Call us today for more information on these great offers and more from Time Warner Cable Business Class!!

10Mbps Down x 1Mbps Up PLUS your first UNLIMITED Business Class Phone line for as low as $99.95 a month for up to 3 years! That’s a HUGE savings!!

50 Mbps Down x 5 Mbps Up PLUS your first UNLIMITED Business Class Phone line for as low as $304.94 a month for up to 3 years!!!

Over the past 6 years in business we have been called to businesses to resolve problems that former IT companies could not, and we have had jobs brought into the shop for a “Second Opinion” as well. Many times I am shaking my head at the solutions, or proposed solutions, from other IT professions from here to Jacksonville and Raleigh. (Raleigh IT does not mean better – it means long drive times to you and added expense!)

Here are some telltale signs that your IT company may not be doing the best job for you:

. All of your problems lead to reloading the Operating system.

. You have the feeling that you are not understanding what the solution is time after time. (Geek speak dished out with a condescending attitude.)

. Your IT partner puts “Free” Anti-virus on your office network. (This can create numerous other problems that become paid events unnecessarily)

.  Your IT partner puts pirated software on your computer. (Many programs work in concert with other programs so if you don’t get the correct updates – it can create issues with the illegal software as well as legal software.  Which of course leads to more charges to you.)

. Your IT partner does not ask about your business growth, or suggest alternative cloud based solutions. (No preventive conversations take place.)

. You are diagnosed with a bad hard drive, a major expense, for simple things that seem software related to you – can’t print, network dropping, email problems and the like.

. Your IT partner has NEVER warrantied any work in years.

. The same problem has been going on for a long time and you have paid multiple bills to fix it.

. You are not sure if you have a current backup.

. Your business requires regular password changes to meet federal mandates and you can’t remember the last time they were changed.

If you would like a second opinion, we would be delighted to take a look at your machine or network.  We promise, you will understand it all in a painless process!

Your phone has many ways of communicating. Yes, you can make a phone call, but you can also text message and use the web now with your phone. You also download apps to your phone that make it do various things such as make your phone ring a certain way when someone calls you, or go to silent mode when you go to work and then go back to full volume when it’s time for you to leave work. Have you ever thought that someone could embed a code into an app that you harmlessly downloaded that tells it to send “premium” messages that cost on average $9.99 a month or $1 per message sent to a bank account offshore to line someone else’s pockets? This means the same technology used for us to donate to the Red Cross for the earthquake in Haiti or the tsunami in Japan can be used against us all.

That is exactly what is happening. These app developers know that when you download an app you may not necessarily be assessing the risks of the permissions boxes that appear below the “download” option in the Google Play Store. All most people think about is, “I have to accept these permissions or else the app will not run correctly” and most of the time that is right. But with these apps, not paying attention to those checkmarks means you are basically giving it permission to charge your phone bill sometimes hundreds of dollars and you will not even know it until your next phone bill comes in. Sometimes these developers will have the app installed on your phone for over a year before you even notice your phone bill has an extra line item on it and think to call the phone company and question it. They know that cell phone company’s bills go up and down all the time and 9 out of 10 of us would not even question the moderate raise in the bill and think it’s just part of life. By then you are out at least $100, most times a lot more, and you have no way of recovering those monies because technically you did give it permission.

Not only this, but there are automatic updates coming into phones from vendors (usually Android) that are not from the manufacturer that are accepted by the users and effectively destroys all data in the phone and renders your phone useless until rolled back.

How do you prevent this from happening to you? First of all, do not download any app that you don’t have a complete understanding of. Of course you know what The Weather Channel app is, but you may not necessarily know what the RadarPlus app is. I use my phone to the full advantage. Take a second to go to the browser that is already on your phone and search for the app name. One of two things are going to happen: 1) You will find reviews telling you what the app is and how awesome it is, or 2) you will find reviews about it warning you not to download it because it will harm your phone or your wallet. Another thing is to glance at what you are giving your new app permission to do. You would be surprised that some apps force you to give them full control over your phone, including being able to do a factory reset on your phone if you violate their terms and conditions. It doesn’t hurt to install a free antivirus program on your phone. It only takes a second and just a touch more of your battery, but well worth it in the end. Also, keep an eye on your phone bill. A quick glance each month won’t hurt and it may save you hundreds in the end.

Of course if you have any questions we have experts here on staff to help you out and will help you in any way we can!

Everyone in the Pool!

It’s time to splash in the pools, chase some balls, and have a fantastic day of doggie socialization and fun with the Dog Club of Wilmington!! That’s right dog moms and dads, just for your four footed family member(s), there is a facility just for dogs. No more staying home while Moms and Dads are busy working, no more having neighbors babysit if you are out of town for a few days…instead, alleviate the guilt of leaving your dogs home during the day and take him/her out to the Dog Club which is the local doggie daycare, and a super cool place for the most chic dogs!

The facility has 12,000 square feet of inside play areas and overnight accommodations including doggie cots. Outside, 15,000 square feet of fenced in “back yard” space provides the ideal area for long walks, casual romping and play space, toys and balls to play with, and did we mention the pool for cooling off during our warm southern days. It’s the Sandals resort your dog, nestled in the Wilmington area.

A high five and shake a paw salute to the owner, Dyana Scholz, for also working closely with the Weimaraner Rescue program, including her own dogs. On the website, you will see that the dogs are credited with the idea for opening the business, financing the business, and are currently listed as the owner/operator, play yard manager, and front office manager. Talk about a smart dog…or in this case, Three!! There is also a link to the Rescue program for those of you who are interested.

What is also exciting about this year is that the Dog Club of Wilmington has partnered with Carolina Dock Dogs to bring the Battleship Splash to Wilmington May 11^th – 13^th. Visit Battleship Park and watch dogs leap through the air into a 40’ X 20’ pool. It’s a day of excited dogs, lots of tail wagging, pet related vendors, demonstrations, foods, drinks, and live music. There is no entry fee to watch the competitions.

The Dog Club of Wilmington is located at 1940 North County Drive, Castle Hayne, NC 28429. Their phone number, or doggie reservation line, is 910.772.1730. And you may contact them at info@dogclubwilmington.com with any questions and concerns prior to visiting.

4/14 – 4/23

COMPUTERS, LAPTOPS, PRINTERS, PHONES CABLES, CORDS, WIRES, SPEAKERS, FLAT PANEL TVS & MONITORS ALL FREE

$10.00 OLD TUBE TVS AND OLD Crt monitors

No kitchen appliances – microwaves, toasters etc.

Progressive Gardens does a few programs in the shop to support local farms including Cottle Organics CSA, Downeast Connect Online Farmers Market, and most recently, Copper Guinea Farm & Kitchen.

• CSA: Community Supported Agriculture is run through Cottle Organics in Rose Hill, NC. This costs $300 up front to get started. The season is 12 weeks long, and each week, customers receive a ¾ bushel (12-15 pounds, 5-7 varieties of produce). Weekly bushels can be picked up at Progressive Gardens.
• Downeast Connect Online Farmers Market: This is a new program in which customers logon (for free) to www.downeastconnect.com, can order whatever foods have been posted that week by the local farms, and choose a pickup location. Progressive Gardens is one location as is UNCW, and the Cameron Arts’ Center.
• Copper Guinea Farm & Kitchen: Progressive Gardens works closely with this small family farm, producing specialty vegetables, salad toppings, and fresh milled breads and baked goods. Ground work is being laid for a program to bring in people from the city, to the farm, in order to introduce them to what it means to produce your own food, tend livestock, “be a farmer!” Volunteers for harvesting and planting will be needed, and Progressive Gardens is taking names for this project now!

Support our locally owned and operated businesses, grow some fantastic organic gardens or order through CSA, and consider volunteering at Copper Guinea Farm & Kitchen! Please be sure to stop by and say hello to our friends at Progressive Gardens for your FREE compost tea!

Growing tip of the month: Fabulous Organic Tomatoes

We know that in the south it gets very warm, and tomatoes like night time temperatures of 85 degrees Fahrenheit or less. That being said, tomatoes should be planted as early as possible without the threat of frost, normally around April 15^th; though earlier this year due to warmer temperatures. This year, you can begin planting in the next week or so.

What will you need:  Tomato seeds, organic potting soil, organic matter/ compost which provides nutrients and helps soil hold water, Dr. Earth (a great dry fertilizer). Optional supplies include Serenade for disease control.  And remember, new customers receive 10 Gallons of free Compost Tea, which is a liquid compost to be applied once a month…helping the tomato plant build up its immune system.

Soil must have a proper balance of minerals and adequate organic matter: peat moss, compost, etc. Progressive Gardens provides soil testing and will assist in finding the right balance for your planting area based on our southern climate.

Make sure to plant tomatoes as deep as possible, the more stem buried, the more roots the plant will produce!  Tomatoes like early morning sun, normally 6am – 12pm. Afternoon sun is hard on the plants. Watering should be done daily, letting soil dry out slightly but not to the point of plant wilting. Remember, do NOT overwater. Finally, be sure to trim suckers off the tomato stem…these are where other stems are going to grow and steal vital nutrients from the tomatoes on main stalk.

So there you have it…all the tips from our friends at Progressive Gardens on growing tomatoes. They have all the supplies and knowledge to make this experience productive, fruitful, and positive for you and/or your family! Happy Gardening!

Classes are offered on weekends including learning the basics of starting a garden, composting, controlling pests, and more!  Ten gallons of compost tea is provided Free to all new customers. Services and products offered include: soil testing, organic seeds, organic soils, fertilizers, non-toxic pest and disease control, beneficial insects, wheat grass and sprouting supplies, rain barrels, composters, and much more.

Back it up, Back it up, Back it up!

Back It Up! What does this mean exactly? What is the process? What files do I back up and which ones can I part with? Back it up means backing up your hard drive, and if not the entire hard drive, then the files, photographs, records, and information that your home or business absolutely cannot live without. For me, that means the photographs and documents I’ve so carefully kept in my computer over the years, and yes I’m proud to say, I have a backup file of all those documents. I’m lucky in that I’ve figured out a backup system that works efficiently and effectively for me. However, that came after losing two hard drives on two computer systems, and all the files that went with those hard drives. Live and learn! Back it up!!

What options do you have for backing up files? There are many options out there, as of late, the “Cloud” is the one we all hear about the most. Ironically, I had almost no idea what that meant until I joined the Your Computer Friends team and learned about file storage, encrypted outside my own computer, and stored for safe keeping. It’s like having a friend who visits my computer daily, pulls information that I have selected from my computer, and wraps it gently in a padded envelope to be stored in a massive storage facility. This means, no work for me.  No to do list to ensure my files are backed up…it just gets done for me.

Your Computer Friends offers this service on a personal and business level. It’s so important! Our friends at Gillware, a partner company, have a “Cloud” as well, encrypted to military secret security clearance level.  You choose the files, that need to be backed up, we configure that setup for you.  Then your computer and Gillware speak daily to save those files and protect your information, around the clock. I HIGHLY recommend this option, not only as someone who works with Your Computer Friends but also as someone who has lost files in the past, the most precious being pictures of friends and family. I’m a bit of a photography nut, and really the only picture taker in my family, so I am capturing images for everyone not just myself…again, Back It Up!!

For businesses, especially those HIPAA compliant, this is a fantastic way to protect your files and hard drives.  Sending employees home with tape backups is a bad idea.  What happens to those tapes in a car accident?  Additionally, Gillware saves up to five versions of every file and it is not possible to delete them from the backup.  What this means is that if you accidently overwrite a file, you can get back the previous version.  It also means that whether intentional or otherwise, you staff cannot delete your backup.  I just can’t happen.  Why not let Your Computer Friends work with your team to protect your hard drives and vital information?  It’s like having a guard dog outside your facility, protecting your information, guarding the very bits and pieces that allow your business to run smoothly. And the best part is that if a computer goes down, those files are safe and protected, no double data entry or input required.

OK- just to review:

Why back it up? Digital files and information have become a part of our daily lives, and without them, well…we just don’t want to imagine being without them! And don’t forget Mother Nature…in the south, we know she loves her storms! Save those files before the storms come in.

How often should the files and information be backed up? Daily.

How do we get your backup in place?  We install on laptops at the shop and servers on-site.  Call us to make your appointment.  We will assist in choosing which files you would like backed up, and which backup plan is best suited for your needs. The pricing for 10GB storage is $4.50/month. Pricing for 50GB is $23.00/month (more suited to business needs.)

We are here to assist you with all your backup needs as well as any other computer needs/ repairs!

“Cut the Cable!”

Remember back in the day when you were a kid and the whole family used to pile around the television and watch that one sitcom that came one once a week? Everyone would grab some snacks and drinks and get ready for the show at the same time every week! That was exciting and was definitely a “back in the day” scenario.

Nowadays, you can still gather the family around the television for a movie or a showing of an episode of your favorite sitcom, but you don’t need to bother paying $150.00 or more per month for cable plus another $6 for a movie rental on the weekend PER MOVIE!

We know, you’re used to it and it would just devastate everyone to turn the tradition of cable into something new. But think about it-when you went from Windows XP to Windows 7 you survived, right? Even further back, when you went from no cell phone to having one in your pocket all the time you survived, right? Now you can’t live without either of them! This is the same kind of concept.

There are so many alternatives to your cable viewing experience and you may not even know it yet-that’s where we come in. Did you know that you can get most, if not all, of your local channels in crystal clear reception through an antenna for your HD Television set? That’s right, FREE! And the best thing about that is, you only have to pay for the antenna, which is only averaging about $40-$80 and they DON’T look like “rabbit ears” anymore, incase you are embarassed to have “rabbit ears” with a high end expensive TV! There are antennas that look like your router with your internet and, if you do end up needing “rabbit ears” they can now go behind your TV instead of having to sit on top of it like they used to back in the day.

So now you have your local channels, but what about the other channels and movies and all that other cool stuff that comes with cable? You are looking for a Roku for those other needs! The service does NOT have a subscription charge per month, and it uses your already existing internet to stream from your favorite places like Netflix or Hulu Plus! Get this, the price starts at a flat $49 right now from places like Wal-Mart or Best Buy. Sure, you will pay a subscription for Hulu Plus and Netflix, but have you seen how much they are? Only $7.99 each per month! How’s that for a cable (or shall we say “entertainment”) bill? Your Roku even shares media from your computer. Downloaded content like music and movies comes through the Roku in an instant. You can even play games now on your TV through Roku and stream music via Pandora and even watch your basketball games with NBA Game Time and NFL when football season rolls around again.

Now you have your local channels for free and your movies and almost anything else you could possibly want to watch for less than a quarter of your cable bill. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s definitely time to “cut the cable” and gather around that nice HDTV for a fraction of the price you are paying now and have the same, if not more, entertainment value out of your money!

The best thing about ALL of this is we do it for you! All you have to do is tell us what you want. We’ll come to your house with all the equipment needed, connect it, test it out, teach you how to use it, and even support you if something should go wrong with it and need repairs to your network!

A safe link, I promise.

Susan