A common mistake that companies make when considering a move, is they forget to check and see if their existing Internet Provider does in fact provide service at the new location. This rookie mistake could wind up costing your company thousands of dollars, so it’s an important factor to keep in mind. Additionally, it’s advised to check with your telephone provider, as unnecessary costs may crop up here as well.

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When the first email servers were put into service it was relatively uncommon to receive SPAM email. There were only a few servers in the beginning and thus email traffic was easily regulated. As the general public began using the internet and email, so did the various companies. As more and more people began using email, the marketing and advertising world caught on to this and started using email to send you advertisements. Other users noticed that people were willing to trust an email from a complete stranger, and thus email users with malicious intent started using it to attack their victims.

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Email has become the standard form of communication in the workplace today. We depend on emails to send and receive information from people both within and outside of the organization. Thus, when a problem occurs when sending an email it is important to have the problem evaluated to ensure your message is being received by the recipient. When an error occurs, typically one of the two mail servers will deliver an email called a bounce back with the reasons for the failure.

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Computers, while built to last a long time are not built to last forever. Most contain a few moving parts that will eventually fail over time. Heat and dust also contribute to a hostile environment and will eventually affect the overall performance of a computer. Typically hard drives and fans will break but many older machines have capacitors that tend to burst as well.

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In previous blog posts, we evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of free E-mail. Hosted email solutions are the alternative to using free email services. With hosted email, you can have a greater level of control and support throughout the entire E-mail process. Typically when you send an E-mail with a free email service and the recipient never receives it, basically, your only other option is to just try sending it again. With a hosted E-mail solution, you can request support from a server administrator to review logs, and track what happened to the message. In many situations, a free email service will not offer help in any way, and you are stuck without being to email that recipient. The hosted email solution gives you access to the people and tools needed to resolve the problem.

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For a moment, if we may, let’s first consider what a fax machine actually is, rather than what it does. Fax machines are a combination of antiquated technology. It is simply a document feeder, attached to a low quality scanning element (which reduces document quality), and transmits the scan through an ancient modem (which takes a long time).
Back in the day, this was all new technology and was great, because you could send a ‘picture’ through the phone line. We all know very well that nowadays, we can do better. Most fax machines transmit data over an analog phone line at a rate of 14,400 bps (that is Bytes per second, BYTES!). That is very slow, even for modem standards. For a comparison, we now have broadband lines that are capable of more than 100mbps (100mbps X 1000Kbytes X 1000Bytes = 100,000,000 Bytes!).

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Tired of spending so much money to print? Tired of repairing your old printer so often? Tired of making several frequent trips to the supply store for toner? Here is a breakdown of which type of printer you should buy!

How many printers does your business have?  Why do you need more than one?

• Multiple printers in an office are often hard to manage and maintain.
• Document security issues can warrant a personal (secure) printer.

How are the printers hooked up and arranged in the office?  Is it necessary to share printers?

• Shared printers are very difficult to troubleshoot.
• Walk time between printers could be spent more productively.
• Centralizing printing can increase productivity and decrease cost at the same time.

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Most service providers and software manufacturers sell by enticing you with a list of features and trying to be “price competitive” (meaning they want to be the lowest). After sitting through hundreds of these sales presentations and reviewing our internal systems, here are a few things that I have learned along the way.

Just because the product says it has a feature does not mean it does. I am not saying the product representative is lying because they are usually not. But what they don’t tell you is how it works and that it is a work around that will consume more time than it saves.

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Many people ask, “What is the best internet browser out there?”  & “Why should I use Internet Explorer over other browsers?”  When you compare Internet Explorer 9 to other web browsers (i.e – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) there is really no comparison. Internet Explorer currently dominates the market share at 45.53%, while its closest competitors Firefox at 22.46% and Google Chrome at 19.79% as of October 2011.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share

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In our experience we have come to the conclusion that nothing on the web is free.  Specifically, when you download “free” movies, music, games, software, etc. it may come with a little added bonus of “SPYWARE!”
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