Recent Blog Posts

Reliability A lot of businesses need to print little things, and many have begun to move to a more paperless environment. Then there are some businesses that absolutely rely on their printers and copiers. For these companies, finding a maintenance solution is difficult. The first variable any business owner or decision maker should consider is the availability of the maintenance provider. Printers are notorious for having maintenance issues so being able to keep lines of communication open is essential to ensure that you get the service you need when you need it.  Expertise This variable is a must. A company that fixes copiers and printers needs to have technicians on staff that are proficient in fixing copiers and printers; it?s that simple. Shockingly, there are companies that will advertise that they offer printer and copier maintenance services, but when it comes down to it, there is no experience doing so, and that will substantially increase the cost, not only for the service, but also for the time your machines remain down.  Dedication For any maintenance provider, time is money, but for whatever reason some companies don?t act like it. You will want a provider that does a lot of the heavy lifting by monitoring systems remotely. Printers and copiers don?t always malfunction on the hardware side, but when they do, a solid maintenance provider has the part you need in stock so that your printer or copier isn?t down for more than a few hours.  Overall Value Printer maintenance can get expensive. That?s why it is important to find companies that can provide you with the value you need to not only keep your printers and copiers in operational order, but also extend beyond that so that you can justify the growing expense of maintenance for these machines. At White Mountain IT Services, we offer comprehensive managed IT services that can help you get the IT support you need, including for your copiers and printers. If you would like more information about copier and printer support or what it takes to keep your business? technology up and working for you, give us a call today at (603) 889-0800.

The Western Digital My Book NAS device gives users the ability to remotely access their files, even if the NAS device is secured with a firewall or router. Essentially it is a consumer-based external hard drive that you could potentially access from outside your home network. Bleeping Computer reports that some users cannot access their devices due to what appears to be a factory reset, and they received an ?Invalid Password? notification upon login. Some users have tried using the default login credentials, too, but to no avail.  After a little digging on the users? end, they discovered that their devices received a remote command to perform a factory reset. Bleeping Computer calls this attack an odd one as far as remote attacks go, mostly because the device targeted is secured behind a firewall and communications funnel through the My Book Live cloud servers. This has led some users to believe that the Western Digital servers were hacked, but it is odd that the extent of the damage is only deleted files rather than installed ransomware or other threats. Although Western Digital is investigating the attack, Bleeping Computer does detail a statement issued by the company, stating the following: ?If you own a WD My Book Live NAS device, Western Digital strongly recommends that you disconnect the device from the Internet. ?At this time, we recommend you disconnect your My Book Live and My Book Live Duo from the Internet to protect your data on the device,? Western Digital said in an advisory.? These WD My Book Live Devices have not received updates since 2015, so vulnerabilities are not entirely unexpected. However, this is more or less a wakeup call for those who have been considering an upgrade for the device. In general, you don?t want to utilize devices that are not actively being supported by the manufacturer, as failing to receive said security updates could result in situations like the one we?ve detailed above. You should also make sure that you are deploying said updates as they are released, as not doing so is the equivalent of using unsupported technology solutions. Remember, it is your responsibility to protect your data! It?s also imperative that you always store all of your important data on at least two separate devices, or even three for most businesses. Since the device in this case was an external hard drive, hopefully the majority of users were using it as a backup, but we?re afraid that isn?t always going to be the case. Don?t rely on a single drive to store your data! Need a Hand with Updates and Maintenance? If your business is ready to start taking its technology updates seriously, White Mountain IT Services can help you deploy updates or potentially even upgrade to new hardware to minimize the odds of security issues arising. To learn more about how we can help you keep your infrastructure as secure as possible, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Why Do People Prefer Mobile?  It?s a simple question with a pretty simple answer. You can take these devices nearly anywhere and can do a lot of the things you can do on a PC. If you consider the importance of content delivery nowadays, these devices probably hold more value for businesses than any other devices in history.  Additionally, think about the amount of applications in the app stores…nearly two million in the Apple App Store and nearly three million in the Google Play Store. That?s a lot of software available for what is supposed to be a telephone. There are productivity apps, communications apps, banking and shopping apps. In fact, if you really think about it, you can do about anything you need to do?computing wise?on a smartphone today. This has created a massive online economy that checks in at around $2 trillion in the U.S. alone. Overall, the mobile device has been a major reason that there has been such a massive shift in the way people do things. Mobile Computing Mobile computing has been ?cool? for a long time, but the advent of the smartphone in the mid-2000s really changed the way people handle their computing. The development of apps that were specifically designed for mobile devices expanded business? reach and gave consumers a new way to interface with their companies.  Then came social media.  Social media might just be the biggest driving force in mobile. People of all ages use social media proficiently nowadays. In fact, in the workplace this has been seen as both a major distraction and a massive benefit. There are many different facets to social media, but ultimately the massive popularity of social media has resulted in the acceptance that mobile devices are here to stay and that fighting back about mobile device use is a futile experience. This is one reason why businesses have chosen to utilize mobile rather than stymie the use of it.  Another factor in the growth of mobile for business is the development of applications that work both on PC and on mobile. These applications make it possible to do a lot of things that simply weren?t possible only a few short years ago. Even the most anti-mobile business owner can?t deny that it is arguably the best platform for communications. Not only is it a phone, there are literally thousands of productivity and communication apps to choose from. In fact, some applications that are designed for use on mobile devices have factored this in and allow for interesting integrations that can streamline a lot of business processes. Email, conferencing, messaging, collaboration apps, analytics, authentication, even productivity apps are optimized for mobile devices and can bring a lot of value to businesses. What?s more, mobile marketing is one of the fastest-growing forms of advertising out there. Taking advantage of that is in the best interest of most small and medium-sized businesses. What You Need to Know About Going Mobile If you haven?t seen the demand yet, you aren?t alone. Many smaller organizations have reported that their customers haven?t shown a demand for mobile communications or payment options. Until they see customer demand increase, using mobile for business may not seem like a priority. It absolutely should be. If you are looking to leverage mobile technology to improve […]

What are Managed IT Services? You?ve more than likely heard about the ?as a service? business model. A lot of companies utilize this these days, ranging from Netflix to Microsoft. What this model essentially entails is that you pay a monthly fee for goods or services rendered. In the case of Netflix, you pay per month to get access to its video catalog. For Microsoft, you might pay for access to Microsoft Office 365 and all of its solutions. Either way, you are paying a small monthly fee that is easier to afford and fit into a budget than paying for the products outright. In this context, you can see how managed IT services might fit into the picture. Companies that don?t have the resources to hire full-time technicians might instead choose to outsource this responsibility to a local IT provider like White Mountain IT Services. It is much easier to fit a monthly payment into an operational budget than multiple full-time salaries, something that any organization hiring technicians would have to consider. Another major benefit of managed IT services is that they can be leveraged remotely without on-site visits. This is a huge benefit for your business and your budget. Instead of paying technicians for the time they spend traveling to and from your office, you will get proactive support from a staff of certified technicians.  Let?s Look at Some Examples Managed IT is so practical that if you can think of it, you can make it happen. Chances are that just about any service that an in-house IT technician can provide can also be outsourced to a managed service provider. Here are just a couple of examples to get the possibilities flowing: Network management and maintenance Security management Data backup and disaster recovery Hardware and software deployment Email hosting and management Mobile device management And so much more! Get Started with Managed Services Today! If you are one of the countless businesses that worry about technology management and maintenance, White Mountain IT Services can help your organization focus on what it does best instead of being paralyzed by the thought of your infrastructure collapsing. We can help your organization effectively manage IT without breaking your budget. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Filing Cabinets How many filing cabinets do you have in your office? You know, those big metal cabinets that are filled with paper documents that may (or may not) have been used in the past six months? These have traditionally been used to keep files in safe locations, but the fact of the matter is that they simply have no place in the office environment these days?at least not in the same capacity as they used to be. Instead, the cloud and document storage systems can effectively replace filing cabinets, offering safe digital environments for documents to be stored. When you consider that filing cabinets take up a ton of space and are impossible to move on a whim, it just makes sense to store these documents in an online environment, where they take up significantly less physical space and are easy to transfer to whoever needs them. Conference Room Gatherings Trying to corral your entire workforce into one room may have been easy when you were a startup, but as your business grows, so too does your number of employees. It might have been possible once, but with so many different people and schedules to work around, it can be difficult to get everyone together for meetings in this way. Thankfully, technology has offered solutions for this, too. Video conferencing allows you to hold much larger meetings from the comfort of your desk, again removing the need for the physical space to hold such large-scale meetings. Furthermore, since these video conferencing solutions often also come with schedule integration, you can get a bird?s eye view of everyone?s availability before scheduling a meeting, allowing you to make them more inclusive. Traditional Work Desk Accommodations The normal workday might involve your employees sitting at their jobs, getting up once in a while to have a discussion with others, or generally performing their duties from the same space all day long. They might use their work desk to do this work, making use of smartphones or laptops when out of the office, but more and more, the latter tends to be the new normal for businesses. Thanks to remote technology, employees are no longer tethered to their desks and can now do work from any location, provided they have the solutions needed to complete their day-to-day tasks. The pandemic has proved that most jobs can be performed remotely, so you can prepare employees for this and perhaps reduce your own expenses in the process. Landline Telephones Imagine picking up a landline in today?s business environment. It?s pretty hard to imagine, right? There is a good reason for this, as is the case with most outdated office technology. Adding new handsets to an infrastructure often involved running new wires throughout the office, a process which was both time-consuming and costly, depending on its setup. Thankfully, modern business technology has offered alternatives here, as well. Voice over IP systems offer yet another way for organizations to eliminate unneeded or outdated office conventions and establish more streamlined systems specific to their needs. Voice over IP lets you eliminate your landline entirely and replace it with a telephony solution that runs on your Internet connection, slimming down your infrastructure and cutting unnecessary costs. Since it comes with many of the features you would expect of business […]