VoIP Hacks: Tips & Tools for Internet Telephony Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been in telephony and networking for nearly 30 years. Started in R&D at a PBX manufacturer in 1979, then did a stretch with the, at that time, worlds largest Ethernet company. Then I worked on a Fiber Optic Voice and Data MAN (IEEE 802.6) and have been manufacturing telecom products for the past 14 years. I think that gives me the qualifications to critique this book even without having to mention the Ethernet board I designed for IBM was featured on the cover of PC Week Magazine in 1987.
This is a very good book. If you are a VoIP systems integrator or do anything with Asterisk, this book is a must have. There are major problems with the current state of the VoIP industry. The two biggest problems are security and the unavailability of a decent broadband connection with QoS and an SLA below $400 per MegaBit. Yes $400, but we're talking guaranteed availability and less than 0.5% packet loss,and 50mS or less latency with real penalties for not meeting the SLA.
Before reading this book I would not have considered putting an IP-PBX on an ADSL link. The author's idea of putting a Sangoma ADLS modem in the Linux box with PPPoE client software and controlling the modem queue is nothing short of genius. Then to top it off with the AstShape QoS scripts and the QoS monitoring tools, this book is an absolute bargain. With these tools I'll not only know if the ADSL connection is capable of supporting VoIP service, but I'll know exactly why. Much better than cutting over to the VoIP system and later discovering the problems. The whole book is just full of great ideas. There is something in this book for everybody from the Skype user to a single VoIP phone owner, Asterisk, or enterprise PBX administrators. Just check out the Table of Contents. Amazon does not have the Table of Contents available but it is on the O'Reilly website oreilly D0T C0M.
While the book is an asset for seasoned VoIP integrators, it is also a very good resource for someone completely unfamiliar with VoIP with a desire to learn. You can start out with free software for a Windows PC, progress to purchasing a single VoIP phone, then to a Linux PC. If you are leary of Linux, either get over it or you should probably stay out of VoIP altogether.

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Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is gaining a lot of attention these days, as more companies and individuals switch from standard telephone service to phone service via the Internet.The reason is simple: A single network to carry voice and data is easier to scale, maintain, and administer.As an added bonus, it's also cheaper, because VoIP is free of the endless government regulations and tariffs imposed upon phone companies.

VoIP is simply overflowing with hack potential, and VoIP Hacks is the practical guide from O'Reilly that presents these possibilities to you.It provides dozens of hands-on projects for building a VoIP network, showing you how to tweak and customize a multitude of exciting things to get the job done.Along the way, you'll also learn which standards and practices work best for your particular environment.Among the quick and clever solutions showcased in the book are those for:

gauging VoIP readiness on an enterprise network
using SIP, H.323, and other signaling specifications
providing low-layer security in a VoIP environment
employing IP hardphones, analog telephone adapters, and softPBX servers
dealing with and avoiding the most common VoIP deployment mistakes

In reality, VoIP Hacks contains only a small subset of VoIP knowledge-enough to serve as an introduction to the world of VoIP and teach you how to use it to save money, be more productive, or just impress your friends.If you love to tinker and optimize, this is the one technology, and the one book, you must investigate.

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Google Voice For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a must have. I wasn't sure what google voice system can offer. But this new book gave me everything I needed to know and more: lots of detail about setting it up, using it with my cell phone, using it while traveling. This book opened up new opportunities for me and I feel greatly empowered with this knowledge. Another plus is that it's written in a very easy to understand language. Although it's a technical subject it's presented in a simple yet effective way.

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Save time and money with Google's revolutionary new phone system
Google Voice combines existing phone lines, e-mail, and Web access into one central communication channel. Tech industry watchers expect it to give Skype some serious competition, yet little information is available on this new Google service.
Google Voice For Dummies is the first and only book on Google's breakthrough new offering and provides essential information for individuals and businesses who want to take advantage of this exciting new technology.
Google Voice is expected to have a major impact on telephony and to offer major cost savings for individuals and businesses
This guide focuses on an in-depth understanding of setting up and using Google Voice and how to integrate it with other Google services, including Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Talk
Discusses managing Google Voice within organizations and examines key concerns for business, schools, government, and other kinds of organizations
Explains how Google Voice connects with the many phone options currently available and how to move toward an optimized and inexpensive, yet flexible and powerful phone environment
The book is supported by news and updates on www.gvDaily.com, the leading Google Voice question and answer site created by authors Bud E. Smith and Chris Dannen

Google Voice For Dummies supplies much-needed information on this free and exciting technology that the New York Times has called revolutionary.

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Hacking Exposed VoIP: Voice Over IP Security Secrets & Solutions Review

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(More customer reviews)Hacking Exposed: VoIP (HE:V) is the sort of HE book I like. It's fashionable to think HE books are only suitable for script kiddies who run tools they don't understand against vulnerable services they don't recognize. I like HE books because the good ones explain a technology from a security standpoint, how to exploit it, and how to defend it. I thought HE:V did well in all three areas, even featuring original research and experiments to document and validate the authors' claims.
HE:V is a real eye-opener for those of us who don't perform VoIP pen testing or assessments. It's important to remember that the original HE books were written by Foundstone consultants who put their work experience in book form. HE books that continue this tradition tend to be successful, and HE:V is no exception. Good HE books also introduce a wide variety of tools and techniques to exploit weaknesses in targets, and HE:V also delivers in this respect. HE:V also extends attacks beyond what most people recognize. For example, everyone probably knows about low-level exploitation of VoIP traffic for call interception and manipulation. However, chapter 6 discusses application-level interception.
HE:V goes the extra mile by introducing tools written by the authors specifically to implement attacks. In at least one case the authors also provide a packet capture (for the Skinny protocol) which I particularly appreciate. HE:V also looks ahead to attacks that are appearing but not yet prevalent, like telephony spam and voice phishing. Taken together, all of these features result in a great book. You should already be familiar with the common enumeration and exploitation methods found in HE 5th Ed, because the HE:V authors wisely avoid repeating material in other books (thank you).
If you want to understand VoIP, how to attack it, and how to defend it, I highly recommend reading HE:V. The book is clear, thorough, and written by experts.

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Sidestep VoIP Catastrophe the Foolproof Hacking Exposed Way

"This book illuminates how remote users can probe, sniff, and modify your phones, phone switches, and networks that offer VoIP services. Most importantly, the authors offer solutions to mitigate the risk of deploying VoIP technologies." --Ron Gula, CTO of Tenable Network Security

Block debilitating VoIP attacks by learning how to look at your network and devices through the eyes of the malicious intruder. Hacking Exposed VoIP shows you, step-by-step, how online criminals perform reconnaissance, gain access, steal data, and penetrate vulnerable systems. All hardware-specific and network-centered security issues are covered alongside detailed countermeasures, in-depth examples, and hands-on implementation techniques. Inside, you'll learn how to defend against the latest DoS, man-in-the-middle, call flooding, eavesdropping, VoIP fuzzing, signaling and audio manipulation, Voice SPAM/SPIT, and voice phishing attacks.

Find out how hackers footprint, scan, enumerate, and pilfer VoIP networks and hardware

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