sip

Cisco warns of 'highly critical' SIP flaw

Cisco Systems has issued a range of security advisories giving details of 11 vulnerabilities in IOS, the operating system on which many of its products run.

One of the vulnerabilities, described as "highly critical," could lead to a hacker compromising the affected system or launching a denial-of-service attack against it. The advisories, issued Wednesday, are part of Cisco's twice-yearly schedule of security updates for IOS.

The highly critical vulnerability affects IOS version 12 devices running SIP, a protocol used by many businesses to set up and tear down voice and video calls. IOS version 12 is widely … Read more

Free and cheap iPhone calls

The free Fring for iPhone is a compelling VoIP caller and multinetwork chat app in one. Tap over to the add-ons section to talk to friends using Skype, SIP, and Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Google Talk, and ICQ's protocols. Like plugging a headset into the PC, Fring's app spells cheap calls to international contacts. Beware though, you'll need a strong Wi-Fi connection to make or receive VoIP calls.

In addition to stretching out your vocal chords, Fring can open conversations for the IM networks above, as well as for AIM and Yahoo. Signing into Twitter from Fring … Read more

Yahoo's encouraging words for IM standards

For more than a decade, the Internet has suffered from multiple incompatible communication standards for instant messaging. Now it looks like Yahoo, one of the major IM players, is open to breaking the logjam.

I'm a power user of IM who struggles to find software that supports chatting with people on the four main IM networks: AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google. Today's situation, for me at least, is like having to own four e-mail programs for different networks or four telephones for incompatible phone systems.

So I was encouraged by words from Scott Dietzen, Yahoo's new head of communications products including Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail. … Read more