Welcome New Agents
of RE/MAX Professional Realty, Inc.
May I be one of the first to welcome you to RE/MAX Professional Realty, Inc. My name is Avie Uniglicht and I've
been working closely with Bob Hallowell and Nicki Jones to support your offices
Administrative Novell and NT Network for the past 10 years or so. With the
advent of Trend making the transition to a web based MLS
solution, you now rely on high-speed access to the
Internet. In October of 2001, XO Communications
installed T1 access to the Internet in your building. This means
that for those interested in sharing this broadband "always on" connection enabling
access to Trend, e-mail, web, etc. you are able to do so. (Bob and Nicki
have discussed the monthly fees for this connection with you, so I won't
go into that here.) You no longer need to use your dial-up modem and
dedicated phone line to access your ISP for web access.
T1 permits access to the Internet at speeds of up to 1.5mb (
That's almost 30 times faster than the fastest 56K dial-up modem
).
The purpose of this page
is to explain in "Mostly Plain-English" what you will need to do to prepare
for using the T1 access and what I am prepared to do to help you accomplish
this "painlessly" if you so choose to utilize my services. For those of
you that are "tech saavy" or who are currently happily supported by your
own personal technical consultant, I am happy to provide you with the information
necessary to make the "hookup" on your own. Unfortunately, I can not support
your installation attempt if I am not the one providing the on-site service,
so it may be easier if you engage me just once for this process. (Who knows,
this might be the beginning of a wonderful relationship!) Ok, now for the good stuff.
Overview:
To connect your Personal Computer
(PC) to the RE/MAX Professional Realty, Inc. T1 line, you will be attaching your PC using an Ethernet
Network Interface Card (NIC) and a telephone style wire called a Cat 5 Patch
cable. An "oversized" telephone style jack has been installed in your
new office. It's known as an RJ45 connection - a Category 5 interface. It serves to connect your
PC to a device known as a Router that XO Communications provides to handle
the packets of information transmitted to and received from the Internet. You will be connected to the router via one of the Netgear Switches located
in a central location in your office complex. For security, each computer in the office is manually assigned
an internal IP address (like a phone number) and I will make sure to coordinate
with Nicki Jones to get you your own unique IP address.
Since XO provides the Internet Service Provider services to allow everyone
to "share" the always-on connection, if you have a dial-up account, you won't need to "Login" to your existing
ISP any longer. If however, you have an AOL account and wish to use it
over the T1 line, you'll easily be able to do this by making a slight AOL
configuration change which I can help you with. If you haven't used high-speed
Internet access, you are in for a treat! You'll
never want to dial-up to AOL again once you try this - the speed is tremendous
compared to a slower AOL dial-up access. Now, if you use Outlook Express
for your e-mail, you shouldn't need to make any changes, however depending upon your ISP, your outbound mail (SMTP server) may require
an adjustment since you'll be sending mail over a new carrier in the office. Outlook should
still be able to access your existing ISP for e-mail using your regular
login and password. If you have any challenges, please let me know and I'll help you resolve them. Since Trend requires Internet Explorer v5.5 for access
to their system, most of you should already be set for it. If not, I can
assist you with this upgrade.
So, in brief,
once you get connected to the T1, you'll just double-click on your Internet
Explorer icon and whoala! You'll have instant access to the Internet. Want
your e-mail? Just double-click on your Outlook Express and whoala! You're
connected.
No waiting! No listening to that funny sound your modem makes when it tries
to connect to your ISP!
|
What you will need
(Hardware):
Dell Business
Many of the newer computers
now come equipped with an Ethernet Network Interface. This is not
always standard equipment on a computer, however it is an easy upgrade for
most systems. There are basically 3 types of "wired"
NIC's available for our purposes - PCI cards, USB Ethernet, and for notebook
users the PCMCIA variety. The following Netgear models are readily available
at your local Staple's Office Supply store or you can purchase one on your own at any local computer store and I will
be happy to install and configure it for you.
PCI Card (suitable for
most Pentium Desktop PC's):
The NETGEAR FA311TX is an auto-sensing, 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet PCI Adapter
designed to support the next generation multimedia power-applications.
Staples price is $19.95 plus tax.
PCMCIA Card (suitable for most Notebook computers):
The NETGEAR FA511 10/100
16-bit PC Card, makes a powershift to Fast Ethernet possible for your laptop
or PCMCIA compatible computer. Auto-sensing technology and Ethernet/Fast
Ethernet compatibility lets you Powershift to Fast Ethernet at the price
of regular Ethernet.
Staples price is $39.99 plus tax.
USB 2.0 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Adapter
with 10' Cat 5 cable (suitable for
most Desktop or Notebook PC's with an available USB port):
NETGEAR's USB Ethernet adapter
model FA120 allows you to connect Windows PCs to Ethernet networks without
opening your computer.
Staples price is $29.95 plus tax.
Belkin Fast Cat 5 Snagless Patch Cable, 14' is available at Staples for $14.99. (Your office may already have a cable installed or you may already own a CAT 5 cable of sufficient length, so please check before purchasing this item.)
What you will need
(Software):
Get my new e-Book "Your Personal Computer Driver's License"
Each of you now using the Internet responsibly should have the latest updates applied to your operating system as well as a current Anti-Virus
program always running in the background. My personal preference is Panda Titanium with Tru Prevent
. As long as you have a good quality product with current
virus signatures you should be ok. If you need to update your current version,
I can assist you. It is our office policy to scan any new computers entering the network before connecting them to assure they are free of any viral or trojan horse infections.
In addition to Anti-Virus software,
when utlizing a high-speed always-on connection, I highly recommend using
a software Firewall to protect your system from "Intruders" who attempt to
search the Internet for unprotected PC's. While your systems will be behind
a Router, you can still be vulnerable to these types of attacks without the
use of one of these products:
Shield your Internet-connected
PC or network from hacker attacks with ZoneAlarm Pro, voted "Best Security
Software" by PC World Magazine. ZoneAlarm Pro is compatible with Microsoft®
Windows® 95/98/Me/NT/2000 and XP.
Download for $39.95
Protection from spyware, adware and other non-viral attacks requires the latest prevention and removal software. Webroot's SpySweeper is a recommended solution. Download a 30-day trial version and see what may be lurking on your system right now.
What I am prepared to do to
help you accomplish this "painlessly":
Ok, so you've read through all
this and you're saying
"Huh?????, What the %$###@@@ is he talking about????, I just want to get
connected to the high-speed T1 in the office and forgeddaboudit, I got more important things to do than mess
with my PC".
Believe me, I understand
and I'm here to help you. I'll take
care of everything necessary to securely connect your system. My fee is $85/hr. and depending upon the condition of your computer, the integration time will vary. (Routinely, one hour will do it.) You just need to contact me and I'll do the rest. If you need me to order your Network card, software,
or have any unusual situations (such as a Small Network in your office) and
need some coaching as to what exactly to do, just e-mail me at
avie@askavie.com
Or call me on my
Simplify One-Number
at
1-888-374-3712.
I'm here to help you! Please feel free to contact me anytime for any PC, Technology or
Internet or e-Commerce related challenge. You've got a friend in the biz!
Thanks for your time and
attention and I look forward to working with you.
Warm Regards,
Avie Uniglicht
www.AskAvie.com
1-888-374-3712
Copyright
©2004
