Bay Area IT Management
Where technology experts at Endsight share their expertise on IT Management, the issues that arise for clients, and the benefits of technology for medical practices, biotech firms, law firms, financial services and other small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sep 11th, 2009
by Jason Clause Filed under: General, Hardware, Software
Generally, we do not recommend that our clients spend their valuable time attempting to solve minor computer issues. Endsight maintains a fully staffed response center whose sole purpose is to solve these problems for our clients.
That said, I can appreciate those of us that like to tinker with things. Sometimes I just want to understand what the problem is and figure out how to fix it on my own. It’s a total time waster, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.
I found this article on the HP Small Business Website and decided to reprint it here. For more related articles, click here.
Small & Medium Business
As we all know, computers are not perfect devices, and they sometimes malfunction. And when they do, this can create frustration, wasted time, and unneeded expense – especially for those of us whose computers are as vital to our daily existence as oxygen. Luckily, many common computer issues can be resolved without professional help – and with excellent results and little or no hair-pulling involved. Here are a few of the problems you might encounter, and how to fix them.
The problem: my computer is running slowly
Over time, you might notice that your computer’s performance is lagging – programs take longer to load, and booting up seems to take forever.
The fix: there are lots of them, since there are lots of reasons your computer might have slowed down. First, run a spyware and anti-virus software program (if you haven’t got one installed, you should, and you can download one free from the Internet) to see if your system is infected. If it is, follow the removal instructions provided by the software. If that doesn’t work, try removing unnecessary programs that might be taking up storage space on your computer – things like games you haven’t played in months or that accounting software you only installed for the tax season and haven’t used again. Finally, if you use Windows®, try running the Windows defragmentation utility, which can help boost your PC’s performance.
The problem: my PC started normally, but there’s nothing on the screen
If this happens, you should first check that all the cables and wires are attached to your monitor and that they’re all securely plugged in. Another idea: make sure the screen brightness isn’t turned down – this can easily happen to monitors with exposed dials.
You should also listen out for the sounds your PC makes when it boots up: if it beeps once, that’s a normal startup. However, one long beep followed by shorter beeps can mean your graphics/video card has a problem and might need to be “reseated” – this means manually removing it from the computer and then returning it to its slot. To do this, first power off your computer and unplug it. Take the case panel off, and locate the card in your machine.Before touching the card, touch one hand to the metal of the PC to ground yourself. Then, remove the screw holding the card in place, and gently rock the card back and forth until it is released. Finally, reinsert the card gently but firmly until it is completely seated in the slot, then replace the screw and PC cover and plug the machine in again.
The problem: my computer crashes and displays a blue screen
Congratulations, you’ve just encountered the famous Windows stop error, or Blue Screen of Death, as it’s lovingly known in the IT community. If this happens to you, it’s likely that you’ve recently added a new program, device, driver or application that your machine just doesn’t like.
Sometimes, a simple reboot of the PC resolves the issue. But sometimes it doesn’t – you reboot, Windows loads, and the computer crashes again. System Restore is a tool in Windows XP and Vista® that takes snapshots of your computer’s configuration over time, so if your system crashes due to an installation or bad configuration, the tool can roll Windows back to the state it was in before it stopped working without affecting any of your data. Microsoft® provides detailed instructions on when and how to use System Restore.
Microsoft, Windows and Windows Vista are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
Tags: computer issues, Endsight, hp, Microsoft, small-business
Aug 24th, 2009
by Jason Clause Filed under: Business & Management, General, Marketing, Media
I received this e-mail from the San Francisco Business Times last week.The publisher is taking applications from Bay Area firms for the publications list of the bay areas most admired CEOs.
If you admire your CEO, I suggest that you give this a look. Accolades are always nice and this is an easy way to bring your business leader and your business to the attention of the San Francisco Business Times’ readership.
After the year that we’ve had I think that completing this application is a great way of reminding ourselves of how hard we have worked and the admirable decisions we’ve made. If you are the CEO and you are too modest to bring this to the attention of one of your teammates, send me a note and perhaps I could nominate you. The application process is web-based and seems easy enough. I’ve re-posted the announcement here and have included a link to the original message from the San Francisco Business Times.
The San Francisco Business Times will honor 12 outstanding leaders of Bay Area enterprises in a special report, and at a gala awards dinner recognizing the Bay Area’s Most Admired CEOs Thursday, November 19 at the Hilton San Francisco.
We will honor CEOs in 12 categories, including public companies, private companies, emerging growth companies, a non-profit CEO, a small-business CEO, as well as an Innovator and a Lifetime Achiever.
This is a celebration of leadership at its best. It is an opportunity to recognize the CEOs who give the most to their companies, their people, their industries and their communities.
Which CEO deserves the nomination from your organization?
NOMINATION DEADLINE: September 4, 2009
Honorees will be selected by an independent panel of judges. Judges will evaluate these qualities: leadership, values, vision, company financial performance, work environment, community contribution, innovation and overcoming adversity.
Nominees must be present November 19 to receive the award. Nominees will be selected from the SFBT coverage area, including the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano.
The “Bay Area Most Admired CEO Awards” is presented by the San Francisco Business Times and Accenture.
Don’t miss this chance to recognize your most admired CEO!
About Jason:Originally from the great state of Ohio Jason Clause relocated to the Bay Area to work in high-tech. A veteran of the dot com boom and bust, Jason has more than 10 years experience helping small businesses apply information technology to improve business process and increase revenue. Jason lives in Dublin, California with his wife Jennifer and enjoys hiking, cooking and quiet time at home. His hobbies include golf, snowboarding, creative writing and performing amateur stand up comedy.
Tags: Bay Area, CEO Awards, CEO Nomination, leadership, NOMINATE, nomination deadline, san francisco business times, small-business, Technology
Jun 25th, 2009
by Jason Clause Filed under: Hosted Services, Managed Services
It’s an interesting question. As small businesses, we will need to make sense of “cloud computing” and to try to determine what sort of impact, if any, this new concept will have on our business. Eric Knorr’s take on the difference between cloud computing and hosting is interesting. I think it does a fair job of trying to distinguish between the two concepts, but as with most articles I read, this is geared more towards the enterprise IT department.
Check our Eric’s article: http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/cloud-computing-just-hosting-another-name-453?source=IFWNLE_nlt_blogs_2009-06-15
Basically, “cloud computing” is the industry’s new description for IT resources such as e-mail, being hosted somewhere other than on a server that sits in our office. One of the distinctions between “cloud computing” and “hosting” is that with the cloud, we don’t have any idea where our data resides. I think a great example of a “cloud” application would be Gmail. We can log into our mail from a Webpage but we don’t have any idea where the e-mail resides exactly. This is because Google has low-cost servers located all over the world and they use sophisticated load-balancing technology that moves information and data around their computing grid. This approach allows us to use e-mail as a service, but it limits our control over the data.
Hosting is similar to cloud computing in at the IT resource resides outside of our corporate computing environment. But unlike cloud computing, we know exactly, where our data resides. Hosted Exchange, a Microsoft product, is a great example of this concept. With this approach, e-mail resides off site at a co-location facility. We know where the co-location facility is and we know, where the server or in many cases virtual server is located. The same load-balancing concept applies to hosting in most cases, but it’s on a much smaller scale. And it’s managed by the local hosting company or IT partner as opposed to Google. The solution is less distributed, but it affords us more control.
Regardless of what we call it or the specific architecture we apply there’s a good chance that our next major computing infrastructure upgrade will be to the cloud. There’s just too many good reasons not to move services such as e-mail, file servers, and database applications out of our server closet and into a data center:
1. Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity: Moving our key server infrastructure to the cloud allows us to take advantage of all of the disaster preparedness countermeasures built into an enterprise class co-location facility. These buildings are constructed to withstand earthquakes, fires, power disruptions and other “acts of God.” They employ both physical and technological security that meets the most stringent regulatory requirements and most of them feature backbone access to the Internet with multiple redundant connections. The end result is that if a disaster strikes our office, our computer systems weren’t there to be destroyed. So long as our employees can access to the Internet, they can access our computing infrastructure and get back to work.
2. Scalability: Moving our servers to an enterprise class server and storage array that uses virtual technology allows us to access only the computing power that we need. As our business grows, we simply add more computing power. We don’t have to worry anymore about buying new equipment or what we will do with that equipment after a particular project is done.
3. Reduce Capital Costs: The cloud gives us the ability to pay a fixed monthly fee for our server infrastructure as opposed to laying out tons of cash to purchase all the equiptment we need for a major network upgrade. Instead, we only pay for what we need.
The key point that I gleaned from Eric’s article is this. In the small-business space, many offerings will be cookie-cutter. (Like Gmail) Small businesses using this service will not have the rich feature set that comes with an implementation of Microsoft Exchange. In my experience, a cookie-cutter approach for something like e-mail will not work for the vast majority of small businesses. As we explore our options for hosted or cloud solutions we need to be able to customize the offerings and service levels associated with those offerings.
The good news is that we won’t have to make these decisions immediately. Microsoft relseased Windows Server 2008 and developers will soon be releasing business software maximised for the new platform. The best way to explore a hosted / cloud infrastructure is too include it as an option in our next major upgrade.
Endisght is already talking to a number of clients about this option right now. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to talk about it to.
Tags: cloud, Cloud Computing, co location, computing environment, Eric Knorr, Hosted, Hosting, hosting company, Jason Clause, Managed Service, Outsourced IT, small businesses, small-business, Technology, virtual server
May 26th, 2009
by Jason Clause Filed under: Managed Services, Network Security
2009 has been a tumultuous year for the small-business Owner. Cutbacks and spending freezes from our customers have forced many of us to make some very difficult decisions with regards to employee retention.
Some of us have been forced to lay off some really good people as we attempt to reduce our cost structures, collect on outstanding receivables and most importantly find new revenue.
I came across a recent article by Roger Grimes entitled “Do you have a handle on your managed resources?” The article is really geared towards a larger IT department but I think it sheds some light on a new challenge that the small-business owner needs to consider.
From a computer infrastructure perspective each employee must exist as a user on the network. In addition to being assigned a physical workstation, that user needs the workstation to be assigned as a resource on the network. Each user and resource are then granted permissions and assigned to groups based on their job roles.
For example, you hire a new controller, and want to give him or her a workstation with access to email, shared files and your accounting data.
To accomplish that on the network your controller is created as a network users in your network directory. He or she is then assigned a workstation as a resource. The controller is granted permission to access email, shared files and your small businesses accounting system as a member of the finance group.
Proper maintenance of this directory is essential to maintaining a secure, reliable computing environment. As new employees start and others move on, this directory must be updated to avoid risks to security. (stale accounts give malicious hackers great opportunities to exploit your network)
This is a difficult process to maintain under normal circumstances, but for the last nine months our business environment has been chaotic. It’s a good bet that network directory maintenance has taken a backseat to far more pressing issues. But it should be addressed and the sooner the better.
Roger’s article is a pretty easy read and it should help provide some direction for those of you that feel like you can take care of this issue by yourself. But as Roger related his story, it’s really easy to delete items from the directory and cause a catastrophe. (Follow this link to read the specific example) So if you’re going to attempt to do this yourself you need to know that you might delete something that could take your entire network down.
At Endsight, we’ve developed add move and change policies that we’ve baked into our internal systems and procedures. Our team does this all the time and we can guarantee our work. If you need help with this issue or with any other aspects of managing your computer network please feel free to contact us.
Tags: computer infrastructure, directory maintenance, Email, hackers, reliable computing, Roger Grimes, small business owner, small-business
