Boxx Communications Ltd

Simplifying telecommunications for businesses large and small!

Cloud & IT

Taking payments is changing – What you need to know

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Taking payments is changing – What you need to know

Taking payments is critical to many businesses both traditional and mobile – but with a lot of changes in the pipeline you need to know what your options are – and what your customers will be expecting.

Cash is going nowhere (well, as far as we know!), but cheques have long been rumoured to be on the verge of being axed, with the latest estimates that they will be phased out by 2018. Partly because so few people now use them and partly because of the high costs of processing them.

Frictionless payments are now increasingly popular and available – so card payments can now be contactless for amounts up to £30, meaning compatible machines simply read the card’s chip when it is presented, speeding up the payment process and taking away the requirement for a PIN number to be entered while maintaining high security.

And, as ever, mobile phones are also driving forward new change – the likes of Apple and Android both offer mobile payments on the go, with card and account details stored in the wallets of your mobile device.

With a huge surge in contactless payments since they were introduced, and one predicted imminently for mobile ones, it’s clear that these new technologies are carving out the future of payments.

So what does this mean if you are a retailer, either based in a bricks-and-mortar business or an on-the-go one? Basically that you have a lot more choices now – and that costs can come down dramatically once you look beyond the realms of the traditional high street banks.

At Boxx, for example, we offer a reliable and cost effective alternative to banks at a lower price point, and a variety of products to suit your needs, covering both online and terminal options.

We’re confident we can reduce your current card processing and banking costs, and you’ll also benefit from being able to hire terminals on a monthly basic rather than buying upfront.

So talk to us about our flexible and competitive payments options today!

Estate Agents: Keeping ahead of the Game

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Estate Agents: Keeping ahead of the Game

The online revolution has affected pretty much every type of business going and estate agents are no exception…..

Once a firmly face-to-face profession, many of the processes of house-buying now happen online, from the initial searching and viewing of house particulars to booking appointments and liaising as the sale progresses.

As viewings and enquiries can now happen around the clock, estate agents have had to evolve, both in how they work and how they make contact with clients and vendors – both of whom expect them to be available when needed, even when they are out and about.

Additionally, the whole end-to-end buying process is often much quicker and estate agents who can’t keep up to speed will soon find themselves overtaken by their peers.

So increasingly most have found that their standard office phones and company mobiles just don’t cut the mustard in this changing world, and have turned to companies such as ours for help and guidance to find out how their new contact and call needs can best be met.

As ever, technology has effective and competitive solutions that can help estate agents with their increased and changing needs, and Boxx Communications customers Deakin White, for example, chose one of our VoIP packages so that they can run their office seamlessly, even when they’re not actually in it.

As a fairly new start-up, with a small initial team but lots of local interest and big ambitions, it was critical to them to find a way to make all would-be buyers and sellers know they were important, even if staff couldn’t get to the phone immediately.

With our VoIP packages, office calls immediately divert to mobiles if required, they have a call queuing feature and the call monitoring helps them plan – and Deakin White, happy with their tech, are proof that estate agents now need reliable broadband and VoIP if they are to stay ahead of the game.

VoIP packages also feature the ability to put calls on hold, play marketing messages and move calls seamlessly between users and offices so that customers will get the best experience when calling any business, no matter how busy you are.

If you’re an estate agent, you literally can’t afford to be without it!

Telecoms & Internet Fraud: Protect yourself & your Business

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Telecoms & Internet Fraud: Protect yourself & your Business

Fraud is a constantly evolving crime, with criminals always coming up with new ways to try and gain access to data or money they have no right to.

Cyber crime and information security have been hitting the headlines recently with a series of high-profile attacks, including the Ashley Madison dating site.

What is clear is that non-financial industries are increasingly becoming the targets of such attacks – with the proportion of attacks targeting the financial sector falling from 12% to 7%, elsewhere saw a rise from 5% to 13%. And with major breaches carrying the risk of major reputational damage and financial costs in addition to the hack itself, it’s something we all want to avoid if possible.

Unfortunately, telecommunications and internet are industries where criminals are always trying to find new ways to commit fraud, so we’ve put together some examples of the most common ones that you should be aware of to reduce the chances of it happening to you:

Premium Rate Service Fraud – When fraudsters significantly increase the number of calls to a premium number so they can increase the revenue they receive from it. Often, calls are made with the intent of creating a missed call and generating a callback, which is to a high rate number where the fraudster reaps the revenue.

Fraudulent Applications – this is when fraudsters use valid company names and bank details to take out a phone service and leave a bad debt.

Line Fault Fraud – Fraudsters posing as customers attempt to log bogus faults on a line and request a divert to an alternative number, where further fraud such as increased call costs can take place.

Impersonation Fraud – Fraudsters pose as a service provider and persuade customers that their account is at risk. They then either trick the customer into giving away sensitive data (which they then use to commit further fraudulent activity), or attempt to convince the customer to make a bogus payment or make a call to a bogus ‘premium rate number’, where they pocket the revenue.

Internet Dialler Scams – When the computer settings are changed so their internet connection is re-routed via an expensive telephone line. This happens when the user clicks on a spam mail or pop-up box, or visits a pay-per-view website that triggers a software download that makes this change.

WiFi Hacking – Whilst a great resource to use out and about, public networks are more susceptible to being hacked, so take care where you log on.

So, now you know about some of the more common scams, what can you do to protect yourself and your business?

  • Be vigilant and ensure that your staff are aware of the risks

  • Be wary when responding to unrecognised numbers and google any that look odd to see if they have been noted as fraudulent

  • Set up passwords on accounts – we allow and encourage this as an extra source of security

  • At home or work ensure your wi-fi network is password-protected so no unauthorised users can piggyback on to it,- Never click on an unrecognised URL

  • Report any suspected fraud (telephone based or otherwise) to ActionFraud (The UK’s national fraud & internet crime reporting centre)

If you’ve been victim to anything we haven’t included here, we’d love to hear from you as being aware of such crimes is half the battle of fighting against them!

New wi-fi checker app launched by Ofcom

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New wi-fi checker app launched by Ofcom

A powerful but simple new app launched by Ofcom allows both consumers and businesses to check if their wifi is working as well as it should.

The Ofcom wifi checker allows users to easily check the quality of the wireless internet signal where they live or work. It also offers practical steps to help everyone get the best out of their connection if they’re not happy with the results.

The app comes in the wake of recent Ofcom research, which shows that wireless broadband may not be working as well as it could be in nearly six million homes across the UK.

This is often caused by the wifi set-up inadvertently slowing down the broadband, and can often by rectified by taking simple steps to improve things.

For example, problems could be caused by something as simple as interference from other electronic devices, such as a microwave oven, baby monitor, or lamp.

The app works by testing the wifi set-up and if it finds a problem, will provide some troubleshooting tips to help improve broadband. For example, it may suggest you:

• Move your router away from electrical devices – Halogen lamps, electrical dimmer switches, stereo or computer speakers, TVs, monitors and AC power cords have all been known to cause interference to broadband routers.

• Keep your router as far away as possible from other electrical devices which emit wireless signals – Such as baby monitors etc.

• Move your router to a different part of your home or office – Walls and furniture act as an obstacle to the wifi radio frequencies, so ideally routers should be kept centrally and placed on a table or shelf rather than on the floor.

• Try restarting your wireless router – This may automatically select a less busy wifi radio frequency.

• Use an ethernet cable to connect directly to your router – An Ethernet cable is a computer networking cable which should give you a faster, more reliable connection.

Essentially, wifi performance can be affected by lots of things which can both change over time and have a different effect in different rooms of your house or office. Therefore Ofcom recommends you try running the wifi checker at the times of day when you’re most likely to use the internet and in different rooms to get a full picture of the strength of your connection.

iOS Android

The app is available for both iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, what are you waiting for – go download it now!

If this bring ups any questions about your broadband, or if you think you need a faster or more advanced connection, please get in touch – a brain boxx will be happy to help you.

Broadband Issues: Causes & how to overcome them

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Broadband Issues: Causes & how to overcome them

Talk of the internet ‘running slow’ or ‘going down’ is often heard, but what does this actually mean and why does it happen…?

We wanted to get to the bottom of these issues and provide a summary of phrases often used and their meanings, in simple terms…..

Problems you might encounter…..

1) Downtime – This is complete loss of an internet connection. You will not be able to load webpages, nor send /receive emails.

2) Jitter – When data packets received arrive at different times, or in the wrong order. It takes time to get it back in order so could cause delays/buffering. You may notice frozen images or out of time sound when streaming videos or with VoIP there may be a short break in sound.

3) High Latency – Latency is a measure of the speed of your connection. Low latency means information can be processed quickly, whilst high latency means there are delays. Emails may take time to send, webpages will be slow to load or you may see ‘connection timed out’ error messages.

What causes these problems…..

Inadequate Bandwidth – This is when the amount of data you are trying to process is more than the internet connection can handle. For example if you are trying to download multiple large files at the same time as streaming video, you would be using far more bandwidth than simply browsing an individual webpage. Similarly, if you have too many people/devices trying to use the internet at the same time this will decrease the amount of bandwidth available to process each device’s information.

Think about running in a race…. If you try to run carrying a heavy rucksack on your back, it is going to slow you down. Equally if you are one of hundreds of people attempting to run along a narrow track, you will get in one another’s way and this will slow you ALL down!

Contention Ratio – Unless you have a Direct Internet Connection (DIA) your broadband connection will share the internet infrastructure with others. This means that when lot’s of other people/businesses (externally) are using the internet at the same time as you, you may encounter problems. A contention ratio of 50:1 means that up to 50 broadband users are sharing the same bandwidth.

Think about winning the lottery….. If you happen to match say 5 numbers in the same week as 100 other people, the prize fund has to be shared between you all and you won’t receive as much as you would have if you were the only winner that week!

Peak Times – The internet is a global resource that increasingly we cannot live without. Every day more and more devices are trying to access the internet across the world, both at work and at home. Busy times in the UK tend to be 4pm through to 11pm. This is because for most of us, this is our downtime (pardon the pun) or our leisure time – which is becoming more and more reliant on the internet. We are all attempting to surf the net and stream videos at the same time. Not only this, those across the pond in the US are starting their working day.

Think about going to buy a sandwich on your lunch break….. If you were to go to your local sarnie shop at 10am you probably wouldn’t find a queue, but fast forward to lunchtime (the shortest 60 minutes of your day) and everyone is trying to do the same and often you’ll have to wait!

Location, location, location – Whilst those in big towns & cities often benefit from the latest infrastructure, it can be a different matter for those in more remote areas as it is more expensive to upgrade to areas further away. Even with the same infrastructure in place, data that has to travel further takes longer to reach it’s destination.

Think of a train journey….. The main train lines around the major cities are often high speed and/or trains travel frequently. But when you are trying to reach a tiny village in a remote area, you will be served with a small local train that runs much slower and less often, thus increasing your journey time.

What you can do….. When suffering downtime:

1) Check Wires

  • Is everything is connected?
  • Are there any loose wires?
  • Is everything is in the right socket?
  • If you have a spare ethernet cable, try replacing this

2) Check Devices

Are other devices connected to internet? If so it could be a device issue, so try restarting the device.

3) Check Telephone Line / Microfilter

If you can’t make calls on the line it may be a line fault or a problem with your microfilter – the small box that both the Ethernet/DSL cable and telephone wire plug into, so that you can plug both into the tel socket on the wall. Try taking out the microflter and plugging the telephone wire directly into the wall.

If you can now make calls, replace your microfilter and test again.

If you still cannot make calls, contact service provider to run a line test.

4) Check Router

  • Turn the router OFF
  • Disconnect all cables and leave for 20 mins before plugging back in and switching on the power.

If none of these actions help you to resolve your downtime issue, contact your service provider.

What you can do….. When suffering high jitter or latency issues:

1) Consider timing – Think about when you complete bandwidth hungry activities. Are you able to download those large files overnight (or at a time when you are not already maxing out your bandwidth)?

2) Monitor your usage – Log into your router’s network management tool (usually web-based but many now offer an App to do this) to establish which devices are being greedy!

3) Consider a router upgrade – There are many routers available to meet specific needs. Check out whether one with additional features to yours could help resolve any issues you have been experiencing. For example, we offer both a ‘High Speed’ or ‘Superior’ router that come with many more benefits than the standard, but these aren’t necessary for everyone.

4) Consider your broadband connection – Is your current service sufficient to cope with your requirements? Do you want to consider upgrading to fibre (to achieve greater speed) or direct internet access (DIA) to avoid contended bandwidth (sharing).

As time goes on our reliance on our internet connection is ever increasing, especially in business. Why wait until you / your business starts encountering these problems.

If you want to discuss how to improve your internet connection, please get in touch and a boxx brain will be happy to help!

Direct Internet Access: Could your business benefit?

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Direct Internet Access: Could your business benefit?

Sometimes referred to as ‘Data Connectivity’, ‘Ethernet Connectivity’ or ‘Leased Lines’, Direct Internet Access (DIA) is a dedicated internet connection that is even more robust, reliable and faster than a standard broadband or even fibre broadband connection.

The connection possibilities are endless and with so many options to suit individual business needs, bandwidth requirements and speeds, we have made the decision not to offer off-the-shelf products. Instead we offer bespoke packages tailored to specific business requirements.

But in an attempt to give you an idea of what you can expect from a DIA connection, we have put together some examples…..

Business A operates from a single site and has 15 members of staff who use the internet to send emails and surf, but are not using many internet based applications. They are just entering into the world of DIA and have a budget of just £100 per month to spend.

Our solution – ‘Ethernet over Fibre To The Cabinet (EoFTTC) / Generic Ethernet Access (GEA)’ uses existing fibre or copper wires to connect to the street cabinet and then a dedicated network connects to local telephone exchange. The upload / download speeds are 20MB p/sec and costs from £129 per month.

Business B is a 3 site organisation that has 15-20 members of staff at each site at present but they are looking to grow their teams over the next 18 months. They use many cloud-based applications and if their internet connection were to suffer any downtime, there would be serious financial & operational implications.

Our solution – ‘Ethernet Fibre’ uses fibre to connect directly to the local telephone exchange (i.e. not via a street cabinet) and is not only the most robust connection but is also scalable at reasonably short notice, so can easily accommodate their growing size. The cost is from £400 per month.

Business C is a single office company that has 20 members of staff who use cloud-based applications and often stream videos. Fibre is not available in their area but they are desperate to increase their speeds and reduce buffering without stretching their budget too much!

Our solution – ‘Ethernet First Mile (EFM)’ uses multiple copper wires to increase bandwidth and provide a faster solution for those who do not have access to fibre.. The upload / download speeds are 35MB p/sec and costs from £150 per month.

All of the above examples feature a totally uncontended and symmetrical bandwidth, which in simple terms means that they do not share with anyone else and that the download speed is the same as the upload speed. They also come with additional IP address options, plus 24/7 monitoring & support 365 days a year.

Direct Internet Access opens up all kinds of opportunities to improve productivity and efficiencies within your business, including moving to internet based voice solution – VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) dubbed the future of telecoms, which can make even further savings and improve your call handing.

To find out more about DIA or VoIP, call us on 01908 350750 or click here

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