#LeapIntoIT Kindle Fire Giveaway

It’s that time again!  Time for us to have some fun, and help one of our Upstate, SC friends get something cool to play with.

We’ve given away stuff before, like Trend Micro anti-virus, a wireless IP security camera, a Cisco Flip Mino HD video camera, Microsoft Office 2010, and even a Microsoft X-BOX 360, but this is likely the most exciting thing yet, or at least the 2nd most exciting!

We decided that since it is a Leap Year, we will help one person leap into the tablet computer revolution by giving them one of the hottest little tablets out… The Amazon Kindle Fire!  It is far more than just an eBook Reader, it’s a smokin’ hot tablet too!  So hot, it’s on FIRE! =)

Let’s call it the “Leap Into IT” giveaway!  #LeapIntoIT

Who is eligible?

Anyone who can walk into the Homeland Secure IT office at 104 Mauldin Rd, STE E in Greenville, SC to retrieve the tablet in person. We will NOT SHIP IT. Also, you must not be prohibited by law from participating in any giveaway, and all that legal mumbo-jumbo. Let’s put an age restriction on it too.  You must not be older than, no wait, you must be at least 18 to participate.

Employees of Homeland Secure IT cannot play this silly game because they would never get any work done.

Past winners of Homeland Secure IT giveaways ARE eligible (Andrea, James, Hal, etc)

How do you get involved in this?

There is NO purchase necessary, but there are some things that you will want to do…

• Pass through our initiation process – This is where you tattoo your forehead with the Homeland Secure IT logo. Okay, this is optional.
• Sign up to this blog by hitting the SUBSCRIBE BUTTON over in the right-hand column. You can receive the daily blog posts in email first thing in the morning this way. And you can opt out later (after the contest is over) when you get tired of my yammering…
• Sign up for our SUPER LOW traffic mailing lists HERE … We rarely send anything out, so you won’t be too annoyed. You can unsubscribe from either or both at anytime, AFTER the contest end date.
• Go to our home page at www.HomelandSecureIT.com and hit the Google +1 button & Facebook “like” while you are there.
• Go to our Google business places page and leave a review and rating (hopefully a good one)
• Go to Merchant Circle and leave a review/rating
• Go to Yelp and leave a review/rating
• Go to Yahoo! and leave a review/rating
• LIKE us on facebook HERE …     Follow us on Twitter HERE …

Here is a list of ways to connect:  

http://www.homelandsecureit.com/connect.html

If you connect in a different manner and you feel it is important, email me, or tag me in a post so I can see what you have done and count that as well!

In review, it is up to you to determine how much, or how little you wish to get involved. The more ways you connect, the more chances to get this darn Kindle Fire!

How is the selection made?

Good question! We lay out a grid, with your each name written in it in the parking lot, and we then shoot a gerbil straight into the air, and in whatever grid the gerbil falls into, that’s our winner.

Okay, (maybe) it isn’t like that at all.  No, in fact it is not.

On February 29th, 2012, I’ll take every name/email address from our mailing lists, all the names of those who have reviewed us on Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo! & Merchant Circle, all the mentions on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, all the Likes and Follows on Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, all the Google Plus +1s, and dump them into a spread sheet. Next I go to www.Random.Org and put the number of lines in my spreadsheet as the max number and generate a random number.

Whoever matches that number in the spreadsheet is contacted.

If they are out of the area and cannot get it in person, another number will be selected and the process repeated until we have a winner!

So, with that said… Let’s do this!   Leap Into IT!!!!

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Yesterday was Adobe’s first patch day of the new year and the security bulletin describes a total of six vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Acrobat X 10.1.1 and older, on both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac.

The issues that are addressed are considered “critical” in nature and the solution is to download and deploy updates or to allow the Adobe Software Updater to perform the updates for you.

Adobe Reader X 10.1.2

• For Windows
• For Mac

Adobe Acrobat X 10.1.2

• Standard and Pro for Windows
• Pro Extended for Windows
• Pro for Mac

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Merry Christmas from Homeland Secure IT

Christmas is almost upon us!

Hope you have your shopping done by now, and if not, well, it’s not too late to order a notebook, netbook, desktop or tablet computer from Homeland Secure IT!

We offer sales of all major brands of computers and components such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, NexLink, Asus, Samsung and more. Whether it is a business computer or one for your personal uses, we have something for you or the person on your list you have forgotten about not found the perfect gift for!

Orders placed are generally here at our Greenville office the next business day before lunch at no additional charge!!!!

We will be closing on Friday, December 23rd so our staff can spend time with their families, and we will be in the field on a server deployment on Monday, December 26th, however, we *WILL* be available for emergency calls should you need us!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to your family!

In order to allow everyone at Homeland Secure IT to prep for the festivities, we are taking off early today, Wednesday November 23rd, hopefully around 2pm, and will return Monday November 28th.

We *will* be available for emergency calls as always.

Please, eat too much, and spend way too much on Black Friday, because that is the American Way!

We believe Trend Micro’s Titanium Internet Security 2012 is the best anti-virus, anti-spyware & anti-spam package at any price, however one lucky person is going to get it from us at absolutely no cost this month!

Titanium Internet Security 2012 includes everything you would expect in an anti-virus package with a few extras…

• Blocks email and image spam
• Blocks and finds malicious links in emails and IMs
• Blocks downloads and access to malicious websites
• Fake AV cleaner – eliminates malware posing as antivirus software
• Protects from viruses, spyware, worms, trojans, botnets and rootkits
• Utilizes the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network to proactively stop threats before they reach you
• Prevents unauthorized changes to your applications
• Skinable interface (allows customizing Trend with a favorite photo or image)
• Windows Firewall Booster
• Protect your children – restrict internet content and set access schedule for your kids with Parental Controls
• Maximize your PC’s performance – System Tuner improves PC performance by cleaning up browser history, cookies, temporary files, registries and more
• Protect and defend your data from loss and theft with Data Theft Prevention to keep information like credit card numbers and passwords safe
• Secure Erase – shreds computer files with sensitive information to keep it from being easily recovered
• Includes SafeSync – secure online backup with sync, sharing and mobile access (2 GB cloud backup)
• Includes a  copy of Trend Micro Smart Surfing for Mac

So how can you score such great anti-virus for yourself or your business?  Homeland Secure IT is a partner with Trend Micro and recommends this product as well as sells it and installs it.  The suggested retail price is only 49.99 for the first year, with renewals generally costing less. You can call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for more information.

However, since this is the Thanksgiving season, and we want to give you our thanks for supporting us this year, we are going to give away one copy of this software, and maybe a couple copies if the interest is high enough.

We will draw on December 1st and announce the winner on our blog, Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.

You enter by subscribing to our mailing lists HERE, subscribe to this blog, LIKE us or link us on Facebook, Mention us on Twitter, or give us a Google Review, or otherwise connecting with us.

Here’s a list of how you can connect with us!

For every way you reach out to us, we count that as an entry. So if you join our mailing list, leave a review on Google, post a link on twitter and like us on Facebook, that is FOUR entries !  If you have already connected because you love us, or because you wanted to win something like the X-Box we gaveaway, don’t worry, you are STILL in our list and need do nothing.

The winner who is selected must be able to come pick up the item at our office in Greenville, SC. We will not ship it to you.  If you do not want it, or you do not claim it within 7 days, we will pick another winner!

Good luck!

Homeland SECURE IT Achieves Select Certification from Cisco

Greenville, SC, November 1, 2011:  Homeland Secure IT announced today that it has achieved Select Certification from Cisco. The Select Certification recognizes Cisco® resale channel partners that focus on meeting the technology and service needs of small businesses.

Cisco’s portfolio of both Small Business and Small Business Professional Series products directly complement and enhance Homeland Secure IT’s Systems Design, Sales, Installation and Support of end-to-end communications and physical networks.

Cisco Select Certified

“The Cisco Select Certification was created in response to customer demand for channel partners capable of designing and implementing Cisco solutions purpose-built for small businesses,” said Andrew Sage, vice president of Worldwide Small Business Sales at Cisco. “With the Select Certification, Homeland Secure IT has made an investment in obtaining the training, skills and knowledge necessary to play a pivotal role in meeting this growing demand.”

To earn Select Certification, Homeland Secure IT fulfilled the training and exam requirements for the Cisco Small Business Specialization.  Homeland Secure IT also met the personnel, training and post-sales support requirements set forth by Cisco.

The Cisco Resale Channel Program provides a framework for channel partners to build the sales, technical and Cisco Lifecycle Services skills required to deliver Cisco solutions to end customers. Through the program’s specializations and certifications, Cisco recognizes a channel partner’s expertise in deploying solutions based on Cisco advanced technologies and services. Using a third-party audit process, the program validates channel partner qualifications such as technology skills, business best practices, customer satisfaction, and presales and post-sales support capabilities — critical factors for customers choosing a trusted channel partner.

About Homeland Secure IT

Homeland Secure IT is headquartered in Greenville, SC, and serves Greenville and the Upstate of South Carolina.  Our goal is to deliver seamless design, implementation, and support to customers requiring both simple and sophisticated communications solutions.

• Unified Communications (VoIP)
• Wireless (WLAN)
• Video Surveillance
• Storage Solutions (NAS, SAN)
• Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Security (Firewall, A/V)
• Switching

For more information about this topic or to schedule meeting with our design and engineering team, please call 864-990-4748 or visit our website at http://www.HomelandSecureIT.com

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

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Friday, September 30, 2011

An update to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) and Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection was causing grief for many users today as it incorrectly flagged the Google Chrome browser as malware.

The typical behavior was for an alert to be displayed stating that “PWS:Win32/Zbot” was found and that it needs to be removed. What is really removed is the Chrome.exe, so you are left without your favorite browser.

Attempts to reinstall Chrome fail with additional warnings.

Microsoft has stated that a faulty virus definition update was the cause. and by 10AM Pacific time, an additional update was released to correct that behavior.

If this has happened to you, a manual update of the MSE or FEP should fix you up! Of course, you will still have to reinstall Google Chrome.

Homeland Secure IT Alert

One of our phones has a contract that is up and I could upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch that was released just today on Sprint.

Only one problem…  Nobody that I called in the Greenville area has one!  One person told me only 200 of the top stores got them today and those 200 stores only received 2 each.

So I will wait a while, or I could buy it online at sprint.com.

Why do I want it? Last year about this time, we replaced our aging Blackberry phones with Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G phones and have loved them! BUT, that was this, this is now. The new phone does not have a keyboard built-in, so it is much thinner, and it also has a much larger display. The battery life is improved to boot.

As far as speed, the new phone has a 1.2Ghz DUAL CORE processor, compared to the 1Ghz single core we currently have.

The OS is upgraded, the camera is 8 megapixels.  What’s not to like?

Apparently the size. Some people don’t like that bigger 4.5″ screen, compared to the 4.3″ screen in our current phones.

We’ll see… Maybe by next week I can find one?

Thoughts?     OH, and don’t make it about carriers.  Sprint has done a great job of keeping us happy.  Verizon would be our 1st choice, but we’re locked in for a little while longer with 3 of our phones.

Have a great weekend!

Normally, John posts on this blog, but today, I wanted a chance to share my thoughts about a tragedy.

I vividly remember the first time I met Trey Pennington.  My husband, John, and I were at Launch Greenville.  I was not at all thrilled over giving up one of our precious Saturdays to spend sitting in a seminar hearing people talk about launching business in Greenville.  John and I were perfect candidates for this gathering as we had recently started our new business with Homeland Secure IT.  We soaked in every word of the day although later we agreed that there was little to offer in the way of new material to our business plan.  I guess this at least gave us a “good job” pat on the back.  I will never forget and have thought of it often as we were talking to others during a break period, Trey coming up to us to chat.  Sensing  our struggles as new business owners, he wasted no time in connecting with us through family experiences.  He mentioned his regret of not having his wife by his side at such events, but understood given their six children.  Trey offered a boost of confidence in telling us how recent his business had taken a turn in a better direction since recently his family was at a church dinner and both he and his wife had only one dollar to their name.  Today was a different situation he indicated with a thankful heart.

I ran into Trey at a few more conferences in Greenville after that first meeting and connected with him over Twitter and Facebook in the two years to follow.  Every time I saw Trey, I always felt a sense of pain  in his tired, puffy eyes.  John and I always dismissed this as a tribute to having such a big family and always keeping up with their ongoing activities as well as a traveling business.  Then in June, around the 20th, we hear of Trey’s desire to end his life and news of ultimate divorce.  John and I both could relate.

One thing that I find extremely irritating as I read it over and over again in posts and blogs is how great Trey appeared… all skinny and healthy.  When did “Skinny” become the new “Healthy”?  I am certainly not in the medical field, but I can speak from experience.  Thin can be an outward cry for help…an attempt to gain control.  I have lived in the place of such dark despair that eating becomes a huge effort, and even swallowing past the huge lump in your throat almost causes a gag reflex.  I remember how the days continue on in one long sequence and it’s suddenly hard to remember the last meal you ate much less enjoyed.  This feeling feeds into the dark tomb of emptiness and exercise becomes the only therapeutic relief from the pain.  Then one day you begin to hear from others in passing, “Wow, look how much weight you’ve lost!  You look great!”  I began to wonder if I looked so bad before, why didn’t someone tell me?  THIS looks great?  Boy, if you only knew what I look like on the inside!  And the nightmare continues!  Someone once asked me, “What are you doing to lose so much weight and get into great shape?”  I was quick to bark back with, “You don’t want this diet plan it’s called DIVORCE!  You RUN to escape and NEVER EAT!”

I saw this look in Trey’s eyes. The cry for help in his photo posts at the Fall’s Park Bridge and Starbucks downtown. His lips pursed and unhappy, his eyes sagging with exhaustion.  But like many, I just didn’t feel close enough to reach out to him.  What is “close enough” to reach out to someone?  When is it okay to let your guard down and assume someone will respond in like?  I have NO idea what details Trey was faced with in his life anymore than the rest of you scouring social media to find answers to his decision not to continue on in this life.  I have to say that I too was tossed out of my church and I do believe that I must have felt something similar with an institution that once consumed most of my life.  This church faced me and said that they were tired of the drama my family’s problems were bringing and it needed to end.  They strongly suggested that I leave quietly even though I was not to blame (I was the victim).  I should leave “for a season” and allow things to cool down.  After all it was much easier for me to walk away than to ask my husband to leave since his entire family attended the church and offered a big financial support.  Really?  I left with my tail tucked.  I’m so amazed to hear of something like this happening to someone else.  I am very thankful that I discovered my faith in God is stronger than my faith in church.  We are all only human after all.

I have mixed emotions about the passing of Trey Pennington.  Anger that he has cheated his children of the beautiful moments that could have been.  Frustration that he gave up on life and the lives that he had yet to touch.  Pity that his dark demonic life was too dark for him to find any more light.  Sadness for his friends and family that will never have the chance again to make an uplifting contribution in the life of a great man.

Pamela Hoyt – Homeland Secure IT

@PamelaHoyt    -    http://www.facebook.com/PamelaMHoyt