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October 1999


Tracking Down Calls
I am doing a research on the lack or the existence of call tracking technology in Internet telephony. I believe that the existence or lack of such technology is actually the main issue at stake in the Internet telephony industry. This is because, for a long time now, the supporters and opponents of Internet telephony have focused their arguments on the issues of billing, taxation, and regulations. However, it appears the two groups and most especially the opponents do not seem to want to admit that it is not technically feasible to track Internet voice calls. For instance, assuming net surfer A living in Springfield, Illinois, signs on the Internet for two hours through his local access number, he spends the first half-hour reading e-mail, the next half-hour visiting some Web sites, and the next hour talking to his friend in London, England. My question is, is there a technology yet to track his call to London since surfer A is simply using local exchange trunk? Can you share with me, the list of call tracking products that could be used to track such a call and the names of the manufacturers of such products. This will greatly help my study. Thanks.

— Sanjo Omoniyi

Associate Group Publisher Marc Robins responds:
It is possible to track an IP telephony call — the kicker is the call has to go through a mediated system — such as a gateway — which can log the various elements of the connection. For example, log files can contain port used, bandwidth consumed, IP address connected to, phone number dialed, time duration, etc.

If an ISP uses a gateway to connect a PC-to-phone IP telephony call, then that call can be tracked, since a gateway is required. The problem really lies with PC-to-PC Internet telephony calls, where the PC users are using a non-mediated connection method, such as direct peer-to-peer connections, relying on discrete IP addresses. I believe you can monitor IRC connections (another way to set up a call), as well as PC-to-PC based sessions that involve a connection server, where callers have to log into a specific Web site server in order to connect.


Setting Up VPNs
In reference to Group Publisher Rich Tehrani’s online column (June 22, 1999) "VoIP, PC Not Included (Or Needed)".

I am an existing Aplio user and have bought three Aplios that I use between the U.S. and India. I recently read about a VoIP router from Superford called Virtual Private Netswitch (VPN) that allows an Aplio user to call any phone in the same region (city or state). I have also tried it with my Aplio and it works almost fine. Do you have any information about any other such products? Can you provide info on where to buy VPNs in the U.S.? (I tried it with my dealer in India, who is charging exorbitant prices.) Thanks.

— Majeed

TMC Labs™ engineer Evan Koblentz responds:
Thanks for writing. We always like to hear from readers who use IP telephony technology in the real world.

The first product that comes to mind is InnoMedia’s “eXR” device, which does the same thing for their InfoTalk unit that the Superford Netswitch does for the Aplio/Phone. See the bottom half of my online column at www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columns/evan051499.htm.

I’m not aware of other products specifically designed for the purposes you need, but a quick search on HotBot, for the query “VPN and SOHO” revealed more than 900 links! I suspect that your needs also reflect those of other readers. So, as the resident “Inspector Gadget”, I will research this product class further and write about it for TMCnet.com™.


Regarding Cable Security Woes
Editor’s Note: An August letter to the editor on cable security issues generated so much interest that we have included a full-length question-and-answer session with Jeff Walker of Motorola in our October 1999 Services Section.

Michael Kitchen wrote a letter in your August issue, expressing his concern that cable modems are “unusable” because of security problems. Motorola is the top-selling manufacturer of cable modem infrastructure and hardware, and we’d like Michael and your other readers to know that our cable modem technology is every bit as secure as a traditional dial-up telephone connection — but with connection speeds that are hundreds of times as fast. We have always given serious attention to security issues, and we’d like to shed some light on these concerns.

In some existing cable modem networks, other equipment manufacturers have employed architecture that is similar to traditional broadcast LAN environments. This approach is necessary in office settings, where users need to share resources like printers and files, but is inappropriate for public Internet access. Motorola has never used broadcast LAN architecture in its cable modem equipment. Our systems more closely resemble the design of the secure remote access servers used for dial-up connections.

Motorola’s headend equipment blocks any rebroadcasting of subscriber IP addresses that could enable their activities on the Internet to be tracked or their account to be used for fraudulent activity. It also prevents other users on a cable modem network or the Internet from “seeing” subscribers’ computers, files, e-mail, or printers. As an additional safety measure, we also strongly recommend that all Internet users download the most current security update software for their operating systems and Web browsers on a regular basis.

We see secure access as a basic tenet of high-speed data access provisioning, and one that will be even more important as new modems based on the DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) industry standard for interoperability and cable telephony products become widely available. As long as proper security methods are employed, there is no security problem to fix.

Jeff Walker,Director of Product Marketing,Motorola Multimedia Group







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