Monthly Archives: July 2012

Before You Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion 10.8

Posted on July 25, 2012 by

Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Upgrade considerations

Apple’s newest Operating System – OS X Mountain Lion 10.8, is now available to the general public from the App Store. Anyone purchasing a new Mac will most likely have it pre-installed. For those of us running an older Mac, there a few considerations to keep in mind. Is my Mac compatible and what are the system requirements?

Here is the list of requirements that your Mac needs to satisfy before installing Mountain Lion OS X 10.8, from a Hardware and Software standpoint,

  • OS X v10.6.8 or later
  • 2GB of memory
  • 8GB of available space

and equally important it’s only supported on the following hardware,

  • iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
  • MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
  • MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
  • Xserve (Early 2009)

As always MAKE A COMPLETE BACKUP of your Mac before proceeding just in case unexpected things happen and you need to rollback.

We recommend Carbon Copy Cloner, as it’s easy to use and simply works. Happy Upgrading !

 … Read the rest

Posted in Operating Systems, OS X, Upgrades
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Disable your Sidebar and Desktop Gadgets in Windows 7 & Vista…Now!

Posted on July 23, 2012 by

Windows Sidebar and Gadgets vulnerable to compromise

If you’re using the gadgets that come along with using the Windows Sidebar in either Windows Vista or Windows 7 please stop doing immediately.

We’re referring to the clock, weather, news, stock quotes and other such widgets that appear on your desktop and are constantly updated with live feeds.

Security researchers have discovered a potentially dangerous hole that could allow a malicious hacker to gain control over a PC running either Windows 7 or Vista.

In a very positive development the same security researchers have disclosed details to Microsoft who is working on a fix.

Visit this link from Microsoft for more information

The sidebar and widgets first implemented in Windows Vista were a sort of answer by Microsoft to Konfabulator – (remember that anyone?) and the Widgets in Mac OS X.

In any event support for Widgets is not integrated into Windows 8 with its Metro interface and it’s concept of Live Tiles. However that is a separate topic for discussion.

Your been warned, the time to turn off those Gadgets and the Windows Sidebar is now!… Read the rest

Posted in Bugs, Security
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Inexpensive NAS with Private Cloud Feature

Posted on July 18, 2012 by

Secure, private cloud storage with your own NAS.

One our assignments today at TEKHELPER was to setup a really small law firm with a very limited budget. In addition to setting them up with IP Phones, we installed an inexpensive NAS – (Networked Storage Device) to in some ways replace the role of the traditional File-server and what powers their private cloud. We chose the DS411 made by Synology. This small little device accepts 4 drives in a RAID-5 configuration and offers decent read/write performance for a small office.

The big attraction with most of Synology’s products is their home-grown DSM – Disk Storage Manager, operating system which provides several features like cross-platform Windows, Linux and Mac compatibility. One very interesting feature that was incorporated in the DSM 4 release is the ability to host your own Private Cloud. Your data stays with in-house, but you still have the ability to access your NAS anywhere you have a connection to the internet on a Mac or PC with the free CloudStation software that Synology provides. Any changes you make to your data when you’re offline seamlessly synchronizes with the NAS back in the office when you’re back online. Image that your own private DropBox with 3 Terabytes of RAID 5 storage for less than a Thousand Dollars!

By the way TEKHELPER is in no way affiliated with Synology or being compensated by anyone for mentioning this product. It’s just our typical commitment to choosing what’s best for our clients, keeping their needs in mind at all times.… Read the rest

Posted in Storage
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