Your "Automation I.Q."

March, 1996
Updated January, 2000

by William Stocking CMC

How much computing power is enough for a small businss or department of a large business? Do you need to update your business automation systems? What works and what doesn't?

Surge Protection:

Summer's not that far away. It's time once again to think about protecting your computers from the dangers of spikes and surges that occur when air conditioning and lightening play havoc with our electrical infra-structure. If your surge protection device is three or four years old and cost less than $30 then THROW IT AWAY NOW and get a new one.

Why? First of all the moderately priced units DO have a limited life. It could be two days or two years. After getting hit by even little spikes on the power-line for a couple of years they loose their ability to protect. Worst part of this is that you probably don't even know it! The price of decent surge protection has tumbled as has all other computer accessories. Protection that cost you $35 in 1990 can now be bought for $16 or $18.

Recycling:

Computers can be re-cycled. When you decide that your Pentium 100 or old 486 can no longer do the job, turn it into a fax server on a network or turn it into a free standing plain-paper fax machine. We put a 486/133 back to work as a print and fax server on our 4 node office network.

We still use our fax machine occasionally but the fax server is programmed to answer on the first ring and the fax machine is set for 2 rings. If for some reason the fax server shuts down, the old fax machine takes over. Now as faxes come in they are automatically routed to one of our HP printers.

Toner Cartridges:

These can and should be recycled. We recycle our toner cartridges both for our Canon copy machine and HP printers through Cardinal Cartridge in Elk Grove. They are just one of several quality cartridge re-cyclers in the Chicagoland area. Quality re-built cartridges usually sell for around $40 to $50, with exchange.

Bugs, Bugs, Everywhere:

Don't think your computer is immune. This was brought home to me again for the 20th time last week. Got a call from a client that we had recently set up with a network and accounting system. He had scanned the system with an updated Norton antivirus. Found the "ANTIEXE" virus on 2 of his workstations and a Microsoft Word virus on six of the machines. This is not an uncommon situation.

In our office, we update our anti-virus signatures at least once a month. In the last year the number of new viruses increased by over 30%! To keep the signatures updated, you absolutely need an internet connection; that is the fastest and easiest way to keep this type of software up-to-date.

Buy a recent anti-virus program use it as instructed, and immediately update it! You have to assume that nothing coming from the outside is "safe." And, keep that program UPDATED with current virus signatures !