Windows Media Player 11

It’s been a very long journey of Windows Media Player from ver 2.0 to the current ver 11. This post features the latest Media player from Microsoft i.e.., Windows Media Player 11.

If you have Windows Vista installed on your system, you also have this latest version of MP. Windows Media Player 11 is included as the default MP for Vista and it works with all the versions of Vista till date.

It is not mandatory that you should have Vista to get MP 11 on your machine. Long before the release of Vista this year, Microsoft have released MP 11 exclusive for Windows XP.


Features of Media Player 11



All of us like this player due to its new design and digital look. This was the indication of a new operating system from Microsoft. As you can see that windows media player’s look is similar to that of Vista’s

It has Back and forward buttons which we didn’t had in earlier versions. This helps you in working with multiple web pages.

Playback control features improved repeat, shuffle and full-screen options. Now there is no need to parse through the long menus to repeat a song. It is just a single click away in the playback control.




So, what are you waiting for, Download this incredible player here and enjoy the experience for real music stores in this digital world.

Important Links

See which version of MP, Microsoft recommends for your type of operating system.

There are some differences between the media player available with Vista and the one which you have downloaded for Window XP. Click here for the differences.

Google's Blog

I hope, you might have downloaded the google web gadget for cricket scores, which was described in my Previous Post. I guess, you have removed it soon after India lost the match against Bangladesh. Never mind, India is an un-predictable team.

I found a very interesting thing over web which I want to share with you. May be this is well know to all of you, but I found it recently. This is Google’s Blog on blogger.com. Google calls this blog as “ Official Google Blog”. This blog has gone live from past few months. Atlast, Google has got the time to write posts on their very own service, Blogger

You can get information about most of the new services of google, recent lauches etc.. Probably a good way to get updated about what Master Google is doing on the web.

The recent hit post on this blog was about the “Open Source Carnival”, in which google was accepting applications for programmers to write open source softwares. Visit this blog for all the latest that is happening with google. I read about “Google’s Privacy Policy” which is changed, this year. Now googler's can choose their privacy policy.

Related link to Google Base Blog

Cricket World Cup 2007

As you all know, that Cricket world has began. This time it is West Indies, which is hosting this grand Cricket Championship.

All together there are 16 teams participating in World Cup. I am sure that all of you might have started searching for different ways to get the scores on the web.


Even I am doing the same. But recently when I casually tried to add a gadget to my google desktop. I got a very useful thing. A score gadget, in which you can see live cricket scores.



This is how it looks, it is powerd by cricinfo.com, the site which I was visiting to get the lastest scores till now.

If you want to be updated with all that is happening in this world cup, Download this gadget here the prerequisits for installing this gadget is google desktop.

If you do not have Google Desktop installed in your machines, download it here

Get all the latest gadgets and widgets from google by searching with the keyword Cricket Scores in google images.

Power of Internet Protocol

The most important information which I have changed about this post is its Heading. From now on, you will be seeing it as Power of Internet. I have chosen this heading, as in future, I will be posting about all the major applications used in internet world.

I hope every body found my previous post useful, if you are visiting this blog for the first time, I recommend you to visit my previous post to get the details of this topic, you can also find the answer to why did I chose this topic, in my previous post. As I have mentioned to write about technical details of IP telephony in next post, so doing the same in this post.

Let me brief out, what I am going to write in this blog. I will be starting with the most used protocol in IP telephony that is SIP, then we will see a software review, in which I will be reviewing few softwares used in IP communication. We will also see Microsoft's strategy for Ip telephony.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

SIP is a protocol used to Initiate or terminate sessions with one or multiple participants.Companies like Vonage and Packet8 have adopted SIP as the foundation for the services they offer to consumers.PortSIP softPhone is a powerful and unique Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) software phone capable of voice over IP communications. The PortSIP softphone delivers SIP-based communications and services in a software-based phone for PC-to-Phone, Phone-to-PC and PC-to-PC services. As a SIP phone, PortSIP can be used on Voice over IP networks to interact with traditional Public Switching Telecommunication Networks (PSTNs) and future IP-based telecommunication devices. But SIP is not majorly used now, this is because of its only disadvantage which is the change over of device if we change the service provider.

Other Protocols used

The codes and commands used to establish and terminate a phone call over an IP network. The protocol supports such features as conference calling, call waiting and call transfer. The primary IP telephony signaling protocols are H.323, SIP and MGCP/MEGACO. There are also proprietary protocols; for example, Cisco's Skinny is widely used.H.323* is a multimedia conferencing protocol, which includes voice, video, and data conferencing, for use over packet-switched networks


Some Models of IP Phone



This is Avaya's 2420 Model IP phone.




These are not most popular, you can see them in few Contact Centres.

The above two IP phones are most widely used, you can see them in almost every Contact Centre and It firm. These phones works same way as our normal PC, to get the IP address. They get the IP address from the DHCP server as the PC does. Through DHCP server, they can be centrally managed. Even the IP Firmware can be upgraded from the server itself rather then installing on each and every instrument.

Market Leader CISCO's Strategy

Cisco has released a voice gateway appliance designed to aid in the phased migration from time-division multiplexing (TDM) private branch exchange (PBX) networks to fully converged Cisco IP telephony and IP communications solutions. The Cisco EGW 2200 gateway supports the interworking of voice signaling protocols, Digital Private Network Signaling System (DPNSS) and Q.SIG, with Cisco CallManager call-processing software and Cisco Unity voice mail and unified messaging solutions. The Cisco EGW 2200 gateway supports the interworking of voice signaling protocols, Digital Private Network Signaling System (DPNSS) and Q.SIG, with Cisco CallManager call-processing software and Cisco Unity voice mail and unified messaging solutions.
The gateway supports commonly used DPNSS features, such as call-back, extension status, route optimization, and centralized attendant console, as well as other centralized operator functions. In addition, the Cisco EGW 2200 helps enable the interoperation of IP telephony voice mail features with legacy voice mail systems



Microsoft's PBX Strategy

Even Microsoft have entered into designing different softwares to communicate over internet. One of then which was in new last year is “Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007”. This software will integrated with other microsoft's communication products like outlook etc. Microsoft's ambition is to integrate this server software with every thing else in office suite. This product allows its user to initiate the call or conference with any person on a IP network. As far as the security is concerned, Microsoft Office Communication Server provides, single application infrastructure, a single administrator and a configuration and a single directory for IT professionals.

Find the review of it here



Software Review

The only software which I could review was SKYPE, probably the most used IP based software in the internet world. If you want to make a call on internet using free softwares, skype is the best option to go for. But the only disadvantage lies in the connection speed. Skype requires a broadband connection for reliable communication.
I tried with 128kbps, this effected the clarity of the voice and the call was getting disconnected after some time.Download Skype

Even yahoo, Google and MSN provides such kind of services through its softwares.

Integration of IP and PSTN Phone


Sphere’s VG3 media gateways deliver PSTN connectivity as well as support for legacy analog and digital phones ensuring you have a migration path and enabling you to protect your existing investments.

The figure shows the integration of IP and PSTN lines, the VOIP gateway is used to create addition lines for the PBX system. As VOIP can produce the standard telephone or T1/E1 lines, they can be terminated to a PBX line card.

Future of Internet Telephony

The Ip based communication is growing a very fastly. As it grows, so the competition in this industry. Free PC based VOIP is dominated by skype software. If you are opting for this service, keep in mind that even the smaller ISP's will offer VOIP service. But it depends on you to chose the best third party tool which would work the best. Study reviels free services like Yahoo!, Skype, and MSN are broadly used.

So if these third party tools offer free service then what would ISP do. They would opt for a firmware which would offer PC based programs. Here lies the brutality, now the customer should opt only for the paid service of the ISP rather than the third party free tools. Visit Brutal Future of VOIP for more details.

But how long will this persist, broadband will not be able to keep their charges high. There will be time when they will be forced to reduce the prices.

IP Telephone Is A Reality Now ! ! ! ! !

As I have promised to write about IP Telephony in my Previous Post so writing the same.




You see life and Technology keeps on changing, we have travelled from our traditional phones to a more advanced IP phone. Did you remember, earlier we use to have huge phones, in which the dialing system was numbers printed on a ring. Now you can carry phones in your pocket.


Most of you must be fed up with the usage rates of lour local telephone service provider. Did you ever made a free call with your own phone and? VOIP is the technology with which you can do so.



VOIP AN Emerging Technology


VOIP is the new emerging technology which is used in making phone calls over standard internet protocols. Sources have presumed that this technology will emerge a standard technology for making calls, leaving the traditional analogue phone system down. Why is this technology preferred by most of the major companies today? The only answer is the cost. It works like this, lets say you have a p2p connections to your friends system. There will not be any charges to transfer a file from your computer to his computer, as this is totally private interface without the interference of any third party vendor. VOIP works in the same way, but here the technology used is INTERNET. Sources write that VOIP technology will take the place of today’s traditional phones. A customer can place a call using the three technologies of VOIP. These are:

ATA (Analogue Telephone Adaptor)

This is used to connect your traditional phone to your computer using ATA, which does the required signal conversion for you.

IP phone

New device, which looks just like a traditional phone. It has its own software and it ca be connected directly to a router. It uses standard RJ-45 cable to connect.

Computer to Computer

This uses the software whose functionality is same like a phone. These freewares are downloadable from internet. You are just paying for the internet service which you are using. The call which you make goes through internet like a packet. What ever is the distance the quality depends on the connection speed and the software.


When Did It Started ?

It all started when products like Gizmo products and Skype developed their own services to make a long distance call over internet using software. This worked out to be much cheaper that the traditional phones which we have today. Let’s say a person in India places a call to his colleague in India. This call is treated as a local call irrespective of his colleague is in which part of the world.
The major development started in 2004 when this technology was in its initial phase, it is from then after, major IT firms and call centers opted for this technology.



IP Phone in IT Firms

IP phones are getting common these days. You can see IP phones in every IT industry today. Think about it, what could be the reason? The only reason you can get it, the cost of deployment. Yes, the cost of deploying IP phones is lesser than that of normal phones. As you know that the rates over internet are calculated mostly based on capacity (MB or GB), if you make a call the rates will be calculated based on the data that is getting transferred from one destination to another. This is same as your internet usage, while using internet at your home, the ISP rates it based on the capacity that was downloaded. It is because of this, most of the companies are opting for an IP phone to support their customers.



Advantages Of Changing the Voice Based Communication to IP Telephony

Using IP telephony in Call Centers reduces costs and complexity, and boosts productivity and customer service capabilities. Like we do from PC’s in network, same way a Virtual network of IP phones can be found. Giving the experience of a single office to the customers. So everyone everywhere is using the same functions and has the same operations support.

An IP contact center deploys sophisticated applications and engages all of your enterprise’s resources, both technical and human. Branch or remote sites can provide seamless global coverage and respond to spikes in call volume, all through a connection to the central hub. Using this technology, users can work from anywhere, including their homes. As a result providing a cost control strategy for many contact centers.

Now, the natures big barrier, which is the geographical barrier is now nowhere a limit for Contact Centers. Regardless of physical location, contact centers can be logically grouped. As a result, it is easier to manage the resources and also traffic load across the IP WAN can be balanced. Enterprises that have branch locations can tap into the branch workforce for temporary contact center work and the branch offices can tap into the main call centers for assistance during peak periods. With the right IP telephony applications, less-busy operations can back up other operations with temporary help during the busiest periods.




Disadvantages and Threats of Using IP Telephony


Bandwidth

The main drawback is that, the IP telephone technology truly depends on one of the most un-reliable and most vulnerable services on this planet which is INTERNET. Yes, the quality of the IP communication depends on the internet connection speed.
You get a mail delay, which you can manage for hours, but imagine a delay over IP phones, wouldn’t it be funny to say “Hello” and wait for 1hr to get the reply “Hi”. You utilize the best out of this technology if you have a Broadband connection, which will soon be a reality in India.


Power Failure Threat

Power failure leads IP phone to go down. The conventional phones which we use in our houses are connected using copper wires till the service provider’s end, where they have the power supplies to supply the power required for the functioning of these devices. These phones use phantom power which is supplied over the line by the central office. Even if there is a power failure, the service providers will have backup generators which will prevent the phones to go down. But this is not the case in IP phones; a home user of the IP phone will use his modem which is powered by a conventional 3V battery. If the power goes down there is no secondary power source for this IP phone, hence the phone goes down, leaving no option for the calls. This is the case only in the home use, as the home users cannot afford a backup generator. But this is not the case in industries which opt for this technology.


Security Threat

This technology is still lagging behind in proper encryption policy. Though it is possible to use IP SEC to secure the point to point connection, but still you cannot rely over internet as it is the place where all the hackers and bad guys do their jobs


Apart from the above disadvantages, there is one more which says, This technology is still lagging behind in proper encryption policy. Though it is possible to use IP SEC to secure the point to point connection, but still you cannot rely over internet as it is the place where all the hackers and bad guys do their jobs



Useful link

VOIP Predication for 2007: Best bets from VOIP experts.


Visit my next blog for the advanced and Technical features of using an IP phone. Also I will be writing about the future in VOIP based communication.