Internet Access & Related Technologies
INTERNET ACCESS & RELATED TECHNOLOGIES
Internet access is a primary requirement for any business venture. It's provides real-time services and applications, including live feeds of business-critical information to assist in decision-making, while the email offers a swift means to communicate with customers, suppliers and staff.
As part of our comprehensive Internet service, Imperial Online provides fast, easy and reliable 24-hour access to the Internet. Our unique range of services is backed by a dedicated team of professionals, committed to meeting the dynamic needs of your company, twenty-four hours a day. With these lines permanently connected, your organisation benefits from having access to all Internet applications 24 hours a day.
This ability, in conjunction with our multiple Internet lines, ensures that connectivity is automatically maintained even if a line malfunctions. We also manage Internet traffic to optimize quality and speed, by controlling bandwidth to each individual customer.
LEASED LINE CONNECTIVITY
A leased line will ensure that you are permanently connected to the Internet. Imperial Online uses Telkom's Diginet and Diginet Plus services to create a point-to-point connection between our nearest point of presence (POP) and your network. Telkom will install your leased line, which will connect your business to the Internet through Imperial Online. As Diginet lines are permanently connected, your business will have the benefit of round-the-clock access to Internet applications. Diginet also offers a high-speed solution that is inherently stable over a long period of time.
BANDWIDTH MONITORING
Comprehensive bandwidth statistics are made available on our Customer Zone, enabling Customers to access information related to their Internet leased-line usage. This is extremely useful for capacity planning and performance evaluation purposes.
TRAFFIC SHAPING
This option allows you to specify that a certain block of IP addresses should get preferential access over another block during a certain timeframe. For example the finance division should get preference over the sales division from 9h00 to 10h00 for banking purposes.
ROUTER RENTAL
Customers may also opt to rent a Cisco router from Imperial Online. We will maintain, manage and monitor the router on your behalf. This will decrease the initial costs required to set up for Internet access.
CUSTOM QUEUING
Imperial Online can restrict access to websites that customers deem inappropriate for business purposes. Customers who choose to utilise this service, can simply indicate the type of sites they want blocked. Imperial Online also provides automated, online reports on the websites visited by employees and the time spent at each site.
ISDN BACK-UP SERVICE
This option allows the implementation of a redundant connection to Customers' Internet connection. An ISDN port on your router and an ISDN line to your office are necessary to achieve this. Imperial Online will configure your router to detect primary line failure and automatically establish a dial-on-demand connection. However, should a serious (although rare) outage occur, your ISDN service may also be affected.
AFTER-HOURS BANDWIDTH
Imperial Online provides the option of "bursting" your line after hours. This service is available between 19h00 and 07h00 at a reduced cost. To take advantage of this service, you will need a Telkom line that is capable of running additional bandwidth. In brief, if you want to run 64Kb during the day and 128Kb at night, your line must have the capability to run at 128Kb.
SECURITY
To protect systems from viruses or a breach in security, customers have the option to have all e-mails automatically scanned. Security is further enhanced by a vulnerability assessment, as well as by our state-of-the-art firewall and intrusion detection software. Imperial Online can also supply customers with an onsite firewall, as well as anti-virus protection.
SPAM MANAGER
Spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail) accounts for 35% of all messages and is rapidly increasing. 1 in 150 messages contain a virus, costing many billions of dollars around the world every year. The IOL Spam Manager is a stable and performance based open source security system. Being open source, Site Administrators can audit and verify the integrity of the system. The IOL Spam Manager scans all e-mail for viruses, spam and attacks against security vulnerabilities. It identifies 95% of Spam that may be tagged, rejected, discarded, archived or forwarded to other addresses for inspection by the Administrator. It scans e-mail for attacks against known and unknown security vulnerabilities in popular e-mail applications, automatically correcting messages "on the fly" whenever possible and quarantining dangerous sections of other messages.
MAIL SERVER
The IOL Mail Server option uses a secure and well-known MTA – Exim with the intention of filtering out basic file content. The option is fully installed and maintained on guaranteed (with swap-out) IOL hardware. We further offer assurances of upgrades with regards to security and new releases of software. All that we require is a list of users/email addresses and we may have the service ready to install within 48 hours of us receiving the hardware. As an additional benefit, we may offer secure remote administration and mail user reports that can be drawn on a weekly basis.
FIREWALL AND PROXY
Our solution offers you the opportunity to dictate the rule base required specifically to suit your needs. You may block off unwanted services, e.g. Kazaa, P2P client applications, porn sites and chat services. In order to save your Internet bandwidth, we can configure the service to authenticate users and further, the Proxy may cache websites frequently viewed. Network Address Translation, port redirection and weekly reports on Internet usage (at your explicit request) are other benefits that may be offered via the IOL Firewall and Proxy solution.