Archive for the ‘Information Technology Resources’ Category

Join the Revolution to Free IT


Spiceworks

Spiceworks is a free “everything IT” Help Desk tool that delivers nearly everything you need as an IT pro to simplify your job. Designed for small and medium sized businesses, the Spiceworks easy-to-use interface combines network inventory, monitoring, troubleshooting and reporting with an easy to use help desk ticketing system. And, it connects you with a community of over half-a-million other IT pros to share ideas, best practices and product recommendations, and in the spirit of helping each other solve problems and make the IT day easier. It takes about 5 minutes to set up, has a simple interface, and doesn’t use agents to discover your machines.

The Spiceworks community is absolutely amazing. Top-notch, dedicated people all helping each other out. I really enjoy participating in the community. The browser-based interface actually has a button for “Ask a Question” and another for “Answer Questions”. There are also dozens of topic groups to which you can subscribe, and there are product reviews, “best-of” lists, and everything you can imagine that is IT-related.

Finally, it is free. That’s it. Simple. If you try it out you won’t believe it’s free. Last year I installed Spiceworks at a brand new IT job the week before a regulatory audit. I had everything I needed for hardware and software inventories, antivirus and the like within one day, workstations and servers included! During the 5 day audit I turned to Spiceworks several more times for quick, on the fly reports that got the job done.

Give yourself a break, and be recognized as the shining IT Star that you are. Try Spiceworks today!

Download Spiceworks

An email alert system that scans the entire Microsoft Knowledge Base for you every night!

KB Alertz

KB Alertz

What is kbAlertz.com?

kbAlertz.com is an e-mail notification system that scans the entire Microsoft Knowledge Base every night, and e-mails you when updates or additions are made to the technologies to which you subscribe. They also have a great search system. Every night they scan the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If technologies you’re interested in are updated, they send you an e-mail. You only get one e-mail a day, and only when new articles are added. Subscribing is easy. Simply fill out your e-mail address and select the technologies that you’re interested in. (more…)

An Essential Resource for the IT Professional

microsoft-technet-logo

Today I’d like to introduce you to a great IT Resource called the Microsoft TechNet Program.

Microsoft TechNet delivers complete, straight-forward technical resources to help IT professionals efficiently evaluate, deploy and support any and all Microsoft software solutions. I first signed up for Technet in the mid 90’s when I also registered my PC Consulting Business as a Microsoft System Builder. Microsoft sponsors local, live TechNet events that you can attend. If I went to one, I went to a hundred of them. They have excellent technical presentations, and sometimes an additional vendor with a complimentary IT product. Information, answers, and free samples abound! (more…)

Got Questions About PC Hardware?

Tom's Hardware

Which CPU or Graphics Card is better for gaming? For Rendering? For Graphic Design? Find out at today’s featured InfoTech Access site: Tom’s Hardware. I’ve used Tom’s site for years. You can compare processors and video cards side-by-side on a number of different performance criteria. There are tutorials and how-to’s on everything from building your own computer to upgrading, modding, water cooling, and overclocking. (more…)

Special Google Searches

If there’s anything a successful Information Technology worker does besides study, read blogs and tech sites, prep for certification exams, and fix broken things it’s SEARCH FOR ANSWERS TO TECHNICAL QUESTIONS!

Did you know that there are some special Google searches that focus in on specific topics, blocking out millions of unrelated results? Here they are:

For Microsoft related searches there’s www.google.com/microsoft

google-search-microsoft

For Linux-specific searches there’s www.google.com/linux

google-search-linux

For BSD-specific searches: http://www.google.com/bsd

For Mac-specific searches: http://www.google.com/mac

For US Government-specific searches: http://www.google.com/unclesam

For University-specific topics: http://www.google.com/options/universities.html