We have witnessed two well known IT companies in Dallas miss payroll this week.  We are working with them to transition their clients AND their employees to Architel.  We are increasing our cash reserves in order to help other local IT companies in the event the credit crunch makes it impossible to meet their obligations to employees and clients.  If your IT provider is having problems or if you are an IT provider worried about short term cash needs please give us a call, we can help.

Architel has been a member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas for several years.  Since the events of 9/11, each year the organization has remembered those who died and honored those who either gave or risked their lives to save others - now called Freedom Day.  This year Pam Gerber, the executive director of EFNT, thought we could celebrate Freedom Day by serving those who serve us - firemen.  Startups from around North Texas donned their red t-shirts and headed to various firehouses around the city.  Architel was assigned Firehouse 46 and our team is in the process of cleaning, painting, landscaping, replacing carpet, replacing countertops, refinishing wood lockers, tinting windows and whatever else our 50 person team can accomplish in a single day.  Here are some pictures from the event.

I began by explaining that most of the long haul fiber entering Dallas hits the Electra POP near the AA center.   Originally leased (99 year lease) by Western Wireless, then IXC, who became Broadwing and ultimately purchased by Level (3), the small facility is home to most of the long haul fiber in Dallas.  There isn’t enough room in the POP for much besides basic optronics and simply muxing gear, so many carriers have connected their fiber to POPs built in 2323 Bryan St.  The building is full of carriers who use the building to light their fiber and sell capacity.  There are few colocation facilities in the building, but most of them are very full or very expensive.  As a result many of the ISPs connected their networks from 2323 Bryan St. to 1950 Stemmons (more commonly known as the INFOMART) a 1.4 million square foot building with huge floor plates.  Most of the internet routers in Dallas are in one or more facilities located in the INFOMART.

The net-net is that these three locations form a triangle of connectivity.  If any one of them is distrupted Dallas’ various connections to the internet would likely go down.  Staying away from anyone of these locations may seem like a good idea, since in many ways they are great ‘targets’.  Ironically, the most likely scenario is that with all of the construction going on in Dallas (notice all of the cranes?) it is more likely that the local loops (the connections that run between buildings in our streets) will be cut accidently.  If the INFOMART is destroyed I imagine almost every internet connection in Dallas would be distrupted.  If the local loop between the INFOMART and your building is cut you are the only one who will be down.  I suspect you are 99% more likely of the later than the former and of course the former means you are down anyway…

My advice?  For colocation pick one of the main buildings: 2323 Bryan or INFOMART.

Update: AT&T has this to say about this morning’s problems: “There was a routing issue affecting some wireless data use in the Northeast region. AT&T technicians determined the cause and restored service at 11:56 a.m. EDT. Voice calling, text messaging and BlackBerry email were unaffected.”

reprinted from DSL Reports.

• Online Backup
• Managed Servers
• Colocation

We are currently looking for specialty sales people to market each of managed services.  If you are interested in applying please fill out our online application here.

For the past month Architel has been encountering problems with client workstations being bombarded by the so-called XP Antivirus 2008.

The XP Antivirus 2008 is one of the latest counterfeit antispyware programs floating around the internet. XP Antivirus 2008 usually pops up after you installed a video codec that come with Trojan, malware and virus but recently we’ve seen it show up come via email with a subject line variatieon of “A POSTCARD FROM A FRIEND”.

XP Antivirus 2008 normally generates fake and misleading system popup error messages so end-users will be tricked into purchase XP Antivirus 2008.

All of our clients use anti-virus software but even the best AV software fully updated can be vulnerable.  Getting infected by this virus will at the very least cause you hours of lost work and frustation.  Most of the time a full system rebuild is required.

The best way to avoid being infected is to stay vigilant, avoid opening unsolicited attachements and if you have and question give us a call.

You can apply online here or stop by our offices on the second floor of the INFOMART some time (our office has the 9′ Hulk in the waiting area - don’t worry, but please don’t make him angry)…