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

Last night’s storms in Greenville played havoc with the sensitive computers, servers, network equipment, CCTV systems, VoIP systems and even alarm systems!

At 10pm we received a call from the alarm monitoring company saying that we had multiple zones activated at my wife’s business, including a door, and several interior motion sensors! Police were dispatched, and Pamela and I rushed out the door headed towards her office with flashlight and firearm at the ready. We actually beat the police to that location due to the large number of calls they were receiving due to power outages and lightning strikes in that area.

It was immediately apparent that we had a false alarm… Thankfully, nobody was arrested or shot, and in fact, the only casualty was the alarm system sensors that were damaged by the strike. The power had been off all around that location, and computers, servers, and more were offline.

After the storm died down and morning came we were greeted with calls from our clients. As you can imagine, computers were down and would not come up, servers were down, a lot of network connectivity issues such as no internet access, no access to application servers, etc. Most of these were solved over the phone, but a couple required visits to the sites.

Thought I would just take a moment to remind everyone that a large number of service calls and computer repairs can be avoided by simply investing in adequate UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) devices. These affordable products can be used to protect almost everything you plug into AC power. Those switches, routers, firewalls? Protect them! What about your time clock? Yes, that too. How about that expensive CCTV or VoIP system? Yewbetcha!

Small surges that come in on the power line can cause big damage to sensitive electronics!

Homeland Secure IT is happy to partner with some great power protection companies such as Eaton and APC and we can provide you with a quote for the proper product for your application! Please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748 for more information…

One lightning strike can ruin your whole day...

This last week has been a bad week for computers in Greenville & the Upstate.  I don’t know what it is, but we have had computers come in with fried power supplies, toasted motherboards and hard drives, and a call from a potential client this morning with a dead PC and a destroyed hard drive.

Power protection experts estimate that over half of all dead power supplies could have been prevented if an UPS / Uninterruptable Power Supply had been used. That’s a lot of power supplies! And more importantly, that is a lot of money that consumers could potentially save.

While the power supply itself is not expensive, usually costing less than 100 dollars on most computers, the damage that a power supply can cause to the PC can be much greater. We have seen entire motherboards ripped apart and even fires on the extreme end of the spectrum, and lesser damage such as zapped memory, processors, and hard drives on the other end. At the very least, a power supply that fails will cost you in terms of time and inconvenience.

Should a hard drive be damaged by one of these power events, you could potentially lose everything on the drive, or need to send it out for recovery if you don’t have backups. What? You don’t have backups? Please try our FREE trial of Servosity Online Backup before it is too late….

What can you do to protect yourself? Install an UPS! We are proud to be Eaton Power Advantage partners and can offer the full line of Eaton products. They have an UPS for every application, from your small home system, home office, small, medium and large business, all the way up to enterprise and data center solutions!  Don’t forget about your expensive Apple Mac systems, CCTV and VoIP systems, they need protection too!

Please check out the Eaton Product Showcase at http://www.homelandsecureit.com/Partners/Eaton-Power-Products.html

Or, call us for more information at 864-990-4748 – email info@homelandsecureit.com

Typical APC UPS Replacement Battery

As computer service technicians in the field, all to often we see an UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) in use at a client location which is simply not going to function when the time comes for it to do the job it was designed for.

Many times the “Replace Battery” indicator has been on for a while, and the alarm has been silenced because it was annoying to the workers in the office.

When should you replace your battery? Most UPS have a battery that is good for at least 2 years. In mission critical installations, such as for servers, data centers, T1 / cable / dsl & network gear, access control, alarm systems and VoIP phone systems, you may wish to replace the batteries every 2 years on a rotating schedule. For less important equipment, such as a single workstation, the “Replace Battery” indicator can be your guide. When you see that LED come on, or should the UPS be alarming, then replace the battery or battery pack at the first convenient moment.

Modern power protection systems like the APC and Eaton line of UPSs perform automatic tests, but you can check your manual for how to initiate a manual test. One way is to simply cut the power to the UPS and see if it has adequate backup time, but the best way is to use the software that will allow you to perform a calibration on the UPS and view a graph of power events. Performing the calibration will give you the best idea of how long the unit can provide power in an outage to the equipment attached.

Be friendly to our planet and replace the batteries instead of the entire unit, unless you have a very old UPS.  You can save up to 50% over the cost of a new UPS by renewing the batteries! Also, be sure to dispose of the battery properly, and please do not just dump it in the dumpster. The supplier of the battery or battery pack will generally take your old battery and recycle for you.

Homeland Secure IT provides sales, service and support for UPS and power protection equipment in Greenville & the Upstate. Should you need a new UPS or a battery replaced, please call us at 864-990-4748 or email us at info@homelandsecureit.com for more information.

Time to replace that old computer? Wanting the latest and greatest? Bigger (or smaller), faster, cooler? Are you just looking for a good excuse to treat yourself? I know I am! Late Father’s Day gift to yourself? Early Christmas? How about an Independence Day gift? That sounds good!

In any case, if you are planning on buying a new notebook or desktop computer, don’t forget to protect that investment with the purchase of these items:

Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware:There is no way you can survive these days without proper anti-virus on your computer! Regardless of your platform, you need this protection. Our favorite is Trend Micro Anti-Virus, which we sell and install. However, if you are truly replacing your computer and not just adding another one, you may already own current anti-virus software. If you do, then you can download and install on the new computer, using the same activation code. Getting a Mac and think you can run “bareback” because they are immune to viruses, trojans, etc… Think again. More and more malicious software is targeting Apple Mac OS X.

Uninterruptable Power Supply / UPS: You are buying an expensive piece of hardware, and then trusting that the power company is going to deliver a good clean source of power to your system. A surge protector can help, but an UPS will not only protect the hardware, it will keep you from losing documents you are working on should the power go out. Our favorite brands of power protection products are APC and Eaton. They make an UPS for every situation, whether you need to protect a single computer, a complete system with monitor, modem, printer, etc or you have to protect a server or a data center.

Backup Solution: You now have an awesome system, with lots of room to download music and store thousands or tens of thousands of photos, movies, etc… What happens in the event of a hard drive failure? These days, you can use online backup solutions such as our Servosity service which will automatically backup your data to the cloud (the internet) in a safe and secure (encrypted) data center. You can then restore your data in the event of a loss. We also offer physical backup solutions, such as USB drives, tape backup systems, Symantec Backup Exec, and we do work with other backup providers as well.

Insurance Rider: Your insurance policy may not cover an expensive computer system. Check with your insurance carrier to make sure you are properly covered in the event of a loss to fire, flood, theft, lightning strike, etc. Many times a rider can be added to your policy for only a few dollars a month that will protect your hardware, and even software.

If you have any questions about these solutions and what may be right for you, please do not hesitate to call us, we can provide computer repair, consultation and sales.  We are authorized resellers for APC & Eaton power protection products, Trend Micro anti-virus / anti-malware, Servosity, Mozy & Symantec backup solutions and more! Call us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com to find out how we can help you in the Greenville / Upstate SC area…

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…