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Can Your Computers Prevent The Flu?

Three things you can do right now with your technology that may prevent the flu pandemic from affecting your company’s productivity.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) predicts that 1/3 of the US population will catch the flu this year, with the average employee missing between two and four weeks of work. This pandemic has the ability to cripple many small- to medium-sized businesses, according to disaster recovery experts.

But believe it or not, how you deal with your computers can actually prevent the flu from affecting your business productivity.

When most business owners think about the impact of a pandemic illness, the first scenario is often most or all employees calling in sick. Realistically, the possibility of a large number of your employees becoming ill at the same time is pretty low.

Your business is much more likely to feel the impact from the response and containment measures organizations will use to minimize an outbreak. Consider these senarios:

Employees can’t come to the office because they or a family member may have been exposed to the virus, but aren’t necessarily ill.

Or, an employee can’t come to work because their child is ill, or their school or daycare service has closed for a week to ten days to contain an outbreak.

In each of these scenarios, your employees are healthy, but have pressing personal demands that conflict with showing up at work.

Here are several ways you can use your technology investment to mitigate some effects of a swine flu outbreak both for ill employees, and employees who can’t make it to work because of other issues.

Do Everything You Can To Slow The Spread Of The Flu
The flu spreads through personal contact like shaking hands, touching a keyboard or mouse used by an infected coworker, and through the air by coughing and sneezing.

So watch who you touch and use disinfectant wipes to clean your workspace including the keyboard and mouse before and after you use them.

You can also reduce the amount of people who need to touch your computer equipment by using a program like our Experts Total Support service, where the technician can work on your system remotely.

Stay In Touch Electronically
Timely communication may be one of the keys to keeping your employees from becoming ill. Consider setting up an email list service so that employees can notify one another if they or a family member has become ill. You may even consider using the email to text message capability most cell phone providers offer to alert employees if another staff member is ill, or will be out caring for a family member.

Prepare For Employee Absence With Remote Access
No matter how hard you try to prevent it, you may still have some of your staff out sick at the same time. While no one with the flu is going to do much besides lie in bed, many employees will work part time from home if they have access to their office computer.

Some doctors believe this could actually hasten their recovery by eliminating boredom. So, setting up a way that your employees can remote into their computer from home helpsyou both.

We’ve compiled a free report to help you address some of these issues. “The Ultimate Small Business Owner’s Guide To Setting Up A ‘Work From Home’ Or Remote Network Access System” includes all of the information you need to set up a work from home program that is both useful for employees, and safe for your business.

For a free copy of this report, call the office at (734) 457-5000, or email “info@expertsmi.com.”

 

Track Flu Trends On Google

Google Flu Trends provides near real-time estimates of flu activity for a number of countries and regions around the world based on aggregated search queries. Some of these estimates have been validated through comparison with official historic influenza data from the relevant country or region. Countries with estimates that have not been validated are labeled as experimental. www.google.org/flutrends

LoJack For Laptops

The technology behind Computrace LoJack for Laptops by Absolute Software is the Computrace Agent, a small software client that is embedded into the BIOS firmware of most computers at the factory. Or Tech Experts can install this agent for you.

The Agent in your computer maintains daily contact with the Absolute Monitoring Center. If you report your computer stolen, Agent contact will increase to every 15 minutes.

Increased contact allows Computrace to obtain specific details like the physical location of your computer, any activity that has occurred post-theft, and other important data that will aid Computrace in working with local law enforcement to catch the thief and return your property to you.

Regardless of recovery status, you can remotely delete data to remove some or all of the information stored on your computer so that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

This could include files and applications containing personal photos, internet bookmarks, browser cookies, financial information, and stored passwords.Everything an identity thief would need to steal your identity.

On the web: www.absolute.com

Tips To Improve Your Wireless Signal Strength

If Windows notifies you about a weak signal, it probably means your connection isn’t as fast or as reliable as it could be. If you’re looking to improve the signal for your wireless network, try some of these tips.

Position your wireless router in a central location
When possible, place your wireless router in a central location in your office. If your router is against an outside wall, the signal will be weak on the other side of your office.

Move the router away from walls and metal objects
Metal, walls, and floors will interfere with your router’s wireless signals. The closer your router is to these obstructions, the more severe the interference, and the weaker your connection will be.

Replace your router’s antenna
The antennas that came with your router are omni-directional, meaning they broadcast in all directions. If the router is near an outside wall, half of the wireless signals will be sent outside the building, and much of your router’s power will be wasted. Upgrade to a hi-gain antenna that focuses the wireless signals only one direction. You can aim the signal in the direction you need it most.

Add a wireless repeater
Wireless repeaters extend your wireless network range without requiring you to add any wiring. Just place the wireless repeater halfway between your wireless access point and your computer, and you’ll get an instant boost to your wireless signal strength. Check out the wireless repeaters from ViewSonic, D-Link, Linksys, and Buffalo Technology.

How To Stop The Number One Cause Of Computer Slow Downs And Crashes!

Wouldn’t it be nice if your computer still ran like it did back when you first bought it? Before you go and buy a new computer try this key maintenance step you can use to put life back into the computer you already have.

Imagine that you start up your PC just to find yourself staring at a blue screen with white writing, termed “the blue screen of death” by those of us who work a lot with Microsoft software. So, you power it down – and when it starts back up, the computer is even slower. Within a few minutes it locks up again.

This happened to a friend of mine. When she asked me what she could do, I asked her if she had ever defragmented her computer. She got that “deer in the headlights” look, so I knew she hadn’t. Defragmenting her PC, after three years of never doing so, took about 14 hours to complete.

One of the main reasons that computers slow down is poor maintenance practices like this. Unfortunately, when you buy a new computer you don’t usually get any instruction on how to maintain it. Poor or no maintenance allows your hard drive to become more and more fragmented which will slow it down over time.

To best explain hard drive fragmentation think of your hard drive as a file cabinet. In this cabinet there are folders with documents (files) in them.

When you need to work on something you open the folder containing the necessary file, pull out what you need and put the folder back. The files go on your desk so you can work on them.

Over time certain files don’t get put back, or they get put back in different places. When this happens on the hard drive it leads to fragmentation. Think of defragmenting as going through the files on your desk, and in the cabinet, and putting them back in order in the correct folders.

Just as staying this disorganized would lead to a significant loss in your own productivity, the same thing happens to your computer. Eventually it causes a crash because of how scattered all of the information gets.

Disk fragmentation can even shorten the lifespan of your computer because your hard drive works so hard that it wears out faster.

So the one step solution for this part of computer maintenance, run the defragmenting tool that comes with Windows at least once every couple of weeks.

Do this by clicking Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, then click Disk Defragmenter. Choose the disk you want to defragment and click the defragment button. You can also schedule this maintenance inside the Disk Defragmenter application, so you don’t have to remember to run it.

Take care of your hard disk maintenance and you will continue to enjoy the speed you experienced when you first made that investment!

Cautionary Tale About A PC And A Child’s Imagination

Let’s face it – computers can be downright aggravating at times. There is an old saying that they’re “dumb boxes” that only do what they’re told and not what you want them to  do. But some of the aggravations can be prevented.

I had a client a few years ago bring his system in because it was occasionally making strange noises. I started the computer up numerous times and it always sounded fine.

As a troubleshooting measure, I opened up the case to check inside for any obvious signs of trouble. What I found was obviously the problem. The inside of the case was  absolutely filled with CDROM disks. It was stuffed full!

I removed the 20 or so music and video game disks and returned them to the client when he picked his station up. Was he surprised!

“There are all the CDs I have been missing.”

My curiosity got the best of me and I asked him how they got in there. He had no idea at the time. When he asked his 2 year old son that was with him, “Have you been putting  disks in the computer?” the boy demonstrated how he put the disk in the little slot between the CDROM player and the case cover. This sent the CD right into the case. His father explained his old computer had a slot you would slide the disks in and the boy thought this computer worked the same way.

Although this may seem like the strangest thing that could happen with kids and computers, my favorite happened shortly after this episode. It has been said the kid’s say the  darndest things, but they can also do the strangest things.

This client brought in her station because the CD player wouldn’t open. I created the service ticket and placed it on the service bench. When the time came to repair the problem, I started the computer up and pushed the eject button on the player. The door tried to open but just wouldn’t go all the way. I tried to manually open the door and it felt like something was stuck in the player and perhaps preventing the door from properly operating.

This can commonly be caused by a disk becoming dislodged and jamming in the tray. I removed the player and shook it upside down to try and reseat the disk. Nothing that I tried  seemed to help.

I then pressed the manual release and pried the door open and the tray came out – along with a whole bunch of animal crackers. It seems her little one had a new game he was playing.

He would open the CD, lay an animal cracker in the tray and press the close button and send the animal for a ride. After having done this to the point of filling the player, his
game was over, the tray was stuck. Needless to say she was not thrilled with having to buy another player, and I’m afraid her son may have gotten into some hot water.

If you’re having any computer problems bring it to Tech Experts where our certified techs can get you back up and running quickly.

New Phishing Schemes You Should Know About

I know growing up as a child, I loved to go fishing. I never caught very many fish, but just being out on the water “drowning worms” was good enough for me. As the years have passed, though, a new kind of “phishing” has emerged.

The term phishing refers to luring techniques used by identity thieves to fish for personal information in a lake of unsuspecting Internet users.

Their purpose is to take this information and use it for criminal objectives such as identity theft and fraud.

Phishing is a general term for the creation and use by criminals of emails and websites – designed to look like they come from well-known, legitimate and trusted businesses, financial institutions and government agencies – in an attempt to gather personal, financial and sensitive information.

These criminals deceive Internet users into disclosing their bank and financial account information or other personal data such as usernames and passwords.

Today a new form of phishing appears to be spreading through social websites such as Facebook. This new scam works like this.

As soon as you login to the site, it will steal your email and password and then log you into Facebook. Within a short period of time the system will automatically switch your password and block you from the site. It then begins to send the same URL to all of your Facebook friend’s inboxes.

As this spreads, the criminals gather thousands of email addresses and passwords before Facebook can stop all references to the website.

The scammers have developed a method to duplicate the scam immediately and the next thing you know they have four or five phishing scams going on at the same time all over Facebook. This allows them to gather hundreds of thousands of victims very quickly.

It is not known yet what these people intend to do with all these addresses, but you can almost guarantee that they will result in a malicious worm at some point. The potential to access a user’s financial information and accounts could result in the loss of millions of dollars.

Another form of phishing is called “in session” phishing. This form does not use email nor does it rely on the user having to be tricked into clicking on a link.

It works like this. Let’s say you go to your banking website that is secure. You login and take care of your business, then leaving that browser window open you innocently go to another website that has been compromised. All of a sudden a pop-up asks you to validate your login to continue your banking session.

Remember two things must happen in order for this scam to work. First, a website must be compromised and infected—the higher traffic the better, obviously.

Second, the downloaded malware must be able to identify whether or not the unknowing user is logged into a relevant website.

Most banking institutions have taken steps to prevent this. One step is having a rapid disconnect of an idle session.

But in order to be safe we would recommend closing all browser windows after you have visited a secure banking website.

In addition it is very important to keep your system free of all spyware, malware and viruses.

Tech Experts has certified technicians that clean these types of infections and malware from computers every day. We urge you to take advantage of our system checkup and cleaning service to keep your identity to yourself.

Saving Money On IT: 8 Tips To Speed Up Your Systems, Extend Their Life, And Be More Productive

Sluggish computers got you down? You’re not alone – many people make the mistake of letting their slow computers cost them time, money and headaches. Sometimes, folks will even resort to buying a new machine rather than resolving the slow computer issues.

Here are eight tips that will help you speed up your systems, extend their life, and let you be more productive – all without investing a lot of money or time.

Physical Cleanliness
It is a best practice to clean your system at least once every quarter. You can use a vacuum to clean the outside of the computer case, and keyboard for starters. You should NOT vacuum the inside of the case – this creates static electricity which could damage the system.

Obviously you never want to get the inside damp, wet, or use liquid cleaners on it. The best way to keep the inside clean is to get a can of compressed air. Simply blow out the system fans and any accumulated dust and debris. Fans can become clogged after time, and prevent proper cooling, which greatly affects the performance.

Software Management
Over time, installed software can clutter up the system, and often, installed applications are forgotten about over time. Regularly checking your program list and removing anything that hasn’t been used in a while is another best practice.

Simply go to Start->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs. From there you can check through the list of installed programs, and decide which ones should go, and which ones can stay.

Start Up (Boot Up)
You may have noticed that the system used to start up a lot faster than it does now. In most cases, this can be easily resolved by clearing out the programs that are set to run at startup.

Most users don’t even realize there are several programs starting up when they turn their systems on. Ideally, you would want as few applications as possible to start up, and then open programs as they are needed.

Simply go to Start->Run>type in “msconfig” (without the parenthesis). This will bring up the Microsoft Configuration Utility. From there, you can choose the startup tab, and get a list of programs that are set to start when Windows is starting up. You can simply check/uncheck which programs you want.

Clean Up The Cache
Every time you visit a web site, the content and pictures are downloaded to a temporary holding area on your hard drive, called the cache. The Internet cache is useful because it helps websites load faster the next time you visit them. Over time, the cache can take up disk space, and cause the system to run slower.

I’d suggest keeping your cache cleared, simply by running a disk cleanup. This will allow you to remove the following: temporary Internet files, downloaded program files, offline webpage’s, files in the recycle bin, temporary files, and “compress old files.”

Disk Defragmentation
Sometimes when you install new programs, or create new data files, the files end up being chopped up into chunks and stored in multiple locations on the hard disk. This is called fragmentation.

Disk defragmentation basically takes all of your files, and arranges them in a logical order. It’s like having all of your files in a filing cabinet scattered, and then re-arranging so everything is in order, and similar files are grouped with each other.

So next time you go to call on a file, data source, program, etc.the specified data is all grouped together making it faster to access and load. This should be done at least once a month.

Antivirus Scanning
We all know the problems that viruses and spyware can cause! Spyware and virus activity is one of the biggest culprits of slow moving computers, and having an active antivirus program doing daily system scans is always a best practice. This will ensure your system’s performance is not at jeopardy due to malicious related software.

Keeping your Windows operating system up to date will ensure you have the latest service packs, security patches, third party device drivers, and many other critical updates to your Microsoft Windows operating system.

Keep Windows Up to Date
Microsoft allows the automatic update and installation of updates if configured properly. Simply right click the My Computer icon, and choose automatic updates tab. From there you can decide what day you want updates to run, and whether or not you want them to be downloaded and/or installed.

Clean The Registry
The registry is a database which stores most of the settings and options for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains information and settings for hardware, operating system software, and per-user settings.

CAUTION: In most cases, only advanced users should edit the registry!!

Over time, programs can cause clogging of the registry, which will affect system performance; a great tool to run on this would be CCleaner; which is a free download available at http://www.ccleaner.com/.

So if you want to speed your systems, extend the life of your computer, and learn to be more productive with your pc, without spending a bunch of money or time doing so, follow some of these best practices, and you will be well on your way to a more efficient, and pleasant time on the computer.

Top Four Threats Attacking Your Network And What You Can Do About Them

Do you ever feel like your computer network could be more secure? Chances are, keeping a few simple things in mind will improve security and reduce downtime. Here are some things to look out for.

Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites like Facebook are exploding in popularity. Threats range from malware (e.g. viruses, worms,spyware) to scammers trying to steal your identity, information and money. Many businesses and government agencies are
using these sites to communicate with clients and constituents, so simply blocking access is no longer reasonable. Defending your company while allowing employee access requires social network education for your employees and the enforcement of strong acceptable use policies. We can help you develop a policy, then monitor compliance using a Unified Threat Management device that controls and reports on network
access.

Attacks On Mobile Devices
Everyone is going mobile these days not just the “road warriors.” Once limited to laptop computers, mobile network devices now include PDAs, handheld computers and smart phones, with new appliances appearing in the stores every month. Mobile devices often contain sensitive data yet they are easily lost or stolen. Be sure to password protect and encrypt data on all mobile devices whenever possible. Include mobile devices in your acceptable use policy.

Cloud Computing
“The Cloud,” in its most simple form, involves using the Internet to access and store your data. When you access email using a web browser, you are working in “the cloud.” Using the cloud for automated off site backup is rapidly gaining popularity and is just the beginning. Companies like Microsoft, IBM and Google envision the day when we will use inexpensive terminals instead of computers to run programs and access data located somewhere on the Internet. You need to be sure that any data you store and access across the Internet is secure not just where it is stored, but during the trip to and from the Internet.

Overconfidence
User overconfidence in security products is the top threat to your network. Failure to “practice safe software” results in nuisance attacks like porn storms (unstoppable rapid fire pornographic pop-ups) and more subtle key loggers that steal passwords. Surveys promising free stuff, result in theft of information like your mother’s maiden name, high school, etc. used to answer common security questions leading to theft of otherwise secure data. Think before you click!

Expert Advice On Choosing A New Computer

Picking out a new computer can be challenging. Questions you might want to ask yourself include: What is my budget, what do I need to use it for, and where do I plan to use it?

After you answer those questions, you need to think of more specific questions like should I get a laptop or desktop, how fast does it need to be, and how much memory or drive space do I need? All these will help get you an idea of what you are going to look for.

When looking for a computer the form factor is one of the biggest decisions. What I mean by that is the size of the computer, whether you want it to be a portable computer or a desktop computer.

The two most common sizes are a regular tower case (the kind that usually sits on the floor) or a laptop. Deciding on one of those will help eliminate half of the choices right away.

Next, ask yourself if your needs will pretty much stay the same, or is there a chance of needing upgrades as your needs and computer use change?

You’ll probably not be able to predict when you’ll need to upgrade your computer, but it’s something to keep in mind. Laptops are generally more expensive than tower computers, and can’t be upgraded as easily.
Most laptops can only have ram and hard drive upgrades. Tower computers have pretty much inlimited upgrade potential. From a new motherboard to just a simple RAM upgrade.

Be careful, though: Some major computer manufacturers like Dell make it so that you can only upgrade your computer with manufacturer parts – limiting choices and making upgrades much more expensive than on standard computers.

When reviewing the specs for your new computer, consider the kind of work you do and how fast you need to get it done. Two of the biggest factors to consider are hard drive space and the physical RAM.

Think of hard drive space like a file cabinet – this is where the computer stores all of your programs, files, pictures, music and so on. You can think of RAM memory as the computer’s working memory – where it does all of the different calculations you ask it to do.

If you do a lot of tasks that have very large files like video editing or pictures you would want to make sure you have a bigger hard drive so that don’t run out of space right away. Hard drive space is very inexpensive – less than $1/gigabyte – so it makes sense to buy as large a hard drive as is practical.

For the speed on the computer you need to look at the CPU type and speed, and the RAM.

CPU type will typically be single or dual core – without getting too technical, you’ll probably want to go with dual core, which makes the computer (in general) able to process twice as much information at the same time. The faster the speed, usually measured in gigahertz, the faster the computer can process information.

RAM is also a determining factor in the processing speed of the computer – the more RAM, the more the computer can process without accessing the hard drive. I recommend at least 2gb, and preferrably 4gb.

These are just a few things to keep in mind when buying a new computer. We’re very proud to offer IBM and Lenovo laptop and dektop computers at Tech Experts, so if you’re in the market for a new machine, give me a call!