August 2008
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Bardissi Notes:

Are your office PC’s or Laptop’s running slow or not following your directions? Does your Network seem  to  have a mind of its own? Are you seeing the blue screen of death on your PC’s and Laptops? Well, don’t get upset and whatever you do don’t fret. Just give us a call and we will get your Network, PC” and Laptops back in excellent working order.

That’s right, with a Network Diagnostic or PC and Laptop reformatting and cleaning, your Network and systems will run like new. So don’t wait or hesitate, give us a call today and chase your Network and System blues away!! Call us at 215 853-2266 and ask for tech support. They will be glad to help you.

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Just a friendly reminder!! It’s that time of year again!! That’s right, your son or daughter is going to be leaving for college, in the fall, and they need a Desktop or Laptop. Well just give us a call and we can help you put together the best computer package for an affordable price.

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BARDISSI BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

This month, our business spotlight is on the law firm of CONSOLO & HARBISON Attorneys at Law. Keith Harbison, Esq. is a partner in the law firm of Consolo & Harbison along with Colleen Consolo and together they have over 25 years of combined legal experience. The firm is located in Norristown, PA., and provides quality legal representation to clients in Montgomery, Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks, Chester, and Berks counties. 

Colleen’s legal specialty is representation in the areas of family law to include divorce, custody, support, alimony, adoption, grandparents rights, wills, protection from abuse matters and dependency matters.  Keith’s legal specialty is representation in the areas of criminal law, personal injury, drivers’ license matters, real estate, family law, and business matters. 

Colleen and Keith routinely represent clients before judges, juries, arbitration panels, support and custody masters and other domestic hearing officers.  They are experienced litigators as well as negotiators and they strive to obtain the best possible results for their clients.  Colleen and Keith are committed to providing zealous, aggressive representation in a professional and cost-effective manner.

It is their total focus and motivation to ensure that every effort is made to educate each and every client so that they will have a full and complete understanding of the legal process and how it will affect their specific case.

CONSOLO & HARBISON Attorneys at Law, offering legal services at affordable prices and making sure that your legal matters never become a terrible mess causing you unnecessary stress. Contact them for a free, confidential consultation at 610 275-4832 or visit their offices which are located at 541 Swede Street, Norristown, PA 19401. “CONSOLO & HARBISON, LEGAL EAGLES PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE

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BARDISSI ENTERPRISES IS NOW OFFERING VOICE OVER IP PHONE SYSTEM HOSTING. THAT’S RIGHT!!  CONNECTING YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEW PHONE TECHNOLOGY WITH A PRICE YOU CAN AFFORD!

Get More Out of Your Computer Network! Your network & internet infrastructure can replace your POTS (Plain Old Telephone System). With VoIP you no longer have to install and maintain your telephone and computer cabling and systems separately because your computer network already utilizes IP. Integrating your voice solutions over your data network allows you to save money off the bottom line. The great part of VoIP is you can be anywhere and your client would never know that you weren’t at your desk. With this capability the idea of “Remote” is taken to whole different level!

If you are ready to take advantage of a phone system that supports multiple remote locations, mobile workers, reduced phone costs, then VoIP is exactly what you are looking for and we will host it for only $45.00 Per Month per Extension plus the one time purchase of the phone.

 Here are some of the features you’ll get with our VOIP Hosting:  

Unlimited Voice Mail	Blind or Supervised Call Transfers
On Demand Call Conferencing	Transfer Direct to Voicemail
Automated Attendant Menus	Call Park
Connects to Cell or Home Phone	Call Forward
Voice Mail Notification	Multiple Call Handling
Automatic Call Back From Voicemail	Personal Call Queuing
Call Recording	Call Hold
Music on Hold	Message Waiting Indicator
Extension Status Lights	Caller ID

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Keep those letters and emails coming with questions and requests about or for topics you liked or would like discussed in our “Tech Talk” newspaper column on the front page of the business section in The Reporter every Monday. We love your support and will continue to provide you with a comprehensive education on the ever changing world of Information Technology.

Table of contents

How to Choose Your Internet Provider

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How to Choose Your Internet Provider

By George Bardissi

 In today’s world, the internet is just as important as electricity, heat, AC, food, and water when it comes to running any kind of business. The size of your business ultimately affects how you shop for an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Now keep in mind that there are several different kinds, sizes, and shapes of businesses so I am going to have to keep this topic broad. Let’s break our business categories into 3 different choices, small, medium and large businesses.

The first option to review is small business which could be run out of an office or a home office. If you are running a home-based business, as I know many people are today, you are probably running under your home internet connection, which most of the time is either a cable or DSL connection to the internet.  

Of course you have many options with DSL carriers just like you would with home telephone service. Cable providers are usually limited to your particular municipalities’ cable franchise agreement. One more option I forgot to add is the recent option of Verizon Fios. Either one of these options are no problem for a home based business. If you are running dial up please give up on fighting with your computer because it isn’t going to get any better. Pay the extra few dollars a month and save yourself a lot of hassle and aggravation. If you are running a small or medium business but have an office outside of your home then you must get the business upgrades that are offered by your Cable, DSL, or FIOS providers. 

Keep in mind that the business rates for any one of these options are more expensive than your home options due to the fact that the internet providers usually have a different internet connection system for business clients as well as the option to add STATIC IP addresses for server or remote access needs. When I say the word STATIC I mean an internet address that does not ever change. You can buy these IP addresses usually for five ($5.00) or more dollars per address on top of your internet fees.

For the medium size businesses and large companies you have all of the above options for small and medium business but you can now add T1, T3, and so on. These services are offered through a phone company such as Verizon, Paetec, Cavalier, AT&T and the list on this could go on for days. What is the advantage when going with one of the higher end options like T1, T3, and beyond? Well,it would be that you have a dedicated connection to the internet and you are not sharing your internet line with anyone else that may be nearby as well as steady bandwidth rates. These higher end options have been the standard for years in the industry but are starting to lose out to the more inexpensive options listed below.

Now why is this an important decision if you are a business? Usually when you chose an ISP you are married to them like you would be in a cell phone contract. Questions to ask when looking for an ISP: What is your turn around time from when I sign to when your service will be installed? Do I need to run any lines or are you, the ISP, responsible for this? How do I contact support and what is the response time if there would be an issue? What is the cancellation fee if I chose not to continue service before my contract is over? Is there any setup or installation fees? What should I be expecting in terms of my speed or bandwidth?

Your IT department or person, or consultant should help you evaluate how much bandwidth or speed your business requires based on what kind of equipment you are running in your office or location. I personally have seen a lot of companies drop off of the more expensive solutions such as T1 for internet because the cost is a lot higher and the speed is a lot lower. For example, T1 speed will get maximum 1.5 MB bandwidth up and down at somewhere between $350.00 to $600.00 per month depending on your provider.

If a company was faced with the above option and a cable, FIOS, or DSL connection at 30 – 10 MB down and 1 – 2.5 MB up for around $99.99 a month to $149.99 a month you can see the cost savings and speed upgrade you would receive by going the other direction.

Even if the speeds on cable, FIOS, or DSL are not guaranteed how badly could the speed be cut down? Even if it were to be a bad day and your speed would be cut by half it still would not come close to the 1.5 MB speed a T1 provides, for the most part. The only thing that could be a determining issue is the up-time or reliability of cable, FIOS, or DSL versus a dedicated line such as a T1. There would probably be a 2 to 1 odds of your connection going down when you go to one of the 3 options to T1, T3, and up. So what would you do for more mission critical based companies that can’t afford to be down at all not even for a few hours? Some companies in that situation would have two separate internet connections in the event one would go down the other one would be available so that the company would not be down.

This should get the conversation started on this topic. There are other things that I didn’t have enough space to discuss however I touched on most of the major points and hopefully this should give you a good handle on what you are looking at in terms of an internet provider and what the potential price versus speed options are for you out there. Keep your eyes open however because within the next 24-36 months you will see a major increase in speed and bandwidth options that will be available to you!

Web Hot list - Websites to check out

http://www.trulia.com/ - Looking to buy or sell a house? Did you ever wonder what the current value of your house is. Try out trulia.com. This website is your one stop real estate website.