Mobile Broadband

The mobile phone networks have all recently been moving in to the 'mobile broadband' game - offering USB modems that just plug in to your laptop and supposedly give broadband-speed internet wherever you are, via 3G. Having used a 3G phone as a bluetooth modem on a laptop before, I've not been convinced of their usefulness - as my previous experience has been frankly rubbish.

We were offered a test-run of the Three mobile broadband, so gave it a whirl and it's a completely different kettle of fish. My main uncertainty - connection speed - has been totally blown out the water. Very little difference in use to our office broadband connection.

It's not something we use often - but is very useful now and again, whether it's in getting a broadband connection at a client's premises, or just working on a train, in the car, etc. We've signed up for a batch of them for all David Andrews staff. So far, basic web-browsing and e-mail is a total breeze. We've even managed some pretty heavy FTP usage and SQL Server administration - all via laptop, connected to the web just by the little white modem plugged in to the USB. Really useful especially for a business like ours, where we try and build in as much freedom and flexibility to work hours/location, etc as possible.

If you're thinking of signing up for a mobile broadband plan, we can vouch for it being pretty much as good as a home PC fixed-line broadband connection. A few mobile networks are offering it, but the one we've tested and are using is here:

File / PC Encryption Software

This is an awesome way to secure all the data on any sort of hard-drive, be it a PC hard-disk, an entire server of data, a USB memory stick / external hard-drive etc...

Any person or organisation with sensitive data stored electronically needs to think hard about data protection and security. If you had a break-in and had PCs / memory cards stolen - what sort of information would the thief have access to? If it's details and information relating in any way to your customers/clients, you're in big trouble - not just with them but probably the law too.

We use this great bit of software to encrypt everything on any of our electronic storage media. It effectively enables you to create a secure virtual 'drive' within your actual drive - which your PC will treat exactly like a mapped network drive. The difference being, everything inside it is encrypted and, when you 'dismount' the drive from the software, it becomes a useless text file totally inaccessible without the passwords. Really simple, military-grade encryption - and best of all, it's free open-source software.

We have a few reservations - like the fact it's so good, that if the password was forgotten, you'd lose all the data inside it. That's highly unlikely though.

Because it turns everything inside the encrypted drive in to a single file, there's the worry that it might get corrupted - again losing everything. We've been using it for over a year though and no problems have occurred as yet. Needless to say, we have a pretty rigorous backup procedure so are covered if the worst happened.

It's the type of software every organisation should use. Just ask the Inland Revenue. Something as simple as this could've saved a heck of a lot of trouble for them. If you have any kind of sensitive information stored anywhere - at home or work - give this a try: http://www.truecrypt.org

Drop Down Navigation Menus

We generally don't advocate these kind of drop-down / fly-out type menus - not great for browser compatibility/web standards/SEO etc - but if the client demands it, despite your advice to the contrary, they've got to have it.

This is a good one we've found. Very simple, making more prominent use of CSS as opposed to Javascript, easily customisable...

We've seen a few full CSS versions around, which are better in theory, but lack some of the sort of features demanded, due to the inherent limitations of CSS in this sort of application. Anyone found a decent full-CSS drop-down/fly-out menu, let us know.

Hosting Provider - Host-it Internet Solutions

This post is about: Hosting company recommendation

As a web design company with a couple of hundred websites on our books, we were outgrowing our previous hosting provider and needed a new dedicated server and associated hosting services.


Hosting is obviously a vital part of a web agency's business - and it took a good three months research of a variety of different solutions before we eventually found what I think is the right one. We looked at a variety of different options including Rackspace, who were ultimately too costly and offered limited support on the software side of things. We're only a small company and needed a partner who we could rely on to support software and hardware on our servers, rather than just pure hardware configuration.

We tried a company called Flinthosts, who re-sell dedicated hosting - and who, crucially for us, offer full ColdFusion 8 support. Unfortunately their technical support left a lot to be desired with simple requests going un-answered for several days - and no response by telephone. We swiftly cancelled the account with them during our test period.

Eventually we came across Host-it Internet Solutions, who offer a rare mix of fully dedicated servers with 'managed' support (i.e. they will assist with software issues, configurations, installations, etc. as well as just hardware support). They are also reasonably priced (not cheap, but certainly competitive on pricing considering the service they provide).

Having spent a month trialling a fully dedicated server with them we have been immensely impressed with the level of support from them. They have even assisted with coding-related issues which go way beyond the call of duty for server maintenance and support. Support requests are responded to within minutes rather than hours - and they have been completely flexible and reliable so far.

What's also important, is that the company is a 'legitimate' and established one (it's easy to set up a hosting company from your own bedroom these days - which is not great if you decide to jack it in one day and leave all your clients in the lurch). These guys are well-staffed, have their own datacentres and appear, so far, to offer an awesome service. We're impressed - and anyone looking for a serious hosting parter with support for all the languages - including Coldfusion (hard to find in the UK) should give them a try.