Managed Services Specialists with Trollbytes

John talks managed services and answer your question on computer screen blackouts involving a mouse.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Eighty seven thirteen ten Wiba Madison inthe morning and ask the experts hanging out
with our computer expert from troll Bytes, mister John Rivers, John, how
are you doing this beautiful mondday morning, day of the week. It was
for a moment there. Yeah,it's gonna beautiful. It's it's a little
cool yet, but we'll get there. Yeah, not too bad to sook
at the forecast to da ahead lookslike a great one we've got. We've
got a little conversation here. Obviouslywe're gonna pick it back up coming up

(00:27):
at eight thirty. Couple of thingskeep in minds we talk with John,
of course, the website for trollbytes, troll bytes dot com. That's
troll bytes dot com, Dolphin numbersix eight four three seven fifty five ninety
that's four three seven five five ninezero. And John, one of the
things that I think is really amazingthat you guys are able to do at
troll bytes are things like remote servicesand business support and managed services, remote

(00:50):
connections as well. And you guysare doing a lot more of that these
days, aren't you a lot more? Yes? Um, And that that
has been one of the staples ofthe business for the last couple of years,
and we can certainly touch based onthat a little bit more. But
yeah, we've discovered that we cando probably ninety percent of everything with remote
connections, and that's just kind ofthe way that the business has migrated and

(01:14):
grown. So we're going to keepfocusing on that moving forward. And it's
it's a really really cool thing thatyou're able to do. And again,
whether it's helping with personal computers orof course helping businesses as well. We'll
break down all the different things offeredwith managed services, but John, for
people that want to learn a littlebit more about it, the website is
a really good starting point, isn'tit. Sure. Yeah, we've got

(01:34):
some information on there on the kindof services that we have, on the
products that we offer, and youknow, it can be as simple as
picking up the phone and still callin and asking a question, or hopping
on the website and hitting the selfschedule and you can just pick a time
on the calendar and then we'll getin touch with you and help you with

(01:55):
whatever computer issue that you have.That's one of the really neat things too.
You mentioned booking time is a reallyneat little feature right on the website
troll bytes dot com. That's trollbytes dot com where you can literally just
set an appointment and that you guyswill get a hold of hold of folks
and whether it's a half hour,full hour, that type of thing,
you guys can just make that connectionin generally, just take care of everything

(02:16):
from point A to point B andever have to leave the comfort of your
couch. Yeah, on the couch, and you don't have to disconnect any
equipment if it's a desktop computer anduh, and then worry about putting it
all back together once you get itback home. Check them out online troll
bytes dot com. That's stroll bytesdot com. John. We'll chat again
in about thirty minutes from now,my friend sounds good. Thanks. In

(02:38):
the meantime, Lisa breaks with thefirst company comes your way next year at
thirteen ten Wiba Wiba Madison. Inthe morning, you know the tune,
It's time for ask the experts withour friends from troll bytes showing us this
morning, gets computer expert John Ribs. John on the websitetrollbytes dot com.

(03:00):
How you doing this morning? Thatsong always makes me want to go on
a road trip. It does daylighttoday. It is just just just go
cruising. Yeah, that's a greathighway song. Find find a convertible somewhere
and let's go. Yeah that's theway. That's way. And with the
proper tools, John, any carcan become a convertible. Now, you

(03:20):
can't get back to your hard topnecessarily, but any car its potentially a
convertible with the right just I likewithout like the way you're thinking. I'm
right there with you. Oh man, I've metsed the website troll bytes dot
com. That's troll bytes dot com. You can learn more about troll bytes
different services that they offer um andlearn more just about specifically managed services,
which we're going to talk about todayat the telephone number patrol Bytes six eight

(03:44):
four three seven fifty five ninety.That's four three seven five five nine zero.
Or if you've got a question forJohn, love to get you on
the other this morning six O eightthree two one thirteen ten. That's six
o eight three two one thirteen ten. If you've got a computer question,
love to get you on the airthis morning with our computer expert fromtrol Bytes,
mister John Riverston. John one ofthe big things at troll BYTES is
managed services for businesses. Let's talkabout UM your business support and what all

(04:08):
is encompassed with managed services. Managedservice is kind of a three prong you
know, main main three prong features. I guess UM which is the remote
support, and then we also wouldUM monitor and manage the antivirus and security
on the endpoints which are the usercomputers on servers, as well as make

(04:32):
sure the network is UM secure andup to date with firmware and patches and
all that fun stuff to the bestof our ability. Some of that equipment
is is a little bit limited dependingon whether you know, we're dealing with
equipment that was purchased UM not withUS, and other equipment that we put

(04:57):
in place. Obviously we have alittle bit better handle on managing that kind
of equipment, and that would belike the router and UM the Wi Fi
network and stuff like that. Soand then UM, I forgot where I
was now, oh online backup therewe go. So those are kind of
the three main features of online ourmanaged services. And then of course each

(05:18):
one of those branches out a littlebit. You know, remote support always
works into all sorts of you know, questions and situations and software upgrades and
consulting and trying to you know,guide and direct to the best of our
abilities as far as um making recommendationsfor hardware to be purchased or um you

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know, even you know, howlong does this hardware last and what should
we be planning for in the nextcouple of years. So we have those
conversations quite a bit too. Andthen you know, and that's that's more
on the planning phase that we wouldbe involved in. When we come into
an existing business and we're it justengaging with a new client, there's a
lot of um just discovery and justtrying to figure out what kind of equipment

(06:06):
we're dealing with and where software updatesare and all this stuff. So a
lot of a lot of that isjust note taking in documentation and then kind
of going forward from there and makingrecommendations and changes at that point. You
know. One of the interesting thingsyou mentioned helping with purchasing hardware, and
I think a lot of times wetalk about this on the consumer side,

(06:29):
is that that can be a bigdecision, and it's a very important decision
if you're buying a new laptop ora new desktop. If you're a business,
whether you're a small business with oneor two employees or a big business.
Getting the right hardware, getting theright computers, getting the right servers,
getting the right everything. That's athat is a significant investment, and
of course you want to make sureyou're you're picking up the right ones.

(06:53):
Yeah, and with computer equipment,you know, especially laptops, it's easy
to overbuy because there's some that arevery expensive and you might think, oh,
you know, more expensive is better, but like I said, you
might be overbuying. And then youcan also you know, go to big
box Mart and underbuy and wish youwouldn't have, you know, spent three
hundred hours on the computer that's onlygoing to last six months and just be

(07:16):
a source of frustration. So that'sthat's one of the things that we like
to look at too, is youknow, what's the need of the user,
what kind of spects to does thecomputer have have to have? And
some customers are like brand new,We're going to buy brand new, and
some are like, hey, ifyou've got a source for recertified equipment,
that will work great for us,and um, you know, knowing that

(07:40):
we stand by the equipment that wesell, then they're perfectly fine with going
with something that's a little a fewyears old that we have set up and
tested and basically guaranteeing that it's goingto work good and fulfill the need of
the user, because at that pointit's it's all about getting you know,
getting the job done, and likeI said, overspending or underspending, and

(08:03):
there's there's definitely kind of a sweetspot right in the middle there. Sixteen
ten, that's six two thirteen ten. If you've got a question for John
love to get you on the air, heading over to McFarland and Rick joins
us. Rick, Welcome to theprogram. You're on the air with John
Rivers of troll Bites. Good morning, good morning. Uh yeah, I
have a laptop computer. It's aboutfour years old. Um. It runs

(08:26):
real well. Uh except for themouse. If I use the mouse,
either the external mouse or the mouseon the laptop, the screen will go
blank. And and if I usea touch screen to do all my mouse

(08:46):
stuff, it works fine. Gotany ideas. Oh boy, so if
you if you put your finger onthe touch pad, the screen goes blank.
Yeah, yeah, I'll go ablank and then I move it around
three or four times, so it'llcome back on temporarily, but then if
I use it again, goes blank. And the same thing with my external

(09:09):
handheld mouse, the same thing happens. But if I use the computer as
a touch screen feature too, Ican do all the the mouse features they
need to do on the screen itself. Yeah, and everything works great,

(09:30):
you know Okay? Um, yeah, that almost sounds like some sort of
a driver conflict or something like thatthat's causing the touchpad and the external mouse
to to interact with the screen thatway. I would Boy, I'm kind
of not leaning towards a hardware issuebecause if it was that, the screen
would not come back on, andum, you have to restart the computer

(09:54):
to get things to kind of behaveagain, So I'm not sure reload of
most driver Yeah, well, that'dbe something we could we could certainly take
a look at with our remote connectionif you wanted to hop on the website
and find the schedule US or ourbook US. It's under the help menu,

(10:16):
and then you can just pick atime and we can get in touch
with you and take a look atit remotely if if that's something you want
to Um, pursue, Okay,great, great question, Great, question
Rick, and again that website trollbytes dot com. That's troll bytees dot
com. At first I thought,oh, maybe it's the computer going to

(10:37):
sleep or something, but it soundslike, as you pointed out, John,
it sounds like it's something that it'ssomething a little more complex going.
Yeah, that one we might haveto do a little digging on. There's
always we always get some really interestingquestions on the show. Yeah, never
a dull day, that is forsure. Talking this morning with our computer
expert control Bites, mister John Rivers. If you've got a question, get
you on the air this morning sixteenten, that's three two thirteen ten.

(11:00):
Learn more about troll bytes. Youcan also schedule a remote connection and get
time as well at troll bytes dotcom. That's troll bytes dot com.
They're tell f one number six toeight four three seven fifty five ninety.
That's four three seven five five ninezero. We's into our conversation with John
and take your call. Next asAsk the Experts with troll Bytes continues here
at thirteen ten Wiba ten Wiba andAsk the Experts. Hanging out with our

(11:31):
computer expert from troll Bytes, misterJohn Rivest talking this morning about managed services.
If you want to learn more abouttroll bytes, learn more about managed
services, get some help there thereto help you online troll bytes dot com.
That's troll bytees dot com. They'retelephone number six O eight four three
seven fifty five ninety. That's fourthree seven five five nine zero. So
I got time if you're a quickdialer, gets you on the air six

(11:54):
O three two one thirteen ten.That's three two one thirteen ten. If
you've got a question for John rivestOff troll Bytes and John on talking this
week about managed services and UM whatyou are able to do to help businesses.
And I think sometimes people think thatmanaged services are just for the big
guys, and it's actually UM foreverybody, but especially if you're a smaller
operation. One of the great thingsI love about managed services offered through troll

(12:18):
bytes is UM not only are youable to help those smaller businesses, you
can be very affordable and very nimbleto help them as well. Yeah,
actually I just UM was one anew client, was just recommended by one
of my other clients UM last week. And you know, very small,
very small client, just one ortwo computers, and I don't mind.

(12:39):
And I told tell all my customersright up front, it doesn't matter to
me if you've got twenty computers andfive servers, or or or one computer.
You know it's it's your business computer, and it's important to you and
you have to have it to runyour business. Then well we'll treat everybody
the same and just make sure thatwe're focused on your computer, making sure

(13:01):
it's up to date, it's secure, and you have all the tools that
are available to either ask a questionand reach out for support or just to
be able to turn the thing onand feel confident that it's going to do
what you want it to do.Do you oftentimes help people kind of clean
things up and streamline things as well. I think of you know, businesses

(13:22):
you start out, you know,they start out kind of simple and slowly
grow and grow and grow, andas things are added and new people come
on board and old people kind offade away, things get added, things
get changed, things you kind ofhad to get this little hodgepodge. It
is part of what you guys dowith managed services also to kind of clean
up that that type of situation andkind of make things a little bit more

(13:43):
streamline a little more efficient, alittle more secure as well, or much
moss here. Yeah, especially whenwe're doing, you know, engaging with
a new company, there's you neverknow what you're walking into. So that's
why we like to do our assessmentof the network and just kind of figure
out, okay, what computers areyou know, mission critical, and you

(14:03):
know, what's this one setting overhere in the corner, and you know
all sorts of interesting stuff, andwhere's all the data stored at that's always
you know, a big one wheresometimes people just kind of look at me
and go, I don't know.So a lot of discovery takes place,
and then once that happens, wekind of put together a plan of okay,
here's here's your data. It's sittingover here on this computer. Let's

(14:26):
move this over to a network attachedstorage or something like that. So you're
on some modern hardware and you havethe ability to share things, and which
is a big thing in a ina business office, if you're if you
have more than one computer, youknow, inevitable you need to share data.
So we can set that up andjust make sure it's set up so
that function is easy and it's alsosecure and everybody can go about their their

(14:52):
day and make sure they get theirjob done. There's sometimes a room for
consolidation as well. You think ofas you're motioning like that old computer off
in the corner, like if youcan cut your compete, you know that
the number of machines you have running, I don't know, you know,
electric is is not the cheapest thingin the world. But but not only
does it does it safe on powerconsumption, It simply saves on every I

(15:15):
mean as far as just overall efficiency. Having things consolidated on one type of
machine or on a cloud really canhelp, can't it. Yeah. Um,
And we've done that several times wherewe come in and engage in new
customer and they've got you know,X number of computers, and that's that's
how we base our billing on isper computer or per server. So when

(15:35):
we can come in and then lookat how everything is set up and put
together on the network and we cankind of streamline and consolidate, it's kind
of fun to be able to tellthe customer that, hey, we're going
to move this stuff around. Wecan shut down this computer, you can
retire that one, and that lowersyour monthly bill. Yes, And then
kind of look at you a littlebit funny sometimes because it's like, yeah,
it's really going to lower your bill. So if we do our job

(15:58):
really well, you know a lotof times we can consolidate and streamline and
the monthly expenditure goes down. Talkingthis morning with John Rivers of troll Bytes,
you'll like what he's saying today.Say to pick up phone, give
him a call, he can helpyou. Six O eight four four six
or eight four three seven fifty fiveninety. That's four three seven five five
nine zero. Online troll bytes dotcom. That's troll bytes dot com.

(16:22):
I a telephone number six O eightfour three seven fifty five ninety that's four
three seven five five nine zero.What about migration to the cloud and doing
that in a safe and secure andusable way. Um, I think that's
one of those areas. I think, whether it's for personal users or businesses,
and businesses especially because there's a lotof different ways to implement in the
right ways and some really bad waysthat they probably seen attempts done. Um.

(16:47):
Having that backup is great, havingthe cloud available is fantastic, but
it does require a plan and itdoes require work to set that stuff up
properly, doesn't it. Yeah,the planning is really key and just kind
of laying out, you know,here's what to expect. You know,
the day that we we go live, there's going to be some bumps in

(17:08):
the road. There always is.But prior to that, there's always you
know, a couple of test accountsthat have have migrated ahead of time,
so we're doing all of our testingon those and just make sure functionality is
in place and working. And thenyou know, the migration usually happens after
hours. Um, not always,but sometimes, and then you know the

(17:32):
next day when everyone comes in andlogs in and all of a sudden,
it's like, oh, yeah,my data is not you know, in
my documents folder. It's in theshared folder, which is pointing to a
cloud location. So there's there's justa little bit of habit breaking sometimes and
then um, you know, likeI said, there's always a little bit
of a hiccup here and there.That's just the way it goes, and

(17:52):
we just work through it and makesure everybody has access to what they need
for data, and again making sureit's secure and up and everybody's able to
function really good data call troll BytesChat with John. Whether you're looking for
managed services for your business, gotquestions about your own personal computer, you've
got some things going on, They'rehere to help you at troll Bytes alludias.
Give him a call six to eightfour three seven fifty five ninety that's

(18:15):
four three seven five five nine zeroand online troll bytes dot com. That's
troll bytes dot com. John,it's always great chatting you. Enjoy this
beautiful day. Yeah you too,think Sean Dan o'donne only comes your way
next right here on thirteen ten Wiba