Remote Small-office inter-networking can create security, maintenance and reliability challenges. After a decade of fiddling with DSL and cable static IPs, firewall “pinholes”, and configuration management issues – my preferred, scalable solution is something I have named a “Gemini” client-server configuration.
The Basics
Remote sites are provisioned with “best value” business DSL or cable broadband service. Cable is now the preferred service, as upstream speeds of a megabit via cable modem are not uncommon. We do not buy “office networking” equipment and services from the Internet Service Provider. Instead we specify a “vanilla” configuration with a single dynamic IP address to be assigned automatically to a single computer or router when a cable is connected and power is supplied.
I describe this as a “Small Business” pitfall, but much larger companies make a similar mistake in the handling of corporate email...
Here is My Email Address. DON'T USE IT!
Many small businesses buy access to the Internet through a phone company, a cable company, or even the vendor who prepares their website. There are two avoidable and difficult to correct mistakes that are often made in the process.
It does no harm to have an email address called mybusiness@phoneco.net, or mybusiness@mywebsitehost.net, but there are serious consequences if that email address is advertised, used as “user names” or contact addresses at self-service web sites (banks, etc.). In brief, complimentary email addresses are fine as long as you do not advertise the address!
Vendor "Lock-In" Problems
Asset tracking is more than the fixed assets portion of one's accounting and ledgers. It is the management of material things. On the one hand it is about managing what goes into a standard "kit" of tools for a certain kind of work. On the other hand it is about rapidly locating those assets. (Who has HR's copy of the building plans?)
Tracemor is open source software that facilitates the inventory and movement of business assets. In addition, it also inventories "inventory" - which can be items more like "supplies" (toner cartridges, paper, and other consumables) or items that are actually purchased and resold. To distinguish Tracemor's functions from corporate accounting functions, think "packing list" - not invoice.
You can see a demo of the package here.
http://demo.tracmor.com/login.php
What do Sticky notes, pink message pads, instant messaging, email, and voice mail have in common? They are inadequate to capture, track, manage and report the essential “back-office” communications that go hand in hand with business processes.
How It Ought To Be
Calibre is a program that runs in many different PC environments to manage a database of eBooks. From there, you can convert books between formats, and upload books into cell phone apps, iPads, and standalone eBook readers like Amazon's "Kindle" and the Barnes & Noble "Nook". On the Android phone, the eBook reader app is called: Aldiko)
eBooks come in multiple formats, and some are copy protected. Copy protected books must be read in the corresponding reader program. If you buy an eBook from iTunes, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble and it is protected, you will need to use their reader software.
If you can, add unrestricted books to your library in ePUB format. An ePub contains several components (like a ZIP file) and can support books with full color pictures, fonts, table layouts, etc - just like HTML web pages. ePUB is positioned to be the future standard for eBooks.
The following information was gleaned from a "Black Hat" security briefing on the web, and I composed these notes to put the vulnerability into the context of our typical call center client. - Ron.
Most companies have dozens, hundreds, or more phone numbers provisioned by the phone company for use with their telephone services. Unfortunately, most companies do not manage these numbers as a corporate asset. There is an important reason to actively manage a short, "defined purpose" (e.g. 'support', 'advertising tracking', etc.) set of numbers, and to publish only the necessary and few numbers for use by the calling customer.
Scam artists can rent and use the same, inexpensive SIP trunk, Voice over IP, and "Asterisk software-as-PBX" technology that we use to lower phone costs and improve call center metrics. If they can get your customers to think -their- 800 or local telephone 'scam' number is really -yours-, then this is what happens.
With all of the changes in office technology, I have been pondering new ways to screen qualified agents for desktop support. As we all know, "techies" speak a language all their own. The genuine article, however, doesn't need the multiple-choice crutch. They should be able to ace these essay tests WITHOUT google-ing the answer!
I would consider anyone who thoroughly and correctly answered 60% to be qualified, and an 80% score would be an ace. A wizard would get them all. Remember, NO GOOGLE-ING THE ANSWER ONLINE! (Everybody has to look up something, but a qualified support tech doesn't need to look up everything!)
Good answers to these questions indicate a good well-rounded generalist background, and I would expect that individual to pick up the particulars of this or that technology rather quickly.
Two words of caution:
Why does computer maintenance take so much time? Why are computers systems down for so long when they fail?
Computer systems inevitably fail, but you can minimize the costs, and reduce workstation down time to hours instead of days if you fully apply these strategic principles in your computer support operation.
There are four main causes of a systems failure: "domino" effects, moving parts, (hard drives), data corruption, and configuration management issues. Electronics failures occasionally happen, but this is typically the quick failure of defective components, and heat or power issues.
The “Domino” Effect
Christmas Past
First it was punch cards - one card per line of programming that could be entered into the OS/360 mainframe at the rate of about 7 cards per minute. Then it was paper tape and pricey pizza pan sized hard drives that fed machines with system names like ¨RT-11¨, ¨PDP-8¨´ ¨RSTS¨.
Next came the era of TSO, mainframe virtual machines (VM/CMS), and drives the size of large cake platters that held a whopping 200 megabytes. Along came GE timeshare, MCI mail, Compuserve, and the legendary VAX/VMS.
Long before the guy on TV started selling computer training, John Q. Public signed up for public seminars in BASIC and UCSD Pascal for home computers with names like ALTAIR, and then ATARI, COMMODORE, TRS-80, APPLE II, APPLE III and APPLE LISA.
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