Helpful Windows Tool for “Terminal Service Connections Exceeded” Error

By Aaron Grumelot on March 2, 2010

On the rarest of occasions when I find myself between a rock and a hard place it often helps to have an effective tool which you can use to find your way out. Since I use the windows Remote Desktop Connection tool often while performing my duties it pains me when I come on to a stumbling block such as the error “Terminal Service connections exceeded”. This error comes as a result of too many users connecting via the remote desktop program and it can often be more trouble to remedy this situation.

Usually a simple call or message to a co-worker will allow us to gain access to these servers but in the event of a frozen or dropped connection the other alternatives are to gain physical access to this server or wait until the connection is disconnected by the server after the preset timeout setting is exceeded.

In my research of solutions to this situation I have stumbled across a helpful windows tool that can help you gain access in the event of a Connections Exceeded lock-out. To access this tool we simply need to run a command window by going to start and typing cmd in to the search bar.

In the DOS window you simply enter this command to view current Remote Desktop connection on the server:

Qwinsta /server:IP.of.Server.

This will provide you with a list of active or idle connections.

C:\WINDOWS>qwinsta /server:

SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
console 0 Conn wdcon
rdp-tcp 65536 Listen rdpwd
RDPuser1 1 Disc rdpwd

To disconnect an idle or frozen session you will simply need to enter this command.

Rwinsta ID /server:IP.of.server
e.x rwinsta 1 /server: IP.of.server

To use the rwinsta command you will need to replace the ID with the connection ID that is displayed using the qwinsta tool.

If done correctly you should be able to use the RDP tool to connect to the server which was once inaccessible through Remote Desktop.

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in | Tagged | Leave a response

Guest Blog: Hosted Business Intelligence – Get in the Game

By Stu Silberman on February 25, 2010

Stu Silberman, head of Marketing and Sales for Dataspace, discusses the benefits of hosting for business intelligence applications.

Ready for two of my favorite business mantras?

1.   “Don’t buy anything you can lease.  Don’t lease anything you can borrow.  Don’t borrow anything you can liberate…”

These words from a business school professor many years ago are timeless – cash is valuable so why tie it up unnecessarily?

2.   “Never up, never in.”  This one is from my Dad, who taught me on a golf course when I was a teenager the concept of calculated risk.

The meaning is that when putting long you often have to choose between hitting too hard or too soft.  Hit too hard because at least you’ve got a chance the ball will go in.  (More)

If you’ve been thinking about deploying a new technology, such as business intelligence that provides:

  • executive scorecards to replace gut-feel with fact-based decisions and get everyone using the same data
  • reporting that provides the information your organization needs to operate more efficiently
  • predictive analytics so that you can anticipate market trends rather than react to them

but are hesitant to tie up cash in operating infrastructure, software licenses and maintenance fees, you’ll hit too short and keep using spreadsheets.  You’ll never sink your putt that way.

Another option: use a managed, hosted business intelligence service.  One of our pre-built business intelligence packages on a server from a provider such as Online Tech offers these advantages:

  • quickly deploy a technology you’ve been hearing about, but think is only for organizations larger than yours
  • eliminate large up-front investments and long-term commitments
  • prove it in your business and then expand without losing a dime of sunk cost
  • leave your IT staff (mostly) alone so they can focus on mission-critical business applications
  • address your challenges with a ready-to-use, pre-packaged offering (we have them for finance, legal and health care applications, with more under development) or view our industry expertise for descriptions of custom work we have successfully completed for a variety of clients
  • be recognized for having the foresight to take a low-risk gamble with a potentially transformational result

Don’t shy away from the promise of a new technology such as business intelligence – use the concept of mantra 1 to put it to use in a way that preserves your working capital.  Use a hosted offering to dip your toe in the water.

Dataspace has chosen Online Tech as their partner for their hosted business intelligence offerings.  Contact Stu to discuss how this partnership can benefit your organization.

Stu Silberman, Head of Marketing and Sales, Dataspace

Stu leads all marketing and sales efforts for Dataspace, an Ann Arbor-based Business Intelligence firm that replaces gut-feel guesses with fact-based decision-making to help clients of all sizes identify trends, react earlier, and yes, even predict the future.

Before joining Dataspace Stu launched new technologies at PaineWebber (now UBS), and held several leadership positions at Ford Motor Company in marketing, finance and IT, including a stint in Japan where he deployed the company’s current voice of the customer process.

Stu has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Lehigh University, an M.B.A. in Marketing from Wharton, and is PMP® certified.

For more information on business intelligence, email Stu

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in , | Tagged , , | Leave a response

Aging Data Center: Time to Remodel or Outsource?

By Online Tech on February 25, 2010

The recent economic downturn has put tremendous pressure on data center operators, as it has on most everyone else, to cut costs and avoid expenses wherever possible. Despite the economic turmoil, however, demand for data storage space and computing power has not diminished. As a result, companies have been faced with an increasingly difficult decision: upgrade or outsource?

As data center equipment ages, companies must decide whether to upgrade existing data centers (or even construct new data centers) or to simply outsource to colocation or managed servers instead. Just as consumers have tended toward making their current automobiles last longer rather than purchasing new ones, data center operators have been keeping their aging equipment in operation longer than they might otherwise have done in better economic times. Although the breakdown of a consumer’s car can be annoying and inconvenient, the breakdown of data center equipment can be disastrous. As the equipment ages, its risk of failure increases. In light of the ongoing cost of maintaining a data center, as well as the periodic need to update equipment and even, in some cases, construct new facilities or expand existing ones, the temptation to outsource data center operations can become difficult to resist.  With the increasing focus on cloud-based computing, the ability to outsource computing and storage resources to others who are better able (or more willing) to tackle the challenges of data center operation and maintenance may be a viable option for many companies facing the prospect of costly upgrades to their data center facilities.

Read the rest of the article at Data Center Journal.

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in , | Tagged , , , | Leave a response

Operational Excellence in Managed Data Centers

By Mike Klein on February 21, 2010

The value proposition for a managed data center is actually pretty simple:

1)      Our clients save money compared to operating their own data center.

Whether through basic colocation (where we provide the data center infrastructure and our clients manage their own servers), through managed colocation (where we manage our clients servers in our data center), or managed dedicated servers (where we buy, operate and manage dedicated servers for our clients), we can deliver our data center solutions more cost effectively than the do-it-yourself model. Because we operate multi-tenant data centers where our costs are amortized across hundreds of clients.  This allows us to offer a higher tier service at a lower price most IT departments can do themselves.

2)      Our clients reduce their operational risk compared to running their own data center.

We hire the best and share their expertise across hundreds of our clients.  Because our engineers work with hundreds of clients and thousands of servers, chances are that they’ve seen a wider variety of problems and issues than many typical IT departments see.  This experience and wealth of experience helps our colocation and managed server clients reduce their operational risk.

3)      Our clients receive a level of data center operational excellence rarely seen with in-house data centers.

This is not to say that our clients don’t drive accountability and excellence by their IT staff, but in-house staff have responsibilities that go beyond keeping the data center running, the network operational, and the servers running 24×7.  That’s all managed data center operators do – we make sure our clients servers and applications are always on, always on-line and connected to the Internet, and always running.

At Online Tech, we have built a level of metrics, accountability and visibility in what we do that helps us drive operational excellence beyond what you’ll find at most data centers.

Some might say we go too far, but we measure everything that goes on in our data center.  We measure response time on support tickets, network bandwidth, power and network uptime, power usage, and even daily usage of OTPortal, our customer’s window into their data center operations. These metrics become the pulse of the company – were we can see the numbers on everything that is going on in our data center.

Along with these data center metrics, we also have built a high level of accountability into our daily operations.  From our systems that automatically track incoming tickets and how quickly we resolve those tickets, to daily huddles where the entire company conferences every single day for 7 minutes.  In our daily huddles, our employees track about a dozen daily metrics across the company – including the number of support tickets.  Any ticket open for longer than 24 hours is discussed with the entire company, along with the name of the engineer that “owns” getting a solution and when that solution will be in place.  This level of accountability has helped us drive average ticket resolution time from over 50 hours two years ago to less than 2 hours last quarter.

And finally, we provide a level of transparency and visibility into the data center that many of our clients say were difficult to achieve in their own data centers.  From running an open book company, to systems that share the status of our data center operations across the company and with our clients, we believe that transparency is a key value in our business and a key part of our success.  Read this post on transparency in IaaS companies and our core values.

Of all the things we do, the operational excellence we deliver in taking care of our colocation and managed server clients every single day is one of our greatest sources of pride, and one of the reasons our clients stay with us year after year.

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in , , , | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a response

How Social Media Has Helped Online Tech Improve Server Hosting Customer Service

By Mike Klein on February 9, 2010

Sometimes it seems so obvious after the fact.  That’s the case when we started using social media tools to improve customer support in our managed data center business. Online Tech is fairly active in the social media world when it comes to marketing our managed servers and colocation products to make sure the world knows who we are, what we do, and to inject our opinions and viewpoints from time to time.

But the breakthrough came from a new tool that our support team added to OTPortal™, our secure online customer portal.  The portal includes a dashboard for monitoring, reporting, remote management, account and support ticket management.  Our operations team also uses OTPortal to monitor every device in our data center, communicate with clients on ticket management, track assets, and track orders, work orders and change orders.

Let me back up just a bit.  At Online Tech, we value transparency in everything we do.  We run with a fundamental philosophy that our data centers are really our clients’ data centers – as providing them transparency into our data center operations is key to the relationships we hold with our clients and retaining their trust.   We also operate in a very transparent environment in terms of sharing our successes and failures.  We hold ourselves accountable at every level in the organization and hiding information (good or bad) isn’t part of who we are.

One of the challenges we faced was communicating across the company all of the activities that our operations team delivered on a daily basis to assure high uptime availability of our client’s servers– from the mundane (but extremely important) daily walk-through inspection all our clients’ devices to infrastructure maintenance and responding to customer requests on managing their servers. It’s extremely important for members of our operations team to know what each other is doing.

At the same time, nothing is more embarrassing for a sales person than to be engaging one of our clients, and not know that they have a support ticket pending or that the operations team is working on an issue for them.  It’s just as important for the senior management team and sales team to see what’s going on in operations on a rolling basis.

So our team created a social media tool in OTPortal that we call OTTalk™.   It lets every employee post maintenance, repair, and customer ticket status in real-time to the portal. Client specific activities include the client’s name and the associated ticket number (if the work is on an open support ticket). OTTalk uses a Facebook or Twitter-like feed (without the character limitations) so that a scrolling history of all of the activities in operations can be seen by the entire team.

OTTalk has become an internal social media tool that has simplified and enhanced communication across the entire company.  We have it available internally on our smart phones, so when we’re walking the floor or interacting with a customer, we can pull up OTTalk in real time to check status or relay information.

Our next step? You’ll see OTTalk made available to our customers so they can see the real-time status of the data center, the daily maintenance activities we do on their behalf, and their client-related support items.  They’ll also be able to communicate directly with our team through this private, customer-focused social media tool.

  • Share/Bookmark
2 Comments

Posted in , | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Responses

Guide to Becoming PCI Compliant: A Historical Perspective and Introduction

By Adam Goslin on February 4, 2010

Online Tech brings you a new series on PCI Compliance by Adam Goslin, an experienced consultant that assists companies with achieving and maintaining PCI Compliance.  PCI compliance is important for all of our clients who hold and handle credit card information. The series will explain the six objectives of PCI DSS and how to maintain PCI compliance for your company. We hope that you find it useful and we welcome your feedback.

PCI DSS stands for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and is an organization founded in 2004 as a result of the combination of 5 different security programs in operation at the time by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, JCB and American Express.  The intent of this standard is to protect cardholder data (CHD) through an approach that covers every aspect of a technology based solution from policies through infrastructure and everything in between.

PCI DSS compliance attainment is a process that can be extremely daunting – but a process that is sure to yield improvements to the security position of everyone that ventures through the process. Navigating the waters of PCI DSS is a task best undertaken with the appropriate personnel and partnerships to assist in the journey.

One of these critical roles is an individual or company to assist with guiding your organization through the requirements of PCI DSS that has been there before, and has the capability to make recommendations based on their past experience.  This role is critical to making your way through PCI DSS, and frankly the difference between costing and saving your organization money.  The cost to an organization varies dramatically based upon several factors, with the most significant being resolving the PCI DSS requirements while doing so in a cost effective manner as there are literally a myriad of choices in the marketplace today.  Seaming these choices together into an integrated security solution while saving you money is the role that this individual or company performs.

Another critical role is an individual or company to assist with implementation of your secure production solution into an environment that meets or exceeds the standards for physical security of PCI DSS.

Online Tech delivers a managed hosting solution that provides your organization with such facilities, having already attained their SAS-70 certification, they have the staff on hand to assist your organization with establishing your secure production network in a facility that passes all elements of PCI certification.  Online Tech can provide experience and expertise to your team with architecting the solution, hardware acquisition, configuration of the equipment and required documentation – all critical elements of the PCI DSS solution.

Due to the sheer breadth of scope of a PCI DSS compliance endeavor, ultimately everyone in your organization will in some way, shape or form, be impacted by these efforts.  All of the compliance efforts by your team and partners culminate with the affirmation from a QSA (Qualified Security Assessor), whose job it is to assess organizations against the PCI DSS standards and are certified to do so via the PCI Security Standards Council.

Companies have their stance against the PCI DSS standard evaluated by the QSA, with open items remediated and reviewed, then can make their submission to the PCI Council for certification.  It is at this point that your company shifts from attaining PCI DSS compliance to maintaining PCI DSS compliance.

For my part, my name is Adam Goslin, your virtual MC for this tour through PCI DSS compliance.  Having consulted with several organizations on their trip through PCI DSS, and having been in the position of both having to obtain PCI DSS for an organization, and having been engaged as a consultant to other organizations looking to attain certification for themselves – it has been a unique experience that provides a keen level of insight into the difference between the art and science of PCI navigation.  My personal mission is to assist companies in enhancing their security stance ­– focusing in this case on attaining and maintaining their compliance with PCI DSS as there are many good choices on the market when making selections for PCI and just as many bad ones.

Look for the next post in this series in March that will provide an overview of the PCI DSS Control Objectives before we get into a detailed review of each objective.

Adam Goslin, PCI DSS Consultant
Adam has an IT career that spans more than 15 years, recently leading IT efforts for Edcor Data Services, then leading the IT and Infrastructure teams of Osiris Innovations Group as the Vice-President of IT, including leading the company through achieving PCI DSS Compliance, and presently providing PCI DSS consulting services to numerous companies looking to achieve or maintain their PCI DSS Compliance.

For more information about PCI compliance, you can email Adam at

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in | Tagged , , , | Leave a response

Diagnose your Network Problems Quickly, Troubleshoot with Nmap

By Aaron Grumelot on February 1, 2010

Troubleshooting is often a long road filled with many turns that could lead you down the wrong path, further away from a resolution. It is quite frustrating to spend several hours on a single issue that in the end turns out to have a simpler solution that could have been discovered earlier if the proper tools had been utilized.

The support team at Online Tech is always searching for an effective tool to assist in troubleshooting the myriad of issues that we come upon on any given day. In my personal experience I have found that often networking issues can be the most frustrating because of the many points between you and your server.

In an attempt to gain better visibility into these complex issues I have come across a very useful program that I would recommend to anyone that is attempting to troubleshoot their network, firewall, or a simple connectivity issue. Nmap is a small but powerful tool that is often used as a network troubleshooting device since it can detect open ports, the OS type and Version, the routes between you and your server, and many other things making it extremely flexible. Nmap was created by insecure.org and its sole developer Gordon “Fyodor” Lyon for multiple purposes such as security auditing, online host discovery, and network troubleshooting. According to the website Nmap was given the title “Security Product of the Year” by multiple technical journals as well as being featured in movies such as The Matrix Reloaded and Die Hard 4.

This piece of software is invaluable to me since it is very flexible in the function that it provides allowing a user to map out entire networks of hundreds of thousands of machines. It has a very simplistic interface that allows you to enter the host name, adjust the type of scan that you want (you can even specify which ports you want scanned), and with a simple click of the scan button it will begin mapping your destination. Nmap scans a server and provides me with easy to read diagrams as well as lists of ports, Server IP addresses, Operating systems, routers, firewalls, and many other things. Some of the greatest perks of this piece of software is that it is completely free and supported by a fanatical community of developers who are eager to help you resolve issues with the program. Alongside the development community is a plethora of comprehensive and easy to use documentation for the many features.

Nmap is an essential tool used in my troubleshooting process and I have enjoyed great success when using it. For more information on this networking tool please visit nmap.org.

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in | Tagged , , , | Leave a response

Transparency in SaaS, IaaS, and all as-a-Service Companies

By Chris Rizzo on January 29, 2010

Recently, I was reading a great article by Joel York over at his SaaS Blog, Chaotic Flow. In his article, “SaaS Marketing Tips – The Truth Shall Set You Free“, he explains the critical difference in the sales process between selling traditional software and Software-as-a-Service: transparency or lack there of, on behalf of the software company.

Traditional software companies teach their sales employees “to avoid disclosing any more information than the minimum necessary to close the deal.” Because of the one-time payment structure of those deals, it creates a short-term focus on the deal and the relationship with your potential client. Where as with SaaS, one can “try before they buy” and depending on the contract length, walk at any time if the service is not up to their liking. This creates a long-term focus and transparency and trust between the two parties becomes more natural.

As Joel points out, Google Adwords is a great example:

“Ask yourself how much you spend right now on Google AdWords without ever having spoken to a sales rep. How does this compare to your own average selling price for online transactions?  Now, ask yourself why.  The answer is transparency, from company reputation to cost-per-click.”

While Joel focuses his discussion on the software industry, it is true for all products that can also be services. We see this with big ticket items like cars and houses as well as everyday purchases like music and books. The larger the purchase and commitment, the more risk involved and the less trusting the two competing parties become. Full transparency becomes the only logical play when dealing with Product-as-a-Service businesses.

Having studied game theory and negotiation in college, this makes perfect sense to me. Anyone familiar with the prisoner’s dilemma (a game similar to a negotiation process) knows when the game is only played once (like purchasing a good such as a car), both parties have the incentive to “defect” or lie (it is the rational strategy) but when the game is played multiple times for a amount of time unknown to both parties (like a subscription based service) the rational strategy is to “cooperate”. This repetition in “games” creates the incentive to take the leap of faith into a cooperative strategy. If I defect, the other party will defect for the remainder of the negotiations. If he defects, then so will I. One defection and there is no trust, and everyone is worse off for the rest of the series of games.

The as-a-Service model is built on this “repetition of games” trust and cooperation, that while I might gain in the short term if I hide the truth, in the long term, I will have lost a valuable relationship. This dedication to transparency is the one of the lesser talked about benefits of not only moving your business to an as-a-Service company but purchasing from these types of companies.

At Online Tech, we offer Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and we see and live this phenomenon every day. Although it may seem trite to say, one of our core values is “Win-Win or No Deal”. Right up front, we have a conversation with all of our prospects and try to understand their needs. If their needs don’t match what we offer, we let them know. There is no point for a as-a-Service company to sell something to a client they don’t need. That is not a Win-Win deal and the client will sooner, rather than later, figure out that they don’t need your service and move elsewhere. It creates unproductive work for both parties.

Transparency is key in our business and something we strongly believe is a key to our success.

Have you seen any as-a-Service companies succeed that are not built on transparency and trust?

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Comment

Posted in | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Response

Live Chat is a Great Way to Learn how to Purchase Managed Dedicated Servers

By Mike Kroon on January 28, 2010

As the Business Development Manager I’ve enjoyed educating people from around the world about how to purchase Managed Dedicated servers through our live chat service through WhosOn. The reason I enjoy using this service is that we are just having a chat about a client’s company and their needs. These chats can be fast and to the point, or at times, a little more comprehensive. What I like to do is learn about their company and where they want to grow it to. So before going into pricing I like to gather requirements.

Here are 5 questions I like to ask:

1. Do you have your own servers or are you looking for managed dedicated servers?
2. How many processors do you need?
3. How much RAM would you like?
4. How much disk space do you need for today and will that be suitable for future growth?
5. Do you need any backup? On-site or off-site?

These questions can help me develop a solution for you and also alert you to things that maybe you didn’t think of at the time, such as what OS are you going to be using, do you need point to point VPN or remote VPN.

These are items that can affect the price and delivery of the server to you.

Please stop by and have a chat at www.onlinetech.com.

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in , | Tagged , , | Leave a response

How To Get Your Support Ticket Resolved Quicker

By Aaron Grumelot on January 26, 2010

Often the support team finds ourselves in the midst of a chaotic work day – the support line has been ringing for what seems like every second, while new tickets arrive fresh to our fingertips. Though we find much delight assisting clients to troubleshoot and conquer the seemingly impossible tasks, we often find it difficult to begin this process without the correct information.

In order to decrease the resolution time of your ticket, increase the effectiveness of the troubleshooting process, and alleviate a little stress from our day-to-day job there are several things you can provide us with when opening a new ticket with Online Tech.

Things to Remember When Creating a New Support Ticket:

  1. The first thing you must remember when creating a new ticket with Online Tech is to provide us with your complete contact information such as your name, company name, email address and phone number.
  2. We also ask that you provide us with the names of the server experiencing issues and if this is not available then the IP address of the troubled machine can be sufficient.
  3. Next we ask that you gather as much information as possible about the nature of the issue you are experiencing as well as the severity of the aforementioned problem.
  4. Finally you can help decrease your resolution time immensely by providing us with additional information related to your issue such as trace route to the troubled server in the case of a networking issue or log files from the troubled machine.

Armed with this information we can provide you with the best support possible and faster resolution times even when faced with the most difficult issues.

  • Share/Bookmark
Add Comment

Posted in | Tagged , | Leave a response

Next »