My first thought when I saw the subject was “I didn’t order anything…”, then I opened in and went “HUH???” then I moved the mouse over the links thinking “Scam!” – yup.

These people are getting SNEAKY…

If you receive the following email (I’ve blacked out my personal address), just delete it. Don’t click any of the links – you DON’T want to do that…

Buy.com Email About Computer Purchase

Over the past few weeks, we’ve ignored a lot of the competition – big and small “box” stores, but this is one of those things that we just have to comment on.

Staples has recently been touting a “Free Tuneup”. Well, we’re here to share exactly what this means…

The free tuneup by Staples means that they have a quick look-see at your computer. It also mean they don’t actually fix anything that they find…. That happened to a customer of a Protocol16 partner company in NY.

Our partner had a customer that decided to take advantage of the “free tuneup”. Oddly, when she went to retrieve her computer, she got told that she had a huge amount of viruses and that her computer wasn’t worth fixing. Read here about the customer experience.

On top of that customer experience, Staples specifically says what they do:

We’ll boost the speed and performance of your PC by removing trial ware, adjusting key settings that may be slowing it down, and disk defragmentation and cleanup. When done in store, a PC Tune up also includes removal of dust and dirt buildup. Source (note: click “Details” under the Free Tuneup Heading).

That say’s a lot about how things go with them. They specifically say that they’ll look at your computer, but they won’t do anything other than a “defrag” and removal of “Dust and dirt buildup”. WOW – now that’s SERVICE! Sorry, if we take the time to bring your computer in and you have a virus or something nasty, we typically try to work it into the price for you. Windows crashing a lot? We’ll solve that issue, remove any malware/spyware/virus issues and we’ll solve your failed Windows Updates without trying to sell you a new computer.

Give us a call and see what Protocol16 can do for you…
Justin

Ever wonder how in the world you get one of those emails that says that a long lost relative left millions of dollars in the bank, in some country, and if you reply, you could get all that money?

Well, today, a customer passed along a nice link that was a 3-part interview with a “419″ scammer. You’re not the only person out there that receives these emails – even Protocol16 receives them…

We always recommend that our customers educate themselves, and this is some very good reading to see why you should just delete these emails as quickly as you can.
Justin

You read that right! Businesses throughout Portland and other areas need to watch out about their licensing. The downturn is hurting everyone and let me tell you, everyone is trying to find out how to keep that money coming in.

An article hit the internet the other day out of Europe, but it’s a very good news item for anyone that will read it. It basically states that everyone needs to be careful about their licenses because a lot of software companies are starting to turn into the “dirty cops that sit at the bottom of the hill, behind a bush, simply to generate revenue.” Most of you don’t know, but during the installation process of almost any piece of software you install, you open yourself up (ie: agree) to be audited. Even Microsoft audits companies on occasion, and they are so serious about it, they PUBLISH who they audit to partners to keep us all in line. On top of that, you don’t even need to agree to be audited as Copyright Law plays into software piracy.

Now, is a Software Audit really that serious? YES!!!

There is a reason Software Audits are called “Software Raids”. Businesses generally receive 1 to 2 weeks notice, at most, of an upcoming software audit. Imagine having to look at every single program on every computer and determine if you’re licensed or not. Then, after you find out how many programs you’re illegally using, you find out just how hot that water can get(“illegal” is a general use term here as you’re required to show purchase receipts. Software keys, boxes, etc are “suspect” because YOU may not have bought them, legally, etc…). Auditors don’t come in and just look through your computer, they use automated tools that search your computer for software, but they also tend to focus on just the programs they know about. Tell them a little too much info and your investigation will get larger. Also, the fact that you’re being audited means something to other companies, so expect to have other companies knock on your door as well.

Think it won’t happen to you? Think again. There are several companies that perform software audits for various businesses and they pay rewards to people that report you and your business. That means that if you’ve ever fired any employees, or have any that just really don’t like working for you, the prospect of making money can be too great. Rewards are paid out when there is a a successful audit and the amount depends on how much you’re fined.

Software licenses are governed by contracts with vendors, and by U.S. Copyright law. You as an individual and your company may both be at risk for civil and criminal penalties for software license violations. Fines for corporations can reach $150,000 for each illegally installed copy of software. As an individual, you could be criminally prosecuted, fined up to $250,000 and even face jail time — up to five years.

Here’s another article you should read concerning software audits/raids. It explains how they happen and what you should do. I’ve worked with a guy that was at two different companies that got audited and he even stated that the people that show up are lawyers that act as sales guys. Because of how audits work, Protocol16 will actually recommend that you speak with a lawyer about your situation before contacting any company about a software audit. There is an Client/Attorney confidentiality law out there that may help you during your audit. Bringing in a company, such as us, will not legally help you and we may find more things wrong as well.

This entire situation is one of many reasons that Protocol16 always recommends that business customers setup Standard User Accounts on all employee computers. It’s hard to tell what each employee may have installed without you knowing. You could have illegal software or even MP3′s on your computers and network – bad news.

Now that I may have scared some of you, I won’t leave you hanging. There are ways to protect yourself and your business. Mostly, just taking an interest in what you and your employees install can make the biggest dent. I’ve mentioned that you shouldn’t install products such as the free version of antivirus packages, such as AVG, before and this is where those decisions count. If you have more computers and users than you know what to do with, there are self auditing tools out there that can help you as well. One great program is Microsoft SAM. This program will allow you to audit up to 150 computers, which classifies as a smaller”large” business. This product will help most businesses to get a handle on their issues. Don’t put it off until it’s too late!

As always, let us know if you have any questions.
Justin

There is a new scam going around that everyone in Portland needs to know about. There is a new type of scam going around that computer repair companies are attempting that really don’t work, and could leave you in a serious world of hurt if you let these people into your computer.

A company called “Click & Fix” was spotted, over Christmas, making phone calls to random people stating that their computer was letting information onto the internet and that they would fix it for you, for a fee. All you have to do is hand over credit card information and open a file or web address to allow them access to your location.

If you’ve been reading my articles or seen the video’s I occasionally put up, you don’t want to give credit card information out to people you don’t know over the phone or in software that magically shows up and holds your computer for ransom… Please be careful, afterall, we have a whole new year to go through!

As always, if you have anything to share, anything you’ve seen or just have a question, please feel free to contact us!
Justin

Unless you were living under a rock last night, you noticed the wind, rain and, for some of us, the power outages & brownouts. If you were under a rock, in a hill or were in a valley, I hope you missed all the “fun”…

Unfortunately, not everything survived the ordeal. We’ve fixed 2 dead computers this morning (as of 8:30AM) due to power surges when the electricity kicked back on after a quick brownout.

We always recommend surge protectors UPS’ for servers and important machines, and this is why. Fortunately, the fixes for these machines are VERY quick and we managed to get our customers running again with no major damage other than bad power supplies.

Please note: Power Strips are not surge protectors. They typically maintain a very small fuse that doesn’t help in these situations.

Computers that are left plugged in during storms can have various problems without a surge protector or UPS. If you have any questions, please let us know.
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

While roaming the internet, I found that there are a lot of sites listing the ins and outs of nearly everything, but I couldn’t find anything locally that reviewed software specifically from the business aspect. So I thought to myself “Would I suggest a business use something like a free anti-virus program like XXXXX?” The answer was “no”, but how would your typical business owner know about that? Why would they go out looking over the internet at 6,000 sites when they can just look at a local computer repair company to get some basic answers and perhaps talk to more to see about their specific situation?

Well, now you can look to a local computer repair company for those answers. So, Protocol16 now offers a Software Review Category as well as a Hardware Review Category.

With the Software Review category, I’ll start with a review a popular “free” antivirus program and explain why your business should shy away from it. I’ll also go on to suggest a product Protocol16 has been testing recently and am very happy with.

For the Hardware Review category, I’ll discuss the pricing difference between building a custom server or buying a named-brand server. I’m actually in this exact situation right now with a client. Believe it or not, the difference between a name-brand vs a custom built server can be a huge amount of money – but there are downfalls as well.

The Review categories will probably be a once-a-month post, but depending on time, I may post more. If you’re a business, or consumer and you would like something specific reviewed, please let me know and Protocol16 will do it’s best to review it.
Justin

PS: First post is tomorrow, and I’ll discuss that free antivirus software…

I hope everyone is keeping warm in Portland! Fall is here and Protocol16 is now offering special discounts to some special people…

We’re offering a permanent $20 off discount,  for labor, for the following groups of people:

• Military (Army, Navy, Marines, Airforce & Coast Guard – including Guard, Reserves & Retirees)
• Emergency Responders (Fire, Medic, Police as well as Mountain Rescue and Ski Patrol)

Just show your official ID or DD214 to your technician each time you call us and it’ll be an instant $20 off.  Oh, and we’re not done!

We’re offering a permanent $20 off discount, for labor, to the following organizations:

• Emergency Responder Organizations (Mountain Rescue, Ski Patrol, K-9 Search)

We’d love to offer discounts to Fire, Medics and Police organizations, but we know you typically have internal IT departments. If you don’t, give us a call and let us know. As long as you’re orginization is not-for-profit, we’ll give you the same discount each time we visit.

If you have any questions or you need some on-site (or even pickup) computer support or repair, let us know!
Justin

It’s no doubt that the internet has allowed anyone that wants to be an author to write, but there are blogs everywhere, about any subject.

Oddly, there are not that many dedicated specifically towards computer repair. It seems that each company wants to maintain their own blog so that visitors stay on their websites. This is known as a Search Engine Optimization technique. The longer you stay on X website, the better it is for their rankings.

Now, while searching through Portland’s blogs, I was met with a full wall of information. I’ve never seen so many blogs dedicated to a city before. Most of these blogs are dedicated to topics throughout Portland and are not businesses trying to gain traffic either – they’re just normal people that love to write…  There’s even a Blog dedicated to staging homes around Portland (Business Blog) with a huge following of visitors. There are blogs devoted to Biking in Portland, Wine, and even a blog search engine to find other blogs around Portland.

Should I Create A Blog For My Business?
Now, since we work with businesses, this story does have a point. We often get asked “Should we make a Blog?” Our answer varies due to several factors. It also matters why you wish to setup a blog. If you’re looking at setting it up “because everyone else has one”, we’ll probably recommend against setting up a blog since your passion won’t be in it (it’s better to have a blog and update it occasionally than to set one up, update it a few times then abandon it). If you’re interested in sharing information with customers on a normal basis and looking at possibly getting better rankings on the search engines, then blogging can help.

Time
A blog doesn’t create itself and takes a huge amount of time for someone to sit down, write, edit and re-edit each entry. Some of the entries here on Protocol16 take upwards of an hour to create, others are done in just a ten minutes. Can you, or someone in your business, devote that much time to a website? I’ll guesstimate that I spend about 10 hours a month, just writing on the Protocol16 Blog. There are stories that are done, but haven’t been published, stories that done and waiting to be published and even stories that are just a title to remind me of what to write about.

Topics
Time is not the only consideration here. Many people feel they can come up with story after story after story of new ideas. That’s hard to do – I’ll be the first to admit that.

I currently run two personal blogs, the Protocol16 blog and I write for a Computer Industry website called Technibble. All those stories are floating around in my head, I have to be careful not to duplicate content.

It’s very easy to accidentally take a story from a personal blog and put a business spin on it. It’s much harder than most people realize to continue to coming up with topics. It’s best, when you first start, to write down a whole bunch of topics that you can write about for your business so you have a good foundation to start with.

Regularity
You’ve also got to consider how often to post your stories. Are you going to post one story every two weeks, once a week or are you going to attempt to go all-out and go for one-a-day? In the beginning, I always recommend with starting slow and ramping your speed up as you get more familiar with writing for your blog. This is so you don’t burn out, or start missing deadlines when you’re first starting. Even I miss an occasional deadline…

Don’t Abandon It
There is nothing worse than your clients showing up to your blog and finding that your last story was in 2004, even though you were posting regularly and just walked away from it. If we see this situation on a clients website, we always recommend removing the Blog all together. If your clients see that you started something and just left it, it can leave a sour taste with some of them.

In the end, a blog can be a wonderful tool to use to interact with your customers and help with your search engine traffic. Best of all, it’s free! If you have any questions about blogging or any computer type issue, please let us know. We’ll be more than happy to help!
Justin