If you are on the Verizon network and require a next-generation Blackberry with world-roaming capability, RIM has heard your prayers and delivered accordingly. Complete with a 3 megapixel camera, very well-reviewed GPS capability, Bluetooth and the classic Blackberry QWERTY keyboard, this phone has been proving itself to be one of the best smartphones available to both business and casual users. The Tour ships with a SIM card and it will automatically switch from the U.S. CDMA to a roaming network automatically when you leave the country; your phone number even remains the same. While the browser rating remains relatively low (as with most Blackberry devices), it has been improved significantly. 256MB of internal memory (twice the previous space), a stunning high-resolution screen, a re-invented media player and a slimmer design are just a few of the new features that keep blackberry users coming back for more. Take a look at the RIM website for more info and technical specs.

Just like an automobile, a computer requires regular cleanup and maintenance in order to continue performing as it should. As a part of our St. Bernard Managed Care service, these tasks are taken care of regularly, automatically and behind-the scenes. For those of you who are responsible for the well-being of your own machine, take a look at the following list of items to take care of on a fairly routine basis.

Nine Steps of a PC Tune-up:

1. Update Microsoft patches and Service Packs.
2. Verify your antivirus software is up to date and running properly.
3. Verify drive space availability.
4. Clear temp files and downloaded programs files.
5. Verify backup program / activity status. (Automated on Server Only)
6. Update web browser packs.
7. Clean & delete un-associated user files.
8. Schedule disk defrag. (Automated on Server Only)
9. Install and run adware and spyware removal software.

Visit our website to learn what kind of coverage we can provide for you.

Brent - Do you have any advice for businesses dealing with employee turnover and layoffs to ensure the consistency and security of their data?

Employee turnover has always been defined as an HR issue; but, in today's economic climate where workforce reductions are essential to an organization's survival, business continuity is becoming a major focus for IT. When employees are laid-off or leave, organizations must address both practical and behavioral concerns regarding their data.

Ask yourself:

• What are we doing to ensure that business will be as usual when employees leave?
• Is corporate data going to leave the company when the employee leaves or could they potentially sabotage critical data?
• Are the terminated person's files, mail and contacts present so we easily pick up where he/she left off?
• Is my business continuity solution going to be sufficient to protect the organization from the potential loss of data?
• If I discover missing data 2 weeks or 2 months from now, will my backup solution be able to get it back?

• The multiple ways you can lose data or it can become inaccessible.
• Effective and easy ways of recovering data.
• What features to look for in a data backup and recovery system.
• The pitfalls of tape based back-up systems.
• How the new Dependable SafeSTOR(TM) backup appliance can protect your company from the data risks associated with employee lay-offs.

With recent threats to our digital security like the Conficker worm, it is more important than ever to strengthen your network's defenses. There is a fantastic free service specifically designed to boost network security called OpenDNS; it is free and will protect you from many future attacks if you just take a moment to set it up. The OpenDNS website provides simple instructions for changing your DNS server on a single machine or router (so that the change affects ALL networked computers) and even includes a video tutorial. What does this accomplish? Making the change will cause your computer to go to an OpenDNS server to look up the domain names for the sites you visit instead of the DNS server provided by your ISP; the OpenDNS server has the ability to deny you access to known phishing and hacking sites. There is a content filter that will deny access to any type of questionable site you do not want your child visiting and the ability to report network traffic is built right in.

You may be asking yourself, "How is such a service free of charge?" Whenever you type in a domain name that doesn't exist (www.______.com), instead of a page error, you simply get a screen with some advertisements on it... not a bad trade-off to have a strengthened network if you ask me!

If your organization has a document library of any kind that shares documents for reading and editing, it can become hard to find out where the last changes were made and if anything was omitted completely. There is a tool called track changes that helps, but people forget to use it in the same way they forgot to turn on auto-save before a big computer crash. Here is a good solution that will prevent you from intensely analyzing a document to find out what is different from its original version:

• In Word 2003 - Go to Tools > "Compare and Merge Documents"
• In Word 2007 - Go to the Review tab and select "Compare" or "Combine"