Tej Kohli Personal Blog

Tej Kohli is back with latest news about VoIP!

Balancing Act CEO Russell Southwood says although Botswana and Cape Verde recently moved in the direction of legalising voice over IP (VOIP) services in Africa, they are still part of a small group of African countries to have done so.

‘There are only 10 African countries that have legalised VOIP,’ he says. According to an ITWeb report, VOIP is the Internet Protocol (IP) technology that allows voice information to be sent in digital form, rather than using the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network. A major advantage of VOIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone services. However, Southwood says the lack of a legal framework for VOIP to operate shows incumbent telecommunications players in Africa, be they fixed or mobile, want to retain their stronghold on the market. As to whether VOIP is automatically illegal if it is not specifically legalised, Southwood says: ‘In Anglophone countries, law relies more on custom and practice, and it has tended to be argued that gateway licences make VOIP illegal for all but those operating under the licence.’

VoIP users should use land line for 911 calls, emergency workers say. Tej Kohli blog features a report published in yorkregion.com

Using the Internet instead of a traditional phone to call 911 could complicate emergency response to your home, York Region officials are warning.
The warning comes after the death of an Alberta boy that has been linked to a mix-up caused by use of an Internet telephone.
Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP, which allows you to make phone calls through a broadband Internet connection, has been available in the Greater Toronto Area for about four years. VoIP service is available throughout York Region. One of its selling points is it can be less expensive to make long distance telephone calls than using a traditional phone service provider.
The reliability of making emergency calls with the Internet service became the subject of debate earlier this week after an 18-month-old boy died. Paramedics were dispatched to a Mississauga address after a VoIP 911 call instead of being sent to the Calgary address where the child was because enough information was not provided during the call and the Ontario address was on file for the customer.
A complication arises when VoIP providers do not have the technology to allow their subscribers to call 911, according to York Regional Police spokesperson Const. Marina Orlovski.
If you have a VoIP phone and move it to another location, such as across town to a relative’s home and call 911 from there, the information sent to an emergency call taker will appear as your home address — not where you are.
“We have the capability to receive the calls, it’s up to the VoIP provider to make sure their clients, first of all, have the technology and second, that their subscribers know about (911 service) and they have a system for them to sign up,” Const. Orlovski said.
The traditional 911 system, based on land line use, routes an emergency call to the correct 911 centre, according to Markham Fire’s public education officer, Dave Blizzard. Enhanced 911 service provides the emergency call-taker your name, address and phone number.
Markham Fire also warns that access to 911 service for VoIP customers may not be available during a power failure or if the Internet connection is down.
“A phone call from your home or a neighbour’s home is still so important,” Mr. Blizzard said.
A Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruling on Oct. 20, 2005, required all local VoIP providers in Canada to provide notice to current and prospective customers about the availability and limitations of their 911 and enhanced 911 service. The CRTC also ruled local VoIP providers would have to communicate their 911 service limitations to existing customers at least once every year.

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Tej Kohli adds another feather in the VoIP news category on Tej Kohli blog. Come and discover with Mr. Kohli how VoIP can expedite your business operation.

Owing its popularity to several cost-effective factors like low communication costs and better productivity, VoIP has become an indispensable part of Corporates, business houses and contact centers. Apart from these inbuilt benefits, the corporate houses can also enjoy flexibility and scalability accompanied with data security.
In addition, the internet based telephony services guarantee excellent call quality even in hybrid network environs. VoIP offers a lot of utilities over its obsolete alternative- PSTN. Like, it supports services across multiple sites, as these services are backed with the customer unique numbers and area codes of the customer’s choice. This capability can be used for forwarding of voice mails or transfer of the calls to almost anywhere using private dial plans. Organizations having branches in different locations can make the most of this feature. The IP technology would create the connecting links to their branch offices located across the globe and that too at significantly low costs.
Moreover, the users are not required to install, invest or maintain an independent IP infrastructure; all they would require is a broadband internet connection. This way, VoIP enables businesses to focus more on important business matters including generating and expanding of their activities. So, it won’t be wrong to say that VoIP has changed the face of the corporate communication all over the world.
Also, it is equally beneficial for the contact centers as it enables them to make long distance ISD calls at significantly low rates. Besides, it facilitates seamless connectivity, real time monitoring of calls, require less capital investment and help users to expand their employees’ shift according to their needs.

Private Label VOIP is a cost effective solution that helps to arrange a Power Platform system that can serve customers across the globe.  It considerably helps in cost cutting by eliminating the need of hiring expensive engineering and design teams for maintaining efficiency. Thus, broadband service providers can rely on this technology and use their resources and budget in the development of the company as a whole.
This service also embrace VoIP reseller programs that entails features like call waiting, voice mail and inbound caller ID. Private label VoIP efficiently addresses the diverse needs of home based users as well as large corporations with facilities such as conference calls, voicemails converted to emails and multilingual operations. This has marked a new trend where these services are made available from resellers, who afterwards lease services from the wholesalers.
Hence, the resellers can create their own brands while selling the services of the wholesalers. The company can also offer the services to people of a particular domain under their own brand names and identities.
Alternatively, the user is also benefited as he can avail services of their private service provider without having much technical knowledge. The user just needs to install the software and hardware required for the purpose. The rest is based on a high-speed Internet connection and an effective white label VoIP or private label VoIP provider. Once accessed, the users then avail low-cost telephony. Thus users can make calls to any corner of the world at very low costs.
It is also one of the reasons that make private owners lease their services from wholesalers or higher tiers as they themselves cannot terminate a call. Thus new software is in the process of being installed for easing this entire process. The wholesalers provide their call termination services to the resellers. The resellers hire the services from the higher tiers and offer the same services to the target customers. The resellers sometimes change the brand name and in that case they are known as private label VoIP providers.

Mr. Tej Kohli came across an important bit of information on the net about VoIP security, here is what it states:

Technology offers benefits galore, from lower calling costs and larger mobility to ultramodern functions like unified messaging and collaborative whiteboarding. But as VOIP is catching fire and as hackers become more familiar with its ins and outs, the threats are likely to overshadow benefits—if companies remain dormant now.
One of the biggest VOIP-related security threats of current times are inside a company’s firewall. That’s because most systems still rely on a combination of an IP network and the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) land-line network. Each time a VOIP call is made, the VOIP phone number’s IP address is translated into a standard phone number passing through the PSTN network.
Hackers can exploit it easily, for instance take an employee listening in on a phone call or changing a configuration setting to make the CEO’s phone ring at the employee’s desk. Now a hacker who managed to get inside the building—could launch a DoS (Denial of Service) attack that would flood the network so thoroughly that nobody would be able to make or receive calls.
However, there exists a solution. The first step is to solidify management servers by turning off any unnecessary services and making sure that administrator passwords aren’t easy. Other important steps include keeping a record of which IP addresses are related to each user and logging activities, so if anyone makes changes to a configuration setting there will be a record of it.
“That way, if you suspect that somebody was listening in on a conversation, you could at least find out who it was and where they were listening in by relating that IP address from that IP phone to an actual person,” Oltsik said.
But technology marches on. The next frontier, which promises to vastly improve the reliability of VOIP while further reducing costs, also will open up VOIP to more attacks.
That technology is SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking, which routes calls over an IP network instead of the PSTN, allowing for voice and data through all IP connections. According to The Nemertes Research Group, 56 percent of enterprises today have either adopted or plan to adopt SIP trunking, with smaller businesses being particularly interested because of the potential cost savings.
But because an external IP network is involved, security concerns increase. Of particular concern are “vishing” and SPIT (spam over Internet telephony). SPIT is basically spam over VOIP—unsolicited advertising that appears in a VOIP voice mailbox. Attackers can send messages to thousands of recipients simultaneously. Vishing, a term formed from “voice phishing,” is the process of persuading users by e-mail, text message or phone call to divulge personal information such as Social Security and credit card numbers. This is fairly easy to do, unfortunately, since attackers can “spoof” the caller ID that users see to make the call appear to come from a legitimate organization. Vishers also can send messages in bulk.
“Now you have that direct IP link from your service provider into your VOIP network, somebody could theoretically reach your phone system components across the public Internet, so companies have to take more precautions,” said Irwin Lazar, a principal analyst at Nemertes Research Group.

VoIP can be rightly said as the most revolutionary invention of the 21st century. Tej Kohli talks about this latest talk of the town that offers enormous benefits to its users. On this Tej Kohli blog, he explains how this technology works:

VoIP is an acronym for Voice over internet protocol. A VoIP system incorporate characteristics like caller identification service, call routing, auto-redial and three-way conferencing. Though there exist a few additional customizable features as well, but the choice is purely rooted in your business needs. An ideal VoIP system shall trim down your monthly telephone bills by 50% or so.
The backbone of VoIP telephony is packet switching protocols. In contrast to PSTN lines, which make use of circuit switching, VoIP telephony transform analog messages into digital signals and further divide it into packets. Here each packet is separately transmitted over internet and forms the original message on reaching the ultimate destination. However if the receiver is using a PSTN connection, these digital packets are transmitted via local switching stations.
Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is highly cost effective and drastically cuts down heavy international call bills. Even if the receiver is using PSTN connection at an international location, the call remains on the web till the time it doesn’t reach a switching station in the concerned country. In this manner, a Voice over IP telephony system can tranform a long distance international calls a local one.
Pertaining to such lucrative benefits VoIP is revered worldwide as the next big thing in business communications industry. In fact, with VoIP technology at hand businesses are allowing their customers to call them for free. Perhaps it is with the advent of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony that more and more companies are offering anytime anywhere toll-free numbers to comfort their customers. It also gives the flexibility to allocate a local toll free numbers in any number of cities. VoIP do all this and much more, that too at reasonably low overheads.

Tej Kohli shares information on Ofcom courtesy mbayair.org.

UK telecom regulator, Ofcom, has ruled that internet telephone carriers must provide uninterrupted access to Britian’s emergency number, 999, as well as the European Union’s universal emergency line, 112.

Carriers have until September 2008 to comply with the ruling, which applies to all VoIP firms that allow their customers to call normal phone numbers over the internet.

Ofcom says that the regulation is necessary to ensure that emergency victims can summon help as quickly as possible. According to a recent survey, an astounding 78% of those using non-emergency-enabled VoIP services in the UK thought that they had access to 999 and/or 112.

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a new and innovative technology that is really taking the world by storm. It has already replaced a large majority of regular home phones, and it is believed that it will entirely replace the landline phone system within as little as a few years.

VoIP is truly remarkable, and it is a great new way to make and receive phone calls using your broadband Internet connection rather than your standard phone line. It is necessary to have a broadband Internet connection for this because broadband is high-speed Internet such as through a cable or DSL modem, and it gives you a continuous connection to the Internet, at speeds that are much higher than with dial-up.

Vonage

The term branded VoIP refers to the different VoIP service providers that are available, for instance Vonage, which is one of the most popular branded VoIP companies in the US.

Vonage is an all-inclusive phone service that gives you local and long distance calling anywhere in the world for one low price. They are able to do this by using your existing Internet connection and VoIP technology.

With Vonage, or any other branded VoIP provider for that matter, you connect your telephone to your high-speed Internet connection using the Vonage phone adapter that they send you. You can then begin making calls by simply picking up the phone and making and receiving calls in the same way that you always have.

How Does It Work?

Basically what happens is that when you pick up the phone, the Vonage phone adapter works by converting your voice into data and then sends it through the Internet, sort of like an email. Then, once the person that you are calling answers their phone, it will sound just like any other phone call, no static and no interference.

Vonage is known as being one of the best branded VOIP providers  for several reasons. One is that they offer great phone service, but they also have low monthly fees with unlimited North American long distance included. Phone features are similar in quality to landlines and with low international rates and a 30-day money back guarantee; there is little to lose.

There are of course certain disadvantages that come along with the technology as well, and you will want to weigh the pros and cons before switching. However, as most people have already come to realize, the advantages offered greatly outweigh the disadvantages, and thus it is to your benefit to begin using a branded VoIP rather than your relatively outdated landline.

State-run telecom major MTNL on Friday slashed international call rates to Re one per minute for its Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) customers to about 100 countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Japan, Malaysia and Kuwait.

The call rates to the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong are already stand at Re one minute.

For countries to which the calling rates were at Rs 6, 8 and 12 have now been reduced to Rs 4, 6 and Rs 8 per minute respectively. The new rates will be effective from today, company’s Executive Director A K Arora said in a statement.

For countries where call rates were Rs two and Rs three per minute, the rates have been reduced to Re 1 per minute.

MTNL provides international calling facility through VOIP to its broadband customers in association with Aksh Optifibre.

Navtej Kohli compliles a list of VoIP Security Threats.

1. DoS (denial of service) Attacks on VoIP Networks: This has been a concern for the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) since 2006, and VoIP watchers have been concerned about DoS attacks for the past year. DoS attacks can overwhelm your company’s phone lines, creating long-term busy signals, forced call disconnects and an exhausted work force.

2. VoIP Eavesdropping: In June 2007, it was learned that a hacker with a packet sniffer and VOMIT could tap directly into VoIP calls. Then it was learned that those vulnerabilities could also lead to DoS attacks. “Anyone on your network,” stated an article found at EnterpriseVoIP Planet, “anyone on other networks that you contact — and all points in between, including service providers — all have the opportunity to do an awful lot of juicy snooping.” Not to mention, of course, that the FBI and other security agencies can do all the VoIP snooping that they want. How do you prevent unwanted listeners on your VoIP calls? Place all VoIP phones on separate, secured vLANs to protect against rogue devices, then protect that vLAN against the introduction of unauthorized devices. Once you’ve isolated your VoIP devices, limit their inbound and outbound traffic so that they can only communicate with their call manager, encrypt the calls that travel over public networks, and watch the news and get ready to react, according to SearchSecurity.com.

3. Microsoft Office Communications Server: Hackers love attacking Microsoft, and Microsoft loves being unprepared. VIPER Lab predicts that hackers will find vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Communications Server’s VoIP client and use it to access networks that had previously been secure, and the organization is not alone in reaching this conclusion. Network World blogger Mitchell Ashley suggests that Microsoft could learn from Vonage’s vulnerability to spoofing attacks.

4. Vishing by VoIP: The FBI has been aware of vishing for nearly a year now, and the IC3 (Internet Crime Complain Center) recently released a report stating that vishing attacks are on the rise. With caller ID spoofing, the criminals can be very difficult to track, “due to rapidly evolving criminal methodologies,” according to the IC3.

5. VoIP Attacks Against Service Providers: These sorts of attacks will escalate, VIPER Lab predicts, because of readily available, anonymous $20 SIM cards. As UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) technology becomes more widely deployed to allow calls to switch from cell networks to VoIP networks, VIPER Labs warns that “service providers are, for the first time, allowing subscribers to have direct access to mobile core networks over IP, making it easier to spoof identities and use illegal accounts to launch a variety of attacks.” Such attacks include scripting “various flood, fuzzing and spoofing attacks,” according to VoIP blogger Rich Tehrani. “The hacker could set up multiple IPSec tunnels to various PDGs in the network or across multiple GPRS sessions [generating] up to 10,000 messages per second … equal [to] the traffic of 10 million users,” he wrote.

So how can your company best protect its VoIP network from these sorts of threats? It should protect itself on three levels: network architecture, security protocols and user interaction. At the network level, hosting VoIP on a VPN (virtual private network) does a good job of separating VoIP’s security holes from the underlying data network. Like all computer systems exposed to outside vulnerabilities, a VoIP network should be covered in firewalls, anti-virus programs and a sturdy intrusion-prevention system. At the user level, company employees should be trained and assessed against high-risk security behavior, like using Google Talk, Skype or other hosted IP voice technologies that could expose the company’s VoIP network to outside attack.

Other VoIP best security practices include installing application-layer gateways between trusted and untrusted zones, establishing security zones to isolate VoIP segments, and applying encryption as a part of a holistic security program. For more information on best security practices, download the white paper “A Proactive Approach to VoIP Security.”