IB: InfoBulletin

February 2000

This is the Co-Operative Systems InfoBulletin.

It contains Information Technology tips that we come across during everyday research and support activities and which may be useful in improving your IT operations, either internally or on the Internet.

It contains Information Technology tips that we come across during everyday research and support activities and which may be useful in improving your IT operations, either internally or on the Internet.

C O N T E N T S

  1. Webmail - second wave
  2. Sending faxes over email
  3. BT ISDN Options - which is best ?
  4. Law Online in England & Wales
  5. How many people are online ?
  6. Changing your modem dialling codes
  7. How to restart your MS Exchange mail server
  8. Feedback forms from installation jobs

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Reply to this address or to : team@coopsys.co.uk

Sales: 020 7793 0395
Fax: 020 7735 6472
E&OE

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1. Webmail - second wave

What is it ?
Webmail is email you can use from a Web browser - think of it like a mobile phone, but without the hardware.
The second wave of Webmail clients now have features like auto-forwarding, auto-reply, offline mail reading and POP accounts pick up. Some have additional functions like a calendar/diary and organiser functions (magicaldesk.com and mail.com), some allow you to switch identities (http://mail.uk2.net) while others are free of banner advertising and work with any browser (http://www.myrealbox.com) - handy if you use all sorts of machines.

Benefits
Webmail accounts are usually free and your messages reside 'on the Internet', so you can send and receive mail from any machine that has Web access, eg at home, work, conference centre, cybercafe.

  • Auto-forwarding allows you to have incoming mail sent to one (or sometimes several) accounts, be they static or other Webmail ones. So you could set up a Webmail address for use when travelling, but which also forwards its mail to your office, so you have a copy of dialogues all in one place.
  • Auto-reply allows you to set up a standard (holiday) text message which responds to all incoming mail, eg "I am away for a week".
  • Offline mail reading cuts your phone bills by allowing you to download your Webmail, say, at home and read it with any email application, eg Netscape Messenger, MS Outlook, Pegasus, Eudora.
  • POP account accessibility allows you to pick up mail from your other mailboxes. This usually means those which come with an account from an Internet Service Provider, not from other Webmail accounts. So, for instance, you don't need to be at your home PC to get your own email.
  • Ad-free sites make it much quicker to get access to your mail.

    Cost
    Free, aside from normal Internet access costs.

    How to make it happen
    Register at the Web sites below.
    The chances of getting the email address you want are very good if you try for , eg @uk2.net. Contact Co-Operative Systems (above) if you would like advice on choosing the most appropriate Webmail or setting one up.

    Web
    http://www.mail.com
    http://www.myrealbox.com
    http://mail.uk2.net
    http://www.magicaldesk.com

    For a comprehensive A-Z listing of free email services : http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_web.htm

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    2. Sending faxes over email

    What it does
    The Phone Company's Remote Printing Service is a free service that converts e-mails you send into a form that can be sent globally straight to anyone's fax number. This is useful if the person or organisation doesn't have e-mail or their mail server is down.

    How to make it happen
    To send a fax-via-email In the To: field of your new email message, you need to write a long string of the form:

    remote-printer.<name1>_<name2>/<org>@<intlfaxno>.iddd.tpc.int

    Now fill in the Subject and Message parts of your e-mail and send it. That's it!

    eg, to send a fax to John Smith at Co-Op. Systems fax number (020 7735 6472), type :

    remote-printer.John_Smith/CoopSys@44207356472.iddd.tpc.int

    So you replace the following items and type the rest:

    <name1> = Person's first name
    <name2> = Person's second name
    <org> = Organisation or company
    <intlfaxno> = Full international fax number,
    eg Central London = 44207.....
    NB. There should be no spaces or angle brackets when you have finished typing and the separators, hyphen (-), dot (.), underscore (_), slash (/) and ampersand (@) should be in their correct places. The <name1>, <name2> and <org> parts just come out on the fax 'as is'. They don't need to be accurate, so you can also use things like <Support>_<Dept>.

    Benefits

  • Service is free
  • Cheaper phone calls than fax. Data is sent as text (therefore smaller than fax format) and gets batched in your e-mail queue
  • Has all the advantages of email, eg copy to self, recall previous addresses (fax numbers) from your address book
  • Hassle-free from your desktop as it uses your e-mail system
  • You always get a "confirmation of delivery" e-mail
  • Available to any sender who has e-mail, even Webmail

    Disadvantages

  • You can't send more than 15 faxes per hour, so no mass mailings
  • The received fax always comes out in simple, one-size-fits-all Courier text
  • You can't send images

    Web
    The Phone Company's home page:
    http://www.tpc.int/tpc_home.html

    You can also send a fax from any Web browser, eg when you are out of the office, from any cybercafe, by going to this Web page: http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html

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    3. BT ISDN Options - which is best ?

    What is ISDN ?
    Integrated Services Digital Network is a dial-up connection which you plug into very like a normal phone line. The line speed is 64Kbps to 128Kbps (Kilo bits per second). Compare this with the fastest modems which run at 33.6Kbps or 56Kbps.

    Benefits
    You can talk on a phone as well as sending and receiving (modem) data at the same time by using separate channels within the line. Browsing the World Wide Web is very much faster than using a modem. This is partly due to the speed of the line (see above), but also because an ISDN card connects (dials) in 5 to 10 seconds, instead of 30 to 40 seconds for a typical modem.

    Choosing a service

  • Choose "ISDNxx" if you have more than 2 phone lines and already have access to the Internet (an account with a service provider).
  • Choose "Business Highway" if you have up to 2 phone lines and use the Internet regularly in a small organisation. As a larger organisation, you may also choose this option if you want to continue to use certain analogue devices, eg fax machine or telephone, through the same line.

    ISDN comes in ISDN2e and ISDN30 flavours, giving 2 channels and 30 channels respectively.
    If you choose one of these services, ensure you still have a conventional phone line out of the building for emergencies since this gets its power down the same line from BT, unlike ISDN which often gets its power from your building mains supply.

    Costs
    Here are some examples of BT ISDN "Spread Connection" services. They allow you pay over 4 quarters.

    "Start Up" = £199 connection, Initial payment £17 + 4 x £49.75
    "Call Plan" = £99 connection, Initial payment £8.50 + 4 x £24.75
    Lower cost conversions from standard lines also available.

    Contacts
    Freephone 0800 338800
    http://www.bt.com/my_solutions

    Next Step
    The step up is usually a move to a leased line. This gives you a permanent connection from your office directly to the Internet. It is not shared with other subscribers to the Internet Service Provider and there are no restrictions on the time you can spend online. Costs for 128Kbps, 256Kbps and 2Mbps lines are typically £3000 per year upwards; this is a flat fee with no call charges. Your organisation would only generally take this next step when their Internet online time rises above 4 hours per day. Such a permanent line obviously has greater security implications, since it also makes it easier for people outside to have access to your organisation's internal network !

    Back to contents

    4. Law Online in England & Wales

    What is it ?

    • DesktopLawyer:
      Browse documents and letters by category or search by keywords. DesktopLawyer has a 3-step process for making their general legal documents into one that is specific to you, using their 'Rapidocs' downloadable assembler.
    • LawRights :
      Has a document centre to purchase legal documents and a good set of Q&A and fact sheets covering things like accident claims, consumers, employment and some case examples. The LawRights Business Centre includes items on the Working Time Directive, National Minimum Wage and Health & Safety At Work.

    Cost
    Some LawRights documents are for purchase only, but a lot of information is free. Most DesktopLawyer documents cost between £10 and £40.

    Web
    http://www.desktoplawyer.com
    http://www.lawrights.com

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    5. How many people are online ?

    Answer
    Well, nobody really knows, but Nua.com, collector and publisher of Internet surveys, has come up with an ‘educated guess’ of 275.5 million worldwide as of February 2000.

    Nua Internet Surveys claims to be the authoritative source online for information on Internet demographics and trends. Their site slices the figures many ways - by areas, by socialogical sectors, by demographics, etc.

    Web
    http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html

    Back to contents

    6. Changing your modem dialling codes

    Who is affected
    BT area codes are changing in 6 areas - Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth, Southampton - on 22 April 2000. You may need to change any modem diallers you have set up to connect to these areas. Since the changeover is phased, you can change the numbers that your modems dial now - but you must make changes by October 2000 at the latest.

    Details
    If you live in one of the six places where local numbers are changing, you must use the existing local number when dialling locally from now until the changeover day on 22 April 2000. From 22 April 2000, only the new eight-figure local number will work.

    An example for central London :
    Area Code: Changes from (0171) to (020)
    Local Number: Add 7 to the front of the existing seven-figure local number to create the new eight-figure local number.

    What you can dial and when :
    Present national number (0171) XXX XXXX Until 14 Oct. 2000
    New national number (020) 7XXX XXXX Now
    Present local number XXX XXXX Until 22 April 2000
    New local number 7XXX XXXX Starts from 22 April 2000

    Numbers prefixed with 08, like the 0845 local call rate numbers used by many Internet Service Providers, will continue as they are.

    How to make it happen
    To change your modem diallers you need to find Dial-Up Networking (DUN) icons.

    In Windows95 click :
    Start | Programs | Accessories | DUN
    In Windows98 click :
    Start | Programs | Accessories | Communications | DUN
    Right-click each connection icon and select Properties.
    Now enter the correct area code and telephone number if necessary.

    If you need to dial '9' for your modem to get an outside line, you can find this in :
    Start | Settings | Control Panel | Modems | Dialling Properties button

    Contact
    http://www.numberchange.bt.com/ http://www.numberchange.org
    Freefone 0800 731 0202

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    7. How to restart your MS Exchange mail server

    What it does
    This procedure re-starts your Microsoft Exchange mail services on an NT server. If your NT email system has inexplicably stopped sending and receiving mails, this will cure most of the problems associated with it. There is no need to shut down the server or for users to log out.

    How to make it happen
    Go to your NT Server console and click :

    • Start | Settings | Control Panel
    • Double-click the Services icon
    Then, for both of "MS Exchange Internet Mail" and "MS Exchange Transfer Agent" services, do the following :
    • highlight the service, click Stop (wait until it stops)
    • highlight the service, click Start (wait until it starts)
    That's it.

    You can start using MS Exchange email applications (Outlook and Outlook Express) to send and receive mail again.

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    8. Feedback forms from installation jobs

    Many thanks for those of you who have ever returned a feedback form for a completed installation job. The information is extremely useful for us in terms of monitoring the quality of service being delivered, and I'm pleased to say that in general the vast majority of feedback is very positive. In March 2000 we will extend this scheme to monitoring support jobs on a random basis.

    Finally it is true - EVERY feedback form gets a £10 high street voucher as a 'thank you'. So don't delay, feedback, today.

    Philip Anthony

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