VoIP and the Residential Phone Bill

Residential VoIP - No Operators

Some say the media sensationalizes our economic woes for their personal gain. Others say the media accurately portrays the extreme financial burdens we find ourselves facing. And some people say, “Hey. I don’t care about anything, I always have and always will try to save money.” With today’s world becoming increasingly digital, VoIP (digital telephone) seems like a naturally good idea.

Clearly, we at VoIP Tech Chat advocate VoIP. We love it. We love it so much, we made a website called VoIP Tech Chat. And we actually now and then have chats and write articles on VoIP (ok, that last part was a little sarcastically since both Patrick and Fred seem to have been too busy to actually talk or write lately… but anyway…).
You know you want to keep reading »

Changing Cisco Skinny SCCP to SIP

Cory Andrews posted a great “tech tip” on the VoIP Insider blog detailing how to convert a Cisco SCCP phone to SIP.

Whether you’re a Cisco fan that finally realizes Asterisk can provide better PBX services (at a lower cost) or just someone who happens to have a bunch of Cisco Skinny VoIP telephones laying around, converting the firmware to SIP can make the Cisco phone compatible with many VoIP systems.

But, don’t take my word for it… go to the VoIP Insider and read Cory’s tech tip. Give it a shot and tell us what you think.

7 Easy Steps to Better SIP Security

John Todd (with Digium) sent a great email on SIP Security. Although written towards the Asterisk audience, this email provides a very good guideline towards increasing your VoIP SIP Security. It’s a must read and reprinted here for your easy viewing.

In case any of you were wondering why there has been a fairly notable upswing in the attacks happening on SIP endpoints, the answer is “script kiddies.”  In the last few months, a number of new tools have made it easy for knuckle-draggers to attack and defraud SIP endpoints, Asterisk-based systems included.  There are easily-available tools that scan networks looking for SIP hosts, and then scan hosts looking for valid extensions, and then scan valid extensions looking for passwords.  You can take steps, NOW, to eliminate many of these problems.  I think the community is interested in coming up with an integrated Asterisk-based solution that is much wider in scope for dynamic protection (community-shared blacklists is the current thinking) but that doesn’t mean you should wait for some new tool to defend your systems.  You can IMMEDIATELY take fairly common-sense measures to protect your Asterisk server from the bulk of the scans and attacks that are on the increase. The methods and tools for protection already exists – just apply them, and you’ll be able to sleep more soundly at night.

Seven Easy Steps to Better SIP Security on Asterisk: You know you want to keep reading »

A2DDA Blocks Asterisk Parking Data

Note: There’s an intro, the DDA response, and Fred’s response in this article. Jump to the end to read Fred’s response.

A few months back, we posted a nice little article on using Asterisk to get Parking Space Availability from Ann Arbor garages. The response from the VoIP community was fantastic! We received great comments and feedback from people like Jason Goecke, Dug Song, Dave Michels, Evan Cooke, and more! People not only responded, they even showed different ways of providing access to this information. And everyone shared their work in an open forum — truly a great example of open source coding inspiring innovation (albeit with Parking Spaces).

Even better was the local response in Ann Arbor. Edward Vielmetti and Fred Posner were interviewed in the local papers, appeared on a radio show, and even rode the teeter totter. Everyone loved the idea of being able to check on parking space availability… everyone except for the DDA (insert scary music).

The DDA (Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority), funded by tax dollars,  “provides a diversity of transportation and parking options to meet downtown’s [Ann Arbor’s] ever-changing needs.” The DDA does not like us making information of parking spaces available to the public via phone. Instead, the DDA wants to control this information. Seriously, they want to control parking space availability information.

Tyler Erickson helped Edward Vielmetti and Fred make this project even more fascinating by tracking parking space availability over time. The plan was to provide predictability of availability. For example, “We’re sorry, the lot at 4th and Washington is currently filled, we predict the parking lot will be available in 7 minutes. Press 1 to be notified…”

Wouldn’t that be neat? We thought so… The DDA’s response was to block Tyler’s access. Of course, since it was using Google Apps, it blocked Google, but that’s another story. We inquired as to why this blockage occurred and… well enter Susan Pollay. Susan Pollay is Executive Director of the DDA. She told us (and remember, this is a tax funded organization): You know you want to keep reading »

Patrick Discusses The Economy

The structural faults, many of them legacies of the 1980s, represent once-in-a-lifetime dislocations that will take years to work out. Among them: the job drought, the debt hangover, the defense-industry contraction, the savings and loan collapse, the real estate depression, the health-care cost explosion and the runaway federal deficit. “This is a sick economy that won’t respond to traditional remedies,” said Norman Robertson, chief economist at Pittsburgh’s Mellon Bank. “There’s going to be a lot of trauma before it’s over.”

America’s structural burdens have hit home most profoundly in terms of jobs. The U.S. workplace is “in a profound, historic state of turmoil that for millions of individuals is approaching panic,” according to labor consultant Dan Lacey, publisher of the newsletter Workplace Trends.

The latest recession has hit white-collar workers particularly hard, both in terms of layoffs and slippage in their real wages. “These people can’t believe what is happening to them,” says Illinois opinion pollster Mike McKeon. “They decided they didn’t want to work in factories, so they learned how to use computers. They were rewarded with service-sector jobs[...], but now they’re out on the street and no one wants them.” Open season has been declared on corporate bureaucrats. “The middle manager has gone out of vogue in corporate America,” says Lacey. “Indeed, the word manager is the kiss of death on resumes.” You know you want to keep reading »

University of Florida Security Strikes Out

Our hero Benjamin Franklin

The University of Florida is in Gainesville — my private information is everywhere.

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA — For the third time in less than a year, the University of Florida reported a breach exposing personal information. This time, the breach includes the names and social security numbers for more than 90,000 people. In this latest attack, the University announced the hack was executed by an “intruder” and that the University of Florida Police Department was notified.

Ok, at this point, I need to go ahead and just vent. I’m sorry to have a soap box moment… but the Police Department was notified? Yay! Thank God, Buddha, that little idol Bobby found when the Brady’s visited Hawaii, or whatever higher power works for you. I can now sleep soundly knowing that the police department was notified after my information was already out there. Sweet!

If this was the first time this happened, I would be disappointed. I can tell you that without hesitation, because when this actually happened the first time (June 2008), I was disappointed. If this were the second time? You know you want to keep reading »

Phone Geeks Unite – The Asterisk S-Prize Awaits

Digium’s John Todd announced an amazing little contest — The Asterisk S-Prize. Asterisk, the open source VoIP telephony software from Digium, finds itself in small / medium businesses routinely. But more and more, large businesses and enterprises are switching to Asterisk to fulfill their telecommunication needs. With this in mind, Digium announces the S-Prize — geared at designing a single system capable of processing 10,000 call legs.

Here’s the information, directly from the source: You know you want to keep reading »

Super Bowl and Porn, It’s Comcast-ic!

Ever had a story to report that was shocking, offensive, and hilarious all at the same time? Imagine this scenario, if you will:

You’re surrounded by family and friends watching the Super Bowl in your living room on your brand new, HD big screen TV. It’s the Steelers vs. the Cardinals and just when you think the Cardinals have all but lost, an amazing run by Fitzgerald switches the lead to Arizona and you can’t believe it. You watch the screen waiting for the replay, when instead of seeing a ball caught by Fitzgerald, you see a whole other kind of ball, courtesy of Club Jenna.

And yes, in this case, that ball is full “in your face” frontal male nudity. Literally, in your face.

Viewers in Tuscon, AZ watching the game via Comcast on KVOA channel 4 lived that exact scenario. For approximately 30 seconds after the touchdown, viewers in Tuscon watched the game transition from touchdown, to porn, and then right back to touchdown celebration. KVOA has posted this statement from Comcast:

Tucson, Arizona

Updated 8:30a — Comcast Releases Statement Apologizing to Customers

KVOA-TV is investigating pornographic material viewed during the Super Bowl by some Tucson area Comcast viewers.  Just after the last touchdown by the Cardinals, approximately 30 seconds of pornographic material was shown.  It appears this material was only viewed by some Comcast customers.

Comcast has released a new statement today:

“We are mortified by last evening’s Super Bowl interuption, and deeply apologize to our customers for the inappropriate programming.  We are aggressively investigating the situation including the possibility of foul play,” said Kelle Maslyn, Comcast Corporate Affairs Manager.

When we contacted Cox last night, we received this statement:

“We have received no evidence that any inappropriate material was broadcast on any of our channels during the Super Bowl.  The alleged incident appears to be isolated to the Comcast territory.  We will offer our support to all appropriate organizations to help them determine what happened,” says Mike Dunne, Cox Director of Media Relations.

KVOA is dismayed and disappointed that some Comcast customers and their families were subjected to this material.  Nielsen says, “KVOA will continue to investigate what happened to our clean signal and make sure our viewers get answers.”

If you would like to see the video, you can find it here: (although be warned, full frontal nudity not safe for work or kids or people who don’t like videos showing full frontal nudity):

• Gizmodo
• Comcast Superbowl Porn

Diff’rent VoIP for Diff’rent Folks

What you VoIPing 'bout Willis?

Yes, you guessed it correctly. In today’s article, Diff’rent Strokes will be used as a metaphor for VoIP. Why? The correct question is “Why Not?” And the answer… well that’s simple — Diff’rent Strokes is the perfect metaphor. Take for example these classic lines from the show’s theme song:

Now, the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum,
What might be right for you, may not be right for some.

Classic. Pausing for Trivia… do you know which 80’s sitcom star wrote these lyrics? If you said Growing Pains actor and Canadian sensation Alan Thicke, you’d be right… but, as usual, we digress.

Those working within VoIP, and contrary to many medical reports there are people still working in the industry, have many flavors and styles of VoIP products to choose from. Although opinions vary, there really is no “right” or “wrong” product line. Selecting your VoIP implementation is an individual choice that is determined simply by what works best for you. You know you want to keep reading »

Nortel Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

In the about us page on Nortel’s website, they proudly state “Hundreds of millions of people, Fortune 500 companies, and government institutions around the world trust their networks to Nortel’s reliable and secure solutions.” Today, Nortel defined “reliable” by commencing comprehensive business and financial restructuring.

The full text from their press release follows: You know you want to keep reading »