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How to Fix Bad AT&T Service at Your Office

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:47:01 -0500

It is our hope that you do not fall into the category of AT&T cell phone users who walk into their office and experience a no-service nightmare. After all, isn’t making actual calls what cellular phones were invented for? If you do fall into that category, don’t lose hope. There is a solution. Below, we’ll show you how to fix bad AT&T Service at your office.

Last month, AT&T launched their 3G MicroCell. In their own words, it “acts like a mini cellular tower in your home or small business environment. It connects to AT&T's network via your existing broadband Internet service (such as DSL or cable) and is designed to support up to four simultaneous users in a home or small business setting. With AT&T 3G MicroCell, you receive improved cellular signal performance for both voice calls and cellular data applications like picture messaging and surfing the Web.”

AT&T ships the device. You plug it in and then activate the global positioning system. They require that you activate the device at the address in which you receive your AT&T bill. This has become frustrating for users who receive their billing statements at home but want to use the device in their office. Users have confirmed that the MicroCell does work and that they now get five bars of reception. The problem is that AT&T is charging $150 for the device itself and an additional $20 per month for their unlimited MicroCell calling plan. Should consumers pay additional charges for a service they’re already paying for? For some people, paying $150 is worth avoiding the headache. If you are one of those people then the MicroCell is for you. If not, you should consider switching providers.

New Domain Name .CO Available

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:02:10 -0500

Starting today, July 20th, the new domain names ending in .co are available to the public! This is a perfect time for all companies to snatch up their easy to remember domain name they haven't been able to get with .com.

Names are getting snatched up quick. If you use Go Daddy you can head to the following link as .co isn't available on their main page yet: http://www.godaddy.com/tlds/co-domain.aspx

Abandon Vista Now!

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:55:24 -0500

A lot of our clients running Windows Vista have misconceptions in regards to Windows 7. They know they despise Vista but they don't want to pay for Microsoft's latest and "greatest" operating system and lose all their programs, settings, documents, etc. Furthermore, they believe that if Vista is slow, this can't be that much better. Well there's good news and bad news. You will have to pay for 7 but you don't have to lose all that information!

Those running Vista can simply do what we call an in place upgrade. You simply purchase the upgrade version that matches what you currently have, pop in the DVD, click a few buttons and sit back for a half hour (or clean gutters and mow the lawn if you feel there must be some pain in the process). After it completes, you'll be on 7 and have all your old programs, settings, and files.

It is important to make sure you buy the right upgrade version. Vista Home Premium needs to be upgraded to 7 Home Premium and so on. You'll also want to match the 32 or 64 bit. Simply look at the Windows sticker on your computer. If it doesn't say 64 bit then it's 32 bit. If there's any confusion on which version you need just give us a call and we'll be happy to help you sort it out. Sorry XP users, you will have to do the full wipe and reinstall.

Other than the extra bells and whistles the first thing you'll notice is the performance boost. In fact, it's so dramatic that may be the only thing you'll even care about! Some laptops run twice as fast and that's no exageration. If you have the extra cash for the upgrade version, take the plunge and start enjoying your computer again!

Is Remote Backup Really Worth It?

Fri, 28 May 2010 11:42:52 -0500

How much is your data worth? Now that we're well into 2010 everyone knows that backups of all important data (company docs, resumes, pictures of the kids) is something that can't be overlooked. In fact, many have already had the disaster scenario and learned the hard way! But still, what's the right way to backup data for you or your company?

About a year ago we assisted a new customer with migrating to a new server. The old server was failing and ASAP couldn't be ASAP enough. The next day we received a call that the server wouldn't turn on. After taking a look we discovered the RAID mirror (two hard drives constantly copying) hadn't been working. To take it a step further, their nightly backups hadn't been running for nearly 6 months and nobody had checked the logs to notice. Data recovery was able to get most the data back but it was quite a large cost, and that's not counting the downtime.

Remote, online backup services have been around for a few years now. The features have been enhanced, prices dropped, and storage increased. But still, many customers aren't sold on the idea. If they can simply use a thumb drive or external hard drive then what's the value? To be honest, for some the thumb drive method is just fine. Pop the drive in your server or workstation at the end of the day and copy away. For those that have some technical skill this is a perfectly viable solution.

The biggest motivators for deciding on whether or not remote backups are a good fit should be the following:

- Compliance - If there's no offsite backup, are we safe for audits? Is the thumb drive backup encrypted so nobody gets all your data if it's lost or stolen?

- Clockwork - Can you make sure you have time and will complete the manual backups on a regular schedule? Furthermore, do you know how to check that the data that's backed up is actually good and not corrupted?

- Multiple Versions - Have you ever worked on a document and made changes that you had to roll back? Has a virus ever eaten away files and it was weeks before you noticed? Remote backups allow virtually unlimited revisions so you can roll back to the last good backup.

While remote backups do have a monthly fee it is important to know how much both your time and data are worth. In the business scenario, someone is on the clock running those backups. If they were to miss a backup and a tragedy happened, how much would it cost to recreate all the data?

If remote backup might be a good fit for you or your company take a look at the plans BCC has to offer.

Laptop Reliability: Asus and Toshiba Lead

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:22:00 -0600

In a recent report by a leading laptop warranty provider, it was found that Asus and Toshiba are the least likely to malfunction after both 2 and 3 years of service. After 2 years both came in right under 10% and at 3 years around 15.6%. In order from least to most hardware malfunctions are Asus, Toshiba, Sony, Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Gateway, and HP. On the far end, HP had a 25.6% failure rate after 3 years. Separately, it was shown that netbooks have a higher failure than standard or entry level laptops after only one year of service.

Google: Free Airport WiFi

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:07:00 -0600

Google has entered a deal to provide free WiFi to Airport travelers as a holidy time gift. The free access starts today, November 10th and will run through January 15th. Upon connecting users will be asked if they'd like their homepage set to Google and if they'd like to try the Google web browser, Chrome. "This is one of our holiday gifts to our users, and when you connect, we also hope you'll take the opportunity to try some of the latest Google products," a Google spokesperson commented.

Study Shows Web Collaboration Returns Big

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:12:00 -0500

A recent study by Cisco and Verizon showed that companies and government agencies utilizing IP based (Internet or Intranet) collaboration tools had a 4.2x return on collaboration. The companies polled used voice over IP (VoIP) phones, video conferencing, instant messaging (IM), and mobile collaboration. The study titled "Meetings Around the World II: Charting the Course of Advanced Collaboration" confirmed what many of our customers know already know. It showed that companies providing staff with strong, constantly available collaboration tools, provided better sales, research and development, and marketing. If your company is not yet using VoIP, IM, or any form of Groupware then the IT infrastructure isn't being fully utilized. BCC is partnered with companies like Cisco, Novell, and NotifyLink provide all of these solutions and more.

How To Recognize Scam Emails

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:19:00 -0500

Recently several customers had asked us about an email they received claiming to be from the IRS. The email said that they had unreported income and that they needed to click a link to provide important information. They were skeptical and rightly so. This is a tactic known as phishing. In case you're wondering, phishing is the act of luring someone on the Internet to provide personal information such as passwords and social security numbers. It's a method of 'social engineering'. As with scam emails you may have received in the past, the first tip off is when they ask for information without verifying they know who you are. By using a reputable company or organization name, such as the IRS, the scammers hope that you won't think twice and will provide whatever information requested. They simply ask you to click a link that takes you to a website which will be designed to look like the company they falsely represent. They will use the same logos and sometimes the exact same website design that the real company has. An easy trick to be able to detect if the email in question is a scam or not, is to mouse over the link. Simply put your mouse cursor over the link they want you to click on and then look at the bottom of your screen to see the entire link. If you don't see the actual link when doing a mouseover, right click and copy the link location. Then go to a document editor and right click and paste. This will show you the true link. Typically what the text in the email shows for the link, will be different than what the actual link is. For example: Text link in email: http://www.irs.gov/update Actual link revealed after mouse over: http://www.irs.americainfo.com/update While they look quite similar, there is a big difference in these two links. The text shown, and the actual link can be quite different. The first link would take you to the legitimate IRS website while the second (where the link actually goes) would send you to a part of some website called americainfo.com. This would be a compromised server that was taken over to collect personal information through the email scam. As always, when in doubt you should contact the company in question. If it's a company you've done business with before, call them directly with a known valid number and inquire about the questionable email. They'll be more than happy to clarify and also to know if someone is using their company name for a scam!

Intel & Microsoft Managed Services Push

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Rumors have been flying recently that Intel and Microsoft are going to be forming a partnership to push managed services. For Intel, they will push vPro technology which is integrated into certain desktops and laptops and allows system administrators and managed services providers (MSP) to remotely manage systems even when they are turned off. For Microsoft, they will more than likely be integrating vPro and MSP friendly features in the new Windows 7 operating system coming October 22nd. Intel's vPro technology has been around for a few years now but without wide adoption. The main reason for this is that while it is very thorough and helpful, it can be quite a task to get setup and requires higher cost systems. As we all know, higher cost is not very appealing to customers in this economy. This upcoming meeting of minds will more than likely be geared at making these two items more customer friendly. If Microsoft can show their product is easy to quickly manage and fix, they can win back some angry Vista customers. If Intel can slip more vPro into customer sites without large cost increases, they will gain MSP adoption and happier customers.

Microsoft Office 2010 Free?

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:13:00 -0500

With rumors floating around that Microsoft's new Office suite (yes, already) may be available for free, we thought it would be a good item of discussion. Microsoft has stated that a free version of their widely used collaboration suite will be available for use online. That's right, no software install required. As you can imagine, we tech skeptics went wild with theories on this. While cloud computing is a hot item right now there would certainly have to be a profit play for Microsoft here. Afterall, this isn't a non-profit open source group we're talking about. You can certainly expect that the free version will be missing some features that are key for businesses. Furthermore, it's doubtful business accounts will be eligible for the free version. You can also believe that there will be some ad revenue potential. I can imagine it now, the Office equivalent of Hotmail! Regardless of how the product is released it would be hard to picture it working in all browsers, other than Internet Explorer, at 100%. Take the Outlook Web Access platform with Exchange for example. While it will work in other browsers, it is not nearly as effective in it's crippled version. It's safe to say that business customers will still need to buy licenses (box or electronic) to receive the functionality expected. The better questions concerning Office 2010 might be, is another upgrade really needed?

Online Remote Backup Available

Sun, 10 May 2009 18:09:00 -0500

If you've been thinking about online remote backups but haven't pulled the trigger yet, there's no better time than now! Our remote backup solution offers a complete, no maintenance, no headache solution. Just tell us which files need backed up and then sit back and relax knowing all your precious files are secure. No more tape drives, swapping hard drives, and all that manual maintenance! Head to the [url=http://bluecollarcomp.com/remote-backup]Remote Backup[/url] section to learn more.

Microsoft SBS 2008 Not Quite There

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:25:00 -0600

The latest release of Microsoft's highly acclaimed Small Business Server is upon us and many of our customers are asking, "when do I upgrade?" The simple answer is to wait it out unless you already are in need of a new server. SBS 2008 does have many easier management features, nice wizards, great reports, and Exchange 2007. However it does have a sharp migration curve, needs a very beefy (only 64 bit) server, and still has it's bugs and quirks. Microsoft's official migration guide from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 is not as straightforward as it seems. Many items are misworded or simply nonexistent. Also of particular interest is that if you have SBS 2003 later than SP1 and never installed SP1, when you install SBS 2008 and begin migration it will tell you that SP1 is needed on the source server. Yes, even if you have a later release it stills looks for older. You can quickly hack the registry on the source server to get around this and it will move right along. However, as mentioned, definitely not straightforward. As always with any migration, plan, plan, plan, and then plan some more! Make sure all users versions of Outlook will work with Exchange 2007. Make sure all the software you plan to migrate is going to work on Windows Server 2008. Lastly, make sure everyone understands there will be road blocks. As with most Microsoft releases, if you can wait for one or two service packs, let everyone else hit the speed bumps first and then jump in.

OpenSUSE Linux 11.1 Almost Here!

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:22:00 -0600

The countdown to the latest release of the ever popular Linux distribution openSUSE is underway. The countdown timer below shows just how long! We're all excited as most of us use it as our operating system of choice. Give it a try. Afterall, it's free! [url=http://en.opensuse.org/OpenSUSE_11.1][img]http://counter.opensuse.org/11.1/small[/img][/url]