Random Thoughts – Avoid Spyware by Managing your Internet Traffic

So let’s start with a bold statement: If you’re not managing your Internet traffic you’re throwing money out the window.  A pretty strong statement, I know, but hear me out before you pass judgment…

For most small & medium-sized businesses the two areas of their technology that cost the most are:

1. Managing and supporting desktops
2. Internal IT staff members and/or IT consulting

Spyware, which is more malicious and prevalent than ever these days, affects both the functionality of your desktops and the efficiency of your IT staff or consultant.  Hence, it’s a hard hit on your bottom line.  In fact, I believe that if most businesses ran the numbers on what spyware really costs them, they would be mortified.  The good news is that there are technologies available that do a great job protecting you from spyware and other threats (see my article, Web & Spyware Defense  for more).  The bad news is that it takes more than just your antivirus software.

But keep in mind that the management of your Internet traffic can do much more than defend against incoming threats – it can also help you increase productivity and reduce HR risks. 

Remember when you were deciding whether spam protection was necessary for your business?  Well, managing your Internet traffic is the same discussion, only it’s a more costly one.

What’s New…….

ITP, in a joint effort with our partner, Converged, is holding an event on February 11^th at the Chophouse in Madison that will display two of today’s most valuable technologies for business.  If you want to understand more about how you can guarantee network availability for your business; or how unified communications are changing the way businesses communicate with their customers, then you should attend this event.  Featuring live demonstrations of Stratus Avance high availability software and Shoretel VOIP phone systems, you will see how you can drive business through innovative, always available communications.

iPad vs. Netbook

If you have watched TV or talked to a human in 2010 you know the general buzz and “coolness” factor of the iPad.  The question I have been getting more lately is to compare the iPad with a Netbook.  Some might say its not a fair comparison but from a business standpoint both have around a $500 price point at their lowest and both aim to provide fast access to your data with long battery life.

So lets compare:

As you can see there is no clear “Winner” the answer to which device is best for your business depends on the specific needs of your users and applications.  If the instant On and battery life of the iPad is a requirement for walking around and meeting patients than the iPad is your winner.  If you need Windows to run that mobile application or Internet Explorer for that one key web application than you need a Windows Netbook.

Don’t forget about the Linux netbook as an option.  Linux offers better battery life and performance for basic web usage. You can still Remote Desktop to your windows machines or use Logmein if you need Windows without the worry of Windows Update or Antivirus holding your ATOM processor down.  My favorite is by a long time Linux company System 76 (http://bit.ly/hZHXi1).  If you haven’t tried Linux in a while take a look again at how far Ubuntu has come in the consumer market.

Windows, Linux or Apple give us a call to find out which is right for your business and your application challenges.

Options For Defending Against Spyware

Spyware is everywhere and it’s costing businesses and organizations a ton of money in lost productivity alone.  Traditional methods of combating spyware (such as installing software on your systems) have proven mostly effective.  The problem is that mostly effective isn’t really good enough.  So what other options are there?  Currently, I believe the two most viable options currently are:

• Deploy a device onsite
• Subscribe to a service

Onsite Protection

Devices like Barricuda Networks Web Defense device 

and others work by filtering web traffic through their device which resides at your office between your firewall and your LAN (traditionally).  It functions as a filter both for incoming and outgoing traffic and is quote robust from a configuration and reporting standpoint.

Benefits

• Powerful
• Robust functionality
• Granular reporting

Drawbacks

• Large upfront cost
• Annual maintenance costs
• Allows “malicious” traffic to utilize your bandwidth
• Need to maintain hardware

Service-based Protection

Service-based protection such as McAfee’s Web Protection Service works in a similar fashion to the onsite protection model except that the “filtering” occurs offsite.  Basically, your web traffic is routed through your service-provider’s systems.  In this model you don’t need to purchase hardware or maintain it – you just redirect your web traffic through their systems.

Benefits

• Easy to set up
• Very low initial cost
• Stops malicious traffic before it gets to your network
• No hardware maintenance or upgrade costs
• Highly effective

Drawbacks

• Recurring monthly cost
• Adequate reporting functionality

With these options, the days of combating spyware with just onsite software are probably coming to an end.  Don’t get me wrong, onsite software is still necessary, but in all probability, adding another layer of defense is probably a solid, cost-effective decision at this point.

Random Thoughts-Be Simply Consistent and You’ll be Surprised how Much Money you Save

Random Thoughts – Be Simply Consistent and You’ll be Surprised how Much Money you Save

Technology is complex.  For most businesses it is also necessary.  So most businesses go through quite a process to find and deploy the best technologies for their company.  Then, of course, they spend as much or more time to manage and maintain their technology.  Unfortunately, there really isn’t any better way.  With the incredible array of technologies available to business these days, and the importance they hold within our companies, it’s no wonder that everyone spends so much time and money on their technology.  Yet, it’s also easy to get carried away.  That’s why I highly recommend keeping two principles in mind as you evaluate and deploy technology for your company: simplicity and consistency.  Simply put, the more simple and consistent you can keep your technology, the less time and money you’ll spend maintaining it.  After spending over a decade in the IT field, there are few things that have proven more true over time.  Oh sure, sometimes multiple applications or a diverse technology environment is required.  But even within those environments there are opportunities to keep patch levels consistent, or run applications on similar hardware.  So as you begin tapping into your fresh, 2011 IT budget, consider a greater emphasis on keeping your technology simple and consistent -  your bottom line will feel a little bolder at the end of the year.

Info-Pro / Omniform Filler “out of memory” error

Just wanted to share a quick fix for an “out of memory” error a client was receiving when attempting to open older Info-Pro forms (these are the older style executable files that use Omniform filler).  The client recently upgraded all but one system to Windows 7 (an older system remained XP).  In addition we installed a new SBS 2008 server.  All workstations are 32-bit Windows.

Certain older forms would open, others would not.  However, one workstation was able to open any form – and surprisingly it wasn’t the old XP system.  That system failed with the same memory error.

After some trial and error it turned out that some of the forms would generate the “out of memory” error message when certain printers were set to the Windows default.  After setting the default printer on any system to match the one that the “working” Windows 7 system was using, that system functioned properly.  The only other default print driver that could be used was Adobe PDF (the Adobe writer driver).  All other printers set to default would throw the memory error.

So a workaround is to simply change the default printer before opening the specific forms that cause issues.

Info-Pro has since moved to Adobe fillable PDF but many law firms still retain their older Info-Pro Omniform forms that have been completed for clients.  Until the old forms are completely phased out this is a pretty quick and easy workaround.

Excel 2007 Quick Access Toolbar macro buttons

I ran into a strange issue today when attempting to add Excel 2007 macro shortcuts to a Quick Access toolbar saved in a shared template.  I could add the buttons and save them to the template, but as soon as I closed and re-opened Excel the buttons disappeared.  Standard built-in Excel functions worked just fine when saved to the shared template.

Even if I added a few built-in buttons, and just a single macro link, the buttons would all disappear the next time Excel was closed and re-opened.

Turns out there’s a glitch in the way Excel stores the macro name in one of the stored XML files in the template.  To correct this I needed to extract the template file (just rename the Excel macro-enabled template to a zip file then extract as you would any other compressed file), then remove the path information from the CustomUI.xml file.  Specific steps can be found in the thread here:

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3834831.php

Hopefully this will be corrected by Microsoft.  Of course with the new Ribbon bars that may be easily edited in Office 2010 this may be less of an issue.

Useful Excel Shortcuts

At the speed in which business moves today, useful productivity enhancers can make the difference between getting work out the door on time and fighting with endless tight deadlines.  Certainly, we’ve all heard about software tools and programs that promise to make us twice as productive as we already are.  Oddly enough I’ve never really had one of those programs do anything but waste my time.  However, one timesaving tool I’ve never had fail me is learning how to use quick and simple keyboard shortcuts.  So, because I’m a big fan of Excel (and wanted to learn a few new keyboard shortcuts) I thought I’d share a few with you.

Another method I’ve used in the past to help me learn the “ins” and “outs” of a program is to use a quick reference guide.  For Microsoft Office programs, I’ve found the ones at Brainstorm.com to be quite good, however, you can find them at many different resellers.

TDS Managed IP Revew – and tips for finding the right phone system

Here at ITP we do not install phone systems. We have, however, been hired to write requests for proposals for companies looking for a communications platforms and as such have a fairly in depth view of the industry while remaining impartial.

My only loyalty note is I myself have done contract work for Cisco system phone division in Seattle at one point and have experience with most the major modern platforms.  I also lead an in house project to make a selection for a midsized law firm.

Having established that background– one of the first solutions I evaluated was TDS Metrocom’s ManagedIP product.   The offering is compelling for time strapped organizations looking for enterprise class features without the up front cost of purchasing a unified communications platform.  Like all products I believe each has their fit.  I think managed IP solutions would work well for small 5 and under individual offices who really need the features and don’t have the time to manage their own MAC’s (Indistry term for “Moves, Adds, Changes”.  I have never seen a selection make the decision to go managed IP in an office with 10 or more phones from purely a cost standpoint.

Whenever you use a hosted product of this nature your paying to not have pain.  In this case to not have to worry about programming your phones or managing additional equipment.

Here is my problem.  MAC on new systems are very easy to do through web based interfaces and admin training is always included by the installer.  Even an expensive system for this price point on a 3 year lease (often with APR deals to get the business, Cisco, Avaya etc. all have leasing arms) means your saving significant money in years 1-3 and have a nearly free system thereafter.  Modern phone systems should last 5 – 8 years.  Even if your in a close 5 year cycle I think the numbers are not in ManagedIP’s favor.  ManagedIP sellers will say your Cisco system will need constant work and the bills will keep coming.  While operating system upgrades are suggested I have seen Cisco platforms run for literally years on end without restart or upgrade.  If you do need a new service release find a Cisco provider who will do that update for a flat fee.

Other considerations with hosting your phones is that often your custom software is looking for a TAPI system or something on the LAN itself for phone integration.  TDS’s managed IP does have software to look for any HTML formatted numbers like your iphone but may limit your ability to billback clients for calls or use a dialer in a piece of software.

One other note if you are running Windows Small Business Server beware that TDS’s equipment will possibly “accidentally” turn on DHCP to look for phones and when it does your SBS server will shut DHCP down and individuals will slowly lose network connectivity.  Make sure they setup their phones on a completely different subnet and VLAN.  Meaning if your computers are at 192.168.0.X the phones should be at 192.168.100.X

When selecting a non manged system really analyze how you use the phones.  Do not assume that a new system will have the same features as your 25 year old system.  Also make sure you involve the big 3, Cisco, Avaya and Shortel.   First of all involving them will allow each vendor to drop their price as they all have competitive pricing plans when “X” is in the bidding.  It is important to really evaluate the big brands like Cisco and weigh them against newer entrances like Shortel.

If your office is struggling with the decision consider hiring a 3rd party to help you navigate the sales talk and don’t ever buy a phone system from a sales person who says “Oh this phone system does everything”.  Hiring a 3rd party can often save you more than their cost for their expertise just in cutting through to the bottom line.

As always find a solution that best fits your needs and long term goals.  ManagedIP might be a good bridge but I don’t think its the future.  Sorry you spent all that money on broadsoft switches TDS…..

Need to get 6 more months out of a server?

Need to eek out just a little more time out of an old server?  Don’t have the time or resources to reconfigure the rest of your server roles?

At ITP we use a neat trick.  Vmware Converter.  What is Vmware Converter?  (http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/)It is a free technology which captures a physical server and backs it up to a couple of files which can be moved to any server or computer and with the use of a free or inexpensive “player” you can get that old server configuration running on reliable hardware.  This is a great way to get a few more months out of hardware it is also an excellent disaster recovery option for small to large enterprises.  Even if you have never used virtualization this tool can be a great introduction to the technology and a real business saving tool in the case of hardware on the edge.