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Tech News from FlexITechs
| Sept. 15, 2014
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CELEBRATING OUR
10TH ANNIVERARY!
FlexITechs is now in its 10th year of serving Sussex County residents and businesses!
After two years as the computer services arm of our sister company, Sussex County Online, FlexITechs was formed to better define the computer services offered by owner Eric Magill.
We thank all of our customers who have made it possible for us reach our 10th anniversary! |
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10% Off Online Backup Services!
Dear (Contact First Name),
Thank you for your continued interest in FlexITechs. If you'd prefer not to receive our occasional email newsletters, use the "Unsubscribe" link above.
Also, be sure to:
Sincerely, Eric Magill, FlexITechs |
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Back up those phones and tablets!
As our clients continue migrating from desktops and laptops to SmartPhones and tablets, I've been astounded by how easy it can be to lose years worth of pictures, emails, documents, etc. on these devices.
I've been particularly struck by how Apple's resolution for unlocking a locked phone due to too many failed login attempts is to perform a factory re-set that wipes out all of the owner's data.
That's right, if you forget your passcode and get locked out, you will lose everything you store on your mobile device if you don't have a backup as Apple doesn't offer secret questions to answer to re-set your passcode.
This has happened to one client and I just couldn't accept that Apple would have such an unforgiving method for unlocking a locked phone. But sure enough, hours of Googling revealed that, indeed, a factory re-set is Apple's answer to a locked phone. If you don't have a backup, you lose all data.
With Androids, you can enter your Google user name and password to unlock the phone and re-set your passcode, but YOU DO HAVE TO KNOW your Google user name and password. Be sure to write them down somewhere you'll remember to look if you're ever locked out.
Here are some quick tips on backing up your mobile devices to prevent such a disaster:
Even with such a backup, unlocking an iPhone will be cumbersome as you wait for the factory re-set to perform, followed by downloading all of your files to your device. This could literally take hours depending on how many files you have stored.
Of course, you could avoid this altogether by not applying a passcode to your device, but if you lose it -- and these devices are easy to lose -- a stranger could have access to your life. These devices also break, so the backup enables you to recover from a broken device.
One thing about device backups: depending on how many files you have and how fast your Internet connection is, it might take some time to perform the initial backup, so plan to do this the first time at night or over a weekend. My Android phone took all day on a Saturday to back up 540 photos, 31 contacts, and hundreds of messages.
So, DON'T forget that passcode. And DO make backups for other potential disasters.
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Mediacom strikes again
[/beginrant]
I suppose I should send Mediacom a Christmas card or take the CEO out to a nice lunch for all the work it creates for FlexITechs ...
The sorry state of Internet service around these parts reared its ugly head again last month when Mediacom suffered another of its lengthy "outages".
This time, an upgrade in network equipment not only caused Mediacom to go offline for most of a day, but also caused freak issues such as lost email access, lost surveillance camera connections and, perhaps this was just a coincidence, but a couple of customers lost their wireless router's security settings when Mediacom went down.
One business client lost its email service for three days before Mediacom finally figured out its upgrade caused the problem. That's unacceptable in the second decade of the 21st Century. Worse, Mediacom tech support blamed the customer's computer until we proved she had the same issue on all five computers in her office and that I could re-reproduce the issue on my computers in my office.
Between Mediacom's ineptitude, Verizon's refusal to make FIOS widely available in Sussex County, and the poor tech support offered at all three of our broadband providers (including Comcast) in this area, we don't have a reliable source of fast Internet service.
And worse, we have little competition, so our broadband Internet providers have virtually no incentive to improve. Many of our customers, in fact, have no high-speed Internet option other than Mediacom. For businesses, Verizon's business-class DSL service just doesn't cut it for cloud-based services unless it's a SOHO business.
So, when your Internet goes out and tech support tells you the problem is on your end, before you accept their explanation and waste hours chasing down a non-existent problem on your computer, call us. We will likely know if your Internet provider is the culprit or not.
[/endrant]
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BizTech Talk -- Choosing a Backup Plan
I write often about the importance of proper backup plans, because choosing a backup service for your company's critical data isn't as simple as downloading software and installing it.
Considering that 20% of businesses suffer a major loss of critical data every 5 years according to a Richmond House Group study, and that 50% of businesses that experience catastrophic data loss file bankruptcy immediately (National Archives and Records Administration), it's imperative to have a proper backup system in place.
With a third of all backups failing in either the backup or restore phases, your backup plan should offer a simple way to monitor and test your backups so you know they have succeeded. Otherwise, you have a 33% chance of not being able to recover your data.
I've seen this first-hand in our business. More than once, we've worked with new clients who thought their backups were performing as scheduled only to find out they hadn't been performed at all for over a year.
These are the most pertinent questions to ask potential backup providers:
- Are their backups automated?
- How will backups be monitored (i.e., how will you know if they failed or succeeded)?
- How will backups be tested?
- How many data centers will your backups be sent to and where are they located?
- How many historical versions of each backed up file can be stored?
- Will the backups be encrypted enroute to the data center and at rest in the data center?
- Can your data be restored to a different computer, such as a new server?
- Will your backup provider provide assistance for data restoration?
- Can the backup provider overnight a hard disk with all your files in the event of a total loss (i.e., fire, flood, Hurricane, etc.)?
- How much does the backup provider charge for over-nighting a hard disk with your files?
- Is the backup provider compliant with federal and state regulations (i.e., HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI-DSS, Gramm-Leach-Bliley) if they apply to your industry.
If your backup provider gives positive answers to all of the above questions, you have just greatly increased your chances for a successful data recovery should the need arise.
If not, call us at 302-537-4198 for our answers with our FlexIT Backup service.
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We thank you for your business the past 10 years and hope we can continue to fulfill your technology needs in the future. If you have any questions about current technology issues, feel free to contact us at 537-4198.
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Sincerely,
Eric Magill
FlexITechs
Microsoft Small Business Specialist |
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10% Off Online Backup Services!
Now through Sept. 30, 2014, you can receive 10% off our automated online backup services to protect your critical business data or priceless personal photos or pricy music and movies from natural disasters, fires, theft and accidents. Includes monitoring to make sure the backups are working (many other backup services fail without warning).
| Offer Expires:
Sept. 30, 2014
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