I’ve worked for a number of startups. Was “Marketing Director/Office Manager/HR” (lot of slashes in small business) for a software startup; a great experience but certainly fewer resources (compared to what I have now) to turn to for help. Still, doing so many different things, every day, was one of the best aspects of working for a small business.

Best aspects of working at Intel? Near the top: Intel tech support. If my PC has a problem I can’t solve myself, I call somebody and it’s fixed. In minutes. Day or night, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the world. I hit speed dial and someone from somewhere is answering my questions or remotely controlling and repairing my PC. I’d give up my dental plan before I’d give up this little perk.

I didn’t have that luxury during my startup days, but a new announcement from AT&T and Intel should bring that kind of support to more small businesses than ever before. Last fall, AT&T launched a service called AT&T Tech Support 360^SM-- remote 24/7 support including setup, configuration, troubleshooting and performance optimization for PCs, networks and more. They obviously addressed a need, as over 100,000 small and medium business customers have signed up.  Now they’ve announced support for Intel® vPro™ Technology (starting first half of 2010) including the Intel® Remote PC Assist Technology (Intel® RPAT) feature.

With Intel RPAT, a small business (using Intel vPro Technology-based PCs) having PC problems can enter a keystroke sequence on a failed computer and directly connect the failed PC to their Managed Service Provider (MSP) or IT Helpdesk, such as AT&T Tech Support 360 technicians, even when the PCs has had a hardware or OS failure, or has been corrupted by a virus or malware. That means support for a whole new class of tech problems, and I’m talking about the nasty ones that get down deep into the PC: BIOS issues, damaged internet connections, system password resets and the toughest viruses and malware to name a few.

I’m excited to be part of a solution that enables my small business customers and friends to experience the kind of PC tech support I enjoy in my 80,000+ person company – hopefully it means you can remove one of the “slashes” from your daily tasks.  Check out the AT&T and Intel press release for more information, or comment here with any questions I can help answer.

The Intel® Upgrade Service is a "Down-the-wire" hardware upgrade that allows users to be able to "upgrade" their system based on a series of available upgrades.     For more information, this diagram below is throughly explained on this site: http://www.intel.com/technology/product/ius/howitworks.htm?iid=ius_prodtech+howitworks

Have you tried Intel® IT Director 1.5? Could you share some experience you have with Intel® IT Director 1.5? If you want to contact Intel Customer Support for more information of Intel® IT Director, please send email to us:

http://supportmail.intel.com/Welcome.aspx?id=42,2262,3049

Or contact our worldwide contact center to talk with an Intel® IT Director expert:

http://support.intel.com/support/9089.htm

The Intel® Upgrade Service provides a variety of different upgrades/enrollments based on what you have for your platform and configuration.    One of the latest enrollments is the Intel® Anti-Theft Technology PC Protection Services or otherwise called AT-p.

Where can I get it? - http://absolute.com/products-intel.asp  (Currently on Lenovo* T400 has AT-p capability)

Here is a great place to learn more about AT-p thanks to Joshprostar - http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-2384

Enjoy!

Corey

Intel® Upgrade Service enables down-the-wire hardware upgrades after a system's been purchased, providing new levels of platform flexibility to service providers and end users alike. With the purchase of a PC with qualifying CPU and upgradeable chipset, you'll get future-ready flexibility designed to change with your growing needs.

Visit the main web site at: http://www.intel.com/go/intelupgradeservice/   

Currently we have a Level I Manageability Upgrade available which is designed to bring a platform from “Standard Manageability” to “Intel® Active Management Technology (AMT) 5.0”.   

Questions?

What are the minimum system requirements?

Intel® Q45 Express Chipsetbased motherboard with a non-Intel® vPro™ Technology Processor attached. Upgrades will not be supported for platforms based on Intel® Celeron® processors.

Where to buy hardware and/or upgrades?

Click here to learn how to buy hardware and/or upgrades!

Please post any questions/comments to this blog post and we will be happy to assist!

Regards,

CoreySMBPro

All,

Wanted to share a great post by Gael Holmes (Intel) who recently posted in the Intel® vPro™ Expert Center .   See the original post here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2009/02/19/intel-amt-what-you-need-to-know-about-solide-r-and-smb/ also a copy provided below...

We recently made available to our Intel AMT Developers the first version of the SCS (Setup and Configuration Server) Lite tool. Eventually this tool will morph into a full blown setup and configuration server that supports all the infrastructure that SCS 5.0 now supports. This "Lite" version, however, is very "Lite" as the name implies. It does not require (or support) SQL database, AD, TLS.  It, instead supports one touch and remote provisioning using the SCS Service, the SCS Console, and the Activator tool. This tool currently provisions an Intel AMT Client in "Enterprise Mode" without TLS.

Many developers, or users, may have been provisioning their systems in what we call SMB (Small to Medium Business) mode manually and then they may decide to try out the new SCS Lite tool and realize suddenly they can no longer do a SOL/IDE-R (Serial Over LAN/IDE-Redirect) operation on the same AMT Client they did this on prior to provisioning with the SCS Lite Tool.

What is going on here is simple. When we provision our AMT systems manually (SMB mode) we enable SOL and IDER options in the MEBx BIOS extentions (otherwise there will be no SOL/IDE-R actions) and the Redirection port gets enabled automatically. This is not the case when provisioning in Enterprise mode (because it is a security issue to enable the port and leave it open.) Software vendors who provision their systems in Enterprise Mode (whether or not they have TLS) know that their software must open the port in order to have a successful SOL/IDER session and then they are expected to close the port when the session is over.

If someone is running a Manageability Application that was designed to work on AMT systems that were provisioned in SMB mode, but now they have been re-provisioned in Enterprise Mode, the Manageability APP may not open the port and so SOL/IDER will not work unless the redirection port is enabled.

This Screen Shot (From the Manageability DTK) shows what is enabled on an AMT Client after provisioning with the SCS Lite, or other Enterprise provisioning tool. Note that "Redirection Port" is Disabled. Simply click on the box next to "Disabled" and this will allow SOL/IDER sessions to occur.

This Screen Shot shows the SOL/IDER settings that occur automatically when the AMT Client is provisioned using SMB Mode - Note that the Redirection Port is automatically enabled and the AMT system is free to perform SOL/IDER sessions.

Note that whether the system is being provisioned in SMB mode or in Enterprise Mode we still must enable SOL and IDER in the MEBx Extensions. If we fail to enable them in the BIOS or in our Profile (for the SCS) then we cannot perform SOL/IDER at all - and this has nothing to do with the enabling or disabling of the Redirection Port.

Moving forward it will be necessary for all Manageability Apps to check the status of the Redirection Port and then open the port prior to initiating the SOL/IDER session (and then close the port when the session is complete.) By putting this flow into your code base, you are covered when communicating with the devices that are configured in either SMB or enterprise mode.

These are the API's of interest in this flow:

• SetEnabledInterfaces - Make sure SOL and IDE-R are set as enabled interfaces
• GetRedirectionListenerState - Gets the current redirection listener status
• SetRedirectionListenerState - Set the redirection listener state to enabled if not already enabled.

Intel® System Defense Utility is an easy to use tool for small and medium businesses to take advantage of valuable proactive security and manageability features of Intel® vPro™ processor technology. Combined with systems built on Intel® Desktop Boards Executive Series, this tool lets you unleash the power of proactive management in your local network.

It enables you to remotely perform security and manageability functions such as setting security policies, BIOS configuration, remote reboot, asset management, event logging, and more.

Click here for a demo!

Intel System Defense Utility may be used with the Intel® Desktop Boards based on:

·       Intel® Q965 Express Chipset

·       Intel® Q45 Express Chipset

·       Intel® Q35 Express Chipset

For more information: http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/isdu/index.htm