Nearly three years ago Micro Doctor took the leap into the world of VOIP and SIP phone lines by teaming up with Allworx and Xcast Labs. The experience of converting customers to Internet phones has been very rewarding
since we are saving the average customer 50% over what their old phone company was charging for phone service.  Since then we have been looking for a reasonable and reliable Internet Fax Solution. We are ready to introduce the IFaxDr product, which is combination of a small converter box and a FAX SIP line. We use your existing Fax Machine, Copier/Fax or Multifunction Printer, unplug the phone cable from the wall, and plug it
into a small “ATA device”, which also connects to a LAN or Internet cable. That’s it!

Below are some common questions we hear about this service and the answers that show how incredibly easy and cost efficient  it is.

1. But what about my FAX NUMBER?  Most times we can “Port” your fax number to our banks of fax modems so no change is necessary.
2. So we can cancel our fax line and save $50.00 to $70.00 dollars a month? You can cancel your fax line after we port your number and thecost on most normal usage IFaxDr fax lines is $28.90 a month.
3. How does it work? Well you go to the current fax machine, type in the destination fax number and hit send just like you do now. However, our ATA device converts that Fax to a HTTPS: (internet) signal and it gets sent to our Fax Modem Banks, where we convert it back to analog so it is completely compatible with all your vendors’ and customers’ analog fax machines.
4. What about when we receive faxes? Well, your sender still sends it normally to the same fax number. We receive the fax into our Fax Modem
   banks, then we send it across the internet to the IFaxDr ATA device, which then converts it to analog so your fax machine receives it as an analog fax just like before.
5. Wouldn’t it be great if my incoming faxes were automatically converted to PDF format and received into one or more e-mail accounts on my
   computer? IFaxDr does this with ease.  Fax Logs and Sent fax confirmations can be sent there also.

We are using this system ourselves and are converting customers every day. Find out how the IFaxDr service can save you money,
provide better service and help you go green by sending faxes to email.

It is inevitable to have to upgrade any kind of software sooner or later. This is now true for Windows XP, as Microsoft has announced a discontinuation of support for the operating system in 2014. Microsoft recommends upgrading to the newer Windows 7 OS, which is something worth considering as early as now.

Part of using any sort of software is the inevitable need to upgrade. Most if not all software needs to either be replaced and upgraded as the demands of the market entail more efficient processing of the various data and information a business handles.

Such is the case with Windows XP. While many continue to use this proven straightforward operating system, Microsoft has decided to stop support by the year 2014. Microsoft further recommends upgrading to its latest OS, Windows 7, in order for users to continue to receive OS support.

While there are some lines of business applications that have not been upgraded to work with Windows 7, most have — and there are alternative approaches. Also, your business needs the security and protection that only a current, up-to-date operating system can provide.

We understand that changing your OS will entail some expense, including new licenses, hardware, and some training. Fortunately, these things are designed to help you operate more efficiently and increase your productivity in the long run. But such change will take time, and if you are interested in starting to plan for an upgrade now, we’ll be happy to sit down with you and develop an upgrade process that meets your specific needs.

What if your business got hit by a tornado and what if, in that same storm, your IT Company got hit by a tornado? Well, that is what happened in Joplin, MO. Luckily for John Motazedi of SNC Squared and his customers, he had a disaster recovery plan. You see John’s company, SNS Squared, and Micro Doctor Inc. have something in common. We are both members of HTG Peer Groups for IT Companies. Part of the growth you see in Micro Doctor is due to the fact that we belong to this group, which shares ideas, best practices and now a disaster recovery program.

Just announced at HTG’s annual conference last month, a new program was started called Hands that Give. Hands that Give is an emergency relief fund and volunteers that will step in and assist any HTG Member who needs help recovering from a natural or personal disaster. Those disasters can be natural like Tornados, Fires, or Hurricanes, but also may be personal illnesses like Heart Attacks, Car accidents or other personal health issues.

In John Motazedi’s case it was a natural disaster. The tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, completely destroyed his office (pictured above). However, all of his data and his customers’ data, email and websites were backed up to offsite servers. Then his HTG group stepped in. 11 HTG members, including the president Arlin Sorensen, gathered up chain saws, trash bags and shovels and headed to Joplin. They helped John recover materials from the building, assisted in restoring offsite backups to a new temporary location, got his office SIP lines rerouted to a cell phone so they could receive calls and provided planning and ideas to help John and his IT clients keep running even in the face of this huge disaster.

Hands that Give – The Strength of Community – What is it?

More than an association of individuals with shared experiences —or even similar objectives — the best communities are defined by common cause, a degree of interdependence and great trust. And the strength of a community is most apparent, not when times are good, but rather in how its people pull together and respond to a disaster or tragedy befalling a fellow member. It is this very special function of community that is fulfilled by the Hands That Give Emergency Response Fund.

Whether it’s disaster like a fire or flood, or a personal crisis such as death or divorce, unfortunate events can have a terrible impact on a business’s operation. Established by HTG Peer Groups members, the Hands That Give Emergency Response Fund provides associated small business owners with essential financial assistance or donated equipment and services that will carry their companies through such difficult times. And by standing together in support of peers, colleagues . . . friends in difficult straits, we’ll help them see the return of brighter days.

Please join me in taking this opportunity to foster a true sense of community within the HTG Peer Groups by becoming a contributing Hands That Give member.

Sincerely,

Arlin Sorensen
CEO, HTG Peer Group

So why is it advantageous for you to work with an IT Company that has its own disaster recovery plan? If your business is also damaged, you need to know that they (your IT provider) can be back up and running quickly so they can help you get your business running ASAP.

Rest assured that Micro Doctor, who has flourished for 23 years in business, will be there to help our local customers recover from whatever disaster may occur. And now that Micro Doctor has available the “Hands that Give” funding and technical peer support, we together could survive even a direct hit from a F5 tornado, God forbid that should ever happen here. Please join us in wishing our friends in Joplin not only our condolences but also our support as they strive to get back to normal. Our hearts also go out for the lives that were lost in Joplin last week.

Mark Richmond, President and Owner of Micro Doctor Inc. an HTG 19 Member Company.

Many SMBs are unaware that hackers are finding online banking transactions to be profitable and easy targets for cyber-attacks because of several weaknesses in the security systems not only of both organizations, but also in the authentication protocols between them.

In a recent attack, cyber-thieves managed to get away with $63,000 after they exploited vulnerabilities in the online payroll system of a small business with its bank.

First, the crooks managed to infiltrate the company’s system through a piece of malware called the Zeus Trojan. This gave them access to the company’s data, including the password and username used in transacting with the company’s bank. The thieves then created several new ghost employees and created payroll accounts for them, which they sent to the bank and authenticated using the company controller’s username and password. And to cover their tracks, the hackers erased the confirmation emails regarding the transaction.

This incident highlights the need for better security systems in both the business and their bank – as security experts cite online banking transactions as one of the favorite targets of cyber-criminals. Cyber-attacks such as this one exploit weaknesses in many existing systems that rely on very simple and automated authentication procedures to confirm transactions.

A direct threat to your business finances is not something to be taken lightly. You not only need to review your current online banking system, but also the current security protocols you have installed, since hackers and cyber-criminals are constantly updating Trojans and other malware to adapt to changing IT protection systems.

We encourage you to have us take a look at the systems you have in place to determine if you are at risk for attacks like these. Please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to draw up custom security solutions that address your specific needs.

References:
Sold a Lemon in Internet Banking
Cybercrooks Drive Away With $63,000 from Car Dealership

Internet security is an issue not to be taken lightly. As an increasing number of businesses use the web for more efficient operations, there is also more risk of being affected by malware and viruses. But thanks to initiatives such as WebBlaze and BitBlaze from Professor Dawn Song, developers are better equipped to make more effective IT security systems.

If you think hackers are the only ones doing their research to release newer and scarier viruses and malware on the web, think again. It is comforting to know that there are also very capable people doing what they can to make the internet a safer place – like Professor Dawn Song, associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley and MacArthur Foundation fellow.

In a nutshell, Professor Song has been looking at different ways to make the internet experience more secure. Her two initiatives – WebBlaze and BitBlaze – are aimed toward developers who want to create better and much more secure programs and applications.

WebBlaze is a compilation of different strategies from Song and other like minds who tackle different problems and solutions in all sorts of platforms, and BitBlaze is an analysis tool for malicious software. While we won’t go into too much detail (it involves very complicated math), the gist is that Song and her colleagues are drawing up some very solid solutions to constantly evolving security issues on the web.

It’s exciting to see developments like these in the security industry. As threats continue to evolve, so does the means through which they are fought. The more we use the internet and the more the online experience becomes integral to the day-to-day operations of businesses big and small, the more important securing your data and information becomes. And because of efforts such as Professor Song’s, we can expect security programs to be much more effective and efficient as time passes.

Know more about BitBlaze and WebBlaze

Learn more about Dawn Song here

If you are looking to assess and beef up your security systems, we’d be happy to sit down with you and take a look at improvements that can make your business and your data much more secure.

October 22, 2009, Windows 7 was released from Microsoft as the new long awaited replacement to Windows Vista and Windows XP. There are 3 versions of Windows 7; Home, Pro, and Ultimate. The easiest way to decide which version to get, is when in doubt, go with “Pro”. Why? I knew you were going to ask this. There are some significant features that Windows 7 Home or Home Premium do not have. The most significant is Remote Desktop. Without  Win7 Pro, you will not be able to remotely access you Windows 7 Home PC using the free and built-in remote desktop application. That doesn’t mean you can’t use Logmein or Gotomypc, but why pay monthly for something you can do for FREE with Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate.

It has been 17 months since the introduction of Windows 7 and Windows XP has almost been completely removed from the marketplace. So what if you have an older application that is critical to your business and you are not sure if it will run correctly on Windows 7. Well that brings me to the second compelling reason to buy your next PC with Windows 7 Pro. Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate have a feature called XP mode. XP Mode also requires a decent processor with VT capability.

XP Mode will run the older operating system (Windows XP Pro) in a virtual environment inside of Win7 for maximum compatibility with older applications. In fact, Microsoft is claiming that XP Mode provides near perfect Windows XP compatibility within Windows 7. A minimum of 2 GB RAM is needed for XP Mode. XP Mode will utilize and require virtualization technologies in recent processors such as Intel VT. Often hardware virtualization will need to be enabled in the system BIOS too. Now the confusion surfaces for many owners of recent Intel CPUs. Even if you have a Core 2 Duo or Quad , that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have what it takes to run XP Mode in Windows 7.

Micro Doctor supplies only VT enabled PCs to its customers. Some of the value with dealing with us versus Dell is “we got your back”. Other companies will sell you a $299.00 pc with Windows 7 Home that will not run XP Mode. WE WON’T DO THAT!

Here is the latest list I could find of VT supported processors.

Intel Processors with have VT-x

EXTREME: i7-980x, i7-975, i7-965,
DESKTOP: i7-970, i7-960, i7-950, i7-940, i7-930, i7-920, i7-880, i7-875K, i7-870S, i7-870, i7-860S, i7-860,
DESKTOP: i5-760, i5-750S, i5-750, i5-680, i5-670, i5-661, i5-660, i5-655K, i5-650,
DESKTOP: i3-560, i3-550, i3-540, i3-530,
CORE 2 EXTREME: X6800, QX9775, QX9770, QX9650, QX6850, QX6800, QX6700,
DESKTOP CORE 2 QUAD: Q9650, Q9550S, Q9550, Q9505S, Q9505, Q9500, Q9450, Q9400S, Q9400, Q9300, Q8400S, Q8400, Q6700, Q6600
DESKTOP CORE 2 DUO: E8600, E8500, E8400, E8300, E8200, E7600, E6850, E6750, E6700, E6600, E6550, E6540, E6420, E6400, E6320, E6300,
DESKTOP: Pentium 4 HT 672, Pentium 4 HT 662,
DESKTOP: Celeron E3500, Celeron E3400, Celeron E3300, Celeron E3200, Celeron 1.83GHz 1M cache 667MHz FSB, Celeron 1.66GHz 1M cache 667MHz FSB,
ATOM: D525, D510, D425, D410,

it appears that all the currently shipping processors have virtualization except for some lower-end models. so don’t buy cheap.

Windows 7 Home would be OK for a college student or home user who never brings their computer to the workplace.

Windows 7 Pro is the business standard and with features like Bitlocker (encryption), Remote Desktop and XP Mode. This is our pick.

Windows 7 Ultimate is Windows 7 Pro with Media Center functions like recording TV and controlling home media centers.

We have released our latest Platform for Business Level PC’s using Windows 7 Pro

Here is our new MDI Intel I5 PC offering.

Copyright 2011 – Mark Richmond, MCSE at Micro Doctor Inc.

Posted via email from Micro Doctor’s Blog Central

Facebook started rolling out an HTTPS: option of connecting to Facebook a few weeks ago. I logged in today and got this notice.

I agree on the surface, HTTPS: would be a more secure way to access Facebook.

However this feature is very new. It was just added to some accounts last week as an option.

Facebook is still testing https:

There are a few things you should keep in mind before deciding to enable HTTPS.

Encrypted pages take longer to load, so you may notice that Facebook is slower using HTTPS.

In addition, some Facebook features, including many third-party applications,

are not currently supported in HTTPS. Facebook will be working hard to resolve these remaining issues. Facebook is rolling this out slowly over the next few weeks, but you will be able to turn this feature on in your Account Settings soon.

What happens now is that Facebook will automatically ask you to switch to unsecure access when the APP does not support HTTPS: or SSL.

Here is the message you get when you leave the secure connection to work with an APP.

While on FB, look at your URL address (the very top box on your screen.)

If you see “http:” instead of “https:” then you DO NOT have a secure session.

To manually set HTTPS: login preference Go to Account – Account Settings

- Account Security – click Change. Check the box labeled “Secure Browsing” – Click Save

Copyright 2011: Mark Richmond, MCSE at Micro Doctor Inc.

One thing is clear, quality is still more important than quantity. Especially with the current economic downturn, people are downsize everything – including online social circles.

November 17, 2010 was declared by Jimmy Kimmel during his television show as “National Unfriend Day”, the opportunity for all Facebook users to declutter their Facebook pages by “unfriending” people in their friends’ lists. He claims that Facebook has been “cheapening” the idea of friendship. To many the idea was hilarious, but others are seriously considering the wisdom of unfriending.

Is Kimmel on to something here? Can unfriending benefit your online business?

Research shows that as social media gets bigger, we’re getting smaller. Brian Wong, a network marketer says it simply: “With the growth of social networking, I am finding it increasingly difficult to separate business connections and personal connections.” He says that having almost 1,000 friends on Facebook has made it difficult for him to see the feeds and updates of his “real” friends and important business partners.

Lately there is a growing trend of de-scaling on the internet. People have started “pruning” their social lives online. For example, the popular Farmville app lost 30 million players this year, and people are beginning to realize that conversations and comments are more important than a huge number of blog hits.

So how can de-scaling and unfriending help your business? The drive to be more intimate can benefit your business by allowing you to form a tighter circle of customers, more successfully establishing you as a preferred channel for consumption.

Luckily, there are tools that can help you descale your social networks:

1. Path – Offers small-scale communities where people feel more comfortable sharing personal information. It controls who can view your information and does not include features that make your content viral.
2. Letter.ly – A subscription-based newsletter for bloggers who feel that public posts decrease the quality of conversations. This newsletter opens discussion only to people who pay, or who are privately invited to read a blog post.
3. GroupMe – A texting app which limits your group text participants to only 14, to ensure that meaningful dialogues take place.

What about the flip side of unfriending and descaling? While you’re considering who to eliminate from your social circles, your contacts are likely doing the same. Here are some tips to help you make their cuts:

1.       Be selective in your communications.
Of course, your product is important – to you. But not every little detail is as important to your audience. Be sure to focus on key features and benefits from your audience’s perspective.

2.       Stay on topic.
Always give relevant communications to your customers, and never rant or badmouth competitors. This is a sure way to lose customers.

3.       Provide value.
In addition to talking about your product or service, find ways to provide value to your circle of friends. Understand topics and pain points important to them, and provide valuable information and advice to help them succeed. You’ll soon come to be considered as a valuable resource to your contacts – one that they want to keep in their online social groups.

One thing is clear: quality is still more important than quantity, especially in the current economic downturn when people are downsizing everything. Start “pruning” your social network – and take steps to avoid being pruned – and you’ll reap the benefits of having a tight circle of loyal friends and customers.

These days, more and more people are on the go, and many of them bring their work with them. While connecting to public and open-access Wi-Fi hotspots is indeed convenient, using open networks also pose risks that endanger your security.

While connecting to public and open-access Wi-Fi hotspots is indeed convenient, using open networks also poses risks that endanger your security. The open nature that allows anyone to use the connection also enables unscrupulous people to gain access to your private information. The whole act of stealing information from people who are using public Wi-Fi networks is called ‘sidejacking’.

There are applications such as Firesheep, for example, that provide an easy-to-use platform that others can exploit to spy and harvest personal, sensitive information from you. And since Firesheep is a Mozilla Firefox plug in, virtually anyone can download and use it to sidejack people on the same network.

You can’t be too cautious with your personal and business data these days, so you always need to have the proper laptop configuration and security infrastructure to protect your system, especially when you frequently avail of open and public networks. To know more about this, please feel free to give us a call and we’ll be happy to draw up some security options that meet your specific needs.