VoIP Tech Chat

Sick of obtaining low numbers of useless visitors for your website?

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This year marks the second decennial census since widespread use of the internet began in the 1990′s. The bulk of census activity takes place during the time when people are traditionally preparing taxes and vying for an infusion of cash  from their tax return.  The evil peoples of the interwebs will be out in force to take advantage of  the under-informed.

Keep these simple rules in mind:
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Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft announced a new security vulnerability affecting almost the entire Microsoft SQL Server product line. The warning verifies a vulnerability allowing remote code execution on systems running:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (WMSDE)
• and Windows Internal Database (WYukon)

Note: Systems with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 are not affected by this vulnerability.
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The Wall Street Journal reports this morning the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has filed Insider Trading charges against Mark Cuban. The charges reportedly stem from unloading shares of Mamma.com (after learning of a private offering funding).

The SEC believes that Cuban allegedly sold his 6% ownership just before a public announcement which saw shares of Mamma.com drop 10%. The sale of shares saved Cuban around $750k.

For more info, go directly to the source and read the Wall Street Journal’s post.

Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Chairman of HDNet. Appropriately, his post recent blog post is titled, “I hate to lose.“

News.com (CNET.com for those who kick it old school) posted a great article about privacy, encryption, and security with instant messaging (“How safe is instant messaging? A security and privacy survey“). Not only did CNET.com make a nice, pretty chart of their findings, they actually talked to the most popular IM choices and some of the answers are really intriguing.

Among the many questions asked by CNET.com were:

• Does your service keep server-based logs of the content of communications, meaning what a particular user sent and received?
• Have you ever received a subpoena, court order or other law enforcement request asking you to turn over information about a user’s IM account?
• If so, how many law enforcement requests have you received?
• Have you ever received a subpoena, court order or other law enforcement request asking you to perform a live interception or wiretap, meaning the contents of your users’ communications would be instantly forwarded to law enforcement?

The standard answer to these questions was the ol’ standard that communication with Law Enforcement is not discussed — aka, we fully comply. Skype though gets huge points from us for many reasons.

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The voip insider blog has a great article about Craigslist and VoIP.

Craigslist is using a calling system to help reduce their fraud. In a nutshell, basically they call you and give you a code. When you enter the code back into their website, they are happy and allow you to post on their website.

Well, the system they use to reduce fraud is automatically assuming numbers listed with VoIP carrier companies such as Level3 are fraud. Level3 happens to be one of the largest VoIP carriers in the world; handling traffic for almost every major VoIP company.

So, if you were happy with your new VoIP provider and ported your number, would Craigslist still assume you were a bad person?

With all of the people switching to VoIP service, we’re sure this oversight will be corrected shortly.