This year’s splendour festival is Saturday 20th July 2013, on the main stage the acts are Jake Bugg, Squeeze, and KT Tunstall, with Maximo park on the second stage. Tickets for splendour are available from the Capital FM Arena website.

Below is an example SPF record for capitalfmarena.com:

(this is in the public domain – you can look up an organisation’s SPF record by using online SPF checkers)

“v=spf1 ip4:93.174.143.18 mx a:service69.mimecast.com mx a:service70.mimecast.com a:capitalfmarena.com -all”

V=spf1 specifies the type of record this is. (SPF)

Ip4: pass if the IP senders IP address matches the addresses we send mail from.

mx a: pass if sender’s IP matches an ‘MX’ record in the domain

a: pass if Sender’s IP matches an ‘A’ record in the domain

The –all indicates that all other senders fail the spf test. (+all would mean anyone can send mail.)

(~all was used when spf was still being implemented, and is a soft fail, but shouldn’t really be used any longer other than when you’re transitioning between mail hosts or something)

Mechanisms are tested in order and any match will pass the email. A non-match results in a neutral state, until it gets to the end of the string where the –all mechanism will fail it.

The intended audience is small business owners or managers, where you may have to deal with IT contractors or staff and decide IT and web strategy, but you’re not comfortable that you know enough about it to make informed decisions. For example, there are an almost infinite number of ways to keep your business data accessible, secure, backed up, and away from prying eyes, but which way is best for you? How should you manage your website – should you pay someone else to design and host it, or bring it in-house? How should you handle email, on what sort of server? How should you plan for business growth? How do you protect your business from viruses, malware, spam, and hacking attempts?

These are the sort of questions that I will help you with – you don’t need any knowledge of IT or the web already, and because the groups are small – around 6 people – you’ll be able to ask questions and find out information specific to how your business operates.

You’ll then have enough knowledge to go to your suppliers or contractors, and ask the right questions, purchase the right services, at the right price.

There are four sessions, as below, and you can book yourself on them by visiting the eventbrite page for the events. Contact me for any further information.

Technically Speaking – 4 March

Topics to include: an overview of web/IT infrastructure and how it all fits together; an update on the current climate; domain names, analytics, and connections to social technology.

Email & Communication – 11 March

Topics to include: different service providers and set-ups (e.g., using hosted email, managing it in-house) and getting it all working for PCs and on mobile devices; good email practice, transferring data and keeping it secure.

Internet Security – 18 March

Topics to include: how to stay safe and keep trading; what are the threats – viruses, hack attacks, theft, loss of confidential or valuable data; keeping your business (and family) safe on the internet; and keeping your systems up to date and secure.

Data storage – 25 March

Topics to include: managing data storage and growth in your business; internal networks and cloud storage; back-ups; access controls, speed vs. reliability vs. cost.