Backups?

Hello everyone! I know it has been a little while. We have been working on some very cool things recently that have demanded more of my time than usual. On the up side, I have some very exciting news to share.

TH2 Technologies had partnered with Asigra to bring our clients the latest in cloud backup technology. We are now equipped to bring you a premium service at a discounted rate. Let’s talk some about the service, how it works, and why it’s important.

The service itself (like any “cloud backup” solution) is provided to the client through a piece of software that runs on one machine on the network. This software and service together can go to the computers and back them up to a locally attached drive, and them push a copy of that to TH2’s servers over the internet. This gives you a local copy for fast restoration of files and an off-site copy in the event of catastrophic failure due to fire, water damage, or anything else that may cause the hardware on-site to fail unexpectedly. If you haven’t heard the statistics, that’s probably a good thing. There is an 80% myth out there that states something to the effect of ‘80% of businesses that suffer a catastrophic data loss will never recover.’ I have never seen the study where this number (the magic 80%) is derived from, and when asked I reference this site: http://johnglennmbci.com/quotes.html. Most of the links from his site to the references are broken, but I can attest that the numbers on the site are referenced directly out of published documents by well known companies. While there is some variance in percentage from study to study, one thing remains true: if you lose your data and don’t have a backup, you are in for a very hard time, especially if you are a small to medium business.

So, now is the easy part. Just give us a call, we can look at your backup solution, and let you know what we think. Then we’ll give you a quote on what it would take to get you backed up offsite. Every night. Some people ask about Mozy and what we think about their service. You know that we’re now a service provider, so Mozy is a competitor, but I can honestly say that a company that charges a flat yearly fee does not care about your data, they care about your money. It is more profitable for Mozy if you have less data stored, because they price per GB is high if you only have a few Gigs stored. Their policy’s are conducive to this model, where if you delete a file, Mozy will remove it from their server after 30 days. Say you want a file that you JUST realized you deleted. 31 days ago. Too bad. There policies are designed to drive profit, just like anyone’s, but the difference is that our policies (and most pay per GB platforms) are in line with your needs as a business. We look forward to talking to you, and getting you protected.

Time for a new Comptuer!

Hey friends!  I just finished a new build today.  I was trying to get on the band wagon and put together a sub $500 computer again.  I had a few requirements.  DDR3, Intel (and those 2 choices brought me to the new Core i3,5,7 line only) and SLI/Crossfire support.  I think I did really well!

I left off the PSU and Optical Drive, because they are cheap, and you could just use the same ones from the other build, or try and find decent parts that are on sale.  Some of these parts are on sale right now, and I would have chosen a different RAM module if these were at full price.  Anyways, I would like to start doing weekly builds for anyone that keeps up with this.  As always, you can get in touch with TH2 Technologies to have a custom build for you.

This particular build is good because it over-clocks, and is very feature rich.  1080p support, and sound over HDMI.  This would also be a mid case, but if you wanted to shrink it into a mini, it would easily fit, and make a great HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer).  This is just a very future proof, feature rich board with a very decent, latest version processor in it.  All for under $500 (with DVD Drive and Power Supply).  Have fun, and let me know that you think!

The Six-Core battle

The hardware junkie in me just can't resist. I know I'm a bit late to the table, and no, I don't have one of these to play with. I wouldn't kill for one, but I would probably be willing to dish out a good flogging. Anyways, down to the good stuff.

Intel and AMD have both announced their Six-Core monoliths. The 6 core Core i7 980X and the Phenom II X6 1090T are the new players, and they clock in at 3.33 GHz and 3.2 GHz stock. Not that it makes that much of a difference, and the way these 2 processors actually handle data is vastly different as well, and they have different die sizes (Intel's 32nm and AMD is at 45nm). But, that may not make up for the price difference, with Intel's setting you back a grand ($999) and AMD sits you at $285. Another nice thing about AMD's is that it's still compatible with the existing (and widely used) AM2+ pin set, only requiring a BIOS upgrade. If you have an ageing system (not TOO old) that could use a face lift form 2 cores and were holding out, now is the time to get in. Intel’s chip outperforms AMD's, but at the price, you could buy 2 and a motherboard to support both, and have a 12 processor system.

I'm excited to see these hitting the market. Some of you may know I'm considering my own system build. I was going to go with a quad core AMD system (because they started making those sub $100 quads) and then decided to go the i3 route. It's hard, I don't have any MAJOR parts yet except RAM, but I can E-Bay that. AMD's new offering makes me wonder if I should. =D I’ll keep you posted for sure.

New Hardware

New hardware isn’t hard to come by these days. I just so happen to be a big fan of hardware, and try very hard to stay on top of what’s new and bleeding edge. One of the biggest releases lately is the Fermi line of nVidia Graphic Cards. Most businesses will wonder what a Graphics card has to offer, and in most cases it tends to be very little. TH2 Technologies just so happens to deal with several dental offices though and they use High-Res images to show patients their teeth or to even create 3D models of their mouths. Graphics cards are used to display the images and models on high definition screens for their clients, and they need to look good. A graphics card is the only way to accomplish this. One of our doctors has a computer hooked up to 2 monitors and a 47” 1080p flat screen.

Another thing that a graphics card can provide is video acceleration in programs like Adobe’s Creative Suite. CS5 is designed to make use of all Quadro FX and the GTX 285 series cards and helps easily integrate project files from After Effects and Photoshop into Premiere Pro and edit in real-time, even while applying more than three layers. The Quadro series allows people who use AutoCAD to work faster and improve productivity.

To see if a graphics card can be an easy way to increase performance with your office applications, call TH2 Technologies. We can evaluate effective ways to leverage new technology for better productivity for a small investment.

Sources:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/bfp_autocad_2011.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/builtforadobepros.html

We are growing again

Not only does TH2 Technologies Eliminate Technology Headaches, we also Level the Playing Field with technology. One of the ways we do this is by offering online/internet marketing services.

We welcome Jenn to our team! She is an expert in Search Engine Optimization. Our personal testimony...in a few short months, she has taken our google ranking from page 10 to page 2...and she's determined to see us make it to the top of page one!

Email jenn@th2tech.com to learn more.

Microsoft Security Essentials

As I said in my last blog, I am running Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).  I have been now for a bit more than a month.  I liked it enough to uninstall Symantec from my Wife’s computer as well, and installed MSE.  I ran a quick scan after the initial update and, low and behold, 6 security vulnerabilities!  Out of the box (so to speak) this thing caught and removed 6 things on her computer that Symantec had missed.  These were Facebook games (for those of you who don’t know that some software on Facebook contains spyware) that could and possibly were sending back usage information.  After a short talk with my wife about safe browsing habits, I started thinking about how many business out there run Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and assume all is well.  I assumed all was well, and I’m an IT guy.  The computer we do our banking on was compromised.  Literally, the program could have sent that info back to their servers.  And that is scary.

So, I would like to discuss the ups and downs, the pro’s and con’s, and the do’s and do not’s of Microsoft Security Essentials.

1)  MSE is not/cannot be centrally managed.  This means no definition server, no reports server, and no server pushing out scan times, collecting reports or ensuring client security.  This is the single most detrimental drawback of this program.  This will prevent it from being able to run effectively in a corporate environment as a Symantec replacement.

2)  MSE is rated as one of the best free software security solutions by AV-Comparatives.org, with a summary of their review here: lifehacker.com

3)  MSE is not very flexible with scan schedules.  You can schedule one kind of scan to run either daily, or every day.  You cannot schedule a full scan on the weekend, and a quick scan every day of the week, or a quick scan that runs once every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  For a small office, this would create additional administrative overhead, where IT Administrators would have to manually run full scans if they wanted that to happen at all.

4)  MSE is FREE!!  For some of the best protection a home (or even a small business owner) could want all for free.  Can’t get much better than that!  MSE has high performance, speed and usability for the best price out there.

Overall, I am very glad I change my house over to MSE.  I don’t need central management at my house, or even to schedule different scan for different days.  I have a quick scan scheduled daily for each computer, and run a full scan when I feel like it.  What an awesome solution for most home office users.  This is easy to use and easier to install.  If you feel as though you would like some help setting it up, configuring it, or just checking that everything is right, give us a call.  TH2 Technologies is more than capable of setting you up on your free security solution today.

Orange County Computer Services by TH2 Technologies

Free Programs can make life Easier, Cheaper

There are several applications and programs that people use every day to make their life easier.  The hard part of this for normal users is twofold.  Often times, regular folk don’t know what programs are available, where to get them, and which are good vice which will load a virus or crash your computer.  This is the first problem, and it’s a legitimate one!  It is smart not to just load any program you come across, and people learn this one way or another over time.  The second problem is that when you get the program, you have to learn how to use it, and make it work for you in cool and innovative ways.  Say you use QuickBooks, and your whole business rides on that database.  You are paying $50 a year for 5 GB of storage (see here) for their online backup, which is great if your database is that big.  Most small business owners have much smaller databases, and you can’t store any other type of file on the backup.  The FREE service Dropbox can store up to 2 GB (up to 3 GB free, with a small amount of effort) online, encrypted, and available for download with a username and password using a web browser.  There is a slight bit more setup involved, but well worth the savings and advantages in the long run.

There is a very good list of free programs here: lifehacker.com.  There is even a free antivirus and spyware suite from Microsoft that was very well rated and reviewed that I use on my computer.  No kidding, I replaced my Symantec with Microsoft Security Essentials and I like it better.  If you are as tired of paying for programs, don’t pirate them.  Get their free alternatives that work better.  TH2 Technologies can help you find them, install them, and set them up.  Give us a call.

Blue Screen of Death

Many of our customers have been getting in touch with us lately about this.  More and more common on XP systems is the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).  It's a sad sight, both for users and administrators alike.  Not always easy to troubleshoot, and often times even harder to fix, the BSOD usually means one thing, you're going to have to re-install your operating system.  TH2 Technologies is able to do this for you, and more often than not, we can save your files as well.

The recent influx of blue screened machines is likely due to a patch that Microsoft pushed for a vulnerability.  This patch works against Malware or Spyware that is hiding on a system, causing it blue screen.  It's not Microsoft's fault (Well, it kind of is...), but it really brings up an interesting topic.  There really are A LOT of people out there running their computer every day for tasks such as online banking, payroll, insurance, and even hosting massive client databases with private information who have spyware on their computer and don't know it.  There are several easy and fast ways to protect yourself.  Get in touch with a TH2 Technologies specialist to protect your system, business and client's information today.