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:

http://gizmodo.com/5293388/iphone-3gs-review

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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

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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:

• Is the server up?
• Is the Internet connection working?
• Is e-mail working?
• Can people get to our website?

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,

• How much disk space do we have left?
• How much traffic is flowing over the Internet connection?
• How fast is our website?
• How much CPU usage is our Admin’s workstation consuming?
• How much virtual memory is being used on our server?

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.

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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

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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:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/20/review_roundup_rims_new_touchscreen_blackberry_storm.html

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!

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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:

1. Look before you click – Never click “agree” or “OK” to close a suspicious window. Instead, click the red “x” in the corner of the window or press the Alt + F4 buttons on your keyboard to close a window.
2. Be Suspicious – If you are prompted to install software, or remove infections from your workstation, please contact us. This is a sign of spyware or malware.
3. Only download data from Web sites you trust – Please contact us at support@bdpnetworks.com if you require software to be installed on your workstation — do not download software from Websites.
4. Contact Us if you notice a general system slowdown or unusual presence of pop-up ads on your desktop, or within your browser. Other signs of infection include toolbars in your browser and changed settings that you can’t change back (such as homepage, etc).

Please report any signs of the following programs:

• Antivirus 2007, 2008 or 2009 (this software acts like antivirus software, but is actually harmful software)
• MyWebSearch toolbar
• Bargain Buddy

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,

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Microsoft issued an ‘Emergency’ security patch a few weeks ago, an event which has only happened four times since 2006.  While Microsoft can sometimes release a dozen critical security fixes each month, this one warrants special attention.

A vulnerability was discovered in the ‘Server’ Windows Service, a common component to all 32-bit/64-bit versions of Windows (NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008) which allows attackers to run arbitrary code on an unpatched system without any authentication.  There is a significant risk that this flaw will be soon exploited by a malicious worm.

This patch falls outside of a normal server patching cycle, so on Friday morning (October 24th) we put together a plan to patch all of our contract customers’ servers as quickly as possible without disrupting employee productivity.  By mid-day Saturday, we had finished nearly all of the patching on customer servers covered under a managed service plan.

Most of our customers have opted to let their employees to decide when to install security patches on the desktops and laptops we manage.  Because of this it is important that you communicate the urgency of this patch to your employees so they can run their updates.  Though most Windows XP and Windows Vista client computers have active firewalls which can mitigate the risk, this patch requires more attention than most.  If you are subscribed to NetworkCare PRO we will let you know which computers still need to be patched in your environment and can help force deployment of the remaining patches if needed.

Here’s a good writeup about the patch at the Washington Post:
Microsoft to Issue Emergency Security Update Today.

Here at BDPNetworks, we are committed to ensuring the continued security of your IT environment and will do everything necessary to maintain business continuity when these events arise.

Thank you for your time, and as always if you have any questions please let one of us know.

-Brian

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Determining which infrastructure products to use on a network can be extremely difficult.  Take for example, corporate anti virus & backup software: there are dozens of options available and everyone will gladly share articles and reviews claiming their product is the best.   Some people now claim that antivirus in particular (a.k.a. ‘client security’ software) has become such a commodity that it really doesn’t matter which vendor you go with, as long as you’ve got something.

I beg to differ.

Over the years we’ve tested lots of different antivirus products; some have been great, some have been OK, and some have been shockingly horrible.  But the antivirus playing field has never been static: some products get better, and some get far worse over time.

A recent visible example of this is with Symantec’s corporate products: they used to produce great software (this is, after all, the company which used to produce Norton Utilities!)  Their antivirus product was straightforward, relatively lightweight, and did the job very effectively.  Over the last few years there has been a push to tack on hundreds of features (demanded by buzzword-happy CIOs) and the product has become a hulking, lumbering giant which is difficult to manage and not nearly as effective against viruses as before! We’ve had below average results with many of Symantec’s competitors as well: McAfee, Panda, and CA’s eTrust all have aspects which absolutely drive us up the wall–so we settled on specifying Trend Micro a few years back and have been happy ever since.  (If you’re looking for new antivirus software,  I just saved you a ton of frustration!

Symantec is also now in the process of ruining the most widely-used backup software on the planet, Backup Exec.  When Symantec purchased Veritas a few years back we shuddered to think what would happen to Backup Exec–and our suspicions were unfortunately well-founded.  Backup Exec is tweaky, brittle and difficult to manage: we live in a constant state of patching & re-patching Backup Exec servers since Symantec bought them, and backup jobs (and even Backup Exec services) seem to fail randomly at times for no good reason regardless of hardware configuration.   Backup software is a bit more difficult to torture test than antivirus software, so though we are actively looking for an alternative we have not yet found one which meets all of our requirements.

My hope is that Symantec will realize they’re starting to lose market share to some of their smaller, more nimble competitors–and start putting money back into redeveloping the cores of these products.  But it is a huge company with entrenched egos–so we may not see improvement in their software for quite some time.

I think companies like Symantec are really quick to try to address buzzwords with fancy, shiny new software–but it’s really important not to forget your core competencies.  Backups and antivirus have been necessary evils for decades, and though the mechanisms may change over time it’s not likely that these concepts will disappear entirely.

If you have comments on this article you can reply here, or e-mail me privately at bdp@bdpnetworks.com

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Next week, we’re launching our new service management system, called ConnectWise.

ConnectWise represents another significant investment in time and money for us, and we think the benefits to our customers will be far-reaching: it’s yet another step in our quest to give you the best service possible.

ConnectWise is a comprehensive, integrated system which will replace a number of unconnected systems we currently use, including RequestTracker–our existing e-mail response ticketing system.

ConnectWise will track literally every piece of information we work with.  It will dramatically streamline our support cycle, which means your support requests will be resolved more quickly and with more precision.  Projects will be expedited faster with the extensive built-in project management system.

In addition you’ll benefit from faster, clearer billing and you’ll soon be able to request access to a portal which includes all of your service tickets, projects and an invoice history.

ConnectWise integrates directly with our management & monitoring platform from N-Able.  Together these best-of-breed systems will reduce overhead, increase efficiency, speed up problem resolution, and make our customers happier.

We are really excited about this new system and think you’ll like it a whole lot, too.

Starting next week, you will notice new e-mails coming back from ConnectWise when you open a ticket with support@bdpnetworks.com.

By the end of August we will start sending enhanced billing information from the new system.

In the meantime, as always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you again for your continued support,

-Brian

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Microsoft recently released Service Pack 1 for their Macintosh version of Microsoft Office (2008).  But several of our engineers (and many others online) have reported problems with it.

If you’re experiencing issues with Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh, please check out this link:

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20080514094814989

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