Posts: 83 From: London & Southern England Since: Feb 2002
posted 15 October 2002 09:22 PM
This is a follow-up thought from a thread in the VC section.
I am interested to hear others opinions on what I call the "Telephone System" mentality.
I spot this mentality in the industry. It is I suppose a result of video conferencing being used for so long over ISDN telephone lines and it falling under the control of those people that look after phones.
The mentality has become apparent recently with the Security Issues on the Polycom boxes. Why is it such a shock that the Viewstation has a security issue? PC's have them all the time, but your phone system doesn't.
I am pleased to see that video conferencing is moving into the IT departments remit, forcing the industry to play catch-up.
You never know, soon Polycom might tell us that the 900 series boxes are shipping with a security flaw that is all ready out there and putting them all at risk!!!
Yes that's right there is a security hole on the 900 series!!!
Yup, it's a windows PC!! And as such suffers from all the security issues of any Windows PC. Virus threats, worms, NetBios attacks, etc etc etc. Are the systems you work on properly secured?
Lance.
------------------ ============ Lance Wicks Managing Director lwicks@quadrant2cs.com Independant video conferencing consulting, project management & services. ========================
Posts: 47 From: Auckland, New Zealand Since: Aug 2002
posted 16 October 2002 09:49 PM
Good points ... I guess this is why dedicated, solid state hardware is by far the best and most reliable platform for videoconferencing, when was the last time your phone system crashed when you were in the middle of a conversation.
posted 02 November 2002 05:12 PM
Yup. I just posted a new topic related to this in the Videoconf area. We are constantly working to secure (and update) our computers since we do not have firewalls and are a gov't organization (thus a target for anyone with time on their hands).
I'm waiting anxiously for the day when I can start using an ECS-500 GK not based on Windows :-)
On the other hand, some telephony mentality is good ('cause I are one). Reliability is first and foremost, and videoconf is a communication capability that people come to rely on being there when they need it.
Posts: 83 From: London & Southern England Since: Feb 2002
posted 05 November 2002 05:52 AM
Sadly, having started a thread bad mouthing the "Telephone System mentality", I too think that we do need some of that mentality in the industry.
I think we need the areas that the telcos are excellent at, stable systems!
Like someone has mentioned before, how often do you have problems dialling someone on the phone. (Other than user errors of course)
Ideas like the ViDeNet Global Dialling Scheme are also important. A global dialling system so we don't have to worry about remembering IP addresses. National "Dial codes", etc.
posted 12 December 2002 12:04 PM
The telephone is the natural, historical and functional predecessor of VTC. I agree with Lance to keep the Pros of that market (and overcome the Cons). My nearly independant view (I like my AVAYA MCU, the only VC product BEING a telco grade telephone system) as a consultant and trainer:
Pro:
Stability for mission critical parts
QoS and the customerīs acceptance e.g. VC project needs 2 PRIs? - No problem, my techs know the tasks and I know the costs. Now we ask for a H.323-ready network ...
Trust in self-mastering of the interface Learning to use a phone was easy, VC will be - no school, no practising, no examinations
Scalable client-powerful server dumb frontend devices have user adaptable keys the complexity of the total feature set is hidden in the PBX
Strong relation to standards and interoperability building of standards and regular integration of the competitorīs flavors for max connectivity
Con:
closed group behavior nebular vocabulary, pricelists with 1001 items, hidden tech backdoors, huge maintenance plans
indirect customer relations feature-oriented instead of solution-oriented sales activities Sales and field techs are living on different planets knowhow hiding maintenance by vendorīs remote access
too simple security barriers First hackers invaded telephone switches. Until today one can find here more factory default passwords than elswere.
Educational ignorance at both sides Regular training for customerīs techs AND users is not mandatory, often not available. Customers are not accepting the need for a training. "This device has simply to do what I mean"
A note on stability: Jaron, this is not directly related to solid-state hardware. Every hardware system is running potentially errorneous software inside. Itīs more a question of a consequent design philosophy:
Dedicated instead of universal hardware
Low amount of moving parts (flashcards instead of harddisks, vents, plug contacts)
Performance reserves (heat headroom, CPU load,fail takeover)
Production cycles enabling intensive testing
Hardening against unauthorized modifications
Field replacable units instead of a monolith
I agree, that a PC isnīt able to fulfill this, if used under a Windows OS. Regarding solid state non-PCs take a look at e.g. a Polycom VS: Most remaining instabilities are related to the power plug, the temperature, the processor load and a rapid development turnaround. Room for enhancements...
Short note on security: Iīve never seen a Polycom VS crashing due to DoS attacks or other hacking. (Believe me, I checked this each time a crash was reported)
The Pros of "telephone system mentality" are a benchmark for the VC industry worth to be introduced into the LAN area. The Cons are still alive and tend to self-migrate into computer networks.
My personal fight against "bad telephone mentality" targets the often heared fairy tale: VC systems are that simple to use like a phone, no one needs any training nor have to change anything in the normal behavior. Those story tellers are poisoning the market. But thats another topic.
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posted 15 October 2002 09:22 PM
