COMPCALL IT Management

COMPCALL is seeking one or more motivated entry-level sales professionals for Online Marketing and Website services. More information is available at http://www.compcall.net/about/careers/475354. Please note: This is a commission-only position.

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.

We recently entered into a partnership with ConnectWise of Tampa, Florida. ConnectWise develops software designed to allow IT companies more efficiently support the needs of their clients.

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.

Yes, it was long overdue. But I’m happy to announce the launch of a new website design for COMPCALL. With the new site, I should be able to make updates more frequently, and add additional features easily.

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.

I often use Remote Desktop to connect into my home office computer from a laptop. I’m running Vista Business SP1 and have found that every time I log back on locally my default printer is no longer assigned. In fact, Windows has no printer assigned as default.

This leads to silly (and false) messages such as “Publisher cannot print. There is no printer installed.” Read the rest of this entry »

I’m writing this in 2009, so I rarely use faxes anymore. I send one every 2-3 months and receive them about once a month. However, there was a time when I was faxing frequently. Every day frequently. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best productivity boosters, in my opinion, is going paperless. I don’t mean eliminate every last scrap until you cower in fear at the site of wood pulp. Paper Management is what I’m aiming for.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The hub of my ABUS system is the Harman Kardon ABH4.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since we moved into our new house I’ve wanted to be able to listen to music throughout the home. There’s something nice about walking upstairs from my office and hearing the same song playing in the kitchen. Now, there are several ways to accomplish this. You can pull speaker wire everywhere and put an amp in one room. This creates issues with matching imedience and means leaving an amplifier turned on 24/7.

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.