Fiber optic cabling can help everyone to do so. A type of network cable, fiber optic cables contain tiny strands of glass fibers, each wrapped in an insulated casing. These fibers, not much thicker than a human hair, transmit data by providing a pathway for it to travel through. These signals are maintained by the light being reflected by the cladding - a layer of glass that surrounds the core to insulate it.

As you may imagine, this is a very efficient way to transmit data - light is famous for being fast, after all. Furthermore, fiber optic cables can support a higher bandwidth as well as keep transmitted data more stable over longer distances. Now, a lot of the infrastructure that we use every day is supported by fiber optic cabling - including a lot of the Internet, telephone systems, and cable television.

The benefits of using fiber optic cabling include:

• Higher Data Capacities - A fiber optic cable is capable of carrying far more data than copper cables could. Fiber cables can transmit 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, and 100 Gbps.
• Longer Distance - Light can go much further without losing its strength, eliminating the need for as many signal boosters.
• Less Interference - By its nature, copper cabling is susceptible to external electromagnetic interference, and the shielding that is implemented to prevent this interference isn’t always effective. Fiber optic cable isn’t susceptible, and so interference of this kind isn’t a problem.

This makes fiber-optic cabling the preferred choice for long-distance connections, but some Internet providers use it for direct access for customers. Here are the ways these cables are deployed:

• Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) - Fiber used to deliver media services to residential buildings.
• Fiber to the Building/Block/Premises (FTTB) - This is fiber optic cables used to support commercial buildings.
• Fiber to the Curb of a Node (FTTC/N) - This cable is connected to a node, which then uses copper cables to connect to customers.
• Direct fiber - The is fiber optic cable that runs directly from the central hub to the customer, which costs a pretty penny.
• Shared fiber - Essentially the same as direct fiber, but split to serve multiple customers.

While it is possible to get a fiber optic connection to your business, it is extremely expensive to do - prohibitively expensive, in fact. With the costs that it comes with, it may only become an option if your provider is actively rolling out a new infrastructure.

To learn more about the technology that powers today’s businesses, and how you can put it to use for you, keep reading our blog!

If You Can, Shop on Sites You Trust

I, for one, don’t love creating new accounts across the Internet. If I can find a product on an online store I trust and already use, I’m comfortable paying a little more for the peace of mind. For example, Amazon isn’t always the cheapest option, but they’ve had a good track record for getting me what I order on time.

Look for the Lock

When you are doing any kind of shopping online, you need to check to see if your connection to the website is secure. Most modern browsers will show a padlock in front of the page address if you are browsing securely. 

This lock means you are surfing a site that is using an SSL certificate. This basically means your connection to the website is encrypted. It doesn’t mean that the whole website is 100 percent safe, but at least the initial connection is secure.

Use PayPal, Apple, or Amazon Pay if Possible

Sometimes, when making purchases online, the website will give you the ability to use a third-party payment system to make the transaction. For example, a site might let you choose to pay via PayPal or to type in your credit card information. The nice thing about using PayPal (or one of the other highly trusted payment systems) is that you aren’t plugging your financial information into a website you don’t trust. The transaction goes directly through PayPal and you are then redirected back to the online store. 

Be Aware of Phishing and Scams

The holiday season can be hectic, to the point where many people might let their guard down. Cybercriminals know this, and will try to game the system to steal your information. Be skeptical of emails that seem fishy or look too good to be true. If you receive an unexpected email from an online store about your account, don’t click any links in it. Instead, log back into the store and navigate to your account area. Most ecommerce sites use email to relay information about your purchase, but they expect users to interact with them on the website itself.

The Internet can make holiday shopping much easier, but with its conveniences, you still need to be safe. Although we can’t really help you pick out the perfect gift for your in-laws, we can help protect your business from online threats. Give us a call at 877-874-4629 to learn more!

To do so, we’ll be examining each of our contenders, Microsoft Outlook and Google’s Gmail, based on the same considerations. To start, let’s consider the actual interface that a user must navigate in each option.

Interface

Your preferences will come heavily into play as you weigh the two very different interfaces against each other, as each takes a very different approach. Gmail keeps it very simple, clearly and prominently labeling a user’s options to make it relatively easy to grow accustomed to. Different options will appear based on context - hidden until the user completes an action or accesses the in-message menu.

Outlook, on the other hand, takes the opposite tack - giving users a plethora of options to make use of (to the point that a user could potentially review multiple email accounts simultaneously). However, as many could find all of the options Outlook offers to be intimidating, the Office 365 version of Outlook does offer a trimmed-down version of the option Ribbon that stretches across the top of the screen. All you have to do to switch between these options is to click on the downward caret in the far right of the Ribbon.

Nevertheless, it offers its users so many options that Outlook presents its greatest weakness - its complexity. In addition to the Ribbon - stuffed with options as it is - there are three panes that make up the rest of the program. First, you have a comprehensive list of all email accounts you use Outlook to manage, second, a list of your messages that allows you to run inbox-specific searches and sort them based on assorted criteria, and third, a basic reading pane to view your messages, with the options to reply, reply all, or forward the message. That said, Outlook is what the majority of businesses have been using for decades, so chances are you are pretty familiar with it.

Composing Messages

This is a really important consideration to take into account when you are trying to determine the best email client, as you might assume. While Outlook may arguably have too many features displayed in its various menus and toolbars, this issue was not carried over into the message composer… although this is not to say that a user is exactly short on options when it comes to formatting their email message. Microsoft has also made it easy to share documents stored in OneDrive, a user’s PC, or items created in Outlook itself. The Ribbon, of course, offers a litany of other features to make creating, scheduling, and reviewing your emails much simpler.

Comparatively, while Google offers a little less through Gmail, the apparent focus on simplicity gives a user a very usable solution with all the features that most will ever really need. Attaching media to an email can admittedly be a complicated process, namely due to the three separate ways to do so. There’s a button to insert files from the computer’s storage, a button for inserting photos from Google Photos, and a button to insert files from your Google Drive. Finally, as a very compelling feature, Gmail allows you to cancel a message that is being sent if you catch your mistake quickly enough.

Email Management

Finally, in order for you to actually be productive as you use your email, it is best that you have some level of organization to it. This is why both of our subjects today feature some degree of management functionality.

Outlook, for instance, offers subscribers to Office 365 an automated means of prioritizing emails through its Focused Inbox feature. After a little bit of time “training” this feature, you can rely on it to separate your important messages from incoming sales and other promotional correspondence. Messages in the same conversation can be consolidated, making conversations much simpler to read, and folders and subfolders can be used to keep better track of them.

A user in-the-know can also create rules in Outlook to make the management of their emails even easier. For instance, a rule can be created that automatically files any messages with the word “Project” in the subject line into a specialized folder, as well as other actions based on assorted criteria.

Gmail is similarly customizable, in terms of management and organization, with folders and tabs to differentiate your messages between and settings that can be configured to automatically take care of this differentiation for you. However, if one of your conversations branches out into multiple threads, Gmail can become somewhat confusing, as all of its messages are just arranged chronologically. Having said that, Gmail somewhat redeems itself with its Labels. Labels allow you to organize your email based on the context of the message, by applying a label to each message as it comes in. These labels can also be nested within each other - so let’s say that you were involved in a lot of project work, you could create a folder for project-related emails, and sub-folders for individual projects.

There are a lot of considerations to make when deciding upon an email platform, with far more variables than we’ve covered here. For more assistance, reach out to the expert consultants at Patriot Tech Services Inc.. We can help you decide upon the best business technology for your needs, allowing you to focus on other pressing matters. Give us a call at 877-874-4629 to learn more.