8 Signs – Time To Ask IT For New Computer

8 signs it’s time to ask IT for a new computer

If your boss hands you a new assignment and tells you, “Take your time”, good chance you were day dreaming. Snap out of it! You are officially part of the 21st century workforce. Emails need to be checked, Word and Excel always ready and Internet browsers should be as fast as a blink of an eye. Today’s work environment is go-go-go all the time, and phrases like “take a break” or “slow down” seem to have been left behind.

So what do you do if you’re stuck in this 21st century work environment with a PC that’s slow and uncooperative? It’s time to talk to IT about getting a new one.

If you’re not sure if you should be having this conversation, see if any of the below apply to you.

1. Your computer is a single-tasker

At home, you have five windows open, you’re streaming music and reading an online story all at once. But at work, it’s one window at a time and the thought of leaving a document open while you check email makes you shudder. If your backup plan involves your smartphone, then it’s time for a new computer. Today’s PCs that run on the latest generation of Intel processors offer twice the performance of 4-year-old models, giving you the chance to experience that new-fangled, multi-tasking thing everyone’s talking about.

2. Your PC is officially out to lunch

Few things are more frustrating than watching your screen go black right in the middle of a big project or minutes before an urgent deadline, especially when you haven’t hit the save button. If your computer is prone to taking a hiatus or two, place it on permanent break time.

3. You can type a Russian novel before the first word appears on the screen

No one’s calling on you to turn into a court reporter, but it would be nice if you could read at least some of that email before you’re ready to click send. A new PC will work at your speed and you won’t have to wait for it to catch up. Can you picture it? Probably not yet.

4. Your PC crashes more often than Evel Knievel

When Evel crashed, you saw fire, explosions and excitement. When your old computer crashes, there’s certainly no excitement. Also, your desire to remain employed prevents the fire and explosions.

5. Moving your PC could be the next big Cross Fit-like exercise craze

If you need to brace yourself before you move your PC, it’s time for a newer model. Today the average laptop weighs 6 pounds or less, and new PCs are 50 percent thinner than those made a few years ago. So save the heavy lifting for the gym and leave your weight belt at home.

6. People mistake your computer for a vintage toy

That’s silly of course. At least vintage toys have value. But, if younger co-workers aren’t even sure how to turn your PC on, it’s time for an upgrade.

7. The thought of unplugging your PC, even for a moment, terrifies you

Your cubicle shouldn’t feel like an emergency room. New PCs offer three times the battery life over older models, so tell IT you want to pull the plug on your old PC permanently.

Today’s computers are smaller, lighter, have more memory and boot up in 6 seconds or less. If you’re tired of your PC being the punchline of office jokes, tell IT it’s time for a new PC.

8. The End has come for XP

Windows XP… The End. Time to upgrade. Even I had problems letting go. But trust me, you can do it. The 21st century awaits you.

 

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions can help you design, implement, optimize, manage and run your network infrastructure, regardless of its complexity and of your organization’s size.  Lord & Griffin IT Solutions IT Systems Management Services are services designed with small and mid-size businesses in mind. Our certified technicians provide fast, affordable business computer service and technical computer help – offering same day, weekend and evening appointments. Let us be your IT department for a fraction of the cost! Lord & Griffin IT Solutions can help you save time and money by lending your business our technical expertise.  See IT Systems and Network Services

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RESOURCES

Dell Computers – http://www.dell.com

Compaq Computers – http://www.compaq.com

Debunking Common Computer Security Myths

All businesses can be susceptible to threats like hackers and computer viruses. Making matters worse is the great deal of misinformation floating around regarding cyber security. The Internet attracts urban legends and computer security isn’t immune from this trend. Many alleged security “facts” are, at best, inaccurate. Some of these myths are recent developments, while others have been around for years.

Clearing up some common misconceptions about computer security, Staples and Norton have teamed up help separate fact from fiction.

Myth 1: Companies that sell antivirus and security solutions create viruses

The idea that the online security companies develop and release computer viruses to maintain sales is false. While it’s true that one variety of malware (malicious software) called “ransomware” infects computers and then sells its victims a “solution” to the problem, these rogue programs are not affiliated with legitimate antivirus programs, like Norton. In fact, legitimate antivirus programs are the first line of defense against devious hackers.

Myth 2: A small business’s main security threat is the Internet

A security policy that only considers Internet-based threats is woefully incomplete. Yes, hackers can breach your network security. Yes, malware can infect your network through unsafe websites. However, the biggest risks to your security are often those who work for you.

Many security breaches originate with employees. A small number of employees are simply dishonest. More often, however, security breaches are caused by simple human error. An employee loses a laptop, for instance, or incorrectly disposes of printed or digital information.

“Now more than ever, small business owners should be taking all precautions to ensure their businesses are secure,” says Conor Kearney, vice president of technology merchandise for Staples. “While antivirus programs are a great first line of defense against cyber threats, it is important to make sure you educate your employees on what constitutes good cyber security and have safeguards in place to prevent a minor incident, like a stolen computer, from turning into a full out data breach.”

Myth 3: Apple’s operating system is safer than Microsoft’s Windows

For years, Apple users held up the relative lack of malware on Mac computers as evidence that the Apple operating system had fewer security flaws than Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. Actually, Mac users were safer because they represented a relatively small percentage of all computer users. Malware writers prefer to target the largest possible audience. As so, because many people use Windows, the hackers focused their attention on Windows and, for the most part, ignored Apple.

But now, people use Apple devices in sufficient numbers to attract malware. For example, in 2012, the Flashback Trojan affected 600,000 Macs. And a year later, Apple computer users were hit by a virus that targeted iPhone developers via the Java programming language. Recently the Shellshock/Bash vulnerability was identified as putting Mac users at risk.

Myth 4: Hackers only target “big business”

Some small businesses take false comfort in their size. The assumption is that hackers and data thieves only target big companies, major financial institutions and government agencies. However, small businesses can also be targets for data breaches and hacks.

Small businesses need to have a defense plan in place. Often, small-business owners recognize the importance of cyber security, but are unable to manage the complexity of this issue themselves. Consequently, the cyber security of small businesses tends to be neglected. “Protecting customer and business data from cybercriminals is a matter of life and death for most small businesses. Because small-business owners are insanely busy, they need a multi-layer security solution that’s easy to install and manage,” says Brian Burch, VP product marketing, Norton Business Unit, Symantec, a leading provider of award-winning products and services that deliver online protection. Easy, quick setup antivirus solutions are most preferred by small businesses. For example, Norton Small Business is a single solution to securing computers and mobile devices within a small business’ network.

A false sense of security

Today’s computer security myths all have one thing in common – they can lull you into a false sense of security. Keep your office free from viruses by always employing a critical eye and lots of common sense. Similar to your annual doctor visit, be sure to give your small business a cyber-security check, reassessing its network security and ensuring you have the proper tools in place to protect it from a cyber-attack.

See more – Internet Security

Heartbleed – Open SSL

Network System Services

Lord & Griffin – Business Technology Solutions

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions is a complete IT solutions company which provides Professional Services to Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses and Organizations. We began as a Web Design, Web Application Development and Internet Marketing company, today we provide a full array of web services including e-commerce solutions, digital marketing, IT Systems and Cloud Services (Hardware & Networking). We offer complete IT solutions with consultancy services for any kind of business or industry.

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions has one goal  and that is to deliver the best and quality solutions to our clients  and become one of the Best, Up and Coming IT solution and service providers in the country. Our Company prides itself for our expertise in: web design and development services including website designing, website development , website application development, search engine optimization, Internet marketing (digital marketing) and web hosting.

Our business model focuses on having long-term strategic relations with our clients by providing a combination of high quality, cost effective and on time delivery of solutions. In each client project, we work beyond the norms of a conventional client relationship by investing more time to understand customer current and future business needs. Lord & Griffin IT Solutions strives to assure the deliver of  high quality and reliable IT solutions at a competitive cost to our clients. After all, “our clients are our TOP priority”!

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions maintains a qualified team of professionals devoted in providing complete IT and Web solutions. We strive to understand your needs as well as we can and to maintain service excellence across all the services provided by us.

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions has been continually investing in maintaining the infrastructure to provide best of work environment to our team members and to serve our customers better.

Solutions Overview

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions offers IT and Web support, Professional IT  and Web Project Management and expert IT and Web advice. We support small and medium-sized businesses throughout the North America, Europe, and Australia.

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions with its strong foundation in technology and large pool of talents in diverse areas spanning across four (4) continents. Some of our services include:

• Web Based Solution (Web Site Design, Web Application Development, SEO, etc.)
• Software Solutions (Developing, Implementation, Sales, etc.)
• Graphics, Design and Printings (Catalog, Pamphlet, Presentations, etc.)
• Communication System for Corporate and Building (Intercom, EPABX, VOIP, etc.)
• Digital Marketing (Social Networking, Internet, Email and SMS)
• IT Hardware and Networking Solutions
• Project Management Maintenance Contracting.

Technology Partners  – Technologies at Lord & Griffin IT Solutions,  used to serve you are possible through strategic partnerships with Industry Leaders.

Lord  & Griffin IT Solutions – Services – Thank you for considering Lord & Griffin IT Solutions for your IT and Web Services needs. Get more info, Contact Us Today!

888-404-8282 For FREE Consultation

Website Migration: Lord & Griffin Web Solutions #WebsiteMigration #WebHosting

Website Migration

Each time you swap hosting providers, you’re met with plenty of obstacles. At Lord & Griffin Web Solutions, we’re here for you, ready to make this procedure much easier – we will do all the work for you and will migrate all your files, MySQL databases and e–mails.

At Lord & Griffin Web Solutions, we understand that this can be hard & time–consuming. That’s the reason why we will perform all that for you at no cost! Our experienced technical team reps will migrate your web site content from your current provider to us. Our technicians have got a lot of experience migrating web sites and can take care of everything – from a normal WordPress blog or Joomla web site, to a very elaborate, custom–built web app.*

Q: Why do I have to move my web site? What does web site migration include?

A: When your present web hosting provider can no longer fulfill the requirements of your website, or if you face frequent network downtime, or if you are made to wait for hours for the customer service staff to reply back to you, it may be smart to switch your provider, i.e. to transfer all the files for your websites together with your databases from your current provider to your new provider.

Q: Web site migration seems like a lot of work. How much time will it take?

A: There are plenty of variables to bear in mind – the overall number of files, the size of the database, the complexity of the site itself and the current workload of our web site migration experts, etc. Having said that, we do our very best to accomplish all website migrations in a 48–hour period. Smaller web sites are migrated faster – typically within 24 hours.

Q: My personal privacy is essential for me. What data do you require?

A: We will require the name of the website that you would like us to move. We’ll also require a means to access your present hosting account so that we can get the content pertaining to your site.

Q: My current web hosting account has sensitive info inside. How can I trust you?

A: In order for us to start the transfer of your web hosting account, you must first open an account with us. Opening an account with us will require that you  disclose essentially the same details you have provided to your current web hosting provider. We’ve also got an extremely strict Privacy Policy, which specifies how sensitive info is dealt with.

Q: How about downtime? Will my site be offline?

A: Your site will continue to work just like it did before with your previous web hosting provider. As soon as we are done with the transfer, your web site will be configured to work on our platform and we will ask you to preview it. If it is working correctly, all you will have to do is edit the NS resource records for your domain. Your web site will be migrated to us without any downtime.

Q: Will my present hosting provider need to provide any information/help?

A: While we transfer your content, your web hosting provider won’t be aware of the migration at all. We will not get in touch with them in any way.

 

*If you need assistance with Website Design or Transferring website over to new provider, we will be glad to assist you with that. FREE of Charge if hosting with Lord & Griffin IT Solutions.

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Integrating Newsletter Functionality Into WordPress

Integrating Newsletter Functionality Into Your WordPress Website

Despite the exploding popularity of social media as a trust-building marketing channel, email campaigns do remain a key method for turning one-time visitors into returning customers and for prompting conversions.

If you are using WordPress as a technological basis for your web hosting store, you could take advantage of one of the many newsletter plugins available.

To help you with your choice, we recommend that you go with the MailChimp email campaign application in particular.

Why choose the MailChimp email campaign application?

MailChimp offers a simple interface for designing and sharing email campaigns, for managing subscriber lists and for tracking results, even if you’ve never done this before.

They have a free plan, which allows you to send 12,000 emails per month to a list of up to 2,000 subscribers. This is a great way to jump into email marketing at no cost, while offering your customers an up-to-all-standards, responsive and eye-pleasing email experience.

Here are some of the features included in the MailChimp free plan:

• A/B testing
• reports
• email beamer
• email designer
• email templates
• multi-user accounts
• geolocation
• RSS to email
• custom forms
• segmentation and groups
• social sharing

If you want to make use of some extra email campaign features (like auto-responders and anti-spam diagnostics) and remove the MailChimp badge from your campaign footer, you can always upgrade to one of their paid plans starting from 10 USD/month.

How to get started with MailChimp?

First, you will need to set up an account with MailChimp. After you go through the signup process, you will be asked to fill in some extra details for compliance with international spam policies. When done, you’ll be directed to your account dashboard from where you can quickly start configuring your MailChimp.

From here, you will have to create your first mailing list (from the Lists menu on the left and then click on the Create List button on the top right), selecting a name of the list, a “from” email address, and a Sender’s name, so that they will know that the email is from you. You may also explain why your subscribers are receiving the email in the description box, to avoid any potential opt-outs from suspicious users.

Next, you will have to create your API key that will help you integrate MailChimp into your WordPress store later on.

From the Account Settings menu, select Extras and click on API keys in the drop-down menu. Then scroll down and click on the Create A Key button – your API key will be generated for you automatically.

How to setup MailChimp on your WordPress store?

With the help of the MailChimp plugin for WordPress, you can integrate your mailing list setup into your store very quickly.

Now simply add the MailChimp plugin for WordPress to your store and activate it.

In the MailChimp for WP area in your WordPress menu, enter the API Key that you have created in your MailChimp account and click the Save button:

Finally, go to the Forms submenu of the MailChimp for WP area and copy the Shortcode for the newsletter subscription form.

Here is an example of how a newsletter subscription popup for a hosting store looks like:

How to create and manage your email campaigns?

MailChimp have a great set of video tutorials on how to create and manage your email campaigns using the application. Through the Campaign Builder, you can select a campaign type, add recipients, choose a template design, and add your custom content, with a click of the mouse.

On the site you can find a great step-by-step video tutorial on how to create your first email campaign, using a custom theme of your choice:

If you haven’t yet set up your WordPress-based hosting store, take a look at the fully-customizable free reseller hosting themes that we have designed for you:

Lord & Griffin IT Solutions’ Free Web Hosting Reseller Program, offered by ResellersPanel can be managed via our easy-to-use Reseller Control Panel, which will allow you to quickly customize your reseller store template, modify the product pricing, review statistics, boost your reseller anonymity, etc.

Are you ready for a loyal and easy-going business relationship with Lord & Griffin IT Solutions’ Free Web Hosting Reseller Program, offered by ResellersPanel?  Join forces with Lord & Griffin IT Solutions’ Free Web Hosting Reseller Program, right away – you can gain money from home and be your own boss! All for FREE, with Lord & Griffin IT Solutions’ Free Web Hosting Reseller Program, offered by ResellersPanel!

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