August - 2003

HP Safety Recall 2000c Printers

See: http://h30027.www3.hp.com/ac_cord_recall/home1/index.php

Old cell-phones, Eyeglasses and Ink cartridges

If you have any of these, please do not throw them away.  We are collecting them at the store for specific charities.    Thank you...

Looking to buy a new computer?  

Here are some ideas that may help you decide: http://www.bergesch.com/bcs/newcomputer.htm

Need a brochure?

We now have the capability of color laser printing on both sides of (up to) 11"x17" paper.  

Do you share files?

KaZaa, iMesh and other similar service users be aware, there may soon be a lot more at risk than just your computer's security.   Two U.S. lawmakers filed a bill in Congress that would make file-swapping a felony offense carrying a five-year prison term and up to $250,000 fines.  This may open a whole new liabilities door to corporations that allow their employees to swap files.

Still not concerned?  Subpoenas are being issued for individuals!  Click for the story.

Trojans are small applications that run on your computer without your knowledge.  They do not typically destroy data file like a virus will, instead most run in the background and monitor your computer's activities. 

Trojans may simply monitor your Internet browsing habits but some may be more dangerous and watch for usernames, password and even credit card numbers.  Some may redirect your Internet browser to a site you do not want to visit and/or change your Internet browser security (or other) settings.  

They will not appear in the SystemTray (by the system clock) and likely will not appear in the Task Manager (CTRL ALT DEL) or active services.  

Typically you will get a Trojan as an email attachment but they can be planted on your computer by simply visiting certain web sites or by the open ports created by ICQ and various IRCs.  As we have stated in the past, even if you are behind a firewall, IRCs are a potential risk.  

They may or may not be detected by the antivirus application!

What to do...

• First click here to learn more about Trojans.  
• Download and install Spybot or another Internet security application.
• Use Windows Update and install all available security!!!

Click here for information on spyware, system security and for some free testing tools (individual links below).  

• The dangers of iMesh, spyware and other file sharing applications.
• Test your security.
• Test your firewall.
• Test Windows XP for service packs and security.

A Quick Reminder!

Outlook

Do you use Microsoft Outlook for your contacts?  If so, do you know about "categories"?  

This is a great way to organize your contacts.   You can assign individual contacts to one or more categories making it easy to find (and separate) records.
If you want to organize contacts using a category, open a contact's record, click the Categories button and select one or more by placing a check mark in the box.  Hint: You can make your own categories.   Start a your category with the underscore "_" to place it at the top of the list.

Assigning a contact to multiple categories will cause that contact to appear in each of those groups but this is not a duplication of the record  so be careful!  Deleting a contact from (any) group deletes the contact completely!  If you want to remove a contact from a specific category just uncheck the unwanted category assignment.

Unfortunately "Categories" still doesn't offer a good method to email all contacts in a category.  If you select the category (as the "_customers" is selected above), you could " Send a Message" to all recipients from the Action menu, but that does just what you should never do and places all of the contacts in the TO: field of a new message.

Quick and Easy

Did you know? In Outlook, if you select a contact you can have Office create a letter, mailing labels and/or and envelope almost automatically by selecting "New letter to contact" from the Actions menu. This opens Word, which automatically creates a mailing header and then offers you the chance to make an envelope.

Is a Server right for you?

Concurrent Servers

Many small businesses run a peer-to-peer (P2P) network sharing files and printers between computers.  Whereas "computer A" can access and change files on "computer B".  In this situation, if computer "B" is used by someone to run applications, it is considered a concurrent server.

The problem with a concurrent server is they can be slow!  Not only to the person using it but also to the rest of the network.  This is especially true when the concurrent server is running data intensive data queries, printing, accessing the floppy drive, burning a CD, etc.  

Dedicated Server

To avoid network slowdowns, install a separate PC on the network.  Move all data files to that computer and do not use it as a workstation.  Notice we said install a "PC"; a plain, no frills computer will work fine as a server for a few machines.  A small business with less than about 8-10 computers, the ideal machine is a server product from Dell or Gateway running Windows 2000 Professional.

Contrary to what you may think, server hardware is inexpensive but when pricing them, be aware the price shown will be without the operating system.

If however you have a network with more computers you may have to consider a dedicated server with true server software.  Be aware: Server software is sold by (and limited to) a specific number of users that will connect.  Windows Small Business Server 2000, 5 user for example is slightly over $1,200. 

Antivirus and Firewall

If you move to a server you may consider Norton's small business Antivirus product.  Rather than each machine running it's own individual copy of the Antivirus program, the business edition is loaded to the server and each machine but is managed by the server.  

Updates, scheduled scanning, virus quarantines, firewall policies, etc are all controlled by the server.  Additionally, the subscription renewal is centralized so you no longer have to worry about users ignoring the renewal notifications, i.e., allowing their protection to lapse.

 Additionally the individual workstation's overhead in memory and processor usage is reduced by the small business edition.

Do you talk to your computer?

It may soon actually listen and respond!  
Click here for an interesting article on the development of this technology. 

Free On-line courses from HP

Below are the course offered at: http://www.hplearningcenter.com  

business 

• How to give a great presentation 
• Mfps and the new workplace 
• Project management made simple 

software & technology 

• Work smarter with a Tablet PC and Windows XP quick lesson
• Advanced Adobe Photoshop 7 applications newly revised
• Building your first web page 
• Desktop storage solutions 
• Digital photography for your business 
• Firewall basics 
• How to build your first web site 
• Introduction to Microsoft Excel 
• Introduction to Microsoft Publisher 2002 
• Introduction to programming 
• Introduction to storage area networks 
• Making the most of Microsoft Outlook 2002 
• The wireless mobile office 

real estate 

• Digital photography for your business 
• Real estate flyers made easy 
• Wireless technology and the real estate professional 
  

In General

Emailing multiple contacts?

If you want to email multiple people but do not want to have all of those names appear in the TO: field, use the BCC: field.  The BCC effectively hides all of the names; when the message is received, the recipient sees only the TO: and CC: field, not the BCC:  

It's easy, here's how:  Create your new message and in the TO: field, place your own email address**.  Then place all of the desired recipients in the BCC: field.

Don't see the BCC: field?  In an Outlook message select BCC from the View Menu.  In an Outlook Express message select View All Headers from the View menu.

** Rather than having your name or email address appear in the TO: field, create a new contact with your email address but a name like "all of our friends" or perhaps "mailing list". 

Internet Popups

Not always just advertisements, they are often used to present you with additional information, click here for an example.   But did you know these are just another web page opened in a small window?  Internet Explorer users can get the actual web page address of for a popup by right clicking the window then choosing Properties from the menu.  However, caution should be used when right clicking any web page as some may have scripting to watch for a right click.  

Microsoft Office users 

There are many updates and service packs available.  The first place to start is the MS Office Updates site where you "scan my computer for updates".  

Access database users have additional patches available as discussed in this MS KB article.  If you have databases with attached tables, see this MS KB article.

We were experiencing slow performance with a database and after applying many service packs and updates, we (finally) found the Autocorrect feature (enabled by default), was the issue.  Going in to the Tools menu > Options > General tab and turning this feature off resolved our performance problems; as discussed in this MS KB article.  

Windows XP

Setting Default Programs

Windows XP SP1 contains and update that will allow you to change default programs, for example, you want to use Netscape for your browser instead of IE.  More information here.

Security

Ideally your computer should be setup with multiple users, one Administrator with a strong password.  Then setup other user account(s) but change the type of account to "limited".  Logon on to Windows using the limited account for your normal day to day usage.  

Logging on to XP as a non-admin user limits what system changes can occur, thereby protecting your computer from inadvertent and problematic changes by you or by an application.  Want more protection?  See last months XP hint.

The catch; some applications, especially games simply won't run properly in the "limited user" mode.

Scandisk & Defrag

Little known command that is supposed to help speed up XP boot time:  Start menu>Run then type defrag c: -b

Nothing is shown on screen during the process but when the command prompt returns, defrag is complete.

Normal Scandisk and Defrag Windows XP will not schedule Scandisk and Defrag and does not offer the Maintenance Wizard.  And even though it is not necessary to run as often under XP with NTFS, here's how: Open the My Computer Icon then right click the local "C:" drive.  Select Properties from the menu.  Go to the Tools tab and there you will find Scandisk and Defrag. Be sure to repeat scanning and defrag on all local disks. If you really want to schedule these operation you will need to purchase a third-party application like Diskkeeper.