A Time and a Place to be Connected

You are picking up your child! GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!!

The message you see here hit one mother right between the eyes when she picked up her kids at a day care center outside Houston. She posted her reaction on Facebook to this sign, and it generated nearly 1.5 million shares. I say it’s a wake-up call to a disturbing trend.

Too many people just don’t know when to put their phones in their pockets – or close their connected devices. I find it disrespectful and representative of misplaced priorities.

The sign read:

“You are picking up your child! GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!! Your child is happy to see you! Are you not happy to see your child??”

“We have seen children trying to hand their parents their work they completed and the parent is on the phone. We have heard a child say ‘Mommy, mommy, mommy…” and the parent is paying more attention to their phone than their own child. It is appalling. Get off your phone!!”

The sign and reaction of the mother were the subject of a Fox News report. The mother said she usually doesn’t have her phone when she picks up her children. But this time, it was in her hand. She said she thought the message was awesome and decided to snap the picture and post it on her Facebook page.

Naturally, there was some pushback. One Facebooker commented that she would pull her child out of a daycare center that posted a message like that, and another said her work keeps her on call.

I don’t what kind of work she does, but this strikes me as a misplaced priority. I know there are emergencies: work, family, disasters, etc. But I also know there can be a time when we need to put our phones away and give proper attention to our families – especially to the children whose lives we are shaping by our words and deeds.

So, I applaud the sign and the mother who posted it. And, I want to take it a step farther to talk about phones in places where they shouldn’t be used, such as houses of worship.

I am not an especially religious person, but I attend a synagogue in my community, and I am always shocked by the number of phones that are out. Sometimes, they are out inside the sanctuary, and that’s disrespectful of those who want to worship. I also see children and adults alike using their phones in the lobbies of their houses of worship, and I wonder why they just don’t go outside.

It’s equally disrespectful for people to use their phones during movies, concerts and plays – even if they are just texting. It disrupts everyone nearby, and in some cases, it can affect performers.

Yes, I know it’s good to have a phone handy to handle real emergencies, but you can keep a phone on vibrate, and you can leave the building if your attention is required by someone. That way, you can maintain respect for people and institutions. What do you think? Leave a comment or send us an email to let us know.

Apple’s New Adapter

I don’t know when Apple is going to replace its Lightning adapter with a new and improved model, but it’s going to happen. And when it does, the bellyaching will begin. But take a step back. Every time our hardware providers change ports and adapters, it’s because you want to transfer more data faster.

The Lightning adapter, the 9-pin connector now used with the latest Apple products, replaced the 30-pin connector. Just the fact that it changed upset a lot of people because they had to replace a slew of old ones – that seemed to work just fine. But in reality, it gave you access to newer, faster ports and improved performance.

Not be left out of the connector race, Android and Windows devices have started using USB Type C. This connector isn’t smaller than the Micro USB, but it introduces one standard port for both phones and computers. Soon it won’t matter which side of the cable you use or which orientation you insert the cable.

For Apple, it still matters, but for the past year, you’ve had a host of options.  For nearly a year, Apple’s Lightning-to-USB 3 Camera Adapter has made it much easier to transfer photos and videos from your high-resolution digital camera to your iPad Pro. After you connect it, your iPad Pro automatically opens the Photos app, which lets you choose photos and videos to import – and organizes them into albums. It supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW, along with SD and HD video formats, including H.264 and MPEG-4.

You can even power the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter with a USB Power Adapter and connect USB peripherals like hubs, Ethernet adapters, audio/MIDI interfaces, and card readers for CompactFlash, SD, microSD, etc.

Both the USB camera adapter and SD card reader take advantage of the faster speeds offered by USB 3. While USB 2 can transfer at up to 60 megabytes per second, USB 3 has a transfer rate of up to 625 megabytes per second. Think about that when you wonder if it’s worth a few dollars for a 10X increase in transfer speed.

Even though Apple calls it a “camera adapter,” it supports an array of devices that can be plugged into its full-size USB-A port to connect keyboards, microphones, USB hubs for multiple accessories at once, and even Ethernet adapters to an iPad.

In addition to a USB-A port, the camera adapter also includes a female Lightning port to charge your iPad while using a connected device, and you can add Apple’s 29-watt power adapter to connect with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and charge it at a faster rate.

You can find numerous cables and apps to transfer data – and pictures and videos – from Android phones to Apple devices – and vice versa. We think it’s all intuitive, but if you have questions about what you need, call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us for recommendations. Just have the makes and models of the devices handy.

Don’t Wait When Hacked

A client got hacked at 5 p.m. and discovered it at 8 p.m. They waited until the next morning to call us. Our advice to them was to shut down their system. Our advice to you is don’t wait – but please use some common sense. We don’t appreciate calls at 5:30 in the morning because you can’t connect to the internet or get your email, but a hack is a whole other story.

If you think you’ve been hacked, shut down – as in “power off” – your computer or your system immediately. If nothing’s running or connected, nothing more can be taken from you, nor can anyone get deeper into your system. Once you call us, we can examine every part of your system and help you take steps to secure it before you and everyone in your business or home goes back online.

If we’ve learned anything from news reports, no system is immune from attack. But there are a number of steps you can take to make an intrusion more difficult – and for small businesses and homes, they may be enough to deter anyone from making a huge effort to invade your system.

In the case of the client who was hacked, he did not have administrative rights to his computer – and that was a big help in minimizing the damage. Administrative rights give those who have them the authority to make all sorts of changes to a computer or a group of networked computers. In addition to adding and removing programs and managing data files, administrative rights can be used to grant permission to other users to perform all of those actions.

In a small business, it makes sense to give several people administrative rights to keep business flowing smoothly. Even if you have automated systems to take care of certain functions, you may need to give people permission to do certain things. However, you need to pay attention to security to benefit from the convenience of this flexibility. We recommend:

  • Keep the number of people who need administrative rights to a bare minimum.
  • Make sure those people change passwords frequently and that they use strong passwords.
  • Limit permissions to certain functions to prevent a hacker from getting carte blanche to your entire system.
  • Set up separate users and log-in credentials for performing administrative functions and delete them after those functions are performed.

The same recommendations can apply to a home computer or home network, with the requirement that children and seniors should not have the ability to install or remove programs.

We also can repeat steps we’ve suggested before:

  • Do not use any simple usernames and passwords for any piece of equipment that is connected to the internet. Every device has a default name and password, and hackers know them all.
  • Use strong passwords and change them often. Strong passwords are usually complex passwords. Hackers have software to figure out certain patterns of numbers and letters, and they can pick up information about anyone from public records. Try not to relate your passwords to that information, but for any password, use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
  • Download and install updates from the publishers of your application software. In most cases, the updates contain bug fixes and patches to improve the security of your applications.
  • Keep your anti-virus and malware software up to date and active.

Again, if you get hacked, don’t wait to call us. Time is of the essence. Shut down everything and call 973-433-6676 for immediate help.

Of course, preventive measures offer the best protection. Call us or email us to arrange a security audit of your system. And don’t wait until you’re hacked to do it.

Holiday Greetings and Connections

We all get holiday greetings – electronically. Sometimes, they’re cards available from any number of websites, and sometimes they’re emails and Facebook posts. I appreciate them all. But as much as I’m connected, I do miss a card in a stamped, hand-addressed envelope.

Technology has improved our lives in so many ways and made it so easy to stay connected. With email, it’s so easy to keep up with family and friends across the country and around the world. You don’t need to write a letter, address and stamp an envelope and take it to the post office. You just need to write it and click “send.” You can share pictures, videos, news items – anything that you can attach to a message. And why restrict yourself to sending it to one friend or family member? You can send it to everyone you know.

With Facebook and other social media, it’s even easier to reach out and have “conversations” of a sort with everyone you know and who-knows-how-many people you don’t know. You can stay connected with people with whom you have all levels of relationships, and it’s exciting.

But sometimes, it seems so impersonal, too. We’ve lost something by reducing relationships to keystrokes. It’s great to hear from somebody at holiday time, and it’s gratifying to get a bunch of birthday wishes on Facebook or LinkedIn. Any of those messages can restart a relationship.

Still, there’s nothing like talking to family and friends – to hear a voice over the telephone. We need to make more of an effort to pick up the phone, as the old telephone commercials implored us to reach out and touch someone.

But wait, technology can help us with that, too. The same company that invited you to reach out is one of many internet and cellular providers making it possible for you to use Skype, Facetime and other programs to see and talk to people anywhere in the world.

Yes, that hand-addressed card is really great. The ability to talk to people and see their faces is even better. And in the world of business, seeing a face and hearing a voice can convey so much more than an exchange of keystrokes.

Let’s resolve to use our connectivity to strengthen our connections. And if you need some help in setting up your computers or devices to run any videoconferencing applications, give us a call – 973-433-6676 – and we’ll walk through it – and test it out. And of course, you can email to set up an appointment.

Smarten Up! The Spoof is On

I was at a client’s office when the email – to her as president of a service organization – arrived, asking for a wire transfer of money. Other members of the organization got the same message, and some actually sent money. A scammer had spoofed a name or email address that was recognizable. This is becoming a growing problem. Is technology making us stupid?

The answer is “no,” but it is making us careless because it gives us the ability to do too many things too easily with too little forethought. That, in turn, leads to doing stupid things – and that’s what spoofers and other Internet-based thieves are counting on now and will continue to do so.

Email seems to open the doors to your computer and your data more conveniently than anything else. The biggest breach opportunities come when you click on something or follow through on instructions because you didn’t take the time to look carefully at an email and when you send sensitive information in an unencrypted email.

Spoofing is the most effective way to get you to open an email and link yourself to trouble. It’s remarkably easy to recreate a company’s logo and attach a fake email address to it. When many people see what they think is a legitimate logo, they just click to open. If nothing jumps out as a red flag, they’ll continue to a bogus website, and BINGO, it’s too late.

People are particularly susceptible to spoofs at this time of the year. Online merchandise sales continue to grow at holiday time, and merchants or shipping companies often send tracking info so you’ll know when your packages should arrive. If you take a little time to look at the message, you’ll probably see that the domain attached to the shipper or merchant bears no resemblance at all to the company. You might also note that the message itself is generic – and it likely has misspelled words or syntax that just doesn’t fit how we converse in the United States.

If you want to verify the tracking on a package, you can go onto the merchant’s or shipper’s website and enter a tracking number you received when your order was confirmed. If you don’t have that number, there is often a way to get the information.

Similarly, as we move from the holiday season to the tax season, be especially careful of financial-related information. There’s a reason why your financial advisor doesn’t let you leave trade information on voicemail or email. They don’t want your financial data left out in the open, and you should feel the same way. When financial advisors and institutions – and even healthcare providers – have messages for you, they generally tell you to access them on their secure websites – and require you to sign in.

DO NOT click a link on an email you think was sent to you by anyone who wants financial, health or other sensitive personal data. If you know the website, open a new browser window and go to the website by typing in the website address. Even if the domain name in an email looks correct, something like “[email protected]” can really link to “you’vebeenscammed.com.”

And, of course, never, never send user names, passwords, credit card info, bank accounts, Social Security numbers (even the last four digits) or other personal information in an email. Unless you and the other party have activated a mutually agreed-upon encryption process, the data is wide open. Email messages can go through multiple communications systems, and it’s impossible to know when a data thief is waiting to pick off any number of random messages at any point. They can pick off thousands in the blink of an eye and then take their own sweet time pulling out key info and wreaking havoc.

It all goes back to convenience vs. security, with a dose of distraction thrown in for good measure. We’ve had clients accidentally open a door to their computers, and the invaders took their info and denied the owners access to their systems. Fixing it on the computer end generally requires a visit from us, and then there’s the nerve-wracking hassle of working with other companies to close your breaches. When you have to go through all of that, it’s more than just an inconvenience.

We’re not telling you anything you don’t know. We are telling you to take a deep breath and a closer look at your email and the links inside them. We’re also telling you not to send sensitive information in emails. If you think you may have had a breach in your security, we can help you patch up your computer system. We can also help you set up an email encryption system. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us with your questions or to have us help resolve an issue.

Off to CES Next Month

I’m looking forward to going to CES – the Consumer Electronics Show – in Las Vegas next month. It will be my first time there; I had to make sure I did the planning needed to make it happen. I plan to look closely at home automation and AI because both will play growing roles in our lives.

We already have a lot going on. I was an early adapter of Doorbot, which we now know as Ring. It’s the camera system that works in conjunction with your doorbell and smartphone to let you know who’s at your front door. You can talk with the people at the door whether you’re in the next room or the next country. When I installed Doorbot, it paid immediate dividends when I could tell delivery people where to leave packages. It helped me serve my clients better.

As Ring, the product has evolved into a security camera. With a wide field of vision, it can activate as soon as someone gets near your home and take a clear picture of everyone at your door. It’s also instantaneous. With a standard alarm system, any thief knows he has 5 to 10 minutes before the police respond. Now, you have a way to identify the person. You can use it in conjunction with other camera systems to see who’s there, and you can use it along with electronic door locks that you can remotely control to let someone into your house.

We have more automated systems in our homes. Nest is the first one you think of when it comes to having a thermostat that you can set or change through an Internet connection, and there are all sorts of lighting systems that you can automate or reset.

We’ve added Google Home, and it can do searches – just like Siri, Alexa and Amazon Echo – and turn on lights in various rooms in the house to light the way without having to turn on switches. If your hands are full, it’s more than a convenience. More systems likely will come to market that analyze movements in your house and either reset HVAC or lighting as you need them or let you know what’s happening in your house while you’re away. We have all these systems today, but AI will tie them together to give you faster access and coordinated control from a single device.

I’m also interested in seeing what’s new for cars. It’s only a matter of time until cars become driverless; we’re likely to see driverless trucks a lot faster. Driverless vehicles will be the ultimate in AI as a consumer application, and we make great strides toward that every year. More and more cars have a variety of systems to analyze a car’s position and traffic conditions to warn you or take a programmed action – such as apply the brakes. What will be the next steps in the home automation/AI arena?

We’ll let you know what we find out. In the meantime, if you have any questions about systems installed in your home or car that you control from a device, we urge you to make sure you have changed all the default usernames and passwords that came with them. That’s crucial to keeping outsiders from entering and controlling your space. If you need help in configuring or reconfiguring your systems to maximize their performance and security, we’re there for you. Just call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us. And be sure to read Network Strength and Costs.

Network Strength and Costs

With more and more devices in our homes – more than you think – you need to strike a balance between speed and cost. Keeping your network strong and secure is a given, but you should look at what you can hardwire into your gateway to maximize speed and free up wireless capacity for devices and systems that can’t be wired.

Many people have looked to simple solutions such as EERO, which plugs repeaters into power outlets in homes and offices. It’s known as a wireless mesh system, and it’s a technology that hasn’t won us over. The modules are repeaters, and the problem is that each time you repeat, you cut signal strength, and that diminishes the speed of the network to deliver signals to the target computer, TV, tablet or smartphone.

You might think you don’t have that many devices on your network, but you’d be surprised. In our house with four people, we have a dozen computers, tablets and smart phones, several automated systems for the doorbell and for turning on certain lights. We also have a Sonos sound system with seven speakers around the house. I haven’t added in smart TVs, which many households have. Most of them use a USB antenna to connect to their home wireless network, and then people use the wireless network to stream movies and shows – especially if they’ve cut the cord on cable TV.

Depending on your provider, you can get Internet connections ranging from 15 megabits per second (of data transmission) to 1 or 2 gigabits per second. Many users in moderately connected homes have service ranging from 50 to 300 megabits per second (mbs). The faster the speed, the more data it pushes through per second. However, your TVs, computers and devices on your wireless network may not be getting the full speed you’re paying for because of repeaters and the number of devices using the network at a given time.

You can maximize wireless performance and your Internet costs by hardwiring some computers and smart TVs and then determining how much speed you need to support your wireless devices. Wired computers and TVs will get the full benefit of your connection speed, and you may not need as fast (and expensive) a connection as you think.

To use our house as an example, we have a 150mbs connection, and we use it more for downloading large files than for streaming movies and shows. With hard wiring, it works fine. If I would double the speed to 300mbs, it would cost $90 per month more. That’s $1,080 more per year, and I wouldn’t get the full performance because of the wireless penalty.

With smart TVs and streaming becoming more popular, TV manufacturers are heading off potential problems with customer satisfaction by including Ethernet connections in their units. Taking advantage of the hardwiring capability can help you avoid problems elsewhere in your home.

In the office, hardwiring as many components of your system to the network is essential. Hardwiring grantees your computers and peripherals will work at the speeds you’re paying for, and it will free up wireless capacity for the devices that you must have, such as phones and tablets.

Regardless of whether you have a home or business network, remember that your service speed can be increased or decreased without a visit from a technician. You can see how one connection speed works and then have your provider raise or lower it from their service center.

We can help you by installing the wiring and connecting your equipment. We can also help you analyze your system’s performance to find the right combination of speed and cost. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to set up an appointment to discuss your needs.

Reasons to Reboot

We get a lot of calls and emails about computers not performing as expected. It’s amazing what a good reboot can do – if you really do it.

Rebooting cleans up a lot of the electronic junk that builds up as you go in and out of applications, open and close files and content from the Internet. Like anything else that piles up, all the electronic junk blocks access to your disk space and RAM (random access memory) for applications, files, email and Internet browsing. After two or three weeks of keeping email programs, applications and files and websites open, you’ve essentially clogged your system’s electronic arteries.

A reboot flushes all that stuff out of your RAM. One way to characterize RAM is that it’s like a pad of notepaper. When you run out, you need to erase some information on the pad or get another pad. Rebooting is like erasing the paper in the notepad. It lets your computer start with a fresh, clean slate when you restart, and in most cases, that solves a lot of performance issues.

We always ask our clients with performance problems if they’ve rebooted their computers, and they invariably say they have. When we get into their systems through remote access, we see something different. When we get into conversations, some people with laptops think that they have rebooted their systems just by closing the lid for a few seconds and then opening it back up. Others, with desktop computers, think that shutting off the monitor reboots the computer.

Unfortunately, neither of those actions will reboot a computer. Here’s what you need to do. First, save all open files and emails and bookmark web pages if you want to retain easy access to them. Then, close all applications. You should do the same with phones and tablets before rebooting them.

For a PC or Windows-based computer running Windows 10, click the Windows icon on the task bar on the lower left side of your monitor and then click on the “start” icon on the left. You’ll have the option to restart the computer, which will reboot it.

For Windows 8, point your mouse to the lower-right corner of the screen, move it up and click Settings. Click Power and then click Restart.

For a Mac, you can follow this simple, 3-step process:

  1. Press the power button (or press Control+Eject) and, when a dialog box appears, click the Restart button.
  2. Choose the Apple key and then click Restart.
  3. Press Control+Command+Eject (or Control+Command+Power button).

For phones and tablets, you can power off the device for 10 to 30 seconds and then power them back on.

For all computers, you can hold the power button until the unit shuts itself off. We consider this a last resort because it stops the system with an electronic jolt. But if nothing else works, this will do it. Let it stay off for 10 to 30 seconds and then restart it.

Sometimes, restarting in “Safe Mode” allows your computer to perform some diagnostics and verify basic systems are in good working order. With a Windows7 computer, press the F8 key when you turn on the computer, and then use the Arrow keys to navigate to “Safe Mode” and hit enter.

Windows 10 is more involved, but it’s not that hard once you get into the routine. Follow these steps:

  1. Click or tap the Start button, and then the Power button. You’ll see a Restart button. Hold down the Shift key when you select Restart
  2. When you get the full-screen menu with six options, select Troubleshoot>Advanced options>Startup Settings.
  3. Click the Restart to begin the reboot. You’ll get to a Startup Settings option.
  4. Use the Arrow key to navigate to Enable Safe Mode or Enable Safe Mode With Networking

For a Mac, immediately press and hold the Shift key. The white Apple logo will appear on your display. Release the shift key when you see the login window.

Because “Safe Mode” limits your computer’s capabilities, we recommend restarting in your regular mode once you see everything is functioning properly.

We recommend you reboot your systems no less than once a week as a preventive measure. It shouldn’t be much of an inconvenience. We still remember when we had to reboot computers several times a day. If your system is still sluggish after a reboot, contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email for a remote diagnostics session.

Behind Last Month’s Internet Breakdown

We’ve harped for years about the inherent conflict of convenience vs. online security. That conflict reared its ugly head during the distributed denial-of-service attacks, using – maybe – millions of computers to hit some of the world’s largest and most popular e-commerce and news websites.

Investigators have been able to pin part of the cause on hackers using IP addresses commandeered from millions of home devices, commonly called IoT (Internet of Things) – such as interior and exterior security cameras, doorbell and baby monitors, thermostats, etc. – that are increasingly popular with consumers. Too many people install them on their Wi-Fi networks and never bother to change default user names or passwords. That just leaves the door wide open to have their devices hijacked and used for malicious purposes.

From our point of view, it’s what happens when we get lazy and sloppy because we are so tuned into convenience. And, a DDoS attack can be the least consequential problem for you, personally. The hacker can gain control of your device and peak into your house at will – and even change your thermostat settings.

Users are not the only sloppy parties in this turn of events. The device manufacturers share the blame because they don’t require you to reset your user name or password as part of the installation process. After all, they don’t want the blame for your inconvenience, and we think that’s wrong. They can require you to reset user names and passwords as part of the installation process.

You can help prevent these DDoS attacks by making sure you change user names and passwords for the devices during the installation process. You can further protect your privacy by making sure your Wi-Fi network has a good, strong password. Too many people leave the default user name and password on their routers, too.

We should note that businesses, including professional services providers, can be just as lax as home users. We’ve had client systems hacked because their system administrators did not set up stronger log-in credentials.

We strongly urge everyone to have somebody look at their networks and IT systems and procedures once or twice a year. This may not be a comfortable analogy for some people, but even though you brush your teeth and floss every day, you still maintain better health when you visit the dentist once or twice a year for a cleaning and exam.

If you avoid the visit because of expense, it’s costlier – and more painful – to fix the problem instead of preventing it. What would be your cost for system downtime and repairing security breaches? Contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email to find out what our security audit would cover for you and to set it up. In today’s world, you can’t afford to overlook any possible weakness.

Holiday Cheer from Microsoft and Apple

Microsoft and Apple have put some new, high-price goodies on the market for the holidays. In a word, they’re getting “touchier” as tablets get more computing capability and computers use more touchscreen technology.

If you’re looking for an apples-to-apples comparison…no pun intended…maybe that should be oranges-to-oranges comparison, that may be tough. Both are pricey and feature Intel i5 and i7 processors. Each will do fine for those willing to spend the money. That said, here’s what we like and what you can expect.

Microsoft is heavily promoting its Surface Studio as a highly creative tool for design tasks that have long been associated with Macs. A tablet that acts like a computer, it starts at $2,999 and can go up to $4,199, and it can be used with a variety of tools, including the Surface Dial and Surface Pen, which enable you to draw on the screen. Because it’s a Microsoft product, it comes with Windows 10 Pro and a 30-day trial of Microsoft Office.

The Studio has four USB 3.0 ports (one high power port), a full-size SD™ card reader (SDXC compatible), a mini display port and a headset jack, and it has a high-resolution display and graphics card for artistic and gaming applications.

If you don’t need all the Studio’s computing power, you can choose the Surface Book at $1,499 or the Surface Pro 4 at $899. The trend we see is that mobile users who need more computing power and the flexibility of a tablet for mobility and touchscreen/keyboard capability will be looking more closely at a Surface.

Microsoft is also rumored to be planning to release a Surface phone in the spring of 2017.

The MacBook Pro doesn’t have the Dial or a pen, but its more advanced models have the Touch Bar, which is a strip just above the keyboard. It’s more like something you would find on a tablet. It appears and disappears as needed to give you shortcuts to the controls, sliders, menus and tools that relate to the task at hand. As you tap, swipe or drag the Touch Bar keys, you see the results of your actions. Touch Bar can help you access favorite websites in Safari, answer (or reject) incoming FaceTime calls or get predictive suggestions of the words you may want to use when writing, just like with iOS devices.

With Touch Bar opened to outside app developers, you may see it for many apps, and you can still use versions of the physical function keys, such as for adjusting screen brightness or speaker volume, that used to reside above the keyboard.

MacBook Pro has a big track pad, which we rate as a plus, and the 15-inch model has four USB-C ports — that double as Thunderbolt 3 ports — which can be used for Thunderbolt, USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, VGI, and charging. The USB-C ports are new technology. The basic 13-inch model only has two USB-C/Thunderbird 3 ports. This means you may need a dongle to attach certain hardware. There’s no SD card reader, which could be a problem for photographers.

We’ll have a MacBook Pro in a few weeks, and we’ll see how it’s all set up.

If you’re thinking about either or both of these systems, contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email to discuss how you plan to use it and your budget considerations. We’ll also be able to guide on what to expect when integrating your purchase(s) into your home or office network – and among multiple users.