VoIP

Is your data network ready for VoIP?

Hi folks! One of the greatest things about today’s network is that it seems to be able to handle anything. It doesn’t seem to matter what you want to do on your network, there is always a technology around the corner that can make it happen for you.

Well one of the most common things happening today is the conversion of data networks to voice and data networks. With the coming of VoIP, network engineers have been put under an increasing burden to support the world of the telephone when historically data and voice have been two separate entities.

There are a lot of people that erroneously think that VoIP is all about the phones and the PBX, but in reality if you don’t have a data network that can handle the traffic, none of that is really going to matter. Some of things network administrators find out in the end is that a switch isn’t always just a switch. What I mean by this is that administrators have been forced to cut and slash budgets and buy cheaper equipment only to find out that their switch is sub-par and cannot support a voice network. They are then faced with redoing their entire data network infrastructure which makes the cost of going to VoIP prohibitively expensive.

If administrators really look at what is offered to them when they buy network equipment such as switches, they can then plan for future VoIP deployments so when the time comes their data network will be ready. Things such as QOS and POE are two items that are not paid heed to when buying switches if VoIP isn’t in the equation, but then you find out you need it when the company starts going in the VoIP direction.

What I’m trying to say here is that in the future, almost all of us will be using VoIP, so you might as well start planning for getting your data networks ready now.

-RP

VoIP Solutions for the SMB

Hello again folks! Last blog post I was speaking about wireless in the SMB. Let’s take that a step further shall we? How do we bring voice to our SMB environment?

Well luckily for us, Cisco offers us some nice solutions for our SMB network. Cisco has something they called Unified Communications which covers off their VoIP division. One of the products they mention is the Cisco UC 500 series of routers. The UC 500 routers is literally VoIP in a box!

The UC 500 series of routers supports such cool features as automated attendant, music on hold, wireless access, integrated voicemail and up to 64 IP phone stations. Up to 48 hardware based phones and 16 soft phones total.

For more information on this great solution, you can check it out here.

-RP

Online services under DDoS Attack!

So unless you have been asleep all this time, you would have seen the latest in the news from the online community. It seems there has been a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service Attack) launched against Twitter, Facebook, and Google’s Blogger.

This attack has been hitting so hard that the online services are still dealing with it. Twitter even had to disable some features in it’s platform in order to survive against the attack. These attackers are taking advantage of chinks in their online armor and are really giving them grief.

Rumour has it that these attacks are a direct result of people trying to quiet a blogger from Georgia. By taking out these social networks they’re hoping he won’t be able to spread his message. In my opinion, this is not the way to be doing this. Resorting to illegal attacks on these social networks to affect one person is absolutely ridiculous! Time to batten down the hatches and ratchet up the security! I hope the authorities find the people behind this soon!

You can read more about it here.

-RP

More Cisco gear for the SMB world!

Hello again folks! Cisco is once again bringing great product to the market place. This time hitting the SMB market with a new series of switches called the Cisco ESW 500 series.

These switches are all manageable from GUI utilities without the need for CLI. They are also priced at a great price point for your SMB customers. A lot of times when I go into SMB clients the perception is that Cisco is expensive and they instead vote to go with a different company for their switching gear. Cisco has seen the light and is now offering cheaper product in this marketspace.

The ESW 500 series is available with gigabit capability and even POE! This makes it great for the SMB company that wants to implement VOIP and reap those benefits. Cisco needs to keep releasing SMB product like this, it really will make all the others stand up and take notice! You can read more about it here.

-RP

Twitter for your BlackBerry!

So with Twitter getting more and more popular I finally caved in and decided to try it out. My honest opinion? It’s like Facebook without all the extra stuff. Basically like doing Facebook updates. Having said that, I have tons of friends on Twitter so I finally decided to use it. Also their are many web sites out there that publish RSS feeds through Twitter as well and it’s a neat way to keep up to date.

So where am I going with this? BlackBerries of course! There is an application for Blackberries called TwitterBerry and it’s quite easy to use! Just download the application from here directly from your BlackBerry and install it and then when you launch it enter your username and password.

From there you can update your Twitter status on the fly right from your BlackBerry without having to browse to the Twitter web page. You can also get your friends list updates and see what all your buddies are doing. A very small but convenient app for the BlackBerry!

Now if only someone would make an application that crosses over your Facebook and Twitter so if you update one it auto updates the other and syncs the status. That would be great!

-Cheers, RP

BlackBerry announces support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

So BlackBerry just announced support for Microsoft OCS 2007. What does this mean to us? This means greater support and integration between BlackBerry and Microsoft products.

One of the greatest things missing in my opinion from the BlackBerry suite of software is interoperability with other applications and vendors. This move to support Microsoft OCS 2007 is a great step in that direction. Some of the features they’ve announced such as being able to tell the presence of a user is just fantastic. We’ll see how this plays out. I for one am quite excited about it and can’t wait to test it out in the lab.

Now if only BlackBerry would announce full Asterisk and Jabber IM support I would be in 7th heaven!

You can read more about the announcement here.

-RP

Unified Messaging

Unified messaging means a lot of things to a lot of different people. To me it means the ability to communicate with people using one centralized system but with any device or means with relative ease. In this day and age, with the plethora of digital communication devices available out there today, this has become a reality.

 One of my personal favourite VOIP solutions is Asterisk. Asterisk is an open source PBX which is in my opinion the most flexible non-proprietary piece of VOIP software out there. If you haven’t heard of it, or would like ot check it out, you can get more info here. With Asterisk you can take a call anywhere at anytime and you can even get your voice mail to show up in your e-mail inbox.

One of the things that is required in Unified Messaging is instant messaging(IM). If you are running an Asterisk VOIP system, one of the good IM solutions out there is Openfire and Spark. Openfire is the server side component and Spark is the IM client that runs on your user’s desktops. This server can be easily setup and integrated with Active Directory for Single Sign On (SSO) support. Then you can install the Asterisk component that allows it to integrate with your Asterisk VOIP system! Openfire server supports the open protocol called Jabber.

 All in all this is a great solution for SMB offices that don’t want to spend too much money on a VOIP system but still require all the features of one.

 -RP