1 MB DSL for Rs. 299 in Selected Cities: PTCL

This is a like a dream – 1 MB broadband DSL connection being offered for Rs. 300 only? and that too includes a free modem? Yes – that’s correct…!

PTCL has been offering this in rural areas. Check below banners for further details

You can call 0800-80-800 to check if this offering is available in your area or not. Do comment in case it is being offered.

Thanks to Arsalan for sending us these pictures

PTCL NOC Wins Special International Recognition Award

On the occasion of 27^th International Telecom Management Information Platform (TEMIP) User Group Conference held at Hamburg, Germany PTCL Network Operations Centre (NOC) team has been honored with ‘Special International Recognition Award’ on displaying exemplary expertise acquisition for extensive utilization/ customization of product features in an exceptionally short time span.

Video>>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_tNIQLl_HI&feature=player_embedded

As per details, this award has been bestowed upon PTCL, among other 100 companies worldwide having HP NOC platform, for emerging as a source of inspiration for various incumbent and prospective HP customers by gaining maximum performance out of HP’s product portfolio. Another consideration for this award to be given to PTCL has been the outstanding Video “PTCL NOC” produced by PTCL NOC resources, which outlines how PTCL is focusing on its customer satisfaction by deploying in Pakistan State of The Art Service Operation Centers.

PTCL management has proclaimed this achievement would further enhance PTCL commitment towards customer’s satisfaction by continuously improving network availability and superior customer experience. This award has brought PTCL International acclaim branding it as a world class operator.

13 Great Free Backup Programs for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Making sure you've got a reliable backup solution is a must for any user - and more so for an administrator. Why? Well, mostly because your users probably aren't very good at remembering to back up their own files. And so it falls to you to provide the right software for the job!

Backup software is a difficult category to tackle nowadays as the distinction between backup and synchronization apps has become a little blurred. Prices being what they are, my personal choice is to use external or removable hard drives for my backup chores - my current favorites are Bonkey and Cobian.

To make sure you've got plenty of options to choose from, I've split this list into three different categories so that you can choose from the options that are best suited to your environment.

Integrated Burning

Comodo Backup [win]
They do make than a great firewall. Comodo Backup is an excellent free solution. It has extremely flexible scheduling and notification options, supports FTP destinations, can burn multisession DVDs, and has a synchronization mode for quick realtime backups.

DFIncBackup [win]
As is the case with most backup applications, there's a free and paid version. The free one still handles CD/DVD backups, and it also does incremental .zip jobs as well - only backing up files that have changed or weren't present in your previous job.

SE Backup [win]
Sports a very simple interface, does CD and DVD burning and compression, and is available as a portable application. Scheduling isn't built in, but it supports command line launching with parameters which works very well with Windows' own Task Scheduler.

File Copy

Abakt [win]
Though it's no longer developed, Abakt is still a great choice. It's got a great file filtering system, supports 7zip and zip compression, file splitting, password protection, and does differential and incremental backups.

Areca [win]
Free, open source, and wicked powerful. Areca is loaded with features: compression, encryption, simulation, merging, transaction commit/rollback, filtering, and more. It's command line interface provides excellent automation options and Areca also supports scripting of post-job actions.

Bonkey [win] [mac]
The "Backup Monkey." If I was giving points for best mascot, this one would be a clear winner.

Bonkey runs on both Windows and Mac, and has a lot of great features. It supports email, FTP, and Amazon S3, compression, encryption, scheduling, and synchronization. It'll even back up MS SQL server databases.

Cobian Backup [win]
Apart from being a great application, Cobian's developer has an excellent tutorial online to help you get started. Though it is no longer open source, you may still download the last version that was (v8). There's also a portable version.

One of my favorite features of Cobian is its ability to handle pre- and post- job events. I use it to issue net stop and net start commands to ensure safe backups of our horrible, horrible point-of-sale system. Cobian also has the ability to control and monitor all its instances on your network from your own workstation.

JaBack [win] [mac]
Allows backup to FTP and email (as well as any drive on your computer or network), and sports a flexible scheduler. It also has a file monitor function that will perform backup operations whenever changes are detected.

Mathusalem [mac]
Offers FTP/SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDav, and SMB support for backups on OSX. Mathusalem can compress to zip and dmg, will resume failed uploads, and supports scheduling and command line launching. It's also open source.

Server-Based

Bacula [win] [mac] [linux]
Bacula is an enterprise grade network backup solution that runs on just about every platform imagineable. It's a much more complex system than the other options I've mentioned, but is extremely powerful and well-suited to a medium or large scale network.

BackupPC [win] [linux]
A Linux-based, client-free enterprise solution for backing up Windows and Linux machines. BackupPC uses SMB, tar, and rsync to extract backup data from client computers. It 's got a powerful web-based interface for administrators and users, and will even email reminders to users that have been remiss in performing backups.

It's a very flexible solution, and is open source.

NasBackup [win] [linux]
Uses a simple Windows GUI and rsync to perform backups from client machines to a central server. It'll do incremental backups, scheduling, compression, encryption, and the server offers useful per-client controls like limiting the number of versions to store and expiration dates. It also provides daily summaries via email.

Restore [win] [mac] [linux]
The self-proclaimed "reason backup was invented." It's definitely a great product, and full of terrific features. Its web interface is very easy to understand and use - and makes it easy for the mobile admin to monitor and control Restore from anywhere.

Restore supports FTP, WebDav, SSH/SFTP, and multiple revisions. It also provides powerful admin tools, making it easy to create and control users, groups, jobs, and scheduling.

Did I miss your favorite app? Share it with us...Admins everywhere will thank you!

How to sync Firefox bookmarks to your iPhone using Xmarks

Lifehacker recently found a neat (if not somewhat convoluted) trick for syncing Firefox bookmarks to an iPhone. This is going to work for you if you're running Windows and using Firefox, and it also requires using Internet Explorer. You're also going to need the very useful bookmark manager Xmarks.

I know, I know, but bear with me, here. Apparently, all the easier methods disappeared when Firefox 3 came out.

The Xmarks trick was written up by blogger Shawn0, has quite a few steps, but it's actually pretty straightforward. You install Xmarks, use it to sync your bookmarks from Firefox to Internet Explorer -- which you can then sync to Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Three browsers, one add-on, and iTunes -- just for bookmarks? Well, it beats entering them all manually on your phone.

Step-by-step instructions from Shawn0 are available for anyone who wants to give this method a shot. Be sure to let us know how it goes.

Is Google Voice going to be the next Skype?

Google Voice is great for voicemail and text transcription, call forwarding, and a bunch of other useful phone-related services, but it's not a full VoIP solution like Skype. That could change in 2010, though, especially since Google acquired Gizmo5, a company that develops technology for web-to-web and web-to-phone calls. Owning Gizmo5 doesn't necessarily mean Google's going to compete with Skype, but some recent quotes from a VP at Google suggest things may be headed in that direction.

According to eWeek, a Google VP of Product Development, Bradley Horowitz, told the media that "voicemail transcription, inbox integration and threaded SMS are fantastic features, but we're really just scratching the surface. Gizmo5 gives us talent and talent technology. ... We want to make sure your communication is available to you irrespective of where you are at, what device you have in your pocket, etc." With Gizmo5's technology, Google's brand name and huge userbase, will we be saying "Google Voice me" instead of "Skype me" by this time next year?

I'm not willing to call it one way or the other just yet. What do you think, oh wise DLS readers?

Muziic now plays YouTube and Vevo videos without ads

Quickly! Before it gets shut down! Muziic, a web app developed by a sixteen-year-old teenager, now offers YouTube and Vevo videos without ads.

We originally covered it back in March and until Christmas Day, Muziic was simply a desktop-based downloadable program. Now, however, it's a full-featured web app -- and it's really rather good! It has a smooth, quick interface and a neat playback bar that sits at the bottom of the window. Playback isn't interrupted as you surf either; cool.

The problem is, not only does it draw on-demand content from YouTube (which is fine), but it also takes content from Vevo... without the pre-roll ads! The thing is, this isn't actually Muziic's fault, it's YouTube's. The YouTube application interface (API) also links into Vevo, and it doesn't seem to include the ads. We can only assume this will be fixed soon -- or Muziic will be forced to somehow include the ads.

Muziic offers a service comparable to, or better than, the wide range of streaming music web apps already on the Internet. I'm tempted to use it simply because a kid coded it -- he was just 15 when Muziic first launched. Did I mention there's an iPhone app for it coming soon too?

[via CNET]

Cellular Subscribers Near 97 Million. Telenor and Mobilink Gain Most.

Cellular Subscribers Near 97 Million. Telenor and Mobilink Gain Most.

By Babar Bhatti on December 29, 2009 under Competitive Trends, Emerging Markets Telecom, Mobile Phones, Mobile Trends, Mobilink, Pakistan, Telecom News, Telecommunications, Telenor, Ufone, Warid, Zong | 419 views

After a tumultuous year, the Pakistan telecom industry is back on the road to recovery. Its good to see November 2009 show some healthy growth of about 800K new subscribers. Total cellular subscribers are 96.7 million (with ~285K for SCO and AJK). Here are the month-to-month gains with the most successful operator at the top:

1. Telenor: 304,178
2. Mobilink: 204,419
3. Warid: 134,010
4. Zong: 117,143
5. Ufone: 31,105

Telenor continues its successful streak and tops 22 million subscribers, an impressive performance in a tough year. Mobilink, with 30.5 million is certainly back in action and deserves a pat on the back for fighting back. Warid is doing a decent job with 18.7 million. Zong has picked up more subscribers than earlier months but struggles to go over 7 million. Ufone is seriously behind others – one has to wonder what happened to them.

So the cellular industry is still waiting for its century (Target: 100 million) , now expected in Feb/March 2010. At least we are back on track.

PTA Released Quality of Service Report of All Mobile Operators in Pakistan

Pakistan Telecom Association (PTA) has released report of Quality services of mobile phone operators. This report base on these factors

Results City wise

Service retain ability

Speech Quility

All mobile phone operators included in this report!

Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, WaridTel, CMPak (Zong).

Download the report

English version

Urdu Version