Andrew Garcia

Some folks from Everdream stopped by the other day to fill me in on the changes in their Patch and Asset Management services since I last looked at the service, and I was quite intrigued by the way they have adopted existing Microsoft technologies to enhance specifically their patch capabilities. The Everdream solution requires a […]

A little Netgear news on a couple fronts… The other day, Netgear representatives stopped by to fill me in on some changes Netgear is implementing to its small business reseller channel. Reseller news is not normally my cup of tea, but I was nonetheless compelled by what they had to say, as much of the […]

Some closing thoughts on this year’s Spring VON in San Jose. Coolest Product: Developed in partnership with Adobe, CommuniGate’s Pronto is a Flash-based rich media platform that promises to integrate a user’s e-mail, IM, voice, video and digital photo experience in a single, intuitive interface that allows for easy sharing of information and media between […]

Fonality, the small-business-oriented telephony company, this week announced a series of moves to co-opt some of the gains made in competing Asterisk distributions, while enhancing and further integrating the Trixbox distribution of Asterisk into their portfolio of products. One of the most appealing elements of the forthcoming AsteriskNow distribution is the Web-based Asterisk GUI configuration […]

At VON today, Polycom announced a few products to help beef up the low end of its stable of IP phones. The SoundPoint IP 330 and 320 are both two-line phones with full duplex speakerphones and integrated power-over-Ethernet support. Prices start at $179 for the IP 330 and $129 for the IP 320. The difference […]

One of the dirty little details of working with Asterisk is that, sometimes, there is echo. Larger organizations can avoid the problem because many medium density analog trunk cards have hardware-enabled echo cancellation. But the smallest Asterisk deployments will not have this luxury, as the lowest density cards—like the Digium Wildcard 400p eWEEK Labs frequently […]

Digiums AsteriskNow marks a major step in the development of the Asterisk open-source project: The newest distribution integrates central voice over IP PBX features with an easy-to-manage operating system environment and offers simple ways for companies to transition Asterisk from testing to deployment. eWEEK Labs performed tests on AsteriskNow Beta 4. Beta 5 should be […]

It is becoming apparent that Microsoft’s Daylight-Saving Time tools for Exchange are not proving particularly effective at correctly updating appointments in people’s calendars. In my own case, I found that my recurring appointments transitioned correctly, while one-off appointments were all (every one of them) an hour off–in my personal calendar. For public resources like conference […]

One of the benefits of 802.11n is that it supports both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio bands. However, up until now, routers based on the still-in-draft 802.11n spec have not leveraged this capability. Apple is leading the charge to change all that with its Airport Extreme, the first draft 802.11n-compliant wireless router eWEEK Labs has […]

Yoggies Gatekeeper Pro is an engineering marvel—the tiny device provides in-depth network-based threat protection for individual hosts on the go. Yoggie has packed some serious technology into Gatekeeper Pro, which is barely larger than a business card. The 500MHz security processor was designed specifically for security functions, and the dual-memory design makes it difficult for […]

With users relying on multiple devices for voice communication—be they cell phones, desk phones or VOIP services—the demand for flexible telephony devices will continue to increase. eWEEK Labs tested two devices that fit the bill, granting hands-free usage for multiple applications while opening up the possibilities for increased mobility or collaboration. Jabras $349 GN Netcom […]

Cisco and Apple will battle it out in court over the use of product name iPhone, but given the experience I’ve had the last few days with Cisco’s Linksys WIP330 iPhone, I want Cisco to relinquish the name and go stand in the corner to think about what they’ve done. Hopefully then someday I will […]