The Hilltop Blog

Bob Lindemann has joined the Hilltop team to manage our Network Operations Center. Among other critical systems, Bob will be maintaining Hilltop's InSight system which monitors the health and status of client systems and powers our help-desk ticketing system. Bob has worked in the IT field since 2000 and will help Hilltop implement and maintain new technologies to improve our support. If Bob isn't in front of a computer you might find him playing hockey or watching his favorite sports teams (Red Wings or Tigers). Bob moved to the DC area in 2007 from Michigan and definitely doesn't miss the cold.

Twenty five years from now today's hard-drives, DVDs, and CDs are sure to look as laughable -- and be as useless as -- giant floppy disks from 25 years ago -- or even Zip disks from 10 years ago. 

Similarly, as we store more information in online accounts, how do we ensure that access to those sites survives us? Access to today's Facebook and Gmail accounts is all too often locked away only inside our heads. 

There's no one catch-all solution yet, but solutions include:

Keep your most important files, in current formats, on your current computer -- And keep that computer backed up! Hard drive upgrades, external backup drives, and online backups are all relatively inexpensive.  Likewise, converting from .doc to .docx may seem boring now, but it's that sort of step that is key to keeping your important files from becoming obsolete. Always move your data from your old computer to your new computer during an upgrade.

Get your important files off old external media. Don't store important files on floppies, Zip drives, old hard drives, etc. When old media sits around it tends to go bad, and over the course of years it will become difficult and time consuming to read. Move things you want to keep to something new, now.

Legacy Locker -- Described as a "safe, secure repository for your vital digital property that lets you grant access to online assets for friends and loved ones in the event of loss, death, or disability."

Don't rely on Facebook. Who knows if Facebook, or any of today's photo-sharing Web sites, will be around in five years, let alone 25. Keep a local copy of anything that you want to keep for the long haul.

Hilltop Computer Shops can help. Our team can install drives, recover data, migrate data, set-up backups, and more. Visit one of our locations or contact us for help.

It's also worth noting that new equipment can feature not just the newest "N" wireless networks which are faster and cover more area than the older "A", "B", and "G" networks, but also more antennas, radios, and bands. For instance, some "N" wireless gear can now broadcast on 2.4Ghz (cheaper), 5Ghz (more coverage area, less interference), or both.

Wireless equipment with more than one radio can help solve an annoying situation where the slowest gadget on the network slows down the entire network. For example, handheld games and smartphones frequently hop on wireless networks but will slow down any one-radio network to their speed -- even if other gadgets and computers can go much faster.

This article in The New York Times mentions some of the latest wireless equipment and common problems. 

An article at The New York Times takes a closer look at what's behind SharePoints success at a time when money is tight:

Doing a lot for a reasonable price sounds like a winner.

Most people are still using easy to guess passwords such as names, birthdays, and other common words. Worse, most people use the same password over and over at all the Web sites and computers they use. Attacks are proliferating against weak passwords, both against Web sites like Gmail, but also against individual workstations. Just one easily guessed password -- for example, to a Gmail account -- can lead to a cascade of problems at online shopping sites, online banking sites, and more.

An in depth article at Windows Secrets features great tips, such as: