Aug 22 2008
This week we discuss such great things as FEMA security, FTC rules, and loss of liberties at airports.
As always, VoIP Tech Chat can be accessed from:
Have thoughts? We’d love to hear from you.
Aug 21 2008
A recent voicemail upgrade to the FEMA telephone network came with a surprise bill – 12,000 dollars worth of calls to the Middle East and Asia. FEMA, or what the non-acronym inclined would call the Federal Emergency Management Agency, falls within the umbrella of Homeland Security.
Using a 15 year old technique (that they wouldn’t describe in detail), the hacker made 400 calls were made to countries such as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, India and Yemen. Even better, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA didn’t notice the charges or calls. Sprint did. Sprint noticed the long distance charges and stopped future calls.
We don’t know what surprises us more… the fact that Homeland Security was hacked using methods more than a decade old, the fact that the government didn’t notice $12,000.00 in unauthorized calls, or the fact that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t notice calls to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia made from within it’s own department.
Assuming we don’t get audited in the very near future, we look forward to our next Podcast. Oh wait. Patrick, is that an IRS van headed your way?
Here’s more from the traditional press:
Aug 16 2008
Ok. If you’re even considering VoIP, you’ve probably had to deal with the dreaded network cables. But, if you’re a tech buff, then you’ve had to deal with Cable after Cable after Cable. Well, we all know that the tangle gods have designed cables for the amusement as they watch us mere mortals attempt to wrap, coil, or wind or corded cable into manageable objects. And with all out effort, we end up with a cable knot that only Superman could untangle.
Fear not our friends. Education and blogging have come together. And with the assistance of You Tube, we present the Cable Wrapping master and his lessons of VoIP Telephone Adapter Cord love. Ok, well he’s using speaker wire… but still. Enjoy.
Aug 01 2008
Identifying the strength of Asterisk, the revenue of Switchvox, and the popularity of Astricon, iLocus predicts the next VoIP company to go public will be Digium. Of course, we believe that if you can put 5 hyperlinks in the first sentence, you should just stop and let the hyperlinks do the talking. We have been in a non-stock buying mode, but an IPO from Digium might just change our minds.
Jul 23 2008
Digium announced today the release of Asterisk version 1.4.21.2 (as well as version 1.2.30). These releases address security issues with the IAX2 channel driver. More details of course can be obtained from the asterisk.org website. As always, you can download the updates free from the asterisk.org website.
Why free? It’s just how Digium rolls. They really take that GPL open source to heart.
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.
For more information, please check out:
Jul 10 2008
In a press release earlier today, VoIP Supply announced that it has partnered with Bandwidth.com to deliver total business VoIP solutions. VoIP Supply is one of the leaders (if not the leader) for VoIP hardware solutions. And Bandwidth.com has been providing origination and termination (along with other internet services) to consumers with an excellent track record.
For more information, go to VoIP Supply’s Bandwidth.com page.
Jul 09 2008
Something just didn’t add up to us. So we looked to the Interweb for research, because as we all know, the Interweb is only filled with 100% accurately researched articles. Anyway, the good folks at Telephony Online, published a snazzy little article back in September 2007 about the way MagicJack earns revenue on their VoIP internet telephone adapter.
Apparently, while one hand created the the VoIP USB telephone adapter “jack,” the other hand created a CLEC. The acronym CLEC stands for Competitive Local Exchange Carrier and is the phone provider (or carrier) for local access numbers. These CLEC’s can charge for access to their numbers as well as lower costs paid to other parties for making or receiving calls. It’s quite the win/win.
MagicJack’s Don Burns explained that SunRocket was paying upwards of $7.00 per month for each phone number they had. By operating as a CLEC, MagicJack’s cost on the same service — zilch.
Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat!
Jul 01 2008
Just when we were going to post the next series of “What is,” Mr. Cory Andrews scoops us with his “Ask Mr. Andrews: What is NAT Transversal?” post. He even made a super cool logo. 
Well, we have only 2 comments:
Seriously, it’s a nice post. And if you liked it, please check out:
Jun 30 2008
Two weeks ago, we discussed how MagicJack recently became the fastest growing phone company in the US. Well, today twice.com reports that MagicJack is on track to reach 500,000 subscribers. Not too shabby considering the population of Tampa, Florida is about 300,000.
If MagicJack reaches 500,000, they will be the second largest VoIP provider; with only Vonage’s 2.5 million plus internet telephone subscribers ahead of them. The twice.com article talks about the MagicJack business plan and some of their future ideas. It’s not a bad read.
Jun 30 2008
Digium announced today the release of Asterisk version 1.4.21.1. The release is a “ bug fix” for the voip telephone system and is available, as always, free from the asterisk.org website. This includes a critical bug fix for 1.4.21. All users that experienced lockups when upgrading to 1.4.21 should have their issues resolved with this update.
To paraphrase Spinal Tap, this is 1 better than 1.4.21 — this is 1.4.21.1.
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.
For more information, please check out:
