Upgrade Business Computer

The lifespan of a business computer is about 3 to 5 years. Due to the rapid evolving technology, after 2 years of purchase your business PC may have lack of speed, storage, or not able to use the new applications. In this case, upgrading your exiting business computer to improve the performance is a better option rather than purchasing a new computer. Addition of a few components might improve the performance bringing the cost of upgrade lower to buying a new PC.

 

Proper Upgrade with the Right Parts

Upgrading the business PC with a right compatible parts are very critical.

RAM

RAM is one of the most common part of the computer that can be upgraded. Most of the computers purchased 2 years ago are with 2 or 4GB RAM, good for document processing or moderate office works .As the OS keeps updating, the requirements for best performance changes and the RAM can be changed. However, they are little slow if you want to run with the new office 2013 or other newly released software.

Generally all business PCs come with a mainboard having 2 or even 4 RAM slots (laptop normally have 2). So you will have option to either add more Ram or replace the RAM with a higher compatible e one.

This will increase the performance of the computer by 30%!

Hard Drive

Computer Hard drive space also becomes less as per the evolving technology and new software. Hard drive upgrade is for both capacity and speed

Using a SSD hard drive increases the computer speed, and enhances the performance. For e.g. Adding a SSD hard drive can help the windows start up in 15 seconds. SSD is also recommended for design or audio/video editing work.  SSD hard drives are more expensive than SATA drives if the capacity is the priority over the speed then a SATA hard drive is a better bet.

Graphic Cards

Upgrading the graphic card to a better one comes as a requirement when you need better refreshing capacity or a better quality graphic the screen. Also Video cards might have to be upgraded while adding a dual display feature.

Software and OS

Upgrading the OS becomes inevitable when the specific software’s used, will not support old OS. This also enhances the performance as the software’s used will be in sync.

NetworkRepairs specializes in customizing hardware and advise the purchase of the right hardware as per the business needs. We are authorized DELL, HP partners and provide quality workstations at competitive prices.

Call us at 905-4885400 for a free consultation.

 

Business PC vs Comsumer PC — the difference

PC technology is constantly expanding at an exponential rate, and the consumer class computer with cheaper price than a business class PC seems to be more attractive. As a business owner it could save a few dollars on the initial purchase, but what is the real cost?

1. Professional Business Features – OS and Software

Professional Business computers have OS dedicated towards a robust use in a business. They have specialized features that are designed to last longer in terms of usability.

The professional OS has extended features geared towards corporate networking, backup and security. Business OS also integrates with leading software, some are business specific.

2. Processor & Memory.

Dual- and quad-core processors, particularly in the Intel Core i3 and Core i5 lines, are the norm in business PCs. Faster CPUs are a must for today’s attention-challenged, multitasking PC users.

In general, the more memory you can get the better, especially for people who work in graphic design and Web development (8GB to 16GB is recommended). More memory allows you to open up more programs and windows at once, and perform multimedia processes (like editing photos) faster.

3. Storage

Storage on a business PC is depended on personal preference. Generally storage in a business environment is done on a network drive, minimizing the use of the desktop hard drive.

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are usually smaller in capacity and higher in cost, but it speeds up the system boot which is very critical in businesses.

4. Graphics

Most business PCs come with integrated graphics—that is, video capabilities that are built into the computers’ AMD or Intel processors.

5. Expansion Room

Most minitower and some small-form-factor (SFF) budget desktops will have a measure of expansion. You’ll find space for at least one extra internal hard drive, a PCI Express (PCIe) x16 video card slot, a selection of PCI or PCIe expansion slots, and maybe space for another optical drive. You may also find extra DIMM slots, which will let you upgrade your memory later.

6. Build Quality and Reliability

A BIG advantage of buying Business class is the better quality. Business class PCs will typically use better quality parts and pass more testing and certificated before it leaves the assembly line.  A specific difference such as business class laptops use titanium alloy hinges and seamless metal casing. Investing in a better quality machine will save you the downtime cost.

7. Support and Warranty

Business Class comes with manufacturers warranties that are longer terms and provide quicker service.  This means less downtime and minimal loss of productivity.  For example, Dell business laptops comes with next business day support, which means that if you need a part replaced or experience a failure that Dell will respond with action within 24 hours.

The best way to approach PC purchases is to have an expert on hand. NetworkRepairs provide free consulting when you need a new computer purchase. We will provide a solution that matches your needs. Knowing what you are getting is half the battle when it comes to smooth roll-outs, so talk to our experts at 905-4885400

 

Why do you need a Spam Filter?

A spam filter is a program which is used to detect unsolicited or unwanted emails and prevent those messages from getting to your inbox. The spam filter looks for certain criteria to make a judgement. The spam filter scans particular words in the subject line of email, suspicious word patterns or word frequency in the email body, as well as the attachments to block spam emails into your inbox.

The Email-Borne Threats:

If you check inbox and junk frequently, you will be surprised by the amount of spam emails you receive.

In average an office worker receives 121 emails a day and among them about sixty are spam emails.

The fact is that, 5 out of every 60 emails can be phishing emails or emails containing malicious attachment including VIRUS, TROJAN or WORMS.

In case your system gets infected, some viruses are capable of hijacking your system and automatically send emails, and infect the whole company.

Why Do You Need A Spam Filter?

Email spam filter is the only solution to stop unwanted information, phishing emails or malicious attachments. If your business has a proper spam filter, you are able to increase productivity by avoiding information leak and keep your business network safe.

Barracuda is the #1 spam filter and firewall in the world.

Features:

• Filters 99% of the potential threats before they reach your inbox.
• Provides inbound/outbound filtering with data leak prevention;
• The advanced firewall protects against all email-borne threats including malware, spam, phishing, and DOS attach.
• The Email spooling feature stores all inbound/outbound email in the cloud server for 72 hours.
• Free backup for all important information for additional safety.

NetworkRepairs as professional IT service provider, recommend a spam filter for protection and highly recommend Barracuda.

The Best Way to Protect Against Email-Borne Threads

In the past few years, email has become the predominant purveyor of viruses, hacking and information leaking. This rapid communications technology outpaces the signature-based scanner updates, allowing widespread infection to occur in a matter of mere hours.

The major tools used to protect from the email-borne threads are gateway filtering applications, including firewalls and spam filters.

Firewalls trying to get signature updates out as fast as a virus could be expected to travel.  However, it is not effective with some modern virus that automatically forwarded themselves to others via email, and they are not able to identify which emails you wish to kept and which ones should be blocked.

Spam filters are primary selection especially for businesses. The spam filter ensures privacy of confidential information and blocks most of the emails you do not want to receive, including pherishing mails, advertising, and virus.

The benefits of using spam filters are:

• Deleting spam before it reaches the inbox: Certain anti-spam solutions take the decision about spam messages not only based on the sender’s email address, they also analyze the subject lines and the message content.
• Filter updates
• Custom filters: Certain anti-spam filters allow you tailor built in filters to your personal needs
• Quarantining spam
• Recovering emails: Certain anti-spam filters store quarantined emails for a fixed number of days
• Personalized whitelist and blacklist
• Monitoring multiple email accounts.
• Automatic mode: Certain anti-spam programs can check inbound mail at fixed time intervals and delete spam without your participation.

NetworkRepairs suggest using Barracuda Spam Filter and applied the filter to clients for years. Barracuda is #1 Spam Filter of the world, with all functions listed above which many other spam filter doesn’t have.

And the most benefit for using Barracuda is it’s a cloud based filter, which means the spam will never reaches your computer. The email will route to Barracuda’s server, stored in server and get filtered, then send to client’s computer. From this methodology, certain modern threads will never able to reach your network as they are not able to physically deliver to you. And all your emails are stored in the server for 72 hours which offers free extra backup while clients’ computer or even server failures.

In March 2017, NetworkRepairs offering special on Barracuda for only 99ȼ per month per user for a one-year subscription. Contact NetworkRepairs today and get your email protected!

Why need upgrade business network

By the time being, your business network may experiencing many problems: hardware out of date and do not have capacity for the new software, computer got slowing down, OS and security software out of date and don’t have any new patches…Network upgrade is keeping your business network up-to-date with new portable devices, PC, workstation and laptops, software, and upgrades to infrastructure such as servers, firewalls and security.

Business should re-access the IT infrastructure and hardware/software every 1-2 years, make sure it is able to satisfy need, and normally after network upgrade your overall working performance will be increased by 20-30%, with faster Ethernet connection, better server and PC performance, new software, etc.

Deciding when your business needs to make an upgrade means looking for the signs that your tech is creaking under the strain. The biggest warning sign to any business owners to upgrade their IT is whether operations are becoming increasingly inefficient, time consuming and costly. You will need looking into every piece of your network:

• Servers
• PCs, Workstations, Laptops and portable devices
• Software to go on the server and machines
• MS Office
• Firewall; Anti-Virus & Spam control
• Cabling
• Switches
• Local and Cloud Backup
• Maintenance program
• Future growth

 

Further Growth is most important, and for sure you will not want the hardware you got can only work for couple years. Expendable is the most important for your hardware, you will need extra ram slot and hard drive slot. Prior to purchase, contact with NetworkRepairs expertise and get advice upon your need, and your potential growth.

NetworkRepairs recommend use Dell T430 server as the expendability:

T430 have 12 DIMM slots (up to 384GB) for RAM, and 8(3.5”)/16(2.5”) HDD bay, 2 Xeon E5 2600 CPU, and 2x1GB Network Controller, which makes it capable for host 4-5 VM while 10 employee using at same time without any delay, and delivers the compute power needed for, web, print, and file serving, mail serving and collaborative teamwork. The T430 is highly versatile and can be deployed as a tower or rack mounted server. Put all this together at an affordable price and you’ll see how Dell’s PowerEdge T430 is an excellent choice for most small/medium businesses and remote offices.

Dell offers multiple programs and licenses to achieve superb management efficiencies across the range of PowerEdge servers. The T430 comes standard with Dell’s Integrated Remote Access Controller, iDRAC8 which offers basic onsite and remote management features. Upgrading to iDRAC Enterprise wit Lifecycle controller enables additional tools for deployment, automatic updates, and remote monitoring of availability and system health via a mobile phone.

 

Network Repairs also recommend to use Dell Optiplex series PC or Latitude-Laptop. Optiplex and Latitude is designed for corporate, government and education markets, with business oriented components and software:

• Built to last : able to handle the toughest jobs. Ensure long-term reliability with durable, serviceable
• The right fit for your desk: designed to integrate seamlessly into virtually any office environment, on virtually any size desk, and with a consistent look across all models.
• Designed to help preserve the environment: minimize energy consumption and encourage conservation with the ENERGY STAR® 5.2 compliant
• Business-class control: enables IT administrators to take total control over system management and security protocols, and offers the stability needed to effectively plan for the future.
• Efficiently manage: achieve unprecedented IT control in your workplace
• Enable data security across your organization: protect your critical data and meet compliance standards with Dell Data Protection2 and Trusted Platform Module (TPM)3 encrypted hard drives and other security features.
• Enjoy the peace of mind provided by business-class stability and support.

 

NetworkRepairs providing professional structured cabling service over 15 years. We have our checklist as following to help you design and routing the cables with the fastest speed and best routing:

• The type of construction in use.
• Location and appropriateness of the server room and/or wiring closet.
• Measuring distances of the various cable runs
• Determining whether an IDF (intermediate distribution point) will be required. For larger spaces, or spaces containing many company divisions, it is often necessary or beneficial to have multiple wiring closets to separate logical divisions in a network, or to extend a network beyond 300 ft from the MDF (main distribution point, usually the main wiring closet or server room).
• Determining whether any special cabling will be required, such as fiber optic to connect remote IDFs, or CAT6 over CAT5e for spaces that might cause interference in data transmissions.

 

 

You can always check with NetworkRepairs IT professionals for their recommendations. We will discuss with your actual IT needs and your budget, and develop a customized Upgrade solution with best ROI: add new hardware/software, utilizing exiting hardware for the better performance, and keep your business up to date.

And keep in mind that just a upgrade is not everything, you also need your IT network being monitored and taking care of. We offer managed IT services packages and server maintenance plans to keep your servers, hardware and network working in best performance and pro-active to minimize down time. Read More Here

 

NetworkRepairs currently offering special deals on network upgrading with free quality hardware in Feb, 2017. Contact us now to get free consultation.

How to Identify Adware/Malware and Action You Should Take

Recently NetworkRepairs got a lot of alarms that our clients get infected by Malware and getting pop-ups by adware/online pop. Here are some tips and the emergency stop the potential threads to your entire network.

• Have a proper combination backup solution: this including 4 backups for daily, weekly and monthly. At least one backup shall be kept off site and without access by internet.
• The signs of get infected
• Your computer is extremely slow than normal, even after reboot; or you cannot access to internet or your server while no downloading/uploading/upgrading occurs
• Your PC/Server start getting unstable: system or data crash, lots of error messages
• Your antivirus or protection were switched off unexpected: if your antivirus or protection are being switched off while you or your tech didn’t do that for upgrading or other purpose, it is most likely that you are already get infected
• Keep popping up messages:
• if you are not browsing website, it must be adware installed to your PC, it could be get infected, hacked or combined with a software you installed
• if you are browsing the website, it is ads integrated with the site
• Get unfamiliar and peculiar error messages
• Strange messages indicating that you can’t access certain drives on your computer.
• Hardware such as USB keys and printers are not responding to commands.
• File sizes are fluctuating even if you aren’t accessing those files.
• The difference of adware and malware
  • Adware itself, just keep popping up ads info and shall not be harmful for your PC. However, lots of adware are combined with malware
  • Mostly adware is able to uninstall, or delete, or by close the webpage you are visiting, but some of them actually will infected to your system and not able to be even turn off; fortunately they will not harm to your file and hardware
  • While infected by malware, you system may halt, crash, files may deleted, or automatically restart, and sending infectious email/files by itself.
  • While infected by malware, your firewall or anti-virus will be closed, however adware will not shut them off.
• Emergency stop the suspicious infection:
  1. If you are not familiar with PC, first step to prevent the situation is unplug the network connection, and switch the device off, then switch off your server to prevent virus get spread
  2. Call professional technician to come in and check, don’t take the chance that you may be fine, as the cost will be very high if you are really infected compare to pay just one hour service charge.
  3. If you have computer knowledge, you can try following steps to help you save some data after called technicians:
     1. unplug network cable and switch wifi off to make sure not spreading the virus
     2. Close all applications, and software

• Open task manager, and kill all those non-system process

1. Turn on your anti-virus, if you find the process you just killed went on itself, mostly those process will take a lot of system resources and you shall easily find them by CPU and network usage. If you are not able to turn on antivirus, that means 100% you are infected, turn off your device right away.
2. archive your data with compression software and make it as .7z or other format and get it password protected–this is not 100% will work but may give you more chance to save the data
3. Do not try to restore your backup yourself, as you may get your backup files infected as well.

• if it is ransomware, switch your pc and server as there is nothing you can do
• if it is pop up message of a webpage, close the browser right away and do not click the message, or download file they ask you to, or run the file automatically downloaded as mostly those messages warn you that virus are found in your PC is phishing you to download the adware or malware

Network Repairs is highly alerted with suspicious infection and helped 4 of our clients to survive the ransom and other virus attacks, and we have immediate response to all reported threads, our technician will provide onsite service as soon as possible, mostly within 1-2 hours after reported to help our clients minimise the loss.

 

IMPORTANT message from President of Network Repairs (Pulse Tech Corporation)–Sep 24th 2016

Dear clients and industry leaders,

Attending tech conferences in last few days I was shocked to learn that how wide spread is this Ransomware threat and it is just matte of time you can be a victim too:

In Ontario alone >> 200+ IT companies have cleaned Ransomware more than 5 times in last 6 months. So this is a real threat to be concerned about.

Here are a few articles from different companies:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/portal/mmpc/shared/ransomware.aspx

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/ransomware-cryptovirus-cryptotrojan-or-cryptoworm

http://us.norton.com/yoursecurityresource/detail.jsp?aid=rise_in_ransomware

How do you get this virus?

• Via emails asking you to take urgent actions
• Via surfing
• Via Network
• Via any infected device plugged into the system

What happens when the virus enters your system?

• Your system misbehaves because it runs an executable file and starts to spread the infection.
• It encrypts your and network accessed files.

What can you do when ransomware strikes your company data?

• Inform the IT team ASAP (Without any delays) : IT IS A REAL EMERGENCY SITUATION
• Remove the infection
• Recover files from backup
• Lose the work of what you had done from the last backup till that time.
• Make sure no computer/laptop/device/server/NAS etc is left infected.
• Pay the ransom in Bitcoins for the files you cannot get back from backup. Usually this can go in Millions of dollars: General amount paid to is $17,000 as of now after a lot of bargaining. Please remember > Police will not be able to help you: Nothing you can do to recover money.

Precautions to be taken / Preparation required

• BACKUP : Keep 3 to 4 copies of backup
  • Main Backup >> Nightly backup > Preferably Hourly backup for that day.
  • Remote backup
  • Secondary Copy of Backup using different software: Incase the software and backup machine gets infected.
  • Longer term backup: Backup Cycles should be longer than 7 days: Make a copy of last full backup before overwriting if you use older type of backups.
• Keep SPAM Protection ON at all times
• Keep Surfing protection ON at all times
• Open your emails Mid-fully: Think twice to click a link. Any suspicions ask your IT department. This is a serious enough threat every IT company / Person should help prevent disasters.
• Patching of Servers / Computers / Laptops : Keep them patched

What we do for our clients

• We keep our IT team ready for such emergencies: immediate to 15 minutes response time. 5 minutes to 30 minutes Action time is what you expect from us on this. For permanent clients we do not charge emergency charges as well. We deploy 1 to 6 IT team members depending on scope of the problems. Usually 1 person is enough.
• Keep the Servers and computers patched with latest patches.
• Make sure you have multiples backups: Internal / External / Off-site.
• Make sure there are multiple backups during day time: Depending on the backup software.
• Monitor backups for our clients as a service.
• Secure the network from outside world by installing a firewall
• Secure internally via Active Directory and secure passwords

Question?

• Do you have multiple backups happening to prevent your company from loss of data.
• Does anyone looks at your backups every day.
• Does anyone takes an action when backup fails
• Have anyone tested the actual recovery of backup files?
• Do you have a fool-proof strategy in place for off-site backup?
• Are your systems fully patched on regular bases?
• Do you have any sort of training for your staff by any expert on this field on how to prevent yourself from getting infected?
• Have you had someone assess the network backup and business continuity for you?

If you have any questions unanswered please call/email Network Repairs we take this seriously:
905-488-5400 <<|>> support@networkrepairs.ca
 

The Raising Security Issues in 2016

 

18 million malware samples were detected in Jul, 2016; and average of 200,000 new threats detected every day.

 

Personal Information Exposed

 

Information theft and ransomware attacks are the two most lucrative and used attacks by Black Hats. Hackers buy personal information like address, SIN, medical history, bank account number on the black market.

Business information like Network passwords, Firewall passwords also can be hacked.

This can cost businesses billions of dollars every year.

 

POS and Credit Cards:

Another widespread and popular theft tactic is through Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, as seen in the attack launched by PunkeyPos that infected more than 200 restaurants in the United States.

Taking into account how easy it is to sell this stolen information on the “black market” and make a profit, it makes sense that this will continue to be an objective for cyber-criminals.

 

Cyber-criminals from Social Media

Social Media can’t escape the grips of cybercrime. Users’ information including password, personal information and bitcoin could have been stolen with phishing attacks or using Trojans.

 

Two important pieces of advice to follow while using Social Media: activate two-step verification and refrain from using the same passwords on different websites.

 

Protect Your Business from Virus Threads

What can Anti-Virus Software Do?

Antivirus software, also known as anti-malware software, is computer software used to prevent, detect and remove malicious software.

Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, however, with the proliferation of other kinds of malware, antivirus software started to provide protection from other computer threats. In particular, modern antivirus software can protect from: malicious browser helper objects (BHOs), browser hijackers, ransomware, key loggers, backdoors, rootkits, Trojan horses, worms, malicious LSPs, dialers, fraud tools, adware and spyware. Some antivirus software also include protection from other computer threats, such as infected and malicious URLs, spam, scam and phishing attacks, online identity (privacy), online banking attacks, social engineering techniques, advanced persistent threat (APT) and botnet DDoS attacks.

How can Business Protect themselves from Virus Threads

Computer viruses remain the most common security threat, with 75 percent of the businesses affected by at least one virus in the last few years.  Worms and viruses can have a devastating effect on business continuity and profitability. And viruses are become smarter, more destructive and spreading faster than ever, infecting entire offices in seconds.

Employees/Users spread viruses and spyware by accessing malicious Websites, downloading untrustworthy material, or opening e-mail attachments. Viruses can create minor damage or can do severe destruction.

Computer viruses can reduce memory space, damage disks, damage programs so that there are sudden failures or increase the start-up time and run time, erase files, and also corrupt the computer itself by slowing the procedure down or changing the sequence of operations.

Ways to prevent computer viruses for business:

1. Install a reliable anti-virus.
2. Avoid suspicious websites and not to download untrustworthy material.
3. Never open email attachments without scanning them first.
4. Update the business’s anti-virus software regularly.
5. Install a firewall.

The Most Important is install proper anti-virus software and keep it up to date.

Prevention is better than cure!

Basic Rules of Online and PC/Server Security

1. Don’t install software you didn’t explicitly request.
2. Keep your installed software up to date:
3. Uninstall any software you no longer need —attackers are constantly targeting systems with outdated versions of software
4. Never post your personal information, such as a cell phone number, home number, home address, or your location on any social networking site or through mobile apps
5. Don’t share any of your username or password to anyone.
6. Check whether your firewall and Anti-Virus is up to date.
7. Do not open unknown files, links or emails.
8. Always have backup for your important files.
9. Don’t let your web browser remember login information, turn such options off
10. Be cautious while downloading files and apps

Protect Your Business

Network Repairs offers a stable Anti-Virus Platform for protection against Virus attacks.

A complete protection is ensured with regular live updates, Daily Scan and full scan of servers and computers.

We recommend using AV Defender from Bitdefender for business:

AV Defender is an industry leader:

• #1 Business Security Software: against cyber-threats and 2-way firewall prevent unauthorized access to private data
• #1 performance: Bitdefender’s unique technology to keep all devices running as same speed even during scanning, blocking and removing threads
• 1-Click Security: automated protection

Purchase AV Defender and get 3-6 months Free in Sept, 2016.

How to Choose the Best Professional Cloud Backup Plan

Whether you’re running your own business online or you just want to store your entire music collection off-site, the Cloud is there to work with you so choose the best professional Cloud backup plan for your data. But how do you know if you have the best plan?

By comparing prices, space capacity, and security, you’ll be able to find the best cloud backup plan for your needs without the headache.

1.Check the Storage Space

What are your backup needs? Do you need Cloud space to grow with your business, or do you need a specific amount of archive files? When you know exactly how you’re going to use the Cloud, you’ll be better able to decide how much space you need.

Different backup plans offer different space usage depending on your needs, with some plans offering unlimited space that gives you the opportunity to grow. Professional Cloud backup plans that you subscribe to offers flexible in space

2.Cut the Price

For more space and more access, you may have to pay more money for Cloud backup. If you are an entrepreneur and looking to secure gigs and gigs of data, you will need more backup than what you can get for free.

However, just because you are looking for a professional cloud backup plan does not mean you need to pay exorbitant prices. Look for backup plans that offer tiers of service for different prices so you can find the one that best fits the backup needs of your business. There’s no point paying a huge sum of money every month if you aren’t going to use all of the backup services, so seek out a plan that fits your needs without any of the extra fluff.

For example, NetworkRepairs custom monthly cloud backup plans in order to insure that our clients are getting exactly what they need without breaking their budget.

3.Get the Security

One of the main reasons you are searching for professional Cloud backup is for the strength of the security. Protecting your data and your identity is integral to your backup services, and the more professional the service, the more secure their plans. Security is a huge concern for many Cloud users, so when you look for your plan, look for ones that manage their incidents and customer service requests in a timely and professional manner.

Contacting customer service and timing their response is a good way to test this, and you can also read reviews online by other users to get a better idea of what kind of backup plan you are working with. Our advice is look for a backup provider that personally guarantees the protection of your data by holding themselves personally responsible for your data.

24/7 customer service and strict security protocols are what you should look for in your professional backup plan.

4. Choose your professional cloud backup plan

Getting the most out of your professional Cloud backup plan means making sure your provider excels in the top three most important aspect of Cloud backup. The right amount of space at the right price will get you the most out of your backup, and strict security will keep your data and your identity protected from malware and hackers.