Super Bowl XLV is this Sunday, with the Packers and Steelers set to go head to head. Do want to know where the footballs are made? Check out this video (YouTube):
In our last blog post, we discussed the advantage of adding a second internet connection to provide additional bandwidth and redundancy for your existing connection. You were so excited that you already called the cable company and ordered a big fat internet pipeline so that you could stream cat videos all day without worrying a lick about whether or not it would slow down your e-mail.
When the technician arrived to install the connection, he probably looked bewildered when you told him that you wanted to use your existing internet connection from the phone company in addition to the new connection from the cable company. “Two internet connections at the same time? I don’t think that’s gonna work, ma’am. How ‘bout I just leave this cable here on the floor and you give us a call when you figure out what you want.” It looks like the gluttony of cat videos is going to have to wait.
Thankfully, there is a solution to this seemingly impossible problem (would I have gotten your hopes up if there wasn’t?). Zanacore is going to begin offering a service called Untangle as part of its newest NetGuard package. What does Untangle offer?
At its core, Untangle is a dedicated firewall that does everything from blocking spam to providing robust reports that enable you to see how your network is being utilized. Many of the features are open source and completely free and are available in the Lite package of the software. Most businesses, however, will benefit greatly from some of the additional features in the Standard and Premium packages. Let’s look at a few of the features available in the Premium package or on their own for a small monthly fee.
WAN Balancer
WAN Balancer is the killer feature that allows you to use up to six concurrent internet connections on your network. In the previous post, I had recommended adding a cable connection to your existing T1 line, but they take it a step further and suggest that “companies can also save money with WAN Balancer by eliminating an expensive T1 connection in favor of multiple and redundant Cable and DSL links” (emphasis added). I would not have thought about getting rid of the T1 altogether, but if Untangle is doing its job correctly, why not?
WAN Failover
Working alongside WAN Balancer, WAN Failover will automatically switch to a backup or redundant connection if one of the existing links goes down. While you will lose some bandwidth and things may slow down for a short while, you at least know that your e‑mail and other critical applications are still online.
Bandwidth Control
This is every network administrator’s dream: being able to control exactly how much bandwidth a user and/or an application is allowed to use. Perhaps you don’t mind if your employees watch a cat video on YouTube every now and then, but you don’t want the internet to be slowed down for the rest of your business. That’s no problem; just use Untangle’s Bandwidth Control to limit the maximum amount of YouTube that can be slurped from your company’s internet.
These are just a few of the amazing features that help business owners get control of their network. If you’re interested in taking advantage of Untangle in your office, give Zanacore a call.
I try not to spend too much time reminiscing about how many technological advances we have made over the past few decades, but do you remember what you had to do in order to “get on the internet” in the early nineties? As a consumer, you would sign up with a dial-up service provider, connect a cord from the phone jack to the back of your computer, then click an icon on your computer’s desktop to connect. And then you would wait. And wait. And wait.
Fast forward fifteen years and our expectations have drastically changed. It’s not enough to simply be able to send e-mail and check the local weather forecast. The internet of today is filled with pictures, video, and excitement, and we want everything NOW. The internet is always on and it better be fast.
As a business, you’re challenged with figuring out how to provide fast and reliable internet for your office without breaking the bank. Some businesses prefer, or for financial reasons, feel compelled, to buy as little bandwidth as possible and block access to anything on the web that moves. While this is a necessary approach for some, it is certainly not the only way.
Most likely, you already have an internet connection for your office that is “good enough.” You know that you are paying for reliability and to add more bandwidth to your current plan would be very expensive. However, it’s possible to add a second internet connection that is much faster but perhaps doesn’t come with the guaranteed reliability of your current provider.
Zanacore recently added business-class internet from Comcast. Comcast? You mean the same company that can’t figure out how to get a football game to show up on my television on game day? Yes, it’s the same company, but before you get too worried, realize that Zanacore added this internet connection in addition to our already-reliable internet connection from the phone company. Why pay two different companies for the same thing?
With the phone company, you get (or are supposed to get) very high reliability that is intended to be used for your mission-critical business applications such as e-mail and data services. With cable internet, however, you can add a great deal of bandwidth at a fraction of what it would cost you to get the same speed from the phone company.
In order to set up the office with two concurrent internet connections, we configured our firewall so that if one internet connection fails, it will automatically fall back on the other internet connection. By having two separate internet connections from different companies, you are virtually guaranteed to have zero downtime.
This situation provides the best of both worlds. Not only do you continue to get the reliability that you expect from your current internet connection, but adding a second connection with additional bandwidth allows your business to take advantage of everything that the web has to offer for your business, whether it be allowing employees fast access to their computers from home or hosting web meetings from multiple clients on your PC.
If you are interested in adding a second internet connection for your business, please contact Zanacore today to get started.
Image credits: anna skogar waterfall iceland by Simon Tong
We are excited to announce the newest members of our Zanacore family!
Jason and Jeri Poole welcomed their son Kielan David-Patrick into the world on October 28th of last year. Kielen is Jason and Jeri’s fifth child.
Sophia Marie was born to Ben and Emily McCormack (daughter of Jack and Mary Marder) on December 9th of last year. This is Emily and Ben’s first child and Jack and Mary’s second grandchild.
The holidays are over and a new year is upon us. Is one of your resolutions to work for a technology company with an entrepreneurial spirit that is passionate about delivering great service to its customers? Zanacore is looking to add a Level II IT Technician to our team.
To apply, please follow the instructions on our Careers page or download the Job Description for further information.
From our job listing:
We are looking for a Microsoft Certified Professional with field experience who is passionate about customer service and small business consulting. Ideally the candidate will also have hands-on experience with Small Business Server and customer service.
We are looking for an *experienced* and *certified* Windows Technician to support our clients.
How to Apply
- Do not send a resume until requested to do so. We will not look at unsolicited resumes.
- To apply for this position send the following two items to Careers@zanacore.com
- 1-2 paragraph description of why you are passionate about technical consulting
- Go to https://mcp.microsoft.com/mcp to register and share your MCP transcript. Email the link to us.
- We will send a technology self-assessment to people who stand out. Some of these people will be asked to submit resumes.
For more info on this job please download the Job Description.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
When it comes to figuring out how to pay for software, most business owners would rather read their cell phone contract than spend their time trying to understand how the latest version of Windows can be licensed. Even Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Reference Guide, which attempts to make it easy to understand your purchasing options, is still a whopping sixty-five pages long! That’s not exactly a leisurely read to accompany your morning coffee.
Software licensing isn’t always easy; working with a company like Zanacore offers a tremendous business value because they can help you to understand which purchasing options will be best for your company’s needs. Although there are many ways to obtain Microsoft software, we’re going to look at three ways in particular that are important to small businesses: OEM Licensing, Volume Licensing, and the Enterprise CAL Suite.
OEM Licensing
OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) licensing is intended mainly for hardware vendors and resellers who want to include software (such as Windows) as part of the sale of the computer. Nearly all consumer PCs come with a version of Windows that is OEM licensed.
A major limitation of OEM licensing is that the use of the software is restricted to the original equipment on which the software was shipped. For example, let’s say you buy a PC with an OEM license of Microsoft Office 2010. Two years later, you replace that workstation with a new PC that does not have Microsoft Office installed. Because the Microsoft Office software on the older PC was OEM licensed, you cannot transfer its license of Office to the new PC. Thus, you would be required to purchase a new license of Office in order to use it on the new PC.
OEM Licensing is best for situations where, if you need to replace an existing computer, you prefer to buy a new computer with all of the software pre-installed.
Volume Licensing
When software is purchased through volume licensing, the corporation is free to apply their licenses to best meet their needs. In general terms, this is how businesses can “own” their software and have greater flexibility in transferring and distributing it. There are several different flavors of volume licensing (such as Open License, Open Value, and Select License, just to name a few), but we’ll focus on the general principles behind volume licensing.
With volume licensing, software that is purchased is a one-time expense and the business is free to transfer the license as necessary. Imagine you buy fifteen PCs for your workplace and because some of the computers in your organization are on the warehouse floor, you choose to only obtain ten licenses of Microsoft Office via volume licensing. At first, you install your ten copies of Office on all ten of your computers that are not in the warehouse.
However, when Christmas comes around and production picks up, you need to move one of your office computers into the warehouse. Since that warehouse computer does not need productivity software, you can remove Microsoft Office from that PC and retain the license for later use. That way, if you hire an extra accountant in January to help with auditing, you are free to apply the extra license of Microsoft Office to her new computer.
Volume licensing is best for companies that want to capitalize their software expenses while still retaining the freedom to transfer software when needed.
Enterprise CAL Suite
At the opposite end of the spectrum from volume licensing is the Enterprise CAL (Client Access License) Suite. With the Enterprise CAL Suite, businesses can plan on a fixed yearly cost and reduce initial expenses while constantly maintaining the most up-to-date software. While OEM and volume licensing are more akin to “owning” the software, this form of licensing is more comparable to “leasing.”
The suite currently includes licenses for the following software:
- Windows (currently Windows 7)
- Office (currently Office 2010)
- Small Business Server (currently 2008, soon to be 2010)
- CALs (Client Access Licenses) for all server software
The Enterprise CAL Suite allows a business to obtain both Microsoft Windows and Office with a yearly license from Microsoft. This can significantly help to reduce the upfront cost of purchasing new computers. For example, if you need to purchase twenty new PCs, instead of adding to the cost by purchasing the operating system and productivity software via OEM or volume licensing, you can purchase an Enterprise CAL for one year and then renew each subsequent year. In two or three years, when Microsoft releases Windows 8, instead of having to pay again to upgrade all of your workstations to the new version, it is simply included as part of your Enterprise CAL agreement. However, if you do not renew your license, you are no longer allowed to use the software.
Licensing with the Enterprise CAL Suite is best for businesses that want to cut down on their initial expenses while also making sure that they have the most recent Microsoft software installed on their machines. For businesses that do not already own these products, this provides a big opportunity to save money while still being able to stay current on the latest software.
While software licensing might not be as exciting as the newest features of Microsoft Excel, understanding even the basics of licensing can help you make a better purchasing decision to meet your needs. When it’s time to move beyond the basics, Zanacore will be glad to assist you to help you determine exactly what will provide the greatest value for your business.
On November 20, 1985, the first version of Microsoft Windows was released. Built on top of the MS-DOS operating system, Windows provided a graphical interface to allow users to arrange what they were working on into separate areas, err, windows. In reflecting upon the product’s 25 year history, there is a lot that current businesses can learn from the product’s success.
Many professionals in the IT industry will joke that in takes until “version three” for Microsoft to ship a great product and the Windows operating system was no exception. The first two versions of Windows were not very well received in the market and it wasn’t until version 3.1 in 1992 that sales of the operating system started to take off.
Windows 95 introduced the Start button that has appeared by default in the lower left-hand corner of every version since. Through 2000, the next few consumer versions of Windows added some additional functionality, but were mostly forgettable (These versions of Windows were likely installed on your computers when your IT provider said he would only do business with you if you upgraded Windows!).
Shipping in 2001, Windows XP was Microsoft’s first attempt to unite their consumer and business versions of their operating system. The product was so successful that when its successor, Windows Vista was released five years later, many consumers and businesses did not feel the need to upgrade to the newest operating system.
Although Windows Vista offered many additional core features over its predecessor, it failed to impress in the market. When Windows 7 was introduced last fall, it quickly became the fastest selling operating system in history. (Did you know that you can add more functionality to Windows 7 with excellent free software from Windows Live 2011?)
Windows has experienced several bumps in the road over its lifetime, but it remains one of the most successful software products ever. Though the outlook of Windows looked bleak in the beginning, Microsoft continued to improve its product until it became a huge commercial success. In today’s difficult economy, all businesses can learn from Microsoft’s model of perseverance as they continue to work towards success.
Many families will bring home a brand new Windows 7 PC by the end of the year, but did you know that some of the best free Windows software isn’t installed when you pull it out of the box? Windows Live Essentials 2011 is a free suite of software available from Microsoft to help with managing your photos, writing blog posts, messaging your friends, and much, much more. Perhaps Microsoft’s missteps with bundling Internet Explorer with Windows in the mid-nineties is the reason that this software isn’t already installed on your new computer, but that’s OK; it’s very easy to download and set up.
What’s included in Windows Live Essentials? Let’s take a look.
Photo Gallery
One of my favorite applications for the PC is the Windows Live Essentials Photo Gallery. This program makes it incredibly easy to import and manage your photo collection, edit photos, share them with friends, and more. It’s so easy my mother can use it™. Seriously, she’s not in the slightest bit a computer expert, but she uses Photo Gallery all the time to order prints from her local pharmacy or Wal-Mart. Personally, I use Photo Gallery to quickly tag friends and upload pictures to Facebook.
While many people are just fine checking their e-mail account online, many of us still prefer a friendly desktop client. Windows Live Mail makes it super easy to access your e-mail from your PC and adds in a few features that might not be available when simply checking your mail online. It can automatically organize your e-mails into conversation threads, which is useful for those e-mail chains where everyone and their uncle sends a reply. Another great feature is its ability to send lots of high-resolution photos via e-mail, saving you from having to try to figure out how to compress all your pictures in order to get it to send.
Writer
Blogs are a standard part of the fabric of the internet these days (you’re reading a blog right now) and there is no easier way to get started blogging than with Windows Live Writer. It is very easy to set up and start a new blog or integrate with an existing blog. My favorite feature is it’s ability to seamlessly format and upload pictures with my blog post. In fact, I used Windows Live Writer to create this blog post.
Other Applications
Photo Gallery, Mail, and Writer are just the beginning. There’s a whole host of useful applications included in Windows Live Essentials 2011:
- Messenger
- Movie Maker
- Windows Live Mesh
- Family Safety
- Messenger Companion
- Bing Bar
- Outlook Connector Pack
- Silverlight
Download the suite of applications from the Windows Live Essentials 2011 website.
Today marks the US launch of Windows Phone 7 on AT&T. Microsoft’s latest entry into the smartphone market is sporting an operating system that has been completely redesigned from the ground up to provide a compelling user experience. Competing against the likes of iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, Microsoft hopes to give consumers something new to help them gets things done and back to life.
At one point in time (before the iPhone), Microsoft dominated the smartphone market with Windows Mobile. Phones using Windows Mobile came in all shapes and sizes and the look and feel of the phones seemed much like a small version of the full Windows operating system for PCs. While this was fine for people who needed the power of a smartphone when the only alternatives were mediocre feature-phones, once the iPhone (and later Android) entered the market, users quickly left Windows Mobile for better touch-enabled devices.
So where has Microsoft been? Hardly resting on their laurels, the mobile team in Redmond has been busy over the past several years rethinking their entire mobile strategy. Taking design cues from the current winners in the smartphone arena, the new Windows Phone 7 is a complete touch-enabled device with a full set of features: live tiles for getting information right on the home screen; full people and social media integration; pictures and media; Zune integration; a full Office suite built especially for Windows Phone 7; and a brand new marketplace for purchasing apps right from the phone.
Windows Phone 7 isn’t just about copying the latest and greatest features from iPhone and Android; Microsoft wants to offer consumers something better. In fact, one of the major selling points of Windows Phone 7 is its emphasis on letting you get things done very quickly so you can get back to life. Granted, there are still plenty of great applications and games in the marketplace that are worthy of your time, but Windows Phone 7 takes away the pain of handling the everydayminute tasks of making calls, checking e-mail, responding to text messages, and the like. Microsoft has made this loud and clear in one of their recent ads for Windows Phone 7.
While launching today exclusively on AT&T, consumers can expect to be able to purchase a variety of Windows Phone 7 devices of all major US carriers in the near future. Expect a consistent look and feel across all the new phones with some offering a hardware keyboard and exclusive apps. Regardless of which phone you choose, expect to get in and out and back to life.
Read More About Windows Phone 7
Zanacore has been busy interacting with local businesses lately. We brought in lunch for Echols Glass and also gave a presentation about Windows 7 to a local chapter of Business Networking International (BNI).
Echols Glass and Mirror, of Buford, is a local provider of unique glass and mirror products. They rely on Zanacore’s premium NetGuard managed services for their IT support and 24/7 monitoring of their critical servers. As a way of saying thank you, Zanacore brought in Chick-fil-a and sat down for lunch with Echols employees.
Jack, Jason, and Emily of Zanacore with Echols employees
Jason Poole recently gave a presentation about Windows 7 to a local chapter of Business Networking International (BNI) and stayed around to talk with local business leaders. Although Windows 7 has been on the market for a year, many people are still using older versions of the OS and wanted to know if they should upgrade.
Jason Poole talking Windows 7 with Tara from BB&T
He also shared several tips and tricks for users of Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system. If you missed his talk, you might be interested in reading this article about new Windows 7 Hotkeys (did you know you can snap a window to one half of your monitor just by using the keyboard?).
Of course, Windows 7 offers much more than a few simple shortcuts that help save time. If you want to see how Windows 7 can offer more value to your business, give us a call.
