SIP

Watch out for Metallic Objects in IP Phones! You Could Get Hurt!

February 13, 2012

I've tested, used, and reviewed many Polycom phones over the years, but apparently I never noticed or received this warning letter with these phones. Check out this ridiculousness:

WARNING ALL SOUNDPOINT IP PHONES
With respect to section 5.4.3.10 of the Australian Communications Authority as Telecommunications Technical Standard AS/ACIF S004 2004 under the s376 of the Telecommunications Act 1997:

You should be aware that, under certain operating conditions, the handset earpiece may retain small metallic objects. If this occurs, these objects should be removed before using the handset.

Really? Seriously? You have to warn users that the handset earpiece may contain small metallic objects (metal shavings?) and should be removed before using it?

a) The handset is made of smooth plastic, so any metallic shavings or objects should slide right off.
b) If loose metallic objects are internal to the handset, then won't they likely stay there?
c) Even if loose objects fall out through the ear piece's opening, who the heck grinds the handset into their ear that would cause an injury and merit a warning?
d) If you're idiotic enough to pick up something and stick it on your ear without noticing metal objects on the earpiece... well, perhaps you deserve sharp metal pricks to your ear - a little smack to the head too I might add.

Posted in Personal and Humor, Polycom, SIP, TMCnet, VoIP

Vonage Attacks Skype with 30% Price Cut and Free App-to-App Calling & Texts

February 8, 2012

Vonage today launched new versions of their mobile app for both iOS and Android phones that feature free app-to-app calling and international calling rates that on average are 70 percent less than major mobile carriers and 30 percent less than Skype according to their release notes on iTunes. What's nice about their mobile app is it lets you talk and text worldwide for FREE with anyone else who has the app. It's also wideband HD audio for better audio quality.

Another nice feature is that you simply use your existing address book and there is no need to leave the app. It works on both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G.

Posted in SIP, Skype, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless

ITEXPO IP Communications Trade Show Continues Solid Growth

February 8, 2012

ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami was TMC's best show ever with over 200 booths and over 8,200 attendees. Conferee attendance for ITEXPO East increased more than 50% from 2011, resulting in dozens of standing room only sessions at ITEXPO and collocated conferences such as HTML5 Summit, M2M Evolution, Business Video Expo, Super WiFi Summit, and 4GWE. As an example, here's a photo I took at the jam-packed Ingate SIP trunking conference session:

Even with the additional third day of exhibit hall hours, foot traffic was pretty good - on a Friday no less. I heard from several exhibitors saying it was their best ITEXPO ever.

TMC's next show, ITEXPO West 2012, is scheduled to take place on October 1-4, 2012, in Austin, Texas, (the 'new' Telecom Corridor) which will be the second time in Austin after moving from Los Angeles.

Posted in ITEXPO, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Ingate SIP Trunking Session at ITEXPO is Packed!

February 1, 2012

Ingate, makers of SIP-capable enterprise firewalls, has done it again! Every show they have one of ... if not *the* largest conference room and they continually pack it in - often standing room only in the back. I stopped in to check it out. This short video followed by a cool interactive panoramic says it all:

Posted in ITEXPO, SIP

Zultys MX Release 7.0 Unified Communications Release Adds Android Support

January 31, 2012

At ITEXPO in Miami, Zultys today announced their latest UC software offering mobility features for Android, call center enhancements, and third-party CRM integrations. The latest major firmware release for the MX platform, MX Release 7.0 Unified Communications Software is a secure, all-in-one SIP-based IP phone system that is highly scalable and highly customizable. This version also includes enhancements to SIP security.

Zultys introduced Zultys Mobile Communicator for iPhone and Blackberry users in MX Release 6.0. In MX Release 7.0, Zultys adds support to Android-powered devices.

Posted in ITEXPO, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Lync Federation Tool Makes it Easy to Find Lync-enabled Business Partners

January 23, 2012

Who wouldn't want to join the Federation? No, not the United Federation of Planets, commonly referred as the Federation, though it would be cool to play on the Star Trek Enterprise's holodeck. No, we're talking Lync Federation here. Matt Landis has a cool WCF Tool (Who Can Federate) that will scan through your Outlook contacts and tell you which contacts have public Microsoft Lync or OCS federation enabled. The utility works simply by checking for a specific Lync DNS SRV record for each domain name in your Outlook contacts.

You don't even need Lync installed to try this tool.

Posted in Microsoft, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Asterisk Hack Post-mortem

January 10, 2012

Having your production Asterisk-based phone system hacked is no fun, as I have learned from first-hand experience over the past few days. Even the best of IT administrators taking ever security precaution in the book dreads the day their critical server gets hacked. You hope you've done everything possible to stop your servers from being hacked, but you are never 100% sure. There is always some hacker smarter than you, but more importantly, smarter than the best security practices you put in place.

Posted in Asterisk, ITEXPO, Linux, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, VoIP

Fonality Names Former Microsoft Exec David Scult as CEO

January 10, 2012

Today, Fonality announced it has appointed former Microsoft Exec David Scult (image right) as Chief Executive Officer. This is the second CEO in just a couple years. Dean Mansfield replaced Chris Lyman CEO, the founder of Fonality. I'm a fan of Fonality's Asterisk-based products, especially their HUD client, so I'm hoping things are going well there.

Posted in Asterisk, Linux, SIP, TMCnet, VoIP

Newfies-Dialer Offers Super-Scalable Cloud-based Auto-Dialer Using FreeSWITCH

December 29, 2011

I discovered a new, powerful, open source auto-dialer called Newfies-Dialer that is offered by Star2Billing S.L, and is distributed free of charge, with no ongoing licensing costs. Star2Billing also wrote CDR-Stats, a replacement for Asterisk Stat used in FreePBX, as well as A2Billing. Star2Billing S.L., based in Barcelona, was formed in 2009 to provide commercial support to their range of free and open source products specialising in telephony, billing, and telecoms software development. Freeswitch is often compared with Asterisk, though Freeswitch is more scalable, especially the number of concurrent SIP registrations.

Jonathan Roper emailed me to tell me about this new auto-dialer, which works in conjunction with FreeSWITCH.

Posted in Asterisk, Internet, SIP, VoIP

Microsoft Lync 2010, Asterisk & Skype Integration Tutorial

December 28, 2011

I came across an excellent tutorial on installing and integrating Microsoft Lync 2010, Asterisk and Skype. The tutorial covers installing AsteriskNOW within a virtual machine on Windows, so you don't even have to have spare hardware lying around to install Linux + AsteriskNOW on. The tutorial mentions integrating with Skype using Skype for Asterisk (SFA), which unfortunately was killed earlier this year. You can of course use Skype Connect (formerly Skype for SIP) to create SIP trunks, but the integration isn't as "tight".

Posted in Asterisk, Microsoft, SIP, Skype, Unified Communications, VoIP

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