Postini FAQ

Managed Services FAQ

Q.  What kinds of service plans do you offer and what do they cover?
A.  Our most popular and effective plan is called Service4 ONE.  This provides for unlimited remote and on-site service as it pertains to your network and ensures that you get a true fixed-fee support cost.  We do offer alternative plans based on your IT needs. We don't believe in "nickel and diming" our clients, so our plans are not traditionally based on the "per device" options you see out there, but rather on the specific needs of a site.

Q.  Is your Service4 backup service included with all plans?
A. We have found that different clients have huge variants in the amount of data being stored.  Since backup is a utility-based computing (pay for what you need only), it wasn’t effective to have the backup services priced into all plans since that would mean that those with lower backup requirements were paying more than they needed to.  Hence, we have separated our backup service into a separate plan.

Q.  I need a service that is not specifically listed on your website.  Does that mean you don’t provide it?
A.  No.  We are working with limited real-estate on the web site and simply cannot detail each and every type of service we provide.  Chances are, if you ask if we can do it the answer is YES, or we will find somebody for you who can.

Q.  Do you provide services outside of Massachusetts?
A.  Absolutely.  IT4 can provide IT services throughout the continental United States.  Our unique business model allows for full management of your systems regardless of your location.  Should you need an onsite engineer, we have a US-dispatch facility which can dispatch field engineers to any location with guaranteed reliability and response times.

Q. Do you guarantee your services?
A.  Yes!  We are so confident in our services that all of our support plans come with a 90-day no-questions-asked guarantee.  We also have strict Service Level Agreements that we provide with each agreement.

Q.  How can I learn more about your services?
A.  Please fill out an information request or sign up for one of our webinars for details on specific services we offer.

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Whaleback FAQ

Q.   Why is Whaleback different than other hosted providers?
A.  The main answer here is that Whaleback is NOT a hosted provider.  We provide you with a full managed IP telephony platform with on-premises equipment.  This gives you the performance, features, and reliability of on-site equipment with a fully managed solution to ensure you don’t have any issues or problems.

Q.  Isn’t VoIP unreliable?
A.  Almost 100% of Fortune 500 companies are running VoIP in some manner.  The reliability factor comes from hosted providers or those who do not have a quality control in effect over the internet line.  Whaleback provides dedicated bandwidth for your voice traffic, completely separating it from your data traffic, and is the only provider in its class to offer 99.999% reliability (called “Five 9’s” in the industry).

Q.  Will my monthly fee vary from month to month?
A. No.  The fees are per-user and are all inclusive of local, long distance, and 800-service if provisioned.  They even include taxes and fees!  Your bill will only change if you grow and add more users.

Q.  Does this Include International calling?
A.  No.  But if you do a lot of international calling we can provide you with the current rate chart.  Most International calls through Whaleback are less expensive than current US long distance rates.   Example:  Calls to Sweden are only $0.05/minute!

Q.  How long does it take to get installed?
A.  General rule of thumb is 4-6 weeks.  Most of the timeline is based on how quickly the internet provider responds to install a new line.  This may be able to be expedited in emergencies.

Q. Do I need to pay for the additional Internet line?
A.  No.  It is included as part of your plan.

Q: What happens if I lose Internet or have a power failure?
A: This is where Whaleback exceeds.  All equipment has the capability of running on a single UPS battery backup, powering the server, Internet, and even phones!  Should the Internet line fail, Whaleback has a technology called RAIL which can instantly fail-over to your data line.  Larger sites can get multiple additional lines.  In an emergency, we can even automatically fail your system over to a cell phone (or multiple cell phones).

Q.  What can you do for us in the event of a disaster?
A.  Whaleback can have a fully functional system to you within 24-hours, complete with all of your configuration and data (since it is automatically backed up nightly).  All you would need is an Internet connection and you could be 100% up and running at a different location.

Q.  What if I move my business?
A.  For a nominal fee, Whaleback will reprovision your Internet line at an alternative location.  All you would need to do is move your system from your old to your new site and be up and running, 100%.  Same phone numbers, setup, extension.  It would be invisible to your clients and vendors.

Q. Where can I see Whaleback in action?
A. Not only do we run it at our location, but we have fully functional demonstration kits, complete with server and phones, that we can demo at your location.  Try and find another solution that can do that!

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Postini FAQ

Q: What is Postini?
A: We are constantly striving to provide the best solutions for our clients. Postini is an email management system that provides junk mail and virus filtering for messages without burdening your in-house system resources. Postini also allows for better user-control over their settings and advanced features such as delivery of email to a wireless device.

Q: What is the Postini Message Center?
A: Postini blocks all blatant junk mail, but lets other email through to a Quarantine area so that it does not burden your inbox. The message center is an area where you can view, deliver, or reject quarantined email, change settings (such as the aggressiveness of the spam filter) and add senders to either an "approved senders" or "blocked senders" list.

Q: I am getting notifications each time I get SPAM.
A: This will happen until the first time you log into your Message Center. Notifications will subsequently be once daily at 4pm (changed from 9pm per request).

Q: How will I know if messages are in quarantine?
A: Only suspected junk mail will be in quarantine. You can check the message center during the day, however you will receive an email each day at 4pm with a "quarantine summary" that has the sender and subject of all messages in quarantine. You can click the "deliver" link next to the email to have the message sent to your inbox immediately. If no messages are in quarantine you will not receive this email.

Q: I have emails from the same user that are constantly sent to quarantine. How can I let those through automatically?
A: In your message center, when you choose to deliver a quarantined message you are prompted whether you want to add that user to the approved senders list. This will bypass spam rules for any future messages from this sender. Alternatively, you can add users to this list manually in the message center.

Q: I am getting a lot of junk email in my inbox, even with Postini.
A: You can log into the message center and adjust the Junk email settings to be more aggressive. This will block more potential junk mail but also may have more false positives. Each user can experiment to what works best for him/her. If you are a new user, check with your Administrator to ensure you were added to the Postini list.

Q: Help! I forgot my password for the message center! How can I get in?
A: If you enter the incorrect password a forgot password link will appear. Click this link to reset your password.

Q: What are the "wireless settings" it shows in the message center?
A: You can have emails forwarded to your wireless device at no charge. See the Postini User Instructions for more info on setting up this feature.

Q: Can I download the Postini instructions?
A: Yes, you can download both a full user manual and a tri-fold quick-sheet from our support documents page.

Q: I don't get a lot of junk mail. Do I need to use Postini?
A: You can turn off junk mail filtering via the message center though we do not advise it since Postini also provides a first-level virus defense. If you don't get much junk mail you will rarely get a daily quarantine.

Q: What happens to undelivered Quarantined messages?
A: Quarantined messages are kept for two weeks in the queue then deleted. There is no way to recover these messages once deleted.

Q: How can I log into the message center?
A: Each daily summary has a "message center" link. You can also go to http://login.postini.com or visit our support page which has a login section.

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