May 30, 2025 • 22 mins
Ever feel like your computer is deliberately trying to sabotage your day? You're not alone. In this conversation with tech expert Andy Blecher, we uncover the surprisingly simple solutions to those maddening computer problems that leave most of us ready to throw our laptops out the window.
Andy shares the journey that led him to create Top Tier Computer Support after witnessing countless people struggle with basic tech issues. "These are the simple things that seem so huge because you get so frustrated," he explains, describing the common pain points like disappearing documents, failed printing attempts, and mysterious error messages that plague everyday users. With 25 years of professional experience in the tech industry, Andy brings engineer-level expertise directly to consumers without the frustrating tier system that makes most tech support so unbearable.
One revelation that might change your daily habits: your computer needs sleep just like you do. "When you don't sleep, you don't perform well," Andy explains, describing how leaving your computer running continuously virtually guarantees problems like printing failures. He also demystifies technical aspects like RAM requirements (16-32GB is now standard), browser performance (Chrome is notoriously memory-hungry), and when you actually need to upgrade your equipment (less often than you might think).
Whether you're a tech novice or comfortable with computers, Andy's practical wisdom and refreshingly straightforward approach will save you time and frustration. Need help with those seemingly small but incredibly disruptive tech issues? Visit toptiercomputersupport.com or call 855-466-8000 to experience support that gets to the point without the runaround.
Top Tier Computer Support
Andy Blecher
Mahwah, NJ
(845) 494 7997
info@toptiercomputersupport.com
toptiercomputersupport.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast.
I am your host, doug Drohan,brought to you by the Bergen
Neighbors Media Group.
I am coming to you from acomputer that I never turn off
at night, and we are joined byAndy Blecher, the owner of Top
Tier Computer Support, who'sgoing to tell me why that's a
problem and a mistake.
Andy, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Thanks, doug, good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, so we'll get into why I should put my
computer to sleep every nightand give it time to rejuvenate,
so tell.
But, uh, so tell me a littlebit.
You know you have a companycalled top tier computer support
, so, uh, you know a thing ortwo about computers.
Like, how long have you been in?
Uh, I guess we'll call it thetech world.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Uh, professionally, about between 20 and 25 years.
Um, I've been dabbling in itsince, I guess, 93, 94.
Okay, and there was a firstcareer out of college for radio
which lasted about 10 years, andthen I had to figure out what I
wanted to do to to actuallyhave a career.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So you do have a radio voice, so well, I could
have been.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Chuck, there you go.
So yeah, but yeah, this is a.
This is actually a lot moresatisfying, and why is that?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
The problem-solving aspect of it.
Okay, helping folks out who findit extremely daunting.
Yeah, I mean, you know, when Itook a computer class, I was
showing my son actually who's 11, what a modem looked like for
the fax machine back in the day,where you had to take your
(01:53):
phone and put the you know thereceiver in a modem, in this
little box where the two sideswent in I don't know what you
call it hearing and speaking andit ran on phone lines, because
the way they could analog anddigital spoke to each other you
had to use a phone line and, uh,somebody called your phone
(02:15):
while you were trying totransmit something.
You were you know kind of stunk.
And what I was really surprisedto see when I was doing that
research with him was that itreally wasn't until the 90s and
2000s, when broadband andeverything started to come about
, that we stopped using thosekind of you know phone lines to
transmit data.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Sure, it went from phone lines to DSL and then
finally to broadband.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you know, when I took acomputer class basic, that was
in the 1980s and it was a littledifferent back then.
Punch cards, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, my son was asking me what does Microsoft do
?
And I had to explain Word andExcel and all that.
But so how did?
Why did you get into?
Like, what intrigued you aboutcomputers?
Well, it was, it was obviouslyit was, it was a choice really
when I was at a crossroadsbetween going to law school or
going into IT, and law school atthat point was just going to be
just undoable.
Not for the price, but just thefact that it's three years, you
can't work.
And it was just at that pointnow.
(03:27):
So it was it.
I already knew quite a bitabout it.
So I went back to school uh,network security and
administration and uh, and Iwent from there, my first jobs
in new york city just reallygetting my feet wet.
they sent me all over the place.
I had to start figuring thingsout right away.
Then moved up, I got to be anetwork engineer and now I'm
(03:54):
running an IT infrastructure ata global company, while getting
this company off the ground.
So it really got to where.
Even though all the sideclients that I've had over the
years between residential andbusiness I found that more
people were getting distraughtover the simple things.
(04:16):
Why is my internet so slow?
Why is my printer not printing?
Why do I have this error?
Where's this tab on my browser?
Why did it disappear?
What happened to my favorites?
Why?
Why do I have this error?
Where's this tab on my browser?
Why did it disappear?
What happened to my favorites?
Why can't I email thisattachment?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
What happened to that document I was working on.
It disappeared.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Right, exactly when did it go?
I've been working on it all dayand now, oh my God, what am I
going to do?
Yeah, so it finally just got tome with a client of mine
sometime last year We'll callhim Lenny, because that's his
name he had that very same thing.
He went nuts, he was working ona deal all day and he couldn't
(04:55):
get this Excel file to mail.
He was going to blow the wholedeal.
So he called me up.
He says can you connect to mycomputer?
Yeah, absolutely.
He was trying to blow the wholedeal.
So he called me up.
He says can you connect to mycomputer?
Yeah, absolutely.
So he was trying to mail ashortcut.
He didn't realize thedifference between the shortcut
and the actual document.
So I showed him, asked him howhis family was doing so, on and
(05:16):
so forth, and he was able toemail the document.
They made the deal.
He called me back, he was morethankful than anything and it
just dawned on me at that pointwait a second, these are the
simple things.
These are the things that allthe folks that I know in other
management companies ITmanagement companies don't even
want to deal with.
They feel it's big with them.
(05:38):
They'll put you on hold.
You have to go to tier one, two, tier three, like like anybody,
do you?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
who likes that, nobody, nobody likes that, right
so uh instead of going to tiertwo and tier three, they can go
to top tier, top tier, and I was.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The whole idea, for that was I was explaining it to
my love.
We were just driving around andI said I, I just it's, it's
crazy.
I feel so bad for all thesepeople because it's just it.
I, I understand how to do itall.
I've seen it a billion times.
It's only to a printer problem.
That could be maybe two orthree reasons why, and that's it
(06:19):
.
So uh, there's gotta be a wayfrom way from for for me to get
it out there that people don'thave to go to to level one or
top one or she says well, whydon't you call it tier, top tier
?
I said that's a wonderful idea,wonderful.
And then so we, we, we put thewhole idea together, we put out
there that it's for the simple,the simple things that seem so
(06:45):
huge because you get sofrustrated by these little
things.
There's some, there's someplace to go now for it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, and I think it'simportant because my wife works
for a big company, for EY, ernstand Young.
She's always having computerproblems and she gets on the
phone with their tech guys and Iguess they're pretty good at
responding, but she has like somany issues.
Sometimes it's like, yeah andyou know, but I think like guys
(07:12):
like you get it and guys like meyou know, oh, it's just zeros
and ones.
You know what's, what's so hardabout that?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
right, but if you think about, it it's like zeros
and ones.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Okay, you might as well tell me it's the genetic
code of the DNA and again, foryou guys, like a network
engineer, it kind of reminds meI'm trying to think of the movie
where it was like BeautifulMind not Beautiful Mind, but one
of these things where somebodysees it all in their head and it
(07:42):
kind of just opens up and theyand the problem is so simple to
them.
Um, whereas a lot of us justdon't see it that way and maybe
it's just a different way oflooking at it, to understand how
computers talk to each other.
Because you know, back in theday, if you had different
systems they couldn't talk toeach other.
And now you know and youunderstand why the ciscos of the
(08:03):
world and things like that havedone so well, because you know
before we're going back to the90s not that many years ago,
right, I mean, for me it's notthat many years ago.
But when you say 30 years I'mlike holy cow, yeah, that's
right, that was 1995.
But yeah, so it.
You know.
I guess there's one thing youlearn as you get older,
(08:24):
especially if you own your ownbusinesses there's certain
things you're good at and thethings you're not good at just
hire somebody.
And the frustrating thingsabout computers is that you rely
on these things so much.
All your files are on here andif all of a sudden something
happens or your computer goesdown, you're done for the day or
week or whatever.
Correct, so all right.
So you're done for the day orweek or whatever.
(08:45):
You're full-time.
You're a network engineer,computer network engineer, which
I'd say that in itself is.
You know, a lot of those jobsare outsourced to India and
places like that these days.
So it's great that you know youhave a career and still have a
career in that, because I knowthat field is kind of been
(09:07):
diluted in some ways through.
You know, I think the morepeople, more people that were
educated in it, the morecorporations saw that they can
outsource it.
So I think it's great thatyou're.
You know you've been at it forso long.
But yeah, so you mentioned thatyou love what you do because
you help solve problems, you'rehelping people.
(09:29):
So what are some of the commonthings that you mentioned?
So what you know?
Slow computer performance.
So without giving away too much, so if I have slow computer
performance sounds like an EDcommercial, but my computer
doesn't perform, take this pill.
So what are some of the mainsimple remedies for slow
(09:53):
computer performance?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Well, the first thing I'll ask is how old is your
computer?
That's one, because with thatcome the specs, which would be
how much RAM do you have?
And as time goes on, all ofthese programs require more
resources.
So the older the computer is,naturally the newer programs are
going to run a little bitslower.
So it would be like trying torun a Lamborghini with a 1975
(10:17):
Fiat motor.
Got it.
Next thing I would say well,how, how often do you turn your
computer off?
You know and that's a bigdifference, because I look at
computers as people yeah, whenyou, when you don't sleep, you
don't perform well.
Yeah, and we're not going backto the ED commercial either we,
(10:38):
we have to refresh ourselvesevery night, and the computer,
without getting into all of thetechnical aspects of it, has to
do the same, and so the longerit stays on, the slower it's
going to get.
Things stop working.
Generally speaking, you'regoing to have an issue right
away with printing.
Your printer is just not goingto print.
It's one of those services thatjust stops working why?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I don't know.
That happens to us a lot,correct.
That's why we should turn theprinter off.
It's not the printer rebootyour computer.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Okay, printer is fine , okay.
Um again, there could be otherother reasons, but for the main
reason, that's.
That's generally it.
If you don't, okay, if youdon't, if you have your computer
on for two weeks, I guaranteeyou you're not going to be able
to print.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Got it.
So my computer has 500gigabytes of flash storage.
So is that that's RAM?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Flash storage is your hard drive.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Read access memory is that.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
RAM.
Ram is your, yeah, it's yourmemory.
The, the storage you're talkingabout, is your hard drive.
Okay, and that's that's calledan ssd.
Now they don't have movingparts anymore.
So, uh, the more ram you have,the more area there is for your
programs to run, run from,because everything from your
(11:56):
hard drive goes into your memoryand then it runs from there so
how do you know how much ram youhave?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
because if I look at my mac, I go to um overview and
it's it just shows me mygigabyte storage, flash storage
well, on the mac, there's, therehas to.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
If you go to system, uh, I don't remember exactly but
if you go into a mac, uh, thesystem area should tell you all
the specs uh, I got it okay,because I just went on about
this PC, not PC about this Macabout this, mac Thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
That was interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Wow, that was interesting.
I'm playing around my computerand all of a sudden something
happened.
Anyway, I said I have eightgigabytes of memory.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
That's not a lot anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, okay.
And then when I go to tab itsays memory usage 88.6 megabytes
.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Right Megabytes or gigabytes.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It says MB, mb.
That's just not a lot.
Yeah yeah, Megabytes, gigabytes.
What comes after gigabytes?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
After gigabytes, terabytes.
I think it's terabytes.
Yeah, you're right, that's agood one.
I don't usually use thatanymore.
But yeah terabytes and then, Ithink, petabytes Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And then we'll get a couple of coffee bites.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Got it no-transcript to people's homes, but then they
(14:20):
had to wait and then this wasall.
This was all part of it.
I want to be able to get topeople immediately, yeah, and I,
and I can do that now with theadvent of all the technology.
It's just wonderful.
You know, they call me up, Isay, hey, go to my website,
click on this link, and I canjust jump right in and help you
right there.
So and then, but the main, themain thrust is to have not just
(14:45):
computer support, but engineerlevel computer support, not
level one, but all the way tothe top, right off the bat.
So we'll get you resolved,we'll, you know, get to know
each other, have a goodrelationship, and I'm always
here.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Do you offer any kind of maintenance, like like a
subscription where you couldhave bi-yearly maintenance, or
do you recommend that or no?
Is it really more just asubscription?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I don't think it's necessary, honestly.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, okay, okay.
So you give access.
You know somebody has to grantyou access into their computer.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I guess there's a little bit of trust involved
there, because you're givingsomebody access to all of your
yeah, yeah, but it's notsomething that's installed, it's
just a one-time thing, and then, once I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It's over.
Right, they can delete theaccess.
Yeah, so what is it?
You know what is it likerunning a business while you're
still working.
You know another career.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It's, it's, it's tough, especially sometimes if
somebody calls me during the day.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, you know, I'll ask you know how how severe is
it Does it?
Does it need, does it need myhelp right now?
Can?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
you wait about an hour.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah, can let me get to lunch and I'll just
jump on and I'm all yours.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, yeah it's, it's a little it's but um, but a day
, a day where you uh do this is,you know you retire from?
I don't want to, I don't wantto put you in hot water with
your boss, but uh, at some day,someday, this is your um, you
(16:27):
know, this is something you'redoing, yeah, I don't this.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
This is my favorite part of the job.
Yeah, that that's, and that'sone of the reasons that I love
to do it so much.
So, with all of the switches,the routing, the firewalls, the
servers, all the high end stuffthat I do, this is always been
my favorite part of the job.
Connecting with people yeah, Iget to see.
So, for instance, in in in mycompany, I get to see everybody,
(16:54):
every department.
I know everybody, I know thenames of their dogs, I know
everything, and it's a wonderfulthing.
It's almost like saying, hey,let's have a cup of coffee and
let me fix your computer.
And they call me from all over.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So if you're buying a new computer today, what is the
typical RAM storage?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It's funny because most of the machines now they'll
come with about 16 gigs of ram.
Um, but now they're starting tonow they're starting to include
32.
And I would say scale the theextra few dollars is really
worth getting the 32 gigs of ramnow in the old days, you could
add on to your existingcomputers.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Can you do that or no ?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
you just said, I only have eight.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I only have eight.
My computer's from 2021.
So it's four years old, um,should I start thinking about
getting a new computer?
That depends on the performance.
You know I never turn it off,it stays on all the time and uh
no, but actually it performsfine.
I have, like right now I haveone, two, three, four, five, six
(17:59):
, seven, eight, nine, ten,eleven, twelve, let's just say
20 browser windows open.
Uh, and then I have that's onchrome, then I have safari, with
about eight browsers open.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
So chrome is a chrome is a memory hog.
I will say that off that, offthe bat.
Okay, um, but if a lot ofthings don't, run on safari
anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
You got to go to chrome.
Chrome is a memory hog, I willsay that off the bat.
Okay, but a lot of things don'trun on Safari anymore.
You got to go to.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Chrome.
They haven't run on Safari in along time.
Yeah, without the glassy-eyedexplanation, it's just better to
go with something like Chromeor Firefox.
Firefox is a wonderful browseras well.
Okay, but if the machine isstill serving you well, there's
no reason to go out and get anew one.
I've had that question so manytimes.
(18:40):
Andy, do you think it's goodtonight?
Should I go out and get a newcomputer?
Is it running slow?
No, it's fine, then stay withit.
Yeah, I'm not looking to bilkpeople for money.
There's so many folks out therewho just don't know where to go
.
Yeah, and I hear that more thanI can tell you.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Well, yeah, so let's use that as a segue.
Where do they go if they wantto reach you?
How do they contact you?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Why Doug they go to?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Come on, hey now, hey now, hey now hey now.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Hey, now they can go to toptiercomputersupport.
com All one word.
Or they can dial us toll-free855-466-8000.
855-466-8000.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And just to be clear, because this podcast will be
found on Spotify and everywhere,so somebody on the West Coast
could be hearing this.
So you are on the East Coast,correct?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
We are in the US.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Right, yeah, so, but you could help people out in
California.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I help people actually all over the world.
Nice, it's a pleasure to do itwith remote products now.
Yeah, it's great I've helped.
I've actually the funny part.
I'll tell you a quick funnystory.
Somebody called me.
They were having a problem withtheir laptop.
They were in Germany in themiddle of a meeting.
Wow, wow, she said, I'm havinga problem.
(20:18):
I think it was Excel orsomething stopped working.
Can you jump in and take a look?
Wow, yeah, sure.
And I was so I connected to hermachine.
She was in the boardroom I'mworking on this thing.
I fixed the problem and thenopened up notepad and said okay,
you're.
You're all set.
I'll talk to you later Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So yeah, very cool.
So one last question.
It's personal I'm, you know I'mtaking advantage of your free
advice.
So when I shut down every nightand I have like 20 windows open
, I should close all thosewindows first.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
uh, you can a lot of times the browser will try to.
When you restart, it'll ask youif you want to restore those
pages.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah you can absolutely do that
or I could just shut down withleaving them all open.
You could, yeah, okay, itdoesn't affect anything, okay no
because I like to restore.
I like to come back because Ihave all these browsers open
many times for a reason.
You know, I'm researchingthings and I found the answer
and now I want to, you know,keep it on my screen as a
(21:23):
reminder.
Um, so, all right, good to know.
Um, yeah, you know my pc andI've always been a pc guy until,
and even I still have it.
But man, that thing is so slowI couldn't deal with it anymore,
could not deal with it.
I was like, oh my God, now, youknow, now my Mac's getting a
little slower, but that'sprobably because I never shut it
off, but anyway, so, hey,listen, this was, you know, andy
(21:48):
, this was a great, great talk.
I really, you know.
I'm hoping our listeners alsoget something out of this.
But you know I'm hoping ourlisteners also get something out
of this.
But you know they want to getmore out of it.
They can give you a call.
They can always call.
Yeah, go totoptiercomputersupportcom,
absolutely.
Thank you so much for being aguest on the show.
We're going to just say goodbyewith Chuck and then you and I
will be right back.
Okay, great, unless you want todo the goodbye since you got
(22:13):
the voice.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Well, thank you for stopping in today and seeing our
show here at the Good NeighborPodcast.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnpbergen.
com.
That's gnpbergen.
com, or call 201-298-8325.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast.
I am your host, doug Drohan,brought to you by the Bergen
Neighbors Media Group.
I am coming to you from acomputer that I never turn off
at night, and we are joined byAndy Blecher, the owner of Top
Tier Computer Support, who'sgoing to tell me why that's a
problem and a mistake.
Andy, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Thanks, doug, good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, so we'll get into why I should put my
computer to sleep every nightand give it time to rejuvenate,
so tell.
But, uh, so tell me a littlebit.
You know you have a companycalled top tier computer support
, so, uh, you know a thing ortwo about computers.
Like, how long have you been in?
Uh, I guess we'll call it thetech world.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Uh, professionally, about between 20 and 25 years.
Um, I've been dabbling in itsince, I guess, 93, 94.
Okay, and there was a firstcareer out of college for radio
which lasted about 10 years, andthen I had to figure out what I
wanted to do to to actuallyhave a career.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So you do have a radio voice, so well, I could
have been.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Chuck, there you go.
So yeah, but yeah, this is a.
This is actually a lot moresatisfying, and why is that?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
The problem-solving aspect of it.
Okay, helping folks out who findit extremely daunting.
Yeah, I mean, you know, when Itook a computer class, I was
showing my son actually who's 11, what a modem looked like for
the fax machine back in the day,where you had to take your
(01:53):
phone and put the you know thereceiver in a modem, in this
little box where the two sideswent in I don't know what you
call it hearing and speaking andit ran on phone lines, because
the way they could analog anddigital spoke to each other you
had to use a phone line and, uh,somebody called your phone
(02:15):
while you were trying totransmit something.
You were you know kind of stunk.
And what I was really surprisedto see when I was doing that
research with him was that itreally wasn't until the 90s and
2000s, when broadband andeverything started to come about
, that we stopped using thosekind of you know phone lines to
transmit data.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Sure, it went from phone lines to DSL and then
finally to broadband.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you know, when I took acomputer class basic, that was
in the 1980s and it was a littledifferent back then.
Punch cards, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, my son was asking me what does Microsoft do
?
And I had to explain Word andExcel and all that.
But so how did?
Why did you get into?
Like, what intrigued you aboutcomputers?
Well, it was, it was obviouslyit was, it was a choice really
when I was at a crossroadsbetween going to law school or
going into IT, and law school atthat point was just going to be
just undoable.
Not for the price, but just thefact that it's three years, you
can't work.
And it was just at that pointnow.
(03:27):
So it was it.
I already knew quite a bitabout it.
So I went back to school uh,network security and
administration and uh, and Iwent from there, my first jobs
in new york city just reallygetting my feet wet.
they sent me all over the place.
I had to start figuring thingsout right away.
Then moved up, I got to be anetwork engineer and now I'm
(03:54):
running an IT infrastructure ata global company, while getting
this company off the ground.
So it really got to where.
Even though all the sideclients that I've had over the
years between residential andbusiness I found that more
people were getting distraughtover the simple things.
(04:16):
Why is my internet so slow?
Why is my printer not printing?
Why do I have this error?
Where's this tab on my browser?
Why did it disappear?
What happened to my favorites?
Why?
Why do I have this error?
Where's this tab on my browser?
Why did it disappear?
What happened to my favorites?
Why can't I email thisattachment?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
What happened to that document I was working on.
It disappeared.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Right, exactly when did it go?
I've been working on it all dayand now, oh my God, what am I
going to do?
Yeah, so it finally just got tome with a client of mine
sometime last year We'll callhim Lenny, because that's his
name he had that very same thing.
He went nuts, he was working ona deal all day and he couldn't
(04:55):
get this Excel file to mail.
He was going to blow the wholedeal.
So he called me up.
He says can you connect to mycomputer?
Yeah, absolutely.
He was trying to blow the wholedeal.
So he called me up.
He says can you connect to mycomputer?
Yeah, absolutely.
So he was trying to mail ashortcut.
He didn't realize thedifference between the shortcut
and the actual document.
So I showed him, asked him howhis family was doing so, on and
(05:16):
so forth, and he was able toemail the document.
They made the deal.
He called me back, he was morethankful than anything and it
just dawned on me at that pointwait a second, these are the
simple things.
These are the things that allthe folks that I know in other
management companies ITmanagement companies don't even
want to deal with.
They feel it's big with them.
(05:38):
They'll put you on hold.
You have to go to tier one, two, tier three, like like anybody,
do you?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
who likes that, nobody, nobody likes that, right
so uh instead of going to tiertwo and tier three, they can go
to top tier, top tier, and I was.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The whole idea, for that was I was explaining it to
my love.
We were just driving around andI said I, I just it's, it's
crazy.
I feel so bad for all thesepeople because it's just it.
I, I understand how to do itall.
I've seen it a billion times.
It's only to a printer problem.
That could be maybe two orthree reasons why, and that's it
(06:19):
.
So uh, there's gotta be a wayfrom way from for for me to get
it out there that people don'thave to go to to level one or
top one or she says well, whydon't you call it tier, top tier
?
I said that's a wonderful idea,wonderful.
And then so we, we, we put thewhole idea together, we put out
there that it's for the simple,the simple things that seem so
(06:45):
huge because you get sofrustrated by these little
things.
There's some, there's someplace to go now for it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, and I think it'simportant because my wife works
for a big company, for EY, ernstand Young.
She's always having computerproblems and she gets on the
phone with their tech guys and Iguess they're pretty good at
responding, but she has like somany issues.
Sometimes it's like, yeah andyou know, but I think like guys
(07:12):
like you get it and guys like meyou know, oh, it's just zeros
and ones.
You know what's, what's so hardabout that?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
right, but if you think about, it it's like zeros
and ones.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Okay, you might as well tell me it's the genetic
code of the DNA and again, foryou guys, like a network
engineer, it kind of reminds meI'm trying to think of the movie
where it was like BeautifulMind not Beautiful Mind, but one
of these things where somebodysees it all in their head and it
(07:42):
kind of just opens up and theyand the problem is so simple to
them.
Um, whereas a lot of us justdon't see it that way and maybe
it's just a different way oflooking at it, to understand how
computers talk to each other.
Because you know, back in theday, if you had different
systems they couldn't talk toeach other.
And now you know and youunderstand why the ciscos of the
(08:03):
world and things like that havedone so well, because you know
before we're going back to the90s not that many years ago,
right, I mean, for me it's notthat many years ago.
But when you say 30 years I'mlike holy cow, yeah, that's
right, that was 1995.
But yeah, so it.
You know.
I guess there's one thing youlearn as you get older,
(08:24):
especially if you own your ownbusinesses there's certain
things you're good at and thethings you're not good at just
hire somebody.
And the frustrating thingsabout computers is that you rely
on these things so much.
All your files are on here andif all of a sudden something
happens or your computer goesdown, you're done for the day or
week or whatever.
Correct, so all right.
So you're done for the day orweek or whatever.
(08:45):
You're full-time.
You're a network engineer,computer network engineer, which
I'd say that in itself is.
You know, a lot of those jobsare outsourced to India and
places like that these days.
So it's great that you know youhave a career and still have a
career in that, because I knowthat field is kind of been
(09:07):
diluted in some ways through.
You know, I think the morepeople, more people that were
educated in it, the morecorporations saw that they can
outsource it.
So I think it's great thatyou're.
You know you've been at it forso long.
But yeah, so you mentioned thatyou love what you do because
you help solve problems, you'rehelping people.
(09:29):
So what are some of the commonthings that you mentioned?
So what you know?
Slow computer performance.
So without giving away too much, so if I have slow computer
performance sounds like an EDcommercial, but my computer
doesn't perform, take this pill.
So what are some of the mainsimple remedies for slow
(09:53):
computer performance?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Well, the first thing I'll ask is how old is your
computer?
That's one, because with thatcome the specs, which would be
how much RAM do you have?
And as time goes on, all ofthese programs require more
resources.
So the older the computer is,naturally the newer programs are
going to run a little bitslower.
So it would be like trying torun a Lamborghini with a 1975
(10:17):
Fiat motor.
Got it.
Next thing I would say well,how, how often do you turn your
computer off?
You know and that's a bigdifference, because I look at
computers as people yeah, whenyou, when you don't sleep, you
don't perform well.
Yeah, and we're not going backto the ED commercial either we,
(10:38):
we have to refresh ourselvesevery night, and the computer,
without getting into all of thetechnical aspects of it, has to
do the same, and so the longerit stays on, the slower it's
going to get.
Things stop working.
Generally speaking, you'regoing to have an issue right
away with printing.
Your printer is just not goingto print.
It's one of those services thatjust stops working why?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I don't know.
That happens to us a lot,correct.
That's why we should turn theprinter off.
It's not the printer rebootyour computer.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Okay, printer is fine , okay.
Um again, there could be otherother reasons, but for the main
reason, that's.
That's generally it.
If you don't, okay, if youdon't, if you have your computer
on for two weeks, I guaranteeyou you're not going to be able
to print.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Got it.
So my computer has 500gigabytes of flash storage.
So is that that's RAM?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Flash storage is your hard drive.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Read access memory is that.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
RAM.
Ram is your, yeah, it's yourmemory.
The, the storage you're talkingabout, is your hard drive.
Okay, and that's that's calledan ssd.
Now they don't have movingparts anymore.
So, uh, the more ram you have,the more area there is for your
programs to run, run from,because everything from your
(11:56):
hard drive goes into your memoryand then it runs from there so
how do you know how much ram youhave?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
because if I look at my mac, I go to um overview and
it's it just shows me mygigabyte storage, flash storage
well, on the mac, there's, therehas to.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
If you go to system, uh, I don't remember exactly but
if you go into a mac, uh, thesystem area should tell you all
the specs uh, I got it okay,because I just went on about
this PC, not PC about this Macabout this, mac Thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
That was interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Wow, that was interesting.
I'm playing around my computerand all of a sudden something
happened.
Anyway, I said I have eightgigabytes of memory.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
That's not a lot anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, okay.
And then when I go to tab itsays memory usage 88.6 megabytes
.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Right Megabytes or gigabytes.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It says MB, mb.
That's just not a lot.
Yeah yeah, Megabytes, gigabytes.
What comes after gigabytes?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
After gigabytes, terabytes.
I think it's terabytes.
Yeah, you're right, that's agood one.
I don't usually use thatanymore.
But yeah terabytes and then, Ithink, petabytes Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And then we'll get a couple of coffee bites.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Got it no-transcript to people's homes, but then they
(14:20):
had to wait and then this wasall.
This was all part of it.
I want to be able to get topeople immediately, yeah, and I,
and I can do that now with theadvent of all the technology.
It's just wonderful.
You know, they call me up, Isay, hey, go to my website,
click on this link, and I canjust jump right in and help you
right there.
So and then, but the main, themain thrust is to have not just
(14:45):
computer support, but engineerlevel computer support, not
level one, but all the way tothe top, right off the bat.
So we'll get you resolved,we'll, you know, get to know
each other, have a goodrelationship, and I'm always
here.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Do you offer any kind of maintenance, like like a
subscription where you couldhave bi-yearly maintenance, or
do you recommend that or no?
Is it really more just asubscription?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I don't think it's necessary, honestly.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, okay, okay.
So you give access.
You know somebody has to grantyou access into their computer.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I guess there's a little bit of trust involved
there, because you're givingsomebody access to all of your
yeah, yeah, but it's notsomething that's installed, it's
just a one-time thing, and then, once I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It's over.
Right, they can delete theaccess.
Yeah, so what is it?
You know what is it likerunning a business while you're
still working.
You know another career.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It's, it's, it's tough, especially sometimes if
somebody calls me during the day.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, you know, I'll ask you know how how severe is
it Does it?
Does it need, does it need myhelp right now?
Can?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
you wait about an hour.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah, can let me get to lunch and I'll just
jump on and I'm all yours.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, yeah it's, it's a little it's but um, but a day
, a day where you uh do this is,you know you retire from?
I don't want to, I don't wantto put you in hot water with
your boss, but uh, at some day,someday, this is your um, you
(16:27):
know, this is something you'redoing, yeah, I don't this.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
This is my favorite part of the job.
Yeah, that that's, and that'sone of the reasons that I love
to do it so much.
So, with all of the switches,the routing, the firewalls, the
servers, all the high end stuffthat I do, this is always been
my favorite part of the job.
Connecting with people yeah, Iget to see.
So, for instance, in in in mycompany, I get to see everybody,
(16:54):
every department.
I know everybody, I know thenames of their dogs, I know
everything, and it's a wonderfulthing.
It's almost like saying, hey,let's have a cup of coffee and
let me fix your computer.
And they call me from all over.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So if you're buying a new computer today, what is the
typical RAM storage?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It's funny because most of the machines now they'll
come with about 16 gigs of ram.
Um, but now they're starting tonow they're starting to include
32.
And I would say scale the theextra few dollars is really
worth getting the 32 gigs of ramnow in the old days, you could
add on to your existingcomputers.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Can you do that or no ?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
you just said, I only have eight.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I only have eight.
My computer's from 2021.
So it's four years old, um,should I start thinking about
getting a new computer?
That depends on the performance.
You know I never turn it off,it stays on all the time and uh
no, but actually it performsfine.
I have, like right now I haveone, two, three, four, five, six
(17:59):
, seven, eight, nine, ten,eleven, twelve, let's just say
20 browser windows open.
Uh, and then I have that's onchrome, then I have safari, with
about eight browsers open.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
So chrome is a chrome is a memory hog.
I will say that off that, offthe bat.
Okay, um, but if a lot ofthings don't, run on safari
anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
You got to go to chrome.
Chrome is a memory hog, I willsay that off the bat.
Okay, but a lot of things don'trun on Safari anymore.
You got to go to.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Chrome.
They haven't run on Safari in along time.
Yeah, without the glassy-eyedexplanation, it's just better to
go with something like Chromeor Firefox.
Firefox is a wonderful browseras well.
Okay, but if the machine isstill serving you well, there's
no reason to go out and get anew one.
I've had that question so manytimes.
(18:40):
Andy, do you think it's goodtonight?
Should I go out and get a newcomputer?
Is it running slow?
No, it's fine, then stay withit.
Yeah, I'm not looking to bilkpeople for money.
There's so many folks out therewho just don't know where to go
.
Yeah, and I hear that more thanI can tell you.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Well, yeah, so let's use that as a segue.
Where do they go if they wantto reach you?
How do they contact you?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Why Doug they go to?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Come on, hey now, hey now, hey now hey now.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Hey, now they can go to toptiercomputersupport.
com All one word.
Or they can dial us toll-free855-466-8000.
855-466-8000.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And just to be clear, because this podcast will be
found on Spotify and everywhere,so somebody on the West Coast
could be hearing this.
So you are on the East Coast,correct?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
We are in the US.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Right, yeah, so, but you could help people out in
California.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I help people actually all over the world.
Nice, it's a pleasure to do itwith remote products now.
Yeah, it's great I've helped.
I've actually the funny part.
I'll tell you a quick funnystory.
Somebody called me.
They were having a problem withtheir laptop.
They were in Germany in themiddle of a meeting.
Wow, wow, she said, I'm havinga problem.
(20:18):
I think it was Excel orsomething stopped working.
Can you jump in and take a look?
Wow, yeah, sure.
And I was so I connected to hermachine.
She was in the boardroom I'mworking on this thing.
I fixed the problem and thenopened up notepad and said okay,
you're.
You're all set.
I'll talk to you later Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So yeah, very cool.
So one last question.
It's personal I'm, you know I'mtaking advantage of your free
advice.
So when I shut down every nightand I have like 20 windows open
, I should close all thosewindows first.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
uh, you can a lot of times the browser will try to.
When you restart, it'll ask youif you want to restore those
pages.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah you can absolutely do that
or I could just shut down withleaving them all open.
You could, yeah, okay, itdoesn't affect anything, okay no
because I like to restore.
I like to come back because Ihave all these browsers open
many times for a reason.
You know, I'm researchingthings and I found the answer
and now I want to, you know,keep it on my screen as a
(21:23):
reminder.
Um, so, all right, good to know.
Um, yeah, you know my pc andI've always been a pc guy until,
and even I still have it.
But man, that thing is so slowI couldn't deal with it anymore,
could not deal with it.
I was like, oh my God, now, youknow, now my Mac's getting a
little slower, but that'sprobably because I never shut it
off, but anyway, so, hey,listen, this was, you know, andy
(21:48):
, this was a great, great talk.
I really, you know.
I'm hoping our listeners alsoget something out of this.
But you know I'm hoping ourlisteners also get something out
of this.
But you know they want to getmore out of it.
They can give you a call.
They can always call.
Yeah, go totoptiercomputersupportcom,
absolutely.
Thank you so much for being aguest on the show.
We're going to just say goodbyewith Chuck and then you and I
will be right back.
Okay, great, unless you want todo the goodbye since you got
(22:13):
the voice.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Well, thank you for stopping in today and seeing our
show here at the Good NeighborPodcast.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnpbergen.
com.
That's gnpbergen.
com, or call 201-298-8325.
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