Advantages of Mobile Broadband

• You have broadband no matter where you are (or nearly). As long as you can get mobile coverage then you can also get Mobile Broadband coverage. The better the signal – the faster and more responsive your broadband will be
• You don’t need a landline. Say ‘No’ to the still ridiculous notion that you need to pay a monthly fee for the line rental to Eircom – just to get broadband
• You can share it with friends/colleagues. Just unplug the USB dongle and connect it to your friends/colleagues laptop/PC
• You don’t need a laptop! That’s right – you can use it with your home PC if you just want basic internet and don’t want the hassle of wired broadband. Good for SMEs who may need the power of desktop PCs but may not always have access to a landline
• It’s almost as fast as basic wired broadband. Depending on your coverage you can get up to 3-5Mbs, which is just as fast as some of the starter broadband packages that require a landline
• You can manage the costs by using a non-contract plan and tailor the cost of having broadband to a plan you can afford.

Which Plan for me?

A better question is: “How much data will I be using per month?”

If you’re using it for email and web surfing only choose the lower end plans (1-5GB). It’s more than you need.

If you will be working with media (images/video) as well as the above or often work with large documents (excel/word/pdf) consider a medium plan (5-10Gb)

If you have the luxury of not having to worry about the cost, or will be downloading large volumes of data (cd images, streaming audio/video) then you should really consider a heavy-usage plan. Maybe even consider switching to fixed-line broadband depending on your needs.

Comparing the plans available:

( Prices in the above comparison are correct as of Aug 5th 2010 – always check back with the operator for the most up-to-date prices)

Recommendation

Start with a low-usage plan. Unless you really use the internet for a lot of audio/video data there’s no real need to get a plan greater than 5Gb per month.

What’s most important is that it works where you need it most – so be sure to check the coverage maps before you choose

If you are working from home for a company you will need to connect into the corporate network over a VPN connection. This is a secure connection that connects you into the office network and will let you access all of the resources on the office network.

If you are working from home only part time and you have a computer in head office, an alternative to using a VPN would be to use an application like logmein to connect to your head office computer. This would mean that you were able to work on the head office computer from home. This is something you would have to talk to your IT service department of company about as there are some security issues with this solution.

Some companies are now using Virtualization to improve the IT services that they are providing to their users. This means that you would be able to connect to a virtual computer and do your work from home with your laptop or home computer or even if you are out on the road.

If you are working from home and you have broadband in your home office, I suggest that you sign up for a VoIP telephone service.  There are many VoIP service providers and Google search will provide you with a good selection for your country. Large companies who have employees working from home provide them with VoIP phones to work from home with.

 
Another point to consider if you are using your home computer to connect to the corporate network, is that it is important to make sure that you have good Internet Security. I use Eset Nod and I would recommend this to my customers, as it provides excellent cover.

In addition, you need to have a system in place to backup your data if you are working from home. This is crucial. For people working from home, I recommend online Data Backup;if you would like some more information on this drop me an email.

E-mail has become indispensible now and if you are working from home you will need an IT service provider that will let you access your mail on your computer, online and on your mobile. If you work for yourself and are just starting up, I would suggest that you use the Software as a Service (SaaS) provided by Google Gmail for Business. This IT service will let you use Calendar, Chat, Blackberry sync etc. Your company may already use Microsoft Exchange to provide it’s e-mail service and you will need to contact your IT service provider to set your account up so as you can work from home.

For more information on working from home and the required IT services just give iPing a call.

Once they have worked out how many prints you are doing per printer, they need to find out how much you are spending on toner for each printer. This is the place where the real cost of printing sneeks into your printing budget. From my experience and from doing this research, the cheaper the printer that you buy – the more expensive the toner for this printer will cost. You may even find that some of the companies that sell you a printer will only let you use their printer toner in the printer. This is something that really grates, as they can charge what they like for this.

Another point to look at here is how much you are spending on geting your printers serviced. On completion of the print audit, having identified how much you are spending on printing and how many prints you are doing per month, in colour and black and white, the company will make a proposal to you that you will pay them an average cost of say less than 1c per black and white print and less than 6c per colour print.

• From my experience toner will generally cost you more than this alone.
  The key advantages of having a good external company provide you with a print service and the points you should be looking for are as follows:
  If a printer breaks down the company will fix it the next day or replace the printer.
• The total cost of your printing will drop by between 20% and 40%
• The company has a good print management software that lets them know when to send you toner before you know you need it and it just arrives.
• You know in advance how much your printing costs will be for the next few years so you do not get any shocks.
• The print management software provided by the company should give you the information to really streamline your printing service and help with total savings.
• By pooling printers in an office and using printers approprate for your office size you will find that the printing experience of your users improves.

There are some questions and matters to look out for when selecting a print service and they are as follows:

• What are the costs if I print above or below my monthly or yearly quota of prints. A good company will give you a rate nearly identical to what you have in your contract.
• If for some reason you need to remove some offices or printers from the contract what will the cost of this be. Again a good company will be flexible here.

If you are based in Ireland or around Dublin and you are interested in the idea of having print service, please contact someone here at iPing as we have some good companies we would like to put you in contact with.

Until next time,
Mark

I have been reading all the hype out there about the new Apple iPad and I was wondering if any of you will be running out to buy one?

Over the years I have not used Apple products all that much and we would only provide support to our clients who use them.

I have a feeling that the iPad will be a big hit among graphic design studios, PR companies and some web developers but do you think there is much point getting one outside of this area?

Let me know your thoughts my Apple using friends :)

Mark

To try this command for yourself you need to open a DOS window. To do this in Windows NT, 2000 and XP do the following.

Click Start.
Then Click run.
Then type cmd and press enter.

If you are using windows Vista

Click Start.
Then type cmd.

Once you have your DOS window open you are ready to start using the Ipconfig command. You will be presented with a prompt something like this.

C:\Documents and Settings\Mark Kelly>

Here you can now type in ipconfig and then press enter and this will return some basic IP settings on your PC like the IP settings on my PC below.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.5
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

If you want some more detail on your PCs IP configuration why not try the following command and see what result you get.

Ipconfig /all

To contact iPing just click Here. iPing provide IT & Computer support in Dublin & around Ireland.