31478 Industrial Road Suite 200, Livonia, Michigan 48150 sales@xfer.com

XFER Blog

XFER Blog

XFER has been serving the Livonia area since 1994, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

What Exactly is Protecting Your Online Transactions?

What Exactly is Protecting Your Online Transactions?

So, like millions of others, you’ve taken to making purchases and paying your bills online. The speed of delivery, the ease, and the convenience are truly remarkable considering where we were just a couple short decades ago. But, have you ever considered what exactly makes up the technology that protects your personal information--and your money--from theft while operating on the Internet? We’ll take a short look at the technology that is constantly working to protect your Internet transactions.

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Technology Addiction is a Very Real, Very Scary Thing

Technology Addiction is a Very Real, Very Scary Thing

Technology has become essential to workplace functionality and personal productivity, but while the long hours spent glued to our tech during the workday are a necessity, the time we spend at home with our personal devices is definitely voluntary. However, more and more people - children especially - are finding it harder to let their devices power down.

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Tech Term: Bandwidth

Tech Term: Bandwidth

Here’s a question we want you to take a second to consider...How much do you rely on the Internet? The answer for almost everyone is that it is essential to your current quality of life. Technologies have been developed, industries have been launched, and literally billions of people use it every day, making it one of the predominant inventions in human history. At the heart of this phenomenal technology is bandwidth.

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Tech Term: Cookies Defined

Tech Term: Cookies Defined

Chances are, if you’ve spent any amount of time around a computer, you’ve heard of browser cookies. What you may not have heard, is what these cookies do. For today’s Tech Term, we’ll explore what cookies are, and what they do.

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Tech Term: Modems and Routers Defined

Tech Term: Modems and Routers Defined

The Internet is an amazing tool, only bolstered by our ability to access it wirelessly - but what do you know about the devices that allow us to access it, namely, modems and routers? Do you know what each does? For today’s tech term, we’ll dive into exactly that.

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How the Convenience of The Internet of Things Can Come Back to Bite Us

How the Convenience of The Internet of Things Can Come Back to Bite Us

While the Internet of Things has made many common tasks much easier through automation, it has also increased the potency of particular cybersecurity threats. For an excellent example, one only has to turn to the increasing prevalence of botnets that are powered by IoT technology.

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Tip of the Week: Resolve a Poor Internet Connection By Following These 3 Steps

Tip of the Week: Resolve a Poor Internet Connection By Following These 3 Steps

When the Internet goes down in the modern office, chaos ensues. The only way to subdue the panicked masses is to provide answers and to resolve the issue, ASAP. If you happen to find yourself in such an Internet-less predicament, then be sure to follow these three troubleshooting tips.

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If Your Network is in the Cloud, What Do You Do with No Internet?

If Your Network is in the Cloud, What Do You Do with No Internet?

Thanks to the advancements of virtualization and cloud computing, many businesses are hosting key parts of their IT infrastructure off-site. While this move is great for mobility and productivity, it makes operations extremely dependant upon a working Internet connection. If this scenario describes your organization, what’s your plan to stay productive should your Internet connection fail?

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In the Midst of Chaotic Financial Markets, Technology Remains a Constant

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Not that long ago, the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange was filled with business-tie clad gladiators, climbing over each other in what looked like a capitalism-induced mosh pit. The Open Outcry pit had its language, its own weather, its own smell. Nowadays, these pits are more subdued. They still are populated with people, and some are gesturing to buy and sell, but most of the transactions are done digitally. It is this role where the computer has changed the way financial markets work; from the ground up.

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4 Steps to Better, Faster Connectivity

 

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 One of the most frustrating technologies for most small to medium-size businesses  is cloud  connectivity.

 Connectivity is getting faster and faster every day. As speeds increase, prices are decreasing,  resulting in a virtual race to zero dollars in the marketplace. Of course, prices will never reach the  zero level but they are decreasing on a rapid basis. This means that more bandwidth is available at lower cost for all companies in the market. The problem is that faster Internet speeds do not necessarily translate into better performance for the end-user. This typically occurs because the local area network (LAN) is not properly configured to the usage patterns of the company. It also can occur if your provider is not delivering the speed the contracted for, and numerous other reasons that are not so easy to identify.

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3 Ways the Internet is Changing Things, for Better AND for Worse

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We’ve all become so adapted to the conveniences of the Internet that it’s difficult to remember what society was like before it. This becomes especially obvious when watching old movies. How odd is it to see characters do pre-Internet activities like go to the library to research information and use a phone book? These are just some of the ways that the Internet has dramatically changed society, for better and perhaps for worse.

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Do You Use Steam for PC Gaming? Watch Out for this New Malware!

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Malware has traditionally targeted industries that are exceptionally profitable. For example, hackers like to target retailers for their wealth of financial credentials. One of the most profitable industries, entertainment, is also subject to similar torment, including Steam, the PC gamer’s most valuable tool for gaming binges.

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Google Fiber and the Race to Provide Consumers With the Fastest Internet Possible

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Your business relies on a steady Internet connection to maintain operations. The inner workings of your cabling infrastructure are what ensure that you constantly have access to both online and offline networks for your organization. Most businesses utilize the services of major cable companies like Time Warner Cable and Comcast to facilitate this need, but some cities around the United States have access to another option: Google Fiber.

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Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon, Which Video Service Makes the Best Gift?

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Sometimes it’s a pain trying to figure out what you’ll be getting your loved ones during the holiday season. Thankfully, there are some relatively fail-safe options for those who love entertainment, like watching television or going to the movies. A subscription to the right video-streaming service might be able to help you save a trip to your local department store and all of the madness that comes with it.

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How Do Virtual Private Networks Help Your Business Initiatives?

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When it comes to connecting to your business’s network, remote workers have a lot more problems to deal with. There’s significant concern over the security of data that’s accessed across an insecure Internet connection, which could unnecessarily put your business’s data at risk. Therefore, it’s critical that your business has a solution to this predicament, like a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

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How Fishing Nets May Be the Greatest Security Threat to the Internet [Video]

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Many countries around the world have access to the Internet, but have you stopped to consider how this service is deployed and connected to countries on different continents? Well, this is only made possible by the countless miles of wire laid beneath the surface of the ocean, all around the world. In fact, it’s somewhat unnerving to think that international communications depend on the structural integrity of cables submerged at the bottom of the sea.

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We Bet that You Can’t Read Every Word of This Article [VIDEO]

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The Internet is full of challenges. YouTube has a multitude of annoying 10 hour-long videos of irritating noises and sounds alone. But, this CollegeHumor video might just top them all. It challenges its viewers to finish a three-minute video, and to make it worse, the video is boring.

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Improve Content Filtering with Google Chrome’s Safe Browsing Feature

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Malware often takes the form of certain unrecognizable web entities, which can make detecting threats tricky at times. New features in popular web browsers, most notably Google Chrome, are making progress toward identifying these threats before they cause your business harm. Chrome’s “Safe Browsing” feature is a good tool to augment your current network security practices.

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Search Engine Wars: Protect Yourself From Malicious Websites

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While most search engines are pretty good at weeding out malicious sites and not displaying them, some are better than others. According to AV-Test, a German independent testing lab, the top search engines, Bing and Google, are miles apart in terms of secure searching.

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3 Common Ways to Improve WiFi Performance and Streamline Troubleshooting

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WiFi connections are more important today than they’ve ever been before, especially in the modern office. The performance and capabilities of WiFi have improved exponentially within the past few years, allowing businesses the added luxury of using wireless technology in the office. Unfortunately, the more access points for your network, the more effort that’s needed to keep it up-to-date and maintained.

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