Choosing an ISP provider can be an overwhelming and confusing task. How do you make sense of all the thousands of plans that are available to ensure that you make the right choice for you and your family? What do you need to look for in an ISP provider that will guarantee that you get the maximum value for your money and a smooth connection?
When choosing an ISP provider you need to look for one that has a long track record with customers and provides software upgrades periodically. This will show you that they are concerned with increasing the ease and quickness of your connection and internet surfing. The long track record will give you that feeling of stability and consistency of using an established ISP provider that you can trust, rather than some cheap fly-by-night provider that will only offer you disconnections or no connection when you need it.
You also need to read the fine print of the contract. Can you stay online for periods of time or will it automatically cut you off of the internet after a specific time period? How many email addresses are allowed for each account? If there are not enough for everyone in your family that needs to have one, then this may not be the plan for you. Do you have to stay with this ISP provider for a specific period of time or can you terminate the provider at any time without a penalty?
Customer service can be a very important tool for you if you have any internet problems. Is their customer service line toll-free? Is it open 24/7? Check on their quality and response by calling to ask questions about their internet service.
You need to check access numbers if it is a dial-up service to ensure that there is a local number you can use for your service. If you travel, you want to make sure there is a wide variety of area codes available or, even better, a toll free number for you to use when traveling.
The most important thing is to research different companies and compare them side by side to see which company is right for you and your family. The cheapest provider will not necessarily give you the best internet experience. Don't base your choice solely on price or you may experience more internet disruptions and disconnections than smooth service. Whether you choose AOL, Juno, Earthlink, or one of the other thousands of ISP providers available, make the best choice for your intended internet experience to get the best deal for you money!
Learn the essential information for picking the right Internet Service Provider at
http://searchwarp.com/swa15196.htm
Friday, July 20, 2007
Best practice for sending email newsletters
Email is a great way to communicate with our stakeholders but too many charities are sending emails from their PC software or Webmail such as outlook and hotmail. These emails lack design, personalisation and are liable to get blocked as spam as well as potentially breaching the Data Protection Act. This article explains the tools we need to send good emails to our supporters and details the things we should look for in an ASP Email Broadcast system.
Introduction
Many charities are realising the benefit of emails, whether it be a newsletter to their supporters or a campaign. Email is cheap (1p/email), quick to create and instantaneous to deliver. In many ways it is the direct marketing dream: personalised, cheap and trackable.
But sending bulk emails requires a different set of skills and a different tool than our standard day to day emails, even if the number sent is small, there are do’s and don’ts about ‘broadcasting’ emails.
Many charities are using standard office based emails such as Outlook and Lotus, or Internet based emails such as Hotmail and Gmail, to send their organisational emails. These tools were not designed for sending bulk mailings and the result is poor email delivery, poor presentation, being blocked as spam and potentially breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
Best practice
Best practice for sending bulk emails requires a set of capabilities:
* Design: You need to represent your organisation professionally, with your logo and brand. You want the layout of the email to work for you in getting your message across. Layout of copy and inclusion of images helps people read copy on a screen so is crucial to emails.
* Templates: We are creatures of habit. Having a template for your email adds to is familiarity and increases our response to it. Just like a web page it is best practice to make the layout of each email the same, and this is most easily done via an HTML template.
* Personalization: Addressing the message to Dear *Firstname* has the same effect on emails as it does in print, it engages the user and makes them feel that you are writing to them not just a faceless ‘supporter’.
* HTML: The advantages of HTML email are obvious as you can include all the pretty content and images. All the PC and web based email tools send either plain text or rich text (with some formatting) and therefore limit your design and content.
* Links v attachments: Many ISP’s and office firewalls block attachments from unknown sources. So sending a link to a web page or web based document is far more likely to get it read. But adding long links to emails is both unsightly, breaking up copy, and risky, because if the link breaks across a line it won’t work. Sending links behind the HTML, as we do on the web, allows you to make the copy a link and ensures the link will work.
* Delivery: Sending bulk emails always runs the risk that they will be seen as spam by the recipient’s ISP (Internet Service Provider). When you send an email from your PC it goes out across the Internet with the IP (Internet Protocol) address of your office, similar to having an electronic postcode. Emails need to come from a recognised email broadcaster or the ISP may blacklist you as a spammer and block all emails from your IP address.
* Accessibility: Approximately 20% of users get plain text emails, so it is important to send emails they can read. We want to send HTML emails, so we should be sending both depending on what the user can (or wants) to receive. This is known as a 2 part send. It is also good practice to offer a link to a web version of the email.
* Subscriptions: Capturing people’s emails is becoming increasingly important. As people move online and postage costs rise we all want to use email because it is what supporters are choosing and to save money. So we need a tool which can easily capture emails and store them in an address book. But to keep admin down we don’t want to be manually adding them to our contacts, we need an address book which captures them from our website automatically.
* Supporter choice: We want to allow users to self manage their name, address and preferences. Allowing them to make changes to their email record via an automated address book saves time, effort and data entry errors.
* Data protection: The law says that we must offer an unsubscribe option on every email we send out to supporters. None of the PC and web based email tools offer this function. It can be done manually, but the risks of not updating your data records are high, in which case you can easily send an email to someone who has ‘opted out’, breach the DPA and annoy a supporter. You should always conceal recipients email addresses when doing bulk emails, which email broadcast systems do.
* Bounces: The most common reasons emails fail to get through is that the email address is no longer in use, which is known as a ‘hard bounce’. Many emails also fail to reach the recipient because their email is unavailable or their inbox is full, which is known as a ‘soft bounce’. We need a system that can manage and record these bounces, giving us the option to exclude these names from future sends.
* Forward to a friend: In most cases we want the message to go as far as possible and with email it is easy to add a forward to a friend option so that the recipient can send it on. PC and web based emails do not have this option.
* Reporting: While you can send out emails and assume they are getting through it is much better to be able to see how many were delivered, how many were opened and what links were clicked on. As well as showing how many users really read your mail it can demonstrate what they are interested in and what they respond to, increasing your understanding of how to communicate with them.
Taking all of these best practice guides and applying them to Outlook and Hotmail type tools, it is obvious that they do not offer the capabilities we need. They are not fit for the purpose of sending bulk emails and were not designed to do so.
What we need is an email tool which was designed for sending bulk emails and which has all of these options. There are 2 alternatives available:
Bulk email software:
Packages which can be downloaded onto your PC or server which were designed for bulk email broadcast. They have all the tools for template design, address book management, subscriptions and some reporting. They do not help with spam. In order to make sure that emails get through they need to come from a registered email broadcaster, an organisation which has spent time and money registering with the ISP’s.
Unless you are prepared to spend that time and money you are just as likely to be blocked as a spammer from these tools as you are using Outlook. The other downside to this option is the impact it can have on your PC, server and Internet access. If you send an email to even a small number of recipients you are bound to slow down the PC, block up the server while it processes the send, and use up all of the bandwidth, slowing down everybody’s access to the Internet. This is not guaranteed to make you popular in the office or with the IT manager.
ASP email provider.
An ASP (Application Service Provider) tool is provided by a specialist company. It sits on their server and emails go out from their system, therefore avoiding your IP address and your sever. These tools provide all the components you need: templates, editors, address books, unsubscribe, sign up forms and reports. They also, critically, spend their time and money making sure they are registered and compliant with the ISP’s. If they were perceived to be sending spam and got blocked they would lose money, always the best incentive for staying on the side of the angels.
Recap
To recap, if we compare the three options for sending bulk email side by side, the benefits are of using specifically designed tools are clear:
Comparison of bulk email options Outlook/Hotmail In-House Software ASP
Templates/design No Yes Yes
Personalisation No Yes Yes
HTML emails No Yes Yes
2 part send No Yes Yes
Subscriptions No Yes Yes
Bounces No Yes Yes
Unsubscribes No Yes Yes
Forward to a friend No Yes Yes
Reporting No Yes Yes
SPAM No No Yes
Fit for purpose No Yes Yes
There are many of these ASP providers, some of whom have charity deals and are experienced with charity clients. Some will offer a full service, designing, building and sending your email – at a cost. The tools are accessible from the Internet with a username and password. They should be easy to use and simple to understand. Look for a combination of the tools you need for sending your emails on a system you find easy to use, at the best price. Expect to pay a set up fee and a monthly charge or cost per email.
And finally ...
So, without mincing words, sending bulk emails from PC based tools or Webmail such as Outlook and hotmail is worst practice. Charities should invest the small set up fee and monthly charge in an ASP Email broadcast email tool which was designed for the purpose of sending bulk emails, provides all the components for good design, accessibility, personalisation, subscription management and reporting, but most important of all reduces admin, has an unsubscribe and won't get you blacklisted as a spammer.
About the author
Sue Fidler
Consultant, Sue Fidler Ltd www.suefidler.com
Introduction
Many charities are realising the benefit of emails, whether it be a newsletter to their supporters or a campaign. Email is cheap (1p/email), quick to create and instantaneous to deliver. In many ways it is the direct marketing dream: personalised, cheap and trackable.
But sending bulk emails requires a different set of skills and a different tool than our standard day to day emails, even if the number sent is small, there are do’s and don’ts about ‘broadcasting’ emails.
Many charities are using standard office based emails such as Outlook and Lotus, or Internet based emails such as Hotmail and Gmail, to send their organisational emails. These tools were not designed for sending bulk mailings and the result is poor email delivery, poor presentation, being blocked as spam and potentially breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
Best practice
Best practice for sending bulk emails requires a set of capabilities:
* Design: You need to represent your organisation professionally, with your logo and brand. You want the layout of the email to work for you in getting your message across. Layout of copy and inclusion of images helps people read copy on a screen so is crucial to emails.
* Templates: We are creatures of habit. Having a template for your email adds to is familiarity and increases our response to it. Just like a web page it is best practice to make the layout of each email the same, and this is most easily done via an HTML template.
* Personalization: Addressing the message to Dear *Firstname* has the same effect on emails as it does in print, it engages the user and makes them feel that you are writing to them not just a faceless ‘supporter’.
* HTML: The advantages of HTML email are obvious as you can include all the pretty content and images. All the PC and web based email tools send either plain text or rich text (with some formatting) and therefore limit your design and content.
* Links v attachments: Many ISP’s and office firewalls block attachments from unknown sources. So sending a link to a web page or web based document is far more likely to get it read. But adding long links to emails is both unsightly, breaking up copy, and risky, because if the link breaks across a line it won’t work. Sending links behind the HTML, as we do on the web, allows you to make the copy a link and ensures the link will work.
* Delivery: Sending bulk emails always runs the risk that they will be seen as spam by the recipient’s ISP (Internet Service Provider). When you send an email from your PC it goes out across the Internet with the IP (Internet Protocol) address of your office, similar to having an electronic postcode. Emails need to come from a recognised email broadcaster or the ISP may blacklist you as a spammer and block all emails from your IP address.
* Accessibility: Approximately 20% of users get plain text emails, so it is important to send emails they can read. We want to send HTML emails, so we should be sending both depending on what the user can (or wants) to receive. This is known as a 2 part send. It is also good practice to offer a link to a web version of the email.
* Subscriptions: Capturing people’s emails is becoming increasingly important. As people move online and postage costs rise we all want to use email because it is what supporters are choosing and to save money. So we need a tool which can easily capture emails and store them in an address book. But to keep admin down we don’t want to be manually adding them to our contacts, we need an address book which captures them from our website automatically.
* Supporter choice: We want to allow users to self manage their name, address and preferences. Allowing them to make changes to their email record via an automated address book saves time, effort and data entry errors.
* Data protection: The law says that we must offer an unsubscribe option on every email we send out to supporters. None of the PC and web based email tools offer this function. It can be done manually, but the risks of not updating your data records are high, in which case you can easily send an email to someone who has ‘opted out’, breach the DPA and annoy a supporter. You should always conceal recipients email addresses when doing bulk emails, which email broadcast systems do.
* Bounces: The most common reasons emails fail to get through is that the email address is no longer in use, which is known as a ‘hard bounce’. Many emails also fail to reach the recipient because their email is unavailable or their inbox is full, which is known as a ‘soft bounce’. We need a system that can manage and record these bounces, giving us the option to exclude these names from future sends.
* Forward to a friend: In most cases we want the message to go as far as possible and with email it is easy to add a forward to a friend option so that the recipient can send it on. PC and web based emails do not have this option.
* Reporting: While you can send out emails and assume they are getting through it is much better to be able to see how many were delivered, how many were opened and what links were clicked on. As well as showing how many users really read your mail it can demonstrate what they are interested in and what they respond to, increasing your understanding of how to communicate with them.
Taking all of these best practice guides and applying them to Outlook and Hotmail type tools, it is obvious that they do not offer the capabilities we need. They are not fit for the purpose of sending bulk emails and were not designed to do so.
What we need is an email tool which was designed for sending bulk emails and which has all of these options. There are 2 alternatives available:
Bulk email software:
Packages which can be downloaded onto your PC or server which were designed for bulk email broadcast. They have all the tools for template design, address book management, subscriptions and some reporting. They do not help with spam. In order to make sure that emails get through they need to come from a registered email broadcaster, an organisation which has spent time and money registering with the ISP’s.
Unless you are prepared to spend that time and money you are just as likely to be blocked as a spammer from these tools as you are using Outlook. The other downside to this option is the impact it can have on your PC, server and Internet access. If you send an email to even a small number of recipients you are bound to slow down the PC, block up the server while it processes the send, and use up all of the bandwidth, slowing down everybody’s access to the Internet. This is not guaranteed to make you popular in the office or with the IT manager.
ASP email provider.
An ASP (Application Service Provider) tool is provided by a specialist company. It sits on their server and emails go out from their system, therefore avoiding your IP address and your sever. These tools provide all the components you need: templates, editors, address books, unsubscribe, sign up forms and reports. They also, critically, spend their time and money making sure they are registered and compliant with the ISP’s. If they were perceived to be sending spam and got blocked they would lose money, always the best incentive for staying on the side of the angels.
Recap
To recap, if we compare the three options for sending bulk email side by side, the benefits are of using specifically designed tools are clear:
Comparison of bulk email options Outlook/Hotmail In-House Software ASP
Templates/design No Yes Yes
Personalisation No Yes Yes
HTML emails No Yes Yes
2 part send No Yes Yes
Subscriptions No Yes Yes
Bounces No Yes Yes
Unsubscribes No Yes Yes
Forward to a friend No Yes Yes
Reporting No Yes Yes
SPAM No No Yes
Fit for purpose No Yes Yes
There are many of these ASP providers, some of whom have charity deals and are experienced with charity clients. Some will offer a full service, designing, building and sending your email – at a cost. The tools are accessible from the Internet with a username and password. They should be easy to use and simple to understand. Look for a combination of the tools you need for sending your emails on a system you find easy to use, at the best price. Expect to pay a set up fee and a monthly charge or cost per email.
And finally ...
So, without mincing words, sending bulk emails from PC based tools or Webmail such as Outlook and hotmail is worst practice. Charities should invest the small set up fee and monthly charge in an ASP Email broadcast email tool which was designed for the purpose of sending bulk emails, provides all the components for good design, accessibility, personalisation, subscription management and reporting, but most important of all reduces admin, has an unsubscribe and won't get you blacklisted as a spammer.
About the author
Sue Fidler
Consultant, Sue Fidler Ltd www.suefidler.com
Network Troubleshooting - Workstations
This is part two of a three part article on troubleshooting networks. If you have not done so already, please see the Introduction. There are many overlapping issues in network troubleshooting so you may also wish to read the remaining section on Servers.
Logging in
If a user reports they cannot log on to the network and you have checked the hardware and network infrastructure is all OK, make sure they are using the correct combination of username and password. Check that caps lock isn't on if they insist the password is correct. If you have a policy of changing passwords regularly (and you should!) then ensure the user has not just forgotten changing it yesterday. Make sure the domain setting is correct in the log on and that they are attempting to log onto the network and not just their own PC.
IP addresses
Most modern networks use the TCP/IP protocol to transport data - check out the guide to TCP/IP at the PC Support Advisor website. However, as a brief introduction, each computer on a network is given a numerical address in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (known as an IP address). For example 192.168.0.2. This ensures that network traffic ends up the correct place. On server based networks it is common to find that the server automatically allocates each computer with an IP address via a service called DHCP. On peer-to-peer networks the router may act as a DHCP service, but in some cases fixed (static) IP addresses are allocated to the machines when they are first configured by whoever set up the network.
To check the IP address of a Windows 9x PC go to Start, then Run and enter winipcfg. In Windows 2000 or XP open a command prompt (Start, Run, then type cmd) and at the prompt type ipconfig/all.
In both cases this returns the address of the machine and some other network information. These commands are not diagnostic utilities, but if they do not show any IP information this could indicate that something is amiss! Problems will occur when using static IP addresses and two PCs are given the same one. Just as having houses on a street with same number would cause the postal staff to have serious delivery problems, IP address conflicts cause your network problems. Windows will warn you if you assign the same IP address as one used by another computer on the network if that computer is switched on. If you are setting up a new PC check that you carefully enter the IP information - make sure that the first three sets of numbers you use are identical and the last one unique. If you can use DHCP do so - it is much easier to manage!
Checking IP settings
If you have a PC which cannot see the Internet check out the TCP/IP properties (right click on Network Neighbourhood or My Network Places on the desktop and select Properties).
In Windows 98 the list of services and protocols will be displayed - in Windows 2000 or XP right click on local area network and select Properties, then TCP/IP which is linked to the network adaptor and click Properties.
If your server is handling DHCP then you may find that all the settings are blank - essentially the server is handling all the configuration for you.
If you have a static IP then the details for this will be shown, probably along with a gateway address (that of your Internet router) and perhaps the address of a DNS server.
Check that the gateway address is correct and that the DNS entries match those given to you by your Internet Service Provider.
If you are using a proxy server (where your local server acts as a web server by retrieving and caching pages from the Internet) then you'll need to set this up in the browser options (Tools > Options > General > Connections in Firefox; Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN settings in Internet Explorer.) Whoever set up the proxy server will need to give you the address (IP or computer name) and the port, probably 80 or 8080.
Network cards
In Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager), check all network cards are installed properly - there may be a yellow exclamation mark next to any that aren't. This can be caused by several things - the card installed is not the one which Windows thinks it is or the driver may be wrong or out of date. Note carefully the network card's make and model number - these are listed in Device Manager - and then visit the manufacturer's website (if you can get on the web!) where they may have recorded known issues.
If a new driver fails to sort the problem try using Belarc Advisor to run an audit on the PC to check the card. If that fails you may need to open the box and check what is actually written on the card.
Ping
A really useful tool for tracking down network errors is ping. Open up a command prompt and type ping followed by the IP address of a computer you know is on your network, the server for example e.g. ping 192.168.1.1 . If your PC is on the network and can see the server you should get a response from it in the form of a number of replies and some statistics. If this works, try pinging an address outside your network - 64.233.161.99 for example, which is Google's address. Note that some networks will not allow ping commands to reach the outside world for security reasons. If you ping a web address (e.g. ping www.google.com) you will see if DNS is working properly.
Peer-to-peer networks
If you cannot access files or printers on a shared machine, first check that it is turned on. If it is, and other PCs can access its resources then you need to look more closely at the PC which cannot connect. For printer issues see the Knowledgebase article Printer not working?.
If you cannot see shared resources on a peer-to-peer network, ensure the workgroup name is the same on all the PCs in the workgroup - in Windows 2000 or XP right click on My Computer and bring up Properties - click on Network Identification and then on Properties.
There's more on peer-to-peer networks and potential problems in the Knowledgebase article Setting Up A Small Peer-to-Peer Network.
This page is one part of a longer document about getting troubleshooting network problems.
Previous Section: Introduction Next section: Servers
About the author
Lasa Information Systems Team
Lasa Information Systems Team provides a range of services to community and voluntary organisations including ICT Health Checks and consulting on the best application of technology in your organisation. Lasa IST is responsible for maintaining the ICT Hub Knowledgebase.
Logging in
If a user reports they cannot log on to the network and you have checked the hardware and network infrastructure is all OK, make sure they are using the correct combination of username and password. Check that caps lock isn't on if they insist the password is correct. If you have a policy of changing passwords regularly (and you should!) then ensure the user has not just forgotten changing it yesterday. Make sure the domain setting is correct in the log on and that they are attempting to log onto the network and not just their own PC.
IP addresses
Most modern networks use the TCP/IP protocol to transport data - check out the guide to TCP/IP at the PC Support Advisor website. However, as a brief introduction, each computer on a network is given a numerical address in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (known as an IP address). For example 192.168.0.2. This ensures that network traffic ends up the correct place. On server based networks it is common to find that the server automatically allocates each computer with an IP address via a service called DHCP. On peer-to-peer networks the router may act as a DHCP service, but in some cases fixed (static) IP addresses are allocated to the machines when they are first configured by whoever set up the network.
To check the IP address of a Windows 9x PC go to Start, then Run and enter winipcfg. In Windows 2000 or XP open a command prompt (Start, Run, then type cmd) and at the prompt type ipconfig/all.
In both cases this returns the address of the machine and some other network information. These commands are not diagnostic utilities, but if they do not show any IP information this could indicate that something is amiss! Problems will occur when using static IP addresses and two PCs are given the same one. Just as having houses on a street with same number would cause the postal staff to have serious delivery problems, IP address conflicts cause your network problems. Windows will warn you if you assign the same IP address as one used by another computer on the network if that computer is switched on. If you are setting up a new PC check that you carefully enter the IP information - make sure that the first three sets of numbers you use are identical and the last one unique. If you can use DHCP do so - it is much easier to manage!
Checking IP settings
If you have a PC which cannot see the Internet check out the TCP/IP properties (right click on Network Neighbourhood or My Network Places on the desktop and select Properties).
In Windows 98 the list of services and protocols will be displayed - in Windows 2000 or XP right click on local area network and select Properties, then TCP/IP which is linked to the network adaptor and click Properties.
If your server is handling DHCP then you may find that all the settings are blank - essentially the server is handling all the configuration for you.
If you have a static IP then the details for this will be shown, probably along with a gateway address (that of your Internet router) and perhaps the address of a DNS server.
Check that the gateway address is correct and that the DNS entries match those given to you by your Internet Service Provider.
If you are using a proxy server (where your local server acts as a web server by retrieving and caching pages from the Internet) then you'll need to set this up in the browser options (Tools > Options > General > Connections in Firefox; Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN settings in Internet Explorer.) Whoever set up the proxy server will need to give you the address (IP or computer name) and the port, probably 80 or 8080.
Network cards
In Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager), check all network cards are installed properly - there may be a yellow exclamation mark next to any that aren't. This can be caused by several things - the card installed is not the one which Windows thinks it is or the driver may be wrong or out of date. Note carefully the network card's make and model number - these are listed in Device Manager - and then visit the manufacturer's website (if you can get on the web!) where they may have recorded known issues.
If a new driver fails to sort the problem try using Belarc Advisor to run an audit on the PC to check the card. If that fails you may need to open the box and check what is actually written on the card.
Ping
A really useful tool for tracking down network errors is ping. Open up a command prompt and type ping followed by the IP address of a computer you know is on your network, the server for example e.g. ping 192.168.1.1 . If your PC is on the network and can see the server you should get a response from it in the form of a number of replies and some statistics. If this works, try pinging an address outside your network - 64.233.161.99 for example, which is Google's address. Note that some networks will not allow ping commands to reach the outside world for security reasons. If you ping a web address (e.g. ping www.google.com) you will see if DNS is working properly.
Peer-to-peer networks
If you cannot access files or printers on a shared machine, first check that it is turned on. If it is, and other PCs can access its resources then you need to look more closely at the PC which cannot connect. For printer issues see the Knowledgebase article Printer not working?.
If you cannot see shared resources on a peer-to-peer network, ensure the workgroup name is the same on all the PCs in the workgroup - in Windows 2000 or XP right click on My Computer and bring up Properties - click on Network Identification and then on Properties.
There's more on peer-to-peer networks and potential problems in the Knowledgebase article Setting Up A Small Peer-to-Peer Network.
This page is one part of a longer document about getting troubleshooting network problems.
Previous Section: Introduction Next section: Servers
About the author
Lasa Information Systems Team
Lasa Information Systems Team provides a range of services to community and voluntary organisations including ICT Health Checks and consulting on the best application of technology in your organisation. Lasa IST is responsible for maintaining the ICT Hub Knowledgebase.
Dealing with spam (or spam, spam, lovely spam)
Spam is probably the single most annoying aspect of the Internet's success. If you have email you've probably received spam. This article seeks to explain the problem of spam and offer suggestions for dealing with it.
Spam - no longer just luncheon meat!
Just a few years ago your email inbox was relatively uncluttered except for messages from friends, co-workers, family or stuff that you really did want to know about. Nowadays nearly everyone's inbox is flooded with unsolicited messages.
Unsolicited bulk email, commonly known as spam (remember the Monty Python sketch? Spam, spam, lovely spam!) has been on the rise for several years. It can include things like commercial solicitations, advertisements, pyramid schemes, sexual offers and fraudulent offers.
Various surveys have estimated that up to 50% of corporate email is spam. Spam messages can also pose security risks. Email security firm Message Labs claims that around 1 in every 270 spam messages contains a virus. Needless to say spam has become a very annoying but common part of modern electronic life.
Emails with subject headings like "Re. Your credit", "Congratulations", "20 YEARS YOUNGER" or offers to enlarge various parts of your anatomy etc. all fall into this category. Unscrupulous advertisers have found a cheap way of flooding the market at very low cost, hoping that some unsuspecting people may actually consider using these services.
Spammers are even offering to deal with the problem of spam, and how do they contact you? - via an unsolicited email! Unfortunately, until these messages are regulated or made illegal, spammers will continue to peddle their wares. Even regulation won't get rid of spam completely as much spam originates from outside the country it is being sent to. Regulations will probably be difficult to enforce and spammers can be very difficult to track down.
Why do I receive these emails?
Email addresses can be acquired in several ways.
If your address has ever appeared on any Web site, mailing list, newsgroup posting, as an email link on a web page, or if you've ever entered your email address onto a form on the Internet e.g. for a contest, or to sign up to a commercial mailing list, web site registrations, electronic post cards (the list goes on), then it's more than likely that your details will end up in a spammer's database.
Your details are a valuable commodity. Lists of email addresses may legitimately be sold on to other companies for marketing purposes - make sure you read a company's privacy policy before handing over your details on their Web site!
Spammers also go an extra step, by inventing addresses using computer software to simulate Yahoo, Hotmail and other accounts. The software normally creates a large number of random addresses and floods the Web seeking some kind of response. For example you reply requesting removal from their email list. This then confirms to the spammer that your email account is an active one.
In short, if you have an email address and have had it for any length of time, you will almost certainly be receiving spam emails.
How can I stop spam?
There really isn't any way to totally protect yourself from spam, just like you can't stop all the junk mail that arrives through your letterbox at home or work. If you only get the occasional spam message, treat it like you would junk mail - throw it in the bin.
Replying to spammers' "Remove me from your list" or "unsubscribe" address is not always a good idea. Reply only to messages that are from companies or organisations that you recognise. A reputable company will honour your request to be removed from their mailing list, but in most cases, replying to spam will only validate the existence of your address and in all likelihood, will increase the number of spam emails you get.
What to do when you receive spam
The following are some suggestions that will help alleviate the problem:
Use the Delete key
This is probably the simplest of all solutions, especially if you only receive a low number of unwanted emails. If you have no other system, the most reliable way of dealing with spam is to use the delete key.
Use a filter option
Many email packages offer the ability to filter incoming mail, and, based on the rules you supply, may be able to detect spam once it is downloaded. Spam messages can then be deleted automatically or stored in a separate folder so you can check to ensure they really are spam before deleting them. For more on this see the help files of your email software.
Consider using spam filtering services
Internet service providers (ISPs) are beginning to come to terms with the problem and some may provide a free or subscription based service that deals with the menace before it gets to your computers. Although this sounds like the ideal solution, it is complicated by all sorts of issues.
For example what is spam to one user may be another user's legitimate mail. Also the fact that spamming is an evolving art means that spammers will continue to change the way they operate as technology comes up with solutions.
The way the service works is similar to the filtering option described above. Rules are used to identify likely spam candidates and these are stored in a separate folder, which can be viewed by a user and contents retrieved individually or all deleted at the click of a button. By informing the service of any emails that have been allowed through, the provider can update their rules for future spam detection.
If your ISP or Web host does not offer some sort of spam filtering maybe it's time to consider a change ...
As well as providing services to ISPs, companies like Brightmail and MessageLabs also offer email security and spam filtering services to other businesses, although these tend to be aimed at organisations with large numbers of users and priced accordingly.
Try spam filtering tools
There are hundreds of programs that have been designed to deal with spam. Some are useful, others are more trouble than they are worth, or are very complex to set up, or may wipe out legitimate messages. We recently tried a free version of the program Spamnet (which works with Outlook 2000 and later versions). Spamnet is simple to install and use, and does a good job of dealing with items that have been labelled as spam.
By clicking once on the offending item, it is not only deleted, but a wider community can be informed of the existence of the spammer and the software updated in due course.
We've also tried with good results, the open source (free) Spambayes.
Products that can be installed on servers are also available e.g. GFI MailEssentials, and Symantec Brightmail Anti Spam Enterprise Edition.
Conceal your email address
Email collection programs called "scrapers" automatically search the Internet for email addresses they harvest from Web sites. If you must put your email address on a Web page, try putting it in a disguised form e.g. john dot Olufawo AT lasa dot org dot uk, jolufawoTAKE@OUTlasa.org.uk, jolufawo@xxlasa.org.uk (remove the anti-spam xx) are simple examples of doing this.
Other ways to disguise your email address include:
* using XML character references where you want your email address to appear - e.g. "ex@domain.com" could be written as ex@domain.com Your email address will appear normally on your web page. However, the HTML code behind the page will appear disguised as above so your email address is hidden from email scraper programs.
A free online tool for encoding emails using this method is available from West Bay Web Internet Publishing at www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html.
There are also downloadable tools available. Typing "email encoding software" into your favourite search engine should reveal many examples of online and downloadable tools.
* writing simple Javascript code into your HTML where you want an email address to appear
Unfortunately such methods don't work for long - once a spammer learns of them they can adjust how they collect email addresses accordingly.
Consider using email forms on your Web site
There are various pre-written scripts that can be downloaded from on the Internet and used to create forms on your Web site. These can be used to allow visitors to your site to submit their details or queries to you by email instead of you publishing your email address on your site. However, many of the widely available form scripts are no good because they include your undisguised address inside the HTML code.
There are more secure alternatives around though, for example the FormMail script available at NMS. You would need to check that your Web host will allow you to run your own CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts to implement this solution though.
Be aware that a badly run script which sends email can be used to send spam!
Use a separate account for business emails and personal emails
Or use a different address for forms you fill out on the Internet. If spam email really is a problem, maintaining a set of email addresses will enable you to monitor how spammers are getting hold of your address. If it becomes unbearable, then simply change your email account and take steps to keep it clean.
Don't pass spam emails on to your friends
This is especially true of chain letters, -- you just end up with one email with a whole host of valid email accounts. Before suggesting a friend or relative for a particular service ask them, if they are really interested and let them subscribe to it themselves.
On a similar note, when sending email to a group of people, put their addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field to keep them confidential.
Tighten up your email lists
Actively ensure that your contacts are up to date and valid. This will enable you to set up rules for any emails you receive from people not in your contact list. Emails from anyone not on the list can then be automatically moved to a spam folder for deleting.
Report it
You can in some instances contact the spammer's ISP (Internet Service Provider) and alert them to the fact that one of their users is spamming from their domain. Bear in mind that the majority of unsolicited mail has forged return address information, so the To:, From:, and Reply-To: addresses are not the actual source of the message.
To trace the real culprit you need to extract the information needed from the "message header" of the email. A message header is text that is somewhat difficult to decipher but has all the information you need to alert the proper ISP. In Outlook 2000 do the following:
1. Highlight the suspect email message
2. Go to View > Options
3. At the bottom of the Options window, you will see "Internet Headers"
4. Highlight the text in the Internet Header window (by clicking in the window, then pressing Ctrl-A or Right Click then select all)
5. When you have highlighted all the text in the window, Right Mouse Click and select Copy
6. Close that window (Internet headers) then click on the icon to forward the email message
7. In the forwarded message window Right Mouse Click. This time, select Paste. This will copy the message header information to the forwarded message
8. Look at the first line of the header that says Received from or Return path and you should see an email address in the form of Mailbox@domain.com. Address your email to postmaster@domain.com, briefly (and politely) explain that you are getting unsolicited emails from one of their users and they should take it from there.
Further tips on revealing the message headers using other email software.
Inform your system administrator
(assuming you have one) - If all else fails hand the problem over to your system administrator, they'll probably tell you they are having the same problems as you are having, but will suggest trying one or more of the above methods. If they are really nice, they may even set up a solution on your computer.
When informing them of the problem try and maintain a list of spam emails you have received to give them something to work with. Depending on how serious the problem is you will probably end up using a combination of the above methods to effectively deal with spam.
The only sure fire way not to get spam is to not do anything on the Internet, but most of us do not have that option. Unfortunately, in this modern age of information technology spam is becoming as common and annoying (if not more so) as telemarketers and telephone scam artists. The big difference is that it takes less time and costs less to email a thousand people an advertisement than it does to call each person individually.
http://www.icthubknowledgebase.org.uk/spamspamspamspam
Spam - no longer just luncheon meat!
Just a few years ago your email inbox was relatively uncluttered except for messages from friends, co-workers, family or stuff that you really did want to know about. Nowadays nearly everyone's inbox is flooded with unsolicited messages.
Unsolicited bulk email, commonly known as spam (remember the Monty Python sketch? Spam, spam, lovely spam!) has been on the rise for several years. It can include things like commercial solicitations, advertisements, pyramid schemes, sexual offers and fraudulent offers.
Various surveys have estimated that up to 50% of corporate email is spam. Spam messages can also pose security risks. Email security firm Message Labs claims that around 1 in every 270 spam messages contains a virus. Needless to say spam has become a very annoying but common part of modern electronic life.
Emails with subject headings like "Re. Your credit", "Congratulations", "20 YEARS YOUNGER" or offers to enlarge various parts of your anatomy etc. all fall into this category. Unscrupulous advertisers have found a cheap way of flooding the market at very low cost, hoping that some unsuspecting people may actually consider using these services.
Spammers are even offering to deal with the problem of spam, and how do they contact you? - via an unsolicited email! Unfortunately, until these messages are regulated or made illegal, spammers will continue to peddle their wares. Even regulation won't get rid of spam completely as much spam originates from outside the country it is being sent to. Regulations will probably be difficult to enforce and spammers can be very difficult to track down.
Why do I receive these emails?
Email addresses can be acquired in several ways.
If your address has ever appeared on any Web site, mailing list, newsgroup posting, as an email link on a web page, or if you've ever entered your email address onto a form on the Internet e.g. for a contest, or to sign up to a commercial mailing list, web site registrations, electronic post cards (the list goes on), then it's more than likely that your details will end up in a spammer's database.
Your details are a valuable commodity. Lists of email addresses may legitimately be sold on to other companies for marketing purposes - make sure you read a company's privacy policy before handing over your details on their Web site!
Spammers also go an extra step, by inventing addresses using computer software to simulate Yahoo, Hotmail and other accounts. The software normally creates a large number of random addresses and floods the Web seeking some kind of response. For example you reply requesting removal from their email list. This then confirms to the spammer that your email account is an active one.
In short, if you have an email address and have had it for any length of time, you will almost certainly be receiving spam emails.
How can I stop spam?
There really isn't any way to totally protect yourself from spam, just like you can't stop all the junk mail that arrives through your letterbox at home or work. If you only get the occasional spam message, treat it like you would junk mail - throw it in the bin.
Replying to spammers' "Remove me from your list" or "unsubscribe" address is not always a good idea. Reply only to messages that are from companies or organisations that you recognise. A reputable company will honour your request to be removed from their mailing list, but in most cases, replying to spam will only validate the existence of your address and in all likelihood, will increase the number of spam emails you get.
What to do when you receive spam
The following are some suggestions that will help alleviate the problem:
Use the Delete key
This is probably the simplest of all solutions, especially if you only receive a low number of unwanted emails. If you have no other system, the most reliable way of dealing with spam is to use the delete key.
Use a filter option
Many email packages offer the ability to filter incoming mail, and, based on the rules you supply, may be able to detect spam once it is downloaded. Spam messages can then be deleted automatically or stored in a separate folder so you can check to ensure they really are spam before deleting them. For more on this see the help files of your email software.
Consider using spam filtering services
Internet service providers (ISPs) are beginning to come to terms with the problem and some may provide a free or subscription based service that deals with the menace before it gets to your computers. Although this sounds like the ideal solution, it is complicated by all sorts of issues.
For example what is spam to one user may be another user's legitimate mail. Also the fact that spamming is an evolving art means that spammers will continue to change the way they operate as technology comes up with solutions.
The way the service works is similar to the filtering option described above. Rules are used to identify likely spam candidates and these are stored in a separate folder, which can be viewed by a user and contents retrieved individually or all deleted at the click of a button. By informing the service of any emails that have been allowed through, the provider can update their rules for future spam detection.
If your ISP or Web host does not offer some sort of spam filtering maybe it's time to consider a change ...
As well as providing services to ISPs, companies like Brightmail and MessageLabs also offer email security and spam filtering services to other businesses, although these tend to be aimed at organisations with large numbers of users and priced accordingly.
Try spam filtering tools
There are hundreds of programs that have been designed to deal with spam. Some are useful, others are more trouble than they are worth, or are very complex to set up, or may wipe out legitimate messages. We recently tried a free version of the program Spamnet (which works with Outlook 2000 and later versions). Spamnet is simple to install and use, and does a good job of dealing with items that have been labelled as spam.
By clicking once on the offending item, it is not only deleted, but a wider community can be informed of the existence of the spammer and the software updated in due course.
We've also tried with good results, the open source (free) Spambayes.
Products that can be installed on servers are also available e.g. GFI MailEssentials, and Symantec Brightmail Anti Spam Enterprise Edition.
Conceal your email address
Email collection programs called "scrapers" automatically search the Internet for email addresses they harvest from Web sites. If you must put your email address on a Web page, try putting it in a disguised form e.g. john dot Olufawo AT lasa dot org dot uk, jolufawoTAKE@OUTlasa.org.uk, jolufawo@xxlasa.org.uk (remove the anti-spam xx) are simple examples of doing this.
Other ways to disguise your email address include:
* using XML character references where you want your email address to appear - e.g. "ex@domain.com" could be written as ex@domain.com Your email address will appear normally on your web page. However, the HTML code behind the page will appear disguised as above so your email address is hidden from email scraper programs.
A free online tool for encoding emails using this method is available from West Bay Web Internet Publishing at www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html.
There are also downloadable tools available. Typing "email encoding software" into your favourite search engine should reveal many examples of online and downloadable tools.
* writing simple Javascript code into your HTML where you want an email address to appear
Unfortunately such methods don't work for long - once a spammer learns of them they can adjust how they collect email addresses accordingly.
Consider using email forms on your Web site
There are various pre-written scripts that can be downloaded from on the Internet and used to create forms on your Web site. These can be used to allow visitors to your site to submit their details or queries to you by email instead of you publishing your email address on your site. However, many of the widely available form scripts are no good because they include your undisguised address inside the HTML code.
There are more secure alternatives around though, for example the FormMail script available at NMS. You would need to check that your Web host will allow you to run your own CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts to implement this solution though.
Be aware that a badly run script which sends email can be used to send spam!
Use a separate account for business emails and personal emails
Or use a different address for forms you fill out on the Internet. If spam email really is a problem, maintaining a set of email addresses will enable you to monitor how spammers are getting hold of your address. If it becomes unbearable, then simply change your email account and take steps to keep it clean.
Don't pass spam emails on to your friends
This is especially true of chain letters, -- you just end up with one email with a whole host of valid email accounts. Before suggesting a friend or relative for a particular service ask them, if they are really interested and let them subscribe to it themselves.
On a similar note, when sending email to a group of people, put their addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field to keep them confidential.
Tighten up your email lists
Actively ensure that your contacts are up to date and valid. This will enable you to set up rules for any emails you receive from people not in your contact list. Emails from anyone not on the list can then be automatically moved to a spam folder for deleting.
Report it
You can in some instances contact the spammer's ISP (Internet Service Provider) and alert them to the fact that one of their users is spamming from their domain. Bear in mind that the majority of unsolicited mail has forged return address information, so the To:, From:, and Reply-To: addresses are not the actual source of the message.
To trace the real culprit you need to extract the information needed from the "message header" of the email. A message header is text that is somewhat difficult to decipher but has all the information you need to alert the proper ISP. In Outlook 2000 do the following:
1. Highlight the suspect email message
2. Go to View > Options
3. At the bottom of the Options window, you will see "Internet Headers"
4. Highlight the text in the Internet Header window (by clicking in the window, then pressing Ctrl-A or Right Click then select all)
5. When you have highlighted all the text in the window, Right Mouse Click and select Copy
6. Close that window (Internet headers) then click on the icon to forward the email message
7. In the forwarded message window Right Mouse Click. This time, select Paste. This will copy the message header information to the forwarded message
8. Look at the first line of the header that says Received from or Return path and you should see an email address in the form of Mailbox@domain.com. Address your email to postmaster@domain.com, briefly (and politely) explain that you are getting unsolicited emails from one of their users and they should take it from there.
Further tips on revealing the message headers using other email software.
Inform your system administrator
(assuming you have one) - If all else fails hand the problem over to your system administrator, they'll probably tell you they are having the same problems as you are having, but will suggest trying one or more of the above methods. If they are really nice, they may even set up a solution on your computer.
When informing them of the problem try and maintain a list of spam emails you have received to give them something to work with. Depending on how serious the problem is you will probably end up using a combination of the above methods to effectively deal with spam.
The only sure fire way not to get spam is to not do anything on the Internet, but most of us do not have that option. Unfortunately, in this modern age of information technology spam is becoming as common and annoying (if not more so) as telemarketers and telephone scam artists. The big difference is that it takes less time and costs less to email a thousand people an advertisement than it does to call each person individually.
http://www.icthubknowledgebase.org.uk/spamspamspamspam
Comparing web office products
Miles Maier takes a look at how the various tools you might use to start your own ‘web office’ compare.
About the author
Lasa Information Systems Team
Lasa Information Systems Team provides a range of services to community and voluntary organisations including ICT Health Checks and consulting on the best application of technology in your organisation. Lasa IST is responsible for maintaining the ICT Hub Knowledgebase.
In part one of this article, we looked at getting started with using online tools to carry out everyday tasks such as email, calendar and contacts. We looked at what online tools are, the pros and cons, and how using these tools can help you to collaborate, share and publish work with colleagues
In part two, we now look at comparing the various tools you might use to start your own ‘web office’
DISCLAIMER: The opinions in this article are solely those of the London Regional Champion. We do not advocate any one web service tool over another and this article is purely intended as a guide to help you begin your own experiments with online tools.
Email:
Breaking the habit of using Outlook for email can be difficult. However, Google’s Gmail service offers lots of functionality and integrates well with other Google services, such as Google Calendar, Maps, and Mobile, and it’s easy to forward emails from an Outlook account to GMail.
View larger Google mail image (opens in new window)
Advantages: No doubt about it - Google’s free Gmail service offers the best combination of features, functionality, integration and storage to be found in an online mail service. With 2GB of storage, Google integrates tightly with its other offerings - Google Calendar, Mobile and Maps. The launch of Google's free Mail Fetcher (see below) also allows users to bring mail from external email accounts (like Yahoo!) into their Gmail (which Yahoo! and Microsoft currently charge for as a premium service).
View larger Google Fetcher image (opens in new window)
Basic integration with Outlook email was fairly easy with the creation of a simple rule in Outlook to forward my mail to GMail. However, you should always check with your IT administrator as many organisations consider the redirecting of company mail onto third party servers to be breach of security.
We've also heard on the grapevine that many businesses are seriously considering taking up Google's Premium Apps service.
Disadvantages: Apart from the usual caveats about security and data back-up of hosting your precious data with a third party provider in a different legal jurisdiction from the UK, GMail's major weakness is the lack of functionality -
many will be tempted to use an alternative service like Plaxo.
See: Google Mail
Calendar:
Google Calendar is a fully featured web calendar that integrates well with other Google services, such as GMail and Google Maps.
View larger Google Calendar image (opens in new window)
Advantages: Using Google Calendar you can create and share multiple calendars and set up reminders and auto responders – this is useful if you need to co-ordinate a small team of workers who either work from home or spend most of their time doing outreach work.
A Microsoft Outlook calendar can be imported into Google as a CSV file and SyncMyCal can be used to synchronise appointments between Google and Outlook. For Mac users, SpanningSync will synchronise between Google Calendar and Apple’s iCal.
See: Google Calendar
Address Book/Contacts:
Plaxo is a popular web based address book with a large number of other users, an important factor in choosing any online tool if you plan to use it long-term.
View larger Plaxo image (opens in new window)
Advantages: Plaxo strength is its integration with Outlook.offers better functionality than the contact management in Google’s Gmail. You can download a free toolbar from Plaxo which will automatically synchronise with Outlook contacts, notes and tasks. Premium versions of Plaxo will also synchronise contacts with your mobile phone or PDA.
Disadvantages: Plaxo’s major weakness is that it whilst it offers the best contact management, it doesn’t yet offer support for email, documents or spreadsheets. We expect Plaxo to fix this in the near future by partnering with an email service provider.
See: Plaxo
Word processing and spreadsheets:
ThinkFree Online Edition:
During testing, ThinkFree Online Edition emerged as my current choice of word processor and spreadsheet tool because of its focus on delivering a tightly integrated set of word processing and spreadsheet tools.
View larger Thinkfree image (opens in new window)
Advantages: ThinkFree Online edition delivers the fastest editing speeds of the three tools tested in this section. It handles large and complex documents and can work whilst you’re not on the Internet - important if you need to work in areas without an Internet connection. It also has a familiar user interface that borrows heavily from Word and Excel.
View larger Thinkfree editor image (opens in new window)
ThinkFree also boasts a doc exchange area where users can upload and share their files – typically templates and other useful files.
View larger Thinkfree document image (opens in new window)
Disadvantages: On the downsideThinkFree appears to be the only one not to currently support Open Office file formats (opd, ops, sxw). Another slight downside is ThinkFree’s lack of integration with email, calendar and address book services to form a complete office suite under one banner. However, ThinkFree does seem to be looking at this and we could well see these missing services emerge in ThinkFree during the near future.
See: Thinkfree
Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet:
If I had to choose a provider for an integrated suite of productivity tools, it would be Zoho. Zoho offers a rapidly expanding suite of free and paid for online office tools such as a web notebook, wiki, polls, project manager, customer relationship management (CRM), and database tools.
View larger Zoho image (opens in new window)
For our web office, Zoho Writer and Sheet is a well supported free online word processor and spreadsheet service.
Advantages: It has a clean, simple interface familiar to users of Word and Excel. Zoho also offers the ability to share and publish documents, and can import and export to a wide range of file formats, including Open Office. Zoho also offers offline working via a plug-in for Microsoft Office.
View larger Zoho document image (opens in new window)
As with ThinkFree, you can also post directly from Zoho to your blog of choice. Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet also gives you extra storage capacity by integrating with online storage company Box.net, which offers 1GB of free storage.
Disadvantages: On the downside, many users have noted that whilst it accurately displays simple Word documents imported into Zoho Writer, it tends to slow down and struggle with more complex documents, such as the 47 page ICT Strategy I’m currently writing. In fairness to Zoho, the company acknowledges this and is working on improving its speed.
Future developments: As a sign of things to come, Zoho will also be partnering with EchoSign - which will allow users to send and receive digitally signed invoices and receipts, a small step towards enabling e-commerce into your ‘web office’. Zoho has also been trialling a web office portal that will bring email, calendar, contacts, documents and spreadsheets under one roof.
View larger Zoho Virtual Office image (opens in new window)
See: Zoho
Google Docs & Spreadsheets:
If it’s integration with email, calendar and contacts you’re after - Google Docs & Spreadsheets is the one.
View larger Google Share documents image (opens in new window)
Advantages: Whilst this service has rather basic document formatting options, it makes collaboration and sharing easy through integration with GMail. This probably the choice to make if you want to collborate on rough drafts or outlines without worrying about a polished final look. Google Docs & Spreadheets also supports a wide range of file formats, including Word and Open Office
View larger Google document image (opens in new window)
Disadvantages: However, Google Docs and Spreadsheets has the most basic word processing and spreadsheet functions and the lowest file size capacity of the ‘free’ services reviewed - and is probably not the choice to make if you want to collaborate on large, complex business documents.
See: Google documents
Accessibility
At present none of the Web Office Products offer accessibility options. This is something that needs to be developed if these tools are ever to truly replace traditional Office products.
What’s next for the web office?
One thing that’s clearly missing from all three services is that staple of office life - the mail-merge of text documents and address book contacts to create letters and labels. This may well change in the near future as all three services look to offer an integrated package of calendar, email, and contacts along with document and spreadsheet editors.
Remember with all these tools, sustainability is a big issue – what happens to your documents and data if the company is no longer around? Make sure you pick a tool from a company that’s likely to stay the course. And make sure you keep a backup of your documents somewhere else.
About the author
Lasa Information Systems TeamLasa Information Systems Team provides a range of services to community and voluntary organisations including ICT Health Checks and consulting on the best application of technology in your organisation. Lasa IST is responsible for maintaining the ICT Hub Knowledgebase.
Making Community Approaches to Computer Literacy Work
"Residents are happily emailing friends and family and each other, posting comments on their own Digital Unite Noticeboard and the Internet in general and also entertaining their grandchildren at the computer". Martin Calvert and Peter Wade, Scheme Managers, Thalia House
So how do you make such a community approach work?
Perhaps it's best to talk about a particular group of residents in sheltered housing in Bexhill, East Sussex. The residents of this 88-flat complex called Thalia House in the seaside town of Bexhill, had expressed an interest in learning to use computers and the Internet. Thalia's housing provider, Rother Homes, responded by approaching the Horizon Housing Group (of which they are a member).
Horizon's People for Action department, specialist social and economic development department, responded saying they knew of a specialist organisation with a track record in bringing in IT literacy projects to sheltered settings: Hairnet Computer and Internet Training.
In partnership
As with most things in life, once the partnerships are in place, and everyone is facing in the same direction, the rest of the journey is comparatively easy. And so it was with Thalia House. Pretty soon they had a computer, a broadband connection, an engagement meeting (so that everyone knew what the project was about and the part they had to play; this included residents and scheme and housing managers); and a weekly training 'day' when their local Hairnet accredited trainer, John Gaunt, came to visit every week for 11 weeks.
The culmination was the appointment of a pair of 'Computer Caretakers' (residents) who were trained by John to housekeep the computer - and the slow exit involves John in facilitating the computer club on a monthly basis for three months before the group goes 'solo'.
If all this sounds like a huge effort, then against this one must look at the benefits gained: At one level the benefits are as varied as the people who've gained the IT skills and are putting them to use.
But the great big news flash is really about enabling a step-change that's occurring anyway in society, driven largely by the rising demographic of older people. Sheltered housing communities lie at the heart of this change - they're the place where increasing numbers of people are now living, and who need to have their voices heard by the wider world and by service providers locally.
With email, Internet and projects and strategies such as Digital Unite programmes that help older people to access them in a way that makes sense to them, there's a real chance of making sure that this step-change happens in a way that empowers rather than disempowers the people in these communities.
Brian Collins computer caretaker and club member of Thalia House summed up the activity beautifully in one of his postings on the website:
"Now that at least two Rother Homes sites are on the Website, hopefully a two way exchange of information will be come the norm, using the wealth of knowledge of the residents for the benefit of all. We all need to get away from the 'them and us' idea, and to work together with our landlords for a better life all round. Rother Homes are not the big bad landlord, all residential associations throughout the land are hamstrung by rules and regulations. Let's all work towards a better tomorrow".
Hairnet is an Internet and Computer training company that works nationally and locally. We are experienced at facilitating IT project ownership and mediating allocation of tasks and responsibility with tenants and staff at sheltered schemes.
Digital Unite Programmes make sure that learners see the relevance of their skills from the moment they embark - by giving them a space and place for their 'voice' to be heard.
About the author
Gill Adams, HairNet
Hairnet is an Internet and Computer training company that works nationally and locally. They are experienced at facilitating IT project ownership and mediating allocation of tasks and responsibility with tenants and staff at sheltered schemes. Digital Unite Programmes make sure that learners see the relevance of their skills from the moment they embark - by giving them a space and place for their 'voice' to be heard.
So how do you make such a community approach work?
Perhaps it's best to talk about a particular group of residents in sheltered housing in Bexhill, East Sussex. The residents of this 88-flat complex called Thalia House in the seaside town of Bexhill, had expressed an interest in learning to use computers and the Internet. Thalia's housing provider, Rother Homes, responded by approaching the Horizon Housing Group (of which they are a member).
Horizon's People for Action department, specialist social and economic development department, responded saying they knew of a specialist organisation with a track record in bringing in IT literacy projects to sheltered settings: Hairnet Computer and Internet Training.
In partnership
As with most things in life, once the partnerships are in place, and everyone is facing in the same direction, the rest of the journey is comparatively easy. And so it was with Thalia House. Pretty soon they had a computer, a broadband connection, an engagement meeting (so that everyone knew what the project was about and the part they had to play; this included residents and scheme and housing managers); and a weekly training 'day' when their local Hairnet accredited trainer, John Gaunt, came to visit every week for 11 weeks.
The culmination was the appointment of a pair of 'Computer Caretakers' (residents) who were trained by John to housekeep the computer - and the slow exit involves John in facilitating the computer club on a monthly basis for three months before the group goes 'solo'.
If all this sounds like a huge effort, then against this one must look at the benefits gained: At one level the benefits are as varied as the people who've gained the IT skills and are putting them to use.
But the great big news flash is really about enabling a step-change that's occurring anyway in society, driven largely by the rising demographic of older people. Sheltered housing communities lie at the heart of this change - they're the place where increasing numbers of people are now living, and who need to have their voices heard by the wider world and by service providers locally.
With email, Internet and projects and strategies such as Digital Unite programmes that help older people to access them in a way that makes sense to them, there's a real chance of making sure that this step-change happens in a way that empowers rather than disempowers the people in these communities.
Brian Collins computer caretaker and club member of Thalia House summed up the activity beautifully in one of his postings on the website:
"Now that at least two Rother Homes sites are on the Website, hopefully a two way exchange of information will be come the norm, using the wealth of knowledge of the residents for the benefit of all. We all need to get away from the 'them and us' idea, and to work together with our landlords for a better life all round. Rother Homes are not the big bad landlord, all residential associations throughout the land are hamstrung by rules and regulations. Let's all work towards a better tomorrow".
Hairnet is an Internet and Computer training company that works nationally and locally. We are experienced at facilitating IT project ownership and mediating allocation of tasks and responsibility with tenants and staff at sheltered schemes.
Digital Unite Programmes make sure that learners see the relevance of their skills from the moment they embark - by giving them a space and place for their 'voice' to be heard.
About the author
Gill Adams, HairNet
Hairnet is an Internet and Computer training company that works nationally and locally. They are experienced at facilitating IT project ownership and mediating allocation of tasks and responsibility with tenants and staff at sheltered schemes. Digital Unite Programmes make sure that learners see the relevance of their skills from the moment they embark - by giving them a space and place for their 'voice' to be heard.
Why do I need an ISP?
I connect to the www through a hosting company (www provider) through my router; I have a fixed IP address. Question how does this hosting company connect to the www and why can't we mortals do that directly from home IP to IP.
Well, you can, if your wallet is big enough.
But the real problem here is that there's a misunderstanding of just what the internet is. For example, "www", or World Wide Web, is just a part of the internet.
•This starts to sound kind of Zen, but the internet is everything, and the internet is nothing.
There is no single thing I can point to and say "this, this thing right here that your ISP connects to, that is the internet". It just doesn't work that way.
If we look at it differently, your ISP is the internet. When you connect to your service provider, you are connecting to the internet right there.
Think about it -- if you send email to a friend of yours that uses the same service provider that you do, that email goes from your machine to the service provider to your friends machine. It never had to go anywhere else that your service provider might be connected to, and still, it did go over the internet - your service provider's little corner of the internet.
The internet isn't really a thing that ISPs hook up to. It's more like a side effect of the fact that all the ISPs are connecting to each other in various and fairly random ways.
Now, in the case of a small ISP, they may get their connectivity to the rest of the internet by purchasing a connection from a larger ISP. Typically it's an extremely high speed or high bandwidth connection. A good ISP will connect to the rest of the internet using more than one such connection, from more than one provider, to balance the load, and provide fault tolerance should one of the connections drop.
Larger ISPs, such as AOL, earthlink and others may not have a need to connect to an upstream ISP, since that's already them. Instead, the larger ISP's negotiate connectivity between themselves. This allows you, through your little ISP to get connectivity to everyone that your ISP, and your ISP's ISP, (and perhaps your ISP's ISP's ISP, and so on) can connect to.
The point is simply that there's no central point.
One of the reasons the word "web" is so appropriate in World Wide Web is because that's a much more accurate picture of how things interconnect. Between any two points on a spider web, there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to get from point A to point B. The internet works (roughly) the same way.
So, could you connect directly to whomever your ISP connects to? Probably. In fact, that's what many large corporations do ... they skip the low level ISPs completely and purchase bandwidth in bulk from larger service providers. You could do that to, provided you were willing to spend the money to do so, and have the technical ability to set up your side of the connectivity. It's rare that the upstream network providers are set up to also deal with single user / home / small business connectivity.
http://ask-leo.com/why_do_i_need_an_isp.html
Well, you can, if your wallet is big enough.
But the real problem here is that there's a misunderstanding of just what the internet is. For example, "www", or World Wide Web, is just a part of the internet.
•This starts to sound kind of Zen, but the internet is everything, and the internet is nothing.
There is no single thing I can point to and say "this, this thing right here that your ISP connects to, that is the internet". It just doesn't work that way.
If we look at it differently, your ISP is the internet. When you connect to your service provider, you are connecting to the internet right there.
Think about it -- if you send email to a friend of yours that uses the same service provider that you do, that email goes from your machine to the service provider to your friends machine. It never had to go anywhere else that your service provider might be connected to, and still, it did go over the internet - your service provider's little corner of the internet.
The internet isn't really a thing that ISPs hook up to. It's more like a side effect of the fact that all the ISPs are connecting to each other in various and fairly random ways.
Now, in the case of a small ISP, they may get their connectivity to the rest of the internet by purchasing a connection from a larger ISP. Typically it's an extremely high speed or high bandwidth connection. A good ISP will connect to the rest of the internet using more than one such connection, from more than one provider, to balance the load, and provide fault tolerance should one of the connections drop.
Larger ISPs, such as AOL, earthlink and others may not have a need to connect to an upstream ISP, since that's already them. Instead, the larger ISP's negotiate connectivity between themselves. This allows you, through your little ISP to get connectivity to everyone that your ISP, and your ISP's ISP, (and perhaps your ISP's ISP's ISP, and so on) can connect to.
The point is simply that there's no central point.
One of the reasons the word "web" is so appropriate in World Wide Web is because that's a much more accurate picture of how things interconnect. Between any two points on a spider web, there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to get from point A to point B. The internet works (roughly) the same way.
So, could you connect directly to whomever your ISP connects to? Probably. In fact, that's what many large corporations do ... they skip the low level ISPs completely and purchase bandwidth in bulk from larger service providers. You could do that to, provided you were willing to spend the money to do so, and have the technical ability to set up your side of the connectivity. It's rare that the upstream network providers are set up to also deal with single user / home / small business connectivity.
http://ask-leo.com/why_do_i_need_an_isp.html
Real Evil: ISP Inserted Advertising
Texas based ISP Redmoon has implemented software that hijacks pages being visited by their customers by placing Redmoon’s own ads on these pages.
The technology is provided by NebuAD, which boasts that ISP delivered advertisements are an untapped source of revenue.
Every single web site owner is affected by NebuAD’s technology: whether a site is running ads or not makes no difference, Customers of any ISP evil enough to run NebuAD’s platform are going to see ads on every page on every site; ads that don’t benefit the content creator. It is important to note that these ads are NOT pop-ups, and this is not a free internet service; the ads are served as if they were part of the page, to paying internet customers who are NOT made aware that these ads have been inserted by their ISP.
As a content creator I’m horrified that any page I create could be plastered with advertisements I don’t approve of as I’m sure many others will be as well. There are probably copyright issues as well in terms of hijacking original works for profit. We can only hope that this evil form of advertising does not spread beyond Texas.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/23/real-evil-isp-inserted-advertising/
The technology is provided by NebuAD, which boasts that ISP delivered advertisements are an untapped source of revenue.
Every single web site owner is affected by NebuAD’s technology: whether a site is running ads or not makes no difference, Customers of any ISP evil enough to run NebuAD’s platform are going to see ads on every page on every site; ads that don’t benefit the content creator. It is important to note that these ads are NOT pop-ups, and this is not a free internet service; the ads are served as if they were part of the page, to paying internet customers who are NOT made aware that these ads have been inserted by their ISP.
As a content creator I’m horrified that any page I create could be plastered with advertisements I don’t approve of as I’m sure many others will be as well. There are probably copyright issues as well in terms of hijacking original works for profit. We can only hope that this evil form of advertising does not spread beyond Texas.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/23/real-evil-isp-inserted-advertising/
The Canadian Telco/ISP Rip-off Continues
What the hell is wrong with the ISP and mobile phone business in Canada?
Rogers Cell Phone MascotGone are the days when you could just buy a service. Now, everything you do is an attempt to reduce the service levels below useless, or ding you for "extras" (no one has the guts to charge extra yet for services like "phone rings when someone's calling you," but that day will come). It's all about getting maximum ARPU (average revenue per user).
This week, Tod Maffin got me to fiddle with a Bell cell phone, so he could record the experience for his technology column on CBC Radio. It was rather ironic that two geeks spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how to download a movie and watch it on the cell phone. Not only do they want to increase your spending, but they can't be bothered to make it easy for you to do that.
Today Techdirt has a good piece about Rogers throttling back its Internet speed for customers using torrents and other peer-to-peer downloading services. Their latest step is to reduce the speed of traffic that's encrypted.
What's wrong with this picture? One of the most common uses for encryption is e-mail, which should be the fastest thing in the pipeline, not the slowest.
Need more evidence there's something wrong with service in Canada? Here's Mark Evans: Wireless Deals in Canada?; Wow! Signs of Competition in Canada; Less Regulation in Canada, Less Competition. See also Boris Mann on prices higher than Mexico.
My very small act of defiance was to buy a smart phone that can access wireless LANs instead of tying me to buying all my bandwidth from the phone company. I had to buy a phone from Europe in order to pull that off, because the same phone distributed in North America has the wireless capability removed. (See Boris on his Nokia E61.)
What's wrong with this picture? I'm having trouble seeing what's right with this picture. We spend more to get less service, and valuable functions are disabled before they get to market.
http://mutually-inclusive.typepad.com/weblog/2007/04/the_canadian_te_1.html
Rogers Cell Phone MascotGone are the days when you could just buy a service. Now, everything you do is an attempt to reduce the service levels below useless, or ding you for "extras" (no one has the guts to charge extra yet for services like "phone rings when someone's calling you," but that day will come). It's all about getting maximum ARPU (average revenue per user).
This week, Tod Maffin got me to fiddle with a Bell cell phone, so he could record the experience for his technology column on CBC Radio. It was rather ironic that two geeks spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how to download a movie and watch it on the cell phone. Not only do they want to increase your spending, but they can't be bothered to make it easy for you to do that.
Today Techdirt has a good piece about Rogers throttling back its Internet speed for customers using torrents and other peer-to-peer downloading services. Their latest step is to reduce the speed of traffic that's encrypted.
What's wrong with this picture? One of the most common uses for encryption is e-mail, which should be the fastest thing in the pipeline, not the slowest.
Need more evidence there's something wrong with service in Canada? Here's Mark Evans: Wireless Deals in Canada?; Wow! Signs of Competition in Canada; Less Regulation in Canada, Less Competition. See also Boris Mann on prices higher than Mexico.
My very small act of defiance was to buy a smart phone that can access wireless LANs instead of tying me to buying all my bandwidth from the phone company. I had to buy a phone from Europe in order to pull that off, because the same phone distributed in North America has the wireless capability removed. (See Boris on his Nokia E61.)
What's wrong with this picture? I'm having trouble seeing what's right with this picture. We spend more to get less service, and valuable functions are disabled before they get to market.
http://mutually-inclusive.typepad.com/weblog/2007/04/the_canadian_te_1.html
"Automatic Bill Payment" Means Verizon Pays Your Bill, Then Sends You Another One
Just when you think you've head everything, Rebecca writes you. She thought she'd set up her Verizon DSL with automatic payments. When she could suddenly no longer log in to her Verizon email, she called them up and found out that she was way overdue. Once she paid her past balance, and waited several days for Verizon to turn her service back on, she logged in to her account and sure enough she did have automatic payments set up:
On Monday I came to work and was finally able to log into Verizon.net. This allowed me to view past bills, which did state that they were paid in full every month automatically. I called Verizon again and demanded to know what was going on. The man explained that because I originally asked for my (Verizon) DSL to be on the same bill as my (Verizon) phone line, the way they handle it is to have Verizon's phone department pay off the Verizon DSL bill every month and add that amount to the Verizon phone bill. Logging onto my Verizon account would only show an amount paid in full each month, which I assumed was paid by my bank account but was in fact paid by . . . VERIZON.
Gee, that's not confusing at all. Rebecca canceled Verizon and called AT&T, but was given the usual AT&T runaround over the price. Now she doesn't want to give her money to liars, and,consequently, is without internet.
Can anyone recommend an ISP? Because you know us. We can't. We've stared too long at the sun that is our tipline.
Rebecca writes:
Last week, I was suddenly unable to log into my Verizon account to retrieve e-mail. My DSL and phone line still worked, but when I tried to log in on Verizon.net I got a message simply stating that my account had been "disabled." There was no explanation, no instructions, and no contact information. I searched the site for a phone number, first clicking through "help" and then a "contact" link, which asked me whether I'd prefer e-mail or phone. With no way to e-mail, I clicked "phone" and was prompted to log in. Upon doing so I got the same message about my disabled account. No information.
I visited gethuman.com and dialed the number posted for Verizon. I spoke with someone at Verizon who told me that my account was overdue, even though I could have sworn I checked my bill online a month ago and all was fine, set up with automatic payment. They assured me I owed them, and the account person on the phone could not take my payment. She had to direct me to another system that would take my payment, and then I'd have to hang up and call the first number back to get my account reinstated. She said this might all result in a few days of disruption to my DSL service.
She transferred me to the system, which simply asked me to enter the amount I'd like to pay. The woman had never told me what I owed, and the system wouldn't tell me either. So, I had to call back, go through the waiting process, finally got the figure (more than $200!), transferred back, paid off the amount, hung up, and called the first number for a third time. This person told me that she couldn't simply turn my account back on - she had to cancel my DSL and put it through as a new order, a process that would take up to two weeks during which time I'd have no DSL service. I pointed out that my DSL was still connected, and I had now paid off the bill, so why would she have to cancel it? The woman claimed that it was because they needed to give me a new account number and there was nothing to be done about it.
Thinking this was absurd, I decided to check my options and see if I should just switch to another service. I made a list of other providers, but before I switched I wanted to make absolutely sure that Verizon couldn't streamline the process to get my DSL back up and running quickly.
The next day was Friday and my DSL was still working. From my office, I called Verizon one last time. I explained the ordeal to the man, pointing out that service was still on and the account was paid in full, but I needed my e-mail log-in turned back on. He said that was no problem, that he could have it running in a few hours. I asked him repeatedly whether or not my DSL would remain on, and each time he said yes. While we were on the line, he asked if I wanted to upgrade to faster DSL. I had been considering it, so I agreed on the basis that my DSL would have no interruption in service. He assured me I'd have it all weekend, and on Monday the faster service would start.
Arriving home from work Friday night, I found that my service was disconnected, and it remained so all weekend.
On Monday I came to work and was finally able to log into Verizon.net. This allowed me to view past bills, which did state that they were paid in full every month automatically. I called Verizon again and demanded to know what was going on. The man explained that because I originally asked for my (Verizon) DSL to be on the same bill as my (Verizon) phone line, the way they handle it is to have Verizon's phone department pay off the Verizon DSL bill every month and add that amount to the Verizon phone bill. Logging onto my Verizon account would only show an amount paid in full each month, which I assumed was paid by my bank account but was in fact paid by . . . VERIZON.
This explanation took awhile to sink in with me. When I finally got it, I moved on to the next problem. Why was my DSL shut off? The man explained to me that the man I spoke with on Friday was mistaken, and that there was no way to stop the shut-off order which had apparently been sent out Wednesday but wasn't acted upon until Friday. The third person I spoke with was the correct one - it would take two weeks to reconnect. He made it clear there was no way around this.
I was so frustrated by that point that I asked him to please stop the DSL upgrade I had ordered and cancel the DSL altogether, as well as the phone line, because I had no desire to do business with Verizon any longer. He put me on hold for five minutes while he wrote a detailed note of everything we discussed (covering his ass, I'm sure), and then confirmed that all services would be shut off. There was absolutely no attempt to keep me as a customer.
On a side-note, I then called AT&T and asked for information on the cheapest phone and Internet plan they had, explaining I wanted something comparable to what I was paying through Verizon (less than $30 a month). The woman first told me the cheapest combo was $65, and when I balked she pretended to spend three seconds looking again and said the cheapest was actually $45. When I asked a third time if that was the lowest price available she changed her mind again and said it was actually $35. I hung up on her. If it weren't for the fact that I need the Internet to run my web site and do my weekly podcast, I'd settle for using the library. Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do, since I'm in no mood to hand over money to liars.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/stupid/automatic-bill-payment-means-verizon-pays-your-bill-then-sends-you-another-one-274747.php
On Monday I came to work and was finally able to log into Verizon.net. This allowed me to view past bills, which did state that they were paid in full every month automatically. I called Verizon again and demanded to know what was going on. The man explained that because I originally asked for my (Verizon) DSL to be on the same bill as my (Verizon) phone line, the way they handle it is to have Verizon's phone department pay off the Verizon DSL bill every month and add that amount to the Verizon phone bill. Logging onto my Verizon account would only show an amount paid in full each month, which I assumed was paid by my bank account but was in fact paid by . . . VERIZON.
Gee, that's not confusing at all. Rebecca canceled Verizon and called AT&T, but was given the usual AT&T runaround over the price. Now she doesn't want to give her money to liars, and,consequently, is without internet.
Can anyone recommend an ISP? Because you know us. We can't. We've stared too long at the sun that is our tipline.
Rebecca writes:
Last week, I was suddenly unable to log into my Verizon account to retrieve e-mail. My DSL and phone line still worked, but when I tried to log in on Verizon.net I got a message simply stating that my account had been "disabled." There was no explanation, no instructions, and no contact information. I searched the site for a phone number, first clicking through "help" and then a "contact" link, which asked me whether I'd prefer e-mail or phone. With no way to e-mail, I clicked "phone" and was prompted to log in. Upon doing so I got the same message about my disabled account. No information.
I visited gethuman.com and dialed the number posted for Verizon. I spoke with someone at Verizon who told me that my account was overdue, even though I could have sworn I checked my bill online a month ago and all was fine, set up with automatic payment. They assured me I owed them, and the account person on the phone could not take my payment. She had to direct me to another system that would take my payment, and then I'd have to hang up and call the first number back to get my account reinstated. She said this might all result in a few days of disruption to my DSL service.
She transferred me to the system, which simply asked me to enter the amount I'd like to pay. The woman had never told me what I owed, and the system wouldn't tell me either. So, I had to call back, go through the waiting process, finally got the figure (more than $200!), transferred back, paid off the amount, hung up, and called the first number for a third time. This person told me that she couldn't simply turn my account back on - she had to cancel my DSL and put it through as a new order, a process that would take up to two weeks during which time I'd have no DSL service. I pointed out that my DSL was still connected, and I had now paid off the bill, so why would she have to cancel it? The woman claimed that it was because they needed to give me a new account number and there was nothing to be done about it.
Thinking this was absurd, I decided to check my options and see if I should just switch to another service. I made a list of other providers, but before I switched I wanted to make absolutely sure that Verizon couldn't streamline the process to get my DSL back up and running quickly.
The next day was Friday and my DSL was still working. From my office, I called Verizon one last time. I explained the ordeal to the man, pointing out that service was still on and the account was paid in full, but I needed my e-mail log-in turned back on. He said that was no problem, that he could have it running in a few hours. I asked him repeatedly whether or not my DSL would remain on, and each time he said yes. While we were on the line, he asked if I wanted to upgrade to faster DSL. I had been considering it, so I agreed on the basis that my DSL would have no interruption in service. He assured me I'd have it all weekend, and on Monday the faster service would start.
Arriving home from work Friday night, I found that my service was disconnected, and it remained so all weekend.
On Monday I came to work and was finally able to log into Verizon.net. This allowed me to view past bills, which did state that they were paid in full every month automatically. I called Verizon again and demanded to know what was going on. The man explained that because I originally asked for my (Verizon) DSL to be on the same bill as my (Verizon) phone line, the way they handle it is to have Verizon's phone department pay off the Verizon DSL bill every month and add that amount to the Verizon phone bill. Logging onto my Verizon account would only show an amount paid in full each month, which I assumed was paid by my bank account but was in fact paid by . . . VERIZON.
This explanation took awhile to sink in with me. When I finally got it, I moved on to the next problem. Why was my DSL shut off? The man explained to me that the man I spoke with on Friday was mistaken, and that there was no way to stop the shut-off order which had apparently been sent out Wednesday but wasn't acted upon until Friday. The third person I spoke with was the correct one - it would take two weeks to reconnect. He made it clear there was no way around this.
I was so frustrated by that point that I asked him to please stop the DSL upgrade I had ordered and cancel the DSL altogether, as well as the phone line, because I had no desire to do business with Verizon any longer. He put me on hold for five minutes while he wrote a detailed note of everything we discussed (covering his ass, I'm sure), and then confirmed that all services would be shut off. There was absolutely no attempt to keep me as a customer.
On a side-note, I then called AT&T and asked for information on the cheapest phone and Internet plan they had, explaining I wanted something comparable to what I was paying through Verizon (less than $30 a month). The woman first told me the cheapest combo was $65, and when I balked she pretended to spend three seconds looking again and said the cheapest was actually $45. When I asked a third time if that was the lowest price available she changed her mind again and said it was actually $35. I hung up on her. If it weren't for the fact that I need the Internet to run my web site and do my weekly podcast, I'd settle for using the library. Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do, since I'm in no mood to hand over money to liars.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/stupid/automatic-bill-payment-means-verizon-pays-your-bill-then-sends-you-another-one-274747.php
When ISPs attack - with advertising
Over the weekend there's been a pretty big flap over whether some A-list bloggers have violated the public's trust by participating in an advertising campaign. For the most part, nobody's claiming those bloggers has actually been bought off, but there is a question of whether bloggers should be interacting directly with their advertisers or maintaining the same type of wall between editorial and advertising content that mainstream journalists have.
Wherever you fall on the issue, it's kind of amusing to see that TechCrunch, one of the blogs caught up in the kerfuffle (and a quality unbiased source of Web 2.0 news), is reporting on another questionable advertising practice: ISP placed banner ads.
Apparently Texas based ISP Redmoon has rolled out software that places banner ads on pretty much every web page its customers visit. At first, it looks like there's a major new advertiser sponsoring every site on the web. But it turns out that it's just Redmoon making a buck off of other people's content.
It's one thing if you're a company offering free internet service supported by advertising. But Redmoon is already charging customers for internet access. It looks like this may just be the tip of the iceberg. Redmoon is using technology provided by NebuAd to place the ads, which refers to ISP advertising as an "untapped revenue source."
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/06/24/when-isps-attack-with-advertising/
Wherever you fall on the issue, it's kind of amusing to see that TechCrunch, one of the blogs caught up in the kerfuffle (and a quality unbiased source of Web 2.0 news), is reporting on another questionable advertising practice: ISP placed banner ads.
Apparently Texas based ISP Redmoon has rolled out software that places banner ads on pretty much every web page its customers visit. At first, it looks like there's a major new advertiser sponsoring every site on the web. But it turns out that it's just Redmoon making a buck off of other people's content.
It's one thing if you're a company offering free internet service supported by advertising. But Redmoon is already charging customers for internet access. It looks like this may just be the tip of the iceberg. Redmoon is using technology provided by NebuAd to place the ads, which refers to ISP advertising as an "untapped revenue source."
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/06/24/when-isps-attack-with-advertising/
Back to work
It has been a while since I updated the site the last time. University exams are over and I have moved to a new house.
I was waiting to get some interesting progresses so I could write here about them but I had some problems these days.
Once I moved to the new house with my house mates, we decided to get an internet connection. I thought it would be easy and fast, but after some problems with our ISP, we are still waiting.
I have tried working at home, getting the new sources at job, so I could get in sync and update my code, but things were slow and I couldn’t work at the expected level. I have talked with my project chief Juanan and he is going to get me a place where I could work at university, so I will be fully back to work in short.
About the project, I had some improvements at home. Coordinate system problem is fixed, and there is a little work done on the annotation interactivity side. Now that form support has been officially included, I have some examples to be applied to my code. In the poppler side, the patches (1, 2) still haven’t been looked, so I will have to wait in this one.
http://annotations.diariolinux.com/?p=13
I was waiting to get some interesting progresses so I could write here about them but I had some problems these days.
Once I moved to the new house with my house mates, we decided to get an internet connection. I thought it would be easy and fast, but after some problems with our ISP, we are still waiting.
I have tried working at home, getting the new sources at job, so I could get in sync and update my code, but things were slow and I couldn’t work at the expected level. I have talked with my project chief Juanan and he is going to get me a place where I could work at university, so I will be fully back to work in short.
About the project, I had some improvements at home. Coordinate system problem is fixed, and there is a little work done on the annotation interactivity side. Now that form support has been officially included, I have some examples to be applied to my code. In the poppler side, the patches (1, 2) still haven’t been looked, so I will have to wait in this one.
http://annotations.diariolinux.com/?p=13
I know I'm counting good times, but there were just as many bad
Every year recently our wedding anniversary is interrupted by some kind of outage.
Two anniversaries ago an FTP port was left open and someone ran cracking software and brute forced their way in to our Weblogs, Inc. servers. Once in, they defaced many of our sites and we had a hell of a time getting it all restored. We also parted ways that weekend with the first developer who worked me on Blogsmith.
Last year the outage was my back. I threw it out on the way to visit relatives in Virginia and lost a couple of days. It's all better now. I could tell that you were wondering. Thanks.
Last night, on our way to the Yankees game with the kids, Christoph let me know that our mail server was having trouble. More specifically, the giant drive that has all of our mail and account data on it was dying.
The hosting company quickly added another drive which failed to format. Then they added a working drive and Christoph began the multi-hour process of copying over the mail files and getting it all back on track.
During all of this we learned that the nightly ISP backups did not include the drive that has our mail on it -- which is the only thing that needs to be backed up on that server. Amazing.
It's making me paranoid. Not paranoid enough to start using a vacation surrogate, but I will definitely start doing extra backups the day before our anniversary from now on.
http://www.brianalvey.com/2007/07/19/i-know-im-counting-good-times-but-there-were-just-as-many-bad/
Two anniversaries ago an FTP port was left open and someone ran cracking software and brute forced their way in to our Weblogs, Inc. servers. Once in, they defaced many of our sites and we had a hell of a time getting it all restored. We also parted ways that weekend with the first developer who worked me on Blogsmith.
Last year the outage was my back. I threw it out on the way to visit relatives in Virginia and lost a couple of days. It's all better now. I could tell that you were wondering. Thanks.
Last night, on our way to the Yankees game with the kids, Christoph let me know that our mail server was having trouble. More specifically, the giant drive that has all of our mail and account data on it was dying.
The hosting company quickly added another drive which failed to format. Then they added a working drive and Christoph began the multi-hour process of copying over the mail files and getting it all back on track.
During all of this we learned that the nightly ISP backups did not include the drive that has our mail on it -- which is the only thing that needs to be backed up on that server. Amazing.
It's making me paranoid. Not paranoid enough to start using a vacation surrogate, but I will definitely start doing extra backups the day before our anniversary from now on.
http://www.brianalvey.com/2007/07/19/i-know-im-counting-good-times-but-there-were-just-as-many-bad/
Tips for Getting The Best High Speed Internet Provider
After trying a few different companies and looking into my options when it comes to my cable and computer hook-ups, I have come to one conclusion. Cable High Speed Internet is above and beyond my favorite Internet service provider. The connection is lighting fast and it really spoils me for other options. I hate working on other people’s computers because I just do not have the patience. If a person has dial-up, I just wait until I get home to check my email and I never offer to hop on her PC to look up information on the Web. Cable high speed internet connection is much quicker than dial-up and I find the process of waiting for a connection unbearable.
Dial-up is not the only connection that gets me down. My cable provider has me so spoiled that I grimace when I am faced with a computer that works with DSL. I do not know why on earth anyone would opt for these Internet service providers when they can have a cable hookup. Now that I have been using my current service, I am way too impatient for other options. I also will not settle for anything less when it comes to my telephone and television. My cable company provides all of my home’s services for a very reasonable price. I have quality and efficient service in each of these three areas. Moving is never fun and I really hated the idea of possibly losing my service when I was recently uprooted. I was thrilled to discover that my current high speed internet provider, cable and telephone services would move with me. I did not have to change my number and the hookup was ready and waiting for me when I arrived at my new home.
Most cable companies will transfer your phone, Internet and television cable services to your new residence. All you have to do is set up an appointment for set up an installation. The time and date is at your convenience and you can have things up and running in no time at all. Very few of us like to wait while others of us absolutely hate it. Most cable high speed internet really lives up to its name and that name is really appealing to anyone who does not have the patience for anything less. Time is important and it is great to know that a company has worked so hard to develop quick service and convenience for its customers.
Ralph Jarvis runs his own mail order business as well as running several shopping based websites. Visit his website which is full of Discount Computer Equipment resources or check out these great Broadband Internet Providers reviews and articles.
http://articles.webraydian.com/article1970-Tips_for_Getting_The_Best_High_Speed_Internet_Provider.html
Dial-up is not the only connection that gets me down. My cable provider has me so spoiled that I grimace when I am faced with a computer that works with DSL. I do not know why on earth anyone would opt for these Internet service providers when they can have a cable hookup. Now that I have been using my current service, I am way too impatient for other options. I also will not settle for anything less when it comes to my telephone and television. My cable company provides all of my home’s services for a very reasonable price. I have quality and efficient service in each of these three areas. Moving is never fun and I really hated the idea of possibly losing my service when I was recently uprooted. I was thrilled to discover that my current high speed internet provider, cable and telephone services would move with me. I did not have to change my number and the hookup was ready and waiting for me when I arrived at my new home.
Most cable companies will transfer your phone, Internet and television cable services to your new residence. All you have to do is set up an appointment for set up an installation. The time and date is at your convenience and you can have things up and running in no time at all. Very few of us like to wait while others of us absolutely hate it. Most cable high speed internet really lives up to its name and that name is really appealing to anyone who does not have the patience for anything less. Time is important and it is great to know that a company has worked so hard to develop quick service and convenience for its customers.
Ralph Jarvis runs his own mail order business as well as running several shopping based websites. Visit his website which is full of Discount Computer Equipment resources or check out these great Broadband Internet Providers reviews and articles.
http://articles.webraydian.com/article1970-Tips_for_Getting_The_Best_High_Speed_Internet_Provider.html
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