Understanding MSPs: The Big Picture

a woman sitting in front of a laptop computer

Managed services are about more than fixed-fee contracts and 24×7 support, and if your current MSP (Managed Services Provider) doesn’t agree, you need to move on. The fact is: You need to partner with a quality provider who will offer first-in-class tech support and help you take a proactive approach to save time and money while maximizing results. Read on…

Howdy Partner

Your IT infrastructure is a valuable asset that keeps your business afloat while providing employees with the tools they need to succeed. Often, technology management providers will try to sell you managed service plans that pay little attention to your most important needs. If an MSP is going to succeed in becoming an extension of your staff, they first need to take the time to understand how your business uses technology in the first place.

Becoming a valued partner is the most important piece of success when it comes to effectively managing a company’s technology assets. Building trust requires dedication and steadfastness, with a focus on providing quantifiable results. Clear communication with an organization’s managers and employees, along with proactive attention to potential computer-related issues needs to serve as the backbone of creating an honest partnership between the managed services provider and client.

In the MSP Know

The better we know each other, the better we can become important in each other’s lives. Managed services are about providing relevant tech support that matters. We understand that many organizations do not have the resources to hire in-house IT staff, and that is why it is important for us to take the time to build trust and provide results.

We need our clients to know our worth and want them to see us as an extension of their business. 

Ready?

Taking the first step to improve your IT is as easy as contacting us for a conversation. 

Computer Tip of the Day: Security

the word security is displayed on a computer screen

Do you frequently find yourself wondering how a hacker could launch a devious assault on your computer? Do you know what warning signs to look for? If you don’t, isn’t that OK? Isn’t it normal to not know? Yes, it is normal…however, in today’s world of ever-evolving threats to the security of your computer, your data, and your personal security, you need to know what the signals of a potential attack could be.

Email

Now, you might think of your email as your friend, after all, isn’t it how you communicate with your family, friends, and coworkers? How could something you use as a medium of communication with the most important people in your leaf be used against you? Unfortunately, email is a favored weapon in a hacker’s arsenal. An attacker can obtain your email address in many ways, but ultimately how your cyber assailant obtained your email doesn’t matter, what matters is that attackers can and do learn your address, and can send you malicious emails.

Never open an attachment or respond to an email from someone you don’t know, some of these emails can be outrageously easy to detect as a potential attack, but some may seem quite legitimate, and can even appear to be from people you know, ranging from Grandma to a coworker. Just open the attachment if you are expecting to receive it, or can confirm it is from the person it claims to be from.

Programs

So, now that you have learned about the dangers that emails can bring, it is time to learn about the dangers associated with programs that claim to be one thing…but are often another. One of the most common are programs that claim to clean up your computer or make it run faster. While these programs may claim to be beneficial, and can even do what they claim, they are quite nefarious and are a trojan horse that a cunning attacker can use to gain access to your computer.

While antiviruses and programs that speed up your computers are most often found to be malicious, these types of programs can take any form, some even claim to be legitimate programs such as Microsoft Word, or a major browser. Always download your programs from an established source, and do some research on the program before your download!

Physical Security

Finally, we reach the most basic, but most commonly overlooked form of security, physical security. Have you ever walked away from your computer where someone else can have unauthorized access? Do you have a simple, easy-to-guess password? It only takes a minute for someone to quickly guess your password and access data on your computer, or for someone to simply walk away with your prized computer, and everything on it. Once an attacker has physical access to your computer, it becomes a walk in the park for him to cause damage.

The modern digital landscape is awash in pitfalls, traps, enemies, and dangers of all sorts. Ranging from email to trojan horse programs, to someone physically threatening your computer, there are innumerable methods attackers can use. However, if you take basic security measures to protect your security and privacy, you will make an attacker’s job much more challenging. Even if your computer becomes compromised, contact us here at Bluewater Technologies and we will set up our expert team to work on preventing and cleaning up any mess that your assailant has made! 

Clean Your Cache!

a computer monitor sitting on top of a desk

Has your favorite browser been running slow lately? Not loading pages? Not updating the web-based application you use daily? Popping up errors when you try to input data in an online form?

All of these issues can be caused by a lack of maintenance of your cache files.

What are Cache Files?

Think of cache files as copies of your activity online. Every website you go to leaves information on your hard drive — the current version of the page or web-based application, data you share or enter, log-in information and more — to make any subsequent return visit faster and more user-friendly.

Why Should I Clean My Cache?

Imagine your internet connection is a tube. Every time you go to a website, a brick is laid inside that tube. At first, there’s no issue and your internet continues to perform optimally. However, the more places you go, the more cache collects, until your access to the internet slows down to a trickle, causing pages and/or photos not to load, search engines to fail, and more.

Cleaning out your cache files on a regular basis will prevent such issues.

Do I Need a Professional?

In most cases, absolutely not. This is something you can easily do yourself! Each browser has a different process to clean out cache, though, so check out the links below for your preferred browser:

Like most people, you probably have more than one browser on your computer. You just have to perform this clean up in one browser to eliminate unnecessary cache.

What If My System is Already Slow?

Cleaning out your cache is the ideal first step forward. Once you’ve cleared everything out, close your browser and restart your system, as some files can linger after they’re removed in the browser and will only permanently disappear once you’ve done a restart. Then your internet experience should be smooth sailing.

Performing this maintenance on a routine schedule will keep your internet access flowing, your data safe and save space on your computer, making for a happy user experience.

Need more help? Contact us.

Computer Tip of the Day – 4 Tricks for Using Gmail for Business

Gmail is the preferred email service provider for many people. People use it for business and personal purposes alike. Here are four useful tips to help you use Gmail more effectively.

Forward Mail From Another Client

If you have a business email address that is associated with your website, it can often be a pain to constantly have to go to your cPanel dashboard and log in. As an alternative, you can have your mail forwarded to your Gmail account. Just go to settings and click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Follow the instructions or ask your website hosting provider if you run into any hiccups.

Undo Send

What if you send an email and then suddenly realize that perhaps it wasn’t worded right or that sending it was a mistake? Click the Undo Send option that pops up in the yellow bar at the top of the screen if 30 seconds haven’t yet passed. First, though, you have to enable this option in the settings.

Preview Your Gmail Messages

If you have a large screen, you can enable a preview tab so that you get a pane to preview the beginning parts of your emails without even opening them. First, though, you have to enable Gmail Labs in the settings. You can then toggle between a preview pane, a vertical preview pane, and a horizontal preview pane. Gmail Labs is where you can get many features that haven’t yet been released to everyone yet.

Forward Entire Gmail Threads

If you want to forward an entire thread of emails to a contact right away, you can do that by enabling Conversation View in your settings first. When you click on the forward button, click on More and select Forward All.

For more computer tips and IT help, contact us today.

6 Tips for Conserving Battery Power

four people holding hands over a wooden table

There’s nothing more frustrating than having your battery die on you just as an important deadline looms. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to conserve your laptop’s battery. Here are six tips for keeping your battery power going.

Display Auto Turn-Off

Set your laptop so that your display turns off by itself if your laptop is not used for a specific amount of time. This can be one minute, five minutes, ten minutes, or whatever. This way, your battery won’t drain while you are on a bathroom break.

Reduce Brightness

Even when the display is on, reducing the brightness will help save a lot of battery power.

Disable Wifi

If you do not need the internet and can work offline, disable the wifi. Having your laptop connected to the internet causes a strain on the battery. A lot of things will be going on in the background. For example, Windows may be updating its software.

Remove External Devices

If you are not using them, remove any external drives or devices from your laptop. Take out any USB sticks and DVDs. Do not use your laptop to charge your phone. All of these things take up precious battery power.

Use the Battery Saver

Turn on the battery saver feature that is built into Windows if you need to save battery. Some manufacturers install additional features to help you save and conserve battery power.

Shut Off Background Noise

Focus on one thing at a time when your battery power needs to be conserved. Shut off things that are running in the background by using your task manager to figure out what is using up the CPU. Don’t have multiple windows open at once; if you do not need a program at the moment, close it instead of minimizing it.

For more information, contact us today.