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Your IP-PBX is one of the most critical pieces of corporate infrastructure. It cannot afford any downtime, which is why the fives 9's (99.999%) of reliability was coined. While Asterisk is a pretty stable open source IP-PBX platform, it it still in its infancy, so it hasn't had the same time that the old 'Big Iron PBXs' have had to reach five 9s of reliability. Then again, many traditional PBX manufacturers have abandoned 100% proprietary hardware and use many of the same standard off the shelf components that are in Asterisk, including motherboards, memory, processors, etc. So the old wives tale that big iron PBXs are more reliable than PC-based PBXs no longer applies.

Still, Asterisk and all of its derivatives (trixbox CE/Pro, PBX in a Flash, etc.) have a cult following (of which I'm a member) -- and like any cult, we like to do crazy things, like tweak Asterisk or trixbox in the middle of the work day to see if some newfangled text-to-speech feature will work. Well, with so much tweaking by some Asterisk cultists, something is bound to go wrong, usually at the end of the work day on a Friday when you're driving home, forcing a return to the office or waiting to you get home and SSH into Asterisk to restart the service.

So how do we ensure a more reliable Asterisk platform using an automated tool? Surely there must be a way of monitoring the Asterisk service and if it crashes, automatically restart it, right? Ever second is precious when you're trying to achieve 5 9s of reliability, which equates to 5 minutes, 15 seconds or less of downtime in a year. Or if you want to get really crazy, shoot for 6 nines of reliability (99.9999%) which is 31.536s of downtime per year!

Well, before we continue, you must remember that Asterisk runs on Linux and there are many great monitoring tools for Linux. In fact, for the blog web server you're reading this article on, I'm running a free monitoring tool aptly called monit, which you can get here.  This tool is so easy to use, it should be in any Linux admin's arsenal. I use it to monitor various parameters of the blog server, and if certain conditions are met, it automatically restarts the apache web service.

It got me thinking, "Why not use monit to monitor Asterisk?" Well, here's how to do it!

1) Install monit.
2) Simple way: Run 'yum install monit' or run 'apt-get install monit' Go to Step
3) Compile/Harder way: Go here: http://mmonit.com/monit/download/ and download the .tar file, currently called monit-5.0.tar.gz
4) Untar monit
# tar -zxvf monit-5.0.tar.gz
# cd monit-5.0 Configure and compile monit:
# ./configure
# make
5) Install monit
# make install
6) Copy monit configuration file to /etc/ folder
# cp monit.conf /etc/monit.conf (older versions used monitrc filename)
7) Edit monit.conf & put in your monitoring rules (see examples below)
8) Add monit service to the startup. Red Hat command follows:
# chkconfig --add monit
# chkconfig --level 2345 monit on
# {confirm the run levels}
# chkconfig --list|grep monit

It is super easy it to setup the mail server for notifications and to configure monitoring of processes, files, loads (CPU, memory), and ports. And of course, using monit you can monitor Asterisk, trixbox CE or Pro, PBX in a Flash, and other IP-PBXs that run on Linux.

Here's a snippet from two monit.conf configuration files (one the blog server, the other Asterisk):

###############################################################################
##
## Start monit in background (run as daemon) and check the services at 2-minute
## intervals.
#
set daemon  120 # can set lower if want downtime <2min
set mailserver mail.tmcnet.com     # primary mailserver
## You can set the alert recipients here, which will receive the alert for
## each service. The event alerts may be restricted using the list.
#
  set alert blogalerts@tmcnet.com          # receive all alerts
  set alert anotheremailhere@somewhere.com
  check system blog.tmcnet.com
    if loadavg (1min) > 4 then alert
    if loadavg (5min) > 2 then alert
    if memory usage > 75% then alert
    if cpu usage (user) > 70% then alert
    if cpu usage (system) > 30% then alert
    if cpu usage (wait) > 20% then alert
  check process apache with pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid
    start program = "/etc/init.d/httpd start"
    stop program  = "/etc/init.d/httpd stop"
    if cpu > 60% for 2 cycles then alert
    if cpu > 80% for 25 cycles then restart
    if totalmem > 1300.0 MB for 5 cycles then restart
    if children > 250 then restart
    if loadavg(5min) greater than 10 for 8 cycles then stop
    if failed host blog.tmcnet.com port 80 protocol http
       and request "/monit/doc/next.php"
       then restart
    if failed port 443 type tcpssl protocol http
       with timeout 15 seconds
       then restart
    if 3 restarts within 5 cycles then timeout
    depends on apache_bin
    group server

# Asterisk Monitoring rule
set daemon 30 # Check every 30s
set logfile syslog facility log_daemon
set alert asteriskalerts@yourdomain.com
check process asterisk with pidfile /var/run/asterisk/asterisk.pid
group asterisk
start program = "/etc/init.d/asterisk start"
stop program = "/etc/init.d/asterisk stop"
# Check uptime via Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI) port 5038
if failed host 127.0.0.1 port 5038 then restart
if 5 restarts within 5 cycles then timeout

#Check Veritas BackupExec Agent
check host blog.domain.com with address 192.0.0.6
start program = "/etc/init.d/VRTSralus.init start"
#stop program = "/etc/init.d/VRTSralus.init stop"
if failed port 10000 with timeout 35 seconds then restart

Further, you can even test the SIP protocol, which uses port 5060. The SIP test is similar to other protocol tests that monit supports, however, it allows extra optional parameters.

IF FAILED [host] [port] [type] PROTOCOL sip [AND] [TARGET valid@uri] [AND] [MAXFORWARD n] THEN action [ELSE IF SUCCEEDED [[<X>] <Y> CYCLES] THEN action]

TARGET : you may specify an alternative recipient for the message, by adding a valid sip uri after this keyword.

MAXFORWARD : Limit the number of proxies or gateways that can forward the request to the next server. It's value is an integer in the range 0-255, set by default to 70. If max-forward = 0, the next server may respond 200 OK (test succeeded) or send a 483 Too Many Hops (test failed)

SIP examples:
  check host openser_all with address 127.0.0.1
   if failed port 5060 type udp protocol sip
      with target "localhost:5060" and maxforward 6
   then alert
 
  check host sip.broadvoice.com with address sip.broadvoice.com
   if failed port 5060 type tcp protocol SIP
      and target 1234@sip.broadvoice.com maxforward 10
   then alert

Now that you know how to automatically monitor Asterisk, trixbox, PBX in a Flash, etc. those five nines (6?) of reliability are just around the corner. As the PBX administrator / telecom manager, you will be worshiped by your sales team and boss for keeping the phone system up all the time. They will think you an Asterisk God, who will be adored and who shall command great respect and admiration. And none shall mourn for any Asterisk outages.

It just gets better and better - First, there was the legal fight between Joltid (Niklas Zennstrom) and Skype/eBay that I wrote about. Then the NY Times reported that Skype's founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, were in talks with several private equity firms to make a bid to buy back Skype. Now, eBay today announced they want to spin off Skype as an IPO. Apparently, they don't like the bid prices offered by Niklas and Janus. eBay probably didn't like the patent threats by Joltid run by Niklas and Janus either.

I'm not sure in this current economic climate that a technology-based IPO is a good idea. Heck, any IPO at this point is very risky. This could be a bluff by eBay to get Zennstrom and Friis to raise their offering price for Skype and to counter the Joltid lawsuit. Can't we all just get along? What's a few billion dollars between friends?

Check out the full announcement below:
eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) today announced that it plans to separate Skype from the company, beginning with an initial public offering that is intended to be completed in the first half of 2010. Specific timing of the IPO will be based on market conditions. "Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum," said eBay Inc.'s President and CEO, John Donahoe. "But it's clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal. We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications. In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines--e-commerce and online payments--and deliver long-term value to our stockholders."

The decision to separate Skype is based on a timeline outlined by Donahoe when he became eBay's CEO in April 2008. At the time, the company said it would spend a year evaluating Skype and its potential synergies within the eBay Inc. portfolio before making any decisions about Skype's future. Donahoe also installed a new management team at Skype led by Josh Silverman, which has driven stronger momentum and improved performance. In 2008, Skype generated revenues of $551 million, up 44 percent from 2007, and segment margins of approximately 21 percent. Registered users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, up 47 percent from 2007, and user metrics improved significantly throughout the year. The company recently announced that it expects Skype to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011, nearly doubling 2008 revenues.

"Under the leadership of Josh Silverman and his management team, Skype has become a stronger business in the past year, and I expect it will be even stronger a year from now," Donahoe said. "Skype has accelerating global user growth and strong fundamentals, diversified revenue streams and is competitively positioned in a large market. We expect Josh and his team to continue delivering results as we prepare Skype for an IPO."

Most recently, the release of the Skype for iPhone application has generated a great response. More than one million people downloaded Skype for iPhone in the first 36 hours after it became available--and Skype immediately became the No. 1 downloaded free iPhone application in more than 40 markets, including the U.S., UK and Japan. In just over a week, downloads passed the two million mark, putting Skype on more than 6 percent of all iPhones and iPod Touch - and adding almost half a million new Skype users.

Well well well. It appears the legal fight between Joltid and Skype that I reported several days ago has deeper ramifications than I first thought. The NY Times is reporting that Skype's founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, are in talks with several private equity firms and along with their own financial resources, plan to make a bid to buy back Skype.

eBay has been shopping around Skype for the "right" price. Niklas, who founded Joltid along with Mr. Friss have an ace up their sleeve, namely certain licensing rights to the peer-to-peer technology used in Skype.

As I wrote nine days ago, there are serious implications over the Joltid lawsuit against eBay/Skype and I 'hinted' at Skype's potential demise:

Skype's technology roots are in Kazaa, the P2P file-sharing network. Both Skype and Kazaa were co-founded by Niklas Zennstrom. I now come to find out that Joltid is also founded by Niklas Zennstrom. No doubt when Niklas sold Skype to eBay for billions and then founded Joltid, he still retained licensing rights to his P2P technology. How did eBay spend billions on Skype and not retain exclusive rights to the P2P technology? Either eBay is a fool or Niklas is the best damn negotiator on the planet! I'm going to try and reach out to him to find out more.

If Joltid wins, does that mean the end of Skype? No more Skype for iPhone, just days after it was announced? Perhaps Niklas is playing some hardball to renegotiate the licensing terms? Hard to say who's right or wrong until I find out more.

Well, I was definitely onto something. The NY Times article just confirms my suspicions that Niklas is playing some hardball to keep other potential Skype suitors at bay, such as Google or Microsoft. If they want to get Skype at the lowest possible bidding price, scaring away potental rivals with a patent lawsuit is the perfect way.

Read this from the SEC filing:

As previously disclosed, Skype has been in a dispute with the licensor of certain key technologies and had terminated a "standstill" agreement that had been entered into between the parties, permitting either to take action against the other with effect from March 2009. On March 12, 2009, Skype Technologies S.A. filed a claim in the English High Court of Justice (No. HC09C00756) against Joltid Limited, a BVI company.

In connection with the license agreement between the two companies, Skype licenses peer-to-peer communication technology from Joltid, and Joltid has claimed that Skype has breached the terms of the license agreement. Following the filing of the claim, Joltid purported to terminate the license agreement. In particular, Joltid has alleged that Skype should not possess, use or modify certain software code (the "Code") and that, by doing so, and by disclosing the Code in certain U.S. patent cases, pursuant to orders from U.S. courts, it has breached the license agreement.

Very smart of Niklas to drive down the price of Skype. Hey, if he's in his legal rights, then all the power to him and Mr. Friss. I'm all for intellectual property. Ironic, that Niklas who started Kazaa, one of the biggest purveyors of stolen intellectual property over its shared P2P network is now using the intellectial property argument. I'm even more incredulous that eBay paid billions for Skype and didn't purchase the P2P technology used at the very core of Skype. It almost makes me root for eBay since surely no company or person could swindle another person or company out of billions of dollars. Uh, Madoff? Ok. Enron? Yeah yeah.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of the Skype empire they've built, which although has grown since they sold it to eBay, seems to have floundered and hasn't for instance taken advantage of the popularity of social networking. I wrote in 2007 before Facebook really took off that Skype took trump Facebook.

So what are the ramifications of Niklas and Friis taking back Skype? Hard to say, but these guys are the P2P kings with Kazaa. Sure Bittorrent is the king of the block these days, but Niklas and Friis were at the P2P beginning. When they launched Skype, it took VoIP to a whole new level. Sure Joost, their video P2P venture tanked, but they're still 2 for 3. I wouldn't put it past these guys to take Skype to the next level. It'll be interesting to watch.

The KIRK 2010 WiFi DECT VoIP handset launched today. This is the latest edition to the Polycom KIRK Series. I wonder if Captain Kirk is aware that Polycom is trying to copy his copyrighted 'communicator'?

Then again, Kirk's communicator didn't have a numeric keypad. Just turn the dial and instantly talk to the Star Trek Enterprise's bridge (hundreds of miles away) with seemingly no latency either. You can compare the look of it here:

Or this closely resembling USB-based Star Trek communicator:



They definitely kept it simple, by going with a black & white screen, but they no doubt kept the costs down. The pricing for its brethren is certainly pretty expensive, i.e.:

The list price for the Polycom KWS 300 is U.S. $360. The KWS 6000 list price is U.S. $1,200 and includes a server and one base station, which supports up to 30 users. With the scalable nature of the KWS6000 it can also be set up for more users. The KIRK 5040 handset sells at a list price of U.S. $310.

I couldn't find pricing info online for the KIRK 2010, but certainly businesses are looking for affordable WiFi & DECT VoIP phones.

Update:
I accidentally assumed this was a Wi-Fi phone. It is not. It's a DECT phone. I'm going to assume the base station has an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection that does the SIP registration. Since last I checked, wireless DECT doesn't connect to Ethernet!

Features and Benefits of the KIRK 2010

• Black & white LCD screen (3 lines of text/icons)
• Internal/external ring pattern, volume control and silent modes
• Telephone book with room for 40 numbers
• Speech/stand by time > 12/150 hours
• Weight incl. battery: 120g
• Size (LxWxH): 124x47x31mm

IPEVO's S0-10W Skype Desktop Phone is a pretty neat Skype phone, that unlike most Skype phones, was designed for your desk, not to carry around. That includes the IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype phone, I recently reviewed. While the IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype phone was designed to be portable and carry around, Skype phones like these are small which means a very small speakerphone (or none at all), resulting in limited or no hands-free speakerphone capabilities. The IPEVO S0-10W Skype Desktop Phone solves that problem.

Rather than sporting an Ethernet connection, however, it uses a built-in Wi-Fi adapter, so you could carry this around the house / business if you wanted to (still needs power, so would have to plug it back in). The S0-10W offers the normal feel of a desktop phone in usability and appearance, but features a built-in CPU for computer-free Skype communication. The S0-10W features an adjustable 2.4-inch color LCD three user-defined speed dial keys, an LED light indicating incoming and missed calls, as well as new voicemails, and a hands-free speakerphone button with echo cancellation.

It's too bad this desktop phone doesn't have an embedded webcam so you could do some Skype videoconferencing. Now that would make this an even sweeter product! Add internet surfing to the mix and we're golden.

"IP calling no doubt offers a financial benefit to consumers, however as with any unfamiliar technology, some may be hesitant to try something new," said Royce Hong, CEO of IPEVO. "That's why we designed the S0-10W Desktop Phone. By offering consumers a similar interface to the landline desktop phone most people currently use, we feel confident that families and businesses alike will have the confidence to make the switch for their everyday communications needs."

The IPEVO S0-10W Skype Desktop Phone is now available at the MSRP of $169.99, but Amazon has it listed for less than $136

Related: Check out other standalone WiFi & DECT Skype phones

Fellow VoIP blogger Luca has launched a new endeavor called Tweefind, which is a rank-based twitter search engine rather than a simply timeline search on keywords.

Luca explains:

How is the Tweerank calculated? Behind the scenes there is a sophisticated algorithm which analyzes how users use Twitter and calculates their rank accordingly. The rank is obtained taking into account a certain number of different parameters in a certain timeframe:

• # followers
• # following
• # of tweets
• # of RT he/she receives
• # of replies
• # of distinct users who reply
• # of distinct users who retweet
• # of RT he/she makes
• # of links the user shares
• much more...

Luca explains that a twitter user's ranking can change daily, depending on how much they use twitter, and other variables. It's an interesting model. Read his post for more details.

I just tried it out on various keywords, including voip, skype, iPhone, and others. It's pretty fast. It must preload several pages of search results, because when I click the paginate/next page button at the bottom, it instantly loads. It appears to max out at 7 pages of results, so that may explain why it loads so fast.

Interestingly, there is no submit or 'Go' button to submit your search. You simply hit enter to submit. Still for people that are not keyboard-centric or don't know you can simply hit 'enter', a submit button would be nice.

It's too early to tell if I'll use this regularly, but I'll have to bookmark tweefind and try it out over the next few weeks to see how well it works vs. my usually twitter searching.

Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 users were having communications issues with AOL's AIM when federating using PIC (Public IM Connectivity) and using a Windows Server 2008 (x64) Edge role server - Windows Server 2003 (x64) is unaffected by this problem. Microsoft's Scott Oseychik just issued a fix that solves the problem. The fix involves changing the Windows Server 2008 Edge role to initially establish the SSL dialog using the TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5 cipher suite.

It's pretty easy to fix via Group Policy (gpedit.msc). Once you make the fix you should be able to successfully communicate with AOL AIM clients using Office Communicator 2007 R2 via PIC.

Click here for the resolution.

According to Skype, "In less than two days, Skype for iPhone has been downloaded more than one million times - around six downloads every second. This is a phenomenal performance, and we're confident that it's one of the fastest-downloaded iPhone apps ever. We'll be back next week with an update, but for now, Skype on "

That's pretty damn fast. Now imagine if AT&T allowed Skype over 3G on un-jailbreaked iPhones? That number might be double or triple. Though I bet the number of people that jailbreak their iPhones is going to increase as a result of the native Skype app for the iPhone. The voice quality of the Skype for iPhone app is excellent so I guarantee Skype is going to be a huge incentive for people to jailbreak using Pwnage or QuickPWN.

Well, if you're one of those people that want to jailbreak your iPhone and get Skype over 3G to work, then I've got just the tutorial for you!

Skype and Joltid Limited are in a legal dispute over Skype's licensing of Jolitid's P2P communication technology. This is news to me, since I thought Skype invented the P2P technology used in Skype. Skype's technology roots are in Kazaa, the P2P file-sharing network. Both Skype and Kazaa were co-founded by Niklas Zennstrom. I now come to find out that Joltid is also founded by Niklas Zennstrom. No doubt when Niklas sold Skype to eBay for billions and then founded Joltid, he still retained licensing rights to his P2P technology. How did eBay spend billions on Skype and not retain exclusive rights to the P2P technology? Either eBay is a fool or Niklas is the best damn negotiator on the planet! I'm going to try and reach out to him to find out more.

If Joltid wins, does that mean the end of Skype? No more Skype for iPhone, just days after it was announced? Perhaps Niklas is playing some hardball to renegotiate the licensing terms? Hard to say who's right or wrong until I find out more.

In the meantime, read this from the SEC filing:
As previously disclosed, Skype has been in a dispute with the licensor of certain key technologies and had terminated a "standstill" agreement that had been entered into between the parties, permitting either to take action against the other with effect from March 2009. On March 12, 2009, Skype Technologies S.A. filed a claim in the English High Court of Justice (No. HC09C00756) against Joltid Limited, a BVI company.

In connection with the license agreement between the two companies, Skype licenses peer-to-peer communication technology from Joltid, and Joltid has claimed that Skype has breached the terms of the license agreement. Following the filing of the claim, Joltid purported to terminate the license agreement. In particular, Joltid has alleged that Skype should not possess, use or modify certain software code (the "Code") and that, by doing so, and by disclosing the Code in certain U.S. patent cases, pursuant to orders from U.S. courts, it has breached the license agreement.

On the basis of, among other things, the parties' mutual dealings since the execution of the licence agreement, Skype is asking the English High Court for declaratory relief, including findings that:

(i) Skype is lawfully accessing, in possession of, using and modifying the Code so that Skype is not in breach of the license agreement with Joltid and accordingly Joltid's notice of breach and subsequent notice of termination are invalid;

(ii) Skype lawfully disclosed the Code in the U.S. patent cases so that Skype is not in breach of the license agreement with Joltid and accordingly Joltid's notice of breach and subsequent notice of termination are invalid; and

(iii) Joltid has certain indemnity obligations in relation to the U.S. patent proceedings.

Although Skype is confident of its legal position, as with any litigation there is the possibility of an adverse result if the matter is not resolved through negotiation. In such event, Skype would be adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype's business as currently conducted would likely not be possible.

Also, TMCnet reports:

Skype, a division of eBay Inc. is asking a U.K. court to resolve a dispute with Joltid Limited, which owns peer-to-peer communication technology licensed by Skype for use in its software. In a recently filed claim with the English High Court of Justice in London, Skype is asking the Court to find that Joltid's efforts to terminate the agreement are invalid and that Skype is not in breach of the licensing agreement.

The licensing agreement dispute was previously disclosed by eBay in its most recent annual report, issued February 20. The report states that Skype terminated a "standstill" agreement, allowing either party to take action against the other beginning in March. Joltid is attempting to terminate the agreement based on allegations that Skype has breached its terms. Skype strongly refutes those allegations and is confident of its legal position

I won't comment on Rich taking pictures of scantily clad women unawares. In fact, I won't comment at all. I'll just steal Rich's pictures of the Skype CTIA event party in Las Vegas. The glass pool table with the Skype logo looks pretty cool, as does the giant mockup of an Apple iPhone. It's too bad they didn't show Skype running on the iPhone though.

And what's up with the funky dude with the mask, stilts, wearing a Skype logo? Words can't express my thoughts, but I'll try via the photo captions.

p.s. check out my Skype over 3G on iPhone article. You'll enjoy it!



Not sure, but I think the ladies are holding iPhones as Rich is taking this photo with his iPhone. You didn't notice? Well what were you looking at?

Get back to work Rich!


I don't think they knew you were taking their picture. Leave the peeping Tom to me.


What the???


A guy in a cage and not one of the scantily clad women? Go figure...


I bet he has no Skype buddies


Don't look up! He's not wearing underwear. Ack!


Skype runs rings around the competition, so this is apropos


I could do that. No problem!


Didn't I tell you to get back to work? Oh wait, you're the boss. Nevermind.

Cool. Is that ice? And what are those balls?