Author Archives: admin

A Better Way

We have all seen the jokes online, on TV shows and in movies about a bewildered customer needing assistance and calling their technical support only to find the person on the other end is unintelligible and incapable of helping them.

The key to running a healthy call center is efficiency; however, perceived “efficiencies” can erode true customer service. The “shotgun approach” defines efficiency as moving the employees from call-to-call as fast as possible while trying to fix only the most common problems. Typically, this approach does not get to the heart of the customer’s problem or provide a good customer service experience.

Our call center’s focus is to be quick and efficient, by making sure we have available staff for every caller in a timely manner, but how we get there is a little different from other places. We actually train our employees. We do not use one-size fits all scripts nor do we rely on software alone to provide automated guidance.

To achieve this model we maintain a vast Knowledge Base of solutions and information. Our employees are taught how to quickly get at the root of a problem with deductive reasoning and then to apply information from our Knowledge Base, not because they are told to, but because they understand that is the correct course. If an employee does not understand a concept or construct about the situation, they escalate the call to a more senior technician and, after the call, they discuss the remedy so they can gain that knowledge. Our call center approach builds problem solvers, not drones.

This approach creates an efficient environment because there is little to no wasted time with an employee wandering off in the wrong direction or wasting time redoing steps repeatedly. Knowledge is the key, not scripts, not hand holding but knowledge that can be built and expanded upon. While we are focused on making sure our time to first contact is as low as possible (current average is: 1.26 minutes) we are flexible enough to make sure that customers requiring special attention or have larger needs are also taken care of correctly. Striking that balance is not easy but it is imperative to run a successful call center and support network. Join the First Network Group family today and offer your Internet customers – broadband and dial-up – cellular, CATV/IPTV and landline, our outstanding technical service.

Contact us today to find out more information about this incredibly useful service. Ask for me directly, Cory Lykins , V.P. – Technical Support: coryl@network1.net or call me at 1-800-578-6381, option 6

Memorial Day

American-FlagThe First Network Group family wishes you a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. With respect to all our active military and all those veterans who have came before – thank you for all you do and have done.

DHCPatriot version 5.2.1 has been released

DHCPatriot logo

This is a maintenance with bug fixes only. Only DHCPatriot systems experiencing the bugs repaired in this release will receive this software. All of the fixes from this release will of course be in version 5.3.0.

Release notes:

  1. Added hardware support for the 2013-1 model of DHCPatriot system.
  2. Gave space on startup to launching programs so that they don`t all launch simultaneously. This should help with some freeze-up on startup problems.
  3. Added diagnostic software that will allow us to access hardware information in the field.
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DHCPatriot update 5.2.0 released!

DHCPatriot logoDHCPatriot update 5.2.0 has been released. Patch notes for this release.

  1. It is now possible to add fully qualified domain names to the DHCPatriot
  2. Force lower case usernames now works from the admin form. Previously it only worked from the customer facing authentication page.
  3. ISC DHCP version 4.2.4-P1 is now the core dhcp server. This release contains bug fixes as well as some refinements.
  4. Sticky IP notes are now possible. Notes can be included with a sticky IP assignment so that it can be remembered why it was done.
  5. Exclude IP notes are now possible. Notes can be included with an excluded IP so that it can be remembered why it was done.
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DHCPatriot update 5.1.2 released!

DHCPatriot logoDHCPatriot update 5.1.2 has been released. Patch notes for this release.

  1. Added firewall rules to place a limit on the number of connections that can be opened by a single client machine to the web authentication page. The limit is 20 hits in 10 seconds. It works like this: once a client opens his 20th connection in 10 seconds, he cannot open anymore. If he continues to try during the time that he cannot open more connections, this counts as well. The client machine will need to wait and not open any more connetions until 10 seconds has passed. It is unlikely that clients with a virus infection opening large amounts of web page ports will be able to get to the authentication page.
  2. Changed MaxRequestsPerChild to 1024 from 0 in the web server. This will allow running servers to exit after serving a certain number of pages as per manufacturer recommendation.
  3. Removed text wrapping from all textareas to prevent inconsistancies with visual wrap versus storage of actual data.
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Product Development is Expanding

Michael WulfhorstFirst Network Group, Inc. is pleased to announce the recent growth of its Product Development department to better align itself with new client opportunities. Michael “Wulf” Wulfhorst joined the Product Development department July 1 as a Product Specialist where he is assisting with the operation, testing and diagnostics of our popular DHCPatriot, platform as well as other Product Development solutions.

“It is our great pleasure to add Wulf to our Product Development department. This addition increases the depth and breadth of Product Development, expanding the resources available to customers of the increasingly popular DHCPatriot DHCP management platform,” remarked Steve Walter, President and CEO, First Network Group, Inc. “The demand for the DHCPatriot in Fiber To The Home (FTTH) deployment, combined with the Patriot’s popularity with ISPs, required us to expand to meet growing customer needs.” Continue reading

DHCPatriot 5.1.0 Update has been released!

DHCPatriot logoFirst Network Group, Inc is proud to announce the latest software update to our flexible and powerful DHCPatriot.

Version 5.1.0 of the software, freely available to all equipment covered under our maintenance and health plan, features a great number of new features, requested additions and paves the way further for support for IPV6 technology.

To review the features of this release please review our primer document for this update located at here.

We will be contacting DHCPatriot owners over the coming days to arrange a time to install version 5.1.0 on your DHCPatriot system.

DHCPatriot featured in Brocade Next Gen Setup Scenarios

DHCPatriot logoBrocade, an industry leader in providing reliable, high-performance network solutions, crafted several deployment scenarios featuring the DHCPatriot to deliver a home broadband end-to-end solution.

These scenarios encompass Optical Network Termination (ONT), Multiscreen TV delivery, Edge Caching and Video Quality monitoring utilizing equipment and technology from industry leaders such as Microsoft, Verivue, Ineoquest, and Sandvine.

Click here to review this document.