New Article on Improving System Security with KnowBe4

While speaking at a conference recently, a cybersecurity expert whose company offers email user testing and training stated that KnowBe4.com‘s solution was the best they’d ever seen. Little did they know I was in negotiations on The Church’s behalf with KnowBe4!

Click here to read my brief article on the details!

New Article on Leadership Setting IT POlicy

Howdy!

If IT sets policies, the organization will likely get dysfunctional, so I've just released an article to a publisher about the importance of making certain leadership sets IT policies. You can read a free advance copy by clicking here!

New Article: March is IT-Be-Green Month!

March is the month of St. Patrick’s Day, whose modern-day associated color is green. When we think ‘green’, we also think of doing things that are friendly to the environment. What are some quick tasks we can do to make IT more ‘green’?

That's the article's intro... want to read more? Click here!

New Article: February is IT 'Love Your Team' Month!

 
February is the month we celebrate Valentine’s Day – you might say it is the Month of Love! How does that look in church and ministry IT?

I just released an article to one of my publishers that's a quick read with-- potentially-- huge impact! Click here to read a free advance copy on my firm's website!

New Article: Five Things Worth Doing in January

Got a minute? How about less than sixty if you plan for it?

I just released an article for publication of five things to do in January that'll take less than an hour that will go a long ways toward protecting your systems and data all year long.

Click here to read a free copy I added to our website!

New Article on Types of SPAM & What To Do About Them

I just released an article to the publisher on SPAM... here's the opening:

SPAM email can be dangerous and painful to the recipient and to any data they have access to. Whether it’s ransomware, phishing, pushing of malware, or impersonation, a strategy is needed to protect ourselves. I’ll address these different types of SPAM, and how each should be strategically managed.

If you'd like to read it, you can see a free copy on our website by clicking here!

New Article: Helpful Computer Hacks

A hack is no longer an inept person, but a helpful way of doing things that increases effectiveness and efficiency! Who knew!

I released an article to the publisher of some helpful computer hacks that will likely help every computer user. You can get to a free copy posted on my firm's website by clicking here.

New Article: Lessons Learned in IT

History repeats itself if history is ignored.

Few today know who Novell was, but we still benefit from their inventive engineering. What can solution providers, IT professionals, and churches learn from Novell’s story?

I just released a brief article you may want to read; click here to see a free copy of it on the MBS, Inc. website! 

Mobile Devices, Apps, & Other Exciting Technologies

I just released an article to the publisher with thoughts on how to manage all of the new options we have in technology. Want to read it? Click here to see the copy posted on our website!

New Article: What's Your Backup Plan?

Many believe the highest priority of IT (Information Technology) is disaster recovery preparedness; the ability to recover after a major data loss. Or after ransomware. We often call that a backup plan, because it all starts with good backups. So, what's your backup plan?

That's the opening of a new article I just released to the publisher. If you'd like to read a free copy on our website, click here!

New Article: O365’s Email Solution – Caution!

 
Microsoft’s O365 has many features that interest churches and ministries– especially because of the generous charity license Microsoft provides. Some aspects of O365 are good, but we found enough problems with their hosted email service that it’s worth posting an Enter at Your Own Risk sign.

I just released an article to the publisher; want to see a free preview? Click here!

New Article: What Churches Should Learn from the Recent DDoS Attack

 

Late last month, the world saw a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack of historic proportions. Anyone who uses a computer, tablet, smartphone, or web-enabled technology—including many churches and church leaders—needs to understand the significance of this attack and what they can do to minimize their vulnerabilities when future attacks occur.

Want to read a free copy? Click here! 

New Article: Nick's Printer Picks & Tips

I just released an article to the publisher on this topic... see a free version of it by clicking here!

New Article: IT Security Essentials

IT security is an important piece of the IT puzzle that many in church and ministry leadership don't understand. I wrote a brief article that covers some of the most important, easy-to-fix, and affordable-to-fix issues. The article has been released to the publisher, but you can access a free copy on my firm's website by clicking here!

How NOT to Do Tech Support

Today's call to support of an app is a perfect example. Because I've probably been just as guilty, the company name will not be mentioned.

• MBS: Since upgrading our Macs to MacOS Sierra, your app crashes a few times throughout the day with no identifiable pattern. Is it because of Sierra?
• App Support: Let's have you uninstall the app, delete a bunch of hidden files and folders in the system library, then restart and reinstall the app.
• MBS: Okay, we did all that. It still crashes.
• App Support: That's because the current release isn't compatible with MacOS Sierra. We'll be releasing an update in a few weeks.

Two thoughts:

1. Wouldn't it have been better to tell us of the incompatibility up front and encourage us to wait for the coming update? (Their website still doesn't warn of MacOS Sierra incompatibility...)
2. Three weeks? Really? Did the MacOS update catch them by surprise? Perhaps they're appropriately embarrassed and that's why they had us do a bunch of things most wouldn't do (deleting hidden files and folders in the system library). Or, at least, they should be.

We Finally Moved Our Last Netware Client to Microsoft

There's no doubt that everyone in IT owes a debt of thanks to Novell. They standardized networking with their core product, Netware. Eventually Microsoft saw the opportunity and won the battle, but Netware was a terrific Network Operating System.

This week we finally got to move our last client who was using Novell Netware to a Microsoft Windows Server network! They had been using their most recent version of Novell Netware for over a decade, and it just kept working! 3-4 years ago we moved them from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Exchange. And this week we finally got to move them to Novell Netware to Microsoft Windows Server.

Thank you, Novell, for helping to get IT moving in such a good direction! You served well... rest in peace...

Update:
We just received this pic from the client...

2 New Articles: Nicks Software & Hardware Picks

I've released two articles to their publisher, one on software and the other on hardware picks. They are available to preview for free on MBS' website; here are the links:

• Nick's Software Picks (2016)
• Nick's Hardware Picks (2016)

New WiFi Spec Promises 7gps Connections!

The May 13, 2016 Kiplinger Letter had an article that has attracted the attention of many. It was about WiFi that uses a portion of the air waves that is otherwise 'little-used' to transmit data at 'lightning-fast' speeds. I did a bit of research and found the following facts about this new technology spec:

• The WiFi spec, referred to as WiGig, operates in the 60ghz frequency range, compared to today's WiFi specs that operate in the 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz ranges. The higher broadcast frequency of WiGig means it has a shorter distance range… probably maxing out near 30 feet. This effectively eliminates it as a replacement spec for current WiFi in business and, especially, church buildings. You can imagine the number of access points that would need to be purchased and configured to cover an office or sanctuary… it would definitely be prohibitive.
• The WiGig speed tops out about 7gps (gigs per second), which is way faster than the connections speeds of current WiFi (the fastest of which tops out at about 1gps).
• Very few of the required chips are available at this time, but that may change in the near future.

Given that the range is so small (less than thirty feet), but that the speed is so high, this technology will likely be limited to consumer solutions such as connecting home media equipment without wires, etc. I don't believe it will replace the need for Ethernet cables in buildings--at least not this spec. But it may encourage the thinking and momentum behind other specs that are yet to be announced.

New Article Inspired by Apple Store Experience RE: IT Support

Yesterday's unusual experience at the Apple Store inspired an article on how we can improve the way we do IT support; here’s the link:
http://www.mbsinc.com/showing-love-support/

Tested: Apple's Airport Extreme

We have many clients whose team members bringing "solutions" into the office in an attempt to extend the WiFi network. Many times, those are Apple Airport Extremes. So we decided to try replacing our office wireless access point with one; here's a quick summary of our findings.

• The setup was quick and easy.
• We were surprised that the 5ghz broadcast radio does not come enabled by default!
• You have to find it in the app's Wireless Options and turn it on.
• The signals were good and strong, enabling good WiFi connections to every device we connected.
• We use multiple SSIDs that segregate WiFi traffic into different VLANs, just like most of our clients do.
• There is not a way for the Airport Extreme to recognize VLANs in its configuration.
• Thus, all access is the same, with the exception of setting up a guest network in the device configuration; but the guest network does not accomplish what we need and accomplish via VLANs.

The bottom line is that it's an elegant wireless access point, but is only suitable for consumer-grade applications (like at home) vs enterprise applications (like at work).