Another edition of IT stories is on its way. 

While online computer courses are great and can provide some insight to “Computer Repair and Networking for Dummies®”, they unfortunately can’t teach you how to repair the issues that arise if you use this insight incorrectly and do something wrong. 

Many IT professionals have found themselves in this unlucky situation: the Non-IT pro who seems to think that they can fix it…until it breaks.  It seems to cost more in labor if it becomes necessary to repair not only what the Non-IT pro tried to fix in the first place, but also the problems resulting from the attempted fix. 

Case in point:  I got a call from a fellow one morning stating that he had made a change to one of my clients’ systems.  He said that it was broken, and I needed to go fix it.  I contacted my client to find out what the story was.  Apparently, my client had called in this person, who was a friend of one of my client’s employees, to do some specialty work because it would be “less expensive”, and this person claimed he could do the job with “No Problems”.  Yeah, Right! 

 Well, after a substantial repair bill, I was able to solve my client’s problems and fix the issue.  You may ask, “Why a substantial repair bill?”  As it turns out, this guy had no clue how my client’s system was set up and when he made the changes over a period of two days he did not remember all of those changes.  I had to comb through the entire infrastructure to find the changes he had made.  Fortunately, I was able to get my client back up and running that morning; however, it took 4-5 days to completely put the system back together.  It was not a pretty sight.  My client was upset, and so was I, but fortunately it all worked out in the end.

 Please take the time to share your stories with us.  Thanks, and until next time have a Blessed day!!!

Prices for everything are on the rise. Go out and buy some milk, you are going to be upset in the price compared to what you paid a year ago. Drive through a toll, the rates are higher there too. College tuition has gone through the roof. Don’t even get me started on gas prices, everyone is feeling the pain at the pump. When everything around you is getting expensive, thank god for IT.

A 1 gigabyte hard drive (IBM 3380) from 1980 cost $40,000.00. Oh ya, it was also the size of a refrigerator and weighed over 500 pounds. Skip to present day, a 1 gigabyte drive, the size of an eraser, costs $9.99 with free shipping! The original IBM PC cost $3,000. It was also about 30-40 times slower than computers today, provided only monochrome graphics, and ran on MSDOS. My cell phone today is like a super-computer compared to original PC’s.

Most people take IT for granted. IT is the cornerstone for almost every business today. Communication with the world is easier, and better everyday thanks to IT. Company information can now be stored digitally and is much easier searched than through traditional papers. IT also allows for cost cutting measures outside of hardware costs. Since IT connects people globally, traveling is no longer a necessity. Accounting costs are lowered, and entire industries have been brought up using IT. IT allows companies for easier growth, and keeps information stored in a central location, or many locations.

So the next time your are driving to the pump to pay ever rising gas prices, just remember that for the price you are going to pay for a full tank of gas; you could afford a cell phone which is inherently more powerful than the first NASA space rocket.

Since its initial release, a war has raged between Microsoft Windows Vista (Vista) and its predecessor Microsoft Windows XP (XP).  This war has been brought about by the only two universal constants, change and the market’s resistance to that change. Looking back several years, the resistance to Vista is taking many of the same forms as the last battle between two Microsoft products.

Back when XP was first released, I remember countless calls from users wanting me to assist them in switching things back to the “familiar” classic interface. I also remember complaints that nothing worked with XP, and that the platform was quite unstable. Fast forward to today and we find the same song, second verse.

Recently Microsoft announced that it intends to remain firm on the decision to stop production and licensing of new XP programs, a decision which was originally pushed back by consumer demand. Many still hold out hope that Microsoft will once again push back the discontinuation of XP, but should they? The internet is littered with “expert” articles comparing XP and Vista.

Groups and reviewers who have run countless benchmarking programs are trying to prove “once and for all” that XP is better than Vista, and declare that Vista has no place in the market.  However, in almost every case of these reviews, the deck has been stacked against Vista as they once were against XP when it was first released to the market.

In the end, the revolutionary features for which Vista allows and the options it makes available for use will be realized as more and more software is developed with Vista’s capabilities in mind; and as history proves, people will become familiar with the change and get used to Vista…  That is until it is time for it to be replaced, and once again the cycle of change and resistance to that change repeats itself.

As an end user it is one of the most frustrating things you deal with, but as a Technician, Consultant, or IT Manager it is, we hate to admit, one of the greatest feelings in the world.  Some end users may be thinking “There is something wrong with my computer” and the IT folks may be thinking “I fixed it”.   That’s right, I am referring to the times when as an end user you call the IT for help and say, “Can you fix my computer?  It’s not working right.”  And when the IT comes in, the computer is miraculously working fine.  There is neither a user nor an IT guy in the world that hasn’t experienced it. How does this happen? I don’t know, but as an IT guy I simply tell my clients “That computer knows better than to act up when I am here.”  To my boss I say, “Another happy client”.

Let me just give you a couple of scenarios: A client called me and told me that he could not access his “share” drive.  I did a remote session with him, and lo and behold – miraculously, the share drive was there and working fine.  He couldn’t understand how it seemed that all he needed to do was call me and I would be his hero and “show that computer a thing or two!”  He called a few days later, and sure as I am typing this blog, he says “it is doing it again”.  He asked me to walk him through the steps as a “sanity check” to make sure he wasn’t going crazy.  It turned out he was trying to access the share drive prior to the computer completing it’s communication with the network.  His machine was on the older side, and I let him know that his options were either upgrading to a newer computer or exercising patience.  Overall, it was a great day because we found a solution to his problem and he got a working computer and I got a satisfied client.

Here’s another example.  I was visiting a client’s office and as I passed one of the Principles’ offices I heard a string of expletives that could make a sailor blush with shame.  So of course, being a former sailor, it made my ears perk up.  I stuck my head in the door and asked him what was wrong.  His answer was (using more of his colorful words) “…this stupid computer isn’t working and I don’t have time for this…”  Naturally, I stepped into his office and as so often happens, his computer worked beautifully.  I could only assume that in his frustration he had missed a step in the process that he was trying to complete.  However, he had not!  He had only just clicked the “OK” button right as I was walking into the room.  It just happened that I was in his office as soon as it began to work.  He simply stated that if it wouldn’t be so expensive he would have me sitting in his office day and night to make sure his computer never stopped working.

Again, I felt like “The Man”!!!! Let me hear your stories!!!  Thanks, and until next time have a Blessed day!!!

Everyone who owns a copy of Microsoft’s Vista Operating System is familiar with the Sidebar. Sure it’s great to look at, and I do love to keep updated on the weather (looking out the window can be such a pain), but is it really worth having the Sidebar taking up that valuable screen real estate? It can be. There are a number of genuinely useful applications that every power user will love. I will tell you what they are, and where you can find them.

App Launcher (http://tinyurl.com/39pe2n)

This nifty little device is similar to the Quick Launch toolbar, but allows better management options.

Clipboard Manager (http://tinyurl.com/22g4t4)

Allows quick and easy access to current and recent clipboard contents.

Mini Outlook Inbox (http://tinyurl.com/3yhm8y)

Those of you obsessed with checking their e-mail will love this feature.

Buried deep inside Outlook, Microsoft’s popular email program, is a collection of powerful business tools that are off-limits to users who lack additional software.

The missing component is Microsoft Exchange, which is a software application that runs on a server. It helps groups of people work together more effectively by allowing information stored in Outlook, such as calendars and contact lists, to be easily shared on a network. It also gives businesses more control over their email, enabling them to set rules that determine things like attachment and mailbox size, acceptable file types, and user customizable addressing.

Communication and collaboration is important for any business, and Exchange can certainly help coordinate these activities. However, a company with a small number of employees, six or less, will most likely not find a sufficient ROI (Return on Investment) of the expense and setup of this application, unless they are running Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2003, which includes a condensed version of Exchange, users will likely find it easier and more cost effective to simply rely on phone calls, old-fashioned yelling across or down the hall, and outsourced email vendors.

Below are some of Microsoft’s breakdown points of Exchange’s benefits that are worth reviewing if you are considering purchasing and installing Exchange.

For the midsize business, Exchange provides some real advantages. As one example, let’s say you want to set up a meeting with coworkers. Without Exchange, protocol would have you emailing or calling individuals to check on and confirm availability, making copies of documents to hand out during the meeting, sending an email reminder, and ending with a translation of the discussed topics into neatly typed meeting minutes for distribution or a follow-up email. All in all, it is an arduous process that expends valuable and productive time best used elsewhere.

With Exchange, this process becomes significantly more streamlined and efficient. It is as simple as sending out an email Meeting Request. When coworkers click to accept the invitation, the meeting time and date are automatically added to their Outlook calendars and a list of attendees is generated in the sender’s calendar. Everyone is reminded of the meeting via a pop-up window generated by Outlook. By clicking ‘Meeting Workspace’ as you send out the Request, a shared space will be set up on the company intranet where people can store and access information related to the meeting - thereby eliminating the task of collecting and copying meeting related material.

Additionally, you can use Exchange to configure your email system to the exact specifications you want. Exchange allows for internal centralized control of your email system, allowing real-time updates to the accounts of the entire company. Exchange 2003 also has an Intelligent Message Filter, which uses Microsoft SmartScreen technology to junk spam before it reaches in-boxes. You are also able to accept and distribute the email from multiple domains.

Exchange lets groups of employees utilize Outlook’s more advanced communication features. For example, public folders can be set up to share email, documents, agendas, task lists, calendars, and notes related to a specific project. This information can be accessed through Exchange’s built in Web Interface, granting secure access to your centralized corporate address lists, calendars, and emails from any internet connection. It is also possible for executives to give an assistant access to add, delete or modify the executive’s contacts, calendar entries, etc.

Exchange 2003, the most recently updated release, interacts with the Microsoft Active Directory service, which is a part of Windows into which most users never venture. While Exchange is a complex piece of software that can be fairly difficult to set up and maintain, Microsoft has an excellent how-to guide. However, if the set-up and/or maintenance is something you don’t have time for or don’t feel comfortable doing yourself, consider hiring an outside consultant. Depending on the size of your network and the amount of data you need to transfer, installation can take anywhere between 4 to 10 hours. Most consultants charge around $150 to $200 an hour for these services. Consultants are often able to perform part of the install as well as make certain updates, add new employee accounts and make various changes remotely, thereby saving you from the money and inconvenience of an on-site visit.

My company uses Microsoft Exchange 2003 and we have found it to be very beneficial during our everyday practices. As a result of the benefits we gained from using the software, we provide procurement, set-up and maintenance of this product to other businesses. You shouldn’t believe the Microsoft naysayer - this product can and will make your office more efficient and productive. I have found that there is little that this powerful software can’t do.

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