June 2009

 

Greetings from “Your IT Department”!

 

Need to find something fast on the Internet? Some search terms can produce unexpected and dangerous results. Find out how to avoid risky search results in Nick Donner’s article, Dangerous Search Terms.

 

According to a 2007 Robert Half annual technology staffing survey, Windows Administrators rank as the top sought after position by IT managers. With and average time to recruit and hire for this position of 2 months and market turnover in IT personnel estimated at 18 months, it’s no wonder managers feels like they spend a great deal of their time recruiting and replacing IT staff. Jonathon White explores 10 advantages to outsourcing your IT service needs.

Do you have ideas or IT related topics you would like to see covered in our monthly news letter? If so, please send requests to: info@ourtechsolutions.com.

  

 

Tips and Tricks
10 Ways to Make Your Laptop Battery Last Longer
 Cindy Troyer, Vice President, OurTech Solutions™

 

Most of us have been in a situation where we needed to use our laptop but had no electrical outlets available. In the race to get work done before the battery goes dead, the battery often wins. Here are some tips to give you an extra advantage the next time you're working against the clock.

 

  1. Most laptops have power options settings. Optimize these settings for maximum performance.
  2. Run only one program at a time. If you're surfing the web, don't leave your Excel spreadsheet running.
  3. Dim your screen to the lowest level you can tolerate without getting eye strain.
  4. Disable unnecessary startup programs.
  5. Use hibernate mode instead of standby. Hibernate mode automatically saves and shuts off your laptop while standby mode still uses power.
  6. Limit external USB devices or anything else you have plugged in that uses battery resources even when they're not in use.
  7. Don't keep your laptop in the sunlight or in an overly warm area.
  8. Avoid using the CD/DVD player. Just having a disk in the drive uses power.
  9. Turn off your speakers.
  10. When purchasing your next laptop, opt for a 14” screen instead of the 17”. You’ll use 30% less battery power.
 


Dangerous Search Terms
 Do You Know Where You're Going?
 Nick Donner, Senior Engineer, OurTech Solutions™

 

We all know and use search engines every day.  Some popular examples are www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.msn.com and, recently, www.bing.com.  When it comes to doing research or just looking for tickets and movie show times, searching the net happens constantly.

 

Originally, search engines were developed to quickly find things out on the Internet since the number of web pages out there is so substantial.  This is also a great tool for businesses to get their name out there.  Most search engines will allow a business to make their website appear on the search results when someone types in a keyword or phrase pertaining to their business.  These keywords are usually gather automatically from the website’s home page, but can be changed or altered if needed.  (i. e. Searching Google.com for “our tech” brings up the website for OurTech Solutions). 

 

Since there are so many websites out there that might share the same keyword, who shows up first?  There are many levels of exposure on the search engine’s website.  Most cases they are evenly distributed as far as who shows up first, but, for a fee, you can make your website show up more often than others. 

 

This same technology can be very useful for SPAM operators, hackers, and other malware creators/distributors.  What better way to get someone to go to your website than use a free service that is already in place.  Using this, why not use popular search terms like “tickets” or “free” as your websites “keywords” instead of what is actually displayed on your website?  If a user were to type in “free tickets” into a search engine, this dangerous site could show up in the search results, even if it has nothing to do with tickets. 

 

Search providers take steps to prevent this, but with 236 Million websites, many do get through.  Just last month, 4.3 Million websites were created. (Netcraft)  According to a leading Antivirus and firewall software developer, McAfee, the top five most risky search terms are “Screensavers”, “Free Games”, “Work From Home”, “Rihanna”, and “Webkinz”.  If you typed in any of these search terms recently, chances are, some of the results displayed were not what they seem.  The country with the highest number of risky websites is Czech Republic followed by Finland.

You can see how easy it is for even the safest of web surfers to be at risk.  The best prevention is to have an active virus scanner as well as a good firewall in place to prevent unnecessary Internet traffic.  OurTech offers business class Endpoint Security as well as a web filtering application called T.O.P.S., which controls and monitors websites an end user has access to.  For more information, call 402-778-7999 or visit www.ourtechsolutions.com.

 

Top 10 Reasons We Add Value to IT
 What OurTech Can Do For You
 Jonathon White, Business Development, OurTech Solutions™


  1. Our Systems Engineers don’t take vacations so they are there for back up if your in-house staff is not available.
  2. If one of our engineers is sick, another automatically takes his place and has all the documentation available regarding your network.
  3. Two heads are always better than one.
  4. You get detailed reporting information on what we do for your business every month.
  5. We automatically take an inventory of your network assets every month.
  6. You get a complete assessment of your network up front with recommendations on how to improve performance and increase your security with an annualized technology service plan from us each and every year.
  7. If one engineer is working on a major project, other engineers are still available to answer your help desk questions.
  8. Our maintenance services are automated so your network maintenance tasks won’t get skipped if your in-house engineer is working on a special project.
  9. We supply our own enterprise class network management tools so you don’t have to buy them.
  10. We provide you with complete documentation to explain why you might need a new server or network device. Remember, our goal is to improve your business, and make your life easier, so you will continue to retain our services.

 

Newsletter Archive