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Cell Phone Booster Installation Guide

Cell Phone Booster Installation Guide

Guides /

Cell phones have become a necessity in these trying times. They are our main form of communication for work, contacting family, or watching videos. Many people often do not have an excellent connection to the cell network. It is a common problem even if you have a well-known carrier as your cell provider. The issue usually involves: Not being close enough to a tower. Being in a building that blocks a lot of the cell signal. Having multiple towers around you that cause interference. Suppose you live or work in an area where it is hard to get a good signal for your phone. You might go about your daily activities just dealing with this connection issue, including dropped calls or reduced voice quality. A cell phone booster is an excellent way of fixing these connection issues. They take the existing signal and boost it while transmitting the signal out in key places so your phone can have a better connection. Before You Begin Before getting a cell phone booster, consider some of the following questions: Do I have no signal where I need my cell phone? Do I often need my cell phone to complete tasks? Do most of my cell phone interactions get interrupted because of signal loss? Do I have a better signal outside than I do inside? Is it possible that the building blocks the cell signal from reaching my phone? Is the distance to the closest cell tower possibly what causes my signal loss? Chances are, if you say yes to some or all of these questions, then you could benefit from a cell phone booster. Before you start, you must have at least 1 bar of usable signal outside or on the roof of the building you are installing the booster on. What do we mean by usable? You need to be able to place a call and use data reliably. When running a speed test, you should have decent upload and download speeds. Cell boosters bring signals inside from the outdoors. If the signal outside your building is not usable, the booster will not help. Choosing Your Indoor Cell Phone Booster Antenna When you purchase a cell booster, you will need to decide which types of antennas you will need for both inside and outside the premises. The most common types of indoor antenna are dome (omni-directional) and panel (directional) antennas. The dome antenna will broadcast the signal in all directions, while the panel antenna will broadcast in only one direction. Panel antennas will typically have a stronger signal because they broadcast in one direction. Because of their directionality they are better at penetrating internal walls and floors. They are typically mounted on walls and are good for spot locations. Dome antennas will broadcast the signal 360 degrees and may cover a larger area, but with a weaker signal due to their omni-directional broadcast. They are typically mounted on ceilings, but if you have very high ceilings (20 feet or higher) the signal may be reduced. Depending on the building and the area you are trying to increase your cell reception will determine which antenna you use. You may even wish to use a combination of the two. Choosing Your Outdoor Cell Phone Booster Antenna Much like the indoor antennas, you will need to choose an omni-directional antenna or directional antenna for your outdoor antenna. This antenna is responsible for receiving the signal outside the building and sending to your amplifier. An omni-directional antenna will receive cellular signals in a 360-degree window. They are great for accessing nearby cell towers and if you need to boost the signal of multiple different cell phone carriers. The directional antenna will only receive cellular signals from the general direction it is pointed. Their advantage is boosting signals from far off cellular towers or when you are dealing with weaker signals. Please note if you are using an omni-directional antenna, the antenna could become overburdened, especially within bustling urban areas. Because these antennas can pick up multiple cellular carriers, you may receive interference from multiple towers or have issues locking onto the signal of a specific tower causing dropped calls. A directional antenna is harder to set up, but they have an easier time locking onto a specific tower. On the down-side, they usually support 1 to 2 cellular providers and are limited by their angle of field due to their directional signal. Beginning Your Cell Phone Booster Installation After you have decided to purchase a cell phone booster, you will receive your booster, and then it is time for the install. The install will take some time and maybe a little more hands-on than you may like. You might decide to have someone install it for you. Then again, if you have the time and patience, you may want to install it yourself. Let us begin with the inventory of your equipment. When you receive your booster, you will typically be given: Cables Antenna Amplifier Grounding Cable Adapters Transmitters Installation Instructions The instructions included with the equipment should have a list of all the items that are in your installation package. This would also be an excellent time to read over the instructions and verify all parts are included. Pay close attention to the instructions on where to place the outdoor antenna. The outdoor antenna will receive the signal and send it to the amplifier. Before installing your booster, plan out where to place the inside antennas. Please pay close attention to how far apart they will be positioned and how much material is between them. If the antenna is too close, then there will be interference. There will not be as much coverage if they are too far apart either. If thick walls block the signal, the antenna range might not reach the surrounding rooms. This will also cause issues with coverage. Once you plan the layout for your inside antennas, we can begin finding the best position for your outside antenna. The process

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Microsoft-Exchange-Vulnerability

Exchange Server Vulnerability

Informative /

Microsoft Exchange Server Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Microsoft has recently notified users of multiple vulnerabilities for on-premises Exchange Servers that are being exploited by a nation-state affiliated group. These vulnerabilities exist in on-premises Exchange Servers 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019.  Exchange Online is not affected. Microsoft highly recommends that you take immediate action to apply the patches for any on-premises Exchange deployments you have or are managing. The first priority being servers which are accessible from the Internet (e.g., servers publishing Outlook on the web/OWA and ECP). Microsoft attributes the attacks to a group it calls Hafnium, which it says is a state-sponsored threat actor that operates from China. The attackers used the bugs in on-premise Exchange servers to access email accounts of users. The four bugs are being tracked as CVE-2021-26855, CVE-2021-26857, CVE-2021-26858, and CVE-2021-27065. Huntress has challenged Microsoft’s claim that Chinese hackers executed “limited and targeted attacks” against on-premises Exchange servers, arguing the scope of compromise is fairly widespread. The Ellicott City, Md.-based managed detection and response (MDR) vendor said roughly 400 of the 2,000 Exchange servers the company has checked are susceptible to the zero-day vulnerabilities being exploited by Chinese hacking group Hafnium, with an additionally 100 servers potentially vulnerable. In addition, Huntress said nearly 200 of its partners’ servers have received malicious web shell payloads. Patching Exchange Server Vulnerabilities To patch these vulnerabilities, you should move to the latest Exchange Cumulative Updates and then install the relevant security updates on each Exchange Server. You can use the Exchange Server Health Checker script, which can be downloaded from GitHub (use the latest release). Running this script will tell you if you are behind on your on-premises Exchange Server updates (note that the script does not support Exchange Server 2010). We also recommend that your security team assess whether or not the vulnerabilities were being exploited by using the Indicators of Compromise we shared here. What is Microsoft Exchange Server? Microsoft Exchange Server is a email and calendaring server operating system developed by Microsoft. It’s used primarily by businesses to run email, calendars, contacts, and scheduling. It’s an alternate option to Microsoft’s cloud platform, Microsoft 365. Many larger businesses find that it is cheaper to run their own Exchange Server than pay the monthly costs associated with Microsoft 365. Microsoft Exchange Server’s first iteration was was called Exchange Server 4.0 and was released in 1996. The latest version is Exchange Server 2019 and was released in 2018. Exchange Patching Assistance If you need assistance patching these vulnerabilities, please reach out to our network support team. Pennyrile Technologies can also assist keeping your computers and servers updated along with migrating from on-premises Exchange Servers to Exchange Online and Office 365.

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Adobe Flash Player End of Life

Adobe Flash End of Life

Informative /

First announced back in July 2017, Adobe Flash has finally reached its’ end of life. As of December 31, 2020 downloads of the Flash player, as well as (presumably) any other Flash-related tools, will be removed from the Adobe websites. As of January 12, 2021, Adobe Flash Player will be disabled by default as well. Any versions that are older than KB4561600 (which was released in June 2020) will be blocked and no longer function on their own. With Flash support ending, it will begin disappearing from web browsers, websites, and applications. Even though many browsers will continue to disable Flash Player after the EOL Date and Adobe will block Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021, Adobe began taking steps to help further secure users’ systems by prompting them to uninstall Flash Player starting in October 2020. To help secure users’ systems, Adobe strongly recommends removing unused components promptly.  However, enterprise administrators can suppress Flash Player uninstall prompts by setting preferences available in the Flash Player configuration files.  If you choose to suppress the uninstall prompt, this is entirely at the user’s own risk. Full details on the uninstall prompt settings and uninstalling Flash Player can be found in the Flash Player Administration guide (see ‘Suppressing EOL Uninstall Prompts’ section). For more information, you can view Adobe’s Flash Player EOL Enterprise Information Page.

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Managed Business Antivirus

5 Reasons to Make the Switch to Managed Antivirus for Your Business

Information Technology /

Antivirus for home and for business serve the same purposes: they prevent viruses, malware, and other forms of cyber threats from deleting your data and causing damage. However, when it comes to your business, there’s often much more at stake. Below are five reasons to consider making the switch to managed antivirus and even managed antispam for your business as soon as possible. #1 – There’s No Weak Link With traditional antivirus installed on every machine, individual employees are responsible for ensuring updates go through in a timely manner. All it takes is one missed update and your entire network is at risk – much like a weak link in a chain. When you choose managed antivirus instead, your employees are no longer individually responsible for the security of your network. Updates occur system-wide, routinely, and automatically. #2 – It Can’t Be Turned Off Another common issue with traditional antivirus installed on each machine is its tendency to slow things down. Because of the “hiccups,” employees will often turn off the antivirus while running multiple spreadsheets (or performing other RAM-heavy duties) and forget to turn it back on. This is another weak link, and it can wreak havoc on your network. Managed antivirus cannot be turned off at the user level. #3 – It Catches What Your Employees Don’t Today’s scammers and cyber criminals are getting better and better at what they do. There’s a good chance you’ve trained your employees in the best way to spot a phishing or spam email, but as the years go by, it’s getting more difficult to tell what’s real and what isn’t. Managed antivirus catches potentially harmful emails even when your employees cannot. #4 – Responses are Immediate If you accidentally opened an email that contained a virus, would you know it by looking? Many people wouldn’t, and by the time they figured it out, the damage could be extensive. When you choose managed antivirus, the response to any issues that slip through the cracks is immediate. In the event viruses or malware slip through your defenses, your provider will jump into action – 24 hours a day – to remove the threat. #5 – It’s More Cost Effective Licensing for individual machines and users can become quite expensive, even for small businesses with only a handful of machines. Managed antivirus tends to cost much less, and the value it provides is unbeatable. For a flat monthly fee, companies gain access to antivirus for all of their machines that is easily scalable, regularly (and automatically) updated, and free from flaws created in an unmanaged antivirus setting. Managed antivirus is a fantastic choice for businesses of all sizes. It solves many common problems, and in the event that something does go wrong, there’s a team of experts behind you to find an immediate solution. The best part is that in many cases, it’s far more cost-effective than individual licenses, but it comes with much more than just the software. A network security analysis can help you determine whether managed antivirus or other security measures are required.

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Speed-Up-Windows-10-Part-Two

Speed Up Your PC With These 4 Tips

Guides /

You probably don’t need us to tell you that there are a lot of things that can slow down your PC. If you’re looking to improve the overall speed of your machine, we’re here to continue some useful tips to help you along. Earlier, I began a series of quick tips to speeding up your computer.  In that article, we covered Computer Settings, Startup Programs, Disk Cleanup, and Adware & Bloatware removal. This time we are going to continue with a few more tips on increasing the performance of your computer. For those who did not read the first article but would like to, check out 4 Quick Tips To Speed Up Your PC. Defragment Your Hard Drive Lets talk about organization. Your hard drive must organize the data that is put on it.  With more data comes more responsibility.  So, to help your hard drive stay organized it is recommended that you defragment your hard drive regularly. Defragmentation involves moving all of the files on your hard disk so that the operating system can read them more quickly and efficiently. Usually this is done automatically by your operating system but sometimes it can be missed. (Note:  If you have a SSD then it is not recommended to Defragment your Drive because it could shorten its’ life.) To Defragment your hard drive 1:  Go to the Start menu. 2:  Scroll down to Windows Administrative Tools and click. 3:  Select and Click Defragment and Optimize Drives. 4:  Select the drive you would like to Defragment and Click Optimize. 5:  Wait for Defrag to complete its work. Adjust PC Power Settings After defragmenting, your computer might still be slow. This is a good opportunity to change your power settings. There are 3 types of default power settings:  Power Saver, Balanced, and High-Performance. Having your computer set to Power Saver saves on power usage but at the cost of performance, which can slow down your computer. The Balanced setting is the in between for the other two settings.  Lastly, the High-Performance setting uses more power to get the best performance. The later of the settings will eat up the power of your battery provided you are using a Laptop. To change your Power settings 1:  Go to the Start Menu 2:  Click on Windows System and Select Control Panel. 3:  In Control Panel Click on System and Security 4:  Click on Power Options. 5:  Select the High-Performance. (Note:  If you have Control Panel set to Large or Small Icons then click on Power Settings.) Turn Off File Indexing Now that you have set your power settings to your liking, lets move on to Indexing.  Indexing allows you to use the Windows 10 search function more efficiently.  It does this by indexing the files on your drives. The Indexing Service uses CPU and RAM to search for a file that you want to find.  This can slow down a computer that is already taxed on CPU and RAM usage. By turning file indexing off, it can help speed up your PC. To shut down the Windows Indexing Service 1:  Go to the Start Menu and scroll to Windows Administrative tools and click, then select and click Services. 2:  When the Services Window opens, scroll down to “Windows Search” and Right click on it and select Properties. 3:  In the Properties window click on “Stop”. The Windows Search service is the active Indexing service. Stopping this service will free up resources at the cost of being able to search quickly for your files or apps. (NOTE:  While performing actions within Services, you must have administrator privileges to make changes) Alternatively, you can turn off the file indexing for specific folders and locations by going to Start > Settings > Control Panel. Then select System and Maintenance. Click the Advanced tab, and under Performance Options, uncheck Index Now. Adjust Paging File The next item we will look at is the system paging file. This is often called Virtual Memory. This is space on your drive, usually on the C: Drive, where data can be stored that was not able to fit on the RAM of your machine. Usually, windows automatically manages this for you but sometimes you do have to take matters into your own hands. If you do not feel comfortable with changing the paging file, I recommend reading more about it and making your best judgement. To Adjust the Windows Paging File 1:  Click on File Explorer, which is the folder icon, on your task bar at the bottom of the screen.   2:  While in File Explorer, Right click on “This PC” and select “Properties”. 3:  In the System Window, Click on Advanced Settings. 4:  In System Properties, Click Settings under Visual Performance. 5:  At the top of the Performance Options window, click the Advanced Tab and click Change under Virtual Memory. 6:  In this window, you will need to know how much RAM you have in your computer.  Below is the recommended setting for a computer with 8GB of RAM.  To figure out how much Virtual Memory you will need, Multiply the amount of Ram you have by 1024.  Then Multiply that with 1.5 and 4.  They will both be the minimum and Maximum amount of Virtual Memory you will want. Here is how I figured the Initial Size and Maximum Size. I have 8GB of RAM 1GB of RAM is 1024 You would want at least 1.5 times the amount of Virtual Memory for your Initial Memory and 4 times that for your Maximum. 8GB Multiplied by 1024 would be 8194 8194 Multiplied by 1.5 would be 12280 8194 Multiplied by 4 would be 32768 I hope this Article helps to speed up your PC.  Please keep a look out for future articles where I will telling you how to set up Ready Boost and a couple of other ways you can potentially speed up your computer. Feeling intimidated by these steps? We also perform Computer Maintenance & PC Repair

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Ransomware-Attack-Prevention

5 Tips for Avoiding Ransomware

Information Technology, IT Support, Ransomware /

What is Ransomware? Ransomware is a piece of malicious software that infects a computer or device and encrypts the data making it inaccessible to the user. A ransom is then demanded to regain access to the victim’s data. A time limit to pay the ransom is often imposed (usually 24-48 hours) or you risk losing access to the encrypted data forever. If a backup is unavailable or the backups were encrypted too, the victim is faced with paying the ransom to recover personal files. Payment must be paid in Bitcoin and the ransom cost can be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. Once the ransom is paid, the attacker will send a private key that will allow you to decrypt the data. Tips for Avoiding Ransomware Back up your data – This won’t prevent you from being infected with ransomware, but this is one of the most important things you can do in the fight against ransomware. Regularly backup your computer and data to an external hard drive and disconnect it from the computer. This would be considered an offline backup. Even better, backup your computer off-site with a cloud backup service so that even if you suffer a ransomware attack, you can easily restore all your data and not have to worry about paying a ransom. Keep your software updated – Make sure to regularly update your operating system and the software installed on it. Ransomware attacks can take advantage of known bugs and vulnerabilities to attack and infect devices. Watch for suspicious emails and links – Be careful clicking on any links or attachments that are emailed to you. The biggest vector for ransomware infections are emails. Even if you know the sender, be mindful the their email could be compromised and a hacker is using it to infect others. If you weren’t expecting a file or link or the wording in the email seems off, it doesn’t hurt to double check with the sender. Use a anti-spam or email security service that can help block emails before they reach your inbox. Use antivirus software – Use a reputable antivirus software and keep it updated. There are some great free antivirus softwares out there along with paid ones. If you go with a paid solution, don’t let the subscription lapse so that you stop getting security updates. DNS filtering – Using a DNS filter like OpenDNS or Cisco Umbrella can help block malicious websites, content, and ransomware. By using a large database of blacklisted sites, the filter will check against the database when resolving a DNS query and then prevent the content from loading if it is blacklisted. Dealing with a Ransomware Attack If you are dealing with a ransomware attack now, here are some tips to handle it going forward. Isolate the infected machines – Try to prevent the infection from spreading any further by isolating all infected machines. Turn off the machines and disconnect them from the network by unplugging the Ethernet cable and disabling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and any other networking capabilities. Speed is of the essence and the longer a machine is turned on and connected to the network, the longer it has do encrypt your files and spread to other machines. Identify the type of infection – Try to identify the type of ransomware that is being used in the attack. It can help you understand how it spreads, the types of files it encrypts and possibly how it can be removed without paying a ransom to the attacker. Change login credentials – Ransomware can spread rapidly by gathering IP addresses and credentials. If the attacker manages to compromise administrative credentials they can move laterally around networks, encrypt files and wipe out backups in the process. To ensure your system is secured and to prevent attackers from thwarting your recovery efforts, you should immediately change all admin and user credentials. Assess the damages – To determine which devices have been infected, check for recently encrypted files with strange file extension names and look for reports of odd file names or users having trouble opening files. You should try to create a comprehensive list of all affected systems and data, including network storage devices, cloud storage, external hard drive storage (including USB thumb drives), laptops, etc. Notify the authorities – Once the ransomware has been contained, you will want to report the attack to the authorities. The FBI urges ransomware victims to report ransomware incidents regardless of the outcome. Victim reporting provides law enforcement with a greater understanding of the threat, provides justification for ransomware investigations, and contributes relevant information to ongoing ransomware cases. Evaluate recovery options – Ideally, you will have backups you can restore from. The quickest and easiest way to recover from a ransomware attack is to restore your systems from a clean backup. Alternatively, you may be able to remove the malware otherwise you will need to wipe all infected systems and reinstall. Performing a complete wipe of all storage devices and reinstalling everything from scratch will ensure that no remnants of the malware linger. If you need assistance dealing with a ransomware attack, Pennyrile Technologies can help! Contact us for a free consult today!

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Cybersecurity Importance

How Much do SMBs Really Spend on Cybersecurity?

Information Technology, Informative /

Cybersecurity. If your business is just getting started, or if you’re considering expanding, it’s important to think about what you can do to ensure that your data – and your client or customer data – remains secure. Below, you can learn more about how much SMBs really spend on cybersecurity. This can help you make better choices for your own business’s needs. SMBs and the Cybersecurity Risk Many small to medium business owners make the mistake of believing that because their companies are not as large as some of their competitors’, they are simply not at risk for cyber threats. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Numerous reports show that about half of all cyber attacks aimed at business are aimed at small business and 68% of all small businesses experienced a cyber attack in the last 12 months. Because of this, every business needs to budget for cyber security. Viruses, phishing scams, and ransomware are all very real threats regardless of your company’s size, age, or revenue. How Much Do SMBs Really Spend on Cybersecurity? For most companies, cyber security budgeting is part of IT budgeting; managed IT service providers often offer security in the form of antivirus programs and even email security as part of their packages. On average, SMBs spend 5% to 20% of their total IT spend on cybersecurity. This means that if your company spends $5000 a month on IT, you should expect to spend $250 to $1000 on cybersecurity alone. Whether you should spend 5% or 20% depends on a wide variety of factors, too. These include: Business Size – A company with two employees would need to spend less on cyber security than one with 2000 employees. Antivirus and anti-malware software, for example, is typically priced by the user, and more users command a higher price. Industry – Your industry can also play an important role in your budgeting. If you collect, manage, and share sensitive financial information, then you are a bigger cyber crime target than a company that collects very little information. Requests from Customers or Stakeholders – Finally, if your stakeholders or your customers have a desire for better protections, it is worth your time and money to explore these. How Much does a Data Breach Cost an SMB? Like many SMB owners, you may feel that $250 to $1000 per month is a lot of money to spend on cybersecurity. However, rather than viewing it as an additional expense, it’s better to see it as an insurance policy against a data breach, loss of productivity, or infrastructure. IBM’s 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report shows that, on average, data breaches cost companies $3.92 million. Small business breaches can cost an average of $120,000 to $1.4 million – and many don’t survive unfortunately. A data breach can not only drain your bank account, but it can also close your business. If you still view cybersecurity measures as a luxury rather than a necessity, now is the time to reconsider. No matter how small your business might be, no matter what industry it’s in, and no matter how careful you and your employees might be, if you collect, manage, or share customers’ information, you can be a target. Need Help with Cybersecurity? If your business needs help with cybersecurity, call or contact Pennyrile Technologies today. We can secure your network infrastructure and devices, protect against spam and phishing attacks, train employees, monitor the dark web for leaked or stolen information and more. You can also learn more about our cybersecurity services here. Don’t wait until you’ve already had a breach before considering cybersecurity for your business!

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Security Cameras

License Plate Recognition Cameras

Information Technology, IT Support /

License Plate Capture Cameras, License Plate Recognition, LPR Camera What are license plate recognition cameras? License plate recognition, sometimes shortened to LPR, is a feature on some cameras that allow them to detect, read, and store video of a car’s license plate. They are used primarily for traffic monitoring in parking lots, gated security entrances, drive-throughs, parking garages, and toll roads and allow the camera to capture a license plate number which is then stored in a database. They are usually mounted on street poles, streetlights, highway overpasses, or affixed to a building’s structure. Planning your LPR Camera Installation One of the first things to consider when installing a license plate camera is where it will be mounted. LPR cameras are designed to focus on a single lane of traffic with the sole purpose of recording license plates. Because of their design, they are not good at capturing wide-angles or larger areas. We recommend having additional cameras that will be used to capture details such as passengers, make, model, and color of a vehicle. With that in mind, we recommend installing the camera in a location facing a choke point or area where cars and vehicles are forced to move through. The camera will need to be facing the rear or front of vehicles so they have a clear view of the license plates. We recommend installing the camera somewhere between 6-18 feet from the ground and no more than a 30 degree angle between the camera and the license plate you are trying to read. If the camera is not mounted properly, it will have issues providing a clear view of the plate and could prevent you from capturing the license plate. For that reason, cameras facing directly head-on to oncoming and outgoing vehicles will have the best chance at capturing license plates. Lighting should also be taken into consideration when planning the install. Well lit areas may have lower hardware requirements than lower lit areas. A good LPR camera however, will be able deal with low-light areas using infrared. License Plate Camera Hardware Recommendations IP Rating – Any LPR camera you purchase should be rated at least IP65. This means the camera will offer complete protection from dust and can withstand at least low pressure bursts of water. A higher second digit rating will provide even better water protection. For instance, IP67 will provide temporary protection against a camera fully immersed in water for 30 minutes, basically making it weatherproof. Resolution – A resolution of at least 2MP will work for most installations. A higher megapixel count will give larger and clearer images if needed. Lens – A motorized lens will allow you to control the focus and zoom of the camera without directly handling the camera. This makes it easier to adjust the field of view (FoV) and focus of the camera when trying to get the optimal view. SD Card – We recommend using an NVR instead of an SD to store images and data, but they can still be used as a backup in case of an NVR failure. Warranty – Look for cameras with at least a 3 year hardware warranty. Misc – There are many more hardware options like shutter speed, wide dynamic range, and video compression standard, but will vary depending on your needs. For instance, vehicles traveling at 5 MPH vs 60 MPH will have different exposure and shutter needs. We recommend talking with an license plate recognition camera installer to see what your specific needs are. License Plate Camera Installer If you are looking to install an LPR camera, specialized camera, or security cameras in general, call us at (931) 771-1149 to go over your needs and schedule a site survey for a quote. We routinely install cameras for big box stores and retail, restaurants, warehouses, hotels, and manufacturers in Western Kentucky & Tennessee.

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Guide to Speed Up Windows 10

4 Quick Tips To Speed Up Your PC

Guides /

For most people regular maintenance on their PC is far from their mind. So we’ve put together 4 quick tips that can help speed up your Windows 10 PC. We hope to followup with some additional tips in the future including some more advanced guides. Change Computer Settings to Best Performance You can change the visual effects of your computer so it doesn’t have to spend as much resources on rendering and animating windows. To do this: 1. Go to File Explorer – Click the folder on your task bar at the bottom of your desktop. You can also type in “File Explorer” in the search menu. 2. Right click on This PC on the left side of the window. 3. On the upper left side of the screen, left click on Advanced System Settings. 4. In the popup window check to make sure the Advanced Tab is selected and click the Settings button under Performance. 5. Choose between the Options listed under the Visual Effects Tab.  You can Adjust for best appearance, Adjust for best performance, or Customize the changes yourself by selecting what you want to disable in the box below the Custom bullet. If you have an older or slower PC, we recommend choosing Adjust for best performance. Disable Startup Programs You might have issues when you first turn on your computer.  You sit and type in your login information and it takes forever for you to be able to do anything on your desktop. You might have more than a couple of programs that are starting up that you don’t necessarily need right away. The more programs that run at startup, the longer it will take for your PC to fully boot. To check this: 1. On your keyboard, press the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys – this will bring up a menu. 2. Click on Task Manager. 3. At the top of the window you will see Tabs.  Click on the one that says Startup. 4. After you have clicked on startup, you will see a list of programs that begin to run when your computer starts.  These can be disabled by selecting them and clicking the Disable button on the bottom of the screen. Try disabling items that have Medium to High impact. Note: If you make a mistake you can always click the button again to enable the program again. Run Disk Cleanup When you are done with clearing up the startup programs, you can try running disk cleanup next. Having a full hard drive could cause your computer to work harder to locate programs and files.  Let us clear out a little space so you can ease the burden on you computer and recover some disk space. 1. Click on the Start Menu, scroll down and select and click Windows Administrative Tools, then click on Disk Cleanup. 2. If you have more than one drive, you may be prompted to choose which one to cleanup. Choose the C: drive if prompted. You will then be prompted with a box where you can select what types of files you would like to delete. Click on all options except for Downloads, unless you are OK with Disk Cleanup deleting all files in your Downloads folder. Clicking on any of the options will also give you a brief description of the contents. When you are satisfied with your selections, you can click OK at the bottom of the Dialog Box and you will get a prompt that will ask if you are sure you want to delete the files. When you are ready you then click on Delete Files. 3. (Optional) If you would like to recover even more space, you can click on the Clean up system files button at the bottom of the Disk Cleanup box and you will get another box with more options including Windows Update Cleanup, Windows Upgrade Log Files, and more.   Remove Adware & Bloatware Adware and bloatware aren’t always bad. In fact, they can actually help you by offering free content like news, weather reports, and other helpful information. However, these applications also tend to slow down your machine, and you may have trouble removing them. Also, when installing a program, a software vendor may sneak in bloatware or adware which can cause the computer to slow down or cause problems with the operating system. If this happens, then you should consider using a program that can clean up your system. Here are some tips that will help you identify what’s causing the slowdown. First, look at the startup process. You’ll notice that your operating system loads a lot of different programs automatically. For example, Windows starts with the browser, but it also launches the mail client, the calculator, and the clock. You need to make sure that you don’t load any unnecessary software. To do this, you should go into the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, then click on “Uninstall a Program.” If your PC is slowed because of unwanted software or bloatware, and the normal Add\Remove programs method isn’t helping, then it may be time to use a third-party software. Malwarebytes can be a useful tool in finding and removing such software. It’s free for personal use too! You can download Malwarebytes here. 1. Proceed to download and install Malwarebytes. 2. When prompted to Buy Now, Activate License, or Maybe Later, choose Maybe Later and then Get Started. If you want the premium version of Malwarebytes, you can choose to Buy Now if you prefer. The primary difference between the Premium and Non-Premium version is the Premium can run automatic updates, scans and removals for you. The free version requires you to start a scan manually. You will also be given a free 14-Day trial of the software if this is the first time you are installing it. 3. Click Scan on the Malwarebytes home screen. 4. Depending on the speed of your PC, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

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Backup and Disaster Recovery

How Disaster Recovery as a Service Provides Peace of Mind for Small Businesses

IT Support /

If you sit down and think about all the things that might cause your business harm, data loss should be at the very top of that list. Very few businesses in today’s day and age still operate on a pen-and-paper model and have instead shifted into the digital realm. Though this affords a great deal of convenience, things like cyber crime, natural disasters, and even hardware failure can mean the end of the line for your company. Disaster recovery as a service can change this. The Three Biggest Disasters Facing Small Business When it comes to unexpected data loss that could potentially close your business forever, there are three ways it could happen: Natural Disasters: The NOAA, or US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reports that there have been 10 or more natural disasters causing $1 billion or more in damage every year for the last five years. They also say these disasters are becoming more and more frequent. Hardware Failure: Servers and computers – much like cars and home appliances – can fail, and when they do, it’s like the data inside never even existed. Though it may be possible to recover some data, other data may be lost forever. Cybercrime: Small businesses are targeted by cyber criminals just as frequently as large enterprises by things like spam, phishing, and even ransomware, among others. Cyber crime can completely wipe out your data and leave your company dead in the water. Disaster Recovery vs. Backup Many small businesses currently pay for what is known as BaaS, or Backup as a Service. This essentially means that the companies’ data is backed up regularly and stored in a separate location. If a natural disaster, hardware failure, or cyber crime should occur, the data is not lost forever. This is incredibly beneficial, but it often provides business owners with a false sense of security. There’s no provisioning for network or computer needs with BaaS, which means that even though the data is safe, it cannot be accessed remotely, and this creates a significant amount of downtime. DRaaS, or Disaster Recovery as a Service, solves this issue. It does include provisioning for network and computer needs. To better understand this, imagine that your company’s headquarters – including the onsite server – burned to the ground. Your BaaS provider has your servers and data saved and backed up on a server elsewhere, but it’s just a backup, so until you put a new server into place, your data and infrastructure is effectively useless. A DRaaS provider, on the other hand, allows your business to stay up and running with very little downtime (if any at all) thanks to offsite data redundancy. For many small businesses who are still trying to build a reputation and make a name for themselves, several days or even hours of downtime can be devastating. It is important for small business owners to maintain their online presence through thick and thin, even in the midst of a natural disaster. This is exactly what disaster recovery as a service was designed to do; it provides small business owners with unprecedented peace of mind by ensuring things continue to run with minimal downtime – even in the midst of a true disaster.

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