similarly, you can block specific phone numbers or patterns of numbers by specifying the appropriate number pattern. The cmdlet can be used to block a specific phone number, a range of numbers, or a wildcard pattern.

Please note that this cmdlet will only block the inbound calls on Teams SIP and PSTN numbers and will not affect the Direct Routing numbers.

Also, this cmdlet works at the tenant level and it will block the calls for all users in the tenant if it’s executed by a tenant admin.

NOTE: To enable tenant-level blocked numbers, run the command Set-CsTenantFederationConfiguration -BlockedNumbersEnabled $true

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Sharing files up to 10GBs via email, no Cloud Storage required

Its often a real pain sharing large files with others who are not part of your usual team. There are so many cloud storage options and its fairly simple to send a link over to someone. Of course you need to remember to stop sharing too. Not to mention that, depending on the platform, the other person may need to authenticate themselves by a method not available to them, then its creating an account etc, etc.

SendAnywhere

Too hard!

I been using SendAnywhere for some time now and really like how it self destructs after a week, during that time you can resend it too.

There is no giving someone else access to my my cloud storage, thats a big positive for me. Dont feel happy sending OneDrive, DropBox and G-Drive links.

Its fairly simple:-

  1. From Outlook start a new email adding the To, Subject and Body
  2. Click on the SendAnywhere link
  3. Drag and Drop your file into the SendAnywhere window
  4. Wait for it to upload to the SendAnywhere cloud
  5. Click Send..

See it in action HERE

Sorted!

NOTE: You can also upload files and grab a link directly from the website at https://send-anywhere.com/

 

Finding Time to meet – The easy way

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Its no secret that I am hard to pin down for meetings. I have an extremely busy calendar, that means that a simple meeting invite needs to be at least a week, preferably two, in advance for any sort of chance to lock in a spot. Sure I could share my calendar with internal staff, but what about everyone else? Also, I may not necessarily want to share my calendar.

I know I am not alone, you find it hard to sync calendars?

FindTime

Some time ago (like 2 years at least) Microsoft introduced FindTime.

What is FindTime?

It is an add-in for Outlook that helps you come to consensus on a meeting time. Once you reach consensus, FindTime sends out the meeting invite on your behalf, eliminating the time consuming back-and-forth usually required to find the best meeting time.

Online meeting? No problem, FindTime will send the meeting join information as well, simply check the Online Meeting box when setting up your options.

OK, so that’s really cool right?

Demo HERE

Install from HERE