It's a Raid!

As we become more and more dependant on our computer systems, it becomes more and more apparent the need to keep backups.

While the cost of external back up drives is getting lower and lower, there is a constant risk of "forgetting" to take regular backups of your data which only becomes apparently when your main system crashes, or the drives fail.

Is there anything we can do, which happens quietly as we work ? Yes.

RAID is a system of using multiple drives to give data redundancy. This means that you end up with copies of data occurring as you work and can give almost instant safety.

The level of RAID largely depends on the space you have in your computer tower, and the budget that you have. But even the simplest systems could support the basics RAID settings that would give most users a level of comfort.

We'll discuss just 4 levels of RAID. There are many others, but the 4 should help most home users and some smaller businesses too.

RAID 0 uses a system of STRIPING the data. This means that if you had 2 x 500gb drives you'd have about 1000gb (1TB) of storage space.  The plus side of this is that half of the data is kept on one drive and the other half is kept on the other. This gives you twice the space and double the speed as both parts of the data can be accessed at the same time.  The down side is that if one drive fails, you lose all your data.

RAID 1 uses a system of MIRRORING the data. This is much safer as the data is stored on both drives at the same time. The access time is slower as the computer has to write the data to two drives concurrently, and you don't get any more space than just one drive. But if one drive fails, you have a second drive with exactly the same information on. You can then purchase a new drive to replace the failed one and it will copy the information across onto the new drive - thus mirroring the information once more.  For low budget, this is a good system as it only costs the price of the additional drive and most computer towers would have the space to house it.

RAID 5 uses a system of Striping with Parity. You need 3 drives for this to work. This means that the data is spread across the three drives but a "parity" bit is written away too, which means that if one drive fails, you have enough data across the other two to rebuild the information when you install a new drive.  It takes a while to rebuild, but it gives you the speed as well as low cost backup options.

RAID 10 uses MIRRORING and STRIPED together. You require 4 drives for this to work.  The system will pair of two of the drives and stripe the information across the other pair. You then get the speed of striping as discussed in RAID 0 but with the redundancy coverage of RAID 1.  The down side is that you have to invest in 4 drives to make this system work. It all depends on the importance of speed and data recovery.

This is not a conclusive article on the benefits or negative outcomes on RAID. There are more in-depth discussions across the web. But we wanted to give a quick overview on the facilities available to users as data becomes more and more important.

Have fun and remember.. BACK IT UP!!

When Is A Virus Not A Virus?

One of the first computer viruses was detected in 1982 but was more of a distraction than a danger. Nowadays, viruses can spy on you and your data, demand or steal your money and wipe your computer. Anti-virus programs are de facto and, as we've discussed before, you can keep yourself safe as long as you're up to date. However, there is a side-effect that, although not as destructive, can be just as massive a waste of time.

Rather than spend the considerable amount of time needed to write a half-decent (I use that term loosely) virus, some people just say it exists. They spread the word around the internet and, as other people come across the information, they spread it to all of their friends. The really successful ones spread like wildfire. Everyone thinks they are doing the good and right thing by warning others, but the virus doesn't exist. What is actually happening is email servers around the world are getting clogged up with emails about fictitious viruses and the originators work is done.

So what do you do if you receive one of these emails warning you about the latest deadly computer virus? Delete it. Do not pass go, do NOT pass it on to all your friends. Just hit Delete and move on with your life. Even if it was genuine, your friends either have an up to date anti-virus program or don't. If they do, they're safe. If they don't and they subsequently get the virus then they brought it on themselves. Hopefully they'll learn to protect themselves in the future. But realistically, the chances are the 'virus' is a hoax and a massive waste of time for all concerned.

This public service brought to you by Estuary I.T. and a significant amount of caffeine.

Keeping Your Cool (Or, I'm Your Biggest Fan)

Our less than stellar experience with Macs continue as it has recently started locking up after anything between 10 minutes and an hours use.

The usual culprit for sudden locking is dodgy memory modules, so we systematically tested them all and found them to be functioning correctly. Macs are notoriously hard to self-service, which is probably a good idea for most home users, but pros find their hands tied too. However, we appear to have tripped across the solution.

The second biggest culprit after fading memory is heat. Computers generate heat, processors particularly. You could fry an egg on a processor left running under normal circumstances, so they need fans. In fact most computers have at least two and possibly four or five fans. If any one of them slow down or fail, the unit will start heating up and there comes a point when it simply cannot function and so stops processing. Hence the lock up.

For the Mac we found a small piece of software that allows manual control of the three fans sitting in it. We increased the speed of all of them and now it appears to be running fine. Problem solved, although it should never have happened in the first place.

As any technician will tell you, opening up PCs to service them usually reveals conditions suitable for smallpox to find a footing. If your unit has progressively become more unreliable it may be worth taking the side off and, very carefully, vacuuming or brushing out the internals. But do be careful, you may do harm than good if you charge in intending to get a mirror-like sheen. You're only looking to remove build up of dust.

If previous experience is anything to go by, you might find a computer under all that dust. Or money. Or some long-lost tribe.

The Subjective And Out-Of Date Recommendation Post

Probably the second biggest bane of an IT professional's life is being asked for recommendations. (We've already discussed the first). So we're going to take our life into our hands and make some. However, please be aware that they are purely what we like and you may not get on with them. And if you are reading this any time after the day it was posted, then it's out of date.

PCs

Dell: Reasonably priced, decent equipment. After-service is pretty ropey though and upgrade prices can be a little steep.
Novatech: Get what you pay for machines, not always the cheapest, but after sales and services is good.
HP & Compaq: Nice equipment, but you get the feeling you're paying more because of the name plate on the front.

Acer: Nice laptops.

Mac: Expensive and not for big game players, but look pretty and are user friendly.

Anti-virus

Firstly, the anti-recommendation...

Panda, Norton and McAfee: Overblown monsters that want to take over your entire system. They will slow your computer down and it's a matter of time before you have a problem that was caused by them. McAfee isn't too hot at detecting some basic and common viruses either.

AVG/Avira: One word - free. And for the regular PC user they provide ample protection.

AVComparitives is a useful comparison tool and Bitdefender won its Product of the Year award, with Kaspersky not far behind.

Office software

Microsoft Office: Fine but there's a good chance you won't use everything you've paid for.

LibreOffice: All the mainstream parts of Microsoft's offering with a 100% price difference.

Tablet

iPad: Still at the top of the heap but there are a number of viable alternatives. Worth trying a few before you commit.

Honorary mention: Paracetamol - Always read the label (True in IT too!)

Monitors
Philips: Nice clear displays with good colours, recently been finding these to give good value for money too.
LG: Good Prices, good contrast ratios
Relisys: The monitors last, but the power packs fail, and they're not the run of the mill IEC leads which most monitors use, so you find yourself stuffed.

Printers
Canon, HP, Epson: Yes.
Lexmark: No.
And if you expect to print from an iPad, ensure the printer supports Airprint.

Peripherals
Trust: Don't. They're rubbish.

We'll try and update this post occasionally, so check back.

Your Password Is 'Out Of Date'

We spoke recently of the survival of the fax machine. There's another technology that has survived despite its inherent weaknesses - passwords.

As has been proved time and time again recently, passwords are all too often not a sufficient protection. We have written before of the importance of creating a strong password but it's almost impossible to get this flawlessly right all the time. In an ideal world, every account you own would have a different password. That password would be a minimum of 8 characters. It would include lowercase and uppercase characters, numbers and preferably some punctuation. No part of it would appear in a dictionary or be a date. Basically, it would be impossible to remember.

There are services that can generate and then store secure passwords. The flaw here is that you will either tick 'remember me', therefore giving anyone who gets hold of your device free access to your accounts, or you will rely on the service to remind you of what the password is. Access to that service is likely guarded by a single password and the circle is complete. If I can crack that password, all your accounts belong to me.

In addition, as computers become ever more powerful, they have the potential to crack passwords ever quicker. Somewhat ironically, graphics cards are better at this than processors. Any password is crackable. It's just a matter of time.

Two-step verification is a way forward. Google, Dropbox and a number of other services offer this and it entails a constantly changing number generated by your phone that you have to type in after your password. Sadly, all too few services offer this and it does take longer to access your account. It's only a few seconds, but they add up.

Fingerprint and facial recognition have bee trialled with limited success. Also, most of these systems have a backup that, if recognition fails, will ask for a password. And here we are again.

So what's the way forward? There is space for a new technology that resolves these problems. But it'll take better men than me to come up with it. Any ideas? Comment below or on our Facebook page if that man or woman is you.

The Paperless Office

In a slightly risky proposition, I've started writing this article without any clear answers, hoping that I will find them as we go. The question? What is stopping the paperless office?

It's been somewhat of a buzzword for years and it makes sense, on paper (Ha Ha, see what I did there?!). It would save trees, it would minimise clutter, it would speed up searches, it would minimise loss in the event of disaster. To elaborate...

Saving trees: not to be overly 'green', but it's basic maths. Less paper = more trees. More trees = good. So there's that.

Minimise clutter: this is basic business sense. Clear desk, clear mind and all that.

Speed up searches: now we're talking. If I want to find one piece of information that I know was posted to me at some point in the last year, that's going to take a significant amount of time. If I want to find something that has been emailed to me in the same period of time I can probably find it inside of five minutes. It doesn't matter how good your filing system is, if I am equally systematic in my method of electronic storage, I will find it first.

Minimise loss: this is quite a biggie actually. If your office burned down now, what would you lose? If your answer included anything that you consider important and of which the only copies are now ash, you could be in trouble. A good electronic backup (one that is safely stored off-site, either via removable drives or cloud storage) will allow to set up at another location and continue with minimal disruption. In other words, it may well save your business.

So why, in the 21st century, is this still a dream? Let me think...

I suppose there's a comfort factor to paper. As humans we are often rubbish with change and committing to purely an electronic method appears to a step too far.

There's a perception of speed with paper. If someone phones up and says to me 'can I give you a phone number,' I'm going to grab a sticky-note and a pen. It's unlikely I'm going to open a document on my PC, type in the number and save it with some meaningful file name. Effectively, as soon as the computer is off I've lost access to that information. But aren't tablets changing that? Or phones for that matter?

Then there's signing stuff. If I need a document signing I'm going to post or fax it. This probably goes toward explaining the otherwise inexplicable survival of the fax machine, mid-20th century tech. Digital signatures - not a name but a code unique to you - exist but have never really taken off. And again, tablets could be the answer as it is possible to sign an electronic document, as most of us do when we receive a parcel.

Why else is the paperless office not happening? Leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.

BYOD

With mobile technology becoming more and more accessible to the general user and the advancement of such technology over the years, it's not uncommon to see people taking their tech into work with them or using such technology instead of work issued equipment.

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device has steadily become a bit of a nightmare for IT Departments because staff are keen to use their devices through work networks, but as ownership of the equipment belongs to the user and not the company, it becomes hard to impose restrictions upon the levels in which the user may gain access.

Is there an answer? Not an immediate or clear one, no. The reason is that staff want access but don't want their equipment touched by the IT team and the IT team don't want the users to have unchecked access or confidential work data on a personal device.

There are a few options:-

• Have a "Use our equipment or nothing" policy. This will cost the company a little more if technology is required. It will also mean that the user may possibly carry around two phone devices, but the security control on the work device remains under the control of the company.
• Allow personal devices within the workplace and hook them onto an independent WiFi router which bypasses the main network, keeping the two separate.
• Allow personal devices to be used, but maintain a strict watch over what kind of company information is accessible to those users

I don't think that there is a perfect scenario. Each company will have to make a decision on the trust and size of their personnel, but with a bit of planning and ensuring that policies are in place, BYOD can be beneficial to all.