Recently in Unified Communications Category

Almost missed some major KB updates & hotfixes to OCS 2007 R2 that Microsoft just put online yesterday.

Fixes are many, especially in OCS 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 966802. It includes the following fixes:

• Update for Application Host
  967832  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967832/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2 Application Host: April 2009
• Update for Application Sharing Server
  971296  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971296/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Application Sharing Server: July 2009
• Update for Administration Tools
  971289  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971289/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Administration Tools: July 2009
• Update for Audio/Video Conferencing
  971793  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971793/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Audio/Video Conferencing Server: July 2009
• Update for Core Components
  971299  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971299/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Core Components: July 2009
• Update for Communicator Web Access
  969824  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969824/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Communicator Web Access: July 2009
• Update for Conferencing Attendant
  968922  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968922/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Conferencing Attendant: July 2009
• Update for Conferencing Announcement Service
  969823  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969823/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Conferencing Announcement Service: July 2009
• Update for Monitoring Server
  971298  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971298/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Monitoring Server: July 2009
• Update for Mediation Server
  969835  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969835/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Mediation Server: July 2009
• Update for Outside Voice Control
  967835  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967835/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2, Outside Voice Control: April 2009
• Update for Response Group Service
  967829  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967829/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2, Response Group Service: April 2009
• • Update for Standard/Enterprise edition Server
  969821  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969821/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2: July, 2009
• Update for Standard/Enterprise edition Server Back End
  969834  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969834/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 database: July, 2009
• Update for Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit
  970679  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970679/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit: July 2009
• Update for Web Conferencing Server
  971297  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971297/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Conferencing Server: July 2009
• Update for Web Components Server
  967830  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967830/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components: April 2009

Another KB update (KB 970275) released yesterday was "Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant Hotfix KB 970275"

This update package fixes the following issue:

• 972402  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972402/ ) Office Communicator 2007 R2 runs concurrently with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant

Lastly, Microsoft yesterday released the latest version of the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Capacity Planning Tool

James Stine has released a cool utility called "Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer". It's a great online tool for performing testing, troubleshooting, and diagnostics on OCS 2007 deployments. James said, "Following on the heels of success of the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (created by Shawn McGrath and Brad Hughes), Premal Gandhi, Matthew Fresoli and I have been busy designing and writing a complimentary tool: The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer."

Microsoft just published the latest and greatest version of their OCS 2007 R2 documentation. I asked the official Microsoft OCS MVP mailing list, "Is there anything new about the OCS 2007 R2 docs contained on this page or is this just a centralized repository of all the Word docs and the single .chm help file?" I added, "Perhaps this is the first "official" 1.0 release of ALL the documentation?"

All you know-it-all techies out here are probably thinking, "Documentation? We don't need no stinkin' documentation!"

Yeah, in most cases I'm right there with ya, but not something as complicated as OCS 2007 R2. I often tell users who come to me repeatedly with the same IT question to go RTFM. So I suppose if I tell users to 'Read The "Friggin" Manual', I should read the manual as well. But I digress...

In any event, Jeff Schertz from Pointbridge, a consulting firm (including OCS) commented, "I hope that is really not the case. IMO if there is going to be three different formats of the same content (online, .CHM, .DOC) then they really need to be consistent across all three. I'd assume the .CHM will fall behind and require periodic updates, online content should be updated in parallel to downloadable docs. Forum questions regarding 'confusing OCS documentation' is a daily occurrence.

My sentiments exactly! I should mention that the .chm (Compiled HTML Help file) is a nice quick searchable index of the help content, but updates often lag behind other forms of documentation.

Elan Shudnow from CDW (I buy most of TMC's computer equipment @CDW by the way) also responded when he wrote, "This is one of the issues I saw with R1.. I saw a ton of inconsistencies with information on Technet and the Word files. Now there's Word files, CHM, and Technet with probably additional inconsistencies because now there's 3 places for information instead of 2 like with R1."

Microsoft's Patricia (Trish) Anderson responded, "In OCS R2, we are now single sourcing all docs. The chm were updated 5 hours after the online update for this refresh and will generally follow that same model. All three deliverables have been refreshed with the latest info and are inline with each other."

A few people, including myself all reacted to the good news of consistent and updated documentation. Getting Office Communications Server 2007 R2 deployed is a fairly complicated task so good documentation is crucial for OCS resellers & installers, as well as customers' IT departments that install and maintain OCS deployments. We don't need no stinkin documentation!

Download the docs

Some interesting news from D2 Technologies about them showcasing their mCUE™ converged communications client with embedded VoIP for Android at OESF Japan. I should point out that D2's mCUE mobile convergence software solution combines a communications user interface with the company's vPort MP VoIP software platform and is targeted towards OEMs and service providers to help deliver integrated Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Unified Communications (UC) functionality.

At OESF they will demo how mCUE can enable VoIP, video chat and other IP communications capabilities in stationary Android-based embedded equipment and consumer electronics devices. With mCUE, these devices can offer premium multi-service unified communications capabilities and deliver simultaneous interoperability with any communication service provider, Instant Messaging (IM) community or social networking platform. All popular communication modes are converged to a single communications user interface (UI), including circuit switched voice (PSTN or cellular), VoIP, Instant Messaging (IM), SMS and video chat.

Full release after the jump...

Last week, I wrote how Microsoft is making inroads in the enterprise with their Office Communications Server 2007 R2 platform and how they are looking to achieve five 9s of reliability. Well, one other critical feature needed for an enterprise phone system is decent call recording. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a lot of options for call recording on OCS 2007. One of the problems is that not all calls go through a PBX.

For instance, you can use the Microsoft Communicator client to call a co-worker who is also using Communicator. The call is a peer-to-peer SIP session that doesn't go through a PBX, so the PBX can't leverage it's call recording capabilities to record the call.

So what are your options?

1) You can go the "cheap" route and download the FREE open-source Wireshark packet sniffer program. Wireshark can decode VoIP packets, including the RTP audio stream and save it as an .au file (you can convert to .WAV if you need to). All you need to do next is "mirror" a port on your switch that sees all the VoIP traffic and then hookup a PC to monitor and record the traffic.

2) Another similar option is Cain and Abel. Cain & Abel was designed as a "network administrator security tool" to pinpoint security holes. I put that it quotes, since it can also be used as a hacker's tool.  Essentially, this "security" software product can record your SIP-based VoIP applications. Cain's sniffer can now extract audio conversations based on SIP/RTP protocols and save them into WAV files. The following codecs are supported: G711 uLaw, G711 aLaw, GSM, MS-GSM, ADPMC, DVI, LPC, L16, G729, Speex, iLBC.

3) You can go the "professional" route and install a 3rd party SIP-recording platform that monitors ALL SIP VoIP traffic.

One good one I recommend is SIP Print. It's a 1U appliance that captures SIP VoIP traffic and has a web interface to access recordings. In theory, it should work with OCS but I haven't tried it. I like the SIP Print appliance and am finishing up a full-fledged review which I hope to publish this week.

4) You can try http://live-pa.com/ which is launching this summer and is specifically design for OCS. To record, all you have to do is "invite" the Live-PA contact. It starts recording immediately when invited into a conversation on any Office Communicator (OC) enabled computer or communications device. It's a hosted offering, without the need for on-site software and hardware recording equipment. According to Live-PA, "Just think of Live-PA as another OC contact, but, in this case, one that you hire and use whenever the need arises. To hire the services of Live-PA, sign up, and simply add the Live-PA.com Manager to your list of OC contacts. That's it - no software or hardware to install and maintain!" The Live-PA software resides on its own secure servers, and is accessed via the internet whenever you use Live-PA.com Manager. They give you unlimited storage capacity. Nice!

5) Telrex has a call recording offering for OCS available today. According to their website, CallRex™ software enables businesses to implement Microsoft Unified Communications while maintaining and extending their call recording and monitoring business processes. CallRex further extends the value of Office Communicator 2007 by making recorded calls accessible at the desktop. For example, Microsoft Unified Communications users can link recorded calls from the CallRex solution to customer records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In addition, call recording and monitoring features can be integrated with business applications via the CallRex API™.

Update: I should mention that although many of the above solutions can capture the SIP traffic - including the RTP stream - you might have problems playing the audio back since Microsoft uses their packet loss concealment RTAudio adaptive codec within Communicator. Not sure if Microsoft Media Player can play this codec or not. Hmmm, might have to do some packet captures and see if this works!

The Future of Recording in OCS...
It's certainly possible that a future release of OCS could feature a decent call recording feature built-in that is 100% software. It would be nice if you could simply click a record button from within Communicator and it records the call as a .wav file directly to your PC. Microsoft no doubt is working on a future OCS release that is 100% software without the need for a PBX, so they'll need a 100% software-based recording solution as well. Maybe it won't be a fully-featured call recorder that puts recordings on a centralized server for call center managers, admins, etc. with fully reporting capabilities -- but certainly OCS's Communicator client should act at least as a "personal" recorder.

I should mention that while Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 did not quite herald the death of the IP-PBX, most experts, myself included, predict a future release of OCS that doesn't require a PBX. Who knows - maybe OCS 2010, OCS 2011, or a later release will be PBX-free? Probably sooners rather that later, that day is coming.

A 100% Microsoft UC solution without the need for a PBX/IP-PBX at all could be a game changer. Of course, the current version, Microsoft OCS 2007 R2, does have some limited support for SIP IP phones, so you could throw out your existing PBX today if you wanted to. Any future release of OCS will have to support SIP phones from popular SIP phone players such as Aastra, Polycom, and snom. Also, most businesses aren't ready to toss desktop hard phones for a 100% software-based softphone solution, i.e. Microsoft Communicator. Additionally, any future OCS release will have to include all the advanced call center functionality you get from Nortel, Avaya, Mitel, or even some low-cost Asterisk-based PBXs, if they plan on completely eliminating the need for a PBX. A 100% software-based IP-PBX with unified communications capabilities, advanced call center functionality, and call recording would certainly be a compelling choice for many businesses.

Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile is a versatile Java-based unified communications client for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Communicator Mobile runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 or higher which includes Pocket PC and smartphone devices.

It also supports:

• Motorola Razr V3xx
• Nokia S40 series: Nokia 3120 Classic, Nokia 3600 slide, Nokia 5220/5310/5610 XpressMusic, Nokia 6212 classic, Nokia 6300i, Nokia 6301, Nokia 6500 classic, Nokia 6500 slide, Nokia 6600 fold, Nokia 6600 slide, Nokia 7210/7310/7510/7610 Super Nova, Nokia 7900 Prism, Nokia 8800 Arte.
• Nokia S60 series: Nokia E 51/63/66/71, Nokia N95

This month they released an important hotfix update for Communicator Mobile 2007 R2.

What's cool about Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 is that it enables users running the app on their mobile phone to make work calls using their corporate phone system leveraging "Single Number Reach" functionality. This allows you to use a single telephone number on your business card. With Single Number Reach, your desk phone and mobile phone will ring when an incoming call arrives. Importantly, outbound calling on your mobile device also gives the same caller identity regardless of whether you use a desk phone or a mobile phone. Another key advantage in Communicator Mobile R2 is that you can simultaneously sign in to more than one application at the same time and have multiple options for communication. In order to keep presence information up to date, the presence indicator now shows "Mobile" as an option for your availability, enabling people to easily keep track of your status. Apparently they've done some major overhaul to the code from the prior version since Microsoft said they optimized the performance and battery life is now improved by 350 percent.

Issues that this month's hotfix package fixes

• Provides home screen support for new home screens in Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
• Provides integration within the phone dialer for Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
• Enables Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 to recognize when the phone is roaming and by default prevents Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 from signing in to roaming networks.
• Provides additional support for joining conference calls from a Windows Mobile appointment. To do this, press Menu, and then press Join Conference.
• Lets users log on by using a user name in the user@example.com format, in addition to the domain\user format.
• Enables the functionality by which callbacks are now automatically accepted when the user uses the Call via Work option.
• Resolves the problem in which the Microsoft Installer (.msi) installation fails on a Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)-based computer. In this situation, users should install Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 by using a (.cab) installation.
• Fixes the problem in which AT&T FUZE devices that are set for a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) connection cannot handle voice and data at the same time. In this situation, calls that use the Call via Work option fail unless the device is reverted to 3rd Generation (3G) by disabling HSDPA.

With Microsoft making increasing inroads with their Office Communications Server 2007 R2 platform, many integrators, VARs, and end-user customers are looking to find out more information on bringing the famed "five nines" (99.999%) of reliability to OCS 2007 R2.

Well, Microsoft has just released a white paper detailing how to ensure high reliability. According to Microsoft:

Using backup and restoration procedures for site disaster recovery as described in the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 documentation library topic Backup and Restoration, can entail some downtime for users."

This white paper describes a site resiliency solution for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The solution includes an Enterprise pool that spans two geographically separate sites. The solution provides a failover mechanism between the two sites to ensure that Office Communications Server functionality such as instant messaging, presence, and conferencing remains available even if one of the sites becomes unavailable.

This white paper is divided into three main sections:

    * The Solution section provides an overview of the tested and supported site resiliency solution described in this paper.
    * The Test Methodology section describes the testing topology, expected behavior, and test results.
    * The Findings and Recommendations section provides practical guidance for deploying your own failover solution.

To successfully follow this paper, you should have a thorough understanding of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering.

Good stuff!

Now you have no excuses to tell users when OCS 2007 goes down -- when really you stuck a second DHCP server on the LAN by accident or you disconnected the uplink cable when doing some cable rearrangement or you turned on an old PC that shared the same static IP address as the OCS 2007 server. Not that I've ever done anything like that and blamed Microsoft for the outage. Nope, not me!

White Paper Download

I came across a Microsoft page that lists "OCS R2 XMPP Gateway" with a General Availability date of 9/28/09. Very interesting. This would enable for example Google Talk (XMPP) users to instant message (IM) OCS users. Jabber XCP has a "SIP/SIMPLE gateway"  as well, but I would assume a Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 XMPP gateway might feature tighter integration.

For instance, it might automatically sync the XMPP users with the OCS 2007 contact list, so any users added to the XMPP server are automatically added to the OCS 2007 contact database, which then gets pushed out to all the OCS 2007 Communicator clients. No need to manually add an XMPP contact manually one-at-a-time. Of course, that's just speculation, so we'll have to wait and see what features this XMPP gateway has come 9/28/09!

With yesterday's news about the new Nimbuzz for iPhone app and the launch of a Nimbuzz Mac client, I contacted Tobias Kemper, Head of Communications for Nimbuzz and asked him a question about DTMF/touch-tone support in any pending release.

Any plans for DTMF support?

Noticed when I tested it by calling my Skype for SIP account matched up to my corporate PBX that I couldn't reach my extension since there is no dialpad once the call is initiated.

I know touchtones are tricky when sent over an IP connection, which is what RFC 2833 is for. However, RFC 2833 is probably impossible for you guys to support.

However, I've found if you simulate the exact frequency tones and send that as a long tone - say 0.5s long, 99% of the time it gets transmitted just fine. Can often get away with ¼ of a second as well. Thoughts?

He wrote back, "I will send you the official news in a few mins - WITH more stats and data! DTMF is a great next step for us but I cannot speak to it yet."

Ok, so he's not admitting to DMTF support in the future, but he isn't ruling it out either. That's good news, since I really like Nimbuzz. It features SIP capabilities, so I can register it with a SIP-based PBX. Though oddly enough, I had a minor issue with the Nimbuzz for iPhone app with case-sensitivity. I have some test SIP accounts with the format SOFTPHONE01, SOFTPHONE02, etc. all in upper-case. The Asterisk-based trixbox PBX is case-sensitive, so it is expecting the username in uppercase. Well, although I was able to enter in SOFTPHONE01 into Nimbuzz in all upper-case, it wouldn't register. So I SSH'ed into the trixbox server and ran "asterisk - r" to see what was going on. I attempted to register again, and immediately saw the problem in the Asterisk console. Nimbuzz converted my SIP username to all lowercase. Thus, I had to add a new SIP account that was in all lowercase. Looks like they need to update their back-end database to support mixed-case for the SIP username. It's pretty common to use a mix of upper & lowercase letters to help secure the SIP account.

In any event, Tobias also told me, "We developed a Mac client (download) in combination with a new iPhone version (download) because we got massive traction since releasing the iPhone client and have a huge number of active users. (official press release below)  We did it Apple style, focused on slick UI and usability! "

He added, "(Here are) a few stats on why we made the decision to deliver something specific for the Apple fans out there:"

• In just 9 months since launch, consistent Top 10 ranking on all iTunes AppStores in Europe, Latin America & the Middle East, including regular No. 1 What's Hot positions in influential iPhone markets such as the UK
• Achieved massive penetration and popularity.  For example, 1 in 5 iPhone users in France and in the Netherlands are using Nimbuzz!
• Average 848% growth in downloads of iPhone & iPod touch apps in key European markets since the iPhone OS 3.0 update
• One of just 5% of Apps to boast more than 100,000 active users, with an active user base of more than 41% (AdMob Metrics)
• Massive nearly one million newly registered users per month growth across all Nimbuzz clients

With the new Nimbuzz Mac you can connect and interact with friends from the most popular instant messaging communities and social networks like, Facebook, AIM, MySpace, Google Talk (Orkut), Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), ICQ and many more, right from your (i)Mac or MacBook (Pro).  It also lets you call your buddies on Nimbuzz, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk.

The iPhone and iPod touch upgrade lets you share photos, music and videos. The beauty of it is that the files are stored online so you have access to your files from your Mac, iPhone or iPod touch! That also saves device memory.

Push Notification for iPhone and iPod Touch - with home screen alerts of incoming calls or chats, effectively keeping you available to the rest of the world even though the app itself has been closed.

We also introduced another much requested feature: location sharing.  Now you can share and retrieve the location of your Nimbuzz buddies on the go. This makes it easier to find your friends and set up face to face meetings.

Here is a demo video to check out before trying : ) 

TerreStar Corporation (NASDAQ: TSTR) announced that TerreStar-1, the world's largest, most advanced commercial communications satellite, has been successfully placed into its assigned orbital slot in the geosynchronous arc and has successfully deployed its 18 meter 2GHz S Band reflector, the largest commercial satellite antenna ever deployed. TerreStar remarked "TerreStar-1 is now poised to deliver the voice, data and video services over TerreStar's all IP next-generation mobile broadband network that combines the power of TerreStar-1, an all-IP core network, and the latest in smartphone technology."

One of the first advanced smartphones the satellite is designed to handle is a new Windows Mobile designed with their partner Elektrobit (EB). The mobile device can handle all of the major wireless specs, including: Dual-band WCDMA (850 and 1900), TerreStar WCDMA HSDPA 2.2 GHz, and Quad-band GSM/EGPRS (850, 900, 1800 and 1900). What this means is that this is a worldwide phone -- and if their isn't a cellular tower in the vicinity, you can switch to a satellite connection.