First, we?ll give you a brief overview of what you should expect when putting together an IT roadmap. You?ll want to focus on how much growth you anticipate, as well as how technology can influence or augment this growth. Another important aspect to consider is the resources your business currently has versus how much you will need in the future to achieve your goals. Finally, think about what kind of risks are associated with how much growth you are planning for, as well as how you can minimize the chances of this affecting your organization as time passes. Projected Growth and Technology Over time, your business will grow, whether it?s onboarding new clients or hiring more staff to make sure operations progress smoothly. You should have a plan for how much you expect to grow over the next year, so you can make sure technology solutions can adapt to this number as needed. For example, if you suspect that you?ll onboard 10 new employees next year, you should begin to make preparations now so as to minimize the growing pains later. Bandwidth deficiencies due to unexpected growth can floor your network and access speeds, making this a particularly important aspect to consider. Resource Planning for the Future The same consideration should be shown for your clients. If you onboard too many clients without enough staff or resources to effectively serve them, you?re not just doing the customers a disservice–you?re harming your own business (and its reputation) in the process. By being forward-thinking about your business? specific needs, you can prevent these kinds of issues from cropping up in the first place. Risk Factors Associated with Growth The more users and clients you onboard, the more technology your business is going to use; and the more technology your organization implements, the greater the risk of security issues. It goes without saying that the more endpoints are on your network, the more likely your business is to encounter dangerous situations. Therefore, you should have measures put in place to ensure the integrity of your data storage systems and any endpoints connected to them. This includes mobile devices, which are an aspect of data security that can quickly spiral into a major problem if left unchecked. White Mountain IT Services can help your business plan for the future with an IT roadmap. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
Recovery of Lost Word Files We?ve all been in a situation where we have lost progress on specific files due to a power outage or similar disaster, like an unexpected hardware crash. Thankfully, there is a way to save your hard work if you haven?t had the opportunity before the crash happens. In Word, navigate to the Open menu. At the bottom of this page, you?ll see a button that gives you the ability to recover unsaved documents. Compare Two Documents Side-by-Side Collaboration is critical to the success of all businesses, but this often includes comparing documents side-by-side–something that is difficult if you?re not in the same physical location. If you want to compare two different versions of a document, and even merge it into one, you can use the Review tab at the top of Word?s document screen. This gives your employees even more opportunities to work together as effectively as possible. Add a Functional Table of Contents Office workers are often asked to build out reports, but they can be challenging to look at without a table of contents. If you have a little knowledge of Word, you can use it to build an easy table of contents in any paper or report. To do so, first make sure the headings and whatnot are all laid out in the proper order. Next, go to the References tab and click on Table of Contents. Choose the style you?d like to use from the options presented and the table of contents will be generated. You?ll have to edit them to your specific requirements, but this is easy enough. Add Custom Words to the Spell Check Dictionary Some words and phrases simply aren?t identified as ?spelled right? by Word, no matter how many times you use them. In cases like this, you can add custom words to the spell check dictionary so that they don?t waste even more of your time moving forward. You can add words by going through the File menu and clicking on Options. Once this window appears, you can click on Proofing. When the dictionary list pops up, select CUSTOM.DIC and click on the Edit Word List option. You?ll be able to make changes to your custom dictionary in this way. For more great tips and tricks on Microsoft Word and more, subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.
What is Going On Considering the difference in the market shares of Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome (4.24 percent compared to 67.66 percent, respectively), it should come as no surprise that the first thing that many owners of a Windows 10 device do is to use Edge to download Chrome. Naturally, Edge defaults to Bing to conduct these searches. However, these searches have taken to delivering disguised malware sites as sponsored ads for Google Chrome within these search results. When the user searches Bing to find the download link for Chrome, there is the chance that, instead of a sponsored result popping up from Google, one will pop up that only appears to be from Google at first glance. However, once clicked on, this link brings a user to a phishing site disguised to look like the Google Chrome download page, with the URL ?googleonline2018.com.? Trying to access this site through Chrome itself results in the user finding it to be blocked, while Bing and Edge do no such thing. Not a New Problem Making this situation even worse, this is not the first time that Bing has had this issue. Back in April of this year, this threat was reported as effectively identical to this recent version – and while the advertisement has been pulled, there has been no explanation of how it could appear to come from google.com, or if this issue had been resolved. This means that it is entirely likely that this issue will pop up once again. Other Bing Issues Of course, this isn?t the only problematic element of the Bing search engine. Its search function has a history of delivering highly offensive and alarming content, especially through its image search. Searches for what are objectively neutral terms would deliver back inflammatory results, even with SafeSearch on. Similar things happen when you search for other terms as well. In addition to racist search suggestions, the suggestions on Bing also were pushing conspiracy theories in their suggested searches. Adding to these problems even more, Bing offers both horrible search suggestions and results, suggesting that a user (after searching for ?girl?) instead searches for ?cute young girl 16,? and it only gets worse from there. The image results are arguably even worse, delivering content that could get people in serious legal trouble. Searching for the wrong thing could result in, for example, bath time pictures of children displayed alongside hardcore adult materials. Microsoft isn?t the first technology giant to contend with these kinds of issues, and you can be sure this won?t be the last time. With White Mountain IT Services?s help, you can also be sure that your business won?t join their ranks. Call (603) 889-0800 to find out more about how we can help protect and optimize your business technology.
Do Your Research All disaster scenarios demand that you?re prepared with a business continuity plan, but the degree to which a business is susceptible to a natural disaster can vary by geographical location. Not all businesses will be vulnerable to hurricanes, for example, but there are countless other scenarios that could complicate things for your business. The statistics say that 30 percent of all downtime is caused by environmental factors, which includes anything from flooding and hurricanes to a little bit (or a lot of) humidity or extreme weather. Therefore, it?s up to you to know which risk factors exist for your business, as well as which systems you can implement to keep them from happening. While it?s not something that seems necessary, a monitoring system can help you avoid a disaster. Downtime costs alone have skyrocketed by 38 percent in only eight years, so you can save yourself a lot of trouble by implementing solutions designed to mitigate the effects of hurricanes and other disasters. Hurricanes are only growing larger and more dangerous (even simple rainstorms have increased precipitation by 70 percent), so you need to do all you can now while you still have a business to protect. Plan for the Worst Next, you should define what your business? worst-case scenario looks like and how you can get ready for it. An off-site data backup system plays a big role in making sure this doesn?t happen, as well as having your data stored in multiple locations outside of your office. This keeps your data as safe as possible, as it?s unlikely that a disaster could destroy all copies of your data. When the worst strikes, it?s also imperative that you have a plan to keep all of your employees in communication with each other, thus confirming their safety in the event of a hurricane or other disaster. This is also critical for relaying to your clients that something has happened, so they can expect service to be delayed in the interim. It?s also not a bad idea to have some provisions in your office just in case you find yourself unable to leave. Finally, be sure that a full shutdown is prepared for in any circumstance. You should have an outline for how to instigate this shutdown, as well as how you can get back in action once the danger has subsided. Recover from the Disaster Now that you have your plan fully outlined, you?ll need to ensure that the disaster will only have a small influence on your organization?s operations. You can give your employees the tools to work remotely so they can stay productive during the time your office isn?t functional. You can also make sure that your office is equipped with tools to keep damage internally to a minimum, including water pumps to keep flooding at bay. As far as your data goes, White Mountain IT Services can help with data backup and disaster recovery. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
Why is an Admin Account Such a Big Deal? An administrator account is basically the highest level of privilege that you can give to someone on your network. Compared to the traditional user account, an admin account can do much, much more–and this isn?t necessarily a good thing. Keeping more traditional accounts than administrator accounts is a best practice because it minimizes risk to your network. This keeps an ordinary user from making drastic changes to a network, like installing software or moving important files around. Admin accounts can perform just about any action they want on a computer. Think of it as the way IT accesses a computer, as they need these permissions to apply updates and administer general maintenance. Every computer needs to have at least one admin account on it, but untrained users should not have admin permissions, as this could result in file changes that prevent the computer from working as intended. Why You Need to Limit Admin Account Use It might make sense to have admin permissions for your own computer account, but it?s actually not in your best interest. This is because there are major security problems that come from using an admin account as your primary device account. If the device is compromised in some way, the account could install malware with administrator privileges or make changes to important files. Even if you think you?ll need the extra privileges, we assure you that you don?t in almost any circumstance–at any rate, the security detriment isn?t worth it. Standard accounts will generally have more limited permissions, which means that a compromised account will only yield certain permissions, not the entirety of the computer. This is why we suggest limiting administrator accounts only to whoever is in charge of IT. If your business needs someone to manage its IT solutions, White Mountain IT Services can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
