Everyone here at Homeland Secure IT would like to thank you for another year of friendship and support… 2011 was awesome and 2012 is going to be even better!
We’re working on new and exciting things that will help us to provide even better computer service & support to Greenville and Upstate area individuals and businesses, as well as bringing on new products as requested by our clients.
Our office will be closed tomorrow, Friday the 30th, and will not reopen until Monday the 3rd of January, 2012. If you need emergency assistance, please call our office or send an email, we will be monitoring voice mail and email and will get back with you ASAP! Most clients have our cell phone numbers and shouldn’t hesitate to call if a need arises.
We wish you, your family and your business many blessings in the coming year!
Also, if you are looking for a great party, come to The Hide-Out in Easley and catch The Dockside Band on New Year’s Eve! We’ll be playing all your favorite tunes.
http://facebook.com/DocksideBand or http://www.TheDocksideBand.com for more info!
Secure IT
Microsoft didn’t forget your Christmas gift…. And it’s coming early!
That’s right, Microsoft Patch Tuesday is upon us again, and this December 13th you can expect a slew of updates covering the entire line of current Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Operating Systems: Windows XP 64 & 32 bit, Server 2003 64 & 32 bit and Itanium based servers, Vista 32 & 64 bit, Windows Server 2008 and the Server Core, Server 2008 R2 Windows 7 32 / 64
Other Software: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 and 9, Microsoft Office for Windows 2010 & Office 2004 2008 for Mac and individual applications Publisher 2003 & 2007, Excel 2003 PowerPoint 2007 & 2010, PowerPoint Viewer 2007, Office compatibility pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats.
Chances are good that if you own a Microsoft Windows machine, or a Mac with Office, then you need to be letting your system update.
The complete bulletin can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/security/bulletin/ms11-dec
If you need assistance applying these updates or with any other computer service issue, please let us know! 864.990.4748 or info@homelandsecureit.com
Excuse the sensational title, but it may not be too far from the truth.
There is an article over on ComputerWorld.com that reads, “HP LaserJet Printers vulnerable to attacks, researchers warn“… (opens in a new window).
Our in-house expert, Greg Varner, believes that if an attacker could exploit the device to the point of causing it to brown paper in the fuser, it would not be overly difficult to disable the safety mechanisms discussed in the article that protects this from happening.
Without question this does give us cause to pause and think about these connected devices.
Free Servosity Online Backup Trial! Click Here...
If you are from the Greenville / Upstate South Carolina area and are into IT, you likely know Damien Stevens, or at least the name of his company, Servosity.
Today, Servosity announced that in addition to their quality online / cloud backup solution, they will have Servosity DR Server and DR Desktop available! DR Server and DR Desktop are Disaster Recovery solutions that allow you to perform a Bare Metal Recovery to dissimilar physical hardware, recover VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines, and more.
Features:
- Bare Metal Recovery to Dissimilar hardware, VMWare, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox
- Local, Network, and Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery
- Purpose built for MSPs and IT Resellers
- No Hardware Required
- Geographically Redundant SAS-70 Type II Cloud
- Recover a server, desktop, or laptop in just minutes
- Disaster Recovery with snapshots to the Network and Cloud every 15 minutes
Happy Customers are Good Customers!
Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.
The quality and level of customer service has decreased in recent years and this has been driven home for me in the last few weeks causing me to reflect on my own personal definition of customer service. A couple of weeks ago, I helped a customer at McAbee’s Custom Carpet as he was picking up a piece of carpet he ordered a few days prior. This nice gentleman felt the need to tell me how Customer Service in our country was a dying trait and he was so glad to find a small entrepreneurial company that once again cared about providing customer service. Really? I guess I’ve taken this for granted… great service is what my father founded this business on nearly 50 years ago.
Just today I was met with having to deal with a local vendor that had managed to get me to the point of being very upset and disgusted with their lack of customer service… or even response. The ability to provide a high level of service requires both obligation and responsibility as I see it and somewhere between the two lays a level of comfort. It’s not a matter of control or money but rather a need to see through the problem to the pain trigger and address it head-on.
So many service providers these days are working for a large Corporation, whether larger than our Upstate SC business area or even Worldwide businesses and they are losing their hold on great customer service. If you even get to speak with an actual person, they tend to hide behind someone else in their pyramid of business (be it supervisor or manager) and they lack the ability to accept responsibility for wrong doing or making a situation better. They tend to pass-the-buck as we have all experienced and this tactic must be an attempt to where the customer down to the point that they no longer even care to pursue their point of concern. It just serves to enrage me!
Where does this leave us – the consumer? What leverage do we have when a product or contract of service goes astray? Does anybody really care? I think we are just beginning to see a change in customer service in our society. Take the banking industry for example: Bank of America announces that they will begin charging their customers to use their own debit cards. They must have known this would cause BoA customers to go elsewhere. Was it worth risking? I say bravo to the customers that find another bank with better customer service. When did it become customary to raise your profit margin by charging additional fees to your already existing customers?
As an entrepreneur with Homeland Secure IT, I’ve followed my own father’s footsteps in starting a business with my husband. My Dad instilled two business traits in my mind: quality and service and the two go hand in hand. I remember hearing him say, “When business becomes so large that you no longer care about one or the other, quality or service, you might as well give up and lock the door.” I’ve watched both Homeland Secure IT and McAbee’s Custom Carpet go to extremes to make certain that a customer is happy, even if it means losing money in the end. There is so much more than the dollar amount to a business venture, there’s reputation of service that will keep customers coming back again and again. If employees of large companies feel no obligation to the satisfaction of their product or service, what do they care if they see a customer walk in the door again? The only leverage I can find at times is the threat of internet reviews for a business and we need to take this more seriously. I know John and I are constantly looking to reviews on Yelp, Yahoo, Google, and other forums to see just what other consumers have experienced before we decide to invest in a business. Perhaps the time has come where we do not have to feel like an unheard voice among so many, your opinion matters!
The businesses I’m invested in will continue to provide top-notch service to our customers. I am a firm believer in my father’s theory, why would we continue to grow a business if we are not giving our community reason to support us?
Pamela Hoyt – Homeland Secure IT / McAbee’s Custom Carpet
@PamelaHoyt – http://www.facebook.com/PamelaMHoyt
In what is becoming way too common, the popular site, mysql.com was exploited, and used to distribute malware by redirecting visitors to another site this week.
Anyone browsing to mysql.com yesterday would have been redirected, and without even being prompted, then likely been exploited themselves by the software running on the rogue website which apparently looked for vulnerable browser plugins to use for an injection point.
Trend Micro’s smart web filtering may have caught this and stopped it, but one thing is for sure… Doing everything you can to protect yourself from this type of exploit is more important than ever.
You should always insure you are running up-to-date and mainstream/quality anti-virus software (Such as Trend Micro), and also keep your operating system (whether Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X or even linux), browser, and all support software such as Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader and JAVA, as well as Microsoft Office fully updated!
Another thing you should consider is backups! With the cost of USB hard drives at an all time low, and online backup (Like our Servosity offering) being an easy install, configuration and affordable, there is no excuse to not have backups.
Should you need assistance in the Greenville / Upstate SC area determining what you or your business needs, please contact us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We provide sales of Trend Micro, Symantect & McAfee anti-virus protection, virus cleanup & removal, and can handle your computer service & computer repair tasks!
Our preferred vendor Nexlink, has an “Upgrade Ready” line of computers that makes perfect sense for businesses who may want to save some money when they initially purchase, but down the road, increase the “horsepower” of their computer without replacing the entire system, or changing out the processor.
For example, if you purchased a business computer system from us with the Intel Core i3 2102 processor, you can later purchase a “Processor Performance Upgrade” from us too, and it does not involve even opening the machine.
We would visit your business, or you could optionally bring the computer to us, and we would apply a product key from Intel that would accomplish the following:
- Increase frequency by 500 Mhz
- Improves performance when downloading, editing and viewing photos, videos and music so you can multitask more effectively
- Works more efficiently while running complex applications
Even the Intel Pentium C6x2 processor family can be upgraded with an increase of 600 Mhz!
The update is affordable and fast!
If you would like more information about the Intel Processor Performance Upgrade, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com
Homeland Secure IT will be closed this coming Monday, September 5th for Labor Day…
Should you need computer service, computer repair, or network support during this time, please email us at info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748 – Leaving a message will result in that voice mail being sent to all of us here.
We hope that you and your family will have a great labor day weekend, and keep it safe!
Everyone wants to save a dollar or two, so they buy the new computer, monitor and printer, and skimp on some of the other components. One in particular is power protection.
By power protection, we mean surge protectors and uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) primarily.
The fact that a few dollars were saved on the front-end may end up costing big dollars in the long run.
Case in point: A friend and client recently had a lightning strike event at their home (again), and multiple devices were damaged. His brand new notebook computer was shipped off to the factory by the place he purchased it and was out of commission for two weeks. A high density USB hub was destroyed, as were several other components.
Had this fella purchased an inexpensive UPS, he could have possibly avoided the downtime, expense and frustration.
We are dealers for APC, Eaton and other companies that provide outstanding power protection products and highly recommend that individuals and businesses incorporate these units into their infrastructure.
Should you wish to discuss protecting your sensitive electronics, server rooms, computers, servers, networks or even your home electronics and avoid expensive computer repair or service or replacement, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com
This sticker needs to go on every server room door...
“Tampering with this network equipment may result in an ass whoopin’ you’ll never forget”… Makes me laugh every time I see it! I bet every IT professional would love to see this sticker on every server room door. How much money would be saved on computer, network & server service, repair or support, especially if someone actually was beat down for messing with equipment.
