One Stop Technologies reboots operations

What happens when a business closes its doors? Where do the employees go?

If they’re like Joe Wilson and Walter Rowland, they go into business for themselves.

“Joe and I worked together at another company. When the owners closed the business, they left their clients without any tech support,” Rowland said.

Out of a job and with nothing to lose, the partners contacted their old customers and offered their services. One Stop Technologies was born.

“We’re basically what our name implies; a one-stop shop for all computer service, networking, for home and business. That includes PCs, Macs, servers, Smart phones, any technological device,” Rowland explained.

One Stop Technologies has been in business for just a year and has built a customer base that includes clients in Houma, Lafayette and as far away as Alabama and Texas.

“We consider ourselves as rent-a-techs without corporate strings,” Rowland said.

The men agree that computer viruses are one of the biggest problems facing home and business users.

“Viruses can put your computer into an endless loop,” Wilson said.

A computer virus is malicious code that is written and attached to email and websites. Any file that can be downloaded onto a computer can potentially carry a virus.

“The virus will have a script written with instructions that will send it to a system file or different areas of your computer to do damage,” Rowland said.

The two advise staying away from suspicious or unfamiliar websites.

“Once you put your name and e-mail address on the Internet – even on reputable sites – you’re fair game,” Rowland said.

Fair game for data mining and keylogging.

Data mining refers to the collection of information about the computer user such as shopping patterns, age and gender – basic market research data.

A keylogger is more invasive. This program logs and monitors all activities on the computer such as keystrokes, passwords, credit card numbers, websites visited and emails.

“It’s on your computer while you’re typing. You usually don’t recognize what’s happening until you get your credit card bill in,” Wilson said.

Rowland explained if a computer has acquired a virus but still runs, it might be salvageable. The cost of the repair can outweigh the price of a new computer, though.

If that’s the case, One Stop Technologies will point the customer in the right direction.

“We’re not really into retail. We do have reseller rights to a lot of the manufacturers but we’re not going to fill the place up like a showroom. We’re more service-oriented,” Rowland said.

Viruses aren’t the only danger to computers. Floodwaters take their toll as well.

After Hurricane Katrina, news stories on recovering data from flooded computers were published. Wilson said that kind of damage is tough to come back from.

“You can reclaim your data from the hard drive depending on where the water level was, but if your computer was completely submerged, retrieving data is dicey. It depends on how much you want to spend,” he explained.

Heat is also a danger to computers.

“Most problems people have with computers are they keep them locked in a desk with a door and no open back for ventilation. Heat builds up and wears out the computer,” Rowland said.

Sometimes it’s not the computer hardware that’s the problem but the software. For years, many in the business community have relied upon Windows XP.

“Windows 7 is the best one right now. For the companies that have XP, it’s so embedded that they’ll never get rid of it. It’s legacy software now,” Rowland said.

But years of use can degrade the program, Wilson explained.

“Regular usage and adding programs will cause your Windows version to slow down. The registry gets bloated after a while. The more junk that’s in there, the slower the computer,” he said.

The Windows registry is a blueprint for everything that occurs in a computer and how it fits together. It contains large batches of files containing information about other programs, visits to websites and program installations. New entries are created all the time and, as it fills with information, the registry may cause a computers’ performance to suffer.

“Getting rid of some of the log files will help. You have to wipe the computer clean and start over again,” Rowland said.

That’s also a good idea when getting rid of an old computer. Rowland said that private data is stored on the hard drive and can be accessed by those who know what they’re doing.

To protect against identity theft, fraud and other computer crimes, wipe the computer hard drive to empty it of all private data.

If a new computer is in the cards and a consumer is trying to decide between Apple or a PC, the two agree the choice depends on what the computer will be used for.

“Macs are better for video and audio but they don’t support half the software Windows does. Mac’s aren’t really for the everyday user,” Rowland said. “You can’t really get viruses on a Mac, whereas Windows you have a hard time not getting a virus,” he continued.

“Macs are better period. They’re just not practical for business because they don’t have the software most people use,” Wilson added.

When not repairing computers or networks, the men of One Stop Technologies can be found donating their time helping non-profit groups handle their systems.

“We do work for church and take care of their computer systems. We’ve been talking about going to the public libraries because they all have computers,” Rowland said.

Another service One Stop Technologies offers is a diagnostic of an ailing computer at no charge.

“If your computer is having a problem, bring it in. We’ll look at it for free and tell you what it’ll take to fix it,” Rowland said.

Wilson and Rowland are enjoying being on their own and working together.

“It’s been a good fit. I keep him grounded,” Wilson said.

“We like doing what we do and if we get paid, that’s awesome. We’re like the odd couple. It’s fun,” Rowland said.

Walter Rowland (left) and Joe Wilson, owners of One Stop Technologies, are celebrating the company’s one-year anniversary this month. The partners recently opened a new location at 114 Enterprise Drive in Houma. JENNIE CHILDS