Information is the life blood of today’s businesses, and we believe preventing data loss is a top priority when it comes to IT management.  In our line of work we’ve had the opportunity to review the IT operations of numerous companies, and we’ve seen it all.  We’ve seen companies with great data protection operations.  We’ve more…

The modern office has changed quite a bit since the computer invaded—even more so with the addition of the Internet and all the information it can provide. Law offices, real estate brokers, financial institutions and many others require reliable, permanent access to the Internet to interact with their clients and conduct business. The issue for more…

If you are an owner or an IT manager of a small to medium business, and you are thinking about replacing your staff’s aging Windows XP computers, you’re most likely going to be replacing them with computers running Windows 7.  Although there are several versions of Windows 7 available, the most common – and recommended more…

IT support personnel are often asked which anti-virus product works the best.  The answer is that some are OK, some are better, but none of them are perfect.  The unfortunate truth is that virus and malware writers are always one or two steps ahead of us, and we are always playing catch-up. Because of this, more…

If you’re building a new network get a Wireless-N device if you can.  Even if you still have devices (PC’s, laptops, phones, PDA’s, etc.) that only support Wireless-G, the N standard is backwards compatible.  That said, not all Wireless-N devices are created equally, so consider the following… Wireless-N – “Dual Mode” or “Dual-Band” – This more…

We’ve recently noticed an issue where Microsoft Outlook users are unable to set their Out of Office messages. The following error is received: “Your Out of Office settings cannot be displayed, because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later.” If this occurs, try setting your Out of Office replies via Web Access. If that also more…

While BlackBerry handhelds are facing stiff competition from the iPhone and Android market, they are still the chosen method of mobile communication for many security conscious organizations–both private and federal. In the private sector, users sometimes own their mobile devices and take them with them from job to job. When a BlackBerry is moved from one more…

SQL Server 2008 R2 Express is the free version of Microsoft’s SQL database server product line.  Like the Standard and Enterprise versions of SQL, Express is equipped with a powerful database engine (it is, in fact, the same engine as the one in Standard and Enterprise), backup and restore capabilities, full-text indexing, reporting, and a more…

One of the most common complaints I hear is about the reliability of wireless networks, both at our client’s offices or at their homes.  As part of our fixed price IT support contracts, we’re often solicited for advice about how to troubleshoot these problems, or how to properly deploy wireless gear to begin with.  In this series more…

With virtualization being such a hot topic these days with our Small Business-IT Support clients, I’d like to bring up a quick point and a solution for those of you that are new to converting physical machines into virtual machines using the VMware Converter software.  There are several versions of the VMware Converter software, but for more…