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Right, because there's totally no way you could record your own phrases.

Before anyone gets carried away by how fucking brilliant I am, I'd considered building a telemarketer tormentor using Astrerix. It never got past the beermat stage, but we thought of that problem and solved it before we'd even finished the first beer.

I saw this on kickstarter and considered supporting it until I saw that it was a subscription service. I have zero interest in a subscription service. Now if it was a consumer device for $50 (or an android/iphone app) then I would consider it especially if it allowed some customization and/or had randomization.

Right, because there's totally no way you could record your own phrases.

Before anyone gets carried away by how fucking brilliant I am, I'd considered building a telemarketer tormentor using Astrerix. It never got past the beermat stage, but we thought of that problem and solved it before we'd even finished the first beer.

Or make one yourself... http://www.asterisk.org/

I searched Amazon for do not call and a few things came up. The $70 Call Blocker got 4/5 stars for the 22 people that bought one. The $120 discontinued TeleBouncer had a better technical functionality, and, reportedly is still available on eBay. I might try that Call Blocker (after reading each of the reviews) or investigate running Asterisk on a Raspberry Pi.

There are also robocalls for emergencies. A lot of local school districts have contracted with a service for this for things like school cancellations. If the weather is bad and school is called off, all the hundreds of parents get a phone call within a few minutes of each other.

You want a white list for your home phone? Play a recording to the rest?
http://www.asterisk.org/

You're welcome. It's not that expensive. And if you want to pay a few cents per minute you can even route cellular calls through an Asterisk box. Or use Google Voice for that.

Asterisk may not solve all your problems, but if you are using VoIP phones and know Linux this might be an option. Plus it is open and fully customizable. Might be worth a look. http://www.asterisk.org/

I would love, love, love to have a regular cordless house phone that's as smart as an iPhone/Android/whatever. I still use my house landline some and I wish it were not so dumb. The best trick my home phone does is match incoming Caller ID to laboriously-entered contacts.

The base station could double as a wireless access point and it would include a digital voicemail recorder which could be accessed with the handset and operate like the iPhone's visual voicemail. The handset could transmit calls to the base station with 5.8 GHz like a regular cordless (remember that word?) phone or it could be done with WiFi. Since it wouldn't be for carrying out and about, it could be as big as the late Dell Streak 5. You could use it as a regular phone or run Skype or Google Voice or any other VOIP client. Maybe the base station could run Asterisk. The possibilities are endless.

I would still think that *MOST* people using Android phones aren't going to be terribly concerned about the OS version they are running. Looking at your list, I'm not terribly interested in most of this, and I'm a geek:

1) Meh. I've got two Android devices using two slightly different keyboards. They both work. The biggest problem I have is that my fingers are a little too big to use the tiny keys on my phone, which means I sometimes hit the upper case button instead of an "A", the numeric key "lock" instead of the "N" or "M", the "L" instead of the backspace, etc., and that's a limitation of real estate on the screen rather than software. The *second* biggest problem I have is that the CPU on my phone, which is getting a bit long in the tooth now, is sometimes bogged down by the various applications running on the phone so that it registers a long key press rather than just a tap, and gives me a special character rather than the simple alphabetic key I actually typed. Again, that's more of a hardware problem than a software problem; a faster CPU, such as I would have in a newer phone, would likely minimize or eliminate this problem (which, in fact, it does on my Streak 7).

2) Again, meh. Maybe I would be more impressed if I had actually seen the "new color schemes, UI changes and polish" but what I have works.

3) I've had this since 2.0 on my phone (I'm running 2.1 now) by installing the "System" app. It's free, and it does everything you describe, so again, not something that I would update for.

4) Okay, this is cool. I've played with Asterisk, so having a SIP phone on my cell phone or tablet would be something I'd like to have, and might even be something I'd upgrade for. However, I doubt that I am indicative of Android users in general. In particular, if I told my wife that she could have a SIP phone on her Android phone, and that she could use it to make VoIP calls through my Asterisk server, she'd probably quote that line from Finding Nemo: "It's like he's trying to speak to me...I can feel it!"

5) Maybe I'm missing the point here (but if I am, odds are non-technical users will, too) but I have a "Downloads" directory on my Android devices, where I can view and control my downloads. I haven't downloaded too many things from other than a browser, so maybe that's the issue, but again, this feature doesn't give me much incentive to upgrade.

As a case in point, my wife is still using 2.0 on her Android phone, even though our carrier has released 2.1.something for our platform. Why hasn't she upgraded? Because 2.0 does what she *needs* it to do: make calls, browse the web, send and receive text messages, check her e-mail. She is also concerned about losing her settings and data if she upgrades. I used an app to backup my settings and data before I updated my phone. Nevertheless, I still had to spend about a week cleaning up my contacts list and I did lose all the data from one application (Fuelage, which I was using to monitor and track fuel consumption on my motorcycle, so not critical, but annoying). In other words, not upgrading is relatively painless for her, while upgrading is potentially painful, so she has decided not to bother. THAT is a typical non-geek Android user's attitude, IMHO.

To me it seems MS will simply follow their standard procedure of "Embrace (purchase and/or adopt a standard), Extend (introduce incompatibilities), and thereby Extinguish." to thwart any sort of open source implementations.

Similar to their Zune device, which has embraced a standard USB interface and media protocol, but has been extended with a DRM challenge & response system to extinguish the possibility of any software but Microsoft's being used with the Zune.

IMHO, since Skype is actually a distributed Peer to Peer system (where some peers are used as relays or to coordinate NAT traversal for other peers), why not simply ditch Skype and create our own low cost system? Some type of PGP like system can be used to implement a distributed authentication/registration system, and perhaps Asterisk could be in our own homes (w/ landlines) to provide outgoing phone calls. Recent laws have made me wary of allowing others to out-dial from my node (to a select group of local area codes), but it is a type of solution that that we used in the BBS days...

VoIP systems can be compromised/abused? I intercept calls at work ("... for quality assurance and monitoring purposes ..."); if that system was compromised someone could certainly demonstrate call interception on a two-bit Asterisk/Polycom setup too.

Yeah, one could easily mistake it for the Asterisk source code.

Be interesting to get more detail on the phone server. Our local provider actually had a pretty good system and the price was right. Google Apps was very popular.

I run asterisk in a VPS. For $15 a month I get a private PBX that I can tap from anywhere in the world. Takes about 2-3 hours of work to get it up and running with extensions & voice-mail, if you're following the O'Rieley book. I pay $1/month for my phone number and 0.4 cents per minute incoming. Since I pay by minute, I don't have a limit on the number of calls. For about $9-15 a month you can get unlimited incoming and outgoing minutes, but it's usually limited to 2 simultaneous calls.

The practical limit is about 48 simultaneous calls or 96 active connections - above that and I would need to upgrade my server. For me, I get a business phone line, with the ability to do a conference call with more people than I care to talk to, for about $18/month including usage.

For people worried about backups etc, the VPS company has 4 locations with auto roll over and I get a backup stored on their servers and I can keep as many backups as I can be bothered with on my own. If they went out of business tomorrow, I could upload my image to any Parallels VPS provider and be back in business with an IP address change on the server and at my DID provider. Your mileage will of course vary depending on your VPS supplier.

If you want more info on the server itself, check out either Asterisk or Voip-Info.

You maintain your copyright for Asterisk contributions if you used Digium's contributors' agreement.

Read carefully: https://issues.asterisk.org/view_license_agreement.php

Most contributors grant a "perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and transferable license" to your contribution that allows dual licensing. Unless you specifically disclaimed your copyright, you still have it.

stupid trusting of spell check.. It's Asterisk.
http://www.asterisk.org/

for even better computer integration there is HUD as well.
http://www.hudlite.org/downloads.htm

I have at least one friend who set up Asterisk for their home system, and got SIP phones where hardware phones are needed, and put software phones and headsets on all the computers.

http://www.asterisk.org/
http://www.trixbox.org/

I've not played with the free (as in beer) solutions, but the semi-free business versions (Trixbox, Digium) do support a shared speed-dial list. Plus you gain intercom, paging, music on hold, etc.

No, I was just annoyed at your impolite behavior at the time with all of the spamming. Then I noticed this story and saw that you are still at it. I'm glad you found a solution that works for you. Many people have also found other solutions that work great for them, including Asterisk.

Part of having such a huge user community is that the Asterisk devs have 100s of feature requests or bug reports at any given time. If someone is having a problem that is only having an effect on a very small number of people, sometimes it takes longer to fix than other problems. Everyone has to prioritize.

Also, the quality of the debugging information that is presented is also a major factor in how long it takes to get a problem fixed. This is a good example of 3 or 4 actual Asterisk developers trying work on one of your issues and you being rude to them and not giving them the debug information they requested.

I understand that having an issue that is affecting you take a while to get closed is annoying, but something being open for a week with no real information provided to help track it down is certainly no reason to get react the way you did.

And us Asterisk users aren't pissed about FreeSWITCH existing--that is just silly. The more choices out there, the better! We just don't like people coming over and shouting YOU SUCK and doing the equivalent of spray painting our walls with "FreeSWITCH RULEZ!" like you did with the bug tracker. That is just childish. There are many excellent and polite freeswitch users and developers--I just don't think that you are one of them.

Agreed. Couple that fact with the fact that a lot of the repos I've seen are built off of older iterations of the Asterisk code and it's a recipe for disaster. For example, Ubuntu has Asterisk 1.4.21.2 in the repository right now. This is directly exploitable:

http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/security/AST-2009-003.pdf

If you run code out of repos without understanding the risks that's still an admin fail, though. Not the fault of Asterisk, per se.

Phone System PBX Project

I had to build such a full-fledged system but one that had to be dependable, reliable, small, quiet, unobtrusive, long lasting, cool running, low-power, well performing, be built of standard parts, and be able to accept one PCI or PCIe expansion card for the telephone TDM interface for incoming FXO lines.

I'm in the process of setting up a phone system PBX with up to 4-incoming telephone lines and a phone menu system to provide basic business information (e.g. hours, address, directions, information, etc.) for a friend's business and also offer the standard features such as voice mail, faxing, internal analog extensions, VoIP capability for future expansion, customization, etc. built on Linux using Elastix that is based on Asterisk PBX.

Wishlist - PBX PC - Intel Atom 330, 1GB DDR2 667, OCZ Agility 30GB SSD, 120mm Fan, Apex Mini-ITX - $316.94 USD

Form Factor - Mini-ITX

I checked out my favorite hardware review site AnandTech and read a number of articles about the new Mini-ITX form factor motherboards that came out to get an introduction to the form factor and expectations.

AnandTech.com - Two New Ions: ASUS AT3N7A-I and ASRock Ion 330

TomsHardware.com - Does Intel's Dual-Core Atom Improve Efficiency?

I read the articles with a lot of interest but when I looked at the prices of these Ion based motherboard with well performing graphics chips I found that I wasn't interested in paying so much for a feature that would not be used very much in a server type PBX system. Also some of these systems didn't have any PCI expansion slots so they were no good for my PBX type project.

Processor - Intel Atom 330

So I turned to look at other Mini-ITX based offerings and came across the good 'ol Intel Atom motherboards. I found the Intel Atom 230, 270 based boards to be a little low performing in many of the benchmark results that I saw but that the dual core Intel Atom 330 chip was doing quite well for only a few dollars more and very little increase in power. I looked at the offerings at my favorite retailer, Newegg and saw a nice list of choices.

Motherboards, Motherboard / CPU / VGA Combo - Mini ITX

I started my process of filtering so I ignored low powered systems that came with VIA C7 chips and the Intel Atom 230 chips. I came up with these three choices.

Foxconn 45CSX Intel Atom 330 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Retail - $69.99 USD

Intel BOXD945GCLF2D Intel Atom processor 330 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Retail - $79.99 USD

ASUS AT3GC-I Intel Atom 330 479 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Retail - $89.99

Motherboard - Intel D945GCLF2

Out of these choices, I wasn't too thrilled with a Foxconn built motherboard because I had no experience with this company for any hardware. I wasn't so sure that the extra money spent on the Asus motherboard is really going to offer anything at all, so the choice went down to Intel because I wanted reliability for a system that was being built for someone else. I read a few good review of the Intel motherboard below.

Yes you can. Unlike Skype, you're not bound to a central service provider with a dictating price model. You can choose one of the numerous SIP (or IAX, i don't know if Ekiga even supports it) service providers. Many of those that I've looked at are local providers, but with decent rates for long distance too. A lot of them are offering pre-paid plans, so it's easy and cheap to try, and you can later upgrade to a flatrate model if you so wish.

Or, you could even set up a gateway service yourself, if you want to afford the hardware and/or tinker with open software. Or why not a full-blown telephony server like Asterisk while you're at it?

True to the free software ideas, you have all the choice you want, the burden is just to review it all and to find something to fit your needs.

Currently, it's all rather open from a security viewpoint as well - but the technology is still young, and hey, it's probably not less secure than skype :)

Just go your own way to save: http://www.asterisk.org/

I installed asterisk and opened accounts with several business grade VOIP provider. You can reach me through an 1-800 number, I have local phone numbers in 3 major canadian cities and it costs me in average 30$ a month in total for my phone bills. I manage to almost eliminate that cost by reselling services to a few people.

The call quality is "business grade" not "Skype grade" ;-)))

Skype survives because it "borrows" bandwidth from its users, without this fact, Skype has no business model, you would have to pay for every call you make, they currently offload costs to others so they don't have to pay for it, see my other post:

http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1275661&cid=28400331

So the Do Not Call list became "Cheap list of verified numbers for people who can give you money but whose government can't arrest you."

I always figured it like this-- the Do Not Call list has certain exceptions-- political calls (of course), charities, and companies with whom you've done business (e.g., even though you cancel AT&T, they continue with the "please switch back" calls), non-profits, etc. There may be even more exceptions (like local businesses within 50 miles of your home, etc.) for your state's local DNC list.

In other words, the way I see it, the Do Not Call list is a Call List for the exceptions. I don't want ANY of them- politicians or nonprofits included- calling me. I'd just prefer to stay unlisted and not have my # show up anywhere. This works pretty well except for the random-number generated robocalls who coudn't give a shit what your # is.

Also, if it gets REALLY annoying, one might consider using a call router to intelligently route unknown callers through a phone tree or directly to voice mail.

W

Asterisk with any SIP software works like a charm. The asterisk server backend will be linux or BSD but there are many cross platform clients for the end users.

I do that on my home phone line (actually even simpler than that -- "Press 1 to continue in English"), and it works quite well.

Could you please provide a link that could explain how one would go about doing this themselves?

I'm using a Gumstix box running Asterisk with a SPA-3102 for the connectivity to the actual phone line proper, and a compact flash adapter (on the Gumstix) for storing voicemail. It also routes outgoing international calls to my SIP account with the Gizmo Project folks (much cheaper than AT&T, the local landline provider), and feeds incoming SIP calls into the house phone.

This was set up as a hobby project, so I wasn't going for a lowest-cost solution. If I were doing it again, I'd probably see about using my home router in place of the Gumstix box (I'm waiting for stable OpenWRT support for the WRT610N, with its USB host interface and 64MB of RAM -- more than powerful enough to run Asterisk in addition to its normal workload, with the voicemail storage and software that won't fit in 8MB flash kept on an attached external drive), or at least get one of the newer Gumstix motherboards with an FPU onboard to be able to receive and send faxes with iaxmodem (as the SpanDSP library it uses hasn't yet been ported to fixed-point, and so doesn't run acceptably on FPUless embedded hardware).

Once the hardware is set up, the actual Asterisk configuration is embarrassingly trivial, at least until I get around to implementing all the wishlist features I've been putting off. Should you decide to go the same route, drop me an email and I'd be glad to lend some assistance.

A good open source solution for replacing the costly PBX systems is the Asterisk platform http://www.asterisk.org/ If you want even more functionality a good recommendation is a pre-built system which incorporates FreePBX which provides an easy management interface for configuring and maintaining the PBX as well as various built in apps. All of this put on top of a CentOS system. I currently run the PBX In A Flash pre-built package put out by Nerd Vittles. http://pbxinaflash.net/ It is probably one of the easiest to use/update Asterisk systems I have worked with and is by far the most stable.

Why not see for yourself?

I may be paranoid but I think the real reason for this technology is to "shape" VOIP and related services to thwart the competition. I don't think this is about limiting download volumes at all. Most of us don't use even close to what the lines can carry and who cares if the download speeds are "lumpy".

However, consider that if we have a high speed line then all telecommunication services including what is now done on phone lines and our television services can run over the same link instead of three separate lines each being billed by possibly separate organizations.

No longer will we need cable TV or satellite TV service siting right beside an old POTS (plain old telephone service) line sitting right beside a hopefully brand spanking new fiber optic cable.

Without shaping the ISP and others can run whatever communications services they wish over a fast smooth high speed link. As I see it, this is a preemptive strike. Better to get the "shaping" technology into place before the masses figure out how badly they get screwed. If the carrier can make the communications link "lumpy" then VOIP services and Television services might not run so smoothly unless offered by guess who is "shaping" the line.

We can already use say an Asterisk server to provide PBX services but this is only if we can be sure the time delay between packet transmission is small and predictable. Think of how much competition this technology can create for the phone company! http://www.asterisk.org/

Another thing to consider is the profit margins on cell phone services. Once we have the digital link in place then we can run these services over wifi if we wish. Many libraries, some coffee shops and even city hall in some locations offer wifi for free. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot_(Wi-Fi) Again "shaping" can be used to detune the system. Its probably a stop gap attempt but I'm paranoid enough to expect them to try it.

You might want to look into Asterisk. It can do exactly that, including multiple mailboxes and more (in Asterisk's case, the password is simply the extension that rings your phone).

This is NOT new. Anyone using Asterix has likey programmed their system to do just that. You can have it do whatever you like.

ONe trhing is that telemarketers and certainly scammers will block their caller ID. So you don't gt any number. These calls would go to an automated system that asked them questions and has them press numbers. The questions never (literally near) end... If you are a telemarketer press 3, if you are selling household goods press1, services ppress 3,,,,,, please enter you suoe size and then the pounf key,,, Please enter your social security number and the press pond,.... and then it starts over.

Most of then get the idea after the first question and hang up.

A free home oriented system is here
http://www.trixbox.org/

The full up free asterix system is here
http://www.asterisk.org/

Use an open protocol such as SIP, for instance you could use Asterisk and Ekiga.

KIAX + Asterisk would be another solution.

http://www.asterisk.org/
http://ekiga.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kiax

I use asterisk for this.

"Hello? Yes? Yes, I *am* interested in double glazing, yes, I was just thinking about getting some... What? No, what, hang on, let me get you on the other phone, it's really noisy here..."

[click] "right... [park] 700 [hash]......"

... and then go and make a cup of tea, while they wait on hold, listening to Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on a loop.

My record is 7 minutes.

We did it ourselves and saved >$100/month for a small business. Just use Asterisk (free and open source), buy some inexpensive but full-featured phones like the Grandstream GXP-2000 (about $80 each), and get a termination provider like VoicePulse Connect for Asterisk ($11/month for four simultaneous channels, free incoming, and below $0.01/min for most outgoing). It took some work to get it all set up and working properly, but now is actually more reliable than the analog phones ever were. (We had phone company issues every few months... just awful.)

--
Educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation.

If you think this is the first open source project for Alabama, you obviously have never heard of Gaim (now Pidgin) or Asterisk, both of which were started by Mark Spencer (an Auburn grad from Huntsville). Phorum also got its start in Huntsville as well.

I disagree. There is actually a webbased, cross-platform, open source CRM/CMS system called Covide which integrates tightly with Asterisk VoIP server. We installed both at our office, and although we're still getting the hang of it, hitherto its functionality has been outstanding. For more info:

http://www.covide.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/covide/
http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/
http://www.asterisk.org/

Strange... I posted this yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared into Limbo. Computers are weird, and the programmers are even scarier.

I use to use skype out a lot then I moved to install my own asterisk server. Long distance calls are much cheaper now, 1 cent a minute compared to 5 with skype out. I can connect to my server through the internet and the call quality is superior to skype, it matches PSTN quality.

I just wander how many skype users have moved to asterisk or other cheaper VOIP solutions. It might have contributed to skype downfall, http://www.asterisk.org/

Browsing the Truphone website I found their VoIP platform is about 90% open source: OpenSER, Asterisk, FreeSWITCH ... (see here). That's a great news for open source community, perhaps bad for telco vendors ...

Asterisk can do this rather trivially as part of the dial plans. Get yourself a TDM22B or some other similar card and you can set up anything you want to happen when a number calls in. From forwarding to another number to answering and then hanging up, to answering and asking for a passcode in order to make your phones ring, you can do it with an Asterisk set up.

Maybe try Trixbox for an easy to use, all in one setup of the same. Pop in the Trixbox CD and it auto-installs.

I have a configuration that allows incoming calls during certain times of day and then only from other numbers after those times. So it definitely sounds like what you want to do will be possible with *.

I just want to know if I will be able to run some sort of software PBX on a cell phone anytime soon. Define my *own* call plans and dial plans to do what *i* want with various incoming and outgoing numbers at various times.

Asterisk on a cell phone. Now *that* would revolutionize my cell phone experience.

Heck, i would even write a cell phone suitable PBX myself if i had sufficient access to the internals - most processors in the current generation of cell phones are more than capable of handling the overhead associated with a low call volume (personal) PBX.

Fat chance of anything like this happening anytime soon, however ...

Click here to hear a WAV file of the tone.

You can go here for the real TeleZapper website, which is a device that detects when you answer your phone, and plays the tone basically as you're saying "hello".

Asterisk has this sound built-in, so you can trigger it in your dialplan wherever you need.

Wikipedia has great information on the Special Information Tone, and other call progress tones that you probably just take for granted.

Asterisk.

The Asterisk open-source PBX is available on asterisk-shaped demo disks that you can pop into your PC to install a Linux OS and Asterisk PBX server software. It's not a perfect ninja star, but pretty good.

1. get a colo box
2. install a terminal server on it, IE LTSP type stuff, maybe VNC, maybe windoze box with terminal server. Also load up the usual web email etc, and also hook up a Jabber server.
3. install Asterisk on it
4. hire VoicePulse to get it phone service
5. Get each worker an IP phone. For those that often work at home, use Snom or AAstra, Grandstream if you're cheap. For those that are always on their laptop use a softphone like EyeBeam or SJphone, or maybe a WiFi phone (make sure it has encryption support). If you want to go all out, get everybody EyeBeam and a webcam so you can video chat. However keep in mind that softphones aren't great unless you have a headset connected 24/7, and even then they are still not as good as a real IP phone. Now get everybody connected to the terminal server.

That's the easy part. Anybody can spend money on crap. The key is making it work.
You will need employees who are DEDICATED to your company. When there is no office, there is no boss over the shoulder, so it is very easy for a non-dedicated employee to waste tons of time.
Keep everybody coordinated. Forums can be a good way to do this if people read them, a daily teleconference or at least group chat can work well. Some have suggested meeting physically once a week but I don't think this is needed if you keep your team coherent. If everybody knows their task and you have good communication, you could run the life of the company without ever meeting some of the guys.

One way is to ignore it, because it's not your problem.

Another way is to point out gently that it's a problem. Except then, you have made it your problem; and you can expect to be treated like a free 24/7/52 helpdesk forever from then on. Or treated as though it was your fault that it wasn't secure.

Yet another way is to set up your a router of your own, with broadly the same settings as theirs, but with a proxy configured to do something like this. But don't switch it on just yet. Then, while their network is idle, disable their router (remember the password .....) and enable yours. The only thing that could possibly be more phun than this would be listening in on their frantic phone calls to their ISP's support hotline. And, with the appropriate equipment, you could even hi-jack their phone wiring ..... but that's a little bit much to expect anyone to survive!

Quite well as far as I'm concerned; Speex is useful with Asterisk (a popular and extensible open source telephone system), I use it to make high-quality low-bandwidth encodings of talk shows I work with, and a lot of players play it (including VideoLAN Client which works on many operating systems). I never have to worry about patent hassles, proprietary software hassles, or losing control of my audio to digital restrictions management.

• mOnOwall - firewalling
• IPCop - firewalling
• Metadot - CMS
• Apache - web server
• Bind - Name Server
• asterisk - telephony/voip
• Sendmail - cussed but stable MTA
• SpamAssassin - spam filtering
• MIME-Defang - email content filtering/manipulation
• ClamAV - Virus filtering
• Freebsd - the best OS since sliced bread (IMHO)
• Centos - Not to shabby an OS either
• ...

Two options.

1) If you are using analog phones, this likely will not apply to you

However, if you use VoIP based on something like Asterisk, you could force-open a trouble ticket when a call comes in to the support line. This way, they are forced to go in and close it, which should lead them to putting notes in it. You could further auto-assign the ticket to them if it went to their phone.

We currently do this when someone calls our on-call number- there's a big annoying ticket setting there awaiting resolution. Once this is working, set up some automated job to spit out a text listing of who has unclosed tickets, how long they've been open, etc. Have this list sent to all techs automatically.

We use RT for tickets, so creating new tickets in the appropriate queue can be done a few different ways. Sending an email to the account we have setup to create the tickets is the way

2) Incentives ($$)- bonuses and raises based on time/tickets/minutes logged. Nothing logged? No money for you.

--falz

Skype is a closed secretive disaster. The community RANTED when MSN/AIM/Yahoo messenger played games to cut out client choice (Gaim, Trillian, et al.). If you want simple, use Gizmo ( http://www.gizmoproject.com/ ) which has a very economical and functional interface to the regular phone system (POTS). Even cheaper, try http://www.voipstunt.com/ or http://www.freecall.com/
All of these are street-legal SIP, and you can use any SIP-capable device you like, or use your computer if you want to.

And of course you can use Asterisk ( http://www.asterisk.org/ ) which is best of all!

Skype belongs in the shitbin of history. Closed systems suck.

And this is exactly the link I was thinking about. Please, don't feed the troll.

Many other businesses and projects are today depending on the availability of the internet. You use it to get current documentation, you use it to promote your services and you use it to communiate between different parts of a project which today with internet access really allows you do run projects on multiple continents. Doing it right may even speed up things. Develop the software in Europe, test it in the US and do fault report management in Malaysia. (Not my idea actually). Gives a new meaning to 'daily builds'...

And the internet is also providing the ability for businesses to serve their own internal telephony in a cheap way without the need for expensive leased line arrangements. Setting up Asterisk servers with IAX2 communications may do the trick.

So YES the internet is vital today for businesses. Actually even more than ordinary telephony. The problem is that not all ISP:s have understood this yet and fails to set up the redundancy needed. One way around this may be to buy internet access from more than one ISP.

So what? WiFi isn't quite as prevalent as EDGE.

Doesn't matter because WiFi is prevalent enough where most calls are made, as in

In fact I never bothered with an EDGE subscription since I've got WiFi at home and on campus.

Or "What was that click?" - "Oh, that was Asterisk switching us over to WiFi/VoIP, I'm in the office now so it's free".

You forgot to mention the fact that Huntsville is heavily religious, conservative and their entire engineering industry is government funded defense.

I'm a software engineer living in Huntsville, and I'm an atheist. I've lived in several other places, and I haven't noticed the religious influence in Huntsville being any more overbearing here than anywhere else. We have our share of bars, strip clubs, and other fun activities for us sinners.

You're right that most of the engineering jobs are DoD funded, but there are still others that are pure commercial. Everyone's favorite VoIP Linux application Asterisk is developed in Huntsville at Digium. I'll see Mark Spencer around town fairly often.

If you're interested in the number of engineering companies in Huntsville, check out this link here.

As with anything, your choice of location is going to be a compromise. Is Huntsville as cool/fun as San Francisco? No. But, my mortgage on a 2200 sq. ft. house is less than $1K a month, and I have a 12 minute commute to the office.