The training programme for BD team members is divided into:

• sales process training (covered in this page)
• product training (covered in this page)
• technical training (covered here)

This document covers only the technical training. This training will teach technology concepts to the BD person.

All items covered here are from the layman's perspective, without academic rigour. The focus will be on helping the Biz Dev member tackle questions asked by the non-technical members at customer site, not questions asked by technically knowledgeable CTO/CIOs. For such knowledgeable audiences, the Biz Dev member is expected to take support from Pre-Sales Tech specialists.

Networking

• Ethernet
• How PCs connect on LAN
• Case study: our office LAN
• How LAN connects to the internet
  • Dial up
  • DSL
  • Leased line
  • Wireless RF
• Case study: our office Net connection
• Case study: AZB & Partners Net connectivity
• Case study: NFL HO, with two Internet links
• WAN
• How LANs connect over WAN link
  • Where is the role of router
  • Point to point LL
  • MPLS VPN
  • Internet VPN
• Case study: the AZB WAN
• Case study: the NFL WAN
• Case study: how Zodiac shops connect to HO

E-mail

• How email flow works
• Outgoing email
  • SMTP from MUA to server
  • SMTP from local server to remote server
  • UUCP
• Why should anyone need our outgoing email redirection service?
• Case study: our office outgoing email flow
• Case study: NFL outgoing email flow
• Incoming mail
  • Pull from local server by POP3
  • Direct incoming reception by local server (SMTP)
  • Pull from remote server to local server (POP/fetchmail)
  • UUCP
• Case study: our office incoming email flow
• Case study: Zodiac's incoming email flow, including our backup MX service
• Case study: NFL's incoming email flow, including distribution across sites
• Case study: AZB incoming email flow, including legacy domains
• Reading mail using client software
  • POP3
  • IMAP4
  • The difference
  • Why laptop users need POP3
  • Webmail (and its dependency on IMAP)
• Case study: mail clients and IMAP on apps1
• Case study: MS Outlook at AZB
• Case study: Webmail usage at AZB
• Case study: Webmail usage from factories of Zodiac
• Case study: Shraddha's mail usage via Google
• Antivirus
  • Checking on server
  • Checking on client
  • Special service provider
• Spam
  • What is spam
  • How it is sent
    • From original server
    • From infected PCs
  • Why spam exists
  • Security angle of spam: Phishing
  • Spam filtering
    • At server
    • At client
    • Special service provider
• Performance issue and spam assaults
• Damage of false negatives and how it affects the organisation

Web access

• Normal web access from home: how it works
• What a proxy server does
  • Caching
  • Access control
  • Logging
• Transparent proxy used by ISP
  • Why it is better
  • Why we cannot use it in Merce
• Performance issue due to infected PCs
• Our service of blacklisted sites
• Legal liability issues of allowing open web access
• Information leakage through webmail sites
• Case study: Web access at Starcom
• Case study: Web access from Internet PCs at AZB Bombay
• Case study: Web access at Zodiac HO

File serving

• How a computer stores files locally
• What a file server does
• Access control
• Merce default shared areas
  • One for each user's home directory
  • A shared global area
• Virus checking on files
  • At clients
  • On servers
• Bandwidth issues
  • Why it works on LAN but not on WAN
• Case study: File serving at AZB
• Case study: File serving at Zodiac HO

Information security

• Viruses
  • What is a virus?
  • What is a worm?
  • Keylogger
  • Adware
  • Spyware
  • What damage can a virus/worm/keylogger do?
  • data loss
  • productivity loss
  • transmission of confidential info to outsiders
  • legal liability due to breach of confidentiality agreements
  • information theft
  • financial fraud
  • loss of credibility and reputation
• Commercial and criminal angle
  • Botnets
  • Backdoors
• Why linux is better
• How PCs get infected
  • By copying infected files
  • By pirated software CDs
  • By email specially through attachments
  • By browsing, including through "drive-by downloads"
  • By transmission over LAN from one PC to the next
  • By IM and chats
• Intrusion or "cracking" over the Net
  • Stopped by Firewall
  • Monitored by IDS
• Firewall
  • Why needed
    • Stop "crackers" or intruders
  • Tunnel all the outgoing traffic through one path for better control
  • Monitor and log external interaction
  • Centralised point to enforce policies
    • Policies about who can send/receive what
    • Policies about who can browse what
    • Policies about transfer of porn content
  • Where they fail: virus, specially Web based ones
  • Case study: Firewalling at Starcom
  • Case study: Zodiac HO firewall
  • Case study: AZB firewall
• Content filtering: Mail and Web
  • Leakage of information
    • Controlled access to free webmail
    • Controlled access to email
    • Merce Mfilter features

Though our product and technology issues have very little overlap with Microsoft, there is a very good document on Microsoft's public Website which describes some of the technical issues in very non-technical terms. The PDF file has been attached here.

Comments invited.