Internet Communication

Since I’ve heard that my blog might be a little abrupt, and a little direct I thought I’d write something a little more readable, and not so long…

I really do love the Internet, there are many reasons for this, but the one I like the most is being connected to a massive network! This opens up the world to your desk (or laptop - I like that too). It’s like opening your front door and screaming “HELLO WORLD!”. I’ll write about some of the tools I use over the Internet, I’ll start with a couple of geeky one, then move on to more home use ones.

Secure Shell

I love SSH, it makes my job so much easier. Yes it seems boring and it is text based, but what most people don’t realize is that it’s a really great service! SSH lets you forward ports to your computer, or to the remote computer, lets you transfer files over the Internet securely, and if you use the “screen” application you can re-connect sessions later

SFTP (Secure FTP)

This is pretty much secure shell file transfer. It’s not FTP wrapped in SSL, but a protocol of it’s own. It’s bloody great, and lets you browse remote file systems easily. Super cool for uploading files (I use Transmit from Panic Software, which has a way cool syncing/mirroring feature, which saves time, lots of it!). - Read more about Transmit on Sheldon’s Blog.

ICQ/MSN/Yahoo!/AIM/iChat

I’ve been using text chat (or instant messaging) since forever! (Sorry to sound like a chick, but it’s true). I first used ICQ back in 1999, and it was brilliant on dial up because it remembered your messages if you were offline! I used Yahoo! Messenger and AIM around the same time as well, but then everyone started using MSN Messenger, probably because it was there, more than it was good, because it was a dog, and to be honest, I still don’t think it’s that flash, but I’ll move along to my next favourite thing!

Skype

I love Skype, it’s probably the BEST application around at the moment for what it does. I hate Skype’s chat, mostly because it’s ugly (I use Adium for my main chat app), but what it lacks in IM ability it MORE than makes up for in coolness with VoIP (mostly computer-to-computer), and video, which is absolutely awesome! It doesn’t crap out often, and works first time, most of the time! Call quality is primo, and it does remember offline chats now (I think). And the Sky

Asterisk

This is a bit geeky, but really cool. Possibly as cool as Skype, but more in a business kind of way. Asterisk is a PBX system. It cocks it’s leg on ANY POTS phone system, because it’s easier to configure, does a load more, and is just cool. It plays music (mp3’s actually), and has call queues, and transfers, and rings many phones, and best of all, works over the Internet! I have a Linksys VoIP phone on my desk, which is connected to an asterisk server across town, and the call quality is perfect, plus when someone rings it, my mobile starts about 3 rings after my desk phone, so that means everyone who calls gets an answer (unless I’m on the phone). I’m hoping to finish off a VoIP success story, and hoping to get some more VoIP installations under my belt (because it saves money long term, especially for larger companies).

That’s about all. Comment away! Most of you know my company Totali offers a range of cool services, and can help you setup Skype, or your very own Asterisk server (now that is cool!).