Technology Tips and Tricks

Dave's Corner Column - July 2010

SuperUser Account — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Summer is here and the economy is picking up. While I cannot claim to be an economic Nostradamus, I will share my anecdotal feeling that business owners are less frightened and business is picking up for a number of them. We are seeing companies break their holding patterns and are actually hiring. I am pleased to say that we are one of those companies, having added Shane Heltzel, a new Network Engineer to our staff to support our Managed Services clients.

This addition is a direct result of our refocusing our efforts to shift the IT support burden from our clients to ourselves, which has allowed our clients to refocus on their business and not worry about their systems.

In this issue, you will find some great information on the cost of downtime (and how to avoid it), as well as a review of Office 2010, and my first review of the Apple iPad, and its suitability in the corporate world.

As always, I am available for any IT questions that you may have.

Have a great summer! Δ

The Cost of Downtime

SuperUser Account — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:00:00 GMT

How to plan and prepare now to prevent downtime

We’ve all experienced downtime in one form or another. The email server crashes, Internet connections go down, copiers and printers jam or break. Interruptions such as these can usually be handled fairly quickly, and without too much disruption.

What about the larger problems? How would your business be impacted if the fire sprinklers went off and destroyed your PC’s and servers? What if someone hacked into your network and stole all of your business critical files, including customer or client personal information: SS#’s, Tax ID Numbers, Medical Records, Credit Card Numbers, etc.,? How quickly could you react? Could you continue to operate, how would you respond, what would be the fallout?

Planning and preparing now to counter potential downtime in the future will significantly increase your probability of surviving prolonged downtime when it eventually strikes your business. Sometimes you will know ahead of time if you are going to have potential downtime; ice or snow storms, utility work, etc. Most of the time, you will have little if any warning: server power supply burnout, RAID controller crash, theft, hacking, malware, sabotage, or accidental deletion. Assuming that you can get your data back (never assume that unless you have tested frequently), a typical data loss scenario plays out like this: researching your obligations under federal and state law, engaging your attorney, notifying customers of a breach, gathering data because of a subpoena, or damage control, and/or attempting to recreate or track down all of the invoices, notes, prospects, etc., that were lost or stolen… the list goes on. Statistically, over 90% of small businesses that loose access to their data for 10 days filed for bankruptcy within a year, with 50% of those filing immediately (Source: National Archives & Records Administration in Washington).

How to Start

Ask for input from your employees and have them outline what applications they use the most and why. Then start to examine the costs associated with not being able to access each of them, and the potential costs to your business. Establish a cost for each compliance issue as well. What are the fines for failure to comply? How much would it cost to send out a certified letter to each of your customers if you had to notify them that it was possible that their personal or business information had been stolen from your server? Conclude by establishing processes to reevaluate downtime threats on an on-going basis and set up reminders in Outlook, a scheduling application, or something else that will remind you to review everything on the list. If the above advice makes sense to you but you do not have the time or resources to do it, give us a call at 503-241-3499 and we can help you through the process very affordably.

Determine Your Current Vulnerability

There is an old saying—”You don’t know what you don’t know…” Saying “I did not know…” after the fact will not save your company or your job after an IT disaster. Now is the time to determine how quickly you could be back online when things go wrong.

One way of determining your Time To Recovery (TTR) window is to perform a disaster recovery drill on the systems that you count on to run your business. If you have never done one, or it has been a while since your last one, schedule it for this month. The vast majority of deficiencies that are uncovered by a drill are easily and inexpensively remedied in advance—after the disaster they are outrageously expensive in hard and soft dollar costs… Δ

Call us for help—503-241-3499.

Microsoft Office 2010 Review

SuperUser Account — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Do you need the new version?

Since the second beta release of Microsoft Office 2010 last fall, over 2 million users have downloaded the test release, with the official release of Microsoft Office 2010 on June 15. Every application in the suite has been enhanced in an effort to make it easier to navigate and use, so plan on some learning time to get the most from the applications.

Office 2010 is also part of the Microsoft pay as you go licensing program that we participate in for our clients. It allows you to pay for each copy of Office that you are using on a monthly basis. Why is this great? If you are running Office 2003 or 2007 and want to upgrade to 2010, but have held back because of the up-front cost, this program allows you to upgrade all of your systems at the same time without the up front capital costs. How much does it cost per month? For 10 desktops or more, you are looking at $14.95/month per user. Using that number, it takes 18 months of use before you get to the MSRP for one off the shelf copy of Office. In addition to that up front cost savings, you get upgrade protection for as long as you participate in the program, so when Office 2012 comes out, you get to upgrade at no additional cost. Here is a simple table to compare the cost of these two options:

Retail: 10 users * $279 = $2790
Managed Service Client: 10 users * $14.95 = $149.50

Cloud Computing
One of the major new changes to Office 2010 is the ability to collaborate and work using Microsoft’s Cloud Computing file storage. Using Windows Live you are able to save your files to Microsoft’s hosted servers and allow coworkers to access and edit the files from wherever they are—no more emailing documents around—pretty cool.

Outlook
Outlook now includes new features and capabilities
designed to help you stay connected with people and better manage time and information. An improved
conversation view lets you to track and manage related email messages, regardless of what folder contains the message. You can see the complete course of conversations, replies, and the most recent response; the emails are stacked together similar to the Gmail interface. Outlook also integrates with FaceBook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Windows Live.

Word, Publisher, PowerPoint and Excel
Co-authoring in Word, PowerPoint, and Publisher makes collaboration easier and reduces the time it takes to finish a large project with several contributors. Integration with SharePoint is greatly enhanced and improved, with some great new features for collaboration. Furthermore, Word and PowerPoint now have a syncing mechanism to avoid overwriting changes while working/saving.

Excel has been modified as well, with easier-to-read color-coded spreadsheets and smart tools to bring you the information you need. You can easily import data from connected sources and flip through tabs, diagrams, charts, etc. It also allows you to compare data across multiple cells that are easier to read and analyze.

Will It Run on Your Computer?
If your current computer can run Office 2007, it can run Office 2010. If you are purchasing a new laptop or PC, it can run Office 2010.

Pricing
Office 2010 Professional costs around $499, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. Office Home & Business includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook and costs $279. Unfortunately there is no upgrade pricing for Office 2010, because Microsoft found there was little interest in upgrades at retail outlets.

For businesses wanting to deploy or upgrade their systems to Office 2010, the pay as you go model is the least cost alternative, and a killer deal in our opinion. We have had a number of clients jump at the chance to use this program for company-wide upgrades that they normally would not have done if they had to use the old pricing model.

Office 2010 is a valuable upgrade for those who desire new templates and visual styles, better ways of editing multimedia content in publications and presentations, and easier methods of collaboration in email and social media. Additionally, if you are using SharePoint, or plan on using SharePoint, Office 2010 is a must (in a good way).

Call us at 503-241-2499 to learn how your business can get Office 2010 today for a fraction of what you thought it would cost. Δ

To Pad, or Not to Pad?

SuperUser Account — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:00:00 GMT

I promised in the last issue to review the Apple iPad. I am not an Apple "fanboy" who waits with baited breath for the latest Apple contraption, so when I heard that the iPad was coming out, my reaction was one of ambivalence. My undoing was walking into the Apple store to kill some time while my wife shopped. Within minutes, I saw the potential of the device (more than just posting on FaceBook—an activity that I do not have any time for).

I will skip the details of the product in particular, as they can be found on the Apple website easily enough. What intrigued me about the device was its size, long battery life, and the potential for custom business applications that could provide bottom line business benefits at a reasonable cost and shallow learning curve. In particular, I was interested in finding out if the iPad could replace a traditional laptop while delivering additional value not found in current laptops. Faithful readers will remember that I gave gentle thumbs down to a 10 inch netbook as a laptop replacement some time ago, so the iPad would need to bring a lot to the table for me to be impressed with it.

The biggest drawbacks that I thought might be an issue was the lack of a keyboard and the inability to run traditional Microsoft Office applications. The keyboard issue was solved by the excellent integration of a virtual keyboard - that is, one that shows up on the touch screen whenever you need to type, and the optional traditional keyboard that doubles as a charging docking station that is available from Apple. I can report that with a couple of hours practice, you can touch type on the onscreen keyboard pretty well - I give it an 8.5 out of 10, which is excellent, and the best implementation of a nontraditional keyboard that I have found to date.

The lack of common Microsoft desktop applications is solved in two novel ways. First is the most powerful - the ability to run complete Microsoft Terminal Server Remote Desktop sessions from the iPad. This functionality is a 10 out of 10. I was concerned I would not be able to run some legacy and other business applications (MS Access and QuickBooks for example), but being able to run Terminal Services client eliminates that problem beautifully.

The other solution (although an imperfect one) is some of the MS Office-like applications that are available from the Apple App Store. Right now, I am writing this article using an App called Quickoffice Connect that allows me to create and edit Word and Excel spreadsheet documents in MS Office 2007 format. Not only does this application work well, it also helps to bridge a gap that Apple created when they created the iPad.

Natively, the iPad cannot see other devices on the network, so saving files to other network locations cannot be done. Left uncorrected, this is a big show stopper when considering the iPad for corporate use. Quickoffice Connect allows the iPad to be seen on the network as a file share, as well as has seamless integration with a number of cloud-based file storage solutions including Google Docs and one that I had heard of and never had the time to try, DropBox. These "cloud" based solutions allow you to create documents and files using whatever systems you want and then quickly and easily store them "in the cloud" where they can be retrieved and edited from any system that has access to the Internet. This is the ideal solution for me. I can write this review on the iPad, save it to DropBox, and then edit it later from my home or work computer if I want to.

The final checkbox on my list of qualifications is custom applications that are both easy to use and deliver lots of business value. But I will leave that to a follow-up article. I have a secret project my developers are working on that will make me and several thousand computer users very happy if it works the way we want it to. Stay tuned and I will let you know how it turns out.

Is the iPad perfect? No. Is it going to change the way that we collect, interact, and display data? Yes. Will other companies scramble to keep up with it? Absolutely.

If you would like to see how the iPad might be able to help your business, or just want to talk about your business challenges, give me a call at 503-241-3499 and I will be happy to chat. Δ

Dave's Corner Column - June 2010

SuperUser Account — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:00 GMT

I have said this before, I will say it again —we are in the midst of a computing revolution right now. For those who have been in the IT space, or have been responsible for IT for their companies, things have been done the same way for years. PCs were PCs, servers were like big PCs but more expensive, and notebook computers just changed size and price over time.

Now comes technology like virtualization, that allows you to run multiple servers on one box, failover systems that can restore a crashed server in minutes instead of hours or days, and then, there is the iPad.

I am not an Apple “fanboy” by a long shot. I do not have an iPhone, but I do own a Mac notebook and an iPod. When I heard about the iPad, I thought that it was a beefed-up Amazon Kindle, or a bigger iPhone, but I was wrong—it is much more than that.

In this issue, we have an intro article on the iPad, and I have made the supreme sacrifice of purchasing one for R&D purposes to see how well the iPad can work in a business environment. After playing with one at the Apple store, my mind reeled with the possibilities of how this could change the way that people compute in the medical, manufacturing, legal, and other fields.

Keep an eye out for next month’s issue for a full report. Δ

Printer Buying Guide

SuperUser Account — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:00 GMT

What to look for when buying a printer for your home or business.....

Types of Printers

There are three general categories of printers: home, office, or small business. Home users generally have low volume printing of forms, school projects, and letters. Office or small business include the regular printing of invoices, letters, reports and memos. Which of these best describes your needs?

The standard printers most of us are familiar with are inkjets and laser printers. Inkjets propel droplets of liquid or ink onto the page and are primarily used for photos, text, and graphics. The special-purpose printers include portable printers, dedicated and near-dedicated photo printers, and label printers. If you are considering a printer to generate a lot of power point presentations with heavy graphics, ask yourself if you will need it to print out photographs as well. Inkjet output runs when it gets wet, so keep that in mind. Laser printers create the image by scanning a laser beam across the printer’s photoreceptor and the result is sharper output. These are excellent for text and labels in the document itself and fine print.

If you are printing a lot of pages every day, then speed should be a consideration. A personal laser printer will deliver crisp, clean text for around $200. Personal laser printers are more expensive than inkjets but cost much less to operate. If your documents are more visual, then the quality of the output should be the primary focus. A general-purpose inkjet can add flexibility to printing in color but can be more expensive because of the ink. Inkjet printers start around $100, but we recommend you spend a little more.

BEWARE:
Many printers (primarily inkjet) are sold as “lost leaders” at very low prices because the manufacturer is going to make money on the consumables that you purchase after your first cartridges run out. Always check the cost of replacement ink and toner cartridges before you buy. We have seen instances where the replacement cartridges cost 2 or more times what the printer originally cost.

Multifunction Printers

All in one printers are designed to tackle both home and office roles. They may include a fax machine, scanner (multi-page), copier, ability to handle legal sized documents, and automatic paper feeder. This combination is especially useful for home and small-business use and can run from $50-$250. If you mainly print office documents, then you probably don’t need a color printer. On the other hand, if you want to create a tri-fold brochure for your business or flyers for promotions, then color may be the way to go because many of them now offer output as good as a commercial print shop. Even better, you can easily correct the inevitable typo you find after you get your print job back from the printers and you can print small quantities instead of 500 or 1000.

Many inkjet printers now come with integrated Wi-Fi, allowing you to set up a USB connection and let multiple users access it. Connecting to a shared wireless network and printing from anywhere might be important so you’ll need to have a wireless access point on your network. If the printer you want doesn’t come with Wi-Fi, you can still connect any printer to your wireless network by purchasing a wireless print server for around $75. The printer will still need to be linked to your wireless router via the print server, but it will accessible from any wireless capable PC or even mobile device.

Other features to consider

Double sided printing or “duplexing” is a great feature because it will save you money on paper costs and cut down the clutter too. Lower end printers will only have enough space for 50-100 sheets in an inkjet printer. If this is important, then spend a little more so that you can hold up to 250 sheets. Paper handling is also important; make sure there an envelope feeder that won’t wrinkle the envelope. You will also want a “straight through” paper feed where the paper goes in the front, and out the back of the printer so you can print cards, labels, without curling the paper. Check the maximum paper thickness as well.

Don’t waste your money on an extended warranty because most printers will come with a 12 month warranty. Repairs are less of an issue than they used to be and because printers are now so cheap, it makes more sense to buy a new one rather than forking out $300 to a service technician.

Cost

Review the cost of ownership. Usually, you’ll be able to find out what the cost per page or photo is. To find out the total cost of ownership, calculate the cost per year for each kind of output (monochrome, color document, photo), by multiplying the cost per page for that kind of output by the number of those pages you print per year. Add the three amounts together to determine the total cost per year. Once you have done this, add the cost of the printer and compare this with other printers you are considering. Color toner cartridges can run upwards of $250 while the printer itself is $150. There are a number of items you have to buy periodically including fusing oil, a waste toner bottle, a developer unit, and a fuser unit.

We Can Help...
If you would like to save money on printing by consolidating your printers or networking them, give us a call at 503-241-3499. We can stop by and see how you are using them now, and suggest ways that other clients have saved paper, time, and money. Δ

The Apple iPad

SuperUser Account — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:00 GMT

All about the new Apple product

Talk about the Apple iPad is everywhere. Many people are convinced it will revolutionize computing, some say it’s a highly evolved eReader, and others believe it will evolve to be the next Netbook. The iPad does not have any USB ports and therefore will not be a laptop equivalent, but Apple does expect you to use email and sync files between the iPad and your computer. After reading this article, you will know if the iPad is right for you.

Design

Comparable to the rest of the Apple family, the iPad looks like a big iPod Touch from the front, with a slightly curved aluminum back, making it resemble the top half of a MacBook. The screen size is relatively large at 9.7 inches and only 0.5 inches thick. Furthermore, the iPad’s screen is olephobic (oil-resistant) so fingerprints can easily wipe off. Since the iPad lacks a physical keyboard, you can purchase the iPad Keyboard Dock, which props the iPad and provides a keyboard for $69 (a mouse will not work with the iPad).

Software and User Interface

The iPad comes with a user-friendly interface similar to the iPhone OS. The iPad comes with 12 preloaded apps: Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Maps, Videos, YouTube, iTunes, App Store, Safari, Mail, Photos, and iPod. But unlike the iPhone, you can customize the desktop by using your own photos. Furthermore, there are over 150,000 apps available for download from third party app developers. Apple also anticipates more than 5,000 iPad apps, many of which will be 3D,
specifically for the iPad.

Pricing

There is different pricing in regards to the size of capacity and the type of wireless service. The iPad comes with two options: Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G. The Wi-Fi only iPad 16G is $499, 32GB is $599, and 64GB is $699, and the Wi-Fi+3G 16GB is $629, 32GB is $729, and 64GB is $829. If you buy the Wi-Fi+3G model, you will have to pay AT&T for the 3G coverage, which is around $14.99 per month for 250MB or $29.99 a month for the unlimited data. There is no commitment or contract to sign, and you can switch plans or cancel at any time.

Battery and Power

The iPad comes with its own 1.0Ghz A4 processor. As for battery life, the iPad will last up to 10 hours while surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, or listening to music, and up to 9 hours using the 3G data network. Unfortunately, you cannot multitask on the iPad. For example, you can’t surf the web while streaming Pandora. Although eReaders, such as the Amazon Kindle, can easily last a week on a full battery charge, the iPad promises good time for being a color multitouch tablet; making 9 hours of battery life pretty good if you’re surfing the web or playing video games.

iBooks

Accessing the iBookstore is a simple tap. All the books are colorfully displayed on the swiveling bookshelf and by tapping the cover, you quickly go to the last page you were reading. Book prices are in line with Amazon’s Kindle selections. While it is a good choice for illustrations and graphics, for now you cannot make notes in the margins or highlight text, making it less attractive to business users and students.

Photos

The redesigned photo app neatly stacks your photos into albums and you can easily access them by tapping or using the pinch gesture. Like the iLife on Macs, you can view your pictures based on when they were taken. When you’re not using your iPad, it can double as a picture frame and slideshow pictures across.

Music and Video

iTunes allows you to purchase music, movies, and TV shows directly from the iPad. You can also sync content you’ve already purchased on other computers. The full-screen video looks great, with high quality images. You can also access YouTube for free and watch those videos. Unfortunately the iPad does not support Flash, so you won’t be able to access Hulu.com.

Maps and GPS

The redesigned Maps application features Streets View images, showing the streets exactly as they look. Though the Wi-Fi only iPad can pinpoint your exact location with accuracy, it can provide turn by turn directions to match any TomTom, ALK, or Navigon.

So, should you buy one?

Compared to other tablets, the iPad provides a lot of functionality for $499. It’s interface is highly intuitive and similar to other Apple products. It does a good job with multimedia and can run thousands of different apps at full screen. On the other hand, Apple calls this a mobile device and not a computer for a reason. The gadget is not as versatile as a Netbook. There is no Flash support, no ability to print or ability to save files to your local area network. Other missing features include no webcam or a memory card slot. If you think of the iPad as a bigger iPod Touch or a more robust Kindle, you will be pleasantly satisfied but not if you view it as a cheap PC.

We will write a follow up article on the potential for the iPad as a business productivity tool using custom applications (think remotely entering orders into a point of sale system from the field), and we will go more in-depth in that article – stay tuned…Δ

Taking the Guesswork Out of IT

SuperUser Account — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Having a reliable partner and predictable costs means fewer hassles and headaches for IT staff and business owners

Our comprehensive Managed Services solutions are designed to support your IT staff and compliment your business in a way that makes the most sense for you. We can handle part, or all, of your IT needs, provide strategic planning, and bring additional savings in areas that you might not be aware of such as server and Microsoft application licensing.

1. Lower Total IT Costs

Being proactive is the best way to reduce problems. If you regularly change the oil in your car and perform scheduled maintenance, you will substantially reduce problems. It’s no different with servers and workstations. By continually monitoring for potential problems and dealing with them up-front, we will reduce the likelihood of a major problem developing.

2. Reduced Hidden Costs and Increased Staff Productivity

Because your PCs and servers are being taken care of, there are fewer disruptions or breakdowns, your staff will be productive. Accidently deleted files can be restored quickly, downtime is practically non-existent, and spam is a thing of the past.

3. Greater IT Cost Predictability

Even with the most robust IT support structure, most small to medium sized businesses struggle to determine how much should be set aside each month for IT support to deal with tricky desktop issues or server/network outages. With our fixed monthly fees that cover monitoring, preventative maintenance, and unlimited remote support, our clients know what their exact IT costs are each month, so they can budget and plan accordingly and know they are being taken care of 100%.

4. Stronger Alignment of IT Business Goals

As a Managed Services client you will have Quarterly CIO meetings to review what we’ve done, and plan for your future growth requirements.

The feedback that we get from clients is that this is one of the most valuable features of our Managed network program, in that it gives business owners and IT decision makers knowledge and insight into ways of saving or making money using technology that they would otherwise not get unless they took it upon themselves to do a lot of research. Meetings can also be “made to order” by asking us ahead of time to discuss a specific topic (like cloud computing, disaster recovery, etc.)

If you are interested in understanding and leveraging technology that bigger companies are using to make or save money for your business, give us a call at 503-241-3499, and ask for Dave. Δ

Spring Cleaning Your PC for Maximum Performance

SuperUser Account — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:00:00 GMT

With Springtime in the air, it is a good time to do an annual clean up of your computers, servers, and electronic equipment in your office, both inside and out. Failure to thoroughly clean your computer at least once or twice a year will result in decreased performance and possibly a system failure.

Interior Cleaning

Free up hard disk space

You can use the Disk Cleanup utility built in to Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 to safely remove unnecessary files on your hard drive, freeing up disk space and making your system faster as well. DC identifies what can safely be deleted and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some files or all identified files. Whenever you visit a website or work on files in programs such as Microsoft Word, your computer creates and stores temporary files. Over time, these files slow your computer’s performance. The Disk Cleanup utility should be run at least once a month to clear out these temporary files, remove downloaded program files, empty the Recycle bin, remove Windows temporary files, installed programs you no longer use, and remove unused restore points. To use Disk Cleanup for Windows 7 and Windows XP, click Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Disk Cleanup. Check the boxes you want to delete and click “OK.”

Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows down the overall performance of your system because the computer must search the hard drive when the file is opened to piece it back together. The Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer’s hard drive so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up. In addition to running the Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals (monthly is best), you should always run it when you download a large number of files, your free disk space is less than 15%, or you install new programs or new version of Windows. To use the Disk Defragmenter, click Start> All programs> Accessories> System Tools> Disk Defragmenter. Then click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze. Then click the Defrag Disk button and finally view the Report.

Detect and Repair Disk Errors

In addition to running the Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter, to optimize the performance of your computer you can also check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility. As you use your hard drive, it may develop bad sectors that slow down performance and make file saving difficult (or even impossible). The Error Checking utility scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced. To run the Error Checking Utility, open Windows Explorer then right click on your hard drive (usually “C”) and select “Properties”. Select the “Tools” tab and then click on the “Check Now” button. You will have to restart your machine to allow the disk check to begin. Ideally, you should do this once a month.

Protect Your Computer Against Spyware

Spyware collects personal information (without asking for your permission) while you visit websites, such as user names, passwords, and even credit card information. It can put your confidential information at risk if you aren’t careful. Furthermore, spyware can hinder your computer performance, as it takes up system memory and network bandwidth. To protect yourself from spyware, make sure your firewall is always turned on and keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware software updated making sure your settings are set to automatically update the spyware definitions. We recommend security audit of all of your computer systems at least twice a year. It is a service that is quite affordable, and can literally save your business. Call us for more information.

Reduce Your Web Page History in Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer (and other browsers) will store the websites you visited onto your computer. They are organized within a page history by day. Obviously, it’s important to keep some of this information, but a few days is fine. However a month’s worth of page history will begin to slowdown your computers performance. To Reduce your Web page history, In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options. Look for “Days to Keep Pages” setting, adjust to 3 days or less, and click OK.

Exterior Cleaning

Dirt and dust clogs the computer’s power supply and cooling system causing it to heat up, which can damage the sensitive electronic equipment. It can also cause fan noise and slow performance. Regular cleaning can save you costly maintenance down the road.

Inside the Case

Using a screwdriver, remove the side of your computer case, touching as little as possible inside. Blow compressed air around all components and along the bottom of the case. Blow air into the fan, floppy disk drives, and CD drives.

Keyboard

Turn the keyboard upside down and gently shake it. Most of the dust and crumbs should fall out. Take the can of compressed air and blow around the keys to get any excess dust. Next take a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol and rub the sides and tops of all the keys.

Backups

Check your backups and conduct an emergency “restore” of the data. Remember the best time to check your backups is when you don’t desperately need to recover your data! If you have any questions regarding cleaning of your computers and
servers, inside and out, please call us at 503-241-3499. Δ

Dave's Corner Column - April 2010

SuperUser Account — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Windows Home Server—What good is it?

When I first heard of Windows Home Server, I thought that it would be just another network appliance with limited appeal to business. Being inquisitive, I decided to install it at home and see what value it might have to consumers. I assumed (wrongly it turns out) that it would not have any business value at all.

Have a look at the article that I wrote on page 2 that outlines the good and the bad of Windows Home Server, and some surprising ways that I see it working in businesses, both large and small.

Speaking about learning things, join us for our upcoming Lunch and Learn. The topic is “Cloud Computing— What you don’t know will hurt you, and the 7 ways to make it work for you today.” This workshop will be held at the University Club of Portland downtown and is co-hosted with Comcast Business Solutions.

Businesses are already using cloud computing in some surprising ways. If you want to stay ahead of the curve and cut costs, this is a must-attend event.

Register today on our website or call Cathy at 503-241-3499 to reserve your place. This event is free and is sure to sell out. See you there! Δ