Patrick and Fred Chat… sometimes about VoIP
Leif Madsen explains things in a manner that makes concepts easy to understand — which is probably one of the reasons we like Leif. If you’ve read Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, then you most likely already appreciate his talent; he is of course one of the authors.
Anyway, Leif posted a great article on his “Asterisk, and other worldly endeavours” blog today regarding ENUMplus and ISNs. Check the article on his blog: Musings about ENUMplus and ISNs.
The Asterisk team of Digium announced new versions of Asterisk in reference to a potential security issue. The release highlights best practices and hopes to raise awareness of some potential security issues and injection statments. The announcement follows:
The Asterisk Development Team has announced security releases for the following
versions of Asterisk: Read the rest of this entry »
Looking to integrate faxing into your Asterisk PBX?
Team Forrest describes how to install, configure, and then email your fax as a pdf. Check out the post at Team Forrest.
Dave Michels posted a great summary about AstriCon 2009 on Pin Drop Soup:
http://www.pindropsoup.com/2009/10/astricon-update.html
Now that we’ve returned from the Phoenix sun, we’ll probably write our own summary in the future.
Ty would be proud...
Are you ready? Tomorrow, Asterisk fans, fanatics, developers, users, and more will gather in Glendale, Arizona for AstriCon 2009. AstriCon, the official conference for Asterisk, runs from October 13 – 15.
This year, yours truly will speak (and very honored to do so) in a talk titled “Asterisk Applications – Unexpected Hurdles.” (summary below)
Just in time for AstriCon, Digium pulled a Ty Pennington on the ol’ Asterisk website. It looks amazing. Just a great way to start the conference!
I’m extremely excited to be heading West and cannot wait to share the information learned. Get ready for a great show!
Asterisk is free, open source software provided under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Asterisk is the most popular open source software available, with the Asterisk Community being the top influencer in VoIP.
Why free? It’s just how Digium rolls. They really take that GPL open source to heart.
For more information, please check out:
Summary of Fred’s talk:
With Asterisk AGI programming, almost anything is possible. From phone based payment systems to providing real-time information, Asterisk makes it possible to bring information to anyone with a phone. Sometimes, even the simplest applications can have unexpected consequences. Building a real-time Parking Garage availability application in Ann Arbor, Michigan was met with great appreciation by residents but blocked by government who didn’t understand how Asterisk gathered data — interpreting it instead as a Security risk. The talk would explain that when building even the simplest public application, the designers should be familiar with public access laws and be able to articulate how their application gathers data. Freedom of Information will also be discussed.
You may not know her name, but you know her voice. For those of us working with Asterisk, we (for some reason) consider ourselves on a first name basis with her. Others know her as the Voice Over Lady, the Voice Gal, or The IVR Voice. In reality, her name is Allison Smith and, through the IVR menus she’s recorded, has one of the most recognizable telephone voices around.
Through her blog, Allison recently wrote about the top ten mistakes consistently made in IVRs. It’s a quick read. It’s a good read. And, she’s got enough street cred that when she says it’s an IVR mistake, you should just say, “Thank you ma’am, may I have another.”
And when you’re done reading the Top Ten IVR Mistakes, check out The IVR Voice as well.
Hi, VoIP Tech Chat here introducing a BRAND NEW download from Digium, the company bringing you Asterisk. Are your Skype calls limiting you to sitting in front of your computer? Do you ever forget to plug in your microphone and lose audio? Well, Digium has the perfect product for you!
Skype for Asterisk Beta is a download that lets you integrate your Asterisk system with the Skype network.
With Skype for Asterisk, you can: Read the rest of this entry »
Note: You can play or download the MP3 audio of the “Telemarketer Torture” calls towards the end of the article.
When I first started working with VoIP, I began to hate telephony, and any and all things telephone related. This bothered me on many levels. You see, as a kid, I loved telephones. Growing up in the “big city,” pay phones seemed to be on every corner. Family stories talk about walking several blocks extra, just to avoid me seeing and wanting to play with a phone. But, as usual, I digress…
When I worked with an unnamed switch (let’s just say it rhymed with Broadmoft), I hated working with VoIP. I knew there had to be a better way and started playing with Asterisk. Soon, my memories of playing with phones started coming back and my love rekindled. Now, I look forward to working with phone systems, only because I truly feel that the use of a phone can only be limited by your imagination. And with companies like Twilio, Adhearsion, and Digium, the community of telephone developers seems only to grow.
With that long winded introduction, let’s discuss today’s topic — telemarketer torture. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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: Read the rest of this entry »
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