The benefits of using 4G wireless versus 3G wireless aircard connection

Many people ask us what the difference is, in both costs as well as in capability, of 4G versus 3G wireless aircard connection.  Hopefully this brief article will help shed some light on why you want to get to 4G as quickly as you can!  (By the way, the "G" simply stands for "Generation."  4G is the 4th generation of wireless technology.)

All the benefits, no extra cost!:  Although 4G is not available in all areas yet, most of the major wireless internet providers, such as Clear, Sprint, ATT, Verizon, etc, are offering 4G at the same prices as 3G in the areas where it is available.  The only extra cost is that you will need to purchase a 4G device.  And there are special deals and promotions available for that.

The big problems before with finding a "Hot Spot":  You know how it is, when you try to find a hot-spot at a Starbucks or Panera Bread or MacDonalds or something: the connection isn't consistent.  If there are lots of people there, it slows the connection down.  You worry about security.  You couldn't be on-the-move.  You were tethered to that location.  But now it doesn't have to be that way! 

Here are the major benefits to using 4G...  to read the rest of the story, just CLICK HERE.

The only easy day was yesterday

My son Kent is an Army Green Beret (that's the Army equivalent of the Navy SEALS).  As he was going through the rigorous and exhaustive 2 1/2 year training program his instructors would routinely tell the troops each morning that "The only easy day was yesterday!"  But none of the troops thought that yesterday's training had been any walk in the park. So why would the instructors issue such an admonition?

In my opinion, it made crystal clear to the troops that they had to be mentally alert, totally focused, and fully prepared for the tasks and challenges that faced them that very day.  They couldn't sit back and bask in yesterday's accomplishments or glory. They had to earn it all again today.

In my opinion there is an important message in that phrase for us civilians as well. A message that is vital to the survival and growth of your business...

   To read the rest of the article, just CLICK HERE

2 Keys to Surviving a Crisis

How do you survive a crisis?  Especially an economic crisis.  There are 2 keys to surviving any crisis: Strategy and Planning.  But how does a person, or a business, implement any strategy or any plan when one is already short on resources?  How is it possible to do more with less? 

There is only one tool that I know of that actually enables a business to do more with less.  That tool is not money.  You can't do more with less money. The tool is not people. Same reasoning - you can't do more with less people.  The tool is not facilities or office space.

The only tool that enables a business to do more with less is...

To find out the rest of the story, just CLICK HERE.

6 ways to stretch your technology budget

It's hip to be frugal.   It's trendy to save money.  It's cool to spend your money wisely.   With the economy hitting the skids, smart companies are looking for every angle to stretch their technology budgets. 

How do you make your current technology and equipment last longer?  How can you do more when you have fewer resources and less money?  Where can you cut costs but not cut operating efficiency or productivity?

To find out the answers to these questions, and to discover 6 ways to stretch your technology budget, CLICK HERE: 

7 steps to controlling your printing costs

Imagine that one week a friend came in and plopped down onto your desk a great big stack of crisp, new, $100 bills.  "No strings attached," he says, "this is just a gift from me to you.  You deserve it!"    And then imagine that he came back the next week and did the same thing.  And the next.  And the next.every single week of the year. 

No matter what your current financial circumstance, that would be pretty fun, wouldn't it?   And it would most certainly help improve your financial situation.  Well, you needn't imagine it anymore.  That weekly payoff of "free money" can be reality for YOU.  That is exactly the kind of financial reward that awaits you by simply getting control of your current printing costs. 

Based upon our experiences with thousands of companies, of all sizes, over the past 25 years, I can virtually guarantee that your company's printing costs are not under the degree of control that you would want them to be, if you knew all the facts and all the costs.

To find out how printing costs get out of control at 97% of all companies, to learn the 7 steps to control those costs, and to therefore find out how to get your weekly financial payoff from those savings, CLICK HERE.

Why to beware of long-term copier leases

Do you use a combination of both copiers and printers in your office?   If so, do you have an office copier under a long-term lease (36 months or longer)?   Or, are you considering getting a copier on a long-term lease?  

If you have answered "Yes" to any of the above questions, it will be worthwhile to pay attention to, and to beware of, what you are signing!  

Times have changed.  The entire printer / copier industry has gone through enormous upheavals in the past year or two.  This industry changes can and will have a major impact on your business's pocketbook.  Especially during the current economic conditions, we want to be sure that these changes impact you positively rather than negatively.

To find out what pitfalls to avoid, learn the latest trends, and to discover which technology is best for YOUR office, just click here to get the rest of the story.

Why and How To Do Windows Updates

Do you lock up your home or apartment,and your car at nighttime?  Computer and network security is similar to protecting your personal property.  Security requires vigilance and consistency. One of the most important things to remember to do for computer and network security is to do regular, ongoing Windows security updates and patches. 

Most of the really nasty security threats to your computers and networks rely on weaknesses in Windows or Web browsers.  To close the gaping holes that malware can exploit, here's what you need to do: 

  >>>  To find out the rest of the story, including how to perform Windows updates and install the latest patches (including how to automate the process!) just CLICK HERE

Hard Drive Care

As you know your computer's hard drive is the heart and soul of your day to day computer experience.  If something goes wrong with your hard drive, it has a distinct tendency to ruin your day.  

Being in the computer services business, we've found that there are 5 common hard-drive issues that almost all computer users seem to encounter.  Knowing how to deal with these can save you time, money, and a whole lot of heartache.  Here they are, in no particular order:

 >>>  To find out the rest of the story, including how to find out more about dealing with or solving some of the most common problems that we see with hard drives, including such issues as:

-          How to do an Error Scan

-          Fixing a slow hard drive

-          What to do about a hard drive that is active when you're not using it

-          How to deal with hard drive noises

-          What to do when your hard drive fails, 

then just CLICK HERE.

How and why to use Disk Cleanup

Have you cleaned out your hard drive lately?   Clearing out and cleaning up your hard drive is sort of like cleaning out your garage or closet:  a chore that has to be done every now and then if you want to be able to fit more stuff in them. 

So to accomplish that goal, here is another of our Windows Tips and Tricks:  use the Windows Disk Cleanup feature to remove the clutter and free up space on your Windows 98 / Me / XP / Vista  computer's hard drive.  

This utility, which is already included with the above Windows versions, finds and removed un-needed  or unnecessary such as Temporary files, Temporary Internet files, offline files, etc.  Sometimes files like that can get corrupted and cause problems, or cause a lack of free space needed for a swap file.   

Frequently with Disk Cleanup you can free up many megabytes, or even gigabytes, at one time.

The 7 Key Things about Battery Backups

If you, or your company, depend on your electronics to do business and to make money, then this may be one of the most important articles you read today.  The effects of power-related downtime are much more than just an inconvenience - it can be devastating to a company's revenues and business practices.  

In one split second a power surge or blackout can mess up a lot of precious hours of work, corrupt data, destroy equipment, and usually prevent sales from occurring.   For most businesses, downtime of their servers or their employee's desktop computers is simply not an option.

The way businesses avoid this problem is by installing Battery Backups (formal name: Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS).  That seems pretty simple.   The problem is that there are two problems that invariably happen, either or both of which gives people a false sense of security.  They think they are protected, but they aren't.  

The 2 chronic problems with Battery Backups are:

     1. People usually buy the wrong Battery Backup's.  They either buy one too small, which doesn't give the protection they need, or else they buy too big and waste money on it.

     2. People generally don't check to be sure that their Battery Backups are actually working.   Like any batteries, the Backup batteries fail but you don't discover it until it's too late.

There are 7 Key Things to know and learn about battery backups that will keep you and your business running without all the hassle and worry.  The most important of the 7 Key Things is...

>>>  To find out the rest of the story, including our best ideas on properly protecting your business, and your bank account, with battery backups, just CLICK HERE.

How To Recycle or Give Away Your Stuff

Have you or your officemates ever wanted to get rid of some thing or things in the office, or even around your house, but you didn't want to just throw it in the trash, or have to pay to have it hauled away, or take the time, trouble, and cost of selling it?

If so, there are some great alternatives for recycling or simply GIVING your stuff away.  Simple, easy, and at no cost to you.   To recycle or to give away your stuff, simply post the item(s) on an Internet site for freebies, such as...

To find out the rest of the story, including our best ideas on recycling or giving away your stuff, just click HERE.

How to select, protect, and keep track of your passwords

Do you have a lot of passwords that you need to keep track of?   Do you need an easy way to select, and then protect those passwords?   If so, read on.

I don't know about you, but as close as I can figure, I have at least 30 different passwords, for my own accounts, that I keep up with.   Ebay, Google, servers, home and laptop computers, Orbitz, Time Warner, Sprint, - the list is longer than O.J. Simpson's rap sheet. 

I used to remember them all, but that day is long gone.  Some people I know try using the same password for everything, or even keeping a list in their wallet or purse.   But both of those methods are very dangerous. 

There are a lot of better ways to select and protect passwords.  To find out the rest of the story, including our best ideas on selecting, and then protecting your passwords, just click HERE.

How to save time by putting out fewer fires

Would you like to put out fewer fires and spend more time into meeting your business goals?   

Whether you are plagued with persistent and chronic computer network and PC problems such as security vulnerabilities, poor performance, managing updates, verifying backups, providing user access, and supporting desktops that takes up way too much of your time, or just need a little network fine tuning, we can help.

Set your sights on a safer network that minimizes security threats from viruses and spam, reduces tedious management tasks and that automates and simplifies your IT administration and management. 

You can instead look forward to spending time on YOUR priorities.   And if that isn't enough, you can probably save up to 33% by cutting your current IT support costs.

To learn the rest of the story about finding out how to get better network and PC security, more control, with less technical hassle, just click the hot link article title above.

How to assure complete data wipes

Do you ever need to ensure that data on a hard drive is completely wiped out, made unrecoverable, and that all deleted files are permanently eradicated beyond any possible methods of recovery? 

Do you ever need to ensure that a hard drive, CD, or DVD is completely destroyed and made unusable?    

If you want, or need, to be sure that confidential data from clients, patients, or your employees will never be seen by anyone else; if you want to prevent identity theft of personal or financial information; if you need to safeguard secret or valuable company information that should never be seen by a third party, then you need to ensure that complete data destruction occurs. 

Failure to do so can lead to the disclosure or improper usage of sensitive information, embarrassment to you or your company, costly investigations, and other consequences which could have been avoided.  

To find out the rest of the story, and to find out how to protect yourself and your vital information, just click on the article title above.

How to evaluate the Universal Health Care debate

WARNING:  there is danger to both your health AND your wealth in this idea of universal health care.  We've always alerted you about what to pay attention to in the world of computers, printers, networking, and other technology topics on this website.   We thought we'd take a break this week to alert you instead about an item that will be of very great importance to you and to your pocketbook in the coming months:  the Universal Health Care debate. 

The Presidential candidates of both parties seem to be preparing Americans to embrace governmentally-mandated and managed Universal Health Care.   After all, what could be better than having trustworthy Uncle Sam providing health care for all Americans at an affordable price?   How could anyone be against that idea? 

The advantage of being my age is that I can see the end result of this debate as clearly as if it had already happened.   To learn the rest of the story about how to evaluate the pros and cons of the Universal Health Care debate, just click the hot link article title above.  

Important notes & tips about printer drivers

Do you ever experience printer, or printing, problems especially when printing on labels or other special media?    If so, this article may shed some light on what the problem(s) may be.  They may not be what you think - the toner cartridge or the printer.   

This article is a case study about the importance of being sure that you have the right printer and the right printer drivers in order to accomplish your printing job most efficiently and effectively.   You may be surprised to learn that you don't have the correct driver or setup!   For more information, just click the article title above.

How to add another monitor to your PC

Want just a little more convenience and simplicity in your life?  Then add another monitor!  Or two.

Would it make your life a little more convenient if you could have several windows open at once that you could look at simultaneously without having to constantly minimize and maximize all the time?  

If you're wanting to have, say, email open continuously while working and viewing your documents or spreadsheets at the same time, then the solution is to add another monitor (or two) to your current configuration.   Your mouse will move effortlessly between them as though they were on one big screen.  

Fortunately, for both Windows and Mac users, adding another monitor is one of the easiest and least expensive improvements you can make to your PC.    All you have to do....      (for the rest of the story, just click on the hot link article title above)

What to do for liquid spills on laptop computers

It's easy to spill liquids on laptop computers.   Because of their convenient portability, laptop computers end up on kitchen or dining room tables, airline trays, Starbucks counters, on the car seat next to you, in your children's rooms, in classrooms, you name it.  

And usually within a foot or two of the computer is your preferred method of either staying alert or staying calmed down - a cup of coffee or tea, a can of coke, a glass of milk, a bottle of fruit drink, a glass of wine, or something.

So what happens when that drink ends up being emptied into the laptop accidentally?   Accidents can happen to anyone.  The most important thing is to not compound the mistake that just occurred.   The second thing is to try to minimize the damage that the liquid spill might have done to your computer.

For the 12 immediate steps about what you need to do as soon as a liquid spill on your laptop happens, and to read the rest of the story, click the article title above.

If you have a laser printer than needs repair, you may be asking yourself, "Do I scrap this printer, or pay money to fix it?'

Probably our single most asked question after that is "If I replace this printer with a newer one, will the newer one last as long as this one did?"

Every printer has to be maintained.  Every printer is going to need a fuser and a maintenance kit each year, along with several rollers.  And of course there's labor charges.   So how does one decide what to do?

For help on making an informed decision about whether to fix your printer or to buy a new one, comparing costs on page-for-page, apples-to-apples basis, click the title above to read the full article.

There is a new, free service that you need to know about available from Google, called Google Mobile Maps, that lets you get directions, traffic info, find a location, and chart a route as long as you have a cell phone that can accomodate it.   For more details and the rest of the story, click the title above.