John Mann's Weblog (on sng)

String around my finger
A 'blog to remember things I found.

My Home Page
I work for NIS ITS Monash University Australia.

Index

hardware 19
linux 13
media 24
misc 22
monash 18
networks 33
oss 1
security 1
software 17
voip 37
windows 3

Flavours

index

circa 1993

RSS

Links
These are a few of my favourite links.

raelity bytes ;-)

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GeoURL

Click to call me FWD# 61159

Thu, 15 Mar 2007

MONROBOT XI

Back in 197x, I played with several Monrobot Mark XI computers at Scotch College Melbourne. The "Computer Club" had a room in an old Army-style building with 2 Monrobot XI computers.

We started with one such computer, but when it broke down, we went looking for spare parts, manuals, expertise etc, and eventually collected 5 computers, another complete set of circuit cards and maintenance manuals.

We had a grand time, writing code in "sexadecimal", typing it in on the electric typewriter, saving programs to/from paper tape, repairing paper tape, playing blackjack and other games.

There was a higher-level language QUIKOMP http://www.mv.com/ipusers/xlisper/MonrobotXI.jpg and a Nmemonic Assembler, but it was generally simpler to just type in the Hex.

The Character set was based around the puched card data format " ",1-9 0 A-I J-R "/",S-Z Sexadecimal I/O used the characters 0-9, S, T, U, V, W, X (easy to map from punced card to 0-15).

Graham ??? tried to "network" two Monrobots together by cross-connecting I/O channels though a interconnect box that recognised certain characters as "push button X on the control pannel".

Our systems had extra half-cabinters on the end holding large 240V to 110V transformers. Internally the 110V AC was rectified and then fed to valves used to drive the parallel output devices.

The electric typewriters had extra mechanical soloenoids and combs underneath, which If you e.g. pressed a key while trying to unjam an electric typewriter, you could get ~150V DC through your fingers!

				BRL 1961, MONROBOT XI, start page 0672
 
    MONROBOT XI
    Monroe Calculating Machine Mark XI
    
    MANUFACTURER
    Litton Industries
    Monroe Calculating Machine Division
    
    Photo by Monroe Calculating Machine Division
    
       APPLICATIONS
     The Monrobot Mark XI is a stored-program, general
    purpose electronic business computer capable of
    operation with a wide variety of input-output equip-
    ment.
    
     PROGRAMMING AND NUMERICAL SYSTEM
 
    
    Internal number system         Binary
    Binary digits/word             32 including sign
    Binary digits/instruction      16
    Instructions/word               2
    Instructions decoded           27
    Instructions used              27
    Arithmetic system              Fixed point; programmed
                                       floating point
    Instruction type               One address
    Number range                  0 to 2₃₁ - 1 or 0 to +- 10₉ or
    
                                  0 to +- 2, 147, 483, 647
        
    Instruction word format
    +---------------+-----------------+
    | 16         11 | 10            1 |
    +---------------+-----------------+
    | Instruction   | Address         |
    +---------------+-----------------+
    
      ARITHMETIC UNIT
             Incl. Stor. Access    Exclud. Stor. Access
              Microsec             Microsec
    Add        9,000                3,000
    Mult      34,000               28,000
    Div      500,000              500,000
     Division is programmed.
    Construction (Arithmetic unit only)
     Transistors          190
     Diodes             1,675
    Arithmetic mode        Serial
    Timing                 Synchronous
    Operation              Sequential
 
        STORAGE
                         No. of     No. of    Average Access
     Medium              Words      Digits    Microsec
     Magnetic Drum       1,024     32,768     6,000
 
        INPUT
     Media                         Speed
     Punched Paper Tape          20 char/sec
     Electric typewriter         10 char/sec
     16-key numeric keyboard     10 char/sec
     80-column card              16 col/sec
     Teletypewriter              10 char/sec
     The machine can accomodate any three of the above input
     devices simultaneously. Punched paper tape may be any code, 5
     to 8 level. Quoted input and output speeds include conversion
     to and from binary as well as translation of any tape language
     to machine code. Higher speeds are possible using pure binary
     input and output.
 
        OUTPUT
       Media                      Speed
     Punched Paper Tape        20 char/sec
     Electric Typewriter       10 char/sec
     80-column Card            16 col/sec
     Teletypewriter            10 char/sec
     The machine can accomodate any three of the above output
    devices simultaneously. Punched paper tape may be any code, 5
    to 8 level.
    
      CIRCUIT ELEMENTS OF ENTIRE SYSTEM
 
     Type                     Quantity
     Tubes
     5727                     10 - 30 (10 tubes/output device)
     Diodes
     Primarily 1N636       2,300
     Transistors
     Primarily 2N412         383
    
       CHECKING FEATURES
     Parity check on input and output. Parity
     may be omitted.
     Action taken on parity failure depends upon program. With
     Teletype or other parity-less codes, parity is not used.
    
      POWER, SPACE, WEIGHT, AND SITE PREPARATION
    Power, computer          0.850 Kw 0.940 KVA 0.9 pf
    Volume, computer        48 cu ft
    Area, computer          15 sq ft
    Room size               10 ft x 10 ft
    Floor loading           30 lbs/sq ft
                           100 lbs concen max
    Weight, computer       375 lbs
      System requires 15 amp, 110 volt, AC, 60 cps line.
    
            PRODUCTION RECORD
    Number produced to date        7
    Number in current operation    6
    Time required for delivery     6 - 9 months
 
      COST, PRICE AND RENTAL RATES
     Cost of computer with operator desk,
    1 typewriter, 1 tape reader, and 1
    tape punch                          $24,500
     Additional Equipment
    16-key numeric keyboard                 300
    Tape Reader                           1,250
    Tape Punch                              700
    Typewriter                            2,350
    Buffer for third device                 600
     Above prices are approximate.
     Monthly rental of computer with operator desk,
    1   typewriter, 1 tape reader, and 1 tape punch,
    including service                      $700
     Maintenance contracting is $1,200/year after
    90-day service guarantee.
 
       PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS
 
     Manufacturer makes a programmers' school available to users.
    One operator is required for each 8-hour shift. Virtually no
    operator training is required.
    
       RELIABILITY, OPERATING EXPERIENCE,
          AND TIME AVAILABILITY
     Conservative solid-state design assures long life and wide
    margins under all but the most extreme operating conditions.
    Pluggable printed circuit boards provide trouble-free operation as
    well as ease of maintenance. Monrobot XI operates with full
    +-25% voltage margins at 110^oF ambient.
    
       ADDITIONAL FEATURES AND REMARKS
     The Monrobot Mark XI accepts alpha-numeric information
    in any code from up to three independent input devices and can
    output information to any combination of three independent
    devices.
     System can simultaneously prepare independent output
    documents in any format, and can merge transaction and
    unit record input tapes in any format.

Manuals

[ /misc | # ]

Wed, 03 May 2006

Nearing Zero

Cartoons, many with a Science bent. Browse the Subject Gallery or in bunches of 10.

My favorite is:

nz017Environmental Scientists in the Wild West.[...higher res version...] (no deep linking).

[ /media | # ]

au.pool.ntp.org - NTP for home / SMEs

For machines at home, instead of configuring to use Monash's NTP servers, use a pool of public servers.

To use this pool zone, add the following to your ntp.conf file:

server 0.au.pool.ntp.org
server 1.au.pool.ntp.org
server 2.au.pool.ntp.org

Of course, if you aren't in Australia, use the appropriate pool.

[ /networks | # ]

Bitsavers.org

As of Feb, 2006 there are over 8818 documents containing over 830,000 pages in the archive.

Would you like to help bitsavers? We're looking for documentation and software for minicomputers and mainframes, from the 50's to the 80's. email contrib at bitsavers dot org if you can help.

Help Us Save What Bits Still Exist.

Work on the bitsavers project has been going on now for over five years, and it is appears that very little software for minicomputers and mainframes has survived in machine-readable form from the mid-seventies and earlier. If you know of surviving software on 1/2" tape, paper tape, cards, DECtape, etc. from users groups or computer manufacturers, please contact us. Equipment is available to recover these bits, and in some cases can be brought on-site.

[ /hardware | # ]

Monty Python's Completely Useless Web Site

Welcome to the completely unauthorized, completely silly, and completely useless Monty Python web site!

Contains information about Monty Python's TV shows: Monty Python's Flying Circus and And Now For Something Completely Different; and movies: Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl, and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Includes stills, MIDI theme musinc, sound grabs, and/or scripts. Also a Forum with news and discussions.

A wonderful resource!!

[ /media | # ]

Voipbuster - the Free Calls Company

Warning: These Web pages use a nasty Cross Browser marquee from Dynamic Drive that sucks all your PC's CPU time !!! Don't leave this site ticking away in a browser tab or two !!!

Offers Free calls to landlines in many countries including Australia, and free VoIP-In numbers in e.g. United Kingdom. You need to install and run the Windows client to create yourself an account.

" You can now make FREE calls to several countries. These calls are limited to 1 minute per call. If you want UNLIMITED calls to our FREE destinations please go to our website and buy 10 Euro worth of credit. "

* Max 20hrs per month of free calls.

Rates to other countries are e.g. 1 (Euro cent?) per minute to USA.

SIP settings:

Username: 	Your VoipBuster username
Password: 	Your VoipBuster password
SIP/Proxy registrar: 	sip.voipbuster.com
Domain/Realm (optional): 	voipbuster.com
STUN server: 	stun.voipbuster.com

Always dial 00 + countrycode + areacode + subscribernumber.

?? Test numbers

[ /voip | # ]

oztralia.com again

I've re-subscribed to oztralia.com for inbound Fax-to-email (I've cancelled my 2nd Optus landline) and for testing Asterisk trunking.

The web site hasn't improved much -- all the detailed information is still in the forums.

Their plans have been simplified down to just two, plus added services.

IAX Software

[ /voip | # ]

Whirlpool - Australin Broadband News links

This post is to collect up VoIP links on Whirlpool.

Forums - Internode
Discussions about Nodephone, Billion 7402VGP and Sipura gateways ...

Wiki
Links to FAQs, including Wiki - VoIP Providers and Wiki - VoIP

Forums - Voice over IP
Includes General VoIP Information and Reference, How to unlock engin VoIP Box (Sipura SPA2000), Spa 3k dial plan (& 2k, linksys pap2 &c), VOIP Provider Wiki, Australian Asterisk VoIP Users Group, Forums - Voice over IP - Asterisk .

[ /voip | # ]

Asterisk@Home

I installed V2.7 on an old IBM Personal Computer 300PL/. Asterisk@Home is an interesting IP PBX based on CentOS and chock-full of VoIP goodies.

It does take a little while to get to grips with everything that is included, and work out how to drive it all.

It is a IP PBX with SIP and IAX interfaces, rather than a SIP router. It wants to relay all the voice traffic as well as the signalling. This probably has a performance overhead, but does make gatewaying easier.

I think the best setup guide is the "Asterisk@Home Without Tears - The Dumb-Me Guide" which is discussed at Whirlpool Forums - Voice over IP - Asterisk - Kickstart for Asterisk newbie.

[ /voip | # ]

Tue, 07 Feb 2006

XORP

XORP is the eXtensible Open Router Platform.

XORP already supports IPv4 and IPv6, together with BGP4+ and RIP for unicast routing, PIM-SM and IGMPv2 for multicast, and limited SNMP support.

Similar to Zebra, but no OSPF.

Uses verbose nested thing { label : value } configuration language, e.g. config.boot.sample.txt

Update 07 Feb 2006
Now does OSPF. Version 1.1 has a (BSD) Live CD.

Being used for IP Multicast, for instance see this xorp-users thread.

[ /networks | # ]

Wed, 30 Nov 2005

Network Speed Test

The forums on Whirlpool point to several network speed test sites.

Visualware MySpeed Server is a Java client that interacts with a special server. It is installed at various sites such as InternetFrog.com, Bigpond (expired), Optus (expired), and Me (renewed). It reports Upload and Download speed test measurements, bandwidth consistency (QOS), Max Pause and Round Trip Time (RTT).

Oz Broadband Speed Test is a simpler scheme that just times how long it takes to download a large image from a server. No special software on the server, and Javascript on the client. Only reports Download speed.

Test run on 30/11/2005 @ 9:52 A.M. Mirror: Optus Test type: Cable Your connection speed: kbps: 3278.9 KB/s: 409.8625 Mbps: 3.20205078125

[ /networks | # ]

Mon, 28 Nov 2005

OpenWrt 2

I accidentally did an in-place whiterussian rc3 to rc4 upgrade:

root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg update
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/packages/Packages
Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/lists/whiterussian
Downloading
http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/packages/non-free/Packages
Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/lists/non-free
Successfully terminated.
root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg upgrade
Upgrading base-files on root from 2 to 5...
Upgrading base-files-brcm on root from 1 to 2...
Upgrading busybox on root from 1.00-2 to 1.00-3...
Upgrading dropbear on root from 0.45-3 to 0.45-4...
Upgrading iptables on root from 1.3.1-1 to 1.3.3-1...
Upgrading libgcc on root from 3.4.4-2 to 3.4.4-5...
Upgrading mtd on root from 2 to 3...
Upgrading ntpclient on root from 2003_194-1 to 2003_194-2...
Upgrading ppp on root from 2.4.3-6 to 2.4.3-7...
Upgrading ppp-mod-pppoe on root from 2.4.3-6 to 2.4.3-7...
Upgrading uclibc on root from 0.9.27-2 to 0.9.27-5...
Upgrading wificonf on root from 4 to 5...
...
Package base-files wants to install file /sbin/hotplug
        But that file is already provided by package hotplug
...
root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg remove hotplug
Removing package hotplug from root...
Successfully terminated.
root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg upgrade
Upgrading base-files on root from 2 to 5...
Downloading
http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/packages/base-files_5_mipsel.ipk
ipkg: /rom/note: Read-only file system
Configuring base-files
Successfully terminated.
root@OpenWrt:/#

Upgrading cleared the root password, so telnet was re-enabled. Also setup ntp:

root@OpenWrt:/# date
Sat Jan  1 01:39:02 UTC 2000
root@OpenWrt:/# echo "EST-10EDT-11,M10.5.0/02:00:00,M3.5.0/03:00:00" > /etc/TZ
root@OpenWrt:/# nvram set ntp_server=130.194.1.99
root@OpenWrt:/# /usr/sbin/ntpclient -c 1 -s -h  130.194.1.99
36524 06338.242   23756.0     31.0  186186381427418.5  53848.3         0
root@OpenWrt:/# date
Fri Nov 25 11:12:05 EDT 2005

Now have:

root@OpenWrt:/# ipkg list_installed
base-files - 5 - OpenWrt filesystem structure and scripts
base-files-brcm - 2 - Board/architecture specific files
bridge - 1.0.6-1 - Ethernet bridging tools
busybox - 1.00-3 - Core utilities for embedded Linux systems
dnsmasq - 2.22-2 - A lightweight DNS and DHCP server
dropbear - 0.45-4 - a small SSH 2 server/client designed for small
 memory environments.
ip - 2.6.11-050330-1 - iproute2 routing control utility
ipkg - 0.99.149-2 - lightweight package management system
iptables - 1.3.3-1 - The netfilter firewalling software for IPv4
kernel - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - 
kmod-brcm-et - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Proprietary driver for Broadcom Ethernet
 chipsets
kmod-brcm-wl - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Proprietary driver for Broadcom Wireless
 chipsets
kmod-diag - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Driver for Router LEDs and Buttons
kmod-ppp - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - PPP support
kmod-pppoe - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - PPP over Ethernet support
kmod-sched - 2.4.30-brcm-2 - Kernel schedulers for IP traffic
kmod-wlcompat - 2.4.30-brcm-3 - Compatibility module for using the
 Wireless Extension with broadcom's wl
libgcc - 3.4.4-5 - GCC support library
libosip2 - 2.2.0-1 - GNU oSIP library, a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
implementation
libpcap - 0.8.3-1 - a low-level packet capture library
libpthread - 0.9.27-1 - POSIX threads library
mtd - 3 - Tool for modifying the flash chip
ntpclient - 2003_194-2 - NTP client for setting system time from NTP servers.
nvram - 1 - NVRAM utility and libraries for Broadcom hardware
ppp - 2.4.3-7 - a PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) daemon (with MPPE/MPPC
 support)
ppp-mod-pppoe - 2.4.3-7 - a PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) plugin for PPP
siproxd - 0.5.11-2 - a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) proxy
tc - 2.6.11-050330-1 - iproute2 traffic control utility
tcpdump - 3.8.3-1 - A tool for network monitoring and data acquisition.
uclibc - 0.9.27-5 - Standard C library for embedded Linux systems
wificonf - 5 - Replacement utility for wlconf
wireless-tools - 28.pre7-1 - Tools for setting up WiFi cards using the
 Wireless Extension
zlib - 1.2.2-2 - an implementation of the deflate compression method (library)

[ /linux | # ]

Fri, 25 Nov 2005

OpenWrt

"OpenWrt is a Linux distribution for wireless routers. Instead of trying to cram every possible feature into one firmware, OpenWrt provides only a minimal firmware with support for add-on packages."

Time to upgrade to White Russian rc4.

Since the Linksys WRT54G that I am upgrading, is also my only path to the Internet (and OpenWrt documentation), I could be in a Catch-22 if things go wrong.

Took a copy of their Web site using:

wget -m -k -K -E http://wiki.openwrt.org/

gave 4 MB, plus 4 MB of converted-link files.

Re-running this command, which uses HEAD rather than GET, fails with "403 FORBIDDEN", presumably since it is a Wiki.

Also nvram show | sort gives 457 lines. There must be some unnecessary or harmful cruft in there, but I'm loath to delete it all ...

[ /linux | # ]

Wed, 23 Nov 2005

Claymation

Article in Melbourne Weelky Magazine recommendation claymation for kids.

http://www.animateclay.com http://library.thinkquest.org/22316/home.html http://www.jlf.com/clay_anm.html http://www.sfsu.edu/~teachers/workshops/clayanimation/stepone.html

[ /misc | # ]

Tue, 22 Nov 2005

Rename photo files

I needed to re-arrange my collection of photo files. To standardise the file naming, I used the Linux rename utility, part of util-linux.

find | grep AUT | xargs rename AUT aut
find | grep DSC | xargs rename DSC dsc 
find | grep IMG | xargs rename IMG img
find | grep JPG | xargs rename JPG jpg
find | grep Mov | xargs rename Mov mov
find | grep MOV | xargs rename MOV mov
find | grep THM | xargs rename THM thm
find | grep TIM | xargs rename TIM tim

To split files up by date, I hacked up some Perl, pushdir.pl that looked at the EXIF data (if any) for the creation time or used the mtime of the file, and moved the file to a directory yyyy-mm-dd, creating it if nexessary.

Rotating the image in a file changes the mtime of a file, but not its EXIF timestamp. Copying a file from a camera or memory card may or may not preserve the file creation time, or create funny capitalisation.

[ /media | # ]

Sun, 20 Nov 2005

Optus Cable QoS - 2

From 17th Nov 2005, the upload speed on Optus Cable has changed from 128 kbit/s to 256 kbit/s.

This should make VoIP, videoconferencing etc much better.

[ /networks | # ]

Tue, 15 Nov 2005

Optus Cable QoS - 1

Optus Cable is asymmetric with downloads at 4-5 Mbit/s and uploads limited to 128 kbit/s. This asymmetry has strange effects on protocols which assume symmetric bandwidth.

As a baseline, here are some results while uploading a directory full of digital photos. [ 121 pictures, 190 MB at about 1 MB per minute. ]

[johnm@tower in]$ ping 130.194.1.1 -c 100
100 packets transmitted, 99 received, 1% packet loss, time 99390ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 208.082/620.189/855.658/141.705 ms, pipe 2

J6$ mul ping /nu=100 johnm.dyndns.org
100 packets transmitted, 89 packets received, 11% packet loss
round-trip (ms)  min/avg/max = 176/564/843

[root@ns0a tftp]# ping -c 100 -q johnm.dyndns.org
100 packets transmitted, 95 packets received, 5% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 400.331/644.053/871.804/131.181 ms

Pinging from home PC to work seems more relyable than pinging from work to home router. The long-term smokeping stats show about a 0.5% work to home router ping loss with no other traffic.

[ /networks | # ]

Tue, 23 Aug 2005

Enterprise QoS Solution Reference Network Design Guide

See the fine list of Solution Reference Network Designs at http://www.cisco.com/go/srnd/ There is a new, Version 3.1, June 2005, Enterprise QoS SRND.

This weighty tome (284 pages) has been updated to include e.g.

Scavenger-class QoS DoS/Worm Mitigation Strategy
AutoQoS VoIP (Campus)

Chapter 1 Overview

Chapter 2 lists for different switch models and different edge trust types -- what commands to enter, why, and verification commands. e.g.

Catalyst 2970/3560/3750 Conditionally-Trusted IP Phone + PC with Scavenger-Class QoS (Advanced) Model
-- goes the whole hog allowing 5 Mbit/s of mission-critical SAP traffic.

Chapter 3 is WAN Aggregator QoS Design

Well worth a read !!

[ /networks | # ]

Mon, 22 Aug 2005

SER - SIP Express Router 2

Files available via FTP. Latest README is for version 0.9.3, however, I'm using last-available Red Hat RPMs for version 0.8.12.

AARNet Tutorial on SIP and SIP SER server has links to useful configs.

Installed ser-0.8.12-0.i386.rpm, ser-mysql-0.8.12-0.i386.rpm, mysqlclient10-3.23.58-6.i386.rpm, along with php-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-gd-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-mbstring-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-mysql-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm, php-pear-5.0.4-10.3.i386.rpm and phpMyAdmin to manage MySQL.

I read Getting Started with MySQL, 2.9.2. Unix Post-Installation Procedures, and 2.9.3. Securing the Initial MySQL Accounts.

Opinions about MySQL root password differ -- see Step by Step Installation of SER on RedHad Fedora Core 1 v. phpMyAdmin error messages, and SIP.edu Cookbook - Configuring SER recommends using the PW environment variable to avoid being prompted all the time.

Set domain in dhcpd.conf, set line1_* and line2_* in SIPmacaddress.cnf, and added accounts using serctl. Phone now registers to SER.

Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
 cseq=101 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
 uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
 to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:1002@10.1.1.222:5060>>
Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
 cseq=101 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
 uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
 to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:phone2@10.1.1.222:5060>>
Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
 cseq=102 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
 uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:1002@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
 to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:1002@10.1.1.222:5060>>
Aug 22 10:12:14 tower ser: DEBUG SIP: Incoming SIP Method=REGISTER
 cseq=102 request uri=<10.1.1.50> src ip=<10.1.1.222> from
 uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> to uri=<sip:phone2@10.1.1.50> from tag <<null>>
 to tag <<null>>  header <<sip:phone2@10.1.1.222:5060>>

[ /voip | # ]

Cisco IP Phone 7960

 
Original 
App Load ID: P00303010411
Boot Load ID:
Version: 3.1(4.11)

Very old SCCP image -- current is 7.x

Tries to fetch:
OS79XX.TXT
SEP003094C2B25D.cnf.xml
XMLDefault.cnf.xml

Converting a Cisco 7940/7960 CallManager Phone to a SIP Phone and the Reverse Process

Cisco 7940 and 7960 IP Phones Firmware Upgrade Matrix

Upgraded to SIP ver 6.3 by putting P0S3-06-3-00 in OS79XX.TXT and "image_version: P0S3-06-3-00" in SIPDefault.cnf.

Maybe try version 7.5 later ...

Cisco IP Phone 7960/7940 User Guide for SIP

SIP on 7960/7940 manuals

Cisco SIP IP Administrator Guide, Version 7.5

SIP IP Telephone 7940/7960 Software

See also Appendix D - Configurable Parameters for the SIP IP Phone (Versions 6.x and 7.x) for definition of fields in SIPDefault.cnf -- linked to by AARNet tutorial Configs for Cisco 7960 with SER.

Using the Cisco SIP IP Phone

SIP - Session Initiation Protocol

Cisco IP Phone Administrator Guides for SIP

[ /voip | # ]

Mon, 15 Aug 2005

FWD 1800 gateway in OZ available

SJphone FWD

"sandman" wrote:

We've made available a **FREE** 1800 number FWD gateway to see if people would find it usefull. A few technical matters to make note of
1) No warranties implied, its experimental
2) The gateway is registered as an account on FWD
3) Your CLID will show up at the remote end
4) We do not know what call depth is possible at the FWD end on a single account
5) If your calling an OZ FWD number, if that person is registered as an IAX user, there should be **NO** latency
6) PREFIX to use infront of FWD number is 393 ie: 393xxxxxx where xxxxxx is the FWD number u need to call.
7) Call 1800262218
Enjoy please and provide feedback. I have no idea how its going to go and this is experimental. If its well received, we may make it available long term...
CIao

It works!! I phoned my laptop from my work phone. SJphone console says:

   Incoming Call
Incoming call from 0399054774
 from 69.90.155.70 : 5060
SIP session using Asterisk

65.39.205.121 and 69.90.155.70 both belong to Peer1 Internet Bandwidth Inc. and are reached through NewYork.savvis.net.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/index.cfm?a=wiki&tag=voip_1800gateway http://account.freeworlddialup.com/index_new.php?section_id=97 http://www.freeworlddialup.com/content/view/full/333/

325 faktortel 335 fire 373 free 393 fwd

[ /voip | # ]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005

SJphone

SJphone GUI

Our flagship product is SJphone which is the best standard-based softphone for MS Windows, PocketPC, Linux, Mac OS X, web-applications etc.

It supports both SIP and H.323 standards, many features and comes with Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSP) profiles, e.g. Linux/MAC OS Free World Dialup Profile, and a guide for creating your own profiles.

Downloads, support documents

I found this application to be quite techie-friendly with "Info" pane, Options -> Support -> Bug Reporting -> Start Recording / Submit, forums where developer replies etc etc. Not a pretty application, though there is some mention of "skins".

I "Registered", but I'm not sure if that enables any more functionality. Provided CODECs: GSM 6.10, iLBC 30ms and 20ms, Speex 15.2k and 15.2k 40ms and 8.0k 40ms, G.711 A-Law and u-Law. The purchased Windows SJphone Plus version comes with G.729.

Codec info page and Voice Over IP - Per Call Bandwidth Consumption.

[ /voip | # ]

Pioneer DVR-109

DVR-109 picture

I bought a black one of these for A$73. Should read and write all single and dual-layer media types.

Downloads here including version 1.57 firmware

[ /hardware | # ]

Fri, 05 Aug 2005

BitTorrent

Tim pointed me to an excellent article on Wikipedia describing BitTorrent. See also their page on Peer-to-peer in general.

Somewhere else (???) described BitTorrent as being different from other peer-to-peer applications because there is no inbuilt method for publishing, or searching for metadata. Publishing (announcing to the world that you have some files with particular names / descriptions / sizes / checksums ) and searching (the world being able to find the file you want and how to get it) are done using other tools such as Web servers, e-mail, or even embeded into games.

In some file-sharing schemes, a large number of users get together and share a number of files that is 10s, 100s or 1000s of the number of users. In contrast, with BitTorrent, a number (between 2 and 100,000) of users obtain the .torrent metadata for a single file (or indivisible bundle of files), and then get together in a specially-purposed swarm to spread just that file to all of them.

Comparing BitTorrent to normal Web operations, I think BitTorrent is most like a dynamic distributed caching proxy server cloud. You can't tell whether a file came from the original site, or from a proxy -- a local proxy, your ISP's proxy, a parent or peer of proxy the proxy you thought you were using, a front-end reverse proxy, a load balancer, ... Normal Web proxy networks are general purpose and need to be statically configured. BitTorrent proxy clouds are single file, highly dynamic and self-organising (with hints from the tracker).

A BitTorrent proxy cloud operates differently in that a client will up/download parts of the a file (and cryptographically check those parts), rather than a Web proxy which likes to deal in whole files (and blindly trusts the received content).

Brian Dessent writes

It takes a great deal of bandwidth and server resources to distribute files that are large or very popular, or both. The concept of mirrors partially addresses this shortcoming by distributing the load across multiple servers. But it requires a lot of coordination and effort to set up an efficient network of mirrors, and it's usually only feasible for the busiest of sites. ...

BitTorrent is closest to Usenet, in my opinion. It is best suited to newer files, of which a number of people have interest in.

PS. Microsoft are working on something similar called Avalanche

The code-named research project "Avalanche" studies how to enable a cost effective, internet scalable and very fast file distribution solution (e.g. for TV on-demand, patches, software distribution). Such an approach leverages desktop PCs to aid in the distribution process, relieving congested servers and network links from most of the traffic.

Will peer-to-peer be banned if Microsoft provide it and want you to use it? (Windows File and Print is peer-to-peer already.)

[ /software | # ]

InternetNZ unveils software for Enum

ENUM PUA Prototype Software Release

InternetNZ Announces the release of ENUM Personal User Agent Prototype software under Open Source BSD Licence.

"Personal User Agents (PUA) are software programs which act like firewalls; automatically filtering requests for ENUM contact information and deciding what information to release and how incoming calls will be directed based on rules that look at the inbound identity of the caller. This protects the consumer from address harvesting or privacy breaches.

http://www.internetnz.net.nz/public/enum/pua/README.txt

... Installation The system integrates with Asterisk - the Open Source PBX! (www.asterisk.org). ...

My guess is that to filter requests for ENUM contact information and to control routing of calls, the information must be stored locally, and not publised in the DNS (apart from some generic "send everything to the gateway box" info).

[ /networks | # ]

Memo to mainstream media: You don't get to blog

The DNA of blogging is a complicated matter that touches on being outside voices and taking personal control of the media. But at minimum the DNA of blogging has to do with distributing the conversation. Contrary to that, the DNA of mainstream media to date is all about dominating the conversation.

... in the pure sense a big part of blogging involves the voices of people who don't have a publishing/broadcasting aparatus at their disposal and don't have the institutional restraints of a media company.

[ /misc | # ]

What Business Can Learn from Open Source

Another interesting Paul Graham essay, about blogging, "amateurs" + aggregators v. "professionals" + channels, startup investor-founder relationships v. paternalistic employer-employee relationships.

So these, I think, are the three big lessons open source and blogging have to teach business: (1) that people work harder on stuff they like, (2) that the standard office environment is very unproductive, and (3) that bottom-up often works better than top-down.

[ /misc | # ]

Wed, 03 Aug 2005

Vizufon

US$399.99 Broadband Internet video phone using high speed Internet connection.

Specifications:

[ /voip | # ]

Tue, 02 Aug 2005

iPodder

"The cross-platform podcast receiver"

If you want to listen to internet audio programs (podcasts) but can't when they are scheduled, this program is for you.

It allows users to select and download shows and music and to play whenever they want on their iPods, portable digital media players, or computers automatically, after specifying which music or shows they want to listen to.

See definition of Podcasting at Wikipedia, along with RSS 2.0, ATOM etc links. Also see Payloads for RSS where it all started.

Downloaded iPodder-linux-2.1.tar.bz2 from here,

Installing iPodder into Fedora Core 3 Mini-HOWTO

Installed. it. It put files into /opt/iPodder and a symlink into /usr/bin -- hardly my favorite places. It also needs a

# chmod +r /opt/iPodder/ipodder/players.py

[ /software | # ]

Mon, 01 Aug 2005

PhoneGnome

They sell something that looks like a Sipura SPA-3000, which contacts their server to see whether it can route calls over VoIP, or falls back to using the PSTN.

It all starts off looking great:

1. PhoneGnome is a "thing". It is a revolutionary concept. FREE calling is a feature built into a piece of hardware that you purchase and own. There is no signup, no "account", and no monthly fees. ...

4. Give your current phone service a kick with advanced capabilities you can't even get from the phone company, like voicemail-to-email, online phone book with click-to-dial, and more, all included FREE with your one-time purchase of PhoneGnome ...

7. No obligations, No risk, full-moneyback guarantee.

However, when you get down to the PhoneGnome License Terms and Conditions of Use Agreement

Use of the PhoneGnome Services ...

(d) You may not reverse engineer, distribute, publish, display, modify or in any way exploit the configuration parameters which we provide as a means to access the PhoneGnome Services.

(e) You may not use the PhoneGnome Services for telemarketing, broadcast fax, or to deliver unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, promotional materials or solicitations.

(f) You acknowledge that the PhoneGnome and any embedded software or firmware is exclusively for use with the PhoneGnome Services.

(g) You agree not to perform a factory reset of the PhoneGnome hardware.

(h) You may not use the PhoneGnome Services with or connect the hardware component of the PhoneGnome Servcie to a PBX or automated dialer.

It doesn't look like a "thing" that I could configure to use with a home Asterix PBX setup for example.

Also check out the Privacy Policy where they get to record and analyse your PSTN as well as VoIP call information.

[ /voip | # ]

Wed, 27 Jul 2005

Mail Filtering

Or, how to block a few million spams per day without breaking a sweat.

Includes Sendmail Config, Blackmilter, Graymilter, Spfmilter, ClamAV, Procmail, and Bayesian filters.

The Hall of Shame lists DNS-RBL and AOL:

You can see their full list of AOL's email errors here: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/. It makes amusing reading. I guess they think they are big enough that they can just define their own internet standards, and everyone else will adapt to them. Well, no thanks.

[ /monash | # ]

Voicetronix

Computer Telephony hardware vendor with Open Source drivers. Located in Adelaide / Sydney.

Products include OpenLine4 (4-port FXO), OpenLog4 (4-port logging), OpenSwitch6/12 (FXO or FXS), and OpenPRI (E1).

Their Open Source softwaree includes drivers, OpenPBX, OpenH323 PSTNGW, CT (computer telephony) Server, Logger, and Unified Messaging Server.

Once past the survey you can download interesting-looking things.

Unfortunately, their hardware seems too expensive for home experimentation, e.g. OpenSwitch6 885 Euro, or OpenLine4 550 Euro.

[ /voip | # ]

Sun, 24 Jul 2005

Understanding SIP

Mark A. Miller wrote a series of articles, published on www.voipplanet.com

Each article is brief and easy to read, but gives a good overview, and pointers for where to look for more details.