I came across this great article today about a hardened laptop that really lives up to the claim:

Super Tough Laptop

Finally, a laptop that can work after a key pops off!

Warning! Even if you have anti-virus, spyware protection, and a firewall, you could still be an easy target for identity thieves, hackers and cyber criminals. Read on to find out how YOU are giving online criminals free access to your personal and financial information…

You’ve done all the right things. You’ve installed a good firewall, you keep your antivirus up to date, and you’re making sure you keep up with the latest security patches... so your computer network should be safe from identity thieves, right?

Wrong!

According to a recent study, 37% of electronic identity theft cases had one thing in common: they were caused by an action taken by the user. That’s right, more than a third of identity thefts were not thefts, but giveaways!

So how do you avoid this happening to you and your company?

No one is 100% safe, but the following 3 tips will stop you from accidentally giving online criminals access to your computer network and confidential information:

1. Never visit or download free music files, videos or programs from file-sharing sites such as Kazaa. Not only are you downloading stolen materials, but these sites are surefire ways to introduce worms and viruses to your computer. If you are a business owner, set up web filtering software to prevent employees from downloading any unauthorized programs or files.

2. Never respond to any e-mail from a bank, credit card company, PayPal or online store where items are purchased (such as eBay) asking you to verify your account information, no matter how credible or legitimate it looks. These are phishing scams set up to access your account information.

3. Ask for identification from anyone asking for physical access to electronic equipment, and instruct staff do so as well. Just to test a theory, I asked a friend to walk into an office, say they are from “the phone company” responding to a problem, and ask to see the network. Access was granted to a complete stranger 100% of the time.

Dealing with and educating your users is typically a responsibility of IT Management. Want to receive the support of an IT Manager for your firm while saving 20-50% of the costs? Sign up for Flat Rate IT Support today!

I was looking through our long list of referrals today and came across this one:

“Further, here comes the broken record, but I mean it. David, you have a “helluva” set of guys over there… I’m rambling, but I’m proud to be a customer of Vision. We are such a small client, yet you treat us as if we were a huge account. You continually surpass Interstate Title’s expectations. Candy and I just want to say THANKS!”

– Melissa Gratz, Interstate Title Inc.

It is important to note that customers that have switched to our Flat Rate IT Plans need not feel like their IT support team has "moved on" because their firms are "small". Stop worrying about the ups and downs of break-fix IT repair and move to a plan that improves uptime as well as properly prioritizes your need for help today!

Can’t afford to be down for days? Then take heed of these 3 easy (but critical!) steps to make sure you never have to experience extended downtime, data loss or corruption:

1. Keep an on-site AND off-site copy of your data. You never want to rely solely on an on-site backup. If a fire, flood, natural disaster or burglary happens, you’re out of luck. Plus, it’s smart to have a backup of your backup – especially when it comes to your business’s data!

2. Throw your old tape-drive backups out the window! If you’re still using tape drive backups, you could be in for a HUGE surprise when you try to pull the data off of them. Tapes are highly volatile and have a failure rate of 100%. ALL tape drives fail at some point, and often without warning. Plus swapping tapes is a major pain! There are far easier and more reliable ways to back-up your data. If you want some suggestions, please call our office.

3. Image your server and workstations. Imaging your server and workstations is similar to taking a “snapshot” or “picture” of your hard drive. Not only does it make a copy of the information (data) that is stored on them, but it also makes a copy of all the software programs, personal settings, favorites, desktop icons, network settings, printer configurations and EVERYTHING exactly as it is in your current computer. This will enable you to be back up and running in 90 minutes versus days because rebuilding a server that has crashed, burned or been otherwise incapacitated takes time.

Don't have the expertise to handle all of the above and/or want to cut your IT costs by 20-50%? Look into Flat Rate IT Support today!

Another one of Vision's long time customers has chosen to move toward a solution that provides improved uptime over the outdated "call when things break" model and they love it! Don't take my word for it though:

Vision’s competency, professionalism, and customer service far exceeds any competition. I have prior to Vision Computer Solutions, used several other vendors for my needs, not a single one was I satisfied with. VCS makes that part of running a business stress free and a ‘No Brainer’.

Vision Computer Solutions is in a class by themselves! I have recommended VCS to many of my clients and vendors. Without a doubt will continue to do so.

- Jon Puskarich, Aggressive Systems, Inc.

Sign up for this innovative program today and eliminate the budgeting stress of being held hostage by your IT support when distaster strikes!

I understand your dilemma…

You have someone you call whenever your computer network starts “acting up,” but you have a feeling deep down that they really aren’t doing the best job for you.

First off, it seems like they just can’t seem to make things work. Why do problems constantly crop up? After all, is it really THAT hard to make those darn computers work the way they’re supposed to? Then when you call for help, you get voicemail; and sometimes you have to call multiple times before you get someone to call you back. They don’t follow through on their promises, brush off your questions, or get so technical when they DO explain what’s going on, that you end up wishing you never asked in the first place. Kind of makes you wonder if they really know what they’re doing!

It Shouldn’t Be This Way!

How do I know your pain so well? Because these are the frustrations we hear from clients all the time when they hire us to take over the support and maintenance of their computer network. After all, most clients just want their computers to work, and they don’t want to spend a small fortune making that happen.

See What GREAT Computer Support Should Be…For FREE!

We’d like to offer you a ‘health check’ on your network’s security and backup systems. There are no strings attached and no fine print, but you have to call us during the month of May. We have 5 slots available, and once they're gone, they're gone!

Why are we giving this away for free? Because we know that once you see how quickly we make your technical problems melt away, you’ll end up being a client for life and tell your friends about us too!

Here are the top reasons you should consider managed IT services for your business:

Avoid disaster with 24/7 monitoring. Managed IT services allow incidents to be mitigated before they cause loss of system availability or production downtime. You get optimal uptime as software issues are fixed - often before you realize there is a problem.

Comprehensive backups and disaster recovery. If catastrophe strikes (e.g. a natural disaster, power outage, user accidents) managed IT services allows your company to be back up and running quickly. The availability and the integrity of your data is protected.

Pay the same amount each month. Many managed IT service providers offer flat-rate monthly services so costs can easily be budgeted for. The technology used to drive managed service programs allows these costs to be reasonable.

Keep your systems up-to-date and under your control. Security patches can change almost on a daily basis. Managed IT services makes sure each of your assets has the latest software installed. Your managed IT services provider has control over patches before they get deployed avoiding potentially major software issues. You control what gets installed and when it gets installed. As an example, you might not want to authorize the latest internet browser installation because it will crash other applications. Any patches that cause problems can be removed as well.

Network Security. Your managed IT services provider can provide strong network security protocols and monitoring including the following:

* Network bandwidth monitoring - find out who is using up company bandwidth and what programs are using it. All communication and issues associated with your users and systems is tracked, reported and retained for analytical, historical and audit purposes.
* Change control - all hardware and software changes are tracked.
* License compliance - ensure your software licenses are up-to-date, avoiding potential legal troubles.
* Virus protection management
* Access enforcement - your provider can deny access to any programs or files.
* Spam and virus filtering for email along with compliance archiving and reviewing capabilities

Reporting. Managed IT services gives you visibility into your IT assets via reports detailing the following:

* Network Access
* Uptime history
* Change management
* Asset and inventory reports
* Monitoring reports
* Patch/Update status
* Network health

Remote support. Your managed IT services provider can assist users remotely anytime, anywhere as long as they have an Internet connection.

Summary

Managed IT services takes a preventative, proactive approach to information technology management allowing your business to focus on what it does best, while knowing your IT assets are up-to-date, secure and protected.

Microsoft has released their Windows 7 Release Candidate to partners and the public. This new operating system has been well received by technical bloggers over the past months, and seems to perform much more smoothly than its predecessors, even on machines with hardware that is considered outdated by today's standards.

More information on this exciting new release can be found on Microsoft's website:

Windows 7 Information

We begin testing this software this week, we'll have more information as it gets closer to the actual release date for Windows 7!

News about Confickr has accelerated lately, seeing as how it has infected an estimated nine million machines, confounding security experts on how to handle one of the worst worm outbreaks in years.

Security officials said the situation is unique because worms weren't considered as an effective way to make money in cybercrime, according to the article. However, the hackers behind the massive worm have devised an innovative way to spread the attack, making it hard to catch and quarantine. Instead of using spam emails, the worm initially attacked the Microsoft MS08-067 vulnerability in Windows, allowing it to infiltrate network security.

This allowed the worm to spread through open network shares, weak passwords and removable USB drives.

We recommend a reload of your Windows operating system as the best way to remove Conflickr and other worms and viruses.

Recently, at one of our beta sites, we experienced one of the promises of Vision's TLC Managed Service Program. Overnight, a critical email server experienced a failure of one of its services, resulting in the server failing to deliver mail. Monitoring softwaremanaged by Vision identified the issue, documented the cause and repaired the problem within minutes, all in the middle of the night! The customer contact arrived the next morning with a report of the incident in his inbox with no interruption to the work day.

Ordinarily, a problem like this without active monitoring software installed would result in:

Best Case -- Reduced productivity during the morning as the issue is reported, diagnosed, and technicians are dispatched to repair the down server.

Worst Case -- All of the above occurs and emails are lost during the down period.


This sort of immediate response, documentation, and in some cases, repair of issues is one of the great benefits of enrollment in the Vision TLC Managed Service Program. All of this work, between the reporting of the initial incident through its repair, was handled resulting in zero downtime during the business day, and handled at no additional cost to the customer!

Over the past 6 months, Vision has made many improvements in not only the way service requests are organized and expedited, but also in the delivery of proactive services, such as monitoring and maintenance.

As Vision moves toward providing its managed service program (MSP) to its corporate clients, I thought I'd make note of some of the primary features of this new service that prompted our action:

Fixed IT Support Costs: Costs are based on how many computers and servers you own and not by how many block hours a month you want to purchase. It also make the cost of supporting growth in your business predictable from an IT support standpoint since the program costs are determine on a per-system basis.

Security: Managed service allows your systems to be constantly maintained as manufacturer patches are released and tested. This keeps your systems up to date with the latest vulnerability patches and bug fixes in a controlled manor. If a patch causes problems, you have the ability to roll back to a known good state.

Availability: Critical assets are constantly monitored and resources are kept within certain thresholds. If a monitored resources falls out of compliance, then you are instantly alerted and responses to these alerts can be automated where problems are fixed automatically. Proactive monitoring allows you to respond to incidents before they impact the organization.

Disaster Recovery: Backups of workstations or servers can be automated to the point where if an incident occurs with a system that requires more drastic measures, you can instantly execute a restore back to a known good image either locally or over the network.

Microsoft has recently posted quite a bit of information surrounding Windows 7, and has placed it compactly on its website:

Microsoft's Windows 7 Link

Have a look!

As part of Vision's Green Initiatives, we've been working hard with our software vendors in an attempt to reduce the amount of paper that we consume on a monthly basis. Vision has spent considerable effort gathering the electronic contact information of its Commercial Division's customers, and is now electronically invoicing over 50% of its current customer base, resulting in a significant paper use reduction.

We're working with the remaining 50% of our commercial customers now in an attempt to move to a 100% electronic system by the close of February!

We've received several alerts from our anti-virus vendors about the "Conficker" worm spreading across the Internet. According to some estimates, over one million Windows PC's have been recently infected.

Please make sure that your installation of Windows has been fully patched, and if you require assistance from a technician, please don't hesitate to schedule a visit!

More information about the Conficker virus can be found here:

Researcher: Worm infects 1.1M Windows PCs in 24 hours

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we now have beta access to Windows Vista Service Pack 2. We'll be testing this new update to the software and be sure to update our customers with our impressions before it releases!

For those of you that already have Vista, before applying this or any patch, we'd ALWAYS suggest scheduling a visit from a qualified technician to make sure that your PC is ready for this patch, as spyware and viruses (amongst other challenges) can affect your success in applying any software patch.

With Thanksgiving coming up this week, we tend to see an increase in our walk in business, primarily from long-term customers that we've not seen in over a year. This increase typically lasts through the Christmas holiday until the end of the year. Our Drop Off Service is handled in a first come, first served basis rather than the by-appointment service that we offer to customers that request in-home work.

Due to this heavy increase in shop business, it is even more important that our customers that want same or next-day service call to schedule an appointment with a technician to make sure that those machines are addressed in the speed that you need over the holiday!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Although Vision is a relative newcomer to providing services to folks that use Angie's List, we recently received a report that one of our customers had posted a review of our residential service that I found encouraging:

Description Of Work:
An in-home diagnostic computer system check-up.

Member Comments:
I searched Angie's List after having numerous computer problems. I read the reviews and selected Vision Computer Solutions to get my computer checked out. I called and scheduled an at home inspection. Even on the phone I had a good feeling about this company's professionalism. The technicians arrived right on time. I did appreciate the phone call that came about 15 minutes before their arrival. I thought that it was a great touch. I was treated with courtesy and respect during the diagnostic check-up. Unfortunately, it was as I had feared, my computer would cost more to fix than it was worth. The tech wrote down all that was wrong and explained what it would take to fix it. I didn't feel left in the dark about anything. He also prepared a proposal for a new system, should I choose to go that route. I feel the service I received was very good and I would recommend this company to family and friends.

Although there are several items that I'd like to point out w/regard to how this particular customer's experience mirrors the experience we train our technicians to provide, I'll leave that for next week. In short, I couldn't be happier that desipte the fact that this customer received some bad news about the state of his computer, we were able to provide a professional, trustworthy service.

I found this article on a Microsoft blog the other day, and I think it's something to be extra watchful for as we watch the instability of the financial markets. It seems that criminals are using uncertainty as an easy way to get your attention and trick you out of your personal information. Read more below:

Financial Crisis Phishing

If you feel that you may be the victim of scams, viruses, or spyware, make sure to schedule an appointment with a qualified technician to make sure that your information is safe!

Recently all of our technicians have been playing with this fun radio site:

Pandora Radio

Basically, you provide the website with your favorite musician, and the website will play songs from that artist and artists with a similar sound, essentially creating a radio station that plays only music that you love. I've tried it and couldn't believe how well the software was able to pick songs that I enjoy with only my favorite band as a hit as to what to select. Give it a try!

Microsoft recently released some background information about this common threat, and classifies this program as "rogue software". Have a look and educate yourself about this program to hopefully avoid repairs!

Rogue Software: XP AntiVirus 2008

Please note, I strongly advise that our customers schedule a technician visit if they find themselves infected with this software. Due to the complexity of the repair, the link provided above should be used merely to gather information on this bug, and not be considered a viable end-user solution should you become infected.

Due to significant growth in both our Residential Service and Commercial Service divisions, Vision has decided to add staff in both areas. We've already filled the new Residential Professional position and are currently interviewing candidates for our Network Professional position.

We're very thankful and excited to be moving forward with these staff additions in order to maintain the quality service our customers have come to expect!

This week, Vision and Paetec Communications issued a joint press release outlining their partnership to offer small to medium businesses the opportunity to upgrade to premium business hardware and software technology with little to no upfront costs.

Read the entry in the Great Lakes IT Report here:

Vision offers hardware and software for a low monthly payment

We're very excited about this valuable program for small business information systems!

Northville will be holding its annual Hazardous Waste Day this month, specifically on September 27th. We receive several inquiries per week asking what our customers should do with old equipment; here's a great chance to empty your basement of unwanted electronics!

Hazardous Waste Day 2008

As part of a series of green initiatives here at Vision, we're looking into offering PC recycling services. We'd love to hear from our customers to see if this is an offering that would be appreciated through our home computer repair services offered in Southeast Michigan.

As part of an internal initiative here at Vision, we've been spending some time looking into new ways to streamline our business to reduce our carbon footprint and look for new technologies to help our customers do the same. During the course of our fact finding investigation, I came upon this site:

Eco Button

Although I understand that currently this product is most often used in the consumer market, the product that can be safely used in business-class network environments is around the corner. We're considering offering this product as an additional offering from our Residential Service Division, and we'd love to hear your opinions of this product!

More information on Green Computing:

Greener Computing
Wiki Article -- Green Computing

Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 has finally been released to manufacturing. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we should be receiving demo code very soon for evaluation, so I'll be sure to post additional information once we have our hands on the final code.

Microsoft SBS 2008 boasts many new improvements over the 2003 version, such as improved remote access, integration with Microsoft Live Services, and improved reporting. The current product launch date for SBS 2008 is November 12.

Small Business Server 2003 has been a product Vision has recommended for the small business space for years, and we look forward to evaluating this next version in hopes of improving our offerings to our small business customers.

Despite what you may have heard to the contrary, it turns out that people in interviews love Windows Vista. That is, as long as they don't know that what they're reviewing IS Windows Vista.

Microsoft recently held a series of interviews with a group of people who all shared a common view: preconceived negative opinions of Vista, but hadn't actually experienced the software. They were told they were a test group for Microsoft's latest "prototype operating system" that turned out to be, interestingly enough, Windows Vista. Have a look!

The Mojave Experiment

That said, we still believe that the way to guarantee that you're happy with your new computer is through consultation with a qualified technician to make sure that you're buying a computer that will run Windows Vista properly and fits your needs.

We've received many calls over the past few weeks regarding this most recent bug, XP Antivirus 2008 and its variants. Many of our customers have been tricked into infecting themselves with this spyware program, and have been curious as to how they contracted it. I found one particularly useful link here:

XP Antivirus 2008

Although the link above details removal instructions, I strongly advise that our customers schedule a technician visit if they find themselves in a similar predicament, as failure to follow those instructions explicitly may result in severe damage to the machine. Due to the complexity of the repair, the link provided above should be used merely to gather information on this bug, and not be considered a viable end-user solution should you become infected.

Have you ever been interested in arranging your pictures to music to make a short music video, but haven't had the software, the talent, or the patience? Just the other day, a friend turned me on to this website:

Animoto

With this site, all you have to do is upload your music and your pictures, the website does all the arranging and even times the display of the pictures to match the tempo of the song you selected. This website makes making that wedding video or that montage of your newborn a snap!

Recently, a handful of our technicians have been exploring the power of Windows Media Center Extender, joining their computers and televisions to their home networks via XBOX 360 consoles. We've been really pleased with the power of this product's ability to deliver digital music, images, and recorded video stored on a PC straight to a HDTV in the middle of the family room. Check out some of the details here:

Windows Media Center Extender Website

Feel free to give us a call if you're interested in help getting this set up!

Occasionally we have customers ask us if we offer a service to convert old home movies to DVD or another digital format. In the past, we've had to turn that sort of business away, as we typically don't offer in-home computer services of this type. Today, I happened upon a solid tutorial provided by Microsoft that should be very helpful to customers interested in turning old VHS home movies into a more storable digital format:

Save your Home Movies to DVD

According to the article, you'll need to have Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate in order to make this happen.