Monthly Archives: February 2014
Call Recording with SIPREC
“This call may be recorded for quality assurance.” It’s nearly impossible to call a contact center without hearing that message or something very similar. A company will record calls for a variety of reasons. It may be to help improve customer service. Supervisors listen to their agent’s interactions for training and evaluation purposes. Companies also […]
Dialing Telephone Numbers is so Yesterday
A few years ago my company merged with another company. If you have ever lived through a merger, you know how complicated they can be. Not only do you have differences in corporate cultures and policies, but there are technical issues everywhere you look. Each company comes to the table with a different domain, email […]
The Need for Speed
I never saw the first computer I worked on. It was 1975 and I was a senior at Coronado High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. Those of us who took advanced math classes were allowed to sign up for a course in computer programming. I forget the instructor’s name, but I remember that he only had […]
SBC Resiliency
A big part of my job is working with companies on SIP migrations. Some are looking to dip their toes in the water with a SIP application or perhaps a few trunks, but several want to do it all – applications, trunks, and users. Every engagement is unique, but they all have one thing in […]
The Death of the VPN
A lot has changed since I left college and entered the workforce. My first “real” job began July 5, 1983 at the company formerly known as Northern Telecom. My first desk telephone was an analog 2500 set. I did most of my work on a green CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) screen logged into a PDP-11 […]
Getting SIP Right the First Time Around
Last week was a teaching week for me. Although I enjoy playing the role of professor in my SIP class, I am happy that it’s only an occasional thing. No matter how much I love the subject matter, it’s tiring talking for hours on end. Thankfully, my lectures appear to sink in and my students […]
Converge2014: Building a Secure SIP Network
For the most part, I love my job. I love sifting through Wireshark traces trying to find needles in SIP haystacks. I get excited learning about new IP communications products. My heart practically skips a beat when I read about another SIP service climbing out of its physical shell and going virtual. However, the best […]
The SBC Placement Bible
I am surrounded by religious zealots. No, I am not talking about Christians, Jews, Muslims, or any other form of organized religion. I am talking about the secular zealots who approach technology as if it was religion. You know the type. Mac vs. Windows. Firefox vs. Chrome. Android vs. iPhone. My latest struggle has to […]
Who Was That Masked Man? Using P-Asserted-Identity
One of the things I love best about SIP is its simplicity. There are only a baker’s dozen request messages and yet you can create a multitude of different features using them. In fact, when it comes to session creation, management, and manipulation, there are really only four important ones – INVITE, ACK, BYE, and […]
The Dark Side of Always On
My job keeps me on the road more than I care to admit. I don’t want to spoil my day by looking, but I believe that I have banked well over 250,000 frequent flier miles. Yes, some of those miles were earned outside of actual air travel, but even if I lop 75,000 miles off […]
Tao, Zen, and Tomorrow 