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Chicomm Blog

Remember the good old days when there were only viruses, and the only way you can get one is if you went online to some obscure website and downloaded it, or if someone handed you a floppy disk with a file that was infected from their computer. If you had virus software it was caught and you went about your business unscathed. Back then the reasoning behind viruses was the same as the reasoning behind taggers, to express “art” and be noticed. It’s different today; we have viruses, trojans, malware, ransomware, hackers, and cyber mafia.

While any one of these can corrupt your system, ransomware stands out. Ransomware has become a very profitable business for some. It was developed by the cyber mafia, a tech savvy version of the crime mafia, looking to receive notoriety for the action and to make a good buck while doing so.

Tags: IT Solutions

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ChiComm's Not Who You Thought We Were

Posted by Lisa MacGillivray on Tuesday, June 24, 2014

By the shear presence of the word in our name, many believe Chicago Communications conducts business only in the Chicago area.  While we are proud to call Chicago our home, and have called it home for over sixty years, many of our business endeavors take us well beyond this great City's limits.  We have customers all across the area and several with locations which extend to the broader reaches of the country.  In these instances, we have been very fortunate to continue our partnership with those customers at their extended locations as well.  This has enabled us to expand our reach to the central and southern portions of Illinois, north into Wisconsin, west toward the Mississippi, although extending as far as Arizona, and east into Indiana, but as far as Ohio. 

Tags: Chicago Communications, Wireless Communication, Bi-Directional Amplifiers, Maintenance/Installation/Service

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ChiComm has 2 Locations

Posted by Lisa MacGillivray on Thursday, June 19, 2014

Did you know that Chicago Communications, LLC has two locations? Yes, it’s true! While our corporate office is located in Elmhurst, IL, we also have an office in Chicago at 2100 S. Peoria Street, just a few minutes north of U.S. Cellular Field (home of course to the Chicago White Sox). 

Our Chicago office, or Loop Shop as we like to call it, has been around for years providing a convenient location for our customers in the City, and offering the same capabilities as our Elmhurst office. The office houses a drive-in installation bay, technical support, sales, sales support, and customer service. Together, the team there has a combined 17+ years of service with Chicago Communications and it shows. Their commitment to responding to customer needs or issues is second to none. They pull together, gather support from the Elmhurst office when needed, and get the job done. Whether requesting a quote, having an issue, a question, or an installation request regarding a mobile, portable, or system, our Loop Shop team is ready, willing, and able to respond.

Tags: Chicago Communications, Maintenance/Installation/Service

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Planning any outdoor event requires great teamwork.  Someone needs to make sure the petit fours are delivered on time, but most importantly, someone has to know what Mother Nature might bring and how often will she change her mind.  Making a "weather team" part of the planning crew will make your event much safer and more successful for all involved.

Tags: Chicago Communications, Rental Equipment, Safety Solutions

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Getting to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911) is a tall order and one in which we can’t lose functionality. We must add capabilities to support new devices, and we must be flexible to accommodate new data including text, images and video. A tall order.

Don’t get me wrong – the benefits for all of us, from call takers to administrators to first responders and citizens, of course, will be tremendous.

We, as citizens, will be able to request help from 9-1-1 in so many quick and easy ways. And Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) will have more information than ever to make the best decisions and provide the best response. But while we focus on when and how we’ll implement networks and enable connectivity, and worry about all of the things that are to come, we’re overlooking the most critical impact of NG9-1-1 – the impact it will have on our call takers’ experience, and what that means to the speed and accuracy of their responses.

Tags: Next Generation Public Safety

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The folks over at PoliceOne have created this helpful Infographic to show how video is affecting how police officers do their jobs.

Tags: Public Safety Communications, Video Surveillance

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Meet Helen Strecker, Our Front Office Guru

Posted by Lisa MacGillivray on Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Employee Spotlight: Helen Strecker

In April, 2005, Helen took a leap of faith and applied for the receptionist's job at Chicago Communications. During the interview, she said, "It was interesting explaining why my last 'paid position' had been in 1972." That's what happens when you are a stay at home mom for 33 years.

Helen’s first job after graduating from secretarial college in New Jersey was with a major retail company.  She was a secretary (yes, that's what they were called then) to a vice president; and she did it all.  Correspondence, advertising, budgets, scheduling and yes, even his personal shopping.  When she got married, her husband's job took them out of their hometown and across the country to Illinois.  Then, along came three boys, a house and a station wagon - suburbia at its best.  And once again, she was doing it all - school committees, charity organizations, Scouts, sports and car-pooling.  They went through a station wagon and two mini-vans during that time.  When asked, "What do you do?" her polite answer was usually "how much time do you have?"  She was fortunate, she was able to stay at home to raise her children, run her home and contribute to her community.  In 2000, Helen became a widow, the "children" were grown men and there was no need for her to be at home anymore.  In 2004, she got married again, and decided to see what was out there. 

Tags: Chicago Communications, Employee Spotlight

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It’s an inflatable tower!  Didn’t know there was such a thing?  Well, there is and it has some pretty interesting applications.  You can use it anywhere from golf outings or county fairs, to crime scenes or highway speed control or road blocks!  Anytime you have a temporary command post or mobile headquarters, these easy to move mobile towers can accommodate an antenna, repeater, camera, or even an access point for high speed data.  They are easy to transport, quickly deployed, affordable and customizable. They are portable enough to mount on any vehicle so you can enhance your two way radio or mobile phone range at any remote operation. They are inflatable towers made by Lighter than Air Projects in Cookeville, TN, and available locally through Chicago Communications!

Tags: Chicago Communications, Antenna System, Rental Equipment

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Did you know that Chicago Communications offers exclusively to our customers, the convenience of purchasing their most common accessories and batteries through our website?

In order for our account executives to be more attentive to your needs we developed this program to instantly place an order and notify you and your account executive as soon as the order is placed.

Here’s how it works.

Tags: Chicago Communications

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