Session Border Controllers (SBCs) are the tele-com industry’s answer to the VoIP security problem. SBCs are designed as gateway products supporting multiple protocols and often providing protocol translating services. SBCs provide some security features but these tend to be limited to NAT services and checks on messages to ensure that they conform to the protocol specification. SBCs typically do not provide content controls and do not address problems such as spam.

The single biggest limitation of SBCs is that the majority of vendors do not have an Internet security background and lack a proven security track record. The likelihood is therefore that SBCs will not provide the same level of network security as a SIP enabled firewall. Finally, SBCs tend to be designed for telco or carrier use and are often over spec’d and over priced for enterprise use.

Product examples include Kagoor (now Juniper) and Acme Packet.

SIP enabled firewalls are standard firewalls with additional SIP protocol support. This additional support provides the protocol intelligence needed to enable SIP and its related protocols to pass through a network address translating (NAT) gateway. In addition to these functions, most SIP enabled firewalls provide protocol checking and include defenses against flooding attacks and some classes of Denial-of-Service attacks. In general, SIP enabled firewalls lack facilities to provide true application level security. A SIP enabled firewall will not provide spam controls, content controls or advanced policy controls. Where SIP enabled firewalls score is in their ability to provide good network level protection. Most SIP enabled firewalls are mature products that have benefited from many years of deployment experience.

Product examples include Checkpoint, Juniper and Cisco.

I first played this game on SUSE Linux. But since I switched to Mac, I didn't have it installed on the box. So when I found it online, I figured I'd post it on my site!

Don't forget to leave a comment with your high score!
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Lately I've been looking for a utility to backup my Mac automatically to a network share - which is actually on a PC. Of course, I don't actually like buying software, so I was hunting for something with the 'free backup utility' phrase associated with it ;). (more…)

Create beautiful Joomla websites with a flexible layout from iJoomla.com

If you haven't signed up for or heard of Auction Ads yet, it's a new affiliate-type program that allows you to monetize your website, by displaying live eBay auctions next to your related copy. Of course, if you have a Joomla powered website, it would be nice to have a module to easily add the ads to your site without modifying your template. Well, I'm happy to say that I've gone ahead and built that for you!

This module has the following customizable fields (as well as the CSS class):

1. Client ID
2. Ad keywords
3. Ad size
4. Ad campaign
5. Border Color
6. Background Color
7. Heading Color
8. Description Color
9. Link Color

You can obtain these data values in the 'GET CODE' area of your client section in auction ads.

Here's the link to download the Joomla Auction Ads Module (more…)