For more information about any of the articles in this issue, please visit our website at www.JustASK.

net

October 2014 Issue 3
The Bottom Line
Technology News That You Can Use
Special points of
interest:
End of Life for
Windows Server
2003
Pet Technology
Meet Your ASK
Team Member
Backup & Disaster
Recovery
ASK Referral
Program
In This Issue:
The Pebbles
Perspective
2
From The Desk
of Mike Maddox
2
Meet Mike Young
of ASK
3
End of Support
for Windows
Server 2003
3
Spyware! 4
What is a
Waterpebble?
4
Bottom Line IT 4
Client Spotlight - Hager Fox Heating & Air Conditioning
We recently spoke with Mike Courter, the
General Manager at Hager Fox Heating
and Air Conditioning Company to learn
more about this great Lansing business.
For over 70 years, Hager Fox has been
serving the Greater Lansing Area as the
trusted source for all residential and
commercial heating and air conditioning
needs. As Lansings premier Bryant dealer,
they take great pride in
delivering the highest
quality, most reliable
products in the industry
to their clients. Service
is a cornerstone for
Courter and everyone at Hager Fox. We
have provided our staff the access to an
extensive continuing education program so
that we have the most knowledgeable
technicians in the business says Courter.

Hager Fox has always been at the
forefront of technology in the heating and
cooling industry, allowing their clients to
enjoy greater savings through highly
reliable and efficient products. One of the
most modern technologies offered by
Hager Fox is the Honeywell Wi-Fi
Thermostat. This thermostat can notify
you of temperature or humidity extremes,
loss of communication and a host of other
information. The
Honeywell Wi-Fi
Thermostat can also be
managed remotely from
your smart phone or tablet
via an app that is installed.

Technology is not only important in the
products that Hager Fox offers, but
internally as well. We have implemented
many systems that allow us to serve
our clients better states Courter.
One of the latest systems is the
addition of tablet computers in each of
the service vehicles. He continues,
This allows each technician the ability
to instantly access a clients service
history, purchase and warranty
records, and information about each
piece of equipment...customer service
is immediately improved.

Another technology improvement has
been the implementation of GPS
tracking of the service
vehicles. Hager Fox can
now respond to and
schedule service requests
faster and is aware when a
technician will be available
because we know exactly
where each person is...we
can schedule the closest
technician, saving us time, gas and
ultimately money through efficiency.
With all of the changes in technology,
Hager Fox has added ASK Total Care
support to help manage all of the
internal systems.

Total Care from ASK has provided
great value to us and they have taken
the pressure off of me to always be
available and to know how to fix
technology issues says Courter. The
staff at Hager Fox can call the ASK
Help Desk and get their issues
resolved quickly.

Go to www.HagerFox.com for more
information.
Mike Courter

For more information about any of the articles in this issue, please visit our website at www.JustASK.net
From The Desk of Mike Maddox, President of ASK

Did you know...

Halloween candy
sales average
about 2 billion
dollars annually in
the US alone.

Halloween is the
2nd most
commercially
successful holiday,
behind Christmas.

Illinois, California,
New York, and
Ohio produce
more than 100
million pounds of
pumpkins each
year.

The Jack oLantern
originated in
Ireland where
people placed
candles in
hollowed-out
turnips to dismiss
haunted spirits.

Orange and black
are Halloween
colors for a
reason. Orange
represents the fall
harvest and black
is associated with
darkness.
The Bottom Page 2
The Pebbles Perspective
Have you ever wondered
what your pet sees or
does when you're not
around?

Many people do not
know if we get into mis-
chief, lie around all day,
or even
get
enough
exercise.
Here's
your
chance to find out! Here
is Uncle Milton Pet's Eye
View Camera. This light-
weight, compact digital
camera clips to your pet's
collar and lets you see
your pet's secret life!
You can take pictures at
intervals that are set by
you, and it wont even
bother me. It can hold as
many as 40 photos that
can be loaded onto any
PC or MAC with the USB
cable that comes with it.
You do need a flat collar
(no chains, we dont need
bling anyway), and 2 AAA
batteries, but think of the
possibilities.

If you would like more
information, then call my
buddy Lisa at 877-ASK-
4ASK.

Thank you, Pebbles!
If Big Companies are
Getting Hacked - What
Chance Does Your
Business Have?

I recently received an
email from Home De-
pot informing me that,
unfortunately, my per-
sonal information may
have been part of the
data breach that they experienced in Sep-
tember of last year. To be honest with
you, I was not surprised at all - in todays
world, we trust our personal information
to retailers and other providers on a daily
basis. I run a technology company and I
am well aware of the fact that most of
these companies do not have the systems
or processes to adequately protect my
data.

Home Depot responded quickly, was
honest about the incident and patched the
holes as soon as possible. They, of course
offered free identity protection to all af-
fected - the standard move when this hap-
pens. As I said, I am not surprised and I
am not angry. In fact, I am not even going
to stop using Home Depot because I un-
derstand that this type of event is going to
happen and it will happen again with an-
other retailer or provider that I engage
with. I cant stop using all of them.

Look at the evidence over the past couple
of years. It seems like every month we are
informed of another huge company that
has had a major security breach impacting
client data. Just last month, UPS an-
nounced a breach that affected 51 stores
and 105,000 customer transactions. Tar-
get, Neiman Marcus, P.F. Changs. I
could list many. many more.

So, exactly why is this happening so fre-
quently? The simple answer is that the
criminal networks behind these attacks
are sophisticated and effective. The full
answer is that, in addition to the criminals
being good at what they do, companies
simply do not have the people or process-
es to adequately protect their data and
their clients. In the UPS example, the
criminals got in through an Anti-Virus ap-
plication that was not updated correctly.
Talk about lack of process control, they
(Continued on page 3)
Mike Maddox

For more information about any of the articles in this issue, please visit our website at www.JustASK.net

Mike Young joined the
ASK team in March of
2014. You may have
talked with Mike when
calling the help desk
where he is one of the
technicians that answers calls and helps
clients resolve their computer issues.

Mike was born in Loma Linda, CA.
After serving 8 years in the USMC
where he was a small computer
specialist. For the last two years, he
has resided in Fowlerville, MI with his
wife of 5 years. Outside of the office
Mike has two children that he enjoys
spending time with and playing
basketball.
Meet the ASK Team
Now that the
deadline for the end
of support for
Windows XP has
passed, Microsoft
has announced the
end of support for
Windows Server
2003. We know
that this notice is a
bit early, but if you
are running this
operating system,
plans should be
made for replacing
your server (s). If
you would like help
planning your server
replacement project
or would like help in
budgeting for
replacement, please
contact one of our
Account Managers at
517-676-6633.
Page 3
End of Support
for Server 2003
The Bottom Line
Referral Program

At ASK, we are a re-
ferral driven business.
If you are very satis-
fied with your service,
we would like to ask
you to refer someone
that you think would
benefit from the same
service.

If your referral signs
up for one of our To-
tal Care support plans,
we will give you a
$500 Visa gift card!

Please email Lisa
Coontz at
lcoontz@justASK.net
Brevity by Dan Thompson
got in through a tool designed to keep them
out!

If you run or manage a business you need to
be very concerned about this. A common
myth is that the bad guys are only going after
the big companies. That is not the case. In
fact, most attacks are on small and medium
sized businesses. The way that cyber-attacks
work is that they are conducted by botnets
and other automated means looking for
openings anywhere they can find them. They
dont care if its a big company or a small
company. Think of it like a criminal gang that
can sweep through a city at the speed of light
and check every house and apartment for
unlocked doors or unlatched windows. They
dont care how big the house is because they
move so fast and hit so many places. They
are playing a volume game.

The fact is that your business has to be con-
nected to compete. You cant unplug all
your systems from the outside world and
computer systems are constantly changing so
you are trying to manage a moving target.
The only way to mitigate this risk is by having
a security process that can act proactively
(Continued from page 2)
and react instantly. To do that you need a
team that does this 24x7x365 and oper-
ates under constantly evolving standards
and processes.

You would think that UPS, Target and the
other large companies that were men-
tioned earlier, would have these process-
es in place. Unfortunately they dont. My
guess is, that no matter how big their IT
staffs are, they are not big enough for the
size of the company and the complexity of
their environment. Small businesses that
have only in-house I.T. resources are mak-
ing the same assumptions that the larger
companies have made.

The good news is that there is a solution.
A well-defined, constantly tested, continu-
ously evolving process can be cost effec-
tive if you hire a company that has proven
its ability and efficiency. In my industry,
we call these companies Managed Service
Providers. It just so happens that I know
of one that can show you, in hard facts,
how to protect your business and to get a
return on the investment at the same
time. If you would like more information,
Just ASK!

For more information about any of the articles in this issue, please visit our website at www.JustASK.net
3125 Sovereign Drive
Suite 9B
Lansing, MI 48911
Phone: 517-676-6633
TF: 877-ASK-4-ASK
(877-275-4275)
E-mail: info@justask.net
Our Mission Statement:
ASK is committed to taking the hassle out of technology allowing our
customers to more effectively run their businesses. Our value is in our
ability to combine superior technology with outstanding service. The
customers best interest will guide every decision that we make.
Hosted by Mike Maddox and Matthew Kolberg
on the Michigan Business Network
12:00 noon every Tuesday with replays at 6:00 PM, 12:00
AM, 6:00 AM. The show will be rebroadcast on Saturday
and Sunday at 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM, 7:00 PM and 12:00 AM
Stay informed (and have a little fun!) with news, practical
tips, and the answers to your most pressing technology
questions. The hosts break down the technobabble and get
right to the bottom line for you and your business.

You can listen to the show at:
www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com
Bottom Line IT
Taking The Hassle Out Of Technology, So That You Can Run Your Business!
www.justask.net
Have you ever been standing in the
shower and said to yourself, how
much water am I using? or I wonder
how I can save water? There is now a
convenient, inexpensive solution using
technology to go green and save wa-
ter.

Waterpeb-
ble is a
worlds
first. Paul
Priestman,
a director
at design
company
Priest-
Mangoode
was inspired by a sign in a hotel bath-
room to, Please Use Water Sparing-
ly and he started developing the con-
cept on his return home.
Waterpebble is a revolutionary device
designed to take the effort out of saving water.
What is Spyware?

Spyware is a type of ma-
licious software
(malware) installed on
computers that collects
information about users
without their
knowledge. It sits on
your computer and
watches everything that
you do. The software
reports to advertisers,
or even worse, crimi-
nals, about your online
activities.

Spyware can be installed
on your PC just by
clicking on the wrong
thing on the internet.
Watch out for
popup windows. Many
of them have a
CLOSE button, which
really installs software
on your machine.

A good rule of thumb is
if you arent looking for
it, dont click on it. If
you have questions re-
garding protection from
malicious software,
please contact Lisa
Coontz at 517-999-0214
or
lcoontz@justASK.net.
Page 4
Waterpebble is unique in the way it
works to help reduce water usage.
The clever device monitors the amount
of water going down the drain plug hole
when you shower. Memorizing your
first shower and using it as a bench-
mark, Waterpebble then indicates, via a
series of traffic lights flashing gently
from green through to red, when to
finish showering. Each time you show-
er, Waterpebble automatically fraction-
ally reduces your shower time, helping
you to save water without needing to
think about it. Waterpebble can be
found online and sells for around $12.
This is a very inexpensive and a great-
way to go green!

For more information, contact Lisa
Coontz at 517-999-0214 or at
lcoontz@justASK.net.