Save Money & Drive Innovation with IT Managed Services

Hiring internal staff to take care of your company’s technology infrastructure and IT needs can be costly.  To cut down costs, an increased number of small to medium sized businesses are turning to Managed IT Service Providers.  Our team will ensure your business has all of the necessary IT support staff at a fraction of the cost.  In this blog, we will explain how IT managed services will both improve and save your business money.

Using Our Team to Supplement Yours

It takes a fleet of networking, administrative and support staff to keep a company's IT infrastructure patched and bug-free — and that doesn’t count the cost of a 24-hour security team to prevent breaches, or expensive outside experts to help in a crisis.

The problem is, you only need these staff members for emergencies, upgrades and a few daily maintenance tasks. Your admins will do their jobs and wait for something to break. Your security team? 95% of the time, they’ll be sitting there, watching for an attack with nothing else to do. For onsite IT, you can either eat the costs, or risk being caught unprepared.

Nebula Consulting's IT managed services team provide better support for less by spreading the labor costs among our partners. With daily hardware and software maintenance, state-of-the-art cybersecurity and 24-hour emergency support, we provide a level of service you couldn’t afford in-house, at a far lower cost. We can take the worry — and the expense — out of your IT systems.

Quick Access to New Technology

Whether it’s the latest in spam filters, or a new firewall, having a dedicated IT support partner means you’re gaining ready access to software and hardware that will be a great fit for your organization.  No longer will you incur technology costs and discover later that a solution is incompatible with your system.

Few in-house IT teams in small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) have time to research or stay certified in new tools and solutions. Fortunately, when you leverage the power of an IT MSP, you’re gaining the depth-of-bench and group research power of a much larger organization, without the high cost of employment.

Proactive Security and Support

When something goes wrong with your network, you need to know that someone is immediately jumping into action to bring your services and infrastructure back online. While not all failures can be prevented, the good news is that early detection can often help mitigate damage, and ensure that critical data is secure at all times.

A Strategic Focus on Growth and Innovation

Innovation is a term that’s used loosely throughout the business world.  What does it mean for SMBs? It can be challenging for them to be leading adopters simply due to the cost of entry.

IT decision-making is vastly different for SMBs than it is for larger enterprises.  Leaders of SMBs often have more input into how technology dollars are spent than their larger counterparts. However, it typically takes them longer to implement innovative IT projects.  The answer for many is to outsource this task to a managed services provider rather than using in-house techs.

5 Things That Will Slow Your Wi-Fi Network

Wi-Fi is quite fickle. The contention between Wi-Fi devices and the dynamic communication medium of the airwaves makes it a sensitive technology with many settings and situations that can slow it down.

And even if you aren’t using high-bandwidth devices and applications, faster Wi-Fi is always better. Here are some things to avoid that can slow down your Wi-Fi:

Old wireless and security protocols

Using the older security protocols on your Wi-Fi network significantly reduces performance. This is regardless of the access point’s highest supported standard and its promises. For instance, 802.11ac can support data rates over 1,000 Mbps. But if you have WEP or WPA security configured, the data rates will be limited to 54 Mbps. This limitation is due to those security types using the encryption method of Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP).

So, to ensure old Wi-Fi security methods aren’t slowing your network, enable WPA2-only security using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Don’t choose WPA/WPA2-mixed mode or WPA2-TKIP.

If there are older Wi-Fi clients that don’t support WPA2-AES security, see if there are firmware updates that add that capability. Next, consider adding a USB or PCI based Wi-Fi adapter to the computer or device to give it modern Wi-Fi connectivity. If those adapters aren’t supported, consider a wireless bridge for devices that also have an ethernet connection. Consider creating a separate SSID with older protocols enabled for legacy devices or replace the old Wi-Fi client devices altogether.

Under-utilizing the 5GHz band

The 2.4 GHz frequency band has 11 channels (in North America), but only provides up to three non-overlapping channels when using the default 20 MHz wide channels or just a single channel if using 40 MHz-wide channels. Since neighboring APs should be on different non-overlapping channels, the 2.4 GHz frequency band can become too small very quickly.

The 5 GHz band, however, provides up to 24 channels. Not all APs support all the channels, but all the channels are non-overlapping if using 20 MHz-wide channels. Even when using 40 MHz-wide channels, you could have up to 12 non-overlapping channels. Thus, in this band, you have less chance of co-channel interference among your APs and any other neighboring networks.

You should try to get as many Wi-Fi clients as you can to use the 5 GHz band on your network to increase speeds and performance. Consider upgrading any 2.4 GHz-only Wi-Fi clients to dual-band clients. Additionally, utilize any band-steering functionality on the APs to increase the chances of dual-band clients connecting to the 5 GHz access instead of 2.4 GHz. If you have full control over the Wi-Fi clients, and you’re confident your 5 GHz coverage is good, maybe even see if you can disable 2.4 GHz on the clients.

Incorrectly setting AP channels

Since the 2.4 GHz band is so crowed, the channels utilized by your APs are crucial. It’s easy to have co-channel interference from neighboring networks and even your own APs. For this lower band, try to stick with the non-overlapping channels of 1, 6 and 11 at 20 MHz channel-widths. Although most APs and wireless controllers have an automatic channel feature, sometimes they don’t work well. Double-check the automatic channel assignments to see if they make sense. If they don’t make sense, try setting the channels yourself.

When verifying automatic channel assignment or manually setting them, it’s a good idea to get out the floor plan maps that have the AP locations identified. That way you can visualize the AP locations and write down the channel assignments. If you have more than three APs, you’ll have to reuse the channels 1, 6 and 11. But try to make it so APs set to the same channel are as far away from each other as possible. For instance, if you have six APs spread out equally going down a long hallway, you set the AP channels in order: 1, 6, 11, 1, 6, 11. Don’t forget about any other levels of the buildings Try to minimize setting APs with the same channels on top of each other, too.

Utilizing low data rates

 APs have control over what data rates are supported for the connections to Wi-Fi clients. When APs are supporting the lowest data rates, that means they’ll accept slow/poor connections. Though APs that don’t support he lowest data rates will drop Wi-Fi clients quicker, that’s typically what you want. You don’t want Wi-Fi clients staying connected to APs when the connection gets too slow, because it will slow the overall performance of the network. If a Wi-Fi network is properly designed with good coverage, you want the Wi-Fi clients to roam to the best AP as quick as possible, not stick to an AP that provides a slower connection.

Most enterprise-level APs provide control over the exact data rates that are enabled. If possible, consider disabling the lowest data rates: 1 – 12 Mbps. If you have a high-density network with great coverage, consider disabling further rates, maybe even up to 54 Mbps.

Lacking design and configuration

An overall poor wireless design and/or configuration can cause performance issues on the Wi-Fi. A professional wireless site survey should be performed to figure out proper AP locations and a post-install survey done to verify correct coverage. Resurveying should also be done after any significant physical changes to the building and/or layout.

Without performing map-based site surveys with tools like Airmagnet or Ekahau, it’s hard to visualize coverage to discover any coverage holes. Survey tools also help identify co-channel interference and aid in setting proper channel assignments. And don’t design a network solely on coverage. Design for throughput and user density as well.

Has Your Password Expired? No, So Don’t Click that Link!

There’s a new phishing scam making the rounds, one that tricks you into clicking a link and turning over a lot of your sensitive information. This scam starts with a very official-looking email that says you must renew your password, but steals your data instead.

It might look like the message comes from your email provider, your Amazon account, your online banking account, or any other sensitive website, but there’s a good chance the email is a fake. Scammers use a tactic known as “spoofing” to make their email look genuine, but the link they provide for you is false. At best, you’re asked to turn over a lot of your identifying information, which could lead to identity theft. At worst, the link contains malicious software that downloads to your computer; then, it’s just a matter of sifting through your hard drive and your web browser history to steal identifying information and account access.

If you are ever told to change your password, there’s actually a chance that the request is legitimate.

Why? Because companies do find suspicious activity on their servers, which could be a sign that hackers have attempted to break in. Companies may actually tell their customers to go renew their passwords just to be on the safe side. However, those warnings usually tell you to go directly to the website rather than providing you with a link to click. Also, you can’t always know if that warning message is the real deal or the work of a scammer.

No matter how the message appears, instead of following the instructions, it’s best to go directly to your account through the verified website (NOT by clicking the included link) and change your password in the settings tab. That way, you’ll be one step ahead of any potential hacking activity, and you won’t have to worry about that ominous email. By handling the issue yourself, you’re securing your account and avoiding a scam at the same time.

It’s worth noting that most passwords don’t usually “expire,” but there are a few sites that require their customers to change their passwords every ninety days, for example. Those websites rarely email you when it’s time, though. They typically wait to inform you of the need to change your old password the next time you attempt to log in. To avoid falling into a scammer’s trap, simply use your better judgment, and never click a link that you weren’t expecting.

Installation Begins on Bezos-Backed 10,000 Year Clock

How will our actions affect our grandchildren? Our great-grandchildren? And their great-grandchildren? That's the kind of long-term thinking that the non-profit organization the Long Now is trying to foster. And now Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has revealed that construction has begun on the organization's ambitious project, the 10,000 year clock.

The 10,000 year clock is designed to measure time in years and centuries, rather than minutes and seconds. It will tick once a year. The century hand will advance, you guessed it, once a century, and the cuckoo will emerge once a millennium. The idea is to give us a greater sense of the impact of our decisions, and to think about long-term consequences of what we do.

According to Bezos' tweet, the clock will be powered by day and night thermal cycles and synchronized at solar noon. The team just finished drilling a 500 foot deep vertical shaft for the clock. You can see a video about the process embedded in Bezos' tweet below. (His connection to the project: The clock is being installed on a plot of land that he owns in Texas.)

 

New York to DC Hyperloop could happen as Elon Musk reportedly gets green light

According to recent reports, Elon Musk is now one more baby-sized step towards his dreams of creating a Hyperloop network.

After tweeting in July 2017 that he had received verbal permission to build a New York to Washington DC Hyperloop, the Washington Post states that Musk and his Boring company has finally received something on paper.

As you’d expect, the government hasn’t just given Musk permission to start digging tunnels from DC to New York without any further ado. Instead it’s granted a very limited permit for preliminary excavation and preparation at a single site in Washington DC.

DC digging

When asked about the permit, a Boring Company spokesperson told the Washington Post that the “New York Avenue location if constructed, could become a station” in the wider Hyperloop network.

Looking at the fence-lined parking lot on New York Avenue, it’s hard to imagine any kind of station but according to the Boring Company “stations in a Loop or Hyperloop system are small in size and widely distributed in a network — very different from large-station termini considered for train systems.”

Clearly, this is a very small start and progress is slow. According to DC Mayor Muriel E. Bowser's chief of staff, John Falcicchio, “We're just beginning, in the mayor's office, our conversation to get an understanding of what the general vision is for Hyperloop.” Telling Musk he can dig in an abandoned parking lot for a while seems like a good way to secure a little more time for thought. 

If work on the Washington DC Hyperloop does get started, Musk has said that the system of high-speed tubes and pods will be able to carry people between the capital and New York in as little as 29 minutes. Given the current journey takes around three hours, this is impressive. 

However, the kind of infrastructure required for the US-wide Hyperloop system Musk dreams of could take decades to build, and we’re barely out of the starting gate with this permit. 

With that in mind, it’ll be a very long time before we see this become a viable transport solution. At the very least, Musk has the backing of the White House Office of American Innovation and a conditional utility permit from the state of Maryland to help keep things moving.