ab@communigate.com

Thunderbird Sync

ab@communigate.com — 2008-10-28T15:06:42-07:00

As mentioned on the CommuniGate Pro Mailing List the super efforts of Niversoft have produced a Thunderbird SyncCGP Extension available for download here:

http://www.niversoft.com/downloads/synccgp

OLPC can run Pronto!

ab@communigate.com — 2008-04-18T11:24:48-07:00

The much publicized OLPC XO laptop is capable of running Pronto in the default web browser. An installation of Adobe's Flash plugin for Linux is required. The OLPC Wiki provides information on how to install Adobe's flash on the laptop.

Google Jabber and CommuniGate Pro

ab@communigate.com — 2008-01-31T14:35:10-08:00

The recently released CommuniGate Pro 5.2 Revision History provides this updated information about the XMPP module:

XMPP: Gtalk-compatible iq-delivery is implemented

This means the CommuniGate Pro server does now permit the addition of Google GTalk users to your buddy list. Presence for those buddies also works as expected. This feature is working well for me from both a Google user account and the CommuniGate Pro Account via XMPP. Depending on which XMPP client is used, it may be necessary to reconnect your preffered Jabber client after accepting contacts to your roster in order to view the presence activity of those contacts. This was the case with iChat, I have not tested other clients, but I would appreciate comments about any good or not-so-good experiences with this feature.

Server to server Jabber is growing in use for both users of instant messaging and the traditional providers such as AIM/ICQ, Yahoo, GTalk, and more. Several other blogs contain informaiton about how these formerly only propriterary services now have test XMPP and SIP servers available on the Internet.

Dashboard Pronto

ab@communigate.com — 2008-02-02T11:37:08-08:00

The Safari web browser which ships with MacOS 10.5 (Leopard) permits the creation of a Web Clip widget. Instructions for how to use this feature are available in the Safari Help menu by searching help for "Creating a Web Clip widget"

By following the directions of the help article with Pronto, anyone can create a clipping of Pronto that will run in the MacOS Dashboard.

Unfortunately there is no way to save a web clip as a widget archive. If you close Pronto in Dashboard you will need to recreate the web clip to use it again in Dashboard.

CommuniGate Pronto! Buzz

ab@communigate.com — 2007-10-01T14:31:05-07:00

Pronto! is getting a fair amount of attention from the new AIR build and Adobe MAX event. Here are a few links to recent stories that mention CommuniGate and Pronto.

Adobe MAX 2007 Blog
Monday, October 1, 2007

Pronto’s Latest Public Beta Launches at Adobe MAX
September 30, 2007 — 09:12 PM PDT — by Kristen Nicole on mashable.com

Web 3.0 Communication Here - Pronto!
Posted by Phil Butler on September 30th, 2007 on profy.com

eBay Desktop On AIR As AdobeMAX Kicks Off
Written by Om Malik Monday, October 1, 2007 at 7:00 AM PT on gigaom.com

Adobe buys web word processor - Office politics...
By Martin LaMonica Published: Monday 1 October 2007

Pronto’s Latest Public Beta Launches at Adobe MAX
Posted: 30 Sep 2007 11:12 PM CDT social-network-marketing-india.blogspot.com repost of mashable article

Adobe Systems has officially entered the "Web office" game.
Extra Technology News - IT Technology News Mashup Monday, October 1, 2007 on extratech.blogspot.com

Adobe buys Web word processor Buzzword
By Martin LaMonica, News.com - Published on ZDNet News: Sep 30, 2007 9:01:00 PM on news.zdnet.com

Adobe buys Virtual Ubiquity, maker of Buzzword word processor
By Eric Eldon 09.30.07 on venturebeat.com

Public Beta of Pronto! on Adobe AIR

ab@communigate.com — 2007-10-01T09:50:00-07:00

It was announced on our mailing list yesterday that Adobe AIR version of Pronto! is ready for beta testing. Please try this new version of Pronto with the the Adobe AIR Beta 1 runtime Installer and a free test account form TalktoIP.

http://www.communigate.com/Pronto_on_AIR/

Why Flash?

ab@communigate.com — 2007-09-25T19:34:13-07:00

The subject of this post is a frequently asked question about the CommuniGate Pro Pronto! product. There are several good technical and user experience reasons that explain why Adobe's Flash 9 is a major part of the Pronto! user interface. Those details aside, adoption of Flash as a platform for interactive clients is important. Emmy Huang, the Product Manager for Adobe Flash Player has published the results of a September study which shows respectable end user adoption numbers for Flash Player 9.

Flash Player 9 @ 93.3% in September penetration study

It is no secret that XIMSS and Flash compliment each other well. I see what I can do to get Pronto closer to the adoption rates Flash is enjoying today.

ScreenPlays Broadband Magazine Pronto! Article

ab@communigate.com — 2007-09-20T08:09:07-07:00

A link to the article Published on September 17, 2007:
CommuniGate Leverages Flash for Bundled IP Service User Interface

Pronto 1.2 on MacsimumNews

ab@communigate.com — 2007-09-18T10:27:27-07:00

This brief article was posted on September 14th and is available at:

Pronto! update adds new call control, calendaring features

Pronto 1.2 was recently released with CommuniGate Pro version 5.1.12. Below are a few of the version 1.2 features announced on August 29th.

User Interface

New Message Indicator in web browser tab
Administrator Module hiding options (Calendar, My Stuff, Voice, IM)
Additional Keyboard shortcuts
Additional right-click capabilities
Call Contact features

Calendar

Calendar Overlays (Merged view of multiple Calendars)
Shared Calendar management
Create/modify events by drag&drop
More calendar even invitation reply options

Jabber and SIP Instant Messaging

New IM presence indication icons
IM roster editing

E-mail

Design refinements: Tighter message and preview pane grids
Draft message auto-saving
The simplified "Forward All Mail" mail Rule
New Message Indicator and Browser integration
Delivery/read notification
Message redirect
View raw message

How does wireless E-mail work with ActiveSync?

ab@communigate.com — 2007-08-02T11:21:19-07:00

Following the post on the availability of wireless synchronization direct from CommuniGate Pro, a few people have asked what E-mail data is available on their mobile device via CommuniGate Pro's AirSync. The ActiveSync settings on the mobile phone or PDA may allow you to specify the following configuration options:

From how far back in the past should data be synchronized? On some devices you can tell the server to sync only with E-mail messages dating back as far as 1 week excluding intentionally all E-mail messages you have on the server.
How much data from each E-mail should be downloaded from the server? If you choose to not download all contents of each E-mail message, you will see a link inside each message on your device offering to "download the entire message". If you select to do that the message will be downloaded in its entirety the next time you connect.
There is also an option for downloading attachments automatically with a maximum size threshold. If an attachment is larger than the maximum size specified a link to download the entire attachment should appear in the message.
Which E-mail account folders should be synchronized? If you have 40 folders in your account, you should see them all in ActiveSync, but only those that you explicitly marked for synchronization will contain messages.

These are all functions of an ActiveSync with AirSync E-mail client in Windows Mobile, and CommuniGate Pro supports them all. The live test of these features is still available for accounts created at http://www.talktoip.com.

XIMSS Call Bridging part 2, a Perl script example

ab@communigate.com — 2007-08-03T18:19:44-07:00

I previously wrote about how one can create a click to call application with the CommuniGate Pro XIMSS protocol. I have heard of several solution examples people created from that posting that range from customer service applications to simple "call us now" buttons on hosted web pages. Some have asked for more source examples of how to create an application that performs the actions described in the previous post. I have received an example script that I have tested and this script works for me.

Use this script at your own risk and only in a test environment. The author of this post and the the host of this blog accept no responsibility for any problems caused by these downloads or their contents.

I saved the source linked below as a Perl script called XIMSS_call.pl After defining the values in the first section I run the script with the command:
$ perl XIMSS_call.pl

I tested this script by arranging a SIP call to my work phone account from my free TalktoIP account. Therefore I defined the login and pass for ab@talktoip.com and the destination URI as my work phone account which is the title of this blog. I registered a software phone to the TalktoIP account in order to accept the first leg of the call. You can review the script with syntax highlighting here:

XIMSS Call Bridge Script source view

You can download the script here:

XIMSS_Call.pl

Reservationless Conference Example

ab@communigate.com — 2007-08-02T21:59:43-07:00

This proof of concept application was created as an example for customers migrating from popular 3rd party conference services to their own in house or data center hosted conference service. The enclosed scripts can be used to learn more about CG/PL PBX programming on CommuniGate Pro and can be personalized for your own valid installation of CommuniGate Pro. These scripts are only variations of the PBX Conference Applications that are distributed with CommuniGate Pro. Those distributed with the platform are actually better than this example, but they do not have reservation-less style services. This example application is not designed for production use so personalization is not only possible, but recommended.

Below is a one minute video walkthrough which provides an example of a conference leader creating a conference via a call to this application.

Please use these applications at your own risk and only in a test environment. The author of this post and the the host of this blog accept no responsibility for any problems caused by these downloads or their contents.

The package is called QuickConference and consists of mostly audio files and three CG/PL scripts. One script is the main application (.sppr) and the other two are procedures (.sppi) that the main script uses to provide the service. I have included the README file separate from the main package.

The package is a single TAR file which can be uploaded directly to the CommuniGate Pro PBX environment for installation.

This is the README file:
QuickConference README.txt (4 kb)

This is the TAR package:
Quick Conference Package.tar (4.7 MB)

These are the individual application files without the audio. These are provided separately for anyone who only wishes to review the application without downloading all of the stock audio:
conf-simple.sppr (8 kb) - The main application that establishes and manages the conference
confhost.sppi (4 kb) - The procedure used to manage the conference leader
confuser.sppi (4 kb) - The procedure used to manage the conference participant

Conference Leader Walkthrough

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Pronto! Truemor

ab@communigate.com — 2007-08-01T00:12:21-07:00

I occasionally read information from a site called Truemors. This site is interesting and has an easy to digest format. I decided to give it a try and post a Truemor about Pronto, specifically the tryout site called TalktoIP. Truemors is co-founded by Guy Kawasaki who also writes a blog that I read. I first heard of Guy when he was the official Evangelist at Apple Computer in the 1980s. Now he is a venture capitalist and co-founder of this "new style" Web 2.0 website.

I followed the style guide and posted this truemor:

It appeared immediately. That was easy. So now it is up to the Truemors audience to determine the life of this Truemor by showing their interest.

IM Chats in Thunderbird or Firefox

ab@communigate.com — 2007-08-04T01:29:56-07:00

I received a report about instant message chatting via CommuniGate Pro directly in Mozilla products from Christian Ellsworth of CommuniGate Systems Certified partner Soluciones Integrales (SOLINT). Christian also teaches the CommuniGate Pro Administration Training Course in Spanish. He has been using the xmpp4moz family of plugins as a convenient in-browser chat client for CommuniGate Pro. He reports that this Mozilla plugins worked for him in both the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client on Windows XP.

I tested this with Firefox 2.0.0.6 on MacOS using the free test account I configured on TalktoIP.com. I first installed the following Firefox Add-ons all by hyperstruct:

xmpp4moz	Provides the basic Jabber capability to the browser
JabBiff	Provides a presence notification tool for contacts
SamePlace	Provides the IM Client window and UI controls

Each add-on installation requires a browser restart. I then configured the account as I was prompted to after the SamePlace installation completed. If you with to change your account afterwards, you can create another or reconfigure via the new Jabber menubar item that xmpp4moz installed. If you try this with a TalktoIP account the settings are very simple:

Address: your-account@talktoip.com
Password: your-pass
Advanced...
Server for Connection: mail.talktoip.com
Server Port: 5222
Encryption: None

I do not need SSL for this account and the server has only a self signed certificate so I won't bother with the certificate management. However I did test this with SSL and my work account and it works as expected. Below is a screen shot of the user interface while my TalktoIP account was connected. Click on the image to see a larger preview.

Wireless mobile ActiveSync testing available on talktoip.com

ab@communigate.com — 2007-07-30T16:38:43-07:00

The public test site for Pronto, which offers you the ability sign up and create a test account has a new feature available today for alpha testing. Accounts created on this site may now be accessed with the AirSync protocol. If you are interested in testing this feature and have an ActiveSync capable mobile device, you can test the CommuniGate Pro platform's wireless synchronization capabilities with the following steps:

Create an account via the "Sign Up" link of http://talktoip.com if you do not already have one.
Generate some data worth syncing. You may create messages, calendar items, contacts, and tasks.
Connect your wireless ActiveSync capable mobile phone or PDA to the talktoip.com server.

If you do find problems with this it is worth investigating general troubleshooting steps for the protocol. One good example is this online guide written by Chris De Herrera called "ActiveSync 4.x Troubleshooting Guide - Firewall, VPN, Proxy Issues". If you do find any issues with this feature and may send me a report, please include information about your device, software versions, and a description of how you configured your device. Comments, feedback, and bug reports may be sent directly to me or posted via the comments feature for this article.

Adobe Flash Player 9 now available for Solaris SPARC and x86

ab@communigate.com — 2007-07-30T14:24:14-07:00

It appears these Flash players were posted by Adobe earlier this month. I don't know of anyone who has tested these yet with Pronto!, comments are welcome if you have.

Adobe Flash Player Download Center Solaris SPARC

Adobe Flash Player Download Center Solaris x86

Computerworld highlights Web, Flash, and Pronto

ab@communigate.com — 2007-07-30T09:51:39-07:00

In an article titled "Web 2.0 needs Adobe to 'do the driving'", Tom Yager writes about Flash as a useful medium for advanced applications delivered via Internet Protocols. Pronto receives some attention as a good example of how a very complex application can be delivered efficiently to many internet connected end users for daily use.

Pronto! standalone - Look, no browser!

ab@communigate.com — 2007-07-17T18:30:41-07:00

I like the convenience of running Pronto! in a browser, however I was pleasantly surprised by how well it runs in the Adobe Flash Player 9 Standalone Players (Projectors). I found a copy of the standalone player on Adobe's Flash Downloads web page. I tested Pronto with the Flash Player 9 build for Intel based Macs. While I have only used it for about one hour, it seems to run faster than it does in the browser (which is pretty fast already). Some browsers throttle plug-ins and limit system resources when there are multiple and/or tabbed windows being used. the Standalone Flash Player with Pronto made these issues disappear for me. If anyone tests this on another Operating System I would appreciate any comments confirming that this also works well on other Operating Systems.

There is one important change to the default Pronto URL that is required to open Pronto from the standalone player. The URL must end with /pronto.swf in order to explicitly tell the player what application to open. For example, if you sign up for a free Pronto account at http://talktoip.com, you can open Pronto with this URL in the Flash standalone Player:

http://talktoip.com/Pronto/pronto.swf

Choose Sign Up if you wish to create an account.

Unified Communications Pronto!

ab@communigate.com — 2007-07-13T10:55:19-07:00

Network World publishes a Unified Communications newsletter and recently featured an article about the Pronto! client at the end of June. Pronto has improved much since this article was written. Pronto test accounts are still available at http://talktoip.com.

Unified communications Pronto!
Unified Communications Newsletter By Michael Osterman, Network World, 06/28/07

Media Server - more codec transcoding options for CommuniGate Pro

ab@communigate.com — 2007-07-14T07:59:15-07:00

It is possible to use codecs other than G711 with CommuniGate Pro. The server was always capable of connecting two SIP clients with whichever codec both clients agreed to use. This works well but does not address the need to use a codec other than G711 when terminating calls on the server. Previously, the included CGPL applications such as Auto Attendant, Voicemail and the Back to Back User Agent (B2BUA) could only be used with the G711 codec. The inbuilt Media Server now provides a few options in recent builds of CommuniGate Pro.

Media Server Settings

Currently the quickest way to test the media server is to install the Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives (Intel® IPP) on a system with CommuniGate Pro and use that system as your external media server. This can provide G729 and G723 transcoding options. A test only build of CommuniGate Pro that uses the external IPP libraries is available for Linux at:

http://www.communigate.com/pub/stuff/Linux/CGatePro-Linux-5.1-11cIPP.i386.rpm

This information contained in this post does not provide sufficient information about the licensing issues required to use other codecs or libraries with CommuniGate Pro. Please investigate how you can legally obtain or license the codec you wish to use. The licenses we sell only apply to our software. If you are in a jurisdiction that requires you to pay a fee to have a right to use these codecs, it is your obligation to pay those fees directly to the codec right owner.

Information about the Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives (Intel® IPP) is available online. The Intel
® Integrated Performance Primitives 5.2 - FAQ provides more information about license terms and/or license fees for using Intel IPP samples.

Please note that CommuniGate Pro does not implement these codecs and there is no code in CommuniGate Pro or any of our software that implements these codecs or libraries. Our license is issued exclusively to enable a particular CommuniGate Pro installation to use external software libraries, it does not provide any additional rights for those external software libraries. CommuniGate Systems does not sell, provide, or distribute these libraries.

When all is installed properly, the CommuniGate Pro Media Server presents these additional codecs in the Settings -> RealTime -> Media. Even if the install is all performed correctly, you may see the additional codecs as inactive. We are still testing these features and a test key may be required. If you attempt this and encounter the codecs as inactive and you are interested in testing this please contact me for more information.

It is recommended to test this by running a CommuniGate Pro installation separate from your lab or production installation with the codecs installed. This separate installation is available to other CommuniGate Pro systems as an "External Transcoder". It is best to test with most recent version of CGP available. The most recent versions of CommuniGate Pro contain the configuration option necessary to connect to the external transcoder.

Basic steps for testing:
1. Acquire the Intel IPP Library
2. Acquire licenses for whichever codecs you wish to use
3. Install the test IPP version of CommuniGate Pro and the Intel IPP library on another server, this becomes your Media Transcoding Server
4. Configure your main CommuniGate Pro installation to use the Remote option in the External Media Servers configuration found at Settings -> RealTime -> Media in the administration interface.

Cisco's not really completely Unified Communications

ab@communigate.com — 2007-06-08T15:38:31-07:00

Network Computing's article (5 March 2007) about Cisco's updated Unified Communications Platform was forwarded to me some time ago and I just now read the story. The portrayed system is really what unified communications should not be. Loosely integrated components or modules enabling limited interactions between many moving parts is hardly the communications productivity dream we all have. Many parts, bundles, tie-ins will create more problems than they can solve. If anyone knows the Cisco executives responsible for these solutions, I'd be happy to show them the CommuniGate Pro platform difference. I can be reached via SIP, SIP IM, Jabber, email, and more from the single address above.

IMS Leadership Award from TMCnet

ab@communigate.com — 2007-04-23T09:01:34-07:00

CommuniGate Systems has received an award for IMS leadership.

Congratulations! You have been selected as a winner of the 2007 IMS
Leadership Award from IMS Magazine!

http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2007/04/12/2504520.htm

The official winners can also be found in the April issue of IMS
Magazine and featured online at http://www.tmcnet.com/ims/ .

This news has been posted on the accolades page of the CommuniGate Systems website.

Polycom VoIP Interoperability Partner

ab@communigate.com — 2007-04-20T17:09:46-07:00

A friend shared this mention of CommuniGate in Polycom's press coverage.

Polycom Rounds Out its Product Portfolio: SIP Phones, Mobility, Real-Time Conferencing

The Soundpoint IP 330 test unit we received is performing well.

Nokia N80 Registers SIP, places, and receives calls with CommuniGate Pro

ab@communigate.com — 2007-04-21T13:59:57-07:00

I have finally succeeded at configuring my Nokia N80 mobile phone to register with CommuniGate Pro. It is nice to walk into any place I have WiFi access and bring my CommuniGate Pro PBX extension with me. I then always have the option of using wither my mobile or cellular line or the office line to place calls. The Phone's Internet Call features work great with CommuniGate. I will explain step by step how I finally got this to work. If you decide to do this, please do this at your own risk. I cannot guarantee that firmware will not brick your phone or that you will not be a victim of fraud on eBay.

First get a Nokia N80. Places like craigslist and eBay have them for sale and prices are dropping since the Nokia N95 has been released.

Get your N80 Flashed with the Internet Edition version of the Firmware if it does not have it already. A reliable service for me was iUnlock.

Configure a WiFi Access Point or multiple WiFi Access points on your phone

Configure your phone to use your CommuniGate Pro account for SIP

The version of the phone's firmware that works for me is V 4.0632.0.38 13-10-2006 RM-92 Nokia N80 (01).

Here are some screen shots of the configuration screens.

To configure the phone begin by navigating your Applications button to Tools -> Settings -> Connection

When you arrive at the Connection Screen you should Configure a valid IP Access Point. I configured a WIFI access point for SIP.

Once you have a valid Access Point configured and tested, you can enter SIP Settings and add a new SIP profile.

Name your Profile as you please and note the settings I have selected in the following screen images. Set your SIP address URL as the Public user name and decide if you want the phone to always register or register only when needed. If you select 'When Needed' then you will only be able to make SIP calls and not receive them. With always on inbound SIP signals arrive at your mobile phone. I do not use a Proxy server as the Registrar server is my proxy and handles all of the NAT traversal and SBC features I need. Therefore I only configured the Registrar server.

My Registrar server settings are:

After Configuring these settings I click back and wait a few moments as the phone brings up the WiFi connection and then the SIP registration. If you are successful, you will be rewarded with a registered message under your profile name:

Before Calling with SIP I must configure the Internet tel. Settings from the Connections configuration page only to make my SIP profile the default Internet Telephone service.

When the Phone is successfully Registered with your SIP account you will see a small icon under the battery charge indicator bar which resembles a phone handset over the an icon of the Earth.

To call our PBX I dialed 200 and selected Options -> Internet Call. This placed the call with excellent audio quality and a different phone handset+globe icon while the call is active.

I then received a SIP call from another User (who had Caller ID off) on the company PBX and another who had their caller ID configured:

Then a PSTN caller called through our T1 Gateway to the CommuniGate Pro PBX:

CommuniGate Pro will show the phone's registration under the accounts Status page:

Registered Devices

Application

Expires

Network Address

PolycomSoundPointIP-SPIP_501-UA/2.1.0.2708

7:46:10PM

sip:ab@x.x.x.x

Nokia RM-92 V 4.0632.0.38

7:18:53PM

sip:ab@x.x.x.x;transport=UDP

CommuniGate mentions on other Blogs

ab@communigate.com — 2007-04-20T07:04:12-07:00

I have neglected the Trackback features of this blog for too long. Several others have written about CommuniGate on their blogs and I have a list of those articles to share.

GigaOM - Giving SIP a Big Boost
The Voxilla SoapVOX - Nokia and Mobile Nirvana
VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com - IMS Awards
OS Community - Training SpamCatcher
VOIP IP Telephony - iPOD shuffles IP PBX to a Mac Mini (CommuniGate and Voxilla mentioned at bottom)
VoIP Watch - MacMini as an IP PBX
All About CommuniGate
CommuniGate Pro with XSAN 1.4

Pronto! auto play demonstration

ab@communigate.com — 2007-04-19T17:33:08-07:00

Please take a few moments to view the Pronto Flash Demo. It is only about 2 minutes and it provides a good overview of our advanced Web/Flash client. The Pronto beta ships with the most recent versions of CommuniGate Pro. I use this light client and it is nice to see my favorite photos, FLV videos, mp3 and other media in the same place I can read Mail, manage my schedule, RSS feeds and have Instant Messaging conversations. When you tire of watching the self running demo, you can actually try it by Installing CommuniGate Pro.

Spring VON in San Jose, CA 2007

ab@communigate.com — 2007-04-06T10:45:09-07:00

I was very impressed with what our team put together for the Spring Voice On Network (VON) show. The booth design was excellent and welcomed many visitors. Overall the expo was well attended by vendors, buyers, and journalists. Interest in CommuniGate was high, especially for Pronto, which now has the multimedia interface exposed for those evaluating our advanced flash client. I have included a slideshow for those who did not get a chance to visit the CommuniGate Systems booth at VON.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

VON México 2007

ab@communigate.com — 2007-03-07T15:46:32-08:00

I attended VON México which was part of the EXPO COMM MÉXICO 2007 show with our partner AG Solutions. AG Solutions recently successfully delivered a large cluster installation in Mexico City. This video and photos were recorded on a mobile phone and therefore are not very high quality. There were long lines at the registration booth and the entrance to the Conference events. Highlights from the video include the UTStarcom space ship, Telmex, and Microsoft with a display booth right next door to ours. We met the Mexico team of our CommuniGate Pro Filters partner Kaspersky Lab and the show ended with awards for several participants. The total video time is under 80 seconds.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Google Calendar now compatible with CommuniGate Pro!

ab@communigate.com — 2007-02-07T22:24:52-08:00

When Google Calendar was first released on the 13th of April 2006, I tested it with CommuniGate Pro Calendaring and I was not happy with the result. When a CommuniGate Pro user would open a Google Calendar invite in Webmail, CGP did not display the Accept/Decline type controls. This has changed for the better.

Previously Google Calendar did send the text/calendar part and it would display as an event in WebMail over the text and html parts they also send. That part previously only contained:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Google Inc//Google Calendar 70.9054//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:REQUEST
END:VCALENDAR

There was no VEVENT inside it.

I re-tested this again today and the Accept/Decline controls that I wanted to appear in CommuniGate Pro do appear as expected. This upgrade is a positive small step toward a compatible and ubiquitous scheduling future for all. I still wish Google would open their Google Talk XMPP Service for federation for any other domain as Jabber is meant to work. If they are concerned about scalability from lots of roster and IM traffic, I have a really good architecture to recommend. note: the reverse also works, see the end of this page for details

Below are the Screenshots of my Google Calendar test and the positive result.

Inviting myself from a Google account.

This is the invite in the CommuniGate Pro XChange Skin. Note that the extra long URL in the message pushes the control far out to the right. It may make sense to aligh these control to the left in future skins although this long URL is a rare case.

There are the controls after scrolling to the right.

Google Calendar receives the accepted event.

The good news is the reverse also works. I was able to send an invitation from CommuniGate Pro to Google Calendar and Accept the event in Google Calendar. Both ends of the scheduling transaction worked as expected and CommuniGate Pro gave me the option of updating the attendee status after the Google Calendar account accepted the invitation.

Available now: CommuniGate Pro Reviewers Guide v5.1

ab@communigate.com — 2007-02-01T19:27:43-08:00

The 5.1 Reviewers Guide is now available! Many thanks to our excellent team for putting this very useful document together. This book is the ultimate real world use reference for those new to CommuniGate Pro or those who need an update on all of the new IP communications features available in the platform. It is 83 Pages of great information ranging from architecture philosophy to help with client device configurations.

A PDF copy is available from:

http://www.communigate.com/Papers/CommuniGatePro-ReviewersGuide.pdf

Updated: Fixing UDP signaling errors with network MTU settings

ab@communigate.com — 2007-02-07T15:47:34-08:00

Scott Gorlick from CT Labs has shared more information with me about this MTU issue, specifically with X10 phones that have many codecs available which causes fragmented packets and improper signaling performance. Scott informed me that It may be possible that the device that is receiving these packets is improperly handling the fragmented sequence numbers in the Ethernet/PPP header. The fragments beyond the first fragment do not have IP/UDP headers, but they do contain enough information in the Ethernet/PPP header to be reassembled upon receipt. Therefore he concludes that this is not an IP/UDP stack issue, but a layer 2 issue.

A member of our team was testing software phones with CommuniGate Pro and observed some problems with UDP SIP signaling between two different phones because one of the phones presented a long list of codecs that increased the UDP packet size beyond MTU limits. A change to the network configuration resolved this issue and the phones could then successfully complete calls.

A network's MTU configuration, the maximum transfer/transmit unit basically sets the biggest packet that can be transfered. When you use TCP, you use streamed data, and the TCP stack breaks it into packets itself. It uses large packets to send it over LAN (up to 64K), but when the data leaves on a different link such as via serial line, DSL, T1 or anything else, that path will usually does not support a large MTU. On slower links large packets stop other packets from coming through at the same time. So, the router rejects the large packet, sending the sender a special (ICMP) packet. The sending TCP software then decreases the size of packets it uses.

UDP is a much simpler protocol, packets are sent without any confirmation or further packetization. Therefore it is best if UDP packets are smaller than the minimal MTU on its path to the destination. Most networks have an MTU of 1500 and a server can add up to 200 bytes of additional headers or more. Each Record-Routes field is usually 50 bytes and other headers can also be included. For example, most always add the Via header). Therefore a sound recommended limit for SIP UDP packets is 1500-200 = 1300.

For larger SIP packets, the TCP protocol should be used. But TCP protocol is implemented very poorly in many systems.

SIP and email Rules Engine Recipies

ab@communigate.com — 2007-02-17T15:00:46-08:00

Over time, most individuals begin to need more control of their personal communications in the accounts they have for various internet communications services. Information digestion controls exist in many forms and the need itself often spawns new methods of accessing information.

CommuniGate Pro is the communications platform that delivers all of the communication services I need from one account. This is convenient, but also very useful when deciding how to control that information. One of my favorite features in CommuniGate Pro is the Automated Rules engine. I use the rules engine to manage my day to day communications across all mediums. Both asynchronous communications (email) and realtime (SIP and VoIP) can be personally improved with Automated Rules. There are basically two end user categories of rules that can be accessed from the Web interface, MAPI interface or the Pronto! Flash user interface.

Simplified Rule = A rule who's magic or detailed parameters and actions have been grouped into a single option.
This is the list of Simplified rules for users direct from my account today:

VoIP (via the Call Control link)

Voice Mail - To set voicemail options

Divert Calls - Call Forward with time and destination options

Alerting - This provides a simultaneous ring feature. I use this to have my mobile ring everytime I receive any call to my account

Block Calls - Provides a Blacklisting option for specific callers. A Blacklisted Address book can be created to add blocked contacts to the list

Messaging (via the Mail link)

Vacation Message - Standard vacation messaging with the nice feature that does not repeat sending the same message to the same address wehn you receive more mail from that sender

Redirect All Mail to - Message forwarding and copying options (applies to voicemail recordings too)

Automated Rules = Rules where one can provide valid parameters and actions to have the system handle your data as you wish. These can be created by administrators and users (when allowed) and offer many options.

Signaling Rules Recipes

These examples are limited and one should review the documentation for Automated Signal Processing Rules to gain a full understanding of the different controls and behaviors that can be created. I do not have many of these signaling rules yet. Most of the simplified rules take care of my needs. I have submitted a feature request for rule actions that can for example forward IM messages to SMS when Presence is Away or another for server side archiving of IM messages into IMAP folders. As CommuniGate Pro is enhanced and I learn more I will likely add more examples.

Block Unwanted Roster Activity

One of the first signaling rules I needed to create was for Instant Messaging. Various internal and external testing servers created a state where my Instant Messaging buddies or contact roster would receive buddy requests for roster permissions. I also has some individuals I did not know sending buddy bombs or just inviting to connect without introduction or response when I asked who they were. I did not want strangers to constantly ask for or see my presence. Since I knew that some of these were not real people or unwanted contacts I created a rule that would basically blacklist these Instant Messaging Invitations to stop the requests before they reach my IM client. To start to configure this look for the Call Control Link in the Basic Web Interface.

When on the Call Control Screen you can add a rule called Block IM.

The documentation from the help link in the upper right hand corder will provide links to information that explain the Stage and Priority options.

Redirect Calls (without redirecting Instant messages)

This rule was created because a specific SIP phone with IM features was receiving and playing an audio signal for every IM I received. This feature could be deactivated in the phone, but this rule was used instead. Note that the Redirect to parameter can send to an extension only such as 200 or a valid SIP address as it appears in the example below.

Mail Rules Recipes

The idea of mail filtering rules is not new. CommuniGate Pro has had this capability for some time now and memos like the Sieve RFC from 2001 are other examples. Sieve has an important place in the world of email filtering as a reference example. I am not up to date on it but I think it still is not designed to perform actions such as 'marking a message read' with the read flag. Most likely because it does not reach that deep into the message store. CommuniGate Pro Rules can perform these types of actions because as the clustered store of all communications it is not hampered by the need for more moving parts (special gateways) to make nice integration things happen across services or protocols.

SpamCatcher

This is a rule I use to set the level of SPAM I want removed from my Inbox and placed in another folder for this unwanted email. I also mark the message as Read with the rule so my mail user agent application does not chime when SPAM messages arrive. This uses the mail header graph of Xs that the SpamCatcher server filter creates.

CRM Sent Messages

I use a web based CRM tool that allows me to send messages direct from the CRM system to communicate with partners and customers. This feature is good, but I causes me to receive a copy of the messages I sent in my CommuniGate Pro INBOX instead of my Sent folder where all email I send is stored. I created this rule to automatically recognize copied of email messages I sent from the CRM and store them ad Read in the Sent folder exactly as if I sent them directly from my email client.

SMS Redirect and Archive Rule

There is an email alias to my regular email account that simply forwards mail to my INBOX. In this example the alias is called absms@communigate.com (not the actual address). This rule recognizes that the inbound email was addressed to the special SMS alias and redirects that to the mobile operator's email to SMS gateway and then archives the message in a saved messages folder I use.

Email news service (also good for recurring invoices)

A company that would send me market reports was sending this information from an info@domain.com address. I was content to receive this information, but I did not want it to sit in my Inbox unread until I had time to read it. Therefore I created a very simple rule that would move these messages to the saved messages folder while keeping them unread. I would have manually stored them in this folder after reading them anyhow. It seems a very small time improvement, but simply skipping the step of dragging or moving a message from Inbox to another archive folder is a nice time saver for me. I have similar rules for recurring invoices or receipts that I receive regularly.

Mailing List Rule

I subscribe to the CommuniGate Pro Mailing list but I read the list from this CommuniGate Pro Mailing List RSS Feed and not from my INBOX. That RSS feed is automatically generated by a public email to RSS gateway called MailBucket. You might only wish to perform the store task in this example if you do not use the MailBucket service for any of your mailing lists. This rule performs two major tasks for me.

It generates the RSS Feed by copying the list traffic to the MailBucket service as the creator of that service has graciously given me permission to do

It stores all of the traffic I receive from the list to a folder and marks all of those messages read

The result is I can participate in this list with moderate to high traffic, but I am not obligated to manage much of the data by hand. I sometimes see a message on the mailing list that I wish to reply to. When I do, I can enter the email folder I have called CGatePro, find the message, and compose a reply. This is a great time saver for me that still allows me to communicate to a list community that is important to me.

Blog Comments SMS Notifications

I use a blog comments service called Haloscan. When someone posts a comment to one of my Blog entries I receive an email notification of that comment. I can also activate this rule if I am traveling and wish to receive the comment notification via SMS.

Virus Warnings

Some of the Anti Virus filters are nice enough to warn you when someone has sent you a virus message. This is informative but can kill your Inbox with dat traffic if there is an outbreak of some email worm. I choose to not see these warnings so I activate this rule so they never reach me.

Mail NOT Sent Directly To Me

It is not uncommon to be copied as a 'cc:' recipient on many email messages. This can sometimes increase one's Inbox mail volume dramatically. I personally give mail where I am copied a different review priority of email that is sent directly to me. Therefore if i receive a message and my name or address is not in the 'To:' field, I immediately store that in an archive folder because I would likely move it there in the future by hand. This saves me the step. I also leave the message unread so that when I do take care of messages that were addressed directly to me, I can then review all of the unread mail where I was copied. I am considering a similar rule for when there are multiple people copied in the 'To:' field, but I don't think that will be as effective.

Server side management of Instant Messaging contacts

ab@communigate.com — 2007-01-22T13:26:34-08:00

When you add a new contact to your Jabber roster, the client awaits a confirmation from that contact that allows you to subscribe to their information. I have never had this work perfectly with all instant messaging clients. Sometimes an exit and relaunch of the client side applicaitons for both parties will resolve this issue, but that should not be necessary. A quicker fix is to use CommuniGate Pro WebMail to set your 'Sees Us' and 'Seen by Us' instant messaging (IM) settings for all IM clients you test or use, SIP and XMPP.

Login to WebMail and select the 'Basic' skin interface.

After logging In, the upper right area of the interface should show a Buddies link.

Account users can send buddy/contact subscription requests with the 'Request' button on this page.

Requests that were previously sent to you by other contacts will also appear here and you can approve or deny their subscription to your information.

I often use this interface to correct or clean the Group names I use for contacts. This utility allows me to unify how I organize my IM contacts information. Having this on the server side is very useful for management of this data especially when you use more than one instant messaging client.

Linux Flash Player 9 Font issues fix for Pronto

ab@communigate.com — 2007-01-18T13:18:30-08:00

Now that Flash Player 9 has been officially released for Linux, more are testing Pronto! on Linux. Some have reported font issues in some distributions. The reports show that Pronto loads with no text labels anywhere in the interface. This can be corrected in the OS.

I read somewhere that the Flash Plugin for Linux Firefox requires gsfonts-x11. These fonts were installed and the X server restarted on a Linux system that displayed this problem after the GhostScript Fonts were added to the installation, Pronto! loaded as expected. You can obtain the fonts from this site:

ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz

A search on your favorite search engine should return other file formats for the package management system that your favorite Linux distribution uses.

Customizing the PBX Voice User Interface (VUI) audio files

ab@communigate.com — 2007-01-19T01:15:34-08:00

The default CommuniGate Pro PBX audio can be customized with your own recordings. It is possible to create audio 'Environments' similar to how custom web 'Skins' interfaces can be created for each domain in CommuniGate Pro. The PBX audio storage model is also connected to subscriber's language preferences. If I change my language preference to German, for example, as expected my webmail and Pronto interfaces will present German text. If an audio package exists labeled and recorded in German, my voice user interface PBX audio prompts will play in German for all callers.

CommuniGate Pro Administrators frequently ask for recommendations about how to create an audio recordings package for the CommuniGate Pro PBX Voice User interface. I would really like to see a CGPL Application that will record prompts for the application a client wishes to customize. This would work as sort of an 'Application Self Service Mode" where a caller can dial the application, give a few DTMF codes and start recording prompts in the receiver based on the '.wav' files listed in the application. This is much like a user recording a personal greeting where the default will play and the user can elect to record a custom version. This should be very achievable with CommuniGate Pro and would fit PBX hosting services well.

It is possible to record your own audio package and upload that package into your CommuniGate Pro system. I will use the Auto Attendant application in this example and I will customize part of it for somedomain.com which is under the Main Domain getdata.org. I also use some very useful software that was freely available to convert and package the audio files. These are the basic steps:

Analyze the Application(s) you wish to create an audio package for

Create a list of the audio file names you will need to record

Record your audio using for favorite media recording software and save your audio as separate WAV files

If necessary, convert the recordings to the supported media formats

Create a TAR package of the files

Upload your audio package to the PBX environment you wish to use

Analyze the Auto Attendant Application to prepare to create custom audio

The Auto Attendant application is designed to offer many options that enable administrators to customize how calls are answered. There is a real time preferences page dedicated to the Language, Department, and dialing prefixes. The Documentation for Auto Attendant indicates how to customize using the real-time configuration options in the product. A simple example is customizing the Welcome message. The doc says:

If the PBX Center Account has a receptionprompt.wav file in its File Storage, then this file is played instead of the standard "Welcome" file.

This quick customization will play your welcome file named receptionprompt.wav before playing the rest of the application. However if you want to change the audio for all of those prompts you can find what files the application uses starting from the CGPL source files. For the Auto Attendant files I opened the following files from Users -> PBX in the administration interface:

pbx.sppr
playmenu.sppi
reception.sppi
reception.sppr

I selected these because I read the application function and procedure lines to learn the Auto Attendant application dependancies. If you find all lines with the words PlayFile in these Applications you will find the names of the Audio files that can be custom recorded.

pbx.sppr
pbx.sppr:43: PlayFileInLoop("Blank",1000);
pbx.sppr:58: PlayFile("PleaseStandBy");
pbx.sppr:66: PlayFile("AccessDenied");
pbx.sppr:70: PlayFile("NoWaitingCalls");
pbx.sppr:72: PlayFile("ConnectingNow");
pbx.sppr:74: else PlayFile("Failure");
pbx.sppr:84: PlayFileInLoop("Blank",500);
pbx.sppr:85: PlayFile("GoodBye");

playmenu.sppi
playmenu.sppi:9: PlayFile(promptFile);
playmenu.sppi:10: PlayFile("Press");
playmenu.sppi:17: PlayFile("PoundKey");
playmenu.sppi:19: PlayFile("StarKey");
playmenu.sppi:23: PlayFile(sym == "*" ? "star" : sym == "#" ? "pound" : sym);

reception.sppi
reception.sppi:29: PlayFile("Welcome");
reception.sppi:67: if directoryDigits >= 0 then PlayFile("DialKnownExtension"); end if;
reception.sppi:109: PlayFile("InvalidEntry");
reception.sppi:113: PlayFile("Failure");
reception.sppi:117: PlayFileInLoop("Blank",1000);
reception.sppi:129: playFile("EnterPIN"); playFile("FinishByPound");
reception.sppi:129: playFile("EnterPIN"); playFile("FinishByPound");
reception.sppi:134: PlayFile("IncorrectPIN");
reception.sppi:136: PlayFile("Failure");
reception.sppi:147: playFile("TryingExtension");

reception.sppr
reception.sppr:18: PlayFileInLoop("Blank",1000);
reception.sppr:20: PlayFile("Welcome");
reception.sppr:24: PlayFile("DialKnownExtension.wav");
reception.sppr:59: PlayFile("InvalidEntry");
reception.sppr:61: PlayFile("Failure");
reception.sppr:63: PlayFileInLoop("Blank",1000);
reception.sppr:66: PlayFile("GoodBye");
reception.sppr:120: playFile("TryingExtension.wav");
reception.sppr:142: //PlayFile("ConnectingNow.wav");

Important Note from the documentation: If the PlayFile argument does not have a '.wav' or any extension, Communigate Pro will try supported extensions.

Create a list of the audio file names you will need to record

From this analysis I have decided to Customize my Welcome greeting, TryingExtension.wav, and GoodBye. You could choose to change all of some of the prompts.

Record your audio using for favorite media recording software and save your audio as separate WAV files

I am not an experienced audio recording expert. I have used software such as Audacity with a basic microphone device for testing but I am not qualifies to make equipment or recording recommendations. Just be sure to create a separate file for each prompt you wish to change and make sure you have not left too much or too little empty space before or after the file plays.

For my custom Welcome greeting I have created a file called receptionprompt.wav per the documentation noted above. I have also created TryingExtension.wav and Goodbye.wav to build a package that I can add with the CommuniGate Pro Administration interface Environment Editor.

If necessary, convert the recordings to the supported media formats

I did not know how to use the recording and audio file editing software well so i recorded audio in a WAV format that is not compatible with the Supported Media Formats. I can convert all of my audio files with a helpful sound utility such as SoX. In a command shell I convert one of my files easily with a command:

sox TryingExtension-preconvert.wav -t.wav -r8000 -c1TryingExtension.wav

If I was in a directory with many .wav files to convert I could convert them all and save them to a new directory.

for i in *.wav; { sox $i -t.wav -r8000 -c1 ../audio_resamples/$i; }

Create a TAR package of the files

I use the command line tar tool to create the package of customized audio. Note that I am only creating a package of two files in this example. The custom Welcome file will be installed as the documentation instructs.

tar cvf custom_audio.tar *.wav

The CommuniGate Pro environment editor tool will expand the .tar file and install all of the audio into the environment you choose. Note that I could have added a custom application (.sppr) file to distribute a complete and ready to install PBX application in a single tar package.

Upload your audio package to the PBX environment you wish to use

We can start by uploading the receptionprompt.wav to the PBX account's storage area in order to customize our Welcome message.

that one step changed the Welcome message for the entire system. It is possible to only change the Welcome message for a single domain using the audio package steps below.

For this example I do not need to replace the default recordings found in Users -> PBX although I could choose to do this If I want all of my domains to use the custom recordings. In this case I will customize somedomain.com. I navigate to the PBX tab for somedomain.com and select 'Create Custom Environment'.

Once I create the environment somedomain.com now has a separate PBX and has inherited all of the files in the default system PBX.

The Environment Editor tools allow me to upload the custom audio tar package.

Once the package is uploaded I can call the PBX from a SIP registration of someuser@somedomain.com hear the auto attendant for somedomain.com and confirm that I hear the files I created.

SIP Call Flow Diagram Tool

ab@communigate.com — 2007-01-11T00:14:01-08:00

CallFlow Sequence Diagram Generator is good tool for creating call flow diagrams from packet capture files. With the documentation on the source forge page I have successfully used this on MacOS, Linux, and Solaris systems.

My tips for using this tool are:

Be sure to download the version of Batik they recommend on the project page

Do create a text file in the root folder named 'filter' with the contents: tcp.port == 5060 || udp.port == 5060

These Images are example of the output generated by this software:

Simple Registration

Call Activity

Some Firewall issues can degrade CommuniGate Pro MAPI performance

ab@communigate.com — 2007-01-10T23:06:12-08:00

Several clients were recently unable to troubleshoot CommuniGate MAPI Connector slow performance that was also described as stalls or frozen Outlook. Some changes to the MAPI Conector in version 1.2.4 were made to address this issue. This has been documented in the Known MAPI Connector issues document online. This post may be somewhat dated as the current version is 1.2.6, however I wish to publish this for those who may not have upgraded their server and clients or can improve their MAPI performance from the firewall configuration (if possible). The MAPI conector is locally using MAPI to interact with Outlook while interacting with CommuniGate Pro over the CommuniGate Pro IMAP service ports 143 or 993 if using SSL. The data on the server side remains in standard based formats.

The documented fix for 1.2.4 is:

The default IDLE period is 60 seconds now to work around problems with some NAT firewall. The new "Workaround NAT/Firewall issues" option was added to account settings

Some firewalls between end user's Outlook clients and the CommuniGate Pro server prevent connections from staying alive long enough resulting in a long timeout at the client. Shorter IDLE periods are now used to try to prevent the firewall hole from becoming unavailable prematurely. Those who know about firewalls may be able to suggest how tune them better for interaction with MAPI Connector. A request has been received for a custom IDLE setting in the MAPI connector this is being considered by development. Also being considered is code to re-open stale connections.

If you are on the most recent version and still have problems, it is recommended to use integrated CommuniGate MAPI troubleshooting tool be used to gather detailed MAPI logs of the problem along with CommuniGate Pro logs set to ALL INFO and report this along with OS, versions, and network configuration information to Technical Support

Mozilla Lightning Calendar issue with CommuniGate Pro 5.1.x

ab@communigate.com — 2007-01-10T22:05:23-08:00

A client was testing Mozilla Lightning/Calendar and CommuniGate Pro 5.1.x. each time they added or updated an entry they received a error 500 about an invalid format. Mozilla's Bugzilla contains a report of Bug number 327602. Our support has received several requests to investigate this and they have shared some information on the current status of this issue. Note that I really want this to work. I previously invested time in testing Apple's iCal and Evolution clients for use with CommuniGate Pro. The more choices we can find the better for all who need to schedule things.

There is a larger problem in the world of calendar and scheduling software that CommuniGate Systems Development has approached in a unique way. There is no ubiquitous calendar standard in use in the real world today. CommuniGate Pro's Calendar service implements multiple Calendar RFC standards and multiple access methods including http, https, and MAPI to IMAP. CommuniGate Prois also able to support multiple accept and respond scheduling formats. The standard based information is stored in standard formats even when non-RFC based methods that remain popular today (Outlook and Notes) access that data. Today I can email anyone and can be fairly sure that message will be delivered to them regardless of their messaging system and mine. I wish the state of calendar and scheduling services was the same. I believe it will be someday. I think the CommuniGate approach is pragmatic about what many use today, but embraces open standards as the productive future for these services.

I have read claims that this is a CalDAV or WebDAV problem. This is not accurate and is clarified on the bug report. The problem is better described on the posts in the bug report. The response from support was posted by a Mozilla bug reporter and responses from the project developers communicate the following to me:

Acknowledge that the bug has not been fixed yet

Acknowledge that Previous versions of the calendar client products did not behave this way it

Declare that there is no violation of the spec rfc2445 from either party

Label this a workaround for CommuniGate Pro therefore warranting a lower priority

I understand their thought process. I think they also have their own calendar server and it would be understandable if that is used as the reference for their testing and not CommuniGate Pro. CORRECTION from lilmatt: Mozilla does not have a calendar server project. I hope this testing is opened up to include products like CommuniGate Prothat strive for the same standards goals that CommuniGate Systems strives for as demonstrated in our list of implemented RFCs. The hope I am left with is that the same poster writes that "The bug just hasn't been fixed yet". I hope this means that there is some intent to support what was previously supported in Sunbird 1.0. CORRECTION from lilmatt: Sunbird 1.0 has never been released. If "it worked in a previous version of Sunbird", it was likely Sunbird 0.2. The observation of our support team that was posted in the report that this is alpha code which may change many times before a stable release is offered is fair. This does imply some risk in making a change in a stable version of CommuniGate pro to support an alpha calendar client that may change.

For now Mozilla Calendar puts the description of the TimeZone after that timezone is used. CommuniGate Pro does not support that. We are considering a fix if the final versions of Mozilla will continue to behave this way. It would seem reasonable to see what progress is made because the description of the bug indicates they are ready to fix this in future versions. Current versions of CommuniGate Pro only import the events if you have the timezone description above the actual place where the timezone is used.

Update: Changes were included in newer builds of Mozilla Calendar and this issue appears resolved. Other issues not directly related to this post have appeared since the bugzilla note below and I have reported those to our development team for resolution.

From: bugzilla-daemon@mozilla.org
Date: January 15, 2007 2:22:14 PM PST
Subject: [Bug 327602] Pushing the calendar file failed. Status code: 500: Illegal Calendar data format

--- Comment #32 from Bas van den Bosch 2007-01-15 14:20:26 PST ---
Just tested the latest nightly builds of both sunbird and ligtning on a
webdav-server and local: no problems so nothng gets broken.

On Communigate 4.3.12 I got no problems up till now when starting
with blank agenda's. When using pre-existing agenda's there may be some
problems (in my case outlook-mapi calendar, synchronized with my nokia),
don't know yet wether these are caused by sunbird or by communigate.

sunbird: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a2pre)
Gecko/20070115 Calendar/0.6a1
lightning: 0.4a1 - build 2007011505 on Thunderbird 1.5.0.9

It seems like we finally have communigate with sunbird/lightning back...
Going to do some more testing and troubleshooting. Thanks all...

Firewall features and audio problems with CommuniGate VoIP

ab@communigate.com — 2007-01-10T16:02:58-08:00

CommuniGate Pro SIP supports both Near End and Far End NAT Traversal. I previously wrote about ports that should be opened and which CommuniGate Pro server network configurations are most important to ensure the server has enough information to get the signaling and media from one end point to another. When media is send from one SIP end point to another using these features, it can travel through a variety of devices that may apply their own special magic to that traffic. When all of the CommuniGate Pro configuration is sane, this is usually the cause of one-way or no audio issues. It is always possible that there may be a CommuniGate Pro issue, if this is suspected anyone can always log SIP in ALL INFO mode and send the error logs to support@communigate.com.

The most common CommuniGate Pro configuration error I've found is not opening the firewall for the ports configured in the Media Proxy Parameters or not defining the WAN IPv4 Address. However, depending on how your firewall opens those ports there may be more to investigate to ensure media information arrives at the intended destination. If the end user is remote, there are many small NAT only or NAT with firewall features devices that can exist in the path.

A Home Router Example and Solution

My own Home firewall router caused a problem where I would receive a PSTN call from a Cisco router to CommuniGate Pro to my SIP IP phone and not hear the other party. SIP calls to and from me did not have this problem and audio was always bi-directional as expected. However If I called back to the PSTN caller the audio became bi-directional as expected. After an upgrade of the firmware I found a NAT Endpoint Filtering option that I set to Endpoint Independent for both TCP and UDP in order to correct this problem. I was able to configure this for both UDP and TCP. The product's documentation explains this option with the following entry in their help pages:

NAT Endpoint Filtering
The NAT Endpoint Filtering options control how the router's NAT manages incoming connection requests to ports that are already being used.

Endpoint Independent
Once a LAN-side application has created a connection through a specific port, the NAT will forward any incoming connection requests with the same port to the LAN-side application regardless of their origin. This is the least restrictive option, giving the best connectivity and allowing some applications (P2P applications in particular) to behave almost as if they are directly connected to the Internet.

Address Restricted
The NAT forwards incoming connection requests to a LAN-side host only when they come from the same IP address with which a connection was established. This allows the remote application to send data back through a port different from the one used when the outgoing session was created.

Port And Address Restricted
The NAT does not forward any incoming connection requests with the same port address as an already establish connection.

Note that some of these options can interact with other port restrictions. Endpoint Independent Filtering takes priority over inbound filters or schedules, so it is possible for an incoming session request related to an outgoing session to enter through a port in spite of an active inbound filter on that port. However, packets will be rejected as expected when sent to blocked ports (whether blocked by schedule or by inbound filter) for which there are no active sessions. Port and Address Restricted Filtering ensures that inbound filters and schedules work precisely, but prevents some level of connectivity, and therefore might require the use of port triggers, virtual servers, or port forwarding to open the ports needed by the application. Address Restricted Filtering gives a compromise position, which avoids problems when communicating with certain other types of NAT router (symmetric NATs in particular) but leaves inbound filters and scheduled access working as expected.

UDP Endpoint Filtering - Controls endpoint filtering for packets of the UDP protocol.
TCP Endpoint Filtering - Controls endpoint filtering for packets of the TCP protocol.

I did send logs to our support previously and they identified issues with the media, however there was not enough data in the logs because the problem was occurring after it arrived at my network.

An Office Linux Installation Example

A business partner of CommuniGate Systems was configuring their local CommuniGate Pro PBX and was experiencing an audio problem on all SIP endpoints. This included calls that terminate on Communigate Pro Through their Linux IP Chains or IP Tables firewall configuration. Their CommuniGate Pro Configuration did contain all of the information required to successfully perform NAT traversal, but this Linux firewall required a change to enable this. Even though Media Proxy parameters mentioned above were opened in the Linux firewall, they were not configured to " Allow all Established and Related " traffic through these ports. Once that change was made the audio was problem was eliminated. A search for this term and most major firewall brand names returns many related results.

The Bad Networking Practices Example

In some cases, usually when traveling, we have come across Internet Service providers that use non private IP address ranges for users of their NATed Network. A workaround can be configured in CommuniGate Pro's NATed Addresses configuration If subscribers of the system find themselves with an IP that is NATed but could be a real public IP address. This usually affects registration before it affects audio, but I have seen cases where the end user's SIP client appears to register, usually through the Clients NAT Traversal features, but then has problems with Voice or Instant Messaging.

We have had to put the following configurations in a separate dedicated CommuniGate Pro SIP Proxy for these cases. A separate proxy is not really required, but this method was used only to have the main system's NATed Addresses configuration pure, while another system bears the burden of mixing private and public address spaces to help those less frequent cases.

20.0.0.0/24 ; South America Hotel
193.168.0.0/24 ; Central America Hotel
81.254.75.0/24 ; Hotel in West Europe
12.108.98.0/24 ; WiFi service in North America

It is worth mentioning that Software and Hardware SIP Phones, Video Conferencing, or any other client should not need to use NAT Traversal tricks at the client level to work with CommuniGate Pro. It is recommended that these features and other methods like STUN be disabled when configuring your SIP network.