Extended Hours in 2012

No Comments » Written on December 31st, 2011 by
Categories: Company News

We are happy to announce that we will be expanding our business hours. Our updated support business hours will be Monday-Friday 7am to 5pm CST. Our on-call techs will now be available on our SupportDesk (262) 737-4774 option 1 between these hours.

As always, thank you for your continued trust and confidence. Happy New Year, and we are looking forward to serving you in 2012!

Sincerely,

Your To Solution Team

Intrusion Detection, Managed Security, Advanced Persistent Threats…or in layman’s terms…Viruses

No Comments » Written on December 28th, 2011 by
Categories: Email Protection, Network & Desktop Security
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Lately we’ve noticed a rise in virus (including malware, trojan, and spyware) activity with many of our clients. Some of the discussions that have taken place since then have helped us realize that there needs to be much more education on this problem and the possible solutions. We’ll attempt to do that in this month’s newsletter. Read the rest of this entry »

What Does Technology Cost Per User?

Wouldn’t you love to have an answer to that question?  As a business owner or manager, you know that technology is an important part of your business.  And for many industries, technology is the cornerstone of the revenue stream.  But what does it really cost to give an employee the computer and tools they need to do their job?

Foremost technology research company, the Gartner Group, has released a number of studies over the years on this subject. A number of years ago these studies showed costs per user at over $10K per user. The good news is that these figures have come down significantly since then. Read the rest of this entry »

HP Ditches Plan to Spin Off PC Unit

No Comments » Written on October 28th, 2011 by
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: ,

In case any of you with upcoming hardware decisions missed this we thought we’d provide this piece of news from Reuters:

Hewlett-Packard Co ditched a plan to spin off its personal computers unit, a month after the ouster of CEO Leo Apotheker whose idea would have cost billions of dollars in expenses and lost business.

“This is the most pragmatic decision and allows them to continue to leverage the end-to-end supply chain benefits,” said Gartner analyst Mark Fabi, adding that it also showed Whitman’s decisiveness as CEO.”

Email Addresses Tell Who You Are

How you use the Web tells others quite a bit about you.  In particular, your domain name and email address says a lot about who you are as an individual or company.  Successful people know the pitfalls to avoid.

Rules for Email Addresses

  1. Always use the company’s domain name!
  2. Always use the company’s domain name!
  3. See rule #1 and #2

Using your company’s domain name not only looks professional, but reinforces your Website address.  Free email accounts (gmail.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com) should be avoided because:

  1. They are often perceived as unprofessional and the address tells customers your company can’t afford a Web account tied to the company domain name.
  2. Free email addresses are used by scammers because…well…they’re free!
  3. Because they are used by scammers, free email addresses often trigger fraud alerts.

So, if you care about how you and your business come across to potential and existing customers, make sure your email address uses your company’s domain name.

These days, having your own company domain name isn’t really a choice – it’s become a necessity.  The first step for your business is to have a short, easy-to-remember, domain name registered.  The next step is to have a centralized email system (like Microsoft Exchange, Zimbra, etc.) for your company and have all of your employees use the company email address.

Easy SharePoint Migration – Using File/Folder Views

Migrating to SharePoint allows your users to share, find, and collaborate on information much more quickly. Transitioning to SharePoint 2007 or 2010 is easier than you might think. Using file and folder views in SharePoint will allow you migrate users to SharePoint, all while they continue to work in the traditional file/folder view that they are used to. Read the rest of this entry »

How SSL and CAs Work

Each time you visit an SSL-secured Website, you get the “green bar”/lock and your computer recognizes that the certificate is valid because it already has a copy of a certificate authority’s (CA) root certificate in its “Trusted Root Certification Authorities” certificate store.  For example, by default, when you install a fresh XP/7 machine, there are over 50 root CAs pre-installed.  Among them are: Thawte, Verisign, StartSSL, Microsoft, etc.  These are some of the de facto “big players” in the SSL market, and Microsoft has made the decision for you (when you install the OS) that these root certificates will be installed and, therefore, trusted. Read the rest of this entry »

Keep Your Free Email Accounts Safe

No Comments » Written on March 4th, 2011 by
Categories: Email Protection
Tags: , , , ,

When dealing with email security one can never be too safe.  It is absolutely imperative that you change your password often and for every account you have.

One of the most important yet overlooked things to remember when attempting to keep an email account safe and secure is the strength of the password.  It can’t be over-emphasized how incredibly important it is to use a secure password for your email account (especially a free account such as Yahoo or Gmail!). Read the rest of this entry »

Floppy Drives – Will Tape Drives Soon Follow?

No Comments » Written on January 24th, 2011 by
Categories: Data Backup & Recovery
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When is the last time you heard someone say, “I’ll just throw that file on a floppy drive for you”?  Floppies enjoyed nearly three decades as the ubiquitous form of data storage and data transfer from the mid 1970s to the late 90s.  At one point or another, we were all at the point where we used floppy drives and praised their usability because, frankly, there was no other solution which was as cost effective or reliable. Read the rest of this entry »

Slow Computer Bogging You Down?

No Comments » Written on November 18th, 2010 by
Categories: IT Support & General Technology
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We like to spread good advice here at To Solution, and we’re in the business of keeping your systems running at optimum speeds.  When your computer speed has declined and it’s impacting your productivity, there are a number of things you can do to speed it up. Read the rest of this entry »