Manx Computer Bureau News and Info

Manx Telecom Planned Work

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 28 Jul 2010 08:44:02 GMT

Main Service: Broadband

Secondary Service: Access Network

Issue Summary: Other. Island-wide SDSL ISAM Upgrades

Start Date: 27/07/2 010 16:15:00

Expected Duration: up to 30 minutes per ISAM upgrade

Maintenance Window: From 03/08/2010 05:00:00 to 03/08/2010 08:00:00

As part of the SDSL OS program, it will be necessary to upgrade all SDSL ISAM nodes on the morning of Tuesday 3rd August from 05:00hrs to 08:00hrs. This work will effect various exchange areas of Douglas Central, Douglas North, Castletown, Ramsey, Marown, Laxey, & St. Johns, Snaefell & Creg-Ny-Baa. ISP customers connected to the affected SDSL ISAM nodes can expect up to 30 minutes service downtime within the 3hr maintenance window.

Manxnet DNS Maintenance

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 26 Jul 2010 12:14:01 GMT

Planned maintenance will be carried out on the Manxnet DNS infrastructure on Tuesday 3rd August between 00:00 and 06:00 BST.

No disruption to the DNS service is anticipated; however there is a small risk to all Manxnet DSL, hosting and corporate customers who use the Manxnet DNS servers.

ISAM Line Card Failure. Douglas North ISAM Line Card Reset

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 22 Jun 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Due to a number of customer faults logged against a Douglas North ISAM line card, the line card will be reset to resolve and prevent further occurences.

The line card is located in DGIN-ISAM-21:1-1-7, and will effect up to 42 customers, circuits include:

672557,673003,612040,628220,676008,614652,678318,622304,665708, 615596,620859,610677,660703,612295,626963,660700,662619,614533, 671981,618366,675572,662053,671385,625604,671171,614694,624404, 618322,615651,623578,674486,624580,670205,660570,617492,674957, 610995,615968,620799,626343,672636,611452.

Estimated down time 5 mins

Start time 0845 22/06/10

IMPORTANT MESSAGE - PLEASE READ - MALICIOUS SPAM EMAIL

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 16 Jun 2010 09:18:31 GMT

IMPORTANT MESSAGE
PLEASE READ
MALICIOUS SPAM EMAIL

If you get an email claiming to be from us, or from any source, requesting your details, DO NOT send your info unless you are 100% sure that you are sending to the correct and trusted source.

I have had several emails this morning asking is this (see below) email is from MCB.

IT IS NOT FROM MCB, mark it as spam and delete it.

"From: HELP DESK [mailto:helpdesk1@mcb.net] 
Sent: 15 June 2010 20:17
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: YOUR RESPONSE IS NEEDED

Dear Account User

CONFIRM YOUR MCB.NET EMAIL ACCOUNT. BY FILLING THE INFORMATION NEEDED BELOW.

This message is from the Database MCB.NET INFORMATION SERVICES DIVISION
Information Technology service messagingcenter,to all our email account
holders. All Mailhub systems will undergo regularly scheduled maintenance.
Further to the appearance of the Conficker virus on the account network at
the end of last week, Computer Services staff worked into the weekend
carrying out remedial action.
Most systems are operational but some services are slow due to the increased
anti-virus measures which have been put in place.

Access to your mailbox via our mailportal will be unavailable for some
period of time during this maintenanceperiod. We shall be carrying out
service maintenance on our INFORMATION SERVICES DIVISION database and e-
mail account center for better online services. We are deleting all unused
e-mail accounts to create more space for new accounts. In order to ensure
you do not experience service interruptions/possible deactivation you are
advice to reply to this email immediately confirming your Webmail Account
details below for confirmation/identification

1. First Name & Last Name:
2. Full Login Email Address:
3. Username & Password
4. Confirm your Current Password:

Failure to do this may automatically render your e-mail account deactivated
from our email database/mailserver. to enable us upgrade your email account,
you are advice to reply to this mail.

Thanks.
Computer Services Information Office
MCB.NET A BETTER EXPERIENCE."

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 8 Jun 2010 09:04:15 GMT

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company website now working.

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 2 Jun 2010 10:56:04 GMT

Some people have been having problems booking tickets through the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company website.

If you are one of those having problems booking tickets ring them, tell them their site is not working and insist on the web discount.

"If you require any further information which is not available on this website, and do not want to send us an email, please contact our Reservations Team on 661661 (IOM), 08722 992 992* (UK) or 0044 8722 992 992* (ROI & Outside UK).

*Calls to this number are charged at 10 pence per minute including VAT from a BT landline, calls from other networks and mobile operators may vary."

Technical Issue NOW COMPLETED - 18 th May 2010 0930hrs

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 18 May 2010 09:30:00 GMT

The failed router has now been replaced.

If you are still having problems reboot your router and computer and it should all work.

Before anyone points out that I am posting to tell people who can’t get online how to fix the problem on our website online, the problem would still allow users to see our site.

Anyone still having problems can call me on 623841

Thank you for your patience

MCB Support

Technical Issue - 18th May 2010 0800hrs

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 18 May 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Our external provider has had a major fail and they are at the moment in the process of replacing but everything should be back up soon.

Thank you for your patience

MCB Support

New attack bypasses EVERY Windows security product

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 11 May 2010 15:01:45 GMT

Are you a Windows user? Do you make sure that your antivirus program is updated regularly? Do you feel safe? You shouldn't! Read on to find out why .

Mailstore Freeware Email Archiving Software!

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 4 May 2010 10:13:29 GMT

Freeware Email Archiving Software!

MailStore Home - The free single-user desktop solution for email archiving

MailStore Home enables you to backup all your email messages from multiple applications and accounts into one secure and persistent archive. Lightning-fast search, one-click backup, powerful export - all information from your email is at your fingertips anytime. Never lose important email again!

MailStore Home Archives Email From:

Microsoft Outlook 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007
Microsoft Outlook 2010 BETA (32-bit version only)
Microsoft Outlook Express and Windows Mail
Microsoft Exchange Server Mailboxes
Hosted Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes
Mozilla Thunderbird and SeaMonkey
POP3 and IMAP (including webmail services such as Gmail and Yahoo)
.eml and other files

Mailstore Home does not interfere with your settings or mail configuration, meaning it can do no harm, only good.

Your Benefits

Archive all email messages centrally, securely and permanently
No storage limitations
Search your email in a fraction of a second (incl. attachments)
Integrated CD/DVD burning, backup archives with 1 click
Conserve disk space; MailStore Home saves only a single instance of mail and attachments
Preview saved messages directly in MailStore and reopen them in your local mail client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook)
Your email can be exported to a variety of destinations
Messages are stored MIME-compatible, and can be recovered at any time without information loss (e.g. to import them in other applications)

MediaMonkey is the free music organizer for the serious collector

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 8 Apr 2010 10:16:23 GMT

MediaMonkey is the music organizer for the serious collector.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Manage a music library from 100 to 50,000+ audio files and playlists*; whether Rock, Classical, Audiobooks, or Podcasts; whether they’re located on your hard drive, CDs, or a network. Organize, browse, or search music by Genre, Artist, Year, Rating, etc., and never waste your time trying to find mp3s you know you have.

Sync with iPhones, iPods, and most any MP3 phone or Audio Device. Just click the Sync button to sync tracks, podcasts, and related properties such as Album Art, ratings, play history, and playlists with a broad range of portable devices*. With Volume Leveling, the tracks will even play back on your device at consistent volumes!

Try MediaMonkey if you want painless synchronization with almost any portable player.

NOCC - now removed

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 7 Apr 2010 09:20:13 GMT

Untitled Document

NOCC

I have left NOCC as long as I could for those die hards who were still using it for their webmail.

To use webmail from now on for any @mcb.net email addresses use SquirrelMail at http://mail.mcb.net/webmail/src/login.php

You can get to it without the link by going to the website http://www.mcb.net/ along the top to webmail and click on the @mcb.net drop down.

ADSL Service Speed, Contention, and Fair Use Policy

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 1 Apr 2010 12:16:41 GMT

ADSL Service Speed, Contention, and Fair Use Policy

ADSL Service Speed Issues

Contention – What is contention?

Standard ADSL contention is 50:1 for residential users and 20:1 for business users, which are both an industry standard.

ADSL Contention ratio is the ratio of potential maximum demand on actual bandwidth.

In other words if there are 50 people using the same bandwidth of a 8Mbps ADSL line then the contention ratio is 50:1.

This in turn means that the actual bandwidth that any one of those 50 users may be able to use can be down as low as 160Kbps.

For example, a 50:1 contention ratio indicates that a maximum of 49 users (50 including you) can share your bandwidth at one time. Whereas a 1:1 contention ratio indicates that you would not be sharing the bandwidth with anyone, it is exclusively yours.

As it is I who sets the contention at our end I do not allow our users to drop below 40:1 contention and that may only happen at our busiest times depending of course on what your other 49 users are doing at the same time.

It is important for all users to realise that now their speeds are up so high that the connection speed allowed at the website they are viewing or downloading from will be usually restricted to a per connection speed of e.g. 50Kbps regardless of what the connection speed is capable of.

The 8Mbps upgrade has caused many varied issues to deal with and we are progressing in new technology to take advantage of the faster speeds available to our customers but this may take some time to impact fully.

Please do not forget we are getting no more revenue for the increases in service you have received yet our costs have jumped considerably and.

Voluntary Code of Practice: Broadband Speeds - Ofcom

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/copbb/copbb/

Up to 8Mb Broadband uses advanced 'rate-adaptive' broadband technology to deliver higher speeds. Rather than running at 'fixed' speeds of 512kbps, 1Mb, or 2Mb, your broadband speed will automatically be set to the fastest speed your phone line can support. The main factor governing this speed is your phone line's length from the exchange. The average-length phone line can support a maximum speed of around 3.8Mb, with shorter lines able to support higher speeds (up to 8Mb), and longer lines slower speeds.

Please note that the above relates to the maximum speed-capability of your line. In reality, the actual speeds you will experience will differ and will continually vary throughout the day as levels of congestion on the Internet change. You should not expect full speeds all the time, especially during the daily peak period (5pm - 10pm) when global Internet speeds are at their slowest due to congestion. However, Broadband will always automatically give you the best possible speeds for the network conditions.

The factors governing speed

The main factors governing the maximum broadband speed your phone line can support are:

how near you live to the exchange
the length and quality of any phone wiring extensions in your home
whether all your broadband microfilters are correctly installed
the processing speed of your computer and router or modem
the speed of the connection between your computer and modem or router (Ethernet and wireless are faster than USB)

Once set, your maximum broadband speed should remain largely stable, only varying if one of the above factors changes significantly. The main factors governing the day-to-day download speed you will experience over your line are:

the time of day ie. how busy the network and the Internet are (artoun 8pm being the busiest time, when speed can reduce significantly)
the speed of individual websites you are visiting (some have a maximum access speed)
whether you're sharing your connection with others in your home
whether any spyware or any other hardware is slowing down your computer

Up to 8Mb Broadband will take all the above factors into account, and then automatically set your speed to the fastest possible stable rate, modifying this if any of these factors change significantly.

Our Fair Usage Policy (FUP) is designed to make sure our Internet service is quick and reliable whenever you use it.

A very small number of customers use Peer to Peer (P2P) or file sharing software, which constantly sends and receives video and other very large files, throughout the day. This type of activity uses a lot of bandwidth and can significantly reduce the speed at which other customers can access the internet during peak hours. In most cases, approximately 1% of customers use more than 30% of the available bandwidth during peak hours. We don't believe this is fair to the vast majority of our customers.

Our FUP automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth at peak periods of activity on our Internet service, throughout the day, to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak periods, the use of the Internet by these heavy users is unaffected.

We think this is the fairest approach. It protects the quality of service for the vast majority of our customers when they most use of our Internet service, while at the same time allowing the extremely heavy users to continue to send and receive without restriction outside of peak hours.

Manx Telecom Ltd Access Network starting Tuesday 26th January 2010 for 3 weeks.

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 19 Jan 2010 12:15:40 GMT

This is to inform you that planned maintenance work has been scheduled Island-wide across the Manx Telecom Ltd Access Network starting Tuesday 26th January 2010 for 3 weeks.

This work involves the software upgrade to all Exchange based ADSL ISAM nodes that provide access connectivity for Broadband ISP services; and will cause up to 30 minutes service disruption whilst the ISAM node is upgraded.

The proposed dates/times are detailed below:

WEEK 1:

· Tuesday 26th January (05:00 – 08:00hrs) – Douglas North ADSL ISAMs (Majestic Drive FTTC ISAM will be temporarily affected)

· Wednesday 27th January (06:00 – 08:00hrs) – Laxey ADSL ISAMs (Glen Mona FTTC ISAM will be temporarily affected)

· Thursday 28th January (05:00 – 08:00hrs) – Castletown ADSL ISAMs (Ballasalla & Ronague FTTC ISAMs will be temporarily affected)

WEEK 2:

· Tuesday 2nd February (05:00 – 08:00hrs) – Peel ADSL ISAMs (Glen Maye FTTC ISAM will be temporarily affected)

· Wednesday 3rd February (06:00 – 08:00hrs) – Sulby & Kirk Andreas ADSL ISAMs (Ballaugh, Sandygate, Jurby & Bride FTTC ISAMs will be temporarily affected)

· Thursday 4th February (05:00 – 08:00hrs) – Port Erin ADSL ISAMs (Colby FTTC ISAM will be temporarily affected)

WEEK 3:

· Tuesday 9th February (06:00 – 08:00hrs) – Marown ADSL ISAMs (Mount Rule & Braaid FTTC ISAMs will be temporarily affected)

· Wednesday 10th February ((06:00 – 08:00hrs) – St. Johns & Kirk Michael ADSL ISAMs

· Thursday 11th February (05:00 – 08:00hrs) – Ramsey ADSL ISAMs (Maughold FTTC ISAMs will be temporarily affected)

Fraud email

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 15 Jan 2010 16:37:41 GMT

If you get an email something like the one below it is NOT from MCB. Delete it and scan your system with your antivirus and antispyware programs just to be safe. ----- Original Message ----- From: automailer@mcb.net To: someone@mcb.net Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 4:57 PM Subject: A new settings file for the anne.mcdonald@mcb.net mailbox Dear user of the mcb.net mailing service! We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (someone@mcb.net) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link: http://mcb.net/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=anne.mcdonald@mcb.net&from=mcb.net&fromname=anne.mcdonald Best regards, mcb.net Technical Support. Letter ID#D7X1O3L14XV4AQYOOKJ558NJI

MCB Support opening times over Christmas

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 22 Dec 2009 14:10:18 GMT

We are going to be open between 10am and 4pm 28th - 31st December. Telephone support - 623841 Email support - support@mcb.net Thanks And have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Planned maintenance work on the Douglas North Core

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 16 Dec 2009 11:25:32 GMT

The planned maintenance work on the Douglas North Core IP/MPLS Network was cancelled earlier this morning due to unfortunate circumstances. An incident occurred with the redundant connectivity to the Douglas North BRAS at approximately 00:13hrs and this unfortunately caused a number of Broadband ISP customer sessions to clear down. The work was immediately rolled back and sessions re-established within a 15 minute period. The root cause to the incident has been identified and will be rectified accordingly. The Douglas North upgrade work will now be re-scheduled for Friday 18th December between 00:00hrs and 06:00hrs. The planned maintenance work scheduled at Douglas Central will proceed as planned from midnight this evening (as per the notification below). This is to inform you that planned maintenance work has been scheduled at both Douglas Core sites on Wednesday 16th December & Thursday 17th December 2009, between 00:00hrs and 06:00hrs. This work involves the software upgrade to several Core IP/MPLS network devices that provide connectivity for Broadband services. We do not envisage service impact upon the Broadband service due to network resilience; however, this notification is to advise you that the Broadband service is at risk during this maintenance window. The details are: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- START DATE: 16/12/2009 (Wednesday a.m.) MAINTENANCE WINDOW START TIME: 00:00hrs MAINTENANCE WINDOW FINISH TIME: 06:00hrs END DATE: 16/12/2009 (Wednesday a.m.) AREA AFFECTED: Broadband ISP customers connected to ADSL & SDSL ISAMs that are served by the Douglas North BRAS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- START DATE: 17/12/2009 (Thursday a.m.) MAINTENANCE WINDOW START TIME: 00:00hrs MAINTENANCE WINDOW FINISH TIME: 06:00hrs END DATE: 17/12/2009 (Thursday a.m.) AREA AFFECTED: Broadband ISP customers connected to ADSL & SDSL ISAMs that are served by the Douglas Central BRAS.

"Out of the box, Win 7 less secure than Vista"

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 11 Dec 2009 11:59:05 GMT

According to a well respected security firm, Microsoft's flagship Windows 7 operating system is less secure in its default configuration that Vista.

Suspect hacker calling residents

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 3 Dec 2009 16:08:37 GMT

A warning has been issued about a suspected computer hacker who has been calling residents on the Isle of Man.

NEWS FROM MT

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 24 Nov 2009 09:56:31 GMT

Upgrade of ADSL to ADSL2+.......... I'm pleased to announce that with effect from the 11th January 2010 we will remove the charge to ISPs to upgrade customers to the ADSL2+ profile. Orders received up to close of business on 10th January 2010 will continue to attract a one-off upgrade fee of �40 ex VAT. This change is being made after discussion with the Director of the Communications Commission and is in response to the view that the current upgrade charge acts as a barrier to customers switching to ADSL2+.

Who wants to change their email address???

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 4 Nov 2009 12:32:47 GMT

Anyone want to change email address??? How about changing to username@mymail.im If you do you can use either IMAP or POP3 on your email account, your choice. We can forward your username@mcb.net email to your new account for a while in case there is anyone you have forgot to tell about your new email address. And once you tell us we can stop forwarding your username@mcb.net email you can imagine how much spam will no longer reach you!!! If you want to change email me and let me know at support@mcb.im

Sweden loses its internet connection

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 14 Oct 2009 12:56:48 GMT

The internet connection for the whole of Sweden went down for almost an hour when routine maintenance broke every single .se address.

Sidekick outage says more about the future of 'Pink' than Microsoft's cloud

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 14 Oct 2009 12:56:16 GMT

I was (trying to) unplug most of the long holiday weekend, but couldn't help but read all the headlines about how the Sidekick outage spells trouble for Microsoft's cloud strategy.

The T-Mobile-Microsoft Sidekick data disaster: Poor IT management going mainstream

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 14 Oct 2009 12:55:42 GMT

If you're a T-Mobile Sidekick user who put data, contacts and other items in the cloud we have some bad news for you: Your data is gone.probably forever. With cloud computing increasingly reaching the masses the average consumer will soon be enmeshed in the world of poor IT management. Welcome on board the IT failure express.

Patch Tuesday: MS plugs critical IE, Windows Media Player holes

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 14 Oct 2009 12:54:31 GMT

Microsoft today released its largest ever batch of Patch Tuesday updates to fix a whopping 34 security holes in a wide range of widely deployed software products.

Connection problems 14 09 2009

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 14 Sep 2009 16:49:13 GMT

There are still problems with some broadband connections due to today's power glitch. Our advice is to report the fault with MT on 151 as it is a problem with the exchange and not with MCB. If they don't allow you to report a fault please let us know as this is an ongoing issue we have had with MT.

Benchmarks: Windows 7 RTM versus Vista, XP

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 4 Aug 2009 10:34:51 GMT

Now that the final version of Windows 7 has been released to manufacturing, it's time to find out how much of an improvement or not it will make over its predecessors, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Kai Schmerer of ZDNet Germany put all three operating systems under the microscope and here's what he discovered:

Problem with IE8 Security Patch installed this week accessing HSBC online banking

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 31 Jul 2009 11:41:21 GMT

Problem with IE8 Security Patch installed this week accessing HSBC online banking A recent security patch has stopped HSBC online banking from using https for secure logins, resulting in a message "Connection reset by peer". To resolve, remove the IE8 Security patch or use another browser like Firefox.

Keeping your Internet Speeds to an Optimium and Power Cycling your Equipment

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 7 Jul 2009 11:59:11 GMT

To maintain and keep your speeds to a maximum you need to power cycle your router for an hour or so, preferably over night and that is enough to maintain your optimum internet speed.

11/07/09 service drop out for Douglas North

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 7 Jul 2009 11:59:11 GMT

Service Drop Out - Douglas North 1530 - 1600 11-07-09 Some folk may of experienced a drop out of service between 1530 and 1600 on Saturday afternoon 11-07-09, this fault has now been cleared.

06/07/09 service drop out

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 7 Jul 2009 11:59:11 GMT

Yesterday there was a drop out of service for some users. Timescale for the loss of service varied from 0-30 mins caused by another network having problems which affected our network. We have been told that their problem is now fixed.

Internet 'speeds up decision making and brain function'

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 23 Jun 2009 10:46:34 GMT

Internet use could improve brain function and speed up decision-making, but it comes at the expense of empathy and the ability to think in abstract terms, scientists have found.

"The days of the free Internet will draw to a close over the next five years"

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 15 Jun 2009 10:37:22 GMT

“I absolutely believe the Internet is passing from its free days into a paid system. Inevitably, I promise you, it will be paid," Diller said in a keynote discussion opening up the Advertising 2.0 conference held at his company's futuristic glass building alongside the Hudson River in Manhattan. “Not every single thing, but anything of value. “

BT calls for BBC to fund the costs of iPlayer

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 11 Jun 2009 08:47:16 GMT

BT, the country's biggest internet provider, has called on the BBC to fund the "huge" costs of broadcasting programmes on its popular iPlayer website.

The Web's most dangerous keywords to search for

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 28 May 2009 15:02:53 GMT

Which is the most dangerous keyword to search for using public search engines these days? It's “screensavers" with a maximum risk of 59.1 percent, according to McAfee's recently released report.

Microsoft finally acknowledges Windows 7 will ship in 2009

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 13 May 2009 14:30:19 GMT

Specifically, Windows 7 is going to be generally available in time for holiday 2009. Windows Server 2008 R2 will ship “in the same timeframe," officials are conceding.

DNS and Mail Servers

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 25 Mar 2009 08:53:48 GMT

Hi I am often asked what the mail servers are when you are setting up email accounts on your computers so I have added a page on the site to keep them on for you. Thanks John

POP3 Setup

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 17 Mar 2009 15:48:36 GMT

A walkthrough on how to Set Up Outlook Express for POP3 (@mcb.net) email

IMAP Setup

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 17 Mar 2009 15:48:36 GMT

A walkthrough on how to Set Up Outlook Express for IMAP email

Hello and welcome

John.Hulley@mcb.im — 17 Mar 2009 15:48:36 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the Manx Computer Bureau new website and news and information feed.