The recipient organization is Friends of Tech International charter school (FOTI), and they’re a 501(c)3 not-for-profit. They accept donations of old computers as long as they have a CD or DVD drive, and they’re willing to accept both Macs and PCs. They also accept LCD monitors, but not the bigger old CRT monitors. Mice and keyboards are also good, but they don’t want printers. I’ve never asked, but I suspect they’d also accept donations of Windows licenses.

Our next delivery date will be October 22nd, so we’ll be collecting donations at the end of that week, starting the 19th. We are just the facilitators; you will receive the donation receipt for your contribution – our donation is our time and effort to collect them and our gas to deliver them. Unfortunately, we can’t accept donations before the 19th, as we have no where to store them.

Contact us to arrange to get your donations to us. We can probably pick them up from you in Manhattan, the Bronx, or Westchester that Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. It would be helpful if you’d also prepare a list of the items you’re donating, with your name and email address, for the tax receipt.

Thanks for your help supporting our charitable cause!

To head-off the most frequent question we get, “will you erase my old data?” let us answer thusly: there are various standards for data deletion, the simplest being to simply delete the files and empty the recycle bin. Reformatting is more secure. The Dept of Defense doesn’t consider even that secure enough because the data can still be recovered by extraordinary means, so they insist on wiping and overwriting data several times. You have to decide what constitutes “enough” deletion for you. If we had to DOD-wipe every donated PC, it would be a time-consuming proposition for us. You can either trust that FOTI will overwrite your data when they reformat your computer or delete it yourself before you donate it; if neither of those are sufficient, we’d be happy to help professionally remove your data at 50% of our hourly rate. Since this will take time, if you want to go this route, talk to us before the 19th.

At least once a week Comsift Support receives a service call where the customer’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) has replaced the customer’s cable/DSL modem and nothing works; or the customer has switched ISPs, received a new cable/DSL modem, and nothing works.

Typically, the customer asks, “How do I reconfigure the ComSifter so everything works?” If only it was that easy.

The Case of Default Settings, or “How can I get out of here fast?”

Usually, the ISP’s technician comes in with the new modem, replaces the old modem, connects his laptop to the new modem, adjusts some settings, and then shows the customer how fast the new Internet connection works. Everyone smiles, the technician packs up his gear and leaves.

Then you discover-nothing works.

What the technician did was install the new cable/DSL modem with factory default settings. Normally, these setting will be something like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 and the modem’s DHCP server is turned on. This works great in a home environment, where only a few computers are connected. Everyone is happy, and the consumer does not even realize that his or her network settings have changed.

However, what about your school environment, the new modem is set to 192.168.1.1 and DHCP is turned on. Your existing network was 192.168.0.1 and you have a ComSifter, a Domain Controller, four network printers, five access points and a network copier-and now nothing works.

WHAT TO DO

You could spend the next few days reconfiguring you network to the new settings-calling your vendors to help you re-configure all your network devices-or you could be prepared when the ISP’s technician walks in the door.

Have all of the network devices documented. Know who is doing DHCP on your network. Explain to the technician that YOU want the new modem to be set to the same settings as your existing network. Guess what-it will only take the technician 10 minutes to setup the new modem. When done, your new modem will match your existing network-not the other way around (i.e. your network matching the new modem).

As you can imagine, an extra 10 minutes of the technician’s time will save you hours and maybe days of reconfiguring your network.

What changes, if any, will need to be made on the ComSifter? Typically, only the DNS settings will change if you have switched ISPs. You will need to go into the Network Wizard and change the DNS settings to match your servers new ISPs DNS server’s. If the ComSifter is also performing DHCP server functions, you may need to change the DHCP Client Options to reflect the new DNS settings.

A few minutes of preparation and requiring your technician to adjust to your network may make you smile.

If you need to replace a cable modem or router, Maverick Solutions would be happy to handle the project for you.  If you’d rather do it yourself, we can help you create the network map and configuration documentation that the article suggests.  It’s really a good piece of documentation for every network owner to have on hand.

Comsift, Inc. is one of Maverick Solutions’ preferred vendors for Internet Content Filtering (ICF) solutions.  We’d be happy to help you select and deploy one of their appliances (and we often can arrange discounted pricing), or if you prefer to contact them directly, please let them know we referred you.

We also wrote an article specifically about Internet Content Filtering.

CONTENT

It’s been said that “content is king.” The word “content” in Web design is akin to the word “copy” in print publishing. It refers to the text and graphic elements that are presented when people view the Website. It’s why people will visit your site. In many cases, less is more with content. People generally skim Websites to find the information they seek, so shorter paragraphs and sentences are preferrable to longer ones, and bulleted or numbered lists are preferrential to novels. If pictures are truly able to convey a thousand words, they’re even better than bulleted or numbered lists. Many people publishing their own Websites already have a rough draft of their content in mind. Depending on how rough that draft is and how creative you are, you might be able to flesh it all out well enough and design all your own content. If you come up short, there are plenty of professional copy writers and graphic artists who can help.

DESIGN

The presentation of content is known as “design.” In the world of print, it’s called “layout,” but in the digital world, it can include interactive elements beyond the capabilities of print. Just as you might want your letterhead, business cards, and other printed materials to share a common theme, so, too, your Website should. Further, the various pages of your Website should probably share certain common elements, too, such as navigation, font faces and sizes, logo placement, colors, etc. Websites can be designed and coded in raw HTML using nothing more than a standard text editor like Windows Notepad, or can be more comprehensive, including document & resource libraries, sales & marketing presentations, lead generation & collection, product showcases, customer service kiosks, order processing systems, or multiplayer online games, and can involve scripting, database integration, transaction processing, online chat, email forwarding, and the embedding of audio, video, and other interactive elements. The design of your Website may be as simple as necessary or as out-of-this-world as you can imagine.

HOSTING

Once designed, your Website needs to be stored somewhere where it will be accessible to the World. Although your desktop computer may be connected to the world, it’s not terribly-reliably so connected. Anytime you have a power failure or an Internet access outage, your computer is offline. To maximize the uptime of your Website, you can pay the owners of a more reliable computer to “host” your Website for you. When a company advertises a 99.999% uptime guarantees, they are offering an assurance that your Website will be down for fewer than 10 hours per year. They do this by providing multiple servers with fault-tolerant configurations in temperature- and humidity-controlled environments with redundant Internet connections, backup power supplies and generators, technicians onsite 24/7, spare parts on hand, and service level agreements (SLAs) with vendors upon whom they need to rely to offer such a guarantee. Effectively you’re renting space on their hard drives, time on their processors, and the use of their network connections. There is typically a monthly or annual fee for such hosting service, and it frequently comes with email hosting, too. Prices will vary, depending on the size, speed, and reliability of the hosted space, as well as the quality of the tools and support services the company provides. Of course, a hosting company’s reputation and marketing efforts will play into the numbers, too.

DOMAIN NAME

Just like your house had an address (“123 Main St”) before it came to be known among your friends by it’s more common name (“Joe’s House”), each server connected to the Internet has an address (“216.251.43.11“) by which it’s known, called an IP address. Once your Website is hosted on an Internet-connected server, you can immediately begin viewing the Website by its IP address. This, however, isn’t nearly as intuitive for your associates and clients, as finding it by name (“MaverickSolutions.biz“), so most Websites opt for a domain name. Domain names are registered for a year with a reseller or with a registrar directly, and they are unique, so only one entity can own “Foo.com,” for example. The domain name, also known as a Uniform Resource Locator, or “URL,” once registered with a domain name registrar, is indexed and accessible to anyone with a connected Web browser, and is configured to refer to the Website host’s numerical IP address. Thus, anyone can find your Website via a more intuitive name than by having to resort to knowing it’s IP address. If you register your domain name with the same company that provides your Website hosting service, they’ll probably configure it for you automatically, but if not, you’ll need to manually configure your domain name registration records to make the name point to the correct host server’s IP address. Domain names are registered in year intervals; to transfer a registration to a new registrar or reseller, the owner typically must renew the registration with the new company, which effectively transfer it while adding another year to the lease end date.

SEARCH ENGINES

Virtually none of our clients know that our IP address is 216.251.43.11, but most know that our domain name is MaverickSolutions.biz. Very few of our prospects, however, know even our domain name, so most would find us by searching Google, Yahoo, Bing, or another search engine. Search engines typically perform their own automated Web “crawling” whereupon they stumble across our Web pages, parse them, and index them. This permits them to refer people who search for our business name to our domain name and Website. Most search engines perform these Web-crawling index updates automatically, although some offer Website owners priority handling for a fee. This typically moves their Website up in the Web-crawling queue to be indexed sooner.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) & SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)

While search engines already give our Website exposure to our clients and to prospects who know our company name, there is an even larger number of prospects who need our goods or services but have never heard of our company at all. When these people search for “Technology Consulting” or for “School Network Support,” we may appear in the search results. Whether or not we do, and if so, how far down the list, depends on more factors than we’ll cover in this article, but please see our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Primer for an article specifically on SEO. SEO efforts allow a Website owner to move his/her Website up the list of search results provided for various keywords through organic means. SEM allows a Website owner to pay a search engine to have his/her Website shown for various searches.

CONSULTING SERVICES

If you decide to study and handle all of these components yourself, a Website can be had for not a lot of money, but there is a lot to learn. For more information about any of the components we’ve discussed, you can use your favorite search engine to search for copywriters, Web designers, hosting services, domain name registration, SEO, and SEM. If you’d rather have a professional handle it for you, Maverick Solutions offers all of the services mentioned in this article, and would be happy to provide a proposal for you. We can take you from zero to online quickly and painlessly, or we can help you with appropriate “next steps,” for whatever your current situation. Contact us for a free consultation and proposal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian Blum is the founder, president, and chief consultant at Maverick Solutions IT, Inc. Maverick Solutions helps schools, NFPs, and SO/HOs get more value from their technology budgets. Visit their Website to learn about the services they offer, or read their blog, Maverick Ramblings, for assorted tips, tricks, and information of technology interest.

Generally, people want to search for Websites, reviews, comparisons, and other information before they search for specific vendors and practitioners.  If a search engine only showed sponsored advertising, it would be of less value to searchers, meaning that fewer people would use it, so fewer advertisers would pay to advertise there.  This business model produces a downward spiral that is simply unviable.  Instead, search engines show both paid advertising and “organic” search results.  When Google’s Web crawlers find and parse a dentist’s Website, for instance, they find clues on it that it’s related to dentistry.  They may also find localization information, such as an address or telephone area code.  Later, when someone in that area searches for dentists, Google may show this dentist’s listing in the organic search results along with the paid advertisers.  This impression costs the dentist nothing!

How, then, can businesses get themselves more free, organic listing impressions?  This is what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) addresses, and while it may require an investment of time, effort, or capital to implement, the specific cost per impression (CPI) or cost per click (CPC) are nil.  In short, the more sweat equity you’re willing to put in, the lower your cash cost of implementation will be.

Before you come to imagine that SEO is simply a checklist of things you have to do to get your Website to the top of the organic search results forever, let me point out that you’re not the only one working towards this goal; your competitors are, too.  In an unrelated analogy, college graduates used to have no trouble getting jobs, but this prompted more people to get their sheepskins today than there are jobs for college graduates, so many are unemployed while others continue on to a graduate school … which will eventually make that distinction less scarce, too.  Similarly, the distinction of being top-ranked on organic search is a moving target which requires a continuous effort on your part to keep improving your ranking as compared to your competitors.

Surely, you’ve heard the old adage that banks only lend you money when you don’t need it.  Well, it’s similar with organic search rankings.  If you search for “shipping,” you’re much more likely to find UPS and FedEx in your search results than some small local courier.  Why?  Google has nothing against small local couriers, but they want to provide the best possible results to the greatest number of end-users so those end-users will keep coming back, rather than jump ship to Bing or Yahoo.  There’s a higher probability that UPS or FedEx would be able to handle any end-user’s shipping needs than would some small local courier.

Basically, you need to make your Website appear to be a large and well-regarded resource in your field in order to get search engines to present it as such.  How?  You need more referrals, more traffic, and more conversions.  I hate to call them “tricks,” but there are some things of which you should be aware that will help you improve your ranking.

One “trick” is to specialize; instead of trying to be everything to everyone, try to be the best at something specific.  That small local courier in my last example has no chance of beating out UPS head-to-head, worldwide, but they may be the best delivery service in the City of White Plains, NY.  They may come on call, and make same-day pickups and deliveries at reasonable rates.  They may offer packing services and shipping supplies at the time of pickup, so you could just hand them flowers, your grandmother’s heirloom glass vase, a card, and an address, and leave the rest to them.  For that courier to try to become top-ranked in global “shipping” searches would be futile, but if it focuses on winning in searches around “White Plains, NY,” for “same-day delivery” or “packing and shipping,” it has a much better chance of becoming top-ranked. It’s easier to become the biggest fish in a smaller pond.

Again, I sense you thinking, “How?”  Well, the most obvious answer is that the courier’s Website should emphasize that it specializes in such, um, specialties.  (Note to self: get thesaurus.)  The content of their Website should discuss the courier’s strengths in White Plains, NY in same-day delivery and in packing and shipping.  The titles of the related pages should include the words White Plains, NY, same-day delivery, and packing and shipping.  Headings on those pages should include White Plains, NY, same-day delivery, and packing and shipping.  Metadata descriptions on those pages should include White Plains, NY, same-day delivery, and packing and shipping.  Metadata key words for those pages should include the words White Plains, NY, same-day delivery, and packing and shipping.  Lest you think I needed a thesaurus for those last five sentences, too, let me clearly state that you want to achieve exactly the repetitiveness I presented.  The content, titles, headings, descriptions, and key words should present a clear, unified, unambiguous, unmistakable representation of the Web page.

Another “trick” is to cultivate inbound links.  For the uninitiated, the idea is that when other Websites link to yours, search engines treat it as a testimonial for your Website, and it improves your Website’s ranking in organic search results.  The ranking of the referring Website is taken into account, so testimonials from Microsoft.com or WSJ.com are more valuable than ones from smaller Websites, but any ranking points are better than none, so ask friends, clients, and suppliers if they would do a link-exchange with you.  Rather than dilute your Webpage content, you’ll probably want to put their links on a “links” or “resources” page other than your main page, but keep in mind that it will get less traffic than your main page, and that they’re going to want to do the same thing to you, too.  Also, the best way to implement this is to have your desired search keywords serve as your link, so this, for example:

For the best value in Westchester small business IT support, contact Maverick Solutions IT, Inc.

is less preferable than this:

For the best value in Westchester small business IT support, contact Maverick Solutions IT, Inc.

Other ways to generate more inbound links are to blog, tweet, wall post, answer newsgroup questions, or publish articles.  Having articles published with “about the author” links or making newsgroup posts with links in your signature block are obvious ways to generate inbound links – especially if they’re highly-trafficked, well-regarded, widely-read articles (like this one).  However, even blog entries on your own Website may be retweeted on Twitter, shared on Facebook, or syndicated on sites looking for content.  We use Google Alerts to monitor any online mention of our company, and find that many of our blog entries and articles have turned up in the strangest of places … but they all count as free, inbound links!  Even just creating Linked-in and Facebook pages for your business are good ways to pick up a few more search engine ranking points, and they give you more ways to showcase yourself to your prospects.

Many a small business will just link to its main home page, but if you create individual landing pages and think of them as separate campaigns, you can optimize each of those titles, headings, descriptions, key words, and content, individually.  For example:

• MaverickSolutions.biz is our business’ main page
• MaverickSolutions.biz/solutions_sec.htm is a sub-page for when we promote our security & surveillance systems
• MaverickSolutions.biz/schools.htm is a sub-page for when we’re marketing ourselves to schools
• MaverickSolutions.biz/promo/ is a landing page we established for a Free PC Tune-Up campaign we ran a few months back  (Yes, you’re welcome to take us up on it if you’re in the New York Metro Area.)
• You can even link to individual blog articles you may have published on particular topics, such as MaverickSolutions.biz/blog/2010/how-did-i-get-a-virus-and-how-do-i-get-rid-of-it/

Once you’ve started to generate some momentum in your Website ranking, you can begin to focus some effort on more ranking optimization.  If you and a friend promote each other on your own small business’ Websites, since each of you has a low ranking score, the benefit for each of you is low.  However, if you could get links from bigger companies, they would be more valuable.  One way to do this is to partner with larger companies; we are a Microsoft partner company, so we are listed on their partner directory and have a link from there.  Another way is to be involved in high-profile projects; we have worked as a subject matter expert (SME) for the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), and have had links from them.  An easy way is to join local business networking groups and get links from their Webpages to yours; we joined our local BNI chapter.  There are even “tricks” to get reporters to quote you as an expert in articles they’re writing in your field, and they’ll frequently provide links, too.  When these articles are syndicated on dozens or hundreds of secondary online publications, you can get some terrific exposure.

By reading this article, you’ve already taken the first steps.  You’ve separated yourself from the throngs of people who don’t care, don’t know, and don’t want to know.  You’ve demonstrated that you’re willing to learn and to take action to improve your search engine ranking.  You can do more independent researching and reading to find more practical information about SEO, but if at some point you hit a roadblock or need more help, Maverick Solutions is just a click away, ready to advise and assist you with SEO or any other small business technology consulting and support.  We’ve helped moving companies, real estate agents, mortgage bankers, title companies, business coaches, contractors, and attorneys with their SEO, and we’d be happy to help you, too.

They may even claim that they received a silent panic signal, which would explain why you didn’t hear your siren, but the real central station doesn’t call to verify silent panic signals – they just dispatch the police.

Stop and think for a moment before telling a caller your password; if you have any doubts, tell them you’re going to hang up and call them right back – just like you would do if someone claimed to be calling from your credit card company. Maverick Security’s central station is “Central Monitoring Systems,” or “CMS,” and their telephone number is 631/289-2800.

If a burglar has your password, the central station will believe he is an authorized person, and will not send the police! If you have any reason to believe your password may have been compromised, contact Maverick Security at 914/472-6862 to have it changed immediately.

1. The IT “textbook answer” is to reformat the machine – it’s the only way you can be certain that the virus is removed, but the downside is that it takes hours of work to reformat and reinstall all your programs, and you’ll need to find (or replace) the installation media and key codes for Windows and all your applications. If the machine is more than a few years old, it might make more sense to just replace it. It may also be a good time to upgrade your applications if they’re more than a version or two out of date.
2. Many people aren’t prepared to reformat or replace their machines to remediate malware.  They may prefer to perform some drastic cleaning measures to try to find and remove all traces of malware and unwanted autoruns from the hard drive, the user profile(s), the system and boot partitions, and the registry. The results are not guaranteed and the malware may be smart enough to hide and resurface later. The security of your computer and your business and personal data cannot be assured.

In any event, once you repair or replace your computer, we recommend the #1 anti-virus strategy that no anti-virus company would ever share with you: create a limited user account for your everyday use. Don’t use an administrator account for day-to-day activities – only log in as an administrator when you need to install or update software or change restricted configuration settings – and then log off and back on as your limited user account. We support 500 computers for 5,000 users at a dozen schools for whom this is our only anti-virus strategy – and they’ve never had a virus.

Virii are not data (like pictures or documents); they are programs – they do things. In order to install a program on your computer, you need a particular level of authority, and without it, you can’t install programs, good or bad. Clicking on a button on a Website or in an email tells your computer that you want it to perform the functions attached to that button. The button may say something benign, like “Unsubscribe me from this mailing list,” but may actually be programmed to install malware on your PC. Once you click on the button, if you have the authority to install programs, you just installed the virus. The strategy we recommend requires you to take a few extra steps to install programs, which makes it much less likely that you’ll do it unintentionally or without being explicitely aware that you’re doing it. Rarely should you need to actually install programs or updates anyway, so it’s a lot of extra security in exchange for a minor personal inconvenience – it’s a fair trade off.

Many people are perfectly comfortable with reformating PCs, reinstalling applications, installing anti-virus software, or running consumer-grade virus removal programs.  If you need help with it or want to pursue more aggressive malware removal options, just email our support techs. When you’re ready to replace your whole PC, be sure to check out our refurbished PCs to get the most bang for your buck.

• Delete network & email accounts of recent graduates and departing faculty
• Create network & email accounts for incoming & transfer students and new hires
• Patch & update software, including Adobe Reader, Flash, & Shockwave, Sun Java, SMART Notebook & drivers, and Microsoft Update Service
• Provide Internet access everywhere faculty and students need it
• Troubleshoot & repair “problem” computers and connectivity issues leftover from last year
• Update Website calendar, announcements, and faculty contact & bio information
• Reconfigure phone system with correct extensions of faculty & administrators
• Fix broken security cameras; add new ones where needed
• Review surveillance recordings and adjust configuration to achieve desired quality & recording duration
• Check offsite backup strategy; review backup logs and perform test data restoral
• Price-shop vendors for email & Website hosting, Internet access, managed IT services, phone & fax service (consider VoIP), alarm monitoring service, Internet content filtering, and copier contracts
• Revise Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

If any of these haven’t been completed, please call or email Service @ MaverickSolutions.biz.  Each of these items can easily and promptly be completed by our skilled technicians.

Maverick Solutions IT, Inc has been helping its clients get more value from their technology budgets for many years, and we’re a name many of your colleagues already know and trust. We work predominantly with schools, so we fully understand your budget and time constraints.

If you’re especially concerned over aesthetics, discuss the proposed wire-runs with your installers before they begin the work. Don’t expect your salesperson to be especially knowledgeable – salespeople typically will promise you anything to get you to sign the contract – after that, it’s up to the installers to try to fulfill those promises. Even though you’ve probably laid out the system with your salesperson, don’t hesitate to discuss the details with the technicians when they arrive to actually install it.

Another option to consider, especially if you have a more-difficult-to-wire premises, is a wireless system. Modern wireless systems consist of supervised battery-operated radio transmitters mounted in or near each motion detector, smoke detector, window & door contact (or group of contacts), etc. The equipment cost for these systems may be bit higher, but this should be countered by a reduced labor cost. Wireless technology has come a long way in recent years, and wireless systems can be nearly as reliable and trouble-free as hardwired systems. The only big downside to a wireless system is that you’ll need to replace the batteries in each of the transmitters about every 5 years. Most systems are capable of incorporating a bit of both technologies, so parts of your system can be hardwired, and the more-difficult locations could be wireless. Ask your alarm company if this would be an option for you.

Another common question regards the decision between installing perimeter detection devices (such as window contacts and glassbreak detectors) versus interior detection devices (such as motion detectors).  This isn’t always a simple answer, but here are some of the considerations:

• If you plan to use the system only while you’re away from home, you may be able to get away with mostly interior detection devices.
• If you plan to use the system while you’re sleeping, interior detection devices may be of limited use, as you’ll need to deactivate them so you can get up in the middle of the night for milk & cookies or to use the bathroom.
• Window contacts only detect when the window is opened; if a burglar breaks the window and climbs through without opening it, contacts would be ineffective at detecting it.
• It is much more labor-intensive (and costly) to install perimeter detection devices than interior detection devices.  To cover a typical room would require just one motion detector … or 4-8 window contacts and a glassbreak detection device.
• Wired window screens are an attractive alternative to contacts and glassbreak detection devices, and provide detection if the screen is cut or removed.
• Casement windows are virtually impossible to open from the outside without breaking them, so unless you leave them open, glassbreak detection without contacts may be sufficient.
• If you have pets, it may be more difficult to employ motion detectors.  Besides the fact that pets walk around your home while the system is armed, cats especially enjoy climbing on things, making it particularly challenging to design interior detection strategies that they won’t trip.
• Basement windows carry a unique consideration – they’re usually the easiest ones to break into, and once the thief drops into your basement, they’re usually difficult to climb back out through.  If you’re home, this could result in a confrontation, so the preferred strategy is to detect the break-in at the perimeter, before the burglar comes through the opening.

The best strategy is to make use of both types of detection devices.  Perimeter detection devices deter would-be burglars before they get in, but if they sneak past, interior detection devices serve as a good backup.  Maverick Security, our wholly-owned subsidiary, employs trained, certified, licensed, expert consultants and installers who can help you make the best decisions for your circumstances.  Call or email Sales @ MaverickSecurity.com for assistance.