Obsessive Technology Disorder

Overview

This instructional has been created to provide step by step for replacing Godaddy.com’s email services with Google Apps. The purpose of replacing Godaddy.com’s email services with Google Apps is to provide calendaring, branded email service from your domain (yourname@yourcompany.com), and intranet service for your small businesses.

This document is summarized into a four step process.

1. Register domain with GoDaddy.com

2. Subscribe to Google Apps for Business

3. Configure Google Apps for Business email services for GoDaddy.com domain

4. Wait for 24 hour period for Google Apps for Business to begin working with domain.

Google Apps

Google Apps provides enterprise level IT services without the complexity associated with enterprise level IT services. Considerations for selecting Google Apps (ref: http://bit.ly/pc9v8y) include:

1. Google Apps runs in the cloud using nothing but the web, so there’s no hardware upgrades, software patches or maintenance required. In addition, a dedicated team of Google engineers is available whose sole goal is to help you get your data in and out of Google products for free.

2. Because you access all your information in a browser, users are always running the most up to date version of Google Apps. In addition to constant improvements, the Google Apps Marketplace offers apps built by third-party developers that integrate with Google Apps.

3. Google operates a network of distributed data centers in the world, and the protection of the data and intellectual property is a top priority. The controls, processes and policies that protect data in Google data centers have successfully completed a SAS 70 Type II audit and Google Apps is the first cloud-based messaging and collaboration suite to achieve FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) certification.

4. When using Google Docs, co-workers around the world can work together on the same online copy of each document, spreadsheet or presentation. Sharing securely with users inside and outside of the organization is easy.

5. When your business uses Google Apps, users can access their email, manage their calendar and work with documents from any web-enabled mobile device. Google Apps also offers device management capabilities that allow you to remotely wipe data, set password requirements and more for devices such as Android™, RIM ® Blackberry, Apple iPhone and Windows Mobile.

6. Not only does Google Apps make it easy to send and receive email from your mobile device, but Google Docs supports viewing and multi-user editing when you’re on the go.

7. Licensing Google Apps for your business is simple. There’s one price that covers all your employees’ communication and collaboration needs, and it’s easy to add more users as your business grows. Because Google builds the infrastructure and maintains the servers, you don’t have to worry about unexpected expenses in the future.

8. Google Apps brings you proven savings by eliminating many traditional IT costs, including server hardware, maintenance, patching and upgrades.

There are three options of Google Apps: Google Apps (Free), Google Apps for Business, and Google Apps for Education (ref: http://bit.ly/g64xAa). For the purposes of a small business owner, Google Apps for Business (ref: http://bit.ly/drQ6) has been selected.

Apps for Business provides business features such as 25G of storage for email and 10G of document storage; Blackberry, Android, iPhone and Outlook interoperability; and IT support (24×7) with a 99.9% uptime Service Level Guarantee.

Pricing for Google Apps for Business is $50 per year (ref: http://bit.ly/2Pb6cL).

Registering domain with GoDaddy.com (Step 1)

This document assumes your company domain (yourcompany.com) has previously been completed, inclusive of logon credentials (username and password) to administer changes to the website.

Google Apps for Business Subscription (Step 2)

1. To subscribe to Google Apps for Business, follow this link http://bit.ly/t4DChz.

2. Enter domain name – (http://www.yourcompany.com) where yourcompany is the domain purchased through GoDaddy.com.

3. Click “Submit”.

4. Create administrative account credentials (Login and password)

     a. This will be your new business email address (This email will be used for business cards)

          i. Suggested naming conventions

             1. first initial.lastname@yourcompany.com

             2. firstname.lastname@yourcompany.com

5. Enter Organization information

6. Read terms and conditions.

7. Click “I accept! Create my account>>”

 

Configure yourcompany.com with Google Apps (Step 3)

A mail exchange (MX) record identifies a server that handles email messages for your domain. A domain has one or more MX records listed in priority order. GoDaddy.com’s default priority MX record is set to a GoDaddy.com mail server. When someone sends an email message to your domain, the sender’s mail server delivers it to the first available server in the priority list. You create new MX records, or change their priority, to Google Apps for Business in order to change email processing from GoDaddy.com to Google Apps (ref: http://bit.ly/rDBDIt).

You create MX records using the administration tools available from GoDaddy.com. This is an automated tool which replaces the manual process to change MX records.

8. To change email processing from GoDaddy.com’s email servers to Google Apps service, clink this link http://bit.ly/E8x8S.

9. Enter customer number or login and with password

a. These credentials will have been provided when your company domain (yourcompay.com) was first established.

10. Follow remaining instructions after logon to Godaddy.com

Waiting period (Step 4)

11. Your new MX records now point to Google. Keep in mind that changes to your DNS settings can take up to 24 hours to propagate through the Internet, but depending on your host, this can happen faster.

Setting up Email with email client and smartphone

Instructions for setting up your company (yourname@yourcompany.com) email with Microsoft Outlook and mobile phones can be found at this link, http://bit.ly/uK450Z.

12. Decide which mail client and version will be used with Google Apps and click corresponding link.

13. Follow step by step instructions.

14. Decide which mobile device will be used with Google Apps and click the corresponding link.

Google Apps Sync and Microsoft Outlook

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook® allows you to use Microsoft Outlook® 2003, 2007 and 2010 effectively with Google Apps. You get the cost savings, security and reliability of Google Apps, while employees can use the interface they prefer for email, contacts, calendar and notes.

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook® is a plug-in for Outlook 2003, 2007, or 2010 that lets you use Outlook to manage your Google Apps mail, calendar, and contacts—along with your Outlook notes, tasks, and journal entries. Google Apps Sync seamlessly syncs mail, calendar events, contacts, and notes between your Google profile in Outlook and your Google Apps account in the cloud, so you can access the same information at any time from either interface (ref: http://bit.ly/xeNFcW).

Note: When you install Google Apps Sync, you also have the option to migrate your mail, calendar, contacts, and other data from your old Outlook profile. However, if all you want to do is migrate data (that is, you don’t plan to keep working in Outlook afterwards), use Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Outlook®, instead.

15. Click link here http://bit.ly/dhAvT to download Google Apps Sync.

16. Click “Download Google Apps Sync”

17. Google Apps Sync with self install

18. Enter email credentials into login page.

19. Click Continue. Google Apps Sync and Outlook will now integrate each time Outlook is used.

Conclusion

By the conclusion of this document Google Apps for Business should now be subscribed to, enabling branded email, calendaring and document storage. Additionally, Google Apps for Business should now be the default primary email service for your company domain hosted at GoDaddy.com. This should now enable yourname@yourcompany.com email service as well as permitting calendaring events. Finally, an email client as well as a smartphone should also be configured to work with Google Apps for Business. Synchronization of calendar events, contacts, and email between Google Apps for Business and Microsoft Outlook should now be functional.

MIT Technology Review has a great article on how mobile network traffic has changed from the days of modeling just for voice traffic. Data packages for our iPhones and Droids are becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. For this reason Verizon Wireless and AT&T wireless are relying on predictive traffic modelers to plan for network upgrades. These modelers in the past have been used to predict traffic 18 months into the future. Typically, though, the carriers use the modelers to set a baseline and then update that baseline every month.

What is making modeling for network upgrades more challenging is ad hoc events (not just baseball, football, basketball) such as movies. More and more smartphone users are emailing or posting their thoughts, pictures and sound bites to Facebook, WordPress, Twitter and other social networks during the movie or as the movie ends. The same thing happens after concerts, operas (if you can believe grandma blogs) and as was recently reported, Spiderman’s broadway debut. And of course our tech savvy politicians are also Facebook and Twitter in vain, and sometimes funny, attempt to be classified as hip and trendy.

The resolution is a mixed bag approach to things. First, a quantifiable understanding how each smartphone manufacturer designs their device to interact with the mobile network. Second, how mobile enabled apps interact with both the carrier network and the handset. Third and finally a balanced approach to hardware and software augments to address network related issues such as inefficient routing, congestion areas and carrier equipment failure.

All in all, the article is well written and does a great job explaining to the everyman why our smartphone drops calls, cannot text, or loses the data connection. In a world where mobile connectivity is a required commodity, this is definitely one area where a mobile carrier can differentiate itself as service focused from its nearest next competitor.  And one particular carrier could benefit from improved customer service.

An article posted here describes the potential use of 900Mhz whitespace for mobile networks. This is the same range used by your cordless phone, baby monitors, and other consumer based wireless devices.  The network, working in the 900Mhz band, uses a currently proprietary technique to dynamically allocate bandwidth. If the cellular network detects a baby monitor or wireless security camera signal, the network nodes (or phones) adjust their allocated band to avoid the other signal or signals. The difference in the xG Technologies implementation is the system analyzes channel resources over time and thus provides the “dynamic” ability to adjust and avoid contention in the whitespace.

Cognitive radio can be deployed as similarly as conventional cell phone networks.  For this reason, cognitive radio can be used for a variety of purposes. They can be deployed as adhoc networks for disaster recovery, on oil rigs, conferences, or remote locations where coverage is nonexistent. They can also be used as off-load networks, similar to how mobile carriers use WiFi and WiMax to support highly saturated 3G, 4G or LTE networks (New York, San Francisco). Or, they can be used as an “extension cord” network in areas, typically rural, where there is limited coverage.

The key component to this technology is using a resource, in this case the 900Mhz range, efficiently to deliver service. In a period where mobility use is expanding and will continue to expand, (DYK mobile phone carriers are spending up to 70% of their R&D budget and firm wide resources on mobility), the cognitive use of address space is becoming more relevant as a differentiator in the market place.

For reasons of need or desire, users are requiring to be consistently, quickly and constantly (CQC) connected to their information regardless of where they are. As the mobility market has demonstrated over time, should a user not be connected in a CQC fashion a service provider suffers from poor market perception, revolt, and ultimately declining revenue streams. And this is where Cognitive radio can flourish.