• During the three years I was with BT Ireland I only had one major problem and that turned out to be an eircom problem when they were upgrading the fibre link to my local exchange.
• When I was first moved to Vodafone, I could not log on to their network. It took several phone calls and several days to fully resolve.
• I have a range of Fixed IP Addresses and when they were first migrated there were major problems accessing Irish sites like Revenue Online, AIB Banking Online, AER Lingus, etc. It took about fifteen phone calls and over a week to resolve the issue.
• On one occasion they de-allocated my Fixed IP Addresses and my servers were no longer accessible from the Internet.
• On numerous occasions the connection has gone down for several hours without explanation and because they have denied there was a problem, I have had to spend hours double checking my configurations only to discover that it was a Vodafone problem after all.
• Since moving to Vodafone my Upload and Download Speeds have been reduced by approx 30%.
• The Vodafone connection cannot sustain a Skype call even during the morning when there is no congestion on the network.

Now before anybody comes back to me and says it might be my phone line, let me point out the following;

• This all worked fine when I was with BT.
• I am approx 100m from the exchange (Attenuation Down 13db, Attenuation Up 7db)
• For legacy reasons I have another DSL connection with another provider to the same exchange, which works fine and has done during all these Vodafone problems.

I do have to say that throughout these problems I have found the Vodafone Staff to be very helpful, but having nice people working for you does not make up for a network that is simply not up to the job.

]]> http://blog.glasgorman.com/2010/07/vodafone-ireland-do-not-provide-a-business-class-dsl-fixed-line-broadband-service/feed/ 0 http://blog.glasgorman.com/2010/07/dot-conf-youtube-to-market-an-event/ http://blog.glasgorman.com/2010/07/dot-conf-youtube-to-market-an-event/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:34:53 +0000 admin http://blog.glasgorman.com/?p=512 Innovative use of YouTube to market an event. (the dot conf looks like it’s worth going to also)

dot conf on YouTube

Recently I received a “supposedly handwritten sales letter” from a local online business directory. At first I thought, this guy has very neat handwriting, but then I looked closer and realised by comparing the same word on two diferent pages over a lamp, that it was just a downloaded font. I suppose the fact that he didn’t even bother to personalise the letter should have been a hint.

Handwritted Letter - NOT

To see the actual letter click on the image. Here is the first paragraph;

I just got this very impulsive idea… I had to jump on it and print this handwritten note before i had a chance to get it typed and think it all out clearly, So …Before I change my mind – I want to make you this “UNBELIEVABLE OFFER”

For me, if they are not being honest about handwriting a letter, then what else are they not being honest about? As to their service, check out this post about Local Online Business Directories.

Basically it boils down to;

• If you want a top quality job done fast, then it won’t be cheap.
• If you want a top quality job done cheaply, then you are going to have to put in a lot of time.
• If you get a job done quickly and pay very little, then the quality will be suspect.

He also told me that it was important to keep this in mind when dealing with both Customers AND Suppliers.

Anyway, two weeks ago I got a brand new HTC Desire with Android 2.1 and a data plan from Meteor. Having used several smartphones pevoiusly I was slightly sceptical about the real benefits, but my mind has been changed. The HTC Desire with it’s 3.7 inch screen and 1Ghz processor has been well able to handle any of the business talks I have thrown at it.

The first thing I checked out was the wifi and browser. My experience with previous phones and browsers had not been great, so I was very pleasantly surprised that the phone found the office wifiand connected without problem. The browsing experience with the large hi-res screen and pinch-to-zoom make this phone very usable for surfing the net.  I have been able to login, to non-mobile sites and manage systems remotely (saved me several car journeys and carrying my laptop around with me).

The second thing I checked out was the News Feed eaders and Social Media. I use Google Reader to keep track of News Feeds, so I downloaded a free widget from android Market and within a few mins had access to all the feeds I follow from the phone. In another few mins I had downloaded Hootsuite to keep track of Twitter and Facebook for android. Now when I sitting in the car waiting to collect the kids I can use the time productively (or not) keeping up to date with what’s going on in the business and computer sectors.

The third thing I setup using the preinstalled app was get assess to my email, which was very straight forward. I also synced up with my Google Calendars.

I then installed WordPress (this post was created from the phone). I can now blog from anywhere.

Oh, yes the phone handels phone calls and text messages very well (something that not all smartphones do well).

For me the phone has paid for iteslf already and I would regard it as an essential tool for the Small Business Owner. And yes I know that all these things could be done on the iPhone also.

The first business is a Car Dealer and when their Internet connection was down they could not;

• Register new cars through Revenue Online
• Use Banking Online
• Order spare parts
• Download Car Diagnostic Software
• Register Used Cars with Carzone.ie

These were just the issues that were pointed out to me. I’m sure they access otuer systems on the Internet.

The second business markets, maintains, rents and handles bookings in the Holiday and Leisure sector. When their Internet connection was down, they could not;

• Use Baking Online
• Manage Bookings via Online Booking System
• Upload/Register/Manage Property listings
• Manage their website via their content management system

In the case of both busiesses they were unable to operate without their Internet connections and in both cases they did not have a backup Internet connection.

If your business relies on the Internet to function, then you should have an alternative means of connecting to the Internet. Due to the nature of our business we have three seperate Internet connections;

• Fixed Line (ADSL) Broadband
• Fixed Wireless
• Mobile Broadband (Pay as you go broadband)

We can also access the Internet on our Android mobile phones.

So if you want to make sure that your business can continue to function, then contact your local Computer Services Provider for a simple, cost effective solution.

The first step in this process has been to migrate our email systems over to Google Apps Premier and to use Android (HTC Desire) as the mobile platform. Hence the lack of posts over the last week.

Watching and listening to the news reports on TV and radio we heard from people who were stranded at airports all over Northern Europe who cannot get to meetings or can’t get back to look after their businesses, and that it is costing there business huge amounts of money.

Then there is another group of business users who I see on the social media sites, blogs, etc. and for that group of business users it seems to be business as usual and they only mention being stranded in various parts of Europe as a by-the-by. In a lot of cases they have used Twitter, Facebook, etc. to contact people to make alternative arrangements to get home.

While there are times where traveling and meeting people face to face is essential, there are many more times where, if the technology is applied to your business in a practical and pragmatic way, your business can continue to function during these disruptions.

Cloud computing can allow your people assess your company information and systems, no matter where you are or what type of device you have available to you. Cloud Computing is not just for big business, SMEs have a lot more to gain and can potentially save their businesses more money.

We recently came across a business who had inadvertently deleted their entire site, including the listings for several hundred products and had to re-enter all the information from scratch. Apart from the time and effort to re-enter all the data, there was a significant loss of revenue while the site was offline.

At Glasgorman Computer services in Gorey, Co. Wexford, we have a range of simple and cost effective backup solutions to protect your website and all your business data.

Call John at 053 9425652 for more information.

What is Cloud Computing? Here is how Wikipedia defines Cloud Computing, but it’s much easier to explain with a practical example.

Courtown Sailing Club is a small club that is run on a completely voluntary basis.  The club has a very active cruiser racing program and also runs children’s sailing courses for eight weeks during July and August, so it’s computer and administration requirements are not untypical  of most small sports clubs. The biggest problems are that the volunteer committee changes from year to year, so it’s difficult to have consistency with essential club documents relating to policy and procedures, and it’s also difficult to transfer those documents to new committee members.

The second problem relates to the necessity for committee members to share information, particularly relating to the co-ordination and bookings for the summer sailing courses.

The first thing the club did was to set up a Google Documents account and upload the club’s essential documents relating to policies and procedures, the club’s constitution, membership forms, booking forms etc. This means that any new committee member who has access to the Internet and the appropriate access rights, can get access to these documents. It also means that finally the club’s documents have been retrieved form the various members PCs and are now stored centrally.

The second major benefit relates to the co-ordination that is required between the Secretary, Treasurer and Dinghy Course Organiser, to run the summer sailing courses. Because the spreadsheets and databases relating to applications, payments and the allocation of course places are instantly and centrally available to everyone at any time, it has dramatically reduced the confusion and more importantly the phone calls. These people no longer spend their evenings ringing around or more like the driving around trying to sort out Club issues.

The  reason Cloud Computing and Google Docs has been so successful for Courtown Sailing Club is that they, very wisely, kept it as simple as possible. So if you are a small business who needs to deal with flexible work practices and needs to effectively share information then maybe cloud computing is for you.

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