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What Every Small Business Must Know About Protecting Their Company’s Critical Data And Computer Systems

If You Depend On Your Computer Network To Run Your Business, This Is One Report You DON’T Want To Overlook!

This report will outline in plain, non-technical English common mistakes that many small business owners make with their computer network that cost them thousands in lost sales, productivity, and computer repair bills, as well as providing an easy, proven way to reduce or completely eliminate the financial expense and frustration of these oversights.

You’ll Discover:

The single most expensive mistake most small business owners make when it comes to protecting their company data.
The universal misconception business owners have about their computer networks, and how it can end up costing between $9,000 to as much as $60,000 in damages.
6 Critical security measures every small business should have in place.
How to greatly reduce – or even completely eliminate – frustrating crashes, slow performance, and other annoying computer problems.
How to avoid expensive computer repair bills and get all the computer support you need for a low, fixed monthly rate.

Have you ever lost an hour of work on your computer?

Now imagine if you lost days or weeks of work – or imagine losing your client database, financial records, and all of the work files your company has ever produced or compiled.

Imagine what would happen if your network went down for days, where you couldn’t access e-mail or the information on your PC. How frustrating would that be?

Or, what if a major storm, flood, or fire destroyed your office and all of your files? Or if a virus wiped out your server…do you have an emergency recovery plan in place that you feel confident in?

How quickly do you think you could recover, if at all?

Many small business owners tend to ignore or forget about taking steps to secure their company’s network from these types of catastrophes until disaster strikes. By then it’s too late and the damage is done.

But That Could Never Happen To Me! (And Other Lies Business Owners Like To Believe About Their Businesses…)

After working with over 200 small and mid-size businesses in the North Georgia area, we found that 6 out of 10 businesses will experience some type of major network or technology disaster that will end up costing them between $9,000 and $60,000 in repairs and restoration costs on average.

That doesn’t even include lost productivity, sales, and client goodwill that can be damaged when a company can’t operate or fulfill on its promises due to technical problems.

While it may be difficult to determine the actual financial impact computer problems have on your business, you can’t deny the fact that they do have a negative effect. If you’ve ever had your business grind to a screeching halt because your server crashed, you must have some idea of the frustration and financial loss to your business even if you haven’t put a pencil to figuring out the exact cost.

Most Computer Problems Are Hidden And Strike Without Warning, And At The Most Inconvenient Times

Hardware failure, viruses, spyware, and other problems usually aren’t detectable until they strike by causing a server to go down, data to be lost, or some other catastrophe. Viruses and spyware are particularly sneaky because they are designed to hide themselves while they do their damage. For example, spyware can secretly transmit information about you and your company to an outsider without being visible to you.

Even if your network was recently audited by a computer consultant, viruses, spyware, and hackers are constantly attacking your network (that is why we constantly monitor our clients’ networks because you never know when a new virus is going to strike).

Unfortunately, most computer consultants only offer “break-fix” services. That basically means when something breaks or stops working, they come in and fix it. While this may seem like a good setup for you, it actually leaves you wide open to a number of threats, problems, and other disasters because it is reactive rather than proactive maintenance.

Take a look at these statistics:

Companies experience an average of 501 hours of network downtime every year, and the overall downtime costs an average of 3.6% of annual revenue. (Source: The Costs of Enterprise Downtime, Infonetics Research)
93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster, and 50% filed for bankruptcy immediately. (Source: National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
20% of small to medium businesses will suffer a major disaster causing loss of critical data every 5 years. (Source: Richmond House Group)
This year, 40% of small to medium businesses that manage their own network and use the Internet for more than e-mail will have their network accessed by a hacker, and more than 50% won’t even know they were attacked. (Source: Gartner Group)
Of those companies participating in the Contingency Planning & Management Cost of Downtime Survey: 46% said each hour of downtime would cost their companies up to $50,000, 28% said each hour would cost between $51,000 and $250,000, 18% said each hour would cost between $251,000 and $1 million, and 8% said it would cost their companies more than $1million per hour. (Source: Cost of Downtime Survey Results, 2001)
Cyber-criminals stole an average of $900 from each of 3 million Americans in the past year, and that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of PCs rendered useless by spyware. (Source: Gartner Group)

What These Failures Are REALLY Costing Your Business

Even if you don’t factor in the soft costs of lost productivity, there is a hard cost of repairing and restoring your network. Most major network repairs will require a minimum of four to eight hours on average to get the network back up and running. Plus, most consultants cannot get on-site to resolve the problem for 24 to 48 hours. That means your network could be down for one to two days.

Since the average computer consultant charges over $100 per hour plus a trip fee and a surcharge if it’s an emergency, the average cost of these repairs is $600 to $1,000; and that doesn’t even include any software or hardware costs that may also be required. Over a year, this results in $1,800 to $3,000 in costs without even considering hardware and software costs, or other soft costs of lost sales and work hours. Of course, those numbers quickly multiply with larger, more complex networks.

What’s most exasperating about this situation is that 100% of these disasters and restoration costs could have been completely avoided or greatly mitigated easily and inexpensively with a little planning and proactive maintenance.

Why Small Business Are Especially Vulnerable To These Disasters

With the constant changes to technology and the daily development of new threats, it takes a highly-trained technician to maintain even a simple 3 to 5 person network; however, the cost of hiring a full-time, experienced technician is just not feasible for most small business owners.

In an attempt to save money, most try to do their own in-house IT support and designate the person with the most technical expertise as the part-time IT manager. This never works out because this makeshift IT person has another full-time job to do and is usually not skilled enough to properly support an entire computer network anyway.

This inevitably results in a network that is ill-maintained and unstable. It also means that the backups, virus updates, and security patches are not getting timely updates, giving a false sense of security.

It’s only a matter of time before the network crashes. If you’re lucky, it will only cost you a little downtime; but there’s always a chance you could end up like one of these companies:

Auto Body Shop Shells Out $20,000 To Clean Up A Virus

A local auto body shop with multiple locations discovered the importance of preventative maintenance the hard way. Without warning, a virus was downloaded to their server and started replicating and attaching itself to files. This virus corrupted their data, impaired their customer management system, and immediately brought down their Exchange server (no e-mail could come in or go out).

Preventing this disaster would have only cost them 1/25th of the cost ($800 per month) AND they would have experienced better performance and fewer problems with their network. Instead, they were forced to spend a whopping $20,000 to remove the virus and restore their network. Even then, this huge enormous fee only got them back up and running; their systems were still not optimized, secured, and updated, as they should have been.

Two Failed Hard Drives Cost Health Products Company $40,000 and 9 Days of Downtime

The back office of a health products company had two hard drives fail at the same time, causing them to lose a large number of critical customer files.

When they contacted us to recover the data from the system backups, we found the backups weren’t functioning properly. Even though they appeared to be backing up all of this company’s data, they were in fact worthless. In the end, recovering the data off of these failed drives took a team of disaster recovery specialists 9 days and $15,000. In addition to the recovery costs, they also incurred $25,000 in other services to get their network stabilized.

Had they been properly monitoring their network, they would have been able to see that these hard drives were failing and that the backups were not performing properly. This would have prevented the crash, the downtime, and the $40,000 in costs to get them back up and running, not to mention the 9 days of lost productivity while their network was down.

Property Management Company Spends $9,000 And Weeks Of Downtime For A Simple Inexpensive Repair

A 10-user property management company was not monitoring or maintaining their server. Due to the overuse and lack of maintenance, it started to degenerate and eventually shut down under the load. This caused their entire network to be down for two full days and cost them $3,000 in support fees to get them back up and running. Naturally the costs were much higher when you factored in the lost productivity of their ten employees during that time.

This client did not want to implement a preventative maintenance program so the same problem happened again two months later, costing them another $3,000 and two days of downtime.

Six months later it happened yet another time bringing their total to $9,000 in hard costs plus tens of thousands in productivity costs for a problem that could have quickly been detected and prevented from happening.

Six Things You Must Do At A Minimum To Protect Your Company From These Types Of Disasters:

While it’s impossible to plan for every potential computer problem or emergency, a little proactive monitoring and maintenance of your network will help you avoid or greatly reduce the impact of the vast majority of computer disasters you could experience.

Unfortunately, I have found that most small business owners are NOT conducting any type of proactive monitoring or maintaining their network, which leaves them completely vulnerable to the types of disasters you just read about. This is primarily for three reasons:

They don’t understand the importance of regular maintenance.
Even if they DID understand its importance, they simply do not know what maintenance is required or how to do it.
They are already swamped with more immediate day-to-day fires demanding their attention. If their network is working fine today, it goes to the bottom of the pile of things to worry about. That means no one is watching to make sure the backups are working properly, the virus protection is up-to-date, that critical security patches are being applied, or that the network is “healthy” overall.

While there are over 37 critical checks and maintenance tasks that need to be performed on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, I’m going to share with you the 6 that are most important for protecting your company.

Step#1: Make Sure You Are Backing Up Your Files Every Day

It just amazes me how many businesses never back up their computer network. Imagine this: you write the most important piece of information you could ever write on a chalkboard and I come along and erase it. How are you going to get it back? You’re not. Unless you can remember it, or if YOU MADE A COPY OF IT, you can’t recover the data. It’s gone. That is why it is so important to back up your network. There are a number of things that could cause you to lose data files. If the information on the disk is important to you, make sure you have more than one copy of it.

Step #2: Check Your Backups On A Regular Basis To Make Sure They Are Working Properly

This is another big mistake I see. Many business owners set up some type of backup system, but then never check to make sure it’s working properly. It’s not uncommon for a system to APPEAR to be

backing up when in reality, it’s not. There are dozens of things that can go wrong and cause your backup to become corrupt and useless. That is why it’s not enough to simply back up your system; you have to check it on a regular basis to make sure the data is recoverable in the event of an emergency. Remember the Health Products Company that shelled out $40,000 to recover data they THOUGHT they backed up? Don’t let that happen to you.

Step #3: Keep An Offsite Copy Of Your Backups

What happens if a fire or flood destroys your server AND the backup tapes or drive? This is how hurricane Katrina devastated many businesses that have now been forced into bankruptcy. What happens if your office gets robbed and they take EVERYTHING? Having an offsite backup is simply a smart way to make sure you can get your business back up and running in a relatively short period of time.

Step #4: Make Sure Your Virus Protection Is ALWAYS On AND Up-To-Date

You would have to be living under a rock to not know how devastating a virus can be to your network. With virus attacks coming from spam, downloaded data and music files, instant messages, web sites, and e-mails from friends and clients, you cannot afford to be without up-to-date virus protection.

Not only can a virus corrupt your files and bring down your network, but it can also hurt your reputation. If you or one of your employees unknowingly spreads a virus to a customer, or if the virus hijacks your e-mail address book, you’re going to make a lot of people very angry.

Step #5: Set Up A Firewall

Small business owners tend to think that because they are “just a small business”, no one would waste time trying to hack in to their network, when nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve conducted experiments where I connected a single computer to the Internet with no firewall. Within hours, over 13 gigabytes of space was taken over by malicious code and files that I could not delete. The simple fact is that there are thousands of unscrupulous individuals out there who think it’s fun to disable your computer just because they can.

These individuals strike randomly by searching the Internet for open, unprotected ports. As soon as they find one, they will delete files or download huge files that cannot be deleted, shutting down your hard drive. They can also use your computer as a zombie for storing pirated software or sending spam, which will cause your ISP to shut YOU down and prevent you from accessing the Internet or sending and receiving e-mail.

If the malicious programs can’t be deleted, you’ll have to re-format the entire hard drive causing you to lose every piece of information you’ve ever owned UNLESS you were backing up your files properly (see 1 to 3 above).

Step #6: Update Your System With Critical Security Patches As They Become Available

If you do not have the most up-to-date security patches and virus definitions installed on your network, hackers can access your computer through a simple banner ad or through an e-mail attachment.

Not too long ago Microsoft released a security bulletin about three newly discovered vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to gain control of your computer by tricking users into downloading and opening a maliciously crafted picture. At the same time, Microsoft released a Windows update to correct the vulnerabilities; but if you didn’t have a process to ensure you were applying critical updates as soon as they become available, you were completely vulnerable to this attack.

Here’s another compelling reason to ensure your network stays up-to-date with the latest security patches…

Most hackers do not discover these security loopholes on their own. Instead, they learn about them when Microsoft (or any other software vendor for that matter) announces the vulnerability and issues an update. That is their cue to spring into action and they immediately go to work to analyze the update and craft an exploit (like a virus) that allows them access to any computer or network that has not yet installed the security patch.

In essence, the time between the release of the update and the release of the exploit that targets the underlying vulnerability is getting shorter every day.

When the “nimda” worm was first discovered back in the fall of 2001, Microsoft had already released the patch that protected against that vulnerability almost a year before (331 days). So network administrators had plenty of time to apply the update. Of course, many still hadn’t done so, and the “nimda” worm caused lots of damage. But in the summer of 2003 there were only 25 days between the release of the Microsoft update that would have protected against the “blaster” worm and the detection of the worm itself!

Clearly, someone needs to be paying close attention to your systems to ensure that critical updates are applied as soon as possible. That is why we highly recommend small business owners without a full-time IT staff allow their consultant to monitor and maintain their network.

Announcing A Simple And Easy Way To Ensure These Disasters Don’t Happen To Your Business:

If you are sitting there thinking, “This all sounds great, but I don’t have the time or the staff to handle all of this work,” I’ve got the solution.

Thanks to a service we offer called, “NNT Care and NNT Serve Programs”, we can completely take over the day-to-day management and maintenance of your computer network and free you from expensive, frustrating computer problems, downtime, and security threats. You’ll get all the benefits of a highly-trained, full-time IT department at only a fraction of the cost.

And here is the best part…

In most cases, we can cut your IT support costs by 30% to 50% WHILE improving the reliability and performance of your network and eliminating spyware, spam, downtime, and other computer frustrations!

The Benefits Are Obvious:

You’ll eliminate expensive repairs and recovery costs. Our network monitoring and maintenance will save you money by preventing expensive network disasters from ever happening in the first place. As a matter of fact, we guarantee it.
You’ll avoid expensive trip fees while receiving faster support. Our remote monitoring software will enable us to access and repair most network problems right from our offices. No more waiting around for an engineer to show up!
How does faster performance, fewer “glitches”, and practically zero downtime sound to you? Under this program, that is exactly what we’ll deliver. Some parts of your system will degrade in performance over time, causing them to slow down, hang up, and crash. Our preventative maintenance and network monitoring will make sure your computers stay in tip-top shape for maximum speed, performance, and reliability.
You will have ALL of the benefits of an in-house IT department WITHOUT all of the costs. As a Managed Network Service Plan customer, you’ll have access to a knowledgeable support staff that can be reached immediately should you have any kind of problem or question.
You’ll receive substantial discounts on IT services that you are already buying. Most IT firms will nickel and dime you over every little thing they do; under this program, you’ll pay one flat, affordable rate and get all of the technical support you need. No hidden charges, caveats, or disclaimers.
You will never have to fear a big, expensive network repair bill. Instead, you can budget for network support just like rent or insurance.
You’ll sleep easier knowing the “gremlins at the gate” are being watched and kept out of your network.
You’ll safeguard your data. The data on the hard disk is always more important than the hardware that houses it. If you rely on your computer systems for daily operations, it’s time to get serious about protecting your critical, irreplaceable electronic information.
You’ll finally put a stop to annoying spam, pop-ups, and spyware taking over your computer and your network.
You’ll gain incredible peace of mind. As a business owner, you already have enough to worry about. We’ll make sure everything pertaining to your network security and reliability is handled so you don’t have to worry about it.

12 Insider Secrets Every Business Should Know About Data Backups and Choosing a Remote Backup Service

If your data is important to your business and you cannot afford to have your operations halted for days – even weeks – due to data loss or corruption, then you need to read this report and act on the information shared. This report will outline the most commonly made, costly mistakes that most small business owners make with their data backups.

You’ll Discover:

What remote, offsite, or managed backups are, and why EVERY business should have them in place.
7 critical characteristics you should absolutely demand from any remote backup service; do NOT trust your data to anyone who does not meet these criteria.
Where tape backups fail and give you a false sense of security.
Frightening trends, cases, and questions every business owner should know and consider regarding data security.
The single most important thing to look for in a remote backup service provider.

Have you ever lost an hour of work on your computer?

Now imagine if you lost days or weeks of work – or imagine losing your client database, financial records, and all of the work files your company has ever produced or compiled.

Imagine what would happen if your network went down for days and you couldn’t access e-mail or the information on your PC. How devastating would that be?

How quickly do you think you could recover, if at all?

If you do not have good answers to the above questions or a rock-solid disaster recovery plan in place, you are quite literally playing Russian roulette with your business. With the number of threats constantly growing, it’s not a matter of if you will have a problem, but rather a matter of when.

But That Could Never Happen To Me! (And Other Lies Business Owners Like To Believe About Their Businesses…)

That doesn’t even include lost productivity, sales, and client goodwill that can be damaged when a company can’t operate or fulfill on its promises due to technical problems.

While it may be difficult to determine the actual financial impact data loss would have on your business, you can’t deny the fact that it would have a major negative effect.

“But I Already Back Up My Data,” You Say…

If you are like most business owners, you’ve been smart enough to set up a tape backup. But know this:

The average failure rate for a tape backup is 100% – ALL tape backups fail at some point in time.

Incredible, isn’t it? Most people don’t realize that ALL tape drives fail. But what’s really dangerous is that most companies don’t realize it happened until it’s too late.

That’s why history is riddled with stories of companies losing millions of dollars worth of data. In almost every case, these businesses had some type of backup system in place, but were sickened to find out it wasn’t working when they needed it most.

While you should maintain a local backup of your data, a tape backup will NOT offer you protection if…

Your tape drive malfunctions rendering it useless and making it impossible to restore your data. IMPORTANT: It is very common for a tape drive to malfunction without giving any warning signs.
Your office (and everything in it) gets destroyed by a fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster.
The physical tapes you are backing your data up to become corrupted due to heat or mishandling.
A virus spoils the data stored on the tape drive. Some of the more aggressive viruses not only corrupt the data, but they don’t allow anyone to access the data on the drive.
Someone in your office accidentally formats the tape, erasing everything on it.
Theft – a disgruntled employee intentionally erases everything, or a thief breaks in and steals ALL of your equipment.
A faulty sprinkler system “waters” all of your electronic equipment.

Bottom line: You do NOT want to find out your backup was not working when you need it most.

Frightening Trends, Cases, and Questions You Should Consider:

Tape drives fail on average at 100%; that means ALL tape drives fail at some point and do NOT offer complete protection for your data if a natural disaster, fire, or terrorist attack destroys your office and everything in it. Business owners who were hit by hurricanes like Katrina learned a hard lesson about keeping remote backups of their data.
93% of companies that lost their data for 10 days or more filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster, and 50% filed for bankruptcy immediately. (Source: National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
20% of small to medium businesses will suffer a major disaster causing loss of critical data every 5 years. (Source: Richmond House Group)
This year, 40% of small to medium businesses that manage their own network and use the Internet for more than e-mail will have their network accessed by a hacker, and more than 50% won’t even know they were attacked. (Source: Gartner Group)
About 70% of business people have experienced (or will experience) data loss due to accidental deletion, disk or system failure, viruses, fire or some other disaster (Source: Carbonite, an online backup service)
The first reaction of employees who lose their data is to try to recover the lost data themselves by using recovery software or either restarting or unplugging their computer — steps that can make later data recovery impossible. (Source: 2005 global survey by Minneapolis-based Ontrack Data Recovery)

Remote Backups: What They Are And Why EVERY Business Should Have Them In Place

The ONLY way to completely protect your data and guarantee that you could restore it all after a major disaster is by maintaining an up-to-date copy of your data offsite in a high-security facility.

Remote backups, also called offsite backups, online backups, or managed backups, is a service that allows you to maintain a secure copy of your data in a different location than your office.

Usually this type of backup is done automatically via the Internet after hours to a high-security facility. There is no question that every business owner should have an offsite copy of their data; however, there ARE big differences among remote backup services and it’s critical that you choose a good provider or you could end up paying a lot of money only to discover that recovering your data – the very reason why you set up remote backups in the first place – is not an easy, fast, or simple job.

7 Critical Characteristics to Demand from Your Remote Backup Service

The biggest danger businesses have with remote backup services is lack of knowledge in what to look for.

There are literally hundreds of companies offering this service because they see it as an easy way to make a quick buck. But not all service providers are created equal and you absolutely want to make sure you choose a good, reliable vendor or you’ll get burned with hidden fees, unexpected “gotchas,” or with the horrible discovery that your data wasn’t actually backed up properly, leaving you high and dry when you need it most.

If your remote backup provider doesn’t meet all 7 of these points, then you’d be crazy to trust them to store your data:

1. Military-level security, data transfer, and data storage. This is fairly obvious; you want to make sure the company housing your data is actually secure. After all, we are talking about your financial information, client data, and other sensitive information about your company. Never trust your data to anyone that doesn’t have the following security measures in place:

Ask your service provider if they are HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gram-Leach-Bliley, and SEC NASD compliant. These are government regulations that dictate how organizations with highly sensitive data (like banks and doctor’s offices) handle, store, and transfer their data. If you are a medical or financial institution, you are required by law to work only with vendors who meet these stringent requirements. But even if you are NOT an organization that falls under one of these regulations, you still want to choose a provider who is because it’s a good sign that they have high-level security measures in place.
Make sure the physical location where the data is stored is secure. Ask your service provider if they have an ID system, video surveillance, and some type of card key system to allow only authorized personnel to enter the site.
Make sure the data transfer is encrypted with SSL protocols to prevent a hacker from accessing the data while it’s being transferred.

2. Multiple data centers that are geographically dispersed. Anyone versed in data security knows the best way to avoid loss is to build redundancy into your operations. All that means is that your remote backup service should store multiple copies of your data in more than one location. That way, if a terrorist attack or natural disaster destroys one of their locations, they have backups of your backup in a different city where the disaster did not strike.

3. Demand the ability to receive overnight copies of your data on DVD or some other data storage device. If your entire network gets wiped out, you do NOT want Internet download to be your only option for recovering the data because it could take days or weeks. Therefore, you should only work with a remote backup provider that will provide overnight copies of your data via some physical storage device.

4. On that same token, ask your service provider if you have the option of having your initial backup performed through hard copy. Again, trying to transfer that amount of data online could take days or weeks. If you have a large amount of data to backup, it would be faster and more convenient to send it to them on DVD.

5. Make sure your data can be restored to a different computer than the one it was backed up from. Amazingly, some backups can only be restored to the same computer they came from. If the original computer was burned in a fire, stolen, or destroyed in a flood, you’re left without a backup.

6. Demand daily status reports of your backup. All backup services should send you a daily e-mail to verify if your backup actually ran AND to report failures or problems. The more professional providers should also allow you to notify more than one person (like a technician or your IT person) in addition to yourself.

7. Demand help from a qualified technician. Many online backup services are “self-serve.” This allows them to provide a cheaper service to you. BUT if you don’t set your system to back up correctly, the money you will save will be insignificant compared to the losses you’ll suffer. At the very least, ask your service provider to walk you through the steps on the phone or to check your settings to make sure you did the setup properly.

The Single Most Important Thing To Look For When Choosing a Remote Backup Service Provider

While the above checks are important, one of the most critical characteristics – and one that is often overlooked — is finding a company that will do regular test restores to check your backup and make sure the data is able to be recovered.

You do not want to wait until your data has been wiped out to test your backup; yet that is exactly what most people do – and they pay for it dearly.

If your data is very sensitive and you cannot afford to lose it, then test restores should be done monthly. If your situation is a little less critical, then quarterly test restores are sufficient.

Any number of things can cause your backup to become corrupt. By testing it monthly, you’ll sleep a lot easier at night knowing you have a good, solid copy of your data available in the event of an unforeseen disaster or emergency.

12 Surefire Signs Your Business is Ready for a Server

If you are like most small businesses, you acquire desktop computers, phone systems, and software in a random, “buy-it-when-you-need-it” fashion as your business operations demand it.

But at some point, this patchwork of stopgap technology you’ve acquired is going to end up costing you more in downtime, system errors, breakdowns, and other problems than it would to rip out and replace everything.

If you’ve suddenly become aware that you’re at that stage of growth in your business, then you want to stop purchasing more software and hardware in a willy-nilly fashion and get serious about planning for your future growth and business operations so you don’t end up with a big pile of expensive hardware and software spaghetti that doesn’t meet your business needs.

One Big Secret To Saving Money

One secret to saving money on IT costs is to strive for as much uniformity and connectivity as possible across your business network – and the first place to start achieving that is through the use of a server.

If you have two or more computers that are loosely connected to share information, printers, scanners, Internet access, or fax machines, then you could inject a great deal of simplicity, productivity, and security with a small business server.

A server simply acts as a single specialized computer that ensures all of the computer connected to it (called “clients”) have access to the resources, information, and systems they need, faster, and with fewer problems. It also acts as a centralized manager to make sure data is secure and organized.

They’re Not Just For Big Business Anymore

At one time, servers only made sense for large organizations because of their high cost and complexity. But today, there are very affordable and easy-to-implement server systems designed specifically for a growing small business. If you’re not absolutely certain that installing a server could help your business enough to justify the cost, here are 12 surefire signs that your business could definitely benefit from an upgrade.

12 Signs That Your Business Is Ready For A Server

You have two or more computers that need to share office equipment (printers, fax machines, scanners) and resources (Internet access).
You have irreplaceable files and data residing on more than one computer that need to be secured from loss, corruption, or unauthorized access.
You need (or would like to have) secure access to your computer files while traveling or working from home.
You need to back up critical files on more than one computer, and you would like to be able to restore accidentally deleted files or previous versions of your files.
You need CRM (customer relationship management) software and accounting programs to manage and communicate with your growing list of clients and vendors.
You need to manage different versions of one file.
You need a central communication system that makes it easy to schedule group meetings and share information with employees, vendors, and customers.
You need to allow employees to share databases and other software tools.
You would like to send group faxes and e-mail broadcasts to customers.
You want to save money by hosting your own company website and e-mail.
You want to control employees’ access to sensitive financial records and personnel information.
You want a central access point for information instead of having to hunt down various files and data on various computers on your network.

Consumer Awareness Guide To Choosing An Honest, Reliable, and Competent Computer Repair Technician

Hiring the wrong computer repair guy can not only be incredibly frustrating and expensive, but you could end up losing ALL of your irreplaceable files, photos, music, e-mails, and other important documents!

Read this guide and you’ll discover:

Computer scams and rip-offs that you MUST be aware of.
5 Costly misconceptions about computer maintenance and repair.
Viruses, worms, spyware, and hackers: what you need to know to protect yourself.
7 Questions you need to ask before buying any computer equipment.
5 Critical characteristics you should demand from your computer repair technician.
Why you need to avoid “cheap” or “bargain” computer repair shops.
The one surefire sign that you should run – not walk – out of a computer repair shop.

There are no shortages of horror stories about fly-by-night computer repair shops causing problems as a result of their unethical or incompetent behavior. I’m sure if you talk to your own friends and family you will get an ear-full of the unfortunate experiences they have encountered in this area.

You see, the computer industry, along with a lot of other industries, has its own share of unethical businesses who will always try to take advantage of uneducated buyers in their greed for easy money. Fortunately, businesses like these are the minority, but we know they exist because we have had a number of customers come to us to clean up the disasters they have caused.

Another big problem of the computer industry is that it is not regulated like many other industries. Automotive repair shops, electricians, plumbers, lawyers, realtors, dentists, doctors, accountants, and even restaurants (to name a few) are heavily regulated to protect the consumer from receiving substandard work or getting ripped off. However, the computer industry is still very new and there aren’t any laws in existence to protect the consumer.

Anyone who can turn a computer on can market themselves as a computer repair technician or shop. Even if they are honestly trying to do a good job for you, their inexperience can cost you dearly in your machine’s performance or in lost or corrupt data files. That is why we decided to offer this report.

The information in this Guide is provided to help raise standards within the computer repair and support industry, and to give YOU useful information to help you guard against the unethical or incompetence of some companies and technicians.

The Five Most Costly Misconceptions About Computer Maintenance and Repair

#1: If your computer is working fine right now, it does not need any maintenance.

This is probably one of the biggest and most deadly misconceptions that most computer users fall victim to. Computers are just like cars. If you don’t change the oil, change the filter, rotate the tires, flush the transmission, and perform other regular maintenance on your car, it will eventually break down and cost you FAR MORE to repair than the cost of the basic maintenance.

There are certain maintenance checks that need to be done daily (like virus updates and spam filtering), weekly (like system backups), and monthly or quarterly (like checking for and installing security patches and updates, disk defrag, spyware detection and removal, checking the surge suppressor and the integrity of the hard drive, and so on). Your computer repair technician should be adamant that you have regular maintenance done on your machine and should offer to set up automatic virus definition updates, spam filtering (to avoid viruses), and automatic system backups OFF-SITE.

If your technician does not press you to let him do this for you, then RUN – don’t walk – out of their office. Lack of system maintenance is the NUMBER ONE reason most people end up losing valuable files and incurring heavy computer repair bills. If your technician isn’t offering you these services, you need to find someone else to support your computer or network for two reasons:

Either they don’t know enough to make this recommendation, which is a sure sign they are horribly inexperienced, OR
They recognize that they are profiting from your computer problems and don’t want to recommend steps towards preventing you from needing their help on an ongoing basis.

Either reason is a good one to get as far away from that person as possible!

#2: The maintenance tools provided in the Microsoft Operating System and software are all the maintenance you need.

Again, this is a terrible misconception. Microsoft does NOT include ALL of the security features to protect your data from viruses, hackers, and data loss or prevent your PC from running slowly.

Additionally, Microsoft (and other software vendors for that matter) are constantly providing critical patches and updates to their software to protect you from viruses and hackers. However, if you don’t know to look for them, or if you don’t know how to install them properly, you could easily end up getting burned.

#3: My nephew/neighbor’s kid/brother-in-law knows this computer stuff and can help me solve my problems.

If only this were true. Obviously, not all technicians are created equal. Just because a person is good with computer applications (what we call a power user) does NOT mean they know how to install a critical security patch, detect and extract a deadly virus, or upgrade your machine.

Most people look for a part time “guru” to help them save money, but this often comes back to haunt them. Every day we get new customers who walk into our shop needing us to clean up a mess that was caused by an inexperienced neighbor, friend, or relative who was just trying to help. If the person you have working on your machine does not do computer repair and support for a living, there is a good chance they won’t have the knowledge or experience to truly help you. Technology advances at lightening speed and it takes constant learning and practice to master it. If your part-time technician is not working on PCs and networks every day, they probably only know enough to be dangerous.

#4: You can always get a better deal on computer software, equipment, or services by shopping online.

The key word here is “deal”. Sure you can always find a cheaper price if you shop online, but you might actually end up getting the short end of the stick. As with anything in life, you get what you pay for. Companies simply cannot give you dirt cheap prices AND champagne service.

If you are getting a cheap bargain, chances are you will get very little if NO service after the sale. If something goes wrong, or if you just have a question, you might find out that the customer service line only goes to a voice mail box that never gets checked, or that you have to submit questions via e-mail that takes DAYS to return.

Before you buy ANY computer equipment, make sure you know the answers to these questions:

How long have they been in business? The last thing you want to do is buy a lemon of a computer from a fly-by-night organization. Thanks to the Internet, ANYONE can set up a website and start selling computer equipment, parts, and software. That is why you want to look for a company that has been in business for 5 years or more.
What is their guarantee or warranty on the equipment or services you are buying? As a standard rule, they should offer one year replacement warranty on all parts at a minimum.
How do they handle returns and exchanges? Do you have to ship the defective item back to them on your dime or do they arrange to have it picked up? Do they send the replacement first? What is the guaranteed turnaround time for an item? This is why many people prefer to buy all equipment from a local vendor. If something goes wrong, you can drive to the store, speak to a real person, and get an instant replacement in most cases.
What type of help desk support do you offer? If you are like me, you want to speak directly to a knowledgeable technician when you need help. However, many companies only offer e-mail and web-based support, and charge a hefty fee for anything outside of that. Which brings me to the next question…
Is your support free or charged by the minute? Make sure you are very clear on what support is free and what is fee-based.
Where is their help desk and customer service office located? Many of the big vendors are shipping their help desk support overseas to save money. While this works out great for them, it can be incredibly frustrating when you are trying to communicate with their customer support representatives.
Do YOU really know how to install, configure and troubleshoot this new device? If not, you may want to consider hiring a qualified technician to install it. Quite often, drivers and software can conflict and cause problems and unless YOU have installed this device before, it might be worth the small fee to get someone else to do it for you.

#5: All computer repair shops are created equal. Your best option will be the one who offers the lowest price.

As we stated a moment ago, you get what you pay for. A cheap price usually means a cheap job. Really good technicians do NOT work cheap because they are in high demand. The only technicians that will work cheap are those that are just starting and they are grossly inexperienced.

With your valuable data, precious family photos, favorite music files, and other irreplaceable documents at stake, do you REALLY want the cheapest technician working on your machine?

We take the view that most people want value for money and simply want the job done right. You will find that we are not the cheapest and we do not apologize for that. You will also find that we are not the most expensive. We simply feel that we should offer a good service at a fair price. That’s why we have been able to stay in business for over 7 solid years.

5 Critical Characteristics You Should Demand From Your Computer Repair Guy or Shop

1. Demand that they have multiple technicians on staff. If you rely on a “one-man-band” operation, you might find yourself without any help when they go on vacation, get sick, or when they are simply too busy servicing other customers. Having multiple technicians on staff is not a guarantee of fast, reliable service, but you are far more likely to have someone to talk to when you have a problem.

Another reason you want a shop that has multiple technicians is because no one computer guy – no matter how good – has infinite knowledge about every type of software, hardware, and platform. Multiple technicians mean multiple skill sets and a higher likelihood that your computer problem will get resolved faster.

2. Demand someone who has a long-standing reputation. Let’s face it; there are a lot of other computer repair technicians out there, but most are new or just getting started. You want to make sure you avoid hiring a fly-by-night technician between jobs that sets up shop one day, and is out of business within a month or a year. Only deal with computer technicians and repair shops that have a proven track record in your area. NNT Solutions has been servicing customers in the Gainesville and surrounding Cities for over 7 years now.

3. Demand that they have specific knowledge or expertise on solving your particular problem. Do NOT let someone practice on your machine. If they have not worked on your problem before, they should TELL you that in advance. There is too much risk involved financially and in your data and equipment.

4. Demand that your technician backs up your system BEFORE working on it. This is just common sense. Don’t let them touch your machine before your entire system is securely backed up just in case something goes wrong.

5. Demand that your machine comes back with the same settings, look, preferences, and applications that you had on it prior to the work. There are a lot of second-rate shops with inexperienced technicians who will end up causing you more problems than you bargained for. Very frequently, these inexperienced technicians will recommend that you wipe out your hard drive and re-install Windows to fix a problem. This means you lose all of your settings and preferences, as well as losing all of the software programs you have installed. This should ONLY be done as a last resort.

WARNING: In addition to wiping out your hard drive, some of these shops will put illegal software on your machine using a stolen license. Not only is this illegal and putting you in a position to get fined, but most illegal software (especially Microsoft’s) is locked, which means you cannot download and update critical security patches. This leaves you unable to update your machine and protect it from deadly viruses, worms, and hackers.

NNT Solutions Customer Bill Of Rights

Here is what I promise to deliver if you choose NNT Solutions to service your computer or company network:

When you call us with a computer problem, we guarantee that your phone call will be either answered immediately or returned within 60 minutes or less by an experienced technician who can help.
You should not have to wait around all day for your computer to be repaired. We understand how important your computer is to you; that is why we offer our while-you-wait priority express service where we will start working on your computer the MINUTE you bring it in. In most cases, we can fix it within 30 minutes or less.
You deserve to get answers to your questions in PLAIN ENGLISH. Our technicians will not talk down to you or make you feel stupid because you don’t understand their “geek speak”.
You deserve complete satisfaction with our products and services. We will do whatever it takes to make you happy. No hassles, no problems.
You should EXPECT that no damage will be done to your machine or your data. Before we start working on your computer or network, we will evaluate your problem and alert you to any potential risks involved in fulfilling your job. If there are any risks, they will be explained in full, and your authorization and agreement will be obtained before the work commences. You can also choose to have your data backed up before we start any work on your machine.

A large proportion of our business comes from referrals from happy, satisfied customers. We want you to recommend us and we know that you will only do this if you are happy with the services we provide. That is why we work so hard to go above and beyond the call of duty.

As you probably already know from firsthand experience, once you’re on a spammer’s list, it’s next to impossible to get off. And changing your e-mail address can be a major inconvenience especially if you rely on it to stay in touch with important business and personal contacts.

To reduce the chances of your e-mail address getting spammed, here are 5 simple preventative measures you can take that will go a long way in keeping not-so-delicious spam out of your in-box.

1. Use a disposable email address.

If you buy products online or occasionally subscribe to websites that interest you, chances are you’re going to get spammed.

To avoid your main e-mail address from ending up on their broadcast list, set up a free Internet e-mail address with Hotmail or Juno and use it when buying or opting into online newsletters. You can also use a throwaway e-mail address when making purchases or subscribing to newsletters (see #4 below).

2. Pay attention to check boxes that automatically opt you in.

Whenever you subscribe to a website or make a purchase online, be very watchful of small, pre-checked boxes that say, “Yes! I want to receive offers from third party companies.”

If you do not un-check the box to opt-out, your e-mail address can (and will) be sold to every online advertiser. To avoid this from happening, simply take a closer look at every online form you fill out.

3. Don’t use your main e-mail address on your website, web forums, or newsgroups.

Spammers have special programs that can glean e-mail addresses from websites without your permission. If you are posting to a web forum or newsgroup, use your disposable e-mail address instead of your main e-mail address.

If you want to post an e-mail address on your home page, use “info@” and have all replies forwarded to a folder in your inbox that won’t interfere with your main address.

4. Create throwaway e-mail accounts.

If you own a web domain, all mail going to an address at your domain is probably set up to come directly to you by default. For example, an e-mail addressed to anything@yourdomain.com will be delivered to your inbox.

This is a great way to fight spam without missing out on important emails you want to get. The next time you sign up for a newsletter, use the title of the website in your e-mail address. For example, if the website is titled “successsecrets.com”, enter “successsecrets@yourdomain.com” as your e-mail address. If you get spammed, look at what address the spam was sent to.

If successsecrets@yourdomain.com shows up as the original recipient, you know the source since that e-mail address was unique to that website. Now you can easily stop the spam by making any e-mail sent to that address bounce back to the sender.

5. Don’t open, reply to or try to opt-out of obvious spam e-mails.

Opening, replying to, or even clicking a bogus opt-out link in an obvious spam e-mail signals that your e-mail address is active, and more spam will follow.

The only time it is safe to click on the opt-out link or reply to the e-mail is when the message was sent from a company you know or do business with (for example, a company that you purchase from or a newsletter you subscribed to).

Finally! A Way To Stop Spam, Spyware, And Pop-Ups From Taking Over Your Computer.

If you are absolutely fed up with the number of spam e-mails you get every day, the annoying pop-ups being shoved in your face when you surf the net, and advertisers installing spyware on your computer to monitor your every move and serve up unwanted ads, then please read on.

We’re Waging War Against Spam, Spyware, and Pop-Ups!

Just recently we polled our clients to find out what their biggest frustration currently is with their computer networks.

Not too surprisingly, an overwhelming number of you said “SPAM” with pop-ups running a close second on the list of things that make you crazy.

That’s why we’ve decided to launch a war against spammers and unethical online advertisers for our customers by offering a FREE “Stop The Ads” audit.

We’ll Show You How To Stop Spammers And Unethical Advertisers In Their Tracks.

During this free audit, one of our senior technicians will come onsite to review your network and uncover loopholes that allow spammers and advertisers to penetrate your network and install unwanted spyware on your computer.

Note: Spyware is a small program that online advertisers download to your computer without your permission or knowledge so they can monitor your web surfing and steal your confidential information. Sometimes they can even read your credit card information!

During this FREE “Stop The Ads” audit we’ll show you how to:

Eliminate pop-ups finally and forever.
Quarantine virus-riddled spam before it ever gets to your inbox.
Filter spam without blocking important e-mails from clients and associates.
Clean out any spyware installed on your individual PCs or network.
Bulletproof your network from viruses and other cyber criminals.

And If You Are Not Currently Hosting Your Own E-mail In House, We’ll Also Show You How To:

Save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on costly bandwidth and ISP fees by bringing your e-mail in-house.
Prevent your ISP’s spam filter from blocking important, non-spam e-mails you need to receive.
Make it easier to set up new e-mail accounts.
Stop employees from accidentally (or intentionally!) sending illegal, inappropriate, or confidential information via e-mail.
Set up a safe and secure filing system to store all of your important e-mail.
Eliminate the file size limitations on your inbox.

Here’s How It Works

To request your free “Stop The Ads” Audit, simply call our offices or fill in and fax back the enclosed form.

We will send one of our senior, professional technicians to your office. He will be on time, guaranteed. He will evaluate your network for FREE and give you a straightforward situation analysis, and explain the options you have available for eliminating spam, spyware, and pop-ups.

We will also give you a guaranteed price in writing – not an estimate – for the options you want to try. If you agree to allow us to do the work (you are under no obligation), we can usually start right away!

EVERY job is backed by our exclusive Peace of Mind Guarantee: if you are not happy with the work or the technician doing the job, simply say to the technician “this is not what I had in mind”. That will be his cue to stop the work, restore your network, and leave your office – AND YOU WON’T PAY ONE PENNY! No questions, No argument, No guilt, No payment. You can consider the job canceled and the work ON US.

As you can see, we don’t think you should take a chance on hiring ANY computer support company – even us. We strongly feel that the customer is number one and to prove our commitment to you, we are willing to put ourselves on the line.

It’s that simple and you have nothing to lose.

So give us a call at 770-535-0890 or fill out our online contact form.