When you order a new computer these days, a lot of software gets “bundled” with it by Dell, IBM, or HP.  Unfortunately, if you would like the Microsoft office applications like Word, Excel, and Outlook, you need to ask for it.

Happily, asking for the OEM bundle at the time you order your new PC is a great way to save money on the latest version of all version of Office.  But you do have to ask for it, otherwise, you won’t get it!

One of the major causes of internet slowness in small businesses is inappropriate internet use by employees.  With the limited bandwidth connections that are currently available, small business owners need to set policies that limit or curtail employees use of internet video, radio, music sharing and other high bandwidth sites.

Besides losing valuable internet bandwidth, employers are facing hours and hours each week of lost productivity by some of their employees.  Even good employees can get “tempted” to waste time watching “funny video” emails from co-workers, facebook invitations or online chat sessions.  Even if your employees do these activities on their break, internet bandwidth is still affected and impacts the employees who are still trying to work.

A comprehensive way of fixing the problem is the filtering “add-on” products that Sonicwall and Cisco sells with their routers.  These solutions are expensive (about $3000.00 per year) and have very limited ability to adjust their rules for different employees.  That’s why we developed our own called the Blaskguard Internet Content filter.  For a low monthly fee, you can eliminate access to file sharing, music, movie, and personal email/chat sites.  For management and owners, the rules can be relaxed.  The Blaskguard device can also be deployed in “watch only” mode so you can see who your top 10 internet time wasters are and what they are wasting time on.

By preventing all of this unauthorized internet access, your employees will be more productive and your internet speeds will be fast again.  Blaskguard plans start at just $75.00 per month.

Servers that are no longer covered by the manufactures warranty can take much longer to repair than servers that are still on warranty.  Depending on the age of the failed part, out of warranty servers can cost so much to repair that it might be more cost effective to just replace it.   Replacing the server, can take several days and clients need to decide carefully before they let their manufacturers warranty expire.

To help our clients manage warranty expirations, we record manufacture machine service tags and serial numbers.  Clients that are on our St. Bernard Managed Care service are alerted before warranty expiration and we help them decide if and when to extend the warranty.

The server warranty status becomes less important if it is being backed up by the Dependable SafeSTOR backup appliance (DSS).  That is because the DSS appliance will let us virtualize any failed server within 30 minutes to 90 minutes — regardless of how the physical file server failed.  For old servers that are too expensive to warranty, or can’t be warrantied by the manufacturer; this works out great and allows you to use your old hardware until it starts failing.  By running “virtually” on the DSS appliance for a few days; you get time to procure a new server and your users can keep working.

Providing remote access for certain employees is something that most of our sites require-at least for management employees.  We accomplish this using free software that is included with most Microsoft Servers.  The free Remote Desktop software is very reliable and convenient; but if a user needs more robust printing capability, or for compatibility with certain programs, we may go with one of the “pay” services like http://www.LogMeIn.Com or http://www.GoToMyPC.com.    For either of these solutions, firewall rules will need to be modified and we may need to help you choose a more secure password so as to keep your connection safe.

Either way, when it comes to remote access, DCG will get you connected, efficiently and securely.

The small Linksys/Dlink/Netgear “home style” routers just don’t cut it anymore when it comes to securing the Small Business network.  We are seeing uneven internet speeds and unexpected downtime due to low quality power supplies and board components.

Worst of all, these devices are easily hacked and since they don’t do “stateful packet” inspection, most threats are passed through the router.

To make “DCG Baseline”, our clients are required to change these low quality router with a Sonicwall or Cisco firewall/router.  Both have models for small business that start at about $175.00 so it is no longer expensive to buy the best protection.  When properly configured, you can rest assured that your network is protected from the outside.

When the “incumbant IT company” or a “key IT employee” is asked to leave, DCG is often called in to make sure that the client site is completely secure.  DCG accomplishes this by following a 20 point check list related that covers remote access to servers, workstations, mail, web, VPNs, and other company IT assets.  By following these steps our clients have never had a breach and when we are done with our work, you can rest assured that all “open doors” will be closed.

When the termination involves a long term employee we have a systematic approach to deciding how to handle this persons important vendor/client contacts, “my documents”, and email.  We usually give his/her direct manager immediate access to the mail file so that important emails don’t get missed; and we set up forwarders and auto responders so that future mail gets handled in a way that suits the client.

Dependable computer guys escalates and fixes unexpected server problems issues after regular should we get an alert on about your network.  This takes care of a large number of server related issues that crop up that can cause you unexpected downtime.  Even with our pro-active approach to fixing issues as they occur; you may still need to talk to an engineer after hours.  St. Bernard Managed Care clients get access to a “live engineer” after hours by calling our regular phone number 818-541-9195 and selecting “option 2″ for “DCG Contract clients”.    The nite number is monitored by a different DCG engineer every week, so you will get help when you need it.

Small businesses of all sizes rely, more than ever, on an “always up” internet connection.    Since even the most reliable internet service providers have some downtime and/or periods of time when their speed is not fast enough; a second, redundant, connection can really save the day!

Dependable Computer Guys, Inc is expert at adding second internet connections.  First you will need a router router capable of connecting two internet connections.  Happily, these routers have dropped in price significantly and can now be purchased for under $300.00.   Then you will need to order up a second DSL, Cable, or T-1 internet connection.  That will run you between $65.00 and $350.00 per month.

That’s the easy part.  Then DCG will configure your router so that it will fail-over between the two available internet connections.  We will also analyze the relative speeds of each and split your internet traffic between the two connections.  We have even had some clients ask that “high priority” users get the fastest, least used connection, while putting everyone else on the slower connection.  We will also look at mail, remote access, and off site backup internet utilization requirents in order to devise a plan that will give your users the best speed possible.

Annoying pop-ups are a sign that spyware, virus, or other malware has infected your computer.  The other indications that your system has been compromised include “funny looking” search screens and browser redirects to web-sites you are not expecting.  Besides causing your PC to run very slow, it is important to get help right away since you may be infected with a key-logger capable of discovering your secret passwords.

DCG sites that have up to date anti-virus and anti-spyware software combined with the current Microsoft system patches is the best protection against these threats.  All three of these important remedies are included for free as part of our St. Bernard Managed Care program.  At Dependable Computer Guys, Inc. we proactively manage this 3 -pronged approach to protecting you so your systems so your PC will run fast and with out the pop-ups.

Absolutely!  We are big fans of the online backup services for personal documents.  We think these solutions are great for remote PC’s and laptops that are not able to save their files to your Windows Small Business file server.  So, for personal photos, itunes, and word/excel documents Carbonite and Mozy are terrific solutions.

With that said, the online solutions DO NOT meet “DCG Baseline for Server Backup” because of the following reasons:

1. These services can’t backup important server files like System State or Active Directory.
2. Mozy and Carbonite can’t reliably backup mail file PST’s or Microsoft Exchange.
3. These services are unable to backup open accounting databases that use SQL and Pervasive.
4. Restoring entire folders can take days and days since you can only restore 1-2 gigs worth of files per day.  For a server folders that have hundreds of gigs, restores can take weeks and weeks.
5. Ordering a DVD is possible with some services, but that can also take several days.

So, go for an online service like Carbonite or Mozy for laptops and workstations, but take a look at our server backup and disaster recovery solution called Dependable SafeSTOR (DSS) if you need to backup your file server.  DSS keeps “incremental backups for ever” locally at your site, so restores are quick, and the latest image of your backup is stored off site at our data centers in Denver and Baltimore.  Best of all, DSS runs without any intervention by your employees.  Everything is taken care of by DCG.