Monthly Newsletter

Welcome to the first of many newsletters from Business Computer Consulting (BCC). The newsletters will be geared toward the general computer user. To use an analogy; you know how to start the car, drive it, and understand that it won’t continue running well if you don’t service it.

My number one goal is to inform you how to maximize your dollar spent in the computer technology world. Honestly, it is a jungle out there when it comes time for finding great, robust, simple solutions. Keeping the complexity out of your business will go a long way toward saving time, money and headaches.

I look forward to your questions and comments.

-Mark Muehlbauer, Owner,

Business Computer Consulting

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Phone: 1-(877)-305-4948 or 360-615-4948

Prepaid Service – OneCare.

Business Computer Consulting is introducing our prepaid support service, OneCare. We listened to your concerns and have put together a fantastic package to service your needs! This has monthly value of $570 and you get it for $89 per month per workstation.

What you get:

1.	Pro-active service to keep your computers running at their best! With your approval, for security reasons, we remotely get on your computer and make sure everything is up to date. This is scheduled once a month and is the single best way to keep your computer running properly.
2.	Mozy Pro Backup for your Server(s) and/or workstation(s) with 5 GB storage. Additional storage available for $1 per GB per month. This is the industry leader offsite automated backup solution for your needs.
3.	AVG Internet Security 9 Full Version! Complete protection for everything you do online. BCC will install and setup AVG to properly protect your system from Adware, Spyware, Virus’, and maintain your firewall protection.
4.	Help Desk. Problems with your computer? Give us a call and we will help you over the phone or remote into your computer to assist your needs. Four (4) hours per month included. 25% off normal hourly rate thereafter. This is support from the best professionals in the industry!
5.	Professional advice. Unlimited professional advice on software, hardware and services available by phone or email.

Backup Solutions.

There are a lot of different ways to backup your data and no single best way to do it. Over the past 5 years, backup solutions have matured dramatically, and with the availability of high speed internet, backup services have improved in leaps and bounds. Imagine how much it would cost to utilize a solution that backed up your data across a data center that looked like the one in this picture to the left? Would you believe as low as $15 per month?

I would like to highlight two types of solutions. The first is online backup. Frankly, this is the solution I use. I backup about 50 GB (Gigabytes) of company data every day and see an email every morning regarding the backup status. This costs me about $30 per month. There is zero equipment cost. For the majority of small business out there that can handle half a day of downtime (in the event of a catastrophic loss) this is a great solution to backing up your data. Better yet, there are no tapes to rotate or take off site. This solution is included with the prepaid OneCare service. The backup service alone usually costs between $15 and $20 per month depending on the amount of data you need backed up.

The second service requires hardware and it is redundant. Keep in mind that you would want to have a server that you store and access your data on before you consider this solution. Essentially another “server” sits next to your existing server connected to the same network. All of your server’s functionality is mirrored onto this computer therefore providing an instant backup to your main server. If your main server goes down, the backup server detects this and assumes the role of your main server. Finally, all the critical data is backed up to a remote online service and this is all wrapped up with 24/7 monitoring. So the second connectivity is lost BCC gets a call.

True story: I walked into a client’s location that had their server go down due to a bad motherboard. Fortunately they had the backup solution just mentioned and everything was up and running on the backup server. Being the server was under warranty and the warranty service location was nearby I decided to get this delivered myself to save time in shipping. On the way out the owner of the business stopped me to talk about how things were going so I put down the server, went into his office, and briefed him. Part way in he said, “Well, I haven’t had any down time at all, so I can’t complain.” Followed by “What’s that?” pointing at the server. I told him, “it’s your server”, and he simply said, “Come on, it can’t be. I am on the server right now.” I referred back to the conversation we had explaining the benefits of this backup solution. Shaking his head, “unbelievable, really, unbelievable, that is just amazing. This backup ‘thing’ just paid for its yearly cost in one day.”

This solution costs $650 up front and about $150 per month. Answer this question. Does 1 to 2 days of down time cost you $2,450 or more? If that answer is yes then one day I hope you are the one amazed that your server and critical data is still up and running while I am chatting with you about the quickest way to get your server back up and running.

Windows 7; Should I?

In short, absolutely. Windows 7 is the culmination of years of successes and failures. We all know, if we are honest with ourselves, that we learn a lot more from failure than success. That said, Windows 7 has built a true success from the failures learned from Vista. I am broadly generalizing when I say failure as Windows Vista today is a very solid platform. Windows server 2008 has the same code base as Windows Vista. However, don’t go running off and upgrade. Go to this link to download the upgrade advisor to see if everything on your computer is ready for Windows 7. I would not bother installing Windows 7 on your computer if it is more than 3 years old and/or has 2GB of RAM or less. You can definitely upgrade your RAM if you have a fairly new computer and this would be very common to do. There are other factors to consider when upgrading memory. How much is usable by the operating system? How many slots does my motherboard have for RAM? What type of RAM will work properly with my existing RAM? On my computer, my laptop, and my wife’s computer I am running Windows 7 and have no complaints across the board.

In conclusion, don’t upgrade out of haste. Some of you may be eager to upgrade, however, let the investment of the tools you have in place today pay for themselves over time. You just don’t need to replace your operating system, which is working fine, for another that works fine. Ideally, upgrade your operating system to Windows 7 when it is time to replace your computer.