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- In this Issue -
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February Curiosity Poll Results - Web Searches March Curiosity Poll - How Many Locations? |
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March 14
Daylight Saving Time Begins
March 17
St. Patrick's Day
March 20
First Day of Spring
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February Curiosity Poll Results - Web Searches
Last month we asked "How far into search results will you go before you give up and modify or try a new search phrase?" (When you are researching a problem or a potential solution, product, service, etc).
With the overwhelming amount of content going on-line every day it takes some patience to weed through the results to find what you're looking for. But how much patience do you have?
And as of the publishing of this newsletter here's what our voters had to say:
Wow - almost looks like the diversification chart of an investment portfolio. So if this small sample is indicative of the entire web population, if you don't show up in the top 30 search results, it looks like your company/product/service/offering may go unnoticed by 80% of web researchers. (Unless you are using paid ads of course.)
March Curiosity Poll - How Many Locations?
If you're lucky, you're responsible for systems in only 1 physical location. So worst case, you just walk down the hall to lay hands on the problem. Others of us are responsible for multiple locations, across town or across the country. So just collecting events and monitoring performance can be a challenge. Which one are you?
The "ELM 411" - SMTP Monitor, More Than Meets the Eye...
You know the situation all too well...
"My email's not working."
"I'm expecting a proposal and it hasn't come in yet."
"I can't send anything to people outside the company."
ELM can help you avoid these situations with a "simple" monitoring feature. The SMTP Monitor in ELM watches SMTP hosts. This can be accomplished a few different ways. If you are using a Service Agent, the Service Agent will periodically establish an SMTP connection to the server and port specified. If you are using a Virtual Agent or an IP Virtual Agent, the SMTP polling is done by the ELM Server.
If the response is negative or slower than expected, notification options can be triggered. You can also monitor your SMTP server performance by monitoring how quickly a response is returned.
Negative or slower-than-expected responses trigger a variety of notification options. Several settings are available for SMTP Monitors.
At first glance, the SMTP Monitor appears to be another port monitor. However, behind the scenes, the ELM SMTP Monitor Item uses the extended HELLO (EHLO) command to initiate an SMTP session with the SMTP server. The EHLO command also serves to identify the ELM SMTP Monitor as an SMTP client to the SMTP server. The expected reply from the SMTP server is a multi-line response including "250 OK" as per RFC 2821.
If the ELM SMTP Monitor receives "250 OK" within the QoS timeout, then this is a Success result (ELM Event 5510).
If the ELM SMTP Monitor receives "250 OK" after the QoS timeout has expired, but before 2 QoS time intervals have passed, then this is a Quality of Service Warning result (ELM Event 5511).
If the ELM SMTP Monitor does not receive "250 OK" or receives it after 2 QoS time intervals have passed, then this is a Failed result (ELM Event 5509).
So now instead of your users calling to complain about lost email and pulling you off some important task, you can be notified about the SMTP service not working ahead of time and before the phone starts ringing.
"Yeah, I already know Chuck. It will be back on-line in about 2 minutes. Yeah, I'm really that good."
NOTE: All ELM 411 articles are written based on ELM Version 5.5 and instructions may not be accurate for previous ELM Versions. If you would like assistance upgrading to ELM 5.5 so you can use these tips - please contact support@tntsoftware.com.
Share your own ELM tips!
Have a tip or trick with our ELM products you'd like to share with our newsletter subscribers? Send your ideas and any applicable screen shots to info@tntsoftware.com with "ELM 411" in the subject line. We'll take a look and if usable you'll see it published here in the ELM 411 section of upcoming newsletters!
Did you know?
St. Patrick's Day - Celebrating With Green (March 17, 2010)
St. Patrick is believed to have driven the snakes from Ireland by standing on a hilltop with only a wooden staff by his side and banishing the snakes. In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes. The "banishing of the snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity. Once a pagan himself, St. Patrick is one of Christianity's most widely known figures.The modern secular holiday is based on the original Christian saint's feast day also thought to be the date of the saint's death (March 17th around 406 A.D.). In 1737, Irish immigrants to the United States began observing the holiday publicly in Boston and held the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City in 1766.
Today tradition continues with people from all walks and heritages by wearing green, eating Irish foods (Corned beef and cabbage is very common), drinking dark (Guinness) or green beers, and attending parades. St. Patrick's Day is bursting with folklore; from the shamrock to the leprechaun and to pinching those that are not wearing green.
Sources: Wikipedia, The History Channel