Through Microsoft?s TaaS agreement, a customer can select to pay for their device over 12, 24, or 36 months. Prices vary based on the customer?s length of lease, choice of device, and features included. Their most affordable offering is a basic model Surface 3 device paid for over 30 months, while a Surface Book costs considerably more per month as it is billed over 18. Membership in this program comes with a few select benefits, including seven-day-a-week support by phone or in-store, one-on-one personal training, and in-store discounts on hardware and software for your device. However, there are a few catches to this deal Microsoft has set up. First of all, this is a business-exclusive service: in the General Terms section of the TaaS Program Benefits Summary, it is explicitly stated that the service is for ?Business Customers Only; No purchase for resale.? Microsoft goes on to explain that the program sells and ships to end-users only and that any orders may be canceled if resale activity is suspected. Additionally, not all products will be available under the service, and the devices will only be official Microsoft products. Of course, for a service of this type, one doesn?t necessarily have to turn to the Microsoft Corporation. White Mountain IT Services can help select the right devices to fit your needs, whatever they may be, without the stresses brought about by lease terms, purchase option fees, and cancellation fees. Furthermore, when dealing with White Mountain IT Services, you won?t have to deal with leasing your equipment through a third-party vendor. Microsoft, on the other hand, is financing Surface Membership through LiftForward, a marketplace loan platform. With a solution from White Mountain IT Services, we can handle your dealings with all the solutions that are right for your needs, allowing you to focus on your business. If you?re looking for advice and access to the latest in computing systems and devices to assist your business operations, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800. We can help you select the solution that will best fit your needs.

Consider this: your employees encounter a major issue that only you can resolve, but they have no way to contact you while you?re out of the office. If this happens, progress can be hindered and you?ll come back to one catastrophe after another. This is why completely disconnecting from the office can be a bad idea. In order to keep your business healthy and functioning, even while you?re out of the office on vacation, consider using these strategies to stay connected to your team. Check your email once a day. It?s easy to check your email when you?re in the office; you might have a tab up on a monitor with your email open all day. However, while you?re on vacation, this could mean sitting on the beach with your smartphone. If you want to fully enjoy your vacation, you should limit yourself to checking email once a day, and only respond to immediate and important inquiries. Not everything is a priority, and you should be able to determine the immediacy of a task or request. Plus, by dealing with these issues without them all piling up, you make your return to the office easier. Set boundaries for your availability. If you?re concerned about your employees bugging you while you?re on vacation, make sure that they know when you?re available. You should try to limit yourself as much as possible (considering you?re still on vacation); perhaps an hour in the morning or afternoon would be best. You can use this time to check in with the office and ensure that operations are proceeding forward as intended. You can then get back to enjoying your vacation. Establish a clear chain of command in your absence. Leadership is an important part of being a business owner, so it?s your responsibility to make sure your employees have someone to look to for guidance in your absence. In fact, having a clear chain of command even while you?re in the office can be a great benefit. This helps your team stay organized, and can make the delegation of issues and responsibilities easier in the long run. If you have someone you can rely on to handle any issues that surface while you?re away, your vacation will be that much sweeter. By using these three tips to your advantage, your business will be in much better shape while you?re away on vacation. This means that you can enjoy your time off, without worrying about whether or not your business will be standing when you return to the office. For more great tips and tricks, be sure to subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.

Put Your Router Out in the OpenSome people don?t like the appearance of routers. They fashion them an eyesore and try to hide them away in cabinets or elsewhere, away from where people can see them. This is often both counterproductive and dangerous, as the device can potentially overheat in a place with poor air circulation. If you store your router in a cabinet, you?re also weakening the signal, which can make it spotty and difficult to use. Instead, we recommend that you keep your router out in the open, where it can get plenty of air and keep the signal as strong as possible. This is a best practice for your technology, including workstations and servers that generate a lot of heat naturally by functioning properly. Use a Central LocationWhile it might be tempting to just put your router in a far corner of your office and forget that it exists, chances are that the other half of your office won?t be receiving a very strong wireless signal. To avoid this, you need to set your router up in a central location where it can broadcast its signal to the entire office. Depending on your office?s setup, you might even need multiple access points to allow each of your employees to access the Internet. Also of note, you should elevate your router slightly to ensure that the signal isn?t being blocked by furniture that sits on the floor. File cabinets, desks, and other objects could all get in the way of the wireless signal. Review Your Bandwidth and Internet Service AgreementSometimes the placement of a router won?t have anything to do with your problem, and the issue is with your network connection instead. In this case, the problem would be with your modem or your Internet service agreement limiting your bandwidth and the flow of data. If you?re having wireless problems, and you?re sure it?s not your router, it?s worth looking into the problem on the ISP?s side of things. Upgrade Your RouterAre you using the same old router that you picked up when you first started your business? If so, there?s a strong chance that your router?s hardware or firmware is outdated. Since you actually have control over your router, you?d do well to investigate the issue before you purchase a new one. It?s recommended that you go with a router that?s capable of supporting both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz bands. This will help you keep your network strong and healthy. Plus, sometimes all it takes to resolve connectivity issues is to upgrade your system?s firmware. For help optimizing your business?s wireless network, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Security company LeakedSource was able to obtain and analyze the stolen passwords from an online black market. They found that the most commonly used password (connected to more than 120,000 accounts) is also the easiest to guess: ?123456.? This despite (or perhaps because of) the famous password scene from the 1987 film ?Spaceballs.? If you recall, the joke was regarding King Roland being blackmailed by Dark Helmet to turn over the password securing Druidia?s planetary forcefield. The super-secret password in question, ?12345.? The revelation of the password being so ridiculously simple caused Dark Helmet to reply, ?That’s the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard in my life! That’s the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!? Not surprisingly, the other most-used passwords from the Twitter haul are just as easy to guess; ?123456789,? ?qwerty,? and ?password.? We make the connection to Spaceballs in order to highlight the fact that using weak passwords has been a major IT security issue for at least 30 years, with little hope of things changing. Fortunately, the remedy is quite simple; use complex passwords with a string of random characters. Taking this measure alone will improve your security vastly over all the other King Rolands to be found on cyberspace. However, using complex passwords will only get you so far. For example, as in the case of the recent Twitter heist, if your password is stolen, then it doesn’t matter how complex it is. This is why we highly recommend that you take advantage of two-factor authentication security solutions. Twitter and other major websites offer two-factor authentication, which messages your mobile device with an additional code upon entering the correct password. It?s a small inconvenience that will virtually guarantee that you?ll be protected, should your password fall into the wrong hands. Additionally, we recommend following the best practice of using a different password for each of your online accounts. For example, if your Twitter password gets stolen and this happens to be the same password used for your other online accounts, then the hacker would have an easy time logging into your other accounts. Actually, this happens more than you would think, with Facebook?s Mark Zuckerberg becoming the recent poster child. On June 6th, Zuckerberg briefly lost control of his Twitter and Pinterest accounts after hackers used the same password to access both. The password in question was not only ridiculously easy to guess, but it was also one that he?s apparently used before, ?dadada.? Therefore, if you?re using complex passwords, two-factor authentication, a different password for each account, and you?re routinely changing your passwords, you?ll apparently have better online security than Mark Zuckerberg, which is something to brag about. Following all of these password security best practices will go a long way in protecting your online identity, and when it comes to network security, the more precautions you take, the better. To that end, call White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800 to equip your business with the best security solutions on the market.

The break-fix IT model is one that has simply lost its flavor in the business environment. Organizations are leveraging technology in previously unprecedented bulk, and are now more reliant on technology than they ever were before. They want a more dynamic solution that doesn?t rely on them investing heavily in new technology whenever something breaks down. That, and the increasing amount of efficiency and productivity that organizations demand, requires a more conscientious approach to managing their technology solutions. Thus, managed IT services were born. Designed to proactively manage and maintain technology, the managed IT service model seeks to take a more active role in the upkeep of your business?s technology. In comparison, the break-fix IT model takes a reactive approach, only stepping in when major problems surface. Managed IT prevents the problems altogether by handling minor issues at their roots, preventing expensive downtime. Here are some of the top reasons that small businesses are choosing managed services as a quality alternative to traditional break-fix IT solutions: Fewer capital costs: Technology is expensive. There?s no getting around this fact. Naturally, you want to replace your technology as little as possible due to the immense up-front costs of doing so. This means that you need to take exceptionally good care of your technology if you want to limit your expenses in the long run. Plus, the amount of money that you invest in your managed services agreement can be recorded as an operating expense, further mitigating your capital costs. Reduced management responsibility: One of the key benefits of the managed IT service model is that your business doesn?t need to spend as much time dealing with technology repair problems, and can instead focus on improving business operations. In other words, the responsibility of handling your technology is taken care of for you, so you can concentrate on what matters most: running your business. Quality technology maintenance: If your team doesn?t regularly handle IT maintenance, and you don?t have an internal IT department, chances are that your technology isn?t getting the attention it needs in order to stay up to date. By outsourcing this responsibility to a managed service provider, you can rest easy knowing that your IT is being handled by seasoned professionals. If your business is ready to start handling your technology the smart way, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.