Brother HL-2240D compact monochrome laser printer – an example of a workflow printer

I have come across situations with small offices such as clinics who run one or more dedicated laser printers that turns out receipts, invoices and other documents as part of the customer-facing business workflow. Some offices may run the printers also for some back-office requirements like preparing reports or balance sheets for that workstation.

But there is the situation where the printer can break down, usually with a mechanical failure like frequent paper jamming. This can happen more frequently as a machine ages and is worked hard in a busy office. It is analogous to that situation most of us experience when a car gets to that point in its life where it frequently lives at the mechanic’s workshop and drills a hole in your pocket because it is always breaking down.

This situation can impair the business’s workflow especially as one has to work out how to rectify a paper jam or, in some cases, reset the machine. As well, no woman would want to ruin their beautifully-done fingernails knocking them on the machine’s internals while removing jammed up paper.

In these situations, it is a good idea to set up a failover printing arrangement where you have other printers that come in to play if the workstation’s primary machine fails. This is easier to achieve if all of the printers accessible to the office or reception area are linked to the network.

For example, you could use a multifunction for this purpose even though each workstation computer has a dedicated laser printer like the Brother HL-2240D or Dell 1130n. The multifunction printer, which is often expected to serve as the main copier and fax machine for the organisation, could be a machine like the Brother MFC-8370DN or HP LaserJet M1536dnf for a monochrome variety or a Brother MFC-9460CDN or HP LaserJet Pro Color M475 Series for a colour variety. Even one of the high-end business inkjets like the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 could do the job just as well.

Some environments that have two or more workstations may prefer to have one workflow printer per workstation. Here, it would be preferable to connect the printers via the network rather than directly to the workstation computers. Here this can allow the other workflow printer to be used as a failover measure.

HP LaserJet M1536dnf monochrome laser multifunction printer – an example of a multifunction expected to be a small business’s copier and fax

But what you would have to do is to set up the workstations to use the printer that is local to them as well as this main multifunction printer or other workflow printer. This may be as simple as adding the driver set for the main printer to the computers or it may also require the line-of-business software to be set up to allow the use of two or more printers.

As far as default printers are concerned, you would have to set the primary dedicated printer as the default machine, then have the users select the main multifunction printer as a secondary printer whenever their primary printer fails. This can be done as part of ordering the print job in most software or going to the Printers option in the operating system and setting the multifunction printer as the default while the single-function workflow printer is out of action.

If you run a server-driven printing environment, it may be worth looking at options that allow failover printing so that print jobs that come from one workstation appear at particular printers in an order of availability.

Once you look at this option for setting up multiple printers in your office or reception area, you could then be sure of an arrangement where a printer failure doesn’t impede on your business workflow or affect how your business is perceived by the people your business benefits.

Article

Will The New Wave Of Prosumer Tablets Beat The iPad In The Enterprise? | ZDNet

My Comments

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet – fit for business

A trend that has been occurring over the past year or two regarding workplace computing is the implementation of consumer and “prosumer” tablet computers in this environment.

This has been underscored by the concept of “BYOD” and “consumerisation of IT” where technology hardware that is owned by employees is used to fulfill work tasks with this hardware existing under the control of the employees. This situation occurs commonly in a small business’s office environment but is being viewed with worry in medium and large businesses who are used to a company-supplied fleet of computers managed by an in-house IT team.

Issues that are commonly raised include the security of the workplace data held on the device and a desire to have a device that is manageable to company policies. This is especially where there is a “Bring Your Own Device” scenario where the employee buys and owns their device and uses it in the workplace.

Even hardware manufacturers are answering this trend through equipment like the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, both of which are equipped with styluses for rapid data entry as well as support for manageability.

Similarly. Microsoft and Apple are intending to court this market through the development of hardware and software that answers business needs like data security and system manageability.

Relevance to the small business

The large-business management options may be considered important for those businesses that have a solution provider or value-added reseller satisfying their IT needs. This is more so with retail and food / beverage / hospitality industries who implement computerised point-of-sale or similar systems. Here, a cafe  or restaurant who have their waitstaff taking customer orders at the table could benefit from tablet computers used for order entry.

It is also worth knowing that some of these tablets have been known to be cheaper in many ways to repair than the Apple iPad. This could be evident both in the increased availability of OEM and third-party spare parts as well as the increased access to expertise when it comes to repairing these units.

But any of these tablets can be relevant to the small business not just for jotting down notes, having reference material on hand or using them as a secondary communications-service terminal. Once loaded with the appropriate software or pointing to the appropriate Web resources, these units would come in handy for long-form data entry such as medical applications or surveys or frequent order entry like the aforementioned food and beverage industry.

A stylus can be a valuable option, if not a requirement if you are expected to do data entry using the tablet. This means that you can quickly “pick” options or “type” on the keyboard. Some devices may even recognise handwriting using this stylus.

For some small businesses, the tablet computer with its touchscreen is a valid trend to observe and, where relevant, implement. Similarly, the idea of “bring your own” IT is not new news in small operations but the manageability of this concept can be investigated when the business becomes larger or deals with a solution provider whom assists with the IT needs.

Dell Vostro 3550 business laptop

Any of you who regularly follow HomeNetworkig01.info regularly will come across reviews for desktop / laptop computers and peripherals that are pitched at business users. Examples of these include the HP ProBook 4520, the Dell Vostro 3550 and the Toshiba Tecra R850 laptops as well as most of the laser printers.

But you may think that this equipment, especially the desktop and laptop computers is to be pushed well away from small-business operators and home / SOHO users, only intended for large corporations.

Where to get these computers

Think again! The big-box computer retailers like Best Buy, Harvey Norman and JB HiFi could make you think that your shop, community organisation or other small business effort is only fit for the consumer desktops. You may get a reprieve with larger office-equipment chains like Staples, Office Depot or Officeworks offering business-grade printers and some business-grade computer equipment.

If you do engage an IT contractor or solution-provider who may provide the computing needs for your business, such as a point-of-sale system for your shop or a server for your small office or medical practice; you are in luck. Typically most of these operators are likely to sell business-grade desktops or laptops on an as-needed basis. They won’t have an inventory of such equipment on hand unless they operate a shopfront because of the storage requirements for the unsold equipment.

On the other hand, an independent computer dealer or a chain of specialist computer stores, especially those that are located near the central-business-district (downtown) area in a large city or other major business zone, may sell these computers.

But you will also have a greater chance in looking for these computers online. This may range from computer brands that operate an online store or  direct-sales platform like HP and Dell; to online stores the deal in both business and consumer computer equipment. Infact Dell can get your business machine “how you want it” by allowing you to vary the specifications to your needs or budget; or simply allow you to order a configuration “off the shelf”.

A trend that is starting to surface over the last few years is the creation of computers that tick the boxes for personal computing and business computing requirements. They will bave some of the looks and features associated with a consumer-grade computer yet have the manageability and security features associated with a business computer. This has come about due to:

• the arrival of the “bring your own device” practice adopted by an increasing number of workplaces; along with
• computer manufacturers answering the reality of the “work-home” laptop that has to “look the part” at home, including the home being the office for a business which may or may not have a storefront of some sort;
• computer manufacturers catering to  the Silicon-Valley / Northern-California workplace culture that replicates a common room in a university’s student-union or student residential facilities, something  underscored by the startups based in that area, and being different to what’s expected in New York or Chicago; and
• stiff competition from Apple with their MacBook products.

Features of interest with business computers

Security features

Toshiba Tecra R850 business laptop

One key differentiator for business computer equipment, especially laptops, is security features that are pitched at protecting sensitive corporate data. There may be less of a perceived need for these features for most small business, community organisation or small-office / home-office users.

But some of these users and their small organisations may be handling highly-sensitive data through their working life. This may range from an arts-and-antiques valuer who has details of the location and value of arts and antiques collections; through a lawyer, doctor or similar professional handling material that is confidential between them and their client or patient; to independent designers working on a unique significant design.

One common and obvious example is the provision of a fingerprint scanner which uses your fingerprint as the key to your system. This can be tied in with your operating system’s login process and / or it can work with a password vault for your online services. Infact some of use could use the fingerprint sensor and the supplied password vault software for doing something like logging in to Webmail services or our Social Web presence.

Another example is a “Trusted Platform Module” which provides a secure computing environment for use with some security software. This will be used in an operating-system-native manner with the “BitLocker” disk-volume encryption functionality available since Windows 7 Ultimate. In Windows 8, this function would be taken further via the creation of a “virtual smartcard” for its password-vault function. Windows 10 makes use of this to facilitate local login credentials attestation and permits “secure-system” verification before access to resources. Other third-party endpoint-security tools can make use of this feature to verify the integrity of their functionality and in some cases, TPM can be used as an extra authentication factor for Web services.

Manageability features

Computers targeted at the business end of the market will also have hardware and software that provides for central manageability. This includes software that propagates policy-definition files to the system or reports system data to “dashboard” software that is part of business-system management tools.

Such features and tools are typically focused at larger businesses with many computers managed by an in-house IT team. But they can be relevant if your business deals with an IT contractor or value-added reseller and you have them provide support for your desktop computer. These people may use the remote troubleshooting or software-delivery aspects of these features to help you diagnose your system from their office.

Sturdy construction and long service life

Toshiba Portege R830 ultraportable business notebook

Most business-grade computers offer some level of increased durability compared to consumer-grade systems due to them being expected to be depended on for one’s business life.

These kind of features may range from a sturdy physical build to active setups that protect the hard disk if the machine is dropped. Similarly, it may be easier to obtain replacement parts for these computers should the computer hardware need repair work done on it.

I have even recommended low-end business laptops that don’t have all of the manageability and security features but have the sturdy build as an option to consider when buying a laptop for secondary or tertiary-level students.

Disadvantages

Limited finishes and styling

With a few exceptions, most business computer equipment has been finished in a conservative grey or silver finish to make it look the part in a corporate office in New York or Chicago. This has been emphasised more so with any of the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad / ThinkCenter line of computer equipment which has been favoured by many business users.

Reduced multimedia capabiltiy

In a lot of cases, business computer systems didn’t have much emphasis on audio or video performance. This was assumed that business computing was to he looking at Excel spreadsheets, entering data or preparing and showing PowerPoint presentations with simple charts. Activities like audio and video playback or graphic editing, let alone game playing was out of the question as far as this user class was concerned. It is although some of these laptop computers that move between the office and home are pressed in to service as DVD players or games machines to while away long flights or placate young children on long road-trips.

But newer business-grade computers will typically come with the new integrated graphics and audio chipsets that are as capable as most average consumer equipment. This wouldn’t hit the mark with advanced photo/video editing or intense gaming and you would need to use a multimedia computer for these tasks.

As far as software goes, in most cases, you will only have what comes with the operating system for multimedia and games. In the case of Windows, this will typically be something like Windows Media Player and the usual casual games.

If your work-home laptop is purchased on a “build-to-order” basis, you may be able to ask about having advanced media players or access to games portals thrown in to the equation. In some cases, you may have this functionality thrown in to a pre-built configuration especially if you are just buying one desktop or laptop computer. But you can gain this functionality with software that you can buy “off the peg”.

Small-business product ranges

Some computer manufacturers have created a separate product range for computers that are focused towards small-business and community-organisation users. Initially these users were served by most of the computer manufacturers through the low-tier of the business product range and this is something that the rest of the computer industry do at the moment.

The examples highlighted here are the HP Pro and the Dell Vostro model names where computers with these model names have a feature set that is focused towards this user class. These computers will look very similar to a mainstream consumer product although they will have an aesthetic nature associated with business use. The operating systems that these computers will come with will be the Pro variants of the current Windows operating system while some manufacturers may offer an option to have the computer supplied with another “open-frame” operating system like Linux.

There will be the heavy-duty construction and security features associated with the business-class computers such as a TPM module and / or a fingerprint reader perhaps offered as an option, but cut back on enterprise-specific manageability features. If they do maintain any sort of management feature, they will offer it more as a simple-to-use package appealing to something that the business owner can handle themselves.

When should I consider the business computer option

I would consider purchasing the business-grade computer for office or mobile use if the computer is expected to be your primary work computer that you rely on, you are handling highly-confidential or risky data or, in the case of a laptop, find that it could suffer heavy use that puts it at increased risk of damage.

This article, originally published in December 2012, has been updated in January 2016 to reflect newer trends concerning business computers and in May 2017 to call out the HP Pro (HP ProBook) and Dell Vostro product ranges being focused towards small-business / community-organisation users.

I have noticed a gap concerning computer-based audio-visual setups especially as far as small business and non-profit organisations are concerned. It is to supply computer software affordable to these organisations that can manage audio and video playout duties that is a key part of their public-facing activities.

The current situation

Some of these organisations may push PowerPoint or similar programs to this task but they don’t really do the job well when it just comes to playing out video content. Typically, with most common presentation software, you have to embed the video file into the presentation on its own slide, in the case of Microsoft Powerpoint; or create a “virtual slide” for the video content in the case of EasiiSlides, a song-lyrics / text-display program that the churches love. This works well for short video clips that are held as files but may not do so for full-length content. These programs don’t even provide proper access to content held on DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs, which is still considered a cost-effective idiot-proof way of distributing video content.

On the other hand, programs like Windows Media Player and VLC exhibit their control surface on to the projection screen or require a very awkward kludge to permit proper dual-screen playback.

What is needed

Proper dual-screen operation

One issue I have noticed is that affordable laptops don’t readily provide separate and individual access to screen and sound outputs, including the integrated screen. Typically this kind of setup, if it works, tends to yield more problems than it is worth. This can be of concern if one of the screens is a different resolution or aspect ratio to the other, such as an economy data projector hooked up to a recent-issue laptop computer.

Audience screen vs operator screen

The goal behind these separately-addressable audio and video outputs is to create at least two separate views for the content – a “front-of-house” view which the audience sees and an “operator” or “control” view which the operator or presenter sees.

The audience feed would only show the video and audio that is related to the currently-playing content while the operator feed provides the video / audio content, content-runtime information, and any prompts and messages that the operator needs to know.

Some setups such as larger churches may necessitate a third feed for the presenter, with access to content timing as well as the content itself. Here, an operator can still control the flow of the presentation without the presenter “crooking his neck” to see the screen.

Universality with common video formats

This setup should be applicable for the consumer-optical-disc formats (DVD, Blu-Ray) as well as file or stream-delivered content. The latter situation should cater for content held on network resources as well as on local resources.

The solution offered by the presentation software typically doesn’t allow for playback off a DVD or Blu-Ray disc and a lot of users either connect a regular DVD player to the projector or mess around with DVD-playback programs to play out DVD content.

Cue mode

The dual-screen setup could allow for “cue” operation. This is where  the operator views content on the operator screen in order to preview or “cue-up” that material. Then, when it is time to show the content,  the operator then redirects it to the “front-of-house” screen and speakers.

Playlist and controlled-playback support

These should support stored playlists or active queue lists especially if they are to be used to play shorter content like music videos, video lyrics or “shorts”. Here, this could be augmented with support for “stop” entries which cause the equipment to stop playback when these files are reached.

The “stop” entries could work in a similar way to what I have noticed with some consumer MiniDisc decks where these units could be placed in to “auto-pause” where they wait at the start of the next item after they play the current item. This made these units, especially the Sony MDS-JE520, earn their keep as cost-effective audio-playout machines for community radio, churches (as I have seen), theatre groups and the like.

The playlist functionality could also support slideshows of still pictures with or without sound. This could include support for sound peculiar to each slide with or without a background-music track that runs through the playlist in a similar vein to those “theatre slides” shown before a movie session at the cinema.

Conclusion

The media-playout function is another example of software and hardware product designers missing out on a user group, namely small-business and non-profit organisations, due to a perceived low value in that group. But it is a group that should be observed and catered for with the right-priced hardware and software.

Most small organisations such as micro-businesses and other small businesses will place an expectation on computer printers to be used as an “organisational short-run printing press”. This expectation has been brought around through the availability of word-processing software that can offer basic desktop-publishing functionality and easy-to-understand desktop-publishing software that can do what most people want being available at a price that most people can afford.

HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus all-in-one printer

This concept has also been emphasised by printer manufacturers through their advertising collateral like a recent Canon TV commercial for their PIXMA printers or HP’s website for their OfficeJet Pro inkjet printers.

What features does it need to have?

High-yield printing

The printer should have optional support for high-yield ink or toner cartridges as well as regular-yield cartridges. This is more important for inkjet machines because the ink cartridges are typically very small and aren’t able to hold a lot of ink.

It is worth noting that most of the equipment pitched at business users like the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 will typically have the larger-capacity cartridges and have a higher duty cycle therefore being able to do this kind of work.

As well, you should prefer to use an inkjet printer that uses individually-replaceable ink tanks for each colour. These printers also become more cost-effective to run because you only need to replace the colours that you run out of when you run out of them.

The print mechanism has to be able to support large print runs without failing mid-job. This includes having it perform advanced printing functionalities like auto-duplex or use of anciliary trays. It also has to work reliably with jobs that are based around media other than regular paper.

Automatic duplexing

This brings me to automatic duplexing. An increasing number of home-office printers and small-business printers are being equipped with an automatic duplex mechanism so that the unit can print on both sides of the paper. This is usually to permit you to save paper but people may find this function useful for turning out booklets, brochures, greeting cards and the like where they want to print on both sides of the paper. Similarly, automatic duplexing may come in handy for making flyers and signage that is to be seen on both sides of a window.

Brother MFC-J6910DW A3 inkjet multifunction printer

A common problem with some of these mechanisms is that they don’t print to the narrow edge of Letter or A4 paper during a duplex print run. The problem has been more so with most Hewlett-Packard inkjet printers except the OfficeJet Pro 8600, which was pitched as a brochure-printing machine. This can cause problems with registration shifting or a requirement to have large margins on the document. Some Canon printers such as the PIXMA MX-870 have improved automatic duplex mechanisms that can work to the edge of the paper.

Another problem is that there is a time penalty of approximately 15 seconds per page with inkjet printers when they use automatic duplexing. This is to allow the ink to dry on the front side of the paper before the printer draws the paper in to print on the back.

Issues concerning use of the printer

Plastic-based media

Plastic-based media like overhead-projector transparencies, back-print film and vinyl stickers / decals have special requirements when it comes to printing them on your printer.

They range from being able to “hold” ink that is sprayed on to them by the inkjet process or passing through a heat-based printing process such as the xerographic process used in laser and LED printers.

Laser printers and special media

If you use a laser printer, you need to use laser-optimised media for plastic-based media and stickers. This is because the printed documents have to pass through “fuser rollers” that are heated at a very high temperature in order to melt the toner on to the media. This can be a problem with the adhesive and plastic backing associated with stickers or the plastic media melting inside the machine and causing damage that is costly in both money and serviceability terms.

Brother HL-4150CDN colour laser printer

It also can extend to glossy “presentation / brochure” paper which uses some form of glazing to provide the sheen, and this can cause problems with different printers.

So you have to use special media that is rated for laser-printer or xerographic photocopier use. This media is designed to pass through the hot fuser rollers without damaging the printer.  Some of the media that is made by particular printer manufacturers is designed for the printers made by that manufacturer and, in some cases, printers based on a certain print-engine type. This is due to the manufacturer knowing the operating temperature for the printers in question.

But there are some kinds of special media that is made by third parties and pitched at a range of printers offered by many different manufacturers. Some of these also may be available under the private labels that different stationers and office-supply stores use. For example, Avery make a large range of laser labels that are compatible with most laser printers that are in circulation nowadays.

Inkjet-compliant plastic media

To get best results out of inkjet printers with plastic media, you have to use inkjet-optimised plastic media that has a rough surface on the printed side. This is to catch the droplets left by the inkjet printer as part of its printing process and avoid the ink smearing over the medium as it passes through the printer or is handled by the user.

As well, you will need to set the printer’s driver software to work with “overhead transparencies” or “back print film” when you print to plastic media. This is to allow the printer to optimise its printing process for the media.

When you load the media, you have to make sure that the rough “printing” side faces the print head as it feeds through the printer. This may be harder to understand with Hewlett-Packard and Brother printers because they use a U-shaped paper-feed path and eject the printed document above the paper storage trays. Here, you would have to put the media in with the rough side facing down when loading the printer.

Use your printer or outsource your printing for that print run

The main question that a lot of users will end up asking will be whether to have the print runs made by an outside printing house or print the documents with their printer.

One factor to consider is how many copies you will be eventually needing for your design. If you are turning out up to 20 to 40 copies of your design at a time, you can get by with using your machine. If you end up running more than that, you would need to outsource your printing. This is because of the cost of ink and paper involved in the large print runs, the costs associated with the wear and tear on your machine and the time it takes to run the large print jobs on the typical home-office or small-business printer. This last factor will be of importance with fax-enabled printers that have to be ready to receive faxes or printers that are required to turn out hard copy as part of business processes.

Another factor worth considering is how often your design is likely to change. If the design is likely to change frequently or be suited to an occasion, you may have to use your printer for the short runs or outsource larger runs to a print shop that can turn out medium runs. Examples of this may include a café, restaurant or bar turning out menus or drinks lists that are centred around particular food and drink specials, a church or funeral home turning out an order-of-service for a particular occasion or an estate agent or auctioneer running flyers about the property that they are auctionning to hand out to customers.

It is worth knowing that your machine would be useful for creating proofs or short “test-runs” of  documents that you expect to outsource to a print shop for the large outsourced runs. An example of this could include a test-run to assess the effectiveness of a design or a preview run for special customers. It can also be useful for creating “infill runs” of documents when you have run short of copies and either you don’t want to order another large print run or you want copies on hand while another large run that you ordered is being processed.

Conclusion

Here, small businesses can consider the use of a desktop printer as the “small-business printing press” if they know what their machine is capable of and they are using the right media for the job. This includes whether to work it hard on a large print job or assign the job to the local print shop.

Article

HP Blogs – 6 steps for SMBs to become IPv6-ready – The HP Blog Hub

My Comments

There is all the talk of us running out of IPv4 public IP addresses for the Internet, and an increased awareness of IPv6 Internet technology. One major driver for the IPv6 technology is the rolling out of next-generation broadband services; where this feature will be seen as being part of the “next generation” mould.

In the near time, the typical IPv6 network will operate as a “dual-stack” setup where there is an IPv6 network and an IPv4 network operating over the same network space. A device such as an IPv6-ready router will typically bridge the gap between the dual-stack devices and the IPv4-only devices by assisting in the discovery of the devices and transferring data between the two different network stacks.

Outside IT contractors

If you do regularly engage outside contractors for your IT needs such as your POS / property-management technology, it would pay to ask whether the technical staff know about IPv6 and how to deploy it. Most of these contractors may think that small business doesn’t need IPv6 but as the Internet moves to this technology, it pays to be future-proof.

ISPs and Webhosts

It is worth making sure that your business’s ISP and Internet hosted services such as your Webhost are ready for IPv6 or have intentions to roll out a customer-facing IPv6 service.

Most ISPs and Webhosts are likely to have the backend of their services working on IPv6 technology but their customer-facing services like the Web services or Internet service may not be ready. This may be due to the presumption that most customer setups will fail when confronted with IPv6. The exception may be the ISPs that serve a “switched-on” audience that knows their way around the Internet technology; or ISPs and Webhosts that offer customer-facing IPv6 service as a limited-user beta test and they may offer a “dual-stack” setup.

It also pays to check that your domain host supports domain records that are compatible with IPv6 setups. This includes having AAAAA-form DNS records that can resolve your domain name to IPv6 addresses.

Hardware

Computers that run Windows Vista or 7, MacOS X Lion or recent Linux distributions will be ready for IPv6; with Windows XP having support through a downloadable module from Microsoft’s Web site. Relatively-recent computer equipment can be upgraded from prior operating systems to the newer IPv6-compliant operating systems. For the mobile platforms, the IOS (iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch), Android, Symbian and Windows Phone 7 platforms do support IPv6. They will typically operate on a “dual-stack” arrangement by being able to service an IPv4 network and an IPv6 network at the same time through the same network interface,

Similarly, most network printers pitched at the business end of the market that were released over the last few years would have support for IPv6 in a dual-stack setup.

As for routers, managed switches, access points and other network hardware, I would suggest that you check for firmware that supports IPv6 for your existing equipment. Keep an eye on the manufacturer’s Website for newer firmware updates that support IPv6.  If you are purchasing or specifying newer network equipment, make sure that it does support IPv6 or has future support for this in a planned firmware update. Most unmanaged switches, HomePlug-Ethernet bridges and devices that don’t use a Web or SMNP user interface would not need to be compliant with IPv6. This is because these devices work at levels below the IP stacks.

In the case of routers, the device should work as a “dual-stack” unit with support for routing between the two different IP network types. It should also be able to cope with working with a dual-stack Internet service especially as the business Internet services that provide IPv6 will do so in a dual-stack manner.

When I review any network hardware including printers, I will identify those pieces of equipment that are IPv6-ready so as to help you know whether the equipment will be future-proof.

Software

As for software on these computers, any desktop firewall software or other network-utility software that you run would need to support IPv6 operation. This is something that recent versions of this software would cater for, but you should make sure of this when you specify new software. It also holds true for any other network-management programs that need to work on an IP level.

The application software that serves office functionality or line-of-business needs wouldn’t be of concern in relation to IPv6 because the operating system would be handling the network-resource requests for these programs.

Conclusion

The key issue with assuring IPv6 compatibility for your small business network is to make sure that your computer equipment works on dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 software and / or there is a router that works as n IPv4/IPv6 bridge on both sides of the network-Internet “edge”. As well, the IT contractors and services that you engage would need to be knowledgeable about IPv6 and the impending rollout for your business.

Introduction

I am reviewing the Dell Vostro 3550 series of 15” business laptop computers, which is infact the first business laptop that I have reviewed from this company. It can be purchased from Dell’s online store as one of a few preconfigured options or you or your IT contractor could order a customised system through the Dell website.

The computer itself

Aesthetics and Build quality

The Dell Vostro 3550 laptop is finished in a silver metal housing that shows that it is well built and durable. This can be available to order as a burgundy or bronze finish if you buy it through Dell’s website. Unlike most laptops, the lid is recessed down with the hinges set towards the centre.

Keyboard detail emphaising chrome trim

The screen escutcheon and palmrest are finished in a charcoal grey finish with the keyboard and trackpad set off with chrome piping. This styling reminds me o the way the dashboards on various classic cars have been styled.

User interface

The Vostro’s keyboard is an illuminated keyboard but doesn’t have a numeric keypad. This may not affect most users but those of use who need to enter in lots of figures like accountants will miss the feature. Here, they could use a USB numeric keypad for the data entry. On the other hand, you get the proper feedback which is important if you do a lot of touch-typing.

This is supported by a trackpad which, like all of the trackpads on recent Dell notebooks, is distinctively highlighted. It works properly as a trackpad and allows for proper navigation.

The Vostro 3550 does support fingerprint-recognition and Dell supplies a “software keyring” that links Web passwords with your fingerprint. Infact I was offered the option to tie my Facebook password to my fingerprint with this software.

As well, there are hot keys with one for the Mobility Center, one for Dell Support access and one you can define to launch a particular program.

Connectivity and Expansion

The Dell Vostro 3550 business laptop range is well endowed when it comes to connectivity and expandability.

The review unit cam with an integrated 3G wireless-broadband modem as well as Bluetooth 3.0 and 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi wireless. The 3G modem is available as an option on other configurations in this model range. The SIM card for the 3G service is installed in a slot located in the battery compartment and it takes the standard small-form-factor SIM card rather than the “micro” SIM card.

Left hand side with SD card reader. USB / eSATA socket, USB socket and HDMI socket

On the other hand, I don’t see why the 3G modem couldn’t, with Bluetooth, support the SIM Card Access profile for authenticating to mobile-data services. Here this setup allows authentication to mobile services via a mobile phone SIM card using a Bluetooth link. The function has been available with integrated car phones that allow authentication and phone service using the driver’s SIM card held in their mobile phone, and could support “one account, one bandwidth quota” operation for both the mobile phone and laptop.

On the other hand, the 3G modem technology used in the Vostro’s integrated modem may be considered too slow in the face of upcoming 4G LTE deployments that are occurring in most countries. Of course this is taken care of with the USB ports and ExpressCard slot being ready to accept LTE modems.

Right hand side with optical drive, ExpressCard slot, audio jacks and USB 3.0 socket

The Dell Vostro has a promising array of two USB 3.0 ports alongside two USB 2.0 ports with one doubling as an eSATA slot. There is an ExpressCard slot available for use with LTE or WiMAX wireless-broadband cards or whatever comes one’s way.

Of course, the computer offers for removable storage a card reader for use with SDHC and similar memory cards as well as a DVD burner.

Audio and Video

A feature that is worthy of note for the Dell Vostro is the integration of a microphone array. Here this allows for improved audio results with video conferencing or speech-recognition-based dictation by using microphone combinations to focus on the voice and cut out the background noise.

This is like when you use a stereo recorder that is equipped with two microphones to record your voice, then play the same recording through stereo speakers or headphones. Here, it is easier to catch your voice because it is dominant across both channels.

The Dell Vostro 3550 uses a dual-mode graphics setup with AMD Radeon graphics for discrete high-performance graphics and Intel HD graphics for power-saving economy-mode graphics. I have seen the benefit of this setup before when I reviewed the HP Pavillion dv7-6013TX which is similarly equipped. Here, I ran it through a DVD rundown test while the laptop was using the Intel HD graphics and it was able to play longer than previous discrete-only setups.

There is support under the new AMD control software for application-driven switchability. Here one can set a video-editing application or graphics-rich game to go with the high-performance graphics while other applications like Web browsers or word-processing can work with the power-saving graphics mode.

On the other hand, there isn’t a distinct manual switch in the AMD software to switch between discrete or integrated graphics.

The Vostro 3550’s screen doesn’t have any of the glare that is common with a lot of consumer laptops and this nicety may be peculiar to business laptops. At least this means that you can use it in most environments without seeing yourself in the mirror when you use the laptop.

Battery life

The Vostro 3550 has achieved long battery runtimes thanks to the Intel Sandy Bridge technology. I had run it on a DVD rundown test by having it play a feature movie continuously off the DVD. This ran for 6 hours 38 minutes on the integrated graphics while showing good-quality movie images.

I have also run the laptop on regular tasks and it appeared as if it was sipping the battery rather than wolfing through it. It has what appears to be a larger battery pack but this pack is the standard one for the Vostro 3550 series.

Conclusion

Rear view with VGA, USB 3.0, Ethernet and power sockets

The Dell Vostro 3550 Series is another of the value-for-money durable laptops that I would recommend as a standard-size “work-home” laptop if you just transport it between locations. If you intend to do a lot of numeric data entry such as accounting or statistics work with it, I would recommend that you use the Vostro with a USB numeric keypad.

Here, I would make sure you get as much RAM and hard disk space as you can afford. You could get away with the i5 processor for most tasks and choose the i5 processor for tasks that demand more like graphics for example. If you had to cut your cloth accordingly, you may have to forego the integrated 3G modem and use an external wireless-broadband modem or tether your mobile phone for your wireless-broadband use as a way of focusing money on the performance or capacity aspects.