Neandertech Internet Info

Posts Tagged ‘small business’

Fax/Copier/Scanner/Color Printing all a must. This is for a small business.

I registered a domain name with Yahoo small business, but unable open it in china, my firend who in Malaysia can op it.is its ip blocked by china authority?

My name is Seedy Chitsiwah, I am from Zimbabwe, and I am sure its now the most popular country in Africa due to media publicity. I am someone living with a disability, and use a wheelchair. I am 35, and not employed. I did a computer course way back in 1995, and since then I have been getting it tough to get employment. Now I am not sure if there could be anyone who may want to assist me get a computer, a P4 with a scanner, CD-writer, Video capture card and a printer so that I can start a typing services, video editing, and web designing small business, which requires minimum movement, since travelling is the most difficult thing especially if you are on wheelchair. All transport system is not designed to cater for people with on wheelchairs, hence even though prospects for a job maybe there, transport will always be a stumbling block, I am therefore pleading someone out there who can assist me, get this computer or better still can give me advice as to how I can be helped help myself.

Nearly every visitor, salesman, consultant, or purchasing agent who visits my small business asks for internet access for their laptop. Is there a way to give them access to my T-1 connection without compromising the security of my LAN? I am currently using a Linksys BEFVP41 router.

I work for a small business that has approximately 15 separate computers, all connected to the internet. Our business has a single e-mail account, which is shared among all of the computers for both receiving and sending messages.

Currently, we use our ISP’s web mail client to use the mail on these computers. Unfortunately, this poses a problem. Let’s say that Computer A is currently checking the mail when Computer B, in a different office down the hall, decides to also check the mail. When this happens, Computer A is disconnected from the mail server, a normal security function of the web mail client which, unfortunately, cannot be disabled.

A recent change in our business operation now requires that more than one computer at a time be allowed to use the mail account. This means that the ISP’s web mail client is no longer a workable option, since it only allows one computer at a time to connect. So, we are looking for an alternative.

At first we thought about setting up an e-mail client on every computer and configuring them to not delete the messages from the ISP’s mail server, but this would raise two new problems:

1. Once a message has been downloaded on one computer, it will not be downloaded again by any other computers after that, even though it is still on the server (After being downloaded a message is marked as read, which means any further download attempts will ignore it). For example, if there’s a new message intended for Computer A, but Computer B checks the mail first, then Computer A will never receive the message.

2. If configured to leave the messages on the ISP’s mail server, then eventually the mailbox will fill up, and no new incoming messages will be allowed at all. This would take only a matter of hours, as we receive many dozen messages a day with large attachments (5MB+), and our ISP has our mailbox capped at 100MB.

So, I am seeking a more efficient way to share this single e-mail account with all 15 computers, with emphasis that more than one computer should be allowed to use the mail simultaneously and have access to ALL messages, new and old, at the same time. What I have in mind is the following:

Designate one of the computers on the network as the “master”. This computer will, on a regular basis (Once per hour or so), download the mail and save it on its hard drive. Then, whenever any other computers on the network want to check the mail, they will then connect to the master through its own web mail client, and retrieve the messages from it instead of connecting to the ISP’s mail server. Likewise, any messages being sent will go through the master, which will then direct them to our ISP’s outgoing SMTP server.

How would I go about setting something like this up? As mentioned before, the ability for two or more computers to be checking the mail simultaneously is a requirement, as is the ability for all computers to access ALL messages, including old messages. We most desire a free option/setup, but if it will cost money, let’s try to keep it under $100. Linux is not an option, this must be able to run on one of our currently-existing computers, which are all running XP.

Perhaps an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that adds a web mail interface to it? (Thus using Thunderbird to download and store the messages, with the extension allowing other computers on the network to remotely read those messages and send messages).

I appreciate any input on this.