Issue No. 126February 2023

The Danger of Uncontrolled BYOD

Many of our readers are familiar with the ongoing debate in Washington regarding whether the US Government should ban the popular social media app TikTok. Today we wanted to discuss a brief overview of that controversy, and why it is indicative of larger issues that any business owner should pay keen attention.

TikTok was originally released in 2016, and has steadily grown in popularity since. On its face, the app is similar in many ways to other social media apps of the recent past – it allows users to post short, time limited videos to be viewed by other users of the application. The main difference between TikTok and other popular social media apps is that it was made by ByteDance, a company based in China. Without getting into the larger geopolitical reasons behind their concern, the federal government, specifically the US Congress, has recently begun holding hearings to try to determine whether the app should be banned nationwide. The administration has already banned the app on government owned devices in use by federal government employees via executive order. The main cause for concern is that the app could be used by the Chinese government to both extract personal data on American users and potentially influence them via algorithmic video selection. Effectively, the US Congress is concerned that TikTok may be used to gather data on American citizens that could in turn be used to influence them in untold ways: spreading propaganda, influencing elections, steering them towards particular products, etc.

While passing judgement on the veracity of these claims is outside the scope of this discussion, they are illustrative of something that all business owners should be concerned about: the prevalence of end-user-owned devices inside a corporate network. Although TikTok is perhaps the highest profile example, the profusion of devices owned by employees that interact with the corporate network has grown exponentially in recent years. Cell phones, tablets, and smart watches all interact with the corporate network on a daily basis. Each of these devices represents a potential intrusion point. Malware on a mobile device can be used to extract data from that device, or from the network it is connected to. Mobile devices can also be utilized as infection vectors—installed malware may lie dormant on the device itself, only ‘activating’ once connected to a corporate network where it in turn wreaks havoc.

What then should a business do to guard against intrusions of this type? There are multiple means available – the simplest and most draconian is simply disallowing mobile device connections to a corporate network. Allowing these devices onto the network is sometimes referred to as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Many companies restrict their BYOD policy for this reason. Other methods include network segmentation, the usage of Mobile Device Management solutions, and conditional access policies that restrict the type of data available to employee devices. These restrictions and policies all require experienced IT professionals to implement and maintain. For more information on these or other IT related matters, please contact your IT services provider.

Article written by KTS Operations Manager, Tristan Collopy

Issue No. 125January 2023

2023 New Year’s Resolutions – IT Style!

 

As 2022 finally transitions to the rear-view mirror and we begin 2023, many of you may have committed to New Year’s resolutions in hope of self-improvement or breaking bad habits. While you work towards improving your mental and physical health, its also worth turning your attention towards your digital well-being. With that in mind, below we’ve identified some key areas that might be worth of 2023 cleanup, IT style. We hope you’ll find these tips helpful and easy to work into your routine!

1. Start with Unsubscribe – throughout the year we find ourselves on any number of marketing emails. The New Year is a great opportunity for cleaning out your Inbox! Most marketing messages include a link to unsubscribe. In fact, this is how I typically clean up my subscriptions, by searching for the word unsubscribe in my inbox. If all the messages you find come back as unread, that might be a good indicator that you can safely hit that ‘unsubscribe’ button. Of course, you’d never do that to us though, right?
2. Screentime Schmeantime – this might be an area that doesn’t strictly fall under the IT umbrella, but paying attention to the amount of screentime you engage in on a daily basis is a great first step towards improving your online well-being. Many of you may have heard the phrase ‘doom-scrolling’ that was seemingly coined during the pandemic—social media algorithms are specifically designed to capture your attention in order to serve you ads. Content that is shocking, angering, or divisive in some way has proven to be well-suited for this task, but can have a deleterious effect on your mental and physical well-being. Be intentional about how much time you spend scrolling through a news or social media feed. If you feel its excessive, think about cutting back, or cordoning that time off to only a specific timeslot in the day.
3. Computers Need Housekeeping Too – silly though it may sound, your computer can definitely benefit from the occasional house cleaning, physically and digitally. Physically cleaning your computer is fairly straightforward, and usually just focuses on removing dust from around fans and heatsinks to help ensure your computer cools itself effectively. On the digital side, empty your recycle bin, run a cleanup operation on the hard disk, and make sure your computer is current on updates. If all these options have been exhausted and performance is still lacking, consider using a third party tool like CCleaner. Although it has paid features, those that are freely accessible go a long way towards improving your computer’s performance. A word of caution – Ccleaner is neither fool-proof nor ‘one-size-fits-all.’ Make sure you understand the implications of any cleanup operation a third party tool wants to perform, and make sure you have a good backup prior to performing them. Speaking of backups…
4. SET UP A BACKUP – look, I’m sorry for shouting, but this is one of those critically important things that so often gets overlooked. All of us have critical data on our computers, whether those are photos of your nephew’s neighbor’s new puppy, or a solid rough draft of the next Great American Novel™, its crucial that these files are backed up to a different location than just your computer. There are many services you can use to back your computer up to cloud-based infrastructure. The benefit of these are that maintenance of physical media isn’t your concern, so you don’t have to worry about a hard drive failure or losing backup media. On the other hand, having a physical copy of your data stored locally (in your house, office, etc.) ensure that the data isn’t transmitted somewhere you’d rather it not be sent, and that any restoration of the data will only be limited by local transfer speeds, rather than dependent on an internet connection as with a cloud-hosted service.
5. Setup Multi-Factor Authentication Wherever Possible – The unfortunate reality of the modern digital age is that threat actors are everywhere, and are constantly going to attempt to separate you from your money through nefarious means. This also means that it is incumbent upon you to secure your data against bad actors. One of the best and most straightforward ways to do this is by enabling multi-factor (sometimes referred to as two-factor) authentication wherever you can. This means that in order to access the account, you have to provide something that you know (your password) and something that you have with you (your multi-factor authentication code/acceptance). Most online services have this available as an optional (if not mandatory) option to secure your login. If they don’t, let them know its 2023 and its well-past time to get it implemented.

Start 2023 out strong by implementing some of the digital well-being steps we’ve outlined above. Each of these steps will continue to pay dividends throughout the year. Many of us wish we could say the same about that gym membership we bought on January 1st. For more information on this or any other IT related topic, please reach out to your IT services provider. We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Article written by KTS Operations Manager, Tristan Collopy

Issue No. 124December 2022

Holiday Scams – Tis the Season to be Wary

The Holiday season brings with it many traditions—families gather together to cook and enjoy each other’s company, meals are made, gifts exchanged; and attempts by scammers to separate you from your hard-earned money go through the roof. Below, we’ll outline some yuletide tips and tricks to keep you and yours safe online throughout the holiday season.

Social Engineering scams are some of the simplest to perpetuate, and consequently increase greatly in volume this time of year. This can take the form of a call placed to your relative, telling them that they have to pay a sum of money to repair issues the scammer has ‘identified’ with their computer. The scammer will often impersonate some authority figure—the government, Microsoft, etc., in order to lend additional credence to their claims. There will also be an appeal to a sense of urgency, the idea being to get the target to act quickly, rather than think of what is being asked. If you believe that a member of your family might be vulnerable to a scam of this type, its good to develop some ground rules. One simple method to mitigate scams of this nature is to have a standing order for a phone call to be made to someone trustworthy in the family to check the veracity of the caller’s claims before any money changes hands.

Additional scams intended to take advantage of the holiday season also skyrocket this time of year. These might include scams on Facebook Marketplace (usually where the scammer is posing as a seller of something that does not exist, or as a buyer that wants to provide payment in a seemingly convoluted manner). Since most folks are out looking to buy, rather than sell, this time of year, most scammers are going to be focused on the former. Most of the flags one should look out for here are the same ‘smell test’ type items that one should look out for any time you’re purchasing something from a private seller. Is the cost too good to be true? Is the seller asking you to jump through seemingly unreasonable hoops, like sending money ahead of time? Is the seller the only person with some extremely hard-to-find item available? All these can be red flags for a scam.

Similar to scams perpetuated on Facebook Marketplace, Zelle scams or Paypal scams also increase dramatically this time of year. Many times, these take the form of money suddenly being send, the receiver being told this was in error and asked to re-transmit the money to the sender. The problem here, is that the money never existed in the first place, and one banks finish sorting the transaction out, the only person that is out any capital is the good Samaritan who sent the cash back. If you or a friend or relative are on the receiving end of a scam of this type, the best thing to do is contact support for the service itself (Zelle or Paypal) and ask them how to proceed. If the charge was truly in error, its best to let them reverse it, rather than potentially be a victim of a scam.

Last, and certainly not least, we would be remiss if we did not include the KTS Holiday Gift Guide! All the gifts we’ve outlined below can be had for under $50, and are sure to bring a smile to even the grinchiest among us. In no particular order, we present, the KTS 2022 Holiday Gift Guide!

1. A highly flexible and affordable Smart Plug: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/tp-link-kasa-smart-wi-fi-plug-slim-ep25p4
2. The most unobtrusive way to talk to Google: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/google-nest-mini
3. The best affordable streaming device: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/chromecast-with-google-tv-hd
4. The best AirTag alternative: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/tile-pro
5. Affordable Pet Tracking: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/tractive-gps-dog-lte-tracker

There you have it folks! As we bring 2022 to a close, we wanted to take a moment to thank our team, our clients, and our wonderful San Diego community for another wonderful year. Here’s wishing you peace, joy, and prosperity in the New Year!

Issue No. 123November 2022

Save Time When Scheduling with Microsoft Bookings

Simplify scheduling to save time, plan your workday accordingly and avoid the tedious task of fumbling with calendars.

How much time does it take to coordinate a meeting? How much of this can be measured as Activity vs. productivity? There are many scheduling software solution companies out there. Perhaps you’ve tried a product like Calendly in the past, but weren’t aware that a Bookings license is included with most Microsoft 365 license types? Below we’ve included a quick overview of Microsoft Bookings, and the potential time savings it can bring to you and your team.

Bookings automates tracking, managing, and organizing your team’s appointments and calendars all in one place. Integrated with your existing Microsoft 356 and Teams, you can create a Bookings calendar and add team members to it, build new appointment types, and create and manage in-person and virtual visits for your staff and attendees. We’ve all seen 8..9..12 emails fly back and forth only to set a single calendar meeting. Bookings helps to automate this process.

What is Microsoft Bookings and why does it make scheduling and managing appointments a breeze? Bookings includes a calendar integrated with Outlook to optimize your staff and give your customers flexibility to book a time that works best for them. Email and SMS text notifications reduce no-shows and enhances customer satisfaction. Your organization saves time with a reduction in repetitive scheduling tasks. With built-in flexibility and the ability to customize, Bookings can be designed to fit the situation and needs of many different parts of an organization.

Not sure how to use Microsoft Bookings? Here is a link to an excellent Microsoft Bookings tutorial.

Microsoft Bookings is available for most popular Microsoft 365 license types—to see if your organization already has Bookings available, please reach out to our engineering team at [email protected].

 

Issue No. 122October 2022

DattoCon 2022

This month, we thought we’d take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you a special bulletin concerning our recent convention attendance! In September, our CTO, CEO, and Senior Solution Design Engineer (Robert, Danny, and Chris, respectively) attended DattoCon 2022 in Washington DC. In the article below we’ll detail some specific takeaways from the conference, as well as provide a bit of a backstory on who Datto is, and what they do.

Datto started out as a purely Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery company. Effectively, they provide technology that manages, stores, and maintains backups. Thinking of a Datto as simply a backup device is a bit reductive, which is why you’ll often see the abbreviation BCDR. In this instance, Business Continuity means being able to maintain business operations in the event of a disaster of some kind. This could take the form of a catastrophic hardware failure that prevents a server from operating properly, or a natural disaster that made an entire office uninhabitable. By leveraging virtualization capabilities, Datto is able to not only take a backup of a server, it can then run a virtual instance of that server when needed to maintain continuity of business operations until the device itself can be restored to normal functionality.

Branching out from there, Datto moved into numerous other spaces. Beginning by deploying wireless and networking gear, Datto then merged with a company called Autotask, which brought them their own ticketing system—which we use internally. Their growth and development only accelerated from there, leading to an acquisition by one of the largest companies in the Managed IT Services space, Kaseya. Along the way, Datto started their own yearly conference, called DattoCon, where they announced new products and services, as well as provided MSPs with continuing education in the BCDR, Security, and general IT business operations spaces.

DattoCon has since become a big yearly event not only for Datto itself, but for their partners, like KTS. Following a transition to an entirely remote model during the height of the pandemic, this year we were excited to return to an in-person event. Danny, Robert, and Chris attended numerous breakout sessions touching on a wide range of topics—we hope to bring those key takeaways to our clients in the months ahead. Below we’ve outlined just a few highlights—if you’re curious about any other takeaways from the event we’d love to fill you in!

Key Takeaways from DattoCon 2022

• Cyber Crimes have increased 300% since the beginning of the pandemic.
• 60% of SMBs that experience a cyber attack go out of business.
• Top 3 things you can do to mitigate security issues: Patch systems, utilize a password manager, and avoid phishing scams (good email filter and end user training).
• Have an incident response plan.
• Know what systems are attached to your network and remove old equipment.

Please enjoy the picture below of Chris, Robert and Danny at DattoCon 2022!

Issue No. 121September 2022

How to Backup Microsoft 365 Emails

For this month’s issue of the KTS Newsletter, we wanted to share an article from our partner, Datto, about how to backup Microsoft 365 emails.

Businesses depend on email as part of their workflow and communication. Across the globe, over 3.9 billion people use email, with Gmail and Outlook 365 topping the list for business accounts.

When sending important data and information on a regular basis, most employees do so without giving the value of the information a second thought. However, without a proper backup or recovery plan, email loss (accidental or not) puts a company’s data, compliance, and overall reputation at risk.

Backing up Emails on Microsoft 365

While Microsoft 365 does preserve your emails to an extent, it does not actually back it up for you. It operates on a shared responsibility model, which means that the service will coordinate with you in the following scenarios:

• Datacenter security – both physical and network-based
• Data storage, replication and redundancy
• Uptime guarantees and privacy controls their core tenets (“if we can’t protect the people, we don’t deserve their trust”) of the Microsoft security approach
• Protection from major events affecting their data centers such as hardware or software failures, natural disasters, power outages, Operating System errors, etc.

For email data, however, accidental or malicious deletion is the end users’ responsibility. And instead of a true Microsoft 365 backup service, Microsoft provides only archiving capabilities.

How to Manually Archive Emails in Microsoft 365

You can archive your email using these steps:

1. Select File > Open & Export > Import/Export.
2. Select Export to a file, and then select Next.
3. Select Outlook Data File (.pst), and select Next.
4. Select the mail folder you want to back up and select Next.
5. Select a location and name for your backup file, and then select Finish.
6. If you want to protect access to your files, create and confirm a password, and then select Ok.

You can also set up custom archive settings based on your needs.

AutoArchive in Microsoft 365

You’ll be able to access the archived emails from anywhere at any time. AutoArchive files can be found in: C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Outlook Files\archive.pst. If you want to back up items locally on your computer, you can automatically move or delete older items with AutoArchive or export them into a .pst file.

Limitations with Archiving in Microsoft 365

While these options are helpful to have, backup with Microsoft 365 does have its limitations–and may not be the most optimal for backing up data. The biggest drawback of Microsoft 365’s archive abilities is the aging periods for items. Once an item reaches the end of its aging period, it is then automatically deleted from Microsoft 365. For businesses looking for a comprehensive, consistent backup system, this may not be ideal.

The aging period for different items is as follows:

• Inbox and Drafts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Journal – 6 months
• Deleted Items – 2 months
• Outbox – 3 months

Microsoft 365’s archive options do have some significant drawbacks, but there are still ways to safeguard your data. While Microsoft 365 archives and retains data for a limited amount of time, backing up your data with a cloud service can ensure your data remains secure and protected.

Backing up Microsoft 365 with Datto SaaS Protection

Using a SaaS backup solution, such as Datto SaaS Protection for Microsoft 365, you can ensure that your data and accounts can be preserved no matter what. Datto SaaS Protection provides automated, routine backups to Datto cloud, where you can access your data from anywhere. To learn more about Datto SaaS Protection, please contact our engineering team at [email protected].

Source: Datto

Issue No. 120August 2022

What is DNS?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the phonebook of the internet. Although it provides a critical function, many people have never heard of DNS. Today we’d like to dive into a little-known aspect of the internet, explain the critical role that DNS fills, and detail what can happen when DNS goes wrong.

As we detailed earlier, DNS can be thought of as the phonebook for the internet. DNS bridges the gap between the way that humans interact with computers, and how computers interact with one another. To understand this a bit better, it is important to discuss a bit of the way that the internet and local computer networks function. Any device that is connected to the internet is provided with an IP (Internet Protocol) address. The IP address might be familiar to you, often these local addresses inside your home network look something like 192.168.1.10. This address is a ‘unique’ identifier for a network object (which is any device connected to the network) inside of a Local Area Network (LAN). Devices connected to the same network can communicate with one another through a variety of methods, and one of the most basic and effective is via their IP addresses. If you scale this concept up to the level of the internet, one surprising thing is that the communication occurs in much the same way. Websites have unique address identifiers which are referred to as a Public IP Address. Public in this instance means that the IP address is accessible via the internet. This should be familiar to most folks, who fire up their favorite web browser every morning to visit 151.101.65.164 to check the news, head over to 142.250.72.133 to check their email, and then check 172.217.14.78 to see what their commute looks like…right? My facetious example highlights just how critical a role DNS plays in our use of the internet. Those websites are, in order, nytimes.com, Gmail, and Google Maps. DNS is able to translate from something that is human readable, like www.nytimes.com, into something that a computer is capable of understanding, 151.101.65.164.

Outside of telling your computer the address of a website you’re looking to visit, DNS plays many other critical roles in the way the internet works. Email, for instance, is dependent on something called an MX Record. This is a DNS entry that tells an email client where to deliver email—whether its for your corporate email server or your private Gmail account. A multitude of other types of DNS records serve additional important functions—redirecting traffic from one website to another, providing public access to internal company resources, or verifying that you own a particular domain. As you may have guessed based on some of these descriptions, when DNS functions properly you’d never notice it was there. When it doesn’t, however, things get squirrely quickly.

DNS is ‘provided’ by DNS servers. This could take the form of an internal one at your corporate office, or a publicly accessible one like those provided by Google, Amazon, or Cloudflare. Setting your computer’s DNS to one of these publicly available DNS servers means that your computer is somewhat beholden to however that computer ‘resolves’ DNS. DNS Resolution is how a computer determines the IP address that corresponds to a URL, or vice versa. When this process goes awry, all sorts of strange behavior can crop up. As a recent example, an issue occurred with Google’s public DNS that was pointing US based Outlook to a mail server in Australia. Although that server was still owned and operated by Microsoft, the increased latency of an overseas connection played havoc with those who were affected. You may recall back in July of 2021, there was a massive internet outage affecting companies like UPS, FedEx, AirBnB, and Fidelity. This was all due to a DNS outage at a large security firm called Akamai.

In summation, DNS is a critical and oft-overlooked piece of the internet’s backend infrastructure. From allowing for the flow of email, to directing you to the correct website for the latest funny cat video, DNS is completely essential. Ensuring that DNS is properly configured for your organization is an important role for any IT provider to fulfill. If you have questions about this or any other technical item, please reach out to Kazmarek Technology Solutions.

Written by KTS Operations Manager, Tristan Collopy

Issue No. 119July 2022

Learning from the SHI International Malware Attack

Over the 4th of July weekend, SHI International, one of the world’s largest IT service providers, experienced what the company has termed a ‘professional and coordinated’ malware attack. As of this writing, the company is still working to restore connectivity to its systems and infrastructure so that they can service their 15,000 customers. SHI has brought in federal law enforcement and forensic investigators to continue their cleanup process, but do not believe that any sensitive customer data was compromised or exfiltrated as part of the hack.

No matter the vector of the SHI attack, the reverberations of a cyberattack of this size and scope will be felt for some time. Although the company appears to be taking the correct steps to mitigate the situation and assuage their customer’s concerns, attacks of this nature highlight just how vulnerable any business can be to a cyber or ransomware attack. Additionally, SHI’s posture in addressing the attack (engaging with law enforcement and a forensic IT team) show the seriousness of an attack of this nature, and how it can bring even a large enterprise to its knees temporarily.

What does this mean for organizations solidly in the SMB space? Many businesses ascribe to what is termed ‘security through obscurity.’ Essentially, the idea is that they don’t need to worry as much about securing their infrastructure as a large organization, as they are not a target for cyber-criminals. Attacks like the one that SHI is still attempting to mitigate show in stark relief the wrong-headedness of this belief. Although SHI is a large organization solidly in the enterprise space, their client base is not. An IT provider like SHI potentially has hooks into a huge number of small businesses, each that must in turn be worried about their level of exposure, especially since SHI is still trying to determine the breadth of the attack they experienced.

The idea that the security of your business’ critical systems and infrastructure could be compromised because of a breach at a trusted vendor is likely horrifying to many reading this. Unfortunately it is also increasingly the norm. Attackers look for any exploitable inroad into a company they’re looking to exploit. As security has increased in the enterprise space, attackers are typically unable to breach a network using any type of ‘brute force’ method. Instead, they usually rely on an exploit of some kind. This might be an employee who’s system is vulnerable, an unpatched Operating System on a computer inside the work, or a longstanding vendor relationship. Depending on the nature of the vendor, the level of access they have to mission critical systems makes an obvious choice for an attacker looking to collect a ransom payment, gather exploitable credentials, or valuable personal data about a company’s clients.

To mitigate attacks of this nature, it is important to take a multi-layered approach to security. Having a business-class firewall is a good first step, that should also be layered on with a robust antivirus/EDR (Endpoint Detection and Remediation) solution, email filtering, staff training, etc. Securing your business is truly a moving target, and business leaders must continue to educate and innovate to stay one step ahead of attackers. If you have any concerns about the security posture of your business, consult an IT professional.

Written by KTS Operations Manager, Tristan Collopy

Issue No. 118June 2022

How to Safely Dispose of an Old Computer

In the May issue of the KTS newsletter, we shared some tips to keep your PC running optimally. This month we will share what to do if your PC has reached the point of no return and it is time to dispose of it and get a new unit.

Before you do anything with your computer, you need to ensure that all confidential or personally identifying information has been permanently removed from your storage drive. Be sure you have all the files you want on your new device before you do this. After you start removing information, none of your files will be usable. You cannot trust that throwing away your storage drive will keep your information safe. You must take steps to ensure that your data is erased.

There are different ways to clear your storage drive. One is to physically destroy the drive. For hard disk drives, it can be difficult to find a facility that will shred the drive, but it ensures that no data can be recovered from it. For solid state drives, it’s easier to find machinery that will shred the drive. In some areas, there are document shredding companies that will also have the ability to shred storage drives.

You can also take the step of wiping your hard drive for an extra layer of security, which is quite easy if you are using Windows 8.1 or 10. To wipe you hard drive, follow the steps below:

1. Select Settings (the gear icon on the Start menu)
2. Select Update & security, then Recovery
3. Choose Remove everything, then Remove files and clean the drive
4. Then click Next, Reset, and Continue

Once you have ensured your confidential and personal data has been permanently removed, your machine is ready to be safely recycled. KTS partners with a few local electronic waste recycling companies to safely dispose of old electronics. Many e-waste companies will pickup for free if you have a certain quantity of qualifying items, while others will charge a small fee.

Source: Crucial

Issue No. 117May 2022

Tips to Keep Your PC Running Optimally

One of the questions IT professionals are asked most often is what your average user can do to make sure their PC is running optimally. In the article that follows, we’ll lay out some helpful tips and tricks that can keep your computer running smoothly for as long as possible.

The main source of poor performance on a computer is unnecessary software. Many times, a piece of software you’ve downloaded is what’s referred to as ‘freemium,’ and is supported by ads. Less than scrupulous software developers will go to greater lengths to serve up those ads, sometimes making changes to web-browsers or inserting ads directly into the operating system. The software will also set itself to start with Windows so that the ads start up immediately. All of this will contribute to the machine running slowly or becoming increasingly difficult to use. The best means of combating this is paying close attention to every option when installing a piece of software instead of just clicking next. Many times supplemental installs, like toolbars, can be deselected, and the option to have the software start with windows can be declined.

Another simple means of ensuring your computer runs at its best is exceedingly simple—frequently rebooting. Many cleanup tasks that the operating system performs can only be done during a restart or shutdown operation. Restarts also clear temporary files that can slow a machine down eventually, and allow updates to finish installation. While there is certainly no hard and fast rule about how frequently you should reboot your computer, monthly or weekly restarts will help keep the machine running well.

As a final tip, the biggest enemy to any electronic device is heat. Both desktops and laptops have eliminated many of their moving parts throughout the years, but cooling fans have and will remain. To prevent hardware damage, ensure that your desktop or laptop is properly ventilated. For a desktop, this just means that it should have good air flow around it, avoid putting it into small enclosed spaces. For a laptop, try to use the machine on a flat surface and prevent its vents from being blocked. Keeping any vents or fans clean is also very helpful but should be done carefully. Cans of compressed air can be used sparingly to make sure that vents are free of dust and allow as much airflow into the machine as possible.

Ensuring that your computer runs its best is deceptively simple. By following these best practices you can lengthen the lifetime of hardware and keep your computer running optimally for a good while.

Written by KTS Operations Manager, Tristan Collopy