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The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is widely used to control VoIP, Video Calls, and other multimedia communication over a newtork. SIP uses design elements similar to HTTP requests/responses (although they are not 1 to 1).

Following is a list of SIP Response Codes: Read the rest of this entry »

Asterisk provides an open-source solution for IP Telephony (aka VoIP). Customizing your telephone system to increase productivity remains one of Asterisk’s greatest features. Today, we will look at using Asterisk to replace your need for a fax machine.

Benefits

• Store faxes electronically
• Reduce printing costs
• Share faxes via email

Requirements

• Server running Asterisk (32 bit compatibility needed)
• Fax for Asterisk Software Add-on

Step One: Get the Fax for Asterisk Software License

First, choose the licensing based on your needs. If you will only need to support 1 simultaneous fax Read the rest of this entry »

Team Forrest proudly announces the launch of our Human Resources Consulting Services. Team Forrest now provides HR Consulting Services to both existing and new businesses. Whether you’re looking to streamline your existing needs or need a complete HR package, Team Forrest is here to help.

Human Resources Consulting

Strong Human resources policies and procedures provides a great defense against expensive lawsuits and complaints. Our professional HR Consultants use their experience and knowledge to evaluate your existing procedures and correct potential liability. From training to policy development, strong Human Resources policies provide a level of protection for both your employees and company.

We look forward to working with you and helping your business.

For more information about our new services, please visit the Human Resources page or contact us.

VoIP Tech Chat posted an article about Digium’s public Beta launch of Skype for Asterisk.

They wrote the article in a Billy Mays style:

Limited Time Offer – Skype for Asterisk Public Beta

Update On 7/16/2009, Firefox released version 3.5.1 to address the issue. Read Update Below!

Mozilla.com released details today on a critical JavaScript vulnerability in the latest version of the popular Firefox 3.5 Web Browser. The vulnerability allows execution of code on the client (or target) system simply by visiting a website.

No patch is currently available for the flaw and several organizations (such as Scurnia, The Sans Institute, and the United States Computer Emergency Response Team) are recommending the complete disabling of JavaScript in Firefox (see below). Additionally, The Sans Institute is recommending the use of the NoScript Firefox plugin (that enables javascript only from white-listed sites).

Additional information:

• Mozilla Security Blog Post
• Secunia.com Advisory
• United States Computer Emergency Response Team
• NoScript Plugin

How to Disable the Javascript Engine in Firefox:

1. Enter about:config in the browser’s location bar.
2. Type jit in the Filter box at the top of the config editor.
3. Double-click the line containing javascript.options.jit.content setting the value to false.

Mozilla advises that disabling the JIT will result in decreased JavaScript performance and is only recommended as a temporary security measure.  Once users have been received the security update containing the fix for this issue, they should restore the JIT repeating the process above and setting the javascript.options.jit.content value to true.

Update — 7/16/2009

Firefox has introduced version 3.5.1 to address the security risk, as posted on their developer blog:

Firefox 3.5.1 update is now available for download

As part of the Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing security and stability process, Firefox 3.5.1 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users as a free download from www.firefox.com.

We strongly recommend that all Firefox 3.5 users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 3.5, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

For a list of changes and more information, please see the Firefox 3.5.1 release notes.

Please note: If you’re still using Firefox 2.0.0.x, this version is no longer supported and contains known security vulnerabilities. Please upgrade to Firefox 3.5 by downloading Firefox 3.5.1 from www.firefox.com.

This entry was posted by beltzner on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 6:34 pm.

VoIP Tech Chat posted a new article discussing residential VoIP (and the savings you can get from switching). It’s an interesting read, especially the data with wireless only usage and some of the savings breakdown.

For a typical household, VoIP remains a very cost-effective telephone solution; although you must remember that without good (and we mean good), high-speed Internet, your VoIP will be unusable. Many local phone companies offer a “dial tone only” line for less than $15.00 monthly. With the use of VoIP and a dial-tone only landline, you can still save more than $150.00 yearly while providing your family a reliable method of calling during emergencies and power outages.

Team Forrest offers Asterisk Consulting Services for a wide variety of VoIP, Call Center, and other Telephony Based needs. From small, family business to large Corporations, Team Forrest’s simple philosophy of “Help the Client” ensures we provide great service to meet your needs.

Asterisk Consulting

From carrier services to traditional PBX services, Team Forrest’s Asterisk Consulting Service provides you the solution you need. Services include:

• IVR Development
• Custom AGI Scripting / Programming
• OpenSER Integration
• Calling Card Systems
• Call Center / Sales Queue Development
• Call Recording (call spying, call barging, whisper, etc.)
• Database Integration (Microsoft SQL MSSQL, MySQL, Oracle, etc.)
• Custom Solutions

Emergency Asterisk Support

When a problem comes along, we provide 24/7 Emergency Support to bring your system back to life. Both new and existing clients benefit from our immediate support response.

For immediate support please contact us or call +1 (212) 937-7844.

Remote and Onsite Support

Team Forrest offers immediate remote assistance across the globe. Local, onsite service is also available, with quick response to Michigan, Florida, and New York locations.

Asterisk? Ask us.

With Team Forrest, you get professional consulting at a great price — increased productivity at a lower cost. To see how Team Forrest can help improve your communication needs, contact us. We enjoy talking with clients and look forward to seeing how we can help you.

Asterisk, developed and released by Digium, Inc., is the world’s leading open source telephony engine and tool kit. Asterisk empowers communication with it’s flexibility. Whether working as a simple office telephone system, a robust Call Center platform, or anything in-between, Asterisk provides advanced features at a very low deployment cost.  Asterisk is released as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and it is available for download free of charge. Asterisk is the most popular open source software available, with the Asterisk Community being the top influencer in VoIP.

Digium announced today a Remote Crash Vulnerability in the SIP Channel Driver affecting recent versions of Asterisk 1.4 and 1.6 branches. The full Advisory can be read directly from the Asterisk Project Security Advisory:

Description: When configured with pedantic=yes the SIP channel driver performs extra request URI checking on an INVITE received as a result of a SIP spiral. As part of this extra checking the headers from the outgoing SIP INVITE sent and the received SIP INVITE are compared. The code incorrectly assumes that the string for each header passed in will be non-NULL in all cases. This is incorrect because if no headers are present the value passed in will be NULL.

The values passed into the code are now checked to be non-NULL before being compared.

Resolution: Upgrade to revision 174082 of the 1.4 branch, 174085 of the 1.6.0 branch, 174086 of the 1.6.1 branch, or one of the releases noted below.

The pedantic option in the SIP channel driver can also be turned off to prevent this issue from occurring.

Affected Versions

1.4.x (Versions 1.4.22, 1.4.23, 1.4.23.1)
1.6.0.x (All versions prior to 1.6.0.6)
1.6.1.x (All versions prior to 1.6.1.0-rc2)
C.x.x (Only version C.2.3)

If you need assistance in updating or reviewing your Asterisk installation, please contact Team Forrest today.

John Todd, with Digium, announced a very cool contest — The Asterisk S-Prize.

To encourage the improvement and testing of larger-scale Asterisk systems, I’d like to repeat here what I mentioned today on the asterisk-dev mailing list: I’m putting out a semi-official challenge in place. The first person to get an Asterisk system moving 10,000 G.711 call legs through a single instance on a single machine will get a first-class steak dinner at Astricon. And a great bottle of wine, if that is your preference.

To read more about the contest, check out the official post at Digium.

Digium, the makers of Asterisk, announced today a new release of the Asterisk Telephony Software. The updated software contains a security release affecting all previously released versions of the software. It is recommended that you make sure you have upgraded to the most current version of this software; available for free from Digium.

The announcement issued follows:

The Asterisk.org development team has announced the release of Asterisk 1.2.31.1, 1.4.22.2, 1.4.23.1, and 1.6.0.5. These releases are available for immediate download from http://downloads.digium.com/.

This update for Asterisk includes a security fix for chan_iax2. Please see the associated security adivisory for more details:

http://downloads.digium.com/pub/security/AST-2009-001.html

These updates are a fix to a previous security release (released as versions 1.2.31, 1.4.22.1, and 1.6.0.3).

The new versions are being released after additional testing revealed some issues with the way that scanning for users was blocked. Those issues have been corrected in this release.

This security issue affects the 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6 series of Asterisk.

Also note, that Asterisk 1.6.0.4-rc1 was released yesterday prior to the security update. That release has been removed as there will be no 1.6.0.4 release, but rather will be reincarnated as 1.6.0.6-rc1. The reason for the dead release is to avoid 5 digit release numbers.

ChangeLogs for the various releases are available at:

http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.2.31.1

http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.4.22.2

http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.4.23.1

http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/ChangeLog-1.6.0.5

Thank you for your continued support of Asterisk!

If you would like assistance with upgrading your software, or simply would like us to verify which version you are using, please contact Team Forrest today. We will be glad to assist you.