They would like you to tweet with  #SamsungMobile500 with who you think will win and you can win a Samsung Galaxy Nexus!

You can read more about it here.

-RP

Well there are a few ways to look at this. One, you could end up posting something that you regret later and it can come back to bite you later on . Two, the social networking site you are using may use your private data in ways that you aren’t aware of basically putting your private details out there for people to see. Finally, three, quite a few social networking sites are direct targets of hackers and the information gathered is used in criminal situations such as identity theft in an effort to launch other crimes.

So what can you do? Well abstinence from social networking would obviously be the most effective method of security, but that isn’t always feasible. After all in today’s business world, more and more companies are turning to use it. If you decide not to opt in, you can be left standing out in the cold. So instead I would suggest joining in, but contributing the least amount of information possible, and highly restricting who has access to your information using in built controls in your site of choice. Also practice safe browsing practices by using highly secure browsers with the appropriate add-ons/plugins and surfing securely. Try to avoid using public computers for social networking because  you never know when your login info can be compromised.

Follow these steps and you will have a much safer experience!

-RP

I have always had some experience from my CCNP training, but studying for the CCNA Voice is giving me a great look into the voice world. The best part is that Cisco just came out with a new CCNA Voice study guide this month so it’s fairly up to date!

You can buy the book for cheap from Amazon.com. You can review the new exam topics for the new exam 640-641 here.

-RP

Microsoft Lync is a software product that integrates with Microsoft Exchange and provides unified communications! It can integrate with most existing PBX’s as well!

More and more I’m hearing from customers that want to look into Lync. I think the tie in to Exchange was very smart on Microsoft’s part. They can leverage their Exchange business into a full UC business.

I will be doing more blogs on Microsoft Lync in the future. You can read more about it here.

-RP

The app is called Bria and it is just great. What it allows me to do is login to my phone number in our Asterisk VoIP system on my iPhone and then I can make and receive calls using my business number instead of my cell number.

Because the iPhone multitasks, it will even ring when the app is closed. I found the app was great in terms of voice quality but it did drain a lot of battery power. We’ll have to see how it evolves. But for now I would have to say it’s completely usable and it even works on 3G not just on wireless.

You can read more about it here.

-RP

But what is the problem with this? It’s a pain in the butt to call all these different numbers just to get a hold of someone. What’s the solution? Reach me anywhere! Essentially this is where you configure your VoIP system to ring your office line, cell phone and any other phones you have at the same time, or in some pre-programmed order.

This way you only have to give out one phone number and your client can reach you anywhere! This is a common feature today in Unified Communications and something that more people should be implementing. Speak with your VoIP provider and see if they can do this for you!

-RP

One of the most common requests in the VoIP world is for access to some sort of voice recording solution. This is quite common in the legal and financial sectors. People need the ability to record what people say either for billing or contractual purposes.

So if you’re using a Cisco VoIP solution, what can you use for voice recording? Most solutions require a dedicated server on site and if you have branch offices, you might not want to deploy servers to those locations. Well Cisco partners with a product called NICE which allows you to recording at the branch office without the use of a server.

Cisco has done up a paper on VoIP recording for Financial Services Organizations that makes for a good read. You can read more about it here.

-RP

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

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

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