Is your home or office computer starting to slow down? This can affect multiple things within your office, not only the fact that you are unable to finish projects in an efficient manner but it could reflect on your employees productivity as well. Over time multiple issues can negatively impact the speed and performance of a computer or server, which include: lack of available resources, viruses and malware, failing or failed hard drive components, corruption in files or the operating system, over heating and out-of-date software.

Much like a car or home, your computer needs maintenance to help make sure it stays in tip-top shape. Here are some ways that you can perform maintenance to keep your computers up and running smoothly:

- Rebooting your computer can fix slowness issued caused by services that are still in que and running.

- Install a virus or malware program that performs regular scans of your computer. Having an up-to-date antivirus program is also recommended because computer viruses mutate just like the common flu. The most recent virus program will have cures against these, helping you become virus-free.

- If the issue is caused by your computer or server overheating, then you should probably call a technician to come and take a look. Over heating can be associated with several issues; failed fan, lack of proper ventilation, electrical malfunction within or around the computer, not operating in proper temperatures, or dirt and dust accumulation.

You can prevent overheating by making sure that you computer or server is located in an area where it has an ample amount of space, there is proper airflow around and to regularly blow-out any accumulated dirt and dust.

If you’re still experiencing issues with slow performance, Lowen IT can help. We’ll check for all these problems at your convenience- home or office, remote or on-site. Just give us a call at 620-665-2854.

Every business has a need to stay connected and access its software and data. Technology is forever changing and there are many different ways to provide access to their services. The problem lies in the question, which type of service do you need?

It’s really easy for a business to fall behind in technology; in fact it happens a lot. Workstations and servers get outdated as the software world changes and needs more memory. How does a company stay current with technology and reduce the pains of a last minute upgrade or even worse a system crash emergency? There are two real options, moving services to a hosted cloud solution or upgrade to local setup to a virtualized solution.

Some of you are already asking yourself the question, “Are Cloud services virtualized?”  In a sense yes, virtualization is commonly used to provide cloud services. The context of the service is quite different. With cloud services your software and data are hosted off-site and is provided as a commodity with a “pay per use” or subscription basis. When most refer to virtualization they are talking about using a hypervisor like VM, on their own physical servers, to host multiple guest operating systems, like Windows Server 2008R2, on a single physical computer at a time.

With Cloud services there is no high hardware cost for a server and infrastructure to house your needed services like Exchange, SQL, IIS, SharePoint, etc. However cloud costs are on a reoccurring basis and can easily exceed the costs associated with setting up your own internal virtualization overtime, while also making you more dependent on a steady internet connection. It is possible to lose data, as well as access to business-critical services, when cloud services fail.

The other most comparable difference is data security. When using a virtualized environment not only are you controlling the hardware, but you are also controlling the security with your data. Your able to set the policies of who can access your data, when the backups take place, where do they go when sent offsite. With cloud services the service provider handles those concerns, for better or worse. Sometimes they will contract out to another service provider for backing up their own data and in which case won’t be able to tell you exactly where all your data is at.

While both solutions have clear advantages and drawbacks, you might still be wondering which path would be better for your growth. If that’s the case, give us a call and we’d be happy to answer all of your questions!

If your mom is anything like mine, then you can’t escape the camera soon enough. As you get older though, you appreciate the fact that she went out of her way to go
through all the nagging, the complaining and the funny face moments to snap the
memories.

Now that Mother’s Day is around the corner, you might still be racking your brain on what your Mom would like. A relaxing day with no kids? A spa treatment? Yes, these are all acceptable gifts, but how about getting her something that can make her photos
even better?

Here’s an idea:

1. Go to your local scrapbook store and get her an album that she would love. You can even consider customizing your  own.
2. Grab some sheets of scrapbook paper that would match and some accessories
3. Now for the big gift- order a HP OfficeJet printer that prints pristine photo-quality photos easily and can even communicate with a wireless-capable camera. This printer is currently offered at $217 w/o taxes and shipping

4. Grab some photo print paper

5. Pick out a card and sign it with love

6. Walk up to Mom with the gift of the year!
If you’re interested in the HP OfficeJet Pro for your mom, give us a call today at 620-665-2854 while there’s still time!

Apple has done a superb job on marketing their products and informing their audience about how safe their computers are. Compared to Windows devices, Macs are still comparably more secure, but this is largely due to the ratio of Windows PC to Mac consumers.

Because there is a greater audience for Windows PCs, Windows is a bigger target for the hackers and other malicious parties that create viruses, malware and spyware. However, as Apple devices become more common, this is quickly changing. Macs are prone to security risks now more than before and they’re most prone to attacks from a type of malicious software called a Trojan Horse or Back Door Virus.

Similar to the Trojan Horse used in Greek Mythology, Trojan Viruses disguise themselves as a useful program to the user.

These Trojan Horse viruses often disguise themselves as a “known” or beneficial software program to the user and tricks them into downloading what they thought was a safe piece of software.

One example of a recent Trojan Horse virus created a lot of issues for several Mac users. The “Flashback” Trojan Horse disguised itself  as a credible Flash Player Installer. Afterward, it would cause frequent crashes to the programs the users were running and in some cases crashed entire systems. Not to fret though, Apple Users, there are a few things you can do to decrease this risk:

1. Use an Antiivirus software. We recommend using Vipre Antivirus, which you can order directly though Lowen IT.

2. Use a firewall such as SonicWall, Cisco ASA or Juniper. If you’re unsure of whether you have a firewall, or you would like help setting it up, give us a call.

3. Educate yourself about these risks. If you have questions about the software you are getting ready to download, either give us a call to consult or don’t download at all.

Lowen IT is a local Macintosh Consultant and would be happy to help you with any questions, concerns or consultations for your Mac computer.

Were you affected by the Flashback Virus? If so, how did you handle it?

Technology is not invincible, as many business owners may have found out either by user error or network failure.  Here are 6 major threats that can affect your business technology:

1. Liquid Leaks: It doesn’t even have to be a major leak, it could just be enough to create a humid environment. This can cause water build-up in your computer or server equipment that eventually can lead to frying the hard drive.

2. Human Error: As much as no one wants to admit it, most technology problems stem from human error. It could have been the wrong click of a mouse or a lack of attention to updating software. Either way, one step in the wrong direction and crash your whole system.

3. Air Temperature: Is your office too hot or cold? That can affect how your technology runs. Computers need to “air out” just as much as humans do after a long day in the sun. Make sure that your temperature settings around you server equipment and computers is moderated.

4. Smoke and Fire: This is one thing that businesses never want to deal with, but like many natural disasters, you can’t really prevent it once it starts. Smoke and Fire can ruin equipment, or cause serious damage that can result in data loss.

5. Natural Disasters: As mentioned above, you can’t stop a natural disaster. If a tornado wants to land on your office building, it’s going to do it. Hopefully, not while you’re in it  though!

6. Airborne Contaminants: This could be a variety of things, from dust to pest spray. Airborne contaminants don’t affect the system, until there’s a lot of it in one area. Dust will clog up fans and collect in the hard drive, causing things to move slow or over heat. Both of those issues can lead to equipment damage and data loss.

Now, the question is, how can you prevent this from happening or better yet, what’s the back up plan just in case it does?

1. To solve things like liquid leaks, make sure that the server room is equipped with air temperature controls and that there is no major structural damage. If you have an issue with your office complex where it may not be suitable for a server, you may want to look into repair work or hosting your servers off-site.
2. Airborne contaminants only become a problem if you’re not performing maintenance on your equipment. You should have a maintenance schedule in place to ensure that your computers and servers are being cleaned.
3. As far as natural disasters go you should always have a backup plan. This means looking into online backup or external backup for your data. Lowen IT has a couple of different online backup solutions that are affordable and reliable. If you’re interested, give us a call.
4. Finally, the only way to fix human error is through education and appropriate delegation. If you don’t currently have someone on staff who is eligible to perform maintenance or troubleshooting on your computer equipment, please give us a call. We can provide affordable solutions for you and get a regular maintenance schedule ready to go that way you don’t have to worry about Human Error anymore.

Don’t let these 6 threats boggle you down. There are several proactive approaches on how to fix or prevent these things from happening. In the meantime, if you have questions, we’re here to help! Call Lowen IT at 620-665-2854 for consultation and
questions.

Have you ever experienced an issue like this? Tell us your story!

The single greatest tool to prevent downtime is redundancy.

Consider your drive to work in the morning. If road construction requires you to detour from your normal path, you can quickly find another road that will get you to the same place. Ideally, you will arrive to work on time, despite the unexpected change. Your boss doesn’t need to know that you took a different route. But if that alternate route caused you to be late, then they are sure to notice. Or worse, if you find yourself detoured into a maze of one way roads, dead ends, and traffic jams, you may not make it to work at all.

Just as roads in a city are designed to allow for many paths
to get to a destination, properly designed networks also allow information to
find its destination with minimal delay. And as you sit in front of your
computer, it doesn’t matter how the information gets to you. It only matters
that it arrived.

Redundancy is what allows this to happen. When your network
has options for transmitting data, you are not losing productivity over a
single failure. When your business can measure lost productivity (and
ultimately lost revenue) by the minute, a reliable network is a necessity.

For small businesses, an extra cable in the right location
can provide adequate redundancy. Large organizations
whose business exists primarily on the internet often require more than just
redundant paths. They may have redundant servers or redundant data centers. The
largest companies are designed to recover from major regional disasters, on the
scale of tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes.

Redundancy is the best tool against downtime. Instead of calling IT for emergencies, you could be calling to schedule a maintenance visit.

Building roads is not as simple as drawing lines on a map.
Adding redundancy to a network faces difficulties as well. If it is implemented
improperly, it may not work when you need it most. Or worse, it may cause other
paths to fail when nothing is wrong. The key is careful design and management.
When you have the right equipment and technology in place, you trade
emergencies for regular maintenance tasks.

Not sure if your business is using redundancy, or you would like more information about redundacy, please give us a call at 620-665-2854. Read other articles about downtime here.

If your business is using redundancy, tell us your story below.

Earlier this month the FTC approved a $4.5 billion Western Digital acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Ltd. , if it agrees to sell assets to Toshiba Corporation.
This acquisition will allow Western Digital to work with Toshiba to create
3.5-inch hard drives for DVR’s, Desktop PC’s and other consumer products.

The acquisition doesn’t come without some costs though. The manufacturing plant that Western Digital will take over in Thailand is currently shut down due to flooding. Costs associated weren’t disclosed, however the terms of the acquisition were.

According to the FTC, Toshiba is allowed to replace Hitachi Global Storage Technologies as a competitor in the worldwide market for hard drives. Currently, Toshiba makes and sells hard drives for mobile devices and doesn’t directly compete Western Digital or Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Under the terms, Toshiba will receive all of the product assets needed to replicate Hitachi in the desktop market and Western Digital will provide Toshiba access to employees and equipment necessary for Toshiba to continue business as normal and they are able to make the disk drives on their own again.

Lowen IT sells Western Digital hard drive products as an external hard drive solution
currently and this acquisition could mean more affordable products in the
product-line. If you have questions about pricing on our Western Digital
products, give us a call at 620-665-2854.

Still on hold huh? Let me guess, you called the big-box store hoping that they could help you with your computer problems. Now you’re on hold with the manufacturing company, where you’re going to have to answer a series of questions asked by a robot before you can actually talk to a real person.

Here’s the deal with big-box companies- you’re always going to have to wait on them. Even if you take your computer into the location, you’re will  be told that you either should buy a new computer or that you’ll have to wait a few days for the technician to find “time” to work on your equipment. Seriously? Who has time to wait on that?

We get several phone calls from individuals who have had this issue. They are tired of dealing with the manufacturer, because they don’t get the answers they need or they’re not sure how to even answer the questions that they are asked. These individuals
also have had horrible customer service issues when they visit the big-box
store to try to resolve their problem. Every moment that the business owner
spends trying to fix the situation is another minute they aren’t helping their
own customers.

We hear what these individuals say and we’re here to make the claim that you will never have that problem with us. We will help you determine what the issue is and if the
manufacturer needs to be called, we’ll handle that for you. Also, if your equipment is going to take a few days to fix, we’ll give you another computer
to work with until you’re all set up again.

Another thing that you don’t receive when working with a big-box company is the personal attention to your business that you need. You may be having an issue with your computer that affects a specific part of your business. We’d like to hear more about
that, because we can suggest a different route that may actually work better
for you.

Whatever the issue may be, the most important thing for an individual who is having technology problems is to find a solution at an affordable price. We have your back!

If you’re experiencing a technology issue give us a call at 620-665-2854 and we’ll have a technician assigned to your case immediately.

What are some issues that you’ve run into by using a big-box store?

Before you read anything else on this page, write this down: MUST GET ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM FOR MY COMPUTER ASAP!

When it comes to anti-virus software programs the old saying, “You get what you pay for,” definitely applies. Not that you need to spend a fortune for a good anti-virus program, but if you’re using a free version, you probably have lots of viruses floating around that you won’t notice until your computer starts to give you problems.

Want to know how many viruses that free version missed? The leading free anti-virus software has missed nearly a thousand “in-the-wild” viruses in the last 13 years. While
Vipre Anti-Virus, a program that Lowen IT recommends, has never missed a single “in-the-wild” virus.

This is our quick sketch of a virus. This little guy can knock out your entire system within minutes if he's not stopped. Sometimes a free client Anti-Virus software won't do the trick.

Viruses often cause problems with computer speed but can become serious enough to wipe out an entire hard drive. Depending on how many computers you have in your office and how often this happens, you could be spending thousands in reoccurring computer repairs if you’re using a free anti-virus software program.

However, if you spend $20 to $30 on Vipre Anti-Virus, you’re covered around the clock for the whole year. That’s a significant amount of savings. Also, with Vipre, you will have
the benefit that it scans for malware and spyware. Many free clients don’t scan
for anything other than viruses, which leaves out a great deal of attacks.

If your company uses the internet frequently and has multiple people sending and receiving emails on your business network, then you definitely need to consider using Vipre.

If you have questions about viruses and their affects on your business or home computers, give us a call at 620-665-2854 or read more about Vipre Anti-Virus here.

Have you been attacked by a virus? Share your story with us!

Are you one of those people who can’t leave the office without your laptop? I’m sure you’ve looked into tablets, except they don’t have a keyboard and those neat netbooks don’t have enough power to run all of your programs.
So, you’re left lugging around the bulky laptop.

Now Dell is offering you a product to bring a laptop, tablet and a netbook all together with the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. Combining the portability and battery power of a netbook with the power of a professional laptop, you can now run robust programs without draining your battery.

The Ultrabook weighs about 3 pounds and at it’s thickest point is 18mm and it’s slimmest point is 6 mm- now THAT’S thin! Perfect to slide into your briefcase or slide into your notebook.

If you’re traveling across country or even across town, the last thing you want to worry about is if your laptop has enough juice to make the presentation. No need to worry
about that anymore. With almost 9 hours of battery life and SSDs (Solid State
Disks) rather than a hard drive, you can be a busy worker bee without locating a plug-in.

Some other neat tech facts about the XPS 13 Ultrabook:

• 4GB RAM
• i5 Processor
• 128 GB SSD
• Backlit Keyboard
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Microsoft Office Starter 2010
• And a 1 Year Standard Protection Plan from Dell.

Lowen IT offers the XPS 13 Ultrabook at a lower price than you can find in the retail stores. Give us a call today to get a price on your new Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook today!

Wondering if the Ultrabook is the best fit for you? Feel free to contact one of our technicians who will help you assess your business need. We’d love to provide you with a few options to choose from (although this is definitely the cream of the crop
as far as laptops go!)