As you may have heard, Nortel filed for creditor protection in Canada, the United States and Europe. As described in a press release, Nortel took this action to address business and financial challenges, to emerge from this process as a more focused, financially sound and competitive company.

Last month, I attended a Business Stakeholder Summit, hosted by the Howell chamber. CEOs and top executives of area companies were invited to attend. The purpose of the event was  to get answers to important questions about Livingston County businesses. Participants took part in electronic polling and a discussion of key issues.

Most businesses have either already deployed a wireless network of some sort or at least considered the pros and cons of wireless technology. Is wireless setup something you can do on your own or do you need help? If you are running an information technology business and have a strong background in IT, you may be able to do it on your own. If not, you should consider help, whether from a vendor or from hired talent.

This is a short entry that includes two shortcuts, one for browsing the Web and the other for securing your workstation.

With Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology you can make phone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line. A business can potentially cut costs by reducing its long distance phone bill using this type of service. In many respects a VoIP service works just like a traditional phone line. You can call local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. However, with a VoIP service your business pays a flat fee, regardless of how many and what types of calls are made.

There are many VoIP manufacturers with feature-rich systems that can fit the needs of small organizations. To determine whether VoIP is an option for your organization, you should understand how it works and be aware of the differences between VoIP and traditional systems. It may be that a VoIP/traditional combination is the phone system that best fits your needs.

We recently surveyed small and mid-sized businesses on office technology. It was short and simple survey with three questions about spending priorities, what technologies don't work as expected, and vendor selection factors. I've compiled the results. 

If you forget your voicemail password, follow these steps. They work on most contemporary Norstar and Nortel phone systems.

You can save some time by using keyboard shortcuts to start programs and perform other tasks more quickly than point-and-click with a mouse.

If your phone system isn't working, following these steps can save you time and a service call from your phone system provider.

Your arrow cursor has changed into a little hour glass and the message "Program Not Responding" appears in the blue title bar of the program's window. You can't close the program. It has frozen, and your computer seems slow and unresponsive. What can you do when the program your using suddenly stops working?