Six VoIP Security Recommendations

Before you begin to implement VoIP across your organization, there are several things you should consider. Security is extremely important these days and it is best to think before than act after an attack. Some vendors are building security solutions within their products others are not, leaving it up to the user to implement these measures.

1. Make sure your network and security infrastructure, including firewalls routers, VPNs, etc., are voice-optimized and capable of supporting the advanced security requirements for VoIP. More importantly, bandwidth, latency and quality of service become critical requirements for network and security infrastructure.

2. Your IP PBX is at the core of your VoIP infrastructure. Depending on the software you are using, especially windows servers, ensure that the base operating system of your IP PBX, as well as network infrastructure, are always updated and patched for the latest security vulnerabilities. Vendors that provide proprietary operating systems are a lot less vulnerable.

3. It is important to be proactive in conducting regular security assessments of your VoIP infrastructure. Being aware of such security flaws will help to avoid attacks and prevent system outages.

4. Manage your remote access ports and system backdoors. Default login and administrator passwords on such devices are a very common entry for attacks. Disable any insecure remote access features, such as FTP and Telnet, and disable local administration and management features.

5. Structure your network to use VLANs to separate voice and data devices and its corresponding traffic. Deploying VoIP devices on separate VLANs permits isolating data traffic from voice and signaling traffic, as well as utilizing Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities. VLAN separation does not ensure a robust security practice but having separate VLANs will help in isolating the traffic.

6. If your VoIP traffic goes over the Internet, use encryption technologies like IPsec tunnels to secure the VoIP traffic. While many of the VoIP protocols include capabilities for encryption and authentication, most of them are optional. Ensure your vendor has a security policy within the product itself.

John Leonardelli, President, Gale Force Communications. John brings 20 years of voice, data and wireless telecommunications experience in various sales, management and operational roles. John is a Certified IP Telephony Expert where his expertise has been focused on IP Telephony, Contact Centre and complex technical solutions. John has a degree in Electronics Engineering, Telecommunications and Sales Management.

Questions And Answers On VoIP Phone Service

What is VoIP phone service?

VoIP phone services let you replace your traditional landline phone with one that connects over the Internet. Today, your phone works on what is called the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a private network that reaches into your home through the standard phone jacks in the wall.

With VoIP services, your phone connects to the Internet over your cable or DSL modem. To do this, VoIP service providers bundle a small device, called a telephony adapter that plugs into the broadband modem and translates the electrical pulses from your phone into IP packets that travel over the Internet. The way you use your phone is the same, even though the network underneath changes.

What makes it so popular?
What made VoIp phone service gain so much attention is MONEY. Internet telephony is cheap. A local and long distance dialling package can cost as little as $19.95 a month. You won?t find any mainstream, traditional calling plans that meet these rates.

What do you need?
To set up your VoIP, you just first need a reliable broadband Internet connection. If your cable or DSL service cuts out even occasionally, you need to stay away from VoIP services. Every time your Internet access hiccups, so will your phone service.

Second, you will need to install the telephony adapter (TA), which comes with the service. Using a standard phone jack, you can plug your existing home phone into the TA, and then plug the TA into your cable or DSL modem using a standard network cable.

Who should you sign up with?
To answer the question of to whom you should sign up with, many providers offer limited national coverage, so the first order of business is to hunt down a provider that offers local area codes and phone numbers in your location. For example, I?m a big fun of AT&T?s CallVantage, but the service lacks 802 area codes for Vermont. So I will use Vonage.

You should also consider up-front cost in the form of activation fees and penalties for disconnecting a service. For instance, Lingo, Packet 8, and VoiceWing, all charge $40 to $60 if you cancel the service within the first 12 months.

How do you know who is reliable?
Brand names like AT&T CallVantage and the new Verizon VoiceWing probably offer the best assurance that the service won't disappear. But there's a parade of VoIP startups, ranging from the well-established Vonage and long-running Packet 8 services, to up-and-coming offerings like Lingo, VoicePulse, and Broadvox. If it's assurance you want, go with the biggest. And right now, the biggest are Vonage and CallVantage.

Another thing to consider is what happens if the VoIP provider goes out of business. Traditional telephone service is highly regulated, but VoIP providers are popping up all over the place in a laissez-faire marketplace. Should your provider go under, it's quite likely you'll lose access to your phone number (in addition to your phone service). There simply isn't a mechanism for recovering from such an issue yet.

What's the best way to switch?

If you're able to, adopt VoIP for a second line, a home office or kids' phone, for example. That way you won't be in deep trouble should the service go south on you. And you'll get a very good feel for all the quirks that Internet phone services can bring. If you are happy with the second line after three months or so, it's probably safe to switch your primary line over.

Sandra Stammberger is the owner of VOIP 2006. Her website offer information on available technologies and software/hardware product reviews. Visit Voip 2006 now

Choosing Among The Many Available VoIP Phone Services

Making telephone calls over the Internet is an exciting and cost saving technology that is taking a position to completely change voice communications forever. VOIP, or voice over Internet protocol, is not a brand new technology, having been around the business world for several years. But in the last few years, it has begun to catch on with consumers as a way to combine all forms of their communications in their homes (voice, email, etc.) and beat the high fees that long distance companies on their customers. There are many VOIP phone services around now that offer the moon and more in order to get business. It is important to carefully weigh the options so that you don't go to the trouble of switching from traditional landline phone service to VOIP only to get stuck without phone service when the provider goes under, or to get poor quality service and features just to save money or get "free" VOIP service.

As a subscriber to VOIP phone services, there are a multitude of options available to you. You can opt to simply talk through a specially equipped microphone at your home computer, kind of like a speakerphone. You can use your traditional home telephone with the service, as long as you purchase a telephony adapter that will convert the analog audio into digital data packets. You can also choose to buy an IP phone that is ready to plug into your computer and use right away. You can even go wireless. Don't be intimidated if you think that there is a lot of strange equipment to set up or that you will be uncomfortable talking on some "new" kind of phone. VOIP phone service is really no different than the phone service that you are used to, it's just the wiring is different.

The low subscription price is first and foremost what is drawing consumers to VOIP phone services. Depending on the provider you choose, monthly charges range from $19.95 - $34.99 per month. This usually includes free domestic calls (including Canada) and very low International rates (often .03 - .04 per minute). And features that you might be accustomed to paying extra monthly fees for, such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, and Three-way Calling are often bundled in with the standard services and standard monthly charge. And don't worry about calling people outside of the service. Most providers have the capabilities to let you do that. And, calling people within your service is often free of charge. There really seems like there is no reason not to switch to VOIP phone services, right?

There are some issues to think about before making the switch to VOIP phone service. You need to consider the provider you choose. Some services offer "free" VOIP service. This is often a gimmick, and what you are not paying for in phone service is apparent in the poor quality reception and limited calling capabilities that you will have to deal with. Some newer providers are often not established enough to handle high volumes of traffic, and often go under, leaving customers in the dark without any phone service at all. It is smart to choose a well-established provider with a good reputation for quality and customer service, in addition to competitive rates and features. Also, it might be a good idea to consider switching only one phone in your home to VOIP. That way, if your provider does go out of business, you have a backup phone line to communicate with.

Don't be too concerned about losing your phone service or getting swindled by a fly-by-night VOIP phone service provider. There are several reputable providers on the market, and a testament to that is the continuing growth of the technology. In addition to the money you will save by subscribing to VOIP service, you will have the freedom of being able to travel with your phone and phone number and make calls anywhere you go. If you have access to a broadband Internet connection, you can make and receive calls by simply plugging in. This is ideal if you travel a lot for business. Besides the obvious money savings involved with VOIP phone service, it is a convenient technology that gives you a lot of options and freedom that traditional telephone services just can't provide.

Learn the essential information for picking the Voip provider / services at Voip Phone Services

Stay Connected With Your Downline Using Free VoIP

Over the last few years I have noticed a large amount of my downline, sponsors and clients often have terrible phone calling plans depending on where they live. One of the top skills we as sponsors in our programs continually teach our teams to pick up the phone and call their downlines in an effort to help those people achieve success.

If you live in a good part of the country or a country that offers great phone calling plans you don't have much to worry about. However if you are unfortunate to live where the plan is very expensive, you may not be in a position to call your team properly. Keep in mind that a phone call can make the difference between getting an active member or losing that member for good.

So how do you solve this problem if you are an online marketer or business owner but you're one of the unfortunate people who cannot afford to call as much as you should? I may have a simple solution for you that will not break the bank. VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. In other words you use your PC and your internet connection to make telephone calls for free or low monthly plans. You can even pay as you go in some cases.

Google Talk:
If you don't mind registeting for a free Gmail account at Google they offer free VOIP service that enables you to call or send instant messages your team, family and friends. Offering a quick download it should only take you about 3 minutes on a modem ( files size: 900K). One notable item is that it requires Windows XP/2000 with a minimum of a 56k (broadband recommended) connection. Dial up will work however broadband will be easy to talk and IM your friends.

iConnectHere | Broadband Phone:
What's nice about iConnectHere is it's low normal plans starting under twenty dollars. They will help you "Hang up on High Prices" as their slogan says. iConnectHere Broadband Phone offers low calling rates maybe the lowest in the world for your local, long distance and international telephone needs. Imagine being able to call that lead from Austailia! Their plans could save you up to 80% when compared with traditional phone service according to thier sites information. Plus their plans include bundled features at no extra cost.

As you can see just from the two services above you do now have a way to connect with your new referrals, sponsors, customers or even your family and friends can use free VOIP to cut costs. Using these types of services will help improve your support to your downline and won't cost you like it does when you use a land line phone system with their high cost calling plans.

If that's not enough for you here are two more services that will make it easy for you to contact the important people in your online business. This service is called Skype where the whole world can talk for free according to the Skype website.

Using the service Skype provides, you can call ordinary phone numbers all over the world. if your downline member has a bad calling plan as well Skype is a little program that allows anyone to make free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has the Skype software which is free, easy to download and to use. It also knows how to play nice with most computers available today.

Skype also offers Voicemail which lets you direct your incoming calls when you?re busy or offline to your voicemail. Your downline will be happy they can get in contact with you when they have questions.

NetZero also offers you a service where you can call people anywhere in the world from your computer for free. NetZero Voice makes calling as easy as instant messaging, except instead of typing (chatting) you are talking over your Internet connection for free.

Simple to use as with other similar services you just download the software, sign-in with your NetZero member ID and dial any NetZero member ID to begin talking for free and it works with dial-up or broadband.

Either way you look at it, now you can and really you should select one of these types of services so you can enable voice communications with your new referrals and customers. It just makes sense as people buy from people not websites or buildings. They buy from you, if you call them! Get VOIP and get in touch with them today! Joe Sansoucie is the owner of the Pay Per Click search engine http://Frogsearch.com where every Thursday evening he hosts a keyword workshop for new online business owners in an effort to help them identify and successfully target their market. Visit Joe here. http://www.frogsearch.com

VoIP Telephony Basics

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Telephony is the process of routing voice conversations over an Internet Protocol network, rather than through traditional circuit-switched telephone lines. The voice information is converted into digital data packets and then transmitted over an IP network, such as the internet, or a local area network.

The main advantage of VoIP is the fact that it is highly efficient, and thus very affordable. The cost of transferring digital information over an IP telephony network is significantly less than that of transferring analog information over a traditional telephone line. Because of this, VoIP users can make long distance and international calls to anywhere in the world, at any time of day, for a fraction of what an ordinary phone company would charge.

Although call quality was originally a problem for VoIP customers, this issue has improved greatly with todays progressing technology. Because of the fact that VoIP traffic goes over a broadband line, there is enough bandwidth available to allow for very good sound quality.

As anyone familiar with telecommunications would probably tell you, VoIP Telephony is revolutionizing the way that people around the world make phone calls. More and more people are seeing the benefits of VoIP, and the number of users worldwide is growing at an astounding pace.

If you have a broadband internet connection, and a touch tone telephone, you are fully equipped to set up your very own broadband phone system, and start making use of VoIP Telephony to save money on all your long distance phone calls.

For more information on the benefits of VoIP, and how you can start using it to save money on your phone bill, please visit http://voip-telephony.teleclick.ca/connect/ ...

Jeremy Maddock is the owner of a successful telecommunications news website http://www.teleclick.ca