Hailey's Amazing Blog
My blog is primarily focused on Unified Communications topics; however, I reserve the right to make fun of Bill Bell sometimes too.
Posted by: David Hailey
on Feb 23, 2010
Earlier this year I started my "Potentially Infinite Series" on What It's Like to be a  NetCraftsmen. As promised, this won't be a one and done top ten list. A fair amount of time has passed since my original blog, so it is now time for Installment 2 (aka, Part Deux):
- We live in "virtual reality". NetCraftsmen is unlike most companies you may have come across. We are a "virtual" company in that we do not have an office or offices that we report to everyday. Instead, we work from home when we can or, based on client preferences, at a client site. Some folks have FTE positions so they see a client office on a regular basis. Some of us (like the majority of the UC team) do project-based work so we see a mix of both. Currently, I'd say Bill and I are enjoying a nice stretch of working from home as we are collaborating for a large client on the west coast (which requires that we work remotely unless an onsite visit is requested/arranged). So that's the "virtual" part of our company. The "reality" part is that NetCraftsmen is for real. We've built a solid reputation with our partners and clients and we have real contracts, have solid financials, and (from my perspective) have more than weathered the "recession" many companies have been hurt by. We're selective but we're seeking strong candidates with strong skills across several disciplines.
Posted by: David Hailey
on Feb 20, 2010
I've been surprised recently by how many people have asked me about the WebEx Meeting Center for iPhone application. It's not only clients inquiring but also just the "Average Joes" (neighbors, friends, etc). A good example is that not too long ago, I was hanging out a neighbor's house toward the end the day on a Friday and I remembered I had to hop on a WebEx meeting and I did...via iPhone. Long story short, this aroused a number of questions and just "cool factor" comments from the small crowd of non-technical bystanders. This is when I realized that for every person I've assumed knows about this application already, there is at least one person that doesn't and should.
Some of the typical questions/comments I've received include:
"You use that app? Is it any good?" - Yes, I use the app. Yes, it's good.
"Was it worth the money?" - Yes, it's FREE. As in, no cost, no obligations, purely FREE, FREE.
"I heard such and such about it so I didn't bother with it." - Varies depending on what was "heard" but typically my answer is, "Actually you can do that" or "True, but you can still do this....".
"At my work, most people don't even know how to reserve a conference room and here you are talking and viewing the presentation on your phone from your recliner." - That's called, "work smarter, not harder".
Posted by: David Hailey
on Jan 29, 2010
Tagged in: WeePhone , VoIP over 3G , SIP VoIP Phone for iPhone , SIP Clients for iPhone , iPhone SIP Clients , CUCM , Communications Manager , Cisco CallManager , AT&T , Apple iPhone , Acrobits Softphone , 3G
Just recently, I wrote a blog about SIP clients for iPhone and provided my review of two client applications based on testing of their integration with Cisco CUCM. If you've not yet read that blog, you can find it here:
SIP Endpoints in Cisco CUCM - Acrobits Softphone and WeePhone for iPhone
Well, one of the questions I received was about whether or not any of these iPhone applications work over 3G or will they ever work over 3G...and my initial thought was "yeah, but probably not anytime soon". So, call it coincidence or just impeccable timing but today I happened to run across some interesting news articles. Apparently, my expectation of "not anytime soon" translates to "today" at Apple as the title of this first link is pretty self-explanatory:
Apple Now Allowing iPhone Apps to Make VoIP Calls Over 3G Networks
Posted by: David Hailey
on Jan 27, 2010
Tagged in: WeePhone , SIP VoIP Phone for iPhone , SIP Clients for iPhone , iPhone SIP Clients , iPhone , CUCM , Communications Manager , Cisco CallManager , Apple iPhone , Acrobits Softphone , Acrobits
I guess I'll have to add another thought to my "What It's Like to Be a NetCraftsmen" series and that is that sometimes being a NetCraftsmen is funny. At times, I feel like the UC team shares a collective brain because I had already sketched out a blog on how to use your iPhone as a 3rd-Party SIP device with CUCM and then I suddenly see that Bill Bell did the same thing (in the wee hours of the morning as I did) but instead he focused on a desktop client called X-Lite. If you haven't seen Bill's blog, it's good as usual so make sure to check it out here: SIP Endpoints in Cisco CUCM - X-Lite As an Example. At first I thought, "Oh well, he beat me to that one" but then I realized that this was a good opportunity for cross-blog collaboration and to point out some key behavioral/configuration differences I've seen with the iPhone applications I've tested as compared to the X-Lite desktop application.
Posted by: David Hailey
on Jan 22, 2010
You know sometimes I like to write lists. Not shopping lists or "to-do" lists but lists that help me decide on or better define something in particular. For example, before I got married I sat down with pen and paper and wrote down everything I liked and didn't like about my future wife. Deep down, I already knew my decision but seeing the overwhelming list of "Pros" vs. the nearly non-existent "Cons" in front of me really sealed the deal. So what's my point? Recently a little birdie (actually a rather important little birdie that happens to be the President of our company) hinted that he'd like to see someone write a blog about what it's like to be a NetCraftsmen. I thought it was a good idea myself and figured I may as well jump start the concept and give it a go.
Posted by: David Hailey
on Sep 17, 2009
I’ve read a number of threads about this topic online and am surprised to see that a lot of folks only tend to focus on the technical differences between Integrated Messaging and Unified Messaging. I find this funny simply because there’s not much debate there…they are what they are. I think you have to look deeper than that to figure out what you or your clients need, want, and/or are even capable of supporting. So, let’s get the obvious out of the way. What is the technical difference between Integrated Messaging and Unified Messaging? In the most simplistic terms, there are really 2 key differences and they are the Message Store and the Email Inbox.
Posted by: David Hailey
on Sep 17, 2009
Have you ever created a new Unity subscriber and then found that the user is unable to receive voicemail? I’ve run into this several times and while there are some documented troubleshooting steps to be found, I thought I’d take the chance to run thru things in a bit more detail and actually delve into why and how you would use the Message Store Configuration Wizard to resynchronize all of the objects in Unity with the mailstore.
Posted by: David Hailey
on Sep 17, 2009
The UC team at NetCraftsmen has been very successful in all sorts of client engagements. One thing we’ve never been afraid to take on are migrations (especially large-scale efforts) from a legacy PBX solution to a Cisco UC solution that includes Cisco Unified Communications Manager. In all of our endeavors, we’ve come across various schools of thought as to what the key ingredient is for a successful migration. Some say project management and planning. Others say having a large team with clearly defined roles. I say those things are nice. In fact, they’re great…but ladies and gentleman, I’m here to tell you that the key ingredient to a successful migration (IMO) is none of the above. So, what is it? It’s simple…D-A-T-A. That’s right, data. Everyone has heard of the “garbage in, garbage out” theory and this has never been more relevant than during a migration. Now, there are a lot of things to learn about the legacy PBX before moving forward with migration; however, I find that A LOT of folks tend to overlook how important it is to verify the end user data. The end user data doesn’t just include the phone configurations, either. It also includes things like verifying where a user actually is so they receive the correct phone. If you’re lucky, you have some reporting capabilities that give you a headstart…but you may not. Even if you do, you may not be able to trust the accuracy of the reports you can retrieve. So, getting data means more than just simply pulling reports. It means dedicating some resources and doing a little bit of work the old fashioned way…via feet on the street. Here are just a few examples of things to ponder:
Posted by: David Hailey
on Jul 28, 2009
A few months ago, Bill Bell wrote a blog titled "Cisco UC Application Upgrade - The CLI Method". His intent was to outline some issues he experienced with a few revisions of CUCM 6x and was forced to do a CUCM upgrade via the CLI. For specifics on what things looked like then, I refer you to Bill's article. Today, I am going to describe how you can perform an upgrade of a CUCM 7x server via the CLI and SFTP. Unlike the CUCM 6x experience, it's almost the same as using the web interface.
Posted by: David Hailey
on Jul 28, 2009
 The UC team here at NetCraftsmen relies pretty heavy on virtualization to mock up various testing scenarios for customers. A while ago, I mocked up a lab to simulate a Unity upgrade for a customer. We do this to standardize procedures and head off any issues BEFORE production work occurs. At the time, the customer had decided to upgrade a Unity 4x system to Unity 5.0(1). Following standard practices, I installed the Unity 5.0(1) server as a virtual machine and associated the various service accounts (Unity Install, Unity Directory Services, and Unity Message Store Service) per standard protocol. In addition, I associated the Unity Admin account to the Unity web administration interface (SA). I haven't validated this on other versions of Unity other than 5x; however, I have replicated the issue. Lastly, I use VMWare Server (currently, 2.0.1) in my UC lab. My disclaimer is that your experience may vary based on the various applications you use. Here is what I have seen...
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