All businesses have their own special requirements. The concept of one-size fits all just does not make the grade anymore. Every business will probably require its own mixture of services and/or solutions to suite their unique needs. Below is a list of the various services and solutions that we offer and design. These are by no means the only options available. We will configure a package that suites you, not us.

Services: (these services are run on the Netlab network)

• Dial-in and e-mail accounts: See the Netlab Purchase new account and the Netlab Dial-in options pages for further details.
• Bulk E-mail accounts: ideal for businesses as this allows up to 30 employees E-mail
• Leased line internet access: A leased line is a permanent line connected between two points. This option offers you a 24x7 high-speed connection to the Internet. Telkom will install a Diginet line between your premises and Netlab. Netlab will then link this line onto our network. For further details see the Netlab Leased Line page.
• Domain name registration and admin: This is the unique name allocated to your web site, www.yourdomainname.co.za. See the Netlab Domain Admin page for further details. If you would like to check whether your preferred co.za domain name is available go to http://www.co.za and click on the "whois server" link. For .com, .org or any other extensions, please contact Netlab and we will confirm whether your domain name is available.
• Web Site design and development: We have a wide variety of web skills, see the Netlab Web Design page for details.
• Web Site hosting and maintenance: Your web site can be hosted on the Netlab Web Servers, prices vary depending on the type of web site you have. We also offer the option of maintenance for your web site. For further info see the Netlab Web Hosting page.
• Programming: Many web sites have databases linked into them to handle online ordering or the capture of data. Netlab has a wide variety of programming skills to design your customised web site, database and/or intranet. See the Netlab skills matrix on our Web Design page. For a few other examples of software programmes written by us see the Software Lab web site.
• Intranet design and maintenance: An intranet is very similar to a web site except it is for internal use only. In other words access is only available to specified users on your LAN or WAN, not to the general public. An intranet is very useful if you have employees on the road as they can dial-in and update or transfer data instantaneously.
• Static IP Address: Netlab can offer you a static IP address for your connection. This is not required for the majority of internet users but for some this is essential. This service is only offered from our head office POP.
• Proxy: A proxy is when a number of users share the same internet account. We offer proxy accounts for analog and ISDN connections, contact us for prices.
• SSL Certificates: Netlab will arrange SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates for those sites with online ordering or sites requiring secure pages. This option is used to ensure data between the client browser and the web server can not be read by someone intercepting the link, this is essential if credit card or banking information is collected. Without the SSL certificate the entering of financial information is very risky for the potential customer.
• E-Commerce: This is the future of the internet. Each bank has assigned a control for the use of making online credit card transactions. Contact us for details.
• Router and firewall setup and configuration
• Remote Administration

• Web Servers: This is a server linked to the internet that hosts your web site. The trend for business applications is to deploy them on web servers (intranets). With this approach scalability is usually not an issue. The other advantage is that of remote use over low bandwidth connections (i.e. anyone away from the office on business, can dial-in and retrieve or send data). Web servers are usually connected to the internet by a leased line, for intranets the leased line is not required. If your company does not have a high-speed leased line connection, it would be advisable to have your web server hosted and maintained by Netlab. Note: you do not need a web server to have a web site, Netlab can host your web site on their web servers.
  Apache (NT/2000, Linux)
  IIS4 & 5 (NT/2000)
  TomCat (NT/2000, Linux)
• Mail Servers: This is a server linked to your network and the internet. The server dials out at specified intervals to send and receive mail, the collected mail is then sorted and sent to the individual mailboxes on your network. Internal emails are sent instantaneously through the network without the mail server dialing out to the internet. Mail servers can be used with a normal dial-up connection or a leased line. Using a mail server should reduce your phone bill, as employees do not need to dial-up to the internet everytime they want to send or receive mail.
  sendmail, postfix (Linux)
  exchange, emwac ims, msgcore (NT and 2000)
• Firewalls: This is a machine that blocks all access to your network except for specific traffic.
  ipchains, iptables (Linux)
• Internet Gateway Boxes (ISDN or analog): This is a machine linked to your network that has internet access via an ISDN or analog modem. All or specified users on the network can have internet and email access using the same modem and phone line. This solution reduces the infrastructure costs for businesses, as you only need one modem and one phone line.
  freesco (Linux) - no Hard drive required
  mgetty (Linux)
  Postslave (Linux)
  dialup sharing (2000)
  ISDN4lin (Linux)
• Remote Access: This is a machine on your network that receives calls from another computer connecting the other computer onto the network. This gives the ability to access shares and resources remotely. For example: If you have deployed an intranet, your sales or off-site staff could plug into the site remotely instead of returning to the office to update or retrieve information.
  Have a look at Software Lab to see our specialization in this field
  RAS - Remote Access Service (NT and 2000)
  IAS - Internet Authentication Service (NT and 2000)
  mgetty (Linux)
  Portslave (Linux)
  ISDN4lin (Linux)
• DNS (Domain Name Service): All the computers and web sites around the world that are connected to the internet have an IP address (this is a series of numbers). Numbers are much harder to remember and advertise than words, so DNS is used to allocate specified IP addresses as names. For example the IP address for Netlab is: (196.42.7.72). By entering that IP address in your browser address line you will reach the Netlab web site, a little harder to remember than www.netlab.co.za.
  Bind 8 & 9(Linux)
  MS DNS (NT and 2000)
• Routers: Sales, setup and configuration for most makes of routers. Intel, Cisco, Linux, Chaser, Cycad etc.
• Faxing Solutions: This solution installed on a machine will give your entire network the ability to send faxes from any Microsoft or Unix operating system on the network. Faxes can also be received by specified or all users on the network. Some of the advantages of this solution are; users do not need to run to the fax machine every time they want to send or receive a fax, faxes can be received and read before you decide whether it needs to be printed, faxes can be printed on plain paper, important faxes can be saved onto your hard drive.
  Hylafax (Linux)
• Remote Administration Boxes: From a configured computer, access to any client computer (Win 95/98/2000, Linux) can be accomplished for the task of remote administration. This solution greatly reduces the businesses call-out costs for network administrators as most problems can be solved remotely. The network administrator can view the "error messages" that the client computer is showing, can configure the computer and confirm that all setting are correct. Ideally the Remote Administration Box should have 128K ISDN dial-in access.