End of Life.

It seems to arrive so quickly for technology. Most people live to what- 70? 75? Most software lives 5-7 years before you are forced to make a move to something new!

Dealing with software (and hardware) end of life can be daunting to computer users and especially to those writing the checks in businesses. It can be difficult fighting off the voice in your head that keeps repeating "Why am I about to spend more money on this? Everything is working, why am I being forced to use this new thing? The old one works fine!"

The recent of example of this is Google's announcement that they will no longer support Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) after March 1 of this year. Thus, anyone who continues to use this "old version" will find their Google Apps usage extremely frustrating to the point of being unusable.

I am no proponent of constantly buying the newest hardware or having the newest software just for the sake of keeping things up to date. It is important that consumers and especially business owners understand that the software and hardware lifecycle is a part of your technology investment and must be budgeted for.

Operation Aurora is a great example of why you want to keep your software up to date and computers depreciate so quickly that keeping that hardware up to date or even repaired could be cost prohibitive. Your business should have a technology road map that outlines how all of these tasks are managed. Don't fall victim to the "I'll buy another when it breaks" or "I don't want to install the newer version because it will break my software." Find a way to do it. The consequences of not keeping up can be potentially disastrous.

IT Security is resident in the minds of most business owners at some level. Most people assume their computers are secure by using things like firewalls and user accounts and locking down their important data.



The problem is many people leave the front door open without even realizing its happening. The New York Times posted a nice article yesterday that gives some insight on poor end user habits in terms of passwords (http://ow.ly/YW1m).



Simply put, as a business owner you should never put the responsibility of strong passwords in the hands of your end users. All it takes is one "weak" password to make your infrastructure vulnerable to the rest of the world or even your own users. There are many ways now to enforce password policies on the network and provide administrative controls over what people can and cannot do.



Strong password policies are the beginning of a great security plan for your technology. As a part of our technical assessment that we do for clients, we include a security analysis that reviews security aspects of the network including the strength of passwords. Investing thousands of dollars in technology equipment won't matter if the passwords to protect it are weak so make sure to lock it down.

Operation Aurora has made quite a few headlines in the technical world as of late. In summary, Operation Aurora has resulted in the discovery of a severely critical vulnerability that exists inside of Internet Explorer. As of writing this post, Microsoft has yet to release an out of band patch for this significant threat although they have stated it should be done sometime today. Our Vision ForeSite clients can be assured though that not only have we been aware of this ongoing situation, but we will be patching all of their respective computers as soon as possible.

As a part of our constant 24x7 monitoring, all of our ForeSite partners received notification last night about this vulnerability and subsequent patching that will take place today. This is the type of proactive technology management that any business requires with the fast changes in the security landscape proving yet again that Vision ForeSite is constantly watching over your network.

I have spent some time over the past few weeks trying to develop ways to proactively prevent users from infecting themselves from the evils of the Internet, namely spyware. Unfortunately, most of the time when you are surfing the Internet by the time you realize you are infected, it is too late. Spyware and malware has been developed to the point where it can be present on the most seemingly benign website and even pose as a legitimate application. A great example of this is the “Antivirus 2010” malware that has become all too common.

A few of my users have been experimenting with a freeware product I recommend called Sandboxie to see if this helps keep their system free and clear. We have found that the use of this particular program has helped thwart the infection of malware and viruses significantly on computers.

The program, Sandboxie, basically allows you as the user to run programs “in a sandbox” where you have the option to revert or wipe any changes made by the program. Consider this as an example. Let’s say you are surfing the Internet in your “sandbox” using Internet Explorer or Mozilla. If you visit a webpage that downloads something to your computer that you are unaware of or attempts to install spyware, you can pull up Sandboxie and tell it to wipe all of those changes made and leaves your computer unharmed. The reason this is so effective is because most of the time when surfing the Internet you will stumble across website laden with spyware without even realizing it and Sandboxie allows you to reverse those accidents without resulting in long, arduous, and sometimes expensive reloading of Windows.

The Internet is riddled with malware and most of the time you won’t see it coming. Programs like Sandboxie will allow you to put protections in place that will guard your usage of the Internet and prevent major issues from occurring.

The reality is Windows 7, albeit a great operating system in my opinion, is the business user and consumer’s only option moving forward with new computer and hardware purchases. With the resistance shown against Windows Vista and the backing of Windows 7 by major manufacturers such as Dell and HP, you will not have the option to purchase Windows XP, much longer. Eventually, all operating systems go end of life – including XP.

As a Michigan IT consulting coach to businesses, my advice is very simple. No one likes change, especially when it comes to technology in the business world. Everyone will have to upgrade eventually - so do it on your own terms. Do not be forced into it out of lack of support from a vendor or manufacturer. Integrating Windows 7 is much better received and a much smoother process when planned out and not forced on a business because a computer has crashed and “we can’t get XP from Dell anymore!”

Windows 7 includes many benefits that can help IT administrators provide layers of security on their active directory network along with some niceties built in for the users. Windows 7 is considered a more secure operating system than its predecessors just by the nature of it being the latest version and ultimately it being the forefront of Microsoft’s image to the consumer. Microsoft has always carried the burden of being the “least secure” of your choices (such as *nix, Mac, Novell, WindowsWindows 7 has proven to be stable, smooth running and an overall pleasant experience.

Some of the new features, such as DirectAccess and XP mode integration have a few prerequisites that require more of an updated networking environment or computers in order to function. DirectAccess provides remote employees a secure way to connect to a Windows Server (2008) without the use of separate connection software or VPN. It’s a much simpler way of providing remote access but has limitations as it must run within the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 platforms. The XP mode integration is nice. Useful for legacy applications or software that has problems running within Windows 7. Using Virtual PC as an engine, it allows users to install applications on the computer that run on top of a Virtual XP machine. This requires a computer that supports virtualization in its hardware BIOS (which not all systems do).

The beauty of Windows 7 is it doesn’t need a killer app. Microsoft is known for its proliferation of the most widely used computer operating system and leaves the killer apps to its partners or even competitors. Since it has such a large market share it doesn’t need a killer app to be adopted.

Start by evaluating your technology costs, because chances are you can lower and fix your information technology costs at a set rate. If you don’t have a technology budget then create one today.

Lowering costs can mean a lot of things. You might look in to a technology or computer services firm to take over responsibilities versus keeping a staff on board to manage the network and support. The fact is many of the daily duties of a network administrator include a lot of mundane, repetitive tasks that should be automated. Don’t pay an IT admin $60k+ a year to clean computers. Allow them to focus on management and planning of technology for your business. Let a professional technology provider pick up the slack with virus issues, support phone calls and computer maintenance. You would be surprised at how much productivity this adds to your business. By introducing these systems and processes into the technology environment you will increase the productivity of your staff (subtraction by addition – not lowering costs but increasing efficiency).

Taking variable technology costs and evolving them into a fixed-cost model is also valuable when times are tough. Knowing what your costs are going to be and reducing the risk of ballooning costs based on time and material rates allows you to better plan out your budget to survive the slowdown. As an example, our ForeSite managed IT program will provide all the network service and support you need for one fixed cost each month. No matter how often we are there or how many times you call us, the cost stays the same. It’s actually great incentive for us to make sure your network continues to function optimally!

Just because the economy is slow doesn’t mean the demand on your IT infrastructure is any less or even less important. One could argue reliable and efficient IT is even more important at this particular time to allow you to survive and even thrive. Your technology solution is very important to your business, so don’t undervalue it. Treat it like any aspect of your business in tough times. Review its efficiency and be open to doing things better.

As an information technology and computer services firm for small to midsized businesses, our project managers and engineers commonly wage a “battle of password policy” with the users and administration of the clients we serve. Our responsibilities to our clients includes ensuring the confidentiality and security of the technology infrastructure which many times starts at the end user computer with a password. Each company has their own password policy, sometimes dictated by a corporate compliancy standard, and at other times an adopted standard with loose terms. But for the most part requiring passwords on anything that needs to be access controlled is step one.

One thing that we will teach to senior management is that no matter how strong a password policy you have, it won’t do any good if people just jot passwords down on paper and stick it to their monitors. Most of the time our client is looking for tips from us and also asks us to train or enforce security policies. Here are some of the things we tell the users when it comes to passwords.

The Good:

1. Most don’t fear passwords, they fear remembering passwords. Many users consider this embarrassing or a failure on their part if it happens. As strong as this fear is, never write a password down.

2. Good passwords have uppercase and lowercase letters. They also can contain numbers, spaces or even special characters such as !@#$. With this in mind, try taking a password you can remember and converting it a bit to make it a bit more complex. Example: (current password) matilda – (new password) M@tild@ or M@T1lda. This increases the security of the password exponentially.

3. Length of the password is also important. Six to eight characters is a decent size password when combined with these other methods. M@tild@ would be good, but L0vEM@tild@ is much better!

The Bad:

1. Do not use plain English words by themselves (anything in a dictionary), such as ‘the, password, cat’. It is much better to break up the word i.e. ‘p22sswo44rd’.

2. Do not use easily retrievable information by itself, such as your birthday, date of hire, kid’s birthday, phone number…etc.

3. Do not make the password too short i.e. ‘rat’.

4. Do not use common passwords for everything.

If you really need assistance in remembering a password and must write something down, then do the following.

1. Write a sentence on a sticky note. For example purposes we will use “My daughter is two years old.”

2. Now (mentally) take the second letter of each sentence: “yaswel”

3. Lastly, take your birth date, add it to the end: “yaswel22”

4. You can even capitalize it to make it more complex: “Yaswel22”

Using this example, all you have to remember is to use the second letter of each word and your birth date and not some obscure random password.

Since we are in the business of managing these passwords for all of our clients, we have secure systems and databases in place that allow us to store this information and control who may see it. There are many choices for password management software nowadays which is much more reliable and secure than an excel spreadsheet or writing them all down on notepad paper.

With the official public release of Windows 7, we get questioned constantly on the practicality of making the move to this new operating system. Migrating your entire company is never quick and easy.

Being personally been involved in migrating environments from Windows 95 all of the way to up to the current evolution of Windows (Windows 7), there has never been a time where it went 100% transitionally smooth. Some of the major aspects of consideration before migrating are:

1. Cost vs. Value. It is very common for businesses to have older workstations in place. Often these systems are out of warranty. It costs money and resources to upgrade each computer. Be careful how much time and money you spend on an older system. Buying a new computer with the new operating system may be a better investment.
2. End user training. A typical soft-cost that is often overlooked is the time involved in retraining staff and loss of productivity during this process. New operating systems mean new look, feel, and functionality. Training is a very real cost. Oftentimes this cost is difficult to estimate since some users are more tech-savvy than others. For the most part, people do not like change – especially on their systems.
3. Application compatibility. Software developers like to take their time in making sure they have a version of their product that is compatible with the latest version of the operating system. Just because a new version of Windows is out, doesn’t mean your business applications will function properly. Take care to discuss these issues with your software company and IT provider before making the move.
4. Licensing costs. Be sure to discuss with your Michigan IT consulting partner the best ways to purchase your operating systems and licensing as there are many discount programs available.

With appropriate planning in place, a successful OS migration can be done in as little as a weekend with only minor support required starting on Monday morning. Without the proper planning, however, you can experience major business interruptions, loss of time, money, and productivity. Talk to a reputable Michigan computer services firm before taking the dive. Performing upgrades to your operating system is something you can't put off forever. Use the services of a trusted business IT partner and you'll discover potential headaches can be kept to a minimum.

One of the most overlooked facets of the company information technology structure is an appropriate backup and disaster recovery solution. With all of the technology available today, the absence of even the most elementary backup system is a mortal sin in regard to the business technology world.

Some things to consider when thinking about your backup and disaster recovery solution(s):

1. What do I do if I delete a file I need?
2. Where is my email stored and is it backed up?
3. What if my computer crashes? Even if my data is backed up how long will it take me to rebuild my computer to a functional state?
4. Is all of my back up data located in the same physical location?
5. Will a catastrophe wipe out my backup solution i.e. a fire?
6. Does my business rely on any one system for critical functions? How long can my business operate without this system? Does my current backup solution accomodate that expectation?
7. Does anyone I work with know how to recover information if I need to use my backups that are in place?
8. Are my backups tested so I know they work?
9. Are my backups monitored so I know if they are ever failing?
10. Is the backup data media (i.e. hard drives or tapes) transferred in a secure, controlled manor since it contains all data for my entire business?

This list covers about 1/4 of the questions that one should review when it comes to a practical backup and disaster recovery solution so if you haven't asked yourself these questions, start today!

According to AMI Research, there are over 3.3 million small companies in the U.S. with more than one PC, but no server. As the Director of Technology for a Microsoft Gold-Certified IT consulting firm, small companies often ask me if the time is right for them to implement a server. See if your business is ready for a server by analyzing the following 12 criteria.

1.You have multiple computers that require access to shared office equipment such as printers, fax machines and scanners. These computers may also need shared access to the Internet.
2.You have irreplaceable files and data residing on multiple computers in need of security and backup to prevent loss, alteration, or unauthorized access.
3.You need (or would like to have) secure access to your shared computer files and other network resources while working from home or traveling.
4.You need to back up crucial files on more than one computer. You also would like to be able to restore files accidentally deleted and recover from computer crashes quickly.
5.You need CRM (customer relationship management) software and accounting programs to communicate to and manage your growing list of clients and vendor relationships.
6.You need to make sure your business’s technology needs are being met efficiently and are not slowing down productivity.
7.You need a centralized communication system that makes it easy to schedule meetings, coordinate events, and be accessible from anywhere for email and collaboration purposes.
8.You need to allow employees to share files, databases, documents, printers and other technology tools.
9.You would like to manage all incoming and outgoing faxing electronically along with group faxing, fax logging and archiving.
10. You want to reduce costs by hosting your own company website and e-mail services.
11. You want to ensure security of your sensitive information and control employees’ access to data such as financial records and personnel information.
12. You want a central access point for information and to protect the integrity of your data instead of having to hunt down various files and data on various computers. You also would like to prevent multiple version of files from floating around.

Building the right technology foundation is easier with the right IT partner. Affordable options in servers are available today giving your business access to many of the features used by large companies – email & calendaring information, remote access to critical data, support for mobile devices, internal corporate websites, file and printer sharing, and backup and restore capabilities.

Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system, is scheduled for release on October 22. Many are looking forward to it as a better alternative to its predecessor, Windows Vista. Although I don't agree with the majority public opinion on the lack of functionality or usefulness of Vista, like most others I was looking forward to another option.

Our company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, consequently we received early releases of Microsoft's product and we have been very impressed up to this point with Windows 7. Currently, I run Windows 7 Ultimate Edition and not only was there a quick installation process but it has updated and run seamlessly for the past few weeks. I have even been satisfied with the new operating system from a performance standpoint, which has been a concern to many regarding Windows Vista.

The Windows 7 Release Candidate is no longer available, so the general public will have to wait for its release at the end of October. For now, check out Microsoft's online resources for Windows 7 at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/default.aspx

E-Commerce, as common as it today can be an intimidating undertaking for small business owners. Most people think about website coding, HTML, databases and order processing. Then they wonder about how in the heck they are going to tie it all together for their business all the while they don't know a lick about coding and websites.

My preference has been to turn to a service like volusion.com

I have recommended quite a few clients to this site whose services focus on providing their clients with an easy, quick start e-commerce solution. No web design experience required - no programming skills needed! Upon signing up, you receive access to their site control panel where you can upload and import images in to their web templates along with entering inventory information for the products you wish to sell. They even have pre-built templates with different themes for those of us who are creatively challenged.

It's nice to have a solution that can integrate directly into financial packages such as Quickbooks. I have clients that use Volusion.com web services so transparently that they have little to no inventory on location. The simply provide a means for clients to purchase material and they have everything drop shipped from their vendors. All transactions get downloaded directly in to their financial software on their own computer.

Charges and other fees for this class of product are modest and more importantly, fixed. Predictable operating expenses are always nice and easy to accommodate for when budgeting.

Lastly, the clients I speak with that do use this service even have nice things to say about their customer support when problems do occur ensuring your business will get the help it needs in case of a breakdown.

Maintaining and keeping an updated social networking effort can be a pain when it comes to providing fresh content. Many of them rely on the user (you) to keep it up to date with thoughts and status updates. Users typically find themselves logging in to different sites with different credentials in order to keep these sites updated while spending way too much time doing so.

There is an answer, however. Both ping.fm and friendfeed.com to be very convenient ways of linking your social networking sites together for blogging,status updates, mini-blogs and images. You essentially update one site and it will broadcast the update across multiple social networking platforms. Some examples of what it will update are facebook, plaxo, twitter, linkedin, and many more. Have a look at ping.fm for the full list.

Friendfeed, now a part of facebook and ping.fm link together as well and work on pretty much any social networking site or chat client that there is to download. This has been a great, easy way for me to send out updates to all of the sites I use to maintain an online presence.

Lastly, if you ever wanted somewhat of a "social networking aggregator" I would recommend streamy.com. It's a very friendly, nice looking (web 2.0'ish) interface and home page candidate.

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.