Typically a hard drive upgrade or replacement is a long cumbersome process that involves a complete reinstall and setup of your entire computer.  Lucky for you, Emerson Technologies has the tools to make this process seamless and easy and keep everything 100% identical to the way it was.  Not only do we keep all your material the same, giving you the look and feel you know and are comfortable with, but we can replace your hard drive with a larger one to make sure you have plenty of room to grow.

Prey is a program that is highly configurable and runs in the background on your mobile device.  You download it and setup all the different parameters you want about how often you want it to update and what exactly you want it to do.  If a theft does occur, you can then login to the Prey website on the Internet http://preyproject.com/ and activate the “lost/stolen” device.  The program will then begin sending out regular e-mail updates and location updates, depending on how it was configured when you set it up.  The program can send you screenshots of what the stolen user is doing on your device, which can help you track them down.  If the device has a GPS locator, Prey will email you its location. Prey can even use your laptops built-in webcam so you can potentially see the thief and/or help track down a location.

Keep in mind nothing with computers is fool-proof. Prey is not going to guarantee it will recover your device by any means, but it is a great tool that could potentially help you recover your stolen device.  We have a link to a testimonial about how it helped a user recover his laptop and phone.

If you are interested in getting Prey setup on your laptop and have configuration/install questions, feel free to give us a call at 651-454-7729 and we can answer any questions that you have and help you get everything setup.

Video Explanation – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIwEYd36wTo&feature=player_embedded

Testiomony – http://lifehacker.com/5838440/how-i-got-my-stolen-laptop-back-within-24-hours-using-preyGo%20into%20the%20Prey%20tool%20for%20recovering%20laptops%20and%20phones?

Reference – http://lifehacker.com/5643460/how-to-track-and-potentially-recover-your-stolen-laptop-or-android-with-prey

In order to qualify there are 4 criterion:

1. First, you must be located in an area where Comcast offers Internet service.
2. Second, you must have at least one child receiving free school lunches through the “National School Lunch Program”.
3. Third, you cannot have subscribed to Comcast Internet service within 90 days from applying.
4. Lastly, you can’t have an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment.

If your household does meet the above criterion and you are interested in applying, you can call 1-855-8-INTERNET (1-855-846-8376) to request an application.  They will mail you an application for you to return along with lunch program documents from your child’s school, and then they will get back to you within 7-10 days.

If you have any questions about the program, feel free to give us a call at 651-454-7729, or you can check out the following reference articles.

http://www.internetessentials.com/index.html

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/comcasts-launches-999-internet-for-low-income-families.ars

One of the first things you can do is make sure your computer is hooked into surge protector. Plugging directly into a wall or a power strip is not ideal. There is a big difference between a power strip and a surge protector. See this article for more information. A surge protector will help protect against voltage spikes and can help keep your computer safe if that were to occur.

Emerson Technologies feels strongly that every server or computer functioning as a server should be hooked up to a UPS, which stands for uninterruptible power supply. Essentially, this is a backup battery which means that when the power goes out, your server is able to stay on and run off of battery power. Depending on the size of the UPS unit and how many devices are hooked in, they can keep your server up and running for roughly 5 to 45 minutes, but again it depends heavily on the load that is drawn from the battery. If the server is up and running but all of your computers are down in a power outage it’s not going to really help you be productive or get work done, but it is extremely important to the integrity of the server that it doesn’t get suddenly shut off.

Any computer that is in the middle of a “write” operation on the hard drive (saving a file, downloading anything, copying anything) when there is a power outage has a chance of data corruption or hard drive failure. This is because hard drives (with the exception of SSDs) have moving parts in them. When a sudden loss of power occurs, there is no way for the moving parts to stop moving in the way that they should. That is why having a UPS is so critical for servers. Additionally, UPS units have the ability to safely shut down your server so that if there is an extended power outage and the battery is going to run out, it will first shut down your server the way it is designed to shut down. This is a very important feature and can save your server from damage.

If you have any questions about a surge protector or are interested in getting a UPS, please contact us. There are many different models and manufacturers for UPS units, and we want to be sure to provide one that can handle the power load at your location.

Tablets are hand-held devices that have around a 10” screen. They have a full touch screen interface, can connect to Wi-Fi networks and often 3G networks too (networks provided by cell phone companies). They can run different operating systems, such as iOS 4 and Android, and there are many companies that make tablets. You make recognize some brand name tablets such as the iPad, Samsung Galaxy and Motorola Xoom.

Here are some instances for where tablets are useful. Tablets provide great lightweight mobile computing. They are a great way to access your documents and files for viewing. They make excellent web browsers and are much better than your smart-phone because of the large screen. They can be very handy for taking notes and checking e-mails, viewing presentations, and sharing information. Because tablets are highly portable, they are very nice when traveling to provide access to your data and files that you might need. They also get excellent battery life, often more than 6 hours, depending on what you are doing. They also make excellent e-book readers and are very nice for reading and viewing documents or all kinds. Tablets are great for watching movies and playing games and can keep kids occupied during a long car ride for quite some time.

Even though you can do a lot of things on a tablet that you can on your computer, tablets are not a laptop replacement; they are a supplement and an aid. They are not designed for word processing or doing advanced graphic design or video rendering. You will have the most productivity when you have a full keyboard and mouse on a more powerful computer.

Once you have created your files/data, tablets are a great medium in which to view, share and edit them. The biggest and most important aspect to remember is that tablets are not a replacement by any means, and while they are a fun “toy” to have, unless you have a specific need for them you don’t need to get one. However, if you have the means or are at all interested in tablets, please give us a call and we will work with you to find the best tablet that fits your individual needs.

With Emerson Technologies Premium Backup Service, your data will be backed up to two online locations. One of the locations is a secure server at our office, the second location is to a second secure server online. This double backup method provides for a second level of redundancy as well as the ability to perform a drastically faster restore. For example, if some catastrophic happened to a computer and multiple gigabytes of data needed to be restored, it could take days or even longer to restore all of this information from a typical online backup provider. With our backup service, we are able to restore a copy of the data right away and physically bring it to you to get you back up and running quickly. This eliminates the slow restore process often associated with bandwidth issues.

Our backup service runs seamlessly in the background. There is no need to change a tape or hard drive, and there is no need to run a manual backup. It is all done automatically and is backed up to both destinations. This easy backup can you give you the peace of mind that your data is being backed up without even having to think about it. Additionally, we are able to monitor your backups to ensure they are backing up properly. If you desire, we can setup regular email status updates as well.

We are seeing more and more cities fall victim to significant damage caused by natural disasters including fires, floods and tornadoes.  Japan is still trying to control a nuclear power plant damaged by an earthquake. Don’t think these can’t happen to you. Take precautions now to ensure your data is safe and secure, regardless of the world around you.

If you are interested in setting up online backups, please give us a call at 651-454-7729 so we can find a solution that works best for you. We strongly recommend that all important data be backed up to an online source, and we are happy to provide you with our Emerson Technologies Premium Backups service.

Do you ever get tired of having to remember dozens or even hundreds of passwords for all of your different logins? What if you just had to remember one password for everything? Well with LastPass it is now possible. LastPass is a program that allows you to keep an online vault securely encrypted with all your passwords and logins. LastPass can run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and most mobile devices, and integrates with most Internet browsers.

With LastPass integrated into your browser you simply login to LastPass once your browser starts. Then, as you go to different websites, all of your credentials will be automatically loaded to make it easier and faster for you to login. If you visit new websites, LastPass will prompt you to save the information into your secure LastPass vault.  This has the added benefit of syncing your password data across all of your computers and devices.  LastPass also has the ability to generate strong passwords for you.

Here is an example of LastPass in action – you are shopping for gifts online and end up finding one on Amazon.com, a website which you haven’t bought anything from before. When you create your account, you can have LastPass generate a random and strong password for you and store it. When it comes time to retrieve the password LastPass will automatically fill in your name, address and credit card information saving you lots of time. With the ability to generate random passwords, you can then have random, strong, different passwords for all of your websites. The only password you have to remember is your LastPass password, hence the name, the “last” password you will ever have to remember.

As far as security, LastPass is incredibly secure, much more than other similar services. For example, if you have your Internet browser store your usernames and passwords, they can be found out by anyone who has access to your computer. LastPass not only stores them securely, but the way it works not even the people who work for LastPass can access your passwords. It is absolutely encrypted and safeguarded and nobody can access any information without your LastPass master password.

This brings up a very important point – your LastPass master password should be a long, random, securely generated password as your vault will contain all of your personal information. It is important to have this password secured, as there is no way to retrieve it. Emerson Technologies recommends using Microsoft’s password checker to make sure you have a strong password and here is an article on choosing a strong password. Make sure that your master password is at least 14 characters long as well. It might seem like a very long password, but it is protecting all of your information!

LastPass is a free service if you only use it integrated into your web browsers, but if you want the ability to use it on most mobile devices it costs $1.00 per month. After you use it for a while and see how much time it will save, you will find it is well worth the cost.

Lastly, here is a short demo video that shows LastPass in action.

If you have any questions about LastPasss or if you would like any assistance in getting it setup, please give us a call at 651-454-7229 and we would be happy to assist you.

Just this week, OpenDNS, an organization with a mission to make the Internet a better place, has released a free service called Family Shield.  Family Shield is a service designed to automatically restrict access to adult websites for all computers on a home network.  It also restricts access for other devices that can access the Internet as well, such as an Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, iPad and smartphones that are connected via wi-fi.  The service is automatically kept up-to-date by OpenDNS.  Family Shield is easy to setup and instantly filters content on all your computers with no software to install or update.

If you have questions about Family Shield or are interested in implementing in your home, please give us a call at 651-454-7729 and we can provide assistance in setting it up, getting it configured, and providing recommendations about how it can help protect you.

The new iPhone 4 is thinner than its most recent predecessor, the iPhone 3GS. It has a greatly improved display as well, even though the iPhone 3GS already had an excellent display. The new iPhone 4 will also be equipped with a 5mp camera (as opposed to a 3mp camera on the iPhone 3GS), which will be capable of HD video recording. Additionally, the iPhone 4 has a camera on the front of the phone. This is used for Apple’s new feature called FaceTime which allows users to have video calls with each other. This is a huge leap forward in cell phone technology, but it only works over a wi-fi network, not over the 3G network. The new iPhone 4 also has wireless-n technology built-in. (See this article we wrote a few months ago on wireless-n networks). Lastly, the battery life has been further improved to last longer.

IOS 4 has over 100 new features. There have been great improvements for multitasking, or running multiple applications simultaneously, without slowing down the performance of the phone. Organization has also been improved. Users are now able to put applications into various folders to organize them. Email has been improved to have a global inbox (as opposed to having multiple separate inboxes), if you want, as well as the ability to open more attachments. It is also more customizable and allows users to have a different home screen wallpaper. For more information visit Apple’s overview.  Current iPhone users may be eligible for an upgrade to iOS 4. If you are a current iPhone user, click here to see if you can upgrade to the new software.

There have been many rumors circulating around about a “4G” iPhone, as well as other carriers getting the iPhone, so let’s clear that up. The iPhone 4 is still going to be over a 3G cellular network; AT&T has made no announcements about a 4G network being implemented. Furthermore, there have been no reports from T-Mobile, Verizon or Sprint about getting the iPhone and it will remain an AT&T exclusive phone for now.

If you are interested in upgrading your iPhone or purchasing an iPhone, Emerson Technologies would be happy to assist you and configure it to work properly in your work environment. Just give us a call at 651-454-7729.

When Microsoft released Office 2007, there were significant changes to how the applications looked.  No longer are there menus such as “File” and “Edit” rather there is a ribbon with icons.  This change was designed to make using more features more intuitive. Many users have resisted upgrading from older versions because it takes time to get used to the new versions.  However this new interface is here to stay.  More and more applications from other vendors are utilizing this format.  Some office applications, such as Outlook 2007, did not implement much of this new interface, but Outlook 2010 has this new look and feel.  The ribbon in Office 2010 is much more customizable, allowing you to move tabs and create your own buttons.

If you are thinking about upgrading to a newer version of Office keep in mind that Office 2010 requires a little more powerful hardware than its predecessors, but it has a number of new features.  If you are currently using Office 2003 or an older version, it is strongly recommended that you upgrade.  Older versions of Office will stop receiving security updates and there are compatibility issues that have started creeping into some newer software causing problems with older versions of Microsoft Office.

Office 2010 allows for simultaneous editing of the same file. Have you ever seen a message popping up saying that the file is “in use” but you can open a “read only” version of it? In Office 2010 more than 1 user can be editing the same file at the same time. It will alert you and let you know who is editing it and what they are changing. This could potentially be very useful for a lot of people to collaborate on a project.  There have also been notable improvements to PowerPoint in terms of the video and photo editing capabilities. You are able to add a whole new amount of transitions and effects to pictures and videos.

The bottom line is if you are using Office 2003 or older you should upgrade.  If you are using Office 2007 then the only reason to upgrade is for the new features Office 2010 has, but there is no pressing need to upgrade.

If you have any questions about upgrading or are unsure if you should, or if you have any additional questions about Office 2010 please give us a call at 651-454-7729 and we would be happy to help.