Throughout my day, week and month, I constantly get phone calls and email from clients and there is usually an “I’m sorry!” somewhere in the conversation. Well, I’ll tell you right now, it isn’t needed.

This should sum up a response to nearly every “I’m sorry” I receive: No one is perfect, you really aren’t bugging me, and I enjoy helping people. Plain and simple, and it’s all true. I’ve answered the phone at 6am on Monday to hear it, I’ve been woke up at 3am to hear it and typically hear it three to four times during a normal business day.

I’ll give anyone else this advice too: If your technician gets annoyed at you for calling over “simple” questions, it’s time to find someone else.
Justin

I was in Best Buy the other night returning some merchandise and ran across the Geek Squad trying to fix one of their customer’s problems. The poor Geek Squad tech was plugging and unplugging a drive, refreshing My Computer and the drive wouldn’t show up. To a professional technician, this is a 1-minute fix. Unfortunately, this technician couldn’t seem to fix it and his Geek Squad screen wasn’t telling him all the details.

In more detail, you plug in a USB hard drive, Windows states that it found the hardware, installs the software and you get a “It’s ready to use”, but when you go into My Computer, it doesn’t show up.

Well, here’s a secret for all of you that have this problem:
Right Click on “My Computer”, select “Manage”. Go to the Disk Management section and you’ll see a disk that’s there, that is the size that you just plugged in, but no drive letter. (Disclaimer, this next part: Use at your own risk as there is potential for loss of data if done wrong) Right click on the drive, choose “Format” and go through the prompts (choose NTFS). Within a minute, your drive will be in My Computer, as it should be. Again, use the above at your own risk, because you could wipe a perfectly valid hard drive…

Why does this happen?
Every once in awhile, a hard drive makes it out of a manufacturers facility without being pre-formatted for you. It happens, on occasion for some odd reason. Another valid reason is that the hard drive was replaced at some point, either by someone else, or by the manufacturer and it wasn’t reformatted as it should have been.

While researching competitors online recently, I noticed something. A lot of places are offering “free consultations”, whether they’re 20, 30 or 60 minutes. Well, here’s my take on that – they’re in the door just long enough to see what’s broke or what you need, then the sales pitch starts. If they get you hooked, they throw in a line “we can do it in x minutes/hours”, then later, the sinker comes in with “we went over our planned time…” or “well, we didn’t anticipate this extra cost”.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that we don’t always get estimates right, but we give discounts for going over the estimate amount. We also don’t charge for every single minute that we’re on a customer site, unlike other companies. Lastly, if you need something done on site, that can be done at the shop to save you money, we’ll recommend that instead. If it can be avoided, you won’t see a $1000 bill from Protocol16 for something like a hard drive recovery, just because the call was for on-site service, when the fee should have probably been half that (something we’ve seen a local business do). We really shine when it comes to saving our own customers money.

But, there is something that you need to know about Protocol16, something a recent customer found out. Protocol16 takes new customers seriously. While I’d love to talk about how much time we just spent consulting for a new customer, I’m afraid to even publish it as I don’t want Protocol16 flooded with requests of people expecting massive amounts of free help.

A real consultation report for a Protocol16 customer.

If you call Protocol16 for a consultation, we’ll talk things out about your specific situation, dig around a little to see what type of hardware and software you’re working with, and more, before turning around to talk business. If this takes a few hours, so be it. With that, I’ll say that Protocol16 will offer a 1 hour consultation for any business, but we do reserve the right to take longer to learn about your situation. If you have a complicated situation, Protocol16 may spend many hours just learning about the issue, doing research, then you get one of these pretty reports.

The above technical report, is a real report done by Protocol16 for a mid-sized business having specific problems. The details have been blurred because Protocol16 takes privacy very seriously. We will not publish names of companies or individuals that we’ve helped. It is the decision of the company or individaul to make that information public. While we love saying “We helped xx and yy”, that’s just something we won’t do.

I’ve discussed how I talk with a bunch of industry experts all the time and we can catch things here and there. One of the repair companies in New Zealand ran across a unique situation that reminded me of how much consultants can save you money.

In his situation, a company requested a quote on a new server for their office as well as requested internet access be installed at another physical building on the same property. The consultant quickly put together a very nice bid and all was well, until someone on the company’s controlling board decided to speak up: They were in the computer business as well and could beat the prices on the bid. This sounds fine, as some companies purchase their own hardware and have consultants install it, but something else happened. The second consultant overshot the original bid by a heck of a lot of money, thousands, in fact.

When the two consultants talked, an issue came up with the amount of servers that were required. The second consultant, we’ll call him “Mr. X” to avoid confusion, assumed that the first had made a mistake on the bid since they wanted Exchange and another type of major service that controlled logins and such (called Active Directory). This typically can’t be done (and shouldn’t, for good reason). Mr. X confronted the first consultant and tried to get an explanation for the mistake. The first consultant said there wasn’t a mistake, he had saved money by going with a Small Business Server (SBS) instead, which allows multiple things to be installed at once – making things cheaper. SBS is specifically setup for smaller environments and everything is integrated together.

Mr. X also mentioned that he had figured that there was another mistake on the networking portion since it would take a decent amount of money to run fiber to the other building. There wasn’t a mistake, the first consultant figured on using a wireless N based network with special antenna’s to make sure that things communicate better. The speed requirements for the second location didn’t require the speeds that Fiber would provide – it was just too expensive to run  to that location for a few computers to surf the internet and check email.

In the end, the first consultant saved this company several thousands of dollars, and that was over someone else that was in the industry…

I’ve personally run into situations like this as well. Awhile ago, a situation presented itself with a computer savy business owner in Tigard. They had used a local company to work on a virus issue with a Dell workstation. The other company ended up charging a decent amount of money to remove the virus then said that Windows was so messed up that they needed to reinstall it for an additional fee. After hearing they needed to spend that much money, they just paid the original fee and got the computer back. While on-site, the computer showed up and they asked me about it and how much to reload Windows. Knowing the owner was decently computer savy, I asked if they had the restore CD. As a matter of fact, they DID. I told them that this computer could be re-setup, like new, within minutes just by popping that CD in. They did it while I was working on another computer and I answered a few questions for them as well. They ultimately ended up saving a lot of money since I had merely recommended using the Restore CD and I ended up multi-tasking to help out. This saved them time on Protocol16’s hourly fee as well.

Any business considering a project, new hardware, or even the standard computer user having problems should always consider a professional as this can save you money in the long run. For servers, networks, and such, consutants and computer companies can usually pay for themselves when your project is done as someone familiar with the hardware, software, and networks will usually purchase just the right mix of things you need instead of overdoing it. They’ll also setup the hardware or software correctly for you. If you have a larger project that needs to be implemented over the course of months, if done right, it can actually come in under budget.
Justin

Riddle me this?

What happens when your family dog decides to use your memory stick as a chew toy?

It seems that one owner found out the hard way. While this wasn’t from a Protocol16 customer, it is an interesting case of exactly how things can go wrong.

It’s absolutely amazing how drives can die. Dropping them, on the floor or in water, having them set afire in a horrible accident, run over after leaving your laptop on the car – we could go on, but we won’t.

This is why Protocol16 always recommends keeping backups. In this poor memory card’s situation, there wasn’t a backup. Luckily, there is a company called Drive Savers that managed to pull the data off the card.

Protocol16 has been a partner with Drive Savers for a bit now and we couldn’t be happier with them. Best of all, since we’re partners with Drive Savers, we have the ability to save you money. While we never want you to be in that situation, be rest assured that Protocol16 is always there for you.
Justin

I get asked this all the time, and most recently yesterday afternoon while working on a client’s computer.

So, here are my current recommendations:

Currently Running XP: No, unless you want to spend more money for the newest thing. Windows XP does not transfer to Windows 7 easily. There are 3 ways to upgrade it, all are considered costly and may cause Windows 7 to run slower, or you’ll be missing some things. It’s best that you wait until you either buy a new computer or you start running into issues where programs just don’t like to run anymore. At that time, you can make an informed decision on the hardware you’re using. Prices of computers and laptops are going down every day.

Currently Running Vista: Yes. The upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 is relatively painless. Protocol16 has done many upgrades for clients and we report a high success in our upgrades (actually, no failed upgrades yet).

Currently Running a NetBook: This is one of those hard decisions. Windows 7 will run on Netbooks, but it might be very slow, depending on the exact model you’re running. We’d need to know the model and a few other details to discuss it.

As always, if you have any questions and are anywhere near Portland, we’ll be more than happy to talk with you.
Justin

PS: We have some REALLY big news coming soon…

GOOOOD MORNING PORTLAND!

I found an interesting piece of news today that really caught my attention, and I wanted to comment on it.

The other day, the NSA testified that it had “worked on Windows 7” in conjunction with it’s release cycle. They basically stated that they worked with Microsoft during the build of Windows 7 (they did this with Vista as well) to make it more secure.

Well, the next day, various people started putting a few dots together and ended up screaming about back doors, black helicopters and government agents – you get the point.

While I know, for a fact, that Antivirus companies look the other way for specific things on computers – due to law enforcement, I haven’t seen anything on that fact for the government. As an ex-government employee, working around computers, I can say that the changes in security from XP to Vista to Windows 7 have been things the government had been doing for awhile.

There are certain ways to secure Windows, as well as other operating systems. The government has it’s own way of doing those things. I personally use some of these methods in my every day usage of my own computers. Protocol16 even uses some of these methods when securing client computers. One of the biggest things done is separating the Administrator from the User. Most people using XP or Vista use the computer in Admin mode. I’ve talked about this in the past, as well as how I think you should leave Universal Account Control (UAC) on, for security. Windows 7 takes that a step further by separating the tasks that someone does into 2 categories: User and Admin. Internet Explorer, when fired up – even from an Administrator, is started as a normal user. Even things like the Command Prompt (the older DOS looking screen with a black background and white text) is started as a User instead of Admin. These are things that I’m guessing came out of the recommendation from the Government.

I’ll give away another secret as well. The NSA is not the only organization that worked on Windows, and won’t be. Microsoft takes recommendations from thousands of companies every day. For instance, Dell worked on Windows 7 as well… They recommended changes to both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 when they found issues with their own hardware. Even Microsoft’s current TV campaign of “I suggested X feature” tells that they do listen to feedback.

But, don’t believe all the hype. Many of the features in Windows 7 where, in fact, in Vista. I got worked up the other night (read: Yelled at the TV again), when I listened to a commercial talk about how Windows 7 has new child monitoring and the actor talked about how he had suggested it. That feature has been in Windows Vista since the beginning.

Make your own decisions based on what you think is right. The NSA doesn’t just work on Windows, they work on Linux and Unix too…
Justin

I get that a lot, and oh, I do mean A LOT. Most recently, it happened at a client’s office in Tigard.

The question refers to all kinds of things to include browsers, keyboards, mice, and even computer hardware. I generally answer as honestly as I can as well, but there are some things that people just don’t want to hear.

When I say that, I mean that I’m a little unique on what I use for various things. For instance, I use an Ergonomic keyboard. People think that’s pretty cool, until I show it to them (see it here). At one job, I had to keep a standard keyboard attached to my computer as well because of the amount of people that got really messed up trying to type on it.

At the same time, I use an ergonomic mouse (here). Most people think it’s pretty freakin’ cool and like the feel of it, until I show them the price tag (typically $99). That gets the “I’m in a glass shop, I’ve got to put this down REALLY carefully…” reaction going.

For my browser, I use Firefox. A lot of people have heard of it, some people haven’t, but to each his own. I personally like it since it auto-updates and allows me to install all kinds of neat tools that I use on a daily basis.

My point is, when you find something YOU like, use it. Don’t worry about the price tag. I spend 10+ hours a day in front of computers, unless I’m really busy that day. On a standard keyboard, my wrists start to hurt. On a standard mouse, I get cramps. While the examples I give are unique and expensive, they are well worth it, in my situation. To the few people that have actually been brave enough to sit down and force themselves to work with my keyboard and mouse for more than a few minutes, they’ve gone out and gotten the exact same setup for themselves – even after they’ve made fun of me. “A Mac user using a Microsoft keyboard! HA!”

Didn’t know I was a Mac user at home eh? It might surprise you how many computer professionals do use Macs…
Justin

Today, we’d like to cover something that happens all over the country, but we’ve seen it happen here in the Portland metro areas as well.

Warranty repairs, are completely normal. When something breaks, you take it into the company you bought it from and they fix it, right? Typically, that’s how things go, but what can actually happen in the case of computers, is that your data disappears when it shows back up in your hands.

Imagine sending your computer into a company to fix a screen that messed up. Not a big deal, by PC repair standards, but something that most companies require that the computer be sent to a service center. While in that service center, many things can happen. The company may decide that something else is wrong and replace it as well, like a recalled hard drive… Or that the computer needed the motherboard replaced which causes windows to no longer work – so they hook that hard drive up to a machine and replace Windows within minutes – along with all your valuable pictures, music, documents, etc. All gone.

This is why it’s so important to use some type of backup. While Protocol16 uses a service we like called Carbonite, any type of backup will do, whether you burn files to a CD or DVD, throw files on a memory stick or an external hard drive or you use some type of automated backup solution (in the Apple world, I personally use Time Machine). If you use your own backup solution, make sure that the data is physically located somewhere else in case something major happens – your backup can’t help if it’s destroyed in the same fire that kills your computer…

Anytime you give your property to anyone else, whether a friend, a repair company, a relative, etc. MAKE A BACKUP of your data. It’s too easy for a Caramel Latte to be spilled on your PC by your friend or family member, it’s too easy for someone to accidentally  drop and it’s too easy for the guy at the repair depot that some big company uses to not care about YOUR data and “accidentally” overwrite it with a fresh install of Windows.

Whoever you choose, be careful and perform a backup. As always, if you have questions, give us a call at 503-524-9047.
Justin

An interesting thought came to me while I cracked open a 221 page security checklist for Server 2008 yesterday evening. It was nearly midnight, I had to be up by 6:30 the next morning, yet I just sat down to read a security guide that would make any normal person’s head spin. My wife describes these things as “worse than VCR and Stereo setup directions”, and perhaps, she’s right. It’s amazing how halfway through most of these guides, you find conflicting advice and information: “Open port X” then 30 pages later: “Close Port X” – which is it? These security guides can literally make you go cross eyed after about 100 pages.

I guess my point is, most technicians that pour their life into their business, even as an employee, and never really go home and relax. I have never been one to leave work at work and I’m certainly not going to stop now. If I can find something online late at night, that will either make my life easier or can save a customer some time and money, I’m going to take the time to study it.

On the note of always working. I was driving around Beaverton in the Protocol16 mobile computer repair truck and my wife and I pulled into a grocery store parking lot. I got all kinds of crazy looks… My guess was that it seems crazy that a repair truck would roll up to that grocery store, but that’s my mentality. If I’m out of the office and we get a call, I need to be prepared to go to that customer’s location to fix their problem. Why should my customer wait for me to drive back to the home office, grab the truck then head out to their office or home? In heavy traffic, that could be an extra 40 minutes or more. Unless they’re on the other side of the city, I would nearly be there by that time.

I guess that last paragraph says something as well. We are not a business that likes to schedule people into time slots. If we can do it right then and there, we’ll tell our customer that. I don’t know how many times I’ve been met with utter shock when I can tell a business that we’ll be there in a half hour. Your computers are important, why would you need to wait a day or two? I’ve personally been told that no one would be able to look at a computer for a week because one shop was “so busy”. My thoughts: hire more people… Perhaps I’m too deadset on providing quality to my customers instead of worrying about my profit margins.
Justin