April 30, 2010
April came and went quickly. April is a month I enjoy as it is my birthday, guess my age. Trip to Disney in Florida and the Siesta Keys. May weekend getaways, one at Andover NJ Armed Forces Day. Vote for me in NJBIZ.
April came and went pretty quickly. Spring came for a second then a chill and some rain. I get the sense that we should be seeing the last of that. Well I can’t lie April is a month that I enjoy since the 17th was my birthday. Can you guess which one? Comment to this post and take a guess. Take a peek at a quick shot over my in-laws. My favorite father-in-law Sonny has a birthday just a few days before mine, so we usually kill two birds with one stone. Although I don’t get the chance to blow out my own candles anymore, lol. Santino is already a pro but forgets to wait for the end of the singing Happy Birthday. Smart if you ask me, to make sure he gets it first.
Here is another favorite of mine from the month. Not sure where the time goes but my 2 boys are like little men already. Although I had so much going on from the finishing up the move, the build-out and many other client projects, I was still lucky enough to find some family time on a couple of the weekends. The end of the month came to a close with a few days in Florida with Micky and I had a brief date with the beach in Siesta Key. It all came and went too fast. I’m definitely looking forward to a few traveling weekends we have in May when I’ll be spending some time with Sunny and the boys in CT with the rest of my family and grandmother. It usually makes for a nice relaxing trip.
I’m also looking forward to the Andover NJ Armed Forces Day at 131 Airport Road on May 15th at 9:00 AM, where they have an awesome model airplane show that runs most of the day. There is said to be everything from smaller remote planes to actual model jet engines that will be flying. Check out their website for more details. AMRCON did a small sponsorship to help support the event. If you can make it let me know so we can say hello. I’ll be taking the family as well as any nieces and nephews that want to join us. It will be a great event for the kids. These planes are really amazing and will be controlled by the pros.
So I’ll be hidden away for a while after by the end of May and the next few months working on multiple projects. Stay tuned to our website to take a peek at what we have going on. We’re going to be blogging on a few of the projects, but we’re going to be releasing them slowly so our followers have a chance to read and follow them. Be sure to remember to post your guess at what birthday I celebrated, that should be fun. I’ll give you a hint, I was just nominated for NJBIZ Top 40 Business People Under the Age of 40! That should be exciting.
I had to quickly toss in this shot of Deeko opening his Easter basket. When did Easter become the new Christmas?
April 15, 2010
Congratulations Robert Montfort winner of the AMRCON drawing for the iPod. The Matawan Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce expo last month was a terrific hit. AMRCON has been a proud member and has taken part for 3 years now. AMRCON has benefited from all of the excellent vendors in the MACOC. It’s a very professional group and anyone in the area should consider giving the MACOC a visit and join. For more information be sure to visit the www.macocnj.com web site. Hope to see you at the next event. Thank you Robert for participating in our drawing and I hope you’re putting the iPod to good use!
April 15, 2010
Over the weekend the remaining Network Operations Center “NOC” was moved from the first floor of the 92 Broad street address. We are now fully operational at 1070 State Route 34 in Matawan NJ. The remaining aspects went very well with no surprises. We like well thought out plans and careful thought. We did the same for ourselves as the many clients we complete similar moves and build-outs for each year. Come over and take a peek.
Half of the NOC desks were already in place but y0u can see here, this Wright Line technical furniture was one of the pieces that needed to be moved. This is a seat pod for 4 technicians, and another 2 on the other side of the room. We have the capacity to fit a total of 10 technicians in our current configuration. We’re ready for the growth. Our current business model also consists of remote and off-site technicians and engineers, limiting the need for a loaded office. This model helps us respond quickly in the field. As you may know 96% of all of AMRCON NOC/Help Desk trouble tickets are closed remotely, meaning without dispatching a technician on-site. This drastically improves the speed in which you receive support and virtually eliminates downtime. When we do need to dispatch on-site, we have someone close by to provide the service or we can dispatch from our NJ HQ. As you can image, the more we can do remotely, you benefit. Since we can speed up the response and resolution times without the need to wait for someone to show up on-site, we also reduce our overhead costs. When our costs can be reduced, these savings are passed to our clients. This is one of the many reasons why AMRCON’s Managed Service called ODS or On Demand Support, is so popular. We can reduce your budget and provide better support. It’s a win-win no matter how you look at it. The next benefit is flat rate IT. AMRCON’s ODS services are provided at a flat monthly subscription rate, so we’re ensuring everything is working efficiently, but just in case something goes bump in the night, you have no additional cost. It’s the best of both worlds, more efficient than hiring your own staff and certainly more cost effective.
Did you know that as CEO I’ve at one point or another worked each and every position at AMRCON? So even when it comes to being able to complete the task of re-cabling, installing, and configuring as simple or as complex a project as our NOC, I’m in there getting my hands dirty and keeping up with my engineering know how. As CEO of AMRCON I thinks its important to know as much as I can about each job, I believe it to provide and edge in leadership, management, and training. These elements are just a few I take very seriously, but at the same time I can’t lie, it’s fun. I love what I do, being involved is just another perk. My clients are generally surprised that I still enjoy doing my own business development, but I just can’t see myself entrusting it to anyone else. Building relationships with our clients is the first step, but it’s my past and present engineering experience that keeps me with an edge in the conference room. I can sell the company but also answer the technical questions. Doesn’t everyone do that? More an more I’ve been told it was the reason why some chose AMRCON, I’m going to keep it that way.
Neatness always counts. So I explained quite a bit in this blog. You probably noticed the pitch in the beginning on our NOC and what separates us. Then I spoke about business development and some of our processes. I smothered it with the status of our move but when it comes down to it we also deliver. Here are a few shots of the beginnings of our new data center. We practice what we preach. We color code and keep things neat everywhere. IT is a very precise field, the way it looks should be as well for many reasons. First you can create a difficult time for troubleshooting, safety concerns and even misconfiguration when things are not in order. Now imagine you have everything right but you have to come back 2 years later to troubleshoot. If you’re not neat and organized, how do you think that would turn out?
Many of us are still trying to catch up from the 36 hour straight work weekend, not to mention 16 hours days thereafter. So I hope everyone can follow my random thoughts. I can assure you however that the new office is ready to go and in fact has been fully operational this entire week. Feel free to stop by and check us out. We’re not to faraway from the rest of our furniture delivery and remaining technical enhancements, but I’ll chat about those later. For now thank you for listening. Dee Rudko – CEO
April 1, 2010
If Windows ever notifies you about a weak signal, it probably means your connection isn’t as fast or as reliable as it could be. Worse, you might lose your connection entirely in some parts of your home. If you’re looking to improve the signal for your wireless network, try some of these tips for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network performance.
1. Position your wireless router (or wireless access point) in a central location
When possible, place your wireless router in a central location in your home. If your wireless router is against an outside wall of your home, the signal will be weak on the other side of your home. Don’t worry if you can’t move your wireless router, because there are many other ways to improve your connection.
2. Move the router off the floor and away from walls and metal objects (such as metal file cabinets)
Metal, walls, and floors will interfere with your router’s wireless signals. The closer your router is to these obstructions, the more severe the interference, and the weaker your connection will be.
3. Replace your router’s antenna
The antennas supplied with your router are designed to be omni-directional, meaning they broadcast in all directions around the router. If your router is near an outside wall, half of the wireless signals will be sent outside your home, and much of your router’s power will be wasted. Most routers don’t allow you to increase the power output, but you can make better use of the power. Upgrade to a hi-gain antenna that focuses the wireless signals only one direction. You can aim the signal in the direction you need it most.
4. Replace your computer’s wireless network adapter
Wireless network signals must be sent both to and from your computer. Sometimes, your router can broadcast strongly enough to reach your computer, but your computer can’t send signals back to your router. To improve this, replace your laptop’s PC card-based wireless network adapter with a USB network adapter that uses an external antenna.
5. Add a wireless repeater
Wireless repeaters extend your wireless network range without requiring you to add any wiring. Just place the wireless repeater halfway between your wireless access point and your computer, and you’ll get an instant boost to your wireless signal strength. Check out the wireless repeaters from Cisco or Linksys.
6. Change your wireless channel
Wireless routers can broadcast on several different channels, similar to the way radio stations use different channels. In the United States and Canada, these channels are 1, 6, and 11. Just like you’ll sometimes hear interference on one radio station while another is perfectly clear, sometimes one wireless channel is clearer than others. Try changing your wireless router’s channel through your router’s configuration page to see if your signal strength improves. You don’t need to change your computer’s configuration, because it’ll automatically detect the new channel.
7. Reduce wireless interference
If you have cordless phones or other wireless electronics in your home, your computer might not be able to “hear” your router over the noise from the other wireless devices. To quiet the noise, avoid wireless electronics that use the 2.4GHz frequency. Instead, look for cordless phones that use the 5.8GHz or 900MHz frequencies.
8. Update your firmware or your network adapter driver
Router manufacturers regularly make free improvements to their routers. Sometimes, these improvements increase performance. To get the latest firmware updates for your router, visit your router manufacturer’s Web site.
9. Pick equipment from a single vendor
While a Linksys router will work with a D-Link network adapter, you often get better performance if you pick a router and network adapter from the same vendor. Some vendors offer a performance boost of up to twice the performance when you choose their hardware: Linksys has the SpeedBooster technology, and D-Link has the 108G enhancement.
10. Upgrade 802.11b devices to 802.11g
802.11b is the most common type of wireless network, but 802.11g is about five times faster. 802.11g is backward-compatible with 802.11b, so you can still use any 802.11b equipment that you have. If you’re using 802.11b and you’re unhappy with the performance, consider replacing your router and network adapters with 802.11g-compatible equipment. If you’re buying new equipment, definitely choose 802.11g.
Here is another favorite of mine from the month. Not sure where the time goes but my 2 boys are like little men already. Although I had so much going on from the finishing up the move, the build-out and many other client projects, I was still lucky enough to find some family time on a couple of the weekends. The end of the month came to a close with a few days in Florida with Micky and I had a brief date with the beach in Siesta Key. It all came and went too fast. I’m definitely looking forward to a few traveling weekends we have in May when I’ll be spending some time with Sunny and the boys in CT with the rest of my family and grandmother. It usually makes for a nice relaxing trip.
24x7 Monitoring and Self Healing
Vendor management and liaison services.
Helpdesk and Onsite Support.
Security, Back up and Disaster recovery.