the sephone blog

Last night we performed a large move of servers at our main datacenter. While we were moving, we noticed that one of our primary mail servers (Cyclops, or mail.sephone.com) required a server rebuild before it could be moved to the new location.

If you use mail.sephone.com as your address to check mail (either as the address you use to access webmail or your incoming server), you were one of the domains affected by this rebuild.

If you’re not sure which mail server your site uses, please use our new MyServer tool to check. Your domain is on Cyclops if the name next to “Your mail server:” is “Cyclops.”

One important change for Cyclops users: you must use your primary domain and primary e-mail to log into your account. If you have a primary account of robert.smith@example.com, for instance, but you also have an alias or forward (an email address that automatically forwards to a primary account) at robert@example.com, you must log in with the robert.smith@example.com address. Also, if your business uses multiple domain names (for example: example-site.com, example-company.com, and example.com) you must use the primary domain name, instead of the aliases or forwards. If you’re unsure which domain is your primary domain, give us a call.

We apologize for any inconvenience that results from this move. Please keep in mind that this server rebuild will provide faster mail connectivity in the future for your domain.

We’ve provided additional information for webmail (by going to http://mail.sephone.com or http://mail.yourdomain) and a POP (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) users below.

Additional information for webmail users

If you normally view your mail by logging into http://mail.sephone.com or http://mail.yourdomain, you will notice a new version of webmail. Most of the features of the new webmail match those of the old webmail, but you may notice a couple of differences after you log in.

Please remember that we provide webmail as a courtesy to our users. If possible, please use a POP program like Outlook or Outlook Express to check your mail. If you need a POP program, Thunderbird is a great option that is free to download.

Please give us a call at (207) 262-5040 or send an e-mail to support@sephone.com if you’re having trouble logging in, checking your mail, or if you need to administer the users in your system.

Additional information for POP (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) users

If you use Outlook, Thunderbird, or another program to check your mail, you may need to check your account settings to make sure that they are correct. Most importantly, make sure that your incoming mail server is mail.yourdomain (the incoming mail server for datavenger.com, for example, would be mail.datavenger.com). Also make sure you are using your primary email address as well as your primary domain name in your email address and incoming mail server.

For assistance with changing your mail settings, please consult the instructions for Outlook or Outlook Express, using the settings found in the MyServer tool.

Please give us a call at (207) 262-5040 or send an e-mail to support@sephone.com if you’re having trouble connecting, checking your mail, or if you need to administer the users in your system.

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“The truth, George. Always tell the truth. It’s the easiest thing to remember.”
–David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross

One of the services I provide as a media developer is producing audio — commercials, on-hold messages, and more recently, podcasts. I’d like to recommend one of the latter.

Dean Brenner is President and Founder of The Latimer Group, a company that focuses on helping executives and professionals develop powerful and persuasive communication skills. I recently finished work on one of Dean’s podcasts, called “The Key to Delivering a Powerful Message,” in which he discusses the importance of authenticity in delivering your message. When delivering any message, Dean explains, simply be yourself: “It’s more honest. It’s more real… The last thing we should attempt to do… is to sound the same.” Dean goes on to say that “being authentic when you speak is a form of telling the truth.” In addition to their importance in public speaking, those two statements alone almost entirely define what make up a successful advertising campaign, because after all, what is advertising but persuasion in thirty seconds?

One key to having your ads work as effectively as possible is to have them be remembered. And the best way to fail at that is to have your ads look or sound like “all the other ads out there.” This month, as you know, is the NCAA Basketball tournament. Have you noticed how many advertisers are having “March Madness” sales? It happens to be that the phrase “March Madness” is copyrighted, and thus, illegal to use without consent from the NCAA… However, it doesn’t stop the phrase from being bandied about the newspapers and the airwaves by virtually every car, furniture, and RV dealer across the country. I have colleagues in the radio business who are upset because “Joe’s Furniture is using ‘March Madness’ in their ads. So why can’t my client use it in his?” Legal issues aside, if someone else is saying it, why do you want to? That doesn’t make you stand out. It makes you blend in. It makes you part of the crowd. It makes you forgettable.

Honesty in your advertising is as important. More and more nowadays, the public’s “BS radar” is up, and very finely tuned. Consumers rely on other consumers for information, rather than ads, which are often discounted as “them just trying to sell me something.” Instead, people consult blogs, online user reviews, friends and “regular people” in a fervent search for honest feedback about their purchases. This is why it’s imperative that what you say in your ads, you deliver in your business. If your ads talk about “top-notch auto repair, a clean, comfortable waiting area, and a friendly staff that greets you with a smile,”* then your customers had better get all those things when they come in. Otherwise, you’re perceived as trying to put one over on ‘em. And your customers share those experiences… right after they stop coming to your store.

Thanks to Dean Brenner of the Latimer Group for inspiring this post. For more info on The Latimer Group, please visit TheLatimerGroup.com

* Ordinarily, I would never condone such blatant abuse of advertising clichés in my ads. I only use them here to make a point.

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What is a web browser
A web browser is a piece of software that you look at websites with. More than likely it’s what you are using to view this article right now. I wrote this article in a web browser. Many people think a web browser is how they “get on the internet” or how they “look at the internet”.

What is Firefox
Firefox is a web browser that is a product of a company called Mozilla. Its history dates all of the way back to the earliest days of the internet with the Mosaic web browser which became the Netscape web browser. Firefox is the chief rival to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and brought more secure and standards compliant browser to the general public that included new features such as tabbed browsing, a spell checker, incremental find, live bookmarking, a download manager, addons, and a search system that uses Google. Firefox at this time, has about a 17% market share. Firefox is available for nearly all versions of Windows, Macs and Linux machines.

What is Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer, often called just IE, is Microsoft’s Web browser. At this time it is the most widely used browser and comes pre-installed on all windows machines since 1995. The latest stable release is IE7. IE has been criticized in the past for the lack of full CSS standards support, lack of full PNG support. IE7 is better. IE8, their latest browser in beta right now, does comply with standards support unseen in any Microsoft browser before it. IE is available for all Windows releases.

What is Safari
Safari is Apple’s web browser, it was released in 2003 and has been included with every Mac since version 10.2. Safari has some of the best CSS support of any web browser available. Safari has a bookmark technology, and features a management scheme that functions like the iTunes jukebox software, integrates Apple’s QuickTime multimedia tabbed-browsing interface. A web search box is a standard component of the Safari interface, as are software services that automatically fill out web forms, manage passwords via Keychain and spell check entries into web page text fields. The browser also includes an integrated pop-up ad blocker. Safari is available on Mac OS X, and several Windows releases.

Which one do I use?
Well, that is a great question. It depends on what you like to do on the Internet. Here at Sephone, we are partial to Firefox because of the great development addons to help us do our job. Try all of them if you want and pick your favorite.

No matter what browser you pick, it’s important to make sure that your browser software and OS are updated with the latest patches on a regular basis.

Happy browsing.

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