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Re: How important is IM? was RE: How important is the PSTN

  • From: Grant A. Kirkwood
  • Date: Tue Jun 25 15:34:41 2002 
On Tuesday 25 June 2002 12:16 pm, Christopher J. Wolff wrote:
> Jane,
>
> This brings up a good point about IM.  IMHO, IM is a security risk and I
> am establishing a company standard where users behind the firewall are
> prohibited from using IM, IRC, and peer-to-peer file sharing programs. 
> My opinion is that these types of programs contribute more to lack of
> productivity than to real problem solving.

99% agreed. I've seen more viruses float in via {insert PtP here) than I'd 
care to think about.

> So my question for the group is, do chat programs (IM, IRC, yahoo) serve
> a substantial network support purpose or are they more of a distraction,
> allowing staff to communicate with friends, relatives, drifters,
> interlopers on company time?

We support a number of international clients who don't necessarily have the 
best English-speaking skills. In these cases we find ICQ/AIM/IRC/etc... to 
be a necessity. Trying to work with a customer to debug kernel compile 
errors via telephone from the relative un-comfort of a loud/windy 
datacenter in broken English does NOT work.

Grant

-- 
Grant A. Kirkwood - grant(at)tnarg.org
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