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Ten Things You Need To Look For When Choosing Your Company’s Anti-Virus Solution

Antivirus programs are no longer a best practice; they’re a requirement. If a system has a power supply and runs Windows, it must have a first-rate antivirus application current with the latest signatures.

Don’t make it easier for attackers to compromise the systems your business relies on for day to day operations  – insist on these 10 elements in any antivirus application you implement.

1: Potency
An antivirus program is useless if it fails to identify and isolate viruses, worms, and similar infections. Productivity losses quickly mount when you have to clean machines of malicious software.

Removing infections from systems supposedly protected by antivirus applications only adds insult to injury. Avoid such frustration by ensuring that the antivirus platform you deploy effectively prevents infection.

Don’t let persuasive ads or name-brand recognition talk you into specific brands. Research your options thoroughly and talk to your tech expert to learn their recommendations. The insight you’ll gain is invaluable.

#2: Low overhead
Some mass-market antivirus programs have been known to bring minimally configured Windows systems to a standstill. This is why we don’t sell or recommend Norton’s Anti-virus products any longer – they simply take up too much memory.

An effective antivirus program must constantly work behind the scenes to monitor active applications. That’s understood. But protective software apps requiring (or commanding) significant system resources often do more harm than good.

When selecting an antivirus application, review the program’s system requirements. Before committing to a solution, test the application on several workstations to determine the true load that the program places on real-world equipment.

#3: Centralized administration
No one enjoys having to visit every workstation within the organization. That’s just what you’ll have to do, though, if you standardize on an antivirus application that doesn’t support centralized distribution and administration.

Make sure the antivirus solution you select works well with Windows Intellimirror and other mass client-deployment technologies (or has its own native deployment features).

Although some smaller companies aren’t as dependent on time-saving deployment tools, remotely managing and administering antivirus applications is still most efficient, even in businesses with just 20 employees. By eliminating the need to visit those systems to configure scans, review logs, and maintain updates, strong centralized administration features more than pay for themselves.

#4: E-mail protection
It goes without saying that any antivirus solution should guard against infectious code sent or received in e-mail.

However, not all applications provide such protection. Even if your organization maintains an e-mail server- or router-based antivirus program, seek client antivirus apps that provide secondary e-mail protection.

Client-side e-mail security offers essential protection for your organization. It also safeguard’s its reputation, preventing users from infecting external customers, partners, and suppliers and keeping your organization off one of many troublesome spam lists.

#5: Compatibility
In addition to confirming that an antivirus application operates well with your operating system, check that it doesn’t create errors when installed alongside business applications, proprietary programs, and other software packages. Some antivirus manufacturers do a good job of warning about known conflicts, others don’t. But the best bet is to install the solution (prior to a department- or organization-wide deployment) to test the antivirus software’s interaction with other programs.

Pay particularly close attention if you’re working with Microsoft Vista. Don’t expect Windows XP-based antivirus software to work well with the newest desktop OS. In fact, in most cases, it won’t.

#6: Effective reporting tools
Some antivirus solutions enable you to review reports from all configured clients via a Web interface. Others produce reports indicating threats, scans, and infections but require that an administrator visit each client to obtain that information.

Review your company’s needs and determine which method will work best. Consider reporting features carefully. A program’s logs and report information will prove invaluable in alerting you to problems before or as they occur.

#7: Technical support
Antivirus programs fail. It’s inevitable. Sooner or later, you’ll encounter strange failures, bizarre error messages, or inexplicable system freezes. Having access to the antivirus manufacturer’s development staff is essential for successfully identifying a solution.

Before purchasing any software, check out the manufacturer’s Website. Find out whether the manufacturer provides a toll-free number for support, review any troubleshooting forums, and check which live assistance options exist.

#8: Certification
Just as an antivirus solution’s potency is critical, so too is certification. Manufacturers can make all the promises and claims they want in marketing materials, but industry certification is hard won.

ICSA Labs, Virus Bulletin, West Coast Labs, the National Associate of Specialist Computer Retailers, and others all require antivirus programs to meet stringent requirements to receive certification.

Of course, certification isn’t foolproof. But one way to know you’re purchasing a trustworthy application is to confirm that the program has earned certification from these leading labs.

#9: Simplified licensing
Once you’ve identified an antivirus solution that’s potent, compatible, and backed by quality technical support (among other elements), it’s time to turn your attention to licensing.

Some manufacturers complicate licensing to the point that you can install a dedicated license on only a single machine. If that system’s hard disk or motherboard fails (or the entire system goes down), under OEM terms your organization is likely required to purchase another license, even if the original term is yet to expire.

Review license requirements with care. It’s often best to purchase client licenses by seat. Thus, if a workstation or server fails, migrating an existing license to the replacement system becomes a simple matter. (But expect to pay more for the privilege.)

Remember to factor in growth considerations when purchasing a specific number of seats. It’s all too easy to exceed licensing limits signed six months ago. Keep detailed notes on how many systems receive antivirus software and keep the documentation current as workstations and servers are replaced or upgraded.

If you’re very close to a quantity threshold (for example, you need 23 licenses), ask about purchasing a few extra licenses to take you to the next licensing level. You may very well find that the two or three additional licenses needed to move you to the next level end up costing you less than purchasing the exact amount you need. For example, the price difference between Level A and Level B may be $3 or $4 per seat.

#10: Reasonable cost
When purchasing fewer than 50 licenses, expect to pay approximately $40 to $50 per seat for an annual antivirus license. As an organization exceeds 100 licenses, costs can drop to as low as $35 per user.

Unless an application includes firewall, anti-spyware, or antispam features, prices should fall within the above ranges. Any organization tempted to add firewall or anti-spyware tools to its antivirus application, especially for 20 or more users, might be better served pursuing a hardware-based solution (such as the ones provided by SonicWALL and other manufacturers) instead of a software-focused product.

No matter how secure you think your systems are, and how careful your employees are, anti-virus and anti-spyware solutions are critical to protecting your business. With more and more business transacted over the Internet, you must have a comprehensive protection suite installed.

Tech Experts works with several anti-virus applications, and our trained experts can help you choose the right solution for your business.

How To Send or Share Very Large Files

Here’s a question we receive quite often in our service department: “How can I send a 50-megabyte file to a customer, since it’s way too big for an e-mail attachment? Are there ways to do it other than burning a CD and using postal mail?”

For server space and bandwidth reasons, many e-mail providers limit file attachments on a message to no more that 5 or 10 megabytes in size.

This often makes it difficult to send things like high-resolution photographs or digital video files as e-mail attachments.

If burning the files to a CD and mailing them isn’t a workable option, there are other methods of electronically transferring your large files.

People or companies with their own Websites often upload large files or folders to the Web server with a file-transfer program — and send the intended recipient a user name and password to use for retrieving the files. But this may not be an option for a lot of people.

Instead, several companies offer to transfer huge files over the Internet. Instructions for using each service vary, so be sure to read the information on the site.

Pando, for example, has free and paid versions of its software for transferring files at www.pando.com, and it works with both Windows and Macintosh systems.

You can send files up to a gigabyte in size free through Pando, and the company has paid plans starting at $5 a month to send even larger files from machine to machine.

YouSendIt (www.yousendit.com) is another service that promises to transfer your big files. You can send files of up to 100 megabytes free with its YouSendIt Lite service — or files up to two gigabytes in size with the company’s $5-a-month service.

Some free or inexpensive online file-storage services like Xdrive (www.xdrive.com), iBackup (www.ibackup.com) and FilesAnywhere (www.filesanywhere.com) also let you mark certain files for sharing. This means customers can download a large file themselves from your online storage drive, rather than dealing with e-mail attachments that are too big to fly.

When Does VoIP Make Sense For Your Business?

The Voice over IP (VoIP) landscape has exploded in the last five years. In its early implementation, Internet-based telephony was a hassle to implement, inconvenient to use, and far less reliable than regular or traditional phone service.

Today, our cup runneth over with VoIP services and providers, with pricing and features packages appropriate for everyone from individual/home users to small/medium businesses to the very large companies.

VoIP lines can connect seamlessly to regular lines and wireless numbers; to the end user, making a VoIP call no different from placing a call on a cell phone or landline.

VoIP advantages
Early adopters of VoIP were motivated primarily by cost; depending on their phone usage and long distance habits, they could save tremendously on phone bills because:

  1. Most VoIP plans don’t charge extra for domestic long distance (and some services offer free international calls to certain countries, as well).
  2. VoIP services often include, at no extra charge, features for which the traditional telephone companies impose extra fees, such as caller ID, call forwarding, three-way calling, and voicemail.
  3. VoIP has not been subject to all of the taxes and government-imposed fees that make up a large portion of the typical phone bill.

The big tradeoff in the early days was a lower quality in voice transmission and occasional dropped calls—pretty much the same disadvantages that plagued cellular phone service in its early days.

However, as VoIP has matured, transmission quality and reliability have improved to the point where they’re now close to that of regular telephone service. VoIP users are also drawn by other advantages of IP-based voice services, including the ability to have VoIP phone numbers in the area code of your choosing, regardless of where you’re physically located.

In effect, this gives you a low-cost way to maintain a virtual “local” presence in cities in which you do business so that customers there can call you without long distance charges, at much lower cost than alternatives such as an 800 number.

Another great advantage is that many VoIP services offer free voicemail services such as e-mail notification when you receive a call (along with a .WAV file of your voicemail messages sent to your e-mail address) that are either not available or cost extra with traditional telephone service packages.

VoIP disadvantages
VoIP technology still has a few disadvantages when compared with traditional phone service. Most notable is the inability to make phone calls during an electrical outage or when the Internet connection is down for any reason. In addition, some services that depend on phone lines, such as monitored alarm services, may require a landline, although there are now some alarm companies that offer service that works over a VoIP line.

Businesses that must rely on their phone service should take steps to ensure that their disaster recovery/business continuity plans cover their VoIP service.

Measures might include maintaining some regular telephone lines for emergency use, backup generators, and/or redundant Internet connections with failover capability.

Finally, VoIP services are subject to the same security concerns as other Internet traffic.

Selecting VoIP services
Small businesses may be able to save a lot of money by using VoIP services primarily aimed at consumers, such as Vonage or Sunrocket. These and other consumer-level services offer small business plans with online account management and may include a separate fax line.

A good solution for a small or home-based business that only has two to five employees and needs only a couple of phone lines is to order two VoIP boxes and plug both into a two-line base station system that supports multiple two-line handsets. Each worker can then use either line.

Larger businesses may need features that consumer level VoIP providers don’t offer, such as the ability to transfer calls, put calls on hold, or create conference calls among more than three parties—although in some cases the telephone equipment you choose can allow these activities, even if the provider doesn’t offer them. Larger VoIP providers generally include features like conference calling, music on hold, call queuing, scheduling and remote office features, and fax support.

Regardless of the size of your company, VoIP is now a viable option to traditional phone service, and may allow you to get more features and a wider scope of calling at a lower cost.

Outdated Operating Systems Combined With Daylight Savings Change May Cause Problems

First of all we have to ask… Do you know about the upcoming change to Daylight Saving Time this year?  Most folks we asked said “What change?”

For those of you that don’t know there is a change in the start and end dates for Daylight Saving Time this year.  It will start on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 2:00am and will end on Sunday, November 4th, 2007.  So, for 2007, DST starts 3 weeks earlier on the second Sunday of March and ends a week later on the first Sunday of November.  This change was made as an attempt to reduce energy consumption.

So what needs to happen this year to facilitate the change in DST on your computer systems, and what will the impact be?

The change is about five weeks away, so the time to start making plans is now. Most every device in your company that keeps time will be affected. We’ll address what you need to do to your PC’s, servers and other IT equipment.

However, keep in mind that things like VCR’s, DVD’s, and DVR’s may have some problems.  They won’t realize that the time change takes place three weeks earlier so that show that you thought you were recording may not record at all.

Also, PDA’s, fax machines, time clocks, switches, routers, and telephone systems that have programming embedded to change to DST on the first Sunday of April and the last Sunday in October are going to have problems. This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Each company will have to look at the impact that this change will have on you.

According to Microsoft, these are their products that will be affected by the change:

  • Windows Client
  • Windows Server
  • Windows Mobile
  • Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
  • Microsoft Exchange Server
  • Microsoft Office Outlook
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM
  • Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services
  • Microsoft Biztalk Server
  • Microsoft Entourage

Outdated and Legacy Operating Systems/Windows 2000 Server and Professional

The news is not good for those companies who are still running Windows 2000, either server or workstation.  Windows 2000 is going to require a manual process be done to update the timezone database and the registry keys for the current control set.

Manually editing your registry can potentially cause problems, or even cause your computer or server  to stop functioning. It is best to call your technology expert (Tech Experts, perhaps?) to make these changes and updates.

The entire process may take between 15 minutes and a half hour to complete, per machine, so the cost is reasonable compared with updating equipment to a new operating system.

Windows 95/98/ME/NT Server and Workstation

If you’re still using Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4 server or workstation, it is time to upgrade.  Upgrading may mean buying a new computer.  Sorry about that, but that is the price of progress.  Technology continues to change and we just have to change with it. Don’t fret – you’ve definitely gotten your money’s worth out of your old 95 or 98 system.

Windows XP (SP1)/XP Home Edition (SP1)

Here is the information/clarification on these two items.  Installing service pack 2 appears to be the answer.  Then you fall into the patch available category.  When Microsoft talks about XP SP2 it includes Home and Professional.

Windows XP Pro and Home Edition(SP2)/Windows 2003

There is a patch available on the Microsoft download site and will be in the Update Patch cycle sometime in early March.

Windows Vista

No updates are needed. It is shipping with the new Timezone Database installed.

Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Biztalk Server, SQL Server or any of the other items listed in the table above would be advised to check the Microsoft article about what the requirements for them will be.

Now for those of you that say… Ok this is it. We get our Tech Experts in to do our updates, and I’m done with it.  Well, maybe not.

Part of the government edict changing DST specifically states that “The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.”

So, this is a test year. If they don’t like it they can change it back.  Fortunately, the updates and changes made this year will incorporate an easier mechanism to change back, should Congress decide the change wasn’t effective.

An important note for the Daylight Saving Time changes for this year: A lot of software needs updating, not just operating systems. Anything that uses its own prepackaged Java Virtual Machine needs an update, as well as most software that calculates dates (many will read the system time/date, but use internal code for calculating dates after that).

The best bet is to list out any 3rd party software and double check with the vendors. To make matters worse, not all vendors have released patches for their software yet.

‘Storm’ Trojan Hits 1.6 Million Computers; General Virus Activity at an All Time High

It is mission critical that you keep your antivirus subscription current and your software up to date. Many small business owners think that because they purchased the software one time, they’re protected.

Most anti-virus software requires an annual subscription. And, if you don’t renew, you’re not protected. Too many business owners are finding this out the hard way.

For example, the Trojan horse that began spreading during the last week of January has attacked at least 1.6 million PCs, with no signs of stopping. In addition, Windows Vista is also vulnerable to the attack.

Originally dubbed the “Storm worm” because one of the subject heads used by its e-mail touted Europe’s recent severe weather, the Trojan’s author is now spreading it using subjects such as “Love birds” and “Touched by Love.”

The Trojan, meanwhile, piggybacks on the spam as an executable file with names ranging from “postcard.exe” to “Flash Postcard.exe.”

If your computer’s anti-virus software is out of date, or if you’ve not renewed your anti-virus subscription, your system could easily get infected by a seemingly innocent e-mail.

By Symantec’s estimate, the Storm Worm is the most serious Internet threat in 20 months.

As with most large-scale Trojan attacks, the goal seems to be to acquire a large botnet, or collection of compromised PCs, that can be used to send traditional scam spams or for later identity mining.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP are vulnerable to all of the Storm Worm variations, but Windows Server 2003 is not; the Trojan’s creator specifically excluded that edition of Windows from the code. We presume the malware writers didn’t have time to test it on this operating system.

New computer viruses are discovered on a daily basis. In order to remain effective, your antivirus software needs to be regularly updated, generally once a week.

Make sure you know how to check your antivirus software for updates, and spot check automatic updates to make sure they are, in fact, updating.

If your version of anti-virus software doesn’t automatically update (many free or low cost programs do not), schedule reminders on your computer so updates are performed regularly.

Nine Easy Steps To Protect Your Computer From Viruses, Trojans and Infections

Here are some helpful suggestions from the experts at TechExperts on how to protect your computer and network.

Step 1: Protect your personal information.
Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information, and never respond to unsolicited requests for confidential information.

Beware of phishing. Phishing is an Internet scam where a message is sent out via email asking you to provide or verify certain information.

Typically these requests are designed to look like they came from a bank or other service provider. Usually there is a link to the bank’s website. But in fact the link doesn’t go to the bank; it goes to a computer controlled by fraudsters. Once armed with your data, thieves take out cash advances from your accounts or may try to steal your identity.

Step 2: Use an anti-virus program and take steps minimize computer virus risks.
Make certain that good, commercial-quality anti-virus software has been installed on your computer. New viruses appear constantly and daily virus definition updating decreases the risk of computers becoming infected. Many free anti-virus programs don’t provide for automatic updating.

Your anti-virus software should be set to automatically update, and should always be running.

Step 3: Install anti-spyware software and enable Windows Firewall.
Spyware is software that is usually downloaded from the Internet, either intentionally under the guise of a service or utility, or without your knowledge as a result of browsing malicious Web sites. Spyware gathers information about how you use your computer, and poses a threat to your privacy.

A firewall is a piece of software or hardware that helps guard computers against hackers as well as many computer viruses and worms.

Windows XP has a built-in firewall product, but it may not be enabled. Give us a call for more information on how to enable Windows Firewall.

Step 4: Be careful with email attachments.
Attachments are files, such as a document or picture that can be sent along with an email. Viruses spread by hijacking an infected computer’s email address book. The virus sends copies of itself as email attachments to everyone in the victim’s email address book. This gives the appearance that your friend is emailing you a joke or a document, but it’s really the virus attempting to spread itself.

If you receive an unexpected email attachment, even if you know the sender, do not open the attachment.

Step 5: Use strong passwords, and change them often.
A strong password is one that is not obvious or easy to guess, it should be 8 – 12 characters long and include a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols such as punctuation marks and special characters.

Step 6: Stay updated.
As flaws are discovered, software makers such as Microsoft release software updates. To ensure that your computer is secure, install the appropriate updates. There are a few circumstances where you might not want to, but generally, always enable Windows Update to automatically install updates to your system.

Step 7: Be careful about downloading.
Tons of no-cost programs are available with more becoming available each day. If a program is written with malicious intent, the author/intruder will not tell you that it will harm your system.

Many no-cost programs collect data about you and then sell that data to advertisers. These types of programs are called “spyware” (see step 3 above).

Step 8: Backup, backup, backup!
In case of emergencies, such as a hard drive crash, documents and data files stored only on your local hard drive need to be backed up and backups need to be periodically tested. If you are not sure if your files are being backed up, give us a call – we’ll be happy to help.

You may also want to consider encrypting and/or password-protecting files so that data will be unusable if stolen. Note that conventional passwords, such as Windows passwords, do not secure your data.

Step 9: Know where to go when you need help with your computer.
Keep our 24 hour computer emergency hotline telephone number available: (734) 240-0200. We’re always here to help with your computer problems!

This Website Can “Name That Tune”

Do you ever find yourself humming a song whose title, to your frustration, you don’t know or can’t remember? New search website Midomi (www.midomi.com) is designed to actually identify that song for you in as little as 10 seconds.

Midomi allows people to search for a song by singing, humming or whistling a bit of the tune. The site then offers search results that include commercially recorded tracks or versions of the song recorded by others who have used the site. The technology also lets people listen to the exact section of each of the results that matched their voice sample.

People also can type in a song title or artist to get results. The system recognizes misspelled words.

Melodis, the company behind the site, has licensed 2 million digital tracks that can be purchased and has accumulated about 12,000 more from users. Users, who range from aspiring American Idol contestants to professionals, can create profiles and rate one other’s performances on the ad-supported site.

The underlying speech- and sound-recognition technology, dubbed Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System, or MARS, differs from similar technologies in that it looks at a variety of factors for recognizing samples, including pitch, tempo variation, speech content and location of pauses, said Chief Executive Keyvan Mohajer, who has a Ph.D. in sound- and speech-recognition from Stanford University.

Experimental Xerox Paper Erases Itself

Xerox Corporation scientists have invented a way to make prints whose images last only a day, so that the paper can be used again and again. The technology, which is still in a preliminary state, blurs the line between paper documents and digital displays and could ultimately lead to a significant reduction in paper use.

The experimental printing technology, a collaboration between the Xerox Research Centre of Canada and PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Inc.), could someday replace printed pages that are used for just a brief time before being discarded. Xerox estimates that as many as two out of every five pages printed in the office are for what it calls “daily” use, like e-mails, Web pages and reference materials that have been printed for a single viewing.

Sneakers Answer the Question: “Where Am I?”

Isaac Daniel calls the tiny Global Positioning System chip he’s embedded into a line of sneakers “peace of mind.”

The engineer started working on a prototype of Quantum Satellite Technology, a line of $325 to $350 sneakers that should hit shelves in March, after his son was reported missing from school. It turned out it was a misunderstanding, and his son was fine. But, an idea was born.

The shoe maker promises to locate the wearer anywhere in the world with the press of a button. A children’s line will be out this summer.

It’s the latest implementation of satellite-based navigation into everyday life — technology that can be found in everything from cell phones that help keep kids away from sexual predators to fitness watches that track heart rate and distance. Shoes aren’t as easy to lose, unlike phones and watches.

The sneakers work when the wearer presses a button on the shoe to activate the GPS. A wireless alert detailing the location is sent to a 24-hour monitoring service that costs an additional $19.95 a month.

In some emergencies — such as lost child or Alzheimer’s patient — a parent, spouse or guardian can call the monitoring service, and operators can activate the GPS remotely and alert authorities if the caller can provide the correct password.

Once the button is pressed, the shoe will transmit information until the battery runs out.

While other GPS gadgets often yield spotty results, Daniel says his company has spent millions of dollars and nearly two years of research to guarantee accuracy. The shoe’s 2-inch-by-3-inch chip is tucked into the bottom of the shoe.

Experts say GPS accuracy often depends on how many satellites the system can tap into. Daniel’s shoe and most GPS devices on the market rely on four.

“The technology is improving regularly. It’s to the point where you can get fairly good reflection even in areas with a lot of tree coverage and skyscrapers,” said Jessica Myers, a spokeswoman for Garmin International Inc., a leader in GPS technology based in Kansas. “You still need a pretty clear view of the sky to work effectively.”

The company also has put the technology into military boots and is in talks with Colombia and Ecuador, he said.

More information at: www.isaacdaniel.com

Local Insurance Agency Trusts Tech Experts For Computer Support and Network Maintenance

Personal insurance is a fast-paced, competitive business, particularly when your agency caters to clients that require a great deal of expertise. Providing excellent customer service requires quick access to customer information, policy data, and billing records, with little tolerance for downtime.

That’s why the Leski Insurance Agency trusts Technology Experts with its IT maintenance and support needs.
Robert Leski, a long-time area educator, founded the agency in 1980, focusing on the special insurance needs of school employees with MEEMIC Insurance. As the business has grown, the agency acquired a number of insurance companies to provide insurance to all of Monroe County.

“Our target clients are those who seek quality coverage at reasonable premiums, instead of those who are willing to leave themselves open to inadequate coverage to ‘save a buck,’” commented Mr. Leski. “We need a fast and reliable computer system that keeps up with our need to properly service clients.”

The company relies heavily on its computer systems. “We use our computers for all of our quoting of insurance premiums,” continued Mr. Leski. “We store all of our client information on our server, and having instant access to policy information is critical to providing prompt and efficient service to our clients.”

Leski Insurance relies on Microsoft Small Business Server technologies, implemented by Tech Experts. The networked system, configured with Microsoft Windows SBS 2003, provides agents and customer service representatives (“CSRs”) with access to local database information on client accounts, as well as e-mail communication with Leski’s main office.

All of the agency’s full time CSRs are licensed agents. They access the network and Internet services through local workstations, each configured with high-end APC battery backup units, both to protect client data, and allow employees to continue to service clients in the event of a power outage. The server and telephones are also on battery backup power systems installed by Tech Experts.

Client quoting is done through a combination of locally-installed, networked quoting software and specialized access to insurer’s secure agent web sites.

“Because we rely heavily on our computer systems,” commented agency assistant manager Melissa Cady, “we just can’t have any downtime. One of the things we like most about working with Tech Experts is their quick response.”

Mr. Leski does a great deal of agency management and accounting work at his home office, so it is important that his home systems run as efficiently as the systems installed at the agency’s office. Tech Experts implemented high-speed, firewalled Internet access, allowing Mr. Leski access to email and to perform web research.

“Our previous provider was too far away, which led to delays,” said Mr. Leski. “Tech Experts is always aware of where we are in our tech requirements. We’re very happy with their services and performance.”