Best wishes for a safe and Happy New Year.
We’ve been a bit quiet the last month, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. We’ve been preparing for the new year. There are some interesting new computer products out and technology continues to race forward.
NEWS FROM THE SHOP
We’ve been checking out some cool new hardware. We recently got our hands on one of Intel’s new Compute Sticks. This thing is a bit larger than a pack of gum, but is actually a computer, complete with Windows 10 Home. It uses an HDMI port to plug into a monitor or TV and has bluetooth connectivity for a keyboard & mouse. It appears to be perfect for a home entertainment system if your TV needs something that can stream content to it. Our business clients may find it of interest as a “thin client” that will let them connect remotely to their business network. With prices starting around $200, the Compute Stick is an interesting device.
In our November newsletter, we introduced the new preconfigured Intel NUC system. We’ve now started delivering them to clients and the response has been very positive. It is amazing how much power can be packed into a computer that you can hold in your hand.
American Express ran a campaign a few years back with the tag line: “Membership Has Its Privileges”. That is quite true. Gulfcoast Networking provides support packages for both individuals and businesses.
For individuals, our Safe Computing Packages are a great bargain. Instead of waiting for something to break, sign up today and quit worrying about your computer. Just one phone call from “Microsoft Support” claiming that your computer is infected will cost you more than our most expensive Safe Computing Package. Our Safe Computing clients know that they can just pick up the phone and let us worry about making sure that their computer is okay.
Many of our business clients sign up for a managed IT contract that covers our support of their computers and their network. Telephone and remote support is completely covered. We also monitor the network and individual computers on a real-time basis. Where necessary, we also manually check up on critical systems. Allow me to explain how this works:
Before writing this newsletter on a brisk Saturday morning, I logged into one client’s server and performed a system reboot to clear a backup issue we’ve been troubleshooting. After the server came back up, I then stopped and restarted various services in a specific order to work around a known Quickbooks bug. Once finished, I retested the backup routine. All of this scheduled weekend maintenance, along with the service calls I’ve made to the client in the past month, have been completely covered under a single fixed price contract.
The alternative is to pay for service as it is needed. Some months are inexpensive, but others can be very expensive. Smart computer owners appreciate being able to predict what their monthly cost is going to be, without any unpleasant surprises.
Be a smart computer owner and sign up for one of our individual or business support plans.
Happy New Year.
Rob Marlowe, Senior Geek