VTech's IP 8100 was intended for use with Vonage, but it's a cinch to unlock and use with other SIP providers!

Longtime readers of this blog know that I’m a sucker for novel uses of technology, especially those that give me a chance to learn something new. So when I spotted a Vonage VoIP telephone on clearance at the local Best Buy, I couldn’t resist. After a quick Google search to confirm it could be unlocked and used with any provider, I took one home. I don’t have it working perfectly yet, but I’m well on the way into a new area of techie exploration: Voice-over-IP with SIP!

Introducing SIP

I was vaguely aware of the open voice-over-IP protocol, SIP, already since I’d run into it during my work with power-over-Ethernet and Cisco router configuration. I had also heard of Asterisk, the open source PBX software project, while hacking my (now decommissioned) Linksys NSLU2 home server. And I’ve been a VoIP user for years, relying on my cable company for home phone service and dabbling with Skype as an inexpensive second phone line for conference calls. But I had never looked too deeply at these things, let alone tried to put them all together!

Here’s what I know: SIP is an open protocol that sets up voice links between endpoints, much as HTTP is used to connect web browsers to servers. VoIP generally consists of a stream of UDP packets containing encoded voice traffic, and SIP manages the connection. SIP has historically had a hard time with NAT routers (like my Tomato-powered WRT54GL and most other consumer gear) but the advent of UPnP and STUN has made things work a bit better.

Although there are a wide variety of services that make use of the SIP protocol, it hasn’t really reached critical mass with end users. One reason for this is the search for revenue: Providers are reluctant to allow open traffic to flow across the network since only captive customers are profitable. This is the reason that companies like Vonage and Skype (not to mention Google’s cool new Voice offering) are walled off from the world.

The Inter-Phone-Network

Although a growing number of SIP services allow free calling and open connectivity, it is extremely difficult to get out of the SIP world and into conventional phone and Internet voice networks. It’s a lot like OpenID or XMPP: Most don’t support it at all, some are happy enough to allow you in, but no one wants to let you out!

I was interested in connecting to a few “voice networks”:

1. The conventional public switched telephone network (PSTN) world that we’re all familiar with: The domain of landlines, cell phones, conference calls, and fax machines. The PSTN doesn’t care about VoIP, so upstarts have to learn to connect to it!
2. SIP networks are a set of IP-driven services that shadow the PSTN. Many companies use internal SIP networks rather than conventional analog PBX systems, and there are public SIP providers as well. Most of these allow free unlimited use internally in hopes of attracting customers to pay for PSTN links.
3. Google Voice (formerly Grand Central) is a nifty call management service for PSTN services. Along with whiz-bang features like voicemail transcription and call screening, Google Voice has taken some tentative steps towards integration with the VoIP world. Since it (apparently) uses SIP internally, folks have been trying to connect Google Voice to SIP networks. The company currently allows just one, Gizmo, to connect natively.
4. The proprietary Skype VoIP network, which I’ve used for a while. Skype offers paid “SkypeOut” service, allowing unlimited calling to US and toll-free numbers for a low quarterly fee. I’ve been using this for a while and have grown dissatisfied with its quality, reliability, and feature set. The company also sells “SkypeIn“, which assigns a PSTN phone number to your Skype account, allowing folks to call your computer. There’s also an iPhone app and a world of Skype hardware, which is really little more than standard audio gear like headsets, microphones, and sound cards.

The Vtech IP 8100

The phone hardware I’m working with is a Vtech IP 8100-1 kit manufactured to support the (expensive) Vonage service. I picked it up on clearance (there are three more at $25 – anyone want one?) as it appears Vtech is out of this particular business. The kit consists of a base station (which is a hybrid home Ethernet router and 5.8 GHz phone base station) and a solid wireless handset with a speakerphone.

Vonage appears to be a straight SIP provider but it uses locked hardware to force customers to pony up more than $20 per month for service. Happily and predictably there is an active community working on unlocking Vonage hardware for use with any SIP provider. My new phone was (partially) running with Gizmo within 30 minutes of opening the box!

Here’s a quick rundown for the folks at home:

1. Open up the gear and charge the handset
2. Plug the base station’s WAN (lower) port into your network so it can talk to Vonage (the bottom light will turn green when it’s set)
3. Get on a Windows PC (finding one was actually the hardest part for me!)
4. Download the latest version of CYT unlock
5. Attach the PC’s ethernet port directly to the IP 8100′s LAN (upper) port
6. In a web browser, navigate to http://192.168.15.1 and log in with “VTech” as both the username and password and leave the window open
7. From the command line, run “cyt46.exe VTECH”
8. Select option 1 and wait

Now you have created a super user account with “Admin” (case sensitive!) as both the username and password. This unlocks a new “configuration” page where you can set all of the SIP parameters for your provider of choice. It also tells the base station not to look at the Vonage TFTP servers for its configuration anymore.

Seriously, unlocking the hardware was simple, but getting SIP service up and running is proving much more difficult!

SIP In, SIP Out

One key paradigm shift for VoIP users is the separation of inbound and outbound services. This seems alien to most folks, but VoIP users happily use one service to receive calls and a completely different one to place them. Google Voice is the shiny new incoming call handler that everyone wants to try, but most expect to continue to rely on unknowns like Gizmo or Nonoh for outbound service.

This is where my SIP experiments hit a rock: I was able to set up my Google Voice number (781-Ped-Xing, for all you Max Headroom freaks!) to route inbound calls to my now-Gizmo-powered SIP phone, but only when the Gizmo app was open and running. And outbound calling through Google or Gizmo didn’t work at all!

This is not, as they say, a satisfactory condition. So I’m working on it. I’ve considered running my own Asterisk server (on the Mac Mini) to take care of local SIP with my phone, but this seems overly complex. I’d really love it if I could get Gizmo to work correctly, using Google for inbound calls and Gizmo for outbound, but this isn’t working yet. I’ve also considered using another service provider altogether but found their pricing and terms to be questionable. Plus, only Gizmo connects to Google!

I’ll keep working on it, posting the results here. Subscribe to my Terabyte Home feed via RSS or email to follow this discussion, and let me know if you have any suggestions! And if you want a Vtech IP 8100 kit, drop by your local Best Buy’s clearance section or drop me a line and I’ll grab one for you!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Experimenting With VoIP
This post was categorized as Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Iomega has been a staple of the desktop computing environment for decades, but the company’s products have never been quite at home in even small corporate data centers. That changes today with the introduction of the iSCSI StorCenter Pro ix4-200r. As of now, EMC’s SOHO storage subsidiary is a serious challenger in the small business and entry-level VMware ESX storage market.

It might look like the existing NAS 200rL, but the ix4-200r sports upgraded hardware and a new rev of EMC’s LifeLine storage software. This unit packs a serious punch, boasting full iSCSI target support for servers running Windows or Linux (or anything else with an iSCSI initiator) in addition to NFS, SMB, media streaming, print services, and just about every other protocol.

Although both Iomega and VMware are under the EMC corporate umbrella, it was a surprise to find that the ix4-200r is certified compatible with ESX using both iSCSI and NFS right out of the gate. This is the only inexpensive storage system to wear a VMware badge, and this alone will likely make it a fixture in small offices and VMware labs. The desktop StorCenter ix4-100 and StorCenter ix2 are already widely used in these environments even without iSCSI, after all. The ix4-200r provides a complete SAN-in-a-box, supporting multiple NAS and iSCSI shares with dynamic allocation of the internal RAID-5 protected storage.

Although aimed at the office, the ix4-200r retains the vast set of LifeLine capability we’ve seen in Iomega’s other offerings. This includes media streaming for UPnP (Twonky) and iTunes (Firefly), remote access, Active Directory support, and print services. The new unit even packs the more unusual Axis video surveillance capture capability. It sports two USB ports on the back and one on the front for expansion, data import, backup, or printers as well. Probably the best software feature is EMC’s Retrospect backup client, which was recently updated on the Mac platform.

The ix4-200r starts at just $1,799 (list) for 2 TB, and I expect resellers to dip well below that number. For comparison, Amazon currently sells the smaller non-iSCSI desktop 2 TB ix4-100 for $675 and the 1 TB ix2 for $268 and I’ve seen each for much less. I expect a street price of $1600 for the 2 TB rackmount unit – competing products from Buffalo and Netgear are priced and marked down similarly. The 4 TB model is priced $1,000 higher, perhaps unrealistically high given that the only difference is the use of 1 TB hard drive units instead of the 2 TB’s 500 GB drives. For comparison, Drobo just introduced their limited single-server 8-bay iSCSI DroboPro at $1,750 configured with four 500 GB drives. But none of these alternatives boast a spot on the ESX compatibility list, and I suspect this may be a deciding factor for many. Note that you can’t buy less than four hard drives in an ix4-200r, though the drives are easy to replace.

Iomega was kind enough to give me a preview of the ix4-200r at their offices, and I came away impressed by the new array and the company in general. They have a solid vision of the needs of the small office and are hard at work on products to meet them. Although the iSCSI support is not coming to the company’s other LifeLine-powered systems (the ix2, ix4-100, and Home Media) at this point, I would not be at all surprised to see it become a staple in future networked storage systems. A large gap remains below the EMC CLARiiON range, so I suspect that larger Iomega systems are on the way as well. As a potential buyer, I’d like to see Windows logo qualification, and Hyper-V support would be super as well. And as a Mac user, I’d love to see Time Machine support and for Iomega follow Drobo by offering a free iSCSI initiator – a guy can dream, right?

Updates and clarifications:

• Iomega has added the StorCenter Pro ix4-200r to their web site alongside the non-LifeLine StorCenterPro 200rL
• The ix4-200r will not be released until April 22, 2009
• The new rackmount ix4-200r is listed at $1799.99 for 2 TB and $2799.99 for 4 TB. I don’t expect to see either sell for less than a few hundred off those list prices
• The ix4-200r has been listed in the VMware ESX compatibility guide for a few days now for both iSCSI and NFS connectivity – I’m surprised no one noticed!
• Although it’s not mentioned in the press release, Iomega tells me that the StorCenter Pro ix4-200r does still support the BlueTooth file exchange found on its little brothers

More coverage:

• EMC’s StorageZilla posted his impressions as well: Iomega adds iSCSI, threatens war on us all
• Carlo Costanzo is excited to use this in VMware environments: EMC’s Low Cost SAN Starter for VMware (Iomega)
• Chris Mellor gives it a UK spin in The Register: Iomega opens sub-£2k box of storage tricks
• Duncan Epping is also excited about Home Lab Storage

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Iomega Grows Up and Moves Out of the House
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Homes now need data storage as well as closets...

This is part of an ongoing series of longer articles I will be posting every Sunday as part of an experiment in offering more in-depth content.

Along with my professional focus on enterprise storage systems, I’m enamored of home networking, and recently passed the three terabyte mark at home! This got me thinking about where home storage is heading.

As you can see in the photo, my office closet is overflowing with computer equipment (and one sweet guitar), but my data storage is much better organized. I have a hacked Linksys NSLU2 with 500 GB as a file server, a 500 GB PC backup disk, a 160 GB Time Machine disk, 1 TB of TiVo storage, and the rest. But wouldn’t it be nice if this could all be combined into some kind of super home server?

Past Failures: Home Servers

Home storage appliances and servers have come and gone over the year, with none seeming to make much of a mark. The market remains littered with UPNP media servers and home NAS boxes dashed on the shoals of an unappreciative public. Nearly every home network device company has produced one or two home storage servers, none of which have succeeded. Although I use a Linksys NSLU2 at home, I had to hack its Linux software and completely replace Linksys’ features to create a useful device! The un-hacked NAS devices of Buffalo, Western Digital, Netgear, and the rest have generally failed to find buyers as well. So far, consumers seem content with simple USB and FireWire external drives.

The most adventurous home storage servers came from Zetera and Ximeta, both of whom relied on proprietary IP SAN protocols. Note that these were SAN products, sharing block storage over Ethernet, rather than conventional NAS solutions. Both required drivers, limiting client support. The one Zetera buyer I know was pleased by the performance but never used the device as anything but a large hard drive for one PC.

Then there is Microsoft. Recall that the latest Windows Home Server is only their latest attempt to enter this market, and yet I know of no one who has adopted the device. The same can be said of the various media center servers from Microsoft and others. At this point, it seems likely that the future of home storage servers will not come from Microsoft, though their two XBox generations have great potential as clients.

Even EMC has entered the market with their nifty (but largely unnoticed) LifeLine product and Iomega acquisition. Supporting file services and backup for computers as well as audio and video for media players, EMC positions LifeLine much like their Retrospect backup product, but goes further in offering a complete software solution for hardware OEMs wanting to offer a non-Windows home server. Although an impressive offering, it is too early to tell if EMC will have much success with this product.

The Sleek, Shiny Elephant in the Living Room

Of course, there is one company that sells media players and servers by the bushel, complete with sleek, shiny interfaces. Apple’s tremendous success with the iPod has led to their iTunes software becoming the dominant media organization platform, complete with its own proprietary discovery and sharing protocol. Now, with the Apple TV and video iPods, the company is broadening into more media categories. Surely their dominance here puts them in a special position when it comes to setting the stage for a home server or storage revolution.

They also have a strong position in the world of dedicated home storage. Their Airport products are among the only routers to be widely implemented with shared storage. Although many other companies offer similar products, low customer understanding means that these functions are not widely used. And the new Time Capsule device is surely already the most widely-used home NAS product.

But Apple has not yet shown any home server strategy. Administering multiple iTunes servers can be frustrating for users, with no inter-iTunes synchronization or centralization capability. Although the Mac Mini, Apple TV, or Time Capsule could certainly be seen as a home server, the company does not position them as such in the market. Indeed, some iTunes users like myself rely on compatible third party media servers like Firefly and TwonkyVision rather than using iTunes itself. Still, rumors of an Apple home server persist.

One issue for Apple is their reliance on proprietary protocols. Although the Bonjour discovery protocol is certainly simpler than UPnP in practice, Apple stands alone in relying on it. They also steadfastly stick to AFP for NAS and DAAP for remote media streaming. This limits the number of third-party clients and servers that can be used with their hardware and software.

The Future is Friendly

Although Apple has not yet tipped a home storage strategy beyond Time Capsule and Airport Extreme, they are best positioned to deliver a real home storage solution. A simple step would be to create an iTunes media server integrated with Time Capsule and add client/server media synchronization. The company already has OS X backup and file services integrated, and this move would further centralize the digital home around Apple products. But the company’s reliance on closed protocols like DAAP is worrisome, since it locks consumers into nearly all-Apple solutions.

Microsoft’s Media Center and Home Server combination, based around UPnP, shows great promise, with many compatible third-party clients and servers already available. But my own experience with the solution has not been at all positive (I still can’t get my Roku SoundBridge, Vista Ultimate laptop, and Media Center PC to see each other!), leading me to question the viability of this option.

Although Apple or Microsoft could come to dominate, I suspect the future of home storage is out of both companies hands. A number of others are working on improved home server experiences, including EMC’s LifeLine and the expanding use of Debian Linux and open source tools. But all could be sidelined by improved Internet-based services. Google, Microsoft, and Apple continue to expand their online consumer suites with greater storage, synchronization, multimedia integration, and all have the potential to reduce or eliminate the need for in-home storage.

Although I cannot yet tell which service will win, one thing is certain: Consumers demand friendly, flexible solutions. They don’t want to fuss with their media, and they don’t want simple shared storage. They want integration with multiple devices and flexibility to access their content on any device. The first company to offer a simple, flexible storage server for the home will surely be on the right track!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | The Future of Home Storage
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.