Computers and the way we use them are always changing. Ensuring that your systems and infrastructure is up-to-date and secure is critical to reducing major issues and downtime.
Ask your local Managed Service Provider (MSP), External tech, IT Service Provider, IT Support, ‘Those computer people’ or potentially your own in-house IT about their regular maintenance and system checklist, what is in it and most importantly when was it last completed.
Although this is not a complete list of things for your MSP to check, it could be the starting point for a discussion about the health of your systems and infrastructure. There is also no reason why these checks could not be performed in-house without the extra cost of the MSP. Here is a basic list of things you could ask your MSP to check:
- Anti-Virus: With the number of computer viruses, malware and ransomware rising substantially, there is a definite need to be up-to-date on your anti-virus program. While installing an anti-virus is a good step to protecting your computer, the program needs to be updated on a regular basis to combat new viruses. You should ensure that all program and virus definition updates are installed regularly. If an anti-virus program is not installed on your computer, then you are vulnerable to viruses. While there are paid anti-virus programs, there are a number of free legitimate anti-virus programs. An example of anti-virus that is free and stands out is AVG AntiVirus Free.
- Date and Time: While it may sound a bit odd, it is important that your computer date and time is correct and is in the correct timezone.
- Computer Power Saving: Sleep time is an important aspect of any computer running ACR. While being green and having computers go to sleep is great, having them go to sleep and drop the network connection while running ACR is not. We recommend a sleep time of 2-4 hours. This way, the computer will have a snooze overnight if left on and save a lot of power, while ensuring that it won’t break your ACR sessions while you’re having a lunch break. You could reduce power even more by having monitors turn off after 10 minutes of activity whilst the computer remians powered on.
- Dust: Just like you, computers tend to hate operating when they’re full of dust. This can cause overheating, performance degradation, speed throttling and in some extreme cases, short circuits. It is best to ensure that your computers aren’t full of dust. A little bit of dust here and there shouldn’t impede performance or be anything to worry about, but fans and heatsinks chock full of dust will be loud and ineffective. This is especially true for the ACR server. If you have found your server is very noisy and rather warm, it might be best to have your local MSP scope it out for any dust build up, and clean it out if at all possible. Feel free to contact the technical team at ACR with any dirty server related queries. A clean server is a happy server.
- Network Cables: The network/ethernet cables that connect you to the internet and network can sometimes fray and get damaged. These cables may work, but they may have not have full functionality. This could affect your connection, which is very important to keep your computer working as intended. Worst case scenario, a short out could permanently damage the network port on the computer or network switch and render that computer or switch inoperable until it is repaired or replaced.
- Jumbles of Cables: Jumbles of cables can build up and it may be worth asking your MSP to check the cables and remove any that have unnecessarily built up over time. This will also allow for any damaged or frayed cables (and other cables in general) to be identified and replaced before any bigger issues arise.
Pro tip: Sometimes Anti-virus software gets ahead of itself and thinks the ACR program/application is some sort of deadly virus, this is not true. White-listing ACR in your anti-virus program can avoid this from happening.