Multiline VOIP Client

Receive call from multiple SIP accounts using one client.

Finally found a decent, free, no hidden costs, and open source VOIP multiline client: Linphone.

It works rather well, doesn't look like dogs breakfast, hasn't crashed yet, and best of all it's also a multi platform client - it will run on your Blackberry, Android, iPhone, Windows and Linux. So in a nut shell if you have multiple sip accounts or run your own PBX system like FreeSWITCH it does the job, and it does it well.

Yes you can thank me, but real thanks should go to Yasuro's Blog, I just used legendary googlefu to find it.

Hosting Connectivity Issues

2012-05-23 21:49 - we have received an update that issues are now resolved

We are aware of the network issues with our hosts and are working for a full resolution.

Plain Ctrl+V Paste Text

Windows 7 Plain Paste Keyboard Shortcut

When copying or pasting content Windows attempts to preserve formating between applications. In my line of work this is mostly a hindrance and requires an intermediate Notepad copy and paste step.

However there is hope! and it comes in the form of a small utility named Pure Text. I suggest you place this tiny 28KB program into your Startup folder or on your desktop. Once running you can access its settings through the task tray icon.

In the program's options you can specify a new Windows system wide keyboard shortcut for plain text paste; 'Win' + 'V' seem like a good choice.

Let's hope that Windows 8 will have this built in

Fixing Putty Rendering Issues

Configuring Locales and Character Encoding on Linode Debian system

For quite a while I had broken rendering in putty when accessing our Linux servers. Searching the net resulted in solutions most stating to use UTF-8 encoding setting in Putty. This however was only partially successful as line rendering was still broken.

I believe the reason for this is that the Linode Debian installation skips the `locales` configuration bit; to run the setup manually execute the below command:

dpkg-reconfigure locales

Find your locale and choose the 'UTF-8' version of it, for my systems I selected, 'en_CA ISO-8859-1', 'en_CA.UTF-8 UTF-8', 'en_US ISO-8859-1', and 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8', with 'en_US.UTF-8' being default. Finally confirm your Putty is using the 'UTF-8' encoding setting in 'Windows > Translation'

Running 'dpkg-reconfigure lecales' again shows that rendering is now correct.

DNSChanger Malware

The FBI seems to be concerned about the DNSChanger Malware that is infecting machines around the world. You might want to visit the site http://www.dcwg.org/ prior to July 9th and test your system or you might lose your internet connectivity. This site has a lot of information about this malware and also provides links to test your system and if infected directs you on how to remove the malware.

The FBI also has a site http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911 that discusses DNSChanger.  

I would say this is a legitimate concern.   I have only tested my machine so far and it tested clean.

While on the topic of virus / malware attacks, have you given thought to a disaster recovery plan?    First step is prevention, with trusted antivirus software.   Even more important is a tested backup / recovery plan.   And the final step is  a plan that you would follow in the event of physical disaster, whether it be an office fire, theft of systems, or hardware failure.

Don't learn the hard way!   Give disaster planning some thought, and if you need any help with this please contact us to assist you.

Update (May 23, 2012)

You will see that in this article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57439407-83/google-will-alert-users-to-dnschanger-malware-infection/) Google will be warning people that their computer is infected.   If you get a notice (see below) on your browser when searching then you will need to follow the directions for removal.