Lost! One Domain – Last Seen Going That Way!

I have been with a client today (who shall remain nameless) who could not answer the simple question of who is hosting their domain!

Let me put that question more simply. “To whom have you entrusted a vital asset of your company – one on which you depend for promotion and business critical communications?”

This is the second time this week this has happened – the other was an ex-client, who was always looking for the cheapest deal and moved away from us as someone he knew, who agreed to look after his laptop for far less than I pay for coffee! Following that he then moved his domain from the trusted partner we recommended. Now after several years he is going through the process of saying various companies are responsible for this loss when in reality, originally he put no value against his domain and took no care of it.

So the moral of this story is that everyone needs to know who has control of their domains – and the ultimate answer to this question should be THEMSELVES. Find a trusted supplier to host the domain (if you cannot do it yourself) and then get that supplier to talk to the web designers and support companies to sort the details out.

For support clients of Octagon Technology we offer hosting facilities and many take advantage of this so they know their domains are safe. We also work with a number of web companies (of which Develop and Promote is our primary partner) where our clients have their domains hosted but we keep the details on file so they cannot forget!

This article is sponsored by Octagon Technology of Lincoln, England

Lost! One Domain – Last Seen Going That Way! Read More »

iPhone 4 Built in Camera App

Whilst I was away I tried out both the Camera+ app and the built in camera app. The Camera+ has lots of options and other “good things” for making creative images, editing, sorting etc. The built in camera is much simpler but it does have an HDR setting dessigned to deliver better quality images. I set the camera to save both the composite HDR image and the “standard” image for comparison. I was very pleased with the results especially in very difficult lighting.

The first images are the standard shots, the second are in HDR

iPhone 4 Built in Camera App Read More »

Server Did Not Work

Back to work this morning with a bump, one of our client’s suffered a major power outage over the weekend – the UPS closed the server down without issue, except when it was restarted the clients could not log in, browse the web etc. (HP server running Windows Small Businee Server 2003). I promised the client one of my engineers would be there for 8am to see if the problem could be solved before his staff got in. I got to go!

A check of the event log showed several errors all of which pointed to a problem with the IPSEC service not starting. I tried to start the service manually but that did not work. In consultation with an engineer from another company it was decided simply to disable to IPSEC service and restart to server. This worked in as much as it allowed the office to start working again (including several staff who connect and use terminal services) but it did not address what was wrong. The client was happy – even though user who access their email via OWA were unable to without the IPSEC service running – as by 10am his people were working. We’ll work the solution out later this week.

Server Did Not Work Read More »

Be Prepared

I went to the bar at Pine Lake to night and at about 9.30pm there was a power cut. No power anywhere onsite. Fortunately between the emergency lights and candles the bar stayed open, they did not need electricity to serve to beer and they improvised a till.

I headed back to my lodge at about 11pm in darkness, one enterprising “camper” had parked his car outside the patio window of their unit and was using the headlights to light the room. When I got back, used the led light on my key ring to light my way to my backpack where I had my Petzl headlamp – I also unpacked my led hand light from my possibles pouch and I have that clipped to the uplighter in the living room with a small caribiner.

the next thing was a hot drink – there is a steel tray in the kitchhen so I turned that upside down and put that on one of my tea towels to provide protection for the work top and used my meths stove and crusader mug and lid to brew some fresh coffee.

There is also something wrong with the water pressure so I filled all three of my water bottles and the kettle just in case,

Another problem was I had spent the evening editing the address book on my iPhone and a few minutes ago I got the 10% power warning so I am now charging/powering the phone from the emergency power pack.

Be Prepared!

The photo is the bar by candle light.

Be Prepared Read More »