Category: Site News

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Keeping up with the j2 blog

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1.RSS Feed https://blog.j2sw.com/feed/ You can also follow certain categories such as podcast topics by adding the category on the end https://blog.j2sw.com/feed/podcast . Following the main feed will keep you most informed.

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Site News

MTIN announces new plans effective October 31 2018

Due to several opportunities, MTIN is moving toward collapsed support plan style.  We will only be offering a contract support model and best effort service.

Contract Support

Customers purchase a minimum 5 hour block for $445. Rates are billed as follows.

Normal Business Hours (8am-5pm EST time)                           $89 per hour
Late night & Weekend support                                                 $125 per hour

Contract customers will use a minimum of 1 hour a month for remote monitoring services, firmware, and other notifications, as well as any general maintenance tasks in order to keep documentation and other aspects of the network up to date for our technicians.   Remote Backups, security audits, and other services which MTIN hosts for the customer can be included in the one-hour minimum.

The goal with contract customers is to build a long-term relationship in order to help their networks grow and thrive.  By being engaged with the customer on a regular basis we are able to provide better service and have a better handle on customer needs. As networks become more and more complicated having a consultant who has is more a partner than a hired gun is becoming valuable to an operator.

Tier II emergency response times for Tier II customers.
Normal working hours (3 hour maximum)
Late night and weekend (5 hour maximum)

Best Effort Plan

Customers pay as they go for best effort support.  Support is available on a best effort service and first come first serve.

Normal Business Hours (8am-5pm EST time)                           $119 per hour
Late night & Weekend support                                                 $145 per hour

Policy details

1. Late night and Weekend is defined as. 9PM-9AM EST MONDAY-FRIDAY & 7PM EST FRIDAY -9AM Monday. Contract Customers can schedule maintenance windows and such at a discounted rate ahead of time.

2. All customers who don’t have pre-purchased time will be served on a best effort service. Priority will be given to contract customers, and then “walk-in” customers.

3. All times stated are maximum times for response. Depending on workload, times are typically much less.

4. Contact MTIN for details on this new plan.

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Site News

Facebook and WordPress integration changing

From WordPress

We wanted to update you about an upcoming change Facebook is introducing to their platform, and which affects how you may share posts from your Jetpack-connected website to your Facebook account.

Starting August 1, 2018, third-party tools can no longer share posts automatically to Facebook Profiles. This includes Publicize, the Jetpack tool that connects your site to major social media platforms (like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook).

Will this affect your ability to share content on Facebook? It depends. If you’ve connected a Facebook Profile to your site, then yes: Publicize will no longer be able to share your posts to Facebook. On the other hand, nothing will change if you keep a Facebook Pageconnected to your site — all your content should still appear directly on Facebook via Publicize. (Not sure what the difference is between a Page and a Profile? Here’s Facebook’s explanation.) You can review and change your social sharing settings by heading to My Site(s) → Sharing.

If you’ve previously used Publicize to connect a Facebook Profile to your website and still want your Facebook followers to see your posts, you have two options. First, you could go the manual route: once you publish a new post, copy its URL and share the link in a new Facebook post. The other option is to convert your Facebook Profile to a Page. This might not be the right solution for everyone, but it’s something to consider if your website focuses on your business, organization, or brand.

While Facebook says it is introducing this change to improve their platform and prevent the misuse of personal profiles, we believe that eliminating cross-posting from WordPress is another step back in Facebook’s support of the open web, especially since it affects people’s ability to interact with their network (unless they’re willing to pay for visibility) We know that this might cause a disruption in the way you and your Facebook followers interact, and if you’d like to share your concerns with Facebook, we urge you to head to their Help Community to speak out.

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Site News WISPA

MTIN participates in FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Visit

On May 3rd, On-Ramp Indiana and Beck’s Hybrids hosted FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and Congresswoman Susan Brooks from Indiana District 5 to discuss rural broadband and technology.      We are extremely honored for the opportunity to share our experiences in deploying rural broadband with them.

The FCC defines broadband as any connection capable of 25/3Mbps.   47% of “rural” residents of Indiana District 5 do not have any choice for broadband internet.      There are over 2000 Wireless ISPs in our country working hard to fill the gap and provide affordable access to underserved areas.     While fiber, and other technologies will be part of the solution, we also are asking the FCC to work with WISPs to create an environment where we can access much needed spectrum to rapidly and cost effectively deploy broadband in rural areas.

A special thanks to Beck’s Hybrids (Sonny, Brad & Jeremy) for hosting the meeting at their incredible facility in Atlanta, IN.    They are a huge proponent of rural broadband as it helps achieve their mission of helping farmers succeed.    Rural Broadband is helping move the immense amount of data collected in modern farming into the computing data centers for analysis.   The end result is a more efficient and productive farming process which greatly benefits our economy.

We would also like to thank Justin Wilson of MTIN Consulting for assisting in the presentation.      Thanks also to Tracy Barnes & Ryan Heater with Lt Governor Crouch’s office, and Jodi Golden with the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, we appreciate you attending and it was great to meet everyone!

20180503_135630

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Security Site News

It’s day like this…

Today a major vulnerability was released to the public from a well-known vendor.  All of our consulting customers have been notified of this critical update.  Those whom we manage the network for already have a mitigation plan in place and a course of action.

If you are not a regular customer ask us howe.  For as little as $50 a month you can be notified of critical updates for your infrastructure. With all of the information out there, having a customized notification service for your ISP means you can spend more time making money instead of worrying about your network.  Contact us today for details on this service.

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News Site News xISP

MTIN announces updated Indianapolis bandwidth pricing

MTIN would like to announce updated bandwidth pricing for connectivity at the following locations in Indianapolis Indiana
733 West Henry Street
401 North Shadeland
701 West Henry *
731 West Henry*

Single Carrier Bandwidth
as low as $.17 per meg

Blended BGP
Multi-carrier blend + CDNS + IX routes
As low as $.25 per meg

-Commit Levels as low as 50 megs
-95th percentile billing available
-Cross-connects as low as $50 per month
-Bandwidth options include Cogent, Hurricane Electric, MidWest-IX, and many others

*extended cross-connect fees may apply to these locations

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Site News

Premium Content?

Folks,

I have been going over the idea of premium content within my blogs. I find myself wanting to write more and more, and writing would help one of my other projects I have going.  However, I don’t make any direct money from the blog.

In an effort to provide more regular content, I have come up with the following ideas.

1.I will be implementing a premium posts section of this blog.  For the foreseeable future, this will be a free section. All that will be required is you fill out a simple registration.  We won’t spam you, but you will have the option to be notified of updates.

2.I will be doing more sponsored posts to keep as much content as possible in the non-premium space.  As a result, I am looking for vendors with products they would like reviewed.  The idea is if I buy a product with my own money, it’s most likely going to be a premium post.  If a vendor or manufacturer wish to send a product to be reviewed this will be a public post.

I am looking for vendors and manufacturers that wish to be regular sponsors. This strategy is open and fluid as things progress.

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Site News

MTIN announces new pricing tiers

MTIN is happy to announce support tiers for our clients.  This allows us to grow, while still being in budget range of the smaller operators.  This is our first rate increase in over 3 years.  By breaking our rates into two tiers this allows us to grow our increasing client base while still being an affordable client. The price levels allow us to add additional resources, automation, and tools to bring better service to clients.

Tier I Support
Network/Server Work                               $97 per hour
Late night & Weekend support                 $125 per hour

Hourly Blocks
5 hours              $461   (5% discount)
10 hours            $899   (7% discount)
15 hours            $1310 (10% discount)

On-Site consulting services                      $700 per day plus expenses
On-Site tower work                                  $500-1500 per day plus expenses (job specific)

Tier1 emergency response times for Tier I customers with a time balance.
Normal working hours (2 hour maximum)
Late night and weekend (3 hour maximum)

 

 

Tier II Support
Network/Server Work                                $79 per hour
Late night & Weekend support                  $99 per hour

Hourly Blocks
5 hours                       $395
10 hours                     $790
15 hours                     $1067 (10% discount)

Tier2 emergency response times for Tier II customers with a time balance
Normal working hours (4 hour maximum)
Late night and weekend (5 hour maximum)

 

 

Contracts available
-Priority support
-Faster response times
-Late night & Weekend support rates don’t apply
-Access to backend monitoring and other services
Contact MTIN on details on contracts

Policy details

1.Late night and Weekend is defined as. 9PM-9AM EST MONDAY-FRIDAY & 8PM EST FRIDAY -9AM Monday. For West coast and customer in other time frames work can be schedule to meet your needs and not be charge for after hours.

2.All customers who don’t have pre-purchased time will be served on a best effort service. Priority will be given to contract customers, and then customers with a balance, and finally to “walk-in” customers.

3.All times stated are maximum times for response. Depending on workload, times are typically much less.

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Site News

Subscribe to our Newsletter

We now have a low volume announcement list.  This is a one-way list of new products, tips, and other announcements from MTIN.  This is a low volume lis (less than 1-2 e-mails a month).

http://www.mtin.net/lists/