Source: smithonvoip.com

Hey Kid Test This Adaptor Whud Ya?

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) has been approved as the first external testing facility to pre-screen Internet telephony devices for compatibility with the services of Vonage. Vendor’s looking to get their product certified for use with the Vonage network will have to make it through analysis at the UNH-IOL prior to getting into Vonage’s in-house lab.

It will be interesting to see if this move increases the number of devices available for use with Vonage or if it is simply a move to lower the amount of inquires and products they receive directly.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

VoIP IP Telephony, snapvoip.blogspot.com.
Via PRNEWS WIRE/yahoo

VocalScape Networks announced today that they have released a load balancer for VoIP IP Telephony usage.
The Vocalscape Load Balancer began as an open source project which was adopted and improved upon by Vocalscape. It was made compliant with Asterisk, a popular open source PBX, and the algorithm was revised to more evenly distribute calls. Previously, the Load Balancer would send calls to a primary server and only when the primary server was overburdened would calls be sent to additional servers. The new algorithm balances the load by evenly distributing the calls between the servers. As an additional benefit, the Load Balancer provides failover capabilities. If a server is not responding, the Load Balancer will route all calls to servers that are functional.

"Vocalscape has developed the Load Balancer to meet our customers’ needs," commented Ron McIntyre, President of Vocalscape. "As our customers grow their user base, they will need to add additional servers to handle the higher volume of calls. The Vocalscape Load Balancer will allow them to evenly share the load among multiple servers."

The earliest known (to me) SIP load balancer was at Vovida.org. May be this is the one they improved. Vovida Org was one of the pioneering VoIP opensource sites that became less functional. Follow the links to get an idea of how it was like, to develop and write VoiP applications in those days (Ha! it was only 5-6 years ago).

Links;
Vocalscape
SIP Load Balancer at Vovida.org
Yahoo news

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

From ZyXel News
VoIP IP Telephony Snapvoip.bogspot.com
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.February 6, 2007
Efficiency and cost savings are two of the main drivers for the transition to VoIP. As service providers are evaluating the timing and benefits of such a move, ZyXEL Communications today at the NTCA Expo 2007, announced the VOP1248G, a POTS/VoIP line card. Designed to ease the transition to VoIP networks, the new card features a media gateway that converts analog voice to VoIP, thus eliminating the need to install special VoIP phones or an analog telephone adapter (ATA) on customer premises. Now, service providers can offer their customers next generation voice services while saving on costs.

ZyXEL’s new POTS/VoIP line card works in conjunction with ZyXEL’s IES 5000 and IES 5005 chassis-based Multiple Service Access Platforms (MSAP) and is targeted to telcos looking for an easier way to offer the benefits of a VoIP architecture to its customers. The VOP1248G is a 48-port module card that enables wireline carriers to provide lifeline telephone service to their residential and business subscribers. ZyXEL’s IES 5000 and IES 5005 MSAPs provide support for ADSL 2+, G.SHDSL.BIS and even VDSL 2 line cards, and are ideal for telcos who would like to offer multiple services over the same box.

“ZyXEL is the fourth largest IP DSLAM vendor in the world,” said Munira Brooks, senior vice president of sales, marketing and business development. "This VoIP line card solution allows service providers to offer feature rich telephone services to their customers and do it economically by smoothly transitioning to an IP based network.”

The new POTS/VoIP line card supports all network signaling protocols, digital signal processing and an IP packetization mechanism based on open standards that include SIP and H.248/Megaco for broad range interoperability with leading softswitch manufacturers. Additionally, the up-to-date QoS function guarantees the service quality of voice packets. The VOP1248G works in conjunction with ZyXEL’s IP MSAP’s, the IES-5000 and 5005, and co-exists with any broadband DSL line card in the main chassis. The IES-5000 and 5005 support strong IP QoS functions based on IEEE802.1q to guarantee and prioritize different types of traffic including voice, data or IPTV.

Voice Services Supported by the VOP1248G include:

* Emergency / 911
* Do Not Disturb
* Selective/Anonymous call rejection
* Call waiting
* Call hold
* Music on hold
* Call transfer (blind and attended transfer)
* Call return and call back on busy
* Off hook warning tone
* Three way conference

Availability

The VOP1248G POTS/VoIP line card is now available to service providers for field tests and includes a 45-day free trial. For more information on the VOP1248G or the 45-day free trial, please call 1-800-255-4101.

Links;
ZyXel News release

Source: blog.voipsupply.com

Will the Microsoft Xbox 360 Support IPTV?

After the Microsoft Keynote at CES 2007 it was erroneously reported that the Xbox 360 would support any IPTV content. This happened when the Microsoft presenters announced that the newer IPTV features they were demonstrating were done on an Xbox 360. This lead to those in attendance and later those posting on message boards to believe that the Xbox 360 would support IPTV for any internet connected Xbox 360.

In the days after this announcement it became clear that this is not the case. In Microsoft’s day after press release it was clearly stated that “IPTV on Xbox 360™ is expected to be available to consumers by holiday season 2007 and will be offered by providers that are deploying TV services over broadband networks based on the IPTV Edition software platform.” For Xbox owners in the United States this means that unless you live in an area where AT&T is rolling out IPTV, then you are out of luck. At the end of 2006 AT&T had a total of 3000 subscribers signed up for its U-verse IPTV offering.

On top of that AT&T has seen a serious slow down in its rollout of IPTV due to glitches with the IPTV Edition software.

How come Microsoft does not roll out an IPTV service? They have been very successful with the Xbox live service and would surely lead to more Xbox sales than the limited offering we will see through AT&T. Of course all the MSO’s would have a conniption fit that such a bandwidth intensive application was being carried on their pipelines. If I were the head of a MSO my first thought would be NET NEUTRALITY BE DAMNED! Will IPTV ever see the type of competition that we are currently seeing in the VoIP market? As a consumer that currently pays way too much for his cable television I truly hope so.

Source: blog.voipsupply.com

Polycom Has Released There Latest SIP Firmware, Version 2.1.0

The SIP 2.1.0 feature release is now available. The key new features in this release are:

• Enhanced support for server fallback configurations
• Addition of MicroBrowser to SoundPoint IP430, IP501 and SoundStation IP 4000 products
• MicroBrowser enhancements (Support for table tags and improved user interface options)
• Added ability to strip or insert leading digits for outgoing calls
• Updated default daylight savings time rules (configuration file defaults change) for 2007 North American DST changes
• Added support for SYSLOG reporting of system status and errors
• Added ability to disable message waiting indication on a line-by-line basis

Note: The Release Notes should be carefully reviewed before deploying this release.

For more information about the Polycom SIP2.1.0 Firmware release, please contact your sales rep, call us at 800.398.8647 or email VoIP Supply customer service at customerservice (AT) voipsupply (dot) com.

Source: asteriskblog.com

Fonality, creator of the popular trixbox Asterisk-based telephony system, has announced that it will run Fonality trixbox Open Communications Certification workshops for professionals involved in the use and integration of trixbox.

According to the press release, the workshops will cover topics ranging from VoIP in general, PBX deployment, network assessment, troubleshooting, T1/PR1 training, and VoIP handsets. The goal of the certification program (caled “FtOCC” for short) is to ensure that system integrators and telephony professionals are knowledgeable in deploying and managing PBX systems for organizations with 1 to 1,000 employees.

“FtOCC is the next logical step for the trixbox community,” said Andrew Gillis, founder of trixbox and director of community development at Fonality. “We are building on the explosive adoption of the trixbox application and providing formal training and certification so businesses can be built upon its customization and deployment.”

The certification course will be hosted by trixbox project founder Andrew Gillis, and senior product manager Kerry Garrison. Garrison is also the author of the book trixbox Made Easy. The trixbox engineering team is also expected to serve as added resource persons to the training program. Several Fonality partners in the VoIP industry are also expected to provide added resources to aid in the certification course, which may include VoIP equipment and the like.

Those interested are encouraged to visit the FtOCC website at www.learntrixbox.com.

Source: saunderslog.com

Release your inner geek… VoIP-News has published a list of 25 Skype Hacks.  There were a few in here that I didn’t know about.  Cool!

Source: saunderslog.com

se.·ism – noun
1. attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles. 
2. discrimination or devaluation based on a person’s sex, as in restricted job opportunities; esp., such discrimination directed against women. . 

I thought the DemoCamp presentation I did last night went pretty well, but was a little surprised to see this posting The Boys of DemoCamp Strike Again.  Sandy Kemsle. found my scenario where demo-guy John asks demo-gal Jill for a date to be sexist.  Personally, I didn’t see it as discriminatory, nor do I consider dating necessarily a bad traditional behaviour to perpetuate.  After all, where would we be if didn’t occasionally find a mate and breed… extinct!

Nevertheless, as I commented to Sandy in her blog, I’ve worked with hundreds of talented female engineers in my day, and I respect the. and wish there were more women in the technology industry. Women often bring different and valuable perspectives to problem solving.  I apologize to Sandy and any othe. woman in the audience who was offended last night.  No sexism was intended, and I am sensitive to having caused offense.  I will change the demo scenario before I do it again. 

Source: saunderslog.com

DemoCamp is coooool.  It’s slam poetry for geeks.  10 minutes to show your product, no props, no powerpoint… just you and the product.  At the end, questions and critique from your peers. Yee ha.  I think I like it even better than the original BarCamp format.

At DemoCamp 12 in Toronto last night, there were short presentations from:

1. Dave Humphrey, who talked about open source and education.  Really, what Dave did was to show off a whole bunch of his students great work extending Mozilla.�.  He’s proud of their work, and deservedly so.
2. Albert Lai, who gave a short Bubbleshare demo, and then answered questions about the acquisition of Bubbleshare by Kaboose.
3. Me, and I gave a speedy demo of Talk-Now.  Hearty applause, and questions about business model.  “How are you going to make money”, people asked, when I told them it was free.  Our model is going to be to attach other premium services, but Talk-Now will be free to use, and people will get tons of value from it.
4. Will Pate, who demoed (or attempted, anyway) to demo Flock, the browser being built on Mozilla with extra blogging and search tools built-in.  Lesson #1: Browsers are hard to demo when you have a flaky internet connection

And then there were numerous updates from previous demoers, as well as a lot of people simple standing up to say “Hey, we’re hiring”.  Oh, and did I mention beer.  Yeah… geeks, beer, and demoes.  It’s a rippin’ combination.

Kudos to David Crow, Jay Goldman, and Joey Devilla.  DemoCamp 12 drew a capacity crowd, and no doubt these three instigators played a key role.

Source: saunderslog.com

ChaCha is a new web search service which pairs human guides with searchers to more precisely target search results.  With 29,000 guides, it uses human experts to augment the search engines capabilities.  The idea shows enough promise that Amazon’s Jeff Bezos put in six million of his own dollars.

A review of the service from the MIT Tech Review gives mixed results, however. 

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

VoIP IP Telephony, (Snapvoip.blogspot.com)

TECORE Wireless Systems announced the launch of its pre-IMS VoIP/SIP enabled GSM base station to be showcased at this year’s 3GSM World Congress. The BTS-4000RM delivers up to 64 high powered GSM/GPRS/EDGE voice and data channels occupying as little as 5U of a standard 19" telecommunications rack.
The BTS-4000RM base station eliminates the need for traditional BSC, TRAU and PCU elements, embedding these functions within the base station platform. The BTS-4000RM may be integrated directly with TECORE’s SoftMSC® as well as other mobile core network solutions over IP, TDM, or IP over TDM. Moreover, the BTS-4000RM is enabled to support TECORE’s exclusive c® Backhaul Free(TM) base stations, allowing operators to deploy ‘plug and play’ coverage extensions without the need for wired backhaul links. Due to its small size and flexible interface options, the BTS-4000RM is also ideally suited for remote towns and villages that may require satellite backhaul as well as other applications where macro RF coverage and performance is needed.

With the launch of the BTS-4000RM, TECORE also introduces network interface enhancements to its GSM base station product line. This includes the internal translation from a traditional GSM RAN to an all IP SIP-enabled network interface. Thus, the BTS-4000RM supports direct connection to a pre-IMS network. Added capabilities include transcoder-free operation to minimize network bandwidth, and direct routing of local IP call traffic to optimize overall backhaul utilization. Specifically targeting applications requiring compact radio access solutions, the BTS-4000RM offers flexible network integration and deployment capabilities while providing macro RF coverage, capacity and performance.

“The operators to whom we’ve delivered and demonstrated the BTS-4000RM are very excited about the flexibility this solution offers,” said Terry Williams, Chief Technology Officer for base station products. “Large capacity, flexible interfaces, and more functionality in a smaller, easy to deploy platform are key to many specialized mission critical applications, and this platform delivers.”

“We are very pleased with customer response to this new product development and technology innovation,” said Doss McComas, Vice President, Business Development at TECORE. “This product builds upon our company’s ongoing commitment to advanced, smaller, more powerful base station solutions for the market.”

The BTS-4000RM will be on display at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona, Spain, February 12-15, 2007, at the TECORE Wireless Systems pavilion located in Hall 8, stand 8C78.

Links;
News source TECORE Wireless

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

VoIP IP Telephony
FaceTime Communications has announced software that will make Skype easier to manage. The company will release GEM (Greynet Enterprise Manager) 3.5 next month.
FaceTime Enterprise Edition creates a framework for authorized access to IM and other greynet applications outside the perimeter, coupled with a mechanism for detecting and preventing rogue or unauthorized access. The result is comprehensive protection without compromise on cost, performance or operational considerations. With the recent addition of Greynet Enterprise Manager (GEM), enterprises can now manage security policies and aggregate reporting for IM, P2P, web conferencing and VoIP chat threads across distributed enterprise environments. GEM extends enterprise anti-spyware to include targeted remediation and repair of infected endpoints, without the need to deploy client software.
Here are some of the functions of GEM;
Comprehensive Coverage

* Widest support of IM applications – public and enterprise IM networks, and professional community networks
* Extensive controls over the productive use of P2P and VoIP applications such as Skype, as well as WebEx web conferencing
* Proactive protection against a wide range of spyware and other inbound malware threats

Research-driven

* FaceTime Security Labs is the world’s largest greynets research operation
* Global team of researchers plus a two-million-strong user community and a worldwide honeypot network
* Sponsored by industry leaders, including Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, Microsoft, Yahoo, VeriSign, and Webroot

Identity-based Management & Compliance

* User/group level policy based access control and management
* File transfer archival support for EIM networks
* TrueCompliance™ supports the strictest interpretation of compliance regulations and e-Discovery requirements
* Tamper-proof archival and integration with enterprise messaging archival compliance solutions
* Seamless integration with all major corporate directories, email and WORM storage systems

Links;
Read more about GEM here