Configuring VoipBuster on X-lite

This post is to give information about how to configure VoipBuster on X-Lite softphone. In X-Lite open ‘menu’ and select ’system settings’ then ‘sip proxy`, from the list of proxies deplayed select the an available proxy. You should then enter the settings below: Enabled YES Display Name (VoipBuster user name) Username (VoipBuster user name) Authorization User (VoipBuster user name) Password (VoipBuster password) Domain/Realm sip1.voipbuster.com SIP Proxy connectionserver.voipbuster.com Out Bound Proxy sip1.voipbuster.com Leave all other settings as default. This configuration is working for me. I am still working on configuring VoipStunt on X-lite as soon as it start working I will post the configuration settings here.

Global Crossing Now Avaya SIP-Compliant

Global Crossing announced that its enterprise Voice over internet Protocol portfolio is fully compliant with Avaya’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) telephony products. SIP is an open signaling standard that allows carrier and enterprise voice equipment to interoperate over an IP network via SIP trunks. SIP trunk services are an enterprise networking category that uses new efficiencies in network design and capabilities via SIP-enabled applications. “We’re proud to be the first global service provider to receive SIP interoperability compliance certification from Avaya, “said Anthony Christie, Global Crossing’s chief marketing officer. GlobalCrossing is a member of the Avaya DeveloperConnection Program, which develops, markets and sells third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology. Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya called the announcement “a big step towards establishing SIP as an open standard for all signaling across both enterprise and service provider networks.” Global Crossing currently runs more than two billion minutes per month of VoIP traffic over its private, global backbone. Avaya’s Converged communications Server 3.0 and its SIP Enablement Services module works with Communication Manager software, the company´s flagship IP telephony software, supported by Avaya media servers, gateways and SIP telephones.

Siemens Intros IPTV Products

Siemens Communications, Inc. introduced its SURPASS Home Entertainment portfolio of broadcast server provider systems on Monday, enabling IPTV services for operators in the U.S and abroad. The SURPASS Home Entertainment system comprises centralized back-office management platforms for service providers, branding control, and tools for tailoring the look and feel of all user interfaces, including program guides and web-based portals. IPTV services are part of technologies seen in today`s smart homes. Siemens has been developing smart home networks that can be managed by users from anywhere and from any device. The company has teamed up with health care and security industry players in order to video conferencing products and services to connect patients and doctors as well as remote home control and surveillance capabilities. “For example, Siemens’ smart home vision includes the use of a mobile device, from a remote location, to activate and set a DVR to record a show or even to turn off a stove or operate other home appliances,” noted the company´s news release. User-friendly gateways of IPTV and smart home solutions are key components of the siemens Lifeworks philosophy, a vision for anytime, anywhere digital media delivery without barriers, “Consumers will want to do everything, everywhere,” Coles said. “With IPTV and home networks in place, we’re ready for a quantum leap forward.

VoIPshield Intros VoIP Vulnerability Assessor

VoIP security product provider VoIPshield Systems Inc. introduced VoIPaudit, a vulnerability assessment system for VoIP-based services, the company announced at Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO in Los Angeles. With VoIPaudit in place, VoIP service providers will be able to automatically identify and eliminate possible VoIP-specific attacks before they impact IP telephone services. “Ours is the first security solution which can not only address the complexity of voice deployments, but secure the VoIP network at the systems level,” noted Paul Slaby, co-founder and CEO of VoIPshield Systems. “VoIPaudit is designed to meet the unique requirements of enterprise and service providers deploying VoIP. Voice communications are critical and VoIPaudit offers and unprecedented level of intelligence and security assessment for all the equipment and devices in the VoIP network.” Cinnabar Networks and MKC Networks have been beta testing VoIPaudit. They “have been able to identify security issues and take corrective actions before voice systems are impacted,” noted the company’s news release. VoIPaudit scans all VoIP-specific devices and applications, related components such as directory servers, routers, and the underlying operating system. It also provides multi-vendor support for VoIP protocols including SIP, H323, Cisco Skinny, Nortel Unistim, and other proprietary protocols. The system is currently available, starting at US $10,000.

NetZero Claims Dial-Up VoIP

Saying “consumers should not have to have broadband internet access in order to enjoy the price savings and feature content of internet phone calling,” Mark R. Goldston, chairman, CEO and president of United Online has announced NetZero Voice, a Voice-over internet protocol phone service that provides local and long distance calling over dial up and broadband internet connections. The NetZero voice internet phone service works with virtually any ISP service, dial-up or broadband, and allows dial-up users, including the estimated 45 million U.S users, Internet phone calling. Usually such services require broadband connections. The full-featured NetZero Voice does not require adaptor, a router, or any other high tech hardware and there are no start-up fees, Goldston says: “All you do is download and install the free software in a matter of minutes, plug in a microphone and speakers or a headset and start making internet phone calls,” NetZero is offering five calling plans, ranging from free to $14.95 per month. To sign up for a pay service a U.S billing address is required. The calling plans available range from NetZero FreeVoice, offering unlimited worldwide computer-to-computer calling between NetZero Voice users, to NetZero unlimited, where in addition to free unlimited worldwide computer-to-computer calling and a personal phone number, purchasers get unlimited computer-to-phone (landline or cell phone) and phone-to-computer calling to the continental United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and unlimited inbound calls from any landline or mobile phone for $14.95 per month. International call rates vary. Unliked most VoIP services, company officials claim, “NetZero Voice is designed to work well over both broadband and dial-up internet connections,” Using proprietary technology, NetZero Voice claims to reduce echo, latency and other problems with VoIP connections.

Paypal preapproved payment now available for Skype

For those who does not like to use their credit card to pay for skypeIn or skypeOut credits there is now a better option paypal. You can now pay for skype credits using your paypal account. Better still the paypal preapproved option is also available, which means the next time you pay for credit you don’t need to enter your details again, just a few mouse clicks and you are done.

New record for Skype

On the 23th of january skype broke through the 5 million concurent users. That means at a particular point there were more that 5 millions people logged on to skype server from all over the world. This number is more than the population of many countries and this shows popularity of skype. Contratulations skype!.

One webcam for several Applications

Have you ever wanted to use your webcam for video chat on skype and yahoo at the same time? If yes, you must have discovered that this is not possible. A video source can only work with one application at a time. This limitation can now be removed using a new freeware called splitcam. Splitcam allows you to use one video source for more than one application. Actually with splitcam you can now connect up to 64 clients at the same time. With video now a standard feature of instant messengers splitcam is sure a very useful and innovative product. More and more voip applications will integrate video in year 2006, even some bloggers refers to this year as the year of video , so having a software that enable you to use your webcam for more than one client is really great. For more information and download visit http://splitcamera.com/

Virtual Phone Lines and DID (Direct Inward Dialing)

For those interested in virtual phone lines that they can integrate with their sip or iax clients as a call-in number, such can be obtained from www.virtualphoneline.com. They have phone numbers for so many countries around the word and they are actually acting as the retail arm of didx.net which is whole sale only DID (Direct Inward Dialing) solution. This is particularly useful because most of the popular voip applications that we use have call-in numbers for some few countries only. Want to know more about DID ? Check out this article at http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-DID

Nuera Intros Small SIP VoIP Media Gateway

Nuera communications, Inc. introduced the SGX-100 SIP media gateway with an eye on helping small-scale service providers and large enterprises establish cost effective points of presence and connect legacy systems to the public telephone network. The SGX-100 is a carrier-ready small SIP media gateway that distinguishes itself with low price and redundancy. With list pricing starting at $5,000, the SGX-100 scales in capacity from one to four E1 or T1 ISDN circuits. The hot-swappable redundant power supplies of the SGX-100 are designed to provide high system availability typically found only in medium and large media gateways. The SGX-100 is the first member of Nuera’s SIP media gateway product line, which will also include gateways with higher capacities. Bill Ingram, president and chief executive officer of Nuera communications believe that the success of SIP in enabling both advance subscriber features and cost-effective PSTN connectivity marks and exciting stage in the industry and expect the SGX-100 to help build the excitement and grow the industry. More info at www.neura.com .

Send and receive SMS with Skype

You can now receive sms on your skype client using “sms to skype” and you can send sms to any GSM phone using “skype to sms”. Sms to skype and skype to sms are services offered by connectotel. Your skype username has to be approved by connectotel to be able to use the service and this normally takes about 24 hours. Check out http://www.connectotel.com/ for information about how to setup your skype and GSM mobile phone for these services.

VoipStunt

This is a follow up of my previous post “Another softphone from FINAREA” . Voipstunt has been working really fine since I first used it. The audio quality is good and its now really popular among users because one can call 39 countries for free. I got a UK call-in number despite the fact that I am living in germany, all I have to do is to enter UK for country in my profile, click get inbound number and within seconds I got +44208…….. Tested the voip-in features of voipstunt and it worked really great. Friends in London has been calling me free with my call-in number from their normal phones. It is now clear that FINAREA are just coming up with different variations of voipbuster in other to make us switch and pay another 10 euros minimum credit required to have unlimited free calls but their rates are still the lowest in the market.

Another Skype blocking System Launched

A Leipzig based company Ipoque has added a new add-on filter to the company’s PRX Traffic Manager PRX-250 system which effectively gives it a skype killer capability. For less than $3000 an enterprise can now block all skype communications on their network. Some companies and government agencies are well disposed to the idea of blocking skype traffic on their network due to security issues and bandwidth consumption. Another Skype killer is in town.

VoIP Ireland acquires Q2C

In a bid to enter the lucrative US voip market where the forecast for residential and business adoption of VoIP services are very good, VoIP Ireland has acquire US based telephony company Q2C. VoIP Ireland provides IP telephony services to enterprises, government agencies, and residential consumers. The company plans on bringing wireless hotspots and low cost VoIP calls to franchise chains and retail outlets throughout the country and also plan on incorporating VoIP capacities into payphone functionality. Brian Powell, VoIP Ireland managing director is very optimistic about the acquisition.

Skype Consuming too much Bandwith

More and more people are complaining about skype consuming too much bandwith. Andy , Om malik and Aswath have all posted about this topic.

TelTel Lauches IP Telephony For Service Providers

SIPbased Internet telephony technology provider TelTel recently launched the TelTel SIP Virtual Network Operators (SVNO) partnership program. The program is said to be able to allow ISPs, ITSPs, CLECs, carriers and other internet service and content providers to offer SIP-based telephony and multimedia services without having to build their own SIP infrastructure. Businesses can sign up for a one-time fee, which covers access to the PsipTN platform, SIP termination and origination, a softphone available for partner customization, full integration with the partner´s existing operation and customization with legacy networks. Additionally, SVNO partners can deliver conferencing, voicemail, PBX features, and web-based portals to manage services. SVNO partners can offer customers co-branded and remote configurable SIP equipment such as IP phones, ATA and videophones. SVNO partners with proprietary networks can also connect the network to the SIP infrastructure by offering their own termination and origination to the PsipTN. They can still use the PsipTN´s existing termination and origination for areas outside their coverage area. The new PsipTN Developer Kit from TelTel features billing, provisioning, and co- branding API´s, together with a hosted “TelTel Ready” Asterisk-based platform for rapid application development and deployment. It offers the ability to create applications with commerce and communication capabilities such as interactive voice response (IVR), Information and entertainment channels, conferencing, social networking, voice messaging, enterprise and call center applications, customer relationship management (CRM) and PBX hosting.

UK Cities to get Wi-Fi Coverage.

The United Kingdom has unveiled plan for a city-wide Wi-Fi access in the following cities: Birmingham, Cambridge, Edingburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Camden and Islington. This will give resisdents and visitors of those cities broadband wireless Internet access from laptops, PDAs and mobile phones. The project is being executed by European wireless provider The Cloud. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by March 2006. The system will be made available to ISPs to offer services.People who want to use the wireless network will pay one of the ISPs for access, and revenues will be split between The Cloud, the local council and the ISPs. With the increasing popularity of Wi-Fi mobile phones, this is a good news for VoIP users and service providers. Also people can now use there favourite voip applications on mobile devices anywhere within those cities. I think the announcement of Skype-Netgear Wi-Fi mobile phone couldnt have come at a better time.

SPA9000 - The New IP-PBX from Linksys

Linksys®, a Division of Cisco Systems, Inc. has announced a new line of SIP-based telephony products aimed at large residential, SOHO and very small business customers. Included in this line is Linksys SPA900, a new IP-PBX with hundreds of telephony features. It supports 4 users out of the box and can be upgrated to 16 users. For details on the SPA9000 and other SIP-based products from Linksys visit http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060105/nyth090.html?.v=33

Internet FM Radio on Skype

Some cool kids in Brisbane, Australia are now operating an Internet based FM Radio using Skype. You just call their skype name "Internet FM", mute your microphone and you are connected to their studio and can start listening to Music and other Radio programmes live. You can chat live with the main host in the studio. The founder of Internet-FM, 14 years old ASHLEY IRVINE told me he plan to go full time audio streaming of Internet-FM soon. Check them out at http://www.internet-fm.tk/.

Wi-Fi TV Virtual Living Room Allows Video Phone Calls with file sharing and Text Messaging

Wi-Fi TV Inc. which provides their members with links to over 200 live TV channels from 50 countries included in a 99 cents a month subscription fee has introduced a beta version of their latest product Wi-Fi TV Virtual Living Room which allows members to make free phone/video calls, share files and send text messaging. Every Wi-Fi TV member will have a unique address for their own virtual living room. When a Wi-Fi member opens their virtual living room there is a live interactive box which is webcast. Other Wi-Fi TV members can enter the room by invitation only. Once in the room, participants can see and hear each other, can send text messages and can share and review documents in a similar manner to two people meeting in person. The participants can share and discuss information as if they had a desk, computer and video presentation screen all at their fingertips. Wi-Fi TV has already made PC-to-Phone, PC-to-cellular and PC-to-PC phone calls available to members at no additional charge. It is adding messaging and chat boards to all the country and category pages on its web site with suggested topics of conversation. The Wi-Fi TV Virtual Living Room combines elements of the Voice over IP phone service with the video and interactivity which are hallmarks of the web site. More info at http://www.wi-fitv.com

Eyeball Messenger in beta testing.

This new application Eyeball messenger v 1.0 is now in beta testing, it will interoperate with Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Google and also support SIP. Its going to be an all in one application, you will be able to communicate with your contacts on yahoo messenger, AOL, MSN, Google and be able to make SIP phone/video calls all from just one application. Being a big fan of interoperation myself I have applied to be part of the beta testers. Visit http://www.eyeball.com/ for more information.

Microsoft Absorbs Unveil Speech Solution

Speech marches on at Microsoft. The Redmond, Washington-based behemoth announced it has acquired certain intellectual property assets from Unveil Technologies, Inc. Unveil was, until recently, a builder of a product called Unveil Conversation Suite, a speech application environment manager. Conversation Suite, a speech application environment manager. Conversation Suite allows the 99.9999 percent of business people who are not speech software engineers to build and tune speech application like pros. Using the Unveil product, call centers can quickly build customized “virtual agents” to help offload common transactions from real agents. With the acquisition, Microsoft plans to integrate the Adaptive Learning and Conversation Assist components of the Unveil product into future versions of Microsoft Speech Server. According to Microsoft, this is a key step in its path to delivering “the most flexible and integrated speech platform at the lowest total cost of ownership.” Microsoft believes that, when integrated into the Speech Server platform, Unveil’s innovative learn-by-example and agent assist technologies will make it easier, faster, and less expensive for customers to develop and optimize speech applications. “Unveil’s technology is a natural fit with Speech Server because it is in line with our vision of making speech applications affordable and easy to develop and maintain,” said Rich Bray, general manager of the Speech Server group at Microsoft. “By supplementing our toolset with Conversation Suite technologies, even a non-technical call center manager can prototype and develop robust speech applications.” As part of the acquisition, Microsoft will retain some Unveil development employees. Unveil’s existing customers will have the opportunity to participate in future programs that include the acquired technology.

Unyte – Skype plugin for Desktop sharing and online collaboration.

WebDialogs, Inc. a provider of web conferencing and collaboration solutions has developed a Dekstop sharing and online collaboration plug-in for skype nicknamed Unyte. Unyte enables skype users to share documents, presentations, applications and desktop with one another. I tried it with a friend a couple of hours ago and it worked fine. You can download unyte from http://skype.unyte.net/skype/en-us/download.html

Skype partners NETGEAR

As announced at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Skype is now in partnership with network equipment manufacturer NETGEAR to produce Skype WiFi phone which make mobile communication with skype much easier. This phone will work will work wherever a consumer is connected to a wireless Internet access point — be that in a home, office, cafe, open public hotspot, or any open municipal wireless access point being deployed worldwide. Report also has it that Skype and NETGEAR are also planning to develop devices that enable skypers to make calls without a PC.

USB Conference phone for Skype.

Another innovative product from IPEVO is the usb conference phone that is designed to work exclusively with Skype. Suitable for a conference of 4-6 people. See ipevo website for details

Skype away from PC

IPEVO will be unveiling there new product Fly-1 usb cordless handset for skype at the comsumer electronics show in Las Vegas this week. Fly-1 connects to your computer through usb port and you can make skype calls away from your computer. It has a large LCD display for your contact list and a mouse like scroll wheel operation which enables you to control your skype functions remotely. Measuring just 173mm x 46mm x 51 mm and weighing just 119 g. Beautifully designed, I think it might be a hit.

Call SIP Service from any regular phone using SIPbroker gateways.

Just like the solution from IPkall , with sipbroker gateways you can receive calls on your sip based service without the need to subscribe to a call-in number from your provider. Sipbroker is deploying gateways in several countries. To call somebody on a sip service just call the sipbroker gateway number for your country and when prompted enter the sip number of the person you want to call and you will be connected for free. With this service you can call your contacts on their computer or sip phone from regular or mobile phone anywhere anytime and for free if you have a flatrate contract for your country, even without a flatrate you make international calls for the cost of local calls. Sipbroker already have gateways in several countries, visit www.sipbroker.com to see if a gateway exist for your country and get the gateway numbers to dial.

Skypho could be on a collision path with skype

This Italian company skypho have a internet based voip service that could be configured on the popular softphone x-lite. The installation and setup is very easy, one only need to follow the instruction provided on their website. The call rates are quite low compared to skype especially for calling developing countries and the audio quality is really good too. Their problem might come from the fact that the name skypho is too similar to skype and this might bring up trademark infringement issues. Though they will explain to anybody who care to listen that the name come from sky and phone but I really doubt if skype will buy that. If you want to try out skypho anyway, just visit http://www.skypho.net/ to download or just get the configuration parameters if you already have x-lite on your system.

VMRover – The Automatic Voicemail Client.

More and more telecommunication companies are given their subscribers internet access to there voicemail and also web access to voicemail is part of most voip service provision. WMRover is an automatic voicemail client that gives you the opportunity to access your voicemails from several providers in an easy and efficient manner. This client reside in your system but automatic check the internet at regular interval for new voicemails, downloads your voicemails to your system and you can playback and store them if you so wish. For more information and downloads check out http://www.bluedigits.com/products/vmrover/.

E911 for VoIP

Due to FCC directive that VoIP service providers in the USA should implement E911, a lot of companies has spring up offering solely E911 services for VoIP service providers. One of such companies is telefinity which offers E911 for service providers with nationwide coverage. Some of the characteristics of telefinity E911 for VoIP are: complete nomadic solution for VoIP, SOAP API or customized hosted web provisioning, Low seteup-low monthly minimums, IVR and 24/7 call center.

Pandora Networks Deploys IP Communications Service Globally

Pandora Networks announced that VCOMM UK Ltd., a distributor of IP Telephony solutions to the UK and Irish channel, has partnered with Pandora to distribute Worksmart services, and integrated VoIP, video, messaging, and collaboration service for small and medium size businesses (“SMB”). Under the terms of the agreement, VCOMM UK will act as the Master distributor to resellers and service providers throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. Worksmart is a complete IP communications solution designed to enable SMB IT managers to immediately self-provision and manage a wide variety of integrated communications and collaboration services including a VoIP-based telephone network and hosted PBX service. Worksmart is not just another IP Centrex platform, claims Scott Dobson, managing director of VCOMM UK Ltd. It incorporates innovative value added hosted services such as instant messaging, presence, desktop share, and web contact center capabilities in concert with all of the standard IP PBX services such as IVR, ACD, and Follow Me call routing. Dobson adds, “VoIP service alone is not what small and medium sized business customers in the UK are looking for. They want a supplier to solve all of their communications needs and Worksmart uniquely delivers that in one service without a capital equipment expense.”.

Skypeout rate changes takes effect.

The changes in skypeout rates announced on 1st of December takes effect from today 2nd January 2006. The rates for some destinations were reduced while that to some were increased. While the rates for Armenia – Mobile, Cayman Islands, Cyprus – Mobile, Guatemala – Mobile, Nigeria, Pakistan ,Pakistan - Mobile and Puerto Rico were reduced, those of Algeria,Diego Garcia, French Guiana, Lesotho, Libya, St Helena and Vatican city were increased.Details can be found at http://support.skype.com/?_a=announcements&_m=details&_i=21

IPKall works very well!

This is a follow up of my post tittled “Washington state phone number to your SIP phone”. I applied yesterday for a washington state phone number as a call-in number for my gizmo project softphone. After about 3 minutes a Washington state phone number was e-mailed to me but this number does not become active until this morning. I asked my brother in Atlanta to call the number and I took the call on my system here in Germany and everything works very fine. The audio quality was great and there was no delay of any sort. The call cost my brother nothing because he has a flatrate contract with its provider and he has been calling me on this number since then. I tested the voicemail too and it worked perfectly. Just seconds after somebody left a message for me I received an e-mail with the message attached as a .wav files.

Festoon Unity connects Skype and Google Talk

A Campbell, Califonia based company Santa Cruz Networks has released a new plugin called Festoon Unity which makes it possible for users of Skype and Google Talk engage in one-to-one or group voice and video calls. I am yet to test this plugin but as soon as I do I will let readers know my impression of it. Anyway, I consider any form of interoperation as a good thing because interoperation is very important to the future of VoIP technology. All the big players on the internet Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft now have their own voip service but none of them interoperate. In October MSN and Yahoo announced a partnership intended to link MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger by the second quarter of 2006. For more information and download go to http://www.festooninc.com/news_1205.asp

Skype worked when all others don’t !

For once I feel what could be the only advantage of proprietary nature of the skype technology. Three days ago my internet provider for reasons best known to them decided to implement a system to block all voip applications in order to reduce traffic. I noticed it almost immediately because all the voip applications on my system except skype stopped working. As you can imagine I have lots of them on my system and I used them as frequently as I can so that I can write about them for the benefit of my readers. At the moment I have voipbuster, voipcheap, voipstunt, FWD, dialpad, gizmo, yahoo, iPhone, sipdiscount, Google Talk and skype installed on my system. All of them except skype could not connect to the server, they were all blocked. I then realised that most of the applications are based on the SIP protocol which is an open protocol therefore easy to block if you so wish but skype on the other hand is based on a proprietary technology which is kept secret and since they don’t know how skype operates its difficult to block it or simply that the skype technology is more powerful and could break through whatever firewall they have implemented. Though I have resolved the problems now and all the applications are working fine, this incident makes me feel maybe its nice to keep some things secret.

Happy New Year !!

To all my Readers i say Happy New Year and a very Big THANK YOU. I wish you all Good Health, Love, Peace and Prosperity in the year 2006. I started this blog in June 2005 and it has come a long way after just seven months of blogging. With more than 7000 unique visitors from more than 120 countries and the daily hits has been on the rise with every new post. A lot of sites and blogs have linked to my blog, the prominient ones been www.Jajah.com and www.skype.com. The response i have gotten from some of my readers showed that they have benefited something from reading my blog and i feel really happy to have the opportunity to contribute something to the developement of VoIP technology. Also just 3 months after this blog came online i started a VoIP users forum named voippark and the responce has been really good. I hope to improve on 2005 performance in 2006 with more quality posts and high frequency of update so that my readers could continue to benefit more from reading this blog. Finally i want to thank all those who have writen to me to give advice, suggestions and criticisms all of which has made this blog what it is today. Thank you very much guys.