Since I deal with technology, I am going to leave it to you to get food, to be prepared to help yourself, family and others. I am going to get on my soapbox and say, get your computer data protected too!

Every computer that holds your critical information (data server or stand alone PC) needs to have what is called RAID (it is multiple disks acting as one disk). This way if one hard drive fails you can still access the information you need to run your business, access your customer et al.

Next if you have 3 or more computers, you really need an external backup device that is NOT one of the computers you use. There are a couple of GREAT choices. Using a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device with a QUALITY backup program (such as Genie-Soft’s backup ) is one very good idea. Another idea to backup your ENTIRE computer (not just the data you select) is a Windows Home Server (WHS). A WHS is NOT just for homes, as a matter of fact, I don’t know of a single home that uses one, except mine. By using a WHS in your business, it can make a mirror image backup (think “complete backup”) of up to ten computers and constantly keep that backup updated, automatically. If you have over ten computers you can either get two WHS or get Windows Server 2011, it has the same backup capabilities plus the advantages of security (another topic) for your network and works with 11 to 75 computers.

So now your main computer / data computer has redundancy internally with RAID, your computers are backed up on a WHS, but a tornado occurs. If everything is blown away, you won’t want to add to your worries. You will be going about helping your family and community. When the time comes to re-open your business, you must have your data and customer information.
This is why you should use off-site storage of your most important data somewhere “out there” in the cloud. I don’t suggest backing up everything or entire computers over the internet. There are local options such as “the Mountain” in Taney County and across the country such as Mozy. By using these services you can access your data from ANY computer and get your staff back to work as quickly as you can. Yes, your data can be made secure both at the off-site location and while being transmitted over the internet.

My suggestion to solve the backup needs of your business, call IFix Computers. Discuss with them your current backup plans and we will determine the BEST solution for YOU. We don’t “sell” you, we don’t determine what makes us the most money, at IFix Computers, we determine and promote what is absolutely best for YOUR business.

Next time, if I don’t continue the series on the View Pad tablet PC, I will cover the proper use of Universal Power Supplies (UPS) to protect from power surges and power outages.

Until we meet again, have a virus free week, and if you don’t, call IFix Computers at 417-337-7184

Unfortunately the client had purchased big box store laptops both times instead of from a local professional company such as IFix Computers. Why? Because they were “cheaper”. Just a quick reminder, there is a reason that small independent IT companies charge more, quality is the biggest reason (unless they are just name brand resellers and not actual builders). There are other reasons such as service and the purpose of this article, theft recovery.

There are several parts of theft recovery and data security. Intel provides a couple of options, one is TPM (Trusted Platform Module) which you can read about here http://www.intel.com/design/mobile/platform/downloads/trusted_platform_module_white_paper.pdf
TPM, in part, provides the layout for laptop security. Included in quality laptops and computers are the Intel VPro chips, they provide the ability for remote access and better yet, tracking of the hardware (desktop PC or laptop) http://www.intel.com/technology/vpro/index.htm. Combined these are a powerful tools for managing, remote work and locating computers. For them to be easily used software is added, one such software program is LoJack by Absolute Software.

Since not all computers have this technology (or similar) built in, 3rd party software programs have also been created to duplicate this process. After researching several programs I narrowed my tests down to Absolute Software’s LoJack. It works alone or in conjunction with laptops setup with TPM and VPro (which I highly recommend).

Let’s get to the meat of this article, after installing LoJack on my personal laptop and giving it a kick for 45 days, I figure I should report my basic results back to you.

First I want you to know, the software did not affect my laptops performance. It did not slow down standard operations (email, spreadsheets…) or internet usage. It has occasionally popped up a reminder that the software is on my laptop and included a one sentence recovery story, no big deal, it goes right away.

There are two versions of LoJack, the “Standard” and “Premium”, the latter adds a $1,000 guarantee plus better tracking. According to the Absolute Software web site, “If we don’t recover your stolen computer or enable the Data Delete service, you could be eligible for a Service Guarantee payment of up to $1000”. The difference in price is $39.99 for 1 year of the Standard and $59.99 for the Premium version. Three year subscriptions are available for $89.99 and 109.99 respectively, not a bad price for the services offered.

So what services are included you ask. I am glad you did. First and the most important in my opinion is the theft recovery, after all most of us who use laptops have our life on them. A great backup system will provide for the loss of data or even a complete system restore, but somehow our laptops become part of us. If you don’t believe it, just leave yours at home during a business day and see how you react, enough said. An advantage of LoJack is this is not a program you install and you track if lost or stolen (though you can log on to your account and track where the laptop has been). Absolute Software works with the police in recovering your laptop, one less worry or stressor in your life.

Another part of the LoJack program is what they term as “Data & Device Security”. This is Absolute software’s “Data Delete” portion. You use the Data Delete program to erase your information remotely. This keeps thieves out of your e-mail, personal documents and programs (such as your accounting software). If you don’t want to erase your computer, you can also prevent access to your computer by freezing it remotely and adding a pop up message on the screen telling the crooks you did so. I would not recommend this, you just gave away the chance of catching the thieves, once alerted they will ditch the laptop or destroy it and then ditch it.

The third part of LoJack is the ability to locate a missing laptop. The Standard version falls short here, it only shows IP address locations. This is a Generic “Springfield, Missouri” type location on a map, effective only if you travel a large area, not so great if you stay local. Plus it is not a big help to the police, they don’t have time to do all the work required narrowing down an IP location. The Premium version is supposed to give QPS to the exact location of the laptop on a map. Unfortunately I only tried the Standard version so I cannot report how well this works.

With either version you get to create an account on the Absolute Software web site where you can update your information, track the laptop, enable the protection services, by filing a missing laptop claim.

My take, LoJack is worth the expense. For such a small price you don’t need to replace a laptop, restore the data and feel violated, as you would otherwise would. It is easy to use, does not eat up system resources and is part of good plan for your data protection. Part of a plan you ask, yes, remember to backup your data, have surge protection, and have proper security, all things we have discusses here.

Until we meet again, have a virus free week!

The Complete backup guide for Windows XP and older editions.

This does not include off site backup solutions, or more expensive automatic NAS solutions which I hope to cover both in a later article as well as how to back up Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines.

For a PDF with images of this article, download it here!

To back up the registry go to Start | Run and type in regedit in the Run box, then press the Enter key.

When the registry opens go to the top left corner and click on File | Export.

Now choose the location to backup to (I strongly suggest the root folder which is just C:, that way if there is an issue it is easier to access).

Select Open, which is located n the lower right of the windows to go into the folder.

Make sure that under Export Range the All button is selected.

Select “OK”, that is all there is to it!

Until we meet again have a virus free week!

There are several benefits to using a Windows Home Server in your house or small business (10 or less computers). First are the backup capabilities, if all your data is on one PC and you have a backup plan then you know it was backed up. Let’s say you have an external NAS (Network Attached Storage), you will backup the home server to the NAS. Windows Home Server is itself a backup device. You can backup from your desktop computers to the Home Server (ok, from now on WHS = Windows Home Server). WHS comes with the software and you can schedule what to backup. So we have your local computers backup to the WHS and then redundantly you backup the WHS to a NAS (or off site location such as Mozy.com).

What else can WHS server do for you? In my home, I have ripped not only all CD‘s, moved all family home videos and pictures but I have also ripped my favorite DVD’s to the home server. Now any computer in the house can play any of the movies at any time, no searching for the DVD. At the same time, in another room music can be played from the WHS to the computer in that room while on a 3^rd computer the photos are being edited for scrapbooking. Keep in mind that I have a gigabit network in place BUT the WHS only has a 10/100 NIC so data streaming could be limited but thus far has not. I can play 2 movies at once without issue but 3 movies are choppy, this could be the network cards limit of 100MB or the hard drives data streaming limit.

One of the many features that I like about WHS is the ability to add hard drives if, no when, I run out of space. The naming convention is different but basically every drive I add is an extension to drive D:. There is not trying to remember what data is on what drive in which folder, it is all just there.

Another fun but seldom used feature is web site hosting. No, I don’t mean a web site for the world but rather one for your small office, an internal web site. All of the capabilities are there.

Moving on to the “issues” I have encountered with WHS. My only current (Windows updates and patches have solved all the others I previously experienced) issues are watching ripped media content. It seems that only XP Media Center and Vista Ultimate (I have not tried with Windows 7 Ultimate) have a listing called “DVD Library”. My Vista Home Premium machine and XP machines don’t display or play them quite so easily. Yes, they can be played, I just have to select the video files of the movie first, not the DVD title like I can with the Ultimate and Media Center versions of Windows). This issue however should be attributed to the other operating systems and not directly to WHS and this has little effect on businesses but can be frustrating for the home user at first.

I have installed WHS in several businesses as a backup solution and once properly implemented, it has proven time and time again an excellent backup and recovery strategy.

Overall I give 2 thumbs up to the WHS. If you are interested in one, you can have one built but IFix Computers or some major manufactures have prebuilt machines. More information is available at Microsoft.

Until we meet again, have a virus free week.