There are many options in the landscape today for Intant Messaging clients.  Ranging from traditional options such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)  http://www.aim.com/, Windows Live Messenger http://explore.live.com/windows-live-messenger?os=win7, Yahoo Messenger http://messenger.yahoo.com/, to more contemporary applications such as Skype http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home and Microsoft Office Communicator http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/communicator/default.aspx, there are many choices for instant internet-based communication.

Here at NSI Partners we have decided to use one of several popular IM aggregation programs called Trillian — http://www.trillian.im/. This class of application is designed to link to multiple accounts or profiles with one or more popular services, including all those listed above (AOL, Yahoo, Live/MSN).  New versions of the Trillian application can even link to Facebook, MySpace, and a host of other social network/chat services.  There are, of course, some disadvantages to activating multiple IM/social network clients with an active application such as Trillian.  For one, simply wading through the potentially giant list of contacts and updates, as well as managing “presence” or “status” for each of the various services can become tedious quickly.  If I am using one of these network profiles, such as AOL, to communicate with all my co-workers, I run the risk of getting distracted by friends, family, or other contacts from one or more of the other services depending on my presence/status/availability.  Programs such as Trillian do a decent job of making the management of my status with various services somewhat streamlined with its user interface.  But at some point, I only want to stay logged in with one service – the one I use to talk to co-workers.

There are advantages to using a single, dedicated platform that is singular in its profile/account focus but provides other features not available with programs such as Trillian.  For example, Microsoft’s Office Communicator, though not as pretty or “new web” friendly as many other clients, is great at doing what it is designed to do — connecting staff in a company who are in one or more physical locations with a chat client.  This particular chat client can do other things as well that integrate with other Microsoft technologies, which offers businesses some features not available with other IM clients.  For example, “presence indicators” in the IM client can also pull information from the organizations’ Exchange server (assuming they have one), and provide Calendar information about staff.  So rather than just being listed as “Away”, I might show up as “In Meeting — Next Free in 1 hour”, based on what information I choose to share.  From inside Communicator I can also right-click on another user and initiate a voice or video chat, or a Live Meeting session, if my organization uses that software for collaboration.

The client or application that will work best is the one that meets all our instant-communication needs, both internally among the staff, as well as outward-facing to clients, partners, vendors, etc.  This is one area of application development that has dozens of options which are always changing, so it can pay to review the options from time to time.  In the end, though, as long as I can send an instant text message to a co-worker who is located several miles or states or countries away from me, and we can engage in quick conversation, I am a happy worker

NSI Partners has used many of these options, sometimes implementing multiple solutions all at once.  When the staff of the organization is so geographically dispersed as ours is, web-based, or cloud-based, services seem to be the best fit for our needs.  Confining file shares to one computer/hard drive or FTP site in one location that is dependent on the local power and connectivity options, is a solution with too many variables and limitations.  In our research and testing efforts, we have identified a handful of web- or cloud- based services that seem fair enough in design and feature set to get the job done.  However, several things really stand out about Microsoft SharePoint Online.

First off, Microsoft guarantees a full backup/redundant copy of our content, which means if disaster strikes on the primary location, there is a backup available.  Storing our large files and folders at an offsite location reduces the storage requirements at any individual office location, which also reduces backup requirements at those offices.  These features add great value to the need to share and collaborate on files with the team, and to house the files in a safe location where data integrity exists.

Secondly, SharePoint offers many features beyond basic storage of files.  The ability to create custom sites, lists, calendars, workgroups, and complex permission-management means that we can do a lot more as a team with SharePoint than simply saving files in one location.

Thirdly, Microsoft SharePoint Online has “presence awareness” of users who have signed in to one of the other products in the Microsoft Online suite, such as Office Communicator, Outlook, or Live Meeting.  This means I can initiate IM chat with a user, see their online/offline/busy status, and do much more instant collaboration than I could with separate solutions, or without any of these other products.

Microsoft SharePoint Online also has detailed Versioning features, so that multiple previous versions of a document can be viewed and accessed, and staff can save documents as drafts or final versions, with comments.  In addition, SharePoint Online provides the ability to label files as Checked In or Checked Out, so that files must be checked out in order for changes to be made, and then while a file is Checked Out, others only have access to the read-only copy of the file on the server.  These features all help in managing document versions, editing, and minimize the possibilities of staff overwriting eachothers’ efforts.

Finally, when the files in question are Microsoft Office-related, such as Word documents, Power Point presentations, Excel spreadsheets, or even inside Outlook, there are additional features available from inside each of those programs to help manage files on the SharePoint server more effectively and efficiently.

All in all, if your organization uses Microsoft Office, does a lot of document creation and file editing, and has robust storage and collaboration needs, it would be well worth your time to take a closer look at what Microsoft SharePoint Online has to offer. Contact us at tech@nsipartners.com for a free trial or quote!

Taking advantage of the benefits offered by products like Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint have either been cost- or infrastructure- prohibitive for many SMBs, but Microsoft has come into the age of cloud computing with some great offerings.  One set of services, titled Microsoft Online Services, has introduced the benefits of products like Exchange and Sharepoint  to the “cloud”.  What does this mean for organizations like those described so far in this post?

For starters, these services provide a cost-effective, infrastructure-friendly method of bringing Exchange to the geographically-dispersed, telecommuting-heavy organization.  No longer forced to choose between POP and IMAP email accounts, we are now able to tap into the many benefits offered by email hosted on an Exchange server.  What are some of those benefits?  Complete integration with Microsoft Outlook 2007/2010 and other Microsoft Office products, for one.  Shared directories, data storage and integrity provided offsite, enhanced calendar and scheduling features such as the Scheduling Assistant, Out of Office functions, the ability to see in real-time the status of all one’s co-workers, Outlook Web Access with almost full functionality from any web browser, synchronization of mobile phones such as the iPhone directly to the Exchange server, among many other enhancements.

In addition to the benefits realized with the Exchange-based email platform, Microsoft Online Services also provide access to a Sharepoint site for our organization, again hosted offsite by Microsoft with guaranteed data integrity and no additional burden to our own power, hardware, or property.  For those unfamiliar with Sharepoint, think of taking all your files used by your company and organizing them in a familiar folder structure on a server reachable by all through the web or through Windows Explorer.  Including advanced document-management features such as file versioning, checking in and checking out, and integration in real-time into Mocrosoft Word, Excel, and Power Point, Sharepoint sites enable greatly evolved and more efficient sharing of digital resources.  But Sharepoint is not just about file management.  It also includes task management and assignment functions, document workspaces for teams, shared calendars, and many other teamwork-enhancing features.

Beyond the benefits realized by utilizing Exchange and Sharepoint, subscriptions to Microsoft Online Services can include their Instant Messenger client for business, Office Communicator, as well as their screen- and voice-sharing teleconferencing solution, Microsoft Live Meeting.

All these services can be paid for on a monthly subscription basis per user and can range from one standalone product  to all four of the services being bundled.  As cloud computing evolves to offer SaaS and other offsite solutions, it is arguable that technology traditionally too expensive for the SMB market, or unmanageable for organizations with heavy telecommuting and geographic dispersal, is the silver lining in said clouds.  The advantages outweigh the limitations so heavily that I cannot recommend these services enough for organizations historically forced to settle for other more limited technology solutions.

In fact, we are convinced enough of the great value of these services that we are now Microsoft partners in advising and providing these solutions to existing and new clients.  If you are in an organization that fits any of the characteristics described here, or are wondering if  ”life in the cloud” might have anything to offer you, I encourage you to look more into Microsoft Online Services at  http://www.microsoft.com/online/default.mspx or others like it.  Contact our tech team at tech@nsipartners.com if you would like to learn more or get a free trial or quote!

The breakthrough, though, was when Matthew Frye figured out the main problem. HTC has written proprietary software that “overlays” on top of Windows and provides selected bits of information, like certain appointments. But the pattern is mysterious. I guess it caps the number of appointments it will display across an unspecified period of hours. For someone like me with a lot of appointments, seeing only some–almost at random–made us conclude the unit was broken.

We actually swapped it out for a replacement, costing us many more hours, before we figured out that we just needed to remove the Outlook calendar from that software’s sorting function. Now it seems to work much better. Verizon has excellent customer service, so having them as a carrier has really helped.

I’ve now incorporated into most of my routines, and it’s great being able to clearly see emails, Outlook task lists, OneNote and (for the most part) websites, wherever I go. We may get a Franklin Planner overlay that’s supposed to improve the Task List functionality, but I still need to understand better what I’ve got first. But now I can begin to reinvest some of the time it’s begun to save me into understanding its deeper functions. Pretty soon I may even learn to speak “alien.”

Virus wreak and destroy your data, but spyware does just what its name sujests: it hides and spies on you. What it does with what it finds depends on the program. If you’re lucky, the software will only swamp you with ads (in this case its called adware), but if you’re not, you could have a keylogger or similar monitoring software that “phones home” with what it sees. Anything you type — or worse, anything on your screen — including credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or other personal information could be sent to someone or somebody.

Two of the best real-time antispyware scanners out there are Webroot’s Spy Sweeper and PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor. Real-time scanning means that the program is actively trying to detect spyware threats as you are using your computer, much like your antivirus software. This is good, as the software can attept to block the installation of the spyware in the first place, instead of removing it later, AFTER it has had the opportunity to do damage. Sadly, antispyware real-time scanners still aren’t as efective as their antivirus counterparts, so you will still want to run regular full-system scans, just as you do with your antivirus.

PC Magazine recently tested Spy Sweeper and Spyware Doctor and awarded them both an Editor’s Choice. Both programs blocked and removed nearly all of the spyware and keyloggers that the testers threw at them, including some commercial keyloggers. Both programs have also gotten easier to use.

You can go to PCMag.com to read the full review of Spy Sweeper and of Spyware Doctor.

Skype, acquired by Ebay last October, is the market leader with more than 5.5 million active users. Created by the co-founders of KaZaA, Skype was the first to launch services to integrate software based VOIP with regular landline phones with their SkypeIn and SkypeOut pay services. Skype lately released version 2 of their software, adding video support.

The Gizmo Project was started and is backed by the team behind SIPhone, which include the founders of MP3.com, i-drive, and Linspire. They have taken the open-ended route in the design of the software and of the VOIP backend, and have swiftly risen to be the rival of Skype. To match Skype’s SkypeIn and SkypeOut pay services, Gizmo has its own pay services, Call In and Call Out.

Standards & Tech

Skype is built on a proprietary communication protocal backend and the software itself is also proprietary. For many people this is not problem, but for others concerned about big companies’ drive for sales goals instead of the consumer’s needs this could be an issue. This fact is highlighted as Skype recently added support for up to 10 callers on conference calls…but only on Intel based processers. People with AMD processers are stuck with the previous number of 5 conference callers. This is not a limitation of AMD’s chip design, rather it was a marketing deal with Intel. Also, only Skype clients can connect to the Skype VOIP network.

Gizmo, on the other hand, is based on the open SIP standard. When you register a free account with Gizmo, you get a Gizmo account name, used on the Gizmo network, and a SIP number in the format of 1-747-XXX-XXXX. This number can be used to connect VOIP clients other than the Gizmo client to the Gizmo network. For instance, you can now talk to Google Talk clients. It also allows, through a convoluted process, landline phones to call your Gizmo account without you purchasing a Call In service.

Both clients use peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to make calls, although Skype does it with a twist. Normally, P2P applications connect directly to each other over the Internet. But in order to allieveate congestion in the network and ensure connections, Skype will sometimes “grab” user’s computers with fast pipes and use them as “supernodes” to relay traffic.

In theory this is a good idea, however, some users have reported that being grabbed as a supernode clogges their connections. The only way to fix it is to close Skype. There is no way to control whether you are used as a supernode nor can you set limits on the bandwidth used. With Gizmo, you connect directly to the caller’s computers when you make a call.

Features

Basic chat is built-in into both Skype and Gizmo so you can chat during your call, and they both also encrypt your call using strong algorithims. (Gizmo states in their help files that if you connect to their network using a non-Gizmo client your calls may or may not be encrypted.)

People have described Skype’s features as basic, at least in comparison to Gizmo. Gizmo, for instance, has one-click call recording, voicemail, and feature to view where the other caller is located on a map, all of which Skype lacks. Skype has an extensive list of third-party plugins, but you have to install these yourself to get the same functionality that Gizmo provides out of the box.

As previously mentioned, Skype limits you to 5 callers during a conference call, unless you use a Intel processor. In Gizmo, a free service that Gizmo has partnered with. With Gizmo you can also include landlines in your conference.

Call quality, especially during conference calls, depends on the callers Internet connection, with it ranging from cell-phone quality to better than a landline. If you have more than 4 callers in a conference call, Gizmo recommends that people mute themselves when not talking to preserve call quality. Using this technique, Gizmo says that they’ve had 28 people from 11 countries talking without a drop in quality.

Learn more about Skype and Gizmo

Services

Skype and Gizmo both have pay-for services that allow you to call and receive calls from landline phones. With SkypeOut and Call Out, the respective companies services to call landline phones, you purchase in advance “credits,” which give you a certain amount of calling time depending on where you are calling. In the US, Skype and Gizmo both have flat rates, Skype’s being roughly 2.1 cents per minute, and Gizmo’s 1 cent per minute. Gizmo in fact gives you $0.25 in credits when you sign up with them! View Skype’s rate chart, and Gizmo’s rate chart.

To receive landline calls using your computer you can use Skype’s SkypeIn and Gizmo’s Call In services. Both are billed on either a 3 or 12 month basis, with Skype charging 10 and 30 Euros respectfully(approxemently 12 and 37 US dollars, respectifully) and Gizmo charging $10 and $35, respectfully. Skype includes for free their Skype Voicemail service (separately sold in 3 or 12 month increments, with 3 months: 5 Euros, and 12 months: 15 Euros) when you buy SkypeIn.

How SkypeIn and Call In work is this. When you purchase the service, you get a local phone number in a major city in a country you choose (Many cities and countries are availible, although Skype has a lead on Gizmo currently. See Gizmo’s list). Your friends/co-workers call this number and wherever you are, whether in the same country or on the other side of the world, your computer will ring. Even better, if your number is local to the callers it will be treated as a local call!

To learn more, visit the webpages for SkypeOut, SkypeIn, Call Out, and Call In.

Conclusion

NSI Partners ended up choosing Gizmo, based on its features, open-ended nature, and the future outlook for features. Call quality has ranged from adaquate to excellent, and we’ve had several dropped calls. It seems to vary based on your current network activity. Based on our experience we have so far reserved it for internal calls, instead relying on FreeConference.com for conference calls with clients.