Insights · page 7
Straight answers about small-business IT in Dallas (page 7)
What things cost, what to ask, how to switch providers, how to wire an office and how to keep a dental or law practice out of trouble. Written by the person who does the work.
Results
Business email hacked: what to do in the first hour
If someone is sending email from your company address, the order you do things in matters. Here are the first-hour steps, what to check that most people miss, and what to do about the money side before it becomes a wire-fraud problem.
Locked out of your Microsoft 365 admin account
The admin password left with an employee or an old IT provider, or the authenticator was on a phone nobody has any more. Here is what recovery actually looks like, and how to structure admin accounts so it cannot happen twice.
Office computers running slow: what to check and who to call in Dallas
Start by finding out whether it is one computer or all of them, because that single answer sends the diagnosis in completely different directions. Here is the order to check things in, what you can do yourself, and when a slow machine is telling you it needs replacing.
Office PCs crashing or freezing: what it usually is
Crashing computers look random and almost never are. The pattern tells you the cause: one machine or many, after an update, in one application, or under load.
Office Wi-Fi keeps dropping: causes and fixes
Wi-Fi that drops every few minutes is almost never random. Here is how to narrow it down while people are still complaining, and what an actual fix looks like instead of another reboot.
Ransomware in a small business: what to do in the first day
If a ransom note is on the screen right now, the order you do things in decides how much you get back. Here is the first day, step by step, from isolation to backups to whether paying is ever the answer.
Someone clicked a phishing email: what to do next
How bad it is depends entirely on what happened after the click. Here is the response for each scenario, in order, and how to handle the conversation with the person who clicked.
Someone deleted important files: what can be recovered?
Most deleted files are recoverable, and most of the ones that are not were lost because somebody waited. Here is where to look, in order, and how long each option stays open.
The office internet is down: is it the ISP or your network?
Before you sit on hold with the provider, five minutes of checking tells you whether the problem is theirs or yours. Here is the sequence, how to read the lights, and what to say when you call.
The office printer stopped working on the network
A network printer that goes offline is usually one of four things, and which one it is depends entirely on whether one user or everybody is stuck. Here is the order to check, and the permanent fix.
The office server will not boot: what to do first
A server that will not boot is recoverable far more often than it looks, as long as nobody makes it worse in the first twenty minutes. Here is the triage order and what a real restore involves.
Your cyber-insurance questionnaire came back short: what to fix
Carriers ask about the same short list of controls every time. Here is what each one means in a small Dallas office, and the order that gets you furthest for the least money.
Have a question these did not answer?
Ask me directly. If it is a good question I will probably write the article.