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SNC Client Newsletter | ||||
| June 26, 2003 | |||||
| SNC 2625 NW 20 ST Miami, FL 33142 www.singularnetworks.com |
Welcome The SNC Client Newsletter is a collection of news, tips, and tricks our clients have found useful. If you have any questions on any topic covered in this newsletter, or would like to see a topic covered on a future newsletter, please contact us at 305-476-0001 or 954-476-1401, via e-mail at newsletter@singularnetworks.com, or visit us online at http://www.singularnetworks.com/ . Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might find it useful. UPS Best Practices Without question, UPSs are critical here in South Florida, but just installing a UPS is not enough. UPS batteries wear down over time, and should be tested regularly. There are also best practices depending on the type of UPS and the equipment being protected. For desktop systems, we recommend shutting down when leaving the office for the day. Since desktop computers usually work off smaller UPSs without a graceful shutdown feature, if an outage lasts longer than the UPS's battery capacity, the computer will go down hard, possibly corrupting files and damaging hardware. On the other hand, servers and network gear usually remain on all the time, since backups are usually scheduled for nighttime and weekends. On servers, make sure the UPS is equipped with the ability to gracefully shut down the server in case a power outage lasts longer than UPS battery's capacity. Secure Hard Drive Disposal Did you know that deleting a file and emptying the Recycle Bin does not really erase it from your hard drive? Even formatting is not completely effective. This is extremely important to keep in mind when throwing away or recycling your old hard drives. As two MIT students discovered, people dispose of hard drives with all kinds of confidential information like credit card numbers, medical records, and e-mail still accessible on them. You can read the whole story at: http://www.lcs.mit.edu/news/harddrives.html . Please make sure you completely wipe your hard drives of all data before discarding them. Copying Shortcuts To The Desktop Almost all programs install their shortcuts on the Start menu, but most people like to have their most commonly used shortcuts on their desktop. Copying a shortcut from the Start menu to the desktop is easy in Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. For example, to copy the Windows Calculator shortcut to the desktop in Windows 2000, just do the following: - Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories - Right-click on "Calculator" - Select "Copy" - Right-click on an unused part of the desktop - Select "Paste" To copy a shortcut from the desktop to the Start menu, just reverse the process. It's that easy! If you missed it, be sure to check out our previous issue . If you'd like to subscribe or unsubscribe, please e-mail us at newsletter@singularnetworks.com . |
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