Does your computer have a good home?  On a day to day basis your everyday actions can affect the life of your workstation.  Just like your car needs to be treated well to run well, your computer needs a few basic things to keep the hardware running longer.  In this post I will give you a few tips that can do that will give your computer hardware a longer more productive life.

Set your computer down flat

Talk to any hard drive manufacturer and they will tell you the same thing.  When your computer is tilted the hard drive is more prone to failures and thus quicker to die.

Don’t move it

When you move your computer you are more likely cause damage to the hard drive.  Further, if you move it while it’s turned on it’s even more likely to fail.  There will be times when moving is necessary so be sure to be extra careful when you do move your computer.  Try the following:

1. Always power off the system before moving it, even if only a few inches
2. When moving your computer a long distance, try putting it in a box with foam
3. Never kick your computer and try to not bump it either.  Using it as foot rest as so many people seem to do is not a good idea.

Use protection

As in power protection.  At minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge suppressor, preferably a battery backup.  See my post on power protection for more information.

Keep it cool

If your computer is overheating, it won’t take long before the hardware starts to fail.  An overheated hard drive, motherboard, and even processor can all fail earlier than the normal expected lifetime. Make sure your computer is in an open space, keep the air vents clear (including from excess dust) and ensure you have enough fans.  If you are afraid your computer may be running too hot, don’t take the computer case side off.

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

As I discussed last week, it’s important to be able to discern if it’s time to replace your computer or have it repaired.  Last week I gave you four factors to consider when making the decision to replace your computer:

1. Initial costs
2. Longevity
3. Headaches
4. Compatibility
   

This week, I will dive into how these factors apply to you.

Initial Costs

How much will it cost you to replace your computer?  Include the cost of accessories, installation services, new software and data transfer.  Compare that to the cost of repair.  Before your computer is repaired, get an estimate from your IT consultant on how much it will cost.  I’d also recommend having your IT consultant help you figure the cost of new a computer before your make your decision, as advertised computer costs can often be deceptive.

Longevity

It may be cheaper to replace your computer, but how long will that fix last?  If it costs $200 to get an extra year out of your computer, it may make more sense to replace.  The average computer is rated for 3-5 years.  After five years, most hard drives start to fail, and you will often see the motherboard begin to fail as well.  If your approaching your computers five year birthday, I’d recommend considering replacing your computer.

Wondering what a bad motherboard looks like?  David Donhoff with Leverage Planners and No Bull Financial has graciously offered to let us show you these examples of what happened when his server finally said no more.  This server had been in service for almost ten years!

Headaches

Nothing is worse then having to learn a new system.   Decide if you can learn a new system before moving on to new computer.  Consider the settings adjustments, the data transfer, and the compatibility issues.

Compatibility

I pointed out last week that new computer generally requires new software.  Can your system support the new software that it will require when purchasing a new computer.  What software do you have on your current PC?  Is it compatible with Windows 7?  Does it require you to use a 64 bit architecture or 32 bit?  How about your accessories (printers, scanners, etc)?  Check with your IT consultant before making this decision, as they may know of something that you don’t.  Often this process involves calling vendors to ask if their software is compatible with your new computer.

Still need help?  Check out our process guide for easy guidance HERE.

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

It’s not uncommon for us to hear – why should I have my computer fixed, it’s so cheap to replace.  Just as often, I see people try to fix an issue that really shouldn’t be fixed, just replaced.  In this post, I’ll try and cover how to determine for yourself if it’s time to fix – or just pay for the replacement computer.

First, let’s address the factors in making the decision:

1. Initial costs – it’s often not cheap to fix a computer, but it’s never cheap to buy a new one.  Despite great deals that are occasionally offered, the total cost involved with a new computer can include the computer itself, necessary accessories, new software, installation services and more.
2. Longevity - while it may not be cheap to buy a new computer, what’s the point in spending any money on something that won’t last?  It’s important to be able to determine how long you will be using your current hardware for.
3. Headaches – everyone loves the speed that comes with a new computer, but who likes the headaches involved with getting it setup.  Getting your settings just right and your data in just the right place.  It’s a time consuming process.
4. Compatibility – in most cases, a new computer means new software.  It’s just a fact of life.  Before your computer crashes, you should determine the software you would be forced to upgrade too and if that software can handle the requirements of your current system.

Now you know the factors to consider when choosing to fix or replace your computer, stay tuned for my next post on assessing how those factors apply to you.

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

In my last post about backups, I wanted to address online backups.  While not for everyone, I believe most businesses would benefit greatly from using them.

In this post I will address the common misconceptions regarding backups, the positives of using them, the downfalls, and what services I recommend.

Common Misconceptions
I regularly recommend online backups to clients.  Almost as often as I recommend it, I hear a concern about it.  While it’s great to be thorough and ask questions to understand what’s being recommended to you, the concerns are generally based on inaccurate data they have received.

1. It’s not secure enough for my business.  I can understand why someone would have this concern, but it’s generally unnecessary.  Most backup solutions use an encrypted connection to their server, and are encrypted on the server.  Further, if an employee of that backup company were to crack the encryption and access your data, the company would be liable for damages.  The backup company has far more to loose by accessing your data then an employee of your own firm has.  Further, if an employee of your own firm looses your data if they are responsible for taking it off-site more people could gain access then at an online backup company.
2. My industry can’t use online backups due to compliance issues. This may be true for some industries, but most have gotten with the times.  It’s important when looking for an online backup that you check that the backup provider is compliant for your industry.
3. I don’t want to spend money monthly when I can pay for everything upfront.  I remember talking to a customer who had spent THOUSANDS on a local backup system for a relatively small network with a relatively small amount of data.  The backup system wasn’t working.  Sound’s horrible, huh?  Actually, it’s not uncommon.  Good local backup systems are not cheap, and even the best systems need to be monitored and managed.  At the end of the day, it’s rarely cheaper to get a local backup solution unless you have a HUGE amount of data.

Online Backup Pros

There are many benefits to online backups.  My top favorites include:

1. Little to no cost of entry, and generally low reoccurring costs
2. Lower failure rate
3. More automated monitoring and management
4. Automatically puts your data off-site
5. Easy to use

Online Backup Cons

1. While rarely a concern anymore, there is still a chance that it’s not compliant for your industry
2. Slower to recover data
3. Slower to backup

Recommended Online Backup Solution Providers

1. MozyPro
2. iBackup

Excuse the brevity of this post, but I’m out the door for a weekend away. If you have any questions, or you would like more details on the backups, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article? Looking for a geek that has turned consultant? Let Expedient Technology be your IT department. Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

If you run online backups, you may tell yourself that you don’t need to run any additional backups – but in many cases, that isn’t true.

Local backups aren’t necessarily better then online backups, but there are certainly advantages that local backups provide that online backups don’t.  With local backups, it’s faster and generally easier to do restorations.  Local backups also allow for computer imaging.  This is when a snapshot of your entire PC is taken and stored on the backup device.

Local backup advantages

1. Speed
2. Price
3. Security/compliance*

Acceptable Local Backup Devices

1. USB hard drives
2. Internal hard drives
3. Tapes**
4. CDs
5. DVDs

*most industries have adopted secure online backups as a acceptable compliant form of backup

**although I’m not too fond of tapes myself, they are a necessary evil in many cases.

Now is a good time to say that a USB FLASH DRIVE is NOT an acceptable backup device.  They are far too susceptible to failure.

If you know what to backup too, you only need to know HOW to backup to that device.  There a few good choices, but I’m going to highlight a few important things first:

1. The point of running backups is generally not to have a snapshot of your entire system – it’s to backup your critical data, not your installation files
2. If you want to backup your installation files, you will need to create an ‘image’ of your computer
3. No matter what you are backing up, unless you close all of your files and do a backup during the middle of the night while not using your computer, and you don’t need to backup a database, you will need to use software that can make shadow copies of your data.   This is a system that allows for backups to be performed to files that are in use.
4. If you are using Exchange Server, I highly recommend an Exchange Store backup, System State backup, and a brick level backup.  The exchange store covers the Exchange database as a whole, the system state is a backup of Active Directory which Exchange needs to run, and the brick level covers the individual items you would see within Outlook, including e-mails and contacts.  Brick level backups are the system administrator’s best friend.

With that said, here are my favorite techniques for backing up data:

1. Simple scripts.  Exactly as it sounds, this is when you write a batch file to backup your important files.  I only recommend this for small amounts of data.
2. Symantec BackupE xec. This is one of the few solutions that makes great use of tapes and is a very powerful tool.  If you are using Microsoft Exchange, this is especially powerful as it allows for brick level backups of Exchange.
3. My favorite backup software though is from Acronis.  Acronis allows you to create backups of the entire system as an image.  If a disaster occurs, instead of rebuilding the system – just revert to n days back – before the crash.  What about the files backed up in between?  No problem, just pull them out of the more recent images without doing a full restore.  The software is easy to manage, and even better, allows for cross-hardware restorations.

If you need help acquiring or setting up any of the above software types, Expedient Technology will be able to assist you.

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

In my last post, I discussed the benefits of backups, how to backup and why.  This week, in my continuing series on backups, I will talk about types of backups.  As the list of backup software and devices are endless, I will keep this pretty high level and try and keep it applicable as well.

Backup Types

• Local backups
• Online backups
• Wait and see

When I say local backup, I’m referring to any backup with a target location in the same premises as the original data. If you backup to a tape drive, USB hard drive, or heaven forbid to your own computer – you are backing up locally – even if you carry it off site.

This idea scares some businesses because of the ‘risks’ involved, however with most providers there is little to be concerned about. Backup providers have more to loose from a security breach then an employee taking your files off site does.

For larger networks, you may want to consider a device that automatically does both local and online backups.  These devices include the Barracuda Backup Server.  These devices will allow you to backup locally directly to the device, and then the device automatically uploads that data to an off-site data center.

It’s imperative that what backup solution you choose that you consider all possible risks and benefits. If doing a local backup only, be sure to have multiple backup devices so that at any given time a device can be off site in case of theft or acts of God. If doing online backups, consider the risk of emergency recoveries, where you need the data immediately (large restores from an online source are time consuming). In light of the risks of doing only one or the other backup, I often recommend people implement both backup types – online and local. With one backup going to a local device for large emergency restores, and the other backup going online. This adds much needed redundancy and decreases your chances of being without data when you need it.

There is another method that I have seen many businesses try.  It’s called the ‘wait and see’ method.  In this case, a business doesn’t take the time or spend the money to backup their data properly, and wait and see if they have an outage.  Some businesses make it years before an issue occurs, some only a few weeks.  When an issue does happen, they do have options.  A skilled consultant can help recover many lost files, but not all (we can help with this if this is you).  Otherwise, a skilled data recovery center can recover the rest.  The cost for recovery is often in the thousands, and no guarantee is provided.  Our data recovery center of choice is Driver Savers out of California.  While they aren’t cheap, they are the best in the industry for data recovery.  You can reach Driver Savers at 800.440.1904.  Reference referral code DS19940 to save yourself some money.

I urge you to not wait until you need data recovery to start backing up as backups are far less expensive then data recovery is.

If you need help choosing the right backup type for you, or are confused with what to do, don’t hesitate to contact us for help!

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

Are you running backups? You know you should be, so why aren’t you? Over the next two weeks I will cover all of the things you need to know about backups. Every business and individual has different backup requirements, and while this article contains great backup tips it doesn’t substitute for a qualified consultant. If you don’t already have one, Expedient Technology would love to provide that consultant for you. We highly recommend you contact us before trying to implement any of the solutions discuss over the next two weeks.

Why backup your data?

• Hardware failure: A hard drive (the device that stores all of your data) is rated for three to five years by experts and manufacturers.  To make matters worse, hard drives often go bad even before that time frame.  When a hard drive starts to crash, you can quickly lose your data.  Every week 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States.
• Disasters: No one wants to think that there will be a fire or flood, but it happens – generally without warning.  A fire or flood will not only destroy your home or office, but your computer and data as well.  93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster.
• Cost to recover: Data recovery is not cheap. Simple drive recovery can cost upwards of $7,500 and success is not guaranteed. Further, the cost of lost data is almost unquantifiable. Would your business survive after a serious loss of data? What if you lost your customer list, financial data, and correspondences?
• Viruses:No computer is safe from viruses. Even with the best antivirus software you still run the risk of infection. After infection your data lies prey to the virus.
• Mistakes: We’ve all had a situation where we accidentally deleted something we weren’t supposed to. It’s not a matter of if, but when.
• Corruption:There are a handful of ways for your data to get corrupt on a computer. 31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control. The only thing between your data and corruption is time.
• Theft and vandal: If someone were to break-in and steal your computer, how would you get your data back? What if they stole your backup device as well?

How to backup your data

• Daily backups
• Two forms: local and off site
• Test your backups
• Snapshot backups
• Differential, not incremental

You should be backing up your data frequently, no less often then daily. Some backup suites will even backup every few minutes. The frequency of backup is determined by a lot of factors, including the amount of data you have, and the frequency of change. A daily backup is sufficient for MOST businesses.

As a general rule of thumb, you always want a minimum of two backups. One locally in case something gets corrupt or your hardware fails and you need a quick recovery, and one off site in case of theft or acts of God.

It’s also important that you test your backups regularly. This includes daily or weekly log file checks (we check this daily for clients). In addition to the log files, you should open or view your backed up files once a week or once a month at a minimum to ensure your backup files are there. In addition to that, it’s imperative that you do a test restore at least every month or more to ensure that your backed up files are working. If a backup gets corrupted, it often ruins the entire backup.

Having snapshot backups means that if you are backing up your files daily, and you have seven day snapshots, then you would be able to restore for any day in the last seven days. The advantage of doing this is when a file becomes corrupt the data on your backup often becomes corrupted as well. Having snapshots allows you to try and restore the file prior to the files corruption.

Without getting into the nitty-gritty technical details, it’s also important to remember, differential, not incremental. A lot of people know what incremental is, but they don’t realize the risk. If you don’t know, an incremental backup is when you only backed up what’s changed since the last time you backed up. The danger is that when you do an incremental backup with most backup software, if you lose any backup (due to corruption or any other data loss) you lose all backups after it. The alternative to this is a differential backup. After you run a Full backup, a differential backup backs up everything that’s change since the last FULL backup, not just the last backup. This way you only need the most recent backup (although remember to have snapshots).

What to backup

Everyone has to decide for themselves what data is critical to their business, but almost every business has the same list of backup requirements:

1. Financial data (i.e. QuickBooks)
2. E-mails (i.e. Outlook)
3. Documents
4. Media (music, pictures, movies)
5. Databases
6. Customer lists (i.e. ACT!)
7. Favorites

I know this is a lot of information to take in all at once, but it’s an important topic.  I can’t stress how important it is to backup your data.  If you haven’t already, I highly encourage you to talk to a trained consultant about your needs and a solution that will work for you.  If you don’t already have one, Expedient Technology would love to provide that consultant for you.

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

I’ve talked before about how much I love outsourcing services, in a continuation of this love affair, I thought I’d speak today on outsourcing your File Servers.

There are a few ways to do this depending on your needs, but for a small network with multiple remote users, your best solution is something similar to what Egnyte provides:

• The ability to create a desktop shortcut to the hosted file server
• Secure access that meets HIPAA compliance
• An easy to use web console
• A relatively small monthly fee

For those who have heard of Sharepoint or FTP, Egnyte is somewhere in between the two.

For pricing and trial information, go HERE.

Hope that helps!

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

It’s a strange thing that the very same thing that allows you to use your computer puts your computer at risk. Not just the risk of losing hardware, but of destroying your data as well. We’ve all heard of a surge, but do you realize the damage it can cause to your system, and how easy it is to protect yourself from one? Further, many don’t realize that a voltage dip (brownout) can be just as dangerous.

It’s important to protect yourself from all forms of power disturbances, the two most important being power surges and voltage dips (brownouts).

So how do I protect myself from a power disturbance?

Two devices that provide the best protection:

1. A surge protector
2. A Universal Power Supply (more commonly known as a battery backup)

Of these two devices, the most important is a battery backup. Despite a common misconception, this device isn’t meant to keep your computer online through the entirety of a power outage. The purpose of a battery backup is to allow your computer or server to stay online through a brownout (short dip in power) and stay online in a power outage just long enough to safely turn off your computer (and perhaps give you a few minutes extra of work time, depending on your battery backup). When your computer crashes suddenly and doesn’t have a chance to shut down safely you dramatically increase the odds of corrupting important data and critical system files that allow your workstations or servers to boot.

So what type of power protection should I get?

It partially depends on your budget and need. You need an idea of how much power your workstation or server consumes before purchasing the proper power protection. So first things first, determine your budget and up time need. If you can only afford a surge protector, I would highly recommend getting a metal surge protector. Despite being more expensive, they are less of a fire risk. If your workstation is at all business critical, I would recommend investing in a battery backup. ALL SERVERS SHOULD HAVE A BATTERY BACKUP.

To determine the right battery backup for you, check out this tool put out by APC HERE.

I already have a battery backup, how do I know that mine is still working?

The easiest (and safest) way to test if a battery backup is still working is to turn off your PC, unplug it from the battery backup, find a light, plug it in to the battery backup, turn the light on and then unplug the battery backup from the wall. If the light stays on for a few minutes, you can move on to the next test. Try plugging your PC in and doing the same thing. It’s important to note that you should recharge your battery backup before testing your PC.

Should I daisy chain my power protection?

I get this question a lot. The simple answer is no, it generally doesn’t meet fire code and will void the warranty of your device.

Hopefully this answers some of the questions you may have about power protection. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us!

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article? Looking for a geek that has turned consultant? Let Expedient Technology be your IT department. Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.

It’s not often that I can make it even a week without being asked:

What type of antivirus should I use?

The answer varies completely depending on the situation, so I’ll try and break this down into three categories.

1. Home users/Solopreneurs (the 1-5 workstation environment)
2. Small Businesses (the 5+ workstation environment, with or without a server however NO internal e-mail server)
3. Small Business with Exchange (same as small business above, but with an Exchange server)

Home Users/Solopreneurs are the hardest category to pinpoint into a specific type of antivirus.  I personally use Microsoft Security Essentials for my home PC because of the low, low cost (free).  There are other great products out there (including WebRoot SpySweeper and Trend Micro Internet Security) as well to look into.  If you have an old computer that can’t handle newer software, AVG is a lightweight antivirus that is at least better then nothing.

Small Businesses without Exchange have the advantage of being able to get less expensive antivirus then those that do have Exchange.  The antivirus that I recommend for this group is Trend Micro Worry Free Standard.  This antivirus software installs on servers, is extremely light-weight (yet still thorough), extremely inexpensive, and centrally managed.  While not as cheap as free (like Microsoft Security Essentials), you get what you pay for and with Trend Micro you get a LOT for what you pay for.

Small Businesses with Exchange have a different challenge.  To protect yourself from e-mail viruses, you will need something more robust then the Standard antivirus listed above.  For those in this situation, Trend Micro Worry Free Advanced would be the antivirus of choice.  With all of the same benefits that Trend Micro Worry Free Standard provides, Advanced also includes Exchange scanning.

Hopefully this will help you in making a decision regarding antivirus.  If you’d like help choosing the right software suite for you, or a quote on any of the software listed above, give us a call!

Michael Curnutt, President

Need help with the above article?  Looking for a geek that has turned consultant?  Let Expedient Technology be your IT department.  Serving the greater Everett area, we are happy to be your partner for all things tech. Contact us.