Mapping Phones To IP Addresses 52
There's an interesting article currently running about the joys of mapping phone numbers to IP addresses, and what that means. Also talks about LDAP directory implementation and other potential fun interactions. (CT: Does anyone
else think it's horribly stupid to map numbers onto names which map
onto other numbers? Dumb da dumb dumb).
What about DHCP (Score:2)
Re:IP6 (Score:1)
Neat but ... (Score:1)
Re:What kind of geek would dream up of this? (Score:1)
Taco asks if anyone else thinks mapping numbers to names to numbers is "horribly stupid"... The whole idea of domain names is to provide =one= way to make it easier for humans to access the system. There is nothing wrong with adding another.
And there is already a mapping scheme in place to convert names to telephone numbers. 1-800-FLOWERS, 1-800-COLLECT, 1-888-TELL-FOX... In order for this scheme to work, it should handle the alphanumeric mapping
to (yes, Taco) map the letters to (phone) numbers, to map the numbers to (DNS) letters, to map to (IP) numbers, to map to ARP numbers, to map to inodes, to map to sectors.... That's what we have operating systems and protocols for. Think of Encapsulation, Information-Hiding, and Buzzwords Like That. So that a computer-illiterate CEO doesn't have to know a thing about VoIP. He just dials the number to Taiwan, and lets the geeks take care of what's under the hood.--------------------
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
This is the greatest.. ya gotta visualize it (Score:1)
Peace & Love
Busy Signal (Score:5)
And 10.0.0.1 my call can not be completed as dialed!!!!!
But when I dial *.*.*.255 it's a party line!!!!
Re:Transition (Score:3)
There are two large scale communication systems in the world today, the phone system, and the internet. The phone system is still a magnitude larger than the internet.
Now the internet supports telephony, and there was even a recent discussion [slashdot.org] about IP dialtone. But where do you get your phone numbers? Just use IP addresses or URLs? How do you tie the two systems together, since the archaic telephone system can only address a string of numbers? IP addresses with the * key in place of a dot? No, you have to go to the lowest common denominator, phone numbers.
As people have noticed with all the recent press on telephone renumbering plans [slashdot.org], the telephone world is growing by leaps and bounds as well. But unlike IPv4, which is hard coded to a 2^32 limit, the telephone system can expand forever by adding another digit to form new city codes and area codes. In every country, there is someone overseeing the assignment of blocks of telephone numbers, and in progressive countries, trying to ensure the established operator plays fairly with the new competition and everyone routes to everyone else's calls. Now, ISPs are being thrown into the mix.
What happens when your techo-peasant mother wants to call you on your spiffy new IP telephone? She'll dial your telephone number, and somewhere in between her analog POTS line and your IP phone, there must be a transition gateway. Either the phone company or an ISP will run it, and somehow they will bill for the privilege.
Nokia, Cisco, Lucent, Alcatel, Ericson, and hundreds of dotcom startups, all have some kind of SS7/IMT to VoIP gateway products on offer. I've set some up, they all require a solid, but schizophrenic, understanding of both worlds. If you thought there was a philisophical gap between Linux and Micro~1.oft, just try bridging the voice and data worlds.
The hardest part is in obtaining a block of working phone numbers for each area, and getting a sympathetic telco to route calls. The next hardest part is in sorting out the billing. Who pays for terminating calls in each direction, and what happens when one system carries a toll call for the other. When
The obvious economic advantage lies in using IP to transport voice calls. Either simply, such as IP to IP calls which bypass local tolls, or in companies using part of their internet bandwidth to pass call to remote offices or partners on the internet.
Career tip: Broadband companies are all desperately trying to create IP dialtone offerings, to help cut out the local telco monopoly. Learn VoIP, SS7, media gateway controllers, E.164 and SIP, and make a fortune selling your knowledge to cable and DSL companies.
the AC
Woah, I could _so_ use this! (Score:3)
I mean, just think, the next time some 313370 nd00d script kiddie tries to hack a machine you own [1], you could call up his mamma and tell her to spank them 'till their ass fell off. DoS = DuS (Dial Up Spanking)
side note: friend of mine put a sound card in his openbsd firewall (sits in front of several semi-popular local websites), and hooked up ipmon's output to a perl script that looked for things that should be handled proactively (it also logged to syslog). Everytime a pattern occured that was probably a script kiddie, he had the script play a sound sample (system("/usr/bin/mpg123","./thunk.mp3") ) of a ripe melon hitting a board. The sound of script kiddies thunking into a wall was ... gratifying.
--
Re:D'oh, I hate it when this happens! (Score:1)
that's the problem (Score:1)
just because it's simple doesn't mean it's a great idea. don't forget that there are loads of techno-morons out there who can't even use scandisk yet.
if we imposed that type of phone system on them, we'd have a revolt of the unwashed masses! remember, we need to keep the rabble in line, and confusing them with their own phones will not foster good feelings or submission.
Already out there (Score:2)
While it's not the scale of the discussion it's certainly out there & working.
Re:Transition (Score:2)
Having a transition system is critical in deploying a new technology or migrating people to it.
Agreed completely.
Even beyond transitional needs, it also satisfies a more long term need. I may know a friend's name and phone number, and what domains he has. However, Which IP address amongst the several under his control will have a VoIP daemon running on it? Probably the one that he mapped to his phone number. What if his IP is dynamic? Unlike names, phone numbers are unique identifiers of a place (where the phone is). It's as good as any unique ID and will probably be needed even after all phones are updated to VoIP (probably about five minutes before the heat death of the universe). IPv6 addresses could be used as well as long as dynamic addressing is strictly prohibited and the current requirement that the node address be globally unique (which may be in conflict with privacy needs).
At some point, people may need to password protect their VoIP phones as well. It's bad enough that telemarketers can buy your phone number so they can abuse it while you are trying to enjoy dinner, but imagine getting a telemarketer call about the banner ad that just popped up on your browser.People may prefer using an alternate number that cannot be guessed based on your IP address (like current phone numbers) and require verification that the connection to the daemon was referred to the IP address by a phone number lookup (some sort of auth token).
Re:Transition (Score:1)
it is also quite apparent that nobody gives a fuck about you, because if they did you would be with them, and not flaming me.
jeves, fetch me my fire extenguisher, we have a flamer to club..
karma to hell Figght the flamers
TPC.INT (Score:1)
- Phone numbers are heirarchical by country code, then by area code or city code in larger countries, then by phone number. The number of digits in a phone number aren't ever the same from country to country. The domain name system reverses heirarchy (right to left). Given these constraints, they came up with the convention of COVER_PAGE_INFO@PHONE_NUMBER_REVERSED.tpc.int. If I take a typical US phone number like
- +1-212-555-6789, the host name mapping for it would be: 9.8.7.6.5.5.5.2.1.2.1.tpc.int .
Something similar could be used for addressing host names to people's cell phones for messaging or other mobile phone-addressable devices. I doubt people themselves will ever map a phone number to this reversed notation, but software could do it automatically for them.Patent Pending (Score:2)
Mapping numbers (Score:1)
- Mike Hughes
Re:Busy Signal (Score:1)
That's not the problem (Score:1)
I'm not saying a DNS-based lookup system wouldn't be preferable; I can see a number of cases where such systems would solve problems (rerouting a number when a person moves, for instance). I still think reserving room in IP6 space would be worthwhile. The systems would complement each other.
Fone Numeros (Score:1)
Pinging 69.69.69.69 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 157.130.205.213: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 157.130.205.213: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 157.130.205.213: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 157.130.205.213: Destination host unreachable.
C:\Linux Sux>ping 42.42.42.42
Pinging 42.42.42.42 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 157.130.205.253: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 157.130.205.253: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 157.130.205.253: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 157.130.205.253: Destination host unreachable.
Damn, I really wanted those two IPs! =:-p
Mobile Wireless Webserver (Score:1)
These days, nobody gives a second thought when they make a phone call to enquire information, chat casually or communicate. The called party is reached directly by a mobile or fixed phone. This was the age of voice communications, but as the future is data & voice integration, a personal (maybe business) mobile wireless webserver may be the next form mobile phones will take.
More on the latest information on this project at;
http://www.quiezent.com/pda_wws.html [quiezent.com]
Regards,
Quiezent F.
IPv6 (Score:1)
DNS may be modified to handle dynamic phone numbers etc. Or other doohickie can be invented to
handle transition.
I say IPv6 because(as far as I remember) IPv6 will
be more controlling in terms of spoofing IPs and
will have QoS.
The threat here of course is DDOS, where legitimate computers are infected and send legitimate data to the IP phone.
The Macatawa Area Community Network Dept., eh? (Score:1)
________________________________________
Re:What kind of geek would dream up of this? (Score:1)
Re:Transition (Score:2)
A spammer's life (Score:3)
Re:Transition (Score:2)
Hm...
From what I read in the article, the project wasn't useful just because it linked a phone number, but because it made that information accessible to both sides of the network.
As a standalone database, this wouldn't be much more than a curiosity, or good practice in huge distributed systems. It's when it's linked to other 'bridging' services that it becomes incrediby useful.
And, honestly, I don't see those bridging services getting as much attention as they could.
Re:The Macatawa Area Community Network Dept., eh? (Score:1)
Re:Uses? (Score:2)
As suggested by other above, the most beneficial use of the system would be transition. There will come a time in the future when people won't want to have two systems for receiving phone calls, but we wont all switch over to IP at the same time.
Smooth transition should also help the large telcos who will eventually see a stop in their subscriber growth followed by a steady death march downward as more and more people move to communicating by alternatives to conventional telephone service. (Probably just a dream, but a nightmare without someway to pad the fall if it happens.)
--
Re:IETF have already done this (Score:2)
D'oh, I hate it when this happens! (Score:1)
Re:Transition -- It is dumb, or as is (Score:1)
People should all know that we are running out of IP addresses. We shouldn't be throwing them around like mad. We need to save what is left. I think this would be a great idea to do with IPV6.
No, there isn't a migration path to bring phones in line with newer technologies. But I really feel we need to do it right the first time. Just imagine if everyone started using IPV4 phones... We'd run out in no time. You can get a cheap computer for about 800$ but a cheap phone costs about 10$. Even with modifications, many people may choose to switch to the "digital phone".
I feel that all people inventing these great new technologies should really think it fully through. Make something that will last. Use IPV6. If people would start using it, more people would have support for it. But I suppose we really have to run out before people realize.
Re:IETF have already done this (Score:2)
Re:Transition -- It is dumb, or as is (Score:2)
The reason there's such a push for IPv6 is simplification of routing tables. Under the current system, 128.59.34.22 could be on one continent and 128.59.35.22 could be on another. IPv6 is much more hierarchical.
--
Dialing IP addresses (Score:1)
You pick up the phone and dial an IP address...
I always thought that one was supposed to be a joke even though I've done it before when calling a computer room I dialed the IP of the server for the room. Maybe it won't be a joke anymore... Seems like a waste of IP addresses to me though until we completely switch to IPv6. Then it shouldn't matter if we waste them or not.
Re:Internet Calling (Score:1)
Re:IP6 (Score:2)
Re:IP6 (Score:1)
Of course, once we start doing that, we'll get ip-happy. Before you know it, the post office will change their addressing scheme to ip-v6! There won't be any more zip codes (YAY!). On the other hand, there won't be anymore street names, and towns will just be represented by a unique tetret within a class a network! The credit card companies will convert to ipv6; not with any benefit - they just felt left out! And it will all culminate with the us. government switching social security to IPv6. Every person in america will be given their own IP for the sole purpose of geographical tracking. Bio-electrical GPS tranxievers will be inserted into us after we relize that our celphones phones have had them for years and we shun them for fear of bigbrother!
IT WILL HAPPEN AS I HAVE PREDICTED!! CITIES WILL CRUMBLE!! MEN AND WOMEN WILL PERISH BAEZELBUB SHAL WALK AMONG US WITH IMPUNITY!!! BEWARE!!! THE END OF The...the....
sounds familiar (Score:2)
There's probably going to be more and more effet put into tying together the Internet and the PSTN. I wonder what methods are going to make the most headway?
Re: (Score:1)
IP6 (Score:1)
Internet Calling (Score:1)
IETF have already done this (Score:4)
Aldready /.ed? (Score:1)
206.26.113.2 (Score:1)
206.26.113.2 maps to http://www.macatawa.org/ which is some sort of usergroup/comunity network in Holland MI, home town of the
Makes you wonder what sort of easter eggs are hidden throughout slashdot, or if this is just a rare occurance and the
Unfortunatly 394-4689 does not map to www.macatawa.org
NightHawk
Tyranny =Gov. choosing how much power to give the People.
Re:A spammer's life (Score:2)
LDAP has a high-precision security model. It would be trivial to mark certain attributes as public and restrict others.
Most LDAP systems store the very usernames/passwords they use to authenticate users in their own data set! That should give you an idea how common and well-tested it is to mark LDAP fields as private.
--
Uses? (Score:2)
I'm not sure if I understand the need for this system. Routing voice traffic is already done on a daily basis (dialpad.com [dialpad.com]). Automatic reply to voicemail messages is certainly something that exists already, and it seems everybody I know has some sort of wireless content service on their cellphone or PDA already.
What a directory like this could more likely be used for is marketing. Every night of the week, right when I sit down for dinner, I get a pointless marketing call from some schmoe who wants to sell me aluminum siding, or give me a great deal on a home loan. Yeah, this is just what need, now all those marketing people will be able to page me and leave me voicemails as well.
Would you like to pet my Penguin? The Linux Pimp [thelinuxpimp.com]
This could be intresting! (Score:1)
Re:The Macatawa Area Community Network Dept., eh? (Score:1)
Transition (Score:5)
I don't see why it's dumb, so you're going to have to back up your argument with a little more than a song.
Having a transition system is critical in deploying a new technology or migrating people to it. (Microsoft understands this very well, but that's a topic for another day) People aren't going to just say "Well, there are telephones on the Internet. I guess i can throw out my old phone." It's the whole chicken-and-egg thing.
Or more accurately, the chicken-and-another-chicken thing. Think- who bought the first telephone? The first fax machine? Why is everyone sticking with ICQ and Napster when better alternatives exist?
Because there is no migration path. We need something like this so that the old phones can use the new system and the new phones can use the old system. It also allows hybrid phones to be made.
But to just sweep this away at first glance because "well, you're just translating from one number to another number" is
I hope this doesn't get me branded "Flamebait", or worse, "Troll."
--
Re:A spammer's life (Score:1)
Re:IP6 (Score:1)
Re:A spammer's life (Score:2)