Small Business Tech Notes

New Staff at Harbor

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:34:00 +0000

This week we have two new staff members starting. As you most likely know, we’ve been looking for the right people for a very long time. Our search has been long and careful. Contrary to popular...

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Time to Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:51:00 +0000

We have entered a period of rapid change. The initiator of this rapid change is Cloud services. But is not the reason for the rapid change. The reason for the rapid change is how software and...

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Microsoft MVP 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:11:00 +0000

It seems like only yesterday I opened my email and with great surprise found that I had joined an elite group of IT professionals as a Microsoft MVP. But here it is 7 years already and this New...

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Thank You for a Great Year

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:31:00 +0000

The end of 2011 is rapidly approaching so I wanted to take a minute to thank one and all. Our customers have been wonderful. You guys are the very best to work with and we enjoy every minute...

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What are we going to talk about next year?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:34:00 +0000

It is that time of year when we need to get together to talk about the future. It’s planning season. We specialize in unique businesses. We don’t cookie cutter anyone. We make sure your IT fits you...

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Hard Drive Crisis Being Felt Now

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:39:00 +0000

I reported earlier about how the situation in Thailand will be affecting the availability of hard drives for the next 12 months. Since that time we’ve had some disturbing news. There are now no...

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Extreme IT Makeover Of Your Favorite Non-Profit

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:17:00 +0000

As a Microsoft MVP and a recent speaker on the Small Business Community Roadshow (13 cities around the Country – it was exhausting) I have been offered an opportunity to enter a local non-profit into...

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Floods in Thailand

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:45:00 +0000

It turns out that the world is flat, or at least it is in many aspects other than physical. You may have heard that Thailand is flooding in a big way. People are displaced. People are dying. Perhaps...

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When the cloud goes down

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:12:00 +0000

Yesterday starting about 12:30pm, the main data center for the spam, email and web hosting service provider that we recommend to all of you experienced a catastrophic failure. The initial problem was...

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Email and Website Problems Likely

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:38:00 +0000

Yesterday morning we noticed some problems with email delivery with a couple of our clients. The caused was determined to be unreachable DNS records. Many of you have your DNS records hosted with the...

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Harbor Featured for Backup Expertise

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:04:00 +0000

Harbor Computer Services is being featured by Symform as an expert in offsite Internet based backup services. We have been involved with Symform and other online backup companies since the concept...

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Security in the Spot Light

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:53:00 +0000

This week has brought forth the following security breaches. Sony LockHeed Martin RSA SecureID International Monetary Fund CIA Citibank An excerpt from yesterday’s hearing:...

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A new Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:56:00 +0000

Many of your have had an opportunity to meet our new technician, Matt. He’s been with us for about a month now. Today Matt and his wife welcome a new addition to their family, Dominic Matthew...

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NASA reports major geomagnetic flare–expect outages

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:59:00 +0000

This morning NASA reported that the sun has released an enormous flare that will disrupt satellite communications and cause the rerouting or cancellation of air flights. Solar flares release magnetic...

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Introducing Matt DeNoyer

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:03:00 +0000

I am pleased to welcome Matt DeNoyer to Harbor Computer Services. Matt started with us a little over a month ago now and has been making great strides in learning the high standards to which we...

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Windows 8: Wow, just Wow

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:02:00 +0000

Yesterday Microsoft released a video showing a preview of Windows 8. This is the first time that a preview of the user interface has been released to the public. It’s a WOW. It’s also scary. It’s the...

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Change in Default Mobile Security Stance and Mobile Device Acceptable Use Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:47:00 +0000

Mobile Device Security Stance Change Following recent notification from one of the servers we manage that an attempt was made by a rogue mobile device to connect to it we have changed the default...

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Handling Large Data Archives

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:42:00 +0000

For a lot of years now archiving large amounts of data was handled by storing it on tape or storing it on CD or DVD. Of course this is when we considered large to be a few hundred megabytes or a...

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Considering Buying New Phones or Phone Service? We can do that.

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:45:00 +0000

Phones, phone systems (PBX) have changed dramatically and we’ve been watching carefully. Phone systems have changed from the blackbox that hangs on the wall that you never touch into true computers...

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Who is the most common target?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:42:00 +0000

Today I am reading the incident and compromise report for 2010 by Verizon and the US Secret Service. It’s a good read if you are in my business. It gives me the pulse of what the bad guys are...

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Internet Explorer 9 Soon To Be Installed

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:02:00 +0000

About a month ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9. It will now begin to arrive on your computers with the next update cycle. Ted was our Beta tester for IE 9 and has been running it since the...

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Best of Michigan businesses

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:48:00 +0000

Harbor Computer Services has been named Best of Michigan businesses for IT Services by the readers of Corp Magazine. I attribute this award to our wonderful customers and thank you for nominating and...

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Announcing SBS 2011 Certification

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Harbor Computer Services is pleased to announce that all of its technical staff members have passed the Small Business Server 2011 certification exam. Each person took the beta exam which...

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Alert: Problems with Windows 7 SP1

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:50:00 +0000

Last night I started to receive notices of many “dead bodies” as we call them in IT from around the world. That is, computers failing to boot after installing Service Pack 1. This issue seems to be...

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Phones: A New Security Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Amy - Harbor Computer Services) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:40:00 +0000

Not very long ago, smart phones were rare. Businesses purchased smartphones for very few employees and those that had them were generally business owners. Today, we are seeing that smartphones are...

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