Adam Stone

For a small business with a minimal Web site, finding a webhosting provider seems easy. After all, a simple Internet search will turn up hundreds of providers who offer free webhosting services. Does the price too good to be true? It probably is. “A lot of times with these free or very inexpensive hosting services, […]

Web hosting firm C I Host does not own a single router. Sure, the Dallas firm owns its switches, but those are cheap. It leases the really big devices, at a cost of about $10,000 a month. Why would a firm that depends on routers for its day-to-day operations choose to lease the things rather […]

What do customers want? Are they happy with the services they are receiving? Is there anything else they need? And — perhaps most importantly — how theyheck do you find out? Small business owners have traditionally put these questions to their customers face to face. But that kind of feedback just is not good enough, […]

In developing their marketing materials, executives at security firm ScanAlert implemented a simple test, and got some surprising results. The ScanAlert product sweeps a client’s Web site for potential security flaws, and then posts a “Hacker Safe” security logo if the site comes up clean. To test user response to the logo, ScanAlert temporarily modified […]

Forget about the hackers: Steve Friedman is more worried about the junkies breaking into his network. “We prescribe an inordinate amount of narcotics and other very powerful drugs because of the kinds of patients we deal with,” explained the chief financial and technical officer of The Pain Institute, a healthcare company specializing in pain management. […]

At biomedical firm Inhibitex in Georgia, Systems Administrator Ron Whitling has more than enough to do, just keeping desktops up and running for some 65 employees. Add to that the 200 pieces of unsolicited e-mail, or spam, that arrive every day, and Whitling finds both his time and his resources stretched to the limit. “I […]

There are lots of ways that small business owners spend too much money on technology. They buy untested hardware. They purchase software piecemeal, instead of in discounted bundles. They fail to back up data. But the single biggest way they hurt themselves is through trying to go it alone, instead of working with a skilled […]