Addicted to IT

Exchange 2003 End-of-Life? Fix it today.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 02:09:00 +0000

Two business days until Exchange 2003 goes end-of-life. Two more days until you need to need to be upgrade. Whether you work for an MSP, or you've been trying to get your boss to move off of Exchange 2003 or the past decade, you're quickly running out of time. That being said... I get it... if you haven't upgraded yet, it's unlikely that you're going to next week. But sooner or later, you're going to wish you had. And when you do, would't it be nice if you had a goto plan that's already been put through it's paces? A plan that's already been used in real customer environments... everything from SBS 2003 to the Enterprise. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just execute the plan? Without buying an Exchange book, learning everything about an application that you don't even like... and wouldn't it be nice if you knew it was going to just work. Well, this is the kit you've been looking for.

I just moved my final SBS 2003 client off of Exchange 2003 last week. Yes, that's right. After years of recommending, suggesting, and imploring... they bought it. And using the kit I did it with a minimum of pre-planning, one scheduled reboot of the SBS 2003 server, and a bulk mail move of all of their accounts - I was finished by 4:00pm on Friday. No late nights, no angry clients, and no annoying ActiveSync problems. On top of that, I sold it as a fixed-cost, basing the project on a 40 hour gig, and it took two days total effort. How's that for a fixed cost no-brainier?

Buy the Exchange end-of-life kit today for $73 and with 1-2 days of total effort, you can do what normally would take a week. How's that for a good fixed cost margin? On top of that, it's no stress, no lost weekends, and most importantly - a happy client. Our kit works, because we've been using it, and continuously improving for years.

Will 2014 be the beginning of the end for "big storage"?

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 20:13:00 +0000

As another year turns, a new storage crisis looms on the horizon. What did you budget for this year? Is your SAN running low on storage capacity, or is is it a performance problem this time around? Or perhaps this is one of those rare years when you're just on the hook to re-up the contract that your vendor has you chained to. However you look at it, if you're thinking about storage, you're probably planning to spend a heck of a lot more than you want to. But what if you could cut your storage costs by 50%, while at the same time getting a scale-out, continuously available storage platform with auto-tiering? And oh, by the way, wouldn't you like to implement something that was proven first in the Cloud and actually is bullet proof, but at the same time is something that you can implement on-premises with your existing skill-sets and resources? Wouldn't it feel good to burn that service contract with your storage vendor? ... and know that you're actually making the best decision for your business.

It seems that 2014 is shaping up to be the year where big storage is finally disrupted. Between technologies designed for huge data sets... like Amplidata’s Bitspread technology, and Microsoft's LRC erasure encoding, classic RAID technologies and many big storage vendor paradigms are ripe for disruption. More than that, products like Microsoft Storage Spaces - a feature of Windows Server 2012 R2 - were developed while building Azure, and the bits packaged in a way the real mid-sized Enterprises can use to cut their ties to with their existing storage vendors, and eliminate the "storage tax" through the use of off-the-shelf hardware and user-defined redundancy policies.

If you're interested in learning more, check out this article over on StackAccel and see if it can point you in a new direction.

Looking to replace your PBX?

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 19:21:00 +0000

Go check out this article on Choosing the right phone system for your business, over on StackAccel.com if you're in the market for a new PBX. The cost model today seems to be that if you're larger than a handful fo folks, a Cloud/hosted phone system is still pricey given the number of small/mid-sized phone system options available... from Allworx, to the plethora of Asterisk-based solutions.

AT&T SIMs are back on StraightTalk

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 16:28:00 +0000

For those of you who were disappointed by the lack of AT&T SIMs on StraightTalk, or who were were buying old AT&T SIMs from Amazon for $70 each... it appears that the AT&T StraightTalk SIMs are back. Also, in case this happens again... a call StraightTalk and escalating to a manager could also get your T-Mobile SIMs converted to work on AT&T.

The missing StraightTalk manual... released!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 22:47:00 +0000

Are you considering switching to StraightTalk to save money on your cell phone plan... but just aren't quite sure what the whole story is? Are you worried about losing your phone number, or about the not quite unlimited data plan? Maybe you're just trying to figure out which MVNO is the best fit for you.

And at the end of the day, can you really save about $1,000 a year by switching to an MVNO, like StraightTalk?

You absolutely can. I know, because I switched 8 months ago and haven't looked back.

That's why I'm releasing The Unofficial Straight Talk Guide, for $10.99 via LeanPub.com.

The Unofficial Straight Talk Guide is the missing manual for switching to an MVNO, like Straight Talk. As of today it's about 38 pages and 10,900 words long. I say, as of today because Leanpub.com lets you update after you publish, meaning you'll see future updates for free (which makes Leanpub pretty cool). At 38 pages, it's just long enough to tell you everything you need to know... to explain precisely what you need to do, and the order to do it in, so that you don't have to worry about making a mistake. But short enough to not be irritating.

Plus, there's a 45-day 100% Happiness Guarantee. You'll get the guide in pretty much every format... Kindle, PDF, and iPad (MOBI, PDF, and EPUB), which means that you can pretty much read it on any eBook reader in existence. Also, for a very limited time you can get The Unofficial Straight Talk Guide for $2.99 by using the coupon code st-100 when you go to order.

My favorite niche Andriod apps

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:58:00 +0000

Did you take my advice and pick-up a Nexus 4 for yourself, or for someone who might not be a phone geek? So if you've spent any time with the phone, you're already using the mainstream apps (e.g. the Pandora, Dropbox, Skype, OpenTable, GasBuddy, etc.). But what about the niche? The ones that you didn't think to think about? Well, here are a few of my less mainstream favorites...

Tape-a-Talk - great little tool for taking voice notes (like for a class, or if you want to record long rambling thoughts for later dictation). If you even begin to build up a back-log of voice notes, you'll find the paid for version is critical to keeping your thoughts organized.
Power Note - if you use Diigo for social/cloud/portable bookmarking needs, Power Note comes in quite handy for interacting with your library while mobile.
Handy Scanner - Scan things like receipts, and send them to DropBox.
AirDriod - Enables you to wirelessly manage your phone from your computer. If your phone and computer are on the same network (or with the latest release, even if they're not) you can connect via a web browser on your computer to get a desktop-like experience for navigating your phone (copy files, send texts, etc.). I mostly use it to transfer files when I don't have a USB cable handy.
Compound Interest Calculator Basic - because who doesn't like to be able to calculate the opportunity cost of small financial decisions from their phone?
Wallpaper Changer - such a cool little app for rotating through pictures as wallpaper... here's a link directly to the developer.

Obviously, the you can search your way through the vast Google Play store to find useful things. But these are some of my favorites. If you have an amazing niche app to share, or something better than the above let me know about it.

StraightTalk Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:57:00 +0000

Imagine that your service provider just offered to cut your annual bill by about $1,000, while still giving you (mostly) unlimited data, and then throwing in unlimited text and talk just for good measure? Too good to be true? Not if you have a Nexus 4 and move from a contract, to pre-paid on Straight Talk.

How do I save $1,000 per year?

For the uninitiated, Straight Talk is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). An MVNO buys capacity on someone else's network (e.g. AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.). They negotiate wholesale rates, and then they chop up that capacity and resell it to consumers. In other word's they're a middle man... they don't own a network, or towers... they don't build infrastructure. They just repackage the capacity, and pass cost savings on to end-users. And yes... believe it or not, it's actually a thing.

And this saves me money?

You've probably seen the ads for pre-paid wireless... be it Straight Talk, or Virgin Mobile, or one of dozens of different MVNOs that offer $45-$50 per month for unlimited everything... that can't possibly be true, right? There's got to be some catch... because who in their right mind would pay double that for their AT&T contract? Well, by the numbers the vast majority do. In fact, despite trailing Verizon by 20 million wireless subscribers in Q1, 2013... AT&T is expected to add another 475,000 new customers this quarter! What's that worth? Well, it's worth more than $38 million per month in new revenue to them! Why? simply because most people won't consider a pre-paid option, like Straight Talk. (And now you also know how Verizon and AT&T can afford to pay such high dividends to their stockholders).

Yes, but is it really unlimited everything?

Good question - and there are some caveat's if you read Straight Talk's terms and conditions. The one that has the potential to impact most folks is the "unlimited" web-browsing... which is in fact, different from unlimited data. "So what's the distinction?" Well, you can check the link for the details but the short of it is that you shouldn't stream video (much), and you should pay attention to your data usage. At the risk of oversimplifying... unlimited web-browsing translates into "don't abuse your data plan"... which if you're looking for a real-world guideline actually means... keep it to 2GB per month, or not much more than 100mb on any given day. So the next question many folks ask, is "Is that alot", or"What's typical?". Most customers on either AT&T or T-Mobile don't reach a 2GB per month. And only 4% of AT&T customers use more than 3GB. The story might be a little dated, so I also conduced an unscientific survey of folks working in a technology company... all had Smart Phones, and all were in the age range of 28- 40 years of age. Guess what they used? The average range was between 700MB - 1.2GB per month.

What does this have to do with an unlocked Android phone (like, say... a Nexus 4)?

Google's Nexus 4 is a carrier unlocked GSM phone. You probably already know that. And if you don't, Brian over at Anandtech does a good job of explaining why it's a great phone. Of particular note is the zerogap LCD display. In case you weren't aware, unlike the Galaxy SIII, the Nexus 4 does not have a Super AMOLED display. Since the Nexus 4 is manufactured by the king of LCD production, LG has managed to squeeze every lost drop of LCD goodness out of the aging technology (while yields are still ramping up on the OLED manufacturing). For those unfamiliar with GSM it means that the phone will work darn near anywhere on earth that has a cell phone carrier, and all you need to do is grab a prepaid SIM card on a local carrier's network. Prepaid SIM cards are common just about everywhere in the world, expect for the US (though via MVNO's, they're becoming more common). So in the United States, why does this matter.. For starters, it's now illegal to unlock a locked phone without the carrier's permission. Crazy, right? AT&T and T-Mobile are the two major GSM-based networks in the United States. So, with a Nexus 4 -available at the Google Play store you can buy a $300 phone without a carrier subsidy, a phone nearly identical to the unlocked $750 (retail) LG Optimus G. Why the difference? Long story short... the Nexus 4 doesn't have 4G LTE coverage capability anymore ;)... it's limited to 3G (but can do HSPA+). There are rumors that Google is selling the phone at cost, or perhaps at a loss, but it may just be that the margins are higher on phones than what some folks thought. Whatever the case, it's a great phone for only $100 more than what would be the typical carrier subsidy.

What does YOUR contract cost?

I hate spending money on things that I don't need, especially things with a monthly recurring cost. Going back and looking at my cell phone bill from 2001 (because, yes... I do keep cell phone bills from a decade ago - doesn't everyone?), I was amazed... my bill was about $45 a month through Sprint. Given inflation, it must have gone up... so factoring 3% annual inflation, my bill should on the order of $61 a month. But no, my bill was about $90 per month, and when I add a second line, data, text ... I was paying $167 a month ... so about $2,000 a year for my mobile communication "needs". Now, I don't know where you live, or what you do for a living but $2k a year for a couple of cell phones is kind of a lot, right? 20 years ago the things barley existed, and in the intervening decades I've stacked up monthly-recurring cost upon cost... cable, ISPs, cell phones, text messaging, Netflix, and maybe even a plain-old phone line... when you add it all up, you're looking at the cost of a BMW 3-Series lease ($310 per month) spent solely on communication needs! So could I actually have been consuming a luxury German sports sedan worth of communication needs every month? Probably not. But make no mistake... I was certainly paying for it.

So what's the plan?

As you may have figured out by now, my plan was to buy a pair of Nexus 4 phones, and then port my numbers from AT&T to Straight Talk. My goal was to save on the order of $1,000 per year by doing so. With both of those steps having been completed, and a month or two having passed, I've started to get a sense of what it's like being on a pre-paid plan.

So how does Straight Talk work, and how's the coverage?

Remember how I said Straight Talk is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), that resells the big carrier's infrastructure? Well, that means that the coverage is just about the same on whichever parent network that you use. What I mean by that is this... if you have a Nexus 4 already, then you have an unlocked GSM phone already. And that means you just need to pick-up a Straight Talk SIM card... either an AT&T Compatible SIM Card, or a T-Mobile Compatible SIM card - either will work in your Nexus 4. For me, I know I have good AT&T coverage - because I was an AT&T customer for more than 5 years. When I went over to Straight Talk, I chose an AT&T Compatible Card. In other words, my Straight Talk coverage is the same coverage I'd get on AT&T. So when I'm on the road, I have the same great coverage in most places (and the exact same dead spots as I did before). Oh, and if you've researched this in the past, you might have read that there's no roaming. Which is true, and might be problematic if you were using a CDMA phone on Straight Talk. But you're not... you're using the Nexus 4, and you're using either AT&T or T-Mobile... and in the case of the former, the network is massive. So unless you're out of the country you really don't need to worry about roaming if AT&T has descent coverage where you live and work.

This sounds complicated.

You know what, I thought the exact same thing before I switched. In fact, I started looking into pre-paid options in 2010 before re-upping with AT&T. Do you want to know why I didn't switch to a pre-paid plan then? I thought it was too complicated... and simply not worth my time for what I thought would be a meager savings. It's not that there weren't enough cell phone network options, or that I couldn't afford an unsubsidized new phone. I just thought it wasn't worth the irritation. The reality? I'm saving at least $829 per year on Straight Talk over my prior AT&T plan, and I use my phone more than I used to.

Okay fine - maybe it's not too complicated, but isn't it only for phone geeks?

No... in fact, it's probably better for you if you're not a phone geek. Why is that? Because many phone geeks spend way too much time on their phones, and as a result they tend to use way too much data. Remember how I talked about the limits up in the above sections? Well, there are penalties for being irresponsible with your data usage, but as I mentioned... the vast majority of folks don't use even 2GB of data per month. If you don't know how much data you're using, and have a Nexus 4... click Settings>Data Usage... and check your data usage and the break-down by application. Go back a few months as well... more than 2GB per month? Probably not. If you're on AT&T or T-Mobile, you can also check the web-site and see what you've been using.

Where are the correct APN settings?

Straight Talk keeps the APN settings here. But here's a quick-reference:

Name: Straight Talk, APN: att.mvno, Proxy: Not Set, Port: 80, Username: Not set, Password: Not set, Server: Not Set, MMSC: http://mmsc.cingular.com, MMS Proxy: 66.209.11.33, MMS port: 80, MCC: 310, MNC: 410, Authentication Type: Not Set, APN Protocol: IPv4, APN roaming protocol: IPv4, Bearer: Unspecified).

What's the verdit?

I'm a couple months into the switch to Straight Talk on my Nexus 4, and am on track to save over $829 this year. It's not painful, and it's not a scam. Knowing the above helps... and knowing even more can help save you time and hassle. If you're still worried about your data usage, coverage, or are just looking for a quick-start read-

Interested in learning more? Sign-up today to be notified when my Straight Talk mini-guide is released... when you do, and I'll also send a free copy of the finished eBook to the the first 5% that sign-up to be notified.

What's to loose? Sign-up today.

(I'll never send spam, and you can unsubscribe at anytime!)

How to save $1,000 a year on your cell phone plan (without really trying)

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 19:43:00 +0000

Are you considering switching to Straight Talk, but not quite sure what the whole story is? Maybe you're worried that about coverage, or about losing your phone number. Or maybe you're concerned about the data plan, or the type of phone you'll end up with. And at the end of the day, it's the bottom line that counts... can you really save you $1,000 per year, and accomplish that with zero frustration?

These are all valid concerns, and the same ones I had (and more). But what if you could switch to Straight Talk today... and know your service will be exactly the same as it was on your old carrier? Imagine that you had the phone that you wanted (e.g. iPhone, Nexus 4, Galaxy S4, etc.), with truly unlimited talk, and text, and almost unlimited data... and knew exactly what do without ever having to worry about it again? If your reading this, then you're probably the type of person who needs the whole story on Straight Talk before you're willing to take the leap, and risk the time, frustration, and hassle of number ports and new providers. If that's you, then this guide is the missing Straight Talk manual. Since I've been through already, and already know the full story, I'll explain everything that you need to know in order to make the change to Straight Talk today, save yourself about $1,000 a year, and do it with zero worry. On top fo that, since I've published this through Leanpub.com - it comes with a built-in 45-day money back guarantee. Not only am I confident that this guide is the missing Straight Talk manual, and that it will deliver on the order of $1,000 of value this year - but if you're unhappy you'll get a full refund by LeanPub.com.

This guide tells you everything you need to get started, without worry, and without becoming a phone geek (unless you really want to). We'll get you moved over to Straight Talk now... keeping your same number, with essentially unlimited everything, and a 45 day money back guarantee on the guide if you're unhappy.

At the cost of the guide ($10), the savings on your phone bill will pay for itself in less than a week.

The guide is 34 pages and more than 13,000 words in length. It includes everything you need to know before, during, and after the switch from your carrier to ensure you have great service, keep your number, and prevent your phone from being throttled or locked due to data usage.

Get it today: the Unofficial Straight Talk Guide (Everything you need to know to start saving $1,000 per year on your cell phone plan)

Nexus 4 + Straight Talk: Part 4 - Data Usage

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 03:28:00 +0000

What if you never had to worry about going over your celluar data plan again? What if you could use your phone for web browsing, email, navigation, and occassional tethering without fear of going over some arbitrary limit? Does that sound too good to be true? Could Straight Talk possibly offer all of that and still cost half what you're paying with a major carrier? Alas, that is just a bit too good to be true... but only a bit. Here are the highlights - if you want more information, just ask.

There is just a ton of information out there about Straight Talk data usage, the supposed risks of using Straight Talk, and the rumors of discconects and other frustrations. Some of it's true, but take it with a grain of salt. While I only have a couple of data points at this point based on my own usage, I've throughoughly investigated this matter and here's what I've learned...

First of all, Straight Talk's Terms of Service (TOS) basically state that you have unlimited web browsing capabilities. Not unlimited streaming, or unlimited file transfers... just unlimited web browsing. How do they tell the difference between web browsing or streaming? They don't. And from everything I can tell, the tools that they have to measure this are fairly rudimentary - they can only determine excessive bandwidth allocation consumption, or respond to the underlying carrier flagging network abuse and reporting it to Straight Talk. Straight Talk's job is to prevent the underlying carrier's network from being effected by the MVNO's users, and Straight Talk's duty is to protect their relationship with that underlying carrier.

Ok, so what's my limit?

There is no arbitrary limit. I think that's where a lot of the confusion on data usage stems from... it depends on a number of variables, the majority of which are unknown to you as an end-user at any given point in time. For example, do you know what bandwidth has been allocated by the carrier to the area that you're currently in? Can you tell how much is currently being utilized by other users? Can you determine what impact you might be having on their network? The reality is you can't make most of these determinations with any degree of accuracy. But you can influence it by being responsible with your data usage. This is why there is conflicting information... with some users report being able to get 5GB+ per month and of never being throttled, warned, or disconnected... why other's report warnings starting at 2GB.

So what's my limit?

Again, there's not an arbitrary limit. But here's the deal... unlimited actually used to mean unlimited... until smartphones went from 5% marketshare, to 70% marketshare and data usage exploded. This was about the same time AT&T started throttling the top 5% of their users in every market. Today, the unofficial Straight Talk limit is between 2.0GB and 3.0GB per month (down from 5GB a while back). OR...when you're affecting the underlying carrier's ability to provide quality service to the rest of their customers, and Straight Talk get's a warning from them. You can count on the fact that AT&T isn't going to risk loosing more post-paid customers (like me, when I was paying $167 per month) to Straight Talk, and then having the Straight Talk users abuse their network.

Yeah, great... but what's my limit?

I think I answered that a couple of times, but to be on the safe side... your limit is 2.0GB per month, and dont use more than 100MB per day. Never watch Netflix, or stream excessive video. A little Pandora? Check. Tethering to your computer so you can VPN into the office and RDP into your workstation for a bit? Check. If you use your phone as a tool, and avoid streaming media over your data plan - you should be fine.

What happens if I get warned?

If you hit a limit, they'll throttle you way down. If you made a big enough impact, the first time you're flagged, Straight Talk will call or text a warning to you. Heed the warning, because the second time you will be deactivated. Unlike some of the other MVNOs, Straight Talk always warns you the first time. After that, you will be deactivated.

How can I avoid being warned?

Be responsible with your data plan usage. First set a warning level that's reasonable (e.g. 1.5GB), so that you don't accidently go over. Beyond that...

Use WiFi when it's available.
Don't stream video... especially don't stream Netflix, or excessive YouTube.
Don't use your phone in place of your computer... file transfers, downloading content, etc... really belongs either on WiFi, or your laptop.
Try not to tether (or if you do, do it responsibly)

How much data are you using?

My last two data points were 1.5GB and 1.9GB. I haven't been throttled, warned, or deactivated. Two simple tweaks have also substantially reduced my data usage.

Sign-up to be notified when our Straight Talk Ebook is released!

Nexus 4 + Straight Talk: Part 3 - A month in review

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:55:00 +0000

If you've read part 1, and part 2, you already know the potential... start saving $1,000 a year by getting off of a big carrier contract and switching over to a prepaid StraightTalk plan. So after a couple months, is StraightTalk living up to the hype? Or have I been cast into scylla or charybdis - marooned on a prepaid plan and having been throttled (or worse) to my doom? Well, don't let me keep you waiting... hurry-up and read on!

The very first thing I did after initiating service was to enroll in auto-renew. Auto-enroll is precisely what you'd think it is... it's what makes the pre-paid service seem as though it's a contract... add your credit card information to set it and forget it. No more worrying that you'll forget to re-up at the end of the month, and no concerns that you'll loose your phone number, etc. It's worth the 2 minutes it takes in frustration averted.

My first mistake...

My StraightTalk "kit" came in a giant envelope... which contained a couple of smaller envelopes, one for each contract I had purchased. Now, I had purchased a plan called the "AT&T Compatible SIM + Unlimited* Plan", which at $59 came with everything I needed for the first month of service. Importantly, this first month of service includes a small green card for each plan, and on those cards is a scratch-off code. The activation kit doesn't make this need particularly clear... and I had wrongly assumed that it would all just work, as I activated. But alas, that was not the case. So after activating service, and paying (again) for the first month, it became obvious that something had gone wrong. After all, I was up to a couple hundred dollars in expenses at this point for 2 lines. So that meant a call to StraightTalk Customer service - which was fortunately quite easy to find (1-877-430-2355), both on the web-site and all over the activation kit.

Customer Service...

So if you've read through the various forums, you probably are under the impression that StraightTalk has terrible customer service. My experience suggests that that impression is inaccurate. It might not be AT&T, where I get a US-based agent... but it's not terrible. Here's why... I contacted customer service because I thought I had been double billed for the first month. My call was the evening (8:00pm Eastern) and the automated message gave me a wait time of approximately 30 minutes, but offered to hold my spot in the queue and call me back, which I opted for. About 15 minutes or so later, I received a call from Customer Service. I explained what had happened (billed twice for the first month), and they... transferred me to someone else, who put me on hold, and then came back after about 15 more minutes. After working through my explanation for the second time, they were able to determine that I should have received a pair of activation cards, but mentioned that occasionally these are missed in the shipment. So she gave me a credit for each phone for the next-month, and said I was good to go. By the time I hung-up, I had spent about 45 minutes, and received text messages noting the credit had been applied on each line. Which was good. I later found my activation cards buried at the bottom of the large envelope. So it turns out, I didn't need to call customer service, it was my fault that they were missed. But my takeaway was that customer service was at least adequate to understand the problem, and was empowered to fix it. So the lesson for folks - look carefully in that large envelope, and customer service is descent.

Billing...

Almost everyone that I talk to about StraightTalk asks me some variation of... "how much does it really cost per month?". I guess they ask this because they're so used to contract carriers and hidden fees which drive up the monthly cost. For those of you with this same concern, you'll be happy to know that the advertised $45 cost was pretty close... the actual total monthly cost was $48.93 (there's also a $2.50 per month promotion right now, when you sign-up for autorenew... just FYI). The break down is like this...

$45 for unlimited everything
$2.93 for taxes
$0.23 for E911 services
0.68 Federal Universal Service cost
0.09 regulatory cost recovery
Total: $48.93

So how does that compare with my expectation? Well, my goal was to save about $1,000 per year. The input number I used was $167 per month for my prior contract (when I reconciled the numbers it was slightly higher, but we'll ignore that for simplicity sake), which means I'm on track to save $829 this year after taxes and fees.

Stay tuned, in a posts I'll cover data usage and coverage.

Click here if you'd like to be notified when our Straight Talk Ebook is released!

Network switch for my lab - Netgear GS724T-300

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:03:00 +0000

The last hardware upgrade on my vSphere lab was the SSD, but in addition to that I've been in need of a descent switch for a while. What I wanted, was a Cisco 2960-S. Not only are they good, but they're also my top-of-rack standard switch in my vSphere deployments. However, in spite of diligently trolling Ebay looking for a deal, I decided to opt for a Netgear GS724T-300 for the home lab... which is a 24-port gigabit managed switch, supporting 802.1q VLAN tagging, link aggregation, etc. Most of all, it's affordable at $219. While not of any consequence in my environment, they're silent, which doesn't hurt.

Part 1: Taking the pain out of server procurement

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 03:18:00 +0000

One day, a few years ago a stack of HP equipment showed up for job we had just won. Everyone was excited. "Did you hear? We just got [insert amazing high-visibility job X for key client Y]". "That's great Eric... but did you see that stack of HP equipment sitting in receiving... what's that for?", I asked. "That's for this new job, I ordered it yesterday as soon as we received the PO." "Uh-huh... and who did the spec?", I asked... knowing the answer. "Don't worry... you did... I just switched out the chassis, and left most of the other parts the same from our last job the same. They're all low-utilization servers." (Says the person who has neither heard of esxptop, nor has ever used a performance monitoring solution). I also replaced a couple of things with stuff I found on newegg, mostly just RAM and hard drives... they're not HP branded, but I think we've really been overpaying some of this stuff." And so it goes...

If you don't have a vendor management office (VMO) doing this kind of stuff for you, then you're like just about every other SI out there. Maybe your procurement process has grown organically as your company has grown, or maybe Bob in Accounting always does it... or maybe you're fortunate enough to have a Systems Engineer who inherited the responsibilities from someone else, and actually does know what he/she is doing (at least from a technical standpoint)... and that enables the ship of procurement to sail unhindered until something stupid happens, and then everything is a wreak. So even if you think what you're doing works, you might want to go back and compare your process with mine, and see if there are any gaps.

Over the course of the next few posts, I'm going to talk about my server procurement process. I suspect that most SIs have to deal with this, so I'm going to go over what I've picked-up in the time since Eric stopped doing procurement. I can't say that I've covered everything, or that you can beat a VMO at their own game, but I've picked-up a few things that help prevent scenarios like the above from happening, while at the same time enabling you to be more competitive (both in terms of pricing, and in terms of eliminating labor), and ultimately help you find the hidden server margin. Because, like you... I primarily care delivering the scope, on schedule, under budget at the level of quality that I committed to. Hardware and software are just necessary to insure we can deliver the scope, so let me help you take the pain out of procurement, by giving you my process.

Finding HP Server Margin

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 21:23:00 +0000

Tired of your HP Server quotes pricing out at nearly 2x your Dell pricing? If you're new to HP server procurement, or you just hate doing procurement in general and are struggling to figure out how to resell hardware competitively... your first step is figuring out where the hidden margin is. I know what you're thinking... it would be great if, as a small or mid-sized reseller, you had an HP rep like your Dell rep - who can just figure it all out for you (but would they be looking out for your best interests?). If you're reading this, you probably don't have such a rep, and you probably already know that it can be challenging to resell HP hardware. So assuming for a moment that it makes sense for you to resell it, one of the best ways I've found to uncover the margin on HP hardware is this...

Start with a base config that already is known-good. Meaning, you have the chassis, RAM, drives, the RAID controller, etc... all of the right part numbers. This might sound obvious, but search on the root part-number to start with...

For example, if you're looking for an HP 146GB 15k part number... say, "652605-B21", search on the root part-number "652605" first, so you get all of the matches (obvious, right?). Then, if you want to narrow it down to SmartBuys... I've found that searching for the "S21" part is a better tactic than searching for the term "Smartbuy". For instance, "652605-S21" will find any SmartBuys that may exist. That way, when you go to place you're order you'll sure you're getting the best price with that distributor. This is true for TechData, CDW, and the like... but it's not always the case when searching other resellers like say, Amazon.

(Since we're on the topic of HP SAS hard drives, you might want to check out Amazon.com... the affiliate inventory information is obviously not as good as what you'll see on TechData, but they frequently have better drive pricing on drives than you can get with other distributors).

Keri Doors recommendation for USB Serial Adapter

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:31:00 +0000

If you're trying to connect from a Windows 7 machine to a door controller via Keri Doors 4.x, and the serial-to-USB converter that you have doesn't seem to be working, try a Tripp-Lite USA-19HS (get the drivers here). Some other Keri tips, while I'm thinking about it... the default username and password are both Keri (case-sensitive), so change them. The location to modify the associated COM port in Keri Doors is under Setup>System>Network Config>Port (COM 1-4). Then you can click the Controller Status tab>Status ... which will launch the communication tool, and should report back the "Ctlr Type" and show as "online" in green, if everything is working. .

CRM Reporting Extensions Installation Error - Microsoft.CRM.Setup.SRSdataconnector.restart Services action failed. Cannot start service report server on computer

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:22:00 +0000

While installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions to the SQL 2008 R2 server in my lab, I kept getting the following error snippet... "Microsoft.CRM.Setup.SRSdataconnector.restart Reporting Services action failed. Cannot start service report server on computer'". During the installation of CRM reporting extensions, the SQL Server Reporting Services service stops, and on restart fails. I tried this in service manager manually (start... same error), and even after rebooting the error was present when manually attempting to start the SQL Server Reporting service. It appears that this occurs because the service manager doesn't wait around long enough for the service to start. There are some good resources on how to do this already, including Microsoft KB article 2745448 (method 4)... but in short, use regedit and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control, right-click Control and create a new DWORD named ServicesPipeTimeout, then modify it such that the decimal value is 60000 (1 minute wait). Then restart the service.

Stop unnecessary data plan consumption in Android fast!

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:56:00 +0000

Is you phone still consuming your data plan unnecssarily? Only let your apps update over Wi-Fi... from the Play Store>Settings>set "Auto-Update apps" to disabled, and Enable "Notifications". That way, you'll be able to manually approve app updates when you're connected to Wi-Fi.

Is Andriod OS consuming your data plan? Fix it with 3 clicks.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:10:00 +0000

So if you've you've got a small data plan and are concerned about your data usage (if so, switch already!), you may have dug in and noticed under Settings>Data usage and that Andriod OS is using most of your data plan. But you'd prefer it to only update over wifi. No problem... from your device go to Play Store>Settings>and enable Update over Wi-Fi Only. And cut out a chunk of your data usage today.

Save $1,000 a year by buying a Nexus 4 and moving to Straight Talk. Step 2 - porting your number.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:31:00 +0000

Imagine you have the very best smartphone available... the highest quality display, with an up-to-the-second current version of Android, and the snappiest UI available! Now, imagine that AT&T has just offered to cut your annual bill by $1,000 while still giving you unlimited data, and then throwing in unlimited text and talk just for good measure? Too good to be true? Not if you have a Nexus 4 and have moved from post-paid AT&T to Straight Talk.

Chris over at TechCrunch called the Nexus 4 almost perfect, and after having lived with it for more than a month, I have to say that I'm agreement. The phone is a piece of craftsmanship, and plenty of folks put it through the paces already, so I'm not going to try to convince you to get one. It's a nice phone, that even a non phone-geek can appreciate. But if you're like me, you're really here to save $1k by ditching your post-paid major carrier contract and moving over to an MVNO like Straight Talk.

So I'm not going to walk you though the sign-up process over at Straight Talk. But I am going to explain the transition process. Assuming you've already got a Nexus 4 (or other carrier unlocked phone), head on over to Straight Talk (and don't forget to grab some frequently available free shipping). Do the obvious...

Click Shop>Sim Cards>Please choose the type of phone you have, and selected "Unlocked GSM phone".
Select an AT&T compatible Straight Talk Micro Sim if you have a Nexus 4.
Get the "AT&T Compatible Micro SIM + Unlimited* Plan". As a heads-up - when you receive your shipment, check carefully through all of the envelopes that Straight Talk sends for the ugly green card that has $45 stamp, and has a bar-code and a scratch-off section on the back.
Finish your order and wait a few days to receive your shipment. And yes, FedEx/UPS will require someone to sign for it.

After you receive your cards, you'll need to follow the instructions that come with the card. With your current phone powered on and working correctly with your old AT&T post-paid service... get started...

Go to Straight Talk and select Activate/Reactive">Transfer Number>Activate my Straight Talk Service with a number from another Company.
Straight Talk will next ask for you AT&T login information, account number, and the last 4 digits of your security code (Remember, your AT&T account number is located at the top of your last invoice - it's NOT your phone number).
If you haven't already done so, now might be a good time to print out any records or invoices you might need for taxes or reimbursement. Because after you transition your phones, you'll no longer be able to login to the AT&T site.
At this point, you still have your Nexus 4 with the old AT&T SIM card installed and you're just waiting. According to Straight Talk this can take days. And a skim of various forums suggests that hours is common. I was moving 2 phones (1 at a time), and slower of the two was the second one, which took a full 5 minutes at around 7:00pm Eastern time mid-week.
Make certain you setup Auto-Fill now backed with a credit card so you don't risk loosing your phone number.

How do you know when the number is ported?

If you left your phone on, and working... you'll notice the signal bar has dropped to zero. And if you try to hit a 3G data network, you wont get a response. Or if you just want to reboot the thing after waiting a few minutes, you can do that too and see if you have no service. As soon as service is down and you can no longer make calls, you're ready to finish the process.

Power off the phone. Remove the old SIM card, and put the new Straight Talk SIM into the phone, and turn it on. You should should now be able to place phone calls. Data doesn't work yet though, on your Nexus 4 you'll need to go to Settings>Mobile Networks>Access Point Names> New APN. I recommend you go to Straight Talk and make sure you using the latest APN settings, which I'll also post for Good Measure:

Are you ready to save $1,000 a year by switching to an MVNO? Stay tuned, as I'll be reviewing total costs, service quality, and more in an upcoming article.

Click here if you'd like to be notified when our Straight Talk Ebook is released!

Tired of Acrobat licensing expenses? Replace Acrobat with LibreOffice Draw and edit PDFs for free

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:18:00 +0000

Are you tired of your software budget evaporating on questionable licensing expenses like Acrobat Standard? Do you wish you could recover that cost or redirect it into something more useful? In that case, have you considered the freely available LibreOffice Draw ?

For the unacquainted, LibreOffice is an open source office productivity platform first released under the LGPL in January 2011 by The Document Foundation. You may recall, that Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems in 2010, and along with that they inherited OpenOffice, and abruptly killed commercial support for it (trivia - Sun released it as an OpenSource project after acquiring StarOffice in 1999). The net result, is that LibreOffice (which is actively being developed) is actually quite a a mature, open source office productivity platform - and is similar to Microsoft Office in many respects. Notably, LibreOffice Draw (akin to Visio) has the ability to edit PDFs. No, not like Microsoft Office, which let's you create in Office and then do a Save As to PDF. LibreOffice Draw literally lets you do a File>Open... browse to your PDF... then modify the content. And it works... when you're finished, go to File>Export as PDF>Export. And boom... you're finished. You can even install the portableapps.com package - which I use for editing PDFs.

This isn't to say that you can just blindly replace every instance of Acrobat Standard, or Professional across your organization. That would be unwise. But if you think about your user or client base, and thelicensing expense line items in your budget, how many of your resources just need a simple PDF editor? How many couldn't care less about all of the other features of Acrobat Standard and Professional?

Given the actual need and your budget, give LibreOffice Draw a try, and see if you really need all of those Acrobat Standard licenses.

Save $1,000 a year by buying a Nexus 4 and moving to Straight Talk? Step 1.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 03:27:00 +0000

Having been a customer of AT&T mobile services for the better part of a decade, voice and 3G service has been "good enough" for me for a while. I know some phone geeks rave about the transfer rates on Verizon, or T-Mobile, and for some reason most just seem to hate AT&T... but despite living and breathing IT for most of my life, I just can't get juiced about mobile bandwidth. WiFi at home, WiFi at the offices, and more bandwidth than I really need most of the time... it works. So, what I have is really good enough.

But good enough, is also expensive. Too expensive.

My objective is to reduce the total cost of my my plan by some noteworthy amount... say $1,000. And to do it in such a manner that I don't have to think about my minutes, my texts, or my data - because I won't. I also don't want to have to be ever in search of hot-spots, or anything like that... because that's irritating. Oh, and I don't want a contract, because who in their right mind would want one? I also don't mind paying more for a phone either, if it can be cost justified.

The history...

So flash back a couple of years to when I last renewed my contract... I was really looking for a pre-paid monthly option, and did a bit of market analysis and considered Simple Mobile, which at that point was an independent MVNO that ran on T-Mobile's network. However, for a number of reasons... not the least of which was perceived complexity and a need to replace a phone quickly, I failed to pull the trigger and ultimately re-upped with AT&T.

What's an MVNO, you ask?

Good question... an MVNO is a mobile virtual network operator. To make a somewhat long, and unnecessarily convoluted story shorter... and MVNO buys capacity on someone else's network (e.g. AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.). They negotiate to get wholesale rates, and then they chop it up and resell it to to consumers. So they're a middle man... they don't own a network, and they don't build service. They just repackage the capacity. Virgin Mobile UK (1999) was the first to successfully make inroads in the UK MVNO space. And if you know anything about Virgin, they're an interesting company that takes risk. Helm'd by Sir Richard Branson, they tend to get involved in markets that abuse, neglect, and gouge their customers...like the mobile phone market, or the Airline business, and then they do it better/faster/cheaper... or at least cheaper (or they go out of Business, Like Virgin Brides).

Why do carriers resell to MVNOs?

An even better question. One which I've found more difficult to answer. There's some evidence to suggest that at one time, MVNOs let carriers service a market that they previously were unable to reach. For example, having a cell phone contract requires some type of credit score (and a cursory skim of the Internet suggests it's south of 500). But the reality today is that if your breathing, and you don't owe a major carrier money... you can probably get a contract. That still leaves swaths of the market under-served. So an MVNO steps in and can enable the carrier to reach a market that they have historically identified as too high-risk, and at the same time put phones in the hands of people that otherwise might be unable to get them. Or, that once was the argument. So win-win, right? Well, I think it's a bit more complicated than that. The reality today is that there are so many MVNOs out there on each major carrier, that the carriers are being forced by the market to enable MVNO's to compete, and what might have started out as a means to reach more subscribers could be more disruptive than the carrier's originally anticipated. Although at the end of the day, the carriers are the carriers... they own the infrastructure and that counts for something.

Where's the market going?

MVNOs seem to be here to stay, and while there are scores of them, Straight Talk appears to be the leader right now, reselling AT&T and T-Mobile in a one-size-fits-all $45 of month plan that includes unlimited voice, text, and data (officially throttled after 2gb). That fact, combined with what Google is doing via their carrier unlocked Nexus branded phones, and the carrier market is under a bit of pressure in the US. For instance, With a Nexus 4 you get the fastest, most up-to-date Android-based phone on the market, with a LG-manufactured "zerogap" LCD Display. Put another way, the phone doesn't suck, and and is a viable competitor with the iPhone 5, and costs $299 with no contract. In terms of network performance, on AT&T the phone can do HSPA+ in markets where it exists (HSPA+ is a 4G-ish service, based on 3G and is faster than traditional 3G, but slower than 4G LTE).

The market:

As of 1/2013, AT&T is paying an annual dividend of over 5%, and the performance of their stock suggests that the future is bright. Indeed, if BT is the canary in the coal mine, then the prospects for AT&T remain strong if they're able to jettison legacy costs.
The percentage of the US population that has cell phones is 103%.
From 2006 - 2011, AT&T invested more than $115 billion in operations and spectrum.
Mobile traffic grew at more than 20,000 percent in 2011
AT&T Added 7.7 million subscribers in 2011

The Plan:

I'm currently paying $2k per year ($167 per month) for two AT&T mobile lines with a mix of voice/text/data services. Straight Talk offer unlimited talk/text/data for $45 per month per line, or $1,080 per year. To get two Nexus phones, I'm going to pay a $200 premium relative to a comparable carrier-subsidized Samsung Galaxy S3. So after 2.6 months, I'll recover the premium that I paid for the phones. And moving forward, I'm saving $924 per year for more minutes, more texts, and unlimited data on both lines.

Stay tuned to this series, as I review the switch, number port, etc. Ready for part 2?

Would you like to be notified when we release our Ebook on saving money with Straight Talk? Sign up Here...

Portable undelete tool for NTFS volumes (quick and free)

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 02:32:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've had to do deleted file recovery from a machine, so I thought I'd post a short note based a recent conversation that I had with a friend of mine. Incidentally, the last time I looked into this I ended up using a Knoppix Linux Live CD. But a quick search suggests... that the undelete business is alive and well. So after trying a few disappointing tools, I found that Recuva met the need (it worked, it was portable, and it was free). It did a fine job of quickly recovering most of the recently deleted files, but as expected - struggled on the ones that had been deleted a while ago (several weeks old).

How-To: Configure SSTP RAS VPN server on 2008 R2

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:01:00 +0000

For anyone working on getting a 2008 SSTP server running properly, or just looking for some guidance, I strongly recommend Microsoft's "SSTP Remote Access Step-by-Step Guide: Deployment" . The step-by-step walk through is useful. Before you get started through, make sure you check out "How to troubleshoot Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) based connection failures when client fails to connect to SSTP VPN server giving error message 0x80092013" (KB961880).

As for tips... if you're following the step-by-step guide... after you've installed the Active Directory Certificate services, and the Certification Authority Web Enrollment (essentially the same step), but before you "request a server authentication certificate" by hitting http://localhost/certsrv on your new SSTP/RAS server do the stuff explained in KB961880 before proceeding on and finishing the SSTP step-by-step guide. This is an important step, because if you do not do it, and instead just follow the step-by-step guide... when you finish and you're testing the SSTP VPN client, you will get the following error: "The revocation function was unable to check revocation because the revocation server was offline. 0x80092013".

For what it's worth... I actually spent some time researching a couple of other non-Microsoft guides when getting started, and those turned out to cause me more problems than had I just started with the Microsoft guide. Also, if you're knee deep in errors, like "error 812", or "ID 4402"... and in the back of your mind you're wondering things like... "Do I need Active Directory functional level to be at 2008?", or "Do I need a 2008 DC?", the answer to both is no. Your 2003 Native mode DC's are just fine.

So if you're running into errors like the above, or windows local authentication works, but domain authentication doesn't, and it's not yet a production server... save yourself some time, check out Microsoft's guide, and start-over.

ThinManager: Enable Detailed Logging

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 01:19:00 +0000

In order to enable detailed/debug-type logging in ThinManager, do the following... create a DWORD registry value called "LogOutput" here... HKLM\Software\Automation Control Products\ThinManager ... set the value to 14 (or 78 to enable detailed security logging as well), and restart the ThinServer service. This will start generating log files in your ThinManager program files directory - keep an eye on it though, and don't leave it in place forever, or you'll consume the drive. It's useful for troubleshooting synchronization issues between Thinservers, and time sync issues that look like "synchronization failed" events in Thinmanager event log.

Load Balancing Terminal Services and an intro to ThinManager

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:13:00 +0000

If you think about Terminal Services and the core functionality that terminal services provides (remote desktop), the ThinManager platform extends that core functionality. What I mean by that, is that it introduces configuration management, rapid thinclient deployment/replacement, and incorporates high-end features (like load balancing, and fail-over) into a platform that is maintainable. What's also interesting about ThinManager is that it doesn't necessarily require the degree of specialized skill-sets that a platform like Citrix Metaframe/XenAPP requires. In short, it's interesting.

I bring this all up, because I've recently been working with ThinManager. While the platform perhaps caters to manufacturing - it isn't necessarily exclusive to that market. If load balancing is your only problem, there are many ways to handle that. But ThinManager has an interesting way of approaching the problem, and has a host of mature features that help to make it an attractive option. From just a load-balancing standpoint, ACP's SmartSession technology looks at the utilization of your terminal servers before placing new connections on a given server. While that's clever, right off the bat it's doing more than round-robin DNS, or NLB with less complexity, and probably less configuration effort. While ThinManager might not be the only load-balancing game in the town, it's a capable one - and if you're in need extending the core functionality of terminal services, or might benefit from the other features included in ThinManager - you might want to check it ou

As I work more with the platform more, I'll include some more posts.

SAN Shutdown Script

noreply@blogger.com (Nick) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Here's a short python script that you can use to automate a clean shutdown of a Equallogics PS6000xv. I threw it together so that I could run/schedule it from an ESX 4 host; it implements the telnetlib module to automate a telnet session with a Dell PS6000xv (tested on firmware v4.1.3, R91175). I thought it might come in handy for someone else, as Dell/Equallogics doesn't publish any code to do this kind of work for you. Make sure that when you run this, you don't have any active I/O going on.


import sys
import telnetlib

hostIP = "192.168.0.2"
user: "sanadminaccount"
password: "password"

tn = telnetlib.Telnet(hostIP)
tn.read_until("login: ")
tn.write(user + "\r\n")
tn.write(password + "\r\n")
tn.read_until("SANNAME> ")
shutdownstring = tn.write("shutdown" + "\r\n")
tn.read_until("[no]")
shutdownresponse = tn.write("yes" + "\r\n")
tn.write("logout" + "\r\n")

print tn.read_all()