Month of April, 2008

Well, it certainly didn't take long for someone to leverage AOL's Open Voice APIs featuring full SIP support. TringMe is apparently the 'first' out of the gate announcing support  to millions of AIM call-out users to make calls directly from TringMe. AIM users can use TringPhone - TringMe's fully web-based SIP phone to make calls directly from the browser.

The IP PBX solutions have become popular among the business enterprises, as these help the enterprises to manage their telephone lines in a more efficient manner. Moreover, with the help of these solutions, the enterprises can share certain number of external lines with branch offices located across the world.

The virtual VoIP reseller programs provide services to customers as private label and White label VoIP. These programs are meant to provide high-end services to customers with options such as live customer support, online management of accounts and self help tools.

VoIP solutions are gaining in importance over the traditional PSTN services. As a matter of fact, the users of these solutions are able to enjoy long distance as well as international calls at comparatively low rates.

The VoIP reseller leases services from international service providers and then offers these services to their customers where they earn a certain margin. The reseller plans could be either private label or white label, and the clients can choose any, depending on their specific needs.

While researching for my VoIP call screening post earlier today, I came across a patent for "call screening". Curious, I decided to check it out the filed patent and found it was filed by Nortel Networks in July 2004. Interestingly, the patent application agrees with me that hosted voicemail needs call screening and goes as far as to say service providers with hosted voicemail systems are at a competitive disadvantage when they don't have call screening. The patent app reads as follows:

Robert Traphan, a college friend of mine stayed at my house last night and we were talking about the various VoIP products and services. Robert is a former SunRocket customer until the SunRocket implosion. Robert was a huge fan of SunRocket over both Packet8 and Vonage. One of his favorite features was SunRocket Signature Message Screener, a piece of software that runs on your PC and allows you to see who is calling (Caller ID with Name) via a TOAST icon in the System Tray.

Many companies today either have VoIP currently on the network or have it on the 5 year plan.

In fact, unbeknownst to some network administrators, employees are already using free software packages such as skype.com to make free voice & video calls over the internet.

Unlike data connections, voice calls suffer quickly from poor connections.

DHCP relay is not supported in the Cisco ASA.

Due to this reason, you need to allow DHCP requests and replies through the Cisco security appliance in transparent mode.

This can be achieved by configuring access lists in the firewall.

Serial numbers on Cisco products are usually placed in different locations on the box.

To check the serial number on Cisco platforms refer to the:

Cisco Product Identification Tool