Lowen IT’s technology consultants are one of a kind. But this post isn’t about bragging rights, it’s about showing you what customer service in the technology industry should be.

Our technology consultants often have the pleasure of working with clients who have been mistreated, mishandled and those who have dealt with sub-par service. If your technology is a major part of what makes your business run efficiently, then bad customer service is not something that a business owner should have to deal with. Downtime equals no business time. That isn’t something we like our customers to experience.

Recently, we worked with a professional office where a lot of the components in their business network had been misconfigured. One of the problems they were having was that they needed to restart their main server so often  in order for it to work again. We didn’t realize the extent of the problem, until the owner informed us that they hadn’t been able to go a full week without restarting the computer at least a dozen times. Yes, our jaws dropped too.

For us, this customer didn’t receive the service they deserved. A server isn’t supposed to go down once a week- let alone a dozen times a week! Also, it appeared that if the customer was restarting the server so often, it was because they were informed to do so- also a miscommunication.

Once we worked with them to reconfigure the network and solve some other issues with their server, we were able to leave the office knowing that they wouldn’t be touching the restart button for a while.

Now, we will brag about one thing in this post and that’s the warm thank you that we received. It was so cool, our technician walked into their office the receptionist held out the phone and everyone yelled “Thank You!”

That’s customer service the Lowen IT way, and we wouldn’t have it ANY other way.

If you’re tired of experiencing the run-around with your IT consultants, give us a call at 620-665-2854 or browse our website for more information.

Wi-Fi is an expectation for many of us when we go into a coffee shop, restaurant and even our own homes. It’s so common now, that if we walk into an establishment and can’t connect our iPhones or tablet devices to the network, we get frustrated.

We suppose the same goes for school districts. The frustration is more so with the teachers and faculty members- although we’re sure that the students don’t appreciate it either- simply because it adds an extra step to the routine when a teacher uses a specific device for a lesson, like a projector or tablet.

In a recent article by ComputerWorld, they detailed how a school district in Plano,Texas has transformed its way of teaching and interaction with the students, while keeping cost and technology conflicts low.

What the Plano Independent School District noticed was that many of their students across 82 schools and offices, are bringing their own wi-fi ready devices to help them in the classroom. So the question was, how can we adopt what they are using, keep them on track while avoiding promotion for surfing the internet and playing on Facebook?

While the budget was high dollar, they will see the savings for years. The Plano Independent School District initiated a 4 million dollar Wi-Fi plan that finished in 2010 and has already reported major benefits within instructional styles, the way the students send and receive information and it has eliminated the need for cable lines and phone costs for internet connection.

In order to make the technology work for the school, rather than drive the students away, they created “collaboration stations.” This is an open space that is like an added extension of the classroom. It allows small groups of students to collaborate and work together on projects, while the others in the classroom continue to work. This creates a cohesive environment that allows for students to work at the pace that is right for them, while tapping into the gadgets that they are used to using. Now, the lure of pulling out an iPhone to text a friend is dying, because the device doesn’t have to remain a secret.

There are several ways that your school district can benefit from a technology change, like this. If you’re interested in learning how to save money on your school’s technology, give us a call today at 620-665-2854.

Anti-Virus software is a must for anyone who uses the internet or shares files on their computer. Not only does it help you avoid serious viruses, but it protects you from spam. Here’s a case that one of our tech consultants shared with us:

A while back, I had a computer on my desk that was badly infected with malware. It used fake anti-virus software so that the user believed they were protecting their computer and didn’t have it searched for further issues.

After prompting this program to scan, it asks you to put in your credit card information- assuring you that you will be able to gain control of your computer again. However, what happens, is it asks you further questions that can result in stolen money, property and identity.

The best way to avoid this is to use a trusted Anti-Virus, Spyware and Malware program. Before purchasing, do a product search to make sure that the reviews and the company information is trustworthy. We usually suggest to our clients to use Vipre. It’s a trusted name and the support is great.

If you have run into this problem, or something similar, the best case scenario is to wipe your hard drive and start over with a clean Windows install. One of our technicians can help you with this, and also work with you to save some of items that are invaluable, like baby pictures, work documents and other files.

Another option is to have a technician use the command line interface in order to manually remove the malware. This option is always available for all cases, but when it can be used, it’s definitely worth the extra effort to get your computer back up and running.

Moral of this story is, just because it says “Anti-Virus Software” doesn’t mean that it is a trusted version. It’s sad that the internet is populated with spam, viruses, malware and other entities that can have your hard drive come crashing down, however there are ways to prevent it.

If you have questions about a similar issue or would like to know more about how to prevent this from happening to you, please give us a call today at 620-665-2854. You can also find more information about our virus removal on our website.

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What does Lowen IT have, that other IT business don’t? A personal connection with our customers. When you have a problem, whether big or small, it’s our job to make sure that you fully understand what the problem is, what solution options you have and some other alternative ways to handle your specific situation.

Recently, one of our technicians was called to a customer’s house to help them set up their wireless network throughout their whole house. Because of the size of the home and the obstacles that were created by the internet service provider, the clients had been told by two other IT companies that this project was either “impossible” or would require further assistance from the internet company.

However, when we went to assess the situation for them, we discovered the obstacles that had been created and figured out the possible solutions. Impossible wasn’t in our vocabulary.

Because of the size of the home, the network was larger than most small businesses- however, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Our technician, Ryan C., who has several years of experience in networking, helped the family reconstruct their network infrustructure and configure all of their devices to provide complete wireless coverage.

Due to the complexity of the network, he also provided the clients with a full Visio topolog/diagram of their network with all the configurations for each of the devices, should they have problems in the future.

Have you ever experienced issues with your home’s wireless network? Submit your questions in the comments and we’ll answer them in our next blog!

If you’re currently having issues with your wireless network- either in your home or at your business, please give us a call at 620-665-2854 and we’ll come by and diagnose the problem.

Other ways you can connect with us are on Facebook and Twitter! See you there!

You don’t need to be an IT guru in order to make sure that you are practicing IT security on your office computer. Here are 3 tips to help you make sure that you are keeping your computer safe and secure.

One of the most important things that most people don’t do is lock their computers before walking away; even if it’s only for a minute or two. This creates an easy access point for someone to jump onto your computer and do what ever they want using your personal credentials. Even if you trust all of your co-workers, at least do it for those pranksters who will access your Facebook or send embarrassing emails.

Locking your computer before leaving your desk could stop an office prankster- or bully - from writing something on your personal pages that you wouldn't want to say yourself.

Another tip is to always report suspicious activity or errors to your IT Department or the person in charge of your technology needs. Many people ignore error messages or notifications that end up causing catastrophic failure, data loss, virus/Trojan/ Malware infections, Operating System corruption etc. and could have been prevented by promptly reporting the issue before it got worse.

Finally, always be proactive. This is the best advice for avoiding any IT security issues; keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, make sure you’re performing windows updates through Microsoft and always let someone know if something doesn’t look or seem right, because chances are it probably isn’t…

If you have any other questions about errors that you’ve seen or you’re unsure about how to lock you computer, please let me know. Give Lowen IT a call today to help you with your
technology needs. 620-665-2854 or visit us on our website.

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Hardware and software are not invincible against outages or failures and unfortunately for your business, something just went down. This results in a day of downtime as you wait for your IT specialist to come and diagnose the issue.  For your business, a day of downtime is a day of money loss.

Not to worry though. If you just initiated your virtualization strategy for energy savings as we discussed in our last article, you can rest assured that you’re also receiving the protection from downtime with fault tolerance.

Fault tolerance is the ability of a system, such as your server, to respond with ease to an unexpected hardware or software issue. In the event of a hardware failure, the virtual servers are automatically migrated to another physical server to ensure maximum uptime.  That server then hosts both virtual servers until your IT team can properly asses the situation.

This is especially important for businesses in a production environment that need specific
applications in order for their equipment to run. Without fault tolerance, if
you have a failure in your system, not only does the office shut down but the
plant shuts down along with it.

This process would require a minimum of two servers in order for the switch to happen. If you’re a business that is only utilizing one server in your virtualization set-up, ask
your IT consultant of your options in order to make sure downtime is avoided.

Within our last two articles, we’ve discussed two money-saving features with virtualization; cutting energy costs and avoiding downtime. If you have questions about how virtualization can help your business, please give us a call at 620-665-2854 or visit our website.

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Now that you have saved money from cutting energy costs and avoiding downtime within your business network, you can allocate that money elsewhere in your budget. Perhaps you’re starting to expand now that you’re able to hire more employees or add-to
your production facility. What’s the next plan of action?

As you’re starting to expand, so do your technical needs. As you begin to add more files and programs for equipment, HR and business records, you will need to add on more hardware
to help streamline that equipment. Because you’ve virtualized your systems, expansion is easy.

In most cases, you won’t need to purchase another server to adequately run your business. With virtualization, you have the flexibility to add a new server license and utilize a virtual server in order to run your new applications. With this process, you won’t have to wait for equipment to be ordered and configured,
your IT consultant can build a new virtual server and you’re off and running.

Now let’s say there are those cases where you would need to add extra hardware for specific functions. In this scenario, with more than one server, you might consider adding a SAN (storage area network) in order to centralize your network and allow you to manage everything as one entity.

A SAN is a large array of hard disks used to centrally manage all of your data. When new physical servers are added to the array, they simply point to the SAN for their data. This makes expansion easier as there is no data migration needed to add to the new server.

Virtualization is an important function for businesses who are interested in saving money, protecting their data and centralizing their data storage. The benefits certainly outweigh the costs and the system can be customized to your business.

If you have questions about your business technology, give us a call at 620-665-2854 or visit us at www.lowenit.com .

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Cutting costs without losing manpower is something that has weighed heavily on businesses of all sizes trying to survive in this economy. In your business, there are several
ways that you can strive to maximize efficiency to cut down on labor and
production costs, however in order to keep all hands on deck, this system might
not be as simple for businesses who need all the employees they can get.

There is one solution to cutting costs and that’s by using less power and energy within your
facility. The best way to go about that is through virtualization of your IT equipment.

Think of all the servers hosting applications, email, file and print sharing for your day-to-day activities. All of these server boxes each utilize its own power supply, which
is running up your bill.

What virtualization does is it consolidates all of these boxes into one server through the use of virtual machines.  In most cases you can cut the amount of hardware you use in half or more. but running multiple virtual machines-or applications- off of one server.  (See
diagram)

“Depending on the number of servers currently in use, consolidating hardware and running a
virtualized environment can result in significant energy savings in excess of $100,000 annually.” said James Starkweather, technology supervisor for Lowen IT.

With an annual cost reduction now flowing back into your business budget, assessing your needs to grow in the future just got easier.

Saving energy costs is just one benefit of virtualization. In our next article, we’ll discuss the features of virtualization that can prevent technical downtime in the office.

If you have questions about how your business can benefit from Virtualization, give us a call at 620-665-2854 or visit us at www.lowenit.com

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While there are many reasons for what is causing this, here are a few cases that often cause a computer to randomly reboot itself.

One reason for a computer turning off or appearing to turn-off could be due to
the power settings on a laptop set to go to “sleep” or “hibernate” after a certain period of time. To verify these settings, go to Windows – Display Properties and look by the screen saver settings for Advanced Power Options. Exact wording and location varies with each windows operating system.

A common cause for a computer to reboot can be due to operating system
corruption or faulty hardware drivers. This is generally associated with the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and it scares individuals because it often states that it’s, “dumping data.”  A BSOD can be a fluke occurrence and never happen again, or it may be a sign of a serious issue that should be taken care of right away before any permanent damage or data loss is incurred.

Some other things that can cause these symptoms are:

• Faulty Power Supplies
• Bad battery backups
• Insufficient power sources
• Poor connections within computer or laptop to the hard drive or motherboard
• Having an external hard drive or USB flashdrive connected to a computer during  boot-up

If you’re experiencing this issue (especially if it involves the Blue Screen of Death) please give us a call at 620-665-2854 to receive immediate assistance.

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Usually when your computer stops recognizing the CD or DVD drive, it means that the drive needs to be replaced. However, sometimes it’s because of connection reasons. Here are some tips to check.

First, your BIOS (Basic Input/OutPut System) should recognize it at start-up. To see if this is still happening check your BIOS at startup by clicking the hotkey (F1, F2, DEL or ESC.) In the section listed, “System Information” you should see yourCD Drive’s make and model.

If you see the CD and DVD drive listed in BIOS, then it may be a problem with Windows that may require an update. If you don’t see your drives listed, then they may have
failed.

Corrupt drivers.  Sometimes the driver that runs the CD/DVD player in Windows becomes corrupt.  You can go into device manager and uninstall the hardware.  When you restart the device will be reinstalled and many times this will fix the driver error.

Updating your CD and DVD drive.  On more rare occasions the firmware on the drive itself needs to be updated for added features.  Navigating to the vendor’s site and downloading the latest firmware along with a firmware updating tool is all that is needed.

In the case that the CD or DVD drive has failed and you need to replace the parts, make sure you know what kind of make and models will work for your computer.  Older models use an interface called EIDE which uses a ribbon cable style of connection.

Newer models use an interface called SATA which consists of a single serial cable connection.  Your manufacturer’s webpage will have all of the required specifications that you need to make an informed purchase.

This sounds like a scary process, but we’d be happy to help assist you with it.  If you would like us to check to see if your drives are listed in BIOS and diagnose the problem, please give me a call at 620-665-2854 or email help@lowenit.com .

I’ll walk you through the steps to check for this issue or I can remote in to help you through the process. If it’s a situation where you’ll need to have your CD and DVD drive
replaced, then we will help to make sure that you can get the best deal possible.

If you have questions about your CD or DVD drives, please give us a call or visit us on our Facebook page.