Joe Rhodes Consulting LLC

"We at Martinson Real Estate, LLC have been using Joe Rhodes Consulting LLC since we opened and have been a satisfied customer ever since. That was in 2001 and we have never looked back. Joe has always been quick to respond and is excellent when it comes to communicating, what was done and what needs to get done. I always know what is going on even if I don’t understand the ‘technologies’ of the problem or hardware.

Thanks Joe for your dedicated service."

Dan Martinson, Broker, Martinson Real Estate, LLC

"Joe Rhodes is one of the best consultants we’ve I’ve worked with. His breadth of technical knowledge and customer service attitude make him a wonderfully well-rounded computer professional."

Christopher M. Lange, Director of Computer Services,
UW Medical School - Pediatrics

"I have worked with JoeRhodes for a couple years and his expertise with Macintosh computers has been invaluable to our company. Not only has Joe provided us with excellent service in maintaining and upgrading our computers, server, and backup system, but he has become a reliable source for industry information. Joe has been quick to respond to any problems we may run into whether it is hardware or software related. I would recommend Joe’s services to anyone working in a Macintosh environment."

Denise Sauter
Art Director, In Business Magazine

"Joe Rhodes has helped us at Dog’s Best Friend, Ltd. make our Macintosh computers more productive. Even more importantly, Joe (we call him the "computer prince") has a way of taking the frustration out of computers and making them useful, understandable and enjoyable. Just as we help people understand their pets, Joe has helped us understand complex systems in a way that is accessible and logical. We can always count on him to be there when we need him, and I can’t imagine what we’d do without him!"

Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.
Owner/Manager, Dog’s Best Friend, Ltd.

"Joe Rhodes has what so many companies are looking for–a high degree of technical expertise and excellent, excellent people skills. He’s able to create effective solutions, explain them in plain language, and implement them flawlessly and with integrity. We are very happy with his work."

Dmitri Bilgere
Vice-president, Mastery Technologies, Inc.

"Joe is a professional, pleasant, person who works very hard and stays with a problem until a solution is found. He has the ability to work on various issues and have a successful outcome."

Tracy Anderson
Technical Support Specialist, Demco Inc.

"I can whip him at miniature golf but he sure can whip my Mac back into shape."

Brett Newton
Creative Director, GSP Marketing, Chicago, IL

"We would like to go on record as completely supporting your knowledge, expertise and capabilities in the areas of Wireless Access Point Routers, Virus Detection, DSL services, and making the thingy bopper stop doing the wierd file wahtchamacallet. Thank you for your continued professionalism."

Matthew Harvat
President, Circuit MOM Productions, Inc., Chicago, IL

"I want to extend my appreciation to you for contributing your time and concise knowledge to the community of Mac users listening to Wisconsin Public Radio. Not only is your familiarity with Mac OS X (and earlier -you give me flashbacks and Mac hardware (and peripherals) broad and deep, but both the manner in which you handle the listener questions and your response is both affirming and right on the mark. Your persona and ambassadorship underscores the splendor and esthetic of the Mac community. I can tell by listening that you are both giving the callers the needed resolve to their inquiries and the knowledge to know the why and how so they may be empowered and better equipped to understand their Mac and it’s operation more confidently"

Jon Moffatt

WPR Listner

Google sees a lot of the internet. They decided to take a sample of the web pages they crawl, taking a close look at 4.5 million web sites they thought were suspicious. Of that group, there were 450,000 pages with exploits on them that compromised a PC. Another 700,000 were strongly suspected of having exploits, but didn’t actually compromise a PC.

They found that malicious web pages come about for four main reasons:

1. Poor web-server security
2. User-contributed content (blogs, MySpace, etc.)
3. Advertising (banner ad space sold to unscrupulous third parties)
4. Third-party "widgets" (little browser-based programs)

It’s a very academic (that is, dry and boring) read, but interesting non the less.

Google PDF on Web Viruses

Has this happened in your business?

You accidentally go to the wrong web site and before we know it, ads start popping up by themselves. Your computer feels glacially slow. You search the web for a utility that might fix it, but it only made it worse. And somehow your anti-virus software let all this happen.

"Drive-by downloads" exploit weaknesses in your browser or sometimes in your good intentions. They may be installing ad-ware, viruses, keystroke loggers, or god knows what else. They make your computer slow and annoying, and they might be doing some very dangerous things without you knowing.

Win the virus war before it’s fought on your PC.

The new method for attacking PC’s is shifting from e-mail based threats to include web based threats. We have a filtering system that catches these attacks before they have a chance to crack your PC. When you ask for a web page, it’s fetched and scrubbed by the filter. If there’s a problem found, that page or download is blocked.

But we all ready have anti-virus on our PC’s. Shouldn’t that catch this sort of thing?

In our testing, we were surprised to find how poorly any one particular anti-virus program catches a set of current viruses and ad-ware. Very surprised! It was only when scanning with multiple anti-virus programs did we get decent detection rates. Having more than one anti-virus on your PC can be a recipe for disaster–they start fighting amongst themselves. But on the server, then can be configured to run in harmony, pooling their collective power to better protect you.

This must slow things down or cause some problems?

You’d be surprised. In our testing, there wasn’t a discernable difference, and we were testing with a total of 5 virus scanners running simultaneously. In many cases, there is actually a speed up from page caching. Once a web page has been fetched and scrubbed, it’s kept locally. If it’s requested again and it the orginal hasn’t changed, the page can be served from the local cache instead of going back through the internet. Your browser does this all the time, but now you have a smarter cache courtesy of all the other web requests from your office.

Do the end users have to do anything different?

That’s the best part. From an end user perspective, nothing will change. Occasionally they’ll get a notice saying the page they requested was blocked. They just surf along as usual while the system silently protects them.

Protection this thorough must be expensive?

Web virus protection is surprisingly affordable, especially compared with the costs of dealing with a compromised PC. The exact costs vary depending on the number of users and the number of virus scanners you’d like to rely on.

As an example: For a small office of about 10 clients, using just free anti-virus software, a system would start at $1,500 installed. Adding two commercial virus scanners to the mix would add around $500, depending on which products you choose. Commercial virus packages also have to be renewed on a yearly basis.

I’d like to know more!

Give us a call or send us an e-mail and we’ll stop by your office for a free consultation. We’ll go over the details of your office network, decide on an optimal configuration to fit your needs, and give you a more precise cost estimate.

Some folks really like us!

I began working with Joe over a few years ago. A client needed a network between two locations. We had to have a cost effective solution. Joe’s ability to communicate the IT language in plain English, with good examples, impressed me. He was pivotal in our decision about which provider and which solution. Our system worked well for our situation and it saved us a very large amount of money.

Since that experience, Joe has been an enthusiastic IT support for two of my clients and my own business. Joe built a network for my CPA practice that was bullet proof during the first tax season. I couldn’t be down or bothered with IT problems. Joe’s clear communication style helped me make difficult financial decisions about back-up systems, hardware and software options, support, etc. It has been very easy to trust Joe when I see the value added IT service he provides.

I believe Joe has had my best interest in mind in all our business dealings and he’s a fun person to work with. Anyone considering IT options has my permission to call me for more specific information about the savings and service Joe provides.

Duane Beckett, CPA
Beckett Tax & Accounting, LLC
608-310-8140

We at Mani & Company and Mani G-Raps have worked with Joe Rhodes for almost three years. Joe first came on board when we were looking for a new accounting platform that would meet the accounting requirements of two very different companies, while allowing us to continue to utilize our Macintosh computers. No such accounting platform existed, but Joe was completely undaunted. He found a solution via Citrix that allowed us to use our Macs, but work in a PC software solution. This saved our companies thousands of dollars in both software and hardware expenditures.

When we were ready to move our accounting and customer service functions into a PC environment, Joe was right there with us. He built our PCs, built our server, developed our email systems, engineered a system that allows us to host our own website and installed a back-up system that is easy to use, but protects us from any size catastrophe. All of this at a fraction of what it would have cost to use one of his competitors.

Joe is a mastermind at engineering solutions; from the most mundane to the most complex, he will find a way to make things work easily and efficiently. And he does this all with incomparable dedication and a truly wonderful sense of humor. Wherever he can, he will save you money. He will always try to explain in plain English the solutions he intends to utilize, and he will make sure that you’re not just nodding your head – that you really understand what he’s proposing.

He is a rare jewel among consultants – he doesn’t build into his work the need for you to continue to use his services. He wants you to be able to do your own problem solving at whatever level you feel comfortable doing so. If you need him to hold your hand while learning how to ‘cut and paste’ – he’s there. If you only need to see him once over three years to clean the dust bunnies out of your server – he’s there.

So, if you have lots of money and think that high cost “name brand” software and hardware solutions are essential, and will only hire a “prestigious” consulting firm that has at least three names in it – do not hire Joe Rhodes Consulting – you deserve to be throwing your money out the window! If, however, you need solutions that fit within an already constrained budget, solutions that work efficiently and are rock solid and stable, or if you just have a simple question about the way in which your computer operates – give Joe Rhodes a call. I cannot recommend Joe Rhodes highly enough.

Vickie Peters
Director of Purchasing & Production
Mani & Company
Mani G’Raps