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How RFID Became Good for Business

Though consumers may be more familiar with near-field communication (NFC) technology, which is now commonly incorporated into smart gadgets like phones and watches, most businesses are entranced by a different way to locate and communicate with objects: radio frequency identification (RFID).

RFID is far from a new technology, but its functions remain relevant today, stretching across industries to provide a number of cost-saving benefits. Here’s what you need to know about RFID and its applications in the business sector.

A brief history of RFID

Though a number of early 20th-century technologies may have contributed to the development of RFID, such has the IFF transponder which identified friendly and enemy aircraft in World War II, the first real ancestor to modern RFID was created in 1973 – though its true inventor is a matter of debate.

In New York, Mario Cardullo claims to have filed the first RFID patent, though the term RFID would not be used for another decade. The patent describes a passive device that receives power from a probing signal and features 16-bit memory.

Cardullo predicted that the device would primarily be useful in transportation, banking, security, and medicine.

Meanwhile, in California, Charles Walton received a patent for a passive transponder used as the first keyless entry. A door containing a reader would scan for a correct identification number within a RFID tag–carrying card, and upon detecting one, unlock.

A number of national and regional lock makers licensed the technology, and Walton went on to invent the term RFID with another patent in the ’80s.

Throughout the ‘70s, the U.S. government was interested in the possibility of tracking technologies – particularly for nuclear materials. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, scientists experimented with placing transponders in trucks and embedding readers in gates of certain facilities to relay information about drivers and cargo.

Eventually, the scientists who worked on this project went commercial, developing RFID for automated toll payment systems on roads, bridges, and tunnels around the world.

Applications in business

Unlike a smartphone, RFID technology lacks inherent value. However, as an enabling technology, it is infinitely useful to businesses willing to develop applications that make use of its capabilities.

The most significant advantage of RFID is its ability to function without human intervention. Readers can scan tags and send information to computers in real time, which has dozens of uses in business.

Asset tracking is perhaps the most obvious application, as it is one of the primary reasons the tech was created. Businesses can secure RFID tags to goods and equipment to ensure better management of property.

Lost or stolen items affixed with tags are more likely to be found; storage centers that make use of tags are easier to navigate. Plus, being aware of the location of a shipment of merchandise allows businesses to better manage its finances as well; if a certain shipment is detected as arriving late, a business might work around the potential delay to payments with the help of a factoring company.

RFID allows a company to remain on top of all facets of their organization.

Manufacturers also make good use of RFID by using tags to monitor production, especially of different versions of the same product – like different classes of cars. RFID tends to reduce the number of human errors in assembly of complex goods.

Major retailers, such as Target, Best Buy, and Walmart, have wholly adopted RFID tech into their stores. Tags help improve supply chain efficiency by reducing shipping errors, and RFID can help in managing inventories.

Some retailers are eager to test RFID’s capability in automating check-out – rather than a cashier scanning individual items, a tunnel reader will pick up the tag of every item in a cart at once – but such advanced scanning has yet to be developed.

Finally, businesses might look into using RFID as a means of security. Keyless, contactless locks are much more durable than their traditional counterparts, so employing RFID in employee badges is a way to control access and diminish maintenance costs.

Additionally, combining RFID tags and motion sensors can prevent theft, as items that are moved without authorization could trigger alarms.

The future of RFID

The primary RFID tech in use today comes from the federal research at Los Alamos. Common RFID tags operate at 915 mega-hertz and use 12 bits of memory. However, many RFID manufacturers are interested in updating the tech to provide even more applications in the increasingly digital world.

Here are a few of the most promising developments in RFID tech in recent years:

RAIN RFID – invented by the RAIN RFID Alliance – employs ultra–high frequency (UHF) that is readable in greater quantities and over greater distances than traditional high frequency (HF) RFID. Thus, RAIN RFID is extremely effective in retail spaces for inventory maintenance.

Hyrbid RFID systems are those that can track regular RFID and RAIN RFID simultaneously. This is useful for manufacturers or retailers who have varied inventories of high-value and low-cost items.

Memory enhancements allow RFID tags to contain information beyond simple numbers and codes. Businesses can store production data, maintenance records, and other item-specific information on individual equipment or merchandise using this reliable technology.

April 21, 2016
The Benefits of Electronic Billing (and How to Get It for Your Business)

To the dismay of pencil manufacturers, the world is going paperless. At your place of business, your copy and fax machines have probably developed a layer of dust, as most of your employees work entirely from the comfort of their desktops.

Nearly every business stores files, sends communications, creates content, and tracks sales digitally ? but for some reason, many businesses just can’t kick the habit of sending clients traditional bills.

Like everything else made from trees, paper bills are disappearing slowly but surely. Here are a few reasons you should follow the e-billing trend, as well as some tips for setting up your own digital billing service.

The advantages of the paperless bill

Imagine, if you will, a 40-foot-tall tree. Most likely, it is a softwood tree, like a spruce or pine, so you might picture the evergreen needles and smell the sweet, spicy aroma of its new growth.

When one customer opts for electronic billing, he or she effectively saves about 50 of such trees from being chopped down and ground into wood pulp. By offering paperless options, your business could preserve entire forests of trees, fostering a greener, cleaner way of life.

Of course, a diminished carbon footprint isn’t the only benefit of paperless billing. Customers are granted the option with nearly all EBPP solutions to view their bills online anywhere, anytime.

This is immediately advantageous to businesses: Customers who have continuous access to their bills are more likely to pay them in-full and on-time, even while they are away from home.

Moreover, bill history is usually compiled online as well, giving both customers and businesses the ability to review previous statements for spending trends.

Finally, electronic billing is substantially cheaper than paper invoices. For most businesses, paper and other office supplies (like ink cartridges, stamps, and envelopes) take up a sizeable portion of the budget.

Moreover, paper appliances like copiers and fax machines require regular maintenance and updates, which is not a minor cost. By going paperless, that chunk of change can be reinvested in other areas of the business, helping your company to grow.

The disadvantages of billing electronically

If e-billing seems too good to be true, it isn’t. However, as with any business service, paperless billing does have a few weaknesses that may be off-putting at first.

For example, any online service that collects payment information must be secure from cyber-criminals, which means you and your customers will need to craft and remember increasingly complex passwords.

Some customers who are fed-up with memorizing incomprehensible strings of letters and numbers may opt out of e-billing simply because they have no room to store another password.

Additionally, as technology changes, EBPP services need to adapt to new machines. Businesses may need to expend effort updating software and websites to ensure that their billing portals remain secure and up-to-date.

Neglecting to perform regular maintenance could expose private customer information to a data breach, which is always bad for business.

Still, a dedicated IT professional will find such simple updates easily within the realm of his or her responsibilities, and it is unlikely that an update will ever seriously derail a business’s ability to collect payments.

How to get the bills of the future

Most commonly, businesses contract experienced e-billing professionals to create web payment portals that integrate into existing websites.

Ideally, a customer does not need to leave your business’s site to pay his or her bill; leaving a trusted, secure website for a third-party payment collector can cause doubt and discomfort about the e-billing process, making it less likely that you will receive your money online.

In working with a professional, you will have more control over how your e-bills look and behave, ensuring they conform to your business’s brand identity.

Another option is directing customers to an established third-party payment collector. Sites like PayPal and Google Wallet have been facilitating online transactions for well over a decade and most Web users trust them with precious financial information.

Yet, these services often skim money from your payments, slashing your profits while impacting your brand. Though third parties are easy to use, they should be a short-term e-billing solution while you develop an on-site payment collection.

April 20, 2016
The Best Free Apps Every Event Planner Needs! [Infographic]

Event planning can be stressful. From emails to social media, seating details to photography, there is a lot to organise. With so many small details that require all of your time and energy, sometimes things can go unnoticed.

Whatever your event, it can be difficult to keep track of everything and stay organised. So how can we stay on top of things? Apps of course! In 2016, there are now virtually thousands of apps available that are specifically designed to make planning any event easier and less stressful.

The people at Team BAWE have analysed the IOS and Android stores to bring us eight of the best event planning apps which they have outlined in the infographic below with details of all of their features.

Although these apps can help you manage your workload more efficiently, they cannot run the event for you. Time is of the essence in the event planning business so which apps are worth downloading and which apps are not?

Luckily the apps listed below are all free so the only investment you will need is time! Customer reviews are vital on IOS and Google Play app stores, but with so much choice, how do we know which apps are the best for our needs?

The apps in the infographic below are the best of the best and a must for any event organiser. Let’s take a look!

April 15, 2016
Who Is Your Social Media Talking To?

In real life, if you were talking to a customer who was right in front of your face, would you ignore them or simply talk at them? No, you wouldn’t. You would most likely listen to them (we’d hope, anyway), and you’d take into account everything from who they are to what they are saying – good or bad.

Social media should be an extension of how you treat your customers in person which is simply in a way that allows you to talk to a lot of them at once. It must be personal, as pointed out in Digital Marketing Magazine, because the more human you can be, the more sales you’ll make through it.

Audiences differ!

Just as you would in a physical conversation, you talk to people on social media differently depending on who they are.

For example, if you are marketing to teenage girls, you need to use a totally different tone of voice and different content compared to if you were marketing on a business-to-business basis to predominantly older people, as an example.

You can actually try breaking into new markets through social media, however. It’s a great way of reaching the people you’ve always wanted to attract, but have never quite managed to.

As social media expert Rowan Grace Evans points out, you’ll need to ensure that you’re tailoring your approach to each new market, as they will vary geographically, between generations, and depending on lots of other factors as well.

How do you reach your audience?

Once you’ve established exactly who your audience are and who might be interested in your product, you have to figure out how you’re going to talk to them.

Marketing Donut have gone to great lengths to explain how to approach key influencers who might help bridge the gap between you and your customers.

Influencers are people who your audience already connect with or trust. If they have a perceived affinity with those influencers already, it’s natural that, if you can partner with those influencers, you too will form a relationship with them over time.

You should take time to get to know the audience, as automated posting can cause them to become disinterested – automated Facebook posting decreases likes and engagements by as much as 70%, as found by Digital Buzz Blog, for example.

Therefore it follows that you shouldn’t simply reach them with promotional content, and you should also use social media for customer services purposes, too. You can be transparent, reply immediately, and give people a great, personal experience of your brand, which in turn can act as great PR.

Why do all of this?

Why invest in marketing at all? The answer is simple. Return on investment.

Even small businesses report at least 5% of sales through this channel, and that’s 5% you wouldn’t want to miss. Social Media Today have collated some handy facts, and you can’t ignore them – 78% of people say a brand’s social media influences their purchasing decisions, so make sure that whatever you’re doing is encouraging them to buy.

Profits are important at the end of the day, but you won’t get there without putting in the effort first.

April 13, 2016
8 Best WordPress Security Plugins for Your Blog
Most of you are already familiar with WordPress and the way its countless plugins make life easier for you, right? But have you ever wondered about the exact number of WordPress plugins populating internet right now?

This might surprise you, but WordPress hosts about 43,458 WordPress plugins as of now, easing out millions of people in everything from niche blogs to comprehensive eCommerce sites.

In fact, according to this report by W3Techs, 59.2% of all websites with content management system known to us, use WordPress, which equates to about 26.3% of all websites.

Despite the entire boom internet is enjoying as a phenomenon right now, online security remains its one of the weakest areas. But the good news is that WordPress is striving hard to cater to the security requirements of billions of its users.

In this post, I have brought up 8 of the best security plugins you might like to consider safeguarding your WordPress blog. So, here you go:

1. Wordfence Security

Also referred to as the most downloaded security plugin on WordPress, Wordfence Security is really best at what it does, occupying the top spot in my list also because it’s totally free and open source.

Currently, It enjoys over a million active downloads backed with a solid 4.9 out of 5 stars ranking.

Some of its major features include:
- It aptly blocks known attackers on real-time basis, automatically updating your WordPress blog/site for any attacker it blocks on some other site it is installed on.
- It can also secure you by blocking entire malicious networks with the help of firewall, thanks to advanced IP and Domain WHOIS it features.
- Also offers two-factor authentication, enabling you to sign-in through your cell-phone, which is also referred as ‘cell-phone sign-in’.
2. iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security)

The iThemes Security plugin serves best in protecting your WordPress blog/site by hiding away its critical areas, securing vital files and guarding from forceful login attempts.

Until now, it’s been downloaded more than 700,000 times, having 4.7 out of 5 stars in ranking.

It offers some rally amazing security features in its pro version, some of which include:
- Helps you in tracking activities of users like logging in, logging out and content editing.
- You also get two-factor authentication feature with it.
- Assists in saving time when setting up multiple WordPress sites by taking care of import and export actions.
- Empowers you to manage functions like system scans and user-banning right from your WordPress dashboard.
3. All In One WordPress Security

If you want to enhance your WordPress security to the next level, All In One WordPress Security & Firewall plugin is your best bet.

It not only runs security checks to identify any vulnerability in your site, but also implements and enforces latest security practices and techniques as recommended by WordPress.

It enjoys over 300,000 active downloads with an astonishing 4.8 out of 5 stars ranking. Some of its major features are:
- Its Login Lockdown features make sure your blog is protected against ‘Brute Force Login Attack’.
- Enables you to create strong and secure passwords with its Password Strength Tool.
- Enables you to view a list of users logged into your site at any particular time.
- You can ban users by blocking whole IP address ranges.
4. Sucuri Security

Offered free to WordPress users, Sucuri Security is a popular WordPress plugin having over 200,000 active downloads with a 4.6 out of 5 stars rating. Its major features include:
- Auditing all security activity.
- Monitoring file integrity.
- Remote malware scanning.
- Security notifications.
- Blacklist monitoring.
- Website firewall (add on).
5. BulletProof Security

Want to make sure your WordPress site is protected efficiently? Choose BulletProof Security plugin like 100,000+ WordPress users worldwide, ranking it a handsome 4.7 out of 5 stars because of the value it delivers.

It has a regular version and a pro version. Major features include:
- Set it up conveniently with one-click setup wizard.
- Monitor login security.
- Enjoy ISL (Idle Session Logout) and ACE (Auth Cookie Expiration).
- DB backup (full/partial).
Major features for pro version (in addition to all the features of regular version):
- ARQ-IDPS (Auto Restore Intrusion Detection & Prevention System).
- IDPS (Real-time file monitor).
- IDS (DB Monitor Intrusion Detection System).
- Heads Up Dashboard Status Display.
- Comprehensive status and info on all databases.
- Read-only File Locking.
6. AntiVirus for WordPress

If you are concerned about protection of your WordPress blog or website, resort to AntiVirus for WordPress and secure it against security breaches and spam injections.

More than 100,000 plus active installs stand to the authenticity and protection this plugin offers, backed up with a 4.2 out of 5 stars ranking.

Major features include:
- Get notified of virus alerts right in your admin bar.
- Takes care of cleanup after plugin removal.
- Multilingual support.
- Get notified on your email of daily security scans.
- Get database tables checks + theme templates checks.
7. Acunetix WP Security

More than 100,000 plus active downloads with 3.3 out of 5 stars ranking surely reflects how good Acunetix WP Security plugin is in managing security issues related to your WordPress blog/site.

Oh, and you can get it for free. Have a look at some of its major features:
- Supports multiple sites.
- Aids in disaster recovery by backing up WordPress database efficiently and conveniently.
- Get rid of error-information from your login-page.
- Removes core update info on non-admin accounts.
- Removes plugin-update info on non-admin accounts.
- Reports security overview of WordPress blog after it is scanned.
- Real-time traffic monitoring on your site with live traffic tool.
8. WP Security Audit Log

If you want to keep track and take charge of all under-the-hood changes in your WordPress blog, WP Security Audit Log is the answer to all your prayers, making sure your site remains secure and updated in every manner.

That’s why it has over 30,000 active installs with 4.6 out of 5 stars rating. Get a security alert when any of the following (and more) happens on your site:
- When a new user is registered or created by another user.
- When a user logs in to your site for the first time.
- When a file is deleted by a user or email/password is changed.
- When a plugin is installed, uninstalled, activated, deactivated or upgraded by a user.
- When a new page, post or category is created by a user.
- When a new theme is installed or activated by a user.
What’s your say on this?

Well, this concludes my list of top security plugins to expedite your WordPress blog/site security, but I would love to hear your personal experiences, observations and opinions regarding this in the comment section below.

Author Bio

Khawar Zaman is a seasoned ecommerce consultant having years of experience in crafting ecommerce solutions. He is also cofounder of a promising startup named Technorian, specialized in WooCommerce and Magento support services. They also help other businesses by providing dedicated developers to them.
April 8, 2016
Growing Your Business? Here’s How to Keep Your People Far and Wide Connected

One of the best aspects of technology’s evolution in the lives of most 21st-century businesses is the ability to connect employees, partners, vendors, and clients with one another, regardless of location.

From the ubiquity of cellphones to the understated power of messaging software, being in the same space at the same time is no longer a requirement for doing business at all, let alone doing it well.

That being said, there are a myriad of ways you could go about keeping your team and the people you’re working with connected, and some of them are more helpful than others.

Here is a closer look at a handful of ways you can keep your business humming across time and distance that should also be able to help your business grow.

Google Docs

With the advent of the cloud, data storage and whole IT departments have effectively left the building and taken up residence in the 0s and 1s that make up the world’s virtual ether.

For businesses looking to collaborate with partners near and far, documents and spreadsheets have done the same. Google has a suite of products — all hosted in the cloud — that allow for real-time collaboration between people and teams so long as everyone has an Internet connection.

So, when a freelancer in Amarillo makes a change to a document that’s in progress, your VP of marketing can literally watch it happen in Fargo.

Regardless of whether you’re working with accounting spreadsheets, presentations, or annual reports, Google’s software in the cloud will keep your team on the same page, no matter where anybody is located.

Telepresence

While not necessary for every business and work application that takes place across distance, telepresence is the crème de la crème of working and interacting together when far apart.

Effectively a set of technologies that allows people to feel as though they and others are actually present in time and space to one another, telepresence incorporates everything from telerobotics and videoconferencing to experiences with a presenter or speaker that can seem like they’re aspiring to mimic the abilities and features of the “Star Trek” universe’s holodeck.

If your business requires collaboration and communication on a level that really allows for the subtleties inherent in being present to one another, look for a Cisco distributor and see how your needs can be met via telepresence applications.

Group Messaging

Not too long ago, if you wanted to talk with a vendor or someone on your team who wasn’t in the room with you, you would have just picked up the phone and dialed.

Not too long before that, you might have gotten into a company car or a cab and driven across the county or state for a meeting.

Before that, a telegram or even a letter would have been required for people in different places to stay abreast of work that wasn’t happening at their worksite.

Today, group messaging software allows anyone to immediately reach out to a vendor, employee, or co-worker regardless of where the person being reached out to is. All you need is login information and an Internet connection — or in some cases, an app on a smartphone or tablet.

From simple services like Google’s IM to more elaborate cloud-based software like HipChat that allows users to send group messages, video chat, file share, and create searchable team chat rooms, group messaging has gotten intensely complex and amazingly helpful.

Being apart no longer requires a phone, a manila envelope, or a recording device — you can have all that and more inside a robust group messaging application.

Project Management

Because of the plethora of ways you can stay in touch with workers, vendors, and contractors in today’s technologically laden world, it can come as something of a shock when all that staying in touch about work doesn’t yield solid project management.

Except: Just talking, sharing, chatting, and working on work isn’t the same as ensuring that the work you’re doing is going in the right direction and at the speed in which it needs to.

Thankfully, project management software can keep you and your people in the loop regarding what needs to get done and when. From predictive scheduling to better resource management, project management can keep your entire workforce on the same page even when you’re all in different time zones.

And for you to not fully depend on these applications, you must also have a great understanding about project management. You can get a project management diploma online for you to be able to learn the concepts and manage processes on your own.

Stay connected with everyone involved with your business no matter where they are. Thanks to cloud-based project management software, chat, and telepresence, the Earth isn’t too big a place from which to run a company.

April 2, 2016
Increasing Concerns Over Social Media Privacy Issues

The very idea of social network was to give people a platform through which they can interact with different people belonging to various cultures, inhibiting around varying parts of the world, and share their thoughts, humor, jokes, and feelings just to kill their time.

Gone are the days when we were ardent users of MSN messenger and various chat rooms – now the internet has taken a giant leap in the form of social sites that are even more advanced and entertaining.

But with these innovation come calamities – you are giving yourself out in front of people you don’t know, on a platform that you aren’t even sure if it is keen enough to keep you secluded from identity thieves and online bullying, which is why there is a rise of privacy issues on the social media.

And there’s no stopping to it, until you, yourself step up and decide to take preventive measures for the sake of your identity online.

Thanks to social media, we know what our friends were doing in the last weekend without us, and they very well know that we were sitting alone at home enjoying a movie via the status updated about it on Facebook.

But with this minute-to-minute update is only making our barricaded life easy to deteriorate for the people who want to harm us. Sure, the social media want us to be more open about our lives on various social sites by asking us questions like “what’s happening?”, “what’s in your mind?”, “See what your xyz friend is doing right now” and many more.

And we know why they do that – all information we put is indirectly bringing dollars to their pockets.

Since the internet is always buzzing, it is hard for the sites to keep a check on everyone’s privacy. Security programmers have tons of things up in their sleeves and increasing numbers of interactions per second and users’ count aren’t doing them any favor.

This ultimately leads to a colossal threat on security as a whole. Indeed there are various private sites that take immense security measures like Just10, but the public sites aren’t like that. And while most of these sites are on the breach of exploiting security and privacy issues, the only way this matter can be resolved is via users.

Those people who are putting up too much information over the internet have to take more meticulous approach to what they share and with whom they share.

Even to cover up the potential threats users have regarding their security issues, social network like Facebook have set more privacy control in users hand for who will be able to watch the things they are doing. But even with loops of security settings, not everything is protected and identity thieves or hackers are breaking loose, still deciphering ways to threat users.

This is why if a person is posting something online, they should think twice that although they are putting up pictures on a machine, the other side has actual people who can see things clearly.

If you do not like dozens of people come walking around in your house and checking your new outfits, why would you allow hundreds of your Facebook friends to even look at your cloth’s pictures?

Other problem comes when you allow random people to interfere in your online world. Seeing a friend request looks ravishing, but chances are that the person is probably an imposter, who is using someone else’s identity.

If you are following someone thinking they were with you in high school, make sure to confirm their identity first – don’t be afraid to be skeptical here, no one is going to judge you for that.

The new evolving completely private social network could be an answer to people who want extreme privacy settings. But will there be any social network that doesn’t breach security issues? We hardly doubt that.

Any system that is complex always houses vulnerabilities. The only way the weaknesses can be resolved only by operators who are subjected to put few load on it.

March 11, 2016
How to Update Plex Automatically When Run as a Service
On my Plex media server I run the Plex Media Server as a service, and the one issue that I had was not being able to update Plex from within the Web dashboard. The reason is that when running Plex Media Server as a service Plex is running as a service, any update through Plex can’t be done because the service needs to be stopped first before any updates can happen.

For me, another issue was that the Plex Media Server runs under a standard user account on my Windows 10 machine, and a standard user account can’t perform any application installs, which leads to another reason for me to disable Plex auto updates.

While I can’t have Plex auto update to the latest version, I have found another way of accomplishing the same goal. I created a small application called Plex Server Auto Updater that will perform the same update task when Plex is running as a service.

What does the Plex Auto Updater do?

The Plex Auto Updater makes it easy to update Plex when the Plex Media Server is running as a service. The updater will automatically perform the tasks that you would normally need to take when updating Plex.

Note:

Since the Plex Auto Updater needs to install the Plex update, the updater needs to be run under an administrator account. If you are logged in as a standard user, you simply need to right-click the Plex Auto Updater executable and select “Run as administrator” to allow the updater to perform the update.

The following actions are performed when the updater is run:
1. Stops the Plex service.
2. Stops any Plex processes that may still be running.
3. Installs the update.
4. Deletes the run keys from the registry to prevent Plex from auto-starting outside of the service.
5. Stops any Plex processes that may have started after the update.
6. Restarts the Plex service.
The updater will update Plex regardless of where Plex is installed, where the Plex local data directory is located, and which user account is running the service.

Getting the Plex Auto Updater

I created the Plex Auto Updater so that it is portable, which means it doesn’t need to be installed. It is a single executable that can be saved and run from any directory on your machine.

To get the Plex Auto Updater and use it, follow these steps:
1. Download the latest release of Plex Auto Updater.
2. Extract the psupdate.exe file from the zip file. You can extract the executable file into any directory.
3. Double-click the executable to perform an update. Later in this post I describe how you can run the updater so it updates Plex automatically.
To have the Plex updater perform an update, there is one thing that will need to be done in Plex to ensure the updater can find the updates, which I discuss below.

Configure Plex Media Server for Plex Auto Updater

Before running the Plex Auto Updater, it is important to first have Plex automatically download the latest updates. The Plex Auto Updater will check these downloaded updates to determine if it should install a newer version.

To enable Plex to download updates automatically, use the following steps:
1. Log into the Plex server Web dashboard.
2. Click the “Settings” option under “Manage” on the left.
3. Click the “Server” option from the top menu if it isn’t already hightlighted.
4. In the “General” section, check the “Automatically download updates” checkbox.
5. Click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom.
Once the above steps have been completed, and an update has been downloaded, the Plex Auto Updater can now perform the update.

Of course, you can simply run the Auto Updater executable, but the point is to have it update automatically without any user intervention. This can be done by simply scheduling a task to run the executable at a specified time.

Schedule the Plex Auto Updater

Once Plex Media Server has been configured to download any updates, you can now schedule the Plex Auto Updater to automatically check the updates to see if one is available.

To avoid updating the Plex Media Server when you are streaming media, you will want to schedule the updater at times when the media server won’t be streaming any media, such as early morning.

To schedule the Plex Auto Updater, use the following steps:
1. Click the Windows icon to bring up the Start Menu. Type “Task Scheduler”, and then select the “Task Scheduler” that shows up in the list.
2. Click the “Action” menu and then select the “Create Basic Task” menu option.
3. Enter a name for the task, and then click the “Next” button.
4. Select a schedule for how often you wish the Plex Auto Updater to run, and then click the “Next” button.
5. Enter the schedule information, and then click the “Next” button.
6. Select “Start a program” for the action.
7. Click the “Browse” button and then navigate to the location where you placed the psupdate.exe file. Click the “Open” button to select the file.
8. In the “Add arguments” field, enter “-silent” (without the quotes). This will cause the updater to run without any user interface. Click the “Next” button to continue.
9. Check the “Open the Properties dialog for this ask when I click Finish” checkbox, and then click the “Finish” button.
10. When the Properties dialog is open, ensure the user that runs the task is an administrator. If not, click the “Change User…” button.
11. Enter the administrator user’s name in the “Enter the object name to select” textbox. Click the “OK” button to continue.
12. Select the “Run whether user is logged on or not” option. Click the “OK” button.
13. Enter the administrator’s password and then click the “OK” button.
When the above steps is completed, you should have a task scheduled to run the Plex Auto Updater at a specified schedule, and using the administrative user account.

This application solves the issue I had when running Plex as a service and not having the ability to update Plex automatically. With the portable application I created, I can now schedule Plex updates so that my Plex Media Server has the latest release.

Download the latest Plex Server Auto Updater release.