Advertiser Technical Requirements

ContactAtOnce! has a minimal technical requirement set which, for most advertisers, is met with no “IT” involvement at all. The following requirements are provided for Advertiser IT Administrators to understand technical requirements of the application and to plan accordingly if any configuration changes are required.


Technical Requirements Overview

A typical ContactAtOnce! advertiser installation involves:

  • User installation of IM software on a Windows computer
  • Internet access to the ContactAtOnce! site
  • Internet access to the ContactAtOnce! IM servers via an outbound TCP connection on ports 5222 and 5223.

Thus, three basic technical requirements are implied:

  • Your end users have software installation rights on their Microsoft Windows (2000, XP , Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8) computers
  • Your end users have unrestricted web browser access (i.e., not content filter restricted) to the www.contactatonce.comwww.contactatonce.co.uk (and other *.contactatonce.com, *.contactatonce.co.uk) domain — including the ability to download Windows installation packages (.msi files).
  • Your end users are allowed (i.e., not firewall restricted) to establish outbound TCP socket connections on ports 5222 and 5223.

If each of the above is true then you can stop reading here, your users should not be technically encumbered from using ContactAtOnce! — although feel free to keep reading if you prefer!

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IM Client Details

ContactAtOnce! provides a Windows-based instant messaging client with special usability features to allow your end users to interact with sales prospects. The IM software is installed via a Window Installation .msi. Once installed, no particular administrative rights are required. ContactAtOnce! can be used in many different computing environments however. Following are several of the most commonly asked questions regarding the IM client. Please ask if you do not see the answer to your question!

Q: What are the system requirements to run the ContactAtOnce! IM Client?
A:
 The ContactAtOnce! IM Client is not resource intensive and should run on any modern PC that meets these minimum requirements:

  • 1 GHz Processor
  • 256 MB of RAM
  • Windows 2000 or newer
  • 35 MB of Disk Space
  • “Always On” Internet Connection

Q: I do not allow users to download.MSI files, can I still install the software?
A:
 Yes. Please contact ContactAtOnce! for installation instructions.

Q: My users have Apple computers, can they still use ContactAtOnce!?
A:
 Yes. The ContactAtOnce! service can be used with the iChat instant messaging application that is part of MacOS. Please contact ContactAtOnce! for installation instructions.

Q: We have a terminal server installation, can the software be installed in a terminal server configuration?
A:
 Yes. Please contact ContactAtOnce! for installation instructions.

Q: I restrict users from installing software and instead install software as the administrator, will this work?
A:
 Yes. The only caveat being that the software should be installed in a directory to which the user has write privileges so that any user-specified preferences may be retained.

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Network Implication Details

ContactAtOnce!provides several internet services to your users as part of the overall service offering including:

  • Instant messaging
  • Live Video with Voice over IP (optional)
  • Web portal access for reporting, account management and software installation

Accordingly, these functions have some network implications to be considered.

Instant Messaging operates over IANA standard ports for XMPP: 5222 and 5223. The IM client software must be able to create an outbound TCP socket connection to the ContactAtOnce! IM servers.  No inbound connections are initiated by ContactAtOnce! Bandwidth implications of IM are minimal. ContactAtOnce!will be happy to provide destination domain information (which varies based on industry and geography) and/or IP address ranges, if you desire to restrict 5222 & 5223 access to only ContactAtOnce!IM servers.

Live Video with Voice over IP (VoIP) operates as a internet browser plugin (Macromedia Flash) and operates over port 80.  Bandwidth consumption of a single VoIP/Video session is capped at 96 kbps. ContactAtOnce! Web portal access is provided over ports 80 and 443.  The Web portal is hosted at portal.contactatonce.com, portal.contactatonce.co.uk or portal.contactatonce.ca.  Any content filtering rules should allow access to *.contactatonce.com (or .co.uk or .ca).

Following are several of the most commonly asked questions regarding the network implications. Please ask if you do not see the answer to your question!

Q: I have heard of Instant Messaging security issues, should I be concerned?
A: No. ContactAtOnce! operates much differently than the public consumer IM networks operated by AOL, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft/MSN and others. In contrast to those public networks, ContactAtOnce! operates a private network for the purpose of customer communications. Some of the safeguards ContactAtOnce! includes:

  • ContactAtOnce! does not permit file transfers – the primary source of security concerns
  • ContactAtOnce! proxies all customer contacts through ContactAtOnce! web servers; thus no direct socket connections between the consumer and the advertiser desktop are required
  • ContactAtOnce! authorizes all advertiser usage of the network.
  • ContactAtOnce! uses SSL to secure transmissions
  • ContactAtOnce! supports network administrators that are so inclined to restrict IM network traffic only to and from the ContactAtOnce! IM servers
  • ContactAtOnce! runs over IANA standard assigned port 5222, 5223 which can be used to further restrict IM network traffic

Q: Can you help me estimate bandwidth utilization?
A:
 Yes. Upon request ContactAtOnce! will provide a bandwidth estimating tool.

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