It's the dream of every ISP in the world: the computer setup that fixes itself after the customer has broken it. Now one company says it's ready to deliver.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [June 2, 2006]

The team is carrying quite a bit of equipment. They carry a DSL modem, several laptops, and a home Wi-Fi access point into the conference room. It's their second visit to our offices in one day—they've already met with Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director of Jupiter Research.

For Gartenberg, as for me, this product is the answer a problem we've been complaining about for years. Gartenberg wanted Microsoft to solve the problems he identified in his blog rant. Instead, he found a company called Enure Networks, based in Herzeliya, Israel, and instantly blogged about it under the headline Solving the Home Network Problem—Really!.

The product consists of two pieces. Service Shield resides on the user's computer and tracks peripherals and settings. Service Concentrator resides in the ISP's network and can be used to enforce policies and push software updates. Service Concentrator is designed to be used by an ISP to support its corporate customers, who are paying to have their network managed, and not for the ISP's residential customers, who tend to want to manage their networks themselves.

Service Shield can operate on its own, and does operate as a standalone product for every residential customer.

Delivery
David Furstenberg, CEO of Enure, says that service providers need to reach all customers, not just those who are tech savvy. "We believe that the services of the future, such as IPTV, will need to be delivered to the average customer—to Archie Bunker, not Bill Gates."

He adds that the company's software is as fundamental as the change from DOS to Windows 3.1.

It's something we've been saying for years. Last year at ISPCON, TuCows' Elliot Noss said, "When you've just had a haircut, how often to you talk about the scissors the barber used? When you have a plumbing problem and it gets fixed, and you recommend a plumber, what did they do for you? They showed up on time and fixed the problem. So don't keep customers on hold, and don't make customers feel bad."

Customers want to be able to get the service to work without having to know how it works.

Demonstration
The crew carries equipment with them because a demonstration is worth a thousand words (but we'll try with the words).

Furstenberg and David Sayag, Enure's vice president of marketing and the company's co-founder, set up the router, modem, and connect Sayag's laptop. Then they connect Furstenberg's laptop to the Wi-Fi router.

First, Sayag changes the internet configuration of his own router. Service Shield detects the changes, posts a warning on the screen, and asks whether or not it should fix the problem. Sayag clicks "fix" and it does so.

As it does so, he explains that some config problems have to be fixed in a specific order. Service Shield does it. We've heard complaints, at ISPCON, about users who modify settings and then say there's an internet problem and they haven't touched anything. Based on anecdotal evidence, we'd guess this is a universal problem.

But that's not all. When Furstenberg's laptop connects to the access point, Service Shield warns Sayag that someone's trying to connect to his wireless network. Furstenberg then downloads Service Shield, and Sayag allows Furstenberg's laptop to connect, based on its MAC address.

Then Sayag unplugs everything.

This is a problem the software cannot fix, so instead it shows Flash animations of which wires to connect where.

Sayag admits that Enure Networks does not make the Flash animations. Instead, it expects its telco customers to make the animations and to provide their own brand's look and feel. He adds that every message displayed by Service Shield can be modified, though Enure retains its logo on the software.

Doesn't the company need to establish relationships with hardware vendors in order to support them? Sayag admits that it takes some work to support each new vendor or version, but says that a new product can be added in a day or two.

For the laptop's connection to the AP, Sayag says the software asks the user to choose a name, and derives the key from the name, so users don't need to memorize their keys.

If a user wants to repair the settings themselves, they can simply click on an "advanced" button to enter the settings.

Furstenberg says there's a key improvement behind Service Shield's ability to fix problems. "We're fixing based on analysis. We're not just treating symptoms," he says. "If you compare our product to telephone customer support, the phone operators need to know the causes in order to fix problems."

Determining the causes of problems takes a lot of phone time. Software finds the answer virtually instantly.

Sayag says the software checks for problems regularly, and that service providers can adjust the polling rate.

Furstenberg says ISP's customers will like the fact that Service Shield is not intrusive. It doesn't give a remote operator access to the customer's machine.

Technology built to solve problems, not the reverse
"This solution came from a loud statement from operators. They had a problem they wanted solved," says Furstenberg. "I would also like to add that there is something in David's personality, a sensitivity to the end user, that is visible in the product. Enure Networks sells to the telcos, but David keeps us attuned to the end user."

Furstenberg says that the entire company understands that the end user is the ultimate customer. "Most companies develop what's 'easy' for engineers and are surprised to find that it's difficult for customers, or that customers aren't interested. Our biggest no no is that you cannot just reboot and hope it will solve the problem. If you're an engineer at our company, when you find an issue, you have to find the cause of it."

Telcos want to deliver more services, and when the do so, Furstenberg says, they will need a solution like Enure's. "Home networks are becoming as complex or more complex than office networks, especially with services like video. We believe that operators cannot support such services using the manual labor of call centers."

Throughout their businesses, telcos are reducing costs by increasing automation. It's a deflationary world, and as prices drop to zero, employees need to be able to manage more with less, which is exactly what technology permits.

Enure Networks says you can take your techs off their scripts, let the software diagnose the problems, and let the techs handle the large customers, the complex issues, and the all important task of ensuring that the network never ever goes down.

Pricing and availability
The product is available now. Pricing was not disclosed.

—End