We’ve finally had the chance to test it out with a couple customers, and I can tell you that for a small business, the BES Express will do the trick. In case you’re new to this, the Blackberry Enterprise Server is RIM’s product that lets you connect BlackBerry smartphones to your Microsoft Exchange Server for seamless emailing, calendar-contacts-notes-tasks syncing, contacts sharing, meeting and resource booking, etc.. Previously, you had to pay the friendly Canadians $2,999 plus $99 per user fees to use the BES, but RIM is apparently feeling the pressure from ActiveSync and Google, so it started offering the entry-level product for free.  You can even run it right on your Exchange Server (albeit with a 75 user limit), which spares you from any additional infrastructure expenses.

We like it. If you already have Microsoft Exchange, then you have one less reason to wait on getting your email on BlackBerry. If you don’t have Microsoft Exchange, then this is one more reason to finally upgrade. Have questions or want a quote? Email us at info@itmaxgroup.com or call 888-77-ITMAX

To learn more about Blackberry Express on RIM’s website, go here.

DNS or the Domain Name System is essentially your computer’s phone book for the Internet. It helps translate an Internet domain name like www.itmaxgroup.com into an IP address that your browser needs to connect to that website. Each time you visit a new website, a DNS query is issued in the background to one of the many servers that handle such translations. Your ISP configured one for you, but they likely send thousands of other customers to the same server – causing it to get overworked and slow to return the IP addresses your browser needs. Hence the low responsiveness you get during browsing. This doesn’t affect the speed of your downloads or bandwidth tests — just how long it takes you to go to new web destinations. Most of the time, all you need to do is configure your computer or router to use a different DNS server — and you’ll see the difference immediately. Here’s what you need to do:

1) Find a new DNS address. You can do this by going to www.dnsserverlist.org, which will get you the two or three best DNS servers for your location. Look for them lower in the page, like in the screen shot below:

2) Change your DNS server. This can be done in one of two ways:

• You can change it just for your computer in your network connection settings — it will looks something like the screen shot below. Here are the instructions on how to get to this screen in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, MacOS Leopard or Tiger, Linux Ubuntu or Suse. The problem with doing it just on your PC is that it doesn’t help anyone else in the office.

• Change your DNS in the router, which is more permanent and affects all PCs connected to that router. You can access most consumer-grade routers by typing in 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 into the browser address field. You’ll know you did this correctly if you’re asked for your user name and password. Once you’re in, look for tabs called Network or Configuration and look for the section that lets you enter your DNS. Here are instructions for Apple, Belkin, D-Link, Linksys and Netgear.. if you have a business router or aren’t sure what your router is, you’re better off calling us. Once that’s done, click save and reboot your router.

Did this work? If you need help, don’t hesitate to call us at (847)371-3464 or emailing support@itmaxgroup.com! While you’re at it, ask us about a free IT infrastructure assessment offer we got going on.

Anyway, the word is that Verizon and Skype worked out a deal where Skype can now use Verizon’s data network to carry its voice traffic. Users still can’t make Skype-to-phone calls this way (again, Verizon would be dumb to allow this), but Skype-to-Skype calls are now effectively free. So if you use Skype as much as we do at IMG, you will now be able to do this anywhere you have Verizon 3G coverage — and not use a single minute in your plan! The application can even continuously run in the background, which means you can receive Skype calls as well.

Taking a broader view of this, two things are interesting:

• This move by Verizon marks continuous convergence of voice and data service — something we’ve seen for a while now on the land line side of telecom, but something that’s just starting to emerge in wireless.
• Verizon is so jealous of AT&T’s high uptake on wireless internet services packages (driven by the iPhone and its awesome applications) that it’s ready to cannibalize some of its core wireless voice business to get its customers to buy data plans.

If you’re interested in the service, keep an eye out on Skype and Verizon — I’m sure more details will follow.

Use color to identify messages from specific senders

Expecting important mail? Identify it as soon as it comes in by displaying it in a distinctive color. Start by select an existing message from the sender in question, if you have one. If you don’t, that’s okay; you can enter the sender’s name manually. Now follow these steps:

1. Go to the Tools menu up on top and click Organize
2. In the Ways To Organize Mail pane, click the Colors link on the left side.
3. In the first condition statement (we won’t use the second), choose From in the first drop-down list.
4. If you chose a message before starting, the sender’s name will appear in the text box to the right. If it’s the wrong name, enter the right name or the person’s e-mail address.
5. Choose a color from the second drop-down list.
6. Click Apply Color and close the pane.

Afterward, Outlook will display all messages, existing and new, from the person you specified in step 4 in the color you selected in step 5.

Force “Reply to All”

Sometimes you need to talk to your entire team at once and have everybody be in the loop on the conversation. You may be working on a common project or trying to organize an office function of some sort – so you need people to “reply to all”  to make it easy. Then some knucklehead doesn’t follow protocol. Well, good news! You can configure your message to automatically “Reply to all” before you send it. Here’s what you do:

1. When composing the message, click the Options button on the Formatting toolbar.
2. Choose Options from the resulting drop-down list.
3. In the Message Options dialog box, check the Have Replies Sent To option in the Delivery Options section, which will automatically enter your e-mail address.
4. Next, click the Select Names button to the right and select all the appropriate recipients.
5. Click Close to return to your message.

When any recipient responds to the message, regardless of which reply choice they click, the reply will go to everyone you specified in the Have Replies Sent To option.

Show two time zones in your calendar at once

If you work with people from all over the country or all over the globe, scheduling meetings can be a challenge. Yes, their Outlook calendar will automatically display your meeting request in their time zone, but but what if that happens to be 2am their time? I think some modern armed conflicts started this exact way… Anyway, there a way to have Outlook display multiple time zones in your calendar:

1. In your calendar view, right click the time bar on the left side of the calendar, and choose “Change Time Zone”
2. Under this menu, check the box for “Show additional time zone” — and select the one you want to add.
3. Label your time zones and click “ok”

Cool, huh?

Gather your reference items in your Outlook calendar

I looks like not everybody knows about this one. I think everybody should — it’s SUPER convenient. If you have a big meeting coming up – or a business trip to, say, Maui (work with me here..), you’ve probably accumulated many documents and emails in preparation for the event. How to organize them all?  When you create a calendar entry, you can drag and drop a whole lot of things right into the “description” pane — like in the screen shot below. Try it out, it works great!

Use shortcut buttons to get things done faster

Don’t worry, I won’t give you the list of 200 seven-button combinations Microsoft felt it necessary to include (unless they did it before the mouse came out..) — but there are a couple that I use every day and find useful.

• Switch to Mail: CTRL+1
• Switch to Calendar: CTRL+2
• Switch to Contacts: CTRL+3
• Send: ALT+S
• Reply: CTRL+R
• New message: CTRL+N
• Find a contact: F11

• Windows 7 Starter – not much you have to know about this one. It’s bundled with some low-end computers; you can’t buy it separately and you probably wouldn’t want to since it’s devoid of any usability, productivity or customization features.
• Windows 7 Home Basic – don’t worry about this one either. It’s an emerging markets version that isn’t sold in the US. By the way, even if you get it in Indonesia, Pakistan or another picturesque destination, you can’t activate it here. Don’t forget to call and cancel those plane tickets.
• Windows 7 Home Premium – This version is targeted squarely at the home market and includes features like Windows Media Center, Windows Aero and touch-screen controls (for PCs with touch-screen displays).  This version’s main limitations are its inability to back up to a network location, inability to host a remote desktop connection, lack of location-aware printing and no “offline files” support.
• Windows 7 Professional, in our view, is the best pick for SMBs. It includes all features of Windows Home Premium, and adds the ability to participate in a Windows Server domain (so that you can set up Active Directory services to control the computer’s access to your network and other resources). Additional features include operating as a Remote Desktop server, location aware printing, Encrypting File System, Presentation Mode, offline files and folder redirection, backup to network and Software Restriction Policies. You can even run your XP-compatible applications in “XP Mode,” which virtualizes a Windows XP machine right in your Windows 7 interface.
• Windows 7 Enterprise isn’t much of an option to SMBs, since it isn’t sold through retail markets (it’s available to larger companies that have volume licensing agreements with Microsoft).
• Windows 7 Ultimate, unlike the Enterprise, can be purchased on an individual license basis. It includes some advanced remote access features like multiple displays and full Aero interface, as well as some advanced security functionality (including BitLocker and AppLocker). It may be an overkill for how most small businesses use their computers.

If you have questions about specific Windows 7 features or need help upgrading to Windows 7, don’t hesitate to call us at 888-77-ITMAX.

1. Make sure the printer is plugged in. It sounds silly (and “of course it’s plugged in — I plugged it in myself”), but check anyway. You may just be surprised.

• Plug the printer in and try printing again

2. Make sure the printer is turned on and that all status lights are green. A red or yellow light may indicate a problem like a paper jam, low toner, no paper, etc..

• Some problems will be pretty obvious. For example, you will easily spot a paper jam by sliding out the paper tray or opening the top cover. Some printers will even show you where the problem is by flashing designated lights or displaying messages on the LCD screen. Other problems will be more difficult to understand. Some older Brother printers, fox example, showed a different combination of error lights and blinking sequences to alert users to common problems. You will obviously need the printer’s manual to decipher those.

3. Make sure your printer is connected to the network (unless it’s connected directly to your PC). There is a network cable that may go into the back of your printer; make sure that that light is green as well.

4. Perform a test. Most printers have a self-diagnostic program that prints out a test page with printer information. The information may include errors, toner levels and other diagnostic data.

• You can usually print the test page by pressing one or more buttons on the printer cover. Again, refer to the printer’s manual on how to do this with your particular model.

5. Make sure that you sent your print job to the correct printer. Sometimes the default printer may be changed through a security update or by another user.

• You can set/reset your default printer by clicking Start>Settings>Printers/Faxes. Right-click the printer you want, and select “Set as Default” from the list of options.

6. Check that your computer is connected to the network. Again, this is important if you share the printer with other computers in a networked environment.

• Open an internet browser and go to a website you don’t go to very often (I use www.nike.com — that should give you an idea of how little I work out) to check if you have a connection. Some computers may cache your common destinations like www.google.com, so this connectivity test won’t tell you much.

7. See if it’s an application error. Sometimes your Word or Excel or whatever application you use can hang up and cause the problem.

• Save your work, restart the application and try printing again.

8. See if the printer shows that it’s “online”. Go to Start>Settings>Printers/Faxes and double-click the printer you’re sending your job to and check its status. If it is “online”, try printing a test page to see if it goes through. If the printer is “offline”, then turn the printer on, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on again. Sometimes rebooting the printer will make it re-register on the network.

• If the printer doesn’t display “online” status after a reboot, it may not be mapping correctly and you may need to call your IT support for help.

9. Reboot the printer. Even if it’s showing “online” in the properties, it may have a minor glitch that will fix itself with a printer restart. Turn the printer off for 30 seconds, turn it back on and try printing again.

10. Restart your computer. Similar to how the application itself may be giving you trouble, it may be the machine. Restart your computer (don’t use “hybernate” or “sleep”) and try printing again.

Any luck? If your printer still doesn’t work, please submit a trouble ticket and an IT MAX Consultant will get in touch with you shortly. If you don’t currently have an IT MAX Support plan for your machine, you can inquire about it here or call 888-77-ITMAX.

• Decreased boot time: If you’ve been running Windows XP (or worse, Vista) for a while, you probably have a morning ritual of turning on your machine and going to get some coffee while it boots up. Some of our clients can squeeze in a budget review meeting as well. Windows 7 can help put an end to that, with the average machine booting up in under 60 seconds.

• Better performance: When booted up, Windows 7 is also less busy with the processor and RAM  (if you’ve ever run Windows Vista, you’ve probably at some point felt like your machine is looking for a cure for cancer when you’re just reading email). It accomplishes this by only running speed-sapping background services when you need them and running leaner overall. Windows 7 is also quicker at discovering your USB devices and connecting to your wireless networks than either XP or Vista were.
• Better search: you can also save a lot of time searching for things on your PC. In Windows 7, when you start typing into the Start menu search box, you’ll instantly see a list of relevant documents, pictures, music and email on your machine. Results are now grouped by category and contain highlighted keywords and text snippets to make them easier to scan. You can even do this with attached storage (like external hard drives and USB drives) and networked computers.
• Snap is Windows 7’s new way to resize and compare windows on your desktop. With many of you now working on nice new widescreen LCD monitors, this feature lets you easily arrange two documents side by side so it’s easier to multitask. This is the closest you’ll get to a two-screen setup without actually getting a second monitor.
• Location-Aware Printing is a cool feature that remembers which printer you use with what network when you travel from home to office with your laptop.
• It’s not obnoxious like Windows Vista was with all the security notifications, “are you really-really sure?” questions, dimming of the screen and such. Windows 7 still has Windows Defender, a solid firewall (now with multi-location policies) and other security features, but it doesn’t feel compelled to ask your permission to run Notepad.
• Better power management: This is important for you laptop-toting professionals. Windows 7 runs fewer background activities so your PC processor doesn’t work as hard and draws less power. Other innovations include less power-hungry DVD playback (handy on long flights), automatic screen dimming, powering off unused ports, and a more accurate battery-life indicator.

Windows 7 also features a much improved, more convenient and better-looking user interface and a host of entertainment-focused improvements but chances are that won’t drive your decision to upgrade your business PCs. You can find a complete list of Windows 7 features here.

Want to know more about Windows 7 or ways to upgrade? Get in touch with your IT MAX Consultant or call 888-77-ITMAX.

At IT MAX Group, we’re big believers in the concept of doing what you do best and letting other people do the same. After all, that’s why you got into the business you’re in today: you thought you had a skill, process or product that can make you successful. Stick with that. Yes, you can figure out how to do your own taxes, plumbing or deliveries. It doesn’t mean you should. When you get distracted doing things you aren’t good at, you sabotage your business, miss opportunities and get frustrated in the process. IT MAX Group has seen great growth in the last several years because more small businesses come to realize that in this economic climate they can’t afford to spend time on non-core activities. For most of you, IT support is a non-core activity — and one that’s relatively easy to get help with. Here’s what you have to gain:

Save money:

Most anything you do is better than letting your regular staff handle their own IT needs. That’s just too expensive. We’ve seen some interesting examples of $250/hour attorneys spending hours troubleshooting their desktop computers (a $30/month service with IT MAX Group) or offices full of CPA’s shutting down for the afternoon after a server crash. Few business owners consciously try to quantify the costs of this – but you won’t like the results if you do the math.
Having an IT person on staff may seem like a logical option once you have 15 or 20 people in your office, but after self-service, this is the second most expensive way to go. A going rate for a midlevel IT support person is about $70,000. Add to that benefits, training and turnover costs, and you’ll often find your entire IT budget eaten up by this one individual – who by the way usually has a rather singular skill set.

Realizing this, many small businesses simply contract with an hourly IT consultant on a “pay as you go” basis. That’s a good step forward, but you will soon find out that hourly rates for this kind of help can be pretty high up there. It makes sense: because your hourly consultant never knows when you’ll call, they have to build a cost premium into their hourly rates to account for all the time sit and wait for the phone to ring. When you get charged $90-$150 an hour for emergency IT help, every call ends up costing you a fortune. Worse yet, many small businesses try to avoid these costs and start defaulting back to the self-service model.

The best way we’ve found for small businesses to get consistent and affordable IT help is with a managed services model. For a low flat monthly rate, you can get a policy that guarantees performance of your PCs, laptops, servers and network components – regardless of what it takes for the provider to make this happen. Depending on your environment, this can save you 50% to 80% over hourly IT consultants. It also makes sense for a service provider like IT MAX Group since we can rather accurately forecast the number and level of people we’ll need to provide you support, and get them booked solid.

Simplify budgeting:

Not only do flat-rate IT support contracts save you money, but you’ll also know how much you’ll have to spend every month. This simplifies budgeting and makes your support infrastructure easy to scale. Added a new employee? Just get a plan for her.

Get better service:

This may seem a bit counter-intuitive, but you actually get better support by going with a managed services provider rather than your own IT staff. Here’s why:

They’re not an employee: Unlike your internal IT staff, an outsourced services provider doesn’t take vacations, doesn’t call in sick and won’t quit on you.
They’re a team: There is more than one person available at any one time to take care of you. Unlike your own IT employee, a good provider can do several things at once, meaning faster problem resolution and greater satisfaction of your users.
More diverse skill sets: A managed services firm can likely bring broader expertise to the table, making it easier for them to troubleshoot complex problems or tackle challenging projects.
Time-tested processes: A large-scale support organization may be just plain better at day-to-day support than you or your IT staff are. From IT asset management tools to remote login capabilities to documented protocols for dealing with common problems, a professional support organization may have more of what it takes to ensure high systems performance and uptime.
Motivation: Unlike your hourly contractor, flat-rate support providers are most profitable when your systems work well, not when they break. You connect the dots.

Spend less on IT equipment:

Companies that have their IT infrastructure professionally managed also report spending less on new equipment. This happens for two reasons:

• Your equipment needs to be replaced less often. It’s usually a combination of good preventative maintenance, stronger security protection and better warranty management. Simply keeping track of your PC and server warranties and renewing them when necessary means you’re never stuck with a repair bill that eclipses the price of the new machine.
• When you do need to add or replace equipment, a managed services provider can usually get you what you need cheaper. A company like IT MAX Group has high-volume, long-standing relationships with equipment providers – and we get a much bigger discount than you do.

Get your projects moving:

Even if you have inside IT staff, they may be too busy with day-to-day support to do any planning or to execute on IT initiatives you’ve outlined for yourself. Outsourcing basic helpdesk support to an experienced vendor may give you the breather you need to get moving on the things you’ve always wanted to do.

If this post sounds like a sales pitch, that’s because it is. If not a sales pitch for IT MAX Group services specifically, than for the idea that letting someone else take care of your IT has a lot of merit to it. The managed services provider industry is growing by some 20% per year because it makes sense – and we have hundreds of customers right here in Chicago saying the same. Want to find out more? Call us at 888-77-ITMAX or email info@itmaxgroup.com.

• When typing an email or a text, simply push the Space Bar twice to create a period at the end of your sentence and automatically capitalize the first letter of the next sentence.

• When typing an email or a text, hold down a letter for one extra second to capitalize it.

• When in your messages inbox (text or email), use B to get to the bottom of the list, and T to get to the top.

• In the phone application, you can dial 1-888-FLOWERS (or any number that contains letters) by simply dialing 1-888 then press the ALT key to spell out the desired letters. The device changes the letters into a format that the phone system recognizes, therefore dials the appropriate number tones. This also works for spelling last names in a company directory! So, using this method to dial 1-866-ATT-SMBZ would automatically dial 1-866-288-7629.

• To type an accented or special character, hold letter key and roll trackball to the left or right, then release letter key when accented or special character appears.

• When viewing pictures, zoom in by pressing 3; zoom out by pressing 9; to return to center of a picture press 5 and to rotate a picture press L

• To change views in your calendar, press W for Weekly view, M for Monthly view, A for Agenda and D for Day view

• Jump from one application to the next quickly and easily using the Application Switcher – simply hold ALT and click ESC key, scroll to desired application, release ALT

Press and hold the Mute key to ender Standby Mode, this will also:

• Lock the keypad and turn off the LCD (prevents pocket dialing and extends the battery life)
• Mute a conference call
• Pause a song in Media Player

When navigating the browser:

• To move to a specific page, press G
• To add a bookmark for a webpage, press A
• To open a bookmark list, press K
• To stop loading a webpage, press the Escape Key

To copy and paste text:

• Select text by holding the Shift/CAP key and scrolling
• Click Trackball
• Select Cut or Copy
• Move to destination i.e. new email, new memo, calendar entry, etc.
• Click Trackball
• Click Paste (or Shift/CAP and press the trackball)

Hardware:

The hardware you’ll need to set up a Wi-Fi network in your office is fundamentally the same as what you probably use at home now, but there are some differences:

• You may need a more powerful wireless router or a system with multiple access points to cover your entire office. Because of all the walls in your office (exam rooms, storage areas, etc), it takes greater signal strength to cover the same area. You also get a lot more interference from your office equipment and neighboring businesses that also use Wi-Fi. If one wireless router is not enough, you may need to install a system that has several access points and can manage connection hand-offs among them. It’s important to have good wireless coverage, since Wi-Fi significantly degrades in speed as you get farther away from the signal source. Calling up larger diagnostic files on a slow (or even intermittent) connection will drive you nuts fast.

• We have found that your garden-variety $60 routers that people buy at Best-Buy have a shelf life of about a year and a half. Some last longer, but they do fry every once in a while. Business-grade routers from manufacturers like Cisco and SonicWALL fare much better in environments where connectivity is not optional.

Every current-version tablet PC or notebook computer I’ve seen comes with a wireless adapter built in, so you don’t need to worry about that part. If you want to wirelessly connect your desktop PC’s, you will need to get an internal card or a USB wireless adapter. However, most of our clients have a hybrid network of wired front desk and back office PCs, and wireless computers for doctors.

Security:

We once got this doctor as a new client, and during our introductory visit (one of those free consultations we provide to our potential flat-rate IT support customers) he bragged about the wireless network that he had set up. A few mouse clicks confirmed our worst fears: there was no encryption on the network whatsoever, the wireless router was a consumer-grade device with no firewall, and the password on the router was “password”. In a medical office environment, this has HIPAA trouble written all over it. Here’s what you need to make sure you have:

• A Wi-Fi connection that is encrypted using a strong standard like WPA or WPA2
• A password-protected router (make it a strong password too, not “DrJones”)
• A strong firewall, preferably with intrusion detection and prevention features

Overall, it’s a good idea to talk to your IT provider about HIPAA compliance. The regulation has pretty specific rules and checklists that must be followed (with some hefty fines for non-compliance), so make sure you’re covered.

Wi-Fi in Waiting Rooms:

No matter how efficient you are as a practice, your patients will probably still have to endure some dead time. Many come with friends and relatives, who will often have to wait for an hour or more for the appointment or procedure to be over. For these reasons, having a free Wi-Fi connection in the waiting room may be a good idea. What’s not a good idea is keeping this connection unsecured or providing your patients with your doctors’ login credentials to access it. Talk to your IT provider about ways to separate your traffic and ensure your main office network cannot be accessed via the waiting room connection. To be 100% safe, consider getting a low-speed (1.5mbps is enough) additional DSL line and a wireless router for your waiting room. This may set you back $40 a month, but you will sleep better at night knowing there is zero overlap between these two connections.