What’s IT all about?

From “The Open Sourcerer” blog (a good read by the way), is news of Microsoft’s warm and cuddly attitude to world domination.

In a prior existence as an IT Manager, I implemented a Websense server on our network, primarily to monitor website usage and enforce our internet use policy. It was, and probably still is, a very good product offering a huge level of detail on who is accessing what on the network.

For a small business, however, Websense and it’s competing products just don’t make sense. Financially they are aimed at corporations, not a small office, and they require quite a bit of work to set up and maintain, let alone keep on top of the reports that are generated.

There are hosted services out there, through the likes of Messagelabs and Blackspider, that take the need for installing your own equipment away. However, there is still an ongoing cost involved, and you are likely to be faced with significant configuration and monitoring still.

If, however, all you want is basic web filtering (i.e. don’t let anyone access gambling sites) then this can be achieved for free. How, well it’s quite easy really, and it’s all achieved through DNS. For those that don’t know, DNS (Domain Name Services) converts those ever-so friendly website and email address names (e.g. www.fourlakes.co.uk) into much less friendly but very necessary IP addresses (e.g. 72.52.225.30) which tell your PC exactly where to find the relevant web page. Your network is probably set up to use your ISP’s DNS servers, which makes sense as they are located quite close (in network terms anyway) to your computer. However, if you change your DNS server settings on your ADSL or Cable router to point at those run by OpenDNS.com (namely 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) then you open up basic web filtering for your network. You need to register on the OpenDNS site first, but once you’ve done that it will recognise any traffic from your network and filter it against a whole raft of website categories. You can choose which ones you want blocked, resulting in a standard message which can be tailored to include your logo. This page also contains some fairly discrete advertising which is how the service pays for itself.

Additional feature include some pretty basic stats…you won’t get filtering or reporting to a user level, but you will find out if someone is trying to access unwanted websites on your network, allowing you to take action to track down the culprit if you so wish.

Worth a look.

Open source software is a bit of a buzzword (buzzphrase?) at the moment, and rightly so. Considering that the majority of the world’s websites run on open source software (servers running the suite of applications known collectively as LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and that the Firefox web browser continues to erode Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the browser of choice for many people, it’s not surprising that more and more companies are happy to consider non-commercial software for mission-critical tasks.

Proponents of open source software will have their favourites, in my case that consists of Firefox for browsing; Thunderbird for email with the Lightning plugin for calendars; OpenOffice for documents, spreadsheets, etc.; Joomla for my website content management; and SugarCRM for management of Customer activities. I am also looking at phpList as a possible mechanism for running an email newsletter. The total cost of implementing the above, nothing but my time and the rewarding process of gaining knowledge.

Many more people go further than I have at the moment and use a Linux-based operating system such as Ubuntu. The one real issue with open source, though, is knowing what to choose, even for evaluation purposes. Whilst you can happily download and install any open source software to try it out, it can take a while to get a good appreciation of what is actually available in any particular area.

Well, that aspect of the choosing process has just improved with the creation of a pretty good list of open source software on mashable (link). You still have to compare the software and evaluate against your needs, but that is a process that should be followed regardless of the licence under which the software is provided. At least now, though, you know what you should be looking at.

Most people nowadays have a mobile phone (cellular if you’re the wrong side of the pond), and whilst many stump up the full whack for their handset and then stick a pay-as-you-go SIM in, a sizeable percentage (in the UK at least) have the cost of their handset heavily subsidised by opting for a 12 or 18 month contract. If you’re a reasonably heavy user, then contracts make sense, particularly since they give you the option to upgrade to another handset at the end of the contract.

Zonbu have borrowed from this business model to sell their Linux-based PC’s and Laptops. You can purchase their products as you can from any other PC manufacturer. However, they also give you the option of entering into what is, in effect, a hire-purchase agreement. Pay your money up front (for their laptop, $279), pay a monthly fee for a couple of years ($14.95) and you get an entry-level laptop with unlimited maintenance and support, online backup and a free replacement should anything untoward happen.

Will it work ? I can see it being attractive in the home or small business where IT knowledge is limited. Would I buy one? Nope, not when I can carry out my own support and maintenance, and organise online backup if I so desire (in fact I have an old PC running Bacula to protect my data). Most importantly, though, when I buy a PC or laptop I want to be able to control the spec.

Still, it’s something relatively new in the marketplace, and I applaud them for giving it a good shot and wish it every success.

Yesterday I received in the post some information from a company (who shall remain unnamed) in the public sector who had put out an Invitation To Tender (ITT) for a new, VoIP-enabled telephone system. The ITT itself contained very little information indeed about their requirements, as is often the case. However, it did mention the fact that it was a public sector company, and since value for money is frequently highest on their selection criteria, Asterisk-based systems are usually a good fit. So I cheerfully applied for an information pack, which duly arrived, as I said, yesterday.

A quick read through the detailed tender document made it apparent that this was one contract not worth taking any further. When you see selection criteria such as

“The system will not be based on open source code”

then you suspect that they have had their fingers burnt. A more in depth perusal confirmed the suspicion:

“Since implementation London users and Homeworkers have experienced a variety of
issues with voice quality. The voice quality has varied from acceptable to unusable.
Outbound voice quality has been mostly acceptable but inbound voice quality has on
occasions contained dropouts or has been completely inaudible, preventing users
from hearing what callers are saying.”

They go on to say that WAN changes and the introduction of G.729 have improved matters, but obviously not enough. They also bemoan the lack of available expert Asterisk knowledge making it difficult to troubleshoot effectively.

There are a number of checks that any half-decent Asterisk consultant should have made at this site. Is the server up to the job? Is there adequate bandwidth for their requirements? Has QoS been implemented correctly across the board? Are there unnecessary codec translation going on? Is the VoIP provider up to the job? Instead company or consultant who carried out the initial implementation has left them in the lurch, and now a company that could have been very happy with an Asterisk solution are determined never to touch it again, and if anyone asks their opinion they will no doubt be very disparaging.

The solution? The best way to avoid the situation, in my opinion, is for any consultant or company selling an Asterisk-based solution/service to make sure that their customers have an alternative contact should things go belly-up. Do your homework and get in touch with someone who knows their way around Asterisk blindfolded. Your customer is more likely, not less, to stick with you if you can demonstrate that you have their best interests at heart and can provide them with a level of service that they require. That does not need you to be an Asterisk guru, but you do need to know where to turn if such a person is required.