FlexITechs
FlexITechs Newsletter
Tech News from FlexITechs
 June 29, 2015
In This Issue
OUR 11TH YEAR!
Windows 10 Upgrade
Odds and Ends
BizTech -- RIP Server 2003
Find us on Facebook 
SERVING DELMARVA
SINCE 2004!
  

FlexITechs has been providing computer and IT services to Delmarva residents and businesses since 2004!

 

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 serve you for more than a decade!

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15% Off Windows 10 Upgrade Service!

 

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:
Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook and Find us on Yelp and View our profile on LinkedIn.

Sincerely,
Eric Magill, FlexITechs

Windows 10 Upgrade


If you run Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8-8.1, you've probably noticed a white Windows flag icon in the lower right corner of your screen recently.

That icon allows you to click and reserve your FREE copy of the new Windows 10 operating system when it becomes available on July 29. Reserving your copy will begin to download the large installation file over time and you'll be able to upgrade to Windows 10 sometime on or after July 29.

This is what I'm recommending to clients:
 
1. If you are having problems with Windows 7 or Windows 8-8.1, then go ahead and reserve your copy.
2. If you are not having problems with one of those operating systems, you can reserve your copy but wait a month or two after July 29 to see what bugs are found when Windows 10 is released to the general public before installing.
 
I offer Option 2 because Windows 10 has so far been tested mainly by people who know computers like computer technicians or computer geeks. We won't know the extent of bugs or hiccups until the general population begins using it.
 
I should note, too, that Microsoft is offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade for one year and advertising Windows 10 as its last operating system (all future upgrades will be a new version of Windows 10 reportedly).

You can read more about the upgrade and also see a preview of Windows 10 and its new Edge web browser (that replaces Internet Explorer). 
 
If you feel you need help with the upgrade, please hold onto this email for 15% off a service call for FlexITechs to perform the upgrade for you. This offer will be good for the full year that the free upgrade is in effect.
 
If you want to upgrade in the near future, give us a call at 302-537-4198 or email me at ericm@flexitechs.com. 

Odds and Ends ...            

 

It's becoming harder to have much faith in Internet service in this area. When it comes to high-speed Internet, we truly are Slower Lower.
 
As if Mediacom's horrendous Internet service isn't bad enough, Verizon's aging DSL infrastructure broke down last week in the Ocean View area for more than 7 hours on a workday. If you didn't have an alternative like a wireless cell phone or tablet that gets its Internet from cell phone towers, you were stuck.
 
Worse, Verizon did absolutely nothing to inform users of the issue on its own web site or inform them when service would be back online.
 
Instead, you had to call Verizon and go through the foreign tech support maze to learn that yes, there was an outage in the Ocean View Central Office, that engineers were working on it, and that it would be back online within 24-48 hours.
 
One to two days? Seriously? And they expect businesses to operate using their slow-as-molasses DSL while refusing to bring much-needed FIOS here.
 
It might be time for state government to step in and demand that Verizon offer FIOS in this area. Between Mediacom and Verizon's DSL, we're at a competitive disadvantage without it.
 
Password Manager Hacked
Remember last month's e-letter on password managers and the downside being if you forget your master password or the password manager itself is hacked?

Well, LastPass, a well-known password management sofware, was hacked earlier this month. It doesn't appear that hackers accessed the password databases of LastPass customers, but if you have LastPass and haven't done so already, change your LastPass master password.  
 

BizTech Talk -- RIP Server 2003         

 

If you haven't heard or it's slipped your mind, in barely two weeks Microsoft will end all technical support for the Windows Server 2003 line, including Server 2003, Small Business Server 2003, and Exchange Server 2003.
 
That means businesses that still use Server 2003 will lose all support, including security patches and tech support for those obsolete server products on July 14, 2015. 
 
Continuing to use these products after July 14 will increase the exposure of your organization, employees, customers and vendors to more serious security risks including network attacks, stolen data, system crashes, damaged reputation, and non-compliance with state or federal regulations.
 
Hackers will target these machines much as they did the Windows XP computers after support ended for XP, and it won't matter how small you are. To hackers, you could be the door to much larger prey in the form of your clients and vendors (that's how the Target hack started).
 
The threat is serious enough for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to issue an official warning to all companies still running Server 2003 products that firewalls and anti-virus software will not be sufficient to completely protect your business (not that they are even on modern operating systems).
 
The solution is to migrate to a modern, supported server operating system, or maybe even the Cloud or a mixture of on-premise and Cloud-based applications like Office 365. Now is the time to get this done due to the many considerations in a server upgrade.
 
Contact us and we will listen to your needs and develop a migration plan that makes sense for your business, operationally and financially.
 
To get started, contact us at 302-537-4198.
We thank you for your business the past 11 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.
Sincerely,
Eric Magill
FlexITechs
Microsoft Small Business Specialist 
Get
15% Off Windows 10 Upgrades
Now through July 28, 2016, you can receive 15% off installation services to uprgrade your existing Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8-8.1 computer to Windows 10. Print out this coupon and whenever you're ready to perform the upgrade (after July 29, 2015), call us at 302-537-4198 to schedule an appointment.    
Offer Expires:
July 28, 2016