About the May Meetup
We had a great meetup at the Frick Art & Historical Center on May 3! Many new faces and lots to discuss. A big “thank you” to Linda and the Frick staff for hosting us! Next month we will be at Computer Reach for our “Open Source Summer Fiesta” meetup, where we will have our usual meeting and spend some time receiving a demo of open source software and a tour of Computer Reach’s facility. Mark your calendar for June 7!
Here are the notes and resources from this meetup:
Salesforce
- An attendee Googled their organization’s name recently, only to learn that their Force.com site was set up improperly and that their entire database was open for the world to access. Warned the rest of us that Force.com should not be set up as the main CRM tool for an organization and that when used along with core Salesforce, should still be made secure and be given 2 factor authentication.
- If implementation goes poorly (as mentioned above), document, document, document. Also have cybersecurity insurance in place in case records are accidentally hacked or released and the organization faces a lawsuit.
- See if old sites are on the Google Wayback Machine, which is like a cache for websites.
- Local implementers of Salesforce include:
HTTPS/SSL Conversion
- HTTPS protects data being transmitted to and from a website.
- Having it in place can help to boost public perception and build trust.
- Still need security to protect site from hacking attempts.
- Let’s Encrypt tool is a free SSL option.
- Need a dedicated IP with the host to do SSL.
- Can be expensive to implement, depending on what you decide to use for SSL certificate. Hosts aren’t generally too helpful about support re: site conversions.
- Dreamhost is a good host – very good at support and they offer Let’s Encrypt.
Upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10
- It can take a while to get Windows 10 to install properly if upgrading. Installing from scratch seems to work just fine though.
- Don shared these links after the meeting:
- Dell is currently shipping many PCs as “Windows 10” but when you get them, they have Windows 7 and you have to do the upgrade yourself.
- How to keep Windows 10 from automatic discovery and installation of printers: go to File/Print Sharing and turn off the print share feature. Microsoft still has driver compatibility issues with certain copiers/printers in Windows 10.
- Turn off “User Experience Feedback” so it doesn’t slow down the network.
- Windows 10 S was just released.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
- One channel for Internet and voice data (phone systems).
- Vendors are selling phone services based off their own servers, but it’s better to have an in-house server.
- Cisco is a VoIP phone vendors, as is Avaya. Avaya seems to be better for smaller organizations.
- An in house server also has the advantage of being a capital expense (can be depreciated).
- You still have to have a really good Internet connection for VoIP to work well.
- connecTel is a local telecom broker – will assess your contracts for free and advise you on best configuration and how to save the most money in the process.
- DQE Communications and Level 3 Communications are fiber-optic Internet providers.
We met this month at ACHIEVA in the South Side. Thank you to Steve, Nicole and Dave for hosting us! We’ll be back at ACHIEVA for November’s meetup.
Bagels & Bytes - Allegheny 