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| The wonders of Broadband Access to the Internet. Anyone can have a rich and full filling experience... Right up until you need help and there is no one around that can help you. You are stuck! You grab the phone and make that emergency phone call to your favorite Guru but all you can say is ... "It won't work" or "I got this error when..." or some other statement that expresses your distress. Enter the Remote Desktop; The ability to connect to a Desktop over a broadband connection and actually see and control the distant PC. There are many tools available for the hands on user... tools that enable one to give or receive just a little help from ones friends or even paid support for those really tight spots. As always, security is an issue. The best way to manage these processes is to activate them ONLY when you need them. To do so requires that you have a pretty good idea of what and how to create the kind of access you need before you take on the endeavor. | More over, most ISPS and more and more Service Organizations are offering On-line Support through Instant Messaging. Via subscription and more than likely some additional applet or plug-in, they offer remote access, product specific support and the ability to solicit help via your internet connection. Some even offer downloadable PC tune up tools to provide general diagnostics of their product or your PC. There are also companies like GoToMyPC that offer you remote access to your home of office PC by subscription. To varying degrees these services are reliable and safe. My 2 major concerns with these Services are cost and general exposure. Cost is obvious... You can pay upwards of $20.00 per month to access only 1 PC. If you regularly need remote access to your home PC this may not be a bad deal... but if you only need access to your machine every now and again it is another story. Second is General Exposure. Each of these services must provide a way for you to identify your PC and also a way for you to secure your PC from unsolicited access. In most cases this is done through a secured server scenario where your PC is ALWAYS (when ever the app is running) connected and broadcasting its presence. The problem for me with this is that bad guys scan these services and the Internet at large, looking for anyone to bully. If you are subscribed to one of these services, although there is implied security, you are also holding up a sign that says; "here I am... Please Try Me!". |
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In General: 1. No hacked Software |
There is no escape… no matter how simple your ISP tries to make it seem. You MUST get an understanding of how the things done on the net and inside your computer can affect your security. The more advanced your equipment, the more possibilities of violation. When you purchase new toys you have to remember that the makers want you to have an EASY time USING all your toys together… Easy and Secure are somewhat adversarial. In most cases what you purchase will work out of the box. Most security software will have default settings that are only minimally sufficient. Ultimately it will be your understanding and course of action that keeps you secure… SO 1-11 are yours too. |
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Every ISP provides a service platform that usually includes, e-mail, personal web site, technical support, and other interesting goodies& and every time you change your ISP you get a whole new basket full. Nice??? Your e-mail address is much like a telephone number& it has many of the same benefits and suffers many of the same pitfalls. So how many e-mail addresses do you manage and why? You have the e-mail from your ISP, you have the free Hotmail account, you have the free Yahoo account, you have the free GMail account, you have the e-mail from work, you have the e-mail from school... you have ALL this e-mail and none of it is actually dedicated to you. Personally, I have given out the same 2 primary e-mail addresses for several years. I have changed my ISP several times with generally no interruption of my e-mail flow. How is that so?
1. have your own domain names
2. know and understand how e-mail works (in general)
Because of these 2 things only, There is no e-mail confusion... Yes there is SPAM and yes there are viruses...
Yes I have a Hotmail account, yes I have a Yahoo account but I DO NOT USE THEM for Correspondence (with very little exception). My Yahoo, Hotmail and other e-mail accounts are for access to the associated on-line communities (we'll get to that later)
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If you are the stick to it type... an ISP monogamist so to speak... you may have the fortune of having the same e-mail address for years... and then along comes a reason to change your ISP, you want high speed, you move to a new place... something upsets the apple cart and voila... you now have a new ISP and a new bag of goodies. What do you do?? You can just change your e-mail address to the new one... But what about all the business collaterals that you had printed up last year, what about the list of friends and business associates that you communicate with... How do you handle this without loosing your mind?
There are plenty of services out there that can help with this type of migration... many are even free (but at what cost to your data/privacy). AOL even offers to let you take your e-mail address with you to another ISP... but again... at what cost?
Again, my solution is to have in place a trusted coordinator for you on-line services, have your own domain name for at least e-mail forwarding or for the most bang... do them both.
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| Once you have broadband in the home… nothing internet is ever the same. Home applications are as prevalent as your imagination. Not just your computer benefits from the internet. Video on Demand, Music on Demand, Downloads shared storage, Cable and DSL providers are all part of the landscape. You can buy some broadband, buy some cable or satellite video, buy a couple of boxes to plug all this stuff into and the next thing you know, everyone is at your house for anything entertaining… and this is a good thing. It is simple and for the most fairly reasonably priced. If you are the hands on person, you love it. Here are some of the out of the box capabilities of most home networks (well they should be). 1. Shared broadband access. Every internet capable device on the premise should be able to gain access 2. Shared Resources. In a simply defined home network it is expected that , files, printers, scanners, music and other media can be made available for anyone’s use 3. Services that interface home entertainment systems to cable and satellite providers are accessible 4. When introduced, wireless, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices should interface without a hitch. They even have internet home appliances for the kitchen… Internet/TV on your Refrigerator… my my what will they think of next? |
This can be one of the most frustrating supposed to be simple things you can get your "hands off" self into. On a good day you can bring 20 boxes into the house, open every last one of them and manage to get them properly connected together and the very first time you turn them on… EVERYTHING WORK JUST FINE. That is on a good day. If you have a simple network put together with decent tools and a clear intent, it is likely that you can be happy with keeping your hands off your home network. The other scenario is constant frustration brought on by unfulfilled and probably irrational expectations of what you get in a home network. Either way you need some guidance. The most ominous thing about the home network is the inerrant exposure created on startup. |
| There are many merchant gateways that can provide you service. Whatever you choose, remember… this is your money and YOU should KNOW what it is doing. If you already have a merchant platform for your business, it makes sense to expand that service to cover your web activities. You are already paying for it AND the integration is likely to be fairly simple. If your business can support a standard merchant interface, this will be the most reliable and seamless to integrate into your web activities. This usually involves a little software, a little program configuration and sometimes a little hardware installation. There are also third party processing houses that will process payments for you. If you go this route... make sure you are with a reputable company AND be prepared to do a little program interfacing if you expect your web site interface to be smooth working | HANDS OFF IS A NO NO… Be involved in your on-line payment process. If you have to rely on someone else to set this up for you it is BEST to go with a standard merchant service. Using merchant gateways in scenarios where you are delegating the integration and configuration to a 3rd party IS problematic. To configure a standard merchant account only requires the support of the service provider’s technical staff and reasonable abilities on the web. In contrast, most gateway solutions are clumsy and require program interfaces that may or may not work well. Another problem with 3rd party gateways comes as you may have to allow a 3rd party access to your personal account information. This may not be so bad if YOU actually understand and are in control of your gateway service. If on the other hand you do not know how it works you may give away the farm if the person helping you is not on your team. The bottom line with on-line payment is that your customer experience needs to be relatively seamless and your costs should be well under your average sustained sales. |