Posted in Network Security, Unified Communications on March 30th, 2009 by Rolf – Be the first to comment
I had the enjoyable opportunity over the last few weeks to jump in and do a basic Cisco voice install. It was about 110 phones, with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition. This is a single box that includes Call Manager 6.1.3, and Unity Connection 2.1. It had to be done fast, and it had to be done right, so I stuck to mostly tried and true configurations.
Since this was a price sensitive design, we used the 2800 router to its maximum potential. The 2800 is an amazingly flexible piece of equipment; it can be configured to do large variety of things. Sometimes known as the Integrated Services Router, or ISR, it can be set up as a router, firewall, VPN, Voice Gateway, SIP session border controller, transoder, conference bridge, and survivable remote gateway, all at the same time, on the same box! read more »
Posted in Data Networks, Network Security, Unified Communications on March 30th, 2009 by Rolf – 1 Comment
I recently did a somewhat complex install of a Cisco 2800 Integrated Services Router. I enabled many of the features that come standard in the Advanced IP Services IOS, and thought it would be useful to show what a relatively current configuration would look like.
What made this installation fun was the use of object groups on the 2800 router. That is a new feature in the 12.4.20T version of code that made things interesting. The router has a GUI, but of course everything was set up in command line. I learned some neat things from this install, and based on the experience, I created a clean reference config for discussion purposes. This example is for the NAT and VPN, I will leave the voice configuration for a different example. Also, I did not set up SSL VPN on this box, nor did I use the newer version of firewall – this one is based on CBAC. read more »
Posted in Data Networks on March 6th, 2009 by Rolf – 1 Comment
It seems like one of the major tasks that I have been doing on a daily basis for the last ten years is creating network designs for people. Since a large part of the business that my company does is put in place a complete IP phone system into organizations that have between 50 and 3000 users, me and the other design guys create a lot of designs.
Most organizations do not upgrade their LAN to prepare for the future – most of them don’t touch the network as long as it is running properly and supporting the user’s applications. When starting the planning process for putting a secure voice system on the network, that takes the network requirements to another level.
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Posted in Data Networks on February 27th, 2009 by Rolf – 1 Comment
These are the most common, current Cisco products that are used at organizations that have between 100 and 3000 hosts on the system. The links go directly to the datasheets, and bypass all the annoying marketing and obsolete product links that are found on the Cisco website.
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Posted in Business on February 20th, 2009 by Rolf – 2 Comments
People start businesses every day. I live in Georgia, just north of Atlanta, in a part of town where retail storefronts have been multiplying without end. Many of the businesses are branches of larger corporations, or franchises. Some of them are independent stores. Every single one of the franchises and independent stores were opened by someone who had the courage to invest a significant portion of their savings into their dream, then work hard and sacrifice to help it to succeed.
Those are just the visible aspects of entrepreneurship. For every storefront business that opens up, there are just as many if not more businesses started by people in less visible locations. There are office parks without storefronts tucked away around every corner, and home based endeavors like services, multi-level marketing, and online businesses.
I started a business in just about the most unsound way possible. The errors I made were numerous. read more »
Posted in Unified Communications on February 18th, 2009 by Rolf – 1 Comment
Money is tight these days, and only the most essential projects are getting funded. In the data networking realm that means all projects have to show tangible immediate benefits, and save money to boot.
In the Return On Investment discussion, these can often times be split out into hard dollar and soft dollar cost savings. Hard dollar costs are what the organization pays out in cash every month, quarter, and year. For example, PBX lease payments, voice trunk line charges, or call center staffing level, are all examples of hard dollar costs to which savings can be applied. read more »
Posted in Data Networks, Unified Communications on February 13th, 2009 by Rolf – Be the first to comment
Last year we learned a lesson about POE switches the hard way. Cisco had some nice new gigabit phones start shipping, and had been shipping gigabit POE switches to power them. One of our customers wanted gigabit ethernet to their desktop, so we specified the gig phones with the gig switches. Since all the switches were going to be in one closet, we recommended four 48 port POE switches, along with 120 POE phones. Everything was going great, until we started putting the phones out on the desktop. read more »
Posted in Business, Data Networks on February 13th, 2009 by Rolf – 2 Comments
Even though it is very convenient to look up pricing for servers, switches, routers, firewalls and the like online, that is the worst way to purchase. I have been on the inside of IT sales for a long time, and can give you many reasons why you should by from a local Value Added Reseller, as they are known:
1. Best price. If you talk with a local reseller, and either pretend or actually let them help make a recommendation read more »
Posted in Unified Communications on February 12th, 2009 by Rolf – 1 Comment
The Asterisk open source phone system has always been a favorite of mine. I used it to help me out of a SIP jam a few years back, and for many years I have wanted to be able to put together a good system for customers using Asterisk, but have not been able to create something sufficiently compelling.
Although I primarily work with Cisco Unified Communications, and think it is the best overall UC system in the market, I had become frustrated when trying to come up with designs for less than 100 phones that were competitive from a standpoint of features and price.
For example, there was one company just down the street read more »
Posted in Data Networks, Network Security on February 9th, 2009 by Rolf – Be the first to comment
I have talked with a number of public safety organizations over the last few years about how they extend network connectivity to patrol officers that make stops. The benefits are tremendous. By having the ability to run a car tag and a driver’s license through the Georgia Crime Information Center, the officer is able to immediately identify individuals with warrants out for their arrest, stolen cars, and any number of other issues.
The ability to run this information through the GCIC database is always available, by calling in the information over the radio, and having it looked up, but at that point it sometimes becomes more trouble than its worth. read more »