Thank you Bremerton Chamber

July 11th, 2009 by Al

I wanted to share with you a wonderful testamonial from Silvia Klatman of the Bremerton Chamber of Commerce. Recently, I had the opportunity to work with them on a network/phone cut-over from one ISP to another.

Here’s what she had to say:

“Al Ardon Consulting is not only knowledgeable about several computer and phone systems, Al is flexible and was willing to work around our cable provider’s schedule to ensure our cutover from DSL to Cable was as seamless as possible. He had our seven workstations and server moved over in minimum time. Thank you, Al!”

Your welcome Silvia, it was a pleasure. I’m a new member of the Chamber and so far, it’s been a great experience. I get to meet different business owners, discuss their plans and dreams and help them see how technology helps them to fulfill them by expanding their business.

If you’re business owner and not part of the Chamber, you need to get involved. People like Silvia Klatman and Frank Gentile will help jump start your business through networking and they love doing it.

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Security Updates

July 9th, 2009 by Al

Working on a client PC this morning and discovered the system needs over 27 system updates. Many of which are security related. In order to install the security software, the system must be completely updated. Folks, system security is nothing to take lightly. July 7th, Microsoft notified the community of another security hole in their Internet Explorer browser. This should give you an indication that unless the value of your data is “zero” you should be keeping up with not only system updates, but making sure your security software data files are up to date.

If you need help with me, shoot me an email or call for an analysis.

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Recoverying from a Disaster

July 7th, 2009 by Al

Recently, I had the opportunity to assist a good friend of mine when his system went down with a bad motherboard. It was an eye-opener for even this 20 year veteran of IT. Here’s an excerpt, there is a link to his blog for the whole story.

Adventures in Disaster Recovery

Filed under: Risk Management — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 2:19 pm

This past Tuesday morning I turned on my desktop computer ready to tackle the day.  After hearing the familiar “bing” on my iMac, I was ready to dig in.  Then, the sound all computer owners dread to hear…

BONG…BONG…BONG

Accompanied by a steel gray screen and the repetitive “bongs,” I am smart enough to know this is no good.  After making several frantic calls, I drove down the Best Buy where I’d purchased my Mac with my protection guarantee firmly in hand.  The Geek Squad guy dressed in white short-sleeved shirt, black tie, and dangling earring informed me, “I think it’s either the motherboard or RAM.  We can ship it to Apple and they will fix it.  It’s still under warranty, but it will be two weeks.”

Two weeks!  As a sole practitioner consultant, this is what disaster means to me.  I consult clients on being prepared for a disaster and having a game plan in place.  It was time to see how sound mine was.

Feeling pretty good that my Time Machine back-up was firmly in place I came home and did some homework.  My regular tech guy is out of the country on vacation (you can’t make this up) so I called Apple Support.  I just made the switch to Apple so the iMac is the only Mac in the house.  I have three other PC’s to choose from.  Unfortunately, the Apple guy tells me, “Sorry.  Time machine only restores data to another Mac.”  OUCH!

The next day, I have no other choice but to head back to Best Buy to purchase a Mac Book.  I couldn’t wait two weeks.  Although I had internet access through our wireless, I had done a poor job of backing up my calendar and tasks.  I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to be the next day!  Bottom line, I needed to get the lap top.  I knew I would need one in another two months with both daughters being gone to school so might as well bite the bullet.

I unwrapped my new Mac Book and decided that I could probably figure out how to transfer my backup files.  How hard could it be?   Hard enough for me to erase our wireless network, open things that shouldn’t be opened, and cause more stress than I ever needed.  Fortunately, my goodfriend Al Ardon is a new IT consultant who lives only 20 minutes away. He generously came over at 6:00 pm to see if he could save me and clean up my mess.

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