Home Forums Things I have found that cause problems with AC

Not a complete list and not in any particular order. Others should feel welcome to add.

1. Insufficient hardware. If your computer is in its 4th year of service, or higher, time to replace it. Your AC server should have at least 8G of RAM if all it does is run AC, more if it runs other things. Workstations should have at least 4G. And stop buying those cheap P. O. S.'s from Best Buy. Go business class with Dell or HP and get the pro-support warranty which includes NEXT DAY parts and labor service.

2. Wireless networks. These are for the occassional laptop and tablet. All worktations and servers that run AC full time and are used for data entry should be WIRED.

3. Old drivers. Make sure all drivers on your computer are up-to-date if you are experiencing issues. This is especially true for chipset, video, and network drivers. If you have pro-support from Dell, you can call their technical support - FOR FREE - to go through and update your drivers for you.

4. Windows Update. Your computers should always have the latest and greatest patches from Micosoft.

5. Antivirus. Norton Antivirus IS a virus. So is Mcaffee. For domain based networks, Trend Micro Worry Free is what I recommend. For peer-to-peer networks, I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.

6. Keep your computers clean. If you open a computer in your office and it looks like a cat died inside of it, well, you know what to do.

7. Train employees Part I. AC has great training videos on their website. Have employees watch them.

8. Train employees Part II. Employees should NOT be surfing Facebook/Myspace/Twitter/porn/random websites while at work. They are, after all, at work.

9. Backup. If you have not tested your backups to see if they work - in other words you haven't restored that backup to another machine to see if you get a duplicate of your production machine that works - then as far as I'm concerned you have no backup.

10. Do not go spelunking through the Amazing Charts database if you don't know what you are doing. Please leave the database work to the professionals.

11. The only software that should be on your computers is what is needed to do your job. No games. No Yahoo!/MSN/Google toolbars. Pick one browser and stick with it (I recommend IE). No utilties. Get rid of that Malware Search and Destroy program as it's useless - that's what your antivirus is for. No third-party firewalls as Windows Firewall works just fine. No 90-day trials of anything. Do not install the Java runtime unless you have to have it. Do not install Adobe Flash unless you have to have it. Same thing for Adobe Reader. If you see a bunch of crap on your ALL PROGRAMS menu in Windows and it isn't part of Windows and you have no idea what it is, your next stop should be to ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS. WHEN YOU ARE INSTALLING A PROGRAM ON YOUR COMPUTER, DO NOT JUST CLICK NEXT, NEXT, NEXT FINISH. Watch every screen to see if that program is going to install something else along with it. For example, the Java runtime will also install the Ask Toolbar unless you specifically tell it not to.

12. If you have an IT support person but still have issues with viruses and malware, machines crashing randomly, things not working, etc., and your support guy is in your office all the time tinkering with something, then you should fire him and get someone else. Support people should RARELY be seen. And, yes, your AC server should have this kind of uptime. Just like all of mine.



JamesNT