February 2010
Greetings from “Your IT Department”!
Exceeding customer expectations is
one reason why OurTech Solutions saw its customer base grow by over
40% in 2009. With this expectation in mind, OurTech is pleased to
announce that have just introduced a new web portal to make it
easier for Clients to see real time the status of network work
orders and trouble ticket resolution. While most service bureaus
probably prefer not to reveal their service response times, we feel
greater visibility into service response not only holds us
accountable for our services but ultimately improves service level
performance. Adding to our network recycling services and working to
improve our Client’s end user computers education are all a part of
our services to help our customer to achieve great productivity.
Critical Priority Alert:
New Dangerous Kneber
‘Botnet’ breaches 75,000 computers, infecting online financial
systems, social networking sites. The "Kneber botnet," as it's
known, gathers login credentials to online financial systems, social
networking sites and e-mail systems from infected computers and
reports the information back to hackers, NetWitness said in a
statement. A botnet is an army of infected computers that hackers
can control from a central machine. Computer systems "compromised by
this botnet provide the attackers not only user credentials and
confidential information, but remote access inside their compromised
networks. Keep your antivirus definitions up to date and be
suspicious of clicking on links. Don’t become a victim. Call us at
402.778.7999 for more information.
Keep Your Computer Running Smoothly
Cindy Troyer, Vice President, OurTech Solutions™
Keeping a computer running smoothly and efficiently is a never-ending process. There are many reasons for system slow downs, but you can overcome these problems to keep your computer running at an optimum level.
Viruses are a major cause of system sluggishness. These software programs are downloaded to your computer through email attachments or by simply surfing on the Internet. Once installed on your computer, a virus can interfere with your PC’s operation by corrupting or deleting your data, taking up available processor and memory resources or by spreading itself to other computers through your network or the internet. Even with an up-to-date antivirus application installed it is still possible to be infected with viruses. That is why OurTech Solutions uses four different antivirus scanners on a regular basis to discover and delete viruses.
Spyware and adware are software programs that you may inadvertently install onto your computer when installing what you think is a legitimate software application. This software can be used to track your online browsing habits, as well as record your keystrokes and send data such as passwords or banking information offsite. Not only is this software an invasion of your privacy with potential for identity theft, it can also compromise your data and affect your PC’s performance. Regularly using an application such as Malwarebytes is effective in removing these programs.
Malware programs that you download from the internet aren’t the only applications that can affect performance. It is likely that many applications are running in your computer’s background even when you are not using them. If several of these programs are running at the same time, you can expect degradation in your computer performance. To see if you have programs running in the background, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete (at the same time) to open the Task Manager. The Task Manager lists all the applications that are running and gives the option to end those that are not being used. If you see programs listed that you never use, you may consider uninstalling these to improve performance of your PC.
Other things that can affect your PC’s performance include a hard drive that is too full, not enough memory to perform tasks and a fragmented hard drive. All of these problems can be solved by performing routine maintenance on your PC. If you choose to do it yourself, go into your Windows System Tools where you will find several system optimizers to help you free up your disk space, defragment your PC, and detect and repair disk errors.
There are many
reasons for a slow machine. Keeping a smoothly running system does take
work, but if you don’t have the time or expertise to do it on your own, call
OurTech Solutions at 778-7999
or email us at
info@ourtechsolutions.com.
Introducing the New OurTech Connect!
Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston,
Vice President of Systems, OurTech Solutions™
As March rolls in we are pleased to announce a new support feature for your business. With the new OurTech Connect portal, you can log in and view tickets, view invoices, and search knowledge base information related to your company. Ticket submission will still be done through the OurTech icon, but now any request, whether it’s via email, phone, or icon will all go to one central portal for review. There is no longer a need to wait until the end of the month for time information. As tickets are worked, detailed information is logged giving your business an accurate, up to date, and transparent way to track service requests and technician time.
As an additional service, new reports are now available within the portal
providing insight on service ticket trending for the previous and current
years. With that information, you can be better equipped to understand the
technical needs of your business and which months require more technical
service allowing you to plan technology upgrades and projects.
The monthly reports will still be available, but with Ourtech Connect you
will be better equipped to understand the ongoing technical requests of your
business and what types of tickets your employees may be submitting. If you
are an authorized time reviewer and would liked to be setup on the new
OurTech Connect portal, please
email us today for a
login and password.
What Should You Do With Your Old Stuff?
Robert Troyer,
CEO, OurTech Solutions™
One quick, easy solution is to donate the computer system to a charity, and write off what is appropriate. However, charities are quickly becoming more and more skeptical about accepting older computer systems, and less and less likely to surrender receipts (for use with a tax return) for very much money.
Sometimes it is a wise course of action to simply 'cannibalize' the older system for components that will work in other systems. Some components can be switched between older and newer computer systems. These can include power supplies, hard drives, RAM, graphics cards, speakers, keyboards, CD and DVD readers/writers and so forth. If you have a use for your old DVD burner in your newer system, you're almost always best off going the 'cannibal' route. Sounds like a good idea, but most business people neither have the time or the understanding of the computers parts to effectively take advantage of this option.
If donating or cannibalizing your older computers are not viable for you, OurTech provides for removal and disposal of older computer equipment in an environmentally safe and secure fashion with certified harddrive destruction services. We’ll pickup, sort and recycle your older equipment to save you time. For an updated list of recycling fees, see the attached disposal pricing schedule. Call us as 402.778-7999 or email us at info@ourtechsolutions.com.