Real Bytes…

As McCoy would say, “He’s dead Jim”

Yesterday we discussed how  mobile computing platforms will soon leave the desktop PC dead and buried (well, hopefully recycled, not buried).  The server is also fading in importance, but at the same time is gaining importance.  How can this be?  Server roles are moving into the cloud, but, even in the cloud, something has to run the applications and host the data.

VMWare, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, IBM, and a host of other players are all touting the advantages of virtualization.  Slicing up a server into a bunch of smaller ”virtual” servers that can be moved from physical box to physical box (often on the fly) provides some compelling advantages over racks and racks of underutilized hardware.

Most virtualization is being done at the enterprise level, on large servers. But the growth market for virtualization is the SMB space (less than 100 users) where businesses have traditionally used Microsoft’s Small Business Server(SBS).  The traditional roll of SBS is to host a website, centrally store files, and provide email services.

Lets take a look at those areas and see how the cloud will impact the SMB Server market.

Web hosting

It doesn’t make much sense to host your website on premises any more.  There are clear cost savings (both hard and soft) by moving your website to a hosted solution.  Often the hosting companies will include periodic updates for free.  Their data centers will have up-times much higher than most SMB’s can claim.  There are host of value added services (Microsoft Sharepoint, SEO, Database drive pages, etc.) these hosting companies provide as well.

Central file storage

Numerous companies offering cloud based file hosting/sync services (Microsoft Skydrive, Dropbox, etc.).  The beauty of these services is your data is backed up automatically in the cloud.  So you have anywhere access and backup.  Synchronization technologies will help ensure that you have local access to the data even when the cloud is unavailable. 

Email services

Unless your an organization with more than about 30 people, hosting Exchange/email locally is just not a prudent decision.  Managing the server, the users, the spam, the updates, etc. is just not a cost effective way to deliver email services.  Hosted exchange is quickly becoming a commodity item that provides all the collaboration and robust mobile device support for a reasonable price.  Oh, and backups are taken care assuming you have a reputable provider.

Where does this leave the traditional SBS server for the SMB market?  Might as well dress it in a red shirt, ‘cuz it’s only a mater of time before McCoy delivers his all-too-familiar line.

The PC is dead. Born: 1981, Died: 2009(ish)

The PC is dead.  That beige or black box under your desk that runs your email/web access will follow 8-track, mimeographs, and typewriters to the graveyard of dead technology, and sooner than most people are ready to admit.

Already we get our email on our Smartphones and Netbooks.  The Netbook is now 20% of the mobile computing platform.  At the same time PC sales are down, mobile computing device sales are up.  Even industry stalwart Apple has seen a decline in desktop PC sales while their sales of iPhones has increased.

The world is going mobile and there isn’t a place in it for a 25 lb. box that adds no value over a Netbook, Notebook, or Smartphone.  As data moves into the cloud, synchronization technologies will allow people to have their data delivered anytime, anywhere.  The challenge of  cloud-sync will be solved so that even when the cloud is not available, you will have access to your data.  Any changes made when the cloud is not available will be seamlessly synced when you reconnect.

We are starting to see Netbooks being sold by major cell carriers.  It won’t be long before your Internet, mobile phone, and computing device are all delivered by your mobile carrier.  You’ll pay a flat fee and all your voice, messaging, and data services will be delivered via mobile devices.   This transition has already begun for the consumer makert (fixed: market) and its only a matter of time before it begins to affect the small business owner as well…

Tomorrow we’ll talk about how this impacts the small business owner…the death of the Server…

Firewalls explained…

Did you know that when your computer is connected to the Internet, it has over 131,000 ‘ports’ that a hacker could connect to?  These ports are like doors in a building and if they aren’t protected properly, then someone could sneak in without you noticing.  If the hacker is not installing a virus, they can still do some serious damage without alerting your security software, including transmitting your personal information.   

So how do you watch all of these doorways to your information?  You need a firewall!

Fortigate Firewall

In construction terms a firewall is a fire-resistant wall that subdivides a building to stop the spread of fire from one area to another.  In computer terms, we need to stop communications between your computer and others on the Internet.  A total block of all Internet communication would be useless though, so you need a way of selecting which type of communications you want to receive.  For this, computer firewalls have rules and filters much like construction firewalls have access doors.

Where do I put this firewall?
Firewalls can be on a hardware box (a separate unit or part of your Internet modem or router) or can be software installed on your computer.  Most popular security software packages also include a firewall.  A hardware firewall is great for providing a barrier before your computer is even reached and will also mean that your computer doesn’t have to spend its precious resources on running the firewall software.  It also reduces the risk of the firewall itself being compromised, as some viruses can try and disable security software features that are running on your computer.  The downside is that a hardware-based firewall can be more expensive and not as easy to configure and maintain if you are unsure of how to use them. 

If Microsoft gives me a firewall, do I need another one?
The Windows Firewall (on Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Vista) only examines inbound communications coming into your computer from the Internet.  If your computer becomes infected (e.g. if you install some free software that turns out to have a hidden nasty) then your outbound communication to other computers on the Internet won’t be examined or filtered.  This can turn your computer into a source of infection, impacting your security and Internet connection.  It’s also not recommended that you run more than one software firewall as this uses more processing power and can cause conflicts, so if your security software includes a firewall, turn off the Windows Firewall.

If I have a secure wireless connection do l need a firewall?
A wireless connection is another way to get onto the Internet and wireless security controls who can use that connection. This is similar to allowing who can plug into your phone line.  Once you are connected, your 131,000+ ports are still open to hackers, so you still need a firewall.  A firewall may be included on your wireless router but it pays to check.

Why does it keep on giving me messages?
If you are doing something specific (like installing new software or troubleshooting a connection problem) you may need to temporarily disable your firewall.  Software firewalls may alert you that a connection has been attempted and blocked and may ask if you wish to allow that kind of connection in the future.  In general, if you are doing something new which would probably involve a connection to the Internet, you can allow the connection - either ‘this time only’ or for all future connection attempts.  If in doubt, block it, as you can always allow it later if you find that it is needed.

Firewalls provide an enhanced level of security that has now become the minimum standard to protect your computer.

A Desktop that acts like, well, like a desktop…

We are all familiar with the traditional 2-D desktop interface of our PCs. Odd that we use the term desktop to describe something that doesn’t really emulate a traditional desktop.

Check out BumpTop’s alternative approach to desktop management.  BumpTop has re-created the physical desktop experience and applied it to our virtual desktops.

Check out the video below…they have a free and paid version and it works with all major releases of Windows (OSX and Linux in development)…

Warp speed…

One of our customers sent me this video link and it was so compelling, I had to share it with you all:

Its a crazy tech world out there…don’t forget to turn off the PC and read a book every once in a while

-roy

Zombies are bad, XOBNI is GOOD!

Zombie bad, Xobni good.

This is for those folks who use Outlook to manage their email, contacts and calendar, and, like me, don’t organize it as well as we should.  XOBNI is a free utility that manages Outlook in a way that just makes sense.

Here are some features:

• Fast email search
• Threaded conversations
• Attachment history
• Phone #’s extracted from emails
• Navigate email by person/conversation

Lets review each quickly just to clear any confusion:

Fast Email Search: It is fast, accurate.  Nuff said

Threaded conversations:  Ever want to find the 4th email in a trail of a dozen emails you have had on a single topic with someone?  Well, you can follow the conversation thread easily with Xobni and drill into the one you want easily.

Attachment history:  You need that PDF that so-and-so sent you last friday.  Just search for so-and-so, and under the results will be every attachment they sent you, with the date.  One of the best features!

Phone #’s extracted from emails:  This means that even if the contact isn’t in your Contacts database, Xobni will find the phone #’s of contacts from within their email signature and display them under their profile.  Really nice for one-off email contacts, etc.

Navigate email by person/converstaion:  You can find all emails from a certain contact, and then follow conversations you have had with that contact over time. 

At this time of year, beware of Zombies, but don’t fear the XOBNI

Don’t backup your data….

Everyone knows they should backup their data.  Why is it then, at Computer Troubleshooters, we spend an inordinate amount of time recovering data for people?  Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt…

Since everyone knows you should backup your data, I’m not going to bang the “backup” drum any more.  I’ll instead talk about the right way to protect your data.   Basically there are 2 ways to back up your data, a traditional backup (save a copy to a safe place) and an archive (a series of backup files).

Think of a backup as single photo and an archive as a movie.  With a backup you can get to a very specific moment in time.  That photo of you at the party with the lampshade on your head.  Imagine this is the only photo of you available.  Is it accurate?  Does it represent YOU?

Well, it is accurate in that it is you at that moment in time, but it may not be the photo you want people to remember you by.

Imagine you had a movie of you at the same party…you’re happy, you’re smiling, you’re having a good time, then, your wearing the lampshade and the movie ends.  You can rewind to the points you like and skip the points you don’t like.  This is an archive of you at the party.

Ok…so we have two ways of representing you at the party.  Now, what if we want to show someone YOU having fun at the party.    If all you have is a single backup, your stuck with the lampshade photo.  But, if you have the archive, you can find a variety of happy moments (with or without the lampshade).

Having a backup, a single copy of a file at a single point in time, is better than nothing.  But, what if you want to see a previous version of that file, to go back in time to an earlier edit; you can’t.  You only have that single backup file.

An archive is a series of backups, taken over time, that let you rewind and fast forward to any point in time.  Lets try a real world example (sorry, no more parties).

Tuesday morning, someone accidently erases your cost tracking spreadsheet.  The system is backed up Tuesday night, and you come in Wednesday, and voila, no spreadsheet.  You have a backup, but its after the file was deleted, you have nothing to restore.  You have a backup, but it doesn’t help.

If you had an archive, where you have a series of backups over time, you could rewind to the last known good backup that included the spreadsheet and restore it.  This is why you need an archive, and not just a backup.

When you create your backup strategy, ensure you include archiving procedures to allow for increased data protection flexibility.   Many backup tools and software allow for archiving.  We use products from Storagecraft, Carbonite, and Mozy Pro which all provide archiving as part of their feature set.

Grab the bucket of sawdust…

Back in the day when I was in grade school, there was a janitor at our school with a keychain full of keys.  You could hear him walking down the hallway, the mass of keys clanging away.  There was something else that the janitor was known for.  His bucket of sawdust.

If a student was, well, sick in class or the hallway, the janitor would arrive promptly with his bucket of sawdust.  He would sprinkle it around the affected area and come back a short bit later to sweep the area clean.  A very effective method.

We have our own bucket of sawdust here at Computer Troubleshooters.  Tools that we use to fix up a system that is, well, sick.  Below is a list of what we keep in our bucket.

ccleaner: Cleans temp. files, Windows Registry, Secure delete, etc.

jkdefrag: an open source, disk defrag utility.

malware bytes: One of the newest, and best, malware cleanup and prevention tools.  Free to try, but a commercial product.

These 3 utilities form a core of our bucket.  There are many more utilities we use, but on a daily basis, this is our sawdust.

Something fishy…

Of technology and....fish?

What do fish have to do with a technology blog?  More than you may think….

The goal with this blog is to share and educate.  Here is where I share my experiences helping people deal with technology.  I own and operate a
Computer Troubleshooters franchise.  I like to think of Computer Troubleshooters as the glue between people and technology.

Every day I see the real impact of technology on people and their businesses.  Not the slick, glossy, packaged experiences you see on TV or on the Web.  No, we deal with technology reality.  The reality of a notebook computer that won’t boot, an iPhone that can’t get email, or a business with a crashed server and no backups.  These aren’t the moments that make good ad copy.

When you boil it down, what we do is help you navigate these technology waters.  We want to minimize stress and make technology closer to what you see in the ads.  We can’t promise you’ll be dancing with your iPhone or declaring to the world you’re a PC or a Mac, but we can help make technology work for you, instead of the opposite.

So….what does all this have to do with fish?  In creating this blog I was reminded of the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi who stated:

Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime

I hope in sharing with you my experiences with technology reality, you’ll gain enough skills to safely and comfortably cast your own lines into the technology waters…