It’s one of the most dreaded calls to get for an IT staff member – the one where a user complains about the quality of their VoIP call or video conference. The terms used to describe the problem are reminiscent of a person who brings their car in for service because of a strange sound “ I hear a crackle”, or “it sounds like the other person is in a tunnel” or “I could only hear every other word – and then the call dropped”. None of these are good, and unfortunately, they are all very hard to dia...

Your looking at doing an upgrade to your VoIP system, as it approaching end of life.   But your network has changed substantially since your first deployment, making this an ideal time to investigate new VoIP systems and ensure your existing monitoring solution can keep pace with the upgrade. Here are 4 critical areas for consideration to determine whether your monitoring tools can keep pace with the new demands of a VoIP upgrade. 1. SUPPORTING MORE THAN ONE IT TEAM: If you have a voic...

Proper access is the core component of any visibility architecture—you need to be able to capture the data before you can properly analyze it. To further help our customers, Ixia has released a new regenerator tap for copper networks. Regeneration means you get the same clean copy of incoming data distributed to multiple output ports in real time. The Ixia Net Optics Regeneration Taps solve the key physical layer challenges of multi-device monitoring for 10, 100, and 1000MB (1 GbE) copper networ...

Bell Canada has announced it is launching 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services under the Gigabit Fibe banner, initially for 50,000 homes and businesses in Toronto during summer 2015, with a target of eventually delivering 1Gbps services to 1.1 million premises across the city. Bell will also launch Gigabit Fibe in selected locations in other cities in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces before the end of 2015. Services will initially offer a maximum 940Mbps speed but will rise to the p...

Canada’s two largest mobile operators by users, Rogers and Telus, have recently tabled takeover offers for financially struggling smaller cellco Mobilicity, although any potential deal is subject to federal government approval under strict wireless spectrum transfer rules aimed at preserving competition, the Financial Post reports. According to sources quoted by the paper, a group of creditors and directors of Mobilicity met over the weekend to assess offers from both national operators exceedin...

In the three previous blogs in this series, I answered an often asked customer question – “What can really be done to improve network visibility?” – with discussions on data and packet conditioning, advanced filtering, and automated data center capability. In the fourth part of this blog series, I’ll reveal another set of features that can further improve network visibility and deliver even more verifiable benefits. Too quickly summarize, this multi-part blog covers an in-depth view of various f...

Imagine what would happen if the governor of one state got to change all the laws for the whole country for a day, without the other states or territories ever knowing about it. And then the next day, another governor gets to do the same. And then another. Such foreseeable chaos is precisely what happens when multiple IT or security administrators define traffic filtering policies without some overarching intelligence keeping tabs on who’s doing what. Each user acts from their own unique perspec...

Please join NMSaaS CTO John Olson for a demonstration of how NMSaaS can help your business break into the high-value enterprise MSP market. NMSaaS is a highly-scalable platform for Service Providers looking to break into the enterprise market. With NMSaaS you can: 1. Offer world class Network Discovery and Asset Management (vulnerability and lifecycle management) 2. Backup, Configure, and Policy Check network device configurations 3. Monitor high-value IT devices like Core Routers, Switches, Fir...

Join Dr. David Hock, Senior Consultant R&D, and Eduardo González, Developer & Consultant, for a Webinar on “The new StableNet® Mobile App”. This Webinar will provide insight into: How will the StableNet® Mobile App make your life easier? How are Apple™ Swift and the StableNet® REST API maximizing the user experience? What functionality does the StableNet® Mobile App bring to your fingertips? [Live Demo] When can you get the Mobile App for your StableNet® infrastructure? A recording of th...

Few processes in the contact center are as contentious as quality monitoring. When not carefully explained and carried out with tact and sensitivity, monitoring smacks of spying. Cries of “Big Brother” and micromanagement are not uncommon in such environments, resulting in agent burnout, attrition, and poisonous darts being shot at QA staff. Several studies have revealed that call monitoring can cause significant stress and dissatisfaction among agents. In one study – conducted by Management Sci...

An important factor in improving network visibility is the ability to pass the correct data to monitoring tools. Otherwise, it becomes very expensive and aggravating for most enterprises to sift through the enormous amounts of data packets being transmitted (now and in the near future). Bandwidth requirements are projected to continue increasing for the foreseeable future – so you may want to prepare now. As your bandwidth needs increase, complexity increases due to more equipment being added to...

Reliably Measure Performance, and Ensure Effective Monitoring in the Cloud When adopting monitoring strategies for cloud services, it’s important to establish performance metrics and baselines. This involves going beyond vendor-provided data, to ensure your monitoring tools provide: Client-to-cloud performance views Proactive benchmarking Performance monitoring Taking a holistic approach ensures your staff can manage any performance issue and provide proof to cloud providers if their systems are...

The human brain is responsible for everything that we do. It is responsible for the decisions we make, our reasoning behind that decision, and then physically carrying out that decision. The human brain may possess the same general structure as other mammals, but is much larger relative to body size. The brain has control over your information gathering, decision making, and many more fundamental activities. Just like the brain in a human system, the master clock acts as the brain in a Sapling S...

Bell Canada has begun the rollout of an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network offering mobile data download speeds of up to 220Mbps on selected CAT 6 devices including Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6/Edge and HTC One M9. The following cities will be the first to receive Bell’s LTE-A services: Greater Toronto Area, Fredericton, Sydney, Charlottetown and Halifax. According to Canadian tech website MobileSyrup, Bell is providing the 220Mbps speeds via its Band 7 (2600MHz) spectrum and carrier ag...

Infosim®, a leading manufacturer of automated Service Fulfillment and Service Assurance solutions for Telcos, ISPs, MSPs and Corporations, today announced a proprietary new technology called Dynamic Rule Generation (DRG) with StableNet® 7. The challenge: The legacy Fault Management approach includes a built-in dilemma: Scalability vs. Aggregation. On the one hand, it is unfeasible to pre-create all possible rules while on the other hand, not having enough rules will leave NOC personnel with insu...

Elementary school is a crucial stage in the development of young students. It is the first stage in which children really begin their academic career. In addition to their academic career, children begin their athletic careers as well. Even as young as 6 years old, kids begin to development their athletic skills, as well as gravitating towards the sports they enjoy. Sports aren’t for everyone, but the majority of children start to become active. Personally, I started playing sports when I was in...

Xplornet Communications, Canada’s leading rural high speed internet specialist, has launched its new 25Mbps LTE-based fixed-wireless broadband service in the province of Alberta, it announced on its website. Xplornet says it will continue to roll out upgraded speeds to other rural communities across Canada, aiming to make 25Mbps internet available nationwide by 2017. Last month Xplornet – which operates hybrid WiMAX/satellite and TD-LTE broadband platforms – acquired 42 blocks of 2500MHz spectru...

Network Instruments study shows that network engineers are spending more of their day responding to breaches and deploying security controls. This should come as no big surprise to most network teams. As security breaches and threats proliferate, they're spending a lot of time dealing with security issues, according to a study released Monday. Network Instruments' eighth annual state of the network report shows that network engineers are increasingly consumed with security chores, including inve...

I was recently reading an article in TechCrunch titled “The Problem With The Internet Of Things,” where the author lamented how bad design or rollout of good ideas can kill promising markets. In his example, he discussed how turning on the lights in a room, through the Internet of Things (IoT), became a five step process rather than the simple one step process we currently use (the light switch). This illustrates the problem between the grand idea, and the practicality of the market: it’s awesom...

Today, most B2C interactions involve some form of contact center technology. With the exception of in-store purchases, contact center technology is responsible for providing the vast majority of brand impressions that customers have through experiences with toll-free numbers, self-service IVR, and CTI screen pop—and that’s just one of the channels. There are also self-service websites, apps, social media scrapers, blended queuing processes, and more. SERVICE DELIVERED VS. SERVICE INTENDED VOC pr...