PCDi Blog

AceVPN Free VPN Service

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:05:33 GMT

Ace VPN the Free VPN service

When out of the office, my laptop becomes my "Virtual Office" enabling me to do a full days work in the office while sitting in Starbuck's I have a VOIP Softphone on my laptop which means you can call me anytime I am logged on and I will pickup. So supporting GoldMine clients from any wifi hotspot is no problem. Imagine my horror recently when working in Dubai. The UAE block (along with much else) all VOIP traffic. I did not find out till I arrived and discovered my Softphone would not register.. I could no longer make or receive those low cost phone calls I rely on. The cost of using conventional Mobiles for calls for the duration of my Dubai trip was over £200.

Since I discovered Ace VPN I can be sure there is no repeat and I will be able to use my VOIP softphone even where Service providers block VOIP and other traffic. This is because a VPN - Virtual Private Network allows me to keep private all my internet traffic. It's just as private as it is within my Office network.

An added bonus is that I can use BBC iPlayer when abroad or on holiday. even though the BBC restrict access to I addresses allocated to the UK. By connecting to AceVPN's UK server I can be sure that all websites I access will see me as being in the UK, even when abroad.

You can choose from either their Free or Premium Service, though as their Premium service is "cheap as chips", I would heartily recommed it to anyone needing a reliable annonymous VPN service. to learn more visit AceVPN.

GoldMine 9

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:30:20 GMT

.........GoldMine 9 - or to be precise GoldMine Premium edition 9

GoldMine 9 due 1st Quarter 2010

Goldmine 9 will be the first significant upgrade to GoldMine since Goldmine Premium 8 first appeared almost 2 years ago. There are some neat new features included in this upcoming release. I have had my hands on it and reallyimpressed.

GoldMine 9 includes

Customisable Dashboards
Better MS Outlook Integration

Unfortunately pre-release details are sketch so I cannot add more at the moment. I will post a full review summary as soon as possible. Meanwhile, be sure you are in support for your existing GoldMine Premium installation. I am expecting that GoldMine 9 will be a free upgrade for all GoldMine Premium users who are in support.

GoldMine Backup with SQL2005

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:34:46 GMT

Do you make regular GoldMine Backups?

A guide to SQL2005 Backup for GoldMine Premium edition

Both GoldMine Premium and GoldMine Corporate editions keep their data in a SQL Database. You need to be quite sure that this data is backed up correctly, something that a surprising number of people fail to do. You would be amazed how many Goldmine users who (especially those who upgraded from a GoldMine standard installation) think that just backing up the entire GoldMine folder is all that is needed.

It's not, but the good news is that it is surprisingly easy to create a robust automatic backup by following my beginners guide to SQL2005 backups.
Let's assume that you have an existing backup program already backing up the SERVER folder into which GoldMine is installed. This will be the folder that contains the GoldMine 'license.bin' file, you need to be backing up all the sub folders as well. If you have linked documents stored outside this folder then you need to be backing up these as well.
Create a directory within the Goldmine root folder called SQLBackups. This is the directory into which we are going to create our SQL backup files.
Open SQL 2005 Server Management Studio and check the SQL Agent is running. If not use the SQL Server Configuration Manager to check the service is set to Automatic, be sure to start it. (note: If these tools are not installed on your server, they can be found on the SQL disks that came with your copy of GoldMine Premium/Corporate).
Back in Management Studio, expand the Server folders in the left column and expand the Management Folder. Right click on the Maintenance Plans folder and select 'Maintenance Plan Wizard'.
Click 'Next' and give your maintenance plan a name. Click 'Change' to reach the schedule page and fill in a suitable schedule. Click 'OK' when you are happy with it.
Click 'Next' to reach the Maintenance Tasks pane.
Select the tasks you want. The only one you must tick is 'Backup Database (Full)'. Right now thats the only one we will tick. Now click 'Next'.
Click 'Next' again. From the Databases drop down list select 'All User Databases'.
Click 'Create a backup file for every database'.
click the [...] box and navigate to the folder we created to accept our backup files in step 2.
Tick 'Verify backup integrity' and click 'Next'.
If you want email reports sent to you, enter your email address and press 'Next' then 'Finish'.
After a few moments you should see that your plan was created without error. Click 'Close'.
You have now created your first Backup plan. I suggest you right click on it and choose 'Execute' The execute plan box opens while your backup is created. When it finishes click 'Close'
Check in your backup folder, are the all there? If your Backup schedule was to occur overnight, then the following morning check that the backups completed successfully.

Note: there are many variations and maintenance plans that you can be setup. This is about as simple as I can make it. Once you have learned to make backups I suggest you practice doing a restore. Restore the backup to an alternative database and connect GoldMine to it.

Its no good making backups if you dont know how to restore them.

I will describe how to do this in a future post.

wMobile for GoldMine

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:27:27 GMT

wMobile for Goldmine CRM is currently my favourite Addon.

..........wMobile is so simple to use

What really appeals is its simplicity, most Mobiles have very small screens so the clever people at W-Systems have kept the screen simple to read and simple to navigate. Touch screen or not you will have little trouble finding your way around. Its fast as well. With no graphics to download wMobile packs a big punch but consumes little bandwidth. This means that even the meanest data plan will allow a huge number of pages of data to be retrieved for little more than a few megs of bandwidth.

I have used a few of the other Apps for GoldMine that give you mobile access to the corporate database. I can honestly say that wMobile gives me more of the features of GoldMine on my Google G1 than any other. Its not half bad on a PC either. On occasion I have been without my mobile and have borrowed a handy PC to log on and access GoldMine. You just need to remember the URL and your login details, No client to download or anything. wMobile even recognises your browser resolution and delivers the best experience possible for that device. Brilliant.

I really like how I can find a contact in GoldMine, hit any of his phone numbers and have my phone dial it. My phone contact list is now my entire GoldMine contact database. How easy is that? wMobile has loads of neat little features that combine to make it so easy i dont know how i would manage without it. Hey another great trick, I can send an email from wMobile to a client and can attach documents stored on the main server. I can even read attached PDf's and other document linked to the contacts record via the phones browser. Sorry I cant help but be really pleased with this great productivity addon.

OK the user experience is great, but what is it like to install and deploy? The answer is that it is dead easy.

You can install wMobile on any PC or server that runs GoldMine but I prefer the main GoldMine box - unless you plan to roll out dozens - or even hundreds of users. In that case you may need a somewhat more sophisticated setup. All you need to do is ensure IIS is installed and running. Install wMobile from a simple wizard and thats about it. As long as your mobile can reach that box on port 80, your all done.

More about wMobile