One Firm or Two for IT and Web Dev/Design?
It’s not often that you find a web development company that’s also an IT support company or vice versa. West County Net happens to be both, and many of our clients take advantage of that fact.
Holiday E-Commerce & Online Marketing
More and more people buy goods and services online every year. With the holiday shopping season here once again, your business should be ready for e-commerce!
Net Neutrality Update – President Obama Lends Support
Whether or not you agree with the President’s political views, policies, or the decisions he’s made in office, it’s pretty easy to get behind him in the case of net neutrality.
Key to Cloud Hosting Security: Patching and Updating
The internet is open to anyone at anytime from anywhere in the world (for the most part). Is your business protected in the cloud?
Inbound Marketing & Small Business
This is a good example of the kind of advertising that nobody wants to see. Depending on how deep you’ve delved into the rabbit hole that is online marketing strategy, “inbound marketing” may be an unfamiliar term. Rest assured, inbound marketing isn’t false hype for “the next big thing,” nor is it some snake oil […]
West County: E-Commerce in Santa Rosa
West County Net is a web development, online marketing, and IT support company that’s been helping businesses build and launch e-commerce websites for years.
End of Support for Windows Server 2003
In less than a year, Microsoft will end support for the popular Windows Server 2003. Hailed by many as the most stable, reliable Windows-based server OS, many are not looking forward to leaving Win2k3. However, compromised security is forcing the issue.
Why is Broadband Internet Important?
Net neutrality, ISP monopolies, and “fast lanes” aside, why is broadband internet so important anyway? Why is it important that people have access to high-speed internet? What does fast internet service do for society?
Broadband ISP Monopoly Isn’t “Natural”
There’s this little clawing, nagging thought in the back of my mind: I’m paying this business whose practices I hate and whose customer service is consistently rated the worst in the country, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Sonoma County Golf’s 1st Annual Chip In for Charity Tournament
West County is proud to be a sponsor of Sonoma County Golf’s 1st Annual Chip In for Charity Tournament. Proceeds from the event are benefiting the Polly Klaas Foundation, a charity organization based in Petaluma whose mission is to keep children safe and aid in the recovery of missing children. Since 1993, the foundation has […]
Why is Responsive Design Important?
Responsive Design: an approach to designing and programming a website wherein, depending on the size of the screen on which it is being displayed, content on the site is scaled, rearranged, and/or transformed in the interest of making it as easily viewable and accessible as possible. In other words, your website works good on phones […]
Why is Net Neutrality Important?
If you work in the tech or web industries, you’re probably already entrenched in the debate raging on right now over net neutrality. Recently, there’s been a huge public outcry against FCC chairman Tom Wheeler’s so-called “open internet proposal.” The fight for net neutrality has been going on for a long time now. There have […]
Implementing a Cloud Service
Cloud computing is quickly becoming the standard for cost-effective web hosting, data backup, and information technology services. Businesses of all sizes (including giants like Netflix) use some form of cloud service for their integral day-to-day operations. When you consider the money that businesses can save by avoiding purchasing their own servers, it’s no wonder there […]
New Internet Explorer Vulnerability Discovered
A security flaw has been discovered for the hugely popular web browser, Internet Explorer. The vulnerability affects all versions of IE, from version 6 through the most recent release, IE 11. Though the number of reported attacks has been few so far, the sheer potential for serious breaches in security is staggering. Over 50% of […]
The Demise of Windows XP
Time to say goodbye Microsoft has finally ended its support for the Windows XP operating system. Sustaining 13 years on the market, the extremely popular operating system was used the world over. In the end, XP weighed in at just under 28% of the global OS market share. To be so popular even at the […]
The Heartbleed Bug: What is it, what did it do, and what does it mean for you?
Recently, news of a major security issue known as the Heartbleed Bug has been circulating around the internet. The security flaw affects all systems that use OpenSSL, a security protocol that is utilized by a large portion of websites on the internet. In the most basic terms, the Heartbleed Bug may have exposed a bunch […]
SEO History 101
Search engine optimization has been a violently shifting landscape since its inception in the mid 90s. On the one hand, you have SEO companies and their clients, who want to rank as high as possible so more people see their websites in search results. On the other hand, you have search engines (like the giant, […]
Websites Designed for Success
WordPress was originally developed as a platform for bloggers to self-publish their blogs. Because its goal was to be accessible for as many people as possible, it is exceedingly easy to use. There’s no need to contact your webmaster if you want to update content on your site—your website is yours to change whenever you want. With WordPress’ simple and intuitive interface, it’s as easy as logging into the site’s backend and making the change.
Password Security & Best Password Practices
The recent credit card information breach at Target has a lot of people thinking about big business security issues again. What kind of information do the businesses we trust so much have and how easy is it exactly to access by some anonymous hacker? The problem that the Target credit card breach highlights is that—no […]