I'm in the office today, Sunday, as last night the entire office block lost it's Telephony and Broadband as a result of an attempted break-in at a neighbours shop - a Supermarket. The would-be-thieves had cut the BT cabling early evening in an attempt to disable the various alarm systems we and our neighbours use. Then then returned in the middle of the night in a futile attempt to break into the heavily protected supermarket - they did a bit of nuisance damage but not much else.

We've seen something very similar at one of our client sites in the past few weeks. The feckless thieves think that by cutting the telephone lines they will disable the alarms. Unfortunately for them, any alarm system with a dialler worth it's salt (such as BT Redcare) will notify the keyholder of loss of connectivity alerting them to a potential issue.

In our case, we became aware of the telephone line damage within minutes and took extra security measures for the evening as well as logging the fault with BT for them to schedule repairs.

It did get me round to thinking about how we would have coped if we had been broken into though...

• Is our Alarm "key-holder" list up-to date with names and contact numbers?
• Do our staff have easy access to the necessary contact names and numbers (Local Police Station, BT Fault Line, Alarm Company) if the office computers and/or Broadband are off-line?
• Are all our computers and monitors securely locked using reliable locks such as a Kensington Microsaver?
• Are all of our important hardcopy documents stored in a (fireproof) safe?
• Is all of our critical data securely backed up off-site?
• Do we have a reliable method of getting the office up and running if we needed to replace stolen or damaged hardware in a hurry?
• Is any data stored on PC and Server encrypted so that it can't be seen by the wrong people if stolen?
• Are all valuable items within the office securely marked with UV Pen and registered with services such as Immobilize?
• Is internal security (lockable comms cabinet, lockable server, locks on internal doors) up to scratch?
• Do we have entry points covered by CCTV?
• Does that CCTV clearly record footage?
• Is that CCTV footage sent to off-site storage for security?

We've got a lot of green ticks for the above items, but I'll be honest and say we've also got some red crosses that need our immediate attention.

Lots of people may consider the above OTT - but personally, peace of mind makes the time invested in the above worthwhile for me. As they say - "Hope for the best, but plan for the Worst".

A couple of new blogs to add to your already bulging RSS feeds!

The first is Nick's SMB Blog by Nick Lloyd of Sirona Solutions in the North-West of the UK. I always get a buzz from seeing SMB providers who start blogging, as for however long I've been working in this sector of the industry, it never stops fascinating me to get a new perspective on how things can be done and hear about the challenges people face working with Small Businesses.

The second is IT Sales Guy - written by David Hay of Hound-Dog. If you're an IT Consultancy new to the Managed Services arena, then Hound-Dog is a fantastic monitoring product to help you hit the ground running. Unlike many who work in Sales, David is a patient, laid-back and un-pushy representative of his company who is well worth talking to.

One thing I always notice about new blogs is that the writer often worries out loud if anyone will find his or her scribblings interesting. Well I can tell you I've been drivelling on with this blog for over three years and 300 or more posts now, and you're reading it right now aren't you? :-)

Good luck to both Nick and David - welcome to the Blogosphere!

We're now moved into the new offices, lock, stock and barrel!

Things are fully functional here, albeit a bit cluttered and messy. Photographs to follow as soon as we've had a good tidy up and are presentable!

In the meantime, meet the newest addition to the Netlink IT team...

... the Corporate Slippers! 

Well, a man has to work in comfort doesn't he?

We're all set to move into the new office and home of Netlink IT this coming week (for those that have asked what the area we're moving into looks like, there's a photograph below of the view from the office window below) so I'm here over the weekend to set-up a few of the more important bits ahead of the moving in - stuff like making sure the Broadband works, setting up the LAN and of course, stocking up with tea and biscuits.

Whilst setting up the internal Wi-Fi network, it's interesting to see how things have changed in this area of South-West Birmingham in regards to Wireless usage and security uptake.

Around three years ago I went war-driving in the Weoley Castle area where I live and work and found very few hot-spots at all. Unsurprising at the time as Wireless hadn't really taken off yet. Fast forwards 18 months later and I was setting a Wi-Fi network up for a client very close to our new office and found four hotspots competing for air-time, with three of those hotspots unprotected and easily accessible. Today I'm setting up the internal Wi-Fi at our office and  can find eight hot-spots, but all protected with WPA. The majority of these protected hotspots have names such as "BT-Business-Hub-xxx" or "SKY-xxx" - which I'm guessing means the owners of these hot-spots are still using them with the standard "out of the box" settings, but thankfully they are still protected rather than setting themselves wide-open to unwanted visitors.

So it looks like the days of swiping free Wi-Fi from unwitting hosts is pretty much over, and this has to be a good thing. For me I've got my beloved 3 HSDPA USB dongle so I can get a 'net connection pretty much anywhere anyway. Plus in the spirit of encouraging technology uptake, I'm just about to setup my third "free" FON Wi-Fi hotspot for all and sundry - so if you're in the Weoley Castle area near Netlink Towers and need a 'net hook-up, feel free to jump on!

I'm a big fan of the Power Nap (tm) (that's TubbMark, not TradeMark) - there's nothing better than 15 minutes quiet shut-eye time with the telephone switched off and the computer shutdown to recharge the batteries. The great Winston Churchill used to engage in a nap every afternoon, telling his subordinates "Don't wake me up unless it's an emergency - and I define 'emergency' as a World War". I like his style!

So imagine my delight at finding the "Guide to a Good Nap" over at Boston.com!

After pulling two ridiculously late 6am finishes in the past fortnight, I think I deserve a nap now before another late one. Yawn! (Click on the pic below to view a larger version)

The latest version of the Firefox web-browser, version 3, was released today to much fanfare.

Vlad was amongst many who reported that Mozilla, the folks responsible for Firefox, wanted to set a World Record for the most downloads in one day via the URL www.spreadfirefox.com - unfortunately, every time I've visited today the site has been down. The site was obviously *too* popular!

Never fear, the UK version of Firefox 3 is available for download over at the Mozilla Europe web-site.

First impressions? Well apart from breaking most of my favourite Add-In's, the new look and feel are nice and the ability to type into the Location Bar and instantly search your bookmarks and history is very useful. The forward/backward buttons are also designed to give a better overview of the history of your browsing. There is now a "one-touch" bookmark feature for grabbing web-sites quickly (click twice and you can choose the bookmark location as before) and the ability to add Tags to bookmarks to easily find them later (ala Delicious). Security is also beefed up and browsing speed is faster - although I'll be honest and say I couldn't tell one way or another on this.

Full details of the new features can be found here.

Some interesting features that were on the table but I couldn't confirm were included in this release were the ability to download Firefox 3 as an MSI file - and thus push it out via Group Policy to business networks - and some Group Policy settings for Firefox itself. It will be interesting to see if these features are included in the final release, as this would really be useful to System Admins and IT Consultants alike!

Got Firefox 3? What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

I'm chuffed to announce that Netlink IT achieved Microsoft Certified Partner Status this past month gone.

After striving to reach the level this Certification demanded for quite some time, the achievement of reaching the goal-post almost got lost in the business that taking on new staff, moving into a new office and re-organising the business brought on!

It was March 2006 that Netlink IT became a Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner - and two years on I think that the SBSC certification, and in particular the benefits of working with the community that surrounds the "blue badge" from that certification, have significantly helped me to grow the company to the stage it's at now.

I'm hoping that Microsoft Certified Partner Status helps me grow the business further still.

What is a Microsoft Certified Partner? Well to quote the Microsoft Partner Portal:-

"Certified Partners represent a high degree of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies."

In a nutshell, Certified Partners have access to a number of benefits ranging from licensing, to training, to Sales and Marketing support from Microsoft.

Our clients also benefit from us having a closer working relationship and support ties with Microsoft too.

Gold Partner Status is the next target. :-)

In Part Two of an irregular series (you can see Part One here) on how businesses shouldn't try to advertise to us, I submit the following e-mail I received from a large company trying to expand it's market share in a very specific and competitive software market. It reads:-

"Do you need assistance or a live demonstration of Our Product?
If so, please do not hesitate to contact us at <#TEL#> or e-mail us at <#EMAIL#>.
We look forward to demonstrating how to slash support costs with OurProduct. We’re confident that once you begin using OurProduct you’ll see the benefits it provides for your customers and to your entire customer support team!
Best regards,
The <$PRODUCTNAME$>Team"

Ouch!

I've replaced the company in question with OurProduct to spare their blushes, but the other variables <#TEL#> <#EMAIL#> and <$PRODUCTNAME$> are all genuinely contained within the e-mail.

Yes, this may be a simple mistake on somebody within the Marketing Departments part, but question... the company sending this out is not a small business, this is a worldwide organisation with many employees. Would you trust doing business with a company who pay so little attention to detail?

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

<$BLOGAUTHOR$>

I've been a "one man band" IT Consultant for more than a few years now. When I started out working for myself, I was disorganised, dashed from one job to the next - always running 30 minutes behind, and continuously stressed for very little return. Realising this couldn't continue, I worked hard and got myself organised so I could manage my own time better and subsequently did much less dashing around, and more importantly started valuing my time and charging for it accordingly.

Then because I was organised, did good work for clients and was a nice person to deal with (as I wasn't being a stress-monkey) my existing clients started referring me to other new clients - for which I was (and still am) very grateful.

It didn't happen overnight, but before I knew it - no amount of organisational, time-management or even skills in teleportation or time-travel were going to help me - I simply had too much work on my plate to deal with. Thus the very long hours and regular weekenders appeared, and the stress levels rose in line with them.

But most frustrating for me at this point was the fact that once again I was working "in" my business and not "on" it. I was "fire-fighting" the continuous stream of paper-work, job requests and phone calls - rather than undertaking the tasks that I knew would help the business grow properly.

So it became time to either ramp back the work and only do as much as I can realistically handle, or accept the fact that I can't do all this on my own and that maybe, just maybe, somebody else might be able to do some of those jobs as well as me...

Guess which option I've gone for?

I'd like to introduce you to Kelly Piercy and Mick Davies who have agreed to join Netlink IT as we begin the (long-overdue) growth from "one man band" into "grown-up" business!

What's more they've both agreed that the tradition I started myself with having a company caricature drawn should continue and they've had their striking features etched by our artist, Roy!

Mick joins us after many years working as an IT Professional for some large employers around the UK. Mick is highly technical and MCSE qualified and will be helping tackle the ever growing list of technical requests we have coming in from clients who need our assistance. Adding Mick to the team should also allow me to both concentrate on improving other aspects of our business as well as getting out of the office and visiting our clients more often so I'm not just a voice at the end of a telephone.

Mick and Kelly will also both be helping me pull the myriad of documents, notes and general "stuff" relating to all aspects of the business - that was previously filed for use solely by me - into an organised internal system that can be used for 3 (and more...) people to get their jobs done quickly and efficiently.

Kelly will be focusing on tackling the ever-growing mountain of paperwork that Netlink, as a small business, have to deal with each and every day. She will be dealing with invoices and bills, talking to suppliers, dealing with the post, and she's even organising the decorating of the new office!

Oh yes, we're moving into new offices! More on that soon!

So whether you are one of our clients, one of our trusted suppliers, a friend or just a regular reader of this blog - I hope you'll join me in wishing Kelly and Mick good-luck with their new roles, and what's more... the gift of patience for dealing with a control-freak like me on a day-to-day basis as I learn to "let go" and as Kelly keeps telling me "chill out". :-)

If you're an IT Consultant and have got into the exceedingly good habit of keeping up-to date Network Documentation for all your clients (go read Karl Palachuk's blog if you need convincing why this is a good idea) then you'll no doubt keep records of all license keys you use to install software as part of this documentation. But if you're anything like me, you often think you've made a record of the license keys used during roll-outs, but then find you actually haven't. Tsk!

So what to do if you've not made a note of the license keys and can't find them anywhere?

If your clients have a Volume Licensing agreement with Microsoft, then the eOpen web-site is supposed to be a good place to store most of this information. I say supposed to, because in my experience 50% of the time the Volume License Summary section of the site is simply unavailable. Grr...

That's where the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder comes in handy. Despite it's bizarre name, it's a freeware Open Source piece of software that works on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008, Office XP, Office 2003, and the Office 2007 family of products. Simply run the stand-alone executable (no installation required, so you could carry it around on your USB key-disk) and seconds later you have that elusive License/CD Key for adding to your documentation.

Keyfinder has been around for a few years now, is well trusted and simply works.

Now there's no excuse for you not to keep you or your clients licensing records up-to date!