VoIP Hacks: Tips & Tools for Internet Telephony (Hacks)

I found this book to be highly readable due to to its informal and humorous style and reminded me a lot of Jerry Peek's classic "Unix Power Tools" due to the scope of coverage and likelihood that I will be using it for reference purposes. As someone who reads 15-20 computing books a year and has approached this subject having had a week's Asterisk training along with reading 3 other Asterisk books I thought I was reasonably familiar with the subject but this book taught me lots. As well as delving into previously uncharted Aterisk areas such as Festival (text to speech), AGI integration, delivering QoS and handling call logging there were great sections on other non-Asterisk related areas of VoIP. I even found myself reading the Skype and Mac operating system related sections which I was previously untinterested just because I enjoyed the sytle of writing and thought I would learnt something interesting which in both cases turned out to be the case.
As to references to other O'Reilly publications - well yes there was a few but I tend to find these helpful in providing contextual pointers of where to go for more in-depth coverage. Was it overly American? As a UK citizen I was not aware of this being the case - I've certainly read far worse in that respect.

All in all, a great book, which if you are considering buying having read "Asterisk - the furture of telephony" is ideal for giving you a broader voip context

Satisfied reader (2/3 people found this helpful)

I felt the need to balance the previous comments which seem overly critical. I've just finished reading this book having attended a week long Asterisk training and read three other Asterisk related books and I though it superb. This book was ideal for giving me a wider context of Voip, delving into such areas as providing QoS, traffic shaping, deployment tips, managing phones via tftp and many other non-PBX subject areas. It is written in much the same style as Unix Power Tools (something of an Oreilly classic) and as such is highly readable allowing you to jump in at any point with cross references taking you to other parts of the book. Having said this I read the book in linear fashion in two days but can see myself referring back to it as I have done with Power Tools. As for 'patronising and overly American' from the previous comment I have to disagree, the book did not strike me in that way at all. In short, if you've just read something like "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony" or somthing similar as a primer and wish to broaden your knowledge then this book is ideal

Not recommended for IT professionals! (6/9 people found this helpful)

If you are an IT professional trained in information or network security you probably won't gain a lot from this book. If, however, you have an interest in customising VoIP applications purely as a hobby, then this book may be of modest use. Don't be taken in by the title though, this really isn't really a book about hacking, even given the authors redefining of the term, it would perhaps fit better under the ‘Dummies guide’ type of publication.

The author adopts a very idiosyncratic writing style that most European readers are likely to find condescending, perhaps even insulting. The technical content has, almost entirely, already appeared elsewhere in network security books and the IT press over the last two years. Moreover, most manufacturers have already made the (VoIP) customisation tips contained in this book available in their published manuals.

This book is unashamedly American in its language and technical content. It is yet another IT book that relentlessly uses colloquial American, presumably because the author believes it to be endearing, when plain language would convey meaning with more clarity. American technical examples are used almost entirely in preference to technologies used in Europe or Asia.

One last point, be prepared for lots of embedded references to other technical books from the same publisher, but no references or bibliography for the technical content presented.

VoIP Hacks: Tips & Tools for Internet Telephony (Hacks)

Ted Wallingford

Reader Reviews:

something of a classic (3/4 people found this helpful)

Satisfied reader (2/3 people found this helpful)

Not recommended for IT professionals! (6/9 people found this helpful)

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