Technically Speaking

Using Check-in at a Mobile Location

2008-01-14T19:52:00Z

Increasingly churches are meeting in temporary facilities such as a schools or theaters. In some instances the church is able to negotiate the use of the Internet at the temporary location. However, in many instances they cannot and they are unable to leverage Internet-based tools like Fellowship One Check-in. Until recently there were not many alternatives, however, with the advent of wireless broadband technology, this is now an option for some locations.

Wireless broadband is a fairly new technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet and data network access over a wide area. Just as the mobile phone revolutionized voice telephony by freeing the user from wires and stationary constraints, mobile broadband is doing the same for high-speed data. Most of the major carriers now offer mobile broadband cards that can be easily attached to a laptop pc. Our experience shows that you need to find a cellular provider that supports at least the 3G network. What is exciting is that providers are already working on support for new, even faster and more reliable, wireless network technologies such as 4G or WiMax. For now a broadband card that supports 3G should suffice.

Because different carriers may utilize different technologies and have different coverage areas it is highly recommended that your church tests a wireless broadband card from a prospective carrier before signing any type of contract. You should test the entire check-in process at your meeting location, including the adding and editing of records. Be sure that you are happy with the performance you are experiencing before implementing this solution.

If you choose to use a broadband wireless, we recommend that you get a separate card for each computer you plan to connect to the Internet. Using the local computers' Internet Connection Sharing or daisy chaining a wireless router off of the laptop has not proven effective in localized testing.

We did come across a new device that may helpful in sharing a single broadband card. Linksys has developed a router than can share a wireless broadband connection. Simply plug in the wireless broadband card from your carrier into the Linksys router and then connect the check-in computers to the router. We recommend that you hard-wire the Check-in computers to the Linksys router. Please note that the Linksys router is carrier specific. So check with your hardware provider to ensure that the Linksys router will work with your specific carrier and wireless broadband card.

Unfortunately, due to the number of variables with this solution, Fellowship Technologies cannot guarantee the results at your location. Should you have any questions regarding the use of wireless broadband for Check-in, our Infrastructure Support Team is available to assist in answering questions that may arise.

- jventry

A New Tool for our Toolbelt

2008-01-14T02:31:00Z

When we returned from the Christmas break we were excited to find a new present under the Data Center team's tree. It was an Internet appliance from Coradiant which provides real-time user and application performance monitoring and analysis. We were sold on the device after the first on-site demo. Once the device is installed it analyzes and summarizes the millions of transactions that flow to / from our Data Center and the end users of Fellowship One. It does so without any performance degradation as it is simply "sniffing" the network traffic as it flows by. Some of the major reasons for our decision to purchase the device were:

Coradiant has done an excellent job of pre-configuring the most common reports, queries, dashboards, and charts
It is highly configurable so we can report upon any number of custom attributes such as churchcode, userid, application, pagename, etc. with little or no new programming required
Its plug-n-play architecture allows us to install the device and begin reporting on the data within just a few hours
It can securely decrypt and report upon SSL traffic without any performance impact
It can report upon the path the user took through the application; This is extremely useful in determining the root cause of application errors and user behaviors
By matching tokens between the web requests it can calculate the network speed from the end user's computer to / from our Data Center; This is invaluable information when we are troubleshooting reports of slow performance

As you might surmise the device is useful to not just our Data Center team but also to our Customer Support and Product Development teams as well. Once fully configured the Customer Support team can leverage Coradiant's performance analytics when assisting customers. It will give us an unprecedented amount of detail on the user experience, from the pages that they accessed and in what order to the actual performance and network latency the user is experiencing from their computer. And our Product Development team can compare and contrast page performance statistics looking for hotspots where there are a high number of errors or subpar performance.

The installation and configuration of the device in our data center is scheduled for mid-January, we hope to be fully leveraging the device by early March 2008. It's exciting to have this new tool in our toolbelt as we strive to improve the end user experience.

- FT Data Center Team

Don’t Pay Too Much for Your Software

2007-11-01T06:58:00Z

One of the biggest challenges for a church IT department is controlling costs. Everything from computers, monitors and printers costs money putting a strain on an already tight budget. However, there is one area where a church can save money fairly easily and that is in the area of Microsoft software. Microsoft has the Open License Charity program that allows eligible nonprofit organizations to acquire multiple software licenses – rather than multiple software packages at reduced prices. You only need to purchase one complete software package and enough licenses to cover the remaining amount of computers.

There is a process involved to confirm that you are a nonprofit before being able to purchase Microsoft software through the Open License Charity program. Your software reseller can help you fill out the necessary paperwork so that you will qualify for the Open License Charity program. If you do not have a software vendor, there are many out there including CDW and Tiger Direct.