LET’S TALK ABOUT UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

LET’S TALK ABOUT UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

One of the most important investments you can make when you purchase a computer, is an UPS. Protect your hardware and data loss; increasing user productivity. When the electrical current going to your device is not steady, it can have dire consequences for your PCs and home entertainment systems. Common issues relating to voltage include blackouts, brownout, noise, spikes, and power surges. Mother Nature will have her moments; it’s just a fact of life.

SUGGESTED BRANDS:

• APC
• CyberPower Systems
• Eaton Corporation
• Eaton Power
• HP
• IBM
• Minute man
• Minuteman UPS
• Para Systems - Minuteman
• Tripp Lite

NOTE: this list is an incomplete list and suggested brands, depends and may varies on your country.

HOW DOES IT WORKS

Before we define the issues related to voltage irregularity, let’s find out what a UPS is and how it works. A UPS is a device that provides consistent backup power during inconsistent power issues. The UPS can protect both data and the computer equipment connected to it by stabilizing the voltage passing through. A UPS comes in a range of sizes and models that target different types of equipment. Some of these include the UPS itself, Surge suppressor, and SPS. Knowing the right one to use is essential for the protection of the equipment you use.

POWER PROBLEMS, HOW MANY?

BLACKOUT: Also called a “power cut” can happen when a transformer is damaged or a downed power line. Software improvements over the years have improved when situations like this occur. If you used earlier Windows 95 or 98, you might remember that when a power outage occurred, and you started up your PC, it would perform a diagnostic test. With the introduction of Windows NT and NTFS, Windows recovers from the event easier.

BROWNOUT: This happens when there is an overload of electrical circuits. If you have a lot of electrical equipment connected and in use at the same time, this can trigger a brownout resulting in a loss of power. The issue usually lasts for a short period, but it can cause damage to your device.

NOISE: Commonly caused by interference from lightning and generators; resulting in unclean power going to your devices. It can cause the operating system and applications to malfunction and possibly corrupt files.

SPIKE: A sudden increase in voltage lasting only a short time. Common causes of this are lightning or restoration of your power after a widespread outage. When this happens, what I normally do is unplug all my electrical equipment. When the power returns, I wait a bit for the voltage to normalize before I reconnect the equipment. Some electric companies will notify you if there is going to be a planned outage for maintenance.

POWER SURGE:  A dramatic increase in voltage caused by household appliances such as a refrigerator or air conditioners. Surges last a very short time, but can cause significant damage to computer components.

WHAT HAPPENS IF DON’T?

You might notice, in the descriptions of these different voltage disturbances, a lightning storm is usually the biggest threat to your equipment. What exactly does the lightning do that makes it hazardous to your equipment? When lightning strikes a transformer, it can trigger a powerful surge, which travels instantaneously through the wiring going to your house. The surge moves to your computer from the outlet or data lines. The first component that usually dies in your PC is the motherboard. This effect can also trigger a wave of other voltage issues that damages other components in your PC, like the hard drive and RAM.

HOW AND WHAT TO CHOOSE

Protecting your equipment is not a one size fits all approach. There are many solutions available on the market that target different environments, including a home, office, or a large data center. Here is a list of what to look for when purchasing a UPS for the home.

• A UPS is a significant investment, ensure there is a lifetime warranty included with your purchase. I have owned a UPS since 2005, even though the battery died a few years ago, I was able to get a replacement battery at a small fraction of the cost purchasing a new one.
• Supports up to eight outlets for various equipment. I have two computers on all the time; some UPS equipment will include one battery backup in addition to surge protection; while having extra outlets with only surge protection. In scenarios like this, I will only keep the most important device connected to the battery outlets on the UPS.
• The backup power that’s immediate in case of a power outage.
• Your UPS should support protection of other devices such as a network, serial port and data connections.
• Complete surge suppression that filters out an unreliable voltage that could damage equipment.
• Site wiring fault indicator to ensure that your equipment is properly grounded.
• Noise filtration preventing data corruption.
• Other features and functions to look for including a battery replacement indicator, battery management, intelligent features such as automatic save and shutdown. This might be available only on more expensive models.

Home computing has evolved over the years; it is not unusual for some users to own a home server and other equipment such as a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. For such configurations, investing in a UPS will require more research on your particular needs. The most obvious being the need for a more a powerful UPS that can handle the demands.

A media server works similarly to a file server used in an office. They are constantly saving, retrieving or processing information like streaming to your smart TV or mobile devices. Such events can lead to a catastrophic loss of data if a power outage occurs. For such setup’s, you should first consider investing in a UPS with options such as battery replacement, the ability to hot swap a battery, and intelligent battery features. Integration with your backup tools is also a function of the UPS you should look at getting.

SAMPLE IMAGE, NOT A VALID OR PUBLICITY IMAGE

FUNCTIONS, FUNCTIONALITY AND OTHER ASPECTS

Having a UPS will prevent damage to your equipment, but predicting when such events might occur is usually beyond your control. By having the option to gracefully shutdown provides protection against data loss. These features are commonly available in the accompanying software that comes with your UPS. Make sure you check for the follow features when making your purchase:

• Automatic shutdown
• User notification of power loss
• Customization shutdown commands
• Conservation mode.
• Battery replacement warning.
• Management tools: status display, runtime, event log, remote management via the web or remote computer
• Environmental: temperature, humidity

Of course, all the mentioned options before, depends on your BUDGET. 

Ask yourself How much does your information and data COST?

OPERATING YOUR UPS BACKUP PROPERLY

Using your UPS effectively is important. Some users might believe, a UPS means the fun will never stop, meaning, you can keep playing, listening to songs, or just leave the computer running idle. Nope. What you should do is use the opportunity to shut down the equipment gracefully. Some UPS devices will provide up to 1 hour of backup power. Use this time to shut down and power off all equipment.

One device you should never plug into a UPS is a printer. Doing so can cause the printer motor to burn up. A printer will queue whatever jobs there are to print. When the power returns, it normally resumes printing. A simple surge protector should be enough.

Owning computing equipment is a major investment and protecting it should be a top priority. 

NOTE: This article is for a desktop computer, a laptop does NOT NEED a UPS and only depends if the laptop has a DOCKING STATION and this will provide AC to all components attached. Example:

WHAT ABOUT SURGE PROTECTORS

At the very minimum, you should definitely be connecting your computer and home entertainment devices to a surge protector. A surge protector doesn’t provide any power backup, but will protect your equipment from damage.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: one time in a company, we were running out of budget... and what we do was to share a UPS. How? simple, just plug 2 CPU without monitors and from the end of the software, configure ALL to save every minute. once you are in a power outrage, you can turn off the computer pushing the power button and everything you were working, gonna be save. Of course, this is not a solution for professionals, but sometimes requires other "technics".

Is not a smart and quite solution, but works until you can add/replace UPS.

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LET’S TALK ABOUT COMPUTER PROTECTION

LET’S TALK ABOUT COMPUTER PROTECTION 

HOW CAN YOU BE AWARE FROM HACKERS, SPYWARE, VIRUSES & OTHERS

This is by no means a comprehensive list, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment and i’ll add them on!

STEPS TO AVOID VIRUSES & MALWARE

1. ANTI-VIRUS

Here are some popular AV’s FREE AND PAID:

Avira – www.avira.com
Bitdefender – www.bitdefender.com
AVG – www.avg.com
Kaspersky – www.kaspersky.com
NOD32 - www.eset.com
Symantec / Norton AV - www.symantec.com

In addition to anti-virus software, you should install one anti-malware program and the best is malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free (https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/).

2. UPDATE ALL!

Installing an anti-virus program by itself is not enough. There are hundreds of new threats that are found daily and the anti-virus programs release updates regularly to combat these new threats. Make sure your anti-virus program is set to update automatically so that you don’t have to rely on your memory to do it. Also, this goes for all the software on your computer. The most important software to keep up to date is your Windows operating system. It is essential to have Automatic Updates turned on and set to download and install updates automatically.

3. TRUSTED SOFTWARE

If you’re not sure what a piece of software does from its name, then don’t install it. Also, don’t install anything you didn’t intend to install in the first place. Sometimes programs will ask you to install other programs during the install of the original application. Be careful of that because it’s usually spyware. If you’re installing software from big names sites like Microsoft or Adobe, you’re good.

4. P2P / FILE SHARING / DOWNLOADS

If used with great caution, P2P software is quite useful for movies, songs and software, but if you’re not very technically savvy, you might end up downloading a song that has a keystroke logger attached to it that will send anything you type to some other computer over the Internet. It’s almost impossible to tell that this is occurring unless your anti-virus or anti-spyware programs pick it up in their scans. If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t try to download or torrent.

5. DELETE UNKNOWN EMAILS

If you receive emails from random people, do not bother to open the email, just delete it. If you have any doubts after reading the name and the subject, it’s probably not someone you know. Never download or open attachments unless you are sure it’s from someone you know. Give the person a call quickly and ask them if you’re not sure. Most large companies that you create online accounts with will not send you attachments unless you specifically ask for them through their web site. Also, be wary of any emails from sites pretending to be banks, auction sites, etc. Asking for you to verify bank account info or address info. No bank ever does that.

Also, hackers try to prey on your emotions. If something sounds too good to be true, i.e. You won some money or free vacation, it probably is. Secondly, if you get any email from the IRS or police or a lawyer or anyone else trying to scare you, don’t panic and start giving out information. These are all usually scams because no official agency emails people about serious issues.

6. DO NOT CLICK ON ADS

Avoid clicking on ads if you can. Especially those ads where something is flying around and if you shoot the duck, you win some prize! Ads have become more sophisticated in that they try to make the ad interactive so that you’ll be tempted to play it like a game.

7. RUN VIRUS SCANS REGULARLY

If you’re not in the mood to scan every day, at least run a scan once a week. Actually, setup a schedule for your computer in your anti-virus software to run a scan late at night or whenever you don’t use your computer and that way you won’t be bothered with a slow computer.

8. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ATTACH TO YOUR COMPUTER

This is a more common way to transfer viruses than you might think. Everyone now has a USB flash stick that they carry around on their key chains, ready to snap into any computer. But who knows what viruses are on your friends’ computers and what accidentally got transferred to their USB stick. A lot of virus programs will auto launch right when the USB stick is put into the computer, so you don’t even have to open or download any of the files to be infected.

9. AVOID SHADY WEB SITES

If you need to look at porn, then make sure you do it in a virtual environment. You are DEFINITELY going to get a virus or spyware if you browse porn sites on your computer. Virtualization basically allows you to run programs like Internet Explorer in a virtual environment that does not affect your current operating system. If you want to find out more, search for “Virtual PC” or “vmware” in Google. Otherwise, simply avoid going to shady web sites! Also, check out my articles on Hyper-V and vmware Fusion.

10. TURN ON OR INSTALL A FIREWALL

If you’re running Windows or Mac, make sure firewall is turned on. A firewall prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer by limiting the number of ports that are open to the public. Also, when buying a wireless router, make sure it has a built in firewall. Having a software and hardware firewall is better than just having one or the other.

11. SECURE YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK

Most wireless routers are set to no security when you install them. Be sure to log into the router and at least set the basic security that requires a password. There are stronger encryption options, but if you don’t understand those, then simply set a password on the router and the wireless network, otherwise anyone can connect to your home network and change all the settings.

12. USE A COMPLEX PASSWORD FOR LOGIN

This means that you should already have a password to login to your computer. Not having a password at all is not a good idea. Create a password for all user accounts and make sure it’s complex. Complex means it should have numbers, upper case characters, lower case characters, and symbols. This makes it way more difficult for a hacker to get into your computer.

13. USE TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

Many online services now allow you to enable two factor authentication, which means you’ll need to type in a code in addition to your password when logging in. This makes your account much more secure, even though it adds a bit on inconvenience. You should enable it on all the major services like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. Check out my article on setting up two factor authentication and properly configuring it.

14. USE ENCRYPTION WHEN POSSIBLE

Even if someone is able to steal your data or monitor your Internet connection, encryption could help prevent the hacker from being able to read any of that information. You can encrypt your Windows or OS X hard drive, encrypt a USB flash drive, and even encrypt all your web traffic using a VPN.

If you follow all the steps above, you can rest assured that you will be able to avoid 99% of the Internet threats that are out there. It’s really a matter of being disciplined and careful rather than being completely carefree when using your computer.

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