The biggest reason we have recommended the continued use of a legacy operating system is that we don’t think the return-on-investment for most of our clients warrants the upfront costs.  If we asked you why you need a computer, you could doubtlessly rattle off a dozen reasons without a second thought, but if we asked you why you need Windows 7, you probably haven’t a clue.

Why, then, are we now reconsidering our recommendation to our clients to keep using Windows XP and Windows Server 2003?  Microsoft intends to completely terminate its support for Windows XP on April 8^th, 2014, just two years hence.  After that point, they will issue no more Windows updates of bug fixes, new drivers, or security patches.  Of course, people may continue to use those operating systems indefinitely, but this end-of-support cutoff by Microsoft is a harbinger of the approaching obsolescence of the operating system.  Hard drives, cooling fans, and other moving parts will wear out with increasing frequency as they approach their Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), and it will become less economically and psychologically reasonable to continue to invest in repairing legacy technology as it falls farther behind users who want the benefits of the latest features.

We’re not suggesting that our clients rush into a new operating system immediately, but since this is likely going to be a costly and extensive upgrade, we recommend that you begin discussing, planning, and budgeting for it.  It’s unreasonable to believe that businesses might still be satisfactorily running Windows XP in another 4-5 years, and the transition will go much smoother if it is anticipated and diligently planned.

As you are probably aware, Windows Vista encountered significant market resistance and was promptly succeeded by Windows 7.  Windows 8 is now in the late stages of development for release.  As you may or may not know, Windows Server 2003 R2 was succeeded by Windows Server 2008, and a later “R2″ edition of it was released, as well.

Windows Vista’s hardware resource requirements were a significant increase over Windows XP’s, and even though the hardware demands were slightly scaled back in Windows 7, in most cases, newer operating systems won’t run satisfactorily-well on hardware designed for Windows XP.  Effectively, that means that every upgrade to Windows 7 probably necessitates a hardware upgrade, as well, and frequently, especially if the processor is too slow or the integrated video card is unsupported, it is more economical to simply replace the entire computer.

Recognizing the enormity of cost to upgrade an enterprises’ entire computing infrastructure at once, one might propose to upgrade a portion of the computers at a time, over some period of years.  In fact, why not upgrade the servers one at a time, too, either before or after the workstation upgrades?  We initially suggested that strategy for some of the upgrade projects we were facing at the time when these operating systems were first released, and the resulting mixed environments created unexpected headaches.  The largest one for most of our academic clients is that operating systems after Windows XP and Server 2003 utilize a different user profile hierarchy, and since the majority of our school clients utilize “roaming profiles” which follow users wherever they log on, this means that configuration settings, favorites, and desktop items from Windows XP don’t follow users when they log on to Windows 7, and vice versa.

So how can this massive upgrade be accomplished economically?  Fortunately, the ubiquity of laptops, smart phones, netbooks, tablet PCs, and even network-ready e-book readers has changed many of the paradigms we follow when laying out client networks.  Sharing filtered Internet access, network printers, and a repository of common files is still almost universally necessary, but “roaming” user profiles may not be.  Whereas previously students and even teachers may have shared computers in a computer lab, library, or faculty lounge, the latest trend is for each user to own or be issued his/her own computing device.  That being so, roaming user profiles configured on existing networks may be able to be discontinued.  Without roaming user profiles, the prospect of upgrading some fraction at a time of a business’ computers to a newer version of Windows becomes easier to consider.

In fact, this could even be taken a step further, with users responsible for their own information storage on external USB drives or in some incarnation of “the cloud.”  Of course, it’s still possible for selected individual users, such as office workers who frequent the same desktop PC and work with mission-critical data files, to utilize server-based file storage rather than USB drives.  This option facilitates higher data security and simplifies automated data backup solutions.

We are frequently asked how long to expect a purchased computer system to last, and we typically answer that the IRS’ depreciation period of five years is a good guideline to consider.  Windows XP first came out ten years ago, in 2002, so any of us still using it – even late adopters – have most certainly gotten our money’s worth.  It’s time to start thinking about upgrading.

We can’t imagine any scenario where we would recommend Windows Vista, but because of the timing of this transition, some clients may consider holding out for the general release of Windows 8, rather than start with a new operating system which is already a few years old, itself.  Alternately, less-expensive used and refurbished Windows 7 systems should start coming available as businesses at the leading edge of technology begin their upgrade cycles to Windows 8.

As a first step, we recommend that all businesses move away from using roaming user profiles.  Schools should consider doing this soon, so that users can begin learning the nuances of the new paradigm and the bugs can be worked out before the end of this school year.  If you’re ready to take this first step, let us know, and we can make the required configuration changes for you.

The next step is to decide whether or not to continue offering server-based storage space for users’ “My Documents.”  If shifting away from network storage, users will need time to obtain or be issued USB drives and to relocate their documents and other files to such external storage.  This can be implemented immediately or over summer recess.  Users will need to be informed of the new policy if they’re to acquire their own external storage devices before implementation.  Schools and other businesses may also take advantage of the opportunity to order quantities of logo-imprinted USB drives to issue or sell to employees and students.  We’d be happy to help with all phases of determining size(s) of USB drives required, buying USB drives, transferring existing data or creating instructions for users to do so themselves, and reconfiguring networks to discontinue availability of server-based storage of users’ files.

The ubiquity of wireless computers and devices which I previously mentioned presents one final issue that demands consideration: wireless infrastructure.  If you may be considering some or all of your new computers to be wireless devices, it may be necessary to upgrade your wireless infrastructure.  Old cinderblock and poured concrete school buildings are notoriously good at blocking wireless signals – in the worst cases, access points may need to be installed in each and every room that will cater to the use of wireless devices.  For networks that already have wired access in every room, it shouldn’t require more than the installation and configuration of new wireless access points on those existing cable drops.  However, if 30 students’ wireless devices may now share a cable drop that previously only served one teacher’s desktop PC, additional back-end infrastructure improvements may also be necessary.  We can help with the capacity and infrastructure upgrade planning.

Once these preliminary considerations are addressed and adjustments are made, phased-in workstation and server upgrades can now be planned.

Don’t be caught unprepared for the coming tide.  Now is the time to begin discussing, considering, planning, and budgeting for what will certainly be a large and costly project for many schools and other businesses.  Call or email us today to get started.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian Blum is the founder, president, and chief consultant at Maverick Solutions IT, Inc, and although he still loves Windows XP, he’s warming up to the idea of upgrading. Maverick Solutions helps schools, NFPs, and SO/HOs get more value from their technology budgets. Visit our Website to learn about the services we offer.

If money was no object, we’d all have multi-terabyte drives in our PCs and keep every file we ever created at our fingertips.  Instead, we prioritize, just as we do with any other personal property we need to store.  Clothes you wear every day are hung in the front of your closet, whereas out-of-season-wear get parked in the back; stuff you wear even less frequently, such as your wedding dress, are probably in boxes in your basement or attic.

The level of access you need to your files should determine where they get stored.  Stuff you work with every day should be stored on a hard drive within or directly connected to your computer (or on a mapped network drive).  Stuff you may occasionally need to edit or update but don’t use frequently can go on removable, rewriteable media, such as an external hard drive or a USB key.  Old photos, old tax returns, and other stuff you simply want to archive can go on inexpensive read-only media, such as CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs.

Computers, hard drives, USB drives, and CD-ROMs can break, get corrupted, or be damaged if your building burns down, so keeping offsite backup copies of your important data is also paramount, regardless of where you decide to store them onsite.  We wrote an article about disaster preparedness & business continuity planning that might interest you, and a series of articles about computer optimization; the second one, ”Digital Hoarding,” specifically addresses the problems with filling your hard drive and some strategies to thin it out.

If you need help with optimization or with devising storage and/or backup strategies, we’re just a phone call or email away.  Enjoy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian Blum is the founder, president, and chief consultant at Maverick Solutions IT, Inc, and is still somewhat leary of “the cloud.” Maverick Solutions helps schools, NFPs, and SO/HOs get more value from their technology budgets. Visit our Website to learn about the services we offer.

NVIDIA Timeout TSB

This TSB is to alert all ComSifter customers regarding a recently discovered situation.

SCENARIO

The customer called Comsift Technical Support, complaining about load warnings and extremely slow-and sometimes corrupt-Access Log data. At the request of Comsift Technical Support, the customer analyzed the number of total connects shown in the Top Sites Report (Admin > System Logs > Top Sites Report). The Top Sites Report showed over 1.1 million connects to the Internet over the past seven (7) days. The customer informed Comsift Technical Support that they had a small network, with 30-60 computers online throughout a typical day. A connect is what is used by the client browser to fetch objects from the Internet. A single, typical page view can contain from one (1) to many hundreds of connects.

The question then became, “What is causing this phenomenally large number of connects from a relatively small network?”

RESOLUTION

Upon further review the customer noticed that nvidia.com had risen to the top of the Top Sites Report with over 900,000 connects. The second entry in the Top sites was only 30,000 connects. The customer then did a search for nvidia.com in the Access Log and quickly determined that a large number of entries were coming from a new computer that was unable to update an NVIDIA graphics card driver. The customer noted that at one point there were 90 entries per second from this one computer. The customer added the nvidia.com domain to their Full Exception Domain List (Filter Setup > Master Filter > Full Exception Domain List) allowing the computer to download the necessary driver. Within one day, the number of connects dropped from over one million to half of that-more in line with what would be expected for the size of the customers network.

SUMMARY

In the past, Comsift has seen computers with malware and poorly written “phone home” programs generate the equivalent of an internal Denial of Service (DOS) attack. This has never before been seen with a mainstream company.

What can you do? The Top Sites report was designed to give you a quick look at your network. Networks are surprisingly stable. If you watch your Top Sites Report, you will notice that the Top Five sites seldom change and the number of connects becomes stable within a +/- 20% range. If you see a large abrupt change in your Top Sites or the total number of connects, it is an indication that further analysis is warranted. As our customer did in this case, try searching the Access Log with the Top Sites entry and see if the connects are coming from a small number of computers (possibly indicating a problem) or from the whole network (indicating something new in the network users daily regimen).

It appears that in Microsoft’s Automated Update Service this week, Internet Explorer 8 was forced out as a priority update. For many recipients, it’ll simply be nice to have the latest version. However, we had refrained from deploying it for our clients who have domain-based networks, as there are bugs in its ability to show streaming video without administrator privileges. If you are having trouble viewing your Netflix player, monitoring your company’s IP surveillance cameras, or other similar streaming video issues, you may need to uninstall MSIE8.

How to tell if you’re affected:

1. Verify that you are on a domain-based network.  When you logon to Windows on your workstation, besides the user name and password fields, see if there’s also a field labeled, “Log on to.”  If not, see if there’s an “Options >>” button to make such a field visible.  If not, you’re probably not on a domain-based network, and you’ve got some other problem.
2. Check which version of Internet Explorer you’re using. Click Help, About Internet Explorer, and see which version is reported.  If it’s not 8, you’ve got some other problem.

In any event, we’d be happy to help.

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 our Website to learn about the services we offer.

Until now, they have blocked many Websites where individual users publish unmoderated content – especially images and videos. For example, on Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace, anyone can use language or publish imagery or videos that would be inappropriate for some audiences to view.

Your ComSifter is very good at identifying inappropriate words or phrases in textual content, but is unable to determine the appropriateness of graphic or video images published on such sites, so historically, Comsift’s policy has been to completely block many such Websites.

On March 11, 2012, it is their intention to “update” your appliance to unblock Facebook.com, YouTube.com, and MySpace.com. With certain exceptions, textual content on those pages should still be filtered, so whatever categories of words and phrases you intended to block should still be blocked. However, inappropriate published images or videos or even user profile photos may be displayed.

What does this mean to you?

• If you had previously blocked those sites but want to unblock them now, you don’t have to do anything.
• If you had previously blocked those sites and want them to remain blocked, we can create manual blacklist entries for them to override Comsift’s default handling.
• If you had previously whitelisted those sites and want them to remain whitelisted (which means that even inappropriate textual content would be permitted), you don’t have to do anything.
• If you had previously whitelisted those sites but want textual content to be filtered, we can remove those manual whitelist entries to restore Comsift’s default handling.

If you have questions or need us to make any adjustments to your configuration, please just call or email. If your network is configured for remote access, we may be able to make changes remotely, without incurring our minimum 1-hour service charge … or if you can wait, we can just do it on our next visit.

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.