What Amazon Alexa devices are NOT!

 Regardless of what Amazon says, Amazon Alexa devices are NOT many of the things that Amazon Bills them to be nor what people may believe they are.

An Amazon Alexa Device is NOT a computer. It can do almost nothing on its own. In fact you will need an Android or iOS device to even really use it. 

It Can NOT play your local music library easily. It can however play your local music with a very convoluted set up that involves requiring an Internet connection to share your local music list. But note the requirement of Internet to play LOCAL music. 

It can NOT connect to your IPP printer as Amazon now claims, with the exception of newer Amazon enabled printers. At  first Amazon said that this works with IPP printers. Amazon launches Alexa Print, a way to print lists, recipes, games, & educational content using your voice (msn.com) That was exaggerated and slowly we began to see the phrase "MMDS enabled printers". Neither Google nor Bing seem to know what this MMDS protocol  is for printing as of this writing. Now we even see phrases like "select printers" and "Printers from\ the following manufacturers...". What a bunch of SALES PITCH HYPE! My Linux connected color laser printer is an IPP enabled printer. I can print from any Windows , Android, IOS or OSX device driverlessly by way of the Linux host . It does not however work for Amazon Echo Dot nor Fire TV Cube.

It is NOT capable of giving you any voice warning for an event on your network. For instance I wanted to send a message from my asterisk server saying restart was complete and asterisk is running, however there is no way to get Alexa to say this or anything like it. In order to do that Alexa must INITIATE the process.  

Alexa is NOT very secure. Most functions require "account linking" meaning that in order to use the "Alexa Compatible" power plugs you must link your Amazon Alexa account with  an account from the manufacturer of the power plugs. These accounts residing on and communicating over the Internet leaves a world of vulnerabilities to be explored and exploited, when in fact both of these device are on you home LAN  an need not be on the Internet at all

I know Jeff Bezos is a really rich (and selfish) guy  who misrepresents what he is selling you. This is the same guy who wants to take you into space. What are you not disclosing there Mr. Bozos? 

RCA (by Telefield) IP160s, IP170s, IP160, IP170 unlocking and review

I recently discovered the RCA IP IP170s and IP160s units were availabe very cheaply on the market. These phones are several years old but appear to be of decent quality and offer HD voice with the G722 protocol. 

Later I discovered that some, this with the "s", IP160s, and IP 170s, were locked to Broadview service. "Locked" in this case only means they have a password installed. I also found that some unlocked units were selling under the "Telefield" name

Here are sone model breakdowns

Locked models (sold for use with Broadvoice service) 
IP060s DECT Wireless handset/charger only
IP070s DECT Desk phone (needs only wired power) only
IP160s DECT wireless handset/charger with base
IP170s DECT Desk Phone with base

Unlocked models
IP060 DECT Wireless handset/charger only
IP070 DECT Desk phone (needs only wired power) only
IP160 DECT wireless handset/charger with base
IP170 DECT Desk Phone with base

The bases of the IP160/IP160s and IP170/170s may not appear identical however, I believe they are functionally identical.  

I started with the purchase of the IP170s which in short order was connected to my asterisk which makes USA and Canada calls by way of an Obi202 conneted to Google Voice. It also is the home of my primary incoming number of many years. I also use other providers with some additional USA and UK DIDs and global termination.

Searching around I had found no information on unlocking these units. It seems there was no real "unlocking" to be done. The quickstart manual included with my IP170s referred to the "password" for connecting the DECT desk handset to the base "if needed" , was "7227". To access the full programability of the DECT base I only needed to connect it to a network (IMPORTANT: I did this with Internet disconnected to avoid the unit from "calling home", and upgrading firmware and/or resetting a password) , then accessed the IP of the DECT base from a computer  web browser. I used "admin" as the user name and "7227" as the password and viola I was in and able to program it for my asterisk server.  The first thing I did was disable the provisioning features under Servicing>Advanced Upgrade, then clearing out the "URL" field, and setting 'Check New Config" field to "disabled" 

There is a document here that walks you through configuring an IP160s unit here:
https://www.elastix.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2016/01/RCA-IP160S_Phone_SetupGuide.pdf
THat guide refers to Elastix, but the part about configuring the IP160/IP160s/IP170/IP170s is the same

I then connected the handset to the base using the instructions in the quickstart guide. NOTE : I had issues with the display on my IP170s phone. I just kep trying and clicking "OK" on the phone, then heard a tone indi cateting pairing success.  After a few reboots of the phone the display began working . and has not failed since. Another user reports pairing issues here https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29745462-Unlock-RCA-Telefield-IP160s-IP060s-Resolved that apparently he resolved. I did not have this issue. 

I have the following on good authority and it depends on the firmware version

Passwords:
00000000 (eight zeros)
00000 (five zeroes)
0000 (four zeros)
7227
"" (blank, no quotes)

The calls with the G722 CODEC seem to pass from the RCA phone system to asterisk to the Obi202 over the g722 codec flawlessly, as did calls from a Polycom SoundPoint 335 VoIP desk phone. On the calls to Google Voice, I am not certain if the call is maintained in the Obi202 and on to Google Voice as g722 CODEC. I suppose it is possible that the Obi202 is translating the CODEC, as it seems to have a lot of advanced features. I have also seen that voip.ms one of my favorite VoIP providers that I use also, is now supporting g722.

If I had one thing that I could hope for that would be the ability to get the RCA IP170s base to work with a trunk that is not registered (such as an IP auth) , as I wanted to bypass the asterisk completely and could have done 2 way IP auths between Obi202 and IP170s Base.  When I tried  it, the IP170s base  always showed "Unregistered" and handset displayed "No Service". It did allow me to make calls from the "unregistered" trunk but inbounds to the IP170s were not recognized.

I then ordered two IP060s handsets to add to the system. Considering I paid $20.00 for two handsets with free shipping, it was quaite a value.

Hardware Quality

The quality of the desk phone IP070/IP170s struck me as slightly inferior. It has a speakerphone that works very well.  It is lightweight , the buttons are hard plastic. It seems that many modern VoIP desk phones have gone the same way however, lightweight cheap feeloing plastic.  

The quality of the cordless phone IP060/IP160s is quite impressive.It has a headset jack, quality speakerphoneand belt clip. 

I was disappointed also with the limitations of the dial plan, but if dialing on hook is okay , this is not an issue. This and the fact that I must register an account , and can not IP auth the phones are my only complaints so far. 

When I factor in what these three phones cost me, just over $50.00,  it was a TREMENDOUS value for very high quality VoIP HD quality. It was past time for an upgrade of my mix n match VoIP phones from yesteryear, and I believe this will keep me happy for many years to come, even supporting the g722 CODEC. All items I purchased on ebay and had to use "Make Offer" but previously I had seen these same phones cheaper than I paid for them.  

Mark 

Mix and match Panasonic DECT Cordless phones

Recently while shopping at a second hand store I found what appeared to be a new set of two Panasonic cordless phones, or a NEW dual handset cordless phone. Upon further inspection the phones did look quite new in original packaging, with orignal documentation. The only issue was that one rechargable battery was missing.  Knowing they looked new and that I had a temporary need they were well worth the $9.99 I paid for them.

I made the purchase, took it home and connected it, and tested both handsets, although I was one battery short to use both handsets simultaneously. Both handsets were working, I was just one battery short.

A few days later I was at anoher shop and found a pretty white , new looking Panasonic handset of a different model, with charging base and 2 rechargable batteries in it. The price was $3.00 so I bought it at least for the batteries.  I took this home, charged it anf turned it on, and it was searching for a base. I then initiated the handset/base pairing process just to see if it would pair with my base, and it did! As Gomer Pyle would say, "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!" I now had 3 compatible handsets, but stil one battery short!

Now curiosity was killing me so I borrowed a handset from a completely different model of Panasonic cordless phone and again it paired successfully to the base. 

The lesson here is that many of these Panasonic handsets share compatibility and need not be of the same model to pair. I am running four handsets, two of which are unique models from the others, all on one single base. 

How to test your fax machine in the 21st Century

Maintaining one of a small number of remaining Fax machines can be difficult when you need to debug or diagnose it. Other users of fax machines are less common every day making testing harder. Here are some resources that may be helpful: 

Using a Test fax line that will fax you back
HP offers a quick and easy fax test. Just send them a test fax and they will fax another back within minutes.

Here are instructions from their website:

Send a one page fax to 1-888-hpfaxme (1-888-473-2963).

When your fax is received by the HP Test Fax Service, we will generate a return fax to you within five minutes,  confirming that it received your fax. This verifies that you can both send and receive a fax. If you do not receive a return fax within a few minutes, there may be a problem with the configuration of your fax machine. Check your user manual that came with the  fax for proper setup and configuration.

Canon offers a similar service to the HP Test Fax Service above. That number is 855-392-2666.

Verify the fax sent is legible

To test the send functionality of your fax machine, send a one-page fax to 1-855-330-1239 (USA Toll Free) or 1-213-293-2943. When it’s finished transmitting, point your web browser to Fax Toy — it’s a web site that displays whatever is faxed to that number. If all works well, within a minute or so, your fax will appear on the page.

Send yourself a FREE FAX

The following are free services to quickly and easily send a fax to your fax machine/line.
These services are all different, however most have some method to send a fax for free. Some may require registraton.

https://www.myfax.com/free/

https://faxzero.com/

https://www.gotfreefax.com

Contact me with your USA Fax number
Maybe I can send you a fax as well as help test your ability to send. 

Google Voice , Obi202, Obi200, e911, and Faxing

I have held off for some time at getting an Obi200 which is the only "official" adapter for Google Voice. There are some web posts that tell one how to set up your asterisk (or other PBX, or IP Phone) for use with Google Voice through the Obi.  Yes asterisk still can be used directly without the Obi  but the instructions are not clear and relying on the community to get help does not work so well. It seems many elude to the "violation of TOS" meanwhile they themselves use it. Also any change on the part of Google could render such an asterisk configuration unusable as we have seen before. 

Recently I made the purchase of an Obi202, as the prices of the Obi200 had soared from $39.00 to just over $50 dollars now. I was able to find a New Obi202 on ebay with the "Make Offer" option. In the end, I figure I got a free second port on the Obi202 for the same price as the Obi200. 

The main difference in the Obi200 vs Obi202 is the number of phone ports and service providers that one can configure. The Obi202 has two phone ports while the Obi200 has just one. Recently I had purchaed a used Multi-function device that includes fax capabilities. That meant that suddenly, I found a new use for that second port, although in reality I may have been able to configure an Obi200 with the same services.  I now use , two Google Voice accounts and one account for asterisk.  One Google Voice number is for Voice and the other is for Fax. The asterisk account allows me to use any existing IP phones I already have with Google Voice. The Fax connects directly to the second phone port on the Obi. The First Phone port on the Obi is unused. 

For the last year or so, I have been running only text based asterisk on a Raspberry Pi3, previously I had run a Grandstream HT503 connected to a copper phone line. Now that I have returned to the USA I have gone pure VoIP, and as I have used the Google Voice number for years already, it seemed logical to use the free Google Voice service for my USA calling and faxing needs.

The initial setup of the Obi202 was super simple using the Obitalk portal, that is while using only two Google Accounts. Incorporating the asterisk was a little more complex. 

For 911 service I used GV911.com . It is $12.00 per year, per line and easy to implement from asterisk too. This is the only recurring coost in this set-up even if I make and receive calls all day.

At first I had some issues with Faxes and lowered the speed down to 14.4kbps on the fax machine. Later I found some settings in the Obi . Five of these settings seemed key in allowing me to set the Fax speed to 33.6kbps. 

Physical Interfaces > Phone 2 (or 1) settings

1 Disable call waiting (Checked)

2 Use for Fax Only (checked if using dedicated fax only)

3 Fax Detection Method (CNG or CED)

4 Detect Phone CED Phase Reversal (Checked)

5 Detect Network CED Phase reversal (Checked) 

As far as I can tell so far, I now have reliable Fax in and out at 33.6kbps on a free dedicaed Fax line .

The voice quality is also quite good and I can use all of my asterisk features like Spam call filters, and the like. I can choose to use asterisk voice mail or Google Voice voicemail. 

The $50 was money well spent and the Google Voice service is worth that, especially given how well it integrates to my existing asterisk with SIP protocol. 

 

Back to blogging on Blogspot!

 After some tie of bloggong here then on my own domains, I no longer have domains and have returned to blogging here on BlogSpot. 

Watch for upcoming tech related blog posts right here.

Mark

Simple AirPrint server for iPad, iPhone, Android, and Chrombook/Chromebox & LibreELEC too!

No matter what device you use printing is a necessay evil. If you try it Apple's way it can get pretty expensive buying a network direct printer to print from iOS.

This is not only for iOS, because the same solution fills the void in Android, Chromebook, and Chromebox too. If your printer is not compatible with OSX and you have an OSX machine this can also be useful to work-around that incompatibility.

Over the last several months I have tested a low cost Raspberry Pi 3 based print server. Although I use it mostly on Android, I have tested extensively from Chromebook as well.

My particular configuration used a $50 USD Raspberry Pi 3. The main trick is to ensure you have a printer with good linux driver support on the Raspberry Pi 3. Not all printers with Linux support have Linux drivers for Raspberry Pi 3. Many open source drivers are quite good though, and will work on Raspberry Pi.

Here is a good place to start checking printer compatibility:
http://www.openprinting.org/printers

Of course you can also check the printer manufacturer's web site

CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) used in Linux now has all AirPrint functionality built in. It will act as a Go-between for AirPrint and your printer. 

Installing a Raspberry Pi 3 based print server is a fairly straightforward process. It is a process I will not detail here as there are many guides on the Internet already. Here I will tell you how this can also work for Android, & Chromebook/Chromebox

In iOS once the print server is configured the printer should appear as any AirPrint device

On Android 7.0 and up you can install either the CUPS printing or Mopria Print. Your printer need not have android support directly.  I prefer Mopria Print over CUPS as the interface is more refined.

On Chromebook or Chromebox, you can install the CUPS or IPP printer extension.

LibreELEC, with Kodi, you can install the CUPS or IPP printer extension. This install in the Crome browser making printing available from the browser.

If your printer was incompatible with OSX, it is now compatible with OSX, and driverless. One such example is th HP Color Laserjet CP1215. This printer has no Mac OSX drivers available. It does have very good Linux driver support. http://www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-Color_LaserJet_CP1215 and apparently is supported on Raspberry Pi 3 with those drivers. With the Raspberry Pi 3 between OSX and CP1215 you will have no issues printing although both Apple and HP will say you can not do it.

If you set up CUPS correctly you can even have Windows auto-install the drivers from the CUPS server. 

In any case  no matter what the mix of operating systems in your home or office you can use this method to work-around most any printer incompatibility with most an OS. In fact you can make a non OSX compatible printer OSX compatible! OSX and Windows will use any CUPS printer sending it generic PDF or Postscript data by way of the print server which the print server reformats for the printer.

It is fast cheap, reliable and far better than any stand-alone print server you buy.

While messing with the Raspberry Pi , you may also want to consider adding support for a scanner by way of SANE, or how about an Asterisk server to manage phone calls in the house? You want to transfer that call to the bedroom?

Aside from my Raspberry Pi 3 working as a print server it has been running as a scanner server and asterisk server. The scan server allows me to scan from Android, Windows, Linux or even using a web browser, all from the same scanner. As for Asterisk I am running 3 VoIP numbers in, a cellular network and a local fixed line. I get the advantage of least cost routing and have failover when the unreliable landline dies , as it sometimes does. 





 

How to write a SANE Backend when you have no idea how.

A couple of years ago I started to see if I could write something to make my wonderful Halo Magic Scanner and Ion Aircopy scanners work with linux. As these two scanners are identical, what works for one should work for the other.

What I developed over time was a web interface. An Interface that allowd me to scan from a web browser. It will even run on a Raspberry Pi. It will do image conversions to PDF, PNG, resize, crop, etc.

Then later I started seeing that there was a more standardized way of scanning appearing on the market. Apple calls it AirScan but it is eSCL.

After reviewing more about this protocol, it became obvious that this protocol hit far closer to home than learning a new programming language and learning how to write a SANE back-end. But, why for Dog's sakes was there no support for eSCL scanners in SANE? I did test a couple of projects that made claims but none were ready for prime-time.

Continuing with my web GUI project I continued writing PHP to emulate the eSCL protocol.

Months later I was successfully able to test from VueScan but still no joy from OSX nor the Mopria client.

Most recently I discovered sane-airscan https://github.com/alexpevzner/sane-airscan and thought I would give it a whirl. I figured if I was emulating the eSCL protocol adequately and there was now a Back-end for eSCL protocol on SANE , it should work. I knew I was 99% there after all.

Much to my surprise my eSCL protocol after minimal tweaking communicated perfectly with sane-airscan.

What this really means is that one can emulate a more standardized protocol by way of a simple web server and create SANE compatibility using sane-airscan , yea baby!

So together with the sane-airscan project we have added several new scanners to the SANE compatibility list.
 

Those compatible scanners are:

• ION AirCopy
• ION AirCopy E-Post Edition
• iScan Fly
• Halo Magic Scanner 
• Mustek iScan Air / S400W
• Century CPS-A4WF
• Transcription Patri Kun A4 Wi-Fi Portable Scanner 
• 転写パットリくん A4 Wi-Fiポータブルスキャナー

to get full SANE support on these scanners, you will need BOTH

https://github.com/markosjal/AirScan
https://github.com/alexpevzner/sane-airscan

I hope someone finds this post useful, but most of all I hope you enjoy your scanner using it with SANE.

 

Project- Classified Ads System

Go to Full Story
Filed under: Uncategorized — Mark
May 14, 2010@6:58 am

Recently, Teknogeekz got involved in something that was somewhat out of the normal comfort zone, a Classified Advertising System for Banderenews.com. The system can be seen at www.pvshopper.com.

In the past they had manually posted all classifieds as HTML. As the demand for classified ads seemed to be growing, that task was becoming more and more time consuming.

We started with a low cost off the shelf script and have applied some customizations...

Free Calls to USA and Canada; Part 1

Go to Full Story

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: free phone calls, IPkall, SIP, VoIP, Voxalot — Mark

May 7, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

This is part 1 of a guide on how to get a free USA number from the city of your choice and to make free web activated phone calls to the USA and Canada. You also get free text messages to all cell phones in USA, Canada, and Mexico, advanced voice mail, and more.

Free is a Very Good Price

This is more a mindless free flowing rant than anything real, as I have posted nothing for a while, I wanted to make a post, but my recent situation with a series of ailing computers and ISP issues I have not had the luxury to post. At least it may give you some clues of what I have been up to lately. I admit it's a little scattered and perhaps wacky, but if you do not like it there is always the address bar on your web browser. I think if you make it to the end, it comes full circle.

“Free is a very good Price” is what my old buddy Tom would have said, along with “It's worth the trip, or “The happy place to buy”. Tom would advertise on late night television and was always trying to sell TVs, Stereos and furniture. Often times he had a gift with the purchase, or would make burgers in the parking lot, thus the "Free is a very good price". Many of the TVs he once sold were like pieces of furniture. You expected to get several years out of it. Some had nice hardwood cabinets, and if they needed repair, a guy came to you and fixed it, while you suffered looking at his crack hanging out the back of his pants. If this guy goes around with his crack hanging out is he really smart enough to fix my TV? Well he most always did! Later Tom's TVs went to more portable packages and later more disposable. The era of in home TV repair died, as the era for the home TV repairman, but we will not miss the crack. It became cheaper to replace than to repair. More on this later...

Over the last several months I have been using quite a mix of PC, Mac, and Linux. As if that were not enough within those three OSes, I have used at least two different versions of each of those in the last few months. Each OS has its ups and downs , but I am very much leaning towards Ubuntu Linux as the clear winner, especially on the x86 architecture! Second on my Linux list I would have to say is CentOS5 I guess that is the geek in me talking. I also place Windows far above the Mac, mostly for free tools downloads on the PC, whereas the Mac I must pay for the software. I found the Mac OS to be more and more Linux Like the more I got into it though.

So how have I survived this flurry of operating systems and computers the last several months?

OpenOffice offers file compatibility with Microsoft Office, and is available for every major operating system, such as Windows, Mac, and Linux. So now not only is it free, I remember not long ago, when we had trouble reading a Mac floppy on a PC to transfer files and nowadays you can have Open office on all of the aforementioned and more.

Now look at the networks, and look how far we have come from Arcnet, and localtalk to the more common networks attained today which include WiFi, power-line, and home phone line networking. Not to mention that the systems and software allow us to seamlessly communicate across platforms, and architectures. Most of my files are saved to a NAS or a thumb drive these days. My computer can totally crash tomorrow and I have my data on the NAS ready for whatever Operating System I plug in!

Oh and that is if you can not deal with the complexities of using a memory stick! Today, we carry around 8 Gig thumb drives. I remember my first hard disk was 20 Meg full height 5 and 1/4 inch hard disk drive, and I was so sad that I could not afford the sleeker sexier half height 40 Meg hard disk!

While mentioning thumb drives and NAS devices I will take a minute to mention portable applications for Windows. They are great to continue working with all of the same programs when you change from one windows computer to another. These applications contain all the necessary support files in the application folder. No installation required.

So where is all of this going? I was hoping someone could tell me that! I remember only a few years ago I wanted that new wingding for my computer. Whatever it was, today I see them on ebay for a fraction of the original selling price. Next year someone will clean it out of their closet, because it operates at a fraction of the speed of the newer models, or the interface was phased out. I mean why use a 5 ¼ inch 20 Meg Hard Disk when you could use an 8 Gig thumb drive? What do I do with it?

It is all going right in the dumpster!

So I take a moment to ask all consumers across the globe to go green. All of this stuff we are throwing away contaminates the environment by leaving plastics and lead and more around. Consumers drive most markets, so where there is demand it will be filled. I mean we all wanted the Star Trek Communicator apparently and then we got the Motorola StarTac. Today, nobody wants one of those old Motorola StarTacs! What will it be next year? When will it end? Who will clean up the mess of the earth that this technological revolution is causing? The manufacturers and retailers need to start accepting more social responsibility to mother earth. Consumers should realize too that going green is more than taking your own bag to Wal Mart. Also, that we should activate against the disposable society that we have created and avoid messy toxic waste for our children. We must create a greener consumer demand in the marketplace and frown on disposable consumer products, and shun the disposable products. Do I care if my print server is only 10Mb/s or MUST I upgrade it to Gigabit Ethernet? With the technology today why is it not entirely firmware upgradeable?

MAN I GOTTA THROW AWAY ALL THESE DEAD COMPUTERS!

How much is too much, Wifi, Bluetooth, wireless video and more

I often see that people are very quick to add new wireless components such as WiFi and Bluetooth components to their existing systems.

I think that most users are unaware of the dangers in using such devices and perhaps should adopt an attitude of "less is better". If you look at the average modern home you may find WiFi, Bluetooth, wireless video, cordless phones, and more, and when someone wants a new component they always look to those that support wireless. Although it may sound sexy and keep you free of wire clutter, one of the most important considerations is your family's health. With every new wireless component you increase the Electromagnetic radiation in your home. With that increase you increase the probability that it will affect your health.

I do not want a cell phone with a bluetooth headset on my body. The effects of the cell phone alone are dangerous. Now with that add the radiation of the bluetooth and you have a new risk.

In your home network you may think that that new wireless NAS is sexy, but did you know that that NAS can be anywhere on your network including, a wired segment , and still pass the contents of that NAS over EXISTING wireless infrastructure, such as your router? You need not use a wireless NAS.

I have been asked by some as to adding such components, who do not clearly understand this and "think wireless" for all components. The physical location of a NAS probably has little importance, so why do you need wireless? Aside from that you will most probably get far better performance from wired components.

next time think about how that new wireless gadget may have on your health or longevity. keep in M ind that the manufacturers have little regard for your health, nor dpoes the salesman that will try to up-sell you to that costlier wireless model, even though it may offer zero benefit in your installation in the end.

In my opinion I do not want my computers emanating WiFi and bluetooth RF radiation as I sit by my cell phone that also emanates electromagnetic radiation. I am not talking about just for you, as perhaps you have small children in your home, who may be even more gravely affec ted by sjuch RF energey.

The Bleeding Edge

As time goes on, I come to realize more and more, that I always seem to look for solutions on the bleeding edge.

I am currently looking for the following solutions that do not seem to yet exist!

1. A USB device that allows me to take a Single USB drive and share it with the USB ports on two computers. I am NOT looking to network the machines, over USB or otherwise. It seems re4asonable that in this day and age such a solution would already exist, but it does not. Why would I want this? Well Imagine a USB drive connected simultaneously to your computer and to the USB port of a DIVX compatible DVD player. As you write a file from the computer, you may stream audio to your stero from the same USB hard drive. Alternately you may connect to a USB network device such as the Linksys SLUG , while connected to your DVD player.This may also be incorporated to a USB hard disk case to allow simultaneous access from two host controllers. This may be easier if one device is tagged as "read only" as in the case of the DIVX compatible DVD.
   
2. A "Smart" USB to Ethernet adapter. What this Ethernet adapter does is emulates a hard disk from a Windows or NFS network. It is reasonable that it would need some kind of a programming interface such as a mini web server to configure network parameters; Workgroup and shares to connect to, or perhaps with a utility through the USB port. This would also be useful on one of those DIVX compatible DVD players to stream DIVX video to your TV or MP3s to your stereo system via a DVD players USB port (which works only with a USB Disk)
3. Accessible HDTV modulator / Encoder. I mean a simple device that can take a HDMI or similar signal and produce a HD modulated "TV Channel" that can be used with the built in tuner on an HD TV. Ideally this would allow several to be used on different channels. There are many CCTV systems that will be undergoing upgrades in the years to come.

I place these items here and hope that someone may comment about anything that thry may know of!

Fun with DIVX and XVID, and torrents

I am a big fan of DIVX , in fact I paid for the full DIVX encoder. About a year ago, I acquired some Hard Disk Media Players that I just love. They play back DIVX files, and XVID as it is a clone of DIVX. These devices have allowed me to keep my original DVDs stored away, where they do not get touched. With DIVX, I can compress the videos down to a reasonable size and maintain video quality. My dabbling with this and other devices has led me to this Post.

Lately I have downloaded some TV series and movies and I see the same issues arise. (See my feelings on legality below).

Frame Rates and Program Length
Consistently, I see that programs that should be about 44 minutes in length with commercials cut out, often play back at 40 minutes in length. I pondered this problem a lot, and as a former television technician, I reasonably sure that 44 minutes or so constitutes 1 hour with commercial breaks.
Here is what I finally concluded.... There is a process called 3/2 pull down, where a 24 FPS film is converted to roughly 30 FPS (by inserting an occasional "extra" frame) when transferred to video in North America (NTSC). There is a similar process used in PAL however I have not done all the math exactly, but I did do enough math to identify the problem. Some software, or the users of software, are removing these extra frames. This is not unusual and is a good idea to reduce file size. The problem lies in that the file still is playing back at 25 FPS, not the 24 that it should play back at. Most of these files originated from PAL systems I can tell due to the PAL video sizes. The most annoying part of this problem is that sometimes it is noticeable that the dialog, and motion, on such ripped programs seems hurried. I remember the advent and discussions of a device called the Lexicon in the 80s which performed a similar function for broadcasters and allowed them to pack more commercials in a 1 hour program. I can not emphasize to all of you DVD rippers enough that you need to keep the proper frame rate, which should reflect whether the pulldown was removed or not. If so, the resulting video is 24 FPS , not 25 FPS, and definitely not 30 FPS, as this affects the playback duration and presents the content in a hurried format.

Aspect Ratio and Cropping
I know there are given aspect ratio "standards" but I have seen some home rippers making some serious mistakes. I do not worry about "proper" resolutions so much, as long as the aspect is correct. I recently downloaded some files for testing via torrents. Now in the case of one film in particular , every copy I found had the same butchering to it when it came to aspect ratio. That file which you can find easily is the 1994 film "The Little Rascals" . It was butchered because when downloaded from a torrent, it is in a 16x9 aspect ratio. Hhowever, the DVD that it was ripped from apparently was 4x3, so it was cropped when ripped. The bad part about that is that it was already cropped when presented in 4x3 and cropping it again yields only a fraction of the original frame. When I downloaded and viewed this file it looked very odd to me, although the quality was good tops of heads were frequently cut off, so I connected the old VHS and started comparing my old 4x3 aspect VHS tape of this movie with the downloaded 16x9 version. I should see more on the sides of the 16x9 from , however in this case I see less of the top and bottom. Clearly that file on the torrents (700.18 Meg) was from a 4x3 aspect DVD then cropped to 16x9. This is a horrible mistake for anyone ripping DVDs!

Comments about my downloads
I want to clarify that my downloads were for testing purposes, and all downloads were of movies that I already own original media. Since I do own original media, I do not feel that I am infringing on copyrights by downloading a back - up copy.

Internet Peering in Mexico - What happens in Mexico should stay in Mexico!

Well after having written the previous post a year ago about Internet peering in Mexico, even more bad news has come to light.

After having tried to use Telecable in Puerto Vallarta, and Telecable in Zapopan for a specific use that would connect two locations together, we see the following

ping -t 201.130.248.XXX

Pinging 201.130.248.XXX with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=344ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=338ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=343ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=413ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=303ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=299ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=309ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=337ms TTL=49
Reply from 201.130.248.XX: bytes=32 time=353ms TTL=49

First Packet Loss! Second We see that there is EXCESSIVE latency caused by Protel who chose to ignore the issue because I was not their client directly! Not to mention this example all data goes from Mexico to USA TWICE! First to Level3 then to McAllen Texas via Protel. There is also 200ms of Latency between Laredo and Monterrey!

1 8 ms 7 ms 7 ms 200-56-193-1-cable.cybercable.net.mx [200.56.193.1]
2 43 ms 69 ms 79 ms 148.243.116.10
3 71 ms 84 ms 98 ms dial-200-57-215-25.zone-3.dial.net.mx [200.57.215.25]
4 101 ms 89 ms 63 ms 148.245.252.217
5 84 ms 68 ms 69 ms dial-200-39-230-53.zone-1.dial.net.mx [200.39.230.53]
6 118 ms * 68 ms 200.33.208.129
7 116 ms 108 ms 107 ms pos6/0.rr1.torixt.avantel.net.mx [200.33.208.201]
8 117 ms 93 ms 102 ms 200.33.208.150
9 100 ms 119 ms 99 ms na-224-21.na.avantel.net.mx [148.245.224.21]
10 128 ms 133 ms * so-8-1.car2.Houston1.Level3.net [4.79.90.97]
11 116 ms 118 ms 131 ms ae-2-5.bar2.Houston1.Level3.net [4.69.132.238]
12 130 ms 102 ms 96 ms ae-0-11.bar1.Houston1.Level3.net [4.69.137.133]
13 72 ms 50 ms 76 ms ae-13-13.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.137.138]
14 117 ms 141 ms 113 ms ae-71-71.csw2.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.136.126]
15 123 ms 104 ms 137 ms ae-2-79.edge2.Dallas3.Level3.net [4.68.19.76]
16 128 ms 134 ms 137 ms Tiscali-Level3.Dallas3.Level3.net [4.68.110.158]
17 109 ms * 91 ms protel-inext-gw.ip.tiscali.net [77.67.68.146]
18 91 ms 106 ms 121 ms ge-0-0-0.core01-lar.redip.inext.net.mx [200.52.143.45]
19 293 ms 309 ms 300 ms as-1.core01-mty.redip.inext.net.mx [200.52.143.109]
20 354 ms * 343 ms po-5-0.inext01-slp.redip.inext.net.mx [200.52.143.230]
21 346 ms 328 ms * po-4-0.core01-ira.redip.inext.net.mx [200.52.143.237]
22 334 ms 327 ms 352 ms po-1-0.core01-mcallen.redip.inext.net.mx [200.52.143.225]
23 * 341 ms 365 ms po-2-1.core01-gdl.redip.inext.net.mx [200.52.143.90]
24 348 ms 313 ms 287 ms 134.142.52.200.static.redip.inext.net.mx [200.52.142.134]
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * 319 ms * 201-130-248-XX-cable.cybercable.net.mx [201.130.248.XX]
28 310 ms 311 ms 296 ms 201-130-248-XX-cable.cybercable.net.mx [201.130.248.XX]

Trace complete.

What an embarrassment!

___________________________________________
UPDATE JAN 17, 2009

Here is the biggest lie that LACNIC could make
http://www.lacnic.net/documentos/lacnicxi/presentaciones/peeringmexico.ppt

GO ahead check it out. Then see the traceroute above and know that Inext refers to Protel that supposedly does peering with Telmex IN MEXICO according to that document. Furthermore here is more proof, and know that this traceroute is from Guadalajara TO Guadalajara.

traceroute to 187.140.21.XXX (187.140.21.XXX), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 10.206.0.1 (10.206.0.1) 10.468 ms 10.491 ms 10.483 ms
2 10.255.255.1 (10.255.255.1) 183.849 ms 184.379 ms 184.971 ms
3 router.cybercable.net.mx (200.53.250.10) 184.142 ms 184.734 ms 184.402 ms
4 45.142.52.200.static.redip.inext.net.mx (200.52.142.45) 185.121 ms 186.734 ms 186.383 ms
5 * * *
6 ge-0-0.core02-lar.redip.inext.net.mx (200.52.143.46) 221.606 ms 260.877 ms 276.338 ms
7 xe-3-1-0-102.dal11.ip.tiscali.net (77.67.68.145) 284.812 ms 284.631 ms 28 5.410 ms
8 xe-2-0-0.sjc10.ip.tiscali.net (89.149.187.189) 310.528 ms 310.724 ms 311. 439 ms
9 xe-0.equinix.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (206.223.116.12) 311.433 ms 311.43 5 ms 311.118 ms
10 as-0.r20.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.97) 321.067 ms 321.714 ms 321.788 ms
11 * * *
12 xe-7-1.r01.lsanca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net (204.1.253.70) 267.349 ms 267.482 ms 268.159 ms
13 dsl-187-140-21-XXX.prod-infinitum.com.mx (187.140.21.167) 314.538 ms 323.7 40 ms 311.758 ms

Why does LACNIC think we are so stupid? This problem is getting WORSE, NOT BETTER, and it has only been one year since my last post on this topic.

Here is one last bit of proof that there is really no peering IN MEXICO regardless of what the lie of the day is at LACNIC
1 9 ms 7 ms 8 ms 200-56-193-1-cable.cybercable.net.mx [200.56.193.1]
2 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms 148.243.116.10
3 79 ms 72 ms 62 ms dial-200-57-215-25.zone-3.dial.net.mx [200.57.215.25]
4 13 ms 13 ms 16 ms 148.245.252.217
5 26 ms 23 ms 38 ms dial-200-39-230-53.zone-1.dial.net.mx [200.39.230.53]
6 55 ms 60 ms 101 ms 200.33.208.129
7 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms SAT1.ALTER.NET [63.65.121.165]
8 44 ms 45 ms 46 ms 0.so-4-1-0.XL4.SAT1.ALTER.NET [152.63.97.194]
9 104 ms 112 ms * 0.so-7-0-0.XT2.LAX7.ALTER.NET [152.63.115.237]
10 82 ms 82 ms 80 ms GigabitEthernet7-0-0.GW7.LAX7.ALTER.NET [152.63.118.53]
11 75 ms 73 ms 76 ms telmex-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.246.70]
12 76 ms 77 ms 74 ms iadsl-jal-bandera-16-ge7-0-0.uninet.net.mx [201.125.11.240]
13 126 ms 135 ms 109 ms dsl-187-140-21-XXX.prod-infinitum.com.mx [187.140.21.XXX]

The peering here again also seems to be in USA.'

I welcome a reply from LACNIC on this subject.


_________________________________________________

UPDATE January 29, 1009

LACNIC replied and the complete response is in the comments section, as well as my follow up. The short version is that apparently the powerpoint document referenced is not an official LACNIC document. I must then ask, why then is it posted on the LACNIC web site?

Secondly, The document refers to "ISP Peering in Mexico", not "Mexican ISP Peering in the USA" The difference again is the latency and at least one of the traceroutes shows that data is apparently being handed off in the USA between Mexican ISPs. It does therefore NOT qualify as "ISP Peering in Mexico", although may involve Mexican ISPs peering in the USA.

Thirdly, the peering diagram on page 6 also does not involve PURELY ISP peering. A closer look at those companies indicates that most, if not all are involved in telephone traffic. Now that more providers are using VoIP those "private connections" are more suitable for telephone traffic as they are more direct than sending the traffic to the internet. ^The latency involved , and unknown variables of the internet (via other connections) are less desirable, so naturally those ISPS (really meaning telcos) are filling those private connections to full capacity with telephone calls, and leaving little or no capacity for real dedicated internet peering.

I think a good possible solution is that some neutral organization needs to be created and ANY Licensed internet provider should be REQUIRED to interconnect through this independent third party in a major city such as Guadalajara or Mexico DF. Monterrey is too far to the north for most users in Mexico in my opinion. These mandatory internet connections should NOT BE USED FOR INTRA-CARRIER TELEPHONE TRAFFIC! Instead, they should be pure internet peering, and may be used for intra-carrier telephone traffic, only when saturated less than 50% to BOTH carriers involved. For example, if the bestel connection was at 80% average and the Avantel was at 40% Avantel should not send traffic to Bestel through this new peering route. If BOTH however were at 30% , then they may saturate it with internet and telephone traffic up to 70% however giving priority to INTERNET traffic, and use their own direct interconnections for telephone peering.

The example of these "peering" connections, is a perfect example of the types of conflicts of interests that hold Mexico back , and are ridden with the anti-competitive attitudes. This backward thinking should not hold back the evolution of the internet in Mexico and we should take steps to ensure that internet growth and performance in Mexico is more controlled. To do this the assistance of COFETEL and/or SCT will be necessary to make new requirements to ensure proper growth of the internet IN MEXICO as internet demand increases IN MEXICO. AT the same time, this new independent organization should also begin to interconnect internationally where necessary, specifically making more direct international connections that do not rely on sending traffic destined to Argentina via the USA. With this new philosophy we can give Mexico its own internet backbone, and Mexico can begin to lead the way in offering internet solutions such as hosting FROM MEXICO for all of Latin America, as well as serve as a robust gateway for traffic destined for the USA. Mexico makes an appropriate "internet gateway" to the USA from the rest of Latin America for it's physical proximity to the USA.

This all goes along with another one of my beliefs : WE AS MEXICANS, should not look to go where life is better, but to make MEXICO a better place to live!

________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE February 1, 2009

After making this post and ranting about these problems with Protel, LACNIC, Telecable, and many others this page as received visits from many of those organizations, and I am happy to report that the situation has improved. By my most recent tests on the Telecable Puerto Vallarta / Telecable Guadalajara connection show an average of about 150ms. Previously it was twice that! I can say however I have not performed a single traceroute that showed domestic peering to date. I have seen Mexican providers peering, but those connections appear to be in the USA, which is not "Mexico Peering" .

I also want to point out that a part of this Telecable issue stems from the fact that they use one provider in Guadalajara and another in Puerto Vallarta and have none of their own infrastructure between those two cities, to keep data from Telecable to Telecable on their own network. Instead they route it to the respective providers in each city, who route it to the USA and back to Mexico again. EVERY licensed provider that operates in multiple cities should be required to have their own infrastructure for data from their network to their network, or they are only contributing to the problem.

VoLAN and WiFi Can create some exciting possibilities

Recently I had the opportunity to devise a sysyem for VoLAN (Voice over LAN) to offer a very unique solution.

The details of the project can be found at:
http://www.teknogeekz.com/RemoteDoorWifiSIP.htm , however I have posted a basic diagram below.


The project employed a unique device from Cyberdata which is a doorbell intercom. The wireless router shown is an over-simplification of the extensive Wireless Network that was already on site. Clearly the applications for SIP are growing when we begin to see devices available that have such limited, although useful applications such as the CyberData Intercom. What impressed me more however was the QuickPhones WiFI Handset , specifically it's Peer to Peer mode.

Part of the reason why this was such a good solution was the existing WiFi infrastructure that gave us better coverage than any long range cordless phone would have.

Since these devices were not relying on a server, we used P2P mode. The QuickPhones offers a P2P mode that allows IP address dialing via it's Phone book feature. This allowed us to set up multiple destinations instead of a "hotline" from the WiFi phone. This gave us the unexpected but much appreciated possibility of having more than one destination accessible from the WiFi handset. With a system like this one can easily establish intercom and possible PBX like functionality with no server, even with the functionality of PSTN lines via a device like an SPA 3102.

In the coming months I hope to have more time to explore such possibilities, and if any readers have any comments on the P2P functionality of the Quickphones , I would like to hear comments.

2008 The Year We Peer II

On January 2, 2008 , I posted here in this BLOG entry "2008 The Year We Peer"

Although I had thought little about this over the last several months, I now see that it is a vision that almost immediately began to come true. The truth is I had a very strong sensation that I needed to write that entry and quickly, even though I was involved in a move. Now I can say that rather than being embarrassed when the end of 2008 arrives, I can now proudly say that I hit the nail squarely on the head. SKOOKUM!

Sometime later in January , apparently Gizmo / SIPPhone announced Gizmo5 , and Gizmo5 "Backdoor Dialing". I did not think too much about this , nor look into it too deeply. In fact, I figured it was just more hype. However what I have found is that truly SIPPhone is offering FREE calls via Peering, and not just to VoIP providers. This even seems to include for example any Qwest number in Portland, Oregon. Unfortunately they play a "Free Call" recording on these calls, but the calls seem to connect with high quality.

Also since publishing that Blog entry, I originally took the announcement of an annual charge from Freeworlddialup.com to be bad news. As it turns out is WONDERFUL news for peering. They have apparently come to realize the value of their association with Ipeerx, also a Pulver Company. A year ago I was "backdooring" into FWD to get access to all Packet8 and Broadvoice numbers. I even asked the question of Jeff Pulver about people exploiting available services on FWD which could potentially break FWD. I did not tell him about backdooring these calls into the FWD network, as I did not want to ruin a good thing. In fact I wrote a BLOG entry in December 2007 and the tests I referred to there were done through FWD. Jeff, do you read my BLOG? If so you now know what I was talking about in my message about "disruptive technology".

If you build it, they will come!

I think in the case of both of these services, they seem to lack a "lookup" service to find out easily if a number is in the database, much like ENUM. In Fact users of Asterisk could use this same kind of lookup to easily interface these wonderful service offerings into their products.

Presenting Colonel or Kernel Panic

Well, I must say who can spend months working with linux without the opportunity to be presented to "Kernel Panic"?

For those interested I present the world with what appears to be the first and only Colonel Panic

Mark

Linux; Unbuntu, OpenSUSE, CentOS

It has been a frustrating week!

My previous attempts at Linux installs have all been met with failure for one reason or another.

Although this week, I have succeeded at a few different distros, the remaining problem is then getting the application one needs to work. For instance in my Cent OS on i386 I had no problem with hamachi, it was the GUI I could not get to work. I also dis a PPC install of Ubuntu and found that NO VERSION HAMACHI WOULD INSTALL SUCCESSFULLY, until I gave up! In each case there was always something else I needed installed to install the program I needed to use. The package managers were of Little Help, such as when I looked for gtk+ 2.0 In the Synaptic Package manager for Ubuntu, I had to sort through over 100 results and most seemed irrelevant. Keep in mind I had to do this several times to even attempt the installation of hamachi!

OpenSUSE on the PPC platform from the mini ISO was a complete failure despite many, many attempts.

I think someone should make some standards for Linux Distros to ensure programs will install without installing 10 dependencies along the way! In that way a user can download a program with the full knowledge that they will not be relying on a post on a forum to hopefully get a geek to answer their question a week later.

Although I can say that Ubuntu seems to have won my heart for the included packages that can be easily installed, it is a far cry from Windows or any Mac OS, and fails with advanced applications like Hamachi, or any third party program that supposedly runs on linux.

My opinion on Linux, it is great for getting an OS on an older machine, but so is Windows 2000, and there is no nightmare with the installation of Java, and All of the necessary web browser plug ins. I suppose it is a matter of the value of ones' time however I can say Linux in general for me has been one of the biggest time wasters I have seen. I need to employ cutting edge applications and I can not identify and install 10 different packages to install the program I need. Let alone whatever problems arise after the installation of said program.

Linux is good for playing, or a dedicated server, with, but I see it as little competition for Microsoft or Apple in the desktop OS market, as it is still Kludgeware. If you can not install the programs you need, forget it.

CODECs , Micro-CODECs , and still more CODECs

I frequently find myself in discussions about CODECs and call quality. It seems that many people have little understanding of CODECs , and even fewer have a good understanding of CODEC translation or what may REALLY be happening when they send out a micro-CODEC such as GSM or ilbc from their asterisk box, softphone or ATA.

This is mostly a translation from an old post that I made in Spanish on the subject.

The majority of carries support some flavor of g711 and g729. Therefore , when a person sends a call in a CODEC such as g723, GSM or ilbc, it is more probably they will have CODEC translation occur in the chain of that call.

Does not matter? You think so? Really huh....

Your provider offers g723, g729 and g711 for example. You want to use ilbc. Your asterisk can translate CODECS, because you are thinking more of saving bandwidth, you send calls to your provider via g723. Perhaps what you do not understand is that your provider is going to translate that call from the G723 that you send to g729 or g711 before sending it to the PSTN.

In the example above , you can see that the call will have a couple of different stages of CODEC translation. One very important thing to understand is always to use the most common CODECs. You must think of each stage of CODEC translation in the ENTIRE chain, not just on your end. If your call happens to be to a GSM cell phone you call will later also be CODEC translated again to some flavor of GSM, adding yet another step of CODEC translation.

It is better to use CODECs that your provider can support up to the gateway, with no translation, but when that is not possible, you should NEVER translate from a micro-CODEC to a micro-CODEC, unless you are sure that your privider is not translating again later in the chain. The only CODECs that are not micro-CODECs are g711 u (ulaw , or PCMU) and g711a (alaw or PCMA). Also Micro-CODECs have an inherent higher level of latency, are more greatly affected by packet loss and jitter, and every CODEC translation in the chain adds more latency still.

If a person or company tells you they offer "Carrier Class Services" , they should offer g711a or g711u, or it is simply not carrier class. They are the only CODECs that offer the same quality as the PSTN.

Keep in mind, each micro-CODEC adds its own unique set of distortions, artifacts, and errors in the voice quality. If you go through two micro-CODECs , the call may have such poor quality it can be unintelligible.