Software Phones Versus IP Phones

First lets get the facts straight. Both are needed and can be used on all types of platforms. for those interested in voice over IP visit our VOIPiT forum where we discuss Voice over IP software and hardware reviews.

Software based phones:

Pros: Free or low cost
IP USB phone compatible ( phone set) $29

Con: Have to own computer and be able to install software and manage applications.
Slight learning curve for those new to the net.

Hardware based phones

Not all vendors are the same. tested several items, and they just did not make the cut. They lacked in either echo cancellation or feedback controls. A decent phone for the dollar is our Roby Ip phones found online here.



I love my Sipura 1000, and 2000, and looking for low end unit that meets quality controls and service.

Hubs versus Smart Switches

In building a few networks over the year most people are confused as towards why they want a managed switched or managed hub over just a plain old hub. In my testing I used a couple of units and the results were almost identical with totally different gear. Hub versus Smart Switch

The first beast was a 16 port smarts switch by Addtron. Pretty decent but an unmanaged smart switch gives you no control over the network traffic. 10 base T I think.

Second beast was 3Com Superstack 2 . PS Hub 40 - which is a 10 megabit managed hub.

After doing allot of testing at the ten mega bit level ( for wireless network purposes) we found the results were better for the SuperStack versus the smart switch. Why would you care about a hudb you ask ? Most routers have limited ports (4-5) and hubs are cheap ways of extending those ports. Hubs sell for 10-20 dollars are most used places and are very easy to find at thrift places for just a few dollars.

In hooking a hub to a switch you will either need a cross over cable or a cross over port on the unit that switches. The 3com did not have one but the Addton did. At full load I was getting only 50 percent of my bandwidth through either device switched or hubbed, meaning it only goes so far at 10 megabit. The overhead is higher.

You can use 10 megabit gear but make sure your intersections in your network are not being choked. use a managed hub or switch and set limits on your ports, and add filters if needed to stop unwanted traffic from flooding your network.

For the money Hubs are cheapest, for the quality of service a nice Cisco 2924XL with enterprise OS , will be the best quality for the money in todays market. The Addtron and 3com were both ebay buys for under $29.

XMMS Media Player for Linux

XMMS was loaded on my Ubuntu Media PC. I also tested 3 other media players and found XMMS was the best of its class.

Since I got my new Ubuntu CD and switched, I had to find a media player that would not such the live out of my beast while I burn DVD's, I love to listen to my media. The nice thing is its small, light CPU and plain works. I give it 5 out of 5 in freeware and five out of five overall. Needed more visual effects to compete with main stream paid media software. Overall this boy is loaded, works with any media or MP3 stream and runs without glitches. In my personal opinion I see more need for media software developers like this in more areas. Media players are know to be CPU hogs and XMMS runs on a low end media box without any glitches.


Went in and added it viia add/remove feature. Searched for media player. Found it in sound and video , clicked OK, and system jumped on my network and installed it and it's dependency files. Install from clean box took only about 15 minutes from start. Difficulty is 1. One must know how to read and type. or at least read and point and click.

Site: http://www.xmms.org
Next version: http://www.xmms.org/next_version.php
Reviews: http://freshmeat.net/projects/xmms/

AVG Free Edition

As many of you already know, Virus, worms , and Trojans are here to stay on the Internet. Depending if the network has activated port filtering to reduce attacks, or is just monitored, a PC with XP or 2K loaded with network access and no protection can be infected in just a matter of minutes. 10-12 to be exact.

We tested over 10 packages both free and pay, and fell in love with Free AVG.

Simple, easy to use and free.
five stars

Web Site

Get AVG Anti-Virus Free
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is a free anti-virus protection tool developed by GRISOFT for home use. We invite you to join the millions of satisfied customers worldwide who have downloaded the software and now enjoy the benefits of AVG Anti-Virus Free.

New in AVG 7.5
Improved virus detection based on better heuristics and NTFS data streams scanning
Smaller installation and update files
Improved user interface
Windows Vista ready
and more

What you get with AVG Anti-Virus Free
Easy to use
Regular and automatic virus database updates
Realtime protection of files and e-mails

Scheduled and manual testing

Windows and Linux
And most of all ... great customer satisfaction!

XMMS - Media Player for Linux - 5 Stars

Fast, light and clean install. Installed on my Ubuntu install in a click and works great.
For those needing a simple winamp style media player XMMS is your choice.

Web Site - http://www.xmms.org/

Ubuntu to the Rescue !

After one of our local guys got me hooked on the distro, I can now see that the distro really has taken off and is very usefaull and pretty easy to use for admins.
I was impressed that I could still surf from CD, and shell into a server while installing. The distro upgrade comes next.

The install and upgrade went off without any issues. Wow. Even found my weird modem and sound card without having to mess with anything. 5 stars on installer and setup. Very nice and very simple.

MP3 Media Server - MP3MYSTIC

Web Site : http://mp3mystic.com/
MP3 Media Server

With my inhome mesh network and a 500 MHZ PC with SCSI HD , 512 megs ram, preloaded with Win2K, I was able to play my complete media library in any room in the house. The mutli-tiered mesh was my first attempt at mesh and still runs my home network even today.

The software was a breeze to download and we bought a license. The software worked right off the shelf with no web server or special addon needed, just for basic HTML data. No database to install, and it only took minutes to setup.

4 Stars

Support was simple. Just email and the guy was prompt and assisted every time.