Google Voice - I love it

So, one of my pet peeves is uninvited/unwelcome people that feel they have the right to intrude into the solitude of our home via the telephone line.

Caller ID was a big help in this regard.  Since Joyce and I are pretty much connected to our cell phones almost everyone of our friends and contacts use our mobile devices to reach us.  We still maintain the age old land line, perhaps an anachronism, but nevertheless, we do.  It may be the E911 thing, or some safety issue like that.  We don't answer the phone unless the caller is someone we want to talk to.  HOWEVER, we have to go to the phone and look at the Caller ID to make this determination.

Anyway, the point of this post is GOOGLE VOICE.  This is one terrific service - and FREE from Google.  It's still only available in Beta format and on a limited invitation basis.  There are a number of aspects to this service - it gives you a telephone number (in your area if you wish),  You can access the system by calling your GV number, giving your password, and then you are able to call anywhere in the US with no long distance charges.  You also get voice mail and can connect as many phones (mobile, home, office, etc.) to this account.  When a call comes in to your GV number, it will ring all of your connected phones.  The first one to be answered gets the call.  You can screen incoming calls to decide if you want to take the call or send it to voice mail.  AND, the voice mails can be sent to your email box as a sound file attachment and you can get a transcription of the call too.

What I did with this is fantastic.  At no additional charge, my local telephone (land line) service lets me forward my calls to another number AND I can get a distinctive ring number for my home.  So, I forward my home phone number to my GV number.  GV can screen and route calls based on Caller ID.  If the call is from one of our legitimate callers (like my sister-in-law) then I forward it to the home phone distinctive ring number, my wifes mobile and my mobile.  If the call is from anyone not on the preferred caller list, I send the call directly to voice mail.  The net result of this is that unless a caller is one of a very few desired callers - all calls go to voice mail and our home phones almost NEVER RING!

Also, for the callers that I identify from the logs as being solicitors, I can customize a voice mail 'greeting' for them or just send them to a 'dead letter drop'.

Response Point Administrator install problems - o/s Certificate issue

This past week I rebuilt my office desktop pc.  I went from Windows 7 Ultimate (RC) to Windows 7 Ultimate (RTM).  I did a clean install and everything when well until I tried to run the Response Point Administrator program after installing it.  The initial running of the program normally wants to install the Base Unit certificate to your workstation.  The screen where you view the certificate details ordinarily has a button to Install the certificate.  In my case - there was NO BUTTON.  I tried using mmc.exe with the certificate add-in.  I would go through the steps to install the certificate, I received a message upon completion telling me THE IMPORT WAS SUCCESSFUL.  However, when I viewed the list of certificates in the data store - there was no certificate for Response Point!

I suspected this was an issue with the O/S but could not find any helpful tech notes when I did my searches.  Since I encountered this with the RP Admin program - I asked the Microsoft Response Point

team for help.  They came to my rescue.  Many Thanks to Doug King and team.  This was an O/S issue.  They found a KP article 932156.  This article has a hotfix for Vista but since I was running Windows 7 I used the included instructions to change a permission in the registry.

I've got a few visual aids I collected during this trouble shooting.  In the event that they might help someone else - I include here for reference.

First is a video that illustrates the problems that I observed.  If you want to see the video in larger format, you will probably need to go to http://drop.io/allenmiller and download it.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Next are some images that illustrate the fix.

 

   

SMB Nation - LV NV

Changed my mind - now I am going to go to SMB Nation in October in Las Vegas.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there.  Drop me an email if you are going to be there - let's get together.

Outlook Anywhere Woes are now Fixed

I recently updated my server from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008.  I also updated my laptop to Windows 7.  When I went to configure my Outlook 2007 of the laptop for RPC over HTTP, now called Outlook Anywhere - I was not able to do it!  And the reason I was not able to do it was that the option and checkbox to enable Outlook Anywhere were NOT THERE in the GUI.  Here's a screen shot of what I had and one of what I should have had.

My actual configuration screen:

And now here is a screen shot of what it SHOULD have looked like:

I looked all over and did a lot of internet searches but could not find any clues on this.  Finally I went to the Microsoft Partner private newsgroups and Wind Ying provided a quick response that did the trick.

There is a registry key that for me on Windows 7 was:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC
EnableRPCTunnelingUI - was set to 0 - should have been set to 1

I made the change to 1 and voila - fixed. 

Thank you Wind

Congratulations to me! Is this me?

I received notice of this most prestigious award in my email.  I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone  that has helped make Allen Miller Computer Consulting - oh wait - this award is to Miller Allen Computer Consulting!  I guess these most knowledgeable 'judges' snagged my name from the local telco directory listing which was screwed up for a few years.

I will just accept the award here - and forego the opportunity to contact the committee so that I can send them MONEY to pay for the processing of the rest of the award!

I can hardly contain myself. Isn't it a beauty?

Following is the content of my notification email -

Earlier this year, I sent a notification email to you recognizing that Miller Allen Computer Consulting had been selected for the 2009 Best of Cincinnati Award in the Custom Computer Software Analysis category.

In recognition of your achievement, a 2009 Best of Cincinnati Award has been designed for display at your place of business. You may arrange to have your award sent directly to Miller Allen Computer Consulting by following the simple steps on the 2009 Best of Cincinnati Award order form. Simply copy and paste this link into your browser to receive your award:
https://www.us-ca.org/xxxx-xxxx

Each year, the US Commerce Association (USCA) identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Also, a copy of the press release publicizing the selection of Miller Allen Computer Consulting has been posted on our website. The USCA hereby grants Miller Allen Computer Consulting a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, distribute, and display this press release in any media formats and through any media channels.

An Award Code has been assigned to your company that can be used on our website for quick access to your award information and press release.

Your Award Code is: xxxx-xxxx

Sincerely,

Ashley Carter
Selection Committee Chair
US Commerce Association

The intended recipient of this notification is the Marketing Director for Miller Allen Computer Consulting. If you have received this email in error please forward it to the intended recipient. If you do not wish to receive further advertisements from Best of Cincinnati Award Program, please mail a written request to: us-ca.org, 2020 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20006 or simply click to opt-out.