More VOIP Updates

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Several things finally came together on my VOIP odyssey this weekend. For one I solved a problem I have been having for some time. I also got off my ass and plugged in my new Linksys VPN Router. I started to setup static VPN tunnels to work. For one thing I proved I can setup a static IPSEC tunnel to a Pix with a cheap ($150 or cheaper) router. At first I still could not connect to one of our offices. I had the same problem with the Pix 501 I had. Or at first I thought it was the same problem. With the 501 I couldn’t connect to that office either. I was beginning to think it was not me but the Pix at that office. Turns out when I had my Pix 501 I had 1 issue. With the new Linksys VPN router the problem was a new one. Turns out the fail-over Pix we have at the office uses the IP address of 10.1.1.1. That is all nice and good, but that was what I used for my router at home. That didn’t work well. I had to give my router a new address and recreate the VPN tunnel. Everything started working then.

Now I have 2 tunnels (if and when I want them) to work. I don’t need VPN software. This is a good test since now I do not need VPN software on a computer in order to establish a VPN connection. What that means is I can plug in a VOIP phone and connect to my office’s call manager. I did just that. Now I have a 7940 phone connecting into our CCM (cisco call manager) system sitting on my desk at home. This is different to what I was trying to do with the 7940 and my BroadVoice connection. Now I can log into the phone at home and get my extension from work. I can prove that we can do this with remote agents if we choose to do so. We probably won’t but it is a nice technological feat to say we can. We want to go with the cheaper soft-phone option for remote agents, but having the ability to put a phone in someone’s house is nice to know you can. Have I mentioned that I have a cool job, or that VOIP is awesome???

In addition to the work phone I now have setup. I finally got my VOIP ATA adapter from the lovely folks at Broadvoice on Monday. I plugged it in after calling them and changing my account back to use that adapter. In minutes the adapter registered and I was off and running. I plugged in my new cordless phone and I had phone service. Did I mention it is only $10 a month? Now I was an early adopter of not having a home phone. I still use my cell as my main phone, but it is nice to not have to worry about the battery dying on a long call. Truth be told I want the VOIP service for the simultaneous ring option that I have. I am able to have calls ring on my home phone, my cell, blackberry, and work phone at the same time. I have a few kinks I am working out but otherwise that has been very cool.

Some problems I have to work out. I am back to using my old 802.11b wireless point. My 802.11g point was built into my old router. Now that I have a VPN router I can’t use that router. I need to buy a stand alone “g” point. I also need to break out a 5 port switch and daisy chain it off of my router. With the Wifi point, both my personal and work phones, plus my desktop and laptop, plus a tivo I have ran out of network ports on my 4 port router. Thankfully I think I have enough components to build 2 computers and extra network gear in my closet. He I don’t throw out very much stuff.

Ok, time for bed…

There Goes My Google Rankings

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When I had my site hosted on my friends linux box I had some nice google rankings on some searches. I was surprised at how my site ranked sometimes. Well that is all gone now. When I changed my site address (used to start with blog. and now it is the normal www.) and I moved providers to Typepad several things happened that cost me the rankings. All of this doesn’t really matter. It is of passing interest to me. I still find it funny that anyone reads this. I am not sure what is weirder, people I know regularly reading it, or people I don’t know reading it?

Now with my new site URL and ip address I am hopeful the google searches will eventually come back.

Some People Need To Learn To Drive

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Getting ready to cross the street across from my building tonight I was standing 2 feet from the curb in the cross walk. I was minding my own business when some asshole backed his car into me. Thankfully (for him and me) the dumb-ass wasn’t going very fast. This &*%$^&* in his wanna be punked out ride didn’t even see me. He got out of his car when I kicked his bumper. He is luck I didn’t put a whole in his window. Granted I got lightly shoved, but this idiot could have been moving faster. You have to look.

This is the second time I have almost gotten run over on (or near) the curb in NYC. The last time was New Years back in 95, 96. I would recount that in more detail but I was very drunk and all I remember is the guy in the car was also. The difference was he was driving and I was walking.

That was my moron story for the day. I am taking the day off tomorrow. Hopefully I will get some extra sleep, a hair cut, some shopping and general laziness done. I may even study for my class. The day off won’t be complete since I will have class later at night. This is the first real skills session. Yes I had CPR but that is different. This is the first patient assessment skills. I haven’t taken an EMT class in years and I am amazed at how much some of it comes back to me right away, and how other things have changed…

Music On The Computer Like Device

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Been working on my music collection allot this week. Hey I am sick and have this is the most strenuous thing I can do. Howard gave me a gift certificate to the iTunes store so I bought R.E.M.’s latest CD. I also ripped a bunch of CD’s. I now have a massive 30 something gig’s of music. The question is do I get rid of the CD’s now that they are on the computer? Dan thinks so, but I will keep them in case of problems with the MP3 version of the music.

The good news about my ripping frenzy is that all the music is nicely organized. Some of the original CD’s I ripped years ago were not categorized or labeled correctly. I even went back and re-ripped some of those so I could correct some errors and encode them with the higher 160 bit encoding, instead of the 128 I did back when I started this odyssey in 1998ish. Man I haven’t used some CD’s since 99. I am getting old.

Now I Am Dangerous

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My EMT class took it’s American Heart CPR tests on Wednesday. After being nervous for no reason (hey, I have done this class like 4 or 5 times before) I passed both the practical and written test. I got a 92 if anyone is keeping score. I for one am not keeping score, but I have a 94 average in the class so far. Ok, so I am keeping score. Now I am dangerous and am “certified” to provide CPR. Actually I am not sure if they call it certified. I am trained in it may be safer. Either way a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

Next week I have 4 days of EMT class instead of the regular 3. The late nights are not great, but I want to be an EMT again.

VOIP Update

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I have given up with the Cisco 7940 phone. I went out and bought a Motorola 5.8GHZ cordless phone. I will plug it into the ATA adapter (the device that actually turns a VOIP call into something an analog phone can understand) that Broad Voice sends me on Monday.

On another VOIP note I still need to configure the linksys VPN router I got so I can see if I can establish a static tunnel to the office. If I can do that I can get a Cisco phone to work with my office extension.

Also got the approval to purchase the network gear for our ongoing build out of our call center. I have to get the paper work together and get the integrator to order the switch. Looks like we will go with a Cisco Catalyst 4000 series switch. I am also getting some more product details on some other projects we are looking at from our Cisco engineer on Monday.

Sick Saturday

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I stayed in most of the day today. I still have a lingering cold. I am coughing and my sinus’s still hurt. This cold has been bad for a week. Usually I get colds that are mild for a few days bad for a 2 or 3 days and then mild again until I am cleared up.

My mom keeps reminding me that tend to get sick when the weather changes. The past 2 weeks it has gotten a bit colder. I always remembered that I would get more migraines during weather changes, and not sick as in the flu or colds. Either way I still feel like crap.

I tried to clean up my apartment a bit today. It was getting really cluttered and messy. I got most of the cleanup done, but I still have some more to do. I will finish tomorrow.

I also ordered a bunch of DVD’s today. That is what I get for staying in and surfing on the web a bit. Amazon had a sale on some seasons of tv shows. I got season 1 of 24 for $14.99. That was the only season of that show that I actually watched and liked. I got another DVD that I cannot remember right now, and I pre ordered a few others that I saw that I wanted.

I finally got around to scheduling another Fresh Direct delivery. I am almost out of food so it was time.

Another “it was about time” I cleaned out a few box’s I had left over from my move. Yes I moved in July, and it is October 16. The box’s where in a closet. I still have 2 left. 1 is all books so I can keep it in a box for a while longer. The other box left will get cleaned out tomorrow, I hope.

Still Can’t Sleep

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I just took some Tylenol PM. Hopefully that will help me sleep a bit. Hopefully it will also help with the painful sinus pressure and itchy throat too. Sleep will be good enough for me. It is 2AM. I have been up reading some blogs that I like. I also wrote a few other entries. But to not be too freakish (i know too late) I will stagger some of the posts over the next few days. That way I can look like I am posting, when I in fact haven’t written in a while! Well I probably will write more this weekend because I am staying in, but I always like having something to post. I don’t like the site to get too stale for the 3 people that check it out. Actually according to Typepad I had 65 people visit today. A bunch from google. That is cool since as of 2 weeks ago I hadn’t had google spider my site yet. That is due to the change in the IP and domain name I use for it. 65 is not allot in any way, but unless Sean is refreshing the browser allot, people I don’t know are actually reading this stuff. That to me is way cool!

Spending

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Sometimes don’t you sit down and go “where did I spend all my money”? I am actually very good at keeping track of what I spend, but sometimes I still think wow I spent how much! Friday was one of those days, where things just were expensive. I had dry cleaning, cab’s, meals. That crap adds up. I learned really quick that when you live in manhattan cabs are your best friend, but are evil. They are great but expensive. that means you always want to use them, but know you shouldn’t. They are like a drug. So I use/have cabs like I do alcohol, very infrequently so I enjoy them but not so much that I am poor due to them.

Friday nights spending I blame Jayson, well maybe Gretchen. I am still sick and they invited me to Outback. Now they both know I cannot turn down an Outback meal. So I go. I really didn’t have any choice. With cabs and food I am out $40. But it was so tasty!!! So bad for you, yet so good. I had the crab cakes and cheese fries. Don’t tell my doctor that when he does my cholesterol.

The other spending was necessity. It was necessary to get my laundry done. Well I didn’t have to pay to have it done, but I don’t like to do the laundry. it reminds me of childhood horrors of having to fold laundry in the loud hot laundry room in my parents building. Well it was a horror to me, maybe not to most people. I could not do the laundry and smell like most people on the 7 train? But I don’t think people at work would like that, so I pay for laundry. I look on the bright side, my wallet is allot lighter now! Well maybe that isn’t a good thing.

See when I cannot sleep readers get my crazy ramblings about spending habits.

My New VOIP (Home) Phone

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I finally broke down and purchased another VOIP phone for my house. If you are someone who actually reads this regularly you will know last summer I got Vonage for about 2 weeks. it was too expensive for me to justify keeping it so I got rid of it. I am not home enough to warrant a home phone. I have been fine with my mobile.

Fast forward 14 months and I found a company that offers relatively cheap VOIP and offers all the cool features I wanted. Jayson found Broad Voice. They offer a $9.99 plan that gives you unlimited in state calls. That is all I needed so I got it. They also offer a function that AT&T Callvantage offers that allows me to have my phone right simultaneously on several phones. Now I can have my home phone ring at work, on my cell, etc at the same time. I have wanted one number to route to multiple lines for years. I used to use AT&T’s 500 number service back in the early 90’s but that was expensive and you paid per inbound calls. This is better. Whatever phone I pick up first is the phone that the call gets routed to.

What is also cool is that this company unlike allot of other VOIP providers allow you the option of bringing your own VOIP device or ATA adapter. What that means for me is if want I can configure a Cisco 7940 phone I have at work and use that with this service. I actually have been trying to do that today, but I am running into issues since our Cisco phones are configured for Skinny (to work with a Cisco Call Manager) and for this service I need SIP. No matter what Cisco says it is not simple to change the configuration. For now I am just routing all my calls to my mobile. I get 30 days to try it out, and it is only like $15 a month after tax’s and extra features. Not bad for unlimited local calls. I can use my mobile for long distance!

More reviews as I get it. Jayson and Gus are both waiting to see how I like this company, but they are both interested in the service.