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SaaS aka why I should pay per month for billing

The topic of paying per user for a billing or management platforms comes up every so often.  I was able to sit down and talk with several vendors at WISPAPALOOZA this year about the value of their customers paying a per-user fee.

The most prevalent thought is about innovation and new features.  SaaS allows the billing vendor to invest development and testing time in rolling out new features to support new equipment, and other software.  LTE platforms are the hot thing in billing integration. New additions to software take people power and hours of testing and tweaking. Without monthly recurring revenue to drive such things billing vendors would have to develop this and then charge to the early adopters as an add-on.  This can be a double-edged sword. The early adopters have to pay a premium in order to get a partial solution because the vendor has to really prioritize how their development resources are used. The Vendor is always chasing the next big thing, which means other additions or fixes tend to get pushed back. They have to finish add-ons they think more folks will want to buy first.

The next thing is plain old hosting. Hosting a software application, whether in the cloud or on your own hardware costs money.  Co-location, software patches on the OS, hardware lifecycles, etc.  This cuts down on the end-user maintenance side of the hardware but pushes it back to the vendor. The peace of mind of knowing the thing that collects your money is running is backed up, and is available as part of the monthly fee you pay.

SaaS also allows for quicker releases of bugs and new features.  Vendors have more resources dedicated to development and changes. This allows for new add-ons to become available quicker.  Take the traditional model where you get bug fixes, but major feature add-ons are either a full point upgrade or major version upgrade. This usually costs money and is a slower process.  Not only does the vendor have to spend resources advertising, but they have to deal with support and other issues. With billing vendors who charge a monthly fee fixes from companies such as Paypal or Authorize.net are almost always rolled out very quickly at no additional charge to the end user ISP.

Some companies such as Basecamp, which is not a billing platform, have taken a hybrid approach to SaaS. Every major revision that comes out is an upgrade. You can choose to upgrade or stay where you are and pay the same amount.  This can leave customers behind but still allows them to use what they are paying for.  They just don’t get new features or bug fixes.

So the next time you are figuring out why you should pay for a billing platform on a monthly, customer, or subscription basis take all of this into account.

For those looking for xISP billing, and mainly WISP billing, here is a partial list:

www.azotel.com
www.visp.net
www.powercode.com
www.sonar.software
www.splynx.com
www.ispbilling.com (Platypus)
www.freeside.biz
www.quickbooks.com

If you have more please add them in the comments.

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Did you know Amazon business account…

Did you know if you have an Amazon business account you can get preferred pricing with some vendors who sell Cambium on Amazon? This is not the same pricing you see when you visit amazon.com.  This is pricing that is extended to you from vendors who sell on Amazon.

The way this works is by passing along your business ID, which is public information, to a seller.  this seller then qualifies you for direct pricing, and if accepted you receive an e-mail saying you have been approved for direct pricing.  When you log in and view the Cambium items the updated pricing is reflected.

MTIN is not the seller of these items, but if you are interested we can pass your Business ID along to some vendors who do.

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A story about a rotten company

Recently I received an e-mail from a company I haven’t done business with since 2003. They had kept my e-mail all this time and decided now was the time to send me a spam e-mail.  Let me give you a little backstory on Advanced Internet Technologies Inc.

Back in 2001 I went out on my own as an ISP.  Previously, I had worked for a dial-up ISP and they had been acquired by a larger company.  I saw the writing on the wall and decided now was the time to go out on my own.  With some borrowed money I made my first purchase, a white box 1U server. Keep in mind this is 2001.  This server with a pair of 80 gig hard drives and dual 1GHZ Xeon Pentiums cost me $1800. I had talked to a sales guy from AIT, and liked everything about the company. So I had my little server directly shipped to them and the loaded on Redhat Linux 4.  I was able to cobble my way through setting up sendmail, apache, and some other services and my ISP was up and running in a few weeks.  Things were clicking along for a few years.  We were doing dial-up and had a wholesale agreement with DialUpUSA for nationwide dial-up and ISDN.

Now, here is where it gets good.  One night in 2003 I notice my server load going crazy.  Server load was in the 30’s. Anyone who knows Linux knows this is something bad going on. So as I trying to track down what is going on I lose all connection to my server. No pings, nothing.  So, I call the AIT noc and see if they can look into my server.  I am told they would look at it.   Several hours go by and I am calling and calling trying to get an update.  I had suspected I had been compromised in one way or another and my server was doing bad things. 10PM turns into 10AM.  I call my sales guy at AIT basically pleading for him to find out what is going on.  He answers my phone call once, but subsequent phone calls go unanswered and no one returns my calls.  Still no answers.  I am calling every 15 minutes trying to get someone, anyone to give me answers.  This goes on for a few days.  By this time my business is suffering, because e-mail is down, including my own. After 4 days of no answers, I am in full-blown panic mode.  Luckily I was using the DIALUPUSA radius and e-mail and the web-site were the things down. In the meantime, I find FDC Servers in Chicago which had space and cheap bandwidth.  I rented a dedicated server from them and was able to get things back up and going after a week of downtime.

Fast forward about a month I receive my server in a poorly packed box with a note saying my server had been compromised and had taken down their entire network because it was sending out junk.  At this time on their web-site they were advertising a capacity of 45 megs to the Internet.  That was big time for 2003. And included in this note was an invoice for $2700 for work they had to do in order to deal with my server causing an outage on their network. The next day my attorney was sending them a very strongly worded letter with phone records on my attempts to contact them and how we would be pursuing legal action for violation of their SLA, which did include turn around time for trouble resolution. Many letters and calls later we never heard from AIT again. We were sending certified letters on a weekly basis.  My father would have been proud the amount of legal paperwork we sent to try and generate a response.

Anyway, So now 14 years later I get a SPAM e-mail from Byron Briggs, Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Internet Technologies Inc. on their dedicated server special. They kept my information after all these years, even after one of our letters told them to purge all of my information from their databases.

 

Dear Byron Briggs,
Your company is one of the lousiest companies I have ever done business with. Your total lack of response almost ruined my company. I was a loyal, and on-time paying customer every month of me being an AIT customer.  I still have the original server in my house as a reminder of how awful a company can be.  I feel sorry for the server for even having to be in a data center ran by such uncaring and callous people.  The poor Linux box suffered enough in its life.  I see on your Linked in you have only been at AIT since 2008. It would be easy to say that was in the past. However, Charles Briggs was there during my time as a customer. I am assuming you are one of his four children he speaks of.  I remember talking to Charles on the phone on several occasions when the company was small.  I referred business and we talked about the future of things. The lack of response after all of that was just the nail in the coffin.

Justin Wilson

If you are considering any type of co-location with ait.com I would recommend sticking your server in a refrigerator or cardboard box with a box fan hooked to the local Starbucks wifi before trusting this company with your business.

Oh, and don’t take my word for it
https://www.bbb.org/myrtle-beach/pages/business-reviews/internet-services/advanced-internet-technologies-in-fayetteville-nc-11001845/reviews-and-complaints?noskin&clean

http://www.vistainter.com/reviews/A/ait.com/

 

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This is a Premium Test

 

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Product Review: Sync Stop

As I get ready for my trip to Vegas to attend WISPAPALLOZA 2017 the following product becomes relevant.  Security, namely Identity Theft, is becoming more and more of something we have to deal with.  Much like pickpockets, digital Identity theft is a real thing.

This is where the SyncStop by Xipiter comes in.  This is a simple device.  It allows you to charge your phone on any USB enabled connection, but does not allow syncing by cutting off access to the data pins of the USB connection at the hardware level.

If you travel alot I would suggest investing in a few of these.  Let’s face it, we try and find an outlet anywhere we can when it comes to charging our phones.  Hackers know this.  A cleverly designed “public charge station” could be easily compromised to feed your data back to a remote server in just a few minutes and you would probably never notice.

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MTIN is growing again

Over the years MTIN has gone from being a computer repair shop to a dial-up ISP, to a Wireless ISP, and many things in-between.  Each time technology and market conditions change we adapt to change with it.  Our next metamorphosis is needed so we can grow into more aspects of the xISP world In order to accomplish this we are splitting into divisions of what we do.

The first is j2sw.com. This part of the business will be focused on personalised WISP services and support.  These will be custom tailored to a limited number of clients.  Projects such as the “Start a WISP” book and upcoming WISP publications will be run under j2sw.com. Other projects that benefit the ISP community will run from j2sw.com. Having j2sw Consulting as a separate arm allows for better personal attention to key customers.

The second division of the business is MTIN.NET.  This arm will be focused on business to business services such as data center co-location, network connectivity, tower services, and related type services. MTIN is becoming a project management company. We will leverage our vast partnerships to leverage the strength of many to accomplish your medium to large projects.   MTIN will be an umbrella company to bring in the right people for the right projects.

Look for changes to the websites and contact information coming over the next month or so. Justin will be involved with each entity on a very regular basis, but having extra folks can allow for time to be dedicated to ever-expanding projects without sacrificing service to the client.

Some FAQs
Why the change?
For a couple of reasons. The first is to leverage Justin being known in the xISP community.  having a face to the consulting side. This allows for better personal service as well as a trusted name in the WISP community. Secondly, is to allow a better division of resources based on projects and individual needs.

Is MTIN going away?
No, MTIN will move into a project management type of company.  We have access to a large network of contractors, partners, service providers, and other groups we have built since 1998. MTIN can bring in needed resources for projects under one contact point. This allows for projects to not depend on just one person.

Will contact info change?
In the upcoming months, we will be publishing updated contact info. The old information will not go away, but things will get routed to the proper folks better.

For now check out http://j2sw.com and like jswconsulting on facebook.

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Open Letter to the FCC about CBRS

An open letter regarding:

GN Docket No. 12-354
RM-11788
RM-11789

I am writing on behalf of my Company MTIN.NET LLC in regard to the proposed changes to the CBRS band. We are primarily a consulting company for Wireless Internet Providers (WISPs). One of the biggest changes our customers face is the availability of spectrum to operate in.  These are companies who primarily are investing their own money into providing access in their own communities.  They help to support local businesses by giving them a choice in high-speed broadband access. Sometimes, these WISPs are the only option.

Please take into consideration how any changes will affect these Entrepreneurs and their mission to bring broadband into underserved areas of the country.   Without WISPs, many homes and businesses would not have high-speed access that works with Voice, or streaming services.  Satellite is unable to deliver low-latency connections to users.

The ability of a WISP to have access to more spectrum not only allows them to provider more speeds and better service, but it has other benefits as well. WISPs have usually been started to fill a broadband need in an area.  Having access to high-speed access allows schools to offer greater learning tools, allows businesses to generate new revenue streams as well as saving money.  Please don’t leave the companies who are investing their own money, not shareholder’s money, out in the cold.

We are opposed to both petitions by CTIA and T-mobile. Please consider the comments from the WISP community before making any decisions. It is estimated WISPs service over 3 Million subscribers across the country.  Give them tools they need to thrive.

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Server SSH Attempts

For those of you who are curious where many of your cyber attacks appear to come from the following is a sample of just some of the locations the MTIN servers have blocked for malicious attempts.

#1 CN/China/
#2 KR/Korea, Republic of
#3 CZ/Czech Republic

Russian IPs are # 7 and US (mainly AWS IPs) are #8

 

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MTIn is now a CloudFlare Optimized partner

Ask how to host your content on the fast Cloudflare network.

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Quick Reference: OSPF Network Types

Point-to-multipoint is treated as a collection of point-to-point links and thus no DR/BDR is required.

Point-to-Point is a single link and no election is needed.

Broadcast: OSPF routers on broadcast networks will elect a DR and a BDR (since it is multiaccess) – OSPF packets are multicast.

NBMA: Routers will elect DR and BDR (since it is multiaccess), but since it is a non-broadcast, routers will have to communicate via unicast rather than multicast.