Archive for December, 2009

We’ve seen a few calls this week from home users who are getting pop ups telling them that AVG has recently updated and will no longer be supporting their previous versions.  Several users have had a hard time tracking down the latest update executable, so as a reminder, it can be found on our tools page.  We’ve taken the latest version through testing and are quite satisfied.  Updating to 9.0 is strongly encouraged.

Microsoft today released six security patches, 3 of which are ranked “Critical,” the highest security level that Microsoft acknowledges.  All versions of the Windows Operating System, Microsoft Office, and Internet Explorer have been patched for several vulnerabilities and the fixes are on the Microsoft Servers today.  VanceCoffman reccomends using your favorite method to get all your operating system and office updates, and running a vulnerability scanner against your system.

Several flaws have hit other common applications in the last few weeks; I just listened to a fascinating talk about broken security in Adobe Flash (installed on most machines for using interactive websites and videos) AND Mac OSX, Apple of Cuppertino’s “crash-free” operating system.

Linux servers this week were also handed a few important updates; VCC managed boxes will be automatically patched, and if you need advice, we’re always available at 515.309.2532

These vulnerabilites have been known in hacker communities for some time, so patching quickly may save you a BIG headache.  Good Luck!

-TJ

More information: ARS TECHNICA

I’ve spent countless hours in my years here at VCC tending to squealing, clicking, and dying harddrives.  Modern desktop harddrives spin at 7200 RPM (to put that into context, old 45′s were named so for their 45 rotations per minute; discman CD players require 500 rotations per minute to maintain CD audio.)  Considering the sheer speed of which these harddrives spin, it’s usually only a matter of time before the motor inside the drive fails. VanceCoffman Computing has several reccomendations to make sure to keep your data safe:

Make a Backup!

Making a simple backup, while it seems trivial, has saved our clients countless hours and a lot of money.  VCC does offer affordable offsite backup, but if that is not an option, your first line of defense is your intra-company backup policy.  Having an employee make a weekly CD backup of your accounting database, for example, is better than nothing in case of an emergency.

It is also crucial, in event of fire, flood, theft, etc. that your company keeps an offsite backup of anything business-critical.  I often tell the story of one particular client who preferred to backup on a tape system and had neglected to switch the tapes since we sent his equiptment (he was out of state.)  I had urged the client several times, after seeing that our monitoring software realized there was a problem, to simply switch the tape and maintain an offsite backup copy.  Several months went by, and eventually I relented on my crusade about his backup system.  No more than a month later, a major storm hit his area and the machine, along with the only tape to have ever had a backup, were lost in a flood.  The client called me several days later, asking what could be done to recover the information, but the magnetic tape was unrelenting and a half year’s accounting data had to be reentered from reciepts.

Having an offsite backup does protect your company in several important aspects; there are several different styles of backup, and here at VCC, we do our best to reccomend a style based on your budget (heck, they are all far cheaper than repaying your employees for a few days work.)

Swap it!

Several onsite specialists in the area reccomend swapping harddrives at regular intervals- we’ve heard anywhere from a year to three- and there are significant benefits to this type of plan:

-Byte-for-byte copy to a new harddrive won’t lose any of your data
-Hard Drives increase in size and drop in price.  This means you’ll store more information for far less money.
-Replacing an aging drive could speed up your computer.
-The old harddrive serves as a backup, or a year-end snapshot
-VanceCoffman uses only high quality drives; whereas some of the big retailers will do anything to save a buck (Dude, I got a HITACHI!), VCC prefers to have quality equipment to work with in the field.

Too Late?

In the words of The Great Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic.”  If you think you have a problem, turn off the machine, and give us a call.   We’d be glad to hear your concern and give you a clear-cut roadmap to recovering your data as swiftly as possible.

Our technicians have recently devised a new way to recover your data more effectively (and cheaper!) than ever before using only open-source software and a few hours with your machine.  Using our new data recovery workflow has helped us restore several dozen harddrives, including some personal ones of mine that I squirrelled away years ago on the chance of coming up with newer methods.

It’s always a possibility that the drive has too many faults to recover.  In such cases, our options are to limited to sending to an expensive specialist, or junking the drive and starting over.  We’ve seen no more than 4 harddrives that would not yield data to our methods in the last five years.  And all 4 of those drives’ owners turned into loyal VCC offsite backup customers.

Wether you manage a small backup yourself, or pay for managed services, the end of the year is always a good time to grab a backup.  Holiday family photos, your end of year accounting, and those documents you’ll be relying on for next year’s big project are all too important to squander for a few less minutes in front of a monitor.

-TJ Vance