ThrottleBlog

More Excel Tips

2008-07-15T08:59:00.004-05:00

6. Lists. So you need a list of numbers from 1 to 100. There has to be an easier way then typing them all right? Of course there is! But there is one rule; the numbers must have the same increments. That is if you want a list from 1 to 100 then you have to want all 100 numbers or all multiples of 10, not the first 10 numbers and then multiples of 10. Excel cannot, yet, read your mind. With that being said, to get the list from 1 to 100, type 1,2,3 each in separate cells, highlight all 3 cells, click on the small square in the lower left corner of the last cell, then drag until you have filled all intended cells. The numbers appear as if by magic. This also works for months of the year.

7. Merge and Center. Let’s say you want to put a header at the top of your excel table. Do you just put the text in the middle and hope that it prints out right? No. Try typing the text in the left most cell at the top of the table, highlight all the cells that make up the top of the table, click the merge and center button on the toolbar (just to the left of the dollar sign). Excel will automatically make just one large cell and center your text in the middle. But oops how do I undo it? Press the merge and center button again and it will return to the way it was before.

8. Shortcuts. My favorite shortcuts are as follows

Ctrl + Z The shortcut for the undo button, p.s. this works in almost any program.

Ctrl + C The shortcut for copy. Highlight the text press ctrl + c

Ctrl +V The shortcut for paste. Click where you want the text to past then hit ctrl + v

Alt + Tab This allows you to toggle to a different window. For example if you have a Word document open and you want to see the excel document you have open in the start bar press alt tab and then use the tab button to move between the programs.

9. Find and Replace. Is a wonderful tool and is best illustrated with an example. Let’s say that you abbreviated the name of a customer to ABC now you want to go back and write out the full name. By going to Edit then Replace and typing in first the ABC and then the full name in the appropriate boxes Excel will search the workbook and change each one.

10. Formulas. I know that they can be confusing, just when you think you have every piece entered right excel comes back and says nope not good enough. Below are some common formula errors and solutions.

Start every formula (or function for math types) with an equal sign. This lets excel know that you are indeed using a formula.

Match all open and closed parentheses. This ensures that your function will work properly. Anyone remember the order of operations song?

Use a colin (: ) to enter a range of cells. For example say you would like to sum all the numbers in column A from A1 to A15 the formula in A16 would look like this
=SUM(A1:A15)

One last thing if there is a green triangle in the upper left corner of the cell that indicates that you have a formula error in that cell.

Excel Tips

2008-05-07T10:59:00.000-05:00

Excel Tips

Look like the master of Excel with these easy tips

1. Freeze Panes. Have you ever scrolled through an excel sheet and wished that the column and row headings would scroll with you? They can. Simply go to View – Windows – Freeze Panes. It may take a few tries to get the exact result that you want. For further tips search Freeze Panes in the Help menu.

2. Landscape. It may sound silly but nothing is worse than printing out an excel sheet and expecting just 1 page and getting 2 or oh no 3. Most of the time if you change the page orientation to landscape many problems can be solved. Change the orientation by going to Page layout – Orientation – Landscape. Psssst, if you hit the print preview button and then click close, little dash lines appear where the page cutoffs are.

3. View Formulas. Ever wonder what formula is lurking in a cell? Press Ctrl and ~ at the same time. Excel will display the cell formulas in place of the results. But don’t worry the actual numbers are still there, just press the same combination again and excel will once again hide the formulas.

4. Wrap Text. Once a little known feature, the Microsoft Gods have now granted it premium real estate on the home tab in excel 2007. Wrap text makes all the text that you have typed in a given cell visible, usually by increasing the height of the cell. In older versions of excel the wrap text feature is still available select the cell you would like to wrap text in – right click – select format cells – then select the alignment tab – check the wrap text box.

5. Paste Special. Ok so there’s paste and this other thing called paste special which one do I use? Well, use paste when you just want to well paste. But let’s say that not only do you want to paste but you want the formula or the formatting of the cell to paste too. Well you could click paste and then reformat the cell or you could click paste special and have excel do the formatting automatically. To get to paste special you have to right click on the cell, it’s not one of the buttons at the top of the page.

Microsoft Office 2007 Ribbon Bar Search

2008-04-29T10:21:00.010-05:00

I really like Microsoft Office 2007. But I will admit that the ribbon bar takes a little getting used to. At ThrottleNet, we are always trying to find better ways to use software. Microsoft recently released a Command Search for Office 2007.

You can find it here. http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx It gives you a search in your ribbon bar so you can find all of Office 2007's commands. It was easy to install and use. After I installed the search program, I loaded up Office 2007 and a new item appears in my ribbon bar labeled "Search Commands." I just typed in what I was looking for, such as "Headers and Footers." And I was instantly presented with the ribbon bar buttons I needed.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who is transitioning from older versions of Microsoft Office to Office 2007.

Why ThrottleNet is Right for Your Company

2008-04-22T08:41:00.002-05:00

ThrottleNet sets itself apart as a complete solution for your business technology needs. With our years of experience redefining how businesses operate, we have the capability in-house to bring your business full force into the 21st century.

"ThrottleNet is much more than a computer company. Our work combines thorough in-depth analysis, process engineering, and reliable technological solutions to provide our clients with solutions that outperform their expectations."

With over a decade of business computer consulting experience, ThrottleNet Inc. is the most cost-effective way of obtaining computer support in the St. Louis area. ThrottleNet Inc. is committed to providing solutions, not quick fixes. Every ThrottleNet Inc. engagement begins with assigning a dedicated network engineer to the customer account. This ensures our clients receive quality, consistent service and the attention to detail they deserve.

We’re Knowledgeable
ThrottleNet Inc. employs Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE) and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Dell Authorized Reseller. Our consultants have years, not weeks, of experience providing support to over 200 businesses in the St. Louis area.

We’re Responsive
ThrottleNet Inc. has developed a unique approach to supporting our customers that allows us to respond to most support calls within four hours. In addition, we give each of our clients our cell phone numbers, so you’ll have immediate access to your consultant (as well as everyone in the company) when you are in a hurry.

We’re Accurate
We don’t want to come back and fix the same problem any more than you want us to. With our years of experience, we’ve probably seen it before and we know how to fix it right the first time.

We’re Friendly
Every ThrottleNet client has a consultant assigned to them, and our goal is to form long-term relationships with very satisfied clients.
ThrottleNet works on a team-based approach. Our consultants each specialize in one area of our business, and all of our consultants work closely together to bring you the best possible outcome for your business every time.
From ongoing network support to documenting and improving the way you do business, ThrottleNet has the certified & experienced staff to deliver the services and equipment you need to run a business in today's increasingly technology driven environment.

ThrottleNet Offers Microsoft Sharepoint!

2008-04-16T14:56:00.003-05:00

Here are 10 major benefits Microsoft SharePoint can bring to your organization:

1) Improve team productivity with easy-to-use collaborative tools
Connect people with the information and resources they need. Users can create team workspaces, coordinate calendars, organize documents, and receive important notifications and updates through communication features including announcements and alerts, as well as the new templates for creating blogs and wikis. While mobile, users can take advantage of convenient offline synchronization capabilities.

2) Easily manage documents and help ensure integrity of content
With enhanced document management capabilities including the option to activate required document checkout before editing, the ability to view revisions to documents and restore to previous versions, and the control to set document- and item-level security, Windows SharePoint Services can help ensure the integrity of documents stored on team sites.

3) Get users up to speed quickly
User interface improvements in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 include enhanced views and menus that simplify navigation within and among SharePoint sites. Integration with familiar productivity tools, including programs in the Microsoft Office system, makes it easy for users to get up to speed quickly. For example, users can create workspaces, post and edit documents, and view and update calendars on SharePoint sites, all while working within Microsoft Office system files and programs.

4) Deploy solutions tailored to your business processes
While standard workspaces in Windows SharePoint Services are easy to implement, organizations seeking a more customized deployment can get started quickly with application templates for addressing specific business processes or sets of tasks.

5) Build a collaboration environment quickly and easily
Easy to manage and easy to scale, Windows SharePoint Services enables IT departments to deploy a collaborative environment with minimal administrative time and effort, from simple, single-server configurations to more robust enterprise configurations. Because deployment settings can be flexibly changed, less pre-planning time is required and companies can get started even faster.

6) Reduce the complexity of securing business information
Windows SharePoint Services provides IT with advanced administrative controls for increasing the security of information resources, while decreasing cost and complexity associated with site provisioning, site management, and support. Take advantage of better controls for site life-cycle management, site memberships and permissions, and storage limits.

7) Provide sophisticated controls for securing company resources
IT departments can now set permissions as deep down as the document or item level, and site managers, teams, and other work groups can initiate self-service collaborative workspaces and tasks within these preset parameters. New features enable IT to set top-down policies for better content recovery and users, groups, and team workspace site administration.

8) Take file sharing to a new level with robust storage capabilities
Windows SharePoint Services supplies workspaces with document storage and retrieval features, including check-in/check-out functionality, version history, custom metadata, and customizable views. New features in Windows SharePoint Services include enhanced recycle bin functionality for easier recovery of content and improved backup and restoration.

9) Easily scale your collaboration solution to meet business needs
Quickly and easily manage and configure Windows SharePoint Services using a Web browser or command-line utilities. Manage server farms, servers, and sites using the Microsoft .NET Framework, which enables a variety of custom and third-party administration solution offerings.

10) Provide a cost-effective foundation for building Web-based applications
Windows SharePoint Services exposes a common framework for document management and collaboration from which flexible and scalable Web applications and Internet sites, specific to the needs of the organization, can be built. Integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 expands these capabilities further to offer enterprise-wide functionality for records management, search, workflows, portals, personalized sites, and more.

These are the benefits listed on the microsoft.com site and have been very helpful when our clients have decided to deploy and design/create their own site. ThrottleNet would be more than happy to help you set a SharePoint site for your organization so feel free to contact us at anytime!

Confirmed! Exchange makes planning and collaboration a SNAP!

2008-04-10T11:50:00.004-05:00

As a telecommuter, most of my days are spent in a virtual office. My connection to the physical office of our company is via technology most of the time. I rely on many different hardware and software solutions to keep me connected to my colleagues, clients and the daily business that goes on in the office.

Working from outside the physical office could leave me out of the loop in major ways, but luckily, technology can bridge the gap most of the time. One of the key solutions for me is the shared and public calendars via exchange service in Microsoft Outlook.

On the days I’m not in the office, I don’t know everyone’s routines and I can’t look across the room to see who’s door is closed or who is over at a someone else’s desk talking about the big game last night. But, by peeking at shared calendars, I can usually gauge the best time to call a manager or know when I can catch a busy salesman between appointments. (Other times, I simply have to employ the efforts of an office spy!)

As a project manager, I work with a team on setting priorities and weekly schedules. We’ve established a shared, public calendar, where we post our weekly schedules. At a glance, I know who is working on which project at a given time, which helps me in communicating internally and reporting and predicting progress for our clients. Also, if I see via email or otherwise that someone has been tied down to an unexpected task most of the day, I know we’re not going to make expected progress on a scheduled task. This is a great help in planning for the next week.

I am frequently charged with scheduling meetings for various teams that cross departments and include management, so there are a lot of different schedules to consider. With our exchange service, it is so easy! I simply open outlook and view everyone’s schedules together on one screen to find the right meeting time. Without this functionality, I’d be sending a string of emails back and forth before everyone found a matching opening in their schedules. In that scenario, by the time a consensus is reached, someone has usually filled the slot and you have to all start over. I can also be sure a meeting I’ve scheduled for my team members with a client is on all of our calendars and reminders are set!

Another great application I’ve found for shared and pubic calendars is to create calendars for spaces and resources in the office. Outlook public calendars can be utilized to schedule busy conference room time, use of shared equipment like projectors or a shared library of training films. Perhaps an intern or assistant works for several departments, his or her schedule might be on a shared public calendar. Basically, anything that is shared in an office can be tracked and scheduled via a shared MS Outlook calendar.

Outlook also allows for special permissions-based use of all shared and public calendars. Administrators can determine who can view and edit any given calendar.

But, just because you have Outlook, doesn’t mean you can start sharing today. This is a special feature of work environments that are connected via an Exchange Server or Online Exchange Service. This is a low-cost upgrade to Pop email service and worth every penny in the benefits for scheduling and collaboration within an organization!

Once you’re on Exchange, Start here to begin utilizing shared calendars in your office:

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC010333631033

Vista Service Pack 1.... Finally an OS I can use!

2008-04-06T11:23:00.003-05:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I have (had?) a very strong opinion about Vista. I felt that it was released way too early with far too many bugs. Early adopters and new PC buyers were essentially an expanded beta test of software that was not ready for the mass market.

Worse, Microsoft turned a blind eye to many of the problems for months... insisting reports of poor performance and stability issues were isolated incidents or vendor specific. Regardless of who you believe (every columnist/user in the country or the company that produced the OS), Vista had issues. No doubt.

I bit the bullet relatively early and used Vista (along with one of my business partners) for about six months for my office PC. It's probably important to remember that we are a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, giving us access to all the latest and greatest MS software. In addition, being a tech company, I really don't skimp when it comes to my own equipment, and I replace my laptop about once a year. It's good to stay ahead of the curve in my business so when customers have questions, I have answers.

It was a disaster, that I stuck with it for six months is a testimony to how much I'll suffer for our industry. It was reminiscent of Windows ME, and if you don't remember that little gem there is a reason why. Simply put, to an IT person, it just didn't exist (kind of like Microsoft BOB which was supposed to revolutionize the user interface). It came between Windows 98 and 2000 and was laughable.

Vista was slow to boot, and after log on, my computer was completely useless for at least 15-20 minutes (no exaggeration, I timed it). I did every bit of tuning that could possibly be done, and still it was a mess. It wasn't even CPU utilization so much as hard disk utilization. It would just sit there and bang away forever for some unknown reason. Disabling search services and all start up items didn't seem to help.

Then there was the copying of files. Windows suddenly decided that it had to examine every file copy operation. Even copying small files from my PC to the network would take 10-20 minutes for no good reason. It would just say "calculating" forever. I didn't need to know how long it would take, I just needed to copy the silly thing. It's not like I was going to change my mind about copying a file. I needed it to get from point A to point B, just move the silly thing.

Don't even get me started on the "security," which is a nice way to say "Rather than actually secure all the flaws in our OS, we're just not going to let you do anything useful with your computer without jumping through a million hurdles." Plus, they removed Telnet & Hyperterminal. I'm in IT, I need Telnet for troubleshooting. They said it was because it is insecure. That may be, but no one in the world who knows how to use Telnet is going to do anything stupid, and it's only 200K, so it doesn't even waste much space. Yes, I know SSH is safer, and I use it for many operations... but I can troubleshoot mail flow issues a lot faster with Telnet than logging in to a bunch of servers.

Plus, I had problems with application timeouts, crashes, or just flat out not starting up like they should. There were all kinds of compatibility issues, even with modern stuff.

Finally, one Saturday in October, we had a downgrading party and went back to XP and Office 2003. It was a happy day and like getting together with an old friend again. Happiness with my computer was once again a way of life, not just wishful thinking.

Then, Microsoft finally released Service Pack 1. Dare I try it again? Well, since my whole business revolves around Microsoft-based software, I felt it was my duty. Sometimes you just have to jump out in front of the line of fire.

I'm happy to say though, Service Pack 1 for Vista fixed ALL of the problems I had. I've been running smoothly ever since. Copying files is smooth, the security issues were worked out, and it is fast, fast, fast on the same hardware. Fast boots and fast shutdowns. Finally, I can use it for business and feel like it is an improvement over XP.

Should you try it? Well, I am a pretty firm believer that you should only move to Vista if you have a good, modern PC that is less than a year old and preferably a PC that was not the cheapest one available when you bought it (what can I say, quality matters).

Despite my affiliation with and dependence on Microsoft, know that I am a pretty demanding consumer. If I'm happier with Vista than with XP, there is probably something to be said for that.

Free Stocking Stuffers

2007-12-07T11:47:00.000-06:00

It is that time of year where we are spending all of our money purchasing gifts for others and for ourselves. I thought I would take this time to list some of my favorite utilities that are highly useful and will not cost you a thing.

All of these are free downloads that can save you time and effort when trying to solve or prevent problems with your PC or computer network. Consider them stocking stuffers for your USB flash drive!

SIW http://www.gtopala.com/
SIW stands for System Information for Windows. This program will show you absolutely everything you could possibly want to know about your PC. It will list out all of your installed hardware. It will show all installed programs. It will show installation serial numbers for MS Office and Windows. It will show you all of the stored passwords on your system. Basically, if it is a part of your PC, you can see it listed here.

The program is small and does not install. You can run it directly from a USB drive. It works on all versions of Windows.

I cannot tell you how many times I have found SIW to be a handy tool stored on my USB drive.

SIW is free for personal use in a non business environment. A technician’s version costs about $70.

UBCD4WIN http://www.ubcd4win.com/
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. This program is an offshoot of the Ultimate Boot CD for *NIX systems. UBCD4Win is a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem for Windows. It comes loaded with antivirus and antispyware tools, imaging and backup software, hard disk drive recovery tools, support for burning files to CD or DVD and several diagnostic tools.

I have personally used this CD to restore a lost partition table on a Domain Controller server. If the partition was not repaired in this particular circumstance, the whole network would have had to be rebuilt. By not having to completely rebuild the entire network, it helped me save a client several thousand dollars worth of labor.

Obtaining and building the CD is a little involved but the tutorials and wizards included with the program are easy to follow.

Uptime http://microsoft.com/
This small utility from Microsoft tells you how long your workstation or server has been running. The most useful thing you can do with this utility, however, is to use it with the /s flag at the command line. The result will give you a listing of how often your computer was restarted and will show you any Blue Screen of Death error codes if your PC shut down as a result of one.

I like to put a copy of uptime.exe in the Windows directory to make it executable from the command line. I will then run this command:

C:\uptime /s > uptime.txt

This will put the results of uptime into a text file on your C: drive called uptime.txt.

Then

C:\notepad uptime.txt

will open the results of uptime in Notepad.

WinDirStat http://windirstat.info/
Windows Directory Statistics can help you find out just why your hard disk drive is full. It breaks down how big each of your folders are on your hard disk drives.

CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/
CCleaner will clean up dead registry entries and help clean out temporary files not needed by Windows any longer. It will also clean out your internet history if you would like it to. I use it regularly to help keep my workstations running efficiently.

CutePDF http://www.cutepdf.com/
CutePDF can create a good looking PDF from almost any Windows program. It is smaller and faster than Adobe Acrobat but not as fully featured. If you are looking for basic PDF documentation at a low cost, give this a try.

IP Scanner http://www.angryziber.com/ipscan/
Angry IP Scanner is a handy utility to see what IP addresses are active on your network. I mostly use this tool for finding IPs of Wireless Access Points and network printers. As of last month, Symantec had added this software as a virus/spyware threat and will delete it from your system. However, I have used this program for several years and it is not dangerous and does not install anything on your system that you did not intend to install.

RDP Remote Enabler http://www.intelliadmin.com/
If you have ever had to access a workstation on a network via Remote Desktop but it was not enabled you will know great frustration. With RDP Remote Enabler, if you can remote in to another computer on the same network (say, the server) you can enable Remote Desktop on the target PC.

NetStumbler http://www.netstumbler.com/
This program will help you find and troubleshoot your wireless network. You can verify network configurations, find locations with poor coverage in a WLAN, detect causes of wireless interference and detect unauthorized access points.

MS Defender http://microsoft.com/
SpyBot http://www.safer-networking.org/
Defender is now built into Windows Vista and is available as a free download from Microsoft for XP. I have found that when you install Defender on XP, it does a very good job for preventing further spyware infection—especially if you install it immediately after you install XP. Defender does not do so well in actually cleaning up your PC once it is already infected. Instead, I use SpyBot for infections. It is fast, free, and effective.

Auslogics Disk Degrag http://www.download.com/Auslogics-Disk-Defrag/
You should defragment your hard disk drives once a month. This free and easy to use program is quick and efficient. It will help keep your PC running like the day you first used it.

Free Commander http://www.freecommander.com/
Free Commander is a nice alternative to the standard Windows file manager. It has a tabbed and multipanel interface, built in Zip and archive handling, checksum verification and it allows you to customize your column views.

Royale Theme for XP
Tired of the same old Luna theme for Windows XP? I was. I found this official theme on the MS website:

New Zealand Bliss version:
http://www.microsoft.com/

Windows XP Media Edition version:
http://www.softpedia.com/

These are just different enough to refresh your desktop.

I hope you find some of these programs useful. If you do, please support the author of the software. Most free software programmers accept donations in return for the free service they provide.

Mark Barhorst, MCP
ThrottleNet, Inc.
mark@throttlenet.com

Mark Barhorst is a Microsoft Certified Professional. He has been working on complex business IT needs since 2001.

Why do I get e-mails I never sent or SPAM from myself?

2007-10-04T22:04:00.000-05:00

Fairly often we receive reports from customers that they have received a “Message Undeliverable” from an e-mail that they never sent. Alternately, they may receive a SPAM e-mail that looks like it is from themselves. Naturally, they assume they must have a virus on their PC or their e-mail server has become infected or compromised. Most of the time, however, it’s neither.

It’s a problem with the nature of e-mail. There is no standard of sender authentication (yet). So, just as anyone could send you a letter and put any return address on it they wanted, anyone can send an e-mail and make it look like it came from anyone else (people of lesser morals can have a lot of fun with friends “spoofing” e-mail addresses). There are some methods of detecting this at the server level, but they are not foolproof and certainly not yet standardized.

Spammers will occasionally send you e-mail from yourself or someone else with your same domain name (or so it appears) in hopes that it will make it past SPAM filters. They do this in an attempt to get you to actually look at the e-mail and send them your checking account information or purchase whatever Chinese pharmaceuticals they are pushing that week.

So, nothing’s really wrong, except a decades old insecure technology called e-mail and developed by “scientists” that never considered despicable spammers or the occasional practical joker.

If you want an example of how bad SPAM & Viruses are on the Internet, ThrottleNet (and we're not THAT big of a company) has stopped 121 MILLION SPAM e-mails and 125,000 viruses from reaching their destinations in about one year of SPAM/Virus filtering (Oct 2006 to Oct 2007). Consider it takes 2.5 seconds to identify & delete a SPAM e-mail, and our little service has saved humanity 3,501 days of productivity.

Fortunately for us, Edison didn’t have e-mail….

Blackberry 8830 vs. Motorola Q

2007-09-14T20:50:00.000-05:00

After 9 painful months with my Motorola Q, I have finally switched back to a Blackberry, and this time to an 8830 from Verizon.

Whereas the Q, powered by Windows Mobile, had a woefully illogical interface (not to mention clunky and frustrating), the 8830 is probably the best phone/PDA I have ever owned, not to mention one of the most attractive ones with its slim profile and shiny finish.

The 8830 is very responsive, the keys respond exceptionally well while typing, and it's almost intuitive in navigating its interface. Coupled with the Blackberry Enterprise Server (and yes, I had used ever-competitive Microsoft's Wireless ActiveSync with the Q... nice try), the 8830 is so useful I was able to spend a couple of hours in a car dealership and yet still accomplish quite a bit of work.

It's hard to explain all of the nuances, but the Blackberry is just faster, smarter & better in almost every way. Choosing addresses for new e-mails, organizing meetings/appointments, typing out e-mails, are all things you begin to take for granted on a Blackberry, until you switch to a Windows Mobile device and realize all of the things you can't do.

It's good to be back home again.

How to stop worrying and to start loving your backups

2007-08-27T20:50:00.000-05:00

The weather forecasters have called for severe weather tonight. It has been a long day and you leave your office, anxious to beat the traffic that is sure to be bad due to the weather. As you leave, you don't even think of all of the new documents that were created on your file server. Let's face it, that is not something that most of us worry about in day to day life.

That night, the power goes out to your office building and the battery backup to the server did not work as expected. The disks running inside your office server that were spinning at 10,000 rotations per minute come to a screetching halt, helping to scramble all of the microscopic "1"s and "0"s that represent all of your hard work, your client's data and your employee's sales projects. The power comes back on and the server turns back on. Only this time, instead of booting, only a blinking cursor appears on the server's monitor.

It is 5AM on Tuesday morning. Do you know where your data is?

My power outage example is one of the most extreme examples of how you can lose critical business data on your server. More likely, you will have mistakenly overwritten the big Excel document you have been working on for a few days with nothing but blank rows. Or someone might have mistakenly delete a whole folder of last year's sales figures.

The reality of today's business is that you need a solid backup plan. You cannot afford to not have a backup of your data. Running a live computer network without backups is like running your business without insurance. Sure, you can do it, but what will it cost you when something bad happens? What legal ramifications do you face if you lose data that you are required to keep by law? How are you going to get your business running again?

According to an article from last year in USA Today, data loss costs U.S. businesses more than $18 billion a year!

I have been in this business long enough to see all kinds of systems failures, human errors, and just plain old bad luck with everything IT. All of these problems can be mitigated with backups.

I prefer to keep my clients on a multi leveled backup plan. It consists of taking snapshots of documents locally (for easy retrieval by your employees), complete OS backups at least weekly, and offsite backups of changed files daily.

How often and how much you back up is a question of your tolerance for loss versus what your budget will allow. Backup solutions can range from simple tape backups that cost a few hundred dollars to complete off site system redudancy (where a server that constantly mirrors your own sits in a controlled data center).

A good IT Consultant should be able to work with you to determine what your backup needs are and to work within your budget to help you achieve peace of mind.

Mark Barhorst, MCP
ThrottleNet, Inc.
mark@throttlenet.com

Mark Barhorst is a Microsoft Certified Professional. He has been working on complex business IT needs since 2001.

ThrottleNet Gets the Gold

2007-08-23T12:15:00.000-05:00

ThrottleNet, a Microsoft Certified Partner, was awarded "Gold" status in July. This is a huge accomplishment for our team here, who worked extra hard to gain the certifications we required in order to achieve Gold status. Also, without the feedback from some of our clients to Microsoft, it simply would not have been possible.

As a Gold Certified Partner, ThrottleNet now has access to even more resources from Microsoft to better serve our customers, including automatic escalation of support calls in customer critical situations.

At the same time, MyKnowIt.com, ThrottleNet's commercial Learning Management System, became a Microsoft Certified Application after extensive testing and verification by Microsoft.

ThrottleNet Unveils New Web Site

2007-08-23T12:13:00.001-05:00

We finally finished a complete overhaul of our corporate web site at www.ThrottleNet.com. On this new site, you'll find information about all of the services we offer, helpful tips, login links to ThrottleNet services, and complete information about the company.

We hope you enjoy the new site!