IB: InfoBulletin

1. Rebuilding your organisation - what happens if you lose it all?
2. More on data protection - HRA, RIP, DPA
3. New Internet access deals
4. Insurance - are you covered for IT equipment usage outside the office ?
5. 2001 - A good year to buy PCs
6. How to make your Web site searchable - Search-it
7. What's up your street ?

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E&OE

1. Rebuilding your organisation - what happens if you loose it all?

Who took my office ?
We learned of a pre-Christmas horror story where burglars cleaned out a whole office - all the network, workstations, fax machines, filing cabinets, furniture.
So ... how do you restart from scratch?

Follow your disaster recovery plan
If you have put all these measures in place, your organisation could be up and running in a couple of days:

1. your insurance cover gets you some new hardware
2. your IT support contract restores your networking system
3. your organisation's crucial data is stored safely on your backup tapes - either in a firesafe, off site or in the bank. If you have it covered in the contract, your IT support provider can restore this data.

If you didn't have a disaster recovery plan ....
There are 'workarounds' you can employ to get a virtual office going quickly, but they are strictly temporary and you'll need to be rebuilding something permanent at the same time:

• hire a fax machine,
• use a cybercafe for Internet access - look them up in a phone book. (many people run virtual businesses from them).
• hire or buy a single PC and a printer to get some basic office word processing tools and Internet access

Lessons to be learned (and implemented!)

1. Check up on your office and/or building security (locking up policies, security services).
2. You should have insurance for the hardware (indeed most office equipment).
3. Your existing network should include a solid backup system with the data stored temporarily in a secure place and regular (weekly) checks of the logs to make sure the backups really are happening.
4. You should have an IT support contract to restore your system.
5. There are alternatives if one of these measures goes wrong, but they won't necessarily put you back in business.
6. If you don't have a recovery plan, go back and look at your Year 2000 strategy. That had a much broader scope, but it will give you some clues.

A quick guide to server recovery
Here's what to expect if IT support comes in to rebuild your server.

• assemble a boot disc (startup floppy) and drivers for CD drive, network interface card (NIC), SCSI devices (eg hard discs) and tape devices
• use these to build a basic high-performance computer
• install the network operating system (NOS) to produce a 'vanilla' fileserver with access to a backup device (usually tape)
• restore data (usually from tape) over the top of your vanilla installation

Contacts
Veritas have good layouts for disaster recovery in the appendix of their documents for BackupExec.

The NetWare version list has a 5.6MB PDF file (for version 7.5).
The Windows NT version list has a 6.7MB PDF file (for version 7.0).

2. More on data protection - HRA, RIP, DPA

In a recent conversation with several lawyers, (two with parliamentary backgrounds), it materialised that none of them knew about data protection, HRA or RIP! Thus the possibility of a test case arising - to determine whether an individual's data at work can be monitored or is private - was completely beyond their knowledge.

Furthermore, in respect of the Data Protection Act (DPA), their own houses were in such poor order (ie disorganised) that a demand from the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) for personal data would have them in disarray.

Could your organisation comply with a request from an individual to see their data or have it deleted? Have you reviewed your Data Protection registration to comply with the changes that came into force on 1 March 2000?

A test case between PI International Director Simon Davies and Web bookseller Amazon.co.uk is currently being fought out in a battle of words. Simon Davies' has requested access to his personal Amazon data and to have it deleted, but Amazon is so far failing to comply.
Privacy International (PI) has asked the UK Data Protection Commissioner to investigate Amazon.co.uk about Amazon's transfer of personal information and non-compliance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
You can see the on-going correspondence at :
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/compliance/

Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations.
http://www.privacyinternational.org/

3. New Internet access deals - Pay-as-you-go, Anytime, blueyonder

What is it ?
Despite Oftel, the UK's telecommunications regulator, confirming that BT tariffs are now up to 5 percent cheaper than major cable companies on phone bills, new and soon-to-be-launched Internet access deals are tumbling out of hyperspace and the cable companies are looking very competitive in the broadband (always-on) sector.

• BTinternet pay-as-you-go
  One of the best Internet access deal around for modems. No ISP charges and very simple to sign up for.
  "No subscription, no credit cards, just Internet access. Charged at 1p/minute from 6pm to 8am weekdays and all weekend and only 2p at other times"
  http://www.btinternet.com/

• BTinternet Anytime
  BTinternet are about to launch their Anytime service in January - "a new internet payment option that gives you unmetered access to the internet at any time for a fixed monthly fee." The flat rate is £14.99 a month with no Internet call charges. The break-even point for this is 12.5 hours/month if you are currently paying 2p/min.
  Initially BTinternet Anytime access will be provided via an 0800 Freefone number, which is available to all customers. In April 2001 BTinternet Anytime will be converted to a new number range provided by BT and based on their Flat Rate Internet Call Origin (FRIACO) scheme, for which customers will need to use a BT line.
  If you have ISDN, you will be able to connect on ISDN2 at 64kbps, but if you want to connect at 128kbps you will have to use the BTinternet local call rate dialler (available for download from the BTinternet home page) and pay two local call charges.

• Freeserve Anytime
  Freeserve AnyTime provides free Internet calls at any time of the day or night for a fixed charge of only £12.99 per month. Using the Energis network, Freeserve claims their "AnyTime" to be the cheapest FRIACO-based service on the market, being based on a new IP network with improved capacity and instant online service activation.
  You need to be a Freeserve member and a BT cutsomer and the service will be rolled out from January 2001 with 100% coverage by end of April.
  If you have a Mac computer or a PC using Netscape as browser then AnyTime won't be available to you at the moment - only PCs with Internet Explorer vn 4 or upwards can connect. Freeserve will limit continuous connection to a 2 hour cut-off time on each call - apparently to "allow all members to access the service". The break-even point for this is 10.8 hours/month if you are currently paying 2p/min.
  http://www.freeserve.com/time/anytime.htm

• Telewest "blueyonder" via cable
  Distributed via the NTL/TeleWest/CableLondon combination, blueyonder is a faster cheaper option than BT's current ADSL offering.
  For £33 per month you get 512Kbps down the line (downloading) and 128Kbps uploading. However, Telewest say the service is being "scaled so that even during times of peak demand a minimum download speed of 256Kpbs should be maintained for individual customers". (Compare this BT's ADSL 512Kpbs service which shares out 'your' connection with 50 other customers, potentially only giving you 10.2Kbps download!)
  Telewest supply a cable modem as part of the rental and for approximately £45-£75 will install the required Network Interface Card (NIC) if you haven't got one in your PC, though this isn't part of the £50 Telewest installation charge.
  Your street needs to have had Telewest's Broadband fibre-optic cable network laid in it. From the coloured plastic hose outside, it's a simple job to bring the cable into the building.
  Once connected, you are issued a dynamic IP address (changes each time you connect, better for security), though static addresses may be allowed in future.
  For email, you have to use blueyonder as your Internet Service Provider (ISP), which means you will get domain names of the form "xxx@yourname.blueyonder.co.uk" for the present, but Telewest are rumoured to be considering transfer of existing domains eventually. SMTP will be used for sending email and both POP3 and IMAP4 will be available for downloading email. There will also be a Web-based email interface to enable blueyonder customers to access email using any Internet connection.
  The break-even point for this is 27.5 hours/month if you are currently paying 2p/min.
  http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/

4. Insurance - are you covered for IT equipment usage outside the office ?

The recent loss of one of our laptops following a break in at a staff member's home - and the knowledge that the loss was not covered by the person's home insurance or the office insurance cover revealed how careful you need to be.
With increasing numbers of us using IT equipment that is 'owned' by the office, but located outside the office, it is important to make sure there is adequate cover for loss or damage. The easiest solution is to make sure that the office policy covers at home or out of office use. The snag here is that extending policies to cover non-office usage can increase premiums significantly.

You make actually decide that it's cheaper to 'self insure' by not taking additional cover, which is what we did. So a boring, if worthy, new year resolution is to look at the policies and cover provided and make appropriate arrangements.

Philip Anthony

5. 2001 - A good year to buy PCs

What is it ?
Computer industry analysts are saying that the first half of 2001 should be a good time to buy.

Why now - what's the background ?
Sales of many PCs leading up to 'Year2000' were way beyond normal; many companies took the opportunity to upgrade their PCs ahead of time, even where it wasn't strictly necessary. This pushed production into overdrive and sales slowed towards the end of 2000. Now stocks are high, so prices will likely drop, but not for long; analyst IDC predicts the PC market will grow by 19.8% in the last quarter of this year - only 0.5% less than previous estimates.
Coupled to this, chip manufacturers developed a lot of new technologies in 2000 which are now 'waiting in the wings'. Real competition means AMD is making inroads into Intel's market where Intel are introducing new 'faster' chips that don't actually show much more performance when tested; for example, the 850MHz Pentium III is not much slower than the new 1.4GHz Pentium 4, but a good deal cheaper. Lower costs and increased efficiency in the supply chain of manufacturers continue to improve the performance value you get for your money. By December 2000, SDRAM memory prices had fallen to a third of those in July (for 64MB versions).

Other trends making the IT market sluggish
The US consumer market fell 15% in November 2000. This partly follows the cooling US economy, but also results from Americans buying gadgets instead of PCs, since their home PC market is saturated.
At the non-Wintel end, Mac users are playing wait-and-see with the new operating system 10 (OSX) before launching into new hardware.
In corporates, the trend is no longer to buy new PCs every 3 to 4 years, but to concentrate spending on network equipment instead (switches, hubs, routers, cabling).

Will the PC be replaced by other client hardware ?
We are truly moving to the 'PC as a commodity item' since more of our computing (even in some homes) is done on a network. More applications and services can now be delivered over the wire and in such a manner that they can be accessed by the growing number of client devices (desktops, laptops, palmtops, organisers, phones). However, 'non-PC Internet appliances' (Web TV, phones that send email and similar devices) comprise only 2% of the market, despite its potential.
The PC is still successful (in business and at home) because it evolves at a rate fast enough to provide cheap(er) performance and to adapt to the Internet (viz. changing multimedia plug-in requirements) and new applications. Enterprise and specialised software (database, finance, email, workflow) are tending to move to the LAN server, but office applications (which can also operate stand-alone) are staying on the PC.
In the workplace, "Diversity Dominates" will be the synopsis for client machine types. This continues the trend of making the IT manager's job harder, while making life much easier for end users.

[ Sources: IDC, Economist]

Contacts
Find out our latest PC prices on 020 7793 0395.

6. How to make your Web site searchable - Search-it

What is it ?
Search-it is a free, remote-hosted search engine. It enables you to put a search engine on your own Web site, but without downloading or installing any software and with no indexing maintenance for your Web editor. Visitors to your site can then search for all or any of the words they type in by clicking the Search button - just like any other search engine.
The only work you have to do is tell NetMind's Search-it which Web address you want searched and then add a short piece of HTML code (that they send you) into your relevant Web page.

Benefits

• It provides your Web visitors with a quick and easy way to find what they want on your site
• Search results appear with the information in order of relevance
• You can bring visitors back to your site when their search results change, because Search-it integrates seamlessly with its sister page-tracking service, "Mind-it"
• The registration is really simple and fast

Drawbacks

• The site or URL you register can only be a directory or domain, not individual pages, ie pages ending in ".htm" or ".html".
• Search-it is limited to Web site sizes of 500 pages or less

How to make it happen
Simply register your name and email address and type in the Web site address (URL) that you want to be searched. Search-it then begins indexing your site when you press the "Sign-up now" button and takes a few hours.
Meanwhile, NetMind emails you a short piece of HTML text - specific to your registration - that you can be copying and pasting into the Web page on which you want the Search-it box and button to appear. This doesn't necessarily have to be the top level of your site, but it's sensible to make the search box easy for visitors to find. This edited page needs is what you re-publish or upload, say, via FTP if your site is hosted remotely at your ISP.
By the time you have done this, you may well have already received another mail notification from NetMind telling you your site has been indexed and that you - and your visitors - are ready to go!

You can only register sites for which you have publishing rights - quite simply because you need to add the code to one of your Web pages. After all, it's a service you're providing for your own site, not elsewhere.

Contacts
Learn more about Search-it - an overview for Webmasters: http://www.netmind.com/html/wmsearchit.html

Go straight to the registration page: http://searchit.netmind.com/

You can see our own example which searches the Co-Operative Systems Web site here.

7. What's up your street?

What is it ?
UpMyStreet claims to be 'The real-life guide to your neighbourhood' online.
Type in your post code (or some other post code if you want to go up someone else's street) in order to track down local services, stores, examine property prices, nearby schools, the council's record and search classified ads - all based on geographical distance.
For organisations - as opposed to individuals - the "Find My Nearest..." section is the most useful. Click a category and type in a post code to see the nearest results first. Categories include:

• Advice: consumer organisations ...
• Charities ...
• Clubs and associations ...
• Eating & drinking: pubs, bars, restaurants
• Education: Adult education centres ...
• Environment: Conservation organisations ...
• Health ...
• Hotels & guest houses ...
• Late night & 24 hour: Hospitals ...
• Money and legal ...
• Transport: Car parking and garaging ...

Benefits
All the search results are ranked by distance (down to a few hundred yards) and give you a link to a map (care of MultiMap.com) so you can actually find your desired location.
Data accuracy is quite good and the category features are useful, for instance you can split down a search for restaurants in London SW8 further into nationality of cuisine.

Drawbacks
Quite a few links are to national advertisers (iXM - Exchange and Mart, AdTrader), so a search for, say, local jobs only links you to the next best nearest ones (rated by distance) which are hardly local at all and certainly not 'up your street'.

Contacts
http://www.upmystreet.com