iPhone Switchvox app lets you take your office phone with you!
How many times have you left your office while waiting for an important call to come in? What did you do? Set a special voice mail greeting? Forward all calls to your cell phone?
That’s what most people have done, until now. If you are lucky enough to have a VoIP phone system such as a Digium Switchvox solution and an iPhone or Blackberry, you can literally take your office phone with you now.
Your VoIP system is configured to allow mobile API, the firewall is configured to allow the proper ports through to your VoIP system and your phone gets the app loaded and configured. That’s it, you now have full access to your phone system. You can make and receive calls on your phone either from the cellular provider phone line, or via your VoIP system at your office.
You can call extensions, change your voice mail greetings, and any other function that you could from your desk phone. You would never miss an incoming call, and possibly more important to some, calls made from your cell phone while in the field, via the VoIP system, would never reveal your private cell phone number.
Another added benefit is that using the VoIP system will let you use your phone calling plan from your office, and bypass the phone plan on your cell phone entirely. This could save you hundreds per year!
Official apps are available for the iPhone and Blackberry, and some unofficial apps are available for Android phones.
If you would like more information about or would like to purchase a VoIP phone system, we are partners with Digium, Cisco and work with all Asterisk based systems in the Greenville & Upstate area. Please call us at 864.990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com with questions!
IRS Tax Code Section 179 can save your business lots of money!
Time to upgrade your server or servers? Need new computers for your business? How about upgrading all your firewalls to the latest technology? New VoIP phone system? CCTV Cameras? Notebooks for all your field reps?
Congress extended the amount that small businesses may write-off for capital expenditures in 2010 to $250,000, and that means this may be the best year ever to upgrade your infrastructure!
Business Equipment:
Business owners who acquire equipment for their business, such as computers, servers, network & security equipment and other tangible goods, usually prefer to deduct the cot in a a single tax year, rather than a little at a time over a number of years. This deduction is known by its section in the tax code, a Section 179 deduction.
Under Section 179, businesses that spend less than $800,000 a year on qualified equipment, may write-off up to $250,000 in 2010. The rules are designed for small companies so the $250,00 deduction phases out when a business purchases more than $800,000 in one year. (Companies cannot write off more than their taxable income).
Benefits of a Non-Tax / Capital Lease:
The benefit of a Non-Tax/Capital Lease is that it can take advantage of Section 179: expense up to $250,000 if the equipment is put in use in 2010. In addition, you may depreciate any excess on the depreciation schedule for that asset. Examples of Non-Tax/Capital Leases include a $1.00 Buyout Lease, an Equipment Finance Agreement (EFA), and a 10% Purchase Upon Termination (PUT) Lease. Example: Assume you finance business equipment, put it in use in 2010, and take advantage of Section 179. Your tax savings could be significant:
An example of a typical server installation and how this applies might look something like this:
Cost of equipment: $9,500.oo
Section 179 reduction if expenditures are over $800k: —
Dollar for dollar phase out if over $800k: $9,500.oo
Section 179 write-off amount: $9,500.oo
Regular First Year Depreciation Deduction: -
Total First Year Deduction: $9500.oo
Cash Savings on your Equipment Purchase: $3,325.oo
(Assuming a 35% Tax Bracket, Deprecation 5 years)
Lowered Cost of Equipment after Tax Savings: $6, 175.oo
Tax Code Section 179 & Election to Expense Detail:
The election, which is made on Form 4562, is for the tax year the property was placed in service or an amended return filed within the time prescribed by law. The total cost of property that may be expensed for any tax year cannot exceed the total amount of taxable income during the tax year. Section 179 property is property that you acquire by purchase for use in the active conduct of your business. To ensure property qualifies, reference Publication 946.
This expense deduction is provided for taxpayers (other than estates, trusts or certain non-corporate lessors) who elect to treat the cost of qualifying property as an expense rather than a capital expenditure. Under Section 179, equipment purchases, up to the amount approved for a given year, can be expensed (deducted from taxable income) if installed by December 31st. Non-Tax leases qualify for this deduction in their year of inception. Any excess above the expensed amount can be depreciated depending on the equipment type. Not all states follow federal law. Contact your tax advisor for the specific impact to your business or visit www.irs.gov.
Further Detail:
Reminder: to take advantage of the tax incentives, your business equipment must be put in use by year-end. You should contact your tax advisor to learn about the specific impact to your business.
We can help you maximize this as we offer leasing and financing… Please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864-990-4748 for additional information!
One lightning strike can ruin your whole day...
If you live here in the Upstate of South Carolina, you probably enjoyed nature’s light show last night, but you might not have enjoyed it if your computer, server, network components or other sensitive electronics fell victim to one of the many strikes that occurred.
While it is very difficult to protect yourself from a direct lightning strike, a modest investment can prevent the most common threats from destroying your equipment. Power events such as blackouts, where power is totally lost, or brownouts where the voltage drops to less than 120 volts AC, and the worst culprits of power surges and power spikes, which occur along with the blackouts, brownouts and nearby lightning strikes can usually be stopped before they cause damage.
The cheapest form of insurance is a surge protector, but we suggest you go one step further, and use an UPS, which is an Un-interruptable Power Supply. This type of device goes in-line between your power outlet, and your computer, and can protect the computer, printer, monitor and other devices that are plugged into it.
BONUS: If there is a power event that causes a brownout or blackout condition, an UPS will continue to power your computer until it can be shutdown safely, after saving your documents! With a cheap surge protector, the computer would go down immediately and everything you were working on could be lost.
There is an UPS for every application. UPS large enough to power your servers, network equipment and VoIP or analog/digital phone system are available, and small enough to protect a surveillance camera system and keep it online. Most feature the ability to protect a network too, so you can stop a surge from coming in on a DSL line and possibly save that expensive Cisco router or firewall!
Homeland Secure IT offers a full line of outstanding power protection products from surge protection, full-house surge protection, to UPS and power isolators. We are partners with two of the biggest manufacturers of these products, APC by Schneider Electric and EATON. Whether you need protection for just one computer, or an entire data center, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864-990-4748 and select option 1 to speak with me and arrange for a free consultation for Greenville and Upstate SC businesses and individuals.
Computer network security and support is about more than a quick fix or repair on your PC, it is about preventing devastating damage through planning…
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!
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
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!
Do you need help with your network? Homeland Secure IT, LLC provides network support services to Upstate and Greenville, SC businesses and individuals. Whether you need Microsoft Patches put on your Microsoft Server, or an upgrade to your Microsoft Exchange Server, we can assist! We sell new and maintain existing servers, desktop PCs, and network infrastructure such as routers, firewalls and other security appliances. We also sell and install network security cameras which you can use to keep an eye on your business from afar.
We are authorized partners for Microsoft, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Quantum, SonicWall, Cisco, Toshiba, MSI, Digium VoIP, Trend Micro AV and many more!
Yes we do far more than just computer repair work, we do it ALL! Our rates are reasonable and our service cannot be beat!
Call us today and find out what we can do for you with a no cost, no obligation evaluation of your network!
This information better be your own!
If you have a VoIP (Voice over IP) phone system with SIP trunking and control your own Caller ID, then you need to insure that the information sent is actually your information. IE: The phone number should be an actual number at your business, and the name should reflect the name of your business.
Congress just passed a bill known as the “Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010.”
The bill reads, ”It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any real time voice communications service, regardless of the technology or network utilized, to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud or deceive,” the bill reads.
Of course, you will still be allowed to block your phone number from showing up using the Caller ID block function, and not surprisingly, law enforcement would be exempt from the restrictions.
This is good for those who are tired of the “spoofed” calls from various telemarketers, and could be bad for those who use CID information to indicate they are somewhere other than where they are. I know many businesses who have set their Caller ID to show a different name & number from the one they are calling, in order to mask their information, such as an attorney, private investigator, and rehab places, not to mention family & women’s shelters.
To make a long story short, in order to be on the right side of the law, insure your business caller ID information reflects the name of the business and an actual phone number that can be used to reach the business and you should be safe.
If you want to read the bill, it can be found here: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1258rh.txt.pdf
Homeland Secure IT provides VoIP service, sales, support and consultation to Greenville and the Upstate of SC. If you require assistance with this or any Voice over IP issue, please contact us.
