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Additional security cameras at Homeland Secure IT

PTZ or Pan Tilt Zoom camera

PTZ or Pan Tilt Zoom cameras can change your outlook on life!

We have been using Panasonic network cameras which feature PTZ, or Pan, Tilt and Zoom here at Homeland since we moved into this building. They are awesome little cameras and I even use them at our home because they will email me when a car or person is in our driveway or front door, etc.

Earlier this week, I ordered a new system to install at our office. Not network cameras this time, but 8 channels of standard CCTV goodness with 600 hours of real-time recording time on the DVR (Digital Video Recorder). They *are* reachable via the internet using Microsoft Internet Explorer or a 3g phone like a Windows Mobile, and thanks to our great bandwidth here, we can view all 8 cameras in real-time at once from remote, as well as our Panasonic network cameras.

We opted for several different styles of cameras to use in this system. Four enhanced color dome cameras with night vision and 580 lines of resolution, a couple “bullet” cameras with 100+ft of infrared illumination for night viewing outside, and two PTZ cameras that will allow us to change what we are looking at from remote. We also purchased a heavy duty power supply to power all of these devices.

This system was not expensive, though it costs a bit more than some of the budget packages that are out there. We will be using it as a demo system to show potential clients what video surveillance can offer them.

What are you doing for physical premises security at your business? Could a small investment in a video surveillance system like this give you peace of mind or even lower your insurance rates?

Should you have questions, or would like to see a comparison between a standard CCTV system and a network camera system, give us a call at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com!

We offer a full line of CCTV and Network camera systems from Panasonic, Cisco,  Sony, Digimerge, and many others!

Live Help Test – Ignore This

This is a test… You can safely ignore it =)

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Should your business use an automated attendant on your VoIP phone system?

Automated Attendant

Automated attendants can be annoying or useful - In most cases they are both!

Let’s talk about the dreaded Automated Attendant for a minute. Every time you call a larger business you get the “Thank you for calling xxxx, please press 1 for sales, 2 for……” message and curse under your breath waiting to finally get to the option you want.

Honestly, I used to hate them, until I participated in a networking event and overheard some people talking about the pesky automated attendant, multi-message, digital receptionist, or whatever your favorite term may be. The conversation was about how much time was wasted talking to the wrong people, and everyone agreed with the point the person made after he explained his case, which went something like this:

You call company XYZ, simply wanting to inquire about a problem you are having, and a receptionist or switchboard operator answers the phone with their sing-song, cheerful greeting and asks who you need. You explain that you have a widget that is not working and she mistakenly sends you to the wrong department, where you describe your issue again, and they say, “oh, you need the doohickey support person, I’m the widget guy, let me transfer you”…  So you just told your story twice to people who don’t matter. Then they went on to discuss smaller businesses who only have a handful of people working there, and the phone rings, and whoever is handy gets it, where you tell the person you were talking to someone earlier about an issue but can’t remember their name. So they go through the names one at a time and finally you recognize the right one and are connected.

Sure, you got the “human touch”, but you also were delayed.

So, should *your* business use an automated attendant? I’ve stuck to my guns that if you have only a handful of employees, you don’t need it, it will only cause you to be out of touch with your customers and potential clients, until now. Now I am seeing that a well structured, easy to maneuver automated attendant could serve your customer’s better. I’m considering using it at our office right now.

Most VoIP (Voice over IP) phone systems support interactive automated attendants which allow you to program them fairly easily, you don’t even pay for this feature in most cases, it is built right in!

The first thing you have to do is to determine if the AA is for you, and if it is, then draw up a flow chart of how it would work, for instance, you have two main departments, sales & service… You could simply have it answer with a greeting, followed by “Press 1 for sales, 2 for service”. Then it would ring the appropriate department, totally bypassing the inexperienced receptionist and causing the caller to only hit one additional button to go exactly where they want. You can, of course, expand upon that and add key persons to the menu, “3 for John Hoyt, 4 for Greg Varner”… Then what to do if they don’t press a button or give them the option to find someone to answer a different question… “Press 0 or stay on the line for assistance”.

All these things are possible, and I believe a small business needs to evaluate what will serve them and their customer’s best. If you are using an automated attendant to save manpower, then be considerate of the caller… If I think a better approach is to look at it from the start as a way to better serve your client base, instead of what it can do for you.

Want information on purchasing or installing a VoIP phone systems? Need help finding professional voice talent to record your company prompts? Want to bounce a phone system automated attendant question off of someone? Give us a call at 864-990-4748 or email us at info@homelandsecureit.com – We are resellers of Cisco, Digium, and other VoIP products!

Give your clients OUTSTANDING customer service whether you work with shoes or computers! #greenville

I heart Zappos

OUTSTANDING customer service is what people have grown to expect from Zappos and Homeland Secure IT!

Did you hear about the mess-up at the Zappos site 6pm.com over the weekend? EVERYTHING in the online store was accidentally marked as $49.95… A ton of orders, amounting to a loss of 1.6 million dollars were placed before the error was detected. What did the company do to recover their lost money? Well believe it or not, nothing at all…  They honored the $49.95 price, regardless of the loss.

I would have to say, this probably built some serious customer loyalty! Imagine had they gone the other way and adjusted the billing to charge the customers the correct price, after they had already been told it was $49.95 and got billed the actual $75 dollar price for instance. That would have gone over like a lead balloon – MOST people would have understood, but some would be seriously upset and feel ripped off, never buying from 6pm.com again.

At Homeland Secure IT, we hope to provide the same kind of customer experience. When we quote servers, network cameras, etc, should we underestimate the time required to complete the job, we “eat it”… On at least two installs recently, we went over by many hours, and the clients were never charged an additional dime. In the two instances I am thinking of, we could have charged the client, they would have understood, but that was not the original deal. We offered them a turn-key solution, and that is what we provided. Total customer satisfaction is what we demand of ourselves!

We often give away labor… We will get a phone call and provide an instant solution to a client that gets them operational, instead of sending out a technician, and many times, we will not charge for the assistance. Another common occurrence is when a tech is on location and takes a little over an hour to fix the problem and instead of writing the ticket for an hour and a half, the technician will make the determination that the client deserves a break and writes it for an hour.

Our philosophy is this: If there is a question about how much to give – give a little more. Sure, you can make more money by recouping losses, but will you win clients? Maybe. Chances are good you would not lose a client, but giving a little more might mean the client will not hesitate to call you again, even for a small problem they might not ordinarily call about, simply because they got a fair deal!

My tip of the day: If you want a great customer experience, select a great provider! If you are a business owner and you want great clients, provide that great experience!

USB flash drives being used to distribute malware. IBM demonstrates unintentionally at a security conference

Kingston DataTraveler 200 USB flash drives

Any flash drive can auto-load a virus onto your system if you have not taken precautions

Last week, IBM became the latest large corporation to receive major press over unknowingly distributing malware on USB drives. Unfortunately for them, they passed out these infected thumb drives at a security conference in Australia! A full link to one of the stories is HERE.

As the story states, it is best to disable AutoRun in Windows, or if you are using Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security Standard or Advanced you can enable that anti-virus package to disable auto-run across your organization. In environments where a Microsoft Windows Server controls access on your domain, a security policy may be set that will disable AutoRun on all computers.

How to disable AutoRun:

For those using Microsoft Windows XP w/SP2 or SP3, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 w/SP1 or SP2, Microsoft provides the following information for insuring AutoRun can be disabled: Link to HOW TO DISABLE AUTORUN

Running Windows 7? (Good for you!) – By default, AutoRun is disabled for USB drives.

Save yourself and your company the horror of getting infected with viruses, worms, trojans and other malware via the USB flash drive by disabling the AutoRun. We remove viruses and fix computers all the time because of this type of situation here in Greenville / Upstate, SC…

If you get lost and need help for disabling AutoRun on your system, please shoot me an email and I will give you some pointers. Should you not feel secure in making changes, we can assist with that as well.

What happens when you recycle a PC or other electronics?

I’m often asked how to dispose of an old PC or hard drive. Most people are improperly disposing of electronic equipment, and then there are some who think they are doing the right thing and give it to a “PC recycler”, who might do this with it: (long video opens in new window)

If you need help insuring that your old hard drive is destroyed and not harvested by criminals, we can assist with that! We have multiple ways to render the drive 100% unreadable from performing “DoD” writes to it, to physically damaging the media. Should you need an audit trail to show the drive and/or the complete computer has been destroyed, we work with a company who will take the unit, log it, transport it, and shred the entire drive or computer itself and provide you with a certified copy of that destruction, including a video of the destruction. You can even take it to their facility and watch it first hand.

Now, what to do with the rest of the PC, CRT, LCD monitor, etc – You can take small amounts to your local recycling center, however, be warned, there is absolutely no guarantee that it will not end up like you may see in the video above. Those who wish to be the most environmentally responsible may want to find a re-builder of equipment who will attempt to refurbish your old PC, or scavenge an inoperable one for parts to make one good machine.

I will try to post a follow-up with links to responsible and guaranteed PC & Electronic Recyclers.

Questions? Email me or call us at 864-990-4748

Go Gigabit! It’s like steroids for your business network! #GoogleOnMain #LuckyGVL

Cisco Gigabit switches, routers and firewalls

Cisco offers a full line of Gigabit and switches, routers and firewalls

Have you noticed retrieving files from your server is feeling slower? Accessing a database on your network is sluggish? Moving large files takes a long time? Chances are good that you are using a 10/100 Megabit infrastructure, and that by simply replacing a few components, you could move to Gigabit speeds, possibly a 10x increase in speed, or more if you are using really old hubs and not switches! It’s like steroids for your business network!

As more and more data is stored, and multi-media files become larger due to better resolution and sampling rates, and reliance on server or network based storage increases, the network that you have used reliably for years may be showing its age.

Did you know that gigabit ethernet technology has been around for many years? In fact, your computers and servers, if purchases in the last few years probably already feature Gigabit NICs (Network Interface Cards), and all that may be holding you back from greater speeds on your LAN may be a change in hubs/switches and possibly some wiring & cabling upgrades?

Most business owners are not aware of that fact, nor has it been brought to their attention by their network support specialists. There’s good news too! Gigabit components have dropped in price considerably and it is not that much more to upgrade a piece of hardware to Gigabit than it is to replace a failing piece with a 10/100 component!

But be warned, there are some gotchas…  You might be purchasing a Gigabit switch and think that will be all you need and the wiring may not support the throughput, or you might find if you maintain a mixed mode, that some 10/100/1000 switches may not work with certain 10/100 cards, and the most popular is purchasing a cheap component and actually seeing a reduction in speed because it doesn’t support “jumbo frames”. So if you have any questions, consult your computer service professional or network support professional. Also, if you planning on a VoIP (Voice over IP) phone system, you may want to take that into consideration so you do not have to upgrade switches again to PoE (Power over Ethernet).

Homeland Secure IT offers a free evaluation, so feel free to call us if your business is in Greenville or the Upstate and let us look over what you have and see what it takes to get you up to speed! With Google high speed fiber internet possibly coming to the Upstate, wouldn’t it be nice if your computers/servers could actually use that speed?

We offer Cisco, Linksys, TRENDnet, NetGear, SMC, D-Link, SonicWALL, WatchGuard, HP ProCurve, Dell, ZyXEL, Intel, Sun, Belkin, 3Com and many other Gigabit network products!

Security cameras for your home or business can bring peace of mind and save you money!

Front of House Security Camera

Beat the criminals with a security camera for your home or business

The attached picture was taken a few moments ago from a network security camera at my home. Anytime there is motion within that camera’s field of vision, it will alert me via email, immediately (I receive it on my blackberry). The driveway is covered with this camera, the front yard with another, the full driveway and sidewalk with another, and yet another keeps an eye on the rear of the house.

This provides me with a simple means of seeing every path that someone could/would use to get to my home and alerting me to the activity. They also record audio, and time-stamp the images and record full motion to a digital video recorder (DVR). It is almost like being there! Most of the time when someone approaches our home I get the notification that they are there before they even make it to the door!

Will it stop a criminal? No way. A real criminal would not care that our house was under constant video surveillance, nor would they care about the ADT alarm system with cellular backup. But what it does do is to give me peace of mind, knowing when UPS or FedEx drops off a package, or when someone pulls into our driveway.

What can a security camera system do for you? For starters, if you run a business, it can help with loss prevention, just the mere presence of video cameras can deter some would-be thieves. And in the event something actually occurs, you can possibly use the video to help prosecute the offenders.

One person I know beat a liability claim that was going to be lodged against them by showing what REALLY happened.

We use them at our office for peace of mind, a deterrent and for a reduction in insurance premiums.

You may have remote areas of your business that you want to monitor so you know that your workers are actually working, or that they are working safely and that inventory is not walking out the door.

Home owners may want to keep an eye on a swimming pool or play area and view the cameras with their iPhone or while away at work.

Whatever the reason, there is a perfect system to suit your requirements. Call us today at 864-990-4748 for a free evaluation of your Greenville / Upstate security & surveillance camera needs.

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There’s never been a better time to switch to Trend Micro WFBS anti-virus!

Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security Anti Virus Promotion

Trend Micro is offering 3 years for the price of two on Worry Free Business Security products!

The headline says it all! There really never has been a better time to switch your business to Trend Micro’s world class Worry Free Business Security anti-virus / anti-malware  / anti-spam products!

For a limited time, we can provide you with THREE years of anti-virus protection for the price of two years. This is a no-brainer for small to large businesses because you license one product for the number of computers you need to protect, and don’t have to worry with a renewal for 3 years! At the time of renewal, you renew one product license for the number of seats you have in use, and not the individual license for each computer.

Whether you need to protect two computers or two hundreds, there is a perfect Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security (WFBS) product for you.

For a small organization, like a church or non-profit that does not have a server, you can use the hosted / in-the-cloud solution to protect as few as two computers, or dozens and still get the full protection. You get a web based console and can check up on the status of all your computers, even if they are notebooks roaming in the field.

For a business who has a server, you probably will want to look at the WFBS Standard anti-virus package. It is loaded on a Windows based server, then each computer in the organization is associated with that Trend Server and from the central console, you can check up on the computers in the network! This makes life for the admin of a business because they are not running to individual computers to maintain anti-virus!

Worry Free Business Security Advanced is for those businesses lucky enough to have a Microsoft Exchange mail server. WFBS Advanced provides all the advantages of the Standard offering, but adds mail server protection to keep viruses, spyware, phishing and other forms of mal-ware out of your email. It stops it cold at the gate! It also features an amazing spam filter that will reduce your spam to a trickle across the entire organization.

There are so many features of these products that you do not get from the competitors that it makes no sense to even consider anything but Trend Micro! You can block down websites based on types of content, you can lock down computers to prevent people from installing software and modifying registry entries, and you can even see attempts by your users at reaching malicious websites, so you can tell who the real power-browsers are at a glance. This is in addition to the “normal” stuff, like firewalls, wi-fi protection, removable media protection, etc.

It doesn’t matter if you are in Greenville or the Upstate of South Carolina, or any of the great 50 states of America, Homeland Secure IT can offer these products to your business at a great price currently. We can sell you the licensing and also provide the installation and support if you happen to be in the Upstate of SC.

Involved with a non-profit, academic or governmental organization? We can offer even steeper discounts! Call or email us to find out what Trend Micro can do for you!

Laptop containing medical information has been lost or stolen in Oconee SC – Is YOUR data secure?

Secure your laptop from theft and loss

Don't fall victim to loss of your important data! Secure it with Encryption and Backup!

Every computer service and support company in the world just waits in the wings for headlines like this one from today on GreenvilleOnline.com: “Missing laptop may compromise Oconee Heart Center Patients’ data“.  It’s not because we revel in the suffering of others, but because it underscores the importance of the message that computer techs preach over and over “secure your data”, and I guess, some jump on the “I told you so!” bandwagon too.

When it happens to an Upstate based organization, the message does reach the TV screens, radios and computers of the clients that Homeland Secure IT provides service to, or at least our general service area, so a phone call or email from a concerned PC owner is inevitable as the level of concern increases (at least for the duration of the press coverage).

Some people believe it can never happen to them, that the owners of the missing computer were incompetent and they are so much smarter, or that if a computer of theirs were to be lost or stolen, there is nothing on it that is of value. And still others believe that they have taken every precaution needed to insure the security of their data.

When we talk with these people, most often, they have overlooked something. For instance, a person will assume that because they backup their data to a flash drive, that if the computer were stolen, they would still have that data. What if the flash drive is in the case of the notebook, or still connected to the PC if it is a desktop workstation?  Gone.

Others feel they have nothing important on their computers and totally forget about cached information which may have their credit card numbers, social security numbers, or worse, the information of others.

More often than not, we will encounter a person in the medical or legal field who has very sensitive information, and carry it around on a notebook computer, but they have done nothing to protect the data.

Here are some things that you can do to protect yourself:

Set a BIOS password on your PC, this requires someone to enter a password just to get the OS loaded up. This can be bypassed by resetting the BIOS as we just did in our shop today on a notebook, but an unsavvy thief may not know that.

Set a login password for your computer – sure, the drive can be pulled and read in another computer, or a password cracking tool can be used to bypass that login, but again, a casual criminal may not have the know how, or the inclination and may just opt to reinstall a new operating system so the computer can be sold for a quick buck.

Encryption – This is an awesome option for most people. You can opt to encrypt files using the encryption features of Microsoft Office (This can be bypassed with a 25 dollar tool bought online), or entire folders, or even the entire hard drive of your computer. Software exists to accomplish this, and some operating systems have the functionality built-in. Disk encryption is going to offer one of the highest layers of security you can get.

Backup – This does not prevent your data from being stolen, but it does allow you to have access to it in the event your computer were to be lost or stolen. Backup comes in many flavors, from a physical backup to a flash drive or USB hard drive, to the awesome online backup solutions that exist. We are a big proponent of Servosity online data backup because it is secure /encrypted, trouble free, and totally hands-off, so you don’t have to remember to perform a backup. (Ask us about a FREE TRIAL!) – Whatever you use, make sure that the media you backup to is either online or if it is physical, not actually WITH the PC you wish to protect.

Security Locks – If you leave your PC unattended on a desk, a simple Kensington style lock can prevent it from (easily) being walked off with. These are inexpensive, and easy to use and transport.

LoJack for Laptops – LoJack is a great service that runs silently on your computer, and in the event of a theft, should that computer be plugged into the internet and powered on, LoJack can work with authorities to possibly recover your computer by tracing the IP address. They reportedly have a success rate that tends to support the minimal cost of the subscription.

Insurance – Did you know your PC may not be covered by your homeowners’s insurance? If it is a work computer, your employer COULD expect you to pay for it, but your homeowner insurance company may take a different view since you did not purchase the computer and thus do not own it. You can get a rider to insure just about anything – so check with your insurance company.

These are just a few of the many solutions that can help secure your equipment and the important data that resides on it. No one solution covers you 100% obviously, but when you start combining them, it gets increasingly difficult for the criminal. And don’t think this stops with notebooks. Theft of computers is at an all-time high. Entire servers are stolen! What a scary thought!?!

Do you think you are exempt for some reason? If you are dealing with medical or financial records at all, please be advised that there are laws that mandate you protect yourself and your company from data loss/theft – SEEK A PROFESSIONAL for advice!

One last thing, if you doubt for a second that your network, computers and data is secure, whether from physical loss or theft, from hackers penetrating your defenses, or for compliance with various laws and guidelines, then call a professional! Many IT companies offer a free consultation, and Homeland Secure IT is no exception. Even if you or your network administrator is extremely well versed in computer security, a second set of eyes never hurts!  Call us if we can be of any assistance…  864-990-4748