Authors: Diana
Guest blog post by Dan Shedd, President of Taylor Box Company The only way that companies get to stick around in a competitive industry like ours is to evolve quickly with emerging customer needs and to never settle for second best. We’ve been in business for 126 years and counting and a key to our […]
Authors: Bryce Whitty
MailStore Home is a small, portable and freeware utility designed to make archiving, backing up and migrating emails easy. MailStore supports many different types of mailboxes such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Exchange Server, Office 365, .EML files and more. It also supports a variety of internet based mailboxes such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo mail.
Once the email has been backed up, MailStore allows you to search in all of the email accounts from a central location within seconds. It allows you to restore the emails back to an email client with one click and migrate emails from one type of mailbox (ie. Gmail) to another type of mailbox (ie. Outlook).
If your personal life or business relies on cloud based email like Gmail, it is important to have an offsite backup since you never know when Google will suspend the account, have an extended outage or have your account hijacked by a hacker.
The best kind of backups are automated backups but unfortunately this software doesnt “officially” support automated backups with MailStore Home. However, this is a work around.
Once you have created a saved profile for an email address in the Archive Email area, highlight the profile and choose “Create a Desktop Shortcut”.
On the newly made desktop shortcut, right click, goto Properties and get the location string in the Target box. Once you have this string you can go to Task Scheduler and set up a scheduled task that will run this string.
Download from Official Site – 5.91mb
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To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. MailStore Home – Easy Email Archiving, Backup and Migration
Authors: Guest Writer
Guest Post by William Conner
I started selling cloud services 7 years ago; I was a reseller of Carbonite a few months after they opened their doors and haven’t looked back. It’s easy to be afraid of cloud services, watching how they encroach on what used to be our exclusive domain, but really it’s the natural evolution of technology and we need to figure out how to leverage it to our advantage. The great thing about cloud services is they’re like any other IT product, diverse and ever changing. That still leave the IT Pro in the position of trusted expert to recommend products based on client needs.
When talking about backup, let’s keep in mind the 3-2-1 Rule of Backups. Keep three copies, the primary data and two backups, store the backups on two different media, cloud, magnetic, optical, etc., and keep one copy offsite. Cloud services allow for offsite backup beautifully. The 321 strategy gives us many options for disaster recovery in the event of fire, theft or seizure. A typical deployment for us is to back up to a low cost NAS like the D-Link DNS-320 and have a mirror of that backup in the cloud via BackBlaze or SymForm which works quite well.
I’m not going to shill for a bunch of different products, I still recommend Carbonite, and get my cut when I do, but I also use SymForm, Backblaze, Keepvault, Vembu, Acronis and others. Each caters to specific needs, so all we need to do is identify their strengths, figure out what the customer needs, and make the sale.
Let’s look at what might be important to a given user based on their usage profile:
| Typical Demands | Home – Light Data | SOHO – Medium Data | Small Business – Larger Data |
| Configuration | Zero Configuration | Little configuration needed | Handled by IT contractor |
| Storage Space | 100 GB or less | 100-1000GB | 500GB+ |
| Backup Speed | Quick, but not a huge concern | Within a few hours | As quickly as possible |
| Recovery Speed | Can tolerate a multi-day redownload | Needs unthrottled ASAP recovery options | Unthrottled recovery and overnight delivery of storage media. |
| Remote access | Handy access via smartphone or tablet | Smartphone/Tablet or Web interface access to data. | Generally only needs web access to datasets. |
| Encryption | Strong Encryption – Provider managed keyset | Strong encryption, controllable keyset | Strong encryption, controllable keyset |
| Partner Support | Can rely on vendor techsupport | Expects VAR/IT Pro to provide support. | Expects VAR/IT Pro to provide support. |
| Vendor data centre location | Generally not an issue. | May have concerns or regulatory compliance issues regarding foreign storage. | May have concerns or regulatory compliance issues regarding foreign storage. May see foreign storage as an advantage. |
When evaluating services, it’s important to pay attention to what they offer based on the chart above. Offerings are always changing, and much like anti-virus vendors, what may be great this year may be really bad the next. Carbonite was a really great provider, but they throttle daily backup amounts, Backblaze doesn’t. Symform recently started selling direct to consumer and included 200gb of free backup, changing their initial partner strategy and KeepVault has lagged in its pricing, moving from very competitive to very expensive.
Ok, so now you’ve determined your clients need, your vendor’s strengths and you need to figure out how to make some money with this information. Most providers offer partner programs that allow you to either take a cut of the sale through referral commission, or offer wholesale prices if you’ll handle billing and support. I like to do the latter, as my clients generally don’t care who the vendor is, just that product works and that they don’t have to deal with many invoices or helpdesks for their technology products.
I typically bill above retail, because of this added support, thereby extending my profit margins and taking responsibility for the product myself. With cloud backup, this is pretty easy to do because the servers are very much set-it-and-forget-it products that require little effort to maintain.
There are really only three ways to sell cloud backup; by using passive links on your websites and promotional products, as direct recommendations to clients on-site, and as part of your MSP (Managed Service Provider) packages. For the most part, the revenue from the first two is minor, maybe $10-15 a year per seat depending on the client and package, but as part of a MSP package, they’ve been invaluable to me in two ways.
The first is by including off-site backup in my packages by default I’ve created have a competitive advantage as I’m not aware of any local competitors who do this. The costs of the service are built into the package, but to the client it looks like a freebie, one that they may never thought of or heard about before. Some might be have been confused by the amount of vendors in the field, or by pricing schemes and previously been scared off, but when I bring it up they greatly appreciate it.
They’re hearing about the cloud in the media but they don’t understand it. This gives us credibility in the sales process thanks to Microsoft’s advertising, and we get to direct the content of the conversation. Cloud backup has allowed me to close more MSP contracts since I started bundling them by default because my clients see that I’m looking out for their interests and starting disaster planning from the get go.
Second, because of the success in boosting MSP contract sales, I’ve created residential MSP contracts for pre-qualified clients. These residential contracts sell easily with cloud backup as I’m able to talk to the prospect about total security and protection. I’ve cemented myself as their only vendor because their AV, cloud backup, remote access and support services are now channelled through my one single invoice. Not only does this allow me to completely own the client, but I can take that client portfolio with me to a vendor and negotiate better pricing.
No matter how you decide to integrate cloud backup into your offerings, whereby as a single sale add-on or as an integral part of your service packages, I highly recommend you do. You’d be putting yourself and your clients at a severe disadvantage if you don’t. I’ve seen a 15% boost in sales, greater stickiness and stronger relationships. I’m offering more comprehensive services and eliminating the feeling of being nickel in dimed clients often resent when dealing with multiple vendors in regards to their IT infrastructure.
And a final thought, the pitch for cloud backup is simple: “With cloud backup your data is encrypted and stored offsite within minutes, protecting you from accidental deletion, theft, seizure or god forbid a fire, local backup isn’t enough. You can always buy a new computer, but you can’t buy back your data, ready to sign?”
Note: substitute data with pictures if it’s a residential client.
Guest Post By William Conner: William Conner is the owner of MyComputerHero, an IT consultancy in Calgary, Alberta since 2005. He has been in the SMB IT industry for 15 years, holds various vendor and industry certifications and is finishing a BSc. in Computer Information Systems at Mount Royal University.
© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their Computer Business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. Boost Your Revenue with Cloud Storage & Backup
Authors: Guest Writer
Guest Post by Ric Chapman.
I think I’m somewhat safe in saying that Windows Phone 7 arrived late to the game and is still very much the underdog in today’s smartphone market. But whilst Microsoft are busy playing catch up their hard work is slowly paying off as it starts to carve its place among the Android, iPhone and Blackberry competition. Its ease of use and excellent integration into the Microsoft ecosystem is what’s starting to make it popular among home, business and now the technical community alike.
Having said that there’s still a bumpy ride ahead, at the time of this writing there are only 45,000 apps in the market place compared to Apple’s 500,000! When the phone was released, Technician apps were practically non-existent. I know, I was there, eagerly looking for what I could use out in the field. I didn’t find much, and what I did find didn’t work.. at all. But thankfully today is a much different story and I bring you the apps that I’m using on an almost daily basis as a Computer Technician.
Lync 2010 arrives on time as promised and is an excellent app for staying in touch with colleagues, clients and family whilst on the move. Although it integrates nicely with the OS it would have been nice to see something similar to the Messenger integration deployed with Mango, but I’m just nit-picking. It’s a great app and although the app is free, you do require access to a Lync server. Mine comes courtesy of Office365, it just works and works well.
Price: FREE – Lync server required
Link
I absolutely love this app and is a must for anyone who owns their own or installs and maintains home servers for their clients. You can connect to any Home Server whilst you’re on the move allowing you to check important notifications, disk space, access files and manage user accounts including user creation and password resets. If your clients are happy for you to have access you can monitor and provide basic support from wherever you are at a touch of a button.
Price: FREE
Link
Almost identical to the My Home Server app with a focus on Microsoft Small Business Server Essentials only, would have been nice to have seen this for the SBS Standard but perhaps something will arrive later down the line. The SBS Essentials edition is the server of choice for my small business clients and as a support app is indispensable. The Live Tile only adds to my excitement by providing an instant indication of available disk space and the number of important / critical alerts you have pending right on the phones home screen.
Price: FREE
Link
Sky Wallet is a powerful password management app and I would be lost without it especially as clients are increasingly becoming reliant on their support techs for remembering their account details. Where Sky Wallet shines is its integration with SkyDrive, your details are synced and encrypted on your SkyDrive storage. If you need to reset your phone, you needn’t worry about losing the data. Secondly there’s a desktop companion app which comes included with this app allowing you to access your passwords directly from your PC avoiding the need to move back and forth between your desktop and phone.
Price: £2.99 / $3.99
Trial Available: Yes
Link
The flashlight tool is a very easily overlooked app and I’ve simply lost count on how much I’ve used this, I often find myself under a dimly lit desk or a dark comms cupboard. As I’m always carrying my phone, it makes sense not to be carrying a torch. There is a large array of flashlight apps which offer a variety of features so do shop around.
Price: FREE
Link
Any technician working with medium and larger businesses should already know how to do this sort of thing without a calculator. But who would want to? We all work to a schedule and unless you can do this sort of thing in your head in less than 10 seconds then you might as well reach for your pocket. There are plenty of calculators out there, this one works great and has the added bonus of being free.
Price: FREE
Link
The title of the app can be a little misleading and is simply a reference tool. I specifically use it for the Ethernet Pinout information when making up my own network cables.
Price: FREE
Link
Whilst there are plenty of remote desktop tools out there this is by far my favourite, not the cheapest but the one I generally get the best performance from overall. Most of these apps come with free trials and I’d recommend you try them before making a final decision.
Price: £4.99 / $5.99
Link
Being a Kindle fan I downloaded this app the moment it became available and whilst I do read for pleasure, a lot of my reading also involves tech or reference books. Whilst not strictly a technical tool it can be a great informational tool avoiding the need carry the large books that plague most students and technicians. A quick and easy EBook reader on the go.
Price: FREE
Link
0 0A small collection of network connectivity tools providing ping tests, tcp port connection tests, http and https connectivity tests as well as the ability to save a selection of URI’s for periodic checking, useful if you’re wanting to check the health of multiple web sites quickly. It’s absolutely free if you don’t mind the adverts which are not intrusive.
Price: FREE with ads or £2.29/$2.99 for the ad free version
Link
1 1A very simple and free SSH client that works brilliantly, the paid version comes with telnet support and a ton of customisation and configuration settings.
Price: FREE or £2.49/$3.49 for the PRO version
Link
2 2I find these are quite popular tools among the tech community so I’ve included my favourite, originally acquired to keep an eye on my home office as I struggled to find anything that I was certain I had left on my desk. Turns out wife likes to clean my desk …. a lot. IP based cameras provide an excellent option for security and this app extends their use allowing you to keep an eye on things whilst on the move.
Price: FREE
Link
As mentioned previously, the Windows Phone integration with Bing and the Live services are what helps this phone stand out among its peers and may play a large part in its future success. The following items are not apps but integrated features within the OS that work exceptionally well and can prove invaluable whilst out in the field.
The Office hub provides excellent mobile office apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the ever popular OneNote. I live in OneNote and much prefer this to carrying around a notebook and pencil, an excellent note taking app regardless of your situation.
Finding new addresses is always a daunting task but Bing Maps makes the whole process a lot easier, I did have concerns about how it would stand up against Google Maps on other smartphones but I needn’t have worried. If you have a phone holder in the car it even serves well as (very temporary) sat-nav replacement provided that there is decent data coverage of course. Mileage is presented to the user but is not recorded so I use OneNote to take down mileage and the phones multi-tasking features make it easy to flick between the two apps.
Microsofts cloud based service Office 365 was made for Windows Phone, whether you need an Exchange based email service, SharePoint file access then you simply cannot go wrong. Email access is powerful and SharePoint makes easy work of file collaboration with colleagues and clients. Office 365 is beyond the scope of this article but I do urge you to check it out.
Cloud based file access with SkyDrive is simple and easy and was a missing key feature in the original release. I now store all my client notes and access them from the cloud whilst onsite where necessary using the free SkyDrive service.
Nowhere near home or the office? Need that coffee to see you through the next appointment? Then the local scout integrated with the Bing Search app is what you need. Food/Drink located and mapped in a couple of moments … a true techy life saver.
45,000 apps compared to 500,000 is quite a small number and Microsoft has some way to go before it’s covering all our technical needs. There’s no news on an official DropBox app (although there are plenty of alternative third party DropBox apps available) and presently there’s no word on how Skype will integrate with the phone. But I sense these things and other much needed apps are not too far away. 45,000 whilst comparatively small is still too large for one tech to cover so if there’s anything I’ve missed that you feel deserves a mention then please comment and let us know.
Guest Post by Ric Chapman: Ric has been in the IT support business for 12 years driven by his love of tech and passion to help others. Ric carries several certifications from both Microsoft and CompTIA and worked in a myriad of support environments, that experience he now puts into developing his own IT consultancy business.
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To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. 17 Useful Windows Phone Tools For Computer Technicians
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Authors: Bryce Whitty
The computer market is constantly changing and one of the big changes in recent times was the introduction of cheap netbooks like the Asus EEEPC. Now we are seeing the mass adoption of tablets like the Apple iPad and in both cases, some computer technicians have expressed fear that this will reduce the amount of desktops and laptops we have to repair.
It is quite possible that they will change the computer repair scene but I don’t see it as a problem, I see it as an opportunity. Most industries are constantly evolving and the repair work we do needs to be slightly altered to keep up.
In this article, I’ll show you three ways to take advantage of mass adoption of tablets.
We all know that tablets can be used for watching movies and playing some games, but the real power comes from when they are hooked up to other devices and services. It could be connected to the internet so clients can download their emails, stay current with the news, watch their stocks and know what the weather is going to be today.
You would think that if a client was this well connected that they would probably know how to set all of this up themselves, but with the simplicity of the Apple iPad, there is a huge generation of people entering the digital realm that previously wouldnt go anywhere near it. As intuitive as these modern devices are, they still need someone to enter their POP and SMTP settings, they still need to hook it up to their wireless (if they have one at all) and still need to setup an account with the App store.
A good example of this is one of my clients who has an iMac, iPhone, iPad and she would be an intermediate user who knows how to use most of the functions. When I was called out there was a few problems she wanted me to look at but one of them was that she wanted her emails to appear on all three devices because with the current setup, if the iMac opened it first it would not appear on the other two devices.
All I had to do was turn on the “leave a copy on server for X days” option in her iMacs email application. It is simple work for you and I, but there are so many people who dont know there is even an option like this. Apple claims that the devices “just work” and stand alone they are pretty good, but they dont always play nice with other software which means there is plenty of work in this area.
As intuitive as tablet operating systems are, plenty of people still dont know how to use the device. They are well aware of what it is capable of thanks to the commercials but have no idea how to actually do it. In my personal experience with iPad clients, most people wanted to be able to check their email, check the weather and maybe play some music.
I would show them how to download an application if their device needed it to use those features (after setting up their app store accounts), showed them that there is now an icon on the home screen, press this and then that. I billed many hours this way and the clients loved me for it because their children and grandchildren would either go through it all too quickly for them to learn or get frustrated trying to teach them.
Last but not least, tablets are portable and they will get damaged so there is an opportunity in repairing them. There are many resources out there to learn how to repair tablets but one of the best I have found is the iFixit.com tablet section. They have instructions for repairing Apple iPads, Nooks, Dell Tablets, HP Tablets, Motorola Tablets, RIM Tablets, Amazon Kindle Fires and the original Amazon Kindle. They do have a parts link on the right hand side where you purchase parts, but eBay has far better prices.
Of course, you shouldn’t learn the basics on your clients expensive devices. Instead, buy some broken devices and spare parts on eBay for dirt cheap, fix them and learn along the way. You can even sell the fixed device afterwards and make money from your education.
I don’t see the mass adoption of tablets as a threat to our industry, just an opportunity. They dont replace Desktops and Laptops, but work along side them and actually pulls people further into our world with a heavier reliance on technology.
© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their Computer Business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. 3 Ways for Computer Technicians to take Advantage of the Mass Adoption of Tablets
Authors: Bryce Whitty
System Restore Explorer is small, freeware tool that allows you to view and delete specific Windows system restore points. This is a handy way to clear up some disk space without wiping out all of the restore points since previously the only built in option we had was either all or none.
However, the best feature is that it allows browse and copy individual files inside the system restore points, without performing a full system restore.
When you install System Restore Explorer, you see a list of all the available system restore points including the time and date of when they were taken. You can right click on any of these and you
have the option to Mount, Unmount or Delete that specific restore point. If you Mount that restore point, it will show you the files inside that restore point in your standard Windows Explorer interface allowing you to manage the files inside it like you would any other file on your system.
This application only works in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Viewing the list of available restore points to Mount or Delete.
Browsing inside a mounted restore point.
Download from Official Site (search for “download it here”) – 840kb
Special thanks to the forum member Galdorf for recommending this one.
© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their Computer Business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. System Restore Explorer – View, Delete and Browse Inside System Restore Points
Authors: Bryce Whitty
I am going to be interviewing fellow computer technicians via email so people can hear their stories, be inspired by them and learn something new.
What questions would you like me to ask them beyond the typical “Who you are and how did you start”? You can leave a comment below. (Or hit reply if you are reading this via Email)
If you consider yourself successful, whether a single guy in his bedroom always keeping busy, or someone with a shop and multiple employees, I would love to interview you via email. Shoot an email to tips@technibble.com, tell me a little bit about yourself, what about yourself you believe would be interesting to your fellow techies and I’ll get in touch with you.
Last but not least, if you know someone you would really love to have interviewed, send me their details to tips@technibble.com and I’ll do what I can.
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To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. Seeking Computer Technicians To Interview
Authors: Bryce Whitty
Guest Post by Marco Rodi: Marco Rodi owns an IT Engineering university degree. He has his own computer repair business (OrdiRodi) that mainly does Apple Support.
So you receive a call from a client saying “My hard drive just crashed!!” or “I just bought a new Mac and I need to transfer all my information” or even “I want to clear my hard drive and do a clean installation”.
As a professional, you need to know exactly what to do to perform a perfect backup and reinstall. You don’t want to lose a client’s files or preferences. The client wants to have the exact same thing as before: their beautiful Mac, up and running again. They do not want to call you back and say: “Hey! I don’t have my music in my iTunes anymore!”, “Where are my bookmarks?” or “How come my icons are smaller?”.
Here are the steps to perform a perfect backup and reinstall on OSX using Time Machine.
First of all, you need to backup everything. With Apple it’s easy.
There is a built in application called Time Machine and you simply need to plug an empty external drive into the computer (Yes, it must be empty because it will wipe everything on it), and activate Time Machine.
To activate Time Machine, simply open your System Preferences. And click on the Time Machine icon.
Click on “Select Disk”.
Choose your external drive and click on “Use Backup Disk”.
Time Machine will copy everything (OS, Software, Files, and Preferences) to the external hard drive. So when you will reinstall the OS, you can restore everything from that backup.
Once everything is backed up, we need to clear and format the new hard drive. To do so, you need to have a copy of the OS that you need to install (Snow Leopard or Lion). It can be on either CD or USB, it does not matter.
Shutdown the computer and insert your bootable device into the client’s Mac.
Boot the Mac while holding the “Option” key (ALT key if you are using a non-Apple keyboard). You will arrive on a window where you can choose a bootable device. Please choose your OS Installation (Either CD or USB).
You will then arrive at this window. Choose the language you want and press enter.
Click on Utilities and choose Disk Utility.
Select the drive you want to format to the left.
On the Erase Tab, use the “Format” Dropdown and choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.
Name your Hard Drive
Click the Erase Button.
It will then take some time to format the hard drive.
Once this is completed, you can close the Disk Utility window and start the installation. It will install the OS on your new hard drive.
Once the installation is complete, it will reboot and it will start from your newly installed OS.
At the beginning, it will ask you if you want to transfer your information.
Plug your external device with the Time Machine backup and select “from a Time Machine backup” at the “Do You Already Own a Mac?” stage.
It will transfer all the files and settings that Time Machine made a backup of back onto the Mac.
So that is it. You can let your client test the computer and confirm that everything is back to normal.
© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their Computer Business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. How To Perform a Perfect BackUp & Reinstall with Apple Time Machine
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Authors: Bryce Whitty
A work bench is something that most Computer Technicians will need and checking out other Computer Technicians workbenches is a great way to get inspiration for our own setups. Even if you have already completed your own workbench, it is nice to see how other technicians are doing it. We haven’t done one of these in a while (#1, #2) so it is time for #3 in our Computer Technicians workbenches series.
This is a few pictures of our shop… And yes before you ask that is the same stuff they use on metal roof tops. We cut it down and made it the front of the counter, the added benefit is that we put magnet backs on our cards and people just take them when they want them.. People love the fact they can see us working on their computers.
I’ve always worked out of a spare bedroom in my house but 4 months ago my 2nd child was born and it was decided by my wife and I that the office should be given to my older son and turned back into a bedroom and the youngest have the older sons current bedroom.
In my garden I have a brick outhouse that has been used as a shed. It’s not the biggest space in the world (10 foot x 6 foot) but as the majority of my work is carried out on site I don’t need a huge area so I decided to have it converted to an office.
Before:
After:
Moved to a new location this year, built it all the cabinets and benches, and put up some new signage. Getting ready to launch a new website at the end of the month as well.
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If you would like to see more workbenches, check out our past articles:
A Peek At Other Computer Technicians Workbenches #1
A Peek At Other Computer Technicians Workbenches #2
A special thank you to all those who sent in pictures if their workbenches. If you would like to show off your own setup, please send the pictures to tips[at]technibble.com
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To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. A Peek At Other Computer Technicians Workbenches #3
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