[Dundi] Gizmo and DUNDI

[John Todd]

At 4:32 PM -0700 on 7/6/05, Michael Robertson wrote:
>DUNDI peeps,
>
>We just released beta of Gizmo Project at 
><http://www.gizmoproject.com>http://www.gizmoproject.com. Set aside 
>the non-imaginative name we think this Mac/Win and soon Lin VOIP 
>client is interesting. It does NAT/firewall traversal as well as 
>Skype, but it's based on open standard SIP and we're trying to 
>connect to every one with a commitment to an open directory. Of 
>course this means DUNDI too!
>
>Gizmo is a snazzy VOIP client with nice features like voicemail, 
>call record, etc. but more importantly for this list a Gizmo user 
>can call DUNDI numbers with no additional configuration. We'd like 
>to get some testers specifically of the DUNDI connection.
>
>We're looking for ways to make it work better with Astericks in 
>general. Ideally, we'd like to make the client configurable to work 
>with an Astericks setup, but still do the firewall/NAT traversal 
>stuff so it could be used as a remote client from anywhere on the 
>net.
>
>Please give it a try and let me know how it works for you and any 
>suggestions you might have.
>
>Go astericks!
>
>-- MR
>
>Michael Robertson
><mailto:michael at linspire.com>michael at linspire.com  Read the latest 
>Michael's Minute <http://www.lindows.com/mm>here

Michael -
   I actually downloaded Gizmo a few days ago on my Mac and got it 
working - congrats on that, at least!  I am typically the worst 
possible installation candidate, and the software did what it was 
supposed to.

   I do have a few issues with Gizmo, though.  It's not a software 
client - it's a service.  You don't allow for alternate SIP servers 
to be specified in the configuration, therefore this is not something 
that is very useful to me.  I don't have any control over where my 
calls go, or how they're handled.  I can't opt out of DUNDi, if 
you're using it, or ENUM, or...?  I assume you're using ENUM lookups 
as well?  What roots?  (Hint: the ENUM question may directly link 
into your query about how to get DUNDi e164 calls to the advertising 
destination, depending on your configuration.)

  Looking for DUNDi integration into your service is perhaps getting 
ahead of yourself with the wrong audience, though I do commend the 
desire to deliver calls via IP for free.  However, you may wish to 
review this policy if you have paying customers - there is always the 
real possibility of number hijack if you are subscribing to a 
directory service with weak authentication 
(friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend...)  It's one thing when people using 
the system know that the possibility exists, it's quite another when 
you have otherwise-unaware people paying for the service.

   I understand that you're not pitching this product (the client) to 
the advanced user, so perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree when I 
say I'm disappointed in the inextricable client/service linkage.  You 
indicate that you're looking to do more Asterisk integration somehow, 
so I'm anxious to see what results from that effort and if it's 
useful to me.

   Lastly, you're not using e164 numbers.  You're using an area code 
that you've picked out of the air - we've had this discussion before. 
I applaud your desire to be _similar_ to e164, but you're not.  A 
better choice would be to go to NANP and apply for some 
non-geographic number space, or to talk with the people using the 
+878 country code (though you'll be talking to a very expensive and 
Bell-shaped brick wall.)  If you want to be e164-compliant, you need 
to actually use e164 numbers.  While I don't have time to read it at 
the moment, I would hope that the DUNDi GPA does not allow for 
"spurious" number ranges to be introduced (<cough>1700<cough>) since 
that sets a very bad precedent and will lead to distrust of the 
number pool right out of the starting blocks.  It's been a while 
since I read that doc; maybe there's a provision for "private" 
numbers with a flag...


PS: I get continual timeout errors when trying to send a SIP 
subscribe to one or more of your services that your app "secretly" 
subscribes to.  Here's a snipped of the fast-paced tethereal dump of 
5060 information buzzing by (almost all of it errors or overly 
aggressive re-SUBSCRIBE requests) on my laptop:
209.291017 202.1.16.19 -> 198.65.166.131 SIP Request: SUBSCRIBE 
sip:17474746000 at proxy01.sipphone.com:5060
210.207193 198.65.166.131 -> 202.1.16.19 SIP Status: 408 Request Timeout


PPS: The inability to specify a SIP URI address (despite the 
nomenclature on the "Add User" interface that says "SIP number") as a 
location indicator is especially frustrating, considering your 
previous dedication to open standards.   When I try to put 
"jtodd at loligo.com" in this field, I get an error of "Add contact 
failed, error 1.  The name "jtoddloligocom" is not an existing 
username. Check the name or leave that field blank."   This appears 
to my untrained eye that the service format is moving BACKWARDS into 
the anti-standards world of Skype, by disallowing connectivity to any 
subscriber identifier that doesn't a member.  (Note: SIP URIs are 
inherently different than e164 numbers as far as reliability goes, so 
my comments above re: trustworthiness of endpoints are not 
contradictory to the desire to have URI dialing capability.)


JT