Monday, November 28, 2005

VoIP again....CDO call center coming

here i am staring at my pc in the office thinking...wondering how would i present such technology in a very simple way that would make my audience composed of marketing and sales people understand. We have been launching products on VoIP such as call center solutions, Voice over Wireless, Voice Over DSL, etc. In one word, its VoIP. Kolosos my colleague from Network Management Center have just discussed with me the basic architecture of a PSTN network against a VoIP network. Well, it is much alike though by principle...the only thing that differs are the protocols, the medium and i guess the hardware. Right now, everyone here is so busy about this local call center in Lim Ket Kai which is about to launch this month. It has been 3 days now that everyone is discussing possible setup and configurations to come up with the best solution for this new local call center. This would be definitely the first CDO local call center. Ariba!!! let me hear you say yeah!!.This would be the second call center in CDO that we will be supporting but this new one is the first one where we design the whole call center solutions including the server and clients. One tip, this one is own by a prominent cable tv operator here in Cagayan de Oro. I bet that would be a bunch of good looking ladies there in that call center. And its funny that the site was the same site where the famous high class bar "Pyramid" was formerly located.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

DSLAM training on Zyxel IES-1248


We just had our training on Zyxel DSLAM conducted by engineers from Zenshin Systems. Some stuff on configuration and troubleshooting were discussed, also open forums regarding existing problems on CPE's and DSLAM configuration. But what interested me was the feature on multiple PVC. With this feature i can dedicate a connection to each services and route it through a VLAN switch. Separate connection for voice, video and internet browsing. I can also create a separate PVC for management purposes only. Separate VLAN for subscribers and for our network is also a good one, so we can protect our routers from possible attack from DSL subscribers. However, the best part of the training was the free jackets given to all participants. Hmmm, if all suppliers are like this, you bet their names will always be remembered.

By the way, i think i have to do several simulation test these coming days, to verify its features. As of now, i am still drowning myself from this myriad of wireless equipments.

By the way that picture above is during the DSL training i conducted to Marketing and Sales Department. How in a hell, it pop up in this post hehehe...well just leave it there.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

High Ridge at Aluba Macasandig : CDO's newest tourist spot

I was surprised recently when a huge banner pop up infront the house, and a huge post saying "High Ridge tourist spot destination overlooking the city THIS WAY" Then i began to notice several vehicles going up to the place we once called "The Heaven". The place was once closed by police because of so many teenagers are coming there bringing with them liqours. Lovers and couples in the past once enjoyed hiking to top, bringing with them food and having picnic while looking at the wide horizon above the sprawling city of Cagayn de Oro. I remember, we used to sit down in a sampaloc tree just meters away from the Liberty Transmission Tower . But after several months last year, the place was closed down at night because of so many visitors drinking, pot sessions(daw?) and sometimes car sex (whew! doing it under the moonlight..hehhehe). Then last month, the place was declared a tourist spot. We thought it was the same place, but it turn out to be farther from the place we knew as Heaven. Last night, we visit the place and it was beautiful. Approximately a kilometer away from the highway below, we travelled by almost 15 minutes until we arrived there. We arrived in a wooden gate with a name High Ridge, then we follow a narrow path which leads to the restaurant. Entrance fee is 50 pesos which is consumable. They said the restaurant is a branch of Dear Manok, since it was owned by the same person. Th place was not really spacious but there are tables and the chairs in the ground. There were green and blue lights decorated on palm trees. There are also tables in the ridge area, where you can dine while enjoying the sight of the whole city. A good place to dine, chat, think (?) and maybe to show off your romantic juice to your partner. It is an open ground, where you can see the stars above and the yellow lights emanating from the metropolis. Too bad it rains when we were there, so we did not enjoy the sight so well. But for all of you who wants to visit the area just follow the road to Aluba until you will arrived in an intersection where the left road leads to Libona. Youll find the banner there and the arrow signs. You will notice also a closed small store in the second house, dont mind that, coz it is where i live hehehehhe.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Got so busy with wireless

I felt my head is already vibrating already because of the radio signals coming through in and out of my brain. It feels like i am inside a microwave oven and waiting for my brain to be toasted and fried by these microwave frequencies. 2.4Ghz and 5.7Ghz becomes my bestfriend nowadays. I was assigned as the lead engineer for the wireless testing team which is responsible of testing all wireless products being submitted to us. We are currently working on the tranche 2 wireless data expansion in Mindanao. Gosh! wires , antennas and radio are cluttered in our makeshift wireless lab which consist of 2 PC, Voip gateway, qcheck software, traffic emulators and asterisk server. Hopefully we can purchase the test equipment we have been waiting for. Beside the wireless lab is also setup for DSL testing. We have radios from Infinet, Motorola, Trango, Proxim, SkyPilot, WiLan, Angel, etc. By the way, we have the 25 percent weigth for the wireless product that would win in this project.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Windows XP Built in traffic monitor for spyware detection

Last time, i recommended to internet cafes who have problems with spyware to use packet sniffer instead. By detecting the source IP and the ports, they can easily pin point possible PC suspected of spyware infection. However, i still thought that there must be a better way to detect abnormal traffic within the PC aside from using some freeware bandwitdh monitors. So i have here a very basic tech tip which you can use, when you feel those freeware are not that reliable.
1. Just click on Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Performance.


2. Delete all existing counters and add a new one.
3. Click on add counter icon and click on network interface.

















4. Add the packet/sec counter or you can also include the packets sent or received.















5. Normal traffic may look like this.














6. Abnormal traffic (possible spyware infection) may look like this.















7. When a certain download or upload is interrupted, this is the graph that you will see.












So next time you experienced slow internet access, try to stop all internet activity on each PC then observe the traffic of each interface. Abnormal increase of packets per second on that inteface even in the absence of internet activity may be caused by a spyware or a virus.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Freeware Review 3: WhatisTransferring


Past few days, i was answering to calls from internet cafe regarding slow internet access. Tried to check our monitoring and it shows most of them consumes 100% of their bandwidth. After checking our modems and connection, it turn out that some of their PC were infected with spyware. Well, they can just clean up their PC and the problem is gone. However, with more than 30 PC with users online, it would be a bad timing for the owners, since it would mean loss of income at that moment. Well, ISP cannot do nothing more, since the problem is within the Local Area Network. Then I thought of using a packet sniffer which must be lighter than Ethereal so that it can be easily downloaded and the same basic features to capture packet. With primary objective of knowing the source IP which is broadcasting too much UDP/TCP packets and what ports it is using, i came to use the freeware WhatisTransferring. Using the freeware, you just observed the Source IP which broadcast too many UDP or TCP packets, then take note of it. Then you can start disconnecting it from the LAN and clean it up first. In this way, you dont need to shut down the whole network and you can isolate the cause of the problem much faster. Well, there are many freeware you can use there, but i think this one is good.