Trinet Newsletter 10

Disaster Recovery:

• The methods of protecting your critical technology infrastructure from disasters, how to carry out business in the event of a disaster and how to recover in the aftermath.

Disaster plan prevention would entail:

• Back-up tapes - daily back-up kept in a secure, off-site tape storage facility
• Battery back-ups on critical devices
• Surge Protectors on workstations and printers
• Servers are on battery back-up with automated shut down processes
• Ensuring anti-virus software is up-to-date
• and much more....

Trinet’s role in planning:

• Establish critical server list
• Make vital servers readily available on short notice
• Define best practices
• Describe department-specific tasks to be followed on day 1
• Define and execute routine maintenance and monitoring
• Document entire plan and process

If you do not currently have a plan of what you would do should a disaster (office fire, water damage, tornado etc.) occur to your office, contact Trinet today so that we can help you in creating one. That way, we would be your paddle if you do happen to get stuck up the creek.

Answer: Since 99.9% of all applications require administrative access in order to be installed, this poses a great security threat to your PC and the network that it’s on.  A virus doesn't operate as a typical application- it doesn't want you to know it exists. Some will bombard you with pop-ups; others will invade your PC and remain quiet until triggered from an outside source. The only ways of knowing this type of virus has invaded your computer are subtle things like slowing of your PCs, malfunctions in shutting your PC down, etc.  Outside of having a good anti-virus application, your best protection is to use your PC with a limited access account for your day-to-day use, and only use an Administrator account when you need to change settings or install an application.

Question #2

From: Joe

Question: What is the best way to save old emails, when you’re not using an e-mail server, so we don’t burn up space?

Answer: By using an external e-mail application, like Microsoft Outlook, instead of a web browser, you can set the program to pull the messages off of the server; that way, the server stays clean. To keep your mail box clean on your PC, you can keep messages in an archive file. Trinet recommends Microsoft outlook, however Outlook Express is included with every installation of Windows XP and Windows Mail is included with every installation of Windows Vista.

Why you should know about thin client computing

Thin Client Computing is the practice of using, "Thin Clients" to connect users to a Terminal Server, where they run all their applications that they use on a daily basis. Instead of each user having an individual PC, where they would store their local files and run their client applications(Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Line of Business Application Client, etc.), they have a Thin Client. The Thin Client stores no data or applications, but is merely a window to the Terminal Server. The Terminal Server is where all the applications that would normally be on a PC reside, and the users run these applications directly on the server.

By utilizing this environment, administration is infinitely easier. All the users data is now housed on the server, which allows you to easily back up that data during your normal backup routine. Also, any application updates that need to be installed are now only installed on the server. This eliminates the need to run updates on each individual PCs.

All updates and changes on the server are immediately available to all your Thin Client users! And, if a Thin Client should break, simply swap it out with a spare and have that user up and running in minutes, with no loss of data or settings! Another benefit is the ability to easily work from home. If your users have an Internet connection they will be able to log into your server and work as if they were at the office. While the up-front costs are similar to those of a standard network configuration (PC/Server), the maintenance and back-end costs are greatly reduced, which will save you thousands of dollars over the life of the equipment! Give us a call today to see how it works!