Friday, February 29, 2008

3CX and snom Team Up to Deliver a Comprehensive VoIP Telephony Solution

The strategic partnership secures an integrated solution pairing 3CX IP PBX for Windows with snom VoIP phones to deliver mobility, productivity and cost-saving advantages to businesses.

Hannover, Germany – 29 February 2008 – 3CX (www.3cx.com), developer of the award-winning software-based IP PBX for Windows, and snom technology AG (www.snom.com), developer and manufacturer of Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones, have announced that interoperability testing between their products has been completed successfully. This certified interoperability ensures that small and medium businesses have access to a reliable and affordable VoIP solution when using 3CX’s software-based IP PBX for Windows together with snom’s VoIP-based products.

Businesses looking to replace their traditional proprietary hardware PBXs with an easy to install, manage and use VoIP Telephony system can now benefit from the very cost effective combined solution of 3CX Phone System for Windows and snom’s VoIP phones, knowing that it is and fully supported by both vendors. Furthermore, businesses can now easily implement a complete telephone system that helps them give employees mobility, rids them of costly phone tag and reduces administration and training time by IT staff.

Nick Galea, 3CX CEO said: “We are delighted to confirm 3CX IP PBX interoperability with snom VoIP products. Companies can now implement a complete and reliable software-based IP PBX solution that is more manageable and scaleable than traditional PBXs and also costs a fraction of the price, whilst delivering more features.”

Dr. Michael Knieling, Executive VP of Marketing and Sales, snom technology AG said: “"Interoperability is extremely important in the world of VoIP nowadays and we are pleased to have completed all the required tests to secure that snom and 3CX can offer the SMB market an excellent value and innovative solution that poses no instability risks to businesses.”

Key advantages of 3CX & snom VoIP telephony solution

  • Increases mobility – allows workers to be seamlessly integrated to the company’s phone system any time, any place.
  • Eliminates expensive telephone tag by allowing users to see if colleagues are there or not.
  • Businesses profit from less costs and more features compared to traditional telephone systems.

Both companies are participating as exhibitors at CeBIT 2008 from March 4-9 in Hannover, Germany (Hall 13 Booth D26).

About 3CX

3CX (www.3cx.com) is an international developer of telecommunications software, headquartered in Europe with offices in Cyprus, USA, UK and Hong Kong. It is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and is backed by an experienced management and development team. The company is focused on the Windows IP PBX market with its innovative and award-winning 3CX Phone System for Windows, which has been developed for the SMB market. 3CX allows businesses to experience the multiple benefits of an IP PBX through its fully functional 3CX Phone System Free Edition and its commercially supported and competitively-priced Commercial Editions.

About snom

snom technology AG (http://www.snom.com) develops and manufactures Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephones and related equipment based on the IETF open standard, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). Recognized for its high quality, customizable and cost-effective business solutions, snom is also differentiated by the company’s history in the VoIP industry, and its dedication to high security standards. All of snom’s software exists in the firmware on the phones – making it easier for users to download updates and new features. snom customers benefit from the interoperability and flexibility that the snom telephones offer, including plug and play integration and universal compatibility with any SIP-based telephony platform.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

3CX Phone System v5.1 makes integration of remote workers and branch offices easy

3CX’s innovative tunnel makes firewall configuration for remote extensions using VoIP a breeze

London, UK - 20 February 08 – 3CX has announced the release of version 5.1 of 3CX Phone System for Windows. The latest version of the award-winning IP PBX has an integrated 3CX Tunnel which simplifies firewall configuration by channeling all VoIP traffic over a single port; making it easy for remote workers to connect to their company’s PBX and for Network Managers to connect different remote PBX systems between them. Traditionally, firewall configuration for remote SIP / VoIP systems and/or extensions can represent a challenge, because it requires many open ports.

Nick Galea, CEO at 3CX said: “We know how important it is for businesses nowadays to have remote workers and branches seamlessly integrated to their company’s phone system, and the addition of the 3CX Tunnel to 3CX Phone System for Windows facilitates this process.

“The 3CX Tunnel, unlike other similar tunneling protocols, is not proprietary and can be used with popular VoIP softphones and hard phones. This is ideal for businesses, as they can use a variety of telephone options with their IP PBX depending on their needs and budget.”

Key advantages of the 3CX Tunnel:

  • Easy firewall configuration – choose any port (ie. port 80) for seamless networking
  • Remote workers do not need to edit the firewall configuration to be able to connect to the IP PBX from any location (ie. home, hotels, conference centers, airports, etc.)
  • Mobility, productivity and cost-saving advantages for businesses from the integration of remote workers and branches to the company’s phone system

3CX Phone System for Windows allows businesses to completely break free from the restrictions of hardware-based, proprietary phone systems. Built on the open SIP standard, 3CX IP PBX interoperates with all popular SIP phones, VoIP Gateways and VoIP providers.

Main advantages of adopting 3CX Phone System for Windows:

  • Increases mobility – allows remote workers to be seamlessly integrated to the company’s phone system
  • Eliminates expensive telephone tag by using the inbuilt Presence feature
  • Simpler phone system administration via a web-based configuration
  • Vendor independent – significant cost savings by choosing VoIP provider and SIP equipment of choice
  • Delivers unified communications technology by merging voice and data networks, allowing businesses to simplify real time delivery of information.

Four available editions: Small Business, Pro, Enterprise and Free

3CX Phone System for Windows is available in four editions: Free, Small Business, Pro and Enterprise, all supporting an unlimited number of extensions. The Free edition is limited to 8 simultaneous calls, whereas the Small Business edition supports up to 8, the Pro version up to 16 and the Enterprise edition supports up to 32 simultaneous calls. Call capacity can be expanded with upgrade packs. A detailed edition comparison table can be found on http://www.3cx.com/phonesystem/edition-comparison.html

3CX Phone System Free edition

A Free edition, supporting an unlimited number of extensions, is also available. The Free edition can be downloaded from http://www.3cx.com/phone-system/download-phone-system.html.

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About 3CX

3CX is an international developer of telecommunications software, headquartered in Europe with offices in Cyprus, USA, UK and Hong Kong. It is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and is backed by an experienced management and development team. Its product, 3CX Phone System for Windows, developed specifically for the SMB market, has earned Windows Server 2003 Certification and has received numerous awards, including the TMC Labs 2007 Innovation Award, The Windowsnetworking.com Gold Award, as well as, the IT EXPO Best of Show award 2007 and the INTERNET Telephony Magazine Product of the Year Award, all in recognition to the company’s commitment to innovation and quality. 3CX maintains a global presence with offices in four countries and localized information available in many languages.

Useful Links:

3CX website - www.3cx.com
3CX Case Studies & Testimonials - http://www.3cx.com/clients/index.html
IP PBX, SIP & VOIP FAQ - http://www.3cx.com/PBX/SIP-faq.html
Nick Galea’s blog - www.nickonit.com

Friday, February 1, 2008

VoIP vulnerabilities increasing, but not exploits

The threats against VoIP are numerous and seem to be growing, but in 2008 the technology probably won't suffer crippling attacks.

The potential danger is very real. VoIP is susceptible to the many exploits that networks generally are heir to -- denial of service, buffer overflows and more. VoIP PBXs are servers on corporate networks and are only as secure as the networks themselves.

Read more about this here.