Pings & Packets from eWEEK Labs

Convoq App Melds With Salesforce

SellASAP for AppExchange does a good job of blending Convoqs Web conferencing features into the context of selling in Salesforce. coms namesake service.

SellASAP for AppExchange is a tool that allows sales and support staff to host one-to-many meetings—either to present information or demonstrate an application—and its priced at an affordable $8,750 per year for 25 presenter seats. Each presenter can present to 15 participants.

Convoq delivers SellASAP through two components: the dedicated ASAP Pro client that manages Web-conference-based meetings and embedded links to the ASAP client within the Salesforce.com interface. The ASAP Pro client is a good Web conferencing tool that includes an instant messaging client with robust contact management.

On the Salesforce.com side, I liked the way Convoq has integrated the ASAP components into the Salesforce experience. These integration points include embedded links, fields that ASAP populates with presentation metadata and a dashboard. The links consist primarily of launching points for meetings in specific areas of the Salesforce interface.

For more information, go to www.convoq.com.

--Michael Caton

Spare Backup Gets Users in Good Habit

I dont back up my data nearly as often as I should.

Targeting users such as myself (and Im guessing there are many), Spare Backup is an automated service that allows you to do a secure and remote restore of your data from anywhere with an Internet connection.

A basic subscription with 1GB of storage costs $9.99 a month, with each additional gigabyte costing an extra $1.99 per month. An annual subscription with 1GB of storage costs $7.99 a month and $1.59 for each additional gigabyte. A 45-day trial with 500MB of storage is free.

The service, from Spare Backup Inc., requires Windows 2000 or later, as well as a broadband connection. All data stored by the service is secured via AES 1,024-bit SSL encryption, a user name and password, and a "spare key" password required to open files recovered using the service.

After installing the service, I was able to configure it to back up only certain types of files and to set a backup schedule. Spare Backup then scanned my hard drive for files, including all my Microsoft Outlook e-mail.

After the initial scan, only new files and those that have been changed are added by the service during the next scheduled backup. Spare Backup also has Web-based account access that let me recover data from the service and search all my files.

More information is available at www.sparebackup.com.

--Anne Chen

F-Secure Maps Out Malware

With threat information culled from its worldwide customer installed base, F-Secures new World Map (check it out at worldmap.f-secure.com and above) offers a quick glimpse at the current and historical virus and malware threat posture worldwide.

From the color-coded display, the F-Secure World Map highlights overall infection rates worldwide during the previous hour or day, or I could view historical data for last month or last year. (But last year is as far back as it goes.)

I could drill down to focus the map on a specific country or continent, and, within the United States, I could even focus on a single state.

The global threat posture tools are fun to monkey with, but I was more interested in the specific information the World Map offers about currently active threats. The World Map interface breaks out the most common threats (and threat families) detected, and I could drill down to view outbreak information worldwide for a specific threat, tracking a virus or Trojan as it spreads internationally over time.

F-Secure clients automatically report the infections that make up the trending information shown in the World Map. Customers that dont want their infection data automatically reported should give F-Secure an earful.

Upon request, F-Secure also will provide instructions to add a World Map banner to your Web site, which makes for an abnormally informative advertisement.

--Andrew Garcia