1. Never type in All CAPS. Most of us have lived long enough with computers, chat etc. to know that CAPS means you are YELLING.
2. Always be professional, just as you would in sending a professional letter with a Salutation, Body and Close. Example:
Dear Fred, I’ll be late to the quarry today. Thank you, Barney
“Hi…” is perfectly acceptable as well. I use “Hey…” a lot depending on my relationship with the person I am emailing.
3. Create and use a signature which includes your phone number and other contact information. To configure a signature open Outlook and go to File> Options>Mail>Signatures and use the editor to create as many signatures as you wish. You can set a default signature with options for use with new messages and/or forwards and replies.
4. Emotion is hard to convey in email and more often than not, we come off as cold to the recipient when they can’t see the happy look on our faces. That said, be pleasant and professional and throw in some smileys when you want to soften your tone.
5. Use Spell Check. I can’t say this enough. Use Spell check. It is the little button that usually looks something like this on the tool bar of new messages: I highly recommend setting Outlook to run spell check automatically whenever you hit the Send button. To enable this setting, open Outlook and go to File>Options> Mail and check the box Always check spelling before sending. While there I also check Ignore original message text in reply or forward so as not to waste time correcting other people’s boo boos.
Leave the “To…” field blank until you have polished your email and you are ready to send it. After 16 years in IT I can’t tell you how many people have called me in a panic asking how to retrieve an email they had just sent by mistake. So, first make your email, second make it pretty, third send it.
If John Mizuno, state legislature in Hawaii has his way with HB 2288, Hawaiians’ web surfing will be tracked and logged for two years so the government can go back and see what anyone and everyone was looking at.
This is the equivalent of requiring phone companies to record every telephone conversation that travels across its lines. It is the sane as requiring every store, park, movie theater, car dealership, restaurant or fast food chain record the names, driver licenses, license plates, etc. of every single visitor.
If they, certain government figures, could get away with it, they would. Indeed, there are entities like John Mizunio that would suspend the constitution and implement North Korean-style controls over the population, limiting out freedoms at every turn. Fortunately as citizens we still have a voice to pressure supporters of legislation like SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and Mizuno’s bill to come to their senses.
Update 1/27/2012- It looks like ther public outcry worked very quickly and HB2288 and its companion have been pulled from consideration.
Microsoft Office is a fantastic product and, with a trial version loaded on virtually every new PC, it’s a little hard not to use and grow accustomed to. But that price tag can be rather stiff, expecially when we’re talking about the pro version which runs about $599.
There are some good alternatives out there, such as OpenOffice which one of my clients has been running it across over 200 computers trouble free. Now something even better is on the scene, Kingsoft Office which includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package plus the navigation much more closely emulates the Office ribbon started back in 2007. There are also Standard and Professional versions available, but the average user should be happy with the freebie.
Whereas Microsoft Office includes the Outlook email client in every version, neither OpenOffice or Kingsoft Office offer any email softwhere. If you’re not satisfied with web based email, Mozilla’s Thunderbird is a great email program that is free and easy to use with your Gmail, Yahoo! or other accounts.
I have resolved that after 4 years of marginally loyal service my HP laptop is in desperate need of being put out to pasture, perhaps as a door stop or anchor. My dilemma now is a worthwhile replacement: PC or Mac. I am leaning toward the latter and will let you now how I decide in the next issue. In the meantime, many of my
clients ask me what to buy or validate what they have already selected. Until recently, the choices have really between brands, but now a new option is available: the Ultrabook. What is An Ultrabook?
Everyone these days is racing to catch up with Apple products and in the super portable laptop arena, the MacBook Air reigns supreme. So, what defines this new category and how can you pick a good one? Look for these key characteristics if you need a highly portable notebook computer:
1. Battery Life of at least 8 hours.
2. Storage Capacity – look for 128 to 256GB options.
3. Display – these will range from 11 to 15 inches.
4. Processor – Buy as far ahead of the technology curve as you can and look for super fast boot time.
5. Thin & Light – The 11.6″ MacBook Air weighs 2.8 lbs with a thickness of .68″ vs my 5.1 pound, 1.1″ HP notebook..
Bottom Line: if you travel frequently and do not need a great deal of processing power, an Ultrabook might be for you. if you need a lightweight desktop replacement, consider HP”s Elite series of notebooks.
I’ve been playing with Windows 8 Developer Edition for a while now and really enjoy it. While Apple is creating different operating systems for each device, Microsoft is going for a consistent User Interface (UI) experience across platforms so that what you do on your Windows PC will translate well to your Windows Phone, right down to the touchscreen UI. I don’t have a touchscreen monitor on my desk (yet) to enjoy Windows 8 as this iteration intends, but I still like it and am eager to see the end product so I can do all my computing Minority Report style.
Here are 5 6 good things about Windows 8 gathered from around the web and my own experience that may or may not make the final cut: 1. The Office “Ribbon” Returns
The context sensitive ribbon, which changes depending upon what you are doing in Office, will be present throughout your Windows experience.
2. Cloud Storage – Look to be able to share to the cloud from any app. A great feature, I think, to quickly share and/or protect data.
3. XBox Kinect Integration - Finally we can unlock our PCs with facial recognition and compose emails with body gestures!
4. Refresh – So far, this is my favorite as users will be able to quickly re-install the operating system with a few clicks while preserving data. In larger corporate environments, like Microsoft, this is standard method of keeping machines running smoothly.
5. Reset – A more extreme version of Refresh, this option will return the system to factory defaults so it is just the way it was the day it came out of the box. Ideal when you”re ready to sell or give away your PC, but make sure to back up your data first!
This just in… 6. Windows To Go – this will enable enterprise administrators to create USB drives containing complete, managed Windows images that users can use to boot and run Windows on any Windows 7 or 8 capable machine. This makes it possible for staffers to use their managed computer whether they work from home, office, or elsewhere.. Accidentally unplug your flash drive? No worries – you have 60 seconds to plug it back in without losing any work! For IT guys like owners like you this is a GREAT feature. Is one of your users suddenly experiencing QuickBooks crashes? No problem, just hand them another flash drive with a clean image of their PC and they”re productive again!
Although we have an iPhone in the family I myself am not a user so I am going to rely upon my friends over at Entrepreneur.com for a good list of must haves:
1. Square (Free)
Process credit card payments from anywhere using your iPhone and Square”s free card-reader accessory.
2. Evernote (4.99)
Take virtual memos on demand with this app that can store text, photos and voice recordings. Snap pictures and synchronize across your smart , computer or tablet. In fact, I use Evernote extensively on my Droid Razr, especially while tracking last month”s Christmas shopping list!
3. Scanner Pro (6.99)
Instantly transform your iPhone into a portable multi-page document scanner.
4. Flight Track Pro (9.99)
Stay on top of flight delays and gate changes is easy travel tracker. If you live under a lot of airport traffic like I do, you can even identify the flights as they pass over your home.
5. MightyMeeting (Free)
Upload presentations and product videos to the cloud, then access them nearly anytime, anywhere with this handy demonstration tool. Oh, if only I had this back in the late 90s when I was responsible for getting executive Power Point presentations from the execs onto the laptop used for the bog offsite meetings. It seemed someone showed up just before before the start of each meeting waving a floppy disk at me saying, “Wait, I”ve got one last change!”
If you’re going to shell out the bucks for a smart phone and data plan make sure you are using the phone to your advantage to make yourself more efficient (i.e. make the thing pay for itself). Here are the top Android Business Apps that make my work day a little easier:
1. Locale (Free)
Automatically turn your ringer off when at work, or turn it up when at home. It can also turn off battery drainers like wi-fi when they are not in use. This is a feature called Smart Actions built into the new Droid Razr and I love it.
2. Documents To Go – ($30)
View and edit MS Office docs including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Also lets you view PDFs so you can skip Adobe Reader. Personally i can”t imagine editing a huge spreadsheet on my phone”s 4” screen, but it’s good in a pinch.
3. LogMeIn Ignition – ($30)
If you use LogMeIn to remotely control computers you will enjoy having their Ignition product handy. The $30 price tag exceeded my pain threshold, but when a 50% Off promo came along I ‘m glad I jumped on it.
4. PrinterShare- ($12.95)
Extremely handy, this app lets me print almost anything from my Android phone. I use the word almost because my Droid Razr has MotoPrint installed which seems to be the only print option for PDFs. Otherwise, if I want to print a Word doc or picture of my little ones, I just select Share and PrinterShare is among the options.
5. GoogleVoice (Free)
Using this correctly, you can get unlimited voice calling, but consult this doc first. By default, this app let’s you make and receive calls using your GoogleVoice number, receive transcriptions of your voice mails via SMS and make cheap international calls. The app integrates seamlessly with your phone’s address book as well.
If Internet access is available and the boss isn’t looking, many employees won’t hesitate to take a break from work and waste time on Facebook, Fantasy Football or do a little online shopping. As many of us now, time goes fast when one is playing on the Internet, and a $20 per hour employee could easily rack up an hour a day and cost you $5000 annually. Content filtering will help you control that cost.
What Is a Content Filter?
A Content Filter is a software program that screens traffic between your computers and the Internet. The software can sit on a dedicated “appliance” or a server on the network and can be configured to block all or some web sites and even filter out email-bound viruses and spam.
What Can You Filter?
You can block content company wide, or tailor it for employees who need full Internet access to do their jobs.
Depending upon the type of filter, you can block or limit:
File Types – Block common virus files, music, images, etc.
Instant Messaging – Yahoo!, AOL, Google Talk, etc. are great time wasters as people chat all day rather than work. These programs can also be used to transfer proprietary files in and out of your organization.
Application Blocking – Music services like Pandora are a great source of entertainment, but you might not want them slowing your network all day.
Enforce Web Policy – When a user tries to access a forbidden web site, they can be greeted by your custom message, such as “Get Back to Work!” or perhaps something a little gentler, like “Oops, look like you accidentally tried to go to a blocked web site.”
You could open web access to during the lunch hour, or limit users to an hour per day during a time of their choosing.
Web Monitoring – Does the network seem a little slower than normal? You could log into your content filter and see that your new employee is downloading movies and music all day. You can monitor what people are using the Internet for and decide which sites should be blocked. Has an employee been counseled about Internet abuse? Keep him honest through the monitor.
How Much does Cost?
Content filters range in price from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in software and/or hardware and typically have an annual subscription fee for software updates and support. Others are free but do not include any maintenance or technical support.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) You can expect a relatively fast ROI here. Let’s imagine a company with 20 employees salaried at $42,000 per year or $20 per hour and each wastes an hour per day surfing the web.
A $1000 content filter would save your organization $104,000 in lost productivity.
Perhaps you don’t think your employees spend that much time on the web, but even if they spend only 30 minutes a day of unauthorized time updating their Facebook status with how much they hate their job or what they ate for lunch, you’d save $52,000 per year. Now think of the money you’ll save on not having to clean viruses from their machines. Indeed, a Content Filter is a great way to keep your employees productive and protect the investment you’ve made in your business computers!
If huge entities with vast resources can be hacked, is it even reasonable to expect your company to stand a chance against notoriously powerful hacking groups like LulzSec and Anonymous?
The answer, I am afraid, is no. No network is completely hack proof and no matter how much time, money and effort you put into security, if you have something someone wants bad enough, they’ll find a way in and get it.
Hackers don’t usually break and enter, they find an open door and walk right in and the larger the organization, the more doors they have to remember to keep locked. The smaller the organization, the fewer the doors. The trick is to identify and keep them locked tight.
Here are some things you can do to safeguard your network from outside, and inside threats:
Door Number 1:Internet Connection. Commonly called the Gateway among IT folks, it is your physical firewall/router and, in many cases built into the modem from your Internet service provider. Basic steps to secure it against cybercriminals:
1.Make your wireless connection is encrypted and not wide open for the world to connect and abuse.
2.Change the default password to something unique, with a mix of letters, numbers and punctuation, exchanging letters for numbers. In this example, anti-theft becomes @nt1th3ft!.
It’s easier for you to remember and won’t be found in any dictionary.
3.If you have more than 2 or three employees on the network, invest in an Internet Gateway Appliance, such as from Untangle or Barracuda. These devices will screen all information coming in and out of your network for web or email borne malware. Indeed, the spam and viruses will be filtered out before they even reach your computers. You can also monitor the web surfing habits to see how your employees are spending their time, or limit their access to specific work-related web sites.
Door Number 2: Computers. There are a few things that can be done to “harden” your desktops and servers against attack:
1.Anti-virus Software – Make sure you run a top-rated anti-virus program that updated routinely without you having to do anything. If you have a server, I highly recommend Trend Micro’s Worry Free solution which runs on the server as well as the desktop computers. The server will ensure each computer is updated and scanned regularly and allow you to control whether or not your staff can turn off the anti-virus program.
2.Regular Updates – Make sure that Windows Updates is set to automatically run. This will keep the latest security to and software updates installed on your machines.
3.Passwords – Make your users change their passwords regularly, no matter how much they complain about the inconvenience. This goes for you too. I heard of a company CEO who thought of himself as security conscious yet his password was his initials followed by 1234. Never use your address, or birthday, unless you substitute numbers for letters and add in a little punctuation, as in Step 2 of Door #1 above.
4.Old Users Accounts – You’ll want to change the password or disable the account of former employees, whether they left on good terms or not.
5.Remote Access – Make sure only authorized employees have remote access to their computers, such as from home using LogMeIn, GoToMeeting or other services. If any of these programs are installed on a computer that does not need it, remove it immediately.
6.USB and Optical Drives – A great way to introduce viruses into your network is via USB flash drives. You can lockdown USB ports so that staffers cannot use them at all, or limit their accessibility, such as preventing staff from stealing proprietary data. If you have a knowledgeable IT staff, they can do this without any additional software. Otherwise, you can use third party software such as DeviceLock.
7.Turn On Windows Firewall. The firewall can prevent unwanted remote access to your computer, but some malware can turn it off. Make sure it is turned on (some exceptions such as for gaming are OK) at all times.
8.Harden Servers – if you’re not an IT professional, you probably don’t want to mess around here. But, we do suggest you talk to your in-house, or out-sourced IT people to make sure they have taken the necessary measures to “harden” your severs against attack.
Here’s a couple of links to checklists for hardening both Windows and Linux Servers which you can reference during your discussion.
By the way, don’t be afraid to ask and if your IT guy becomes a little indignant or protective it could be a warning sign that something is not getting done properly, but that’s a topic for another post!
Door #3: Users – This might be the biggest door of all. You must get your staff to buy into the idea of network security and in a professional setting, most will but in other settings such as low paying retail, not so much. Have a written policy regarding computer use and limit, if not completely forbid using computers for personal use. This will prevent users from introducing a bug to your network via flash drive. Implement a hardware appliance at the gateway (as described above) to monitor and control web access.
I’ve found that younger employees have less respect for computers and treat them like their home machine which is used as an entertainment device. The first thing they will do when they sit down at a work machine is make it their own by customizing the wall paper with a favorite image and test web access, typically going straight to Facebook where they’ll update their status message: First day at new job. Computer sucks. LOL. (True story). They will also plug in their flash drives to listen to their virus-laden, pirated music or work on their infected resumes. If you’re anti-virus is up to date, you should be OK, but why risk it? Follow the advice offered above and disable USB ports and CD drives. Also, establish a culture that the computers are for business only and not personal use.
I don’t want to get too far off topic here, but send the message early on that the computer is not a toy. How? Change the computer desktop background to the company logo. Use the computer’s built-in settings to prevent any other personalization, such as fonts, shortcuts, etc. Set the web browser’s homepage to the company web page, Google, or blank rather than the default MSN or Yahoo. Block Facebook, Pandora and other time-wasting sites.
New employees and existing staff will see that you are in control of these machines and you mean business about it. You’ll be amazed by how much less you spend on IT support and you’ll likely see an uptick in productivity.
I have implemented these fundamental strategies to varying degrees with my clients and I am pleased to say that they remain virus and hacker free over several years. If you’d like some help locking down your network and computers, give us a call anytime. We’re happy to provide you a free evaluation as well as 2 free hours of service. Such a deal! Call us today: 800-976-5608.
September 26th, 2011 | By PlexusSage | No Comments »
I don’t hate cleaning virus-laden machines as much as I used to. For one thing,
computers under a Plexus IT managed services almost never get viruses because
we protect the gateway, the email and file servers and the desktops. But, for those customer
PCs not under our regular care, removal doesn’t quite suck for us as much as it used to.
It’s the damage to our custromer’s business in the way of corrupt files and bad computers that
really hurts, but I digress…
Cleaning tools are fairly advanced and 99% of the time we can
clean a hard drive, then scan it again with a few other products just to triple
check that the previous scans did not miss anything. We can hand the computer
back to the customer confident that it is clean. Keeping it that way, however,
is in the client’s hands.
It’s that 1% of the time that really makes me re-think Virus Removal as a service
offering, when no matter what, the bug is so tenacious it can’t be removed from
the machine in a reasonable amount of time. Sure, one can post error messages
and HijackThis! results to message boards and wait days for feedback, but it’s just simply not
an efficient way to do things. Sometimes a machine is so infected we have to
throw our hands in the air and recommend a complete re-install of the OS. We
can almost always preserve data and when the customer gets the PC back, it’s as good
as new. Literally. This the nuclear option, of course, and I thought I was
heading toward DefCon 1 with a customer PC when I ran across the HELLO4
virus a few weeks ago. Oh Lord, what a mess. This was an executive’s computer
and he had to have it up and running by 9 a.m. Monday morning. Giving myself
what I thought would be plenty of time, I arrived at his office at 6 a.m. to slam dunk this thing and be out of there by 8. Yea, right…
Every anti-virus program in my arsenal found a problem and cleaned it, but after a reboot the
same problem recurred: a blank window would pop up that actually said “BlankWindow” at the top and
browsing the web was impossible as every URL was redirected to a site of the
virus writer’s choosing. This was my first encounter witht he Hello4 virus and, after many
failed attempts the only thing I found to hunt and kill it was Kaspersky’s Virus Removal Tool and Kaspersky’s TDSSKiller.
Hallelujah! A few grey hairs and reboots later, I was able to certifythe machine as Clean not ten minutes
before my client walked in the door at 9 a.m. sharp. Shwew!
Of course, your mileage may vary with TDSSKiller as it is intended to seek and destroy a certain family of rootkits. If you believe you have a virus, here’s my basic technique for hard drive pest control:
1. If the virus prevents the computer from being used at all, or connecting to the
internet, remove the hard drive and install it in an external hard drive enclosure or,
my preference, a Cable Adapter.
(If you don’t want to fuss with additional hardware hardware, use a rescue CD such as AVG Rescue.
Although it did not help me in the Hello4 scenario described above, it might not hurt to
give it a try.)
2. With your tainted hard drive now externally connected to a second computer (I
recommend one that is known to be clean and you don’t care about infecting),
run at least three malware scanning programs against the entire drive contents. I recommend
starting with Malware Bytes, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Kaspersky’s Virus Removal Tool, Kaspersky’s TDSKiller and perhaps Microsoft Security Essentials. (If you are running Norton/Symantec
Anti-Virus or McAfee uninstall them and install Microsoft
Security Essentials. It’s free, better, updates with Windows and won’t
require $50 to keep it running year after year.)
3. Depending upon the speed of your computer amount of data on your hard drive
this process will take several hours, maybe even days. Follow the recommended
action of each completed scan. Look at the results closely as you may find a
program indicating that it could NOT remove the virus. When this happens, move
onto the next malware scanner as you’ll find that what program cannot clean or
misses completely, another will.
4. While the scans are running, save the executable for MalwareBytes and Microsoft
Security Essentials to the second computer. When the scans complete, copy them
to a folder on the drive you are scanning. This way, you can be sure you have
updated an anti-virus app BEFORE you connect to the Internet.
5. Once the scans complete without detecting any threats, go ahead and return the
hard drive to the original computer. Disconnect the ethernet cable to prevent
the computer from connecting to the Internet, and start it up.
6. Open Control Panel > Programs and remove any anti-virus programs. Also go
ahead and remove any programs you do not use or need. Go ahead and remove anything
you’ve “been meaning to use but haven’t gotten around to it yet” as
it’s only slowing down your machine.
7. Click Start>Run or Start >Search and type in CLEANMGR and hit enter. The
Disk Cleanup Wizard will run. Click every single box and click the Cleanup
System Files button. This will take a while and could slow down your machine,
but be less clogged with junk when you’re done. The window will close
automatically once the process is complete.
8. Plug in the ethernet cable and restart the computer. Once Windows starts go
ahead and go about your normal computing business, being careful to avoid any
web sites or email messages that might have infected your computer in the first
place! Good luck and, as always, drop us a line if you need any help!
September 20th, 2011 | By PlexusSage | No Comments »
My first attemot at installing Windows 8 Developer Edition as a virtual machine did not work out so well, but I liked the BSOD so much, I thought I’d share.
My next attempt will be runing it from a flash drive and just picked a 32GB fatty to get started with . More news as and when…
1. More Time to Focus on your Bottom Line
Imagine if you had more time to focus onwhat gives you the most fulfillment: running your business. Instead you are probably plagued by constant interruptions including navigating technology unchartered technology waters to build andmaintain an IT infrastructure that will allow your employees to be productive and your business successful. The time you spend crawling under desks to check connections and learning how to configure a firewall or router would be better spent developing your business. An IT professional that regularly maintains your computers and is on-call for any issuer simple question could give you the time you need to focus on your bottom line.
2. Lower Your Total Cost of Ownership
Let’s say the invoice for the computer is $1000, but when you factor in installation, repairs, lost productivity due to
viruses, failed hard drives, etc., you get the total cost for owning that piece of equipment. When you put that same machine under the care of an IT professional the cost goes down. Productivity loss due to PC issues is all but eliminated when the PC is
regularly updated with software and anti-virus updates, web surfing is controlled and alters allow skilled technicians to head off catastrophes.
3. On-Demand Support
If a PC or server breaks down today how would you quickly the problem? Pick up the Yellow Pages or search for someone
on Google? How can you trust they are competent to resolve the problem and get your business back online? Make a pre-emptive strike against this scenario by hiring a managed services provider. They can probably keep problems happening
in the first place, but when the unforeseen strikes, you can count on fast, reliable help with a simple phone call or email.
4. Improved Morale and Productivity
Employees are happier when they have the proper tools to do their job. Using old or problem-plagued equipment is not
going to help them meet their job requirements, make a valuable contribution to the company or help them look forward to coming to work each day. Empower your employees with the tools they need and the support of a skilled IT services provider.
5. Gain a Technological Edge Over Your Competition
Technology companies and the professionals that comprise them must stay on top of the latest technologies to stay
competitive in the workforce and marketplace. They know what it takes to quickly adapt and learn the best new products that will make an organization more secure, reliable and productive. Leverage their knowledge to keep your company ahead of the technology curve and give yourself a huge advantage over your competition.
As much as I enjoy summer, one thing I don’t look forward to is the perennial super Water & Power bill as we turn on the AC and sprinklers to cool the home and green the lawn . What’s worse, we put in a small pool this year and the filter pump is sure to send that bill into the stratosphere. We’ll have more fun and be comfy, but I have to gird my loins for that malignant utility bill. Indeed, it’s time to do another home power audit and kill some Vampires!
Vampires? Yes, many appliances will continue to draw small amounts of power, like a vampire sucking blood, even though they are turned off. Ever notice a little red light on your home theater system labeled Standby? In some cases it is letting you know it is plugged in and drawing enough power to maintain the clock, any special programming and its standing by to receive the all-important signal from the remote control to turn on.
Standby power can be as high as 10 to 15 watts per device. Since 2007 California regulations require that appliances must use less than 0.5 watts on standby and a typical LCD TV uses less than 0.3 watts. Hey, that’s peanuts. Who cares about a few pennies, right? Well, when you combine the idiot box with all your other gadgets in standby mode in the home, such as plugged-in power adapters, DVD players, DVRs, etc. it comes to 22% of the average household’s power bill. DVRs might be the biggest offenders of all. According to National Resources Defense Council, they suck more power than an Energy Star compliant refridgerator and cost consumers $2 billion a year when they aren’t even being used! My power bill comes bi-monthly and the last one was about $500 which means I may spent about $110 more than I needed to. Over the course of a year its costing us $660 which I’d much rather be investing in my kids’ future. For added perspective: factor in interest over 18 years and we’ll put a nice little dent in tuition costs when our little ones go off to college.
Here’s a few things I have done to kill those money sucking vampires around my house and office:
1. Train everyone to unplug cell phone chargers and anything with a power adapter when not in use
2. Put everything in the media center at home on surge protectors to kill all power to all devices with the flick of a switch.
3. Use laptops on battery, plugging them in only to charge the battery.
4. Maximize power options on computers to put them to sleep when not used for 10 minutes and turn them off completely when they won’t be used at all for a while.
Additionally I have replaced most of the incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents and replaced our windows with low-e glass to minimize heat energy from entering the home. Ceiling fans in every room help a great deal as well – they are quiet and, when the sun goes down, we can turn off the AC, turn on the fans and open the windows to stay cool.
If you have not upgraded to Office 2010 you are missing out on some great new features and functionality. Check out these great Tips and Tricks to make yourself and your staff more productive!
BTW – I will admit MS Office can be pricey so if you’re not there yet, be sure to check out OpenOffice, a fantastic alternative.
I love the idea of all my documents, pictures, pictures, email, calendar
etc. synchronizing across all of my computing devices. If I create it
on my desktop, I won’t have to take any additional steps, other than
initial set up, to make sure it is available to me on my laptop when I
reach a client site. Same goes for music and pictures This service,
called iCloud , was announced today by Steve Jobs at the World Wide
Developers Conference. This functioamlity has been available to a
certain degree with products like LogMeIn or DoubleTwist, but I have a
feeling that Apple will turn the convoluted process those services
provide with something that is very graceful, seamless and useful to
casual and business users alike. Indeed, this service will make Apple’s
line of products that much more attractive to the mobile workforce who
can be up and running as soon as they get to their destination and avoid
calls to the Help Desk to resolve remote access issues. Now, we just
need to know how easy it is to secure or turn off for those lost or
stolen devices!
If you’re entertaining the thought of a new IT support person, please read my article about the selection process. At the very least please check their references.
I have mixed feelings about all the bad IT guys responsible for many of my new clients. On the one hand, like a shady mechanic, they make our trade look bad, but on the other hand, I have a lot more work due to their incompetence. So, I have two messages for these guys: 1. Actually learn the trade you are peddling or find another line of work. 2. Thanks for the business. Keep up the ”good” work!
What inspires my post today is a call today from a client in downtown Los Angeles who was having trouble running Acrobat Professional. After a half-hour of troubleshooting and getting nowhere with any documented resolutions Adobe or anyone else had to offer, I went to the source. After 20 minutes of them not finding my customer in their system, it was determined that product serial number wasn’t valid. That ended that call. A little more digging with the client determined that the previous IT guy knowingly installed a bootleg copy of Adobe CS3 leaving little wonder why Adobe could not find them in their system and why Acrobat started throwing out errors.
This incident needlessly cost my customer money in so many ways: they bought bogus software from their previous IT guy then paid him to install it. After a few months it stopped working, so the employee was unproductive while troubleshooting on her own. There was additional expense when I was contacted and worked to identify the problem. Finally, they will incur costs associated with a legit copy and the time involved to download and install it. Ah, if only they’d done it right the first time, but the good news is that Plexus is now on the job and getting their systems dialed in. Indeed we’re adding reliability, security, efficiency and legitimacy to their systems!
If you’re in the Los Angeles area and suspect bogus software on your computers, please give us a call today. If you’ll get a legit copy, we’ll remove the bad one and install the good one plus we’ll tune up your computer FREE! 818-438-1991.
Mac users are being targeted with malware (a virus) that masquerades as a virus alert in order to trick users into purchasing useless software.
Windows users have been affected by this type of bug for years – once infected their web browsing is pre-empted by a very legitimate looking warning that their machine is infected and an option to buy protection. In fact, I just cleaned “Windows Anti-Virus 2011” from a client’s computer on Monday. (The appearance of the alert is so authentic you’d think it was produced by the Microsoft graphics department.) In the Mac case, the phony program goes by many names including Mac Defender, Mac Security and Mac Protector and infects machines when the users visit seedy or compromised web sites. CNET.com has an informative article with some FAQs about Mac Defender.
By the way…
This is a wake up call for those who believe that Macs don’t get viruses. I hear this all too often, particularly from young Mac snobs who enjoy certain exclusivity to owning anything from Apple. They and their machines are somehow immune to viruses, though they can’t explain why. The reality is that Macs are fantastic machines but can and do get viruses. PCs get more viruses because they have a MUCH larger share of the market and virus writers want to target a wider audience.
If you or someone you know already has this bug, here’s a link to more info as well as removal instructions.
You can also get hold of us at 818-438-1991 or via our Quick Contact form at the bottom of our home page.
Are you considering a move from Microsoft Office to Google Docs but worried about being dead in the water if your Internet connection goes down? Fear not as Google is promising to make their office productivity suite available offline as soon as this summer. Read more at Cnet.com.
For another great MS Office alternative, look into OpenOffice at OpenOffice.org. It has everything you’ll find in good ol’ Office, but its free!
Last year a customer needed to outfit his retail locations with MS Office for managers to view spreadsheet dasta, create schedules calendars, process resumes and more, but in this bad economy 24 copies of Microsoft Office was cost prohibitive. We were able to implement a solution for him with OpenOffice and save him nearly $12,000 in licensing fees. You can read more about how we brought stability to his company and lowered his IT costs here.
Take it for granted that everyone is spying on you and lockdown your business PC. It will run faster longer without letting prying eyes see your important data! Click here for 10 easy steps to lock it down tight.
Wherever my IT consulting duties take me here in Los Angeles I see these funky square bar codes everywhere from bus stop shelters to magazine ads. I even see them on signs at the Santa Barbara Zoo so that visitors can download a video of various animals in action. That seems pretty silly to me. I came to the zoo to see the animals live and in person. If I want to see them on video, I’ll save gas and money by staying home and watching Animal Planet in HD. Then again, most of the critters are so lethargic from being locked up all day, they’re pretty much just laying there, if you can see them at all. But, I digress…
These Quick Response (QR) codes are used this way: the user (you or me) takes a picture of the code with an Android or iPhone, we then use a bar code reader app to read it and download whatever information the code represents. Doing this at the zoo gets one a video of some animal roaming free in its natural habitat. A QR code in a magazine ad might get menu items for a sandwhich shop, or a 10% off coupon for a jar of fancy face cream.
If you think such a concept is too labor intensive to bother with, consider this small coffee shop chain that doubled its business when it started putting QR codes on the ads it was running on trains. They are benficial to businesses and consumers alike.
Wanting an image for this little blog post I Googled QR code and grabbed the one above randomly from the image results. Using the top-rated, free QR reader for Android, QR Droid, I aimed my Droid’s camera at the QR and within seconds it instantly recognized it as a URL for appbrain.com. Scanning QRs on your monitor for web addresses may not seem too practical, but if it wouold have value to me if it could load coupons for stores I frequent. Still no feeling it? Imagine being in a rush for work (a stretch, I know) but you really want, nay, need that cup of coffee. Wouldn’t it be nice to buzz past all those sheeple in line to grab your hot, paid for cup of joe off the counter and be on your way? QRs will enable this sooner than you think. Mmm, I can just smell a venti bold with my name incorrectly scribbled on the insulated paper cup now…
Microsoft has a great FREE safety scanner now available for anyone to thoroughly scan their computers to ensure they aren’t infected with any viruses. So many of my IT Support clients run enterprise-level anti-virus solutions in their office like my favorites Trend Micro and Microsoft’s Forefront. For stand-alone PCs I highly recommend Microsoft’s Security Essentials (MSE). I like AVG, but I like MSE more as it is equally effective, updates automatically with Windows and, where AVG’s free version constantly nags you to upgrade, MSE is totally FREE. If your current anti-virus program indicates your machine is clean, but you suspect a problem and want a second opinion, turn off the existing software and visit either Microsoft’s or Trend Micro’s on-demand scanners. Unlike other vendors who charge you to clean infected files, Microsoft and Trend will clean them free.
Here’s a link to Google’s Chromebook demo page so you get a closer look at what the device is all about.
After viewing the videos myself, I can see that if you live on the web and don’t depend heavilly on production software like Microsoft Office, QuickBooks or a host of other 3rd party applications. Those apps are available in online form, but if you’re disconnected from the Internet, you’re dead in the water. Supporting computers here in Los Angeles it is easy to spot members fo the mobile workforce and, I swear, some people have co-opted cushy seats in Starbucks and set up office on a daily basis! Plexus is skilled at making your office servers and resources just as accessible from a coffee shop as from your cubicle back at HQ. But if you live on the web as a student or casdual user, a Chromebook might be just your thing. Personally, at that price, I’d prefer an iPad.
Don’t be worried about your free Skype service going away with the Microsoft acquisition. Instead, corporate users should look forward to greatly enhanced features in the Microsoft communications and other production software they depend on.
Here’s a great and quick read about what more to expect from this deal.
Imagine this scenario: You start your day off at the office just fine, sending and answering email, when one of your outgoing messages bounces back. “Hmph, no biggie,” you think. You send again and it instantly comes right back so you look more closely at the Non-delivery Report in the message which mentions something about spam. Suddenly, several more of your sent messages bounce back when your phone rings. Everyone in your office is experiencing the same problem and each returned message says your email has been flagged as spam. Not good.
All of the returned messages look like the example below:
Your message
To: Jim Brody
Subject: RE: Email Test
Sent: Tue, 10 May 2011 10:52:14 -0700
did not reach the following recipient(s):
jbrody@criticalclient.com on Tue, 10 May 2011 10:52:16 -0700
There was a SMTP communication problem with the recipient’s email
server. Please contact your system administrator.
<mybreadandbutter.com #5.5.0 smtp;554 Denied [SHXBL] – Denied by
Spamhaus XBL – See http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=76.38.157.9
(Mode: normal)>
Reporting-MTA: dns; MYSERVER.mybreadandbutter.local
Not sure where to turn next, you call your as-needed IT guy who, after a few minutes is able to determine that your public IP address has been blacklisted by agencies that keep lists of spammers. These lists are referenced by spam blockers, so if you’re on the list, the spam blocker rejects any email from your IP. But you’re not a spammer. How does this happen and how to fix it fast?
It turns out you did not get a chance to change that way to easy to guess administrator password on your server, so a hacker was able to get in and install a program called Advanced Mass Mailer. Hopefully that’s all he did. It did not take long to get you blacklisted. Thankfully, your IT guy knows what he is doing and quickly corrects the issue, including locking down your server to prevent further intrusions.
Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure you have strong pass-phrases that are easy to remember but hard to guess. Use a combination of upper and lower case letter with numbers and symbols. For example, your cat’s name, Mr. Whiskers is something that might come to mind as a password, but pet’s names can be easily figured out. Instead, mix his name into a pass-phrase like Mr. Whiskers eats tuna!, then exchange letters with numbers and symbols thusly: Mr.Wh1$k3r$3@t$Tun@! You will find it a little hard to type that out at first, but I promise it will become second nature before you know it and your business network, bank accounts and email will be much, much more secure!
Responsible types take their PCs and other e-junk to the monthly neighborhood e-waste event where it is presumed to be dispensed with in an environmentally safe manner. I haven’t taken the time to “follow the money” as my Philosophy 101 instructor admonished us, but someone is clearly making a buck from the scrap and tiny bits of precious metals contained in old electronic equipment. And we all know what a boon data is, particularly credit card or pther personal information or people wouldn’t be taking the time to hack Sony’s umpteen million online user accounts. So I wonder how many well-intentioned people take their old clunker PCs to the recycliing center without clearing the data properly or, if they even know how. Hopefully, at the very least, they know they need to do something more involved than clearing the web browser cache and dragging those embarrassing photos to the Recycle bin on the desktop, right? Probably not.
Here’s a link to some great FREE erasing software you should use on folders and files you really want to get rid of. It’s a tiny file that, once installed allows you to rightclick ta folder or file a chooose Erase. This will delete the file and write over that section of the hard drive several times with meaningless data, truly clearing the original file daat from your hard drive. You can get a portable version here to run from a flash drive without the need to install any software on the target machine.
For more insteresting reading on the topic, head over to our friends at TechCrunch.com and check out this article!
By the way, my customers frequently have me dispose of their old PCs and other e-waste. Stay tuned for some cool video of my 100% effective, and slightly over-the-top, data erasing methodology!
I gave my wife a new iPhone 4 for her birthday last month and she loves it. My little girl LOVES FaceTime and we had a blast for an hour or so running between mommy with her iPhione and me with the Mac in the office making silly faces.Bt before the fun and games I was a little surprised though when I found that the only way to active the darn thing was over iTunes. Not as easy as the standard way of calling *228 from the new phone to activate, but iTunes should not be too difficult, right? Well, my wife being Chinese has Microsoft’s Mandarin languge set up on her laptop and, somehow, the iTunes install detected this and, without asking, installed the Chinese version of itself. Oy. The OK and Cancel buttons I could pretty much extrapolate, but could get no further when it was time to login to her account and activate the phone and had to bring her in to help. As soon as we connected the iPhone to the laptop for activation, the iPhone’s langauage settings instantly switched to Chinese as well. We both looked at each other, mouths agape, “Wow!” That was cool, I guess, and she figured out how to toggle between Mandarin, Russian (her 3rd language) and English (my sole linguistic skill).
Today I see a headline in the Wall Street Journal that Apple might start issuing updates over the air (OTA) like my Android phone because, till now, it was done over iTunes. Hopefully that means activations as well as I love this iPhone so much, I think I’ll get one on the next cellular refresh.
Storing your files in the cloud is a great idea if you want that extra assurance your precious pictures, music files and documents won’t go disappear if you hard drive ails or your computer, including your external backup drive, is stolen from your home or office. DropBox.com and Box.net work great and offer 2 GB of free storage. Personally I prefer SugarSync which is giving away 5GB free and allows you to syn multiple folders instead of just one source. If music is your thing, Amazon’s Cloud service will upgrade you from 5 to 20 GB of storage when you buy a single MP3 album which you can find for a buck! There is also a Cloud Player which you can use to access and play your tunes from anywhere with an Internet connection, including your smart phone.
What’s the difference between this and an online backup solution? Not much except that you can see and access your files from anywhere with a web browser and even play music or movies. Backup software will run on your machine and, unless the provider makes it available via any web browser, can only access your files from the source of the backup..
So you start your computing day by opening your email, do what you need to do and move on to your next task in QuickBooks, PeachTree, Word, etc. and leave them all up and running so you can reference each as you go about your work day. With only one monitor it can get a little tedious resizing the windows to copy from this window, open the other to paste, minimize to check your email again, go back and… Doh! You accidentally closed what you were working on before saving it! Sound familiar? Well, dual monitors won’t eliminate this tedium, but it sure can alleviate most of it. For example, if you’re creating a new Word doc and want to reference information on a web page or spreadsheet, you can have Word up on screen 1 and the web page up on screen 2, or vice-versa. All you need to make this happen is a second monitor (identical screens is recommended, but not at all required) and a video card to support it. If you have a laptop, you should already have an external SVGA connection which can be used to connect an external monitor or projector. Personally I prefer my monitors to be identical so, her in my office I have my laptop in a docking station whicih is loaded with additional ports including a DVI and SVGA. Leveraging this, I enjoy dual 19′s on my desk. Now, I could run out and buy a 32″ LCD TV with a SVGA port and go that route, but its expensive and most offices have spare monitors so you should be able to pull this off at minmal cost. If you want to do this with your desktop PC many computers already support multiple monitors out of the box, but if yours doesn’t you’ll need to add a second video card. Your cost here will range from $50 for a basic end user (email, word processing, etc.) to $300 for the hard core gamer who wants the best graphics. I you have aname brand PC, buy directly from the manufactuer to ensure you get compantible hardware.
I promise that once you add a second or third monitor you will wonder how you ever got by with just one. You’ll also be amazed at how easy it is to set up, but if you want some help, please give me a call – I am eager to help!
Never allow your IT support personnel sole ownership of critical network passwords or exclusive access to critical resources. Likewise, make sure that personnel who have entrenched themselves in certain processes do not enjoy elevated privileges and the keys to the kingdom. If either of these groups are hit by the proverbial bus, business and life go on and you must be able to maintain control of your systyems. Likewise, if it should be necessary to switch support providers or dismiss an employee who has god rights on the servers, you need to protect yourself from a potentially adverse reaction. Make sure YOU have the passwords and THEY do not before letting anyone go. Doing so could help prevent an awkward situation from becoming a complete catastrophe.
Here’s an excerpt from a great article in CIO magazine about IT Pros going bad and the nightmares they can cause.
[A] Pennsylvania retailer’s tale of woe began in early 2008, when the BSA notified it that Microsoft (MSFT) had uncovered licensing discrepancies, according to John Linkous. Today, Linkous is chief security and compliance officer at eIQ Networks, a security consultancy. His experience with the incident involving the retailer is from his previous job, when he was vice president of operations at Sabera, a now-defunct security consultancy.
Microsoft had traced the sale of the suspect software to a sysadmin at a company that was a Sabera client. For the purposes of this story, we’ll call that sysadmin “Ed.” When Linkous and other members of the Sabera team were secretly called in to investigate, they found that Ed had sold more than a half-million dollars in pirated Microsoft, Adobe (ADBE) and SAP software to his employer.
The investigators also noticed that network bandwidth use was abnormally high. “We thought there was some kind of network-based attack going on,” says Linkous. They traced the activity to a server with more than 50,000 pornographic still images and more than 2,500 videos, according to Linkous.
In addition, a forensic search of Ed’s workstation uncovered a spreadsheet with hundreds of credit card numbers from the company’s e-commerce site. While there was no indication that the numbers had been used, the fact that the information was in a spreadsheet implied that Ed was contemplating using the card data himself or selling it to a third party, according to Linkous.
The retailer’s chief financial officer, who had originally received the call from the BSA, and others on the senior management team feared what Ed might do when confronted. He was the only one who had certain administrative passwords — including passwords for the core network router/firewall, network switches, the corporate VPN, the HR system, email server administration, Windows Active Directory administration, and Windows desktop administration.
That meant that Ed could have held hostage nearly all the company’s major business processes, including the corporate website, email, financial reporting system and payroll. “This guy had keys to the kingdom,” says Linkous.
So the company and Linkous’ firm launched an operation right out of Mission: Impossible. They invented a ruse that required Ed to fly overnight to California. The long flight gave Linkous’ team a window of about five and a half hours during which Ed couldn’t possibly access the system. Working as fast as they could, the team mapped out the network and reset all the passwords. When Ed landed in California, “the COO was there to meet him. He was fired on the spot.”
My wife was stoked when I upgraded office on her laptop from 2003 to 2007, but she had a hard time adjusting to the new tool bar called the Ribbon and other new features. I was left scratching my head as well and if you are took, here’s some great tips from our friends over at Gizmo’s Freeware to help make your Office experience a whole lot easier and productive!
Outlook and the Office Suite are loaded with handy, time-saving features that mostly go unused. Considering what you pay for this program, make sure that your employees get the most out of it. Microsoft is great about helping people use (and keep buying!) their products. Here’s a link to some great FREE online training for Office versions 2003, 2007 and 2010. The traning includes programs Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Access, plus SharePoint, Project, Visio and more! Follow this link to get started on your free training today!
Has this ever happened to you: you spend so much time introducing the file you intend to send that you forget to click that little paperclip icon and actually attach the file to the email? Typically you realize it a nano-second after clicking Send, or the recipient let’s you know a few minutes later. Fortunately, Microsoft Outlook is designed to be tweaked many different ways and, with the addition of a little code, when the send button is clicked a quick search is made in the body of your message for words like, attachment or see attached. If no attachment is found, you’ll get a little pop-up and a second chance to spare yourself some embarassment. These tricks only work with Outlook 2007 and previous versions, but we hope to see them working with laters versions soon.
Click here to read more for this easy to implement Outlook add-on from my friends at Experts Exchange.
Here’s another very handy Outlook Powertoy that will also double check for attachments.
I used to drive an old Chevy pickup truck and when I got tired of changing the oil myself I started taking it to Speedy Lube down the street. Although I never noticed a problem, the mechanics never failed to find a major issue that needed to be addressed right away. Repair costs were starting to rival monthly payments of a new truck and when I mentioned this idea to my mechanic he had nothing but bad things to say about new cars. “You’re so lucky to have this great old truck. Why would you want to get rid of it?” Sure, it was a great truck, for him in the way of a revenue stream!
Some IT guys would rather have you loaded with clunker old PCs that continually break down to provide them regular income. $50 or $100 here or there may not seem like much, but when you factor in low productivity everyday due to a slow machine plus zero productivity when that machine is totally down while the strip mall repair shop has it, the costs quickly add up. Indeed, it will cost much more than a brand new, warrantied computer that is regularly maintained by a competent IT Professional.
Do we know of a good one? We’re kinda partial to Plexus IT, though we may be biased.
Call us during the months of January and February and get $100 off your first invoice!
1. Decide What’s Important to You What will you be using the machine for? If you’re a power user running common productivity applications like Microsoft’s Outlook plus some third party contact management software like Goldmine, be prepared to spend some money and buy as far ahead of the technology curve as possible, i.e. fastest processor and as much memory as you can afford. This is especially true if you’ll want to do some editing of videos or pictures.
If your needs are more simple and you want the machine for basic web surfing, email and entertainment, you can get by with a more entry-level piece of hardware.
2. Leverage Your Sales Representative If your company has an existing Dell or HP account, call the sales rep you normally work with and see what they have in the way of specials. Often they can do better than the online price and can help you customize your new machine to suit your needs.
3. Avoid Retail Stores I remember my first PC came with “$2000 worth of software!” This sounded so exciting, but even though I never even launched 3D Dinosaur and most of the other programs, they were still there tying up system resources. In addition to all that bloatware, retail versions almost always come with the Home version of Windows which cannot be integrated with a Windows server-based network.
4. Comparison Shop Once you spot a model you like, use web sites like MySimon.com or Nextag.com which will do the shopping comparisons for you. You’ll also see customer ratings for these etailers to help you select a more trusted seller.
5. Buy Refurbished Dell and HP offer refurbished equipment at a reduced price with a warranty. The equipment typically has been returned to the manufacturer for varying reasons, but put through the paces to make sure it meets original factory specifications. I would buy a refurbished Dell Latitude (business class) with a warranty before I bought a $500 new consumer laptop of any brand because I know it is built to last. The consumer level laptop, on the other hand, is built to last about a year, even less in the hands of a teenager!
If you are considering a laptop purchase for business use I highly recommend avoiding consumer level products available from Best Buy, Costco or online and talk directly to Dell, HP or Lenovo (formerly IBM) about a business class laptop. These cheesy machines are made with the least expensive parts in order to get the cost down as low as possible for the mass market and they can be great…when they work. But if you are a power user who depends upon your laptop more for earning an income than for watching DVDs and updating your Facebook status, then you need equipment that will withstand the rigors of the typical business users.
Here’s a basic breakdown of the differences between consumer level and business class laptop computers:
Look & Feel
Consumer laptops, also called Notebooks (not to be confused with the much smaller netbooks) are often very shiny and brightly colored with stylish graphics across the cover and keyboard wrist rest. Business class machines, on the other hand, are much more subdued, profesional appearance typically basic black or gun metal grey to help the user blend into a business environment. The low-key appearance alspo makes them less noticeable to would-be thieves or others drawn by shiny objects.
Consumer machines are nearly identical from model to model and cater to those who will primarilly game, web surf, email and watch movies. To satisfy those users DVD players/burners, HDMI connections, web cams and built-in wireless are standard. If you wanted to save money it would be hard to find a machine without one of those components. On the other hand, business class computers in general are highly customizable and options can include a webcam, optical drive and more sophistacted security features such a finger print reader or Smart Card. Bluetooth, infrared and other functions are also available to help a business user effectively and securely use their machines in an enterprise enviroment. Business class machines allow you to tailor your machine without having a bunch of goodies you will never need.
Durability
As mentioned above, consumer machines are built primarilly with a plastic frame and chassis while business machines have more metal for a rigid body that won’t twist in a way that allows parts to come lose and break. For example, the HP elite series contains a magnsium alloy chassis. If the laptop should drop, an accelerometer will detect the sudden movement, save your data and quickly shut down the computer in the blink of an eye to avoid data loss. The keyboard, touch pad, hard drive and other moving parts are built from materials that will withstand heavy use over the years.
Warranty & Service
The standard warranty on a consumer laptop is 1 year and if you buy one, I highly recommend purchasing an extended warranty because you will probably need it. Business laptops, however, will typically come with a 3 year warranty with onsite service available. Bad motherboard? A Dell or HP technician will bet at your office, home or hotel room to swap it out at no additional charge. Because the parts are so superior, this is rarely needed, but fantastic when necessary.
Software
Consumer level desktops and PCs are preloaded with so much trial software that the machines are slower than they should be right out of the box! The operating systems are always the home version which cannot function properly in a corporate computing envionment. Business class laptops tend to come bare bones with the professional versions of Windows. The same can be said for desktops and workstations in this class. These machines are just about as fast as they can be without being bogged down by trial versions of the most resource intensive programs known to man: Norton Anti-Virus, Microsoft Word, Quickbooks, Quicken, etc.
In a nutshell, if you need to take your chances with an entry level laptop be prepared to use that warranty within the first year and soon after it expires. However, if you want a laptop that will last you a few years and save you a lot of money and aggravation, invest in a solid business class computer.
Actually I rendered the video at 16x normal speed for great time lapse effect, but I really was headed to RR Electric to deliver a recovered laptop and configure a new system in their conference room!
If you don’t pay attention to tech news, please pay attention to this: a new program that is SUPER easy to install and use allows anyone with zero hacking skills to shadow your web surfing when you connect to a unsecured wireless network, such as at Starbucks, and gain access to whatever web sites you access. Read this article and make sure that your not using any wireless network that is not password protected.
As an IT support guy here in Los Angeles I should know my way around a computer, right? Well, I feel a little embarrassed when it looks like I don’t even know my way around a keyboard by sending typo-laden emails. If you want your emails to look professional, at least as far as spelling and grammar are concerned, here’s a short video on setting up spell check to run when you click Send. Also, I’ll show you how to automatically close messages as you reply or forward them so your desktop isn’t cluttered with 50 open messages by the end of the day.
I wrote about this before, but here’s another quickie video you restrict web access for emplyeees or kids.
If you’re wondering why you might want to do so, read below…
Given the chance, employees will waste their day and your payroll budget updating MyBook and FaceSpace all day long. There is also the risk of them downloading a virus thatb rings your network and your business to a screeching halt and another huge cost of IT professionals getting you cleaned up and back online. Here’s a quick, free way to keep employees from unauthorized web surfing while allowing them access to work related sites.
For more information about securing your business network from internal (employees) and external (viruses) threats, call or click today.
Plexus IT (800) 976-5608 http://www.plexus-it.com/contactus.php
This is a quick, simple video to help you add an Internet email account to Outlook that may or may not already be configured with an Exchange-based account.
Most places I have worked did not put limitations of employee access to the Internet or their computers themselves. Staff could surf the web as much as they wanted as long as the content was work-appropriate and their performance did not suffer. While they do not have Administrator (god-like) rights to their computers, they had enough access to do damage and probably did more than anyone realized. Calls about no longer being able to see this file or that printer were almost always due to end-users poking around, or knowing enough to be dangersous and doing more harm than good when trying to resolve their own issues.
One of our clients has a lot of younger staff. (If you’ve read any of my earlier posts, you know my position on this: youngsters (anyone with a mental or emotional capacity under 18) and computers do not mix. Unless people frequently compare the young person to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, they should be allowed within 50′ of a computers that doesn not belong to them.)
These staffers have a fair amount of downtime in this economy and
If you decide to open a hamburger stand next to a McDonald’s with burgers that cost the same but aren’t nearly as tasty as those sold under the Golden Arches, don’t expect the same level of success. This is what Blackberry unsuccessfully tried to accomplish with it’s new Torch, as we pretty much predicted here and the only way vendors can get them off the shelves is to slash prices.
I am not a fan of BB devices. Just yesterday someone asked me to configure her device for a corporate Exchange server and I had to fumble with this tiny ball that reminded me of the roll-on deodorant applicator I took apart when I was about 8. Of course, if I had been using it more often it would be second nature and I would not be so critical, but if you want people to beat a path to your door like Apple and Motorola, you better make your device nice and friendly so even that the first time you do anything is like second nature and you say, ”Oh yea, this is great!”
That said, if you’re ready to switch hardware platforms and/or carrier, Plexus highly recommends the iPhone for ease of configuration and use. If you are a little more tech savvy, we highly recommend the Droid, though I cannot endorse the native email application and (after no small amount of frustration) have gone with very inexpensive third-party solutions called Touchdown for Exchange and MailDroid for IMAP or POP connections to for IMAP or POP connections to Yahoo, MSN or other personal email accounts.
Sophos, the security hardware and software vendor, has identified a scam to aimed to collect your Facebook account information. So don’t be tricked into anything that promises to add a Dislike button to your Facebook account.
If you want a real dislike button for Facebook you’ll have to use Firefox and the plug-in from FaceMod. Likewise, you’re friends will have to run Firefox with the same plug-in if you want them to see your thumbs down to their posts, or expressions of sympathy (I dislike that you got caught in the presidential motorcade traffic nightmare, too).
More and more companies are pushing their new iPhone app to “help you use their product,” but this, of course, is a marketing tactic to tie you to their product by surrounding you with it. Some apps are useful and free, like Weather Bug from the Weather Channel, while others are completely useless and serve only to help the company glom onto the Apple cool. Already Android-based smartphone sales have eclipsed the iPhone so we should be seeing more apps for Android, Blackberry and Symbian which has more sales than anyone.
I can’t tell you how many emails containing chain letters and alerts about missing kids I receive. One can certainly understand the desire to help find a child, but the chain emails about nothing of particular import are such a waste of everyone’s time. I am left wondering if, back in pre-Internet days, would they have taken the time to re-print the letter, lick 10 envelopes and stamps in order to prevent untold calamity in their own lives lest they break the chain?
I find the best way to, at the very least, prevent them from sending me any more junk is to reply with a link to a site that lets them know the little girl was never missing so they can sleep easier or that the same chain email they just sent has been making its way around the websphere for more than a decade.
From my friend, Tim Malone at TechRepublic, comes a list of 10 great sites to help you get a little background on these messages to see of they are worthy of your time and the Forward button. (Be warned, the sites themselves are so entertaining I forgot all about finishing this blog post for about an hour as I read about the discovery of giant bones in Greece and spiders in toilets.)
1: Snopes Who hasn’t heard of Snopes? This is the granddaddy of all fact-checking sites. Some of the worst chain spams even quote Snopes with an embedded link to give their email an added level of authenticity. Of course, Snopes has been known to be wrong and has changed its listings on several occasions. It has also become commercialized over the years, but it’s still a very complete site.
2: About Urban Legends This About.com subsite has been hosted for 10 years by David Emery, and he has done a great job. He is passionate about finding and debunking all those rumors, myths, pranks, and odd stories. I have found lately that I am referring more people to his site than Snopes because I like the format better. The site also shows up in more Google searches than the others, indicating that the content is well linked and used. 3: Break The Chain In 1999, John Ratliff was annoyed that he kept receiving the same chain spams forwarded to him over and over. I have been just as annoyed for just as long, but he did something about it. Like most of these sites, John has plenty of healthy advertisements but no pop-ups. His site is getting more professional looking all the time. He is also frequently cited by the media when looking for an authoritative source on these stupid chain mails.
3: Break The Chain In 1999, John Ratliff was annoyed that he kept receiving the same chain spams forwarded to him over and over. I have been just as annoyed for just as long, but he did something about it. Like most of these sites, John has plenty of healthy advertisements but no pop-ups. His site is getting more professional looking all the time. He is also frequently cited by the media when looking for an authoritative source on these stupid chain mails.
4: TruthOrFiction.com This excellent site, founded by Rich Buhler in 1999, offers information on “eRumors,” hoaxes, requests for help, and other items circulated via email. You can search for a story, browse through categories such as Food-Drink, Warnings, and eRumors in the News, view the top 20 stories of the hour, and subscribe to its email alerts (for a modest price).
5: Sophos This antivirus company keeps a small list of hoaxes and urban legends, but it is not nearly as complete as the sites at the top of this list. Their focus is more on virus hoaxes — you know, the ones that scream that you will wipe your hard drive and melt the motherboard if you open the suspect email.
6: Hoax-Slayer Brett Christensen’s Hoax-Slayer morphed from a Yahoo group to a Web site in 2003. You can search the site, browse by category, subscribe to a newsletter for the latest info, or get a quick roundup of the latest hoaxes and scams by visiting the Hoax-Slayer Nutshell page. The site is thorough and up to date. One particularly interesting feature is its True Emails page, which lists circulating emails that actually are legit (albeit misleading in some cases) despite their hoax-y appearance.
7: VMyths Well referenced by specialists in the computer security field, VMyths takes Internet hoaxes and chain letters to a new level. If you want to read what the real experts have to say about Internet hoaxes, virus scares, myths, and legends, get it from Rob Rosenberger at VMyths.
8: Symantec I have a love-hate affair with Symantec. I use its products, but I’ve been burned by them several times lately. That’s a story for another post. Its hoax list is pretty good but seems a little dated. Maybe that’s because most hoaxes today are really recycled from earlier hoaxes.
9: Hoax Busters Not to be confused with the U.S. Department of Energy’s now-defunct hoaxbusters.ciac.org, Hoax Busters offers The BIG LIST of Internet Hoaxes — an alphabetized list of urban legends, scams, chain letters, and hoaxes. This is handy if you just want to quickly look up an item to see if it’s on the list (although you have to figure out the most likely keyword for an item to find its listing). Items that require a little explanation are presented as clickable links, which open a window with additional info.
10: Virus Busters This is a short list from the This is a short list from the University of Michigan of hoaxes that keep coming back. Like the UofM, I haven’t seen many new hoaxes lately — they are almost all repackaged oldies. The list is not intended to be comprehensive but is a good reference point for what you will see on a regular basis.
No surprises here. The new Blackberry Torch 9800 running BB’s OS 6 does not disappoint as few could have bought into the hype that it would or could compete with leading smart phones. I know I did not expect much. At best it might keep exisiting BB enthusiasts on their current plaform, but unless we’re talking about a paid corporate PDA, no one will be lured away from their iPhone, Droid or Incredible.
Blackberry does remain strong on the enterprise front, but for how long as corporate users demand more of the goodies available on other devices? Adapt or die, BB.
On another note, I am disappointed in CNET’s review of the device as were other readers. Until this article I have appreciated the site as a trustworthy resource for On another note, I am disappointed in CNET’s review of the device as were other readers. Until this article I have appreciated the site as a trustworthy resource for technology news and software but will start looking for new sources to help stay current. Tangent, ahoy! Will save that for another post.
Alerting the public of security flaws is a double-edged sword. It’s like telling a home owner his house is unlocked when known burglars are in earshot. Make sure you patch your machines and, if your running Windows XP SP2, make sure you update it to SP3 first. BTW, SP3 is HUGE patch, so give yourself at least an hour for the download and install.
Plexus loves to keep your computers current and safe from hackers and other problems, so give us a call if you would like some help.
To make sure you’re computer will get the patch, click here
If you’d like to read more about this known flaw click here.
When it comes to ease of use you can’t beat the iPhone. Getting it to connect to an Exchange server could not be simpler. When it comes to enterprise integration, you can’t beat Blackberry, but full support at the corporate level is expensive. Now if someone can just combine both qualities.
I thought this is what the Storm was supposed to do so, rather than abandon Verizon’s superior service in order to get my wife an iPhone for Christmas a couple of years ago, I got her the Storm. She likes it, but it hardly possesses any Wow factor. Storm 2 did not do much better. Apart from the Droid, anything post iPhone has been anti-climactic and this was particularly true of the Storm whose only selling point was that it was the only touchscreen Blackberry available. Whoopie.
Now RIM is revving up the same hype machine as it announces a new device to, as it claims again, compete against the iPhone and a slew of smart phones that have hit the market since the Storm made its debut.
I’ve never been a Blackberry fan, but I truly hope it does rival the iPhone just because competition leads to better products and better choices for the consumer.
Fortunately, as a Small Business Specialist supporting computer systems in Los Angeles, my company’s partnership level with Microsoft includes access all Windows operating systems, Office and other productivity software for our own internal use. This gives us the chance to install, learn and master these products to better support our clientele. But if I did not enjoy this benefit and had to open an office full of computers loaded with Microsoft Office, I’d save myself $500 per machine and load them instead with the completely FREE OpenOffice from Oracle. The entire suite contains equivelants of Word, Excel, PowerPoint called Writer, Calc and Impress, repespectively. The standards are consistent so there’s no steep learning curve, plus it is completely compatible with MS Office and Mac-based products. In other words, if I create a new document, I can easilly send it to a colleauge without worrying if he can open it and, likewise, I can open whatever he sends me.
It’s a quick free dowload and highly recommended if you want to save several hundred dollars per computer!
Plexus strives to create secure and reliable computer networks for our customers. A huge part of security is to make sure everyone is using strong passwords in all aspects of their lives. You might think you use a strong passwords and, if you are supposing they are hard for people to guess, you’re probably right. But hackers don’t sit there looking at the ceiling tapping there chin wondering, “What could his password be…ummm, ummm…?” as they try and guess your bank account or Facebook password. They have sophisticated software tools that try thousands of passwords by using a kajillion number/letter combinations, referencing dictionaries of all languages and even compiled lists of previously hacked passwords. So, how do average folks protect themselves? Here’s some tips:
Passphrase – Rather than a password, use a passphrase that will be easy for you to remember, but very hard for password hacking technology to crack.
Mix It Up – Make sure you use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and characters such as punctuation marks. IReallyLove toShopat99C3ntsStore!! is an example of a very strong passphrase. OK, your looking a this thinking how tedious it would be to type that in all the time, but how tedious would be to get your company back in business when a malicious hacker deletes your critical company files? How tedious would it be when a hacker steals your identity snd destroys your credit, or steals your life savings? It happens.
Change It – Change your password very 30 to 90 days.. If someone does get hold of your email password, you might not know it if they are just snooping on you. If you change it regularly their access will be short-lived.
Variety – Never use the same password for all of your computer or favorite websites. To help keep them straight in your head, use a system like appending your passphrase with a couple of letters related to the resource.
Click here if you would like to check the strength of your password and for more great tips for online security.
The Browser wars are heating up again. I remember spending $60 and about 3 hours to download Netscape 4 Communicator back in the 1996 on my 14.4 modem. It was pretty much the only show in town and could be frustrating when plug-ins were needed to enjoy various web content. Then Internet Explorer (IE) came and, not only was it free, it was better on so many levels.
Over the years as IE became more prone to attack because of its ubiquity and vulnerabilities, I became a Firefox believer and used IE only for Outlook Web Access, the only browser it worked in, of course.
I never got hooked on Opera or Safari, but Google’s Chrome I really like.
Because it is not feature rich like IE or the recently bloated Firefox, it is a fast, no-nonsense web browser. Each update has new features and hopefully it won’t go the way of Firefox, loading up on IE-like features to gain more share of the market. There are some great ideas for new features, but not everythign on the wish list will make it into the newest version according to CNET.
If you haven’t enjoyed Chrome yet, click here to download and give it a whirl. If you are like me and don’t have a lot ot time or patience waiting for programs to open so you can get your work (or play) done, you’ll love it.
The Browser wars are heating up again. I remember spending $60 and about 3 hours to download Netscape (version?) back in the 1996 on my 14.4 modem. It was pretty much the only show in town and could be frustrating when plug-ins were needed to enjoy various web content. Then Internet Explorer (IE) came and, not only was it free, it was better on so many levels.
Over the years as IE became more prone to attack because of its ubiquity and vulnerabilities, I became a Firefox believer and used IE only for Outlook Web Access, the only browser it worked in, of course.
I never got hooked on Opera or Safari, but Google’s Chrome I really like.
Because it is not feature rich like IE or the recently bloated Firefox, it is a fast, no-nonsense web browser. Each update has new features and hopefully it won’t go the way of Firefox, loading up on IE-like features to gain more share of the market.
However, I can arm you with enough information to keep your computers and servers (or blogs) from blowing up.
Maybe you heard the news about some 70,000 blogs hosted on the Bloggetry platform that were shut down recently because, according to the FBI, some contained al-Qaeda bomb-making tips and lists of Americans targeted by the terrorist organization. Wow. Not the ordnance instructions or hit list, but that there were some 70,000 blogs! But how many of those were started long before the pervasiveness of Facebook and MySpace, such as LiveJournal? I know I jumped on that bandwagon about 8 years ago and made a whole two posts before the novelty wore off and I realized that, at the time, I had little to say.
Now however, I feel compelled to impart a few wise words about protecting our business and home computers from Internet and internal threats. In the case of this post, I suggest you protect your civil liberties by avoiding blog posts to that might attract the discerning eyes of federal authorities. Avoiding my soapbox, I direct you to an interesting read about this unprecedented government takeover of the blogospere…
Years ago an office place romance blossomed between a couple of disgruntled employees. She was a technical recruiter and he was the proverbial computer wizard from the IT department and together they conspired to steal the company’s bread and butter database and use it to start their own competing business.
I first noted something was a little odd with one of the people involved when she complained that Outlook wasn’t working properly, but when I arrived to help she snapped at me, “Can’t you do this without looking at my email!?”
At first I chalked this up to her just not understanding that I will actually need to get into her email program in order to troubleshoot and fix it. This is not email or computer specific – it’s pretty much universal that anything that needs to be fixed will need to be accessed by the person doing the actual fixing. Only later did I realize she had something to hide: taudry messages between her and lover boy.
Of course, it is not unusual for the IT group to have this level of access – they need it to run the show, but never put your most personal information on a company computer because others will treat it as fair game.
Case in point: the sales director at one of my last employers who dropped off his laptop for the help desk guys to fix which they did with their usual expediency. They were also quick to find and distribute the x-rated pictures of he and his wife he had left on the hard drive. Oopsie.
Here’s a great article about spying in the work place and, f you think you want to tighten things up around your office, give us a call! http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20009990-83.html
If you’re wondering whether to buy a Dell computer or look at one of the other brands, let this article guide you: http://tinyurl.com/26oygm5
I hate to see any company decline and I hope that I hate to see any company decline and I hope that Dell can turn it around so that we have more solid options for IT purchases.
I have had my Yahoo acount for well over 10 years and I greatly appreciate this free service. However, the spam is now so bad that I have grown tired of checking each spam message and setting it as such. I am overwhelmed and, as much as I hate to do it, I will stop using this account unless you can help crank up the spam filter settings.
As an IT consultant I administer a dozen or so Exchange servers for my corporate clients, Between Exchange’s native spam filtering capabilities and third party products like Trend Micro and appliances such as Untangle, my customers receive almost no spam. I have no doubt Yahoo has the resources to better control spam, rather then just the On/Off switch I see under Mail > Options. In fact, I get the same amount of junk whether this is enabled or not.
Please reply and help me understand what Yahoo is doing to improve this situation and why I should not abandon this account and stop recomending both your free and business services to others.
c It’s akin to being stuck behind the blue-haired lady who can barely see over the dashboards she does 15 in a 35. “The gas is on the right!” I want to yell. Or, as Nick Burns would say to the end-user, “Move!’
Years ago when I was at graduate school I had a course called Human computer Interaction. Talk about an easy A. Each week the professor would bring in some new product and discuss the ergonomics and human factors involved in its design. During one discussion he complained about the time-consuming use of a mouse and how he would make his selection by clicking here, then clicking there to place the curser where he needed to type, then reaching for the mouse again to click the OK button. He longed for the good old days when everything was command line and you did not waste time reaching for the pointing device.
Being relatively new to computing, my experience was limited to the friendly graphical user interface (GUI, pronounced “gooey”) and the mouse. Why was it such a big deal for him to use it? Clearly the old fart, who probably had a whole ten years on me, was having trouble adapting to his changing environment.
However, as my IT career evolved and I was spending countless hours virtually chained to a computer, I came to share his sentiment. Today, if I don’t know the keyboard shortcut that requires repetitious use of the mouse, I take the time to figure it out.
Years ago a boss I had chewed out everyone in the office for being inefficient. Quite understandably, it drove him nuts that he was paying people to spend 2 hours on things that should only take 30 minutes. Within a day or so I had to help him navigate to a web page and fill out an online form. Oh my Lord was that painful. He’d click in one text field, hunt and peck in the info, reach for the mouse, move the cursor to the next field, fill it out, then repeat the process for each subsequent field. Talk about inefficient! You don’t know how badly I wanted to yell “Move!” and just do it myself so I could get out of there.
I patiently told him that the tab key would advance the cursor to the next text field and he was pretty good about picking it up. When he got to the end of the form I told him to just hit the enter key and that would be the same as click OK. As a person who wants to use his time as efficiently as possible, he knew the small amounts of time he’d save would add up quickly.
What’s that you say, hey, it’s just a few seconds to move the mouse and you don’t have time to learn all those keyboard shortcuts?
Puh-leaze. We’ve all seen those studies about the number of years the average person will spend at a red light in their lifetime. If you knew of a shortcut to get you around that red light and home sooner, I bet you’d remember it!
So, thinking of all the time you’d save yourself and how much more efficient you will become at your computer, here’s a few keyboard shortcuts that will make you more efficient and maybe even get you home a little earlier:
Windows system key combinations
F1: Help
CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
ALT+F4: Quit program
SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently
Windows Logo+L: Lock the computer (without using CTRL+ALT+DELETE)
Back to the top
Windows program key combinations
CTRL+C: Copy
CTRL+X: Cut
CTRL+V: Paste
CTRL+Z: Undo
CTRL+B: Bold
CTRL+U: Underline
CTRL+I: Italic
Click here for a more comprehensive list for Microsoft. Enjoy!
People frequently ask me about which anti-virus program I prefer for the home computer and I always recommend the two best solutions which happen to be free: AVG and Avast. I strongly warn people away from the two biggies, Norton and McAfee for several reasons.
At the mere thought of them I feel like a guy trying to warn drivers about a collapsed bridge ahead, flailing my arms wildly shouting, “STOP!”
OK, it’s not exactly life or death, but last week was no laughing matter when tens of thousands of business computers were rendered useless by a McAfee update. The patch sent these machines into a boot loop when several vital system files were damaged. Only today the company has released a repair utility, but for some of these computers the damage may be irreparable. Bummer.
So, like I been sayin’, steer clear of Norton and McAfee. Even if you bought a new PC and it came with 6 months of free updates, delete it and install one of the two below. By the way, I recommend the latter for ease of installation and use.
PS – If you want to pay for something, the highest rated is Trend Micro for business machines. BTW, I just tried to hot their site for a little more information for you and it took forever to load.
PPS – Don’t buy into the “Macs don’t get viruses” myth. They do get viruses, it’s just that they have such a small market share, virus writers would rather aim at a wider PPS – Don’t buy into the “Macs don’t get viruses” myth. They do get viruses, it’s just that they have such a small market share, virus writers would rather aim at a wider target, PCs.
Turns out that all modern office copiers retain an electronic copy for themselves and, unless you know how to clear that data from the machine, it can be retrieved by anyone with a little know-how. Click here to read more about how to protect yourself.
Just a quick Thank You! to my buddy, Jason for the emergency road kit that came in very handy today. While driving down Manhattan Beach Blvd in the South Bay this afternoon I saw a down cyclist on the sidewalk and pulled over to lend a hand. He was college kid was on his way home when he let his bike wander off the sidewalk where it hit a landscaping rock and sent him end-over-end to the ground. When I got to him he was quite dazed and had one heck of an egg on his forehead and an obvious broken arm.
A passing sheriff’s deputy stopped to assist and call for paramedics. The kid was in great pain and shaking as it started to drizzle so I asked the deputy if she had an emergency blanket in her first aid kit. “They don’t give us first aid kits,” she replied. I was stunned but remembered the kit my friend had given me 6 months earlier. It had a nice blanket in it for just such an event and I was able to keep the youngster warm until paramedics arrived. Thanks again, Jason.
Every evening on the news we hear of another case of identity theft; criminals snag data from one unlikely place or another and run up credit cards before the unsuspecting victim is able to shut it down. The Washington Post reported last weekend that 3.3 million people had their data swiped from a college loan firm. What’s worse, this was a theft that could have been easily prevented had the firm thought about their data security techniques.
Step one: don’t use tape. The Post article called the heist an “old-fashioned theft”, as portable media with the customers’ data was physically taken. Hopefully the data was encrypted on those tapes, but the ounce of prevention is to not use tape in the first place.
Having an online backup solution eliminates that risk. All of your data is securely and remotely stored in a well-guarded data center. With a tape-based solution, someone has to move the tapes from the client’s place of business to an off-site warehouse. Chain-of-control issues can arise if a third party is brought in to move the tapes. But with an online solution, the data automatically copies to the data center. It’s no-hassle data protection.
Encryption, too, is critical with online backup and recovery. Encrypting the data and protecting the key ensures that only those people who are supposed to have access to the data can get at it. You wouldn’t lock your car and then leave the keys on the roof – you’ve got to take the keys with you so nobody can start the car (or steal your data).
Finally, the recovery time for tape-based systems is inconvenient and cumbersome compared to online-based systems. Imagine someone’s stolen your laptop. If you’re using a tape system, your IT providers will have to call the tape warehouse and have the tapes retrieved and returned to your office before you can start the re-uploading process. If you’re got an online backup provider, though, the restore process can begin just as soon as you plug in the new computer.
Data backup and recovery is like selling insurance – nobody wants to think about it until long after they’ve needed it. But that simple ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Being proactive now can save your company many hours of grief later.
If you don’t have a full-time IT staff or a company like Plexus taking care of your computer infrastructure, here are 10 basic things you can do on your own to keep your office network running smoothly.
1.Keep Your Anti-Virus Program Current – Make sure your anti-virus program subscription is current and the software is updating properly. Just because anti-virus software came with your computer does not mean it is protecting you, so make sure. I do not recommend the Nortons and MacAfees of the world, the ones that usually come with a free trial on all new PCs these days. If you did not purchase the subscription I recommend instead installing the free versions of AVG or Avast which were ranked higher by Consumer Reports than the best known brands. For your servers, however, I recommend Trend Micro which will come at a very reasonable price, especially compared to the cost of recovering all your critical files from an infected server.
2. Use an Internet Gateway Appliance – You’ve probably heard the advertisements on the radio for spam blocking firewalls, but there are many equally effective, less expensive or free options, such as that from Untangle. These devices sit between your Internet connection and all of your computers to filter out any kind of junk whether it is hitching a ride on a website or an email. My feeling is that if a bug is trying to get into my house, I want to stop it at the front door rather than catch it in the kitchen, so let’s keep these things from ever reaching your computers
3. Be Vigilant – Even if the email is from someone you know, if you are not expecting an attachment, don’t open it. If the email includes a web link, are you sure you need to click it? If a sales guy shows up and wants to show you files he has on his flash drive, politely decline. A couple of years ago a colleague and I were interviewing local developers for a relatively small database project. As he twirled his shiny keychain flash drive on his finger, he offered to copy the data files so he could take a closer look at home and get back to us. Suffice to say we declined and said we’d get back to him.
4. Limit Employee Computer Use – If your employees have unfettered web access from their computers, you’re probably inviting trouble if they don’t need web access to perform their job duties. Appliances like Untangle can easily block, limit or monitor web activity by each user. For a cheap alternative, check my blog my post from back in January about a free and effective web blocking tool built right into Internet Explorer called Content Advisor.
5. Control CD Burners and External Media – CD/DVD Burners, Flash drives and cell phones make data incredibly portable. So portable that critical company data could walk right out the front door snuggly tucked away on the flash drive of a temp, or in the iPod of an unhappy employee. Just like the Internet, if they don’t need it to do their jobs, don’t give it to them. Here’s a link for free tools to turn off USB ports and CD burners.
6. You Must be ‘This High’ to Go on this Computer – If kids visit the office, don’t let them on the computers. If you leave your computers on overnight, make sure to lock them (Control + Alt – Delete + Lock Computer). We wouldn’t want to tempt the cleaning crew or their kids, now would we?
7. Routine Maintenance – Back in the I Love You, Nimda and Melissa Virus days we pulled a few all nighters cleaning machine after machine that were infected, not because they did not have anti-virus software, but because they lacked the latest Microsoft patch that plugged a security hole. For workstations we recommend setting Windows Update to automatic. As needed the computer will receive and install needed Microsoft security and software updates. Make sure that your anti-virus is configured the same way. For servers, I recommend configuring it to download the updates, but let me choose when to install them. This way I can do the updates after hours or on the weekend so, if there are problems, I have plenty of time to fix it before people start showing up for work.
8. Secure Your Wireless Network - When Wi-Fi first came on the scene I could almost count on having a free Internet connection wherever I went thanks to people being too lazy or too intimidated to configure wireless network security. Today, however, they are easier than ever to secure, so make sure yours is before people start hanging out in your parking lot with a laptop and latte to surf your network and send god-knows-what to god-knows-who.
9. Windows File Permissions – The Windows operating system has got permission settings built into it to limit or grant access to people or groups. For example, if you have a folder with files you only want you and your accountant to access, but not Becky the Admin Assistant. Or, perhaps you have performance reviews to which only you should be privy, you can set that up as well. These are easy to set up, but you might require a little training first. Give me a call and I can walk you through the process. If you try it alone, practice on a new folder with dummy files rather than accidentally lock yourself out of the payroll folder.
10. Disaster Recovery – Some call this Disaster Prevention Planning, as in, let’s avoid having to recover to begin with, but I like the term Business Continuity Plan, as in, disaster or not, let’s make sure our business continues to run unaffected. No matter what you call it, do you have a plan and some mechanism in place to help you stay in business, or at least recover quickly if there’s a flood, an earthquake or someone forgets to pay the power bill? Trust me, I’ve seen all those things happen. If not, here are some questions to ask yourself when developing your plan:
Do I have an up-to-date, reliable backup of my data?
Do I know how to use the backup software to recover my data?
Do I have a copy of the software needed to run the data?
Do I have a computer to install the software and data on?
Once you have your plan in place, test it out so you can discover and fix its shortcomings then make sure everyone knows the plan exists and run through it with them.
If you’d like help developing a business continuity plan or implementing any of the other measures described above, please give us a call. we’re happy to help!
I listen to a lot of talk radio these days and last week a guy called in to complain about the lost concept of customer service. I must agree that it is very hard to find people behind the counter or over the phone that actually care about me, Mr. Customer.
Why is it that the lady who pours my coffee at Starbucks is happier to see me than the folks in my doctor’s office where I spend a whole lot more money?
Well I’m happy to report that I am super pleased wirth Verizon Wireless. They are like the weather guy, or gal, on TV – super happy rain or shine. Plus Verizon always manages to fulfiill my needs, like this replacement Droid I’m writing from ’cause the old one took a dump. 12 hours later FedEx was knocking on my door with a new one.
I hope they’ll send the crack customer service management crew over to the DSL deptartment because they could use it.
So, if you’re on the fence about wireless carriers, go with Verizon and if Plexus ever falls short of your needs, please let us know!
So this afternnon I have a few minutes to test out blogging from my Droid PDA.
I suppose if I was blogging live from some event where I could not use a laptop, or some other situation where it was imperative to post some info and I only had my telephone, this would be useful. Otherwise, my thumbs are already cramping up.
Anyone else blog from a mobile device?
A couple of years ago I walked into one of my client’s retail locations to look at the computers hosting their POS system. Checking the log files I could see that that morning someone had inserted and removed an external USB device. Unfortunately, that was about as specific as the log file got, but after a few questions to the staff it turned out that the maintenance guy was using the USB port on the front of the computer to charge his phone. That was fairly harmless, but as the person responsible for keeping these machines running, I did not want staff using them for anything other than selling products and services.
A big concern in this instance was that the POS software uses a local copy of the entire customer database, information that a competitor might find valuable. It would be very easy for an employee with basic drag-and-drop skills to copy those files to his or her smartphone or MP3 player and walk away. The competitor instantly has a customer database that took someone else decades to build.
It would be nearly impossible to enforce a ban on these tiny devices in the work place, but you can easily prevent employees from successfully connecting those devices in the first place. I once heard of an employer using crazy glue to seal off the unused USB ports on their computers, but, while effective, it seems a bit extreme and I suggest a more graceful approach: IntelliAdmin has several free tools to disable the USB, optical and, if you still have them, floppy drives on PCs. Simply run the software on the machine and that’s it. No accidentally gluing yourself to the keyboard.
If your company runs a Windows Server with an Active Directory domain, you can use Group Policies to limit how employees use their computer hardware and software. This is best performed by an experienced IT pro, but USB ports and CD-ROM drives can be turned off for all or only certain users from the server.
With a mobile-enabled workforce, many employees have to connect to their office computers to synch their contacts, work that they brought from home, or upload photos from a job site. But how do we know he or she isn’t planning to jump ship with a copy of your customer database, or upload a fatal virus?
I’ll have that answer for you next time. Until then, have you checked your backup?
Just a quick note about letting your teen use your computer: DON’T LET YOUR TEEN USE YOUR COMPUTER!
There are numerous reasons why we don’t service home machines but the biggest one is that they are the toughest to control with due to so many applications and users of the worst kind, people with limited life experience and self control, teenagers.
The MyBooks and MyBooks of the cyber world are safe; it’s the links that people share through them to bad sites that are the culprit. It’s the music files, images and other malware-laden junk that they pass around that only ends up badly.
So, whether you use your computer for business or pleasure, if you want it to run reliably, don’t let your teen or even your twenty-something near it.
Ideally the best method of regulating the biggest exposure to Internet-born malware is to install an Internet gateway appliance between your users and the connection to the web. Starting at about $1000 with annual subscriptions for updates, these devices monitor and control spam, viruses and web surfing. The more you spend, the more control you have. Instead of checking a user’s web surfing logs on each PC or hoping to catch them in the act, a gateway appliance will divert their to a nice web page with the company log and directive to “Get back to work!”
For this level of control I prefer the Untangle box and my customers find that it saves them untold sums in lost productivity due to web surfing, spam, etc.
For clients not quite ready to make that investment, a free alternative called Content Advisor is built into Internet Explorer. (Scroll down to learn more about similar controls in Firefox.) This will have to be configured on each PC or through Group Policies if you are running Windows Server with a domain. The latter is a little trickier to set up, so I’ll focus on the former:
1. Open Internet Explorer on the computer you want to restrict web surfing and click Tools > Internet Options.
2. Click the Content tab.
2. Click the General tab and then the Create password button.
3. Enter the desired password and hint, then click OK.
4. The next time the user tries to surf the web, they will be greeted by this pop up.
Entering the password will allow the site to be viewed just this one time, or you can choose to always allow the page, or the entire web site.
5. Unless you know your employee will only be accessing a handful of known websites, entering the password each time they need to do a little research will become very tedious. So, to govern their Internet travels and steer them clear of inappropriate content, follow steps 1 and 2 above and click the Ratings tab. Here you can select the type of content and how much of it you want to limit, None, Limited or Unrestricted, using the slider.
6. Clicking the Approved Sites tab allows you to block or allow specific sites. If you allowed a site, as in step 4, it will show up here.
Click Apply to save any changes and keep the window open, or click OK to save changes and exit.
Fireefox offers similar and greate control options through add-ons. For more details visit Firefox.org.
The Content Advisor is a great tool to have, but it is no substitute for a solid filter at the router where your network connects to the Internet, but it will at least give you some control without completely disconnecting users from the Internet when they need it for work. I pride myself on helping my customers get the most out of technology they already own so If you have any questions about this tool or any others resources on the market, please feel free to contact me anytime.
We are saturated by adds for programs that will “let” us access our work PCs from home, or vice versa using a third party product that will run you about $40 per month. That’s $480 per year. I can think of a few other things I’d rather spend that money on especially when, by virtue of my ownership of a Windows-based PC and an Internet connection, I already have the ability to do this.
Your Windows XP, Vista or 7 computer has a program built-into is called Remote Desktop which uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to allow desktop level access to or from your computer over the Internet. With just a few clicks, you can access your home PC from work or the road. If you have dominion over your work PC, or are in good with the IT guys, you can also access your work PC from outside the office at no additional cost. Here’s a quick overview of how to set everything up:
1. Enable Remote Desktop on the PC – In Windows XP, right click My Computer > Remote Tab and make sure All users to remotely connect to this computer is checked. Click Select Remote Users and make sure you are listed.
2. Configure Router Pass RDP Traffic – Open port 3389 to the desktop PC you want to access.
3. Use DynDNS – If you don’t have a static IP address, install DynDNS which will help you get to your PC from anywhere in the world using a friendly name like, mydesktop.freeIP.com. You can set up a free account at http://www.dyndns.com.
4. Leave the computer ON! – This might seem like a no-brainer, but I get asked this by enough people to warrant mentioning it here. You’ll need to make sure to leave your computer on if you plan to access it remotely. You’ll also want to adjust your Power Options to prevent the computer from going to sleep. Click on Start > Control Panel > Power Options and set all options except Monitor to NEVER.
5. Configure the RDP Client – Finally we are ready to connect to your desktop PC remotely from say, your home machine or laptop at the coffee shop. All you need to know if the IP address or the DynDNS name you set up.
Click Start > Program Files >Accessories Remote Desktop Connection and enter the IP address or DynDNS name as shown below and click Connect and you’re in!
While I assure you all of the steps I describe above are super easy, there are free alternatives that do not require as much configuration. LogMeIn.com offers a great free service and requires only a quick installation of their software. Once installed, you will be able to access your computer over the web from any other computer in the world via the logmein.com web site.
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on the tool bar of new messages: I highly recommend setting Outlook to run spell check automatically whenever you hit the Send button. To enable this setting, open Outlook and go to File>Options> Mail and check the box Always check spelling before sending. While there I also check Ignore original message text in reply or forward so as not to waste time correcting other people’s boo boos.
1. More Time to Focus on your Bottom Line
Storing your files in the cloud is a great idea if you want that extra assurance your precious pictures, music files and documents won’t go disappear if you hard drive ails or your computer, including your external backup drive, is stolen from your home or office. 
1. Decide What’s Important to You
