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INTRODUCTION Hello Valued Customer, Welcome to our inaugural newsletter. The last two months here at Geek Choice have been just an incredible flurry of activity. New techs, new blog, a new website, and this newsletter have all taken some time to put together, but it's been well worth the effort to keep in touch with our existing customers and to connect with new ones. As with everything we do at Geek Choice, our goal has been to provide you with a useful service. Let us know what you think about the changes by phone or email, we'd love to hear from you. I would especially like to hear any suggestions for future newsletters or blog posts. Gregg Housh, editor ghoush@geekchoice.com GEEK SOLUTIONS: Keeping Your Home Network Safe and Functional Even when your computer is running and it seems like all is well, there is still work to be done to maintain your systems. Just like you wouldn't want to ignore your car until it won't start, your home computer needs protection and occasional work to keep it in working order. Your Geek Choice tech can provide you with comprehensive preventive maintenance service, but there are also steps you can take on your own. One of the most important things you can do to help keep your home network safe is to install a firewall. Firewalls do more than just protect your computer from viruses and spyware, they can also prevent unauthorized access to your network. Keeping not only your own computer, but all of the computers on your home network secured against malicious programs and people is not a step you can skip over. An unprotected network can become infected in as little as 8 seconds, and completely unusable in only five minutes! (Don't believe us? Read the BBC experiment.)	IN THE NEWS: Are You Ready For Windows 7? You've seen the commercials, you've heard the hype, maybe you've even read the reviews, but there's still one more question: can your system handle the upgrade to Windows 7? Windows 7 promises a faster, more intuitive experience and comes bundled with several essential programs including Internet Explorer 8, which drastically improves website performance and internet security over earlier versions of IE. As good as that sounds, it doesn't mean much if your computer doesn't have the processing power. To make the decision to upgrade easier, Microsoft has released a helpful program that aids in highlighting what you’ll need before attempting to upgrade to Windows 7. Called the Upgrade Advisor, this utility assesses your system, providing an analysis that will leave you with a clearer picture of your computer’s compatibility. You can download it here, and if you experience any problems running through the program you can check out the step by step instructions on the blog or just give us a call. WHY I CHOSE GEEK CHOICE The offer to work for Geek Choice was far and above the other companies in the area. The perks like vehicles, the business relationships, and my treatment by the office personnel are all great reasons to love it here. - Matt Gardner, Super Tech since Fall of 2008.
Even when your system is protected from outside attacks, it can still fall victim to internal issues. Windows machines need a special type of maintenance called "defragging" roughly every six months to keep running smoothly. The term "defrag" derives from "defragmentation," and the process is a fairly simple one where your computer reassembles files that were originally saved as "fragments" across your hard disk. Regular defragging makes less work for your hard disk and can help improve the performance of your PC. While having a safe, smoothly running PC is a wonderful thing, the fact of the matter is that all hardware eventually dies, whether it's due to a power spike, a screwdriver through the monitor, or old age. To protect your data, you need to backup your system periodically. And remember to check on your backups frequently to make sure they're still good and not in any contact with your regular system, or you might wind up facing the same problems as Microsoft and T-Mobile (see the blog post). With so much to keep track of, it's easy to see how some people can let the regular care for their PCs go neglected. If you need help with anything from installing a firewall to advice on the right data backup system, give one of our techs a call. NEWSLETTER COUPON Just print it out and hand it to your tech the next time you need service for $20 off the bill. CONCLUSION That's it for our first issue, hope you found something you could use. Please feel free to contact us about any topics you'd like to hear about in future mailings. Until next month, all the best. The Geek Choice Team http://www.geekchoice.com http://www.geekchoiceblog.com Know someone else who needs computer service? Forward this to a friend!