Walsh IT Group Blog

Chances are, you’ve at least heard the term firewall before. A fairly recent term, it was first used as a computing term in the 1983 movie WarGames before it was ever introduced into mainstream computing. Thanks Matthew Broderick! Since then, the term has expanded and grown to include a variety of approaches. Let’s dig into what a firewall does, as far as each of the various types are concerned.

Downtime avoidance isn't exactly an art, but organizations that do it best often find themselves in much better positions than competitors that deal with more downtime. They deal with the expense of it, the lack of productivity that comes from it, and the multitude of ways where they can avoid it. Uptime is the name of the game, and today, we’re going to talk a little bit about how we like to remove downtime from the scenario. 

When you work with technology as much as we do, there’s a bit of lingo that you pick up here and there. Of course, we then have a habit of using the terminology that we’ve picked up all the time, forgetting that not everyone has the same experience that we do. One word that causes this a lot is SSID. Here, we’ll discuss what we’re referring to when we use this term.

Today, while the world is still effectively split between PCs and Macs, we have at least one file format that bridges the divide: the PDF. This file format became standard in business communications, and is now used the world over. Today, we’ll dive into the history of the Portable Document Format and why it is so well-suited to business processes.

Businesses all over the world are making strides to limit printed documents if they aren’t needed, and a large part of this is that printers require a lot of specific resources. Depending on the model, a printer might need ink, but the laser printers require a product called “toner” to work as intended. This week’s tech term is dedicated to the difference between ink and toner, as well as which one you’ll need for your specific printer.

Smartphones and tablets are a double-edged sword for businesses: on one hand, they are a great money saver if an employee is willing to use their own for business purposes, but this does leave your business vulnerable in a few ways. Fortunately, if the benefits are something you’re interested in, these vulnerabilities are simple enough to shore up with something called mobile device management.

Spam is a tricky subject to talk about, as it seems everyone has a different definition for it. Yet, most have come to the conclusion that spam is a bad thing. For today’s Tech Term, we want to delve deep into the different kinds of spam out there, as well as theorize where the term even came from.

Chromebooks are a pretty common device at this point, and this popularity only makes sense. For many, the Chromebook offers basic features that serve their purposes well, but there are those who wouldn’t be satisfied with their capabilities. This week, our Tech Term is Chromebook, so let’s take a closer look to gain a deeper understanding of them.

We often take for granted that people know what we are talking about when we talk about popular connectors, but really how do these systems work? For this week’s tech term, we are going to take a look at something we all have used and probably are actively using: the Universal Serial Bus (USB). We will take a look at the origins of this technology, the development of it, and how it is being used today.

If you know more about your organization and its customers, you’ll be able to make better decisions about the future of your business. Thanks to an increased focus on business intelligence, even small and medium-sized businesses can take advantage of these analytical tools to improve operations and customer relations. What is business intelligence? How does it work, and why does your business need it?

The word “computer” actually originated in the 1600s, when it was used to describe a person who carries out calculations and the requisite processes. Today, those processes are carried out mechanically. Let’s examine the piece of the computer that allows it to do so, the CPU.

Network is a word that’s commonly seen in the office environment in many different ways. In particular, you’re likely to hear about network security, network maintenance, social networking, and network switches, but what does it all mean? In this week’s tech term, we’re going to address what a network is and how it works to tie your business together.

Authentication isn’t an unfamiliar aspect in everyday life. Driver’s licenses, library cards, and PIN numbers are all forms of identity authentication. However, as computers have become a cornerstone of everyday life, the most commonly-used way to confirm one’s identity has almost assuredly become the username/password login combination. Today, we’ll take a deeper dive into what authentication is.

People use computers for almost everything nowadays. However, when they don’t work as intended it can be endlessly frustrating. Whether you have hardware that isn’t properly connecting, or you have software that isn’t responding the way it normally does, many times before you call for assistance there are things you can do to try and fix the problem, or at the very least, understand what the issue is. This process is called troubleshooting. Today, we’ll take a look at what it means to properly troubleshoot computer issues, and when it is your responsibility to look to the professionals as to not cause more problems than when you started.

The Internet has become an irreplaceable part of many business’ operations, which brings the thought into question of how much you rely on it for your daily duties. Technology has changed the way that the Internet works for the better, but there is one part of its operations that still lies at the heart of it: bandwidth.

The Internet is a valuable tool that can be accessed through a wired connection and wirelessly via Wi-Fi, but the devices that offer these connections can be somewhat complicated and difficult to understand. If you don’t know which device does what, you’re in for a treat--today’s tech term will examine the differences between the modem and the router.

There are plenty of technical terms and solutions that, while heard of frequently enough, it may not be completely clear what they mean or refer to. A proxy server is an excellent example of such a solution. This week, we’ll examine this tech term and review how utilizing proxy servers can help your business.