Pilothouse Communications, LLC
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                                                      A
pril, 2007- Vol 1, Issue 2
In This Issue
Data/IT Support
Exciting Data Products
Network Assessment
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Greetings!
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Happy Spring!

When you are talking with our valued customers the 6 words that make us cringe are "I didn't know you did that!" When we hear that we realize that we have not done a good job of conveying the depth and breadth of our expertise.  Over our many years in this industry we have seen the coming of convergence and the need for data expertise to better help our customers to leverage the advanced technologies that can aid in productivity and customer service to your clients. We are selling more applications based solutions that integrate with computers to help gain these efficiencies that can add to your bottom line. Additionally, we have recognized that for you, the small to mid size business owners and managers; it has become a great challenge to keep up with the computer systems in our offices. Faster hardware and more powerful software and the advances in Voice Over IP are coming to the market at an astonishing rate. Unlike the days when the computer was largely a substitute for the typewriter, a business or professional firm with a network of five to fifty computers today is operating in a complex and rapidly changing environment. 

Our focus for this quarter's Newsletter is to let you know that we are more than just  "the telephone people."  In this issue you will learn the areas of Data and IT where we may be able to assist your company. Make one call for your voice and data needs, especially when they are so interconnected, there is no finger pointing and solutions are provided in a timely manner. We have gained your trust with your telephones and would love the opportunity to prove ourselves by showing you  our data expertise.

Thank you for your time and attention in reading this newsletter. I hope you find it of value.

DATA/IT Sales, Service, Support

IT support 

Pilothouse Communications is here to be your Information Technologies Department, when you need us. We provide LAN/WAN design engineering and implementation. You can supply the hardware and just install it for you or we can do it all. If you have remote workers or business owners who want to be able to get into your network systems from outside of the office, you may have a need for VPN and Firewall technology.  Maybe you haven't upgraded your desktops and servers since Y2K - we can educate you on the latest technology, the speed and storage capacities have advanced so much, you would be amazed. Maybe you are opening a new office and need Email servers and network printers -we can help you with that also.

You do not have to put out the expense of a full time IT staff, but if you do have specific skills already on board, we will be happy to work with you in augmenting your staff in areas when and where you need our assistance.

Some Exciting Data Products

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SONICWALL TA 170-
 
The SonicWALLŽ TZ 170 Series is a total security platform for home, small, remote and branch offices, featuring an integrated 5-port, auto-sensing MDIX switch and optional port that can be configured as a WorkPort for telecommuters, a second WAN for ISP Failover and Load Balancing or a second LAN for added network flexibility. Wireless models add secure 802.11b/g wireless with advanced features such as enforced VPN encryption on the wireless LAN, plus wireless intrusion and rogue access point detection to deliver impenetrable wireless security.
 
 

SonicWALL TZ 190-

The SonicWALLŽ TZ 190 is a high-performance, multi-layered network security platform that integrates Type II PC Card based 3G wireless broadband support, automated failover/failback technologies and a deep packet inspection firewall. The TZ 190 enables organizations to establish secure 3G wireless broadband network access instantly without the need for a fixed Internet connection. By leveraging recent advances in 3G wireless broadband technologies, organizations can rapidly establish high speed access for seasonal kiosks, mobile point-of-sale stations, portable ATM machines, disaster recovery networks and more.
 

EMAIL SECURITY - How much time do you spend going through Spam daily?

Today's businesses need robust yet simple e-mail threat protection that takes minutes, not hours, per week to manage. Available as a hardened appliance or as Windows software, SonicWALL Email Security provides powerful protection in one simple solution that dramatically reduces the time and expense involved in e-mail security.

SonicWALL Email Security offers the highest possible level of network protection from all inbound and outbound e-mail threats by leveraging a global end-to-end attack monitoring network. Protections include:

ˇ         Anti-spam

ˇ         Anti-phishing

ˇ         Anti-virus & Time-Zero technology

ˇ         Policy management

ˇ         Connection management

ˇ         Zombie detection

ˇ         Compliance & content filtering - regulatory & corporate

We implemented this technology at Pilothouse because of the large amount of "spam" that was coming into everyone's email inbox. It was taking so much time to go through it daily- once we implemented this it immediately stopped. Every day each user gets an easy to read report of all the spam mail that was captured, or you can log into a real-time log of captured spam and have the ability to view any email and "unjunk it" so you don't miss those important emails that we are waiting for that may be perceived as spam.

Within this product there are many reports that show where this spam is coming from, who's the top receiver and sender of spam- monitoring outbound spam is also very important, it could indicate someone has hacked into your system and is using your email server as an outbound spam server- you would never know.  You will be amazed at the number of junk emails that come to your organization on an hourly basis.  You also can see the ROI on a daily basis for your employees not having to deal with these emails.

Here is a staggering stat from our system of only 10 email users from mid March when we implemented this to April 5th

Reports Overview

Since: March 2007

 

Total inbound email processed for organization: 195,082

 

Total inbound junk email identified for organization: 181,943

 

SonicWALL CDP Solution

The majority of IT Managers and Business Owners agree that tape does not work. Ironically, most organizations are still using fixed-schedule antiquated tape systems that are subject to human error, cumbersome to manage and are notoriously unreliable. Statistics show that:  

SonicWALL Backup & Recovery solutions provide automatic, real-time data backup for servers, laptops and PCs. The solution backs up files first locally to ensure data can be recovered instantly from any previous point in time. It also includes hands-free, automatic offsite capabilities to protect businesses against disasters. Together, the automatic, hassle-free local and offsite data backup capabilities solve the pains related to existing backup systems. Importantly, the CDP series of products back up only block level differences within each file, and then compresses them so the network is not impacted or compromised. Also, central management and remote administration features allow IT administrators to operate efficiently and effectively.

 

 Nexlink Ingenuity Desktop -the very affordable, reliable, custom built PC for your unique computing requirements

 

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Network Assessments!
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What is a Network Assessment?

     A Network Assessment is an assessment to prepare or build an IP network to support the real-time application of Voice Over IP packets. The software will detect and diagnose problems that may cause performance problems such as bottlenecks, congestion points and speed or duplex mismatches.

Why is a Network Assessment needed?

  Experienced IP Project managers know that you just cannot deploy new technology overnight on the existing network and HOPE that the performance will be satisfactory.  VoIP applications are intolerant of packet loss, latency, jitter, congestion etc. that are acceptable issues on most data networks. VoIP applications require a network that can support real-time data exchange, unlike applications such as e-mail that may just run slowly on a network with these problems. Many of these same network problems will cause poor quality for VoIP or cause it not work at all.

When is it needed?

    A Network Assessment is highly recommended if any of the following are true:

ˇ         One or more IP phones are being deployed

ˇ         Two or more VoIP ready communications systems will communicate with each other using the VoIP protocol

ˇ         You are upgrading your PBX equipment or data infrastructure and have plans to implement VoIP in the next 12 months.

What happens if the assessment doesn't pass?

     An executive summary report with a detailed analysis overview of every hop the voice packet took will be provided, graphs and charts will show exactly where on your network and/or ISP's network where there are issues and recommendations will be made for modifications to support VoIP .

If a Network Assessment if not done- what could happen?

    This situation could be very costly when you discover after implementing VoIP that your IP network cannot deliver toll-quality voice. The callers could experience network jitter, packet delay or packet loss- resulting in poor quality calls or lost calls.

We acutely understand the importance of the Network Assessment to the successful deployment of VoIP. We have invested in this tool to be able to provide our customers with this assessment up front before deployment as well as a means to trouble-shoot a data network should things on your network change and issues arise with your IP calls.  We understand convergence and are here to provide the expertise to make it work for your business.

We are offering any NEW data customer a FREE one (1) hour data evaluation, use it for whatever you might need: consultation with our data engineer regarding possible upgrades, set up a network printer, help with setting up remote access for your staff- let us show you how our expertise can make your job easier. Call today for one hour of FREE data/IT support- make sure you mention you saw this on our newsletter.
 
 Sincerely,
 
Sue Carlson
Pilothouse Communications, LLC