Well I finally broke down and bought an iPad, my business partner and several friends had bought one on release day, but I had waited to see if it was going to be more of a useful tool, or just a cool toy. During that time I gave serious thought about what I wanted to do with it considering it costs as much as a decent new laptop and money isn’t exactly growing on trees right now. After some serious thought about what tasks I do all day I came up with a list of what tasks I wanted the iPad to help me with.

Note Taking – First thought that came to mind was note taking, all day I am making notes; legal pads, sticky notes, even lunch receipts have been filled with notes in the process of my day, many are then typed or scanned into my PC at the end of the day and doing this seemed like a waste. I wanted a way to make the notes digitally so I could move them as needed.

Storage – I have bookcases full of manuals and procedures in my office that I refer to when doing certain tasks. When out in the field I often have to download a copy of the manual to look up something. If I could store them on an iPad it would mean I could pull them up much faster when needed and search through them quickly.

Email & Calendar – Anyone who knows me knows I live by my calendar, if it isn’t on my calendar it isn’t/didn’t happen. My handy Blackberry makes sure these 2 are always within reach, but the mail reader leaves some things to be desired when dealing with E-mails with photo’s. And attachments are hard to look at on the tiny screen so the iPad needed to augment the Blackberry for this.

Web Browsing – Like Email & Calendar my blackberry does web browsing, but the small screen, as found on any phone, makes it hard to read quickly and skim for the info I need so I wanted this ability too.

Remote Access – Many of our clients have grown to love the remote access tools we use, and the reason is simple. If you contact us about a problem would you rather the reply be “We can have someone out in a few hours.” or “It’s fixed.” I know what my answer is! If I could use the iPad to do remote work it would be a great benefit to our clients.

So with all this in mind I drove down to West Palm Beach to visit the Apple store, the closest place I could find with any iPads in stock. Talking to a salesman I considered my options. iPads come in 3 storage sizes (16, 32, and 64 Gigs) and come with or without a 3G (cellular) radio.

The Prices are as follows:
16GB – $499
32GB – $599
64GB – $699
For 3G version add $129 to any model. (Also includes GPS and electronic compass)

As I had no intentions to store music or movies I decided quickly that the 16GB version would work fine for me. Deciding on getting 3G was a different matter though one I had changed my mind on a few times and was decided for me by fate, they were out of the non 3G models. After paying for my iPad the Apple store did offer to set it up for me, but I choose to do it myself once I got home to see how easy the process was.

Initial setup requires a PC or Mac computer running the latest version of iTunes, and consists of plugging it in with the included cable and answering a few simple questions. If you already have an iPod or iPhone you can skip the account creation step and just decide how you want iTunes to transfer files. But creating an account only takes 5 to 10 minutes if you are new to the iWorld. (Seems like we stick “i” infront of everything else anyways) In 15 minutes I was up and running and the iPad came fully charged out of the box so no time was wasted staring at it on the charger, and we all know the worst part of any new gadget has to be the wait before you can actually play with it.

I have now had the iPad for 48 hours and I’ve loaded a few apps to play with, mainly ones I used on my iPod Touch before. I haven’t had a lot of time to try out new programs, but i already have talked to a friend on Skype, watched a movie on Netflix, and done about half of my web surfing on it with great results. But I bought this for business use so next article I’ll talk about some of the productivity apps I’ve begun playing with.

Business environments pose some special requirements due to the large number of PCs and users in a small area, and you must be aware of this when purchasing wireless equipment. Interference is a big concern both from other users as well as from other equipment in the office, some sources of interference include radios, mobile phones, desktop fans, fluorescent lights, wireless routers, and even large metal objects like filing cabinets. And the biggest cause of interference is often….. the wireless keyboard at your neighbors desk.

Inexpensive units separate units by frequency, and many units only have 2 or 3 frequencies they can operate on, this means if you try to put more then a few units in the same area that there is a high possibility you will end up with more then one unit sharing the frequency and this leads to the “Ghost” movements and typing we often see in office locations as one users input shows up on another users screen.

You can resolve the interference issue from other units for a large part by purchasing the more expensive Bluetooth units, these share a single frequency but separate units through security codes and encryption to make sure the correct unit talks to the correct PC. Unfortunately Bluetooth shares the same frequency as standard WiFi b/g wireless. So if you have a wireless network you may have issues where the units can not talk, especially if you are near the access point or your PC uses a wireless card to connect to the network.

My Suggestion is to save money and use a wired keyboard, then spring for the Bluetooth Mouse, this works out about the same price as a wireless set and do you really notice whether the keyboard is wired or not?

If you are considering going wireless I suggest you talk to your on-site tech first and by this I mean the computer guy who comes to your office and fixes your issues, don’t take the word of the salesman at the local computer store. Actually I know it is harsh but I would not take the advice of a salesman at the local or big box store for any business technology related purchase unless they also do your on-site work ,  just because something works great on a home PC does not mean it will work well in an office environment. Special knowledge and training is needed to know how each part of the system affects the others in business networks. This knowledge can only be gained through experience, experience that they would not be working there if they had.

It has happened to all of us at one time or another, that panic that sets in after we realize we just deleted an important file. Well there is good news your file can probably be recovered, but you need to follow these important steps that will help dramatically increase the chance of recovery. And yes this includes pictures on a memory card, files on a USB drive, or data on a network.

1. Stop using the computer, or device. We need to prevent the location of the drive the file was stored on from being overwritten with new data, once that happens the chances of recovery go way down. If it is a memory stick in a camera or PC it is easy, just remove the card and use your spare for the rest of your vacation pictures. (You always carry a spare card for your camera right?) If it was on your hard drive don’t shut it down right away, windows loves to write stuff to the drive during shutdown, contact us or your IT personnel right away and ask if they want you to shut down or leave it running, this will depend on how soon they can get to you. If the file was on a network share things get tricky, if you can stop everyone from using the network it will help, but this is not always possible.

2. Don’t try  recovery yourself. Data recovery should not be attempted yourself as the first recovery attempt has the best chance off success, you may lose your data permanently by attempting recovery yourself. The simple act of downloading and installing that recovery tool you found online may overwrite your data.

3. Contact your IT person ASAP, of course you are welcome to contact us at (772) 539-7667 if you do not have an IT person or if they do not have experience recovering data. If you pulled the memory card or USB memory stick out of your device there is not as much of a rush, go ahead and finish your vacation, presentation, or meeting, and call us when you are free. But if it was a file on your hard drive, or especially one on a network share then time is a very important factor, and the sooner you contact us the better the chance of recovery.

But what if the loss was due to actual failure of the storage device. Fire, water, and crushing damage can all make your data unreadable, and these are mechanical devices and we all know they will die when needed most for no apparent reason at all, but don’t lose hope as recovery is still possible. Again I have to warn you about trying any “Home Remedies” for data recovery that can cause more harm then good, and just because they worked for 1 person they may not work for you unless your issue is exactly the same. An old trick was to “freeze” the hard drive, but this can cause moisture to form on the internal platters of the drive, further destroying data. Again contact a professional right away for instructions, if a drive was submerged in water for example they may instruct you to keep it in clean water during shipping depending on the length of submersion to prevent further corrosion.

For extreme cases, such as those with physical damage, UTS has partnered with DriveSavers to offer advanced data recovery options. You are welcome to contact them directly (use code RS23022 for a discount) but UTS does not charge for consultations on data recovery only the recovery itself, so feel free to contact us first for advice about the level of recovery is needed in your specific case.

DSL speed depends on your distance from the phone company CO (Central Office). In recent years phone companies have started running fiber optic lines to remote connection boxes throughout their service area called DSLAMs (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer), and this has allowed high speed DSL to be available in many more areas. But the phone company puts DSLAMs in areas of high density to get the best return on their investment, so if you are in a very rural area, or on the edge of a DSLAM area you may not be able to get the maximum speeds available.

Cable Internet has much higher range because of the use of shielded coax cable, but the cable system was very expensive to build out, and many areas without a high density of homes or businesses may not have cable available, or the cable company may put the cost of extending the service to your location onto you (I’ve seen quotes in the $1000′s of dollars).

T1 lines are available most anywhere phone service is, but T1 lines are still relatively expensive ($600 – $1000 a month). While they have many advantages over DSL or Cable they are a much slower download speeds, and for most normal offices the benefits don’t out way the cost for most offices.

Stay tuned for more info on our new office.

There are other free Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware products on the market, many people have used Avast or AVG-Free including myself. Recently I have seen the quality of these and other products take a serious hit. I’ve seen many computers come in for repair that have massive spyware infections even though these products were installed and working. These products also have other shortcomings I’ve seen; Avast requires you to re-register for a free code yearly, and AVG-Free takes every opportunity to try and get you to upgrade to their paid product offerings often hiding the free software link at the bottom of a page full of links for the paid product.

Security Essentials updates both its definitions and the main program through the Microsoft update feature of windows so you know it is being upgraded regularly. It can also be scheduled to run nightly scans, a feature missing from many paid products, and the software has a very small resource footprint so it will not slow down your older PC. In testing I have found it to very effective at both finding and removing malware, both currently running and attempts to install new items.

Overall I would highly recommend MSE to anyone looking for a good security software, including those currently using a subscription based product. It can be downloaded for free HERE.

* Larger companies should look into Microsoft Forefront, it is based off the same engine as MSE but offers additional central management functions at a very reasonable price.

The second problem spam causes for those hosting their own E-mail server is the cost to purchase software to filter both spam and viruses (yes they are usually separate software), not only do you have to pay for the service, but you have to pay someone to maintain and update it regularly. New viruses and spam techniques come out daily, so it is very possible the virus showing up today didn’t even exist when you updated last week, or even yesterday.

The third major issue I hear about is that businesses are finding out the email they send is being blocked by the receivers server. This is often caused by overzealous filters that give higher spam rankings to email coming from IPs assigned to Cable and DSL  ISPs (Internet Service Providers) like Comcast and AT&T. Unfortunately these services produce a higher level of spam then the higher grade services like T1s. Many off-site filtering services also offer outbound filtering services, this makes the E-mails appear to come from their servers instead of your own, also it makes sure you do not find your mail server blacklisted because one PC got infected with a spambot or other related malware.

The last issue is what happens to mail if your server or internet connection goes down?

So how does it work?

To set up off-site filtering your domain address (@something.com) is set up so mail is sent to the filtering service instead of directly to your server. The filtering service will run the e-mail through multiple filtering software packages to look for both viruses and spam, multiple software packages are used to reduce the chances that a single software will not have the virus in it’s known virus database. The actions taken after that are configurable to meet your needs, but the most common are that all virus emails are filtered out then the E-mail is given 1 of 3 spam rankings. Email ranked “not spam” is forwarded through the service to your mail server and shows up in your mailbox in second. Email ranked “probably spam” is sent to quarantine, once there the user will receive a daily e-mail letting them know they have mail to review and they can click directly on a link to release the email, add the sender to your safe list, or delete the email for good. The 3rd ranking is “definitely spam”, this is spam coming from known spam servers or matching known spam patterns, and is immediately deleted by the service.

Outbound filtering does the same in reverse, filtering your outbound e-mail to make sure your server has not been hijacked and is being made to send spam, also you can set up filters to make sure employees do not send out e-mails with racial, derogatory, or curse words that can reflect bad on your business. You can even add a company wide legal claim to all outgoing e-mail if needed, this is much easier then keeping every E-mail client updated with the latest legal disclaimer every time it needs to be changed for those companies that want or are required to have one.

Filtering service also adds a layer of protection if your server or internet access goes down, especially in a disaster. Email will be spooled on the off-site filtering servers and sent to your server when it comes back online, and you can access it from any internet connected PC if an important email is needed immediately.

Because of economy of scale often off-site filtering, with all it’s added features, is right around the cost of your current filtering software if not less expensive, with rates under $3.00 per user/month and requires little to no regular maintenance. This is very cost effective compared to on-site filtering software, and can be especially inexpensive if you are maxing out your available bandwidth and are considering the purchase a higher rate or second connection, often these are not needed after filtering is set up as we have seen users cut their used bandwidth as much as half.

UTS recommends and sells off-site filtering service by McAfee, a world leader in information systems and security research. To find out more and see if off-site filtering may be right for you feel free to contact us by email at sales@unifiedtechs.com, or give us a call at (772) 539-7667.

Buying PCs: One of the most common mistake we see is companies buy their PCs at the local Big Box retailer because the salesman said it would work for them. Often they ask why the software vendor for their big software package is recommending PCs around $1000 each when the local store has a special available for under $400. The simple answer is not all PCs are created equal!

-          Quality: spending a few extra pennies on each component in a computer can add up to a much more reliable PC, do you want your business relying on a PC made by the lowest bidder who is willing to do anything to sell a PC? Sure they all have a warranty but how long can you work and how many sales will you lose while your PC is repaired?

-          Operating System: The PCs Operating System (or OS) is the heart of your computer, Microsoft Windows comes in many flavors, and not all will work for you. The most common OS you will see on a budget PC is Windows 7 Home, this OS lacks most of the networking and security features needed by businesses as well as internal features needed by some high end specialty software. It works fine when you have one PC, but try and add the second PC and share info and you will have issues. Add a server and you will have to shut off all of the security features to make it talk. Also many of your industry special office management software will not run on any version of Vista. What you want is a PC running Windows XP Professional preferably, or Windows 7 Business if you know you will not need to run any special software.

Wireless vs. Wired Networks: Many companies try to save a few dollars by using a completely wireless network, even if the router is only a few feet away from one of the PCs. This is ok as long as you know the limitations, but as your office grows, or if you start using shared software data you will quickly see your network become sluggish. To understand why you need to know how they each work.

Wireless G is the most common and runs at a speed of 54 Mbps (MegaBits Per Second) that speed is the total that can go over the whole network and is shared by all PCs on the network (actually due to interference and errors the speed is actually much less). So as you share data PC#1 is pushing it up to the Wireless Access Point or Router and PC#2 is pulling it down, this means the data has to be counted twice! Wired networks run at speeds of 100 Mbps and that is a dedicated connection to each PC not a shared one. Imagine your network was a pie, would you want to split half a pie with all your coworkers, or get a whole pie each?

Wireless Keyboards & Mice: Yes they are convenient and easy to use on your desk, I use them too. But the cheaper RF models only have 1 or 2 channels they can use, and no coding. This means if your coworker has a wireless mouse or keyboard too that there is a 50% chance your on the same channel, add a second coworker and it is guaranteed at least 2 of you are on the same channel. If you are close enough the best case is it will cause interference and you will see missed letters and erratic mouse movements, worst case and your curser will move as they move their mouse and letters appear as they type. If you want a wireless mouse or keyboards go for the more expensive Bluetooth models, they share one frequency but have internal encryption that allows an almost unlimited number to share an area without issues.

Installing Cable: Pull twice as much cable as you think you need and run lines to anyplace you think you will need it. Plan for where you will put that giant network copier/printer now.

The secret is cable is cheap, getting it installed is expensive. Pulling one line to an office is expensive; the second line is only a few dollars more as they can be pulled together in the same amount of time. This is especially true if you can get the cable installed before the drywall goes up in your new building.  You can double the number of lines to all desks in a small office for the same price as having them come back to install one additional line to one desk. Plus you have a spare if one line goes bad, or extra jacks if you upgrade to that VOIP phone system later on. (Another hint is having Cat5 installed for your phone lines too, that way as technology changes you have the additional wires ready to go.

Printers: General Rule is Laser printers are cheaper by up to a magnitude of 10. When pricing a printer the initial cost isn’t as important as the Price per Page over the life of the printer. Inkjet printer ink is very expensive; the average black inkjet cartridge is good for around 150 to 250 pages and costs $30 to $50. Black laser cartridges cost $75 to $100 but are good for 1000 to 2000 pages. Color saving can be even greater. Laser printers have come way down in price too, so you make up your investment very quickly instead of the year or so it used to take. Also spring the extra money for a network capable printer, as you add additional employees you will be glad you did as they can all share the same printer.

Backups: Onsite, Offsite, Online, Tapes, External Drives, Imaging Software… there are tons of ways to back up your data, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. But there are a few key things to remember no matter which way you choose to go. And make sure you discuss your particular needs, and budget, with your IT specialist to find the best solution for your needs.

- Make sure you check your backups regularly. Backup systems have a habit of running ok, but not being readable when needed. This happens often with tapes when you try and read them in a different drive then they were written with. Over time the read/write head may get out of alignment, and if the drive was damaged you may find the replacement drive can’t read the tapes even though the original drive could. Also make sure someone is checking the backup log regularly for errors.

- Multiple backups are better. By using 2 or more backup systems you can negate the negative points of one type by pairing it with a second type that has the strengths the first ones lack.

- Make sure your backup system works with your business recovery plan. Online backups are becoming very common these days, but often people forget that they require internet access to recover, and depending on the amount of data a full recovery may take many days. If your recovery plan is to be up in a new location in 24 hours it won’t help if it takes 3 days to pull all your data. Especially if you can’t get Internet access for 2 weeks.

- Don’t leave all your backups sitting on top of the server. If your disaster involves physical damage to your servers it is very likely the backups will be damaged too if they are in the same room. A fire or busted water pipe are just as damaging to any backup copies in the same room or building as the servers.

We hope you will find these hints useful as you make technology decisions for your business, and please feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Answer: This is a common question I am asked, and unfortunately it is one that does not have a simple answer. Instincts tell us we should save electricity, and money, by turning off PCs when they are not being used. Unfortunately reality is not as simple since computers need to perform maintenance tasks, and it is much less intrusive to users if you schedule those tasks during off hours.

These tasks can include:

• - Software Updates
• - Virus & Malware Scans
• - Disk Defragmenting & Cleanup Tools
• - Database Maintenance Tools

You can set these tasks to run during work hours, and some companies choose to do so. But software updates may require you to reboot your PC and the scans can cause your system to slow down, especially on older PCs which may become unusable when tasks like this are performed.

In most cases we recommend that PCs are left on overnight, and shut off during weekends and holidays. But each case can be different so you should talk to your IT staff or consultant about what works best for you.

NOTE: Servers are not like regular Desktop PCs and should never be turned off!

Answer: Search engines (such as Google) are the way most people navigate the internet today; searchers ask Google their question and Google returns what it believes to be the best answer. The main goal of search engine optimization (often referred to as “SEO”) is to have the best answer for the right question. So what does that mean?

Have the Best Answer
You want to have the best information available on the topic the searcher is asking about. The objective of having “the best answer” is to appear prominently in the search results for a particular word or phrase. The higher your website appears in the list of results, the more visitors it will attract. Ideally, you’d like to be at the top of the results list, but this usually isn’t feasible.

Answer the Right Question
This objective is a little less obvious and it’s often overlooked. Showing up at the top of the search results page is useless if your content isn’t relevant to what the searcher is looking for. If you own a music store that sells steel drums, you probably don’t want to attract visitors looking for steel drums of the industrial variety.

Optimizing Your Website
There are three major components that should be part of every SEO plan:

• Create targeted, unique content – answer the right question. Make your website a resource on whatever topic you focus on and keep your visitors coming back for more.
• Obtain inbound links – get your colleagues, vendors, and customers to link to your website from theirs. Search engines see this as a referral and it serves to boost your credibility; you look like you have the best answer.
• Ensure that your website is accessible to search engines – the best answer to the right question is useless if the search engines don’t know about it. Make sure you select a web design firm that is knowledgeable on web standards and search engine friendly design.

Beware “Black Hat” Practices
One last (but very important!) point. Beware of companies that promise to get you a #1 ranking in the search engine results or a certain number of visitors in the first 30 days. SEO is a long-term, ongoing effort. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Companies that make these promises can often deliver, but use underhanded techniques to do so. When the search engines discover the use of these techniques, they will remove you from their listings entirely and it can take months to get your site back into them.

VQ Mileage Tracker not only uses the GPS in my Blackberry to track my mileage, so no more writing down odometer readings, but it also uses the Bluetooth in my car stereo to know when I am in my car and when my trip starts and stops. This means I don’t have to remember to do anything at all to have my mileage logged.

By using the Bluetooth to know when my trip starts and stops the application is able to prevent itself from logging walks, bus rides, and when I am a passenger in another car; I can tell it to ignore nights and weekends too so personal trips outside of work hours are not logged. This means I have to make very few corrections to my mileage reports before  I submit them. When I’m ready I just tell the program to email me an Excel spreadsheet containing; the date and time of each trip, number of miles driven per trip, reimbursement amount per trip, the approximate destination address, and a link to Google map of the route. While the destination address is not always exact,  the building number may be off a few digits (125 vs. 123), I found it to be more then accurate to figure out what client I was going to.

If your car does not have Bluetooth don’t worry you still have 2 options: First you can use semi-automatic mode, you still have to remember to start and stop the trip, but no need to enter any odometer info. Or you can buy a car charger direct from Xpressions, Inc with built-in Bluetooth, it plugs into your vehicles cigarette lighter and pairs with your phone allowing you to track mileage in full auto mode.

I have been using the  app for almost a week now and I am more then thrilled with the results. I would like to see one change in future versions though; Nights are hard coded as 7pm to 5am and I would like to be able to set that for a custom time of my choosing (6pm) instead, I would rather run a manual track on those nights I was working after 6 then having to clean up my evening errands driving every night.

The application costs $14.99 and has no monthly fees, and at the current government mileage reimbursement rate this program will pay for itself in the first 27 miles you use it, and if your like me that is just one week of driving, and that doesn’t count all the time you saved preparing your log sheets. The demo and full version can both be downloaded directly from Xpressions or the full version is available from Blackberry App World.

From now till March 28th, 2010 you can purchase VQ Mileage Tracker for the sale price of $6.99, and with the package deal you can include the Bluetooth Car charger for an additional $20.