rb|it : blog

Limited Offer - 20% off labour prices

Continuing the theme from my previous offer (the Free IT Systems Audit) I'm now dropping all on site labour charges from now until March 31st 2009. There are no catches, caveats or special conditions, all work done on site between now and 31st March will be charged at the reduced rate.

The offer is also not restricted to new customers, I am contacting existing customers now to advise them of the price reduction, and existing quotes are being modified to reflect the new price.

The prices will now be as follows;

• Per day charges go from £500 to £400 per day (7.5 hours working on site)
• Per hour charges go from £75 to £60 per hour (charged in 15 minute increments)

There is no reduction in the price for work completed off site or remotely, because they're already an unbeatable £250 per day or £37.50 per hour!

Like most small businesses, I've been reviewing my outgoing costs, and considering whether those investments are giving me best value. It's time to renegotiate supplier contracts, find the best deal and make sure you're doing everything you can to maintain your profitability and retain staff, and I'm reducing my prices to make that possible for all my clients, both old and new.

If you are reviewing your IT costs, contact me for a free consultation and I'll give you an honest appraisal of how much money I think I can save you.

To find out more about my background and business philosophy see the About Me page.

Free search system for your Windows Servers

 

I've already looked at how Windows Search 4.0 can bring all your PC documents and emails straight to hand when you need them, without having to hunt around.  But what about your file server, which is not searched by Windows Search by default?  How do you find the files on there?

You could download the "Windows Desktop Search Add-in for Files on Microsoft Networks" which allows you to 'index' your mapped drives.  This means when you search your PC, it also searches those network drives.  This works, but it means every PC on the network is indexing the same data, which effects the performance of the PC's and wastes processing power (so I wouldn't).

There's another option though, called Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express.  Installed on your server, it allows all users to search the shared files though a web page, and amongst other files can index Microsoft Office documents, web pages and Adobe PDF files.

You can download Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express for free from the Microsoft website.  There are requirements your server needs to fulfil before you can install Search Server Express (Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 with ASP.NET 2.0 enabled and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0), but like Search Server Express they don't cost anything.

Once it's setup, you add content to be crawled, which can be a file share on the server, Sharepoint sites, web sites, or Exchange public folders.   Then, any user can search the server, and the results will only contain files that they have permission to see.  As it's a website, you can even allow your staff (correctly authenticated) to search the server when on the road or working from home.

There are a one or two issues to consider if you take up this option;

1. Make sure your server has sufficient hardware resources in processor, memory and hard disk space (see the download page for system requirements).
2. Don't overload a server that's already working pretty hard.  I would not install this on a server which is already running Sharepoint sites or resource intensive applications like Exchange, ISA Server or SQL Server.
3. In the default setup, you will see Microsoft Live Search results in the right hand column.  You can change this to show different content, or content from another site (including your company website!) which is probably more appropriate.

So, using two free Microsoft applications; Windows Search 4.0 and Search Server 2008 Express, you can drastically cut down the time it gets to find documents.  The cost of installation should not be significant (in a company of 25 with suitable hardware it should take ~1.5 days including training), and the potential time saved could pay back any installation costs in months, or even weeks.

In these difficult times, being able to access your data quickly could improve customer retention and reduce administrative costs, and will undoubtedly effect your bottom line.

Beware Platform Fundamentalists

Normally I post blog articles based on useful technical tips, generally aimed at my client base of small and medium sizes businesses.  Today though, I received an interesting email which reminded me about a side of computing which is nothing to do with business IT, and all to do with people.

For those of you who don't know what the 'operating system wars' are, or understand the significance of the picture on the left, I'll paint the picture as I see it.

The History

Microsoft has been producing software for over 30 years, and came out with it's first version of Windows in 1985.  For various reasons I'm not qualified to research (but which I sum up as 'being good at business') Microsoft Windows became the dominant operating system in the world.  It currently holding a 93% share, so at least 9 out of every 10 computers you see will be running Windows.  It's success is largely cyclical, in that people are exposed to it at work, school or college, so they buy a PC or laptop with it, so their kids get used to using it, and expect to see it at school, and so on.

Linux is a free open source 'Unix like' operating system based on the Linux Kernel written by Linus Torvalds in 1991, which has historically been strongest as a server operating system (particularly web servers) but is also used by people whose job or hobby is in computing.  It's difficult to measure market share, but the Apache web server (which is normally run on Unix or Linux) currently runs 50% of all web sites (according to the Netcraft survey).

The Problem

'So what's the problem?' you might ask.  The problem is that a vocal minority of computer users (and the terms 'vocal' and 'minority' are very applicable) hate Microsoft. They despise it in the same way that some religious fundamentalists despise any who don't follow their religion.  This narrow minded attitude causes them to berate those who use Microsoft operating systems, criticise and belittle the software at every opportunity, and in some cases even gain illegal access to computer systems and deface websites just because they hate the platform on which it is running.

'So what?' you might say, and fair enough.  Fundamentalists are generally best dealt with by ignoring them, and the majority of users of all operating systems (Microsoft, Apple, UNIX or Linux) are broad minded and happy to debate the merits of their preferred option, calmly and with an open mind.  The problem is that some of the vocal minority work in IT.  They will tell customers "This is the only option", or "You should get rid of that and run Linux instead"; not because it is the best thing for their client, but because they're too narrow minded to consider any alternative.  They're wrong.  There's always an alternative, and any of these operating systems might be the right one for the job you need doing.

Beware the Computer Fundamentalist

So beware. If you run a business, and you engage an IT company who will only recommend one operating system (whether it's Windows or Linux) on the grounds that it is the only option, reject them.  If they say they can only advise on one operating system, fair enough.  If they say they don't have expertise in any other area, then that's fine.  If they can support their choice of operating system with sound business arguments, then that's all good.  However, if they can't communicate clearly to you a business reason why you should adopt one particular operating system, then they aren't doing their job.

Footnote: I don't subscribe to any one operating system.  I'm a Microsoft Partner, but I recently recommended an Apple Mac OS X Server solution for a client, and prior to that installed a Linux based ADSL router/firewall solution at a site, in both cases because they were the best business option.  I've also picked on Linux Fundamentalists here because they tend to be the most narrow minded and socially inept group when compared to Apple Fundamentalists, who tend towards the artistic, and Microsoft Fundamentalists, who don't really care and therefore rarely exist.

Are you at risk from the Conficker worm?

New viruses and worms appear every day, but normally you don't hear anything about it.  Occasionally, one makes big splash in the mainstream press, and Conficker (also known as Downadup or Kido) is one of those.  With articles on the BBC, the Telegraph, the Guardian and the Independent, it’s become a big story nationwide (and worldwide).  But why is it such a big deal, and why should you care about it?

It's a big deal because it's believed to be one of the most prolific viruses seen for some time, and no-one even knows what it does yet.  You should care, because the best guess is that it's designed to build a huge botnet, which for you means your business PC's becoming a tool for hackers;  loss of confidential financial data, emails blocked by all your customers because your network is blacklisted, the possibilities are very real and potentially very expensive.

So what can you do?

1. Install the patch from Microsoft (available from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx)
2. Make sure you have up to date anti-virus software installed on all of your computers and servers. Business anti-virus should cost no more than £20-25 per user (Sophos Anti-Virus Small Business Edition for 5 users is £102.26 ex VAT from http://www.it247.com)

These two simple measures will remove the immediate risk.  A couple more simple measures can ensure that you are protected against any future ‘nasties’ which might pop up;

1. Make sure your anti-virus stays up to date, and that someone is checking that they're are up to date.  Out of date anti-virus is a waste of money.  Any business anti-virus system will include reporting and management tools to check whether systems are up to date, and if necessary update them remotely.  If your IT Support Provider is charging you to come on site and update Anti-Virus then they’re ripping you off!
2. Try and ensure your PC’s and Servers are all patched regularly.  Your IT staff can manage this, or your IT Support Provider can do it.  It’s simple, and can be managed using a free system from Microsoft called Windows Server Update Services.  Again, this shouldn’t require a regular site visit from your IT Support Provider, it can all be managed remotely.
3. Make sure your network firewall and Windows Firewall on your PC’s is configured correctly, to block traffic which comes from outside your network.

As with most challenges on a Microsoft based business network, none of these things cost a lot of money, they just require the careful application of the technology that’s out there, mostly free or very low cost.  So get protected, and save your business thousands in lost time, lost data or lost network access.

21st January 2009

Richard Bartlett offers IT consultancy services through his company RG Bartlett IT Services Ltd.  Contact him by email richard@rgbartlett.co.uk or visit his website at http://www.rgbartlett.co.uk

Finding things the easy way

How many times has someone asked you for a bit of information and it’s taken you ages to find it?  Don't worry, it's a common problem.  We are deluged with digital information in the modern office; you probably have over 1GB of emails in your mailbox, and analysts believe you’ll send and receive more than 4.3GB of data in a year.  And it’s not stopping, with the estimated growth rate of business emails at 25-30% per year.  There are a number of problems this causes your business, but the most immediate one to the user is how hard it is to find anything.

You’d think that there would be a more efficient way to search your files and emails, as computers are supposed to be productivity tools.  And of course, there is, and it’s free.  For any Microsoft Windows user, there’s Windows Search.  This tools ‘indexes’ your files and Microsoft Outlook emails, so you can search them more easily.  The software can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/getitnow.mspx, and it’s very easy to install (and Windows Vista SP1 users already have it installed by default).

So how does it work?  You just click the Start button, and in the box at the bottom of the menu bar where it says ‘Start search’ type in whatever you are searching for (in Windows XP the search box is in the tool bar on the right, next to your system tray).

That works pretty well, and you should see results in 2-3 seconds.  But you can really target your search, and get the data you wanted more quickly, by using the advanced search syntax, and it’s not that difficult.  The full help guide to the search syntax can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/choose/tipsandtricks.mspx, but typical examples of the tricks I find more useful are;

• from: director@customer.com - this will find everything received by you FROM this address, including files that person has attached to emails.  You can also do from: customer.com and it will find emails from anyone at that company (or domain).
• ext: pdf - this will find files with that extention only, so for example "user manual" ext:pdf will find all Acrobat files with the words "user manual" in.

Read the help, and you'll find you can combine these search terms to really nail down that elusive email (for example, from: salesman@supplier.com, sent: last month, containing the word "discount"!).

All this costs nothing, takes seconds, and could save you hours a week in fruitless searches; leaving you free to do your job, instead of your computer's job.  Next time, I'll look at how you can deploy this technology on your server, so everyone can search shared files just as easily.