OBT Learning Center


Welcome to the Learning Center! Below are helpful reference pages, both as a general user and as an OBT client. Be sure to visit your client portal or the forums for more in-depth technical support.

Visit our FAQ for help with your most common issues; don't see what you need? Be sure to Ask a Question!

Our Articles cover a wide variety of topics, from current IT news to user trends. Visit every week for a new update.

Our Feature Tech highlights one of OBT's favorite infrastructure building blocks. Learn more about us, and about the tech that powers your business.







FAQ

31 weeks 5 days ago

Once a month, OBT technicians will make a visit to your office to make sure things are running properly. During this visit, we'll also take time with each of your machines to ensure they are operating at their best. OBT will run diagnostics, clean things up, and make sure your systems are clean of Malware, Spyware, and Adware. We keep track of all your software and their expiration dates, and will inform you when it is time to renew your varied subscriptions. We will place the order and renew them for you, saving you the headache of dealing with software vendors directly.

19 weeks 6 days ago

The various utilities that OBT uses can be very dangerous if not used properly. Improper use can (and often does) result in data loss, requiring you to contact OBT support to correct. Sometimes the lost data cannot be recovered, forcing you to lose man hours and possibly incur more support costs to correct the issue (if possible). In practice, we've found that once a month is sufficient for maintenance, and most problems that occur are not easily remedied by simply performing the maintenance routines.

19 weeks 6 days ago

OBT uses a fairly robust Trouble Ticketing System to keep track of your issues, on-going related tasks, status reports, problem ownership, and solutions. The system archives these tickets, so if you've had a problem in the past, we can quickly reference the problem and steps taken to remedy the situation, allowing us to more quickly address your issue. OBT also uses this ticketing system to constantly update our internal technical documentation, so you can rest assured that any OBT tech assigned to you will know of your problem as well as any relevant history.

19 weeks 6 days ago

For immediate responses, the OBT Support Line is your best bet. This support line is designed to ring the first available technician, no matter where they are or what they are doing. Phone support is available 8:00am to 6:00pm Central, Monday through Friday.

OBT Support: 918.948.6945

For less urgent assistance, feel free to use our online forums or email support directly at support@openbusinesstech.com We will make every effort to have your solution within 1 hour.

19 weeks 6 days ago

Our list of services can be found here.

19 weeks 6 days ago

Our Systems Team monitors the network 24/7, so we're aware of outages just as soon as you are. Every night, 7 days a week, the Systems Team connects to the servers, verifies their status, and runs maintenance routines to ensure they are available to you and running at their best. OBT will never intentionally cause a disruption in service during business hours, and we make every effort to take into account "late workers" by performing our maintenance routines well after hours. However, no system is perfect and outages are bound to occur.

19 weeks 6 days ago

Backups are just as valuable as the original data, though are seldom viewed as such until needed. If you complete work on your computer daily, you should backup daily. How and what your computer actually backs up is determined by your backup software. OBT will be more than happy to setup and configure this software for you to ensure you are getting the best protection in the event of data loss or hardware failure.

19 weeks 6 days ago

Currently OBT does not limit the number of accounts you can have, but we do limit the amount of disk space used by all your accounts. Currently these restrictions are around 10GB of disk space, so unless you have a habit of zipping and emailing entire DVD's to coworkers, you should never see this limit in actual practice. Keep in mind that email is a SIMPLE service, so large attachments (over 20MB) should be sent by other methods, such as CD, DVD, flash drive, or an OBT File Repository (ask your OBT Account Representative about this service!)

19 weeks 6 days ago

Use these settings to configure your email account using Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Apple's Mail.app, etc. If you have problems, as always, please contact OBT Support -

Mail Account/Server Type: IMAP (required for proper synching to your various devices)
Incoming Mail Server: mail.your-domain.com
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.your-domain.com
Outgoing Server Authentication: "Password" or "Plain Text Password"
Outgoing Server Username: your.username@your-domain.com
Mail Username: your.username@your-domain.com (i.e. brent@openbusinesstech.com)

19 weeks 6 days ago

Articles

by Brent Randolph

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the release of Windows 7, Microsoft’s newest release of the Windows Operating System. As such, Windows 7 is a culmination of technologies originally found in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Key features involve newer and tighter security, faster, more attractive graphics, and better support for new and upcoming hardware. Microsoft hopes that Windows 7 will make up for the shortcomings of Windows Vista, and be viewed as a viable upgrade for users still hanging on to Windows XP.

19 weeks 6 days ago

by Brent Randolph

Home Media Centers have been around for the last 8-10 years, but have gained quite a bit of attention over the last 5 years, as more and more people have justified the need for an all-in-one Media Center in their living room. Below, we’ll go into more detail about the various options that are currently available, the services they offer, and the Pros and Cons of each. This week we’ll focus on using an Apple Macintosh as a media hub.

19 weeks 6 days ago

Featured Tech