20. August 2009 by admin.

* The following is a copy of some email conversations with one of my web site visitors: Trance Addict. I always encourage technical investigation into additional capabilities and possible value added functionality of equipment that I sell. The following conversation discusses Voice over IP (VOIP) - Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) [often associated with VOIP, but also with T.38 Fax Over IP (FOIP), as well as an IP PBX Software called 3CX. It is interesting from a mobile user point-of-view as often mobile broadband users want to extend Office Voice Telephone and Fax Communications to their mobile 3G platform (e.g. Sail and Motor Yacht, Motor Vehicle, RV, Mobile Construction, …) to let their office extend and travel along with them.

Like I said I encourage such technical investigation in the hopes that some result will come where any derived “solutions” can be provided to my customers, friends, and web site/blog visitors. If anyone has any comments please write:

communications @ marinetelecom.net or call +1 954 683 3426.

[Email Conversation/content starts here.]

Alan… Feel free to blog that.. and you can reference me as TA (Trance Addict from MA- trance_addict_1@hotmail.com) that is the handle I use online.. In any case, I really want to get the SIP stuff working directly from within the W25. I have my 3CX PBX offsite, so what I would like to do is have the W25 which is mounted in my car connect to my 3CX remotely and act as an extension while Iam driving around… Do you have any contacts at Ericsson that I could communicate with to get the W25 going… There are few archaic command line setups that are not that straightforward and I would really like to have someone on the phone to do it. I don’t mind calling international either. I don’t want to brick  the box by doing something wrong. I am definitely in support of your blog and business and will definitely send anyone I know your way.
Something else I found that AT&T is not blocking either SIP or SKYPE traffic on their network at the protocol level…. It is only blocked at a software level on the handsets itself (e,g, Skype and Fring on IPhone).. but once you have the W25 any device connected can use it for a dumb  pipe… Don’t know about Tmobile…. They offer the unlimited (5GB/month) Tzones service for $9.99 that is cheaper than the $19.99 Iam paying with ATT. BUt I don’t want to switch because Iam grand fathered in. So actually I also have skype phone GE231110 E  that is connected over the AT&T network… This information you probably don’t want to blog to avoid calling attention but it is good to know… I wonder if Tmobiles 3G network which is still growing is better or not.
Ditto on the speed.. Lately, I have been having a lot of problems from the tower that I connect to at home… the 7.2 MBps connection is seen as 3G+ in the W25 and it usually keeps dropping to 2G. I think it is the local tower because my service on my phone is also deteriorating. Iam sticking with the W25 until LTE comes out making it worth while to upgrade.
Cheerios!
TA
——————————————————————————–
From: Alan Spicer
To: Trance Addict

Subject: Re: Your Forum
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:25:58 -0400
Thanks again for the fantastic update. Let me know if I have permission to blog any of that - and how or if you want credit / contact information in any blog article.
 
Keep me in loop as you keep working on that stuff. Very interesting. I imagine everything would translate as well to the new Ericsson W35 model as well. New smaller sleeker case. Gets quite warm to the touch in my experience. Adds the HSUPA to the HSDPA for the full HSPA suite. In my experience still not getting screaming speeds - definately not any amazing boost in upload speed - at least in my neighborhood. Download did very well on speed tests.
 
I probably should make another Forum … but business/money has been the primary focus this year. Bad economy year - coupled with now it’s marine off-season in Fort Lauderdale (for us working / selling anyway.) So if you know anybody interested in the W25 / W35 (or anything related) send ‘em my way. I could use it.
 
 
—
Alan Spicer
 
DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
—– Original Message —–
From: Trance Addict
To: Alan Spicer
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 08:30
Subject: RE: Your Forum
As a follow-up to your question, money wise, I have google voice/gizmo for free inbound and outbound calling working through 3CX… It doesn’t get any better than this… You also get a DID number and with the 3CX PBX, it is nice to get that setup as a SIP trunk… Also you can do it directly from an ATA if thats what you want to do… If you have Skype, with 3CX they just released a SKYPE gateway plugin so I have my skype account setup as a Gateway also so you can choose what you want to use as an outbound trunk, Skype or SIP from 3CX.
I also wanted to confirm back to you that I have not had any luck with the FAX capability, but i am still trying to get it to work.
Lastly, reading through the documentation in the ADMIN guide for the W25, I was surprised to find that you can actually set it up as an ATA to connect direct to a SIP trunk as well… So in theory, you don’t need an ATA, just need to configure the w25 itself with SIP server settings and credentials…
This is what Iam focusing on now to see if I can just have the w25 do everything… The SIP server settings have to be done through command line.
Cheerios!
TA

——————————————————————————–
From: Alan Spicer

To: Trance Addict

Subject: Re: Your Forum
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:39:23 -0400
* I downloaded that (3CX) and playing with it a little bit. I don’t have any outbound sip service - other than Skype and my $ = 0. I did make an extension and installed the software phone and made that work. I’ve played with PBX stuff in the past, like Asterisk. Boy is that a beast. It would be nice to just hook up inexpensive ATA boxes to change Analog lines into SIP lines to the PBX software. Hardware cards for doing that kind of thing are still way expensive. Considering you might be trying to make something that you can sell that people would buy. Would have to beat New PBX prices …
 
Most Yachts big enough to be talking to already have a PBX. So getting them to change it - (unless it breaks) is often difficult. I have put boats on Vonage enough times … The thing is any system (VOIP or otherwise) has to work over whatever Internet Connection they get. Which can vay from WiFI to Cellular, to Satellite / VSAT for those that have it. If it won’t work over any connection then = GAME OVER.
 
Most VSAT comes with VOIP already … usually several lines. So hard to compete with that. But if a boat was just WiFi and Cellular 3G then it might be a possibility.
 
Ummmm FAX. That’s always a big question. We know the W25 and W35 have this T.38 - which itself requires a SIP Server. The only setup working is in Australia with Australian phone numbers. None in the U.S. If there was a way to do FAX that might add another bell to possible sales. 3CX supposedly has some kind of FAX SERVER capability built in. Any way you can test that capability????
 
—
Alan Spicer
 
 
—– Original Message —–
From: Trance Addict
To: Alan Spicer

Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 14:10
Subject: RE: Your Forum
Hi Alan,
Many thanks for the info… I’ll give it a thorough read…. By the way, I was thinking since you provide many services for your marine clients, may be you can offer a turnkey onboard PBX system with VOIP. I am using the free 3CX SIP server running on windows that is as easy to configure as pumpkin pie. I thought you may want to market that along with W23/W35 routers… Anyways, if there is anything I can do for you testing wise, let me know as I have a lot of IT gear and probably too much time on my hands..:-)
Regards,
TA
——————————————————————————–
From: Alan Spicer

To: Trance Addict, Alan Spicer
Subject: Re: Your Forum
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:57:46 -0400
* I’m sending both the W35 and W25 (latest admin guide that I have…) Admin Guides. Maybe when you did a SIP Server it was not on the standard or expected ports that the W25 knows about.
 
 
6.11.3 NAT ALGs
There are certain difficult applications that a NAT configuration cannot
manage. In many cases, Application Level Gateways (ALGs) are needed to
translate and transport packets correctly.
An ALG enables the transfer of specific application streams through NAT. This
is enabled by creating dynamic holes in NAT and changing IP addresses in
network protocol headers, and if a secondary port is required, the ALG will
open one. 
The Ericsson W25 includes NAT ALGs for the following protocols:
 
•  FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
•  TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)
•  RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol)
•  SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
•  PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol).
 Enable/Disable NAT ALGs
The included ALGs do not require any additional configuration and the
be enabled/disabled individually. 
To enable/disable an ALG, use the following commands:
$ cf set ip.napt.algs.ftp true|false
$ cf set ip.napt.algs.tftp true|false
$ cf set ip.napt.algs.rtsp true|false
$ cf set ip.napt.algs.sip true|false
$ cf set ip.napt.algs.pptp true|false
$ cf commit
 
6.11.3.2  Show NAT ALGs Configuration
To check the current status of an ALG,
$ cf show ip.napt.algs
ip.napt.algs.ftp true
            .tftp true
            .rtsp false
            .sip false
            .pptp false
—
Alan Spicer
 
DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
—– Original Message —–
From: Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
To: Trance Addict
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 12:36
Subject: Re: Your Forum
* Hello,
 
I took that forum down when I had to move my domains off of my own server to hosted service on 1and1.com. I was getting killed with costs from AT&T as a Business DSL and Phone customer. I couldn’t get every service working as I had before - because the server was right here and I could install anything vs hosted service which you take what they give you.
 
My blog is back running … as you have no doubt seen on http://blog.marinetelecom.net and I have a couple other content softwares on different domains that I have been testing. My signature on some of the blog posts tells what the other domains are.
 
It is very interesting the things that you have found … such as VOIP working through a SIP server and such.
 
I have never seen error messages yet that actually seemed to break anything on the Ericsson boxes. I’m not even sure what WUID means in the context of wuid_log. Usually “uid” has to do with User ID and setting permissions such as SUID - Set User ID and SGID - Set Group ID - But I’m thinking that WUID might mean Web User Interface Daemon or something like that. I don’t have W25 or W35 around right now to beat on looking for the answer to those things. It is Linux … But even having a Linux box I’m not getting a lot of answers to what that is. It sure looks like they are having trouble with User ID and Group ID … something related to RED BOOT.
 
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBF_enUS255US256&q=RedBoot
 
Information concerning the RedBoot embedded system boot monitor and debug firmware.
sourceware.org/redboot/
 
* Searching for wuid_log seems to find several languages … but not english. And it’s a bit tedious to translate and follow conversations. I hadn’t found anything describing this exactly so far.
 
* Anyway every time I ask about these errors I usually get told that they don’t mean anything or are no important or affecting the product operation. Although it seems a little sloppy to me … to leave errors going into a log that END USERS can view at any time. When I see errors in my server logs I fix them
 
—
Alan Spicer
 
DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
Computer Services, Wired/Wireless Networking,
Cell/Sat/Landline Communications, General Consulting…
Marine, Business, Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)
 
* Cost Savings and Integration of Multiple Internet Technologies
on board Sail and Motor Yachts * Documentation, Operating
Instructions, and Support after the Sale *
 
* http://www.marinetelecom.net/
* http://www.internetforyachts.net/
* http://www.wifiyacht.net/
* 954-683-3426
 
Mobile Internet! Step up to the HSPA 3G Fast Internet!
 
Ericsson W35 released in the USA. This you’ve gotta SEE!!
Better looking presentation than W25 (you might not want to
hide this one in the Doghouse!) + High Speed Upload which
the W25 did not have.
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35/
 

Ericsson W25 released in the USA.
 
Voice / Fax / High Speed Internet
Voice for your analog jacks or PBX Cell Line + 4 port
CAT5 Ethernet Router and Built-in WiFi Wireless
Replace older Ericsson F series or Telular Boxes
Go To:
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W25/

—– Original Message —–
From: Trance Addict
To: Alan Spicer
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 11:38
Subject: Your Forum
Hi Alan,I can no longer find your marine telecom forum that you used to have for discussion topics. Is it still out there or did your kill the site? Anyways, I have been upgrading the firmware on the Ericsson W25whenever there is a new update available and recently I have been noting the following in the event log. I wantedto post this on the forum to see if any other users were seeing anything similar.Any ideas on what is going on?… Other than that, the router seems to work fine even with these warnings.Also, I have a couple of Voip phones connected to a PBX sip server that is connected to the router. The PBX is connectingto an outside SIP trunk.. I had checked the Application level gateway service for SIP in the NAT page,however, it did not work until I specifically forwarded the respective ports to the PBX SIP server…Do you know what  the application level gateway service check boxes do? There is no documentation available on this topicin the manuals as to what the purpose is.. In any case, just thought you could shine some light on this on your blog or if the forum still exists then I’d like to post it there..I have been poking around this device for over a year now and for hobbyists like ourselves, it is a neat littletrinket..:-) I was particularly surprised to find that you can actually do voip traffic over the cellular data network without the latency issues as long as you are not jumping from tower to tower.Cheerios!!TAEvent Log——————————–Jul  6 13:31:30 (none) daemon.warn wuid_log[3050]: Error in retrieving unlock_code in                RedBoot config data.Jul  6 13:31:30 (none) daemon.err wuid_log[3050]: Invalid uid/gidJul  6 13:31:35 (none) daemon.info wuid_log[3050]: doc text/link not setJul  6 13:31:35 (none) daemon.notice wuid_log[3050]: Session id not found ($wui.sid$)Jul  6 13:31:35 (none) daemon.warn wuid_log[3050]: Error in retrieving unlock_code in                RedBoot config data.Jul  6 13:31:35 (none) daemon.err wuid_log[3050]: Invalid uid/gidJul  6 13:31:35 (none) daemon.notice wuid_log[3050]: Session id not found ($wui.sid$)Jul  6 13:31:36 (none) daemon.warn wuid_log[3050]: Error in retrieving unlock_code in                RedBoot config data.Jul  6 13:31:36 (none) daemon.err wuid_log[3050]: Invalid uid/gidJul  6 13:31:36 (none) daemon.notice wuid_log[3050]: Session id not found ($wui.sid$)Jul  6 13:31:36 (none) daemon.warn wuid_log[3050]: Error in retrieving unlock_code in                RedBoot config data.Jul  6 13:31:36 (none) daemon.err wuid_log[3050]: Invalid uid/gidJul  6 13:31:37 (none) daemon.info wuid_log[3050]: doc text/link not setJul  6 13:31:40 (none) daemon.notice wuid_log[3050]: Session id not found ($wui.sid$)Jul  6 13:31:40 (none) daemon.warn wuid_log[3050]: Error in retrieving unlock_code in                RedBoot config data.Jul  6 13:31:40 (none) daemon.err wuid_log[3050]: Invalid uid/gidJul  6 13:31:41 (none) daemon.notice wuid_log[3050]: Session id not found ($wui.sid$)Jul  6 13:31:41 (none) daemon.warn wuid_log[3050]: Error in retrieving unlock_code in                RedBoot config data.Jul  6 13:31:41 (none) daemon.err wuid_log[3050]: Invalid uid/gidJul  6 13:31:42 (none) daemon.notice wuid_log[3050]: Session id not found ($wui.sid$)Jul  6 13:31:42 (none) daemon.warn wuid_log[3050]: Error in retrieving unlock_code in                RedBoot config data.Jul  6 13:31:42 (none) daemon.err wuid_log[3050]: Invalid uid/gidJul  6 13:31:48 (none) daemon.info wuid_log[3050]: doc text/link not set
——————————————————————————–
[end of email conversation/content]

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

Land, Mobile, and Marine Communications (aka “Telecom”)

+1 954 683 3426

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14. August 2009 by admin.

* From the minds or Minolta… oops wrong commercial From the mind of this guys blog:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/168189/three_ways_to_reduce_your_communications_costs.html?tk=nl_mcx_h_cbstories

James A. Martin, PC World

Jul 22, 2009 4:00 am

1. Don’t Call, Skype

Skype should be an essential part of every traveler’s communications tool kit.

2. Try Google Voice

As of this writing, Google’s free Google Voice VoIP service wasn’t widely available–but it should be, any second now.

3. Bump Up Your Cell Phone Plan

Before you leave town, you could switch to a mobile phone plan with a larger block of anytime minutes, then forward your home or business numbers to your mobile.

(more at the link above.)

* Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom - providing 3G Mobile and Fixed Cellular Voice and Internet Systems, and WiFi Hotspot Sharing Systems, among other Equipment and Services to the Land-Mobile and Marine Markets.

http://www.wifiyacht.net

http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35

Main Site: http://www.marinetelecom.net

Telephone +1 954 683 3426

Email: communications @ marinetelecom.net

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14. August 2009 by admin.

* First the shameless plug… Alan Spicer provides Internet Systems for Marine and Land/Mobile customers using 3G, WiFi, and such technologies. So since I’m always trying to find ways to provide systems that work in the most areas of travel, and save the most money, this article was interesting.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/168186/payasyougo_internet.html?tk=nl_mcx_h_cbstories

James A. Martin, PC World

Jul 15, 2009 4:00 am

The recession isn’t likely to take a vacation this summer, but there’s no reason you can’t. In fact, if business is slow, this may be the perfect time for a month-long home swap, or to hit the road with your camper and French poodle, Steinbeck style. Either way, with a little planning, you can still get work done by taking your virtual office with you. And if you’re careful, you can set up your virtual office without spending a lot of money.

The first item on your to-do list is to figure out how you’ll get broadband Internet access while you’re away. This week let’s take a look at your options, including two new contract-free, pay-as-you-go 3G mobile broadband services. Next week, how to keep your communications costs down when you’re away from home.

 (more at the link above, but the following was particularly interesting…)

If you need to avoid 3G service contracts, you have two primary pay-as-you-go 3G cellular alternatives, both of which only became available in the past few months: the Novatel Wireless MiFi and Virgin Mobile USA Broadband2Go.

Novatel Wireless’s MiFi is a compact router that lets you create a wireless hotspot using a mobile broadband network. The device is available from Sprint and Verizon Wireless. If you pay full price for the MiFi ($400), you can then pay $15 per day for unlimited use, with no contract.

That may be okay for those who need only a day’s worth of 3G cellular Internet connection multiple times throughout the year. However, if you need MiFi for Internet connectivity for several consecutive weeks or more, the $15-per-day plan is prohibitively expensive. Otherwise, you’d have to opt for a $60 monthly data plan (for 5GB of data) or $40 monthly plan (for up to 250MB)–both of which require contracts.

Virgin Mobile USA’s Broadband2Go is a USB 3G cellular modem ($150 at Best Buy) that you can use with blocks of broadband cellular Internet usage without a contract. You have four plans to choose from: 100 MB (for use within 10 days) for $10; 250MB for $20, 600MB for $40, or 1GB for $60 (these three plans give you up to 30 days to reach the maximum usage limit).

If you’re planning to be gone for several weeks, the 1GB plan might serve your needs. But you’ll pay about $210 total ($150 for the device, $60 for the 1GB plan) for the privilege. Also, be careful: Playing YouTube videos, downloading iTunes songs and movies, and such, will quickly eat into your data allotment. If you expect to download lots of multimedia content, you might want to do that at a nearby Wi-Fi café and save your Broadband2Go plan for e-mail and basic Web surfing.

(again, like I said before, there’s more at the link…)

* As always, I usually counsel my customers on 3G Cellular (or satellite for that matter) to limit or avoid videos, movies, and any kind of streaming music - to avoid going over plan limits on Gigabyte usage in a month. This is why we often tag-team a yachts system with both WiFi Sharing System and 3G Cellular System - thus letting you go for WiFi when out of range of 3G cellular, or when it offers all-you-can-eat bandwidth. If there’s WiFi at a location - and it works good - and has no limits on MB’s or GB’s then that will be a better choice than 3G Cellular. WiFi can also be used to avoid Internet Roaming outside of the U.S. which can be very expensive. These are the things to watch for. Both on a boat, or if travel in another vehicle on vacation or for work/business. Travel Routers (e.g. Cradlepoint [I’m being set up as a dealer]), as well as the Ericsson W25 and W35 (and previously Junxion Box [bought by Sierra Wireless]) continue to be popular for all sorts of travel and mobile use. Both on boats and other land-mobile motor vehicles.

… If I can be of assistance?

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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14. August 2009 by admin.

* First - Alan Spicer says:

Thu Aug 13 23:30:15 PDT 2009
Re: ICANN Says New Policy Has Killed ‘domain Tasting’
It’s nice to see this being done by ICANN. The days of domain squatting should have been long over - long ago.

You register a domain - you should have to pay and keep it for a year. And to register tons of domains looking for a cash cow - is soooo 1990’s.

I for one am soooo tired of landing into domain camper pages - with ads - but no content. Or content that looks like it was writtent by a poor software program.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/170131/icann_says_new_policy_has_killed_domain_tasting.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service

Aug 13, 2009 7:10 am

The entity in charge of the Internet’s addressing system is declaring victory over an abusive trend in registering domain names.

Last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) modified its domain name registration policy to make it much more expensive for people to register domain names en masse.

The move was intended to stop “domain tasting,” where someone registers a raft of domain names and then monitors those domains for up to five days to see which domains attract a lot of visitors. If the domain looks like a loser, a person could get a refund within five days, called the Add Grace Period.

(more at the link above.)

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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14. August 2009 by admin.

* A lot of people talk about Open Office and it’s open document formats, and even some government agencies (and others?) refuse to use anything else because they want the open format. Maybe they want something that won’t get sued out of existence? Of course these days just about everything is vulnerable to being sued out of existence for technology that it contains. This may be just patent campers deciding when the time is right to pounce and make their millions. But is there any point in killing of MS Word? I mean a HUGE amount of people depend on it every day. Stopping its sale would leave a LOT of people trying to figure out what the alternative is. It would also lower the value of Microsoft Office in general, I think, because a LOT of people expect Word to be in there. So anyway here is the article link:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/170124/microsoft_vows_to_appeal_word_patent_ruling.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

Microsoft Vows to Appeal Word Patent Ruling
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 5:53 PM PDT

Microsoft must pay nearly $300 million in damages and interest to Canadian company i4i because it infringed the latter’s patent for a document system that relies on XML custom formatting, according to court documents filed yesterday.

U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis has also slapped an injunction on Microsoft forbidding it to sell Word 2003, Word 2007, and Word for Mac 2008 in the U.S. The injunction takes effect Oct. 10.

Although a jury awarded Toronto-based i4i $200 million in damages last May, Davis’ final order wasn’t released until Tuesday. In it, he spelled out the total Microsoft owes i4i.

$200 million in damages for infringing the i4i patent;
$40 million in “enhanced damages” for Microsoft’s “willful infringement”;
$11.8 million in post-verdict damages, calculated from the May jury verdict through yesterday;
$38.8 million in pre-judgment interest.
The grand total comes to $290.6 million.

Microsoft said it plans to appeal the decision. “We are disappointed by the court’s ruling,” said company spokesman Kevin Kutz in an e-mail. “We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We will appeal the verdict.”

According to Davis’ injunction, Microsoft is barred from selling “Word 2003, Word 2007 and Microsoft Word products not more than colorably different from Word 2003 or Word 2007,” as well as “any Infringing and Future Word products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX or .DOCM file containing custom XML.”

.DOCX, introduced in Office 2003, is the default file format for Word 2003 and Word 2007; .DOCM is the same file format, but with macros enabled. Although the Word 2003 and Word 2007 file formats are different, both are based on XML (Extensible Markup Language).

(more at the link.)

* I must have a different Word 2003, my MS Word doesn’t default to DOCX file format. Maybe I changed the default - but I don’t remember ever doing that. It does seem to have a DOCX option (Word 2007 format) for saving files. It seems I remember recently having someone send me document that was DOCX - and I thought I remembered having to download something special to be able to open or modify that format. I also remember not liking that they keep changing the format of files between versions. Not everone gets a new OS or MS Office Suite every year or even every few years. And it makes it difficult for other systems to be able to make compatible software that MS Word users can accept.

I’m not saying that Open Office is the end all… and I’m not saying it’s easy to slide into using it. I have tried it on several occassions and switching to it was definately not seemless or necessarily easy. And for a tech guy to say that, imagine how difficult it is for a non-tech person.

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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10. August 2009 by admin.

Windows 7 Upgrade Chart Sparks Spat
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Aug 9, 2009 1:15 pm

A chart Microsoft provided to a Wall Street Journal columnist that spells out which versions of Windows and XP can be upgraded to Windows 7 without a cumbersome “clean install” is causing a dust-up between bloggers and prompted Apple users to poke fun at Microsoft’s upgrade process.

The chart, which Microsoft provided to Walt Mossberg, who writes the popular “Personal Technology” column in the Wall Street Journal, consists of a 66-cell matrix that details what XP and Vista users face when upgrading to Microsoft’s next operating system.

Only 14 of the cells indicate an “in-place” upgrade, one that retains all data and applications, but simply swaps out the OS. Vista Home Premium, for example, can be upgraded in-place only to Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Ultimate.

The remaining 52 cells show where users must do a “custom” install, also often referred to as a “clean” install. That process requires users to back up data and settings, install Windows 7, then restore the data and re-install all applications.

Ed Bott, a noted Windows blogger and author, called the chart a public relations mistake — “Someone at Microsoft is secretly working for Apple,” he said in a Thursday post — but said concerns over the size of the matrix, and the overwhelming number of “custom” cells, is overblown.

“Most customers considering an upgrade will be running one of a handful of Windows products,” Bott said. “If they are using Windows XP, they’ll need to do a custom install to move up to Windows 7. That was announced ages ago. Most Vista users will have clear and logical upgrade paths from their current edition to the same edition of Windows 7.”

(more at the link above.)

Alan Spicer’s Note: In other words the Upgrade Chart is over-complicated for most users. If you have XP you are going to be doing a Wipe of your Hard Drive and Re-installation - including all the software that you need to use on a daily basis, and you better back up your data, favorites, emails, pictures, business or personal business files, address book (Outlook Express or Outlook) - because you will have to put it back.

Vista users will have a (supposedly) easier time because they will get to upgrade Vista to Windows 7 (equal version of Windows 7 to their version of Windows Vista) - supposedly saving all of their data, settings, and programs.

P.S. Alan Spicer does Laptop and Desktop service - so if you need an upgrade to Windows 7, or any other kind of fixup on your laptop or desktop please contact me. I do a lot of these for my marine / sail and motor yacht customers.

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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10. August 2009 by admin.

Malware is Evading Detection, Researchers Say
John E. Dunn, Techworld, Techworld.com

Saturday, August 08, 2009 2:00 PM PDT

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/169891/malware_is_evading_detection_researchers_say.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

Many Windows Vista antivirus programs struggle to detect new and unusual malware, Virus Bulletin’s state-of-the-art Reactive and Proactive (RAP) tests have found.

The latest figures report an average detection rate for the period between February 2009, when the tests were first introduced, to the end of July.

The resulting ‘RAP Quadrant’ shows that several well-known products fall in to the lower left hand quarter of the graph, including PC Tools’ Anti-Virus, Fortinet’s Forticlient, and CA’s Internet Security Suite, all of which achieved detection levels below 50 percent on both axes when configured in their default mode.

Even the best performers, including those from Kaspersky Lab, BitDefender, Sophos, Check Point and Microsoft, showed mixed performance across some aspects of the RAP test regime. (See “Top Internet Security Suites.”)

The February to August quadrant can be viewed on the Virus Bulletin website.

Virus Bulletin is best known for its VB100 Certification, which rates software products against the independent but limited WildList collection of malware samples. The RAP is an attempt to pioneer more demanding tests that measure how products react to new malware sets in each of the three weeks prior to a pre-defined test deadline (the Reactive dimension) and in the week immediately following it (The Proactive).

Generally speaking, the older a sample, the more easily it will be detected due to vendors obtaining their own copy and using it to update a product’s signature database. This shows the effectiveness of a vendor’s ‘rapid response’. The proactive samples, by contrast, will be far less likely to be have been detected, and therefore this part of the test measures the underlying heuristic capabilities of a product to spot a new or unknown threat without looking it up.

(more at the link above.)

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http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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10. August 2009 by admin.

Microsoft Should Follow Apple’s Lead on Windows 7 Pricing

Michael Scalisi, PC World | Sunday, August 09, 2009 8:47 AM PDT

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/169899/microsoft_should_follow_apples_lead_on_windows_7_pricing.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

Apple’s upcoming Snow Leopard upgrade currently occupies two of the three top spots on Amazon’s software top seller list. The pre-sale prices are $29 for a single computer and $49 for a 5-user family pack.

Microsoft occupied the same two spots last month when it was pre-selling the Windows 7 Home Premium edition upgrade for $50 and the Professional edition for $100.

There’s a profound difference between the $29 Apple is charging, and Microsoft’s $50 offer: Apple’s price won’t expire.

That same Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade will now set you back a solid $120. While one might ask why Microsoft would need to lower its prices when its current prices are more aggressive than what they asked for Vista. I have the answer; Consumer’s expectations have changed.

People now expect to be able to buy netbooks for $300, notebooks for $500 and premium desktops for a few hundred more.

For the person running XP on a $300 netbook, spending an additional $120 for Windows 7 is exorbitant. Ditto for the person who bought a laptop running Vista two years ago. Many people would rather put that money toward their next computer purchase that will be much more powerful than they already have.

A person could argue that regardless of whether people buy Windows 7 upgrade or just buy a new computer, Microsoft sells an OS. This is technically true, but MS has to be much more aggressive with its pricing for OEMs than consumers. It is much happier to sell you an upgrade to your existing computer where they pocket more cash.

Microsoft is smart to sell a family pack for $150. This allows users to update up to three computers to Windows 7 Home Premium. This makes sense for households and small businesses that actually own three computers. However, there is a huge market for people that only own a single computer that is powerful enough to run Windows 7.

For the chunk of change that Microsoft is asking, these folks might just continue using XP or Vista, which still work fine for the overwhelming majority of computing tasks.

Michael Scalisi is an IT manager based in Alameda, California.

(more at the link above.)

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Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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10. August 2009 by admin.

Twitter Continues to Battle DDoS Attack

Tony Bradley, PC World | Saturday, August 08, 2009 2:39 PM PDT

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/169897/twitter_continues_to_battle_ddos_attack.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

More than two days after experiencing a complete outage as a result of a distribute denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, Twitter and other social networking sites such as Facebook are still battling a surge in traffic related to the attack. Twitter has taken some steps to mitigate the spike in traffic and ensure that the site is not knocked offline again, but some of those steps are having an impact on third-party tools that link to Twitter through API’s (application programming interface).Evidence gathered thus far from Twitter and other sites targeted by the DDoS attacks seems to suggest that the attack is actually a politically motivated attack aimed at silencing a Georgian activist. The victim, known by the online handle Cyxymu, uses blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to express views related to the tensions between Russia and Georgia. In a blog post, Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer of Internet security firm F-Secure, said “Launching DDoS attacks against services like Facebook is the equivalent of bombing a TV station because you don’t like one of the newscasters.

To defend itself against the ongoing DDoS attack, Twitter has implemented various defensive actions, some of which are blocking third-party Twitter applications from being able to connect with Twitter API’s. The mitigating steps are also affecting the ability of many users to post to their Twitter accounts via SMS (short message service) text messages.

(more at the link above.)

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Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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10. August 2009 by admin.

Social Media Outage Proves Our Addiction
Sharon Gaudin, Computerworld

Aug 9, 2009 10:44 am
http://www.pcworld.com/article/169881/social_media_outage_proves_our_addiction.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

The attack that knocked Twitter offline and slowed access to Facebook Thursday morning offered a quick lesson in how dependent millions of people have become on social networking sites.

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack took the microblogging site Twitter offline for about two hours yesterday morning. The same attack also hit Facebook and a few Google sites, but they didn’t collapse as Twitter did. Facebook reported a slowdown and a spokesman for Google said that while Google search, Gmail and docs were unaffected, some users experienced problems with custom URL redirects in both the Google Blogger and the Google Sites wiki.

(more at the link above.)

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

Posted in Main | No Comments »