The Cisco CCNP certification is changing at the end of 2006, with the BSCI and BCMSN exams being updated and the BCRAN and CIT exams being dropped. One of the two new exams is the 642-845 Optimizing Converged Cisco Networks (ONT) test, and the name of the exam doesn’t give many hints as to the material covered!

According to Cisco’s exam blueprint, the major topics on this new exam will be Voice over IP (VoIP) and Quality of Service (QoS). This exam change is an excellent move on Cisco’s part, since VoIP is one of the fastest-growing network technologies today, and implementing VoIP demands the ability to implement QoS!

Among the QoS topics on the exam will be NBAR, ToS, IP Precedence, DSCP, traffic policing, and traffic shaping. Some of these topics may be familiar to you if you studied for the BCRAN exam, but I feel it’s a safe bet that there will be much more detail on the ONT exam as compared to the BCRAN exam. Wireless LANs (WLANs) are also on the Cisco exam blueprint for ONT, and again I’d expect a lot more detail on that topic than you would have seen on the BCRAN exam.

Cisco’s obviously raising the bar for the new CCNP exams, and that’s a good thing for both you and for Cisco. The CCNP will be harder to get in 2007, but it will also become more valuable – and when you invest time and money into a certification, you want the vendor to protect your investment. Besides, to work with Cisco networks today and in the future, you’ll need to learn VoIP and Qos, so you might as well get the certification while you’re at it!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of over 100 free certification exam tutorials, including CCNA certification training articles. His exclusive CCNA study guide is also available!

Visit his blog and sign up for Cisco Certification Central, a daily newsletter packed with CCNA, Network+, Security+, A+, and CCNP certification exam practice questions! A free 7-part course, “How To Pass The CCNA”, is also available, and you can attend an in-person or online Cisco CCNA training boot camp with The Bryant Advantage!

Kicking off one of the free holiday free call offers, Jajah Direct has something for every one. You can call one person and talk for one hour or you can call 60 people if you can keep talk time to one minute to each of them!
Ok let me put it in another way, you get one hour worth of free calls from Jajah Direct. So you will not be able to use excuses like oh I could not call you because gas prices were too high etc. You can even call your long lost cousin in Timbuktu, if you want to because the free offer extends to international calls as well.
So how do you use this one hour worth of free voip calls. It is pretty simple, (as use of Jajah has always been)
Just read more!

It’s been a rough year for VoIP Service Providers, at least in the consumer space. We saw SunRocket abruptly shut down this summer when they failed to raise the money they needed to continue operations. We saw Vonage suffer through a barrage of patent lawsuits and continued hounding over customer service and 911 deficiencies, and increasing costs for acquiring subscribers. What’s going on…why is consumer VoIP now a rough neigbhorhood?

I think it comes down to three reasons:

1. No barriers to entry for competition
2. No sustainable competitive advantage (some would argue there is a competitive disadvantage)
3. Not enough attention to details that matter to customers.

Let’s face it: consumer VoIP is a commodity business. Anybody can license the technology to get into the business, and putting up a few VoIP servers in colocation space with Internet access, buying VoIP gateway services from Level 3, is a game anybody can play. To get into it you have to believe you have an angle that nobody else has (unlikely), or that you can market it better than anybody else. Most folks who think they are going to run the next big VoIP service aren’t marketing experts at all…they are just technologists who think it is cool that they can bypass the telcos for phone service. The problem is that everyone else can do it, too.

More…

I read today in PC World about a VoIP consultant who hacked through SIP conversations to prove how easy it is to access information on an unsecured VoIP network.

“An expert has released a proof-of-concept program to show how easy it would be for criminals to eavesdrop on the VoIP-based phone calls of any company using the technology.

Called SIPtap, the software is able to monitor multiple Voice-over-IP (VoIP) call streams, listening in and recording them for remote inspection as .wav files. All that the criminal would need would be to infect a single PC inside the network with a Trojan incorporating these functions, although the hack would work at ISP level as well.”

“End-users and network engineers may not consider the security ramifications of a hacker or any other user using a tool to not only capture but play back VoIP conversations. Higher-end VoIP systems may offer ways to encrypt the data, but lower-end products often do not. You’ll want to consider this before you purchase a solution. Second, VoIP traffic is usually most vulnerable on the LAN since Internet WAN traffic is typically routed through VPNs.”

Although there might be a lot of excitement around SIPTap and the ability to hack VoIP conversations, the problem of unsecured VoIP networks is something our engineers have been addressing for several years with clients. I’m not sure what it is about new technologies, but it seems like people get so pumped up on the benefits that they forget about the security implications (think back to wireless).

So it’s not the SIPTap threat that is the worry, but rather being certain that your networks are adequately secure and conversations encrypted as they leave the network. In good fashion, I have assembled a list of resources for you. Also, if you are really interested in VoIP, Network Performance Daily is doing a series on the soup to nuts on the subject.

The Los Angeles Times’ Jim Granelli has written a very comprehensive piece on the state of Internet calling, covering VOIP, video and VoIP on the Go in the three page story that ran in today’s Sunday edition on line and in print.

Besides being quoted in the story, and having two agency clients, Mobivox and SightSpeed referenced repeatedly throughout the story, what Granelli did was present all types of easy to use solutions which consumers can use, also recognizing T-Mobile’s UMA play, Skype, GizmoProject and iSkoot. All are next generation 2.0 type phone services that use IP and very different, not simply 1.5 type PSTN over IP plays (ala Call Vantage and Vonage) which though mentioned, are which really only different from PSTN in their method of delivery (broadband) and where the bill comes from.

More….

OK, VoIP customers, the $24.99 a month party is just about over. A new FCC ruling is requiring that VoIP service providers, among others, will have to contribute to the $7 billion Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service in low-income and high-cost areas and also helps schools and libraries get access to the internet. Usually these costs are passed on to customers as a line item on a monthly phone bill. (How many of us actually go through each and every charge on our phone bills anyway?) According to the FCC, the funs is about to experience a shortfall and, frankly, the VoIP customer base is increasing and it appears that they have to make up the slack.

In any event, if you’re currently paying $24.99 (or any other amount) for your VoIP service, expect your monthly bill to go up about a dollar or two. This truly is not a big deal, but the TV and radio ads that feature the “magic” $24.99 a month slogan will have to be slightly modified.

More…

Over a period of time, VoIP has come to be accepted by all kinds of industries, both small and large scale. It came with a bang and has been taking quick strides covering all the industries and residentials across the globe. With its cost-effective feature, along with the voice quality of traditional public switch telephony network, it has become a hot favourite of everyone. Especially for small scale businesses, voice overIP telephony has come as a saviour, for it greatly cuts down on their phone bills, thus helping them in networking with their clients without worrying about the rising expenditure on it.

Moreover, voice over IP is location independent and that takes care of the most important need of the corporates, which is to be in constant touch with their clients. Offering a number of benefits that ultimately leads to increased productivity is the reason why VoIP reviews always turn out to give an almost flawless picture. Many VoIP reviews would reveal that though VoIP has completely taken care of their communication needs, businesses faced some difficultly in choosing the best service provider.

The fact remains that voice over IP is a service that if taken from the right service provider would be tremendously beneficial, or on the flip side might turn out to be a mistake. Your success would depend upon keeping in mind your priorities and expectations from VoIP while opting for a VoIP service provider. It is quiet easy to be diverted from getting what you truly need by other features which are not necessary or service offered at discounted price. Best rates should be a criterion for your decision but should not be the sole judging factor. Besides this, there are other crucial features like voice quality, support facility and professional training. One should remember that eventually you are providing a telephony service which would be judged by the clarity of voice. Better the quality better would be your chances of making a mark in the telecommunication industry. Initial training is also an important factor, since it equips you with all the necessary knowledge needed to be a part of this industry. Some providers do provide professional training at the onset of the business.

Technical support is a service which one cannot afford to ignore. It helps in maintaining the quality of your calls and guarantees hassle-free service. Some renowned VoIP providers have started offering 24/7 support to their clients through MSN chat and email. This enables the client to get important issues addressed quickly and efficiently. A smooth ongoing call facility is a feature that will not just help in customer retention, but also assists in attracting new clients through word of mouth marketing, which is definitely the most effective advertisement for your services.

To know about Voip providers and get the best of the services, visit: VoIP offering enhanced quality VoIP Services and VoIP Solutions.
http://www.icallglobe.com/

3CX announced an Enterprise edition of its 3CX Phone System. The good news? It’s based on the open SIP standard, meaning it will dramatically reduce the cost of enterprise telephony, as it is able to work with a variety of SIP phones and VoIP gateways. The 3CX Phone System is a Windows-based IP PABX solution and has been independently certified for Windows 2003. The system integrates popular features such as call queing, Exchange 2007 integration, unified messaging, auto attendant, and more. 3CX offers a free version, as well as three premium editions: small business ($350), pro ($895), and enterprise ($1,250).

According to 3CX CEO Nick Galea:

The release of 3CX Phone System Enterprise edition is set to accelerate the massive change occurring in the Enterprise Telephony market space. With 3CX Phone System Enterprise Edition, advanced features such as Call Queuing can now be obtained for a fraction of the price of traditional Enterprise PBXs. What’s more, advanced features such as integration with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 unified messaging are not even available on today’s proprietary PBXs.

Digium, Inc. announced details for Digium Asterisk|World, a new conference debuting only to showcase advancing open source IP telephony communications in the business world. Its inaugural debut will take place next week, October 30-31, in Boston, Massachusetts and will share billing with Fall VON. Digium CTO Mark Spencer has been tapped to present the Industry Perspective keynote address, “The Road Ahead is Open.”

Topics from case study presentation planned include:

* How to incorporate speech recognition with open source VoIP
* Leveraging the new Digium – 3Com Partnership; What it means for you
* Enterprise Implementations of Asterisk
* Business Class SIP Trunking
* Echo Cancellation in Asterisk Systems
* How to Access, Verify and Monitor open source VoIP
* Asterisk and Polycom; Perfect Together
* Asterisk Community Update; How to get started

“We are extremely excited for Digium Asterisk|World and the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the incredible traction open source IP is having in today’s business world,” said Danny Windham, Digium president and CEO, in a recent press release. “Digium Asterisk|World is the first conference completely focused on Asterisk for business and will provide attendees with new insights and practical advice so they can implement Asterisk in their businesses, quickly and affordably.”

The South African wireless internet operator iBurst says it plans to introduce IP-based voice telephony services later this month and will offer new customers a free VoIP handset in a bid to improve take-up. Its existing 55,000 subscribers will be able to buy the phone for ZAR200 (USD30), while all customers will be allocated a new phone number for their internet phone line, ITWeb reports.