The Board

Choosing the main board or motherboard for your new computer is vital.  There are different types of boards and the come in different sizes.  There are some that come with HDMI output to plug in to your flat screen TV and some incredibly small motherboards that could fit in a shoe box.  The board you pick will have to match up with your CPU.  If you decide you want an Intel processor then you will have to go with a board designed for an Intel processor. 

Board Size and Power

Motherboards come in a variety of sizes.  There are the full ATX boards which offer the most expansion ports, the micro-ATX boards which still allow you expandability yet allow you to use a smaller case and the diminutive ITX which are close the size of a DVD movie case.  For the most part, the micro-ATX boards are a popular choice.  They offer expansion PCI-Express slots and can be used in most computer cases.  There are some that come with built in optical audio outputs as well as an HDMI connector for your television.  With a full ATX board you will need to move to a full tower case.  The advantage with these boards is expandability.  You could have 2 video cards, a high end audio card and perhaps to network cards.  If you choose the ITX form factor you will find your self building a PC that can easily fit on top of your desk with out taking up much space.  One major drawback to these small boards is that the cases they fit in can have issues dissipating heat.  Power consumption is another factor.  The ITX boards will utilize the least amount of energy.  As for the micro-ATX and the ATX boards, power consumption will vary depending on the peripherals and cards installed.

Building Your Own PC

Introduction

Today building a personal computer (PC) is a task that most of us, with a little patience, can do ourselves.  If you can put together a puzzle or build a piece of Sauder furniture you can build your own PC.  Some years ago one of my wives friends decided that she wanted to build a PC.  We sat down for a short bit and determined what she wanted her new PC to do.  With that information we built a shopping list and she ordered the parts needed to build her new computer.  With a little guidance you too can build your first PC.

What will the PC do?

This is an important question.  Not all PC’s are meant to do the same the same thing.  Take for instance my wife’s computer.  In our office, she has the fastest, most powerful PC.  Shelly, my wife, will typically open multiple programs at a time.  Some of the applications that she works with are Adobe’s Photoshop, InDesign and Outlook.  During some projects she will push her system to the limit, often using up all the memory her PC has.  On the other hand some people will open up Outlook for their email, work on some Excel spreadsheets and use the Internet to procure supplies.  These users do not require the computing power needed by graphic artists or video editors.  So what will you use your PC for?

The Basics

The Brains

The processor or CPU (central processing unit) of a PC handles the task of working with different threads of information and performing the mathematical calculations needed to draw the pictures on your screen or crunch the numbers in a spreadsheet.  Depending on what you do need you can choose the right CPU for your new PC. 

At this time, dual core processors have become a mainstream, affordable option. Unless you are looking to build a PC to just surf the internet or type a few letters you should concentrate on using a dual core CPU in your PC.  If you where to want to go with an Intel Celeron or AMD single core processor you are probably not going to see a dramatic price change between what you can buy at Best Buy or the internet to what you will build yourself, once you add all the parts and the license for Windows.

Choosing the processor is pretty straight forward.  The number associated with a CPU refers to the speed of which the processor is able to process (hence processor) information.  Processor speed measures (in megahertz or gigahertz; MHz or GHz) the number of instructions per second the computer executes.  In other words, the higher the number or clock speed the faster it will draw a picture on the LCD or load a program on your PC.

Pick a budget then pick your processor.  With technology you will always pay a premium to be on the bleeding edge.  It is better to buy a few or a couple a speeds lower than the newest chip.  You will find that you are able to get a lot more for your money.

The importance of password strength is critical to your Network’s safety. Businesses spend countless time and resources on software and equipment to protect their sensitive data, only to have their Network compromised by a User with less than secure password practices. “Why do I care if someone hacks my Company’s Network?” Here’s why. Your company uses proprietary and sensitive data on a daily basis, some of which may include, but is not limited to, payroll and tax information about YOU. This could include your Social Security number, address and phone number. We have all heard the horror stories about the repercussions of identity theft. So, I would argue that it IS in your best interest to help keep your Company’s Network secure.

Hackers can use many methods to acquire your password. The most prevalent method is a dictionary attack. Dictionary attacks are derived from lists of words found in a dictionary. These programs are capable of adding numeric characters to the word lists to accommodate for any numbers that you may have added to the beginning or end of your password.   The program tries thousands of words per second until it eventually finds the right combination. This type of attack is often times successful due to our tendency to use words and names familiar to us.

So what makes a strong password?  There are many methods that you can use to help you create a strong password, but will also keep it easy to remember. 
Here are a few guidelines to use when picking a password:

• Passwords should be at least 8 characters
• Do NOT use any variation of your first or last name (no family members either)
• Use combinations of lower and uppercase letters
• Substitute numbers for letters, e.g.  Hello could be h31lo. I have substituted “3” for “e” and “1” for “l”. 
• Substitute characters for numbers by holding down the “Shift” key, e.g. 45678 now becomes $%^&* 

These are just a few suggestions which can help you create a more secure password. My personal favorite method is to choose a phrase. Take for example:

“I understand that passwords are very important for security at work”, would become:

IuPavI4S@w

This password is more than 8 characters long, combines lower and uppercase letters, substitutes numbers for letters and is easy for me to remember.

So how strong is your current password?  Here at Ossa Technology Solutions, we try to provide our customers with the tools and resources to make their life easier. Follow the link below. It will redirect you to a password checker that we provide to our customers.

http://www.ossatechnology.com/support/support.aspx

Put in your current password and wait for the results. You may be surprised to find out how secure (or unsecure) your password really is!

Hope for the best yet prepare for the worst.  This little addage holds water when it comes to backup planning.  In NE Ohio we have seen tornado devastated communities.  In flood zones, whole areas are put out of commission.  My question is how far do you think your off-site backup should be in relation to your office?  Perhaps 10 miles away from the office should work.  Now, how is the tape going to get there?  Most of our clients do not have a full-time IT person.  Some have an employee who takes the tape or drive off-site but lives within a 10 mile radius of the office.  Distance is not really a major issue if the disaster your comapny is looking to avert is a fire or theft or even an isolated natural disaster. 

Another important item to consider is the who and how of the off-site equation.  Who is the person responsible to take the backup off-site.  Is the data secure?  When we add the how is the data trasnsported off-site then some more issues are raised.  Now that the data is going off-site, how easy is it to access your data in the event that the tape or drive was lost or stolen?  For most companies the idea of having their data compromised is not acceptable.  

Can you afford to have your data stolen, destroyed by fire or a natural disaster?  One of the new solutions we offer is a off-site backup to a data center maintained by EMC, a leader in data storage.  Backups are encrypted, stored in a world class data center and accessible from anywhere there is internet access.  If your building was destroyed we coud recover your files to a new location.  We can even have the backups shippoed FedEx to arrive the next business day in the event that large amounts of data need restored.  This low cost, manageble and secure solution can alleviate the worry of keeping a copy of your data off-site.  Please call our office for more information at 330-551-2280.

Backups are only as good as the ability to restore them, successfully.  At times they have a tendency to be forgotten.  Without good monitoring or testing we are not able to have the peace of mind that our data is safe.  In some environments backups are tested monthly when one or more users 'accidentally' delete an important file.  In other cases backups go months, if not years without testing.  There are even cases in which a good backup has not run for weeks and no one is the wiser. 

If you are not monitoring your backups, please start today.  Windows Small Business Server has built-in alerting and monitoring features that let you know when your backups fail or succeed.  Most third-party tools have an email alerting feature built in.  Windows native backup tool reports on its backup and places the log file in your %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup folder.  An admin can keep a shortcut on their desktop that folder and review it daily. 

Try to test your backups every so often.  The more critical the need to recover the more often you should check the data.  Plan on restoring several critical files to an alternate location once a month.  Verify that the files were restored successfully.  Now you can feel at ease.

The other item to consider is off-site storage of these backups.  I recommend that you keep some type of backup off-site.  This could be a copy of your daily, weekly or monthly.  There are several ways to accomplish this.  Next week I will expand on this and talk about some of the different services available.

Recently we received a support ticket from one of our clients.  Apparently they ended up on someones "Email Forward" list.  We know these lists.  We have either ended up on one at some point or forwarded one on.  These are the lists that range from "Bill Gates wants to send you $100" or "This Blessed Me. . ." or "Killer Virus".  So what do we do with these.  My wife had a friend out of state who would send these to her.  She would get 3-4 a day.  Every once in a blue moon would her friend actually send her something that was for her, real email. 

So, what can we do.  Well here are some suggestions.  If you know the person well don't feel bad to send them an email and just let them know that you really don't need to get those emails.  While you appreciate them thinking of you your email box is already so busy that you rather just opt out.  If its a friend like my wives you could scan the subject quickly and delete it.  Some programs, like Outlook, allow you to add the sender to a blocked senders list and they go straight to the trash.  Hotmail and Yahoo both allow you to easily mark a sender's email as spam putting their email in a Junk Mail folder.  Its very possible that your web based email system even has a spam protection system you just need to enable.

Another thing to do is to create an alternate email on Yahoo or Hotmail and give that email to people you aren't really sure of ;-).  Check it once in a while.  Be careful not to put your email in a blog response or forum.  You'll be surprised at how fast the spam begins to come in.  Register for promos or giveaways with the alternate email.  If the email is a business one you can always let your offending friend know that they should try to send personal email to your new alternate email because you might get in trouble :-o. 

After you try some of these I hope sifting through your inbox will be a little less painful.

Today I got a belated Valentine's gift.  It was a police / detective set.  I have a friend named Coral who faithfully sends me a birthday card addressed to Sherlock Holmes. No matter what every December I can look in my mailbox at FCC and lo an behold there is her card.  Coral always delivers.  Whenever I see her she has her pat response to "How are you" which is "Good and Ornery". 

I had been working on a software issue with Adobe and had them on the line when I saw Coral today.  I told her that I was on the line with someone but I could tell that she was going to burst if she couldn't give me my gift.  So, asked the Adobe rep to hold and then Coral gave me her present and I was soooo happy.  Here is someone who has so little but her heart is so big.  I felt so loved. 

Every Wednesday fot the past 4 years I have seen Coral helping in whatever capacity she can at First Christian Church.  While I am working on a PC or installing software she is there folding letters or doing whatever needs done and every December I have a card from her to look forward to on my birthday.

So, when we think about the Internet being down or not able to pull a report I challenge you to think about what matters most.  The smile of a child, the embrace of a loved one, the small gift of a friend.  So practice kindness and charity, share a kind word or deed today.

With schools closed in NE Ohio for 3 days now and roads that are covered with sheets of ice having good remote support tools really takes on a whole new level of usefullness.  Remote support is great in providing a prompt response to your clients.  It helps us work on multiple clients at the same time.  Now, when you look outside and see the frozen tundra that we have you are so glad you don't have to drive out to the clients site. 

We have been using UltraVNC SC, GoToMeeting, PCHelpware and lately have been beta testing GoToAssist Express.  Citrix recently introduced the beta of GoToAssist and I am really feeling the love for this tool.  It works on both the PC and Mac.  Monday one of our clients using Entourage was having difficulty getting their mail so we tried a remote session with GoToAssist and were really impressed with the performance. 

So if you are not using a remote support tool check out some of the ones below or tell us what you use.:

UltraVNC
PCHelpware
Free GoToAssist Express Beta

This last week I was disapointed to hear about a $300 bill for a computer reboot.  Shelly, our VP and in-house graphics designer was meeting with a client and during their meeting I noticed how frustrated her client was with her laptop.  I walked over to the conference table to offer some assistance as she pulled the battery out to shut the laptop down, after it locked up.  I let her talk and she began to go into how she had just paid $300 to have her computer worked on and there was no change to the laptop.  So, what did this mean?  No OS reinstall, no spyware or antivirus cleanup not even a quick MSCONFIG run to eliminate unneeded startup programs.  If the tech from ABCXYZ Corp. did work on it their solution wasn't that effective. 

A few days go by and I get into a conversation with someone who starts telling me about their $500 PC repair bill.  They ended up with a new motherboard, processor and memory.  This sounds nice but when is it time for a new computer.  I would have understood if this deal would have given him something that screamed but it didn't.  It gave him a PC comparable to something from Dell at about $699 with a 3 year warranty. 

As we deal with business owners and go work on older equipment there has to be a point where we present them with the reality of diminishing returns on older equipment.  How much does a new PC for them cost?  What would it cost to install?  Is that total cost more or less than the cost of repairs?  Once we know then let them make an educated decision.  After all its not our equipment we are working on and its definately not my money they are spending.