Backups are something we know we should do, but in practice, backups are often done erratically, and Murphy’s Law will ensure that your hard disk crashes the day before you plan to do a long-overdue backup.  So, the first rule of a successful backup policy is that it must be automatic.

Most small businesses and private individuals, if they backup at all, do so to another hard disk, usually an external USB disk.  This is good, but this protection only helps when the primary disk has a hardware failure.  If a theft occurs, often both the primary disk and the backup USB drive may be stolen, leaving the victim with no backup at all.  Similarly, a disaster such as fire or flood can damage both the original and the backup copy.  The second rule of a good backup policy is that the backup copy should be offsite.

In the past, the best way of maintaining an offsite backup copy was to have at least two external USB drives, and to manually rotate the backup disks to an offsite location.  Again, Murphy’s Law strikes when the victim has been too busy to maintain the discipline required to continually take the backup copy offsite.  Backing up over the Internet to a remote location was too expensive and too slow to be practical for all but the smallest of backup tasks.

Recent developments in the reduced cost and increased speed of Internet connections has made remote backup over the Internet much more practical.  The vast increase in the number and capacity of undersea cables linking South Africa to the world has brought the availability of cloud storage services such as Amazon S3 and Glacier to our shores.

VbxSafe offers an automatic backup service to offsite cloud storage at a very affordable price.  Using this service means that once it is set up, you can relax with the knowledge (and email confirmation) that your backups are happening every day in the background, and that your data is protected against loss from whatever cause.

VbxSafe is aimed at the small business and personal user market, but we are also able to offer high-end customised solutions including backup of SQL databases.

VbxSafe runs as a Windows service, backing up selected folders according to a user-defined time schedule.  It is rich in features (see http://www.vbx.co.za/products/vbx-storage/).  Your backup data is stored on Amazon’s redundant servers, and may be retrieved from anywhere on your laptop, tablet or smartphone, as long as you have your usercode, password (and encryption password, if you choose to encrypt your data).

VBX is very proud of this new service, as it addresses all the questions of security and reliability that are demanded in a good backup solution.  For more details about this new service, see our product pages.

The post Cloud Backup appeared first on VBX.

The same balance of risk and benefits is apparent in the VoIP arena.  Traditional PBX systems have all their phone extensions connected by physical copper wire, so the distance between the extension and the PBX is at most a kilometre or so.  The advent of VoIP systems breaks all the barriers of distance, so a phone extension in New York can be part of a PBX in Cape Town.  Calls between branches are free over the Internet.  Using a VoIP system allows a company to save around 30% of their telephone bill for normal landline and cellphone calls.  Balanced against these tremendous advantages, there are also risks that we have to mitigate by smart best practices.

The most common threat to VoIP systems is a hacker technique called “SIP Toll Fraud”.  Using this technique, a hacker (usually located in a region where law enforcement is lax) connects via the Internet to a VoIP PBX system (or to a SIP provider such as Vodacom) and “guesses” at a user code and password in order to successfully register as a remote extension.  If the hacker is successful in registering, he can then make telephone calls as though he were actually inside the company premises.  This hack does not give the hacker access to company data or anything else very useful, other than the ability to run up expensive telephone bills at the company’s expense.  The hacker will often make repeated calls to premium service numbers (again in countries where law enforcement is difficult).  The hacker has a deal with some unscrupulous accomplice in the destination country, who collects revenue for incoming calls from his service provider.  The hacker and his accomplice then split the profits, and the “victim” company has to pay a hefty telephone bill.  The process of guessing user codes and passwords is usually an automated process.

How can a company defend itself against SIP Toll Fraud?  Reputable service providers such as VBX spend considerable time and money in keeping up to date on all security risks associated with Internet usage, and are particularly focussed on mitigating the risk of SIP Toll Fraud.  Accordingly, all VBX systems are implemented with several layers of defence, some of which are public, and some of which are kept confidential in order to make the hacker’s task more difficult.

Some of the obvious precautions which we routinely take are:

1)     Complex usercodes and passwords.  By using longer passwords with a mixture of lower and upper case letters, numbers and special symbols, the task of a hacker becomes prohibitively difficult, even with automated tools.  While this defence is often sufficient on its own, there are downsides, as the potential victim system can become inundated with unsuccessful usercode / password attempts.  This can consume bandwidth and processor resources, so additional precautions are necessary.

2)     If the client company does not need remote telephone extensions, then the simplest technique is to block unsolicited SIP registration attempts at the firewall or router.  A potential hacker will test the external ip address to see if a VoIP system is responding, and if no response is received the hacker will move on to search for another victim.

3)     If a VBX system has some external VoIP phones, then the VBX internal firewall is configured to only allow registration from the IP address ranges used by the client.  For example, if the client uses MWeb as their ADSL provider, then then the IP address ranges of MWeb will be permitted to attempt to register VoIP phones.  Attempts from other networks and other countries will be silently dropped, so hackers lose interest.

4)     VBX systems can also be configured to use a tool called “fail2ban”.  This tool checks the system logs every few minutes, and if it detects repeated failed password attempts from any ip address (including internal ip addresses and ip addresses on “allowed networks”), it will block the offending ip address for a period of time.  This means a hacker cannot use an automated password guesser even if he is attacking from a “friendly” network.

5)     At a client’s request, VBX systems can be configured to use “PIN codes” for international calling – this is a slight inconvenience for client staff, who have to enter a PIN-code to make international calls, but it does provide yet another layer of security so that can thwart any hacker.  Alternatively, the VBX system can be configured to block international calls except to a limited number of countries which are called for business reasons.

In addition to the precautions described above, VBX systems have other “tripwires” which are designed to detect fraudulent hacking attempts.

As with any threat situation, informed knowledge and sensible precautions can permit us to operate quite successfully in this modern world.

For any further concerns, or more information, please contact us on our public email addresses.

The post What is SIP Toll Fraud? appeared first on VBX.

Thor, from our Joburg team came down for the event to speak about our product range and brought with him our two guest speakers, Jeremy Potgieter speaking about office 365 and Marcelle Ronge introducing Aver Video Conferencing.

The day went off well with the VBX team setting up and before we knew it our first session was underway. Clients were whisked away into our VBX world, not only by information on our products but also with the subtle humour typical of the VBX team and Mr Brian Hyson!

Our second session Started at 15h00, with us worrying if we were to have enough seats available! Again clients were completely absorbed in the information spoken about, and many questions were fired away at the speakers. A few drinks and a bit of banter was shared after the talks and everyone went home happy and with a sense of accomplishing our goal.

One of the many great things that came of the day was the raffle regarding one of our new VBX lites. The idea was that, whoever won would use it at their offices or alternatively donate it to a charity of their choice to aid in valuable call savings for the charity! I am pleased to let you all know that the lucky winner is Trevor Louw from Bird Machines, and we will keep you posted as to when their VBX lite is installed and working on saving costs and improving business!

The post VBX Unleashed Event appeared first on VBX.

The post Please join us for our VBX Unleashed Event appeared first on VBX.

Figure 1. Cellphones as VBX Extensions

In Figure 1, an office VBX has some fixed desktop VoIP phones, as well as some cellphones in the office using the office WiFi to connect as extensions of the VBX, while still functioning as GSM cellphones. The diagram also shows a cellphone which is using Vodacom 3G data network to connect via the Internet to the office VBX. This cellphone is also acting as an office extension at the same time as it is a GSM Vodacom phone.

One of the big advantages of having a cellphone register both to the cellular provider as well as to the office VBX is that the VBX can be set to ring a user at both his desk phone and his cellphone extension number, and the call can be picked up by either phone. This means that even if the user is not at his desk, but is somewhere in the building, the call will be taken (at no cost to the company). This avoids staff having to make cellphone calls to find someone who is actually in the building. While the user is in the building, he/she can use the cellphone to call other staff members by dialing their extension number, again for free.

The cost savings and convenience of having a cellphone register as a VBX extension while in the WiFi cloud of a building can be extended to the wider city limits (or even to another city) by using 3G/HSDPA in the same way as the WiFi in a building. This means that calls to/from the cellphone can be made using the Internet as a carrier for the call, instead of the GSM network. The calls will not be “free”, as they are with WiFi, because the cellular companies will charge for the data transfer. This works out to much less than the cost of a cellular call. If the cellphone is using a data plan in which the cost per Mb is 50 cents per Mb, then the call will cost about 18 cents per minute, instead of the current cellular market pricing of around R1.40 per minute. This calling over 3G is not always usable, as it depends on the quality and speed of the Internet connection. It will not work at all where the signal will only support GPRS, as in many rural areas. Calls will sometimes work over “Edge” networks, but the quality may be very variable, depending on signal strength and network utilisation. In the past, MTN have also specifically prohibited the use of the data network for VoIP calls, in an effort to protect their revenue. This can be overcome by ensuring that the data plan used does not prohibit such use.

Not all cellphones can be used as VBX extensions. Older phones without WiFi or 3G ability will not work, and even some phones with WiFi capability do not have suitable client software (called a SIP client). Other phones may be capable of being used as VBX extensions, but this may reduce battery life to unacceptable levels. Using VoIP over 3G uses more battery life than over WiFi, so some users choose to switch on this functionality when they want to call office extensions, and disable it at other times. Blackberry phones are not currently able to support this use (We have successfully tested VMobile  as a SIP client on some Blackberry models). The Nokia E-series phones have excellent support for this functionality, while some of the N-series can be used. The Apple iPhone works well over WiFi, but the battery life is limited over 3G.

Android phones, such as the HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy 3S, work well as WiFi or 3G extensions, although battery life is reduced while using 3G.

The post Using Cellphones as VBX VoIP Extensions appeared first on VBX.

What is copper? Where is it being stolen and who is stealing it? Well it appears to be a worldwide problem. It is a problem which growing in the USA and also in Europe. In the USA the FBI have stated that it considers copper cable theft to be a threat to the nations baseline ability to function whilst on November the 2^nd French Press reported that services were back to normal after rail service was disrupted due to cable theft. They reported that the theft of copper cable was becoming a scourge in Europe. There are unscrupulous people that are quite prepared to pay dealers of copper for their stolen goods at well below market value.

Now back in South Africa; Parastatals are tightening up their act with measures to protect the cables. An Act passed in parliament last year made Copper a controlled metal and allowed for those found guilty of copper theft a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. So the fight goes on with government and industry well aware of the impact on our economy.

The problem is so great that we now have a Copper Theft Indicator produced by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry. There is some optimism when we are told that copper theft has dropped from a peak in March of 34.7 million Rand to a mere 19 million Rand in August. However, possibly, just possibly, Telkom has stopped replacing the copper, then there isn’t so much left.

This could be substantiated when 3 vehicles were stopped on the way to Beit Bridge Border Post bringing Copper into South Africa from Zimbabwe. In his article from Zoitnet Ashudu Netsiande explains how the three trucks with a combined copper cable weight of 1186kg were stopped and the occupants apprehended.

So ultimately we will probably see a copper cable free future. The copper theft phenomenon has accelerated the move to fibre, wireless and other means of connectivity. As we say at VBX “anything, including copper, so long as we have good connectivity”.

The post Copper Cable Theft appeared first on VBX.

Besides the weather not playing its part on the day, we had fun!! Getting to hole no.5 proved to be a slight challenge, despite being told previously that we could drive to the hole. Gianna and I utilized our 4×4 skills and the help of a very presentable Uplands College pupil to find a path to the hole, only to end up parking our cars somewhere in the danger zone of gold balls! While we offloaded our stock pile of equipment amongst the quizzical looks from the golfers, Chris came to our rescue with a golf cart, Loaded us up and shuttled us to no.5!

The rest of the day went off in true golf style. Players arriving at the T off area, light hearted banter, some business chat and a lot of concern as to why we did not have beer on hand!

As the day came to a close the staff of VBX had decided that our bright green floppy head warmers and our winter jackets were not really helping much! It was time to find some shelter from the bitter cold. We began our trek back across the golf course desperately trying to hand out cold drinks to lighten our load. Thankfully some players took pity on us and lent us their transport to get us to the car park. Under the strain of our equipment and 3 VBX heavy weights our trusty golf cart managed to get us back to safety.

I for one came away with many lessons. Never trust White Rivers weather. It is decidedly hard to get ones ball onto the green but seems to get easier with the more drinks consumed! Golfers are a boisterous yet generous bunch of characters. Lastly that VBX has a special warmth to it. You can feel it in its staffs interact with each other and the relationships we have with our clients and business partners.

I look forward to our next opportunity to wear the now infamous VBX floppy hat! If it’s a golf day we shall equip ourselves with beer, golf cart and as always some of that fantastic VBX spirit!

- Sandra Simpson: VBX Telecom

The post Golf Day appeared first on VBX.

Customers have always been very dependent upon the reliability of their telephone systems, and VBX has a long history of providing reliable equipment.  The oldest VBX Head Office was installed in Uplands College in 2007, and has been in constant service since then.  It has survived in a high-intensity lightning zone, with erratic power supply in the first few years of its life.  No hardware failures have been experienced over the past five and a half years, and it will continue to serve the college for the foreseeable future.  The VBX software has been upgraded several times, so the system remains new and current.

In spite of the proven reliability of our existing VBX models, we are constantly revising our equipment to ensure that we take advantage of the newest technology.  As VBX has become involved in ever larger, more demanding client environments such as call centres, we have decided to replace our current VBX Head Office model with a newer platform offering higher performance, redundant disk array and optional redundant hot-pluggable power supplies.  For clients with even higher uptime requirements, VBX can offer standby servers.

VBX Telecom is the VoIP PBX systems integrator of choice for challenging telephony and communications environments.

- Peter Retief, CTO VBX

The post An evolution for VBX Head Office appeared first on VBX.

Australian clients could have the convenience of calling a local number, while the call is answered by the staff in the South African office.  Outbound calling from the South African office to Australia will also originate from the Australian number, so returned calls will come back via the same channel.

The cost of providing such inbound lines is remarkably low, and the incoming call to the South African office is free of charge (apart from Internet bandwidth costs).  Outbound calls are at very good rates.

Since VBX systems are easily able to integrate home VoIP telephones into the office environment, time differences can be overcome by accepting incoming calls from foreign time zones by staff who are prepared to work from home in the evenings or early mornings.

Lines are available in most developed countries.  Contact us at info@vbx.co.za for further information.

The post VBX offers incoming lines in foreign countries appeared first on VBX.

VBX Telecom has recently undergone a complete brand overhaul, and has made several tweaks to their product range to simplify and streamline their offering.

A fresher, bolder and future-ready VBX Telecom has undergone a transformation from the inside out to ensure that they can take their telecom services to the SME market with absolute confidence.

VBX is wearing a new jacket, but the changes are not purely cosmetic. After careful strategic changes, VBX has also ensured that its new product range is ideally suited to the needs and sizes of the businesses it aims to serve. A separate call centre suite has also been created to offer companies of all sizes the opportunity to set up their own inbound, outbound or hybrid call centre.

VBX, who has been partnering with MWeb since 2009, and has recently won an award as their wholesale partner of the year, aims to offer clients a VoIP offering, combined with the support of an established Internet service provider.

VBX offers complete communication solutions for businesses that wish to combine the features of sophisticated PBX solutions with the simplicity and affordability of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies.

Based on open source technology, VBX PBX solutions provide more functionality and flexibility than traditional PBX systems, as well as substantial call cost savings thanks to least-cost routing.

VBX has always been at the forefront of the latest telecom technology and its recent restructuring of both the business and the product suite will move it forward into the future. With a simplified offering and a new solutions package, which caters specifically for Call Centres of all sizes, VBX is excited about providing solutions to the ever-growing VoIP and PBX-market.

The post VBX Relaunches with New Range and New Look appeared first on VBX.