If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you should consider implementing Microsoft Exchange in your organization.  Exchange is Microsoft’s solution for e-mail, calendaring, and contact management.  It is essentially the back-end component to Microsoft Outlook.  Exchange is what makes all of Outlook’s functionality work to it’s full capabilities.  Exchange can be installed on any Windows domain server, and it is also bundled in Microsoft’s popular Small Business Server product.  Combined with business-class Internet service, Microsoft Exchange is a powerful and cost-effective productivity tool.

Managing your messages and your schedule is made worlds easier with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange.  You can easily share multiple calendars and contact lists in your organization.  Through an interface that looks remarkably like Outlook, you are able to view all of your Outlook data from within Internet Explorer, anywhere in the world.  If you have a BlackBerry, iPhone, or Droid smartphone, you can easily synchronize all of your Outlook data onto it (though the BlackBerry requires purchasing additional software).  You are able to have unlimited e-mail accounts, and even multiple addresses per account.  You can host multiple domains on an Exchange server.  It is truly powerful software, and certainly an industry leader for businesses worldwide.  Give us a call to discuss how Exchange might for in your organization.

• Droid vs. iPhone

1. I’d get a Droid phone simply because it’s on the Verizon network as opposed to AT&T
2. Droid has a slide out keyboard and a touch screen keyboard.  iPhone has only the latter, which is cumbersome to use in my opinion.
3. I’d imagine that the iPhone apps are far superior to Droid’s at this point
4. Both work with Exchange out of the box, which is critical to me
5. Styling features seem to be a wash for me

• Droid vs. BlackBerry Tour (my current phone)

1. Droid works out of the box with Exchange.  Exchange will “push” e-mail, contacts, and calendar.  BlackBerry requires “BlackBerry Enterprise Server” to accomplish this, which costs $$$ for multiple users.
2. The BlackBerry trackball stinks… no such thing on the Droid.  It’s got a touchscreen (and the slide-out keyboard).
3. Battery life seems better on the BlackBerry, especially with its power saving features.
4. BlackBerry apps availability is somewhat better, though this will level out in time.

My recommendation?  If I were buying a phone today, I’d get the Droid.

First, contact an Xnet technician via phone and let him know what you’d like to have us resolve.  Then head over to our Remote Support page and follow the simple instructions.

Our new software uses Team Viewer technology to allow us to connect without worrying about firewalls, routers, or any such barriers.  There’s not even an installation required… it simply runs after the download completes.  It’s simple, secure, and fast!

Give us a call and let us support your computer quickly and easily.

Two primary reasons jump out at us as the reasons for switching our support from Symantec to AVG.  First and foremost, Symantec is simply allowing too many viruses through its defenses.  Newer, more “effective” viruses are often able to get around Symantec and infect computers rampantly.  Many times the infections not only get around Symantec, but they disable it so that systems become susceptible to other viruses as well.

Our other reason for concern is that their newer software has become “bloated” and the interface has become “clunky”.  These aren’t particularly technical terms, it just means that the software hogs a lot of your system resources, sometimes to the detriment of network communications, and that it’s also difficult to navigate through the screens and options.

Overall, Symantec is just not cutting it anymore, especially with such capable competition.  Our new recommendation, like I mentioned, is AVG.  This isn’t just our opinion, it’s currently the #1 choice for small businesses.  We’ve noticed marked improvement in both virus prevention effectiveness as well as system performance over similar systems loaded with Symantec.

I should mention that AVG has a free version of their software available for download.  This is great for home use (I use it myself), but remember that the license specifically says “not for business use”.  In the office, you’ll want to purchase the licenses for the Business version.  Give us a call if you’d like help upgrading your system to AVG AntiVirus.

For most businesses, especially the ones I work with, this will probably be a non-issue for a while.  Everyone expects a new operating system to be buggy or incompatible with their software.  While I know that will inevitably be the perception, I contend that Windows 7 will be solid and usable from day one.

In fact, I have been using Windows 7 on my 4-year-old laptop for a couple months.   I had only one minor snag with the video card driver, but that’s ATI’s fault for not updating their driver with the release of Windows Vista.  Even with the driver problem, my display is still fine using the standard video driver, and my screen is running full color at it’s natural resolution of  1680×1050.

Windows 7 has some nice visual improvements as well as some streamlined functionality, including a redone task bar and start menu.  File management and  network connectivity also got some developer attentionThere are a slew of extra features in Windows 7, most of which will likely go unnoticed to the average user.  Much of this is good news for IT administrators, like myself, because it means more compatibility, stability, and  increased functionality.

This is not just another name for Windows Vista, although I think that Windows Vista got an unfair stigma associated with it.  This was mostly because of their annoying administrative pop-ups (which were easily mitigated, by the way).  People really shouldn’t hesitate to upgrade to Windows 7 if their computer can handle it and their custom software is compatible.  My rule of thumb would be that any computer under 2 years old should be able to handle it (like I said, mine is 4 years).

With three months to go until the release date, I really encourage folks to consider Windows 7.  I am personally going to wait to replace my ancient laptop until after the Windows 7 release.  Microsoft is even offering an unprecedented $50 off any pre-release orders.  Now is the time to jump on the Windows 7 bandwagon!

We’ve been running into spyware and viruses for years.  Combined, they wreak havoc on corporate networks, especially small businesses.  We used to use such removal tools as Spybot Search & Destroy, Windows Defender, and Hijack This, coupled with Symantec AntiVirus.  Lately, we’ve found that Malwarebytes is far superior to the others at identifying and cleaning up the garbage.  We’ve also moved away from Symantec AntiVirus (more on that in another post), largely because of its ineffectiveness.

If your computer is running slow, give it a try.  It’s free!  Be sure to update the scan engine before you run the scan (check the “update” tab).

If your computer is really really slow, and it shouldn’t be, I challenge you to run the software and see how many spyware instances it finds for you.  Our record for most spyware instances found on a single computer at a time is  933 (the record holder will remain nameless).  Hopefully, you can’t top that, but if you do, let us know!