Announcement - Planned Maintenance Notification

Dear Valued Customers,

Please be informed that there will be a planned system maintenance by DiGi that will be carried out during this time:

2/8/2014 (Saturday)

00:01 ~ 07:00 hrs (GMT +8)

Impact to users: Service Intermittent for all DiGi / CPA Services

DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd will be conducting a planned maintenance during the period indicated above. This is to ensure that we provide the highest quality of services to our valued customers.

Contact DiGi's Fast Recovery Center if there is any issue regarding this matter, through this number +6 (016) 300 3000 - Available 24 hours.

For EVERWORKS management inquiries please email us at info@everworks.com
For EVERWORKS technical inquiries please email us at cvs@everworks.com

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

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How to Report Abuse to EVERWORKS

As you browse the Internet often you expect to find content that are relevant to you, but there are times when you will come across content hosted by EVERWORKS that doesn't meet ethical standards, or come to realize a breach in EVERWORKS usage policy or any other kind of inappropriate Internet activity originating from the use of an EVERWORKS service. Sometimes if you receive inappropriate Internet activity that come from EVERWORKS, it is understandable for our EVERWORKS users to be angered, but it is my goal in this post to provide you with background that you need to understand on behavior that we don't condone - what we consider as abuse of our services - might occur on our platform and what we do when we learn about it.

Email Subject & Its Importance

When facing an issue, the EVERWORKS team really wants to help you resolve it effectively. For us to effectively look into your issue, please include relevant subject lines in your email. Clearly define in your subject line if the issue you face is 'Spam', 'Phishing', 'DDoS Attack', or any other form of abuse that you are currently facing. This helps us identify the issue you are facing effectively.

Tips to consider

1. Include Evidence: Without evidence that is clear we are unable to relay a complaint to our customer. 
2. Use Keywords : We use email to handle abuse cases, and a clear subject line is really useful for us including just the word "Spam" or "Phishing" or "DDoS attacks" or others. (Include dates so we can see when you last sent it.
3. Follow Up: We work very hard to investigate and solve all complaints, but due to volume, we don't normally respond to individual emails, but if the issue has not yet been resolved, please feel free to contact us again.
4. Be Respectful: We will only forward evidence and documents that we have to customers that are performing any form of abuse, none of the other parts of your email get sent, so the only people reading profanity are the hardworking EVERWORKS support team. We understand that it is frustrating to be on the receiving end, but please be professional and try to understand our position!!

Common Types of Abuse

The most common types of abuse reported to EVERWORKS are spam, phishing and DDoS attacks. All three will be handled by a 24 hour response team (find out more on EVERWORKS's 6-Hour support response guarantee), but handled differently, so it is critical for me to break down each problem so that you can compile everything for you to be able to report any issue efficiently to our team. Yes, you are on the receiving end of this, and in the thick of the action it is easy to leave out critical information for the EVERWORKS team to determine your problems, so to make it easy for us to solve your problem quickly here are the different types of abuse and the best ways of approaching it and what are the best ways to report it to the EVERWORKS team:

SPAM

Spam is the most common abuse of the three that gets reported to EVERWORKS. In short, spam email are emails that are sent to you without your consent, email you have not asked to receive, causing your email to clog up, hindering your every day email tasks. Rest assured that wherever the spammer is whether it is a direct EVERWORKS customer or an indirect customer, it is the EVERWORKS team's responsibility to help you stop it.

When you receive spam sent through EVERWORKS, you should forward it directly to our support team (cvs@everworks.com), and the matter will be looked into.

Our team needs:

1. A full copy of the email, which you have received, with everything intact.
2. Email Headers. Email headers help tell the story about where those emails are coming from or which customer we need to contact to stop this abuse.

PHISHING

Phishing is another person who is claiming to be you, or a trusted service that you regularly use, to gain sensitive information. Phishing is a serious issue that the EVERWORKS team faces. Any user may be fooled at any time into giving up personal credit card, or banking information or login information and we don't want that to happen. (Take some time to do a Phishing Test by SonicWall just so you know how difficult it is to identify Phishing)

When you come across Phishing contact our support team (cvs@everworks.com), and this matter will be looked into.

Our team needs:

1. The Website's URL. This is for a site that is hosted under EVERWORKS committing a phishing abuse.
2. If you went to a phishing site through email, include a full copy of the email (including the email headers)

DDoS attack

According to Webopedia a DDoS is a type of DOS attack where multiple compromised systems, normally infected through a Trojan, are used to target a single system, where the victims' systems are maliciously used and controlled by the hacker in the distributed attack. The incoming traffic comes from many places, sometimes hundreds or even thousands, making it difficult to distinguish between legitimate user traffic and attack traffic.

When experiencing a live DDoS attack contact us at +6(03) 7806 3550 and clearly state the issue you face, and your call will be directed to our technical team for further assistance.

If you face constant DDoS attacks please contact the EVERWORKS team (cvs@everworks.com) with documentation and proof for us so that we can take the necessary actions to protect and ensure that we reduce your losses as much as we can.

Other forms of abuse

As earlier mentioned these are just some of the frequent issues that our customers face, that we face most often. With other forms of abuse that have not been listed here, rest assured, because it all generally involves the same procedures. Send an email with a clear subject line, with a concise report to cvs@everworks.com. The EVERWORKS team will look into your complaint and look for evidence needed to take immediate action.

Work is done, even with no response

If your issues still persists and you don't feel like anything has been fixed, please first check if you have included all relevant information and evidence. Sometimes not receiving a response from the EVERWORKS team does not mean that nothing is being done, but rather than using up precious time to respond to hundreds of emails with the same abuse problem, we look to actually try to solve internally the problem that you face.

If all else fails, and you are certain that everything has been included still no progress has been made, you can always follow up with through social media on Twitter@EVERWORKS, and we will do everything we can to help.

Abuse is serious

At EVERWORKS we take abuse seriously, as it may affect not just our customers, but also our business, and all measures will be taken to ensure that the service we offer, is to the best we can, safe to use. EVERWORKS will seek the relevant consultation from authorities and legal advisors, against the abusers, if the nature of the abuse is considerably detrimental.

photoby hawkexpress

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Protect Yourself Against Phishing Attacks

Phishing is an attempt made normally through email, to trick you into revealing your personal information, such as bank account information, login details, and more to the attacker. Phishing emails usually appear to come from frequent services you use, or websites you often visit, or important organizations requesting for your personal information such as credit card numbers, account numbers or login names and passwords. 

Malaysia fact: The highest phishing detected is Internet Banking where users are tricked to make payments or reveal their credentials.

In order for cyber criminals to successfully obtain your personal information, they must redirect you to a "fake" website which resembles a legitimate service that you often use. This redirect occurs most often through email, claiming to be from the legitimate service embedded with links.

Identify Phishing Emails

Phishing emails are effective, because they create sudden fear in people resulting in requiring the person to click through the link and perform the necessary changes to avoid losses.

Among the common causes are:

1. Threat to suspend or close accounts, if there is no response.
2. Penalty charges will be imposed if accounts have not been updated.
3. Claims that your account has been compromised.
4. Claims that important security information has been lost, and needs your info to verify your account.

Protect Yourself

1. Avoid providing personal information by responding to unsolicited requests.

Requests through email and phone, should be taken with care, because you may not know who is the caller or sender. However convincing it is you should ways be aware that there might be a potential for fraud.

2. Double check with official contacts

Double check before committing any information can save you in the long run against phishing attacks. Call official hotlines, dedicated service managers, or people whom you can trust that are verified to be official representatives before providing any information.

3. Never give your password to anyone or any place

Financial Institutions will never usually ask you to verify any information online. If there is a problem they would contact to have you come to a designated branch to resolve the matter.

4. Review your account

Make sure you check and double-check your account activity and see whether it balances with your monthly activity. This will immediately notify you if there are any irregularities such as purchases, or emails sent in your name that you have not committed to.

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What are your experiences with Phishing? Are there proven ways to find out if something is a Phishing Attack? Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section below!

Referenced from SKMM |  photoby liferoiblog

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How to Start an Online Business in Malaysia

Starting an online business in Malaysia isn't difficult and can prove to be a highly profitable venture. Due to recent successes of Zalora, and the growing acceptance of Internet use as a medium for service, now is a good chance to consider the Internet as a strong contender among more conventional means when it comes to starting new business ventures.

Among the many benefits of the Internet include:

1. Accessibility, customers that are not bounded by physical location limitations.
2. Reduced costs, high rent and high initial commitments were challenges to conventional business models.

Be clear

Before you get ahead of yourself, you have to be clear that starting an online business isn't any different from starting any business. The only thing that is different (or has changed) is the way your product or service is going to be channeled to your customers. Rather than the conventional store front which gives potential to attract only walking-by customers, the Internet opens possibilities to a global audience fairly easily.

Potential stumbling blocks

Although the Internet was created with much thought, your business still needs to be carefully laid out in clear plans. You will need to determine how you are going to transport your goods to your potential International customers, or how you are going to perform a service to another client that is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Internet does provide a vast opportunity and benefits conventional businesses can't offer, but with it comes certain difficulties like logistics management, customer relationship, reliability of the Internet services you are currently using, and much more.

First things to Identify

"Great ideas rarely come out of thin air." Nick Souter. Often successful businesses arise from a need, so start with your motivations. Find out what it is that drives you, and with that you can drive your business. Are you in it for the money, or are you in it to change the world? Both are examples of valid motivations that have driven some people to achieve great success. 

The next thing to determine is which legal structure suits you?
Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, or Incorporated.

Each comes with its own perks and some commitments that you must fulfill.
Further Reading: differences between sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation 

Make your business official

All businesses regardless even if it is an Online Business that wishes to conduct business in Malaysia must fulfill these steps:

1. Register with the Companies Commission of Malaysia
2. Be aware of the National Initiatives of setting up an Internet business (Malaysian National Budget 2014)
3. Ensure that if your business requires Personal Information, your business should be compliant with The Personal Data Protection Act 2010.
4. Be familiar with Malaysian tax (including GST - effective 2015)
5. Acquire necessary licenses and permits.

Find a suitable host

Choosing the wrong hosting option could cost you:

1. Loss of Revenue
2. Negative SEO Impact
3. Security and Malware attacks

How to choose the best hosting provider?

1. Understand the different hosting solutions available
2. Excellent Customer support is mandatory 
3. Ability to scale
4. Excellent uptime record
5. Choose what is best for you and what suits your budget

Stop; breathe.

Starting a business isn't an easy task, but nothing is at the beginning. Over time with enough persistency you and your business should prevail, even through testing times. Here is a toast to your business and for your future success, because at the very core of starting any business is; getting started.

Further reading: Overcoming Procrastination

EVERWORKS is Malaysia's leading Colocation Hosting, Server Colocation Service and Mobile Hosting Provider. EVERWORKS houses over 200 servers over 3 major Internet Datacenters in Malaysia.

photoby buter2007

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Set Up Your Facebook Page in 3 Easy Steps

Malaysians should greatly consider Facebook as a medium for marketing, because of its high potential for it. With more than 1 billion users, Facebook is the world's #1 social network. Facebook offers access to an incredibly diverse audience that spans globally, to different ages, and interests. Southeast Asia has more than 190 million Internet users according to Techinasia. In 2012, according to Internet World Stats Malaysia alone has approximately 13 million Facebook users, 46.6% penetration.

This makes sense for marketers to have a Facebook strategy. You don't need to be an International business to only benefit from Facebook. Considering that there is a large amount of local Malaysian Facebook users it makes sense for local businesses to get involved as well to target very specific types of users, generate more awareness, and find potentially new business leads.

Here is a case study from EVERWORKS.com Malaysia's leading Colocation Hosting, Server Colocation Services and Mobile Hosting Provider, "Implementing Facebook has been a great way for EVERWORKS to keep our customers informed over scheduled server maintenance, important announcements, festive greetings, and Facebook has also allowed us to keep a closer, more personal, relationship with our customers. It has increased awareness on EVERWORKS brand, while at the same time keeping costs relatively reasonable, as compared to more conventional means."

Before jumping in on the bandwagon and getting ahead of yourself, the first most important thing to do is to create a Facebook Page for your business, which is relatively simple to do. Here I will take you through all 3 steps to set up a basic page.

Business vs Personal

With all things in the beginning, you need to first identify whether you are a Business or Personal user. This is fundamental because there are differences for businesses and personal Facebook accounts, representing in a Business Page and a Personal Profile. Personal profiles are designed for individual persons, with features and options that make connecting and engaging with friends easier. By contrast, Business Pages provide options to help promotion and marketing. Business Pages offer ways to connect with more people, more targeted advertising, plus a big bonus of analytics through Facebook Insights that would give information on what type or how your advertising is responding to conceived Facebook marketing plans.

Additional notes: If you are promoting yourself as a "brand", it might seem logical to use your profile page to promote yourself, but I would recommend a Business Page instead. A separation between personal and business is healthy, and the Business Page does offer some technical advantages, such as allowing for additional page managers, Facebook Insights (discussed earlier), and others.

Step 1: Create a Page

There are two options for creating a Business Page

1. Set it up from your Facebook profile
2. Create a new account for your business.

If the second choice is what you are going for, all you need to do is, log-out of your profile and click "sign-up" from the Facebook homepage and then choose "create a page". The disadvantage of separating accounts is that you would just have to deal with another password, and you would have to log-out and log-back-in to access the other account.

Personally I prefer to administer my Pages from my personal profile. It is just easier to manage and I can move between accounts freely. 

Note: People who like your Business Page can't see your Personal Profiles.

To create a Business Page from your Personal Profile, click on the drop down menu in the top right hand corner of your profile and choose "Create a page", and walk through the Facebook Page creation  steps.

Quick Tip:

1. Profile photos should be at least 180 x 180 pixels when uploaded.
2. Facebook will automatically publish your page, so before you go any further, unpublish it. This allows you the time to tweak it until it looks nice before introducing it to the world. To unpublished a page, go to Edit Page, then Edit Settings, and click Unpublish Page. When you are ready and satisfied go back to the same place and Publish your page.

Step 2: Complete your Page Info

With most of the formalities out of the way, it is time to dig deeper and spend a little more time on your Business Page (the stuff that matter). Add a long description, or tweak your short description. Short descriptions are meant to be short, so try to keep it less than 155 characters and include your website URL too. This will show up under your Business Page's profile photo so make sure it is a quick brief and it allows for your fans to click easily to your website. Include keywords to help with Search Engine Optimization - SEO - (everything counts).

further reading: Find out more about SEO, the common mistakes people make, and more.

Choose a unique Facebook Business Page address to make it easier for people to find your Business Page.

This is an example of EVERWORKS's Facebook Business Page URL:
www.facebook.com/everworks

Be careful to get it right the first time, because Facebook shows no mercy, for once your Facebook Business Page address has been set it can never be changed.

Step 3: Cover Photo

The last step (until further updates come along) is to upload a cover photo. Also Facebook has recently relaxed its 20% rule - further reading: Facebook Page guidelines. Now cover photos can include more text, which allows for more promotions, but even with this added advantage you should aim for a clean, uncluttered image. Cover photos should be sized at 851x315 pixels. It would be the best if your cover photo could attract the people in which you are targeting, and not just focus on plain advertising.

Now that your page is complete and you are happy with everything don't forget to publish your Business Page that was previously set in unpublish mode so that it would allow you to prepare everything.

Show us your pages? Take a screenshot and share them with us in the comments section below!

facebook logo from ajc1

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Improve Your Content with Outlines

Having awesome content is meaningless without a clear direction and focused expectation for its readers. Outlines provide that clear direction and focused expectations for its readers. How does outlines improve your articles, and help to strengthen your brand image. Content written by endowed writers lose its edge without strong outlines. Reasons why outlines improve your content are discussed in the 5 points below:

Make reading easier

Having outlines doesn't just make it easier for the publisher, writer, or author. The most important person which the context was meant for benefits from this as well. Having a form of uniformity (structure) eases our minds, it doesn't require us to think unnecessarily, giving our brains space to focus on important things. Take for example chapters in textbooks, it gives its readers a set expectation of when the point stops, when the next point begins, what contents are within that particular section, and guides people in one simple direction. 

In addition, well-crafted headers cultivates interest for people to have an excuse to read on. Often a bunch of words can be intimidating, but with a gentle nudge forward with an enticing header makes the reading substance a little bit more enticing.

Provides Focus

Do you remember having a a conversation with an overly excited friend, when your friend starts talking on a topic and changing at will. Often nothing comes out of those conversations, but sometimes there is a remote chance that it may lead to something more. The point is that more often than not the information although compelling is disoriented and doesn't have much of a focus and that unfocused conversation proves to be hard work to decipher. 

As earlier mentioned outlines make reading easier, but imagine a book without chapters. You wouldn't know what to expect, where to start, or even where to stop. Poorly structured, or unstructured writings are great pieces of mess: they float, provide 'some' value, but only among meandering sentences. Outlines help remedy this confusing wild situations by giving readers a set expectation, and delivering them in a clear, and efficient manner. 

Further Reading: How to Develop Better Topics for Malaysian Blogs

Makes your message more memorable

Case example, a blog is a place where content that is written creates value for its readers, but it isn't the only focus and certainly not its only purpose. Helping your customers, should be the ultimate goal for a business blog, and with that comes a benefit to the business where the brand is strengthened and it allows the business to have a 'proper' conversation with its customers. However, without the 'memorability factor' this effort is muddled. 

Outlines help this 'memorability factor' it helps writers write more effectively (a clear guide), it eases readers burden by providing more focused content, and the end result is an enhanced brand image that portrays various positives.

Easier Referencing

Coming back to work after a long holiday, and picking off where you last left your work sounds relatively straightforward, but as you sit down on your desk you realize the great desk pile of past work papers, and now you think to yourself that holiday was great while it lasted. What if those papers were put into labelled organizers either alphabetically arranged, chronologically arranged or through various other arranging methods. Now that great desk pile of past work papers wouldn't have existed and you could just get down to doing what matters most, without the worry of having to sort through mess.

Outlines provide a similar benefit to having labelled organizers, it allows quick access in the future. Content that is clearly structured, and points that are focused give readers, not just the writers, an easier look-back when required. Readers can look through an entire article in an efficient manner looking for what 'slipped off' their minds.

Invest in Outlines

Organizing has ample benefits, and although the task seems extremely daunting at first, having outlines give a great deal of clarity. It takes the effort off the readers and allows them to focus on actually reading the content that was meant to provide them value, and allows the initial intention of the business (to strengthen its brand image, to educate its customers, and to understand its customers better) to be realized.

EVERWORKS is Malaysia's leading Colocation Hosting, Server Colocation Service and Mobile Hosting Provider. EVERWORKS provides industry standard Web & Email Hosting Solution for your business, giving you peace of mind, cost effective plans, and industry level guarantees. Find out more on EVERWORKS's Web & Email Hosting Solution.

Do you think that outlines actually improve your content? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

image by hawkexpress

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Malaysian 4G Explained: What is LTE?

Like most things new, there have been a recent growth in acceptance across all major carriers in Malaysia touting "the fastest or widest 4G network in the country," but what does all this hype actually mean? What is the difference between 4G LTE and 3G? Which network should I choose for LTE the best LTE Coverage?

What is LTE?

LTE as defined by Wikipedia is an acronym for Long Term Evolution, commonly marketed as 4G LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals.

Although the definition has defined LTE fairly accurately, it hasn't given simple minds like mine an easy enough breakdown for me to understand. Here it is, plainly put, LTE is a faster mobile connection, and data terminals. Look at it as the bigger brother of 3G.

For history junkies (also from Wikipedia): The LTE service was first launched publicly by TeliaSonera in Stokholm, and Oslo.

Everyone is going LTE

Today Malaysian carriers advertise their networks as 4G (a few carriers include Digi, Celcom, Maxis, P1 Wimax, Yes 4G, and U Mobile) which confuses a lot of people. 

The most notable change you will experience when switching from a 3G network to a LTE network is a significant speed upgrade. LTE networks are on an average 10x faster than 3G. Websites load faster, in fact almost everything loads much faster.

You can check for a list of LTE Networks here.

Choosing the right network

There are 8 companies in 2013 who have been granted access to the 2600 MHz spectrum band; Digi, Celcom, Maxis, P1 Wimax, U Mobile and Yes. In Malaysia Maxis was the only company to have officially launched 4G LTE smartphone plans.

"Maxis's 4G LTE offers speeds up to 75 Mbps, which is less than the required speed of 100 Mbps for the required 4G LTE speed set by Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Although Maxis's LTE on average, depending on where you are, offers ranges of 10 Mbps to 30 Mbps remains to be a good speed bump from 3G, it is still lacking from the 100Mbps required speed.

One other popular network provider in Malaysia is, Digi, has been upgrading its network sites in Malaysia to a new network which Digi names 'Tomorrow Network'. With this upgrade Digi aims to cover at least 95.8% of Malaysia to provide High Speed Internet along with a fully equipped LTE network. 

Digi's Tomorrow Network boasts the following benefits:

1. Malaysia's first LTE-equipped network (able to provide fiber like speeds to mobile devices)
2. Expanding High Speed Internet Coverage (EDGE & 3G) to cover 95.8% of Malaysia.
3. More stable network
4. More efficient equipment (green initiative - saves more energy)

Further reading: How LTE affect to Malaysia's mobile content business

EVERWORKS is Malaysia's leading Mobile Hosting Provider, that provides business owners with operator- grade delivery mechanism that connects your SMS content and wireless applications to reach your targeted audiences. 

What are your views on 4G LTE? What is the impact of LTE to Malaysia?

photo by kowitz

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