Bangor Information Technology Solutions http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php Copyright 2012, No Author No Author en-US SPHPBLOG 0.7.0 Offsite Data Backup http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110202-095156

We now offer a secure, affordable and convenient offsite storage solution starting at just $0.40 per GB for Business Backup (10GB to 100GB) and only $0.30 per GB for Enterprise Backup (200GB-1TB).

SECURITY



Data is compressed and encrypted prior to being sent over a secure connection to our storage servers. Data storage and retrieval is equally secure; requiring multi-level authentication credentials and encryption key.

Our storage servers are housed in a HIPAA, SAS 70 Type II and Sarbanes-Oxley compliant facility that maintains 24/7/365 live environmental and security monitoring.

BUSINESS BACKUP



$10 per month per license.

10GB and 1 license: $14 per month
20GB and 1 license: $18 per month
50GB and 1 license: $30 per month
100GB and 1 license: $50 per month
Unlimited transfer.
Unlimited file revisions.

ENTERPRISE BACKUP



$10 per month per license.

200GB and 1 license: $70 per month
500GB and 1 license: $160 per month
1TB and 1 license: $310 per month
Unlimited transfer.
Unlimited file revisions.



Bonus for accountants, book keepers and any professional that uses Quicken, PeachTree, or QuickBooks software: we offer free lifetime backup of your accounting software. If you do not already backup this crucial information then you should do so now! You do not have to be a BangorIT customer to take advantage of this offer. Contact us today!


]]> http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110202-095156 No Author Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:51:56 GMT http://www.bangorit.com/blog/comments.php?y=11&m=02&entry=entry110202-095156 DirecTV http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry101209-101732

There are a lot of exciting things going on at BangorIT right now, the latest is that we are now an authorized DirecTV dealer! This is a really great product that we are proud to offer.

In my opinion, as a long time customer, DirecTV has always had the best technology and they continue this legacy with additions of Whole Home DVR and DirecTV Cinema.

Whole Home DVR allows you to record and playback shows from any DirecTV receiver in your house. This allows for a multitude of benefits:

-DVR service in every one of your DirecTV connected rooms.

-This is a greener way to get DVR functionality to all of your DirecTV connected rooms. No longer do you have to run a DVR in each room.

-You can start watching a show or movie in say your livingroom and finish it in your bedroom.

DirecTV Cinema puts 400 of the newest movies at your fingertips in 1080p clarity with an additional 4000 plus shows available at no extra charge. If you have went to the trouble of building a home theater there really is no better compliment to your setup than DirecTV Cinema.

Over the next few days/weeks I'll be posting more information about DirecTV services, packages and technologies. So stay tuned!


]]> http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry101209-101732 No Author Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:17:32 GMT http://www.bangorit.com/blog/comments.php?y=10&m=12&entry=entry101209-101732 Soft Data Recovery http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry101202-110658

We spend a good deal of time performing data recovery but we have never offered it as an advertised service... until now. For $99 per 4GB we will recover lost data off of almost any functioning device. There is no charge if we can't recover at least some of your data.

We support:

IDE or SATA Hard Drives (non RAID; software or hardware)
USB Drives, Digital Cameras, iPod/MP3/Media Players
Memory Cards
All Versions of Windows
Linux
Mac OS X
NTFS/FAT/EXT2/EXT3/HFS+ file systems (even if the partition table is corrupted or overwritten).
Most image, audio, video, and document formats.

If your computer doesn't boot up or even turn on there is a good chance that your Hard Drive still works and the data can be recovered, stop in or send it to us! We can work with the whole PC or just the Hard Drive.

No data is ever actually deleted, only overwritten. So if you have accidentally "deleted" a file or formatted your Hard Drive/USB Drive/memory card there is a good chance that we can recover your data!

We value your privacy and we do not view the recovered files, consequently we cannot guarantee the recovery of a specific file. We will give you all recoverable files of your requested type (pictures, music, etc) on a DVD for your own personal review.





]]> http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry101202-110658 No Author Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:06:58 GMT http://www.bangorit.com/blog/comments.php?y=10&m=12&entry=entry101202-110658 It's that time again... http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry100817-063356

The doors are being opened, the books dusted off and the class rooms aired out, yup it is almost back-to-school time. For a limited time only (until the end of October) we are proud to announce a 20% discount on professional labor for all Maine schools!

UPDATE 17/11/2010

This offer has expired. We are glad that we could help out Maine schools. See ya next year!]]> http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry100817-063356 No Author Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:33:56 GMT http://www.bangorit.com/blog/comments.php?y=10&m=08&entry=entry100817-063356 Strong and memorable passwords. http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry100806-082230
Passwords stand as sentries guarding our data; the first and sometimes the only line of defense between the information that is important to us and those who would mean to compromise it. Complexity and uniqueness are these guardians' shields and armor which gives rise to a sort of paradox: we want our passwords to be strong and effective but minimally evasive because at the end of the day it is all about getting the job done as efficiently as possible. These two concepts don't have to be mutually exclusive. For years I have been using a simple process to create strong but memorable passwords:

I create the root of the password by taking a few words or a short phrase that reminds me of the site or application that I am creating the password for. In this case it will be simply:
BangorIT

I capitalize at least one of the letters in my root, in this case we already have 3 capitals but I am going to omit the last capital to throw off a would be intruder:
BangorIt

I then misspell the words in some way that I will remember:
BanngerIt

I then substitute letters for numbers (e.g. A=4, E=3, etc):
B4nng3rI7

Lastly I work in a special character. Substituting a $ for s or ! for i is effective, so is simply adding a ! to the beginning or end (or both):
B4nng3rI7!

I now have a non dictionary, case sensitive, alphanumeric password that I won't forget. I have developed by own peculiar substitutions that I always use so generally I only have to remember the root of the password and reapply the method to obtain the final password.

The length of the root that you begin with is up to you. But keep in mind that strength is directly proportional to length but conversely so is efficiency.
]]> http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry100806-082230 No Author Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:22:30 GMT http://www.bangorit.com/blog/comments.php?y=10&m=08&entry=entry100806-082230 Making the Thin Client thin again. http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090714-061509

The original concept of a Thin Client was a cheap low powered device that was designed with the sole intent of accessing a centralized system. This afforded many benefits compared to the typical "fat client" (full PC with local applications) paradigm:

Lower administration costs
Easy to secure
Lower hardware costs
Less power consumption
Decreased complexity

Over time this streamlined concept has been mutated into products that are marketed as Thin Clients but are actually just overly engineered bloat that negate many of the original Thin Client benefits.
Shining examples of this elephantine tendency are the last models of the Neoware "Thin Client" line (now owned by HP). These behemoths ran a gimped version of a full desktop OS (Windows XP Embedded) and were both more expensive and physically larger than some Desktop PCs.

In stark contrast to the market direction of producing not-so-Thin Clients NComputing developed an "ultra" Thin Client. The L Series of their NStation line costs ~$150, consumes less than 5 watts of power and are smaller than a CD. With benefits also come coveats: many local devices, such as printers, may not work and the NStation units must be used with NComputing's vSphere virtualization technology which is run on a separate modern PC. While the former restriction is nothing new to the original Thin Client paradigm the latter requirement may introduce additional limitations. Unfortunately we haven't had a chance to play with the NStations, yet.

UPDATE 30/12/2010

Paul from Blue Curl Technologies (Canada's largest Green IT provider) contacted me with some additional information on the NStations:

"The X series does not have local printing abilities , the L 130's and L 230s don't either but in the last year the L300 and U170 (the worlds first USB Zero Client) have come out and both have transparent U2.0 built in and can manage Via Ethernet or USB transmission printing locally."

"I have personally in Nova Scotia tried everything from local flash drives to , Cameras , Scanners , point of sale barcode readers and anything with USB 2.0 . All work."


UPDATE 17/11/2010

Even smaller thin clients from Chip PC.

The Plug PC:


The Jack PC:


]]> http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090714-061509 No Author Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:15:09 GMT http://www.bangorit.com/blog/comments.php?y=09&m=07&entry=entry090714-061509 Netbooks: When Less is More http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090601-094238
In the 1950's the formula for a successful automobile was basic; more: more chrome, more inches, more power. Using this simple recipe you could virtually guarantee yourself a competitive position in the market. The processor industry follows a similar mantra, aptly named "Moore's Law*". To be perfectly accurate Moore's observation is less of a law and more of a self fulfilling prophecy. For the last 30 years the processor industry has stringently held to the belief that processing power should double every 18 months. In the beginning it was more MHz, today it is more cores and more cache. This fervent progress has come at the expense of processors that are both grossly inefficient and overpowered. Intel's Core i7 consumes over 350 watts of power under load and provides 8 threads of execution, more parallelism than most users will ever need.

So what's a user to do? Enter Intel's Atom processor and the Netbook phenomenon. Taken individually neither of these components is market changing, but together they are ushering in a new paradigm of how we will use computing resources. 10 years ago Transmeta was on the right path with their Crusoe and Efficeon chips but they were ahead of their time and underpowered relative Intel/AMD's big iron and consequently swept aside in the MHz wars. AMD's Geode was simply underpowered. But the Atom has just the right performance and efficiency and, perhaps more importantly, arrived at just the right time.

Netbooks are very hot right now because they afford users the proverbial luxury of having their cake and eating it too. Users want an appliance that is powerful enough to run their everyday applications (video, music, web, spreadsheets, etc) but also cost effective with ample battery life.

Netbooks start at the $200 mark and have enough power to decode and scale a 1080p h264/MPEG-4 AVC video and even do some light 3D gaming. Many Netbooks are entirely solid state and so are very durable. The Intel Atom consumes a paltry 5 to 25 watts** allowing actual battery runtimes to exceed 5 hours.

Like the chrome rocket finned behemoths of yesteryear is the traditional processor development direction destined to the annuls of history as an example of what NOT to do?

*Gordon Moore's original observation was a doubling every 24 months, the processor industry has actually accelerated that to 18 months.

**The single core Hyperthreaded Atom 230 consumes ~5-10 watts while the dual core Hyperthreaded Atom 330 consumes ~10-25 watts.

]]> http://www.bangorit.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090601-094238 No Author Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:42:38 GMT http://www.bangorit.com/blog/comments.php?y=09&m=06&entry=entry090601-094238