Get Help!

Thanks for stopping by, Business Ladies that Network Over Coffee member.

Operating a small or home-based business means your computer, network and Internet connection is more important than ever, and when things go wrong it is critical to get the right technical help.

Who we are

We are a small business like yourself, and operate out of a home-office. We focus only on small businesses and so we have the experience and understanding of the types of technology you are using and can provide  recommendations from a small business point of view.

With over 20 years experience there are many areas we can help.

Virtual Support

We understand that you operate out of your home or personal space, so we have prepared Virtual Support – a way for us to see and help with your computers and equipment without having to step foot inside your premises.

It’s easy to setup and we only use it when you need assistance. It’s the most convenient way to get help when you need it.

There are many ways to contact us. If you need immediate help just call 604-715-5107, our mobile support number.

Summer is drawing to an end and it’s been a good one.

You probably threw open all the windows and doors to keep cool while enjoying the summer breezes. And so you should – but now realize that you’ve had a lot of dust, pollen, and other things travelling throughout your home and probably being sucked up the intake fan in your desktop computer.

Computers are like televisions, they just seem to attract dust – and the problem with dust is it creates heat, and heat is the enemy of computers. You need to get rid of this dust.

Ok, now I’ve got that out of the way – still with me?

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Phillips screwdriver (cross-head)
• Paint brush
• Can of compressed air

Step 1 – Unplug the Power

This is very important! Don’t ever skip this step when you are dealing with the innards of your computer.

Remove the power cable and all other cables from the back of the computer.

Step 2 – Remove the case panel

Most standard computer cases have two screws at the back holding on the side panel on the case. Unscrew and remove these and slide off the panel. When you face the front of the computer you usually want to remove the panel on the left.

This will expose the motherboard, fan, wires, disks, etc.

Step 3 – Air and brush

First, let’s talk about using compressed or canned air. This air is under pressure and if you just pull the trigger and let it blow then you will notice the can gets very cold very quickly. This is bad and causes condensation (water) which is obviously bad for electrical circuits! What you want is short bursts of no more than 1 second with the can held about 6 inches  away. Do this wrong and you risk a dead computer!

Ugh, see all those grey brown dust clusters at the bottom of the computer? You may want to do this outside or in an easily cleanable area. You can pick out by hand the largest ones.

Start at the top and blow out the power supply where the power cord plugs in (you removed it in Step 1 right?!)

Work your way down and use the paint brush to gently help stubborn areas – gently!

Pay particular attention to both the power supply and the CPU fan and heat sink – but be very careful not to allow any condensation. If you see evaporation and white smudge then your are holding the air can to close or spraying for too long.

Step 4 – Check Connections

Before we close up the case, check that all the ribbon cables and other power connections are all tight (and still connected!)

If you have any suspicion that you may have caused condensation then now leave the case open for 20 minutes.

Step 5 – Attach Case Panel

Slide the case panel back on and tighten down the two screws.

Step 6 – Attach Cables

Re-attach all the cables, putting the power cable back last.

Now the moment of truth. Turn the computer back on and make sure it boots up correctly. If you have any problems at this point it is hopefully due to either cables at the back of the computer that are incorrectly plugged, or one of the cables inside is disconnected or incorrect.

Most cables are coded and shaped in such a way that they can only plug in one place. Make sure all the connections are tight.

It’s really pretty hard to actually break the computer while cleaning it unless you’re just rough or knocked something inside. However if the computer will not start up, don’t play too much as this might cause further damage. Take the computer to a competent service provider and have them check it.

No more dust!

Now that your computer is dust-free it will run cooler and better throughout the winter. Enjoy using it and give some thought to maybe doing this again in the spring.

/Technicalguy

Need help or technical information? Call Foreverwarm Consulting’s mobile support number at 604-715-5107

Foreverwarm Consulting Inc provides peace of mind to small businesses through proactive computer and network support.

FOREVERWARM CONSULTING INC
Call: 604-715-5107

Hello

I’m Captain Anthony Fernadez, 32years Old working with PRINCESS MARIANA LUXURY YACHT in United Kingdom, I managed the Hotel Operation Department of One of the Mega Yacht sailing around the Europe and Caribbean Island.

I came across your Ads courtesy of Craigslist Computer Expert section, I urgently need your Services as almost 7-8 PCs at the Passenger/Guest cabin just got affected with Virus giving bad performances..I would like to know if you can repair the 8PCs and i need updated operating system along with Anti-virus,Active firewall prevention Programs and installation of other software and general services of the PCs which i’ll make necessary arrangement on getting the PCs send to you.Kindly let me know your charges of services for this 8PCs and time frame of its readiness as i urgently need it to be fix..

I hope to read from you soon and provide your Workshop Address as the Shipping Company will have it send forward to you with immediate effect and most important i’ll like to know the Charges of services for the 8pcs Asap..await your quick responds

Warm Regards,

Captain Sir. Anthony Fernadez”

The same day I received this email:
Hello,
I got your contact and i was just checking if you will be available to repair and install some applications on 11(Eleven) PC .
Get back to me for details if you’ll be available.

I cannot find anything specifically on the Internet about a spam of this type – and there is no immediate call for anything, except to contact them.

/Technicalguy

It’s summer! You’ve been planning your getaway and the time is almost at hand.

But wait! Before you leave – follow these three tasks and protect your data and prepare for your return.

1. Clean up

• Delete the files in your C:\Windows\Temp folder
• Delete the files in your C:\Windows\Prefetch folder
• Clean up your My Documents folder (especially old photos, etc)

2. Backup your data

• Copy your My Documents folder to an external USB hard disk, or USB key/stick
• Export your data from Outlook (File, Import and Export, Export to a file, select Personal Folder File (.pst), Select Personal Folders and check the box for Include Subfolders, Browse to your external USB disk or key, click OK) More details here.
• Got data hiding in other places? drag and drop it all to that USB disk or key.

3. Tell people when you are coming back

• In Outlook, turn on the Out of Office Assistant (Tools, Out of Office Assistant, click I am currently Out of the Office, type your message saying when you will be back) More details here.

Take the time to follow these three easy steps and attain true peace of mind while on vacation, knowing your data is safe. When you get back you just need to turn off the Out of Office Assistant and pick up where you left off.

Need help or technical information? Call Foreverwarm Consulting’s mobile support number at 604-715-5107

Foreverwarm Consulting Inc provides peace of mind to small businesses through proactive computer and network services.

FOREVERWARM CONSULTING INC
Call: 604-715-5107

Logs revealed nothing, the backup was not running, and it only happened occasionally. However when it happened it would sometimes lock out a whole public folder. To make matters worse, Outlook files were stored on the server and were also getting locked and hanging Outlook.

Here’s the solution:

Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 MR2 has a known issue that causes this.

You must upgrade to the the current version (currently 11.0.4202), here’s the link.

(or if you need to, copy/paste this url: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2008061812370848?Open&seg=ent)

Need help or technical information? Call Foreverwarm Consulting’s mobile support number at 604-715-5107

Foreverwarm Consulting Inc provides peace of mind to small businesses through proactive computer and network services.

FOREVERWARM CONSULTING INC
Call: 604-715-5107

When you create the mail account in Goldmine, the username you use MUST match the Alias name in the users Exchange account.

In Active Directory Users and Computers, go to the properties of the user account, click the Exchange General tab and make sure that the Alias name is the same as the login name you are using in Goldmine.

This is a little Goldmine gotcha you don’t want to experience – hopefully this post helps!

Need help or technical information? Call Foreverwarm Consulting’s mobile support number at 604-715-5107

Foreverwarm Consulting Inc provides peace of mind to small businesses through proactive computer and network services.

FOREVERWARM CONSULTING INC
Call: 604-715-5107

Here’s the quote that Small Business owners and staff (in fact everyone) need to take from this:

“Alan: In hindsight, was there anything that could have been done on the user end? That is, if you had outgoing firewalls, anti-spyware/anti-malware software, weren’t logged in as a root user, would that have done anything to limit the extent of the breach?

Charlie: None of those protections would have probably worked, or at least there were potential workarounds. The best thing the user could have done is not click on the malicious link. “

Safe Browsing

Folks, it is very important to practice safe browsing. We can put multiple levels of security in place, but if you wander off to “some site” and click links wantonly, you will have problems. Remind your staff that these are business computers, for work activities. Save the casual browsing for home, where it’s not going to cause a business interruption.

Here’s one other quote:

Alan: So for our readers, what are some tips for running a “secure” PC/Mac/Linux machine?

Charlie: For all OS’s, make sure you keep your system up to date. That’s the best thing you can do. On a PC, I’d recommend running some AV software to help clean up when things go bad. Otherwise, just be smart, pay attention, and hope for the best.

Secure your business

Make sure you systems are up to date with proactive network management. We can help secure your Small Business network and computers. Call us at 604-7815-5107.

Foreverwarm Consulting Inc provides peace of mind to small businesses through proactive computer and network services.

FOREVERWARM CONSULTING INC
Call Mobile Support: 604-715-5107

.TEL is the new domain name extension – a domain name that is different than a standard website domain.

Rather than host web sites, the new .TEL domain will be a site for contact information. It’s designed to work not only over the web, but also via mobile phones such as the Blackberry and iPhone.  It becomes a repository of any and all your contact information and includes some filtering to allow some contacts to be “priviledged” to see more than others.

Here’s a BBC article with more information

What does this mean for Small Business?

A .TEL domain will ensure your business contact information is available through various means and competitively placed with other .TEL domain holders. .TEL keywords will make your business easier to find in search engines.

Any changes to phone number, address, or other information, can now be changed at a single point and automatically distributed to smartphones, PDA’s, or other devices, which will automatically update the contact information.

Top 10 reasons to buy .TEL (PDF)

Check out the Telnic website for full .TEL information, including examples, and a video.

Where can I buy a .TEL domain?

Check with your usual domain registrar to see if they offer .TEL domain names.

Unless you wish to pay a premium, general availability starts March 24, 2009 at prices similar to buying a regular domain name. If they don’t try this list.

Will you buy a .TEL?

As a Small Business owner you need to invest this small capital to stay current with the communications options available to your customers. If your business has a domain name it is in your best interests to pick up the .TEL domain as well.

Will you buy a .TEL? Add your comments

As a Small Business owner, you are no doubt watching the economy very closely and giving serious thought to how it may impact your business. Will you have to downsize suddenly? How will your customers be affected?

Experts agree that things will get tough before they get better again. Is your business prepared?
How about your computers? Do you have the right infrastructure to adapt to the changes?
If you had to get lean and mean very quickly, is your technology ready?

Foreverwarm Consulting can help you recession proof your business technology. If you can answer yes to the following questions confidently, you are probably in good shape.

1. Can anyone in your business locate critical documents quickly and easily?
2. Is all essential information backed up weekly to ensure up-to-date versions?
3. Do you have a foolproof system to manage multiple email accounts?
4. Are all staff in sync in terms of business documentation and technology data?
5. Is someone minding the store as far as technology troubleshooting?
6. Can you maintain technical efficiency with fewer staff if you had to?

1. Can you locate critical business documents quickly and easily?

If you have to reduce staff, you don’t want to waste time searching for key documents or information on “somebody’s computer somewhere”. Now is the time to make sure all your data is in one place, available to whoever needs it, at any time, regardless of which computer they are sitting at.

If you don’t have a central server, data consolidation can be accomplished in other ways: Designate one computer as the “main” computer and share out a folder that everyone has access to. Then, on the other desktops, map a drive to that shared folder. Alternatively, you can buy an external shared hard drive with network capabilities and, as above, enable folder sharing from this drive with mapped drives from each desktop. It may take some time to consolidate the files from each computer work station, but the rewards of centralization far outweigh the risk of not being to located documents when they are required urgently. If it all sounds a little overwhelming, don’t worry, call us at Foreverwarm Consulting and we can help.

2. Is all essential information backed up regularly to ensure up-to-date versions?

Now is NOT the time to be missing important data. If you have followed the consolidation recommendations above then you are in a good place to back up all that data regularly. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is by using external USB drives – some even come with their own backup software. If you don’t already have a central server, you must designated one computer as the “backup computer” and use it to control when and how backups occur. You should be backing up overnight at least weekly and, for efficiency, we recommend doing incremental backups if your software provides that option.

Foreverwarm Consulting provides customized backups for a number of clients, rotating USB drives so that a copy of the data is always off-site. Call us to find out more 604.715.5107.

3. Do you have a foolproof system to manage multiple email accounts?

How do you make sure you receive emails from team members who are absent or no longer there – and that the right person now gets them? What about historical emails from staff who have long gone? You can merge those old emails into another account so that you are able to retrieve them. You can even make sure emails to that missing team member are automatically received by the person who needs to see them.

Managing multiple e-mail accounts is a specialized activity and we would be happy to help you figure out what’s best for your business and how it can be accomplished efficiently.
Taking care of customer requests will become even more important this year. Make sure your e-mail accounts are working for you and not against you.

4. Are all staff in sync in terms of business documentation and technology data?

Does every person on your staff have their own version of customer contacts and standard business forms? How do you know whose version is the correct or the most up-to-date? If you have five or more staff and aren’t doing so already, you need to seriously look at email collaboration software. Outlook can be programmed to share data without defaulting to a Microsoft Exchange Server. Other programs such as Act! And Maximizer also provide optional features to get all staff literally on the same page.

Documents and standard forms can be easily consolidated with Folder shares. If you have centralized all business data, as described in 1. above, you are already ahead of the game. There are even collaboration options available online, such as SalesForce and other CRM type software.

Don’t have the time or technological knowhow? No problem, leave it to us.

5. Is someone minding the store as far as technology troubleshooting?

If you lost your internal tech troubleshooter, would you be ok? We’re talking about documentation here — do you have any? Or is it all in the mind of your technology support person? Who knows the passwords for all the equipment and software?

Most techies are not good at keeping these kinds of records; at Foreverwarm Consulting, we believe it’s good business practice. Our goal is to provide complete peace of mind, as a result, we provide our customers with full documentation for all their computers and networks. If you don’t currently have documentation, make it a priority for your technical support to provide it. Alternatively, call us; we can probably inventory most of what you have in about two hours.

6. Can you maintain technical efficiency with fewer staff if you had to?

Assuming you have downsized, your remaining staff will need to do more in the same amount of time. Make that job easier with clean up and regular computer maintenance. Windows hard drives slow down over time through normal use and need to be re-optimized and checked for errors. Now, more than ever, you need things to be running smoothly. A computer clean-up should include a disk clean-out, error check, and defragmentation. You should also take the time now to check for and remove any unwanted software.

None of these tasks are particularly difficult; however they do take time and planning. If you would like to talk us about how we can help, call Foreverwarm Consulting 604.715.5107.

You’re probably going to be rushed and a little frazzled when trying to get to your destination, but try to keep the following points in mind:

1. Backup valuable data before traveling
2. Use Laptop and Data Recovery Protection software
3. Don’t put your laptop in your checked luggage
4. Clearly label your laptop to distinguish it from others at Security Checkpoints
5. Ask to put your laptop in the Hotel safe when you are not using it
6. Do not logon to Unsecured Wireless Networks
7. Do not access Financial or Bank Records while traveling
8. Deselect “remember me” when browsing the Internet
9. Clear your History and Cache after using a Web Browser
10. If you are using a public computer, be aware of Keyboard Loggers and Trackers

If you’re unclear about some of these points and would like to make sure your privacy and security is sound, contact us. We can help make your holiday travel a success.

Taking just a little time to stop and think about your privacy and security will help to make sure there are no surprises after the fact.

Read the full article here.

Have a great trip!