Don't you love wireless? In the past few years, wireless accessibility is becoming less a luxury, and more a necessity in many homes, offices, and retail stores. This is partly due to wireless networking products and solutions becoming much more affordable in price. However, wireless products are still advanced in operation and it takes trained professionals to understand what solutions and products are needed to run a wireless network with performance, security, and reliability.

Because so many of our clients deal with wireless issues, we developed a "Mother Law" on wireless. This is part one of three methods to ensure your WLAN is secure:

1. Secure your wireless router or access point administration interface

All routers and AP have an administrator password needed to log so you can modify settings. Most devices have a very weak default password like “admin and password” or even the manufacturers name. As soon as you set up a WLAN this is the first thing you will need to change. This ensures external threats are not able to login to the device and make adjustments, which can lead to hacks. Make sure you write down this information and keep in a very safe place. For Mother clients, we store recorded data in very tight secured measures to ensure our clients' networks are totally safe. It's very important you (or an outsourced IT company like Mother) know your settings and passwords for your wireless interface. This information is extremely important. However, we often find new clients have no documentation on their wireless networking. This can cause countless headaches and expenses trying to dig up this information. With Mother, our clients don't even have to think about it. They know their data is documented AND secure.

Stay tuned for the last two tips in part two! 

From Sam, Senior Systems Administrator

Imagine if when you got the work, the lights wouldn’t go on. Or if, during the day, the power would periodically go out.  Or just the power failed to your printer, or in your office, or the phone system, or – God forbid – the coffee maker! What would that be like? What would your reaction be? My guess is you wouldn't be happy.

So why do so many business owners accept this behavior when it comes to their computer networks? I suspect it comes from the ill-informed comments from many substandard IT novice support folks - this is the normal way IT works. “Its just the nature of the beast!”

Well, it’s just not so! Yes, computer networks are very complex, evolving systems requiring frequent attention. But no one should accept substandard performance from such an important asset in our businesses – least of all small and mid-sized businesses who can least afford the costs and interruptions of flaky systems.

At Mother, we think your IT systems should work more like that light switch – flip it and the lights go on.  Don't think about how it works, just assume it will. Become so used to the high level of service resulting in the consistent performance that all you do is flip the switch.

Think about IT systems the same way. You shouldn’t have to worry about the complexity of all those computers and software and network switches you need to run your business. You should be free to focus on your business – adding value to your customers.

Let Mother make those systems work like the light switch.  But please, don’t flip us off.

From Dave D., Managing Director

Computer running slow? Here are David B.'s tips for speeding up your PC. Remember, if you're a client, Mother handles all your crucial updates (step 5) and performs a regular system defragmentation (step 6) to keep your computer running fast and smooth.

1. Uninstall any unused software and programs that you don’t use. (Click Start Start, Control Panel, Add Remove Programs.)
2. Clean your hard drive by running a disk cleanup.  (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup.)
3. Disable some or all of the visual effects that are included in Windows. (Start, Control Panel, System, Select Advance, under Performance select Settings, Click radio button Adjust for best performance, then click OK to save settings.)
4. Disable the Indexing Service.  (Click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services, locate the Indexing Service, Double click, click the Stop button, then change Startup status to Manual, Click OK to save settings.
5. Install all latest critical updates installed for Windows.  (Click Start, Programs, Windows Update.)
6. Run a system defragmentation of the hard disk.  (Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.)

As Mother's resident marketing go to gal, I represent average people. People who don't know more about their computers than how to turn it on, open Outlook, and possibly (on a good day) download a new font. I'm the person who always starts my help desk calls with, "okay, I have no idea what I did, but..." I'm the person who is intimidated by the computer salesman at Best Buy, much less expertly trained IT professionals like the ones we have at Mother. And like all normal people, I have a very consistent stereotype of who IT people are. I'm betting you have the same one I did.

At least when it comes to our IT guys, many of my assumptions have changed. They're not like all the help desk people I've talked to on the phone over the years. They're not like nerds on TV. They're, well, different.

At Mother, our IT professionals are friendly. Nice. Polite. They even (gasp) speak in terms you can understand. Whether it is the help desk pro you get on the phone when you have no idea what happened or the engineer who helps innovate ways to increase efficiencies, they are wonderful people who treat you with respect. They get that you just want to do your job, whatever it is. They want to help you and to make things better and to stop problems from happening. They care about your IT security, and even though we're an outsourced IT company, they work for your best interests. They're not nerds or geeks - they're advocates for your company and for who your company will be.

Take it from an average person like me. You want exceptional people like the guys I work with working with you too.

From Becca, Marketing Director