GEEKNOTES — Page 4

GEEKNOTE: NUC Update

July 7, 2013 By Rob Marlowe

GEEKNOTE: A little over three months ago, I reported on Intel’s “Next Unit of Computing” or “NUC”. We now have our hands on all three processor versions….the Celeron, the i3, and the i5 versions.

We’ve run the Windows Experience Ratings for each of them, plus three conventional workstations as reference systems.

The 1.1ghz Celeron NUC came in dead last in processor performance, scoring a 3.9. My six year old Quad core system at home came in second at 5.9. Mid pack were an older 2.8ghz E5500 desktop and the i3 version of the NUC at 6.2. The 1.8ghz i5 NUC came in a little better at 6.9, just a tad below the 7.1 of a 3.1ghz i3-2100 and my screaming i5 quad core (less than a year old) at work. What is interesting to me is the fact that the clock speed doesn’t mean that much anymore. The newer systems tend to run faster than the older ones, even those with faster clock speeds or more processor cores.

Graphics performance is even more interesting. The Celeron NUC out performs all of the conventional desktops except my i5 quad core at the office, and my quad core at the office can’t keep up with either the i3 or i5 versions of the NUC when it comes to graphics. Again, this is an example of the newer systems simply out performing older ones and a good reason to consider replacing older systems.

The NUCs take everything on hard drive performance, but that isn’t a bit surprising, given that they all use solid state drives. My SSD equipped desktop at work is the only one of the conventional systems that has similar performance.

The conclusion I’ve come to from this exercise is that the Celeron NUC is passable for light duty use, such as the email and web surfing duties that many of our customers do. With a boot time of just 20 seconds and extremely low power consumption, the Celeron NUC worth looking at.

The i3 and i5 versions are quite capable desktop replacements for office use. They both have plenty of horsepower for normal office duties.

One feature of the i5 version is that it supports vPRO, meaning that it supports “out of band” network communication. Put in layman’s terms: We can take remote control of an i5 NUC even if the system won’t boot and needs to have Windows reinstalled. For our customers trying to minimize tech time onsite, this is potentially a huge benefit. The i5 NUC will also drive three monitors compared to the dual monitor capabilities of the other two NUCs (The i5 has one HDMI and two Displayport interfaces, the i3 and the Celeron units have dual HDMI interfaces).

There are four things to consider before picking any NUC as a replacement for your current desktop system:

The NUCs have limited storage. The largest SSD I’ve found for the NUCs is a 480gb unit. If you store large audio and video files, you can fill one of these up pretty quickly.
The NUCs do not have an optical drive. With so much software now coming as downloads, this is less of an issue than it might seem. If you back up your data to the cloud, or another machine on your network, then this is not a problem. External optical drives run about $50.
The NUCs only have three USB ports. If you plug in a keyboard, mouse, and a printer, you have used up all the ports. Fortunately, USB hubs are inexpensive.
Audio output is via the video ports, so your monitor needs to have speakers or you are going to be using one of your USB ports for a USB audio device.

Does all this sound like fun? Drop by and we’ll let you take them through their paces.

GEEKNOTE: Going Mobile

July 1, 2013 By Rob Marlowe

GEEKNOTE: In reviewing the analytics for a number of websites I manage, I noted that a couple of the sites have a significant amount of traffic from mobile devices (eg. smart phones of various flavors and Apple iPADs). Not surprisingly, the two sites with the highest percentages of mobile traffic were Greater New Port Richey Main Street and a local restaurant.

If you will pardon the pun, I think I’ll chew on these results for a bit before drawing any final conclusions. It is probably safe to say that this past weekend’s Friendly Kiafest in Sims Park had a lot to do with Main Street’s mobile web traffic. On Kiafest Saturday, they actually had more mobile than non-mobile traffic.

Other sites I looked at, including my company’s website, have much lower ratios of mobile to desktop use, typically 10-15% of the totals being mobile devices.

The fact that ANY traffic on any website comes from mobile devices is a testament to how popular smart phones have become. Even my old flip phone has a web browser. I tend to do my web surfing on a desktop machine. Those twin 22″ widescreen monitors on my desk have spoiled me.

Websites are being redesigned to display properly on smart phones. That was part of what prompted me to rebuild our website a few months back. While I may be viewing our website on a pair of big screens, the percentage of folks looking at the site on their phones is growing. I can foresee the day when “I found you on my phone” will eclipse “I found you in the yellow pages” as the number one way new customers find us.

One interesting side effect of the general availability of smart phones is the emergence of a new form of business card. The Savvy Card is a product of a Tampa Bay company. I first heard about it at this year’s Business Development Week and the NPI network marketing group I participate in has adopted Savvy Cards as an extremely easy way to swap member information and share that information for referral purposes.

The Savvy Cards are formatted to fit a smart phone screen and have all the contact information you are used to seeing on a business card, plus much much more.

Those of us who tend to use our phones just for phone calls are missing out. I was quite surprised a couple of years ago to discover than my little flip phone actually had a GPS receiver built in. The map is admittedly very small, but it lets me know right where I am. No more getting lost.

Are you using your phone for surfing the web? Would you use it more if you had an unlimited data plan? Let us know.

GEEKNOTE: Remote Support Upgrade

June 16, 2013 By Rob Marlowe

GEEKNOTE: It has been a busy week with several former clients taking a fresh look at what we can do for them that we couldn’t do even two years ago. I would like to attribute this renewed attention to my marketing brilliance, but I know that the truth is that we’ve completed some major technology upgrades that have positioned us to provide better service and hopefully grow faster now that economic worries are becoming less of a concern. Those upgrades have totalled tens of thousands of dollars over the last couple of years and they are definitely an investment rather than an expense.

The most recent upgrade was this past weekend: We had a software update to our RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) system. The RMM system is what we use to handle real-time tracking of our business customers’ computers and computer networks. The update adds tracking for Apple OS systems and also adds integration features that will let the RMM system work better with the remote support system we use to take remote keyboard and mouse control of customers’ computers.

I was working Saturday morning, mostly on getting mid-month invoices ready to go out, when the phone rang. It was a fellow in Ohio who had been unfortunate enough to get the FBI/Moneypak virus on his system. He had visited a friend down here some months back and had come into the store. Fortunately, he had been impressed enough to pick up one of my cards. I walked him through the steps necessary to get him back online and then we set up a remote control session so that I could install various decontamination tools and eliminate the virus. We got things cleaned up and I mailed him his payment receipt along with the business cards he wanted to hand out to his friends.

I have absolutely no problem doing telephone support for folks in Ohio or elsewhere for that matter. We have the technology that makes this possible, so we might as well use it.

I assisted a business client in Kentucky this past week, working his on-site geek through how some network changes would effect their mail server. We handle software updates and routine off-site backups for the server.

Closer to home, I had a business desktop come in late Friday. I ran a whole battery of tests on it over the weekend, but could not identify what is causing the issue the customer is seeing. You’ve probably seen the same thing when you take your car in for service and the car behaves while the mechanic has it. The computer will go back Monday morning with a plug-in for our RMM system so that I can gather real time data on what is going on when it is in use.

The Internet creates price competition for locally owned businesses, much like the price competition from the big box stores. If someone is shopping solely on the basis of price, they can always find someone willing to work for less. When someone tells us that the kid down the street will fix their computer for $20 and a six pack, we just smile and thank them for calling.

The flip side is that the Internet allows us to cast a wider net for clients who recognize that low price is not the same as value. They understand that quality workmanship is worth paying for. The remote support tools we use minimize how often we actually need to physically touch a computer. That is how we can service our satisfied clients in California, Kentucky, Ohio, and other places far removed from our home base in the Tampa Bay area.

That is also why some of our local clients have discovered that while they don’t see us as much as they used to, their computers and networks simply don’t have problems. We are monitoring those computers and networks and doing the things necessary to keep them running without having to repeatedly go on-site. We charge a fair price for our service, with our clients realizing that downtime is far more expensive than any service we might provide.

Is quality something that people are willing to pay for? We believe the answer is “yes”.

As always, feel free to drop me a note or give me a call (727-847-2424) if you have any questions about your computer or the Internet.

Rob Marlowe, Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.

GEEKNOTE: Privacy

June 9, 2013 By Rob Marlowe

GEEKNOTE: Various NSA related hash tags popped to the top of Twitter this past week as news broke about the NSA’s data mining operation.

My favorite was this one:

#nsacalledtotellme
Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you…

Another good one:

#nsacalledtotellme the GPS device under my SUV could use a new battery.

The paranoid among us will immediately jump to the conclusion that the government is watch everything we do online and everything we say on the phone.

The truth is likely much more frightening.

By all accounts the NSA activities disclosed this past week involve so-called “meta-data” that looks at trends, such as the phone numbers used to make phone calls overseas to known terrorist numbers.

Other branches of the government, most notably the military, are involved in seeing what other countries are doing to try to compromise our security. Even supposed US efforts to reprogram centrifuges in other countries don’t really bother me.

I don’t call anyone in the middle east and I certainly don’t own any centrifuges in Iran. If the NSA wants to listen in on my conversations with my various granddaughters, all I ask is that they send me a transcript explaining what the grandkids are actually trying to tell me. Likewise, if they enjoy the latest “grumpy cat” meme that I posted on facebook, all I ask is that they click “like”…

Corporations, on the other hand, are continuously looking at our online activities. They do this with “cookies” that are little pieces of tracking code.

Most cookies are benign. When I visit a website and it needs to keep track of my clicks during my visit, that is fine. A good example is any website with a shopping cart. The website needs to know what we’ve put in our shopping carts so we can actually buy the stuff we want.

Where things get a little scary is when websites share cookie information with other websites. I have an attorney client who recently had problems with his website. I did a number of online tests to determine exactly why he was having problems. Last week, I visited Foxnews.com and was presented with an advertisement from a domain registrar that I do not normally use offering me a variation of my client’s domain name. Clearly, one of the sites I used to check on the real domain’s health shared that information with Fox News and the registrar that was advertising on the Fox News website.

One of the reasons that so many “free” programs that you can download come with browser toolbars is that the toolbars come with search features and your search activities are collected by the toolbar owners so they can serve up advertisements. If the ads and popups weren’t bad enough, Internet Explorer frequently grinds to a halt when you get six, eight, or even ten of these toolbars all installed and demanding computer time.

Quite a bit of the malware out there is also looking to steal your personal information.

What can we do? Let me give you some suggestions:

First off, don’t use your company computer for personal stuff. It is entirely possible that your company has installed off the shelf software that tracks every keystroke you make and every website you visit while at work. It is the company’s machine. If your company has you sign an agreement stating that company machines are not to be used for personal stuff, you need to take that seriously.

Second, keep the number of toolbars installed on your browser to a bare minimum. You can uninstall extra toolbars using the add/remove programs applet in the control panel.

Third, take a look at the privacy settings in your browser. You can tighten things up to minimize the amount of tracking that is happening when you surf the web. Be advised though that honoring those tracking settings is optional and the bad actors out there will ignore the settings.

Finally, periodically scan your computer for programs that may have compromised your system and be sharing your activities with the outside world. Two of my favorite programs in this regard are Malwarebytes and Spybot Search & Destroy, both of which are free downloads from http://www.downloads.com.

In summary, while the NSA “might” see your meta-data within the massive amounts of data that they are sifting through, they likely couldn’t care less. On the other hand, corporations data mining your surfing habits are highly interested in what you find interesting and they will do their best to customize their marketing to match your interests.

Feel free to contact me if you are concerned about how much data may be leaking off your computer or business network.

As always, feel free to drop me a note or give me a call (847-2424) if you have any questions about your computer or the Internet.

Rob Marlowe, Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com

Geeknote: End of an Era – Dialup Is Dead

May 12, 2013 By Rob Marlowe

GEEKNOTE: My interest in computer communications bloomed in the mid 1985 when I got involved in the BBS (Computer Bulletin Board System) scene. Things grew and I converted my hobby BBS into a commercial system in January of 1993, creating Marlowe & Associates as the business entity. We used Fidonet’s store and forward system to transfer files and email between various BBS systems. The BBS would pick up the phone and dial another system, transferring files and email at the then standard 2400bps.

A few months later, I attended a BBS conference in Colorado Springs where the presenters talked about this newly available network called “the Internet” that could be used to link computers together. A fellow by the name of Phil Becker with a company called eSoft had a lab test version of an all-in-one device that he called an Internet Protocol Adapter or “IPAD” for short. The IPAD would allow BBS operators to link up their systems, provide dialup Internet access to their customers and, for all practical purposes, serve as an “ISP In A Box”.

I was hooked. I signed up for one of the first beta versions of the IPAD to leave the eSoft offices. We ordered phone lines for a growing number of modems to handle our rapidly growing dialup customer base. When the modem count hit about 50, we converted to Ascend Max remote access servers, each of which could handle 46 telephone lines using a pair of T1 lines. We ultimately had four Ascend Max units running here at the house.

At dialup’s peak, we had close to 2000 dialup customers. Those were the glory days for independent ISPs. Some of the big boys got into the dialup business in a big way, most notably America Online, or “AOL” for short. AOL distributed floppy disks with their access software via the mail and any other means they could think of. I was a bit disappointed when their software expanded to the point where they started having to use CD’s because I had to start buying floppies again instead of just recycling the AOL floppies I kept getting in the mail!

GTE and then Verizon started rolling out DSL in the late 90’s. We signed on to sell DSL service as well as dialup. Verizon was much less ISP friendly than GTE had been, pricing retail DSL service at less than they charged wholesale to their ISP partners. Reading the handwriting on the wall, we organized Gulfcoast Networking to provide a broad range of computer services, well beyond strictly Internet access services.

Dialup had begun its slow decline. The local cable company started offering Roadrunner service and then Verizon began rolling out FIOS, canibalizing the DSL business in the process. We ultimately dropped DSL when a combination of economics and the rapidly increasing speeds of basic Internet connections made continuing a losing proposition.

Even America Online changed its business model from being a dialup ISP to being a web focused company with offerings like “Patch”.

We ditched the Ascend Maxes a number of years ago and went with a wholesale dialup provider that gave us both better pricing than we could get by ourselves and a nationwide dialup footprint. We kept offering dialup service to the shrinking group of people who didn’t need anything more than dialup. As of last month, that number had shrunk to “five”.

We got a letter last month from our wholesale dialup provider adding a new base charge to our account that essentially doubled what we were paying. With this added charge, continuing to provide dialup service for the five customers would force us to charge each customer as much as they could get basic high speed service for from either Verizon or Brighthouse. We sent letters to each of our dialup customers, letting them know that we were turning off dialup at the end of May.

I suppose we should marvel that Internet access via dialup modems lasted nearly 20 years. In the fast moving world of computers and the Internet, that really is quite an accomplishment for any technology.

As I’ve written before, change is constant and this is a change I don’t mind. I have a relatively slow 25 by 5 meg FIOS connection at the house and an even faster Roadrunner connection at the store. Today’s Internet is graphic intensive and the thought of using dialup is simply too painful to contemplate.

We have been providing our customers with remote technical support for several years now. Providing that support to dialup customers is impossible because there simply isn’t enough bandwidth on a dialup connection to let the remote control system work its magic.

One of the first things we did for my mom when she moved back to New Port Richey was to sign her up for a Roadrunner bundle so that she would save money and we could help her with computer problems without having to drive over to her place every time something went wrong with her computer.

Likewise, we encouraged my in-laws to sign up for high speed service for the same reasons: price and speed. As much as we love visiting my in-laws, a six hour round trip to fix a simple computer problem just isn’t a viable solution.

The IPAD units we purchased years ago have been updated multiple times over the years and we now use them to provide email, web hosting, and similar services. We’ve long since given away all those modems, primarily one at a time to business customers that needed an external modem for faxing.

Where will things go from here? That would be the million dollar question.

Our transition from dialup ISP to full service computer / networking company is complete. Our focus is now on providing network support for area businesses and individuals. That support includes email hosting, web hosting, network monitoring, network management, hardware sales and hardware repairs.

America still has a way to go to catch up with other countries in the roll out of super high speed Internet connections, but we are moving in that direction.

I suspect the current infatuation with mobile devices being used for everything, with everything being hosted in the “cloud” (the Internet) is overrated. I don’t see us going back to the 60’s where everyone connected to a few big computers via dumb terminals and that is the model being promoted by some of the cloud folks. I think this is the wrong model.

Microsoft’s roll out of Windows 8 with a mobile interface for everything, including desktops, is a perfect example of this wrong thinking. Windows 8 rolled out with a resounding “thud” and a “new” version is due out this summer. This may well have been the worst Microsoft disaster since Windows ME, even eclipsing Vista as a marketing dud.

I believe the correct model is one of using the right tool for the right job. A seven inch tablet or even a 10 inch tablet (I have both) will never replace my office desktop with twin 22″ monitors. The tablets are great for mobile use, but they are NOT a desktop replacement.

On the other hand, certain cloud services, such as online backup, are well worth considering, especially when they combine both local and remote storage for your critical files.

Desktops and towers will continue to shrink. Our popular mini-ITX systems and Intel’s NUC models are prime examples of this trend. I wrote about the NUCs a few weeks back.

My job is to help my customers understand their options and help them make informed decisions on what are the right solutions to meet their needs.

Would I have guessed twenty years ago that I’d be doing all this? Even my crystal ball wasn’t that clear back then. I do know that I jump out of bed each morning excited by the prospect of what the day will bring. Change is indeed constant and the technology gets better every day.

How long ago did you abandon dialup? Let us know in the comments section.

As always, feel free to drop me a note or give me a call (847-2424) if you have any questions about your computer or the Internet.

Rob Marlowe, Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com

Contact Info: