VoIP Spear Blog: News & Noise

Dec 16, 2019

ICMP vs UDP

Dec 16, 2019

VoIP Spear servers work by pinging our users' endpoints. Ping is a nearly ubiquitous network tool that is used to test whether or not a computer/device is reachable across the Internet.

One problem with using ping is that ping uses the ICMP protocol while VoIP uses UDP. It was for this reason that we used UDP for testing when we first started developing VoIP Spear. We were aiming to support two types of testing -- basic testing would use ping/ICMP and advanced testing would use UDP. We envisioned that basic testing would be perfect for novice users because it's so easy to set up while advanced testing, on the other hand, would be more accurate and perfect for our advanced users.

After a few months, we realized two things:

  1. Advanced testing would require users to run a VoIP Spear software app (which we called a UDP mirror because it just bounced back UDP packets to our servers). This requirement would mean that our advanced tests could only be run on computers capable of running the software, thus excluding many VoIP phones and other endpoints. In addition, the requirement to run/install software would have meant much lower adoption rates because it's a pain to install software (especially software like the UDP mirror which needs to be running all the time on users' computers).
  2. The results from our basic tests (using ICMP/ping) were just as accurate as the UDP tests.
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Nov 25, 2019

Hosted VoIP to Take Off Now that "Telephony is Dead"

Nov 25, 2019

I just finished reading an interesting rebuttal to the comments by the ConnectWise CEO that "Telephony is dead."

George Bellini, the author of the post, counters:

...telephony is THRIVING and no time is better than the present to offer your customers the answer that you have chosen to provide and add value by being a single source technology provider.

I have to agree with Bellini. Telephone is alive and well. It's merely just a subset of telephony, the on-premise PBX market, that is suffering. Bellini wrote a post about this a few months back.

The strengthening of the hosted PBX market is good news for VoIP Spear. As PBX's move off the network the phones are on, it becomes increasingly important for firms to monitor the connection between PBX and phones.

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Jul 30, 2019

Outsourcing Your VoIP Infrastructure

Jul 30, 2019

Cloud-hosted service is not just a buzzword. The industry has taken hold of enough of its market such that it can make all the noise it wants. It is something that is here to stay.

The mindset that moves it forward is the increasing openness to outsourcing. The premium given to exclusivity and internality is long gone. After all, why insist on being exclusive and internal when what you have isn't the most optimal system for your needs?

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Oct 7, 2016

VoIP Spear Monitors Every Minute of the Day

Oct 7, 2016

VoIP Spear is now monitoring your endpoints every minute of the day, rather than once every five minutes like it used to.

We made this change last week. It's probably the most impactful update since VoIP Spear went global in 2014.

Over the coming weeks, we intend to bring more new features to VoIP Spear. Here is a list below.

  • Report Card: An all new, easy way to grade your VoIP quality
  • New charts and reports
  • More controls over the existing charts and reports
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Aug 8, 2016

VoIP Spear's New Design

Aug 8, 2016

After months of work, we're proud to announce that VoIP Spear's new design is ready.

VoIP Spear's new home page
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