Posted on No Comments on Competition is great (for the consumer…)

Competition is great (for the consumer…)

Here in Israel Cellular Modems were once very expensive. The rates were super high. About a year ago they dropped because of a price war. I got a card for about $75.00 and was allowed 12 gigs of transfer per month. Now a year later there is a price war between Orange and Cellcom. Orange has a plan for about $30.00 per month and allows 5 gigs of transfer. Cellcom has a plan for about $40.00 and offers unlimited. When I say unlimited I mean unlimited with no cap. I right away canceled my current plan and ordered a new card. The new cards are great as well. They are now offering 2 mBits down and 1.4 mBits up. I know I will kick myself again in a year when hopefully the rates fall even lower.

/D

Posted on No Comments on New 5TB Hard Drive

New 5TB Hard Drive

According to an article in the Inquirer Hitachi is working on a 5TB hard drive. While this seems like a lot I am looking forward to a drive that can store a Petabyte’s worth of data. It will be a few years before even that will go out of style. I currently have several external hard drives filled to the brim. The total is about 2 Terabytes. If I had more drives I know they would be full as well.

/D

Posted on No Comments on Some customers are just not worth it

Some customers are just not worth it

There is a golden rule in life that I go by “You get what you pay for”. I have potential clients that come to me and want to know why my rates are cheaper than the “other guy”. They want my quality service and the next guys rates. It just does not work. Some one came to us recently. He complained about our rates. When we asked him why he was moving over to us he responded “well my current carrier is down some times for hours”. PEOPLE YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR !!!! If you want quality service you are going to pay for it. Teliax for instance charges 2 cents a minute to the US. Some consider this a bit high, however they have great customer service. If there is an issue generally they are great at solving it.

I had a client who wanted to host his Asterisk server from his home off his cable line to save money. I explained him that it was not worth it and that a server in a data center would be worth his while. He went with hosting it in his home. Two months later I get a call at 1:00 AM from him begging me to switch him over to a server in a Data center. He was on a conference call and the quality was horrible. He lost a deal worth all over $30,000. Was it worth it for him to go cheap on the $200.00 a month hosting ?

Remember – Y.G.W.Y.P.F (You Get What You Pay For).

/D

Posted on No Comments on VOIP is great

VOIP is great

I think VOIP is amazing. While I still don’t believe that VOIP is at PSTN quality it is slowly getting there. I have a friend who is thinking of moving out of the US but still needs a US presence. He called me the other night and asked me if it was possible. I explained him that with a few SNOM phones he can have his US number ring any where in the world. Should he decide to move he can work from where ever he wants with out almost any interruption. I don’t know why more business’s aren’t implementing it.

My first system that I set up was for a car parts dealer who had a satellite office in Germany. He was delighted to hear that he could send a phone to Germany and have it act as a local extension. Once most people see the capabilities of VOIP and try it out they never want to go back.

/D

Posted on No Comments on Rant: Tech Support is NOT your personal slave !!!!

Rant: Tech Support is NOT your personal slave !!!!

I HATE IT when a customer that spends with you $20.00 a month expects you to everything for them. I recently had a client call me and complain about a very serious issue that was affecting a lot of his clients. He demanded that I get it fixed right away. Now I work on giving the best customer service possible but I am limited. If I were to do that for every client I would get no where. Also I will add that what the customer wanted was more of a feature than a severe bug. Just because a system does no preform to the exact liking of a customer does not mean that it is a bug. I recently had a friend relate to me how he had a client whom he set up Asterisk for and put the box up (a very good one I may add) in a data center. The client called him and stated that system was down and demanded that he fix it at once. He explained that he was on vacation and will look at it when he had time. There was no support contract between the two of them and the system was working fine for many months. The customer assumed that if he paid $200.00 for co-location then he was entitled to all the support in the world. In the end the issue was that the customer did not pay his ITSP and his account closed off. This brings me to another issue when your system is down it does NOT mean that mine is. I have another client that calls me from time to time saying “your lines are down”. As always I run a check and most of the time it is his internet that is having issues. I grab a trace, email it to him and show him that it is an issue at his end. Why do people always blame the next one. Check it out on your end and see if there is an issue. I have more to rant about but this will do for now.

/D

Posted on No Comments on A Gui for Asterisk that I like (just a little)

A Gui for Asterisk that I like (just a little)

Yes. You read correctly. As some may know I hate almost any and every gui out there that has been created for Asterisk. Now when a customer wants a GUI on Asterisk you do as the nice paying customer says. I was forced to check out some GUI’s and the Asterisk-Gui (created by Digium) is not to bed. The interface takes a little bit to learn but it’s not hard to get the hang of it. The code that it generates is small and simple (unlike some other GUI’s *Cough** TrixBox**Cough*). Anything that you manually put in to the configuration files will show up in the GUI. While I still prefer “vanilla” Asterisk if you are trying to learn Asterisk or need a quick fix then Asterisk-GUI is the way to go. (Of course GUI’s are always for plan Z and should be used in a worst case scenario 😉 )

Posted on No Comments on Rant: “Asterisk/VOIP Professionals”

Rant: “Asterisk/VOIP Professionals”

This has been brewing in me for a while. You have people running around claiming to be VOIP and Asterisk experts when all they know how to do is work a GUI. If I know how to use Windows XP does that make me an expert ? I have nothing against people using GUI’s how ever since they just use a GUI they never learn what goes on behind it, which I will admit some times you don’t need but in the case of Asterisk you need to know the “guts” of Asterisk to trouble shoot issues. Take TrixBox for example. It is a great tool that generates lines and lines of code. If there is an issue they don’t know how to figure it out by looking at the code (since they are experts…. in the GUI only and don’t know how to write any code for Asterisk). They then get charged by the creators of TrixBox roughly $200.00 an hour to solve the issue. It also gives a bad name or us “other” VOIP installers. They put in a system that they are unable to maintain. They instantly turn off customers to the goodness that is VOIP.

/D

Posted on No Comments on Consumers: Think before you complain

Consumers: Think before you complain

A client of ours just called me all nervous that his Fax2Email was not working and there must be something wrong with his line. I was a bit alarmed because I didn’t remember him signing up for Fax2Email (yes I know what most clients have. We are known for our one on one approach to our clients). He gave me the phone number that he was having issues with and I was not able to find it in our system. Turns out he was using some one else for his faxes and he decided to call me first. Aren’t our clients nice ?

/D

Posted on No Comments on A little Humor: Computer Support Form

A little Humor: Computer Support Form

 I came across this today. Having worked in computer tech support in the past I can relate…. Enjoy.

**COMPUTER REPORT FORM**

Describe your problem: __________
Now, describe the problem accurately: ________
Speculate wildly about the cause of the problem: ________
Problem Severity:
A. Minor__
B. Minor__
C. Minor__
D. Trivial__
Nature of the problem:
A. Locked Up__
B. Frozen__
C. Hung__
D. Shot__
Is your computer plugged in? Yes__ No__
Is it turned on? Yes__ No__
Have you tried to fix it yourself? Yes__ No__
Have you made it worse? Yes__
Have you read the manual? Yes__ No__
Are you sure you’ve read the manual? Yes__ No__
Are you absolutely certain you’ve read the manual? No__
Do you think you understood it? Yes__ No__
If `Yes’ then why can’t you fix the problem yourself ? ____________
How tall are you? Are you above this line? _______
What were you doing with your computer at the time the problem occurred ? __________
If `nothing’ explain why you were logged in. __________
Are you sure you aren’t imagining the problem? Yes__ No__
How does this problem make you feel? ________
Tell me about your childhood ________
Do you have any independent witnesses of the problem? Yes__ No__
Can’t you do something else, instead of bothering me? Yes__

If you aren’t laughing yet then we are talking about you.

/D