Women on Social Networks

Source: Volusion ecom solutions: http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/women-on-social-networks#more-1953

With a record number of women on social networks, getting to the heart of their motivations for participating in these social spaces is more important to marketers and business owners than ever before.  A recent survey by a women’s social networking site called ShesConnected attempted to tackle the question “What do women want out of social networks?” Their findings not only illuminated what women are looking for on social networks, but also where they’re going to get what they want.

Why is this so important? Well, if you’re looking for the perfect gift to get the woman in your life for her Birthday or trying to decode what she means when she says “It’s fine!” this information won’t help you; but, if you’re selling women’s products online this will give you a good idea of where you need to be to reach your market.

Where Are All The Ladies?
Facebook and LinkedIn were by far the most popular social networks with the women surveyed. Below is the percentage of women who indicated that they were members of each social network:

• Facebook 83%
• LinkedIn 73%
• Twitter 55%
• MySpace 41%

The results of the survey show that the women on these social networks are very active. In fact, more than half of women check their networks multiple times per day, and 48% reported being a member of four or more social networks.

What Makes These Social Networks Appealing to Women?
When surveyed, the top five responses that women cited as being “very important” reasons for them to join social networks were:

1. Network professionally
2. Stay up-to-date with friends
3. Promote my business
4. Stay up-to-date with my groups
5. Research products and services

Interestingly, these responses do not match up with the reasons that were previously believed to draw women audiences to the social scene.  With the rise of “Mommy Bloggers” there has been a strong emphasis recently on the profile of the female social network user that goes to social networks to research products for her home and family, make new friends with fellow women, and get the best deals and discounts online. This, however, may not be the “typical female social network user.” Women, more and more these days are joining social networks to help boost their careers, and also stay in touch with the people that are important to them.

Facebook and Beyond

If you sell women’s products online obviously you’ll want to go to where your audience is online, so here are a few key take-aways:

• If you’re limited on time right now your best bet is to start with a Facebook business page. Facebook is the most popular major social network right now with women. Start there, and when you have more time (i.e. after the holiday shopping season) expand outward.
• Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace will not be around forever. If you understand why women are on these networks you can make more informed decisions about your company’s online presence as new social networks are developed.

-Kate Pierce eCommerce Specialist

10 things you should know about moving from:

Windows XP to Windows 7

Greg Shultz

September 4, 2009

If you skipped Windows Vista and stuck with Windows XP, chances are good that you are now seriously considering moving to Windows 7 after it’s released on October 22. If so, there is much for you to do. Not only should you begin planning for your operating system migration, but you should begin learning as much as you can about Windows 7. Here are 10 things you can do to get ready for the switch.

1: Check your hardware

Windows 7 was designed to be lean in terms of hardware, so that it will be able to function satisfactorily on sub-powered netbooks. If you’re running Windows XP on a computer manufactured within the last three or four years, chances are good that Windows 7 will run fine on your system. However, you can make sure that your hardware is compatible by running Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will perform a detailed scan of your entire system, checking hardware, programs, and peripheral devices. Once the scan is complete, the Upgrade Advisor will display a report telling you whether your system meets the hardware requirements and idenfying are any known compatibility issues with your programs and devices. If it finds problems, the Upgrade Advisor will provide suggestions you can use to better analyze your upgrade options to Windows 7.

You can download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from the Microsoft Download Center. At the time of this writing, this tool is listed as being a Beta version. However, running it now will give you a good idea of what you will be facing as you prepare for your upgrade.

If you’re planning a much bigger Windows XP to Windows 7 migration, you’ll want to investigate the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. This free toolkit, which runs across the network without having to install software on client systems, will allow you to investigate systems and compile reports on hardware and device compatibility.

2: Understand the Custom Install

If you’re running Windows XP on your computer and you want to use Windows 7 on that same computer, you’ll purchase an Upgrade license package of Windows 7. However, you won’t be able to perform an in-place upgrade. In other words, you won’t be able to upgrade to Windows 7 on top of XP and keep all your applications and settings “in place.” Instead, you’ll have to perform a Custom Install, which Microsoft describes as follows:

A custom (clean) installation gives you the option to either completely replace your current operating system or install Windows on a specific drive or partition that you select. You can also perform a custom installation if your computer does not have an operating system, or if you want to set up a multiboot system on your computer.

When you completely replace Windows XP, the installation procedure will not totally obliterate it. In fact, the installation procedure will create a folder on the hard disk called Windows.old and will place the Windows, Documents And Settings, and Program Files folders from your Windows XP installation in it. Your data files will be safe and accessible, but your applications will not be viable. (Even though the Custom Install saves your data in the Windows.old folder, you will want to have a separate backup on hand just in case!)

Regardless of whether you choose to completely replace Windows XP or set up a multiboot system, you are going to have to back up and transfer all of your data, reinstall all of your applications, and reconfigure all of your settings.

3: Consider a setting up a multiboot configuration

When pondering a Custom Install, you should consider setting up a multiboot configuration. That will place both Windows XP and Windows 7 at your disposal, which will be a big advantage as you begin migrating your settings, documents, and applications. More specifically, you can boot into Windows XP to check out how something is set up and then boot into Windows 7 to re-create the same configuration. Once you have everything in Windows 7 exactly the way you had it in Windows XP, you can remove the multiboot configuration set Windows 7 as the primary OS and then remove Windows XP.

To be able to perform this type of switch, both XP and 7 must be installed on the same hard disk but on separate partitions. (If you install Windows 7 on a second hard disk, the boot partition will exist on the first hard disk, so you won’t be able to remove that drive once you’re ready to get rid of XP.) As a result, you’ll need to repartition your hard disk to make room for Windows 7. To repartition your hard disk without destroying data, you can take advantage of partition management software, such as Norton PartitionMagic 8.0, which retails for about $70, or Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition 4.0.1, which is available for free and earned a 4.5 star rating in a recent CNET editors’ review.

4: Plan your backup and restore strategy

Before you move from one operating system to another, you’ll want to back up all your data – at least once and maybe twice, just in case. While it may sound like overkill, having an extra backup will give you peace of mind.

If you’re using a third-party backup program, you will need to check the manufacturer’s Web site to see whether the program will be upgraded to work in Windows 7. If you aren’t using a third-party backup program, you’re probably using Windows XP’s native Backup Utility. As you may have heard, the file format used for this tool isn’t compatible with Windows Vista’s Backup And Restore Center. To provide for that, Microsoft released a special version of the XP Backup Utility, called the Windows NT Backup – Restore Utility. It’s designed specifically for restoring backups made on Windows XP to computers running Windows Vista. While I was unable to get official confirmation, it is a safe bet that this special version will work in Windows 7 or will be adapted to do so.

If you aren’t willing to take that bet or you are not sure whether your third-party backup program will be upgraded to work in Windows 7, you can simply make copies of all your data files on CD/DVD or on an external hard disk.

5: Plan your data transfer strategy

To move from one operating system to another, you’ll probably want to use a transfer program that will scan your XP system, pull out all your data and settings, and then transfer them to Windows 7. Fortunately, the Windows 7 Easy Transfer utility can provide this service for you. However, before you perform this transfer operation, it will be in your best interest to have a separate back up copy of your data (see #4).

The new operating system will come with two copies of the Windows 7 Easy Transfer. One copy will be on the DVD and the other will be installed with the operating system. Before you install Windows 7, you will run Windows 7 Easy Transfer from the DVD and back up all your files and settings. Then, once you have Windows 7 installed, you’ll use it to move all your files and settings to the new operating system. You can learn more about the Windows 7 Easy Transfer by reading the article Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration on the Microsoft TechNet site.

6: Inventory your applications and gather your CDs

Since you won’t be able to perform an in-place upgrade when you move from Windows XP to Windows 7, you’ll have to reinstall all your applications that passed the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor compatibility tests (see #1). It will be helpful to have an inventory of all the installed applications so that you can track down all your CDs or compile a list of Web sites for those applications you downloaded.

While the report generated by the Upgrade Advisor will be helpful as you create an inventory, it won’t be comprehensive. To create a detailed inventory, you can use something like the Belarc Advisor. For more details, see the article Gather detailed system information with Belarc Advisor.

7: Become familiar with the new UI

The UI in Windows 7 is quite different from the UI in Windows XP, and it offers a lot of new features. As a result, you may encounter what I call “UI Shock.” You’ll know what you want to do, but you’ll experience a momentary lapse of composure as you strive to adapt what you know about XP’s UI to what you’re seeing and experiencing in Windows 7.

To ease the level of UI shock, you’ll want to become as familiar as possible with the features of the new Windows 7 UI. One starting point is Microsoft’s Windows 7 page. While a lot of the content here is essentially marketing related, it will give you a good idea of what to look for when you actually move into the Windows 7 operating system.

To help you get right to the good stuff, check out:

• The Windows 7 features section, where you’ll find a host of short videos and descriptions.
• The Windows 7 Help & How-to section, where you’ll find a whole slew of step-by-step articles that show you how get around in Windows 7. Be sure to check out the section on installing Windows.

You’ll also find useful information on the Windows Training Portal on the Microsoft Learning site. Be sure to check out:

• The Windows 7 Learning Snacks, which are short, interactive presentations. Each Snack is delivered via animations and recorded demos using Microsoft Silverlight.
• The Microsoft Press sample chapters from upcoming Windows 7 books. Viewing the free chapters requires registration, but it is a short procedure. Once you’re registered, you can access sample chapters from Windows 7 Inside Out, Windows 7 Resource Kit, Windows 7 Step by Step, and Windows 7 for Developers.

8: Check for XP Mode support

If you discover that some of the applications you’re currently running in Windows XP are not compatible with Windows 7 (see #1) or you just want to keep Windows XP accessible, don’t forget about Windows XP Mode. This virtual environment includes a free, fully licensed, ready-to-run copy of Windows XP with SP3 that runs under Windows Virtual PC in Windows 7.

As you consider the Windows XP Mode, keep these things in mind:

• Windows XP Mode is available only in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
• Your computer must support processor-based virtualization.

You can learn more about Windows XP Mode from the following TechRepublic resoruces:

• Determine if your hardware can support Windows XP Mode in Windows 7
• Hands on: Windows 7 XP Mode
• 10 reasons why Windows 7’s XP Mode is a big deal

9: Ask questions

You aren’t the only one making the move from Windows XP to Windows 7, so ask questions and share information you pick up along the way. Of course, you can use the TechRepublic discussion forums. But you should cast a wider net.

One good place to connect with Microsoft experts is the Getting Ready for Windows 7 section of the Microsoft Answers site. Another good place is in the Windows 7 forums in the Windows Client TechCenter on the Microsoft TechNet site.

10: Subscribe to the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report

TechRepublic’s free Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report newsletter, which is delivered every Friday, offers tips, news, and scuttlebutt on Windows 7. As we count down to October 22, the day that Windows 7 is to be released to the general public, we will be covering topics of interest to Windows XP users in more detail. You can sign up on the TechRepublic newsletters page.

Comment on this article: TechRepublic blog.

One thing I can never remember quickly is slash notation, it is not difficult but I just can’t seem to remember it quickly! So here is a quick reference guide. In slash notation, a single number indicates how many bits of the IP address identify the network the host is on. A netmask of 255.255.255.0 has a netmask of 8 + 8 + 8 = 24.

For example, writing 192.168.42.23/24 is the same as specifying an IP address of 192.168.42.23 with a corresponding netmask of 255.255.255.0. Often you have to enter the netmask as slash notation, an easy task with the usual 255.255.255.0. However if your network doesn’t have 255 hosts, for example only 8 hosts, then the netmask will be 255.255.255.248.

The following table lists the variable length subnets from 1 to 32, the CIDR [3] representation form (/xx) and the Decmial equivalents. (M = Million, K=Thousand, A,B,C= traditional class values)

Conversion table here:

http://www.mattwaddell.com/2008/08/26/slash-notation-for-subnet-masks-quick-reference/

Description

Matt Cutts from the Web Spam team at Google showcases the good and the bad of WordPress as seen through the eyes of Google, including basics on how Google search works and how you can boost your blog’s results in Google searches.

Video produced by John P and Dave Curlee.
WordCamp Location

San Francisco 2009
Event

WordCamp San Francisco (30)
Language

English (316)
Producer

John P (18), Dave Curlee (11)
Speakers

Matt Cutts
Date

May 30, 2009
Tags

Google (2), optimization (4), permalinks (2), relevance, reputation, Search (2), SEO (9), spam (2)
Categories

WordCampTV,

See video here:

http://wordpress.tv/2009/05/30/matt-cutts-google-sf09/

Kintiskton

Source: http://endellion.me.uk/info/Kintiskton.html

It sounds like a place-name, doesn’t it? But GOGL maps has never heard of it. Did I mean “Kingston”? Nope.
The Background

On 27 February 2009, a host with IP addresses in the range from 65.208.151.112 to 65.208.151.119 comes into the webserver unannounced, and begins to look at all my photographs at breakneck speed, in utter disregard of the robots.txt. This is not right, so I want to know more.

First off: the output of Whois shows that within the range owned by MCI Communications is a small range given over to this Kintiskton LLC thingy. These are the exact IPs I’m getting the crawls from.
[bored@Fedora httpd]# whois 65.208.151.112
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[whois.arin.net]
MCI Communications Services, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Business UUNET65 (NET-65-192-0-0-1)
65.192.0.0 – 65.223.255.255
Kintiskton LLC UU-65-208-151-112-D1 (NET-65-208-151-112-1)
65.208.151.112 – 65.208.151.119

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-02-26 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN’s WHOIS database.

The “user-agent” reported by these Kintiskton hosts is “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”, in other words, 32-bit XP without automatic updates. In a 2007 Usenet forum post someone says that “95% of requests made to my site by this browser is spam.” This looks like a hopeful angle, but going through my own logs it does look to be legit, clicking in from Google for instance.

Googling Kintiskton leaves one with the distinct impression that there are lots of webmasters wondering why they are getting hits from this outfit, but nobody with an answer.
Looking up !NET-65-208-151-112-1 at whois.arin.net.
CustName: Kintiskton LLC
Address: PO BOX 7360
City: MOUNTAIN VIEW
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94037-7360
Country: US
RegDate: 2008-07-30
Updated: 2008-07-30

The Google for the actual IP address yields some info from the Project Honeynet, to wit that some spam had originated from these IP’s. Another page at Webmaster World forum goes off on the kintiskon.com angle — see below.

Someone at moveable type was worried about searches on their blog carried out by this IP. (http://forums.movabletype.org/2009/02/possible-security-compromise.html)
In my backend, i noticed there were heaps of search queries in my activity log

Search: query for ‘world vision’ 65.208.151.115 1 day ago
Search: query for ’sponsor’ 65.208.151.117 1 day ago
Search: query for ‘pet TV’ 65.208.151.112 1 day ago

My Findings

First off, “kintiskton.com” is registered since Nov 2008 to someone in Australia, who has a hilarious web of pages (on 64.202.189.170 = GoDaddy) all including the following warning:

“NiteLyf.com [or whatever else] is protected by the World Internet Names Numbers Authority (WINNA) and is also protected by the World Internet Property Protection Organization (WIPPO) and cannot be copied or duplicated in any way or form. If any human, person, child, animal, plant, computer, alien, rock, company, business or thing is found to have used information from this site, they or it will be reported to the World Internet Authority (WIA) where they will have their World Internet privileges terminated indefinitely and will be black listed from all use of the World Internet. “

I tremble before them. Never wanted to use the World Internet anyway. I don’t think their WIPPO is related to WIPO, which seems to be a legit offshoot of the United Nations. The directors of both WIPO and WIPPO are Australian, but that hardly implies a link between them. Much less can I tie WIPPO, nor yet WIPO, which interestingly is dedicated to intellectual property, to the IP addresses doing the scanning.

The kintiskton.com masters have disabled right-clicking on their site. Instead of the usual menu a pop-up appears:

Which is yet another domain registered by this hilarious joker with delicious delusions of grandeur in Queensland, who, when he is not registering domain names, likes to jump off ferry boats and swim to the houses of important people. Quite a few of the domains trace back to Seoul.

Either way, by the looks of things, this has not a lot to do with the actions of 65.208.151.112 et.al., even though there are some tantalising aspects here.

Next up is kintiskton.net (created 25 Feb 2009 — 2 days ago!) running on secureservers.net (64.202.189.170 — godaddy parking, I thought, but also forwarding now?), which redirects to creeva.com (hosted by midphase.com).

They’re having a baby. Creeva says: “I am a writer sometimes, a computer security professional at others. I have strong feelings on many things and could care less about what I deem unimportant. I am myself and no other.” It never ceases to amaze me how many computer security professionals there are in this world.

Creeva.com was registered in 2006, but both domains were registered by Brent Gueth. The address given is 2100 Apollo Drive, Brook Park, Ohio 44142. This is an 18.000 sq ft property rented by Lockheed Martin Information Technologies, subcontracted by NASA. My conspiracy hair is starting to stand upright.

Originally creeva.com had a much more domestic address in Asland, OH. If the later is Brent’s place of work and the earlier his residence, then he would have a 55 mile trip to work. That is perfectly doable, I suppose. I can’t place any Symantec buildings in Brook Park, though, but that might just be my impatience with Gogl.

Could it be that Mr Gueth has nothing to do with the website crawling? Perhaps he was a victim and registered the domain for reasons of personal interest?

Lastly is kintiskton.org, which was registered in Canada (tucows) and running in Slovenia from IP 84.255.194.203 (“T-2 Access Network”), on 26 February 2009 — yesterday!

This has something to do with (as in: it gets forwarded to) eDition-on.net, which was registered, also through tucows, by someone from Ljubljana. From the page: “Digitalne publikacije so uporabno marketinško orodje, ki poveča obseg bralcev, prihrani stroške za tisk in distribucijo, poveča prodajo, hkrati pa bralca popelje skozi obogateno interaktivno vsebino.” I don’t think these are involved either, even though there is a great deal of obfuscation going on with the use of contactprivacy.org.

One conclusion in need of drawing here is that there is incredible interest in kintiskton-related registrations. Maybe I should do some myself? I note that kintiskton.co.uk is still available.
Resolution

An attempt to run nmap on their range gets absolutely no replies: “filtered” is the result. Presumably these servers are not expecting incoming traffic and I’ve been blocked.

A traceroute to the 65.208.151.112 IP reveals that the last packets are received from alter.net:

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>tracert 65.208.151.112

Tracing route to 65.208.151.112 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <10 ms <10 ms <10 ms 10.0.0.138
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 32 ms 32 ms 32 ms 10.1.2.5
4 31 ms 31 ms 30 ms 10.1.2.161
5 31 ms 30 ms 31 ms 79.141.38.121.available.above.net [79.141.38.121]
6 103 ms 102 ms 103 ms so-0-1-0.mpr1.dca2.us.above.net [64.125.27.57]
7 103 ms 102 ms 102 ms xe-0-1-0.er1.dca2.us.above.net [64.125.27.25]
8 103 ms 102 ms 103 ms xe-1-0-0.er2.dca2.us.above.net [64.125.27.22]
9 103 ms 103 ms 103 ms 64.125.31.210
10 105 ms 105 ms 104 ms above-uu.iad10.us.above.net [64.125.13.174]
11 105 ms 104 ms 105 ms 0.ge-4-3-0.XL4.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.40.230]
12 181 ms 181 ms 181 ms 0.so-4-0-0.CL2.PHX2.ALTER.NET [152.63.117.70]
13 181 ms 180 ms 180 ms 213.ATM7-0.GW1.PHX2.ALTER.NET [152.63.113.253]
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 kintiskton-gw.customer.alter.net [63.114.61.170] reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

This “alter.net” domain, which is clearly responsible in some way for traffic going to the 65.208.151.x range belongs to another Verizon Business, called MarkMonitor. From their whois-entry:

MarkMonitor, the Global Leader in Enterprise Brand Protection

Domain Management
Online Trademark Protection
Online Channel Protection
AntiPhishing Solutions

And suddenly their interest in my photographs is resolved, along with the rather odd search queries the blog owner reported on the movabletype forum. They make perfect sense in terms of potential copyright infringement.

Of course having a public webserver renders one liable to visits from the public, and the only way to have a safe server is to unplug it from the mains. But MarkMonitor not only saw fit to load almost all my photo albums (thank heavens my bandwidth doesn’t cost per GB…), they also did this in just under 3 hours. My poor little server has been slogging its little socks of, and all that because some dumb cnuts think there might be a picture hidden among my snapshots that their hallowed customers might own the copyright to?

MarkMonitor (CEO Irfan Salim shown left) of course do not have to obey the robots.txt because they obey the far greater overlord of commerce. Says Markmonitor’s founder Faisal Shah on the event of the start of their alliance with LexisNexis: “Through Markmonitor’s service, Lexis-Nexis customers will have access to easy, affordable technology for managing the daunting task of combing thousands of Web sites that could potentially be a problem [my italics]” (source). Cheers chaps, nice to know that I fell into your problem radar, but your range has been banned from my server now.
What is Kintiskton?

Now I am left with just one question: what on earth is Kintiskton when it’s at home? It’s not a surname, not a place name in the USA, UK, Australia… It’s not an anagram for anything sensible. It’s not in the OED or the Who’s Who. It isn’t found in the Gale Databases.

It is not K. Sitnik (shown left), or is it?

Answers on a postcard please, or maybe email.

28 May 2009 — additional

Microsoft is launching a new search engine, called “bing” (http://bing.com/) to replace their wretched “Live Search.” And who registered bing.com if not my good friends at MarkMonitor.

This also seems to be a good moment to point out that in terms of Copyright Infringement, the list of unwelcome data-grabbing crawlers visiting my website has grown, and now includes entities such as “Lloyds TSB Asset Management.” At least they identified themselves, which cannot be said for all.

http://www.resolvingnameserver.com/freerns.html

Need a resolving name server fast?
Use our free public resolving name servers!

Who can use these servers:
These servers can be used by users that need a resolving name server for normal “end user” functionality. “End User” fucntionality includes web surfing and normail email sending (via an email client). These can also be used by ISPs to give to their clients as the resolving name servers (that do not need to run enterprise services).

Who should not use these free servers:
Any system that serves an enterprise functionality. This includes email servers, web servers, etc. For services for enterprise functionality please contact our sales team. If a mail server uses these servers you may get incorrect results.

Our current set of name servers that you can use are:

• 205.234.170.215
• 205.234.170.217

Notifications of all changes of IPs will be received by subscribers to our mailing list. You can subscribe to our list by sending an email to freepublicdns-subscribe@resolvingnameserver.com and following the instructions in the reply.

Interesting read,

Review on FortiClient Endpoint Security Suite Standard Edition, the FREE Antivirus by Fortinet

TalkinIP enables you to make calls at the absolute lowest rates. You can use software on your computer or a SIP enabled device (Asterisk, Trixbox, SIP Gateways, IAD, IP PBX) to place calls using the internet.

TalkinIP provides you outbound calling to any destination within the continental USA for only 1.5 cents per minute and Canada for only 2.3 cents per minute.  Get started for as little as $15 prepaid credit.  Your credit will never expire, so you can make calls next week or next year.

So what’s the catch? There are none. No tricks and no commitments. You enjoy low cost calling at the industries lowest rates.

Are you a business? You can use TalkinIP for SIP Trunking (termination) to place calls worldwide from any SIP based IP PBX or gateway. For Inbound SIP services, including unlmited inbound calling, and SIP delivered DIDs from locations worldwide checkout www.ipcomms.net.

Highlights
• Account balance never expires

• No setup or cancellation fees

• No activation fees or hidden charges

• Recharge your account 24/7 online
• Track your usage and manage your account online.

http://www.talkinip.net/enduser/talkinfo.html

The name of the product is trixbox PRO and you can see it’s general details at its website here: www.trixbox.com.  Trixbox PRO is an advanced IP PBX solution focused on the SME market although it’s also perfectly happy addressing Enterprise clients. The Fonality trixbox Pro IP PBX is a Hybrid Hosted™

architecture, which allows for Anywhere Management™, and creates the reliability and quality of a premise-based system with the convenience and cost benefits of a hosted system.

 

Trixbox PRO is comprised of two key integral parts which makes it a unique offering in the market:

 

1. The Control Panel which can be accessed via any web enabled interface and provides the ability to manage, configure and do any necessary changes to the system in minutes from anywhere.  This is where you can manage company extensions, call routing, auto attendants, phone numbers and much more.  Here is where you can also have Access to real time monitoring of analog lines, T-1/E-1 interfaces and unlimited SIP Providers.

 

1. HUD (Heads Up Display) is an award-winning employee presence and communication management application that comes free with all versions of trixbox. HUD empowers its users with company-wide visibility and information on the “presence” of every colleague, making it easy to interact with one another via a single, simple interface.

 

You can view the different versions and features of trixbox PRO (Standard, Enterprise & Call Center) by clicking here and the different versions and features of HUD by clicking here.  Finally you can see the latest video demos of HUD that clearly outline its siginifcant impact on productivity and value for any enterprise using it on a daily basis:

 

HUD Demo Videos

 

• HUD for Attendants
• HUD for Employees
• HUD for Remote Workers
• HUD for Call Centers
• HUD for Executives

 

As a quick reference, the company behind trixbox PRO is Fonality. Fonality has been in the market for many years and has over 250 employees.  It’s solid and backed by large investors such as INTEL.  They have won numerous awards for their technology and are DELL’s key partner for IP PBX solutions.   I am attaching a general brochure on trixbox for your reference as well.

 

Servers and Implementation:

 

Regarding the implementation, as you may already know trixbox PRO can be easily downloaded (software only) and installed on any of many certified servers from Dell and HP.  Alternatively we can integrate the software into an integrated trixbox PRO appliance (brochure attached) depending on your customers needs.  

 

IP Phones & Telephony Cards:

 

Trixbox Pro Works easily with almost any SIP based IP Phone.  Most of our clients use IP phones from Polycom but some also use phones from other providers like Grandstream, Astra, Linksys and SNOM.  We are authorized resellers for all of those and can offer a fully integrated solution with 12 month advance replacement warranty on all IP phones.  On the telephony cards, we recommend and have certified the SANGOMA brand and can integrate analog and digital cards easily depending on your client’s requirements.

 

For your reference attached I am sending you the following:

 

a)      Price list for trixbox PRO and Reseller options/levels. We typically start all our partners (assuming they will work independently) at the highest tier of Certified and do an evaluation every 6 months to see if it makes sense to continue at that level.

b)      Official trixbox PRO agreement to legally be able to use trixbox PRO logo’s and collateral.

c)       General trixbox PRO Brochure

d)      General brochure for trixbox PRO appliance. 

 

Take a look at the details and let me know should you have any questions.  If you have an immediate opportunity that we can help with let me know and I can walk you through the process. The next step would be to setup a quick web demo so I can walk you through the details of trixbox PRO.

	Astaro Factory reset via command line?

Solution Task:

A factory reset can be useful in case of a problem with the machine or when the webadmin can not be reached via the network due to any misconfiguration.

This document describes the way to do a factory-reset when there is only a root-login via console or SSH possible.

With ASG appliances a factory reset can be done by either the front panel buttons or using the same options as software with ssh or console.

Steps:

The short facts about a factory reset are:

* sets back all configs, license, accounts, passwords, certificatess to their original state
* deletes logs, proxy caches, accounting and reporting data and uninstalled up2dates
* the software version is maintained, that means all applied up2dates and pattern updates are kept
* the machine is not neccessarily in the same state like after the original installation
* Warning this can result in a defective system if using versions <6.203

Regard especially the last point which means that in case of any hand made changes on the console the factory reset will not necessarily fix the installation again.

Access to SSH or console with root passwords:

In case of a problem a factory reset can be done by the console as root with the following command:

$ init 4

No Access to SSH or root passwords are lost:
Connect a keyboard and monitor to the system.
Power restart the unit and wait for the boot: prompt to appear

<=V6

Enter:
boot: default factoryreset

>=V7

With the Astaro v7 it is possible to change the default runlevel at boot time.

To change the runlevel of a single boot session, use the following instructions:

* When the GRUB menu bypass screen appears at boot time, press the Esc key to enter the GRUB menu (within the first three seconds).
* Press the [e] key to append a the default boot entry.
* Navigate to the line starting with “kernel” and press the [e] key again to append the default kernel.
* Add at the end of the boot options line to boot to the desired runlevel. For example, to reset the Astaro you need to load into runlevel 4:

grub edit> … vga=819 splash=silent 4

* Press Esc and [b] to boot the system

After an (automatic) reboot you can log in via the Webadmin on https://ip.you.defined.on.installation(:4444), set your passwords right and license again and start all over, or insert a working backup.

Example: (v6) https://192.168.0.1 or (v7) https://192.168.0.1:4444
Source: http://esupport.softek.co.uk/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=303
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http://www.VirtualGraffiti.com ParagonHost
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