Water and Fireproof Data Storage

Every now and then a new product arrives that really gets our attention. This week we came upon IoSafe’s water and fireproof data storage products. There are three different drive sizes, 500MD, 1TB and 1,5TB. These drives can be submerged in 10ft of water for at least 3 days and can withstand well over 1500 degrees for at least 30 minutes. It’s like storing all your important data in a safe.
Besides the fact that its fire and waterproof the drives are very competitively priced, between $150 and $300, each drive comes with a 1 year data recovery warranty. If, for some reason you are unable to get the hard drive to work after a fire or a flood, IoSafe will spend up to $1,000 to try to recover your data. For an additional fee you can extend that warranty to 2, 3 or 5 years.
To us this seems like a no-brainer for small businesses and consumers who want to keep their important business data or family pictures safe from disaster.
You can find the IoSafe products by searching for “IoSafe”  on your storefront.

Unfortunately we do not have product information on the product on our product detail pages but we have some files you can use for your customers here : http://groups.google.com/group/resellersonly/files?hl=en

Protect your business and your time

Each week we receive requests from resellers for quotes for high-ticket items destined for Nigeria, Ivory Coast or Ghana in Africa or Indonesia in Asia. Here at NextDay Network we receive emails from those countries on a daily basis. Price is usually not an issue. Most of the time the products will be paid for by credit card, sometimes even by check. Because we are able to block most of the IP-addresses from those countries, these “shoppers” are increasingly targeting resellers.

In the history of our company we have never had a legitimate order from those countries. There have even been attempts to pay for transactions with fraudulent cashier’s checks. Furthermore, the individuals trying to place these orders are finding new ways to try and get you and us to ship the products.

What can you do to protect your business?
Well, the easiest solution would be to just not respond to requests from those countries. However, it is not that easy, you have to know what to look for first. Here are the most common things to look for in a potentially fraudulent transaction:

1. The shopper uses a free email address, like hotmail or yahoo. If you are not sure if it is a free email account just try looking for the web site of the domain that is used. For example, if someone sends you an email from the following email address customer@domainname.com, just open a web browser and type in the following http://www.domainname.com/. If this is a free email account the web site usually has some sort of login screen and a way to set up a free account. If a real domain name is used, it is quite easy to find out where the domain name comes from: just go to http://www.geektools.com/whois.php and type in the domain name. You can quickly find out where the company is located that issued the email address.
   


2. If you know how to extract the IP-address from the email or order you have received, you can use a very nice tool to find out the geographical location of the shopper. Just type in the IP-address and in most cases it will tell you exactly where the shopper is from. Give it a try here. http://www.networldmap.com/TryIt.htm .
   


3. Shopper is unconcerned with shipping costs. Most legitimate shoppers are very sensitive to shipping costs. A "please expedite and add the extra onto my card" with no maximum or qualifying comment or question may be a tip-off: Use Caution.
   


4. Very large dollar amount order or large quantity. Thieves need to score quickly and move on since fraudulent delivery addresses have a short lifespan, at least in the USA. They will try to hit a perfect spot where the order is big enough to profit them, but small enough NOT to make merchants suspicious. Sometimes they will aim for $500+ orders, other times try to stay in the $199 range.
   


5. Ship-to address is not the same as the billing address. There are many legitimate reasons for a shopper wanting to do this, but it is a "cheat" of the AVS (Address Verification System) system if the thief has the billing address of the real cardholder. This is also one of the reasons why we always ask the customer to have the shipping address added as an alternate address.
   


6. Tell them you have their product in stock, and ask if they want an accessory to go with that, for only $200 more. Phrase this appropriately to avoid annoying legitimate shoppers. A crook, if monitoring their bogus email box at all, will say "sure!" without even a question. This should raise red flags.
   


7. Call the phone number given in the order. It may be entirely bogus, and sometimes it is even the actual number of the person whose card was stolen. If you don't get a phone number with the order, write and ask for one.
   


8. We have heard of some cases where the shopper emails you the credit card information. Unless you know the customer very well, don’t expect this to be a legitimate order. Normal shoppers would never send their Credit Card information via email.
   


9. Sophisticated thieves now also use very legitimate looking cashier’s checks. Please make sure to clear those checks with your bank and hold on to your products for at least two weeks after you have deposited the check. We have heard of several cases where the reseller had shipped products after depositing the check only to find out two weeks later that the originating bank had refused the check because it was fraudulent.
   


10. Always use common sense when you are dealing with pure Internet orders and if a deal looks too good to be true, be very careful.

Can Skype save you money?

The sort answer to this question is a simple YES. I will explain a little more about all the great gadgets out there now to help you get the most out of Skype but first I will elaborate on the cost aspect. Since we are not using Skype here at NextDay Network I will be using my home situation as an example. If you don't know what Skype is, take it for a spin by downloading the software here. If you want to know why this is a good alternative to MSN, Google, Yahoo or AOL messenger and the good old telephone company, just click here.

Do the math
Up until January of this year I used AT&T as my long distance carrier, paying about $30.00 a month for unlimited long distance, which included all those fees, only a few of us know what they are for. In December of last year I received en email from Skype offering me a deal I had never seen before, $29,95 for a year of unlimited long distance for the US and Canada. Yes, that is per year, not per month.

My total savings: 11 x $30 = $330 / year. That's a big enough saving to me to put some effort into it.


The drawbacks
Although we have been using Skype for a good part of the year now and are very pleased with it, there are a few issues I feel you should know about before making the switch.

1. The Skype Unlimited I'm talking about is just for outgoing calls. You can get one or more SkypeIn numbers with your local, or any area code, for $30 a year. So you can link your Skype account to a number in Nevada and a number in New York, making it easy and cheaper for family or customers, without a Skype account, to reach you.



2. You need a decent amount of bandwidth to make it work. Although voip doesn't need tremendous amounts of bandwidth, you need at least a DSL or Cable Internet connection to prevent echo or lag.



3. If you have a DSL connection you will not be able to get rid of your phone line because without a phone line there is no connection. So you will still be paying the $15 a month you were paying anyway unless you had some sort of package deal. The added advantage is that you can still use your old phone number for incoming calls, and if you don't want the added functionality, you don't need to purchase a SkypeIn number.



4. Because I wanted everyone to use our new phone number I thought I could just forward my old phone number to my new SkypeIn phone number. Unfortunately the numbers Skype had available for me in this area code were not local numbers. If I had wanted to forward that number I would have had to get a long distance service which of course defeats the purpose of getting Skype Unlimited. If you decide to get a SkypeIn number and you want to forward your old number to your SkypeIn number like me, check with your phone company if the numbers Skype has available for you, are in fact local numbers.


5. If you want to be available 24/7 you need to have some sort of Skype device connected to the Internet at all times. This means that you will need to have a computer running at all times, to save energy I recommend a old notebook or a System with a VIA processor. If you have a wireless router, like me, you can use a wireless Skype phone like the Netgear SPH200D Wireless IP Phone, which also doubles as a cordless phone for your "normal" phone line NextDayPC sku # 3134256.

Skype Gadgets
Now that you are saving $300 a year, you need a few ideas on how to spend that money on some great gadgets made to work with Skype .

Use it just on your PC
If you only want to be available when you are using your PC or Notebook I suggest getting a decent headset. Expect to pay a little more for a good headset like the Plantronics USB 3-in-1 VOIP headset, our sku # 2963874. A simple $10 headset will work but the quality is poor. If you're dealing with customers you want to make sure you can hear them and they can hear you so it's well worth the extra money.

Use it with your existing cordless phone and a PC
Most of us have a cordless phone and if you don't you can usually pick one up for less than $50. What you need to use this set-up is a so-called Voip adapter. This is a small box with three connections: a USB connection to your PC, one connection to the cordless phone base end the third connection connects to your phone line. Now you can receive and make Skype calls from your cordless phone as long as your PC is on. Look at NextdayPC sku's # 2582097 , 2593590 or 3220655 .

Use it with a wireless router
If you have a wireless network set up at home, at the office, or if you are on the road and have access to wireless Internet, you can use one of these great products :

• Netgear SPH200D Wireless IP Phone, which also doubles as a cordless phone for your "normal" phone line NextDayPC sku # 3134256
• Belkin Wi-fi phone, only works with a wireless network - our sku # 2967774.
• If you have a smartphone with Windows Mobile and equipped with 802.11 connectivity you can also download the PDA version of Skype and use your phone as a Skype phone.

More than a Phone service
Besides making almost free phone calls, you can use Skype to share files, video conferencing (if you have a web cam), play games, share applications and even send money through PayPal.
If you have not tried Skype it is definitely the time to do so. Over the past few months we have noticed a change in the market towards VOIP so if you want to be able to advise your customers, there's no better time to familiarize yourself than now. If anything, you'll save some money in the process. Also check out the software that's available out there. A lot of tools are free (I like free) and are particularly wel-suited for home office or small business use.


The bottom line
Skype has defeinately saved us money and has made communication with friends and family here and overseas a lot easier and cheaper. The hardware and software available makes it a tremendous powerful tool for home and small businesses alike. As mobile internet is becoming more affordable you will soon be able to use Skype wherever you can use a cell phone, making it an even more powerful tool than it is today.


Try it
If you want talk to me about Skype, just click here. If you don't have a question for me now but want to add me to your contact list, just click here. If you want to send me a chat message now, click here.
As soon as Skype has figured out a way to put money in my bank account I will put up that link too :-)