CommsBlog

UPDATED on 18th Jan – Someone (somehow) managed to attack this page….

Dear Avid Reader,

Here we are once again with one of my ‘real world’ hack’s… This one gets used almost every day!

In my modest home in Latchingdon, Essex – England, I have a ‘Bar in the Garden’. This ‘Bar’ is approx 25′ x 18′ and has an indoor BBQ, Gas Heating and a Bar Counter with cupboards, fridges and glass shelves.

Clearly I needed to think carefully about the entertainment system!

My key requirements were:-

• Music, TV & Internet

Now the Music would obviously come from my huge MP3 collection (and even bigger CD collection), TV would come from Satellite TV via a dish on the side of the bar.

After messing about with Windows Media Edition, I decided on using Media Portal (www.team-mediaportal.com)  which is a fantastic open-source Media Center application. Not only does it provide the usual DVD/MP3/Pictures interface, but also supports TV Cards, EPG and even a TiVO-style recording facility.

All the sound hardware was derived from old HiFi amplifiers and surround-sound systems, and the TV was a £150 HD Ready no-name from Comets.

The app plays nice with Hauppauge TV / Remote combination cards, and has a very configurable interface (with skinning capabilities).

At the other end of my bar, I have the Guitar stuff – As you can see below, I’ve set up a 2nd LCD panel (using a TV Interface board I purchased off eBay), add a £20 DVD player from Tesco and you have a play-along-with-the-music system!

As part of my ‘real-world’ job, I write decoders and web interfaces for PABX auditing tools. This is a job that I have done now for nearly 18 years!

I decided therefore avid reader, that you should have a little look at what I do!

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Imagine that you have 50 telephone systems in your network, and 10,000 extensions hanging off those PABX’s. How on earth do you audit them?Lets look at the options;

• “Man in a van”
• Remote Audit via proprietary software
• Rely on your maintainer’s site records

Man in a Van

Whilst this can be effective, it is has huge cost and environmental disadvantages. In addition, it is hugely time-consuming and can be inaccurate (imagine 10 different engineers all documenting the information in a different manner)

Remote Audit via Vendor Software

Ok – this is quite useful, but generally not particularly effective when you have multiple PABX’s. The reasons are; 

• You cannot automate the process
• You cannot compile the data to give a enterprise view of your estate
• The information is proprietary to each vendor

Rely on Maintainers Site Records

Really?  )

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So… a solution was required…We needed basically achieve the following tasks;

1. Capture the configuration of a PABX regardless of the Vendor
2. Store that information centrally
3. Allow reporting of the configuration in a common manner (that didn’t require PABX training)
4. Provide “enterprise” reports
5. Allow these reports to be run from ANY machine without installing any software (basically, “Web-based”)
6. Allow non-trained users to ‘explore’ the PABX in a tree-like manner
7. Automatically show any changes between two scans (e.g. “Swaps” or “Moves and Changes”)

The solution was “Asset Manager” – This application, borne from the company I work for, meets all of the about and more.

At present we support Mitel, Nortel, Siemens, Avaya, Ericsson and 3Com PABX’s, with more being added all the time. There is a live online demonstration at www.mit-comms.co.uk/asset_manager.asp which lets you explore the ‘tree’ and other reports.

The report engine is written to work with IE5.5+, Opera and FireFox without any plugins or applets.

Here are some examples of the reports it generates:-