We started working on computers about 45 years ago
We have been working with computer systems, networking and the Internet since 1978. We serviced the DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Rainbow, 8-bit, 16-bit and eventually 32-bit systems, for larger companies that could afford them. The Rainbow had a Z80 coprocessor, or 8088 + Z80, and was a multi-boot, so a business could choose whether they wanted it to start up with MS-DOS, CP/M, or CP/M80. We wrote our invoices on a Tandy TRS80 computer using the Scripsit Word Processing Program from Radio Shack in 1979. We also repaired most of the other MS-DOS machines on the market including TI (Texas Instruments) Pros, NEC APCs, Wangs, and Zeniths, and in those days repairing meant soldering and de-soldering components on a circuit board (we also serviced televisions, superhetrodyne radio receivers, HAM radios, Nikon, Konica and Pentax cameras, and just about any business electronics, such as phone/intercom, audio visual, video surveillance, door access, and built-in furniture and wall/ceiling conference room systems.
The IBM AS/400 midrange computer became popular in the Tri-state area for business in the late 1980s and we installed, maintained and serviced them. They were the predecessors of the IBM eServer Series later in the 1990s. When the PCs (personal computers) began to take over the marketplace, we became Everex Personal Computer (American made PC manufacturer in California) and Viewsonic Monitor Dealers, and sold/serviced PCs and simple, token ring (the networks that were used prior to LAN) networks to local businesses in the Hudson Valley. We also serviced Compaq, IBM, Gateway, Hewlet Packard, and Arthur Lazere’s Northgate Computer Systems which, at one point, Everex was contemplating buying out Northgate. From the 1990s through 2009 we were designing, selling and servicing BTO units (Built To Order computers), where we would select a laptop, desktop, tower or server chassis or case from among various manufacturers, motherboard, drives, power supplies, and decide on air cooling, water cooling, etc., based on client needs. We became an authorized Sager dealer, selling their unique high-power units (relative to competitor units at the time); and we still have a couple of clients using them today.
Currently, we’ve been an authorized Dell Partner for 27 years, and an authorized Cisco Networking Partner for 16 years. We install local government networks in compliance with the Cyber Security Code, DHS NYS Office of Cyber Security; and Information Technology Governance, NYS Office of the State Comptroller; in municipalities, fire houses, etc., as well as secure networks for those businesses that want a more secure network. We write code, design Web sites, register and park our clients’ domains, host clients on the Web on our own Web and Email servers, develop Javascript, run CentOSx and Debian repositories on site, offer secure, off-site data back-up services, and consistently study to renew industry certifications for Microsoft, Cisco, and EC-Council (including CEH and CHFI). We perform ethical hacking, computer and network cyberforensic investigations, and install computer controlled environments for access and control, video surveillance, overhead music and paging systems, point of sale, secure remote access, multi-location secure VOIP phone systems behind the firewall, IT consulting including pre-construction, digital video wall presentations, and digital marketing, to name a few services.
We have been working with networks as the networking concept was being developed- through present day
We first started working with the Internet in the late ‘70s when the Internet was called ARPANET and then UUnet. The network ran on POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) lines. Either you had a separate phone line from the phone company over copper for your Net connection, or you couldn’t make any phone calls while on the Net. We would be “talking” to someone on the Net (it was really only typing to someone, but it was generally referred to as “talking to someone”), and if one of us picked up the phone by mistake, we were cut off! To get online, you had to call a specific phone number for Net access issued by the phone company and then place the handset of your wall or desk phone in a two-cup cradle. A couple of years later, Internet modems came out: 7 data bits, one stop bit, no parity and a it was a lot of work to get a decent baud rate for communication (not that the device didn’t offer the standard selection of baud rates, but you had to match the device’s baud rate to which you were communicating). We used to run a Bulletin Board Service, and those people who were lucky enough to afford their own personal computer would exchange media with us. Worldcom (ATT) took over UUnet, and that’s when the improvements for Internet communications started to come more rapidly. We developed Internet communication systems for companies that were based in other areas (like NYC), and had offices in the Hudson Valley, so their locations could exchange data with one another.
We have been working with networks through the development of networking. In the 1970s, the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) was working on a white paper that organized a networking model. Finally published in 1984, it became the ISO 7498 Standard for Networking. It shows an Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI), which provides reference and direction for all the network equipment manufacturers so that they all conform to the same standards. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which contributed to the development of OSI under previous organizational names along with ISO, adopted OSI as their X.200 Spec. Charlie Bachman of Honeywell, came up with a diagram for OSI network layers that was added to OSI 7498 and X.200. This diagram is studied today by IT professionals during certification training, and is useful in the design, maintenance and troubleshooting of networks around the world. Based on our extensive experience with networks during the development of networking, we are called upon by service providers for advice and recommendations when upgrading older equipment and troubleshooting issues.
Our company has changed its name through the years to “modernize to the times,” just as technology changes and improves, and we have been Business Growth Control, Inc. since 2007.