9 Tips for Better PBX Safety and Security
By admin | January 20, 2009
There are a variety of measures you can take to insure that your PBX is safe from hackers.
Listed below are tips you can use right now to protect your business.
1. Take steps to secure your authorization codes on a permanent basis. Remind employees of the need to keep all access codes secure and change them frequently.
2. Contact your equipment vendors and ask for any and all information on the available security systems in place to detect toll fraud. They should also provide information on monitoring services available to help you quickly detect unusual usage.
3. Work closely with your PBX administrator to ensure that all of the PBX security features available are in place and are being implemented.
4. Unless needed for routine business, block outgoing international calling, 809 and 900 calling capabilities.
5. Conduct regular and routine auditing of your telecommunication systems and bills, especially just after regular vacation months and holiday seasons. It is during these times of year that PBX toll fraud most often occurs.
6. Wherever possible, limit the number of employees who are authorized to use remote access. And if possible, change pass codes and authorization codes when an employee permanently leaves the company.
7. NEVER transfer a call outside your PBX if you are unaware of the identity of the caller. Instruct employees that phone companies will never ask customers to be part of a “test” - no matter how official the caller may sound.
8. Always be alert to possible PBX abuse signs. These could include repeated calls of short duration, sudden increase in 800 usage, or unexplained changes incoming, outgoing or especially after-hours calling patterns.
9. Consider out sourcing your telecom bills to a firm that will provide bill paying and audit services on an ongoing monthly basis. You’ll save money across the board and catch toll fraud at the time it happens.
Karen Thatcher is President and CEO of TelCon Associates, Inc. a 32 year old telecom audit and bill management firm. For a 66 page report on PBX safety and security, visit http://www.telconassociates.com
Tags: hackers, pbx, pbx security, phone systems, TelecomTopics: PBX | No Comments »
Virtual PBX and Expense Management
By admin | January 18, 2009
A traditional PBX system requires special wiring, training and lots of capital . In a few years, you may have to discard the PBX and get a bigger one. More capacity and different equipment equal more training and more expenses.
With a Virtual PBX system can be easily scaled either way to provide you a PBX system that your business needs. VoIP technology now makes it possible to have a remotely hosted Virtual PBX system with no special telephone wiring at all. The phones connect to your existing data network and and uses your existing High Speed Internet service, either DSL or T1, and is just as easy if not easier than adding another computer to the existing data network. All you have to do is buy the phones (you need phones anyway) along with adaptors to connect them to your network and pay a small bundled rate for unlimited local and long distance service plus those special PBX features.
Substituting the Virtual PBX / VOIP option with traditional phone service offers three potential advantages:
1) Costs can be substantially lower due to no charges for local service connections or long-distance calls.
2) Companies do not have to install and maintain a PBX (private branch exchange) system to provide individual phone lines for their employees.
3) Voice communications can be integrated with other existing or future data functions and can deliver advanced features than are not available with plain old telephone service (POTS).
Lower long-distance and local service expenses are the most obvious advantage for consumers and companies alike. What company or business would not want to cut costs while at the same time improving operational and functional capability. When a business moves to VOIP technologies and away from POTS they can sidestep the additional charges from the taxes on the traditional telephone service. This lack of taxation may change as the local, state, and federal governments realize that the untaxed status of VOIP could cause significant reductions in tax revenues that they received from traditional telephone service.
More significant cost reductions occur from the elimination of separate lines for voice and data. As an example, most medium sized businesses with 20 or more lines on a PBX lease a T1line for voice and a separate T1 for Internet access. With Virtual PBX / VOIP, one costly T1 lease can be eliminated. Smaller locations could continue to use the broadband Internet service they currently use, although cable Internet is not recommended, and eliminate most if not of their traditional phone service. Although cable Internet is a viable choice for residential services it has disadvantages for business use.
Unlike Virtual PBX, traditional PBX hardware can be very expensive and the requirement for on-site maintenance only adds to that expense. With a Virtual PBX you can have an individual phone line for each employee as well as features such as voice mail, conference calling, call forwarding, and many other features that are not included with traditional PBX. Using VOIP technology a company can have a Virtual PBX without all hardware and maintenance expenses.
Not only can a Virtual PBX reduce expenses for a business, but VOIP technology allows for more advanced features than even the most sophisticated traditional PBX. With VOIP technology a employees can access a web interface that allows them to call forward to any list of numbers offsite that they wish. This same access can allow for call screening that only allows or
blocks calls from specific numbers. Voice mail can be forward to email addresses, and both voice mail and faxes can be managed with a visual mailbox like one used for email.
Joseph Brochin
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Broadband Phones for Dummies
By admin | January 17, 2009
What is a broadband phone? How does a broadband phone work? Where do I find broadband phone service? How much can I expected to pay for a broadband phone and broadband phone service? These are the questions I have asked and set out to answer in this article.
What is a broadband phone? A broadband phone is essentially a telephone that makes calls to another telephone via a broadband connection.
How does a broadband phone work? When a phone call is placed the call is routed by a private branch exchange (PBX) from a company like AT&T, SBC, or Sprint. The difference is that the data from the phone call, which is the voice data from you speaking, is transferred back and forth through the internet using a technology called voice over IP (VoIP). A traditional phone transfers data over phone lines.
Where do I find broadband phone service and how much does it cost? A list of broadband phone service providers and their lowest monthly rates is below.
Broadband Phone Service Providers
Lingo - $19.99
Net2Phone - $14.99
SpeakEasy - $83.90
Voice Eclipse - $12.95
Voice Pulse - $14.99
Vonage - $14.99
ZingoTel - $14.95
I hope I have been able to answer some of your basic questions concerning broadband phones and goodluck with your future broadband phone endeavors.
Jason D. Barrett is currently focused on writing articles for InfoBriefs.com (Brief reports on several topics), ChildInsure.com (Child Insurance), and ScoutTechnology.com.
Tags: broadband phone, lingo, net2phone, pbx, speakeasy, VoIP, VonageTopics: PBX | No Comments »