Archive for the ‘Computer tools & tips’ Category

Small and home businesses can greatly benefit using exchange hosting.  It has always been out of reach and mostly available to corporate companies due to the high cost factor. 

Now you too can have your email, contacts and calendar synchronised on your PC, laptop, PDA/Smart phone and have web access.  This facility gives you the benefit of being in touch and up to date no matter where you are in the world.
I personally use it in my business, I can honestly say I don’t know how I would work without it. You can easily reply to an incoming email messages while you are out and about.  You can check email messages while you are on the train or waiting for your meeting to start. 

The benefit factor is being able to respond to your customers quickly and provide a better service. I have been told by clients that they have seen a great improvement on closing deals because their response rate is much higher. Before they could only reply to emails at night when they got home and by then they lost the deal.

You can immediately update a contact or add a new appointment on your smart phone or PDA it automatically updates your PC, laptop and web access facility.

Currently I know of two services that offer exchange hosting at very affordable rates.  For as little as £5.99 per user a month you can get yourself synchronised.  

1and1.co.uk
are one of the providers of exchange hosting.  So far it has been okay using their service.  The downside is their call centre support. Their understanding of your problems is not always up to speed and it can be extremely frustrating to deal with them because they cannot always resolve your issue.  I find that sometimes it is a matter of a lucky pick and I just call back until I find someone who knows what they are doing.  

Fortunately it does not happen too often only on setup and if something goes down then you need to deal with them.  Recently I had such an experience where some of my clients could not send or receive email and could only get web access.  I finally managed to get it resolved, now again this week but this time it seemed to be that more users were having difficulties with their mail.  

This got me speaking to my own web host and asked how we can offer a service at such affordable rates and offer a better quality service.  I found out that it is possible but I would need about 160 users, so my clients and myself will have to stick it out for a while longer until I find 160 users. Overall since last year this is the first time I have had issues.  

If you are interested in using exchange server then visit 1and1.co.uk

Remember that this is synchronised with Microsoft Outlook and is for Outlook users.  I am not sure on open source exchange but you can ask. 

Microsoft Business Live
The other service is offered by Microsoft themselves.  Their rates are even cheaper and is integrated with Microsoft Business Live where you can share documents, collaborate with clients and staff.  Set up team workspaces and much more.  I have been tempted to try their email facility but they do not answer their phones for me to ask questions.  So I gathered if my systems go down, then I could be stuck.

Having facilities and systems that allow my clients to work better and more efficiently at affordable rates is the core of my business. I would love to be able to set up a service to offer exchange hosting, if you are interested send me a message and I will see how many people would be interested.   

If you do not want the hassle of dealing with 1and1 and would like me to do it for you. Then contact me at: contact@directassist-online.com  and we can discuss your options.

Romany Thresher
Direct Assist Online

Still paying for your firewall? is it effective? According to the Money Saving Expert website, one of  the best places for a free 30 day trial is with Sunbelt firewall more from Money Saving expert on Firewalls here….

Sunbelt Personal Firewall. Formerly known as Kerio firewall, Sunbelt Personal is actually a commercial product, but after its 30-day trial you only lose its pop-up blocker (and chances are you’ve got one already, see below). Even though it’ll nag you to register intermittently, it’s widely credited as being one of the least irritating firewall products.

Comodo Personal Firewall.I  t’s totally free to use but you will need to register and activate the licence by e-mail within 30 days of installation. Whilst Comodo usually outperforms the Sunbelt firewall in tests, it’s a fair bit more intrusive than the latter. Tech support is available via email, but not by phone.

ZoneAlarm Free Firewall. While it’s received mixed reviews, there’s no doubt that ZoneAlarm’s free firewall is a capable tool. A built in wizard makes it simple to configure even with no knowledge of how firewalls work, and the control panel’s pretty straightforward too.

Signing up for Martin Lewis’s email is also a good thing to do, each week he shares the best tips on the forum and shows you where bargains can be had. Even if firewalls are not your thing, go sign up for the email and save yourself a packet.

Romany

Spam emails are one of the most time sapping things! even if you don’t read them and just delete them its very annoying and a complete waste of time.

Dan Field has a superb product for sorting this out  – clear my mail

Block spam emails and virus e-mails with the ClearMyMail spam filter
Try the ClearMyMail spam filter free for 30 days and see the difference it makes to your inbox.
You will not have to install any extra software, you keep your existing email address, and we don’t ask for any credit card details up front. Our software will block all spam for you instantly.  Source: Clear My Mail

So, save time and money and protect yourself from phishing, scam emals and viruses with just one simple cost effective tool.

Romany