Take a "proactive" vs. "reactive" approach to IT support.

In a perfect world, there would be world peace, an extra million dollars in everyone's bank account, and every company would believe in taking strategic & proactive approach to preventing problems on their PCs and network.  Unfortunately, as everyone knows, it's not a perfect world.  In this article, I won't go in to the first two (which would be nice), but will instead focus on the last unfortunate reality.  As sure as there are death and taxes, most  companies will continue to "react" to problems as they occur, and spend more money in doing so.  If they (individuals and companies) just spent the necessary money up front and took a proactive approach, many of the problems they will encounter (and believe me, they will happen), may have been prevented. It's like watching a horror movie and yelling at the screen after the character hears a noise coming from the basement..."Hey, why are you going to the basement?  Who goes to the basement during a thunderstorm when there's a psychopathic killer on the loose in your neighborhood!" 

I'm not talking about having an extra, spare server on hand when your primary server fails ... I'm talking about something as simple as having antivirus software installed on your PC. Many people (and companies) realize that they "should have had" a good backup, but only after the fact.  And what's even worse, many times people don't even learn from their own, or even someone else's, bad experiences.  Here are 4 simple things that 99% of the people can implement.  That’s right...and you don't even have to be a valedictorian from MIT. 

1. Make sure to back up all critical data.  This should also include your email data, which many people tend to forget.  It's a pain to have to manually recreate an address book, not to mention the loss of all emails, and your schedule (Calendar).  Microsoft Windows XP comes with a good backup utility...and it's free.  You can even download a backup utility to backup up just your Outlook data (Outlook 2003/2002 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup).  You can save these backups to an external hard drive, another system, a server, or tape drive.

2. Make sure to have antivirus software installed, and make sure that the virus subscriptions are kept up to date.  I know that Comcast offers McAfee antivirus software along with the high speed service (for both home & business users).  I would go one step further and download & install Microsoft's Windows Defender utility (also free) which automatically updates itself, automatically runs in the background, and can be configured to perform routine full scans, keeping your system free from the dreaded Internet Explorer pop-up windows & malware.

3.Make sure to download & install all of the Windows & Office "critical" updates, which will keep the programs up to date with the latest security patches & application fixes.

4. Lock down your systems. Enable your Windows XP firewall for added security.  Configure passwords for the default Administrator account (local system account), even if your system is part of an Active Directory network / Domain (just make sure you're the network).  While you're at it, configure a password for all other user accounts on your local system.  Why make it easier for some hacker to access your system & data.

5. Download & install Microsoft's Windows Defender utility (free) which automatically updates itself, automatically runs in the background, and can be configured to perform routine full scans, keeping your system free from the dreaded Internet Explorer pop-up windows & malware. 

Don't assume that if you haven't had any problems up to date, that you won't...You will.  It's only a matter of time.  A proactive approach is the answer to avoiding the downtime and loss of productivity which will result by sitting by and taking the reactive approach.  Time & time again, companies realize that if they fail to plan, they can plan on failing.  I always tell my clients, always assume that your PC won't boot up the next morning, that your notebook will be stolen.  Those pieces of hardware can be easily replaced, but your data can not. No such thing as being "reactively proactive"...