Posted on Fri, Jan 27, 2012
Did you start your business because you love paperwork? Probably not, unless you’re a cpa of course. Probably, you started your business because you love the work, product, or service you sell. As a business owner, however, you can’t disregard the paperwork which comes along with owning your own business. The financial side of a business is crucial and the proper invoicing of your clients means cash in the bank and content customers.
Invoicing help online
Using an online invoicing service is a possible option for business owners who need a quicker, more dependable way, and often-automatic ways to invoice their customers. You can find a large number of available online options to choose from that can take that tiresome task of paperwork off your plate. Below we’ll evaluate just 3 of the solutions available:
A free but powerful invoicing service
Sometimes the word “free” is synonymous with “not very good.” Thankfully, that isn't the case with the free system, BillingBoss. Suitable for most small businesses that need to automatically invoice customers on a monthly basis and periodic once-off invoicing, BillingBoss packs a huge punch at no cost!
A power tool
AcceptPay isn’t free. It costs $30 a month, but it's a robust program. Offered by American Express, AcceptPay works with QuickBooks, will accept online payments, and of course, gives you an array of options when it comes to sending out invoices and collecting payments. The $30 investment is a small price to pay for such a powerful online invoicing tool.
Invoicing for the tech-savvy
If you need more control over your online invoicing, you might consider downloading BambooInvoice. This is another free service. What sets it apart, though, is that small business owners host it on their own servers, not in the cloud. Since it is an open source program, tech-savvy entrepreneurs can personalize it to fit their business's unique needs.
These are just a few of the available options online. Most services are free or extremely cost-effective. If you need to take the reigns on your invoicing process, think about employing an online solution.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Wed, Jan 25, 2012
If the rumors are true, Microsoft is stepping up significantly to join the fight against cyber crime. Reportedly, Microsoft is developing a real-time feed that records current cyber threats and gives necessary steps to protect against them.
Microsoft currently has a process in place to take down dangerous botnets. Microsoft “swallows” the botnets and lets them infect accounts that are highly controlled by Microsoft’s team. Once the botnets infect the accounts, Microsoft learns the way they work and removes them as a threat.
This collected data is now given to ISPs, private and government agencies, & CERTs. While real-time data may not reduce the quantity of attacks by malicious code, the impact of sharing this data will likely be quite extraordinary. IT security companies should be able to respond more quickly to these threats and therefore be able to decrease the amount of damage they can cause.
Microsoft's live threat feed may have an even more important impact: It could lead the information security industry to share more data. For too long, companies have hesitated to discuss important security information that they fear could lead to a copycat attack. This is a misguided belief as cyber criminals are already trading information amongst themselves. It makes sense, therefore, for security professionals to also share real-time information.
The IT industry has for too long considered the sharing of the specifics of a cyber attack an invitation for a copycat attack. Hopefully Microsoft’s first small steps toward a more connected IT security force will take root and that sharing data and information is a more sensible choice than secrecy.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Jan 20, 2012
This week I had to deal with a laptop that was shutting down with a thermal issue, or so it said.
I booted up some temperature software and let it run. Well, after an hour, I saw that it was stable, so I ran it through some tests. I ran Video, CPU, hard drive, memory, the full works.
It passed them all with flying colors, which struck me as odd. I left it running for a couple of hours running tests at random times just to see what would happen. Well the screen corrupted and the computer shut down. On reboot it told me that it shut down from a thermal issue again, and again the thermal software gave no hint of trouble.
After a bit of looking around the net, I found that this was not an isolated issue. This model of laptop, in this configuration was a problem for lots of people. After contacting the manufacturer and getting nowhere, I informed the customer of what I had found and told them to call the manufacturer and either get a replacement or return it.
At the end of the day, it was one of those issues that no one wanted to admit was a problem, and left the customer in a bind.
So here is my suggestion, please try not to impulse buy. It may seem like a deal at the time, but do a little research on the model you are looking at to see if it has an issue that is causing others grief.
Have a great weekend
Kris Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Jan 20, 2012
If you've been watching the news this week, or browsing the web, you're sure to have heard about SOPA and PIPA, two internet regulation laws making their way through Congress. Their ostensible purpose is to protect copyright holders from piracy, but many experts and corporations have raised strong concerns about SOPA and PIPA and how such laws could impact the internet as we use it today. Objections to these proposed laws culminated on Wednesday the 18th, with several voluntary black-outs of popular internet sites such as Wikipedia, Wired, Boing Boing, and Reddit.
While the strong protests and unification in the internet community appears to have stopped SOPA and PIPA in their tracks, it wasn't even 24 hours later that the US Government flexed its muscles and showed just how far it can go under current law to do what it claims is protecting copyright. In an impressively coordinated effort, the US Justice Department, working with local jurisdictions throughout the world, shut down and confiscated $50 million in computer equipment used by the cloud operator Megaupload. Megaupload, founded in 2005, was one of the earliest shared file hosting sites, allowing users to upload and store data and share that data with other users. Much like Rapidshare, Dropbox, Amazon Cloud Drive and other file sharing services, Megaupload provided a way for people to easily transfer and backup their data on the internet.
The US Government claim is that Megaupload was being used to illegally transmit copyright material. Of course, this argument can be made for any cloud storage service, as what is stored is entirely up to the user and cannot be individually verified by the provider. Legal misgivings aside, the important question for us to ask as users is, what happens to my data if my cloud provider disappears? In the case of Megaupload, which Terminal did subscribe to and use for transferring company data, it appears that our data is retrievably lost, with no warning and no recourse.
While the US Government may feel that it is acting in the best interest of its constituents, the looming issue now becomes whether we, as consumers, should be trusting our critical data to any cloud service provider. Knowing that the government can and will act without warning to disable and destroy any cloud operator means that no matter how redundant or reliable you think your provider may be, your data could still vanish overnight, stuck in a government warehouse and effectively lost in the red tape of months of litigation.
This week marks a dark point in the rapid growth of cloud services. It will be interesting to see how some of the largest cloud providers react to these events and even more interesting to see how users respond to the realization that their data is not so safe in the cloud after all.
Brian St. Marie - Sr. Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Jan 20, 2012
The cloud has been a great thing for small business owners fighting through tough economic times. Instead of purchasing pricey enterprise software, business owners can save their dollars by accessing powerful computing programs in the cloud, from high-end word processors and project-management tools to spreadsheets and Photoshop alternatives. But, the cloud isn't perfect, particularly when it comes to security issues. Entrepreneurs must be aware that their documents, presentations, and marketing materials can be damaged when they're stored in the cloud.
Password issues
Password protection is a crucial issue when dealing with the cloud and personal computers also. Passwords can often be easily guessed or they are shared too freely.
Business owners should be careful to choose passwords to their cloud projects that are challenging for others to guess. The best solution is for owners to include a mix of letters and numbers in their passwords. Owners also need to be careful about sharing their passwords with a lot of people. The more people who have access to passwords, the more vulnerable important data and documents are.
Hacker alert
Hackers, malware, and spyware remain serious issues for cloud environments, just as they are problems that business owners face when logging onto their personal computers everyday. What makes this particularly scary is that individual business owners have little control over how secure cloud services are. The big names -- companies like Microsoft and Google -- must supply their own security for the data that business owners store in the cloud.
Common sense protection
As with all computing, companies can protect themselves from the loss or theft of data with some common-sense practices.
First, sensitive data is probably not the best thing to store in the cloud. If your data is so sensitive that a compromise on its security could spell the demise of your business, think about saving it on a physical computing system and implement a secure back up protocol that is more controllable.
Secondly, business owners must remain vigilant about who they allow access to their cloud-stored data, documents, and reports. Owners are mindful about whom they allow to access the files on their desktops and laptops and they should be equally careful when it comes to granting others access to their cloud-hosted information.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Wed, Jan 18, 2012
There are numerous benefits to cloud computing. Backing up important data makes it easily accessible to everyone in your company and frees up space on your servers. You most likely have many concerns about cloud security and might be pondering if cloud security will protect your client’s data and adhere to HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.
It can be hard to tell if your cloud storage solution adheres to these requirements, as many don't state in their privacy policies. To help you navigate these difficult waters, let's look at this topic in depth below.
Compliance
More and more companies are using the cloud for storage. For obvious reasons, it is a very affordable strategy to use. Even so, improper handling of your client’s information can harm your reputation and lead to a loss of business for your company. If your company mandates that client data be handled in a regulated way, you need to first learn how secure the cloud service is and what regulations does the cloud service providers comply with. If a company has not specifically said they comply with certain regulations, it’s safe to assume they do not.
Who is responsible
Cloud security is vital when handling your sensitive data, but whose responsibility is it? Should you assume that if it is not spelled out in the privacy policy, that a service provider doesn't follow these regulations? While this is clearly the safest option, it may leave you unable to use cloud computing at all. Many services fail to provide detailed information in their privacy rules, possibly to lower their liability. The hope is that with time cloud storage and sharing will become better self-regulated and corporations will elect to disclose their individual practices to the businesses they serve. While such self-regulation is not required at this time, many businesses believe it is their duty to display clear warnings, explaining what they don't provide or guarantee.
Ultimately, as there is no current law that states that companies must divulge how tight their security is, the responsibility is in your hands. You must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of cloud storage to decide if it’s right for your business.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Jan 13, 2012
This week I want to write a quick blog about a nice quick fix I came across when repairing a printer. The printer was a HP LaserJet 3300 that was having trouble printing.
When it was powered on, the scanner head under the glass was not seating correctly and was causing the printer to not print. The head would keep trying to move all the way to the end of the tracks but never sit there. It would move out the last inch and then back in, over and over.
As this is an older machine, it was looking like this would be a costly repair of having to replace the whole scanner assembly. However, I found a simple fix that needed no new parts and a cotton bud to fix.
When you face the printer and look at the scanner bed, there is a small removable strip of glass on the left that is held in by one screw. Remove it and the strip of glass, laying them carefully to one side. Next, take a pair of needle nose pliers and carefully advance the scanner head to the left by gently using the pliers on the carriage belt.
Once you have the scanner head under the area where the glass was, you can grab it and pull it the last inch. Looking down from above you can see the mirrors inside the scanner head. From there, you take a dry, clean cotton bud and clean the mirrors.
With that done, replace the glass and turn it back on. Presto! It works again!
Have a great weekend!!
Kris Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Jan 13, 2012
As a small business owner, you may have worried about all of the what-ifs that come into play if a disaster were to occur. Exactly what does it mean when we talk about a disaster? It may mean a natural disaster destroying all your data, a simple download of a virus that corrupts your systems, or an employee accidently deleting something they shouldn’t have. No matter what happens it can be hard and time intensive to recover from. Create a disaster recovery plan to ensure that if the time ever comes, you have a plan in place so that you can get back on your feet as fast as possible.
Decide What’s Important
First off, figure out what data is the most critical to get your company back up and running. What information needs to be backed up and saved and what can you afford to lose? This should help you determine what you need to back up. Choosing an online provider or storing your data in the cloud can be the best way to ensure you can access your data quickly.
Make a Plan
The second step is determining the steps that must be taken to get your company back on its feet as quickly as possible. Consider the worst possible scenario and the way to recover from that. Which systems need to be recovered first and what technology is going to be required to do this?
Know Your Workflows
I’m sure you have a general understanding of the way your company is run, but knowing every single process is almost impossible. That’s why you have employees. Have your employees document their workflows so that any team member can execute the tasks in case of an emergency.
Decide Who is in Charge
Depending on the type of disaster you go through, your employees could panic. Before this happens, choose one levelheaded person in the organization to be “in charge” of the disaster recovery plan. They should know the plan as well as you do and possibly have helped you develop it. This will be the individual you turn to for execution of the plan, so that you can be the strong leader your employees need at a time such as this.
Disaster can happen to anyone! So before it does, develop a good plan so that you know what to do. It will make both your employees and you feel more secure.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Wed, Jan 11, 2012
Netstat can be used to find out various things about what’s going on with your connections to the internet or your network behind the scenes of your OS. I have used Netstat to find things like malware intrusions accessing a network connection, ports being used by IP address, and dropped packets over the network (which can be a good way of detecting failing or failed hardware). Below I will list some of the common commands that I use and what their purposes are.
Netstat –n This will list connections and ports that the connections are currently using.
Netstat –s This will list statistics about your packet transactions info.
Netstat –s –s This can be an easier way of viewing Netstat –s because it will remove anything with the value 0 in the list.
Netstat –f This will show you a list of all connected domains to which you are currently connected to whether it’s your ISP, internet web page, your VPN connection, or your current office connection.
Netstat –b This displays the executable involved in creating each connection or listening port. In some cases, well-known executable hosts multiple independent components and, in these cases, the sequence of components involved in creating the connection or listening port is displayed. In this case, the executable name is in [ xxxx ] at the bottom, on top is the component it called, and so forth until TCP/IP was reached. Note that this option can be time-consuming and will fail unless you have sufficient permissions.
These are the most common Netstat commands for me. I use them as tools to understand what’s going on with a network so I have a good basis to make an effective diagnosis. I suggest reading up on Netstat to find the different commands that may work for you.
Dennis Foote - Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Wed, Jan 11, 2012
It wasn’t that long ago that inventor Dean Kamen believed his two-wheeled personal transportation device, the Segway, would transform transportation. Sadly, the Segway has grown to be synonymous with technology failure. Kamen imagined a future filled people zipping around town on a Segway PT scooter to run errands and travel to work.
That vision hasn’t quite come to fruition and it’s pretty infrequent that you see someone using a Segway. They are still around and have recently celebrated their 10th anniversary. So while they may be termed a tech failure, they're still alive and kicking.
How do they work though? Below we’ll take a look at the tech behind the Segway.
Powering the Segway
The Segway PT is powered by electric motors. Those motors are fueled by a number of lithium-ion batteries that are simply charged by a standard household electrical socket. Five gyroscopic sensors, two tilt sensors, and two computers with specialty software keep the Segway from tipping over.
Making the Segway Move
The user plays the biggest role in making the Segway move. By simply shifting your weight in the direction you would like to go and moving the handlebars a little, the Segway’s sensors acknowledge the modification in balance point and react appropriately. The most recent version of the Segway features a top speed of 12.5 MPH. For obvious reason, it performs best on flat surfaces.
Lowered Expectations
The hype was pretty big around the Segway when it was initially introduced, but it never quite lived up to it all. Some even predicted that the Segway would be more popular than the Internet as a whole!
Unfortunately, once the Segway was released many thought it looked strange and you looked weird riding one. Others thought it looked dangerous. Regardless, the negatives were enough to keep the Segway from reaching its stated potential.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Jan 06, 2012
I have been following the outcry regarding the SOPA bill ( H.R. 3261) this week as it is big news over the net. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill was introduced last year as a way to counter online piracy and copy write infringement, but that’s not all it does.
I am not going to explain the whole bill as it is huge and encompasses a large amount of information; here is a link to the Wikipedia article explaining it - LINK.
I worked in the video games industry for about eight years and know how much piracy can affect a company and entire industry. I do not agree with piracy and believe that artists of all forms should get paid for their work, whether music, movies, or games.
It seems that before the full bill was released, there were a large number of companies in support of a bill that would protect their intellectual property and profits. It appears that their support may be dwindling. If the full bill is read and taken into account, it could have far reaching implications for anyone that uses the web. I am not a “the sky is falling” kind of guy, but looking at the way the bill is worded and they way it can be interpreted, there is a lot of leeway for abuse.
As someone who spends a lot of time using the web for work and for fun, I cannot support piracy and wanted to hear your opinions on it.
So, what do you think?
Kris Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Jan 06, 2012
Keeping track of your business’ projects in conjunction with multiple team members all over the nation can be challenging. How can a small company keep track of this, make requests from those working offsite, share updated information, and documentation and also assign new tasks?
Project management solutions
Fortuitously, several companies offer top-notch project management tools for small business owners. Through the use of these tools, you can keep your various projects on track and avoid costly missed deadlines. Here is a glance at some of the best project management tools currently available:
Basecamp
Basecamp is still one of the most preferred online project management tools for entrepreneurs. There is a simple reason behind this: It boasts an easily understood interface that allows you to quickly manage any of your small business projects. You can access the system to communicate with project managers, delegate new tasks, give your okay to submitted documents and marketing materials, or plan meetings. You can even enable your clients to access Basecamp to allow them to provide feedback on the work that you as well as your team have already completed.
Quickbase
From the makers of Inuit, Quickbase is fairly similar to Basecamp with its capacity to serve both large and small businesses. It features a simple and easy to use interface.
Huddle
For the more creative projects, such as marketing and advertising, Huddle is perfect. Certainly one of this tool’s perks is its live-conferencing tool. If you need to gather the team in a quick and easy fashion, this tool lets you, no matter where your team members might be.
Deskaway
Deskaway permits you to keep clients and employees informed by using snapshots of a project’s development. It has the functionality to create and post blogs determined by individual projects as well as keep in touch about important updates with ease.
There are many other online project management tools that will help you retain stronger control over your business’ marketing campaigns, new product launches, and website development. This is good news. It allows you to look for the one project management tool that best fits you and your business.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Wed, Jan 04, 2012
We've been hearing about the paperless office for what seems like years now, yet most office buildings today still depend upon fax machines, copiers, and forests worth of paper documents. Is the paperless office like the personal jet pack? Long promised but never delivered? The simple answer? No. The world is still moving toward paperless offices. It is merely taking longer than some would like.
The advantages of paper
As nice as it would be to have everything in digital format, paper continues to be useful. The main reason it’s still around is that paper is portable. It is simple to scribble a note and slip it into your pocket. Even the most eco-friendly offices still find uses for paper. If you’re an editor, you know how hard it is to edit a digital copy. Lots of people prefer to proofread important documents in hard-copy format. Frequently it's easier to spot mistakes when the file is printed out.
Less paper than ever
Paper isn't disappearing, it is becoming steadily less important. While we still need paper for certain tasks, most offices are using less paper than ever before. Most writing is completed on a word-processor and correspondence is done via email or Skype instead of fax or letters. Meeting notes, company schedules, and whole marketing campaigns are stored digitally on our computers and smartphones. So while paper is not yet obsolete, the sticky note is no longer king of the office.
The future
Clearly the future of the workplace is using less and less paper, but will it ever be absolutely paperless? Will notepads and sticky notes go the way of the milkman? Maybe. Let’s look at the milkman: some still prefer to get their milk hand-delivered to their homes, but the majority of us just pop out to the store and pick some up when we want it.
Paper will likely end up exactly the same. As we use business solutions like the cloud, smartphones, and computers for invoicing, writing and spreadsheets, there will still be those who prefer the physical feel of pen and paper.
Terminal IT Support
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA