VoIP 101 for Business: What buyers & sellers need to know

A video presentation about what you need to know about voip. Uploaded by danbaldwin.

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VoIP Vulnerable to Telecom Security Threats

While Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is gaining popularity due to its impressive cost savings, there are certain risks associated with this new telephone technology. Businesses that are considering switching to VoIP services, or already using VoIP, should be aware of these risks and prepare to deal with them through the use of call accounting software.

Because VoIP uses packet switching, the same technology that drives the Internet, it faces the same threats, such as denial of service (DoS), hackers and spam. When an Internet server has been compromised with a virus, for example, it can be burdened with such an overwhelming amount of bogus traffic that it becomes unable to process valid requests. This constitutes a denial of service. While DoS attacks are not common occurrences on VoIP systems, their threat is considerable as one such attack could disable an entire communications network. The defense against this threat includes taking protective measures, such as installing a firewall and antivirus software. Call accounting software capable of tracking and recording all call detail records (CDRs) and capable of alerting personnel to any suspicious calls will be of great assistance in finding and eliminating improper and fraudulent use of telecom resources.

Spam has been a major problem for email users. According to one source, the majority of email messages are now spam-related worldwide. Now imagine receiving spurious calls over your voice network. A sizable number of such calls could render a VoIP telephone system unusable. In fact, VoIP systems are much more sensitive to parasitic operations than email, because of the real-time nature of telephone conversations. With email, a delay of a few minutes is usually not a big deal, but on a telephone system a delay of a few seconds will make it almost impossible to hold a meaningful dialog. So, interference with a VoIP system tends to show up much sooner.

Fraud is another problem, with hackers patching into a telephone system and using the company’s telecom resources to make long distance calls, which may end up costing the enterprise thousands of dollars a month. While this possibility also exists with more traditional PBX systems, VoIP systems are more prone to this type of crime, because the techniques of Internet hacking are much more widely known.

Even so, with proper precautions, VoIP systems can work well and provide an excellent return on investment. Having a state-of-the art call accounting and telecom expense management system will bring further cost savings and provide the security measures needed for trouble-free operation.

For more information on Call Accounting and Telecom Expense Management (TEM), visit Telsoft Solutions.

source: theopenpress.com

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Video: Voip Security Threats

A video explaining voIP security threats. Voice over IP (VoIP) promises many benefits, but moving the phone service to an IP network can expose that service to a number of serious threats. This 10 minute podcast looks at just some of these threats

Download video from youtube via vixy.net

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Just Voip

There are free call offer through JUST VOIP. It provides free calls to more than 50 countries worldwide.

The free destination includes countries like Bahrain, Bolivia, Colombia, Romania which are otherwise not free by any other provider.

To get JUST VOIP Click here

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Skype in the fourth year

Here is a quote from Skype’s co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennström:

Today, Skype turned four. I can hardly believe it’s been that long. It only seems like yesterday when Janus and I were talking about people being able to use the computer like a phone. But without a phone. And without a phone bill.

In less than six months, we went from 200 users to two million. Today, we have over 220 million registered users. Real people having real conversations on Skype. And not just voice calls, either. It’s amazing how far we’ve come thanks to those who fell in love with the idea of boundless conversations. Your trust, goodwill and enthusiasm has fueled everything we do.

So now that the recent two-day “outage” is becoming an increasingly distant memory, let me use today’s happy occasion to bow before you — the millions who use Skype to keep in touch with your family, friends and colleagues. I’d like to give you a huge two thumbs up for the great times we’ve had together. And for the amazing times still ahead. Happy birthday, Skypers!

Niklas

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Packet Island releases PacketSmart™ VoIP Lifecycle Management solution for MGCP Deployments

Packet Island Inc., announces the availability of its PacketSmart™ VoIP Lifecycle Management solution for VoIP deployments using Media Gateway Protocol (MGCP).

MGCP is a client-server protocol used by telephony providers to deliver carrier-grade VoIP service to business customers. Many providers prefer to use MGCP over peer-to-peer protocols like SIP because of its rich feature set, and increased control over subscriber equipment. In some cases MGCP and SIP can be combined to provide a richer set of multi-media services to customers, than can be provided by the individual protocols. With support for MGCP, SKINNY/SCCP, and SIP, Packet Island now offers a broad solution that is essential to any VoIP service provider desiring to deliver carrier-grade service quality to the business VoIP market.

With the Packet Island VoIP monitoring solution, service providers can deploy a VoIP SLA monitoring and troubleshooting service at every business customer site for a monthly service fee. The service operates via a small 4” x 4.5” micro-appliance that is plugged into the customer’s VoIP network. This micro-appliance continuously monitors the quality of every VoIP call, and does active route and traffic analysis to determine if there are external problems that may be impacting service quality. Since the device does continuous monitoring, data is now available for troubleshooting transient issues. Real-time data collection is backed by comprehensive SLA reports to enable the service provider in assisting the customer in LAN/WAN capacity planning. Most importantly, the service provider can now provide carrier-grade support to their business customers using a few qualified VoIP experts in the central office, instead of needing an army of experts trucking around the nation.

Praveen Kumar, Co-Founder and President of Packet Island said, “Though we already had a solution for assessing the VoIP readiness of a customer’s network, irrespective of protocol type, many MGCP service providers wanted to also use our solution to deliver VoIP monitoring services to their customers. Since MGCP is the dominant IP Centrex protocol in the business-VoIP market today, it was only natural for us to add this capability into our solution. Service providers we work with, plan to deliver such a service to business customers for a small per-line fee, similar to the wiring insurance service charged by legacy telephony providers. We see our service as indispensable to the growth of the IP Centrex market, because VoIP problems can be quite complex and expensive to diagnose. It just doesn’t make economic sense to send a VoIP expert to a customer site whenever quality problems happen.“

How PacketSmart Works
PacketSmart VoIP lifecycle management solution is based on purpose-built micro-appliances that work with a highly scalable PacketSmart platform hosted at a Tier-1 data center. Prior to the deployment of VoIP Services, a Packet Island micro-appliance is installed within a customer network to evaluate its VoIP readiness. This device generates specified (varying) loads of VoIP traffic over multiple days and concurrently captures the resulting VoIP metrics. At the conclusion of the test a comprehensive Report is generated to qualify the network as “VoIP ready”. Post deployment of VoIP service, the same micro-appliance monitors all quality aspects of VoIP calls. The ability to examine VoIP degradation metrics in “near real time” or for specific calls in the past, enables the service providers to quickly address both the current and transient network issues making the Packet Island a powerful solution for diagnostics and trouble shooting. Comprehensive SLA reports can be used to deliver a SLA monitoring service to business customers. Packet Island’s GUI is web enabled so that monitoring and trouble shooting can be done remotely from Service Providers central site.

About Packet Island
Founded in 2004, Packet Island Inc. is a venture-backed company located in Santa Clara, California. Since its founding, Packet Island has pioneered the development of award-winning SaaS-based solutions for managing multi-site converged media networks. More information can be found at http://www.packetisland.com

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Global IP Solutions Video Solution to be Used in Oracle Communicator

Global IP Solutions (GIPS), the leading provider of embedded media processing solutions, announced today that Oracle plans to incorporate the GIPS VoiceEngine Multimedia LSVX video codec into Oracle® Communicator, a SIP/SIMPLE-based PC softphone client that allows communications service providers to set up sessions including voice and video calling, presence status and instant messaging.

Communications industry customers will use the integrated solution in conjunction with the Oracle Communication and Mobility Server, which allows developers to easily build, deploy and manage converged applications that combine SIP and Web capabilities on a single platform. Oracle Communicator and Oracle Communication and Mobility Server are both key components of the Oracle Service Delivery Platform and Oracle Fusion Middleware.

GIPS video technology is renowned throughout the voice over IP (VoIP) industry for its robust, high-quality performance under deteriorating network conditions. GIPS VoiceEngine Multimedia LSVX offers unsurpassed video quality for real-time two-way, high-quality video. The technology will complement Oracle’s use of GIPS’ voice technology.

"Communications service providers are looking for compelling, high quality multimedia applications for end-users and enterprises," said Vittorio Viarengo, vice president development, Service Delivery Platform, Oracle. "The inclusion of GIPS VoiceEngine Multimedia LSVX video in Oracle Communicator further broadens the array of revenue generating services available on the Oracle Service Delivery Platform."

“We are proud that GIPS' technology will be incorporated into the world’s largest enterprise software company’s VoIP solution,” said Gary Hermansen, president and chief executive officer, Global IP Solutions. “Oracle sets the bar in technology standards and we are happy that GIPS is again recognized for its industry-leading technology.”

Frost & Sullivan’s senior IP communications analyst Lynda Starr said: “The demand for IP-based enterprise communication systems is set to increase dramatically as customers are looking to derive maximum benefits from collaborative communication. With GIPS VoiceEngine Multimedia LSVX, Oracle Communicator will provide an exceptional VoIP solution with superior quality of service.”

GIPS VoiceEngine Multimedia LSVX provides the complete framework for both video and voice soft phones with advanced techniques to handle jitter, packet loss, CPU and bandwidth constraints on multiple platforms.

About Global IP SolutionsGlobal IP Solutions (GIPS) provides best-in-class voice and video in end-to-end IP communications with robustness against packet loss for service providers, enterprises, applications developers, network equipment, gateway and chip manufacturers. GIPS’ customer list include Nortel, Samsung, Skype, WebEx, Yahoo!, AOL, EarthLink and other key players in the VoIP market. GIPS is a member of the Intel® PCA Developer Network, Motorola Design Alliance, Symbian Platinum Partner Program and Texas Instruments’ third party developer network. GIPS is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Stockholm, Boston and Hong Kong. More information at www.gipscorp.com

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VoIP: Hacking Exposed

Block debilitating VoIP attacks by learning how to look at your network and devices through the eyes of the malicious intruder. Hacking Exposed VoIP shows you, step-by-step, how online criminals perform reconnaissance, gain access, steal data, and penetrate vulnerable systems. All hardware-specific and network-centered security issues are covered alongside detailed countermeasures, in-depth examples, and hands-on implementation techniques. Inside, you'll learn how to defend against the latest DoS, man-in-the-middle, call flooding, eavesdropping, VoIP fuzzing, signaling and audio manipulation, Voice SPAM/SPIT, and voice phishing attacks.
Find out how hackers footprint, scan, enumerate, and pilfer VoIP networks and hardware
Fortify Cisco, Avaya, and Asterisk systems

• Prevent DNS poisoning, DHCP exhaustion, and ARP table manipulation,
• Thwart number harvesting, call pattern tracking, and conversation eavesdropping,
• Measure and maintain VoIP network quality of service and VoIP conversation quality
• Stop DoS and packet flood-based attacks from disrupting SIP proxies and phones
• Counter REGISTER hijacking, INVITE flooding, and BYE call teardown attacks
• Avoid insertion/mixing of malicious audio
• Learn about voice SPAM/SPIT and how to prevent it
• Defend against voice phishing and identity theft scams

More info about this at the following link: Hacking Exposed VoIP: Voice Over IP Security Secrets & Solutions (Hacking Exposed)

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Brekeke Completes Interoperability Testing with VoIP-Express

Brekeke Software (http://www.brekeke.com/) has successfully completed interoperability validation with VoIP-Express (http://www.voip-express.net/), a --business focused ITSP, based in the UK, Europe and Middle East. "Having tested a huge range of products and services in the VoIP sphere, we have found that Brekeke offers the most flexible and comprehensive solution and have chosen to adopt it at our core for the benefit of all our clients worldwide", said Graham Bailey, VoIP-Express CEO.

"As Brekeke is committed to providing reliable, flexible and scalable IP-PBX products, this validation of interoperability between VoIP-Express internet telephony service and Brekeke PBX expands options for our customers in UK, Europe, and Middle East as well as those who have businesses in those regions", stated Junko Nagata, Vice President of Engineering at Brekeke. "With our IP-PBX's Automatic Route Selection (ARS) feature, setting up VoIP-Express on the PBX server is very simple. Customers should be able to set up the service in less than 5 minutes," adds Nagata.

Brekeke PBX, an award-winning IP-PBX system, is easily managed through a web-based administrative interface, and is feature rich and fully scalable to meet the needs of any size organization. Brekeke PBX solutions are flexible and affordable, from Basic with traditional telephony features, to Pro which includes a full set of Call Center features. Brekeke's SIP-based telephony products are highly compatible with most IP phones, gateways, and service providers.

Full story here

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VoIP Solution : Give your Communication a Wing

Author: Dennis Jaylon

Advancements in modern communication technology has made our life easier to connect ourself to other people. Little matter in which part of the world you are residing, using several of modern communication means you are well connected to the every part of the world. VoIP solution, latest among all other communication means, is all set today to revolutionise the entire communication sphere. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is used to make calls through Internet.

VoIP phones functions by converting the analogue signals into digital data packets, which through Internet, converts into analogue voice signals. Endowed with several of benefits, VoIP eases out the communication process in several ways. Its most remarkable advantage is its feature of being very cheap. Unlike a regular telephone, this new new system allows you to make calls at very cheap rate. As you are making calls through Internet, the charges you pay while calling to your own town will be similar to the rate of call you make to any offshore location.

Even the sound quality of these phones is much better than that of regular one. VoIP phones get another edge due to its smart functions like voice and video conferencing. Appearing to be boon for businessmen as well as households, this service cuts huge costs in their monthly phone bills. The conferencing methods have added wings to our entire communication process, that too at nominal price.

Installation of VoIP solution doesn't cost too much hassles. It can be settled within 1-2 days. What all you need to set it up is an Internet connection, desktop computer, microphone, speaker, adapter, sound board and a VoIP enabled phone. Even these phones have several features attached with it like speaker, call waiting, call transfer, hold, programmable keys, etc. As, this modern communication tool is maturing, we can expect that some more advancements in it might take all its drawbacks away.

via articlesbase.com

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voip introduction

Here's a quick introduction to VoIP and how you can benefit from this technology..

"When people ask "What in the world is VoIP?", I usually give them the easiest answer; a way to save a lot a money on your phone bill! VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. What does this mean you might ask? Instead of phone calls transmitting through the antique telephone system, the calls are routed over the internet. To accomplish this, VoicePulse provides a small adapter plugged in between the router and a standard telephone handset.

You've probably heard of or have actually used a form of VoIP in the past few years. A few examples are DialPad, Net2Phone, and Yahoo Messenger. Originally these services may have been free but now they are not. The two major drawbacks these services had are: a headset tethered to your home computer and no local number for incoming calls. With today's VoIP service, you can use a standard household phone, receive incoming calls, have unlimited long distance, voicemails sent to email, and more. VoIP has made great strides in the past 2 years and brings much more to the table!"

Voip at wikipedia

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