Switches are often the unsung heroes of our business networks. They are acquired, setup, and hum away in the closet connecting vital components in our network. If they are running, and running well, we do not tend to pay much attention to them. It is one of those “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” types of mentalities. Especially in flat networks, that is networks without network segmentation, even less attention is paid to what equipment is being used, what it takes to replace it, and what sort of trouble an outage can cause.

There are a multitude of reasons why you may not want to use your ISP-provided email account. Certainly, if you are in business, you need to have an email address that matches your domain. You don't want to lose your email address and have to incur the expense of changing all your marketing materials when your email address changes.

Why do I care?

Anyone who has a computer wishes for it to be reliable and trustworthy. We require computing systems provide CIA to the data stored on and accessed by the computing platform.

• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability

If malicious actors have compromised the CIA of the system in any way, they can destroy your life, your business, and cost you immense amount of time and money.

1/5/2014

Over the years, we have used a lot of different website hosting solution providers. We don't like using the same hosting provider for email, DNS, domain, and website hosting. Listen to this special two-part Breakfast Bytes podcast for more information as to why. QPC currently suggests two different website hosting providers depending upon your needs.

1/6/2014 - update

Q+ now recommends Trend Worry Free Business Security Services to clients. The minimum license buy is two seats. With that, the end user not only has two licenses for regular workstations like their laptop or desktop, but they also have two mobile seats. This means they can also install the software on their Android or iOS smartphones or tablets.

Please listen to the Breakfast Bytes shows on Trend Worry Free Business Security to learn all about why the product is the best.

1/23/2008 - Author: Felicia

I often get questions about which antivirus tool is the best. There are a number of factors that affect that answer. I aim to explain all those factors to you so that you can make an educated decision for yourself. Let’s start with some general understandings.

Where you buy your equipment and software depends upon your comfort level with Internet purchasing and the amount of anonymity you desire. QPC is a Dell Solution Provider and passes to clients the discount on items purchased from Dell through our volume purchasing account. QPC works closely with clients to ensure that the right solution is procured to meet the client need. Engineering is done at the procurement phase. This is one of the reasons why no technology-related purchases should be made without the approval of the IT department.

How long should you keep financial records? The list below can help you determine how long to keep documentation. Be sure to properly destroy any documentation with personally identifiable information on it. Documentation should be shredded or burned to avoid identity theft issues.

Last updated: 1/5/2014

American Power Conversion Corporation, APC, is the industry leader for UPS and surge suppression hardware. http://www.apc.com/

When shopping for UPS units, pay special attention to how many outlets on the device are actually UPS protected versus just surge suppression protected. If you are planning to use the UPS to protect your computer, then be sure to purchase one that has the capability to talk to the PC and shut it down in event of an extended power outage.