This is a great article that explains exactly how astronauts at the International Space Station use E-mail. Although they use Microsoft Outlook 2003 to read their e-mail, It’s a lot trickier than you might think!
http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?articleid=1329&zoneid=12
I want to bring you up to date on a few things happening over on this end, then recap the best ways to reach us when you need IT support.
NEW TEAM MEMBERS
We’ve added two new members to the BDPNetworks Support Team: Ken LaForce and Nathan Finch. Both bring unique experience and talents to the team and are extremely pleasant to work with. Say “Hi!” the next time you see them around your office!
NEW SERVICE MANAGER
Christopher Shaw has accepted the position of Service Manager. This means he is now directly responsible for allocating resources to handle support requests. He meets regularly with the support team to ensure issues are being resolved quickly and correctly. If you have questions or comments about our service, please contact him at cshaw@bdpnetworks.com.
INVOICING DELAYS
We have had some delays in invoicing over the past few months. You should start to see activity on this front in the next couple of weeks.
2009: THE YEAR OF VIRTUALIZATION
Our big technology push in 2009 was virtualization: an inexpensive way to extend the ability and life of your server hardware. This worked out better than expected — every server we installed in 2009 has a virtualization layer on it which will lead to reduced hardware & energy costs over the next several years, even for the smallest organizations. We’re going to continue developing this strategy in 2010.
2010: THE YEAR OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY
Our big technology push in 2010 is Business Continuity. Our new Business Continuity and Data Recovery service plans combine the best of on-site data protection with off-site replication. They eliminate the need for backup tapes and give us the ability to restore a “virtual” copy of a failed server–either on-site or off-site–in under an hour. We’re pretty excited about this as it goes far beyond rudimentary online backup schemes. I’ll be discussing this in-depth at a later date, but if you have questions about it in the interim feel free to ask!
We work very hard to make it easy to reach us, so here’s a quick recap on how to get help when you need it:
URGENT REQUESTS
If your request is URGENT – such as any issue that severely impacts your ability to do your work or severely impacts the entire organization (such as an e-mail outage) and there are no obvious workarounds,
CALL US at 206-329-6600 and select option 1 during business hours.
We are sometimes all on other calls, so if you don’t get through to a human right away don’t panic. Our goal is to return your call as soon as humanly possible — usually in well under fifteen minutes.
Please note that your organization may have a policy which requires you to submit all of your IT support requests through an internal designated IT liaison or IT administrator.
ALL OTHER REQUESTS
If your request is NOT urgent we strongly recommend you use our e-mail-based support ticketing system:
Send a message to support@bdpnetworks.com and include a short description of the problem in the Subject line of your e-mail.
You will receive a ticket ID number from our system within about five minutes of your submission. Hold on to this ticket ID e-mail because you can add information to the case simply by replying to the e-mail. Our goal by the end of April 2010 is to respond to all e-mail-based support requests within one business hour.
Please note that your organization may have a policy which requires you to submit all of your IT support requests through an internal designated IT liaison or IT administrator.
ASSISTANCE OUTSIDE OF BUSINESS HOURS
If you know you will need assistance outside of our normal business hours (8am-6pm Monday through Friday except holidays), contact us ahead of time through support@bdpnetworks.com and we’ll make sure the on-call engineer knows about your needs. If you think you might unexpectedly need assistance outside of our normal business hours on a semi-regular basis, contact me directly and I’ll go over some options we have which will extend your service plan with additional off-hours coverage.
CUSTOMER PORTAL
You may not be aware that we offer a web-based customer portal with which you can login and look at the status of all of your open tickets at any time. If you are not already taking advantage of this incredibly useful FREE service, please e-mail me and I’ll set up your account.
We are happy and thankful that we’ve been extremely busy lately and I hope your team is busy, as well. I’ve got a lot more to cover over the next few months in these updates – with topics related to security, spyware, and Windows 7 upgrades – so keep your eyes open. In the interim check out our blog at http://bdpnetworks.com/blog
If you have any questions at all about anything, please don’t hesitate to ask! My e-mail is bdp@bdpnetworks.com
Thank you for your time,
-Brian (Principal)
Ever wondered why some messages (mainly from me) seem to be signed with the letter ‘J’ every few sentences? Wonder no more – Microsoft has the answer. It’s a smiley face which is mistranslated across systems. I’ve been known to use more than a few smiley faces in my e-mails (it’s a habit I picked up over 20 years ago) so if you’ve seen a whole bunch of Js in my e-mails you’ll know why.
(You probably won’t see the ‘J’ if both your and the recipients systems are recent versions of Micorosft Exchange and Outlook.
Here’s more information on the issue:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/05/23/604741.aspx
We’ve just completed a necessary round of infrastructure work on our monitoring & management systems.
We’ve moved everything to a much faster, more reliable connection which will improve our management capabilities, speed up your access to the customer portal, and even improve the quality of phone calls.
If you have any questions or notice any issues with any services, please don’t hesitate to let one of us know.
Thank you!
-Brian
Unless you’ve been living in a cave you have probably heard by now that Apple will release their newest iPhone – the 3G [S] (S is for Speed!) – on Friday, June 19th, 2009. With the 3G [S] Apple has whittled down the list of annoyances that has prevented some from jumping on the bandwagon. Cut & Paste, MMS, full-phone Search, a wide-screen keyboard, a Compass, twice the speed, an autofocus camera, a smudge-resistant screen and better battery life are all certainly impressive advancements. (The only remaining “annoyances” with the iPhone are the non-user-replaceable battery, the AT&T contract lock-in, and the lack of a physical keyboard.)
But is this enough to push the remaining holdouts over the edge?
I’ve had my Blackberry for several years, and it has been a very good phone. Combined with Blackberry Enterprise Server it is an extremely reliable phone and “just works.” But it’s also EXTREMELY BORING. So I’m going to make a startling statement here (you heard it here first:)
Apple has WON the Smartphone Wars with the iPhone.
Yes, Microsoft will continue to push their Windows Mobile phones towards larger enterprises. Yes, Google will continue to toy around with their Android platform with T-Mobile. And yes, of course, Palm will continue to barely hang in there by a thread with their (very impressive) Pre. But by and large, Apple has an excellent product, has already sold tens of millions of them, and most importantly has the most vibrant and active development community of all smartphone platforms–with over ONE BILLION applications already downloaded from the iTunes ‘App Store.’
BlackBerry will continue to play an important role in enterprises who need secure, reliable access to data from many different internal sources. But by and large the iPhone is turning into the Kleenex/Jell-O/Band-Aid of mobile phones – I wouldn’t be surprised if the lexicon changes in a few years and we’re talking about “BlackBerry iPhones” and “Palm iPhones.” “Oh, it’s not an original iPhone? It’s just some knockoff?”
So what does this mean for business? Expect widespread adoption of the iPhone by employees who have been holding out. It won’t be a matter of whether or not you allow iPhones to access corporate data–you’ll be forced into offering iPhone friendly services. With a license from Microsoft for ActiveSync this shouldn’t be too difficult, though it is not always as foolproof as Blackberry Enterprise Server (but I fully expect Microsoft and Apple to continue ironing out the remaining kinks.)
My first iPhone should show up this weekend at my doorstep – I’ll have a full review in a few weeks on how well it’s integrating with our systems at the office.
By the way, here’s a great review (with pictures!) from Gizmodo:
Greetings – I hope everyone is enjoying the weather!
A couple of quick notes:
Swine Flu imminent
The World Health Organization has just raised their pandemic alert level to 5, meaning widespread Swine Flu is imminent. The jury is still out on how serious of an illness this is, but there’s a very good chance many people will not be going to work next week.
If you think you might be stuck at home next week, it is important that you try out your remote access methods as soon as possible (like tonight!). Just because you connected to work because you were stranded in the snow in December/January doesn’t mean it still works the exact same way! If you have questions or problems getting into your corporate network, please let us know.
Internet Explorer 8 – DO NOT INSTALL!
On a completely different frustrating note, Microsoft recently marked Internet Explorer 8 as an “Important” update when visiting their Windows Update or Microsoft Update websites. Nothing could be further from the truth–while Internet Explorer 8 has some nice new features it specifically breaks a lot of business software.
Worse, it’s extremely difficult to remove Internet Explorer 8 from a machine once it has been installed (the Add/Remove programs route does not work!) So even though we constantly remind people to keep up to date with their Windows Updates, this is one update we think you should pass on – for now, at least. Here’s hoping Microsoft and independent software developers come to a consensus on how Internet Explorer 8 is supposed to work with their applications soon so we can enjoy the new browser’s features.
Regardless of what happens next week, we will be available to help with remote access requests. Please call 206-329-6600 and select option 1 for support, or e-mail support@bdpnetworks.com.
Thanks for your time as always,
-Brian
IT service competition in Seattle is intense. In order to better compete, nearly every IT service & support firm has thrown the word ‘monitoring’ on their website without really explaining what it’s for or why you want it.
Network monitoring was once the domain of only companies who purchased expensive monitoring solutions (like us) but even basic monitoring can be done extremely easily and inexpensively by even inexperienced IT admins. So why do some companies (like us) charge a lot more for monitoring? It’s because there are many different levels of monitoring which all yield different sets of business benefits.
‘Status Monitoring’ is built-in to even our most basic service plans – this equates to a “yes/no” answer to questions about the health of computers/servers/networks. These types of questions can be answered with just status monitoring:
Even the smallest IT providers now provide ‘Status Monitoring’ in their service mix because it doesn’t cost much to implement.
But Status Monitoring is of limited use for larger networks; things get more interesting when we do Performance Monitoring – this is a quantitative answer to questions about computers/servers/networks – such as,
Performance Monitoring is made even more useful when the data from it is stored over time. Our main online monitoring platform stores performance metrics for 90 days. We have a second, dedicated reporting engine combined with a data warehouse which stores this performance data for up to two years.
We can tell, for example, when you’re going to need more storage on your server or an Internet bandwidth capacity upgrade far in advance.
You can manage a network simply by ‘reacting’ to changing conditions, but we think it’s much smarter planning out network changes far ahead of time: It keeps your employees working at peak capacity and ensures everyone has the correct equipment needed to do their job. Performance Monitoring provides a lot of business value because it accomplishes this goal.
Greetings!
Before the year finishes up, I just wanted to drop you a line regarding a few items:
Microsoft Patches
A few weeks ago, Microsoft released the largest set of patches in some time during their monthly “patch Tuesday.” About a week later, Microsoft issued a new critical patch to their Internet Explorer web browser. We’ve covered this routine before but I’ll say it again: it’s important that you visit the Microsoft Windows Update website frequently and often to install critical & recommended updates.
Even if we manage Windows patches on your network or you have set your Windows patches to automatically install, it’s still a good idea to launch Internet Explorer once in a while to check for new updates. On all modern versions of Windows, open Internet Explorer, then click Tools->Windows Update. Remember to keep an eye on your virus protection software as well.
We recently sent around a short primer on Safe Computing which discusses spyware and viruses as well–be sure to check it out here if you haven’t already:
http://bdpnetworks.com/blog/2008/11/13/safe-computing/
Snowed In?
This holiday season has been very challenging here in Seattle. Like many of our customers we have had a difficult time getting to our office, so we’ve been working from home instead.
It is probably no surprise that the vast majority of helpdesk calls & tickets we’ve received over the past few weeks have been related to problems remotely connecting to an office network over a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection.
The VPN systems our customers use (from Microsoft, SonicWALL and Cisco) are reliable, secure and easy to set up on your end. Even so they can be particular about network configuration and firewalls. In fact some consumer-grade firewalls simply do not work with these types of VPN connections. If you set up a VPN connection to your work at home, we recommend checking it once a month to make sure it works the way you think it should. If not, please let us know and we’ll help you get it working.
Over the past few years we have seen a new type of VPN surface which addresses some of the problems with non-standard network environments, such as at home or hotels. Called an SSL-VPN, it allows employees to simply login to a secured website in order to connect to company resources. It doesn’t require complex client software and works through nearly all firewalls.
If you would like more information on available SSL-VPN solutions please let us know.
Happy New Year!
This year has been quite a ride. We’ve made a lot of progress and really could not have done it without our customers’ support.
The economic conditions next year look challenging–but we think there are exciting opportunities for everyone during times like this.
Companies are going to want to stretch their infrastructure investments further in 2009–and I believe that means we’re going to be deploying a lot of server virtualization in the coming months. This is a fantastic way to get a lot more mileage out of your existing expensive server hardware. You can deploy additional network services without buying additional equipment.
There’s also going to be a harder push to move non-essential services (which don’t need to be especially secure) to hosted facilities or “the cloud” in order to cut costs.
Of course there are pros and cons to these solutions, but we look forward to continuing to work alongside you in 2009 to help you make informed business decisions about new technologies.
From all of us here at BDPNetworks, thank you again for your support in 2008.
And we wish you the best of luck in the new year!
-Brian
Here’s an excellent overview of the new BlackBerry Storm: a touch-screen phone which is meant to directly compete with the Apple iPhone. Research in Motion has added a mechanical “click” to the touch screen to give tactile feedback when onscreen buttons are depressed, unlike the iPhone’s hard, flat screen. But this reviewer says it’s not quite ready for prime time:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/154212/blackberrys_storm_awkward_and_disappointing.html
Here’s a link to a larger list of reviews:
Incidentally, I use a BlackBerry Curve, and like many of our customers we have Blackberry Enterprise Server. I envy the iPhone–but realize that the iPhone isn’t exactly perfect when synchronizing with a Microsoft Exchange server. The BlackBerry does an outstanding job keeping up-to-date with my e-mail, calendar & address book.
-Brian
We will be posting more mobile device coverage in the very near future. We’re interested in which devices are the best fit for a corporate environment–in many cases you may be surprised at the answer!
We’ve run into some pretty serious spyware/malware/virus infections lately. These infections can often be prevented by following the steps outlined below.
While we are constantly taking steps to prevent infections on our contract customer’s networks, (such as deploying new antivirus software on the workstations and firewalls), we need every user to exercise caution and take steps to help prevent infections:
Here are some safe browsing tips:
Please report any signs of the following programs:
Definitions:
Spyware
This is software that secretly gathers information about a user while he/she navigates the Internet. This information is normally used for advertising purposes. Spyware can also gather information about email addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.
Trojan horse
This is a program that disguises itself as another program. Similar to a virus, these programs are hidden and cause an unwanted effect. They differ from viruses because they are normally not designed to replicate like a virus.
Virus
A computer virus is a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data. Often viruses are hidden in other programs or documents and when opened, the virus is let loose.
Worm
This is a special type of virus that spreads without any user interaction, typically by exploiting a flaw in popular software.
Free antivirus for home workstations:
Files transferred from home and personal computers are often a source of infection. It is very important to have current antivirus software installed on any PC connected to the internet. AVG Antivirus-free is a great anti-virus/malware/spyware application — we like it more than Norton or McAfee!
Here is a direct download link:
http://free.avg.com/download?prd=afe
Please contact us at support@bdpnetworks.com should you have any questions, comments or concerns,
