Alternative to Microsoft Office Suites
When we visit client’s sites, they often ask if we can get the Microsoft Office Suites cheaper or how to install more licenses than the authorized numbers.
Obviously we do not tell the clients how to short change Microsoft. But we do inform them of other excellent alternatives to Microsoft Office Suites software: it is the “OpenOffice.org” suite.
They are consisted of Excel (spreadsheet), Word (word processor), PowerPoint (presentation), Access (database) and other type of software.
Our take is that unless you are using lots of macro programs within these Microsoft products, you would be able to use OpenOffice.org programs without much problems. This is true for most of our clients. OpenOffice.org suites read and write Microsoft Office file and other formats. And they are FREE!
Think of this: if you have 5 computers in your office, you would need 5 licenses. That would be around $1,000 or more. You could have spent that money on new computers or marketing campaigns.
Do you use Linux or Mac? No problem. OpenOffice.org supports both.
Drawbacks? Well, OpenOffice.org does not have Outlook equivalent for now. That is pretty much it, in our opinion.
We really like OpenOffice.org suites. At least please download them and give it a try.
T-mobile UMA Configurations for Netgear WPN824v3
Sometimes we visit the customer’s site and need to use our cell phones (Blackberry) to communicate with our office. And sometimes, we do not have cellular connections over there. That is why we depend on T-mobile’s hotsopt@home/UMA connections.
This time, I could not connect using the customer’s wifi connections… so I had to diagnose why.
The UMA diagnostics code was W006.1. Basically it is not communicating with T-Mobile’s UMA related servers; however, the wifi connection is in “connected” status.
Some website suggested that nslookup (IP look up for the internet address) needs to be resolved for punc.t-mobileuncs.com; however, in our office, this was not the necessity. Many websites suggested that the port 500 and 4500 needs to be opened. Well, they should not be blocked according to the client’s Netgear WPN824v3. But hey, let’s use the “port forwarding” feature for the device. Then the error code of the diag changed to the W004.1.
Mmmm…. something is going on. A few websites suggests that I should not use WEP wifi protection and should choose other methods. OK, try PSK…. and not working. OK, how about no protection…. and it WORKS! Why?????
It must be the router is blocking something. Making a long story short, you have to disable WMM (Wi-Fi Multi-media) and use QoS (Quality of Service) for port 500 and 4500. Then your UMA connection should work for this router.