COMPCALL’s online marketing services help small- and medium- businesses ensure their website becomes a valuable marketing avenue. Our goal is to create “purpose driven websites” that offer a clear ROI on your marketing budget. We also offer a variety of website renovation, campaign management, and analytical reporting services. For more information please contact us.

The ConnectWise solution will allow us to respond to service needs in a shorter amount of time, and also keep better track of what has taken place on our client’s networks. By using the ConnectWise platform we hope to deliver better proactive service and keep your business looking to the future.

The system will also allow our residential customers to receive updates along the way as their computers are undergoing repairs.

Please excuse any glitches as things are going live. While there has been quite a bit of testing done, I’m sure there will be the occasional problem here and there.

Some new features:

• Online ordering for AVG Anti Virus
• Founder’s blog integrated in. (New blog posts will appear at the bottom of each page).
• More information on our services
• Improved search
• … more coming soon, hopefully!

If you have any comments, feel free to post them below.

This leads to silly (and false) messages such as “Publisher cannot print. There is no printer installed.”

The problem is related to Remote Desktop and Printer Redirection. When you connect from a client your printer gets changed to the local printer on the client. When you connect back locally it is not re-establishing your previous default printer.

Microsoft allegedly is aware of the problem, but their workaround is to Turn off printer redirection or Manually reset the default printer each time. Nice one, guys.

My solution was a simple VBS script and Windows task scheduler. Using VBS you can set a default printer. Create a new text document with the following code in it:

Set WSHNetwork = CreateObject(“WScript.Network”)
WSHNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter “Brother HL-5250DN series”

Replace “Brother HL-5250DN” with the exact name of your printer as it appears in the Printers folder. Save this as updateprinter.vbs in your user directory. Test the script by changing your default printer and then double-clicking on the script. It should bounce right back.

Now start the Task Scheduler (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools) and click Create Task in the actions pane. Give the task a name and go to the Triggers tab and add a new trigger. Set the task to begin “On Connection to User Session” and make sure it’s just set to your username (other users may not have permission to access to your script). Next choose “Connection from local computer.”

Now you need to set an action to execute the script. Save your new trigger and go to the Actions tab. Add an action to “Start a Program” and browse to locate your script. Click OK. Finally, take a look at the Options and Settings tabs and configure to meet your needs. I recommend “Stop the task if it runs longer than 15 minutes” and executing regardless of AC power.

So what you’ve done is told windows to execute a script whenever you connect to your session locally. This script resets your printer back to usual. You could also use this to assign a specific printer when you’re logged in remotely and another for local sessions. Enjoy!

The first thing is to get rid of incoming faxes. I signed up with a toll-free fax number with my VOIP service provider, Vitelity. This costs $3 monthly, plus a few cents for actual minutes of usage. I doubt I’ve ever used more than $5.

For a while I used Vitelity for outgoing faxes as well. You can e-mail a PDF or word document to the service and it’s sent out. Unfortunately there was no way to send direct from an application (using a virtual printer driver) which was what I wanted. Dragging PDFs and setting up e-mails was too many steps to remember the few times I send faxes.

Now I’m using a service called Fax1.com. It’s billed by actual usage with no monthly fee. I’ve loaded $10 into the account and never had to refill it yet. You can send from any application (in Windows) and it is Vista compatible.

The most common reason I’ve sent faxes recently is when I’m stuck somewhere and need to print a document off my Dash. I can forward an e-mail with a PDF attachment to my fax account and have it print out on any fax machine. Since just about every business has a fax machine it’s very convenient.

I also have found that using fax acts as a decent gatekeeper from sales people. Any time someone calls trying to sell advertisements or other crap, I simply ask for them to fax the information. 50% won’t bother.

The tools have been available for some time. All you need is a scanner, preferably one with an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). I’m using an older Brother MFC-5440CN that I purchased refurbished for under $100. This is a networked device, so I can now print and scan from anywhere in the house over the wireless network. The printer sucks, as I don’t use it often enough to keep the heads from drying out. I don’t care. I bought it for the scanner and ADF only. It also included PaperPort 9, which we’ll get to later.

The Secret to Successfully Going Paperless

My secret to successfully going paperless was scanning in all my old files first. It’s very easy to start with everything new, but then you’ll still be going back to find old bank statements, bills, invoices, etc. in your file cabinet.

I started with my oldest docuements. Bank statements from several years ago were making my files a pain to sort through, so I took a stack of a year’s worth of statements, scanned them in, and shredded the originals. Now I had no choice but to use the Paperless system. I didn’t scan in anything new until I had cleared out the vast majority of my file cabinet. The only things that stayed were odd shaped files, brochures and business cards.

Any new documents coming in were simply placed in my inbox (see Getting Things Done) until it was time for them to be scanned. The entire process took several weeks, but it was a one-time process. Now new items are scanned in as they arrive.

PaperPort

The cornerstone of my Paperless Office has been PaperPort 9. If you want to be fancy, you’d call PaperPort a system for organizing and working with paper documents in an electronic world. Basically it creates an easier interface for scanning and organizing PDFs than most scanner software. You can stack/unstack pages, reorder, straighten, add tags, etc.

You’ll notice I’m using PaperPort 9, even though Nuance is now up to PaperPort 11. I’ve tried upgrading and found the new version didn’t offer enough value to justify the $149 upgrade price. Notice I said value, which is subjective. There are a TON of features in the new version, such as the ability to automatically OCR each page (convert the image of text into searchable text). While this would be nice (you could search through digital “stacks” of paperwork to find a keyword or name) it’s just not something I need. Maybe one day.

If you decide to download the trial of PaperPort 11, be careful. They require a credit card number, and it’s a 15 day trial. No instructions were given on how to end your trial, so I simply uninstalled the software. Sure enough, at the end of 15 days an e-mail came showing I had purchased the full version for $200. A 5 minute phone call cancelled the order.

Data Security and Disaster Planning

My paperless office is based around PDF documents saved on my computer’s hard drive. Many of these documents contain sensitive information such as credit card / bank account numbers, medical history, and personal letter. You’ll want to make sure your computer is secure from remote access, co-workers/kids/roommates and theives. At a minimum make sure you have a strong password, updates, virus protection, and all the other basic recommendations for any Internet-connected computer. Encryption software is recommended, especially if you’re using a laptop.

The scary part for me is not the data getting in the wrong hands but rather getting lost or destroyed. Sure, there was the risk of my file cabinet burning down in a housefire, but computers crash more frequently than houses burn down. I use a combination of an off-site backup service (automatic!) and manually burning the data onto a DVD for my safety deposit box. The DVD is mostly for redundancy.

No backup system is 100% failproof. I recommend testing your backups to make sure you can get at your files if need be.

Usage and Benefits

My main rationale for going paperless was to reduce the amount of paper I was warehousing in my home office. I’ve relized several additional benefits:

• Documents are already scanned in. When I need to send someone a copy of something (bank statement, etc) I simply find the PDF and attach it to an e-mail.

• Now and then, when I need a paper copy, I just push “print” rather than messing with a copier.

• I can access my records anywhere. Since I have remote access to my office computer, I just open the file and print/view it locally. No printer? I’ll send it as a fax, using an eFax service.

• Information is at my fingertips. I’m a computer nerd, which means I’m usually at my computer. If I need to review my insurance policy it’s right there. Before I would have (eventually) pulled out the file. It then would sit on my desk until I had time to look it over. Chances are it would get covered with other papers in the process and never returned to the file cabinet.

Always wanted to go paperless? Done it and have a tip? Please comment.

ABH4

The nice thing about the ABH4 is the simplicity. There’s nothing to configure, no volume adjustments, anything. You just plug it  in and it works. It has a set of RCA inputs on the top. These are connected to my Airport Express for playing music wirelessly from iTunes. On the bottom are 4 RJ-45 jacks to go to remote locations.

I need to set up the IR repeating feature next. This works by receiving IR commands from remote volume controls (if they have an IR window). On the bottom of the ABH4 are four mini-plugs. These can each connect to an “IR Blaster,” which you then stick to your audio source’s IR window.

When you aim a remote control at one of your remote volume controls it will repeat through the ABH4 and send the command to your audio source. In my case I’ll be using the Keyspan Airtunes Express Remote. This plugs into the Airport Express and lets you control any computer with iTunes installed.

At first I plugged my Airport Expres (with Airtunes!) into an FM modulator and used FM radios. This is nice, except for the sound quality isn’t great. Also you need to leave the volume in iTunes set right in the middle. Too low and the radio will be full of static. Too high and the signal distorts. This means you can’t adjust the volume throughout the house from iTunes, but instead must adjust it on each radio.

Enter ABUS. ABUS is a standard for sending audio, power, and IR over CAT5 cable. I have plenty of that. It’s cheap. It’s designed to pull through walls (not all speaker cable is). At first look, ABUS seems expensive. But when you relize what you’re getting in the kit, it’s quite reasonable. Finding second-hand equipment also helps.

ABUS is designed around three components. A hub goes in a central location, just like an Ethernet hub. Your main audio source(s) plug into the hub. At the other end of the CAT5 cable is a small (single-gang) volume control. Finally, speaker cable goes the short distance from the volume control to your (in-wall) speakers. The amplifier is built into each volume control.

I decided on using the single-source Harman/Kardon ABH4 hub. This supports up to 4 locations out of the box. Expansion packs can be added to power additional volume controls.

Stay tuned for more information about the ABUS system as I’ve installed it.