 Last week a client had 2 small incidents from emails being sent to internal users, and this is a good reminder we need to be diligent with emails. Both these emails were fishing for passwords, in this case both were attempting to get their Microsoft email account passwords.
It is impossible to stop these emails from occurring, however most secure method to stop this to practice good email security. Here are a few reminders: • Be cautious with emails from unknown senders • Don't click suspicious links or open attachments from unknown sources • Don’t just enter your Microsoft password on your system, unless you know you should be entering it (e.g., when logging into email or logging into office.com directly). Hackers are trying to steal your email login credentials. • Verify the sender's identity before responding (confirm the friendly name AND the email address are both correct) • Report any suspicious emails to your IT department • Ask for info on how our AI managed cloud email security solutions can help protect your business Hope this helps keep you all safe! The inventory is organized! We have too many computers and printers and networking equipment we need to get into customer hands! Give us a call if you need quality new or used laptops, servers, and other quality technology such as laser printers starting at $100. Laptop computers starting at $200! Quality DSL and Cable modems for sparklight and centurylink pay for themselves within a year - quit renting and pay yourself first! And of course we sell lots of new laptops and other products, as well as service and repair and install all kinds of technology: servers, desktops, laptops, smart home devices, etc. Call 208 Pro Tech today - we are your one stop technology shop for quality technical expertise and products. I've known for a bit now that I've been remiss in putting updates on here (umm...yes, we've been busy!). But, this has been a pretty amazing year! The best update I can think of right now is how thankful we are at our business success. You see, when it comes to fun jobs - we have the best! We maybe good at technology and solving problems, but our real enjoyment is we get to helping real customers succeed! To show this off, we feel incredible when we get these types of such positive feedback:    So cool! Real customers whom we've recently helped and all this feedback came in over the past couple weeks. It just goes to show how the training and expertise we offer is so greatly appreciated. We pride ourselves in quality customer care for the computer services we offer, so give us a call today if we can help your business with computers and technology support services. There are many services we can offer, such as:
You can check out a more complete list of our services on this page, or just give us a call and we can discuss your specific needs in detail. My dad always taught me to aim high, but he forgot to mention to have fun too. Well, I get to do both! I came across these old business cards from 1995 and 1998; the first 2 small biz computer shops I managed and owned. Pretty cool looking back and how aiming high and having fun lead me here! (notice the first one is even pre-email...wow!)  It's customers like this I really enjoy working with!! Not only did I get away from the desk, but I got to rescue my customer from a down network that had their retail and ecom business stopped cold for 2 days. They tried to call their old IT provider (who originally installed the network), but THE OTHER GUYS WERE TOO BUSY TO RESPOND. I was able to reprioritize my afternoon and respond quickly. Downtime incidents are no joke! Within 4 hours I learned their network topology, fixed the cut wiring, and fixed the problems created by the lack of response. (At least one of the P2P network nodes had been reset and needed reconfigured). I have been doing the application and POS systems and workstations for this customer for a few months. Pretty sure I'll be the new network guy now.
  We get a lot of questions about if we work on Apple. The short answer is YES! We really like Apple machines. They perform! No matter if you have a MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini, iPhone, or whatever other kind of Macintosh, we can help you ensure your MacOS X is operating in top form.
If you need security or backup solutions for your Mac, we offer top-rated cloud managed security packages from leading vendors, and will help ensure you have peace of mind and are protected. It's not if you'll be hacked, but when, and lets do the best we can to ensure that you have the best protection in place. And while we're on the topic of Mac's, one of our favorite questions we like to ask new Mac customers is "are you running an Anti Virus product?". Regularly, we get the answer "No, I have a Mac" and that always makes us chuckle. You see, Macs are not immune to hackers, viruses, ransomware, and other malware. You still can get viruses, and we regularly clean up and repair Macintosh computers. You must have a top quality security product to protect you in this day and age, no matter if you're on Mac or Windows. (Don't forget about your phone or iPad / tablet.) If you need security or backup solutions for your Mac, we partner with many top-rated cloud-managed security providers, and will help ensure you have peace of mind and are protected. It's not if you'll be hacked, but when, and lets do the best we can to ensure that you have the best protection in place.
At 208 Pro Tech Computers we want our users to be safe and secure. We are at the greatest risk level ever of being attacked by malware and ransomware. It's not a matter of "if", but instead when (and to what extent), you will be hacked and impacted.
Please familiarize yourself with 2 Factor Authentication, also known as Multi Factor Authentication. These security techniques are highly recommended for all your sensitive and secure accounts, such as banking or other finance (401k's perhaps?), and email. Read this article to learn more: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-and-why-to-use-two-factor-authentication/  What is a Frustraction? We’re glad you asked. The great internet dictionary describes frustraction as “someone's spontaneous actions triggered by built-up frustrations”. Example: Eventually the frozen screens, slow performance, and constant viruses on his computer triggered John’s ire. In uncontrolled frustractions he gave it the Office Space treatment in a field behind his building. Your technology should be a source of quiet efficiency and productivity. Computers, networks, and internet connectivity operating at peak performance should make it easier to run a business instead of creating frustrations and negative impacts. By investing in technical expertise, business owners can leverage technology in ways we never imagined. Technology is a great equalizer and provides opportunities to take market share from others. Technology is often the only method a great idea can be visible in the broader market. The problem, of course, is the cost of having a full-time technical expert to ensure optimal use of technology. Consider the following alternatives to hiring a full-time technologist or missing the impact of peak technology performance.
You probably expected this list to be longer, but the reality is you can either hire internally, miss the boat or hire a third-party technology service provider. Ok here’s a real list. Questions to ask yourself to determine your needs for technology expertise:
Technology is going to be either your advantage or disadvantage, and expertise will be the determining factor. At 208 Pro Tech, we want your machines, systems, and business processes to work for you, and that means they should perform and add value instead of adding frustractions and uncertainty. 208 Pro Tech can help with any of these problems, as well as special projects and needs relating to technology, servers, IT, applications, networks, laptops, web, etc. We want your computers working, and you to be focused on what you do best!
It turns out this hard drive had been used in one of their "always on" media servers, and had nearly 7 years of powered on time where this drive had been used! Some hard drives you buy are fully tested to handle that, and are designed to handle 1,000,000 hours in terms of Mean Time Between Failure (MTTF), but this one was not. This was simply a good brand name performance desktop hard drive, which is fine, but it was at the end of it's life as you can see from the tools used in these pictures below:
Now that we've confirmed a few details about that drive health, it's time to figure out what to do next. First, we ensure we get as much data off that hard drive as possible, then we replace that hard drive and never use it again. In this case, we were lucky and our educated customer was doing things the right way: 1) He was running basic health checkup tools (that we installed) which alerted him to the hard drive problem at a early point in time. These tools run monthly and alerted him at the first sign of issues, instead of after a complete failure. In this case, we were able to pull all data off that hard drive with only a small bit of hassle. There were some hard drive sectors that needed repaired first. After that small repair, and full data copy, we were able to buy and install a new pro NAS hard drive for his server and specific needs. This new hard drive has a much longer 1,000,000 hour MTBF, or nearly 100 years. Now I've never seen a drive need to run that long, but this gives the customer and us peace of mind. 2) Even if we weren't able to recover the data, this customer had a good data backup strategy in place. Now, it wasn't mission critical data, so in his case he runs a weekly and a monthly backup. He had been lax on the weekly backup, but the monthly external drive he backed up to was a good copy. Fortunately, we don't have to go back a month in time, but he would have been ok if we had to, since lots of his files on this drive don't change frequently. At 208 Pro Tech we help our customers ensure they work smart, and become educated, so that the computers and technology in your life work for you in a way that improves your operations. Allowing you to focus on your like and your business efficiency means that we get happy successful customers. Give us a call at 208-960-0027 if we can help with your data backup or system checkup needs. |
Rob ForsterSharing his 25 years of technical knowledge and a overall passion for the power and productivity of technology in business. Archives
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