Google Apps offers in-the-cloud alternative to Microsoft Office products and BPOS

A major buzz word for 2009/2010 has been “cloud computing”, where your applications and servers are not actually hosted locally, but instead “in the cloud”, on a remote server or servers. Thus eliminating the need for you to purchase an expensive Microsoft Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, all the licensing, then the Microsoft Office applications for each of your users, not to mention the costs associated with maintaining and upgrading all this. Instead, you sort of rent the usage of this technology from an in-the-cloud vendor.

Let me go ahead and get the buzz words out of the way so the uninitiated will stop hating me.

In-The-Cloud, or “The Cloud” – Just think of the cloud as the internet. Something that is out there, elsewhere. Not local.  It would be “in the cloud”.

Cloud Computing, Hosted Solution, Software As A Service, SaaS – These are all the exact same thing, or variations on a theme. It means, the hardware and software is not all hosted locally at your site. Some or all of it is hosted at remote sites and accessible via the internet. Sometimes with a simple browser, and sometimes with a download of an applet or software package to access it. The largest part of the computing power and storage requirements takes place outside your facility.

Google Apps – A suite of software and services that is hosted in the cloud. These applications could potentially replace a Microsoft Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office, and the need to maintain and upgrade all that. What you get: Gmail, a mostly web based mail application similar to Microsoft Outlook. Google Calendar, a calendaring system similar to what Outlook offers. Google Docs, which is similar to everything the rest of the Microsoft Office suite offers, including document editing via a word processor, spreadsheets similar to Excel,  drawings and presentations similar to Microsoft Powerpoint.  You also get Google Groups, which is a group sharing system with mailing lists, and Google Sites, a web hosting/authoring package, and last but not least, Google Video, a place to host your video.

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite – This is the direct competitor of Google Apps, and offers the familiar Microsoft look and feel. With this you get a familiar Microsoft Office and Outlook interface.

These are both great solutions for some businesses. And as the headline reads, The City of Los Angeles ditched GroupWise, a very expensive system to go with Google Apps. Could this be the right solution for your business? A free consultation with us might just answer that question. Please call us today at 864-990-4748. We will closely analyze your needs and tell you if either of these options will work for your application.

Homeland Secure IT, LLC is a reseller of both Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS, as well as other hosted solutions, such as Servosity online backup to backup your computers and servers automatically!  We offer service to Greenville, the Upstate of SC, and national sales.

SuperHosts.Net offers super web hosting and design in Greenville and Upstate SC

I keep getting asked if I know anyone who does web hosting and design in Greenville / Upstate SC and I am surprised that more people do not know that Homeland Secure IT does that in-house, they just think of us for computer repair, computer service, computer sales and computer consultation, etc.  We’re not just about computers, servers and networks….

SuperHosts.Net is our web hosting & design business. It was started a number of years ago, and when we formed Homeland Secure IT, LLC, we incorporated SuperHosts into the new entity. It’s still the same hosting & design business, just under a different umbrella if you will.

SuperHosts is not the perfect solution for every website. If you are looking for cookie cutter, dirt-cheap hosting, you are going to find it every direction you turn. Just Google for “Cheap Web Hosting” and you will get a few million hits. Our focus is on the businesses, organizations and individuals with a special need, a site that represents them or their brand, a site that they may wish to maintain themselves or maybe they want someone else to handle entirely. We specialize in the odd-ball services such the client who needs a custom interface written to handle input, or distribute data in some specialized way. We have programmers who can provide real-time data manipulation, live databases and cross-site linking. Need a blog? Live Chat? Forums? That’s our bag, baby!

What you will find is a web host and design team that is very in touch with what you want and need. From custom graphics, logos and branding to menus for your restaurant that match the website layout/theme. We also do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and can skyrocket your site to the top of Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest of the search engines.

Thinking about delving into social media? We can help build a presence for you, and teach you how to effectively monitor and use the various social networking sites and tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Plaxo, Spoke, FourSquare and yes, even MySpace. Don’t have time to work with social media? We can refer you to a “Ghost Writer” who can assume your identity, learn your brand and become active in social media FOR YOU!

Of course, we can and do offer the stock template type sites, starter sites, “business card” sites, and domains just like everyone else.

We also know our limitations, and that is when we call in a range of experts who can assist. If we cannot handle the job, we will turn you over to one of the great minds in Greenville who can help. We work with and know of many awesome and inspirational places.

Want a free consultation? Email or call 990-4748 for more info!

Save money on Greenville computer repair

Whether you are an individual or a business looking for computer repair or computer service in Greenville or the Upstate (Easley, Pickens, Spartanburg, Anderson, Simpsonville, etc), chances are good that you are not only wanting computer repair but you want that computer service performed as QUICKLY and as inexpensively as possible.

If you already have an IT service provider, you might wish to ask them up front if there is a cheaper way than to have them dispatch a tech to your location. Many IT houses will give you a discount if you take the computer to them. If that is convenient for you, then you can generally save 10%, depending on the company.

Sometimes, saving money in that way can be more expensive in the long run, as you have to take time out of your busy schedule to drop off and pick up the computer. In the case of an attorney billing 200 an hour, that is probably not the most cost effective way to handle the situation.

What about REMOTE SERVICE? Where the tech can look at the computer from remote. This is usually billed at a half hour minimum. The computer has to be functional and connected to the internet for this to work, but this type of service provides INSTANT gratification and a reduced rate! Same with phone service, where the IT provider acts as your help desk to talk you through checking everything. Again, this is billed at a reduced rate or a half hour minimum in most cases.

Think about this for a moment: If you have a computer down at your site, and a technician is dispatched from the IT company, they will usually charge you a one hour minimum, and sometimes the labor may take half an hour. Why not have the tech look at something else while he or she is on location? Instead of just addressing the immediate need of the computer that is broken, you can say “After you get that computer fixed, if you have time left in the hour, could you check a few of our desktops to ensure they have the latest Microsoft Patches on them?”.

A computer that is down is never a pleasant situation. Just like your car, you are suffering from the inconvenience of being without it, then the double whammy of getting slapped with a bill for the service. Knowing the hints above may save you a little frustration and some money.

Homeland Secure IT provides complete computer service & repair, at your location, in our shop, via remote access and we offer excellent help desk support via phone or email. Our response times are above the average in our area, and our rates are very reasonable. Let us help you the next time you need a computer fixed in a hurry. Call us at 864-990-4748.

NPOs do not have to use old computer technology!

Last night, Pamela and I attended the Miracle Hill fund-raising banquet and had a great time. The food was good, the program was good, and the key note speaker was very moving with his story. While we would have loved to have given much more to assist such a wonderful cause, we unfortunately couldn’t, at least not at this time. But what it did do was to get me thinking about the services that we offer to non-profit organizations here in Greenville and the Upstate.

We LOVE working with NPOs! We work with churches, community centers, learning centers, free medical clinics, YMCAs, and previously with Habitat for Humanity, Compass of Carolina and the Humane Society, etc. In every instance, it was a pleasure to walk into the facility filled with people who are trying to do something good for their community, and be greeted warmly, receive a tour, hear about what they provided for our community, and assess their needs… That is where the smiles have generally faded.

We have heard and seen it all! Ten year old computers and servers, 10M hubs, slow internet, huge power hungry CRT monitors that were badly burned in, outdated anti-virus, no backup system in place, no firewall, unlicensed or outdated software and operating systems, ball mice that stuttered when they rolled, and generally slow, antiquated and for the most part, unusable network infrastructure.

In many cases, these people who were so eager to give a hand to their community were unable to do so due to the many issues they faced with their computer network. Nothing will discourage a motivated worker quicker than to be typing a document out and have the computer crash in the middle of it. Or to walk in the door on a Monday and have no connectivity or machines not coming online.

Continue reading »

The McAfee update blew up "real good"

Kaaa-Boom! Individuals and small businesses who used McAfee for their anti-virus protection and happened to be using Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 3 installed, may have been sent into an infinite loop yesterday after receiving the latest McAfee Virus Definition update.

The update was 5958 DATA, and went out early Wednesday the 21st of April. According to many articles on the web, immediately after the update was deployed, users were experiencing the familiar BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and DCOM errors. Those seeking support were greeted with long waits in queue. The issue appears to be that on XP SP3 machines, McAfee would improperly diagnose machines as being infected with W32/wecorl.a malware after the update.

McAfee quickly reported that the issue affected only “less than one half of one percent” of their ENTERPRISE customers. However, untold numbers, estimated by many to be in the hundreds of thousands of others were affected.

McAfee has pulled the update for the time being.

Not that this could not happen to any anti-virus provider such as Symantec / Norton, Trend Micro, etc, it is just that many feel that this was handled in a less than perfect way by McAfee.

If you are experiencing issues such as BSOD or reboots and are running McAfee, or know someone who is, please have them give us a call, we will assist them in recovering from the inconvenience.

On another note, Homeland Secure IT, LLC is a Trend Micro Anti Virus reseller, and we can help put an end to your virus concerns with the entire suite of offerings from Trend Micro. Whether you need one computer protected, or 1000 computers, there is a Trend Micro product that is right for you. Many small and medium sized businesses have servers and the Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Standard or Advanced product is perfect for them! Advanced offers protection of your Microsoft Exchange Server against malware and SPAM! Yes, that’s right, the Trend Micro WFBS Advanced can help eliminate spam!

Call us an arrange a free consultation today for your business! If you have a non-profit organization, we offer special pricing for Trend Micro products. 864-990-4748 and talk with John M. Hoyt or Ben Zuber

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.

The iPad from Apple (tm)

Do you run a business and want to use an iPad with it? My hold us has been that there is currently no 3G, but that is changing very soon. Until then, a person who wants to use their iPad has to find a Wi-Fi hot spot, or, they could optionally do like our friend and TV personality Amy Wood does. She uses a Verizon MiFi, a device that bridges a cellular modem with an access point, allowing you to carry this device, and have a full time cellular connection and provide 802.11b/g WiFi to your various devices, such as the iPad.

That’s the first step in using the iPad with your business. Next is to configure it to work with your Microsoft Exchange Server, which should be no more difficult than getting your iPhone to work with your corporate email (If you are reading this, you probably have an iPhone already). Once configured, this is a nice mail reader.

Okay, so that is basic stuff, but what about taking an iPad with you, accessing your Terminal Server with RDP (Remote Desktop)? There’s an App for that! Yes, several exist, including one from Citrix that may be the best, but in the App Store, just search for Remote Desktop Client and you should be in business.

You will probably want to get a dock with a keyboard so you can accomplish some real work. Okay, so now this is becoming complicated. You have a MiFi adapter, an iPad, a client for Remote Desktop, and you are wanting to type, so you get this keyboard and mouse.  A netbook may be a better solution for you if you are finding that you are typing more than browsing.

Should you be serious about using your iPad, iPhone or Mac with your Windows based network, and require assistance, please do not hesistate to call us to see how we can help.

Anyone interested in collaborative efforts should go check this out: http://www.ted.com/talks/a_choir_as_big_as_the_internet.html

What you will find a collabrative effort on the behalf of 185 people in 12 countries, who participated in a “virtual choir”, sending in clips (245 I believe in total!) to be arranged into one piece that is beautifully done! Overcoming the noise issue of the various submitted clips would be challenging all by itself, then mixing the audio to the desired levels, and do the video editing on top of this would be so time consuming that I would never be able to do any actual work to pay the bills.

I believe this has to be one of the best collaborative efforts that I have seen on the internet in regards to music.

It also underscores the importance of bandwidth in music / video… 185 people sending one person a ton of clips would consume great gobs of bandwidth, especially if the submitters were sending high quality audio and/or video. Here in Greenville, SC, we are trying to catch the eye of Google, who is going to pick one city in America to use as a testbed for their unbelievably fast Google High Speed Fiber. In fact, it is so fast that it exceeds the speed that most home and business LANs operate right now. That’s right, the data that moves from your work computer to your business server is probably moving slower than the 1 Gigabit Per Second fiber connection would bring internet to you!

Imagine a group of musicians in the same town, performing their parts for a track from their home, while it is being recorded in a master studio for mix down, in real-time! The latency would be overcome with time correction. Everyone would hear the same click-track….  Any issues, corrected in post. Individual parts punched in from remote too. This gets me excited!!!  THAT is why I am so adamant about the #GoogleOnMain / #LuckyGVL  movement! http://www.WeAreFeelingLucky.com for more info!

Of course there are bazillion business collaboration advantages to high speed internet as well, but I won’t get into those now….  It is the weekend for a few more hours – enjoy it!

KERRR-CHUNK!!!! Old style analog time clocks are starting to fade away... Slowly...

If you run a business that has more than a handful of employees, chances are you are using at Time & Attendance System already, and the chances are good that it is an analog time clock, the kind you stick a card into (after lining it up for the correct day and whether you are clocking in or clocking out) and it goes “KER-CHUNK!” and stamps the current time/date onto the card. If it is a really old one, then the person using it may have to not only align it properly, but pull a lever in order for it to stamp correctly.

Newer mechanical clocks will automatically feed the card into the machine and align it, then stamp it, and if you are lucky, it does it correctly, on the proper line, without over-writing  the previous clock-in and hopefully with the correct time and date (If it compensated for daylight savings time without you manually changing it).

The problem with this type of technology is that it leaves a lot of room for error. First, you have to actually get your employees to punch in and out, correctly, and the machine itself has to function properly and be maintained, then there is the task of the person handling payroll actually reading the time cards and entering the data into their payroll system.

Now there are many options that can simplify your life. Let’s look at a few of those:

Web & telephone based clock in/out. These types of systems can be setup so that when an employee sits down at their terminal, they can clock in, by visiting a website or calling a phone number and entering a code. This is can be a good solution for those who have many locations, or even telecommuters. Though many offices now use this technology to eliminate the need for employees to go to a central location. It also can be used to keep track of time spent on certain jobs. The data is imported directly into your accounting software. No room for error here!

Mechanical time clocks with atomic clock: Who says the mechanical clock is totally out? They still are used in manufacturing plants with great success, but newer models will set the time and date automatically to keep the clock as accurate as possible. No more Daylight Savings Time mistakes with these.

Proximity card / badge clocks: These are becoming the new standard in time & attendance systems for many reasons. First of all it is a fully digital solution, the data is imported directly to your accounting software, there are no errors from employees mis-aligning the card, and it is a completely touch-free solution, making it perfect for any application where the spread of germs/virus is of concern. These are affordable and easy to use. Just wave your card near the unit and you are clocked in or out. If a card is lost, the user can enter their code.

Is "Buddy Punching" a concern? Not with this unit!

Biometric Terminals: The biometric or finger reader time clocks are perfect for making sure the person clocking in or out is actually the person that SHOULD be clocking in and out. In some applications, where a time clock is located in a secluded area, you will find that “buddy punching” is taking place. That is where an employee is running a few minutes late, or wants to leave a few minutes early and they call a fellow employee and ask them if they could take their card and punch them in/out. In addition to eliminating the buddy punch, this type of system also has the advantage of being completely digital, with direct input into your accounting & payroll software such as Intuit Quickbooks.

For those requiring additional security, entire hand readers are available.

Whether you are looking to replace your old mechanical time clock, or looking to implement time and attendance tracking for the first time, we can help you determine the perfect solution for your application. We are an Acroprint dealer and believe their products to be affordable, reliable and feature packed! Call us today and we will discuss your needs.

A Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall? You need it WHEN? HAHAHA

If you are in need of a Cisco ASA 5505 or 5510 Security Appliance for your application, chances are, you are not going to be happy when you call your reseller to order one. The device is in very short supply and in most cases, back-ordered until April, May or June, depending upon the supplier. As a Cisco dealer, Homeland Secure IT is trying to secure product for our clients just as many others are. We have had one on back order for 2 months for a particular application.

Why is there a shortage? The story is different depending upon the vendor you speak with, but it goes a little something like this: During the worst of the economic slump, Cisco scaled back production of the ASA and apparently many other products as well. This is not surprising, as there is no need to build a device that is going to sit on the shelf and become outdated before it sells. But what has happened since then is that sales have increased, and the demand has rapidly outpaced the supply. Cisco has apparently attempted to ramp up production and this is where it gets sketchy… One version of the story says that a supplier of a particular component is unable/unwilling to provide it fast enough, another has it that the supplier of said component retooled and is making something else for another company and told Cisco to jump in the lake and get their component elsewhere, and then there is another story which is popular on some internet forums in which the rumor has it that Cisco is upgrading the ASA line with new software and that it requires additional RAM, which is also in short supply.

Any way you look at it, for the time being there is a shortage of the ASA 5505 & 5510 products. You could get lucky and find one at your favorite supplier, and if you do, good for you, I am only slightly jealous. However, be warned that some places have jacked their prices up, 25% and higher. If the ASA is the only product you can use, as mandated by some policy or another, then pay the money and be happy.

What about the rest of the world who doesn’t actually require a Cisco product? Fortunately for them, there are a number of products available that will fit the bill. Here at Homeland Secure IT, we offer some great alternatives, such as the SonicWall and Watchguard security appliance line. These are both very high quality lines of security products and can easily replace the Cisco ASA devices spec for spec. In many, if not most cases, the SonicWall or Watchguard firewalls will not only compare in features, but will also save you money! Call us today at 864-990-4748 or email  and find out if a Watchguard or SonicWall Security Appliance is right for your application.