Welcome to our November Newsletter

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NEWS FROM THE SHOP

Tim and I sat through a full day of Intel continuing education courses on October 31st.  The pace of technology continues to pick up.  One of the more interesting developments is that Intel is now offering preconfigured NUC’s (Next Unit of Computing) with Optane memory, a large hard drive, and Windows 10 Home.  All of this, along with a full three year warranty and hundreds of dollars in “bonus” software.  If you’ve dreamed of having a home computer that is barely 4×4 inches in size, here is your opportunity.  The i3 version, with a 1tb hard drive, is just $599.95 plus tax. 

These devices will easily handle two monitors.  We learned about add-ons that will let you plug-in three or even four monitors.  Here is a cool video that showcases the latest generation of NUC.

i5 and i7 versions are also available.  Please note that these systems come preconfigured with Windows 10 Home only.  For our corporate clients, we can custom build a similar system or one with a large SSD, along with Windows 10 Pro.  Call us for details.

These computers are highly reliable.  One of the few of these that we’ve seen fail came into our office for service on a Thursday.  We determined that it had failed and had a warranty replacement the next day!  We maintain our Intel Gold partner level for exactly this reason.  We get Advance Warranty Replacement (AWR) if something goes bad.

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THE GULFCOAST NETWORKING ADVANTAGE

Some of our customers, both individuals and businesses, have been with us since we opened in 2003.  There is a reason.  We stay up to date on the latest technology and Internet threats so you don’t have to.

For individuals, our Safe Computing Packages give you the peace of mind that comes with knowing that help is just a phone call away.  Many times we can solve issues with a remote support session.  If that isn’t practical, we have a fully equipped shop where we can work on your computer.  We also offer in-home service for things that just HAVE to be done on-site, such as connecting your computer to your wireless network and installing a new printer.

For businesses, we offer full network management.  For a fixed monthly fee, we will provide remote computer and network support, a backup solution, anti-malware protection, and more.  Call us for details.

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There are lots of things to see and do in downtown New Port Richey over the course of the next two months.  Be sure to drop by and say hello when you are in the area.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It’s our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Rob Marlowe
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
6335 Grand Blvd
New Port Richey, FL 34652

727-847-2424

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2017 Gulfcoast Networking, Inc

Welcome to our October Newsletter

There are plenty of things happening in our area, so take the opportunity to check them out.

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NEWS FROM THE SHOP

If you are in the market for a new notebook, take a good look at the bottom of any unit you are considering.  Is there an access panel to let you get to the hard drive?   Can you easily remove the battery?  Both of these are questions you should ask.  Hard drives are the part of a notebook most likely to fail.  If you can’t get to the drive without tearing the machine apart, you should just consider it “disposable”.  Likewise, batteries are fairly inexpensive these days, but you need to be able to take the old one out before you can replace it.

We have a customer who came in with his Asus notebook.  He had opened it up to replace the battery, breaking one of the ribbon cable connectors in the process.  He trashed an otherwise nice notebook by breaking a 50 cent soldered on part.  Ask the sales person to see if you can easily replace things like batteries and drives without tearing the machine apart.

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REMOTE SUPPORT

Our remote support portal has been upgraded to support Google Chrome.

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FAST IS GOOD

One of our corporate clients was having issues with file transfers to and from one particular system.  Tim discovered that the system in question was connected to an old 10 meg hub (a hub shares bandwidth across all the ports, a switch does not, making a switch faster than a hub of the same speed.  He replaced the antique hub with a modern gigabit switch(1000 meg), increasing throughput by an order of 100.  Even old 10/100 switches have seen their day.  If you are using one of these on a network, give us a shout and we can upgrade your network to a modern gigabit based one.

Likewise, if you are still using an older computer, talk to us about how much better a new system will run.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It’s our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Rob Marlowe
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
6335 Grand Blvd
New Port Richey, FL 34652

727-847-2424

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2017 Gulfcoast Networking, Inc

Welcome to our September Newsletter

We still have a few weeks before you will feel fall in the air, but we are getting there.  At least we are getting past the oppressive heat that comes every July and August.

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NEWS FROM THE SHOP

BACKUPS:  Do you make copies of your pictures and other important files that are stored on your computer?  If not, you need to give it some thought.  If you are diligent about it, backing up your pictures and other stuff to CDs or DVDs works great.  The key is that you have to remember to do it.  For those of us who sometimes forget, it is better to pay for an online backup service that automatically saves all of your important stuff to the cloud.  Our favorite is Carbonite.  It is only $59.95 a year for a single home computer and it works quietly in the background.  They have other plans as well for people with more complicated needs.  We are a Carbonite dealer and we will be happy to help you protect your memories.

MICROSOFT SUPPORT CALLS:  PLEASE don’t get scammed.  Microsoft won’t call you.  Related and just as nasty are “drive by” popups that will attempt to panic you into calling someone who will be happy to fix your computer while charging you hundreds of dollars for the call.

We offer our “Safe Computing Plans” for people who would like somebody they can trust.  We can set things up so all you have to do is give us a call and we can pop onto your computer with our remote support system to look at anything that doesn’t look right.  Likewise, if you have our Safe Computing protection, you can tell the “Microsoft” callers that you already have tech support and then you can hang up on them.

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HURRICANE IRMA

Please stay safe this coming weekend.  If you have any questions on how to take care of your computer during a storm, give us a call at 727-847-2424 or drop us an email.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It’s our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Rob Marlowe
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
6335 Grand Blvd
New Port Richey, FL 34652

727-847-2424

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2017 Gulfcoast Networking, Inc

Welcome to our August Newsletter

School will be starting in just a couple of weeks.  There are some computer items included in this year’s School Sales Tax Holiday, so keep us in mind when you go shopping for school stuff.

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NEWS FROM THE SHOP

We just picked up some cute little systems for a school client of ours.  They are absolutely adorable and are little larger than a book.  They come with Windows 7 Pro and they can be upgraded to Windows 10 by ordering a media kit from the manufacturer.  Interested?  They are just $399.95 plus a video adapter if you don’t have a displayport capable monitor.

You may have seen news reports about the fact that Kaspersky Labs is a Russian company.  If you’ve been using Kaspersky’s AV solution and want something from a different company, please give us a call.

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END OF SUMMER STUFF

Keep an eye on the Rec Center facebook page for lots of exciting stuff for you and the kids (or grandkids) to do this month.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It’s our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Rob Marlowe
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
6335 Grand Blvd
New Port Richey, FL 34652

727-847-2424

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2017 Gulfcoast Networking, Inc

 

 

Welcome to our July Newsletter

It’s summer so we are going to keep this short.

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NEWS FROM THE SHOP

We got our hands on one of the latest generation i7 NUCs a couple of weeks ago. These little 4×4″ screamers are amazing. We’ve only managed to get a pair of 35″ monitors running with it. The specs say that we ought to be able to drive three high resolution monitors with it, if we use the right video cables. We shall see.

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MALWARE

New and nasty malware attacks have spread all over the world during the past month or so.  Protect yourself by keeping your computer up to date on its Windows Updates and use a quality anti-malware program on your computer.

There are a number of excellent Anti-malware programs on the market.  We offer Avira products for our consumer clients and AVG managed solutions for our corporate clients.  Some of the free anti-malware programs are good, but you generally get what you pay for, with the paid versions being more comprehensive in their protection, updated more regularly, and simply better that the typical free ones.

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BATTERY BACKUPS

If you happen to have Frontier FIOS, you’ve got a battery inside the FIOS box.  It will eventually go bad, emitting a rather annoying beep every several minutes.  When this happens, it is time to call Frontier and tell them that their box needs attention.

We’ve got one at home because we used to have FIOS.  It took me a bit of looking to figure out that, of all the battery backups we’ve got, it was the FIOS battery that had gone dead.

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QUESTIONS?

Feel free to give us a call if you have any questions about your computer.  We’ll be glad to try to answer them.  Our number is 727-847-2424.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It’s our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Rob Marlowe
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
6335 Grand Blvd
New Port Richey, FL 34652

727-847-2424

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2017 Gulfcoast Networking, Inc