Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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SIP

Cracking IP-PBX SIP Passwords - Be Afraid!

June 28, 2010

A few years ago I had an email conversation with Chris Lyman, the former CEO of Fonality, the makers of trixbox IP-PBX systems. I expressed concern that their trixbox Pro system was using the MAC address both for the password and the username, which for obvious reasons isn't very secure.

Below is the email conversation slightly edited for security and clarification reasons, followed by some further thoughts on SIP security:
________

Chris,
Security is going to be a huge competitive advantage after we see some high profile VoIP intrusions.

How bout forcing users to change their voicemail PIN after X number of days? TMC's voicemail was hacked many years ago. (see link/story below)

More importantly, how about automatically changing extension passwords every month and then flash all of the phones with the new passwords at 3am?









Yealink SIP-T28P Review

June 24, 2010


Yealink
, a Chinese manufacturer of IP phones is starting to make inroads in the U.S. market with their line of VoIP phones. Several months ago Yealink sent me a Yealink SIP-T28P IP phone to review. The SIP-T28P is a 6-line phone sporting a large 320x160 LCD screen and has full HD voice support (wideband codec, wideband handset, wideband speakerphone) .

Grandstream GXV3140 Dual Stack Skype & SIP Phone

June 22, 2010


Last year I predicted a dual stack 'Skype' & 'SIP' phone was coming soon. That day has arrived with Grandstream's GXV3140 IP Multimedia Phone, which already supported SIP, but now adds Skype support in their latest firmware. The GXV3140 is the world's first multimedia dual stack Skype and SIP phone. It supports Skype voice/video calls in addition to making SIP-based voice/video calls.

Whistle Phone for iPhone & iPad Offers Free Calls

June 21, 2010

Whistle Phone is a new VoIP application for the iPhone , iPad, and iPod touch which offers free calls anywhere in the U.S. The catch?

Well, you have to listen to a ~15s long audio commercial before the call is connected. Not a terrible requirement to get free outbound calls.

CounterPath Launches VoIP App for iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch

June 15, 2010


CounterPath, one of the early pioneers of SIP softphones, just launched Bria iPhone Edition for Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Bria iPhone Edition works over both 3G and Wi-Fi networks and is the first SIP softphone on the iPhone that supports SRTP and TLS for security. I spoke with CounterPath about this news as well as got a review copy of the app to try on my iPhone.

I should mention I've used the free, open source Siphon on the iPhone and while it works OK, it doesn't support transfer or conferencing. Even worse it has no echo cancellation, so forget about using speakerphone mode and it doesn't support Bluetooth headsets.


Grandstream Lands First and Only IP-PBX on Skype Store

June 3, 2010


Apparently, Grandstream landed a lucrative and exclusive spot on the Skype Store. Sorry Avaya, Cisco, Digium, Fonality, etc.

Specifically, the Skype Store lists the Grandstream GXE5028 IP PBX. I reviewed another model in the series called the GXE5024 which you can check out here.


New Vonage Lite Calling Plan

June 3, 2010

Vonage today announced a new calling plan called Vonage Lite for $9.99 per month. It offers customers 200 minutes of residential calling (5 cents for each additional minute) to the US, Canada & Puerto Rico. It also includes unlimited incoming phone calls AND Vonage-to-Vonage calls. Targeting consumers who don't use a lot of minutes and want to save, Vonage Lite may have a niche.

However, magicJack offers their unlimited calling for just $20 per year plus $40 for their USB stick.

CounterPath Announces Linux Softphone

June 2, 2010

Today, CounterPath has announced its Bria for Linux softphone client. Bria for Linux will support multiple VoIP accounts, LDAP, a wide variety of codecs and more. The new Bria 3.0 for Linux will debut next month, however CounterPath said it has already ben deployed by two Fortune 500 companies. CounterPath is well-known for it's industry-leading SIP clients, both free (X-Lite) and paid (Bria), so perhaps the biggest advantage of this announcement is that enterprises can have a single SIP application that enables VoIP across embedded products, Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems.

Alteva's Hosted OCS 2007, Exchange & Sharepoint Offers Comprehensive Hosted UC

April 23, 2010

Alteva, a unified communications hosted solution provider recently announced a partnership with Microsoftand Broadsoft to provide a true hosted Unified Communications (UC) solution to small businesses. Alteva has connected their hosted voice and messaging services with Microsoft Communication Services product suite, including Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communications Server (OCS). Alteva is essentially offering a hosted unified communications platform that offers hosted Exchange, hosted Sharepoint, and hosted OCS ("The Big 3" Microsoft communications apps) - all from a single service provider. (not to mention hosted VoIP) Obviously, this greatly reduces the complexity of integrating the various popular Microsoft applications in-house, performing maintenance (TCO), and the upfront capital expenditure for purchasing Microsoft licenses.

Alteva claims to be the first one to to offer all three in a single hosted solution when they stated, "Alteva has been selected as one of the only hosted voice service providers to offer the complete suite of Microsoft Communication Services, with integrated voice services.

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