Phone System Services -Chicago, IL 

Whether you need a legacy phone system maintained, or an entirely new communications system for multiple offices, Andromeda Technology Solutions is the answer you have been looking for. As our expertise also includes complete data network solutions, you can rest assured that we can fully integrate a communications system that will best leverage your existing or future IT infrastructure.

In many cases, your telephone system is the first thing people will experience when dealing with your business.

• Does it show your company in a good light?
• Is it set up so your clients have a good experience?
• Does it help maximize employee productivity?

Let us show you how a phone system should be set up!

Experience the simplicity of having an experienced company to handle all aspects of your communication systems, letting you focus on running your business.

Contact us or fill out the Request form on this page now to ask us to contact you!

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Hybrid PBX and IP-based Phone Systems

We support a host of major phone systems—from Avaya, NEC, Panasonic to Toshiba— and are a certified Panasonic dealer for both a traditional PBX system, as well as a true IP-based VoIP system. The beauty of these systems lies in their very extensive feature set (over 800 features) and their mix-and-match capabilities. Each system can mix analog, digital and IP phone sets to match almost any application. Also, each system has extensive functionality built-in for incorporating branch offices, work-at-home employees and other remote workers.

We spend a great deal of time understanding all your requirements, so we can select the system and functions that are exactly what you need.

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The Phones Become the Network

If you are considering an IP-based telephone system, it is important to understand these systems are more data systems than phone systems. Unlike a traditional PBX system, a VoIP system puts a significant burden on your data network, and requires specific equipment and configuration to ensure everything is running properly.

Many traditional telephone service companies lack the skills to properly install and maintain a VoIP system. Andromeda Technology Solutions excels in all aspects of voice and data, and will ensure you get the system that is right for you.

Whether Cloud-based, Hosted/virtual PBX, or completely on-premises, we have the knowledge AND experience to guide you and implement your voice communication system to perfection.

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Replacement of Legacy Phone Systems

We have many years of experience upgrading/replacing legacy phones systems from: ComDial, Nortel, Toshiba/Mitel, and Samsung just to name a few. If you would like to experience service from a truly customer-focused organization, call us when you are ready to replace and upgrade your existing legacy telephone system.

			KX-TA KX-NCP KX-TDA KS-TDE
			IP Office Definity Magix Legend Partner
			Aspire Elite IPK I-Series DS/DSX

AndroPedia Tech Library

As part of our service, it is important to keep our client-partners well informed on Telephone system developments, news, and best practices. Here is just a sampling of typical items from our AndroPedia^SM library archive:

Surely you’ve heard of the increasing threats of cyber criminals. Breaches are occurring so frequently now, it’s difficult to keep up. By now you’ve heard about the increasing threat of cyber criminals. Between trojan horses, phishing scams, malicious links in emails, and ransomware, it’s progressing in every IT field. With phone scams, the telephone category is no different.

You can’t trust the news: billion dollar companies are not the only one at risk. In fact, sometimes smaller companies have a higher risk of being targeted. most cyber criminals consider the small to midsize market a goldmine. This is the result of lower security protocols and focuses from the small to midsize business owner. The “It won’t happen to me” mentality is your worst enemy.

Business owners are getting savvier and more aware. In turn, cyber criminals are turning to other technologies such as phones, to attack your business.

We would like to share a few examples of different phone-based scams, along with tips on how to avoid them.

The “Can You Hear Me” Phone Scam:

These phone scams spread between business owners and consumers where a criminal will call you simply to get you to say “yes”. What happens is they record your voice and use this one simple word to unlawfully sign you up for services and approve purchases.
The Better Business Bureau even released an alert and warning to the public regarding this scam. They outline a few different tactics that scammers utilize to get the audio desired. Questions asked might include:

• Are you the homeowner?
• Are you over 18?
• Do you pay the household bills?
• Do you own a home computer?

Calls can come from several different sources, or at least claim to. Common ones include security companies, cruise lines or sometimes even from the government.

You may be wondering how you can possibly identify these scammers and protect yourself.

Some helpful tips to follow:

• Don’t answer calls from numbers you do not recognize. You can always leave it for voicemail and if it’s truly that important, they will leave a message.
• Never give out personally identifiable information over the phone if you aren’t sure of who is calling you and the purpose of the phone call.
• If you believe you have fallen for a phone scam like this, reach out to your bank and credit card companies to flag your accounts. Check your account daily for any activity and be alert.

The “Vishing” Phone Scam:

“Vishing” is a play on the email technique “phishing”, which you are probably already aware of. This technique is quite similar to the email version where a scammer calls you and attempts to grab personal information by claiming they are from a reputable source or business you already engage with.

For example, have you ever gotten an email from your bank claiming that your account has been compromised? The email then prompts you to click a link and login to confirm your account details or restore credibility and looks something like this:

Criminals apply this same technique to the phone.

One of the most popular applications of this scam is connected to the IRS. Your phone rings and they even have the ability to make the caller ID read IRS or some government-related contact. When you pick up the phone you may hear a recording informing you that you are under investigation, or that the IRS has located discrepancies in your taxes. They may ask for specific information to confirm your identity before connecting you to an agent such as:

• Social security information
• Birth date
• Address information
• And more . . .

Again, there are a few ways you can spot these calls and prevent yourself from falling victim to these types of phone scams.

First, never call a phone number presented to you in an email or over the phone. If your bank calls you, call them back on their official number off their website or business card. The same applies to credit card companies or the IRS.

Second, credit card companies and government agencies typically refer to you by your full name. If you receive a call and the recording or person on the other line uses anything but your full name, proceed with caution.

Third, there is no reason any credit company or even the IRS would call you direct and request information like credit card numbers, routing numbers or social security information. If someone calls you and asks for this, hang up and call their official number (for credit/bank – call the number on the back of your card). If this was a legitimate call the official reps will have knowledge of it, otherwise report the call.

Remember these tips and it will dramatically increase your chances of remaining safe. Feel free to reach our team if you have any questions.

Also – check out this database provided by the BBB where you can track local and national scam trends to stay alert and prepared. After all, the best defense is continued education when it comes to cybercrime and phone scams.

The post Common Phone Scam Prevention appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

We regularly reach out to clients for feedback on our products and service. Over the twenty plus years we have been in business, at least one thing has remained constant. Phones are a necessity for every business and professional phone systems remain a mystery to most users. Just like the other technologies in your office, your phone system changes with time and modern phone systems have many new enhanced phone features. These phone features can improve productivity, improve accessibility and assist with client relations. There are many different enhanced features available to you. With this in mind, we are bringing you a three part series focusing on enhanced phone features for enhanced business.

 4 Enhanced Phone Features You Didn’t Even Know You Needed

Twinning

The first in our phone features list is Twinning. Twinning allows a primary extension and a secondary number (extension or external) to operate together as a single telephone. When a call presents to the primary phone the secondary will ring. If the primary telephone does not ring, for example in Do Not Disturb, the secondary phone will not ring. For example, imagine you have twinning set up for your mobile phone and your office phone. When a call comes through, both phones ring so you can receive calls whether you are in the office or on the road (of course, as mentioned, you may set your phones to Do Not Disturb because you are gone for the day, or in a meeting so you aren’t interrupted by phone calls 24/7).

Internal Twinning

This next phone feature is typically used in large spaces like workshops or warehouses where team supervisors may have a desk with a fixed phone but also have a wireless extension (e.g. DECT). When a call is made from either internally twinned phone, the call will appear to have come from the primary phone (when the secondary is an extension on the IP Office system). Other users of the system need not know that the supervisor has two different phones.

Mobile (external) Twinning

A typical use for Mobile Twinning would be for a salesperson or other employee who has a desk extension but is often out of the office. They can give out one phone number to clients, but it will ring their mobile/cell phone as well as the desk extension. External mobile devices can be set as twinning targets even if the primary telephone is logged out.

Mobile Call Control

This enhanced phone feature allows a user who has answered a twinned call on their mobile phone to use features they would normally only be able to access on their desktop phone (i.e. transfer calls, park calls, conference etc.) There is traditionally a sequence such as ** (star star) that the user must enter to engage this functionality.

If any of the above look like something your business is missing, feel free to give us a call. Make sure to check back in for part 2 of the Enhanced Phone Features series next month

The post Enhanced Phone Features For Enhanced Business Part 1 appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Do you use Whatsapp on an Android device?

If so, you'll want to upgrade to the latest version as soon as possible.

Recently, a critical vulnerability being tracked as 'CVE-2019-11932' was discovered that allows hackers to gain access to your chat logs and personal information by sending you a poisoned GIF.

The flaw is called a "Double-free vulnerability" because it's triggered when the free() parameter is called twice on the same value and argument inside the software.� When this happens, it causes memory in use to leak and become corrupted, opening the door to the execution of arbitrary code by a determined hacker.

The issue was discovered by an independent security researcher who goes by the name "Awakened."� While his or her true identity is unknown, they published the technical specifications of the attack on GitHub, which revealed that the bug can be triggered in two ways.

The first way requires a piece of malware code to be injected on a target Android device.� This software generates a poisoned GIF which is used to hack Whatsapp via a collection of library data.

The second variant of the attack requires that a Whatsapp user be exposed to the poisoned GIF via other channels. For instance, if the poisoned file was sent directly to the user or inserted into a user's gallery.

In any case, the company moved swiftly to patch the issue and if you're not running a version below 2.19.244, you're fine.� If you are running an older version than that, you should update immediately, and better yet, just set Whatsapp to receive automatic updates so issues like these won't plague you in the future.

Two things should be stressed here:� First, this issue only seems to affect Whatsapp for Android. Second, so far, there's no evidence that the attack has been seen used in the wild.� Nonetheless, it pays to upgrade right away because now that the details of the attack are publicly available, it's just a matter of time.

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