Need LOTS of external hard drive storage? The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk offers 4 TB!

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk (4TB)

PCMAG.COM posted a review of the new Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk (4TB) external hard drive that is worth reading if you are looking for a large storage solution.

They listed the pros as being “HUGE”, “numerous connection interfaces” and “low cost”. On the flip-side, they stated that the plastic construction was a negative, as it didn’t offer much in the way of protection.  Their rating is 4 out of 5, or “very good”.

Inside the case you will find a 7200 RPM drive for faster access than many smaller drives that are only 5400 RPM, and the USB 3.0 interface offers throughput of up to 5Gbps. PCMAG.COM tested the speed with a 1.2GB test folder, which took 15 seconds using USB 3.0 and 42 seconds using USB 2.0

If you are needing an external hard drive, the price may be right, at 299 retail, but a street price of 250 or less.  One of these drives could be used as a large file share for your home network, or to make backups of your computer system using the included software. They work equally as well with Microsoft Windows based computers or servers as they do with Apple Mac.

The drive is so popular that our supplier is sold out until the 28th when the next shipment comes in.

If you need one, order it today from us, and we should have it for you on the 29th.  Call us at 864.990.4748 for more information.

 

Big things come in small packages like the Lenovo ThinkCentre M58P ultra small business computer

Small in size - big in features

Who says a computer has to be big in size in order to be big in processing power?

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M58P series computer is compact, no, make that ULTRA compact, and designed with business in mind!

Weighing in at 9.2 lbs, and measuring 3.1″ tall, 10.8″ wide and 9.4″ deep, it takes up a LOT less space than a standard desktop, and it makes a great monitor stand, placing a typical wide-screen monitor at a very comfortable viewing angle for most PC users.

Despite the small size, never forget this computer is a true business computer, not a watered down consumer-grade system.

It comes loaded with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, so it can join your network without doing the Microsoft anytime upgrade. This is something that is overlooked by businesses on a budget very frequently. They purchase a computer from Staples, Best Buy or Office Depot because they can get it TODAY, and because it seems inexpensive. Problem is, it is inexpensive for a reason. It is a consumer computer, loaded with Windows Home Premium, and built with consumer grade components. The warranties sometimes are not even a year long. When they get it to their office, they have to purchase a Windows Anytime Upgrade in order to join their network, and waste precious time doing so.  Buying a business computer to begin with will eliminate this headache.

This Lenovo has a full three year warranty, which should attest to their belief that the M58P was built to last!

What’s under the hood?

The M58P is not built around an Atom processor, but instead a full Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 at 3 Ghz! While not an i3, the current mainstream business processor, the E8400 is very respectable in performance, especially those used in the typical business environment, such as word processing, spreadsheets, accounting packages. Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Business or Professional flies on this system.

It comes equipped with only 2GB of RAM, but that can be expanded to 8GB if there is a need. The hard drive is a 3.5″ Seagate 160 GB 7200RPM SATA unit, more than adequate for those wishing to place the computer on a company network and use the file server for the bulk of their storage if working with larger files. It also comes with a DVD-RAM/+/-R/+/-RW dual layer optical drive.

For graphics, the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 765MB graphics card is no slouch either. It would be lousy for playing the latest first person shooter, and I wouldn’t want to work with CAD graphics with it, but for the typical user in a business environment, it is outstanding.

The machine supports RAID 0, 1 if you are so inclined to utilize that feature with additional storage.

  • Gigabit Ethernet is included for fast network connectivity
  • One empty PCI slot available
  • Includes USB keyboard & Mous
  • 10 total USB ports (USB 2.0)
  • Audio line in/out
  • VGA out
  • DisplayPort out
  • Kensington security lock slot

Wanting to make a different or have “green initiatives” at your business?  This machine eats less power than the larger fullsize desktops – Compliance Certificates/Authority: Energy Star, RoHS, EPEAT Gold, GREENGUARD, Green Compliant.

My two cents regarding this computer are simple… If you have room for a larger computer, don’t mind the higher electric bills and can afford one, get a full size desktop.  You will ultimately have a better user experience in my humble opinion. The full size computers have standard power supplies in them, which allow for inexpensive replacement, and never have to be ordered, causing a day of downtime. Also, the full size computers are easy to expand in most cases, accepting full size PCI cards, additional hard drives and fans.  Speaking of fans, larger cases have more room for better cooling.

If you are a power user, working with video, graphics, or someone who wants to play graphic intensive games, this is not the computer for you.  If you want to use business apps and get some work done, you may have found your next computer.

If you want more information about the Lenovo M58P or any of the Lenovo line of computers, laptops or servers, please call us at 864.990.4748, we are an authorized Lenovo partner and can sell you one, or a one thousand! If your business is located in the Greenville or Upstate SC area, we can provide full support, service, installation and migration in addition to sales!

 

Spring Cleaning Time – For Your Data!

It’s that time again!  Time to do some spring cleaning!

This is where millions of people spend hours or even days cleaning up their computers.  Wedding mail, files and other data in an attempt to simplify their life and to determine what is to be kept and what should be deleted.

I suggest NOT cleaning. Sure, you can ORGANIZE, but why risk losing an important file?

External hard drives are relatively inexpensive and easy to connect, as in just plugging the thing into an available USB port in most cases. Then you can use the built-in archive functions in your Microsoft Outlook to move mail to a .pst file that can be saved to the USB drive.

I also advise using MULTIPLE means of archiving, whether it is a DVD disk and a USB drive, or two USB drives, just something that will be stored elsewhere. You could try one of the various cloud computing solutions as well, like DropBox… (not endorsing it, just saying, it could be a good resource for you)

With files stored on your system, say in the Documents folder, you can sort them by the date they were last modified and then move them to an external drive. Again, having data in more than one place is always desirable. You can never have too many backups in my humble opinion!

What do YOU do to archive your files, mail and other data or do you? Do you just delete it?

If you need help determining the best way to archive and backup your data in the Greenville or Upstate SC area, please call us at 864.990.4748

 

Even just allowing employees to install iTunes on their machines exposes the organization to Safari/WebKit vulnerabilities

Apple Products Not Hacker Proof?

 

An article over on CRN on March 15 entitled “Apple Safari Patch Shows Products Not Hacker Proof” is sure to get some people’s panties in a wad, but it does correctly post the facts, though it will fall short of educating the misled public that Apple products are not hacker proof.

This particular issue is that the WebKit browser engine used in Safari and Google’s Chrome has a multitude of “critical glitches”, 72 of them, that provides a large attack surface. Safari 5.1.4 has addressed these known vulnerabilities and you are encouraged to insure that update is in place.

One of the statements Marcus Carey with Rapid7 was quoted as saying in the above article is, “Even just allowing employees to install iTunes on their machines exposes the organization to Safari/WebKit vulnerabilities”. That was said in regards to the need to manage the use of Apple laptops, tablets and smartphones when connected to a corporate network.

If you require assistance with any computer or network security related issue, please call us at 864.990.4748 – we provide service & support to the Greenville & Upstate, SC area!

Top 7 Reasons to Upgrade to Symantec NetBackup 7.5

Symantec partner logo for Backup Exec, Anti-Virus, etc

 

The following is from Symantec’s Tech Tips and News:

 

Top 7 Reasons to Upgrade to Symantec NetBackupTM 7.5 

1. Unite physical and virtual environments
With three Best of VMworld awards and nearly two million customers protecting their critical physical and virtual data, Symantec is the industry leader in VMware and Hyper-V backup. Only Symantec offers V-Ray technology for true single file recovery, deduplication, and policy management from VMware, Hyper-V, or traditional physical servers in a single product. The Virtual Machine Intelligent Policy lets you automatically discover and protect new or moved virtual machines without changing your backup policies. And with its automatic load-balancing capabilities, backup performance is optimized and hosts run at peak performance.

2. Unify snapshots and backup
A snapshot without NetBackup is a snapshot with a difficult recovery. That’s why enterprises need NetBackupTM Replication Director. Easily recover hundreds of storage-level snapshots in minutes, or locate just the file you need with powerful granular recovery technology.

3. Break the backup window
Stop trying to keep pace with data growth. Outsmart it instead with Symantec NetBackupTM Accelerator and enjoy 100 times faster backups. With the NetBackup Accelerator, Symantec provides the recovery benefits of a full backup in the time it takes to do an incremental backup. Now you can implement a true tiered recovery strategy so you can protect the right data with the right backup, and still recover it with one product.

4. Fight infinite retention
Your backup is not an archive. NetBackup Search ends infinite retention by helping you identify what to archive and what to delete. NetBackup Search helps to automate this process, thus saving time and money as it finds the needed information, and it also helps to make sure that only relevant information is being held. Operational Restore is a simple yet powerful feature within the OpsCenter Web-based console that makes finding files fast and easy for restoration across the entire enterprise data protection environment.

5. Stop putting tapes on trucks
Modernize your disaster recovery strategy: Stop shipping tapes by truck and take to the Auto Image Replication (AIR). AIR eliminates volumes of physical assets and prioritizes files that can be sent over the network. AIR automatically manages the global replication of deduplicated backup images. This technology enables fast and scalable disaster recovery because backup images can be made available for immediate recovery from any domain or global location, with minimal storage footprint and bandwidth impact.

6. Eliminate complexity
Backup appliances from Symantec provide a plug-and-play solution that includes expandable storage and deduplication for physical and virtual systems that can be set up in minutes. Symantec makes scalable backup simple and predictable with easy setup and deployment, and the scalability you would expect from an enterprise-class solution. There is no investment in a large footprint. With Symantec, you purchase capacity as needed, and the processing and memory resources scale as storage increases, allowing for more consistent performance.

7. One product, any recovery
Backup can take many forms, but your recovery shouldn’t. Symantec NetBackup is the single solution for many recovery scenarios — tape, disk, snapshot or cloud — using physical, Hyper-V, or VMware technology. With NetBackup Bare Metal RestoreTM, you can easily recover any application or system to a virtual machine. Having the right hardware handy is no longer a requirement for recovery.
Replication Director simplifies backup and recovery, leveraging the speed of snapshots with existing NetBackup enterprise class data protection.

 

Homeland Secure IT is a Symantec partner providing sales, service and consultation for the entire Symantec line of products!  Call us today at 864.990.4748 for more information and find out how Symantec can help protect your business.

Avoid embarrassment for your business due to pornography raids by installing a firewall with filtering

Child pornography is bad for business

Every company would like to believe they have employees with strong moral values who would not jeopardize the reputation of the business by browsing for pornography, or even worse, child pornography.

The truth of the matter is, not only are there employees that will do just that, but also others who might have access to machines in the facility, such as cleaning personnel, children of employees, etc.

Being in the computer service and repair business, we’ve seen it all. From computers at a church infected with viruses and malware that required cleanup (due to browsing malicious porn sites), to lawyers who asked us how they could browse adult sites without becoming infected, and one businessman who became infected numerous times and made no excuses for his behavior.

In most cases, businesses have been lax in implementing any sort of policy, written or actually enforced. Some feel it could never happen to them, that the risks are too small to invest the time and money and that putting systems in place will be costly or cumbersome. Even after an incident has occurred, such as an infected computer on a client’s network due to what appears to be browsing for pornography according to the history, the client will gladly pay for the repair or service, but not entertain the idea of putting protection into place to prevent it from happening again.

Imagine police searching your business computers…

 

Here’s a story that might have crossed your screen. A 26 year old man in Maryland plead guilty to producing child pornography, and he used the computer at the gas station he was employed at to view and download the porn to a thumb drive and hard drive.  (examiner.com)

Here’s a story of a man who was arrested at a business after a tip lead to a search and turned up child pornography. (ninemsn.com.au)

An IT company turned in their client, a Florida real estate agent, after finding child pornography on the business computer he used. (winknews.com)

The above stories are just recent examples of how businesses can be brought into the spotlight due to indiscretion. Even if law enforcement is not involved, the mere act of browsing the websites that host this type of material is a waste of company resources, it endangers computers due to the large number of these sites that contain malicious software loaders.

Protect your business

 

  • To ensure that your business does not show up in the morning news, there are a few things you can do that might help.
  • Secure computers with passwords so that only authorized personnel can use them.
  • Avoid placing computers in secluded areas when possible.
  • Institute a written company policy that explicitly forbids illegal activities on business computers with defined consequences if discovered.
  • Use anti-virus software which includes a browsing component with built-in filters for adult sites, such as Trend Micro.
  • Consider a physical firewall or security appliance that provides filtering at the gateway.

If you would like to discuss how a firewall, filters or Trend Micro WFBS can help protect your business, please call us today at 864.990.4748.

We offer security, computer & network consultation, service, sales and support to Greenville and the Upstate of South Carolina. We are also partners with the biggest names in Security such as Symantec, Trend Micro, Cisco, WatchGuard, SonicWall, Zyxel and more.

 

WatchGuard – The only pure security vendor in the small to mid-enterprise market

 

After the announcement that SonicWall is being acquired by Dell yesterday, WatchGuard sent the following email to partners:

WatchGuard Technologies

Dell Buys SonicWall

Today, Dell announced it is acquiring SonicWall. What does this mean for you?

WatchGuard remains the only p
ure security vendor in the small to mid-enterprise market that remains 100% channel focused. There will be no change in our business model and we are committed to providing our resellers with the best products and support in the industry. With the SonicWall acquisition, you can expect to see disruption within the market at both the channel and end user levels. We believe this will be an opportunity for your business to grow and acquire new customers.

As a valued partner of WatchGuard, you have already entrusted your security to the experts who protect thousands of organizations globally. With WatchGuard’s Secure Partner Program, you gain a true security partner to help protect your IT assets, comply with regulations and reduce costs — without having to build your internal security expertise from scratch. Recognized as a leader by top industry analysts, WatchGuard brings a wealth of deep security expertise and global threat intelligence to your organization.

Why WatchGuard

  • 100-percent security/channel-focused
  • Best-in-Class technology
  • Gartner Magic Quadrant “Leader”
  • Info-Tech UTM “Champion” and Value Leader
  • Frost and Sullivan UTM Customer Value Award

Now, more than ever, WatchGuard is your security firewall of choice.

Homeland Secure IT your WatchGuard Partner and Reseller here in Greenville & Upstate, SC and beyond. We offer full service and installation as well as sales. Let us quote your next firewall!  864.990.4748 or info@homelandsecureit.com

SECURE IT ALERT: Using RDP / Remote Desktop Protocol on your Microsoft Windows desktop or server? Patch it – NOW!

Secure IT Alert Header

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Welcome to another exciting edition of Microsoft Patch Tuesday! This one is so exciting, it gets two posts dedicated to it.

This bunch of patches contains one very important fix for a flaw so serious, according to some security experts, you can’t patch it fast enough (read here). Critical update MS12-020.

Of course, this is the RDP flaw that is considered “Wormable”. It can allow unauthenticated access to your network through machines that are exposed to the internet with RDP enabled.

In short, let’s just say this – INSTALL THE PATCHES – NOW.

If you require assistance, do not hesitate to call upon us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Homeland Secure IT Alert Footer

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Dell to acquire SonicWALL

I received this email from SonicWALL today:

Dear John,
Today Dell® announced its intention to acquire SonicWALL®. The transaction is anticipated to close during Dell’s second quarter of its fiscal year. We are very excited about the opportunity this offers both SonicWALL and our partners. All of us at SonicWALL greatly value our partners. After all, our channel partners have made significant contributions to our growth. We believe that with the additional resources Dell can provide, we will accelerate our growth and expand our network security and data protection solutions. Dell has demonstrated a strong understanding of the extremely complex and rapidly changing security landscape. The acquisition of SonicWALL is the next step in Dell’s strategy to expand its security solutions capabilities for customers and simplify management of their IT infrastructure. We are pleased that SonicWALL will become Dell’s center of excellence for security appliance solutions.

Dell and SonicWALL both have award-winning channel programs and believe preserving the channel go-to-market strategy is a key element of our future success. As of today there are no changes to our relationship. Like Dell has with other acquisitions, they intend to offer SonicWALL’s existing channel partners an opportunity to join the Dell PartnerDirect Program, which should enable you to preserve the investments you made with SonicWALL. Dell plans to take the very best of the SonicWALL channel programs and model and combine it with PartnerDirect to bring the best to channel members. Dell’s PartnerDirect program is available in 148 countries with more than 100,000 partners worldwide.

We want to assure our partners that we are committed to your success and while we are excited, we don’t want this to be a distraction. During the closing process, it is important that we all maintain a business-as-usual mentality and focus on closing deals in the current quarter. You have our commitment that we will continue to communicate how the acquisition will affect the way you work with SonicWALL.

Want to blog and have a few hundred to few thousand viewers? Inquire within… #IT #technology #blog

Okay, so I was thinking, as the traffic on this blog increases, maybe I could help out someone who has something important to say by allowing them to guest blog.

Our traffic ranges from a minimum of 500 hits per post, to over 10,000 visits.  With around 50 people getting the blog daily in their inbox, and another 200+ pulling it up in their RSS readers daily.

I can be sure that when I post something, it results in some kind of interaction. An email, a visit to a link I put in the post, a tweet, facebook post or mention, or even a phone call.

Why would you want to blog here? Maybe you are a great writer and want to get your material in front of people’s eyes. Maybe you have a strong opinion about digital copyright. Maybe you review computers or IT related components. Maybe you are a manufacturer or inventor of some great networkable gadget.

If you think this is for you, then shoot us an email, or reply here.  The pay is lousy, but at least the hours stink!

We’re looking for fun, exciting, or enlightening…  If it is just hawking some generic widget, then fuggetaboutit…  Let’s hear how you think 802.11* wireless networking can be used to let your toaster know where it is in the house, so if it will disconnect automatically if it is placed in the bathroom. (you probably shouldn’t be making breakfast while showering anyway).  Tell us why generic anti-virus shouldn’t be used in a business, or why your network was inadequate due to poor planning of the infrastructure.

People want to hear about your successes and your failures. Your cool products, and your not-so-cool products.

Your original material will get a small viewership, your portfolio will get fatter, and maybe, just maybe, someone will be the wiser for reading it.

There is no compensation involved, don’t ask. This blog is a love affair with rambling, nothing more. It is not monetized by me, nor will it ever be. No ads, no sold links.