Archive for the ‘How to !’ Category
Turn Your Apple iPad into an iPhone—Free! By: Jeffrey L. Wilson
Friday, August 20th, 2010
It won’t cost you a penny to add voice calls and texting to Apple’s tablet with these five apps.
The Apple iPad performs several functions with aplomb—it’s a wonderful media player, Web surfing device, and, thanks to a deep apps catalog, it can become an e-book reader, gaming system, or a myriad other devices much like the iPhone 4. There’s one task that the iPad can’t do out of the box that the iPhone 4 can: place calls and send texts. But even those functionalities are within reach if you download the right apps, some of which are designed with iPad in mind and others of which were originally designed for the iPhone. (more…)
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How To Set Up a Home or Small Business Network By: Samara Lynn
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Need to get a new network up and running quickly? Follow our our step-by-step guide.
A computer network is an essential element of modern business, and it’s increasingly indispensible in the home, too. A network lets your computer connect to the Web so that you can check e-mail, update a website, or teleconference. It also lets you communicate locally with other computers on the same local network. Creating a network is simple—all that’s needed is to connect a computer to a router with an Ethernet cable. That’s a very rudimentary setup, however. You’ll need other components if you want to add multiple computers to your network, share files, stream multimedia, share a printer, or control which computers can access data on the network. And complexity increases if you decide that some links in your network will be made wirelessly. Fortunately, we’re here to assist. We’ve gathered together a list of all gear you’ll need to quickly and easily set up a home or small home-office network, and some key hints for getting it all to work together. (more…)
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How to use YouTube’s video editor by Josh Lowensohn
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Back in June, YouTube r
eleased an experimental tool that had been long asked for by its users: a browser-based video editor. The tool, which requires no additional software, or browser plug-ins (besides Adobe’s Flash), lets users make minor edits to videos they’ve uploaded, as well as stitch several clips together into one.
While it lacks many basic features of modern day consumer video editing software (such as captioning, transitions, and image stabilization), it makes up for it in convenience. All your video files, and the rendering, is taken care of by YouTube’s server farm, meaning you can do some very involved HD video editing on older machines that would be otherwise woefully inadequate.
YouTube has its own introductory guide on what the editor’s various features are, but we thought it would be a good idea to walk you through how to create something, as if you had just come back to your computer with a digital camera full of clips you wanted to put into one, cohesive video. Read on to see how to do it. (more…)
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Free Facebook privacy scanners help you lock down your account by Dennis O’Reilly
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Some people don’t mind strangers rummaging through their Facebook friends lists, wall posts, status updates, and other details of their online selves. The rest of us attempt to control who has access to our Facebook information. The recent revamp of the Facebook privacy settings makes it simpler to adjust the many settings that determine whether and how people contact you, and how much of your information they can access.
Two free online scanners put your Facebook privacy settings to the test, though they take very different approaches to how they generate their ratings. ReclaimPrivacy.org gives you a Facebook security grade in seconds without asking for any information or permissions. You have to install Connect in Private’s Secure My Profile Facebook app and allow the program to access your information and settings.
Secure My Profile gives you more granular control over how and with whom you share your Facebook activities, but the program also attempts to announce its presence to your friends. As soon as I saw that pop-up attempt to post an ad to my wall when the installation finished, I couldn’t get the application off my PC fast enough. (more…)
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Apple iPad Networking Problems: Are Routers The Culprit By: Samara Lynn
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Apple has enjoyed a very successful iPad launch, moving 300,000 units in a single weekend, but that doesn’t mean that all is well. Shortly after the iPad’s release, reports started to pour into Apple’s discussion forum that the tablet was unable to maintain a strong, steady Wi-Fi connection, and that it often prompted users to re-authenticate, even after a successful, initial connection. I decided to do some testing of my own to see just what the experience was like, and to see if I could replicate the reported problems. My results were surprising.
Apple has addressed the problem in its support area by stating that the iPad may have trouble connecting to third-party, dual-band routers after restarting or waking up from sleep. That could mean trouble for anyone not using one of Apple’s own Airport Extreme or Time Capsule routers. (Unfortunately, there has also been some grumbling about the iPad’s ability to connect to that piece of its own hardware, as well.) I applied Apple’s suggestions to my testing procedure. (more…)
Posted in How to !, Products | 156 Comments »
Hacker runs Google’s Android on Apple’s iPhone by Stephen Shankland
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
There are matches made in heaven, and on the other side of the spectrum, there is David Wang’s accomplishment: 
booting Google’s Android operating system on Apple’s iPhone
Wang, the “planetbeing” member of the a group called the iPhone Dev Team devoted to hacking iPhones, on Wednesday posted a video demonstrating Android on an iPhone.
The demo shows the boot process–complete with the Tux Linux mascot–and Wang using Android for browsing, receiving a text message, answering a phone call, and playing music. The phone is set up with a dual-boot configuration and indeed the video begins with the device running iPhone OS.
“It’s not really production-quality yet,” Wang said on the video. “I’d say it’s alpha quality. But pretty much everything works.”
The Android-on-iPhone hack is a notable technical accomplishment, but it’s not likely to transform the industry or alter what mainstream users do. It does indicate, though, that the hacking ethos is alive and well despite Apple’s attempts to keep its mobile phone locked down.
Wang has been working since at least 2008 to boot Linux on the iPhone, according to his blog. The demonstration uses a first-generation iPhone, but newer models should be supported at some point.
“It should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GS will take more work,” Wang said on the blog. “Hopefully with all this groundwork laid out, we can make Android a real alternative or supplement for iPhone users. Maybe we can finally get Flash. 
” (more…)
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Polycom sip.cfg improvements
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
I highly recommend the adoption of the following changes to /tftpboot/sip.cfg into future trixbox distributions:
23,24c23,24
< <dialplan dialplan.impossibleMatchHandling=”0″ dialplan.removeEndOfDial=”1″ dialplan.applyToUserSend=”1″ dialplan.applyToUserDial=”1″ dialplan.applyToCallListDial=”0″ dialplan.applyToDirectoryDial=”0″>
< <digitmap dialplan.digitmap=”[2-9]11|0T|011xxx.T|[0-1][2-9]xxxxxxxxx|[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|[2-9]xxxT” dialplan.digitmap.timeOut=”3|3|3|3|3|3″/>
—
> <dialplan dialplan.impossibleMatchHandling=”2″ dialplan.removeEndOfDial=”1″ dialplan.applyToUserSend=”1″ dialplan.applyToUserDial=”1″ dialplan.applyToCallListDial=”0″ dialplan.applyToDirectoryDial=”0″>
> <digitmap dialplan.digitmap=”[2-9]11|0T|011xxx.T|[0-1][2-9]xxxxxxxxx|[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|x.T|*xx.T” dialplan.digitmap.timeOut=”3|3|3|3|3|3|3″/>
208c208
< <volume voice.volume.persist.handset=”0″ voice.volume.persist.headset=”0″ voice.volume.persist.handsfree=”1″/>
—
> <volume voice.volume.persist.handset=”1″ voice.volume.persist.headset=”1″ voice.volume.persist.handsfree=”1″/>
This fixes a dialing problem and an oft-complained about volume revert between calls problem that were introduced by later firmware changes.
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CBeyond Trunk Settings
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Last Updated: 5-8-2009
Last Updated: 6-4-2009 by CITAPINC. These changes are made based on the new SBC Migration that cBeyond is currently undertaking.
Last Updated:2-16-2010 by jorge2904. Added User Details from a cBeyond install that took place today
Things you need to know:
(1) phone number with them (a 10 digit telephone number). ex: 3334445555
(2) the domain that cbeyond registers you with. It should look like sipconnect.xxx0.cbeyond.net where xxx is your local market.
(3) the outbound proxy you are supposed to register to. If you are using the old SIP, then use sipconnect.xxx0.cbeyond.net. For the new SBC system, use sip-proxy.xxxx0.cbeyond.net. XXX is based on your local market assigned by cBeyond.
(4) your secret password
(5) Your SIP Trunk Name you will create within Trixbox CE.
Creating the Trunk:
Go to the Trunks page, create a new SIP trunk and give it the name (5). In the box labeled PEER DETAILS, put the following (make sure you substitute in the appropriate values where needed, they are specified by (x)).
nat=yes
type=peer
canreinvite=yes
context=from-pstn
dtmfmode=auto
fromuser=(1)
fromdomain=(2)
host=(2)
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
insecure=port,invite
qualify=yes
outboundproxy=(3)
secret=(4)
username=(1)
For USER Details:
type=peer
host=sip-proxy.xxx0.cbeyond.net
context=from-pstn
dtmfmode=auto
For the register box, put in the following, and don’t forget to make the appropriate substitutions. 
If using the old SIP System: (1):(4)@(2)
for exampleL 9999999999:ABC123PASSWORD@sipconnect.XXX0.cbeyond.net
If using the new SBC System: (1):(4)@(5)/(1)
For example: 9999999999:ABC123PASSWORD@SIPConnect/9999999999
Summary:
When siging up with cBeyond, make sure you ask them if you are on their new SBC Outbound Proxy or on the old SIPConnect outbound Proxy. Also make sure you do your variable substitution instead of entering in the (x) otherwise it will not work.
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Installing trixbox Pro v2.0 from a USB stick
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Ok, so most of the legwork for this blog post was done by Ricardo Villa who posted this article detailing how to install trixbox CE v2.2 from a USB flash drive. I took most of the information below from that article, but made a few tweaks for trixbox Pro. Mad props to Ricardo for his original article.
That being said, the reason for this article is that I had a customer ask me recently about how to reinstall the trixbox Pro ISO on his trixbox Appliance (which has no optical media). He was trying to get it to work, but was crunched for time, and ended up purchasing a USB CDROM to get it installed (which, by the way, is the preferred method of reinstalling trixbox CE or Pro on an Appliance). If, however, you don’t have a USB CDROM, I have figured out the necessary tweaks to Ricardo’s article to get this working with trixbox Pro. Here we go… (more…)
Posted in How to ! | 15 Comments »
IT Expo – INTEROP April 25-29
Friday, March 5th, 2010
See hundreds of exhibitors showcasing the latest technology products and services for your business. See recent IT innovations firsthand. Exhibitors include:
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