Alva Digital Support

09/25/2026

Good Friday Morning Alva!

Scheduling today is limited, New Scheduled requests will be requested for next week. Priorities can be worked in today, but limits of Time and Space, and all that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

ISPs:
Bluepeak is hard at work running lines through town. They have worked in my yard thus far twice, both times, visually, they are running tubing then the lines.

Optimum is responding to people (already) leaving. While all is still your choice, please keep in mind, if you sign something, read it in full, if you are not confident you understand what you are reading, either ask a friend who can, or a lawyer, even a lawyer friend would do great. It's one thing if your bill is lowered, it's another if your service continues to drop or cut out when you need it most, too often, and delayed onsite technicians.

Microsoft:
Licenses are increasing, again. Business Basic License yearly is going up another $7, again yearly not monthly. Higher tiers will see the same or additional.

MS Office 2019, and Publisher in general (including O365 subscriptions), will no longer be supported (no technical support by Microsoft, no updates for patches or security fixes) or provided by O365 subscriptions. While most clients I work with does not use Publisher, places like Churches still do heavily. Libre Office "Draw" is an alternative, however not 1:1 identical, some user learning and adjusting will be necessary, but not so much different than yourself hopping between a Sedan to a Truck.

While not yet in stone, I may be working from the Workspace Office today. I have a couple projects which do not require internet, but I need the workbench space.

Storms, power, surges...
Battery Backups are a must for critical computer/networking/phone hardware.
Aging computers, 4yrs+, should be looked into for aging parts, especially aging storage drives. There is never, Never, a 100% guarantee a failing drive can to be recovered. Even a 99.9% recovery of a failing drive, while user files can be recovered, may still fail to boot into the operating system successfully (one of my challenges this week).

Speaking of battery backup systems, I'm auditing what loaners I have, clearing out old-old gear, and working through replacing them for on-demand needs after storms.

12v batteries are in stock. IF I run out, I have a quick source in the next town over, worst case a trip to Enid for a few boxes.

09/24/2026

Good Afternoon Alva!
Due to a growing back log of computers in house, Friday has no remaining availability for non-priority requests.

Current scheduled clients will be as normal.

Send a message to learn more

09/23/2026

I like positive Printer news.
Don't we all like to hear Good Things about Printers, right?

"A 12-year-old in California built a Braille printer from a $350 Lego robotics kit for a school science fair, at a time when the cheapest commercial machine cost about $2,000, and Intel invested in it"

When a middle schooler cracked an accessibility problem that the technology industry had left unsolved for decades, major investors took notice.

09/22/2026

Hello Alva!
Rather busy morning, with a priority request rolling in this afternoon.
Onsite availability is locked down for the day.
Remote/In-House support will be touch and go, pending ongoing findings and solutions for the priority request.

Send a message to learn more

09/21/2026

Hello All!
Excel issues copy/pasting?

MS has a recent fix for this issue.
Cause came up with this month's batch of updates and patches.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-fixes-broken-excel-copy-and-paste-for-all-office-users/

"The bug was confirmed following a wave of customer reports on Reddit and the Microsoft Q&A forums that this month's updates (including the KB5002914 security update) break copy-and-paste, autofill, and formula dragging in Excel.

"In Microsoft Excel 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016, as well as Excel Online in Office Online Server, the paste operation might fail silently," Microsoft explains in a support document updated on Friday."

Microsoft has fixed a known issue that causes copy-and-paste failures for Excel users after installing the September 2026 security updates.

09/21/2026

Good Morning Alva!
Hope everyone enjoyed the Car Show? Benefits of living near by, sights and sounds from my own front porch!

Cooler weather this week, I'm looking forward to the out of town trips.

Scheduling this week is mostly open. A few tickets spotted around, and a couple in-house computer setups in queue.

Send a message to learn more

09/18/2026

Optimum Notice:
Optimum is calling their current customers, as far as I know just Businesses, to discuss an ongoing event they have. Reduced Rate Event, if I'm not mistaken.

Saving money on your bill is always a great deal.
However, please keep in mind, Optimum's support response times, and phone support in general, has hardly improved.

As an actual event example, I have a client who's phone-modem, feeding more than one phone line, has been damaged, not yet a paper weight, since Tuesday night's storm. One of the lines are silent, in other words the 2-wire port is dead.
While I did manage to push the schedule from next week Thursday to Tuesday, no option to visit their Enid store was possible, to pick up a replacement phone-modem, a technician is required.
I understand they want to make sure their gear works, having a local tech, and local inventory is what makes their competitors better.

Optimum is asking their clients to sign paperwork for reduced rates.
The choice is entirely yours.
I ask you this, is the monthly savings on your bill, for your business, worth the loss of business revenue when the internet/phone is out until a tech arrives Days later?

Bluepeak is hiring and training from within Alva.
That alone tells me scheduling will be more widely available.
That tells me replacement hardware will be available in town (pending restocking times).
Bluepeak, from multiple reps, intends to respond to business requests within 24hours (pending normal work schedules).

Send a message to learn more

09/18/2026

Good morning Alva.

Due to allergies draining me every day this week, except Wednesday after Tuesday's storm, I'm beat.

Working on rescheduling low-priority requests.
Working through requests which cannot wait.
This afternoon, if it's anything like Tuesday and Thursday, I will be growing less functional and reliable.
For better quality of service, I will be resting instead of risking.

If not much better by Monday, I will be kicking up my meds to fight the allergies.
Frankly, I did not grow up with allergies until, around, 3rd year of college. Some years are worse than others, and this year may be taking the cake.

Send a message to learn more

09/16/2026

Big Thank Congrats to Alva's Vocational Rehab 1yr at their new location! Had a good time with their Open House, and I appreciate the snacks!

Met many people, and offered services in the event someone is in need of assistance.

Other than a couple priority outage calls this morning, much move-in progress has been made. Shelving is almost all built up, arrangement not yet final.
Cabling for networks is still in planning stages, removal of unnecessary cables to proceed on next visit.

Slowly shifting some projects to the Work Office, however until Internet is installed, continued use of my living room will be necessary.

Next time I'm at the office, I'll add a sign by the door, with the new location of the Alva Tag Office. Nearly every time I've been at the office for more than a few minutes, someone has come in looking for the tag office.

Thursday and Friday morning availability slots are mostly open. Further office will continue.

09/16/2026

Sept 15 late evening storm related:
Updates will be included in comments below.

About 9:45, call came in from East side of Alva, North side of Blvd. Started with main network switch offline, now back online.
Optimum outage began within minutes before/after I arrived. Basic diagnostics shows issue is on Optimum's side.

11am, second call, internet and phones out. West side of Alva, South side of Blvd.
Optimum outage confirmed, client received SMS Text.

Pattern of Optimum outage is yet unknown, beyond parts of Alva Blvd.
At this time, Town Square and my home (near town square) is still online.