News

Control who can see your personal information

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Who is really spying on you?

In the past a lot of people were paranoid that they were being spied on, either in public via CCTV or if you were the tin foil hat brigade then you would be paranoid about it being the government or powers that be.

These days people share far too much information in social media, it has become a data modellers paradise which is how the likes of Google and Facebook make their money, through analysing the data that people voluntarily share publicly and then targeting them with advertising.

One of the problems with over sharing personal information is that you can be targeted by people that can exploit information that they can gather about you. Even if you don’t post specifics like sharing when you birthday is, it can be fairly easy for others to find out just by seeing pictures in your social media feed, if you are wearing a badge that says “its my birthday” in the pictures or are photographed blowing out candles on a cake, it doesn’t take a genius to work out when your birthday is. Likewise if you post pictures of where you like, that inadvertently shows your house number, it can be pretty easy to start to build a profile about your life which can then be used to exploit you. Identity theft can be a costly business for the person that has been exploited.

A lot of people are now becoming more social media savvy but it isn’t just social media. For example, smart speakers like Google Home or Amazon Echo constantly listen to conversations all the time and they have been found to send information back to the service provider even though the manufacturers say they don’t do this.

Likewise, your browser, mobile phone and applications on all devices try to harvest as much information as they can about you so what can you do in an ever-connected world to protect yourself?

All services should offer privacy setting so you can control who can see your personal information however these settings are often hard to find and also often get reset when an application, device or service is upgraded. It is in the interest of these companies to get as much information about you as possible because it is how they make their money so perhaps the easiest solution is for people to stop sharing so much with the world and go back to being more private.

Time to choose a new office telephone system

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Change is coming

ISDN telephone systems are being retired.

Things are changing in the world of telephony and the traditional multiline telephone circuits that are commonplace in most businesses are being retired. ISDN is old technology and it is planned to be phased out by BT. In 2016 BT announced that from 2020 clients will no longer be able to order ISDN circuits and that ISDN is planned to be switched off by 2025 (subject to them being able to).

So, what should businesses do to plan for this change? Well realistically there are two choices that businesses can look at, SIP (session initiated protocol) which is what you would use if you have your on premises telephone system or hosted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solution where the telephone switch is in the cloud rather than on premises.

There are advantages to both approaches

SIP telephone system

The SIP telephone system allows a business to not only use a private branch exchange (PBX) but also provides the flexibility of integration with video conferencing using a session border controller to control the SIP call type and to manage call routing. If the right session border controller is used then it can also integrate with Microsoft Teams using a solution called Direct Routing. This means you can then use Teams to make and receive calls on your work DDI telephone number and it can follow you from desk phone to Teams client (either on PC or Mobile but subject to licensing and hardware). With SIP trunks you pay for the number of lines you want to have supported in the solution which is ideal for a business that doesn’t require a line for everyone in the business to be available all the time. For example, if you have a DDI telephone number for the business and you only have 6 lines but the business has 30 employees you can share the lines between the staff like a traditional ISDN service.

Hosted VoIP telephone system

The advantage of a Hosted VoIP telephone system is that it is flexible as the solution is hosted in the cloud and can allow staff to connect to the service either via a VoIP enabled desk phone or a soft client on the PC or mobile (subject to licensing). With hosted VoiP you need to pay for a line for each user even if you do not need to have concurrent calling for everyone in the business. Hosted VoIP requires minimal hardware investment because all you really need is a mobile or a computer running software to make and receive calls.

Time to get planning what your business will do when ISDN is killed off.

Windows 7 upgrade, Windows 7 is dead, long live Windows 7!

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

introduction

If Windows 7 is dead, is it time to upgrade Windows 7?

Well not quite, but it is coming. Microsoft products have a finite lifetime where they are supported by Microsoft. In the past Microsoft would provide feature upgrades and security patches to the operating system for the first 5 years. Then a further 5 years of just security patches.

On the 20th January 2020, Windows 7 comes to the end of its support life-cycle. This doesn’t mean that it will stop working on this date, what it means is that if any security vulnerabilities are found then Microsoft will no longer provide security patches to fix them, making the machine vulnerable to exploits.

Microsoft is offering paid support for businesses that are not ready and will still be running Windows 7 but this is not a cost effective approach and there is still time to upgrade Windows 7 to either a new computer running the latest version of Windows, Windows 10, or to see if your hardware can support upgrading to a newer operating system in support.

We help businesses like you upgrade from Windows 7

We are working with clients helping them upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10, but the time window is shrinking rapidly, and you don’t want to be leaving it to the last minute just in case there are compatibility issues with business-critical software. Far better to overcome issues long before the operating system goes out of support than finding issues and running on systems that are at risk.

If you would like help upgrading from Windows 7 to a new operating system we are here to help, we are assisting lots of customers with advice, planning, testing, roll-out and support.

The benefits of cloud computing

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The cloud is everywhere.

Whether you’re checking your bank balance, sending emails on the move or updating your social media, it all relies on cloud computing. So what exactly is ‘the cloud’?

Essentially, the cloud is a collection of on demand applications and services hosted on scalable infrastructure, typically accessed by either the internet or by dedicated private links. The cloud provides scalability, flexibility and resilience which is why so many businesses are embracing cloud computing and streamlining their existing internal infrastructure.

But is the cloud right for you?

Flexible Working

One advantage of cloud computing is the ability to work from almost anywhere so long as you have an internet connection, and with the correct configuration, you can even work offline, synchronising with the cloud when you next get a connection.

The cloud provides flexible resources so if your business scales up, the cloud can meet that demand. Likewise, if your business needs to downsize for any reason, the services you consume also shrink to fit, and so does the cost of consuming these services.

Always Updated – Evergreen IT

The cloud additionally allows you to stay updated in the ever-changing technical world.

In the traditional capital expenditure model it used to be expensive to maintain IT currency, you’d need to spend large sums of money every three, four or five years. The beauty of cloud computing is that these costs are spread over the duration of the subscription. It is more cost effective to use the cloud as your business will be running to a cash flow friendly operational cost model.

When you subscribe to a cloud service, you’re no longer required to focus on updating the software or installing additional patches, the speed of delivery is improved and additional features are added regularly, meaning you’re always up-to-date and always have the latest and greatest features. Alternatively if you need to control your software refresh cycle (for example if you have a third party application that is not yet compatible with the latest version of your productivity suite) then you can opt to control when your software updates.

Lastly as the servers providing these services are off the premises, the cloud providers take care of the maintenance, allowing you to focus your time and resources on the business and it’s development. It also provides you with peace of mind in terms of disaster recovery. If you lose your building, your data and services are safe in the cloud.

Security

It’s understandable that if you choose to effectively entrust vital information with an external provider, you want to have confidence in the system you decide to use. One of the main concerns when it comes to cloud computing is understanding just how secure the uploaded data really is.

The surprising reality is that ‘the cloud’ is a lot safer than your own, internally managed servers.

Cloud providers take pride in ensuring their clients’ data is protected, they have their reputations to safeguard, after all a data breach would have catastrophic consequences to their business which is why they take security so seriously.

‘The cloud’ is also built to be resilient meaning if your provider did encounter a failure in hardware or connectivity, your services with them would automatically move to an alternative host. You can determine which country or countries can host your data, for example, you can specify that you do not want your data to reside outside of the EU so that you can be sure you comply with GDPR legislation.

Whilst you may be reluctant to move to the cloud, the benefits speak for themselves, the cloud is secure, cost effective, scalable, flexible and always up to date.

If you’re considering transferring your business over to the cloud and have any questions, please feel free to drop us a message or give us a call and we would be more than happy to help.

Desktops are evolving

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The way we use computers is evolving, with more and more applications being delivered through cloud services via a browser. So it is inevitable that desktop computing is going the same way.

Microsoft is rolling out its Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) with clients available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android and HTML-5 meaning that if you have a browser running on a device that is running one of these operating systems or supports HTML-5 you can run Windows Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

Microsoft is heavily promoting WVD primarily to help customers that need to still run Windows 7 legacy application during the transition period as they migrate to Windows 10. Windows Virtual Desktop can virtualise Windows 7 desktops and receive free extended security updated until January 2023, giving clients three more years of Windows 7 support, free of charge!

This could be a lifeline to small businesses that have yet to find a way to get legacy applications from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and cannot afford to subscribe to the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program.

So if you are struggling to migrate away from Windows 7 because of legacy applications and you are worried about running on an unsupported OS, call us and we can help get you into a position where you are supported for the next three years providing breathing space whilst you migrate away from the legacy applications.

When you end up giving support to the product vendor

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We came across a problem our client was struggling with and needed help to resolve. We had a look at this "head scratcher" of a problem and roped in Microsoft support to expedite the resolution. The problem was remote desktop onto another computer running Windows 10 over Direct Access (Microsoft's always on VPN) the session would lock up, it would connect but the screen would freeze and you could only disconnect. If you used remote desktop onto a server computer over Direct Access it would work just fine. If you used remote desktop to the Windows 10 pc over the local network it would connect just fine and would not lock up.

This ruled out a couple of things, firstly it ruled out that remote desktop works over Direct Access because it worked just fine to servers. Secondly it ruled out that the Windows 10 PC was freezing when a remote desktop session connected because it worked just fine when the connection was made over the local network. The suggestions from Microsoft were not very helpful, it was basic troubleshooting that we had already done and already informed them about so they asked for logs and then made the same basic fundamental recommendations again which was not helping the situation as we had already done the things they were suggesting.

In the mean time I decided to try an alternate remote desktop connection application rather than use the built in Microsoft client. Interestingly the 3rd party remote desktop client would work over the Direct Access connection so again this helped narrow down the issue. We compared the differences in how the connections were working between the Microsoft remote desktop client and the 3rd party client and we discovered that the Microsoft RDP (remote desktop) client tries to use UDP when connecting to a desktop over what it perceives is a local network.

There is a group policy in Windows that allows you to kill off UDP over RDP sessions which is what we did next and as if by magic, the built in Microsoft RDP client would then successfully connect to the remote desktop running Windows 10 over Remote Access and would not lock up or have any issues.

In order to run this fix there are two ways it can be done. Either through a local policy via GPEDIT.MSC or via a domain based group policy. The location for both are in the same place so I will describe where it is in the local group policy manager. So.... launch GPEDIT.MSC and run as administrator then navigate to "Local Computer Policy\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Service\Remote Desktop Connection Client" and it is here that you set "Turn Off UDP On Client" to being Enabled.

When we found this fix we let Microsoft know so that if someone else encounters the same issue we did in future, they will be able to help them more speedily than us (hopefully if they don't go down the same route we were taken).

Working together in Microsoft Teams

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Covid-19 lockdown has been a bit of an eye opener for a lot of businesses, their staff can be productive when working from home. One of the things that has helped revolutionise the way a lot of businesses now operate is Microsoft Teams.

Having the ability to work together whilst being remote from each other has always been a challenge but with Microsoft Teams people have found this to be a lot easier. If you don’t know what Microsoft Teams can do, here is a brief summary:

Chat messages
Presence (free, busy, do not disturb, away etc)
Team sites where you can share chat, files, power apps, tabs etc
Calls between teams clients including video conferencing with the right hardware
Calls to and from other phones with the right configuration
Conference calling with internal and external users including dial in with the right configuration
Opening and collaborating on the same files at the same time with others inside and outside your organisation

Teams is a fantastic collaboration tool, it allows people to work and share like never before and it has really helped businesses adapt to new ways for working flexibly, allowing teams to continue to work together where they couldn’t in the past.

One thing we have been doing is a lot more of is helping businesses get more out of Teams but extending the voice capability through the audio conferencing (with dial in conference number, PIN and moderator codes) and also integrating Teams into the businesses telephony through one of three ways:

use Microsoft Phone system and port the business numbers over away from the traditional on prem PBX and either Microsoft E5 licensing or E3 with Microsoft Phone licensing and a dial plan
deploy and on premises session border controller that is MS Teams enabled, Microsoft direct routing and either Microsoft E5 licensing or E3 with Microsoft Phone licensing whilst using the existing dial plan
use a cloud based service with a monthly contract to effectively rent a session border controller in the cloud to integrate with the PBX and then use either Microsoft E5 licensing or E3 with Microsoft Phone licensing whilst using the existing dial plan

The third option is the most popular with organisations as it allows rapid onboarding of the solution without a long term financial commitment or capital expenditure costs and it can be flexed up and down as needed.

If you want more information about how to get the most out of Microsoft Teams and being able to collaborate please call us on our Teams number 020 3744 8548

Now is the time to invest in flexible business practices

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

One thing that we are seeing the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic is that how we work and socialize has changed for the foreseeable future and may never get back to what we once thought was normal.

But what we are also seeing is how technology has helped some businesses revolutionise how they operate, especially organisations that were traditionally office based. Unfortunately, for some staff, this has also highlighted that some businesses are better able to give their staff flexibility when it comes to remote working than others.

This is the first wave of the Covid-19 virus and they are predicting that there will be at least two more over the next two years, peaking each winter, so businesses need to prepare to be able to cope with these additional waves that could again see restricted movement of people.

One thing that ABC Networking has been doing is helping businesses implement more flexible ways of working that suit both the business needs and provide a secure way of staff being able to work and collaborate.

Some businesses have struggled to adapt to this change at such short notice and staff have been having to make do as best they can. At the beginning it was anticipated that the country would only be in lockdown for three weeks but as the pandemic has ground on people have found they need to adapt to more long-term solutions.

ABC Networking has been helping businesses adapt in these changing times, providing more flexible ways of working and collaborating with a distributed work force. Our solutions provide flexibility for your business, so it can adapt and survive these unpredictable times.

Businesses can currently take advantage of the government “Bounce Back” loans on offer for up to £50,000 which are interest free for the first 12 months which can help develop more flexible ways of working.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/small-businesses-boosted-by-bounce-back-loans

If you would like to find out more about how you could bring more flexibility to your business IT and telephony systems, and how you can adapt what you already have to maximise your ability to tackle the future, no matter what it throws at us next?

Call us on 020 3744 8548

SharePoint is easier than you might think

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Having all your documents and data in one place where you can search, publish and collaborate seems like a great idea which is why it is interesting that so many businesses shy away from using SharePoint and instead stick with traditional file storage on a file server or network storage device.

Being able to access all your documents and data in one place, securely, from anywhere would also be great.

Being able to sync data to your computer so you can also work on it when you are offline would also be fantastic.

Well you can do all the above by switching to SharePoint online, part of Microsoft 365.

The Infrastructure Business has helped many businesses migrate their data to the Microsoft cloud, including undertaking analysis of the business data, helping with the taxonomy and data classification, data tagging and classification.

To help businesses further we can also put controls in place within SharePoint and Microsoft 365 to ensure compliance with regulation and to create policies to help with discovery such as subject access requests.

For more information please call us on 020 3744 8548

Don't allow a temporary bodge to become permanent

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We were initially told that it would be three weeks with very little time to implement solutions at the last minute so a lot of firms put bodges in place such as diverting the main phone number in the business to a mobile, severely restricting communications and making life difficult for the poor person charged with looking after the inbound calls and passing on the messages.

Same goes with accessing systems and data, Heath Robinson solutions that were meant to get businesses by for about 3 weeks had to creak and strain whilst being used for months and months. Multiple copies of data became inconsistent as different people worked on it, revision control became a nightmare, who was working on the correct version, which version was the version of truth. Often businesses found themselves in a mess because of inconsistencies in how staff were able to use the data. There were also other issues with temporary solutions being used that were not licensed correctly, with staff relying on personal file sharing licenses being incorrectly used by the business, often with people sharing logon information which put the business at risk of a security breach.

Experts are saying it is not a matter of “If”, but a matter of “when” the next wave will hit which will mean further lockdowns at a local level, so then what? Will your business revert to implementing bodged solutions at the last minute that could cost you lost business, security breaches, reputational damage and frustrated staff or is now the time to look at implementing robust, flexible, secure solutions to provide your business with ability to weather any future storms, and that provide your business with the flexibility and scalability to meet any situation.

At The Infrastructure Business we help businesses by moving to the cloud, by placing data in secure repositories that are accessible by your team but no one else by using Microsoft Office 365, and by deploying scalable, flexible telephony using Call2Teams and extending your telephone system into the cloud.

Do you want to let your competitors steal all your business because they have rolled out better ways of working or is it time for your business to embrace the new normal and get ahead of the rest by having totally flexible working, no matter what the world throws at you?

Don't waste manpower building corporate computers, automate it

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

One of the biggest issues with corporate system builds is getting consistency, especially for smaller organisations. It is often deemed unviable to automate system builds but it is far more cost effective than you may think. If you are a Microsoft house, using Windows 10 and Office 365 it makes sense from a security and automation perspective to subscribe to Microsoft 365 and realise the full benefits of all of the features. This allows the automation of a lot of functions and processes. In this post we will be focussing on Intune and Autopilot, the mechanism to automatically build corporate desktops / laptops, install software, configure security and encryption and even go so far as to change the look and feel of the layout and branding.

The benefit of this approach is consistency in the build and a significant reduction in downtime and support issues. A computer suffering from issues can be reset, rebuilt and refreshed in minutes fixing any issues it may have had by refreshing all of the OS settings, especially with hardware drivers that may have been causing issues. The user can initiate a remote reset if the issue is preventing them from connecting to the network and the rebuild, unless it is a hardware fault which is rare, configures the computer again so it can connect.

If the configuration is setup correctly, the user will have their machine rebuilt and all their applications and data restored, again in a matter of minutes (subject to their internet connection speed) which restores it back to the corporate image. The other nice feature is that if there is a hardware issue, a new laptop can be shipped to the user, they can power it on, walk through the initial Out of Box start up, get it connected to a network at which point it will identify it is an Autopilot machine and build itself using the configuration setup for the business.

If you would like more information or help with implementing Autopilot and Intune use the contact page to get in touch and we will be happy to have a chat.

Windows 11 is coming soon....

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

It came as a bit of a shock when Microsoft announced that Windows 10 was going to be their last version of Windows. Previously Microsoft software, including operating systems, followed a development cycle of 5 years of support which would include feature updates, patches and fixes then 5 years of extended support before going out of support. Instead Microsoft was going to provide businesses and consumers with an operating system that would instead be developed and patched ad infinitum.

Which is why it might come as a bit of a shock to some that Microsoft will be launching Windows 11 with a release pencilled in towards the end of 2021 and if you are brave and willing to participate in the trial, developer versions available right now.

Windows 11 is built on Windows 10 code, it is reportedly 90% Windows 10 code with approx. 10% new development, which doesn't sound much but when you consider Gorillas share 96% of the same DNA with Humans you can see what a difference a small percentage of change can make.

So.... what is different?

The first thing that will strike people is the change of the home screen with the start button and pinned applications being centred on the Taskbar which gives it a whiff of MacOS and the Dock, however the clock and Taskbar corner icons and overflow still appear on the right of the Taskbar in its out of the box configuration.

The next thing is that the settings have been simplified to the extent where more advanced features are somewhat hidden, which from an admin point of view means learning a new way to support end users. In Windows 10 users and administrators were very much encouraged to use Settings to make changes to the OS both basic and advanced but a lot of the advanced settings have been removed so you may find yourself going round in circles looking for advanced ways to configure the OS. But don't worry, Control Panel is still very much alive and kicking so advanced settings can still be made there.

In another nod towards MacOS is the way that different virtual desktops can be configured and used including having different wallpapers for each virtual desktop, for example you could have a virtual desktop setup for work, one of the kids to do school work and one for hobbies such as content creation.

But it is not just Apple that gets a look in, so does Google, with Windows 11 supporting applications written for Android without the need to use an emulation like Bluestack. Instead applications can run natively so that it will provide Android users with a more joined up experience like MacOS users experience with iOS devices and the seamless integration in a bid to make life easier for the end user.

Whilst I could write reams about the other features, such as Widgets, integrated Teams, snap layouts and re-docking you can't but help think that Windows 11 is heavily influenced by how Apple has developed MacOS which does feel a little odd, as if things are converging into a world where the operating system is becoming less and less relevant in order to give users a common experience regardless of which vendor is used.