Wireless Home Music Systems and HiFi Music Players from Sonos.
Today I’m anxiously awaiting my fedex man to deliver my new Sonos system. I’ll be blogging the unboxing and setup so stay tuned if you’re a music geek like me!
Read MoreFancy a trip to San Diego? Join Jeff Middleton, Susan Bradley, Jessica DeVita and Cliff Galiher for another stop of the SBS MVP Roadshow.
Save the date – On Saturday, December 3 the SMB MVP Roadshow 2011 will hit San Diego for an all day, jam-packed, technical in-depth look at HP and Microsoft products for the SMB space:
Cost: FREE
Times: 10:00am to 9:00pm
Location: Hera Hub, 9710 Scranton Road, #160, San Diego, CA 92121 (Across from Karl Strauss in Sorrento Valley)
Sponsors: Microsoft and HP
Food and Drinks: Lunch, dinner and snacks included
Register: http://mvptour2011.sbsmigration.com/event_selector.php?event_id=179
Presenters: Jeff Middleton, Susan Bradley, Jessica DeVita, Cliff Galiher
Agenda: Saturday December 3rd
10:00 am Group Leaders Welcome
10:15 am SMB MVP Roundtable – all presenters (Roadshow introduction, Community – Past, Present and the Future, Social Media – Is it for real Business Communications, SMB vs the Cloud – What are the experiences?)
11:45 am Lunch (http://deviliciousfoodtruck.com/menu)
1:15 pm Windows Multipoint Server
2:00 pm Windows Multipoint Server Hands-on
2:45 pm HP SMB Servers
3:15 pm Sponsored Snack Break
3:45 pm SBS 2011 Essentials
5:00 pm SBS 2011
5:30 pm Windows Home Server & Windows Storage Server
6:00 pm Dinner (menu to be determined)
7:00 pm Swing Migration -Jeff Middleton
9:00 pm Close
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Recently we have had several clients contact us because they received a suspicious phone call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft. The caller continued on to say that they were calling from “the Microsoft Windows Support” and that the computer was compromised. I’m grateful that our clients were wise and hung up on these callers.
Ryan did a little research and we found this information http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2011/jun11/06-16MSPhoneScamPR.mspx
The following is Microsoft’s advice and we recommend the same information:
| • | Be suspicious of unsolicited calls related to a security problem, even if they claim to represent a respected company. |
| • | Never provide personal information, such as credit card or bank details, to an unsolicited caller. |
| • | Do not go to a website, type anything into a computer, install software or follow any other instruction from someone who calls out of the blue. |
| • | Take the caller’s information down and pass it to the authorities. |
| • | Use up-to-date versions of Windows and application software. |
| • | Make sure security updates are installed regularly. |
| • | Use a strong password and change it regularly. |
| • | Make sure the firewall is turned on and that antivirus software is installed and up to date. |
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I woke up this morning to some interesting spam. Of course InDesign and all Adobe products are quite expensive and many people would gratefully accept an installation of these products.
Some hints that this is spam:
1. I never purchased Adobe InDesign.
2. The attached file is a zip file.
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Join me for At the Helm: Women in Biz on Saturday. There will be some great experts (including me!), covering the information YOU need to know to grow a great business: how to be the boss, managing your money, protecting ideas, increasing your visibility & more. Get the scoop and sign up here: http://bit.ly/ath2011
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Small businesses, beware the Office 365 fine print | ZDNet.
If you like to send a lot of email, take a look at this article on ZDNet on the Office 365 sending limits. Details are still emerging and while I ultimately believe this will get fixed if enough people get hurt by it, it doesn’t inspire confidence.
Small business accounts are limited to 500 recipients per 24 hours and enterprise accounts are limited to 1500. Office 365 technical support was unable to tell me when the limitation is reset… They also said it is very difficult to upgrade from a small business to enterprise Office 365 account. I would need to create a whole new account and migrate the domain and users, so that is not an option.
The worst thing about this is that there is no way for support to override it. The user is left to sit without being able to send e-mail for 24 hours with absolutely no recourse. I understand that it is an automated feature put in place to prevent spam, but once the user has spoken to support and it has been verified as a legitimate use, there should be some way to override the limit.
I’ll stick with my hosted exchange, thank you very much.
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What happens when a company merges with another? It can be a magical and wonderful thing if the company visions are aligned and customers and the product quality remain the top priority.
I wish I could say that the Speakeasy/Megapath merger was successful. In my opinion, based only on my single experience with this “mega” corporation, it is not yet successful. In my business, you get only one opportunity to do a great job, and that’s in the beginning of your relationship with a customer. In the SMB space, we need a great VOIP vendor that understands the “channel“. We need a company that we can proudly recommend to our clients. We need a “trusted advisor” to whom we could refer our clients for which a VOIP solution is the right one.
Megapath has this “process” by which you talk to multiple people to get one thing done, then another, then another. In my case, I have a SOHO and needed just two lines for myself and one tech. Only much later in the game did I discover that Megapath required me to have a static IP. I don’t have one. Oh well, I was assured that with only two lines there wouldn’t be a problem. Guess what, without a static IP, you don’t get one of their handy dandy Edgemark QOS routers. Again, I was assured that we would be ok. Fast forward to install time. Since I don’t get the fancy router, then no professional installation would be required. I plugged in the phones and we began using them. Next, we needed to get the auto attendant setup because as you can imagine, I don’t expect my male staff to answer the phone and say “UberGeekGirl”. I was shocked to discover that the auto attendant hadn’t been ordered, and would cost ANOTHER $30 per month. So now, we’re up to about $130 a month for services that I could have for much less with copper lines. Ugh, very frustrating and disappointing.
One pretty nifty thing they did, although I imagine all VOIP providers could do is that they “spoofed” my outgoing calls to appear as my google voice number. But as we really start to use the phones, it becomes apparent, even with no streaming and only one line used that the voice quality was totally unacceptable. So my next step was to contact “customer service”.
My experience was so dismal, I cannot imagine ever putting one of my VIP clients through it so I began procedures to cancel the service and return the equipment. I was assured that everything was handled and I could move on. But not so fast. I began to get harassing emails and calls that I had not paid my bill. Now, the UberGeekGirl ALWAYS pays the bill so I tried to get the matter solved. Months later, I am still dealing with this issue. I’m worried that Megapath’s inept accounting will cause a black mark on my company’s credit. So I’m here blogging about it. Not because haven’t tried all other channels to get this matter resolved. But perhaps someone with the power to change things will see this and have the desire to fix it. Not for me alone, but for all of their potential future customers.
And by the way, the email threats that my service will be cancelled are hilarious. My service has been cancelled for over two months.
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http://www.txtpost.com/playboy-interview-steven-jobs/
What a lovely interview with Steve Jobs. I had never read this before and I’m quietly stunned. His explanation is simply brilliant.
Sysadmins: We’re a bunch of freaks. Some are freaky on the downlow and others let their freak flag fly. Either way, when some crazy technical issue has got you down because it’s JUST SO “OUT THERE”, you want one of us on your team. So don’t piss off the Sysadmin. Love them. Feed them. Give them gifts….. and all your shit will just.work.
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Stunning home page at Wired.com.
No long story about all the great things you did Steve, no bullshit about how you inspire me.
Just this.
Thank you for making products that my clients really enjoy and making it really easy to do business with Apple.
Warmest regards,
Jessica DeVita
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