Sjur Usken

What the heck is the customers Asterisk calling Guatemala about quarter to five in the morning? 1000 calls to Guatemala, but very few actually went through or had any long duration. This was around 11 o’clock in the evening for Guatemala. What was the purpose of this abuse?

It would have been nice to have a tap into this unsecure Asterisk and listen in on the abuse calls. Was this open PBX sold as a gateway to a cash calling card company, or was it used to just free calling for the hacker itself? Ideas and comments are appreciated!

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The Norwegian Police are limping after web 2.0 and finally made a website where you can report a crime (only if your wallet, bicycle or mobile phone is stolen). The only stupid thing is that it results in an e-mail sent to another system. But hey, they promise to send a letter in your (snail) mail within 14 days after the report. Great promise when you know only 3% of bicycle thefts are solved.

I think it is great that the police are trying to make it easier for you and me. The only problem is when they also make it easy for the bad guys. The Norwegian police is using the URL to point to graphics and then it is open for you and me to write whatever we want ourselves… great… no wonder this hits the front page on the largest tabloid newspaper (Link in Norwegian).

Browsed through the Internet for the Freedom Fone Project and came over the LinuxMCE. I have been dreaming about a project like this, and was really amazed about the possibilities included already.
They have done a smart thing dividing it up in two parts;

• one powerful core server for doing encoding of incoming media
• one or more clients connected to each screen around in the house.

Some of the features:

• Surveillance camera
• Intrusion alarm
• Heat/Cooling control
• Lightning control
• Full media center functionality
• Telephone central

All these features are knit together into a nice user interface where you only need a remote with three (3) buttons  (+ OK and cancel) to operate. And it’s even cooler with a gyro remote control (anyone played with the Nintendo wii??)

What I’m missing for my immediate use:

• heat control for radiators (a small motor to turn the knob..)
• interface to my proprietary doorphone. (can probably be done with a Cisco/Linksys SPA3100 ATA)

I have already e-mailed several of my friends who are looking for this and will definely spread the word!

When it is also running on the Asus EEE Top (15,6″ touch screen and can do full HD video) it will be great! Or the even better MSI Wind Top EA 1900 (who makes these names by the way…)

Keep up the good work! The future will be fantastic!
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There are not much publicity about this project, so I wanted to explain what it’s all about.The ultimate goal is to make it easy to spread information e.g. people send a SMS and get a call informing them about HIV/AIDS or the weather.

The Freedom Fone is a universal media conveyor, it should take most media input from people (mobile, skype, web, e-mail) and generate output (sms, call, radio, web) in the best possible way.

The limitations are the usual one in Africa. No power, little or no Internet connection, few people to run it, harsh environmental conditions, etc…

Our solution seems easy, but there is some work behind it. Take a standard netbook (asus preferred) and plug in a USB to cellphone (mobigater). Install Ubuntu with Freeswitch and several other tools. Glue it all together with a lot of customization, and BINGO! We have a Freedom Fone Server!

Usage scenarios

An organization wants to spread information about specific topics. We create a SMS word people can send to be called back and informed.

Farmers want to know about the weather and subscribes on a daily or weekly weather forecast.

Ex.pats living abroad wants to help out and makes an informative radio program. This is aired on the local radio station

Others? Please comment!
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Just setting up a Cisco UC500 and notice how “old fashioned” the VoIP settings are. The setup still believes that the provider only has one major IP address and one backup. Of course, to have one basic IP address where all traffic is routed to, and make this redudant (through virtual IP or IP take-over), is just fine and will work OK.

The DNS SRV case

If you as a VoIP Service Provider uses DNS SRV, which is designed to give you load sharing and redundancy through DNS, then the Cisco Configuration Assistant misses the point. This assistant, which is almost necessary to get the UC500 unit up and running, does a DNS lookup on the A record and takes this IP into the Access List configuration…. not good… Next time the UC500 registers, it probably uses another server, and the incoming calls are also coming from this. Then the ACL kicks in and blocks the call…

The work-around

For CCA version 1.9 there is an access-list 2 that contains the IP of the SIP server. Expand this list to cover all IP addresses from your VoIP provider. Be careful, since opening this to everybody will open you for both SPiT and possible fraud.
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Then GrandCentral has been re-launched as Google Voice.

Look at the interfaces here: or go to www.google.com/voice go get your own account (will be opened for new users within days..)
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