Eclinicalworks Patient Outreach program is a big thing for medical practices and groups.  Yes, you want to keep driving traffic, keep patients up to date on shots, and remind them of their appointment but patient outreach is also a requirement of HIPAA compliance.  Our first eClinicalworks support and Training blog post discussed who those members or patients are and now we will discuss ways practice reach out to them.

Patient Outreach – Medicare Patient or Member Current Workflow

The practice receives a packet of names, letters, or faxes from the insurances.  The medical practice then reaches out to them before they are patients.   These individuals are known as “members” at this stage.  Members are reached out via a phone call and letter to establish their first new patient appointment (checkup).

CRM Automation or  eClinicalworks Patient Outreach Program

Solution Reach CRM will automate the calling of members.  In my client’s case, they wish to utilize for calling of all new Medi-cal members but not Medicare members.   A chiropractic practice we support is utilizing it to reach 20,000 patients that has utilized their services over the past 20 years.  The monthly service costs them $325mo.

www.solutionsreach.com

www.talksoftonline.com   (integrates with eClinicalworks)

www.DemandForce.com

http://www.revenuewell.com/

Mail or Letter Outreach

Assign to four individuals in the front desk.  They continually reach out to members until the patient either request that the medical practice no longer contacts them or they arrange an appointment.

Referrals to Medical Practice

Insurance companies (enrollers) ie Molena enrolls eligible Medical recipients and the enrollers receive commission from their employer Molena.  Molena also offers alternate types of  insurance depending on your income

Depending on the member needs at the time, the member may reach out to the medical practice because their insurance carrier referred them to the practice.

eClinicalworks used as a CRM – Alternative method to Patient Outreach Software
***Go to Create a contact in eCW***

All letters and phone calls are tracked via eClinicalworks.  A Patient or member Contact must be created for the life cycle of the patient outreach to be tracked and converted from a “member” into a patient.

Create a Contact in eCW

Patient must fill out new patient packet aka demographics before submitting into eCW.

Note:  Why isn’t the packet electronic?

Why isn’t the patient portal setup?  No website.

“Front Desk” must collect CoPay, ID Card, Insurance Cards, and their New Patient Packet before entering the Vitals Room.

Patient (click drop down near top of the page.  lookup, new, and perform “demographics” data entry.

• Add Insurance carrier under info, select PCP who does the billing, and add insurance information.

Tracking Members Prospecting

*Under billing alert within the member contact a pop up window can be enabled to notify staff of billing issues or in this case the members status with the practice.  Notes are left here.

Resource Scheduling

Appointment  (the medical practice averages about 8 new 30 minutes appointments a day.   Some doctors or PAs can see patients in 15 minutes )

View, Add, and Remove Appointments

Under eClinicalworks go to the “Practice” Tab and select Resource Scheduling.

Receive an insurance card from the PCP

Improving Patient Intake Workflow

While handing out the demographics packet completes the Patient In-Take process.  There’s enormous double entry issues that may lead the practice to look for better solutions.  eCW

http://ecw1.azurewebsites.net/estore1.1.8.5/

Patient Follow Up Workflow (Blog 2)

Follow up calls for the following

• Tested for colon cancer. Colon
• Eye doctor
• Mammogram
• Diabetes
• Check all their medication and blood pressure

The post eClinicalworks Patient Outreach program and the First Appointment appeared first on Network Antics.

IT vendors come and go, but our value added features such as a free network security assessment, help develop a long lasting client relationship that help keep businesses coming back.  Our team is able to create user friendly and informative reports compiled from our non-intrusive tests and data collecting tasks.   The only requirement from the client is that our team participates in the mitigation process.  This project based work is produced from the remediation reports when performing the initial discovery.  Our team of network engineers investigate and resolve network security issues while our compliance specialists handle office workflow and privacy issues.

About Our Compliance Specialists…

Our team continually conducts IT compliance audits for Sarbanes-Oxley, COBIT, HIPAA, CMA and ISO.  We have consulted to a wide range of medical and financial processing clients, including banks, corporate accounting functions, hospitals and medical service providers, claims processors and IT service providers.  These consultants increase process efficiency, manage risk and ensure compliance with governmental agencies.  We have been contracted by several companies to transition their Information Systems organizations to a greater state of efficiency and productivity and to eliminate errors and risks.  This has included the complete overhaul and acquisition and implementation of software systems, client services and IT staff.

Free Network Security Assessment Broken Down:

Free Security Assessment

• Security Risk Report 
• Security Policy Assessment Report.
• Share Permission Report by Computer.
• Share Permission Report by User.
• Outbound Security Report
• External Vulnerabilities Full Detail Report.

Free Network Assessment

• Client Risk Summary Report
• Full Detail Report
• Asset Detail Report
• Change Management Report
• XP Migration Readiness Report

NetworkAntics delivers Two Types of Compliance:  PCI and HIPAA

PCI Compliance

Anyone using an old school credit card terminal has to abide by PCI Compliance.  Square, Stripe, and other modern payment systems do not have these compliance issues.  We provide powerful PCI compliance tools for those that fall into the other category:

• PCI Assessment Services – This is the discovery phase.
• PCI Remediation Services – It prioritize issues related to security vulnerabilities
• PCI Compliance Services – This is the essential piece demonstrating that your business meets guidelines for compliance and it won’t be subject to significant fines and other liabilities off the balance sheet.

PCI Compliance Reports and Worksheets

• PCI Policies & Procedures Report.
• PCI Risk Analysis Report.
• PCI Risk Profile Report.
• PCI Management Plan.
• Evidence of PCI Compliance Report
• PCI Site Interview Guide
• External Port Security Worksheet
• Cardholder Data Environment Worksheet
• Network Device Identification Worksheet
• Server Function Identification Worksheet
• User ID Worksheet
• Antivirus Capability Identification

HIPAA Compliance

Hospitals, urgent cares, dental clinics, nursing homes and other health-related entities are required by law to have a specialized IT risk assessment performed to satisfy the requirements of HIPAA.  We have the ability to generates a complete set of the official documents that comprise a comprehensive HIPAA IT assessment including:

• HIPAA Policy and Procedures
• HIPAA Risk Analysis
• HIPAA Management Plan
• Evidence of HIPAA Compliance and all associated supporting documentation.

Check out below for more resource links on HIPAA:
Risk Assessment Support

Steps to HIPAA Compliance

Meaningful Use Audit Support

HIPAA Risk Assessment Software

Understanding HIPAA Security Audit Risks and Myths

On-site HIPAA Assessment

Note all reports in BOLD starting with the Security Risk Report in the security assessment, the Client Risk Summary Report in the network assessment, the PCI Risk Analysis Report, and HIPAA Analysis Report are all free.  More in depth reporting comes at an additional costs.  We provide San Diego and nationwide support. Call NetworkAntics to arrange your free network security assessment today!

The post Schedule your Free Network Security Assessment appeared first on Network Antics.

Almost anyone working as an administrator in the medical or healthcare industry can relate to the sometimes daunting amount of responsibilities and tasks they are in charge of. Often times, in addition to patient relations, client services, and office duties, they are tasked with the job of maintaining compliance standards of varying degrees. As someone who currently works in the healthcare industry, an HIPAA audit checklist was something I had only heard of, and didn’t expect to ever happen, until last week.

I received a call stating that the state health board would be visiting our office within an hour to perform an audit to maintain our state licenses and to ensure we were in compliance with HIPAA and medical board standards. When the auditor arrived she informed me that she would be spending anywhere from one to four hours in our office going over various audits and rating us along the way. She informed me that legally, no notice is needed to give to offices, other than when the auditor arrives in the parking lot. Only as a courtesy to the offices that she visits, she will give them a call an hour ahead of time. The audit lasted approximately three hours and involved going through a HIPAA audit checklist related to office practice and procedure policies, employee files, patient charts, medical documentations, and HIPAA compliance. In each area we were rated in full compliance, and if not, created an action plan to resolve any risks within 30 days. In many areas that were examined, various fines and penalties are associated if an office fails to meet state standards.

Not only patient charts, but also employee charts were drawn at random to be audited. A spreadsheet was provided to document everything that was required by state standards to be in the office, employee files, and patient charts. The auditor went through various checks including employee hire dates, salary documentation, primary diagnoses listings, safety and emergency procedures, and standard admission and discharge protocol. After the audit was complete, our office was provided a full report with our outcome and list of action items. For each area that was reviewed, if any items were missing or not up to state standards, we had 30 days to create and correct these issues. After everything was reviewed, our office passed with full compliance to the state standards.

As someone who has worked in the healthcare field in various positions and offices for the several years, I have only ever heard about maintaining standards and compliance, but have never heard of an actual audit, yet alone experienced one myself. As an office administrator, often times maintaining full HIPAA compliance in addition to the numerous other responsibilities at hand can be a tedious task. This means making sure all employees are properly trained and informed about the laws and standards, performing annual risk assessments, and having plans and proper procedures in place in case of a breach of information.

Being in a position where I hold the title of office manager and HIPPA security officer, when I received the call for the audit my heart initially began to race. After hanging up the phone and processing what was about to happen, I reassured myself that I had completed all necessary steps to be fully prepared for this situation. It is easy to be in an administrative position and to think that an audit may never actually happen but applying best effort to maintain full compliance should always be a top priority due to the serious penalties and fines that are consequences if an office should fail to meet standards during an audit.  In order to provide exceptional patient care, it is crucial and necessary for offices to always be in full compliance with these standards.  The benefits greatly outweigh the risks of failing to complete annual employee trainings and risk assessments to accurately maintain state standards for medical boards and compliance in the healthcare industry.  Get going if you haven’t done so already.

HIPAA Audit Checklist Resources:

Risk Assessment Support

Steps to HIPAA Compliance

Meaningful Use Audit Support

HIPAA Risk Assessment Software

Understanding HIPAA Security Audit Risks and Myths

On-site HIPAA Assessment

Schedule your Network Security Assessment Service

The post HIPAA Audit Checklist; A Cautionary Tale of an Office Administrator appeared first on Network Antics.

We dubbed our kick ass tool for solving problems and assisting with projects the Tech Support Toolkit.   It’s basically yesterday’s Swiss Army Knife is and today’s USB thumb drive.  A bit more dull a knife but just as powerful in certain industries.  CD and DVD bootable disks are going away.  Most new computers don’t even have a drive for booting up from.    Many people ask what to if you want to install a new operating system if there’s no CD ROM.  Thankfully there are some pretty cool tools that get you away from the legacy BIOS and CD boot modes and into UEFI.

• Rufus
• WinsetupFromUSB

We will focus on Winsetup because it allows you to store multiple boot installations on one USB.  From what I can tell, Rufus is limited to just one bootable ISO.  I have setup a USB disk with a customized Windows 7 iso (over 7GB), Windows 10 ISO’s (both 32 and 64bit), 2008 r2, 2016, a couple of WinPE based utilities like Paragon Backup & Recovery, and Partition manager, Rescue Kit, a couple of Linux Distro’s and tools, the UBCD etc., all on the same disk. It works great.

USB Stick vs Disk

The Tech Support Toolkit used to be a USB disk drive, not a stick, as the disk has a larger capacity and it can hold more ISOs. Through trying the different options during format I have gotten this disk to work on all the different BIOS’s I have seen, so for me it is universal. But I did have to re-make it a couple of times until I got it this way.   I have since switch to sticks because they offer more capacity than a year or two ago and they fit on a key chain.

USB Warning:

USB stick is faster than DVD but I also found drawbacks.  Many OS (eg win7 OS) the image does not have USB 3 drivers and generates on many boards an error.  So you have to use an USB 2 stick for older boards that do not have the USB 3 driver in the bios.  The only method that always worked was from the DVD.  However, many of these old computer are being replaced.  So this will be a moot point for many individuals.

To begin,  first download  and run the program.

FBinst Tool – Step 1

Click this option for formatting the USB stick for the first time.   You shouldn’t have to go hear again after the format is complete unless you have new stick.   Leave the settings at FAT32 when you plan to do the setup, otherwise you won’t be able to install the OS’s to UEFI based PC’s and GPT disks.

Side Note – The message you get about splitting the iso is because your iso is larger than 4GB. FAT32 only supports a max file-size of 4GB. But the utility WinSetupFromUSB automatically splits iso’s that are larger than 4GB into chunks, so that it still works on a FAT32 formatted file-system. It just notifies you that it will do the split so you know. Just hit OK it and it will work fine.

Gather your ISOs – Step 2

Find Windows 7, 8, 10.1 Pro and Home.  Grab ISOs from  MSDN Subscriber Download Site  Then look at other utility options if there are bootable ISO solutions for them…

Reactive Utilities – Malware Malbytes, JRT.exe, Systernal TCPView,  Microsoft System Restore, Veeam Endpoint Backup, Hirem Boot CD, Eset Online Scanner, Eset SysRescue, Paragon Rescue Kit, Parago Backup and Recovery, CCCleaner, and UBCD.

Additional Utility Notes:  The 32 bit backup & Recovery should be enough. 32 Bit OS’s will also run on 64 Bit hardware. It may not use all RAM then and could be slower, but a backup tool usually doesn’t use much RAM so I doubt you’d notice a difference.

More Notes:
The ADK option comes up in a lot of ISO kits.  It creates a WinPE based iso, it can be easier to use (but it will install parts of M$’s ADK tools so WinPE iso’s can be created). If you don’t use the ADK option you’ll get a Linux based iso.

Use the Linux/GRUB section for the UBCD and HBCD.

HBCD not required

I’m struggling to get HBCD to work with the menu.lst.  Grab the HBCD folder off the HBCD ISO when using Magic ISO to mount the Hiren ISO.  Then edit the menu under WinSetup USB stick.  Add the following at the bottom of config file.  It should work but I got the error below.

title Hiren Boot CD 15.2 \n
find –set–root /hbcd/menu.lst
configfile /HBCD/menu.lst

Add to USB Disk – Step 3

Manually add each ISO one by one and label them accordingly.

Custom Boot Names – Step 4

Make sure you add very specific but to the point custom names.  You’ll thank me later.

Computer Boot Issues – Step 5

Side note:  It’s an m$ issue, when you boot the installation media from an NTFS file-system, it can’t load the EFI modules which are needed for an UEFI BIOS to recognize it as such, and so only normal BIOS setup will be available.

Boot Education:

Understanding how PCs boot these days and the legacy boot option is essential for troubleshooting PCs.  You tech support toolkit is useless without it.  For now, there show be two particular options you should focus on.  We have some resources at the bottom of the page if you to understand much more further in depth.

Legacy Boot – “USB Storage Device” – Boot Menu 1
UEFI Boot – “Windows Boot Manager”  – Boot Menu 2

You can simply use Windows Boot Manager if you are running a Windows OS setup.  Use the legacy boot option for everything else.

Two Boot Menus

Boot Menu 1 – AKA “Legacy Boot”

When I boot from the USB disk I first am asked about whether I want to use Grub4DOS or pLop boot manager, where I can select between F1 and F2. This selection I usually don’t touch, and then I get the next screen, which is a light blue, and the first menu.

It starts with
0 Windows NT6 (Vista/7 and above) Setup, then
1 Second part/continue NT6 Setup (Boot first internal disk). Then
2 Windows NT6…. Then
3 gparted-live. Then
4 Clonezilla-live. Then
5 UBCDrindi, and so on.

If I select the top option (0), I almost get to the menu you have in your screen-shot. except at the top I have

…Back to Main Menu(Grub4DOS)

Boot Menu 2 – “Windows Boot Manager” – Windows Setup Issues.

A lot of computers were installed with the legacy boot option.  Windows won’t boot correctly if you are in UEFI or in secure mode set in the BIOS.  Disable UEFI if it does not boot correctly or enable it if Windows was setup in UEFI mode.  Make sense?

Tech Support Toolkit FAQ

Secure Boot Notes:

“Operating system loader signature not found in secureboot database (‘db’)  is the error message I received…   Message boards say to disable secure boot but I want secure boot.”

***You’ll need to disable secure boot if you want it to boot from other devices than the OS disk
you can re-enable it later again, if you want***

Windows Installation Notes:

Grab the key from prior install if wiping the computer using Belark Advisor or Copy the COA if on the computer.

Don’t enter any key during the installation. You can skip that step or click on “I don’t have a key”. The installation will proceed, and once finished and the system has an internet connection it will activate automatically, provided you installed the correct version of Windows 7 that corresponds to what came with the computer.

More Installation Notes:

You can only use UEFI and GPT if you install the system via UEFI in the first place. You can use GPT drives as secondary drives on MBR-based installations of windows.  When you get the boot media selection you should see two options for your DVD or USB stick, one of them UEFI, which would be what you select. This works with DVD’s and USB sticks, but the USB stick must be using the FAT32 file-system, otherwise you won’t get the UEFI boot selection.

UEFI or MBR Boot Windows Install Additional Legacy Issues:

If you use a UEFI boot then you must install to a GPT disk, MBR boot to a MBR disk. Some software balks on GPT disks (Spinrite) but most cloning software doesn’t care about the DATA on the disk..

More About UEFI:

UEFI is chosen usually if the drive you are installing your Windows to is bigger than 2TB or you want to have more than 4 primary partitions. Otherwise there is no reason to use UEFI.

In most cases, disabling secure boot in UEFI solves many problems
http://itsfoss.com/disable-uefi-secure-boot-in-windows-8/

More About GPT:

Disk Manager will show if it is GPT or MBR

If the UEFI boot is enabled in BIOS and you are installing the Windows 7 64bit (32bit will not go to GPT drive) to empty HDD (not partitioned) then it will make automatically GPT drive with partitions.
To check if your drive now is a GPT drive right click on C: – Properties – Hardware – select again Properties – then Volume – populate. It will show what type of HDD is used.

As for Backup of the drive. You can use Paragon Backup & Recovery 15 Free tool to take backup of your HDD. It does work with both GPT and MBR drives.

Setup properly, the tech support toolkit offers many advantages over a standard DVD setup.  Call us today if you would like us to assist in a future tech support endeavors.

The post The Tech Support Toolkit Saves The Day appeared first on Network Antics.

The Problem

Acme Inc needs file server migration support.  File Servers come in all shapes and sizes.  In this scenario, the file server is a Synology DS414 with 4 x 2TB disks in a RAID 5 configuration.  Currently there is 4.4 TB used out of an available 5.7 TB.  Acme Inc uses the Time (Hyper) backup applet to perform backups which gives the availability to restore different versions of a file.  There are also some pretty good alternatives backup apps are Glacier and Idrive Backup.

NOTE:  The backup destination in this example known as Cox Premier, AKA the home office is 150/10 megabits.  The 10 megabits /8 = 1.25 megabytes per second * 60 = 75 megabytes per minute * 60 = 4.5 gigabytes per hour (drop 10 percent) 4 gigabytes per hour of backup data that can upload to the home location.

The Solution

We propose to implement a new Synology DS1515+ unit.  The DS1515+ is a 5-bay unit and has the option to add an expansion unit to bring the total drive numbers to 15.  The DS1515+ comes with double the RAM of the DS414 and is expandable to 6GB (from 2GB).  The two network interfaces on the DS1515+ can be combined into a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) if you have the network hardware (switch) capable of handling a LAG.

Three Options

There are three different ways to implement file server migration support.  The first thing that should be done is to back up the existing data to an external disk for safety.  A 5TB USB3.0 drive will cost about $140, the initial backup will take 3 days but can be done while the system is online.  ***Not necessary if you are confident the Hyper backups are working.

Option 1 – EXT4 underlying file system and limited increased space

Move Existing Disks

The simplest and fastest way to perform this implementation is to move the existing drives out of the DS414 into the DS1515+ and perform a Synology Migration.  This will bring the unit up exactly the way the DS414 was configured (with Shard Folders, Users, Access controls and Time Backup) in about one hour.

NOTE:  RAID 6 option would allow for two parity drives.  This allows for the potential loss of two drives.  We chose RAID 5 in this scenario.

Adding the New Disks to Existing RAID 5

An additional (2 TB) disk can then be added to the unit and the RAID 5 set can be expanded to include the new disk giving an effective disk space of 7.6 TB (so approximate utilization will be 58%).

Cost for this will be $(DS1515+) + $(2TB drive) + $(labor).  The DS414 will then be extra but will have no drives in it.  The RAID5 expansion should be performed over the weekend so as not to impact user performance.

Note:  The latest NAS drive is 8 Gig

There are a couple of concerns with this method.  The first is that the future of Time Backup is uncertain; Synology had stopped active development of it in favor of their new Hyper Backup.  The second is that it will continue to use the EXT4 underlying file system which is a good file system but lacks some features of the new BTRFS filesystem (specifically snapshots which could replace the Time Backup functionality.)

Also, you didn’t really solve your problem of increasing disk space by much.

Option 2 – Copy DS414 to DS1515+

The second way of performing the implementation is to set up the DS1515+ with new drives, copy the data from the DS414 and then restore settings from the DS414 to the DS1515+ (so that Shared Folders, Users, etc. are transferred).  Cost for this will be $(DS1515+) + $(drives) + $(labor).  The DS414 will then be extra and will already have drives.

The biggest “problem” with this method is the time taken to perform the copy of data.  It is difficult to estimate how much time it will take to perform the transfer because of variabilities introduced by the number and size of files.  We can say that it will absolutely take a minimum of 13 hours and could easily take 36 hours.  There is a way to mitigate this and that is to perform two sets of copies.  The first copy will be an online copy copying all data potentially while users are still accessing the DS414.  The second copy will be an update copy where all users are kept out of the system and only the changed data is copied.   Depending on how long the copy takes, this could actually be completed over a weekend with the switchover to the new DS1515+ occurring first thing Monday morning, thereby minimizing downtime to the users.

There are some additional considerations; the drives will be all new and so that will add to the cost, and the “new” system would not be able to use Time Backup.  To handle the versioning problem introduced by the loss of Time Backup we would implement the snapshots feature of BTRFS which will allow access to some but not necessarily all versions of a particular file.  This is configurable and we can arrive at a schedule which meets your needs.  If the DS414 is kept as-is (we would of course need to rename it) then you could continue to have access to the Time backup copies on the DS414.  At some future time you could re-purpose the DS414 when you’re reasonably certain you no longer need access to the Time Backup copies.  With new drives being installed in the DS1515+ you can choose which size drives you want to have; 2TB drives will give you 7.6TB usable space, 4 TB drives will give 15.2 TB usable space (although you could also choose to implement a second level of redundancy dropping that down to about 11 TB).

Option 3 (A lil risky but fastest)

Migrate legacy RAID 5 Disks -> Copy to 1 Independent Volume or Disk –> Copy shares back to upgraded RAID disks

There is a third option that I consider a little riskier but has the advantage of being able to be staged over time.  That is to perform the migration option discussed as option 1 but NOT to add the 5^th disk as a RAID expansion.  The 5^th disk would be a 6TB disk and would be configured as an independent SHR volume.  The shares would then be moved over to the independent volume.  Reformat the existing disks (or emplace new ones) as BTRFS instead of EXT4 and then move the shares back.

Note:  Does configuration carry over with the data during this copy to independent disk?

This is riskier because for a while all of the data would exist on a single disk.  If the users are accessing the data then it would be slower for them because they would be competing for a single spinning spindle.  It is however possible that the whole thing could be done over a weekend without user impact – i.e. go in and do the initial migration to the DS1515+ last thing Friday, do the work necessary to move/format/move back the data remotely over the weekend.  If this is done then it is imperative that the USB backup be made and updated before work starts.

Scenario 2 – DS215 Migration to DS1515+   File Server Migration Support

3TB are being used in the legacy system.  Migrating to a new Synology NAS 5 bay chassis and adding 3 (8 TB) disks in a new system will provide 16TB of effective disk space. Cost for this will be $(DS1515+) + $(8TB drives) + $(labor).  The RAID5 expansion should be performed over the weekend so as not to impact user performance.

Move Existing Mirror (4^{th and} 5^th Disks)

The simplest and fastest way to perform this implementation is to move the existing mirror out of the DS215 into the DS1515+ and perform a Synology Migration.  This will bring the unit up exactly the way the DS215 was configured (with Shard Folders, Users, Access controls and Time Backup) in about one hour.  It will not include BTFRS.  *** Do not install the 3 new disks first.  The old mirror will migrate Diskstation configuration if it is installed first.
Where is the configuration stored?  On the volume?

Adding the New Disks

Add new RAID 5 Disks -> Copy Shares from Independent Volume or Disk to RAID 5

Add the new disks and reformat the new RAID 5 volume as BTRFS instead of EXT4 and then move the shares over from the old volume.

If the users are accessing the data then it would be slower for them because they would be competing for a single spinning spindle.  It is however possible that the whole thing could be done over a weekend without user impact – i.e. go in and do the initial migration to the DS1515+ last thing Friday, do the work necessary to move/format/move back the data remotely over the weekend.  If this is done then it is imperative that the USB backup be made and updated before work starts.

File Server migration Support Summary

There are plenty of options when implementing a new file server.  This is just one example for one Synology file server for many types of Network Attached Storage devices.  Call us today for a network discovery.  We will help find the right file server for your network.

Quick  Links

Create New Volume

https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/volume_diskgroup_create_volume

Migrate between to NAS

https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/General/How_to_migrate_between_Synology_NAS_DSM_5_0_and_later

Expand Volume with New Disk

https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/StorageManager/volume_diskgroup_expand_add_disk

Synology Disaster/Recovery

https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Storage/How_can_I_recover_data_from_my_DiskStation_using_a_PC

The post File Server migration Support appeared first on Network Antics.

Exchange setup for Rackspace is fairly easy setup but all the preparation before from prior email accounts and the integration thereafter does require careful thought before proceeding.

Preparation for a new email account

You should always start with pruning your email regardless of what email service you choose and what provider serves it.  Email becomes significantly more manageable once the email is pruned.  And by pruned I mean unsubscribing to unnecessary emails and deleting them.  Otherwise, don’t enable forwarding to your new email account from your old email account and consider it a junk mail account.  Read more here.

Backup Outlook

Export your contacts and calendar to a CSV and the email to a PST.  DO NOT TRY TO MODIFY THE EXISTING EMAIL ACCOUNT.  Create a new profile in Outlook for the new Rackspace email.  You will end up breaking accessibility to the old Exchange email account.  That data could be useful later on.

Hosting with Rackspace

The reason people choose Rackspace over other services is the great customer care.   You’ll notice it immediately when calling.  No phone tree and limited hold times.  People tend to go with GoDaddy as a domain registrar and branch out with additional services from there.   Check out the DNS setup if you choose Godaddy as the domain registrar.  Otherwise, let’s get started with the RackSpace links below.

Information- https://www.rackspace.com/en-us/email-hosting/hosted-exchange/pricing

Signup- https://cart.rackspace.com/apps?_ga=1.103723522.343406881.1409948163

Rackspace Cloud Office

https://cp.rackspace.com.

Microsoft Exchange Setup

• Select mailboxes under Microsoft Exchange and edit account information accordingly

Microsoft Outlook Setup

• The OWA link is https://apps.rackspace.com/index.php Email can be read here.   Alternately, an easier link to remember that will redirect to the above link is https://outlook.office.com
• Autodiscover should be setup in DNS. Autodiscover allows you to input the email address and password as displayed below.  The email will automatically configure itself from there.  Otherwise, use the following support link to assist with local Outlook desktop setup.

Apple Iphone Exchange Email Setup  – Preparation

Please understand this is the default mail application most people use and they are third party apps like Gmail and Outlook app for Iphone.   Please remove the old mail account by going to “settings” on iPhone, “mail”, select “accounts” at the top, and select the account you wish to delete if you are in fact using this app.

Apple Iphone Exchange Email Setup

Note: The images in this article show iPhone 5 running iOS 7. Though screens on other iOS devices will differ, the process is the same.

On the home screen of your device, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account

Exchange Setup for Rackspace

Understand CSV files for contacts, PSTs from prior email, and a basic understanding of email setup will reduce migration time significantly.

The post Exchange Setup for Rackspace appeared first on Network Antics.

Home Entertainment on a Budget

Home entertainment is not cheap.  There’s the hardware that is always changing but really it’s the services that adds up and kills your pocket book.  Over the last eight years, I’ve spent over $10,000  in DirecTV alone.  Granted they are the Ferrari of cable TV services but nothing is worth that kind of money.  Plus, AT&T bought them.  Their customer service has declined since and at some point you need to re-evaluate what’s important to you.

For me, it’s CBS Evening News, PBS News Hour, Charlie Rose, Frontline, 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, the NFL on Sunday morning, Fareed Zakaria on CNN, Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, Warriors basketball on the NBA League Pass, and maybe some other sitcoms.  I can get all those shows with the exception of ESPN, CNN, and the NBA on some HD rabbit ears.

Alternative Solutions

Download the app called Stitcher on your mobile device, go on a walk or run, and listen to Podcast version of Fareed, PTI, and some other cable talk shows.   You can get an app for the NBA package too through some alternative mean.  Roku has the app.  The downside to this is the video on demand, pause, and quirky play back features.   I’m willing to forgo this option because my Warriors are boring this year.  Plus, all the games of any interest are on national TV.  Kevin Durant needs to be traded to make league competitive again but I digress.

Finally, the best value of live TV seems to be Sling TV.   At $20, there’s no better deal to get a 100 plus channels including ESPN and TNT for watching live sports.  However, I’m not aware of any feature for recording live TV with Sling.  I understand Hulu may be going this route but it remains to be seen.

Hardware and Service Essentials

• Fiber finally arrived in my neighborhood. I can finally ditch my $60mo  AT&T Universe at 5 meg download for Time Warner Cable promo rate of $45 for up to 100 megabits of download speed.
• HD Antenna
  • The basic HD antenna has proven limited on reception for me but improves if you place on a window. You may be better off calling in someone to mount an external HD antenna.
• Smart TVs.  They may have all the apps you need integrated into the TV.  ie. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Plex, etc.
• Buy digital media players.  I wanted more flexibility even though I had a smart TV (Make sure you bought a TV with enough HDMI ports)
  • The FireTV is awesome, fast, flexible, and you can speak to it. It also allows for some fun extras.  Sling TV can integrate here
  • Chromecast is another player that runs off your phone and is great for allowing friends and family to blast their own music and shows from their phones.  PS – Microsoft now makes their own casting device.  I have yet to find a good one but it would be nice to have for work presentations.

Don’t Rent Equipment

It will infuriate anyone who sees those sneaky fees from the cable companies when they charge you for their equipment on top of the standard services they provide.

• Buy a Motorola Modem for your internet and buy a separate router. There are a slew of new router/WiFi access points coming out in April that improve wireless significantly.
• Buy the beautifully designed TIVO Bolt to replace your cable box. The Tivo Box is great for several reasons.
  • It records your HD Antenna shows in beautiful HD
  • It records your basic package TV shows if you decide to purchase an internet and TV channels combo pack. NOTE:  Order a cable card from your cable provider to pop in the Bolt for full integration.
  • The channel guide is elegant and seamlessly integrates web apps like Netflix into the TIVO interface. This may sound ho hum feature but people like to zone out when watching TV.   They have tweaked it so the shows you on your basic TV also instantly loads seasons that are on the Netflix app.  NOTE – I’m waiting for the day sling agrees to work with TIVO.  A channel guide that streams live shows with an intuitive interface would be a huge break through in the living room.
  • It acts as your master remote for turning off the TV, adjusting volume on your stereo, and switching inputs for other home entertainment HDMI devices

Fun Extras

Look into purchasing a NAS and Boxee Box for viewing your ripped movies that you hopefully purchased.  NOTE:  Do not buy j series Synology NAS hardware if you plan to use the Plex for streaming your movie collection.  The ARM processor is a joke for streaming.  That’s why I recommend a Boxee Box to do the heavy lifting so your cheap little Synology NAS does not have to.  The Synology duals as a remote backup for all your photos and video stashed on your phone.

The post Home Entertainment on a Budget appeared first on Network Antics.

Windows data transfers typically break down into two scenarios that occur when data needs to be migrated.

• The computer has failed and you need to use something like Paragon Backup and Recovery for recovering your data onto an external hard drive or network drive.  In layman’s terms, your computer won’t boot and you need a technician to recover the data on the drive.
• The user profile has now joined a domain and thus, a new Active Directory user profile will be generated when signed into their new domain.   Basically, the profile you created when you got the computer should be disabled and your new domain profile takes its place.  However, all your data from your old profile will be gone unless you migrate it to the new profile.

We will illustrate how to perform the second talking today.

Data transfer from old profile to new profile

Join the domain first then login into the old local profile and add the domain user full control of the local user profile

Hit ok and click continue for any errors that pop up.  Log out and enter into the user’s new domain profile.

Windows Login Screen

• Select “other user” and click “sign in options” if email address or phone number are in the user field.
• Select local or domain account password

*Make sure you sign into the domain account and or disable the local accounts that you don’t use to avoid confusion.

Windows “Sign On” to the Domain

File Explore

• Select the old user profile and copy pertinent data usually from desktop, documents, and pictures.

You don’t currrently have permissions

This will take several minutes to load but the you can copy (not move or cut) desktop to the new profile once you create a folder called “old desktop”  Copy documents to documents and pictures to pictures but advise them it won’t be backed up and data should be placed in their mapped drives.

What are mapped drives?   It depends on the drive.  We will list a few generic drives or shares to spot on a network:

Personal drive or Home drive (sometimes mapped as the letter h:\) The Personal drive or home drive is for work in progress or personal data.

Other communal shares (sometimes mapped as the letter p:\ for public) for anything that needs to be shared with the organization.

Also, keep in mind of other odd data but critical data. Such as Quickbooks Files, Favorites and Outlook PST or any other database files.  These files may vary and is decided on a case by case basis.   Quickbooks may reside in an Admin or HR mapped drive while archived Outlook PST data from years past may also reside in the H drive.

Just remember to disable the local account unless the user personally bought the computer and wishes to have local account remain on the computer.  It becomes a huge vulnerability if left enabled.

The post Windows Data Transfer Tutorial appeared first on Network Antics.

Implementing a small business server is no easy feat.  There’s the expense but what is the expense?  There’s the implementation service but who will provide that service?  Do you even need more hardware when you got the “cloud” keeping your business flowing?

Where does one start when their informal business processes no longer meets their growing needs?  We followed a growing San Diego business of just under 15 users from their very basic network infrastructure, zero documentation, and limited knowledge of what they wanted out of IT Support; and divvied up all IT related problems into projects.  They simply knew what they were doing wasn’t working.   First thing, come prepared with your tool belt of items:

• 50′ Ethernet Cable
• Some extra cable management items.
• External hard drive and DVD Burner
• Blank DVDs
• Thumb Drives plus ISO of Operating Systems and Utilities

Project 1 –  Server Hardware and Software Integration

Setup server as a Vsphere box and install virtual server and workstation AKA Hypervisor.  This project failed miserably due to a hardware limitation with the SAS drives or a driver issue with the current release of Vsphere.  We spent just over a day racking our brain on this one.   We ended up not charging for this time.

Know Your Hardware Specs!!!

Upon reflection, Windows 2012 R2 Foundation would not have installed on Vsphere anyway.  They are serious limitations of Foundations.  There’s a product comparison at Microsoft’s site.  Foundation only handles 15 users to begin with and Hyper V does not install.

Then there’s a hardware issue with the Dell PowerEdge R230(Read full blog post on the poor hardware specs).  It came with a Perc H330 controller card for running the SAS drives mirror configuration.  This is a poor card to introduce into your organization’s first server.

Avoid – Perc H200/H300 controller cards and 4k sector drives.  Enable “Disk Cache Policy” once you have confirmed a battery backup is in place and is working.

Consider – H700/H800 controller card and 512 sector drives

Perc H330

Finally, configure OpenManage and iDRAC for remote access.  Estimated hours to complete this is two hours.

Project 2 – Document the Network

This brings us to our next project.  Ideally, this should be done first for all the reasons that are well documented in the first project.  Anyway, document and inventory the network when implementing a small business server.  Joining the machines to the new domain called AD.acme.com cannot occur until we knew the current user account credentials and the specs of the machine.  For instance, we knew early on we could not proceed with the project until the operating systems were upgraded from Home edition to Professional.  With that said, what’s the best method of organization?

• Keepass database for storing your passwords
• http://Drive.google.com for storing your basic network info sheet. Do not store anything too personal since it’s a Google sheet but running Advance IP Scanner and documenting what pops up should get you going.  Here are some items to consider for your info sheet:
  • Users – What are the full names of the users on the network?
  • Hostname – What’s the hostname of each machine?
  • IP Address
  • Location – It’s important for the supporting staff to know where everything is located
  • Model – Knowing the type of the computer expedites support
  • Current user name and proposed user name – Educate the users as you document that all new users will contain a standard naming convention like first initial, last name
  • Password – Set a generic password for the user to login into once the domain is setup and they apply their own unique password later.
  • OS – It is very important to know if they are on a Windows 10 Home Edition or some other unsupported Operating System
  • Serial – Tracking down the warranty information and any type of disaster/recovery before any issues occur is critical. Add Serial Keys for products like Office and Quickbooks is even better.  Consider using Belark Advisor for key recovery or simply contact the Office Administrator.
  • User Roles and Email address are also essential for expediting deployment of new technologies throughout the network. The more useful information, the better.

Consider the following tools to download on to all workstations for best chance of users accessibility to a Remote Desktop and standardizing on a local admin account at the same time:

• Mac Remote Desktop Connection
• PC Remote Desktop Protocol
• LogMeIn

ProTip:  Create a share on the network for the tech to access to make the above items easily deployable.

Estimating time for discovery or documenting is 3 to 5 hours depending on how helpful the prior documentation is if any…

Project 3 – Promote the new server to a Domain Controller.

This will allow all workstation to join the new centralized file server and user credentials environment.  We then took the user information collected and developed a user naming convention.  Ie.  First initial, last name.   We then added the users to the Active Directory  of the server and assign them to security groups based on data obtained and placed on the info sheet.  Shares were created for specific groups of users and the windows users were configured with login scripts for mapping drive letters to their workstations.

3 hours

Project 4 – Special Add-ons or Customization of Your Network

Implementing a small server is never a cookie cutter template.   At this particular site, a virtual server AKA hypervisor was created on the Windows Server to address the needs of Quickbooks hosting and remote accessibility.  A remote desktop connection was created for both LAN and WAN accessibility.  This required some Sonicwall reconfiguration for the WAN or work from home solution.

2.5 hours

Project 5 – Workstation Setup

Creating local admin account on all the machines, Joining Windows machines to the domain, and transferring their data to the new profile.

1 hour per workstation

Project 6 –  Mac Setup

Adding local admin account to Mac’s and  connect server shares via a specific user account.

.5 per Mac

Project 7 –  Printer Setup

Setup printers to be static and added to the print server.

1 hour

Project  8 –  Organizing and Filing Data

Uploading data to the network.  Quickbooks, client data, etc

Varies but easily several hours of coordinating with organization leaders

Project 9 – Training. 

This is easily take a couple days but training can be reduced significantly with the generic IT information/scenarios in these blogs.  Instructing users going forward to use the support email address to contact support will help organize the chaos of implementing a small business server.

Implementing a Small Business Server Summary

Underestimating your time and clearly spelling out the level of expectations for everyone involved will sour your relationship and leave your small business server environment to fail.    The expense of hardware and services will go to waste unless the time involved was maximized to it fullest.  Meaning, the users not only have all the services setup but they understand how to use it.

Resources:

Lifecycle Deployment – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe5xhhyFjDPd5bI0FoXqD4zJMPqs8tIpz

Virtual Box – http://blogs.getcertifiedgetahead.com/windows-server-8-virtual/

Installing VMware ESXi – http://www.dell.com/support/contents/us/en/19/Videos/VideoPlayer/OS-Installing-VMware-ESXi-Using-CDDVD/wxa2J3ODE6mJZvVYr7V461QRmkQZfgrT

VMware Setup  Manual – http://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/19/vmware-esxi-6.x/ESXi6.xIIGPub/Introduction?guid=GUID-B461EEBF-874F-4DE1-8D8B-7786A6241076&lang=en-us

VMware ESXi 6.5 – http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=NF6XJ

All Dell Server Videos – http://www.dell.com/support/contents/us/en/19/videos

Backup Power Supplies – https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-1500VA-Rack-Mount-SMART1500LCD/dp/B000DZRY9C

Controller Cards – https://betanews.com/2014/09/30/why-is-dell-crippling-its-low-end-server-raid-cards/

iDRAC Configuration – http://www.dell.com/support/contents/us/en/19/Videos/VideoPlayer/Connect-to-iDRAC8-and-Change-the-Default-Password-/V4ZWR2cTp2xxya5x2SG-VCSskeL8gThw

The post An IT Support Guide to Implementing a Small Business Server appeared first on Network Antics.

There are a slew of issues when it comes to a Windows 10 upgrade.  The primary issue comes with the upgrade itself.  Windows tends to struggle with upgrades from home ever and prior editions of the Windows Operating System.   Sometime it takes downloading the ISO file to the desktop, right click and mounting, then running the setup again to sort out all the bugs or maybe it’s just time for a new computer

The other issues is just getting familiar with the new look and feel.  Things are simply not there where they use to be.  Error messages are just as vague and different.  Here’s a peak of simple  but hard to find adjustments.

Windows Login Screen

Note: Windows won’t login into the domain unless you are sign into: AD or whatever the domain name is called.

• Select “other user” and click “sign in options” if email address or phone number are in the user field.
• Select local or domain account password

*Make sure you sign into the domain account and or disable the local accounts that you don’t use to avoid confusion.

Joining the Domain

Sometimes computers are not joined and it may be your job to join the workstations to the domain.  Right click start and select Control Panel.   Control is where are the heavy lifting is done for IT administrators.  The start, Settings button is pretty much useless in my line of work.  Anyway, right click and there quite a few IT options to help you out of any predicament but control panel is where it’s at in this scenario.   Once in control panel, select system, and change settings for joining the computer to the domain or changing it’s hostname

The post Windows 10 Upgrade and Joining to the Domain appeared first on Network Antics.

I got a new computer to setup.  Follow the directions below to kick off a Windows 10 new computer setup.  Skip below if you still using Windows 7.

• Turn on the computer and follow the Windows 10 prompts.
  • Change time zone – Next
  • Select the local Wi-Fi – Next
    • Hopefully, you have local wireless internet hotspot to select from or plug in the Ethernet cable.
  • Customize Settings (lower left)
  • Select No for the following:
    • Let apps use your advertising ID (No)
    • Let Skype connect with friends (No) – Next
  • Off for all:
    • Auto connect to hot spots (off)
    • Auto connect to networks (off)
    • Auto connect to hot spots (off)
    • Send error report (off) – Next
  • Get updates from and send updates (off) – Next
  • Who owns this PC?
    • I own it – Next
  • Make it yours
    • Skip this step
  • Create an account
    • Use your first name only for the user account unless told otherwise – Next
    • Hand off your new windows credentials you just created to your IT guy
  • Remote Support (3 options to choose from)
    • ShowMyPC work pretty well but sometimes it fails to work.
      • Run ShowMyPC from downloads after you click the link. Then click showmypc green play button to generate a code for handing off to your IT support
    • Join.me is your slower more reliable source for remote accessibility
      • Click “start meeting” and send the code to your IT guy
    • TeamViewer is your final option. You probably have serious remote issues if you are deferring to this final option or you just prefer to use TeamViewer

Windows 7  – New Computer Setup

Quick Link Resource:

• Windows 7 Media

The post New Computer Setup appeared first on Network Antics.

We all know how much more productive we are when we share.   The same goes in the business world when you are sharing and hopefully collaborating on files from a file server network shares.  All Mac and PCs have the capability of utilizing network shares and drive mappings from a file server.  This will not only store data for back but to collaborate on all the files in these “shares” except for H drive or Personal Home Drive.   We have not only documented a formal layout of what a typical file server sharing environment looks like from IT documentation perspective but we provided pictures below.

PC Setup

Mapped drives or shares Automatically populate with domain login.  Apple shares have to manually be setup.

Map drives and shortcuts placed on the desktop

Below is what Apple shares appear like on a Mac desktop

Mac desktop network shares.

The post File Server Network Shares appeared first on Network Antics.

Everyone likes the concept of sharing files and folders from their computer and phone on the go.  Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive are personal cloud storage products that have a common thread where they are hosted by a major tech company, costly in that these companies shake you down every time reach their free threshold, and you are more likely to be pushed in a direction of using products that meant for their ecosystem only.  Synology makes a suite of software and hardware products for those who want more control out of storage.

Understanding Your Workflow

You or your organization must have a Synology DiskStation or their higher end line of NAS products to configure and store your data on.  Ultimately, you want your DiskStation customized to the way you work.  Below is snippet of what drives are accessible locally from my laptop.

Network Drive Letters Setup

• Local Disk (C:)
  Data that resides on your local computer’s hard drive. Use Synology Cloud Station Backup to backup data that is stored here.
• Home

This is your personal drive.  Personal data like old Outlook PSTs, photos, and docs should be placed here.  Cloud Station Drive data is also stashed here depending on how you configured the app.

• Video

Communal video data should be stashed here.  Again, this is how I customized by Synology.  Your communal data may differ

• Work

This is a vague term for work related data that everyone can collaborate on.  This folder will be used later to sync with CloudStation Drive.

Network Info Sheet –  Mapped Drives

Below is how we break down shares and present them to clients when they are deciding what individuals should have permissions to specific network shares.

Synology Cloud Station Drive

The Cloud Station Drive takes one of these shares and makes it accessible on your computer and mobile phone when you are on the go.  There’s no more tunneling into the network via VPN or accessing a website remotely to download your work and later uploading an updated copy.  And finally, your data is no longer in the hands of Google Drive, DropBox, and or Microsoft OneDrive.

In this scenario, we choose “client” or the M drive to sync with Cloud Station Drive.

Get Going! – Download Cloud Station Drive

Once download, run the install and follow the pics below.  It is important to know before getting start how you authenticate to your Synology NAS.   Please grab those credentials before proceeding.  Typical credentials end in Synology.me

Credentials:  xxxxx.synology.me

Cloud Station Credentials

Don’t select QuickConnect unless you absolutely have to.  It is not as secure as the other methods for authenticating with the Synology.

Say no to QuickConnect

This may be an issue if you don’t have an SSL cert.  In my case, we do not have an SSL certificate.

SSL Certificate Prompt

The Selected folder on your PC and NAS will be Syncronized.

Here’s the interesting part.   There are two sections to edit from.

• I would leave the bottom one as the default location and it will end up as an additional to your window library and a shortcut will be placed on your desktop for accessing the synced data.
• Referring back to what share we chose to sync, we chose “client” and you select the top section to edit and select “client” to sync.   Alternately, we could have chosen something like your home drive.  In that case, we select “CloudStation (home)”

Select Share to Sync

Select “Finish” once complete and add “cloudstation” under c:\users\username\ to “quick access” when in File Explore of Windows.

Add to Recents

Synology Cloud Station Support

Let us know if you are still struggling with the setup for the Synology Cloud Station.  We provide remote and on-site support for all NAS products.

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Windows Computer Troubleshooting Services can be anything.  We will take a scenario we just resolved that just so happened to exhausted many of our tools in our troubleshooting tool belt to discover the real cause

Hardware Diagnostics

Use hardware diagnostics if the machine came with it.  Dell is very good with this because theirs is universal.  Lenovo has some utilities too but not as universal with all their PCs.  Asus does not offer hard diagnostics.

What is the cause of problem?

User reports projects share says “not responding”.

What is the really cause of the problem?

The user may be seeing one specific issue but it’s not until you dive in that you discovery the projects share is just the tip of the iceberg.
Malware of Virus

• Run malware scans from Malware Malbytes and JRT.exe
• Eset Online Scanner

Troubleshooting Timeouts

Sometimes it’s worth taking timeout to reassess the situation rather than let scans run forever.  Depending on the issue, Malware can may times be the culprit.  This is why we started here.   However, ou could be losing valuable time barking up the wrong tree.  Especially if you know the user is not prone to visiting or clicking on bad things. In this scenario, I asked when did it start happening.  He said, in the last day or so; and only couple windows updates had ran since.

Remove Updates and Programs

• Under Programs and Features, remove recently installed programs and Windows Updates

Other Windows OS Utilities

• Reliability Monitor
• Window Event Log
• Sfc /scanow

Hard Drive test, health, and error scan

Used quick test in the program called HD Tune that is on the Hiren Boot CD.  Hard drive diagnostic indicates a healthy drive.

Driver and BIOS

Performed BIOS update along with driver updates to possible hardware causing the problem like the NIC and chipset.

PS – I struggled with the BIOS update.  Sometimes it isn’t clear if you do it from Windows or the BIOS or both.  I called Asus support and discovered they did not support much unless you demand it.  They said we don’t support BIOS updates.  There’s documentation if you query on Google “asus bios updates”.  However, as it turned out the directions were wrong.  Winflash does not work for this particular BIOS and you use the “DEL” key to enter BIOS and select “tools” to update the BIOS from your thumb drive.   I also for the heck of it, submitted for an RMA.  The estimated cost to fix the problem is $700 and they emailed me RMA information if I decided to go that route.

Play Around with the PC

Don’t just sit around waiting for these scans to begin and end.  Try duplicating the error.  The error in this case did not just happened on the share but also happened on the D drive.  This is what leads me to believe it was a hard drive issue with the SATA drive, also known as the D:\ drive.

However, the scan (as mentioned in the hard drive test above) indicated the drive is healthy.  There are no bad sectors

Backup – Images and Data Recovery

• Veeam Endpoint Backup
  • Great tool for surviving a Windows boot crash.  Other benefits include a pretty easy method for upgrading a small C drive to a larger one if you threw Veeam on months before any issues occurred. Make sure you grab a USB stick and duct tape it to a inconspicuous place on the computer.  You will need it later when your computer is failing.

• Paragon Rescue Kit
  • Great tool to survive a failing hard drive. Be prepared for a day long recovery process
• Paragon Backup and Recovery
  • One of many tools out there for backing up your machine. People are more likely to use a cloud based system like Mozy or Carbonite.
• Cloning
  • Sometimes drives are failing and you don’t have Veeam to save the day.
    • AOMEI Backupper
    • Paragon Drive Copy

What did I forget to do?

I really did not want to spend time restoring from a prior copy of windows or clone a hard drive to a new drive when my gut and much of my troubleshooting was indicating there’s got to be a better way.

I forgot to run windows file explorer under another profile to see if I could duplicate the issue.  I could not duplicate the issue.   I immediately changed the user name with the current account and added the new user name as the old user name.  Then transferred the data over.

Windows Computer Troubleshooting Services Summary

It’s been a while since I had to do some heavy troubleshooting.  Normally, I’m hustling for new clients around San Diego and my engineers and technicians are doing the work.  I guess chalk it up as a win and lost since it took like 2 to 3 hours to ultimately find resolution.  However, this time around I’m smart enough to document the process.

The post Windows Computer Troubleshooting Services appeared first on Network Antics.

Eclincal scanning and fax support are critical pieces in the eCW EMR architecture.  Front Desk staff at small practices just don’t know what they are missing when converting documents into electronic form but not taking advantage of OCR or Optical Character Recognition.  Let’s begin with OCR.  Scanning documents is one thing but the ability to lift text off the scanned image and insert into your EMR’s patient notes is another.   The copy and paste functionality becomes a lot more difficult if you are using PDF with eClinicalworks.  It is recommended you use TIFF because eClinicalworks was designed to work with Microsoft Office Document Imaging tool or MODI.

MODI is a free tool that enabled editing and annotating document.  Documents scanned by your organization’s scanner or faxes received by your organization’s fax server are aggregated in an inbox or scanned shared folder.  These images or hopefully TIFF files are then assigned to charts and other areas of your Electronic Health Record system.

Pro Tip! – The labeling of EMR or EHR is dependent on whether the system is dedicated solely for Patient Health Information (PHI) or more.   The system is called an EHR when it contain more than just PHI.

The bottom line, request your IT guy use MODI in conjunction with eClinicalworks for the most productivity out of your staff.  Check it out in action…

The History of Microsoft Office Document Imaging and MODI Installation

By default, newer windows computer do not have MODI.  It was first introduced in Office XP, and was included in Office 2003 and Office 2007. Although it is not available in Office 2010, it is possible to install it from a previous version of Microsoft Office and use it with Office 2010

To use MODI in 2007 together with Office 2010, use one of the following methods:

• If you do not have 2007 Office system installed on a computer that has Office 2010 installed, you can install only MODI from the 2007 Office system setup. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Start the 2007 Office setup process.
  2. Click Customize.
  3. On the Installation Options tab, select Not Available for all items except for the items under Microsoft Office Document Imaging, and then click Install Now.
  4. Click Close.

Eclinical Scanning Hardware

• Fujitsu Fi-6140dj or newer Series
  • This device works well for someone that is dedicated for document scanning
• Fujisu ScanSnap
  • This is deal for a department or a front desk area. The whole staff is scanning items to their workstations.  Warning…  Be careful with PHI with this setup.

Eclinical Scanning – Dedicated Staff Scanner

This takes 30 minutes to setup if the hardware is already plugged in and the drivers are in place.  You will be required to setup the correct source under the Patient Documents section of eClinicalworks.

Adjust the document scanner settings for the lowest resolution but still readable.  This will improve scan completion times and also reduce the load of excessive storage of large files.   Make sure TIFF and the correct folder path for the inbox to view your files from are adjusted here.

The MODI interface should come up once the scan is complete.

Community Scanner Shared Folder Setup

This setup is when you have something like a Fujisu ScanSnap Series scanner.  It sends a scan to the share of the user’s workstation.

Fi Network Scanner Admin Tool located on XP machine (front desk)

Scan Snap Setup Directions

default admin\password

Step 1

To add network folder for new machine:

“scanner settings”  (top column)

“network Settings”(second column)

“network folder”  (left pane)

**Delete button for new network path***

Add new button, do not try to edit except if it’s a button name change

Step 2

Then go to Job Menu Settings

“Job Sequences”

edit

select button

“job items”

expand save

Step 3

Then go to “Job Menu” tab

Edit the name for the screen of the scanner

Step 4 (eCW)

eCW Setup

Go to Documents in eCW, Patient Documents, and view the big window for “Document Category”

*Scan Docs -> Settings

C:\ltfrontscans

\\faxserver\InBox

*Delete the documents after attaching to Patient or Staff

Workstation Fax Server Setup

Most small practices have a Mainpine modems but online fax solutions are quickly becoming a nice alternative.  In this scenario, we have a local fax server called….  “faxserver” and inbox share in called “inbox” shocker, yes I know.  We like to keep things simple here.  For your techies, that’s \\faxserver\inbox for simple and hopefully secure access to the inbox folder of all faxes received by the fax server.

eClinical Scanning and Fax Support

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Exchange Server Migration Support scenarios for migrating old Exchange Server 2003, 2007, etc. play out in a variety of ways in our experience in San Diego but the decision ultimately comes down to two things:

• Price – $600mo in a 50 mailbox environment seems pretty hefty cost associated with hosted email
• Size – $200mo may seem a bit more reasonable if you have an organization of 15 users or mailboxes

We have included three Exchange Server Migration Support scenarios for an existing network environment.

• Not So Simple Option – On-site Exchange Server
  • Migrate the whole thing which means migrating everything into a new domain, users, workstations, the lot.
• The Simple Option – On-Site Exchange Server (New Servers in Separate Domain)
  • Setting up 2 new servers (on the vmware box) and migrating mailboxes and then re-configuring outlook. This would be a separate domain from their existing one. (so functionally it would like the Exchange was hosted by someone else, but the servers would actually be local).
  • Advantage –
    • Get the client up to a modern email system fairly easily.
    • Backup is already being performed by Veeam. This can be a tedious process otherwise.
    • Capital expenses like licences can be depreciated. Services can not.

• Disadvantage – 2 hours Exchange maintenance a month.

*** This is also dependent on the amount of servers.   Redundant Exchange servers is more labor.  Each additional Exchange server is an hour more a month.

In both instances I’m assuming the use of the CodeTwo migration tool which vastly simplifies the process of getting the mailboxes between the two servers, it runs about $11/mailbox, you might want to build that into a quote so they’ve licensed the software themselves.

ProTip – You can’t upgrade Exchange 2003 to 2013 or 2016.  You have to go through the intermediary step. ie Exchange 2007 and 2010.  Use volume license through MS to downgrade.

For the mailbox migration labor I’m assuming 30 mins per mailbox which includes touching Outlook to re-configure it.

Server Specs:

HP Proliant ML350e Gen8 v2
Dual CPU, 6 cores/cpu, Xeon E5-2420 v2 @ 2.2GHz, 50 GB RAM, 2Tb Free Disk Space

Current Server Scenario Setup:

Replacement Server Scenario Setup:

The Third Option for Exchange Server Migration Support – Migrate to a Hosted Exchange Solution
($200mo for 15 mailboxes)

With this option we will migrate all e-mail to a hosted provider, re-configure Outlook to use the hosted provider, and re-configure e-mail flow to the new provider.  There are a number of different providers to choose from, costs listed below are a ballpark average.

Pros:

• No upfront costs for software licenses.
• Support can be good
• No monthly maintenance costs for server maintenance (avg of 2 hours per month).

No need to administer and maintain backups fo e-mail (as the provider will do this).  Since backups are already being maintained of eClinical Works and the File shares, the additional burden of backing up the e-mail data is not high.

Cons:

• Monthly service costs cannot be depreciated.
• You have less control of your data and are reliant on a third party in another state.

Cost:

Upgrade Options for Exchange Server 2003 to 2016 Proposals Broken Down

The upgrade options for Exchange 2003 to 2016 were given a high level over view in the top section of our Exchange Server Migration Support post.  We set forth two proposals for migrating Microsoft Exchange for one of our client we support.   The first two options in the proposal will be to keep hosting e-mail in-house, the last proposal but definitely not least desirable will be to migrate e-mail to a hosted e-mail provider.  The hosted email service is at explained as our third option in the prior section of the Exchange Server Migration Support post.

Option 1: Keep E-Mail in house using Exchange server

This option will have the benefit of keeping all e-mail in house and not “in the cloud”, meaning less management cost with third party vendors as well as the security of knowing that you are not at the mercy of an unknown entity.

For the purposes of this proposal we will refer to an operating system instance as a server.  The client’s current physical server is capable of hosting multiple operating system instances, so unless stated otherwise, when we refer to a server we will mean an instance running on that physical server.  The physical server is an HP ProLiant ML350e Gen8 v2 with dual processors and 50GB RAM running an HP customized version of VMWare ESXi 5.5.

The current environment is running Exchange Server 2003 in a Small Business Server solution.  This means that there is one server that is responsible for Active Directory, File and Print Sharing, and Exchange server.  Newer versions of Exchange will not run in this scenario and need to run on a separate server from the Active Directory server.  Microsoft does not offer a solution to upgrade directly from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2016.

We propose to install two new servers on the HP ProLiant and set them up in a new domain.  We would install Active Directory on one server and Exchange server on the other.  We would migrate the mailboxes from the old sever to the new server, re-configure Outlook to use the new server, and change the flow of incoming e-mail to the new server.

Cost:

N.B. Windows Server 2016 is licensed in a core model so these will be a total of 32 core licenses.

Option 2: Keep E-Mail in house using Exchange server (Not so simple)

This option will have the benefit of keeping all e-mail in house and not “in the cloud”, meaning less management cost with third party vendors as well as the security of knowing that you are not at the mercy of an unknown entity.

For the purposes of this proposal we will refer to an operating system instance as a server.  The client’s current physical server is capable of hosting multiple operating system instances, so unless stated otherwise, when we refer to a server we will mean an instance running on that physical server.  The physical server is an HP ProLiant ML350e Gen8 v2 with dual processors and 50GB RAM running an HP customized version of VMWare ESXi 5.5.

The current environment is running Exchange Server 2003 in a Small Business Server solution.  This means that there is one server that is responsible for Active Directory, File and Print Sharing, and Exchange server.  Newer versions of Exchange will not run in this scenario and need to run on a separate server from the Active Directory server.  Microsoft does not offer a solution to upgrade directly from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2016.

We propose to install two new servers on the HP ProLiant and set them up in a new domain.  We would install Active Directory on one server and Exchange server on the other.  We would migrate the mailboxes from the old sever to the new server, re-configure Outlook to use the new server, and change the flow of incoming e-mail to the new server as part of Exchange server migration support package.

We further propose to move all existing network services (File and Print shares, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP etc.) off of the current Small Business Server and onto the new servers.  The old Small business Server will then be retired.  This will have the benefit of getting the Active Directory/File and Print server into a completely supported environment which will make the business more HIPPA compliant (this is because the old version of Windows Server is not getting any more security and operating systems from Microsoft).

Cost:

N.B. Windows Server 2016 is licensed in a core model so these will be a total of 32 core licenses.

Exchange Server Migration Support Summary

For a business of this size, it probably isn’t the best move for them to continue on with their own locally hosted Exchange Server.   The additional up front hours for the Exchange Server Migration Support, plus the two hours each month in maintenance make for a more expensive service to host yourself.  Also, the Microsoft Office 365 have released some pretty cool features such as Azure AD,  Sharepoint File Server, and Power BI Pro along with standard hosted Exchange.

The post The Exchange Server Migration Support Game Plan appeared first on Network Antics.

I don’t promote unless you really know what you are doing.  The point of this post is if you don’t have time for a full backup and all you want are the most critical files.

Warning:  Do not do unless you have another recent full back up from some third party programs

Third Party Backup Programs

You can never have enough backups

• Mozy Home Free Edition (Cloud based backup)
• Cloud Station Backup (Synology NAS based backup)
• Veeam (Complete image backup)
• iDrive (Complete drive backup to external)
• AOMEI Backupper (Better than iDrive for external hard drive use)

But my computer won’t boot or boots but acting really sloooooooooooow?  This article is not for you.  Consider reading this post on making a USB rescue stick and adding Paragon Backup and Recovery to it.

My Full Backup Exists!

Really?  Did you save your license keys?

License Recovery Tool

Use Belark Advisor to recover most licenses.  Though, it does not work on MS Office since the release of 2013.  Hopefully, they have they know the email and or have the email of when they purchased Office or any other software for that matter.

A fair amount of users are now using Dropbox and Microsoft’s OneDrive.  However, it misses a fair amount of data and most people don’t even know they are using OneDrive and would not call it a true backup.  It’s syncing files to the cloud.  The typical files (not guaranteed) to backup when you’re pretty confident in your existing backup are located here:

Outlook

How to search for PST and OST locations on your C drive.

Typical Outlook file locations

C:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\PST_file_name.pst
C:\Users\user name\documents\outlook files\

ProTip!  The source may vary from if they are using Exchange and the Exchange file is a .ost not pst.  Grab all settings within Mail32 in control panel before proceeding with any wipe and read more about Outlook here.

It’s faster to restore your data when you copy your existing PST to the AppData location once you created a new profile.  Immediately exit Outlook once the profile is created and IMAP begins syncing the inbox.  Then change the newly created .PST file extension to .old.  Then copy your data from your quick back manual copy/backup from an external drive to C:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ and rename it the name of the current file with a .pst as an extension.

Documents and Data

Windows 8 and 10 hides the Documents folder really well for unknown reasons.  Read how to fix that in our Windows 10 support FAQ

C:\users\username\documents

C:\users\username\desktop

C:\users\username\pictures

C:\users\username\music

Quickbooks

Quickbooks working file is in a funky location.  It’s in public and not the users personal profile.  I would perform a Quickbooks backup within the program before wiping.  Read more details on Quickbooks messy setup here.

C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files

Databases

Not too many people have random databases like ACT! or Access but it’s worth inquiring about and finding its location

Where am I stashing all this data?

Windows backup, wipe, and restore techniques are as only as good as your hardware you purchased with reading this.  Check out this Amazon deal: Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard … by Seagate for backing up your data.  Also, consider upgrading your SATA drive to a faster solid state drive at the same time.  This may be your opportune moment.  Contact your computer manufacture to see if there’s any limitation with upgrading to a SSD.   I have had problems with the PC sleep option and a storage size limitation when upgrading to SSD.

Just saw this on Amazon: Samsung 750 EVO – 250GB – 2.5-Inch SATA III… by Samsung for $109.38

Connect external, add these folders, and copy data from the PC to them.

Device Manager

Take a snap of your Device Manager.  Again, you’ll thank me later when you run into device drivers issues.  I expanded the most problematic device driver fields.

Performing a Quick Windows Backup, Wipe, and Restore Summary

As you can see here, there are obviously some serious things to look at before wiping.   Take a long pause and reflection of all you are doing before wiping your computer.  You’ll thank me later.  Then you can read my next blog on applications to install with Windows 10 on our watercooler site.

The post Performing a Quick Windows Backup, Wipe, and Restore appeared first on Network Antics.

Do you need to backup your server but don’t know how?  We walk through some very simple steps using iDrive backup for Windows.  iDrive Backup comes in three forms:

• Windows iDrive cloud or online backup
  – Backup up your server data to a cloud storage account
• Synology NAS iDrive App
  – Backup up your NAS data to a cloud storage account
• Windows iDrive local backup
  – Using Windows iDrive local backup pointed to network server shares allows for alternative way of backing up a file server or NAS.

For this particular setup, we will break down the Windows iDrive local backup of your server.  You will need to download Windows iDrive and install on the user’s computer with full access to data and is hard wired into the network.    Select the local shares for backup of your server.  Then grab a file count of each network share to confirm all data is being accounted for during backup.

ProTip! – Network performance is best for backup with the least amount of bottle necks are in between the workstation and the file server.  Please understand your network topology for strategic placement of your workstation.

P drive total files are 217,098
R drive total files are 126,806
M drive total fires are 13,139

=357,043 total files

Note:  This solution does not backup your server home drives.  The cloud backup on the NAS if working properly should cover this.  There are other ways but we won’t be discussing them here.

You can tally these numbers up every time a manual backup of your server is performed to the external drive.  Then compare them with the “iDrive status” if backup completed and view the logs for comparing files backed up.

ProTip! – While manual server backups ensure a backup is successfully completed after viewing the logs, it does have its quirks.  The user must remain logged into the profile.  Do not log out.  You can lock the profile but DO NOT LOG OUT, quit the application or let the computer sleep.

Automated Windows iDrive Backup

Automated allows a scheduled backup each day at a specific time to occur and the computer user does not have to be logged in.  Sounds great, right?  iDrive has proven so unreliable that I don’t trust this setup.  Especially since every new backup completely wipes out the old backup.

Manual backups for Windows iDrive are preferred because you can validate the server backup (file size count comparisons) yourself, send it home, and use another external to rotate with.

The Warm Fuzzy Feelings

Every owner wants that security that all their data is secure and fully backed up.  Having more than one method of backup is great.  Idrive app on the Synology is ok.  It tends to break a lot more the Amazon Glacier and the storage of archiving data is more expensive.  Maybe double up on both backup services?   We will provide some steps to ensure you have some confidence that you can recover your data when you need it.

 Test Your Restore Files – Cloud Backup

Go to www.iDrive.com and select login section to view data for recovery for the cloud backup.  Choose a recently updated for ensuring the iDrive has in fact been backing up of late.

ProTip!  File versioning does not work on certain browsers.  Make sure you try an alternate browser if you are unsuccessful at retrieving another version of your file.

Windows Local Backup – Cloud Backup

Go to the Windows iDrive  app and select the files and folders from the computer you completed

How to Backup you Server from a Workstation Summary

No backup is safe from failure.  Remember to not only develop a redundant backup process but make sure that process has a variety of platforms performing the backup.

The post How to backup your server from a workstation appeared first on Network Antics.

The printer installation services guide is how to guide for the most common small office network environment. You’re an allstar if you are able to follow and complete this setup guide:

First, plan your setup and we will deliver plenty of printer installation services scenarios as more situations come up.

• Know your drivers
• PCL is for text documents
• PS is for graphics
• Avoid installing full blown software when possible. Full blown or bloated software is required for 80% of Home Office printer solutions
• Grab your driver
  • Common Google querys are printer_name and drivers. Pay attention to the URL the search engine redirects you.  Ie hp.com for HP products and Cannon.com for Cannon
  • Alternately, the driver is placed on the file server if it is in an office environment if whoever is administrating it is a good Network IT administrator. Ie \\server_name\office_resource\IT\printer
• Who’s your print server? Do you have one?
  • Very small office environments tend to not utilize a server. Servers can be an actual Windows Server or a Windows client posing as a Windows Server
• Grab the network info of the printer. You will need this information when there is no file server.  Alternately, grab the network info of the print server.
  • Hostname
  • IP address

Printer Installation Services Guide – Scenario One

In this scenario, we play out a very common setup in a user environment that is under 20 users.  The users are all directly connected to a leased copier with an IP of 172.16.1.239.  The IT guy is blessed to have the drivers already located on the file server.  He simply needs to “add printer” from “devices and printers” in “control panel”.

Select “add a local printer” and Create new port, select standard TCP/IP Port.

Manually add drivers.  Select the folder path of the driver.   Note:  This step may vary depending on if you need PCL or PS

Example:  R:\IT & Operations\Printer\Driver\C353_Series_Win8_PCL_PS_FAX_v66x0\Driver\Drivers\PCL\EN\Win_x64

Do not share printer unless it the workstation is acting as a print server

Finally, some printer/MFP are set to account for prints per user.  There’s a special adjustment made in the printer properties under “settings” to reflect that.

Perform a test print before making the new printer default.  Enter in the password for the printer to print.

Printer Installation Services Guide Summary

Not all printer installation services are equal.  In fact, they are very different and sometimes cumbersome but you can solve anything if you have your baseline skills to work with.

The post Printer Installation Services Guide appeared first on Network Antics.

You heard it in the news….  “protect from ransomware virus malware attack”   “Get virus protection, update your computer, and back up!”  Ransomware is literally holding people’s data hostage for ransom and about 200,000 Windows computers in more than 150 countries have been affected by this latest attack.  The media has like less than a minute per topic to report, solve, or prevent each nightmare topic.  How do you really prevent such an attack on your system?  There are some very basic measures you as an individual can take to prevent catastrophe.  We took a deeper dive into how to protect you and your organization from all aspects of this serious issue.

Training and Education

The best defense is educating employees on avoiding suspicious emails and links completely.  The individuals phishing have become really good at duping end users.   Here are some emails that I have personally received recently in my various email accounts.

Verify Your Email Address

The first one was received from my Homail account.   It says verify your email address.   To the malicious A hole who sent this:  This is nicely presented but I have no reason to verify my account.   Usually, you verify an account on the website you conduct business on.   Then it sends an email if the site is doing something called 2-factor authentication.  The second red flag you look at who’s sending it and that’s an immediate red flag.  Sometimes the email is not as obvious.  Anyway, I would have been doomed had I clicked that email.  The takeaway…

• Don’t click on an email you are not expecting. In a separate email, write back to that individual or organization to inquire if they did indeed send that particular email.
• Look at the headers. Usually, they are sloppy with sending through a gmail or Hotmail account.  Other times, they have compromised your business associates email.  (see third pic)

Cryptolock email

Please review this document or attachment

No!  Who is Francis?  Why would you talk to him?  Again, a user’s account could have been compromised but you should not be working with computer if you are randomly clicking on email or browser pop-ups.  Those people who are clicking for click sake are a liability off the balance sheet.

cryptolock email

Legitimate Email Addresses

My friend Christina got caught click on this document.  Clicking the link caused the malware to sift and send more malicious stuff to her contacts.  Thus, it was perpetuating an already bad situation.  Why didn’t I click on a friend sharing a document?   I wasn’t expecting anything from Christina so all the sudden her legitimate email looked suspect.

Beyond Educating Staff.

We have all been fooled.  The important is to plan to soften the blow of an embarrassment.  Here are the next steps to protect yourself from a big virus or malware attack:

• Update Your Workstation
  • The number one thing is run Windows Updates on all the workstations.  While Windows 7 is supported for Windows updates, it does not do as a good as job with malware prevention as Windows 10.
• Remove unnecessary third party software
  • Remove Java and Adobe Flash if you can.  Chrome has built-in Flash so removing that independent software should not prevent you from using Flash based sites.
• Perform a Network and Security Risk Assessment
  • This will review your server and network infrastructure among many other things in one holistic scan of your organization. Perhaps, you are a little smaller organization of under 10 workstations and you may think that’s overkill?
• Update Your Microsoft Server
  • Windows updates again are a critical component.   Having a rogue Windows 2003 Service machine is a definite no, no for meeting any governmental compliance or simply being confident that your data is secured.
• Update Your Synology Server or NAS
  • Network Antics is a Synology partner because they bring the costs down on otherwise really complicated software they have developed that works in tandem with their hardware. With that said, the + hardware works with the new file system called BTRFS.  BTRFS allows snapshot technology on your Synology file server that will provide the extra level of security you need to fight off an malicious attack.  Read more about upgrading your Synology.  This process takes five to 10 hours.

What about backup?

When all else fails, use your backup.  There’s no one bullet proof backup.  I highly a multi prong attack towards backing up data.  Especially if you are managing backups yourself and there’s no Managed IT Service agreement in place proactively managing the backups for you.

What’s my multi-prong backup approach look like?

Synology – Use Amazon Glacier and Hyper Backup to perform the file server data back.  At the clients, use Synology Cloud Station Drive and it will store data on the server.

I don’t have Synology – Use Windows Backup, Carbonite, Baracuda Backup, and the list goes on and on.  Consult your IT professional

Virus Protection

Everyone has their favorite that they later fall out of love with because it was not as good or something else became better.   For me, it was ESET now it’s Webroot.  We wrote a year ago about how we troubleshoot ransomware problems in the past.  The problem just moved to the latest Windows exploit.

WEBROOT-Endpoint Protection: Business

NEW-Endpoint Protection: Business – for PC/Servers 1yr – (10 to 99) seats   Special Ending on May 31:    19.00 each seat. MSRP: $23.00

But I already have protection!

More than 90% of the virus and malware protection won’t protect against Ransomware.  Plus, things change daily.  There’s no silver bullet.

More Security – Routers and Firewall

Your home office router definitely won’t help in an attack.  There are some gains  with Sonicwall’s $200 – $300 hardware.  Replacing your firewall with a more sophisticated Next Gen Firewall that is capable of scanning into SSL streams.  Specifically the SonicWALL TZ400 with Advanced Comprehensive Gateway Security Services (TotalSecure page).  The TotalSecure package contains modules that will specifically benefit larger businesses desire to decrease vulnerability to Malware such as Ransomware.  The specific modules include the Gateway Anti-Virus, and Capture Advanced Threat Protection (APT).  There is a price break in the annual cost of the TotalSecure package if you get one with a 3 year subscription.

I think I infected my computer

Disconnect your computer from the network.  Do not reboot the computer.  Call your IT Support immediately.  Try using a fresh thumb drive to copy your data before the script copy your data offsite and provides you useless files in exchange.

How to Protect from Ransomware Virus Malware attack Summary

Again, there’s no silver bullet but having a holistic game plan when definitely place you on higher ground than individuals and organizations reeling from the latest attack.

The post How to protect from ransomware virus malware attack? appeared first on Network Antics.