Category: Lync

August 15th – Win 2012 and Win 8 available for DL

Posted on by Hayes Jupe

http://www.bink.nu/windows-8-has-reached-the-rtm-milestone

I’ve made the (fair) assumption that server will become available at the same time as the client.

Im not convinced that many people (in the corporate space) actually care about Win 8…. part of that is because Win7 is a bloody good OS…. if Win-7-to-go existed… i think there would be even less interest in Win 8.

Server 2012 is a bit of a different matter…. while many features are a bit ho-hum, Hyper-V replica’s… there is some big cash savings to be made by swapping from VMWare and SRM… so will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Oh – and the rest of the Wave 15 products that have previews – Exchange, Lync and office 2013… well, im also quite “meh” about them too…. dont get me wrong – its not as if they are terrible – but there is just nothing particuarly exciting about any of them.

The exchange 2013 web management interface, after a few days of using it, i no longer dislike…. i fucking hate it…. moving to that after using the very good exchange 2010 management console is a huge step backwards…. i can only assume the manager that made that decision had smoked something or was busy crapping on about how great “the cloud” was to some sales idiot… or both.

With Lync, its cool to have the web client back – outside of that, while there are improvements, im a bit meh….. annoyed at the lack of authenticated sip trunk – still.

Office…. well, its office… i can imagine its hard for those guys to come up with anything new… it would be nice if they worked with the exchange team to achieve true, no impact exchange failovers… (which they well may have, but im not setting up test DAG’s and CAS arrays to find out until RTM)

On the up side, the more i use SCCM 2012 – the more it rocks. Sure, there are still improvements that could be made….. but holy shit it has come a long way since 2007, its so much more usable, responsive and quick compared to 2007. Now theres a team that got their shit together – well done.

Exchange and Lync 2013 – a few more details…

Posted on by Hayes Jupe

http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-exchange-server-2013-whats-new-7000001407/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398616(v=ocs.15)

http://ucken.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/whats-new-in-lync-2013.html

First thing that caught my eye – “Replacement of the Exchange Management Console by a Web-based Exchange Administrative Center (EAC)”

FFS. Many MS products seem to flip flop from web-based admin to MMC and back again. I fucking hate web-based admin. Sure as an additional administration option, web based is great…. but the primary admin tool should always be an MMC or MMC like interface and powershell (or some type of command line interface)…. the decision to go back to web based is, IMO, extremely disappointing. The responiveness and usability of web-based is fundamentally flawed byt the very nature of what it is.

Next up- ” Better integration with Lync and sharepoint” – this could be great….. but define “better”… each version always advertises tighter integration…. (as they should) – but until i have some type of specifics – this tells me nothing.

The Lync 2013 post lists a bunch of new feastures, many of which are useful – but none that are excessively exciting. It appears that there is still no option for using an authenticated sip trunk – which is very disappointing.

I am currently having a play around with these preview versions in a virtual environment – and im not a fan of the management so far.. (exchange 2010 EMC was great – why replace it?) – anyhoo…. as i use it more, obviously my opinion may change… 🙂

If your getting paid like a consultant… act like it

Posted on by Hayes Jupe

We went into a regular client this week, after another consultancy had tried to integrate Lync with exchange 2010 and get a sip trunk working.

4 full days – and not only was it not working, but it was busted existing functionality. (We put in the original Lync home server)

We actually picked up this client because the same consultancy took 4 weeks to “install” SCCM  a few years ago, but never got it going. (which we then got going in 1.5 days…. and yes, 1.5 days (or less) is what it should take for a single site SCCM install + windows 7 reference + production builds… )

Anyhoo – this crowd ran a sales presentation in the MS office, and convinced this client to give them another chance…. it didnt work out well – and the invoice got waived, fair enough…. at least it was recognised by management that the work completed was sub par.

What i dont get is… if your a consultant going into a place to put in <insert product here> – wouldnt you have at least installed the product in a virtual environment first ? You’re getting paid a s a consultant, so you should know alot… but even if you dont, at least know the basics….. which can all be picked up just by doing a few dummy installs in a test environment and reading some doco…. its not hard.

In this specific case, exchange 2010/Lync 2010 OWa integration, Lync 2010 mediation server sip trunk with external provider, Lync 2010 mobility service  and Lync 2010/Exchange UM integration are all well documented and blogged about items… none of them are particularly unique or difficult (althought the mobility service can be a bit of pain to troubleshoot)

So – whats the point of writing this – well, simply this – your giving IT people a bad name…. a fucking bad name…. fair enough everyone has different skillsets, specialities, skills and goals…. but if your getting paid $200/hour+ to go implement a basic product set, you should be able to complete the work…. (and yes, it is completely different if your not a consultant and costing the business 1/4 of that fee). If your not prepared to put in the small amount of time to at least get the basics concepts right – fuck off to another industry that your actaully intesrested in…. and stop fucking over clients and giving us all (an undeserved) bad name.

Wall mounted tablets/slates and POE

Posted on by Hayes Jupe

So with my new house currently being built – ive been spending some time working out what i want to go into it around automation etc…

I’ll be putting in Lync 2010 with a sip trunk as my phone system… but what about front door camera and door strike access, intercom ?

Mobotix use a grandsteam SIP video phone for a companion to their T24 door access station (which im looking at using, but have not purchased nor used yet)…. cool, but i really dont want to put in a phone that can only be used for door access – seems like a bit of a waste. (and i fully recognise this is Lync ‘s fault for not having SIP over UDP support – like every other VOIP system on the planet)

So i thought – how about i mount windows 7 slates on the wall? They could run a full version of the lync client, be used as phones as well as video intercoms (I havent tried this yet – but there looks like there is an auto-answer tool, at least for OCS 2007 http://quadrantechnologies.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/deployment-validation-tool-auto-answering-agent-updated/)

In addition, i could use a web page to access the mobotix T24 and allow access. Sure mobotix also have their own software solution…. but as always, without having used the software, its hard to know how it really works….

In addition, having a fully fledged PC allows full flexibility for future applications and requirements….

So then comes the next issue, finding a slate PC at a reasonable price point with a wall mount…. there dont seem to be wall mounts out there for these things – not pre-made ones at least. There appears to be some aimed at ipads…. but, well, im after a device i can manage.

I also ran into this http://shop.skinnybytes.com/156-PoE-Computer-AIO-Touch-PoE-156.htm – a POE powered all-in-one machine…. but a bit on the big side at 15.6″ large…. love the concept – a POE powered machine

I get that POE’ing a slate device in one sense defeats the purpose of a mobile device…. but im really not keen on the massively overpriced custom solutions from different vendors in order to automate my home – a solution which i can control and use the available windows or web tools from is preferable by far.

So…. anyone out there have solution? A wall-mounted 10″ Windows 7 slate? Preferably POE ? And available in australia ?

MS buys Skype

Posted on by Hayes Jupe

In news that seems to front page on every tech-related site available – MS buys skype….. i wonder if this means we’ll see some Lync / Skype interoperability – as that wouold be awesome! 🙂

Being able to federate with Video/Voice to MS live users is handy – but adding Skype to the list would mean no more arguements with staff at various companies as to why they need Skype in addition to Lync.

Lync 2010 and compatibility

Posted on by Hayes Jupe

OCS/Lync has always had some compatibility issues with other VOIP prvodiers out…. MS’s decision to go with SIP over TCP (instead of UDP) and the use of RTAudio seem to be the main ones.

When implementing in a corporate environment, Lync is a great solution on its own – but definately has its challenges when trying to integrate with other VOIP or video conferencing providers – partially due to good ol co-opetition, partially due to lack of standards. (and polycom/snom/astra Lync handsets seem to be remarkably hard to get hold of in Aus – and ludicrously expensive)

Anyhoo – im building a new place – and have been looking into how to use Lync technologies appropriately for a home environment. Sip trunk and handsets around the house – thats a given.

 So far, the only IP video and door solution ive been able to find is from www.mobotix.com – and noticed that they use a grandstream IP phone as their base-station (http://www.grandstream.com/index.php/products/ip-video-telephony/gxv3140)

How awesome would it be to be able to use Lync as endpoint? Additionally, where are the $350 video enabled handsets for Lync? For that matter, where are the video enabled handsets for Lync at all ? Why cant i use Lync with intercom type endpoints ?

I know, i know…. Lync, while a stable and mature product is relatively immature when it comes to add-on devices.

Its just so aggrivating when you see what is out there and available from other manufacturers in terms of voip/sip/video equipment – and how little of it can be used with Lync. While i realise this wont change – i just needed to write something to vent!

* Update 2/6/2011 * – i ran aacross this article – http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2008/05/23/to-udp-or-not-to-udp-that-is-the-question.aspx… basically comparing sip over TCP to UDP…. MS make some fair points… still doesnt change the fact that not having any interface for UDP greatly reduces compatibility with many devices on the market…. but this is far better than not having any comment on it at all.

I should also point out that io managed to find an Aastra handset reseller whom seem to be responsivbe – thats a good start.