An interesting update on the Sametime Gateway architecture
This is something I did not know and never would have encountered due to the way I implement this solution at customer sites. In the Gateway configuration you specify a local Sametime Community. Which of course is where your users reside. Well you only specify one server in this listing (or I should say one DNS name) for connectivity. The Gateway then goes about it's business and starts serving presence awareness and chat services for the public providers.
Well unknown to me, if you do not run in a central clustered environment and have users spread across servers that may be geographical or just in the same place , but not clustered, the gateway needs and wants a port 1516 connection to each and every server, which it then holds in a local file. This does not worry me as much as it appears some company security groups.
The Gateway is just what the name applies, a gateway. Just how you deploy external SMTP servers and then only allow them in through the firewall, via trusted IP's usually, this acts the same. So have no fear, the Gateway is doing it's job by not storing data and only offering a direct connection to the public providers and then 'proxying' the traffic to Sametime. Your user directory is not affected as well as you can control which providers come into the Gateway and then how just the Gateway communicates to Sametime.
So do not freak out, it is all in how you present it to the team in most places. Those that still don't get it, probably never will.
Well unknown to me, if you do not run in a central clustered environment and have users spread across servers that may be geographical or just in the same place , but not clustered, the gateway needs and wants a port 1516 connection to each and every server, which it then holds in a local file. This does not worry me as much as it appears some company security groups.
The Gateway is just what the name applies, a gateway. Just how you deploy external SMTP servers and then only allow them in through the firewall, via trusted IP's usually, this acts the same. So have no fear, the Gateway is doing it's job by not storing data and only offering a direct connection to the public providers and then 'proxying' the traffic to Sametime. Your user directory is not affected as well as you can control which providers come into the Gateway and then how just the Gateway communicates to Sametime.
So do not freak out, it is all in how you present it to the team in most places. Those that still don't get it, probably never will.
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On Monday, October 8th, 2007 by Chris Miller
I hear JINGLE bells while I SIP tea and dabble in MEEBO (anyone get that?)
If you didn't get my subject line, here is
what it breaks down to:
Jingle is the new extensions for XMPP from the Jabber Software Foundation (press release from them). Basically it is an alternative to SIP, without the additional hardware. If you have built some infrastructure on XMPP, then it will use that exact infrastructure for negotiations and setup. What a cost savings for enterprises instead of having to create and manage SIP servers. This might be something for IBM to investigate and get them back into linking to public IM networks. I would not be surprised to hear they already have this being tested somewhere.
Now here is the real kicker. Google Talk is already using something quite similar Jingle so they are pooling their resources. Trillian has, of course, stated it will support Jingle in upcoming releases. Who are they to be left out?
Ok, so Meebo. Picture three friends that come up with a great idea and actually do it. It is an ajax-based web interface that lets you log in to the major chat providers from any machine with a web browser. They grab and encrypt your passwords after you type. I wish SSL would pop up but the idea of this is quite fascinating. No client locally to install, it supports most everything but audio/video at this time. So if you are the grandparents or kiosk, one interface lets you log into the chat providers. Mini windows are maintained in the big one, so that can get cluttered if you have a lot going on. From reading, they haven't added Skype yet but have interest in it. The big 4 are there and ready to go. My first experience was excellent and I could see the promise. Their end goal is to sell the rights to use code I imagine as the service is free and donations are accepted for all their hard work. Emoticons and stuff need work but who cares at this point. I was more interested in the technology and basic functions. But then again everyone whined and Sametime is tossing them in now aren't they?
Jingle is the new extensions for XMPP from the Jabber Software Foundation (press release from them). Basically it is an alternative to SIP, without the additional hardware. If you have built some infrastructure on XMPP, then it will use that exact infrastructure for negotiations and setup. What a cost savings for enterprises instead of having to create and manage SIP servers. This might be something for IBM to investigate and get them back into linking to public IM networks. I would not be surprised to hear they already have this being tested somewhere.
Now here is the real kicker. Google Talk is already using something quite similar Jingle so they are pooling their resources. Trillian has, of course, stated it will support Jingle in upcoming releases. Who are they to be left out?
Ok, so Meebo. Picture three friends that come up with a great idea and actually do it. It is an ajax-based web interface that lets you log in to the major chat providers from any machine with a web browser. They grab and encrypt your passwords after you type. I wish SSL would pop up but the idea of this is quite fascinating. No client locally to install, it supports most everything but audio/video at this time. So if you are the grandparents or kiosk, one interface lets you log into the chat providers. Mini windows are maintained in the big one, so that can get cluttered if you have a lot going on. From reading, they haven't added Skype yet but have interest in it. The big 4 are there and ready to go. My first experience was excellent and I could see the promise. Their end goal is to sell the rights to use code I imagine as the service is free and donations are accepted for all their hard work. Emoticons and stuff need work but who cares at this point. I was more interested in the technology and basic functions. But then again everyone whined and Sametime is tossing them in now aren't they?
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On Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 by Chris Miller
My Advisor2005 presentation files
Here is a zip file of the three presentation
files with all the updates. Let me know of any questions!!
AdvisorVegas2005.zip
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AdvisorVegas2005.zip
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A secondary lesson in SIP
So to make this simple and grab a great image
from the Lotus whitepaper I tracked down from Mar 04, a brief part on how
SIP works in visual description. Alice makes the subscription to
know about Bob's status (no, not like a dating service). When the
status changes for Bob in any way, the server notifies Alice. Quite
simple right?
SIP uses the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) as an assignable tag for the reason of subscription and notification. In this case the URI would be Bob's email address. You can think of your phone as a URI since it identifies only your house or cell phone.
Once cool thing about SIP is that any user can register numerous devices to be assigned and then (with technology) each device can be tried at once or in order. The phone company does this now when you call a main phone number which then rings your cell and then a pager if necessary.
SIP uses the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) as an assignable tag for the reason of subscription and notification. In this case the URI would be Bob's email address. You can think of your phone as a URI since it identifies only your house or cell phone.
Once cool thing about SIP is that any user can register numerous devices to be assigned and then (with technology) each device can be tried at once or in order. The phone company does this now when you call a main phone number which then rings your cell and then a pager if necessary.
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On Thursday, June 30th, 2005 by Chris Miller
A primer lesson in SIP
There has been lots of talk recently around
SIP and getting connected to each other via Sametime. What the heck
is SIP? To most of us it is just magic after many hours of stirring
the kettle of SSL and ports. Would it trouble you to know they designed
the RFC's for SIP around the SMTP, HTTP and SDP protocol RFCs ? It
goes on to scavenge parts of others before finally deciding it can run
on multiple protocols like TCP and UDP.
NOTE: However, Sametime SIP does not support UDP, only TCP. Sametime also does not allow you to add groups from a SIP community to your buddylist. You can create a group and then add SIP users individually to that group. You cannot just grab a group like you are able to from the Sametime directory. The SIP task in Sametime is also one of the last tasks to start up.
Whew! Who knew it could be so much fun.
NOTE: However, Sametime SIP does not support UDP, only TCP. Sametime also does not allow you to add groups from a SIP community to your buddylist. You can create a group and then add SIP users individually to that group. You cannot just grab a group like you are able to from the Sametime directory. The SIP task in Sametime is also one of the last tasks to start up.
Whew! Who knew it could be so much fun.
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