What are the IT issues that every computer should address?

I am planning for a series of radio interviews with the Experience Pros, a local radio show that dedicates their air time to talking about business.

We will be discussing the IT issues that every business needs to address, and I figured I should dovetail that conversation with my blog postings.

So, over the next few weeks, I will spend some time addressing these issues.    Here is a highlight of the topics we will be discussing:

 

Data Backup

 

A company can overcome almost any problem with their IT, but a loss of data could be a killer to most companies.   We will discuss solutions to ensuring that your data is well protected.

 

 

High Speed Internet

 

High Speed Internet is integral to business today.   We will discuss which ones are the best bang for your buck.

 

Virtualization

 

We will discuss the benefits of virtualizing your existing infrastructure, as well as how using new virtual technologies can help your business' bottom line.

 

Cloud Hosting

 

We will discuss the pros and cons of hosting applications, or even entire networks in the cloud.

 

Enterprise Class Email

 

We will discuss how to migrate from your old POP or IMAP mail services to a more modern enterprise class email system and the benefits it can provide your company.

 

Email and Desktop Security

 

We will discuss strategies to keep your company safe, or safer, from viral and malicious attacks.

 

Centralized Data Storage and Access

 

We will discuss strategies and benefits of centralizing your data either onsite or in the cloud.

 

IT Maintenance

 

We will discuss how important it is to have a trusted IT Admin who can make sure that all your technology is being taken care of properly.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



Are you still not backing up your files?

Last week, I missed adding a blog because my IT world exploded with problems.   One of the problems I experienced was my first exposure to the CryptoLocker virus.   When this virus infects your system, it downloads an encryption key and encrypts certain file types, which makes those file unusable.  Even after the infection has been removed, the files remain encrypted.   This is a smart virus.  Not only will it go after your local files, but it will search for network shares on which the logged in user has modify rights and will encrypt those files too.

The distribution of the virus is really not any different than any other virus.   In my client's case, it was delivered via a ZIP attachment in an email.

I took this attachment and emailed it to a bunch of outside test email accounts.  None of the email accounts detected and blocked the attachment.   I then open the virus on controlled virtual desktop environments running some of the most common desktop anti-virus software.   The day of release, none of them were able to detect the virus.  Scary!  After a day or two, the virus definition updates on most of the anti-virus software I was testing did indeed stop the infection.

The biggest problem with anti-virus software is that is always fighting yesterday's attack.   And if you are unlucky enough to be hit by a new variant of a virus, you are basically unprotected.

In last weeks attack, my client's public folder containing about 50GBs of shared data was all encrypted and unusable.  Luckily, we have a great backup system in place and we were able to easily and quickly recover the data. 

Today's blog is intended to be a reminder that if you are not backing up your data every day, you are putting it at risk.   Could your business survive if all your data files were suddenly inaccessible?   Most business wouldn't survive that.   It is easy and relatively inexpensive to make sure your data is protected.

The Backup Exec software continues to be an exceptional piece of software to protect server data.   Mozy and Carbonite both have great desktop products that will allow you to backup to local external hard drives, NAS devices and into the cloud for under $100 a year.

If you do not have a good backup system in place or if you want to make sure yours is working properly, contact us a Binkley IT Consulting.   We can help.

How to configure your website to detect mobile devices

 [nerd scale: 2 out of 5 pocket protectors] 

 

Is your website mobile friendly?  People are using their cell phones and other mobile devices to browse the web much more than in the past.  It is important to make sure that your website is easy to navigate from a mobile browser, otherwise the short moment of time that you have to make a good impression and capture a visitor's interest could be lost.

 

 

There are many ways of making your website mobile friendly.   If you are truly geeky, you might decide to let CSS be in charge of handling all our mobile reconfigurations.   Or you can create new web pages to which you can redirect mobile traffic.   Regardless of the way you decide to handle your mobile traffic, one thing has to happen:  your website needs to detect that a mobile device is accessing the web site.

 

 

Here is a great little javascript I use to detect a mobile device and forward the traffic to my mobile web pages:

<script type="text/javascript">
(function(a,b){if(/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows (ce|phone)|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i.test(a.substr(0,4)))window.location=b})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,'mobilebink.html');

</script>

 

 

To most of us, this looks like a bunch of gobbily-gook. Basically, this script is just a Regular Expression that is interrogating the User Agent information that is provided by the web browser making the request to the web server.   What is most important is what you tell it to do if a match is found.   In this case, one of the very last lines of code contains 'mobilebink.html'.  This tells the script to navigate to the webpage mobilebink.html if a match is found, or in other words if a mobile device is detected.

 

If you want to use this, all you need to do is copy the script and place it after the <head> tags and before the <body> tags of your web page.  It will look something like this:

 

 

With this script in place, a mobile device will navigate from this page:

 

 

to this page automatically and instantly before the original page is rendered:

 

 

 

 

If you are looking for someone to help make your website more mobile friendly, contact us at Binkley IT Consulting.   We can help.