Now there’s a question.

The .tel domain suffix became available to the great unwashed (that’s you and me) on the 24th of March, after a long, drawn-out, “sunrise period” (basically some time in which the big trademark holders like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Virgin and the like can get their hands on their own brand name without it being bought by a spotty teenager demanding £5 Million to sell it back to them).

Aaah, the heady days of the late 90’s when “pc.com” was allegedly sold to Intel for about £5 Million – by a spotty teenager!

Anyway, the .tel domain suffix promises to be something slightly different.

Currently, most domain names are just “mapped” over an IP address where the website is being hosted (bear with me, this is simple stuff). For example, www.coca-cola.com is actually mapped over the IP address: 216.64.210.28. So if you just type 216.64.210.28 into your browser’s address bar (at the top) it’s exactly the same as typing in www.coca-cola.com – if that makes sense? You can just click on the links or IP addresses above to prove the point.

The reason for this is simply one of convenience – it’s a lot easier for us mere mortals to remember, for example, www.virgin.com rather than 213.174.199.102 or www.google.com rather than 74.125.127.100 although they lead to exactly the same place. And of course it allows the website owner to transfer his or her domain name onto a different IP address if necessary (in case a server packs up or they fall out with their hosting company etc.) and we, the website visitors, are none the wiser.

So it goes without saying that the IP addresses above may not be strictly accurate at the time of reading!

Well, the .tel domain name is slightly different. You can’t just “map” your shiny new .tel domain name over an IP address, infact all you get for your £15 +VAT is a username and password for a website where you simply enter your business or personal details.

Not very exciting.

Until you realise that you are actually entering your information into the actual DNS (Domain Name System) rather than just mapping your domain over an IP address.

So what?

Well, that means that the contact information anyone enters on their .tel is universally available – in the same format.

So mobile phones, PDAs, netbooks, VOIP services and specific software applications, for use on websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and Ecademy can have access to all this contact information – in the same format!

This could truly turn out to be a global phone directory or, as a colleague of mine put it, “…global LDAP…” (and as a side benefit, it’s great for search engine optimisation).

So what are you waiting for? Click HERE for my favourite and highly recommended domain name registrar, SimplyNames.com and order your very own .tel domain name now! – and if you want more detailed information on the .tel domain name, check out: www.telnic.org for some cool videos.

Oh, and if you want to see what a .tel website looks like, check out: OverVoice.tel – and you can see (and hear) my “.tel story” HERE.

And finally, before I forget – it takes 12-24 hours to get your login, username and password from your domain registrar so please be patient! 

A sweeping statement perhaps but this next product I am going to talk about literally made my life so much easier, I just have to recommend it to you.

The issue concerns making backup copies of your work – and it doesn’t just have to be work. It can be family photos, games, documents, well, anything computerised and digital really.

OK – so here’s the scenario – up until the middle of last year I was painstakingly backing up all my voice over files, emails, customer data, photos etc. once a week onto a 20GB hard drive, plugged into my computer via USB. Every Friday afternoon, I would wipe the previous copy of my data and upload the fresh and changed data to the drive and carefully place it on top of my PC for safe keeping.

Then I thought:

“What happens if there’s a fire in my studio?”

So I started to take my hard drive around to a friend’s house each week – not ideal, obviously, but this seemed like a more secure way of doing things.

Then I started to think that there must be a better way of backing-up my data – and a better use of my time! So I researched the online storage companies and frankly couldn’t come up with a solution (and a pricing point) that I felt comfortable with. There were companies offering underground storage in secure bunkers, old nuclear facilities, banks and tanks – but nothing that really suited my needs as a self employed voice over, working largely from a home-based vocal booth.

Then in July last year, a colleague, hearing about the ridiculous lengths I had been going to, to secure my data, recommended a product called Amazon S3. At first, I didn’t believe this kind of service existed, but after much research (I always look into these things to the n’th degree) I was amazed at how simple and effective this service really is.

To keep it brief, in 2006 Amazon (yes, Amazon the book people) , realised that they had created far too much storage for their ever expanding bookstore (OK, so they sell a couple of other items too) and decided to sell some of it off to developers. Now, at this point you had to be able to write techy-type code and API’s to actually access this storage so it wasn’t really for the likes of you and me (me, especially!).

Rolling on, 2007 brought a rash of companies providing simple, graphical, web-based interfaces to access the Amazon S3 storage offering. My favourite is Jungle Disk and I highly recommend it to you – it’s fantastic!

Very briefly, you can buy the Jungle Disk software for a one-off cost of just $20 (whatever that is in real money) and that includes lifetime updates (not great if you’re planning to die anytime soon). And then it just costs 15cents for each GB of data you upload – billed by Amazon. And yes, if you already have an Amazon account, you can use that.

So, why is Amazon S3 / Jungle Disk so good?

* Well, you can automate absolutely everything. You just “tell” Jungle Disk what to back-up (folders, files, photos, whatever) and it does this seemlessly, automatically and in the background at whatever time of day you specify. A good friend of mine backs up his email every minute!

* The Amazon network, I believe, is one of the most secure, stable and reliable storage networks out there. Amazon, quite simply, can’t afford to have any outages – after all, it’s their business!

* The restore process is extremely simple. If you actually do have a fire or other disaster, getting your data back from Amazon could not be more simple I know, I’ve tried!

Anyway, my advice to you would be to try it – you have nothing to lose and this service just might change your life too.

These days I don’t even think about storing and protecting my data on a Friday afternoon. I’ve got better things to think about – like going to the pub!

Check out: www.jungledisk.com – you wont regret it!