Okay, okay, the new voip connection has been great. But this is a warning about security. I will put up more recommendations shortly. I have recently had my external port hacked. They hacked into the default Ext 100 and start placing international calls.
Certainly, the first think I have done is to close external access until I am confident I am less exposed. The second thing I have done is to add a password to dial international phone number. The third is to improve the security of the passwords on all the SIP accounts.
This is a form of Cyber Crime which really isn’t on law enforcements radar, it is difficult to determine who has made the attack and difficult to prove…
Heed this warning and make sure your system is very secure prior to setting up remote extensions. Currently I can’t be called or place calls from work on my home phone… I will fix it shortly and let you know what I have found.
More good news with my Asterisk Based VOIP PBX. This political season was totally avoided!
I know many poeple that complained about all the political poles and informationational calls during the primary. I can tell you that I talked to ZERO political parties but have seen several come into the VOIP system.
That does not go for my poor PBX Server. We received approximately 35 calls up to the election, several from caller ID 999-999-9999. There were a few numbers that had already been black-listed, but it seams like the "Boiler Rooms" where they place these calls cannot handle the Voice Menu to select the proper resident. All of the non-black-listed calls died while selecting a resident to dial. There were a few longer "calls" to the AVR (Automated Voice Response), most likely playing their recording to the computer.
What a clean, rest-ful time in the house during a usually busy "dinner" phone call season. Again, VOIP is the way to go, it puts you in control of who can use your phone to contact you. This free Asterisk PBX system has been great so far, until next time.
The Asterisk VOIP system has been running great for a while now. We have about 10 numbers black-listed (hope my wife doesn't find out her parents can't all anymore... he he he). The phone is now under our control. We can talk to people whom we wish. We can even send voice messages to each other. Life is good.
Ultimately, I have developed my own VOIP IP based phone service based upon my old Analog phone line into the house. But how is it cheaper. It really isn't much cheaper yet! I have extended my reach to another Asterisk VOIP system and tied them together. This has given more "Outbound" phone lines to the house. Now the call that comes in for the girls can be routed through the PBX and out to the other VOIP server and to their Cellular phone. I have installed X-lite softphone on my PC to place calls through my house from anywhere I am on the internet. I also have a Google Android Cellphone and have installed SIPdroid on my phone and can place Voice over IP based calls over my data plan rather than paying for more minutes.
So, it is getting cheaper, and certainly more flexible as I learn the power of having your own VOIP PBX!
At first site, I figured that it would be difficult to setup the Trixbox system. I did know some Linux and was very familiar with Windows, but there just was not much of that involved.
The TrixBox ISO was truly an instant ignition. The CD booted up on my system and walked me through the process. It was a very simple process. Once the Trixbox installation CD is done, I used a web browser to setup the extensions, SIP Lines (if needed), and rest of the PBX configuration. This is the point when the VOIP system can be custom to your needs.
The import part about the process is I was never alone. The internet has brought everyone’s experience with VOIP and Trixbox into a single place. That place is the internet! If I needed help for something, I searched for it.
For example; I needed to setup a Grandstream GXP-2000 IP phone to my new VOIP system but had no clue how to do it. All I did was search for “setup Grandstream GXP-2000 phone on trixbox”. This returned about 8,000 sites to review. I ended up using www.voip-info.org, www.grandstream.com, and the TrixBox supporters site Fonality.com forums.
These are some of the best places to find help for Trixbox, but you can also access Asterisk.org or other asterisk forums as that is the underlying PBX VOIP software installed with the instant ignition.
All I can say is WOW. Voip is a wonderful addition to any home or business. I have had the Asterisk VOIP PBX setup now for a while. I hated getting calls from sales folks, politicians, as well as charities. Once they got you on the phone they made it difficult to say no. Not that I don't like to donate to charities, as I do and quite a bit. I like to choose them and I check them out. The random call on Sunday night just isn't enough time for me to check out the charity. Frankly, it kinda stinks as well, the pressure to save this or help that just isn't want you want on a quiet Sunday family night.
Now, back to Asterisk... The inventors of the system have a very nice solution! Well, here is what you do to solve the problem. You simply BLACK LIST them on the PBX. This can be done by any phone after the phone call is over. Simply dial the feature code assigned to black listing[*30] by default. You can list number ahead of time if you wish right on the maintenance screen. There are many websites which list irritating phone numbers.
Next time the caller rings your VOIP system, the PBX directs the caller directly to a message. The default is“This number has been disconnected”. What a time savings when it comes to callers you would rather not deal with in the future!
VOIP is the solution, try it out!
Text-to-Speech (TTS) on Kindle Fire!
Text-to-speech (TTS) for the Kindle Fire is a long sought after feature. Having TTS on your Kindle Fire enables you to listen to your e-books using text-to-speech without having to buy expensive audiobooks. Some people may be vision impaired and want TTS to supplement or replace their manual reading of the text. Sure TTS isn't perfect, but it works pretty well.
Now if only the Kindle Fire supported TTS like other versions of the Kindle, then life would be grand. For whatever reason, Amazon disabled text-to-speech for the Kindle Fire. Sure, you can probably root your Android-based device and find some third-party text-to-speech readers, but not everyone wants to root (jailbreak) their Kindle Fire. Well, good news readers! I've found a way of enabling text-to-speech reading of e-books (including DRM protected eBooks) on the Kindle Fire without rooting it!
First, let me show you the TTS in action with this video I uploaded to YouTube:
Now here's the How-To Tutorial to get TTS running on the Kindle Fire...
Overview of software & steps needed:
Calibre e-book management software [Linux, Mac Windows versions available] for converting your eBooks and stripping DRM protection so the Cool Reader app can read the eBook.
Note: There is an excellent article on how to remove DRM using calibre in conjunction with some plugins. The article links to the needed plugins (tools_4.8.zip) to allow you to remove DRM from your purchased eBooks. It supports removing encryption for various eBook formats and includes Calibre plugins for Mobipocket (.prc/.mobi), Kindle Mobipocket (.azw), Kindle Topaz (.tpz/.azw1), Kindle Print Replica (.azw4), Adobe ePub (.epub), Adobe PDF (.pdf), B&N ePub (.epub), B&N/Fictionwise eReader (.pdb). Download the DRM
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Text-to-speech (TTS) for the Kindle Fire is a long sought after feature. Having TTS on your Kindle Fire enables you to listen to your e-books using text-to-speech without having to buy expensive audiobooks. Some people may be vision impaired and want TTS to supplement or replace their manual reading of the text. Sure TTS isn't perfect, but it works pretty well.