The Madness Continues

There has been a noticeable uptick in dangerous emails over the last couple of months. Most recently, a bunch of CNN Top 10 emails that have malicious links in them. Yesterday we started seeing MSNBC News Alerts emails with the same type of malicious links. And we are even seeing bogus Internet Explorer update emails.

The common thing about these emails, with the exception of the IE update one, is they look very genuine right down to the company logos and fancy email layouts. This is all designed of course to trick the reader in to clicking on a link in the message that will cause some type of harm to their system.

Users need to be reminded about the potential problems with email and need to be alert when they see something like one of these emails. Do they have a subscription to CNN Top 10? Even if they do, check the from address in the message, most of the bogus messages we see will be very obvious by the strange from address names. Is the message signed by a famous person or some high ranking official from a foreign country?

Most users are aware of potential problems with email attachments. However, we find that most users are totally unaware of the same, if not increased risk of clicking on links in emails. As business owners and managers we must be aware of these risks and take whatever steps we can to mitigate them. One of the first steps (after making sure you have current antivirus and anti spyware software installed), is to create a process for continually educating and reminding your users of the potential risks within emails and bogus or infected websites. How do you handle this issue? Leave a comment here about how you are fighting or intend to fight this problem.

AT&T / PowWeb Issue

AT&T is currently having a problem routing Internet traffic to PowWeb. PowWeb is a large Internet hosting company that hosts thousands of websites and email servers. We have several Clients using PowWeb for hosting either their website, email or both. If you are using AT&T for your DSL service and you are experiencing problems with your email or accessing your website you will need to contact AT&T as the problem is with there systems.

Of course you can always contact our office for further information.

More information can be found here.

Watch For Windows XP SP3

Microsoft is releasing its latest and final Service Pack for Windows XP to the general public today. Service Pack 3 includes a large amount of hot fixes and a few functionality changes.  Beginning today SP3 will start being offered via the Windows Update Service.  This means that if you have auto updates turned on in Windows XP, Service Pack 3 may be downloaded and installed automatically on your machine depending on how you have it configured.

What does this mean?  During our testing we had quite a few issues with Service Pack 3 on older systems.  We install Service Pack 3 on all our new systems and have had no issues.  So, just be aware that you could have problems.  Of course create a full backup of your system before you apply SP3 just in case.

If you typically install all the Microsoft hotfixes on your computer and your computer is a little aged, I don’t think I would take the a chance with SP3.  Keep up with the standard hotfixes and start thinking about buying a new system.  If you want to stay with XP, even though XP has been retired, you can still get systems with XP on them by using Microsoft’s downgrade program.  But why don’t you give Vista a try? 

NOD32 Update Causing Problems

Eset released a NOD32 virus definition file update earlier today that caused problems. Definition update 3217 caused false positives on some Word files. Within about an hour they released update 3218 which corrected the problem. You can tell which version of data definition file you have by pointing to the Eset icon in the lower right side of your desktop. When you point to the icon a dialog will come up which displays the engine version and the Virus signature database version. Make sure you have 3218 or higher. If not, double click the icon, click on Update and then click on Update virus signature database. This should update you to the current version.

Get Back To Where You Were In MS Word

Sometimes I spend several days working on a Word document (no I'm not that slow at typing). It's frustrating that each time you open the document Word places you at the beginning of the document and you have to get yourself back to where you were working last, if you can even remember where that was! Many times I have had to read through the document to try to remember where I left it.

There's a better way! Simply hit Shift-F5 as soon as you open the document and bingo! The cursor will be right where you were working when you left.

I'm still looking for a key sequence that will create readable content from my ideas. So far Microsoft hasn't helped me out.

Clear IE Temporary Files Automatically

As you browse around the Internet, Internet Explorer creates temporary work files that it uses to speed things up and keep track of various information that might be needed by the websites you are on. These files do not always get cleaned up properly. This can cause IE to do some weird things. Normally you can go into IE Properties and clear the files manually which solves a lot of IE problems.

You can have IE clean the files automatically when you exit IE. This will insure you have a nice clean session on your next IE use. Here's how to set this up...

1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools - Internet Options.
2. Click on the Advanced Tab.
3. Scroll down to the Security Section.
4. Click on the Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder When Browser is Closed checkbox.
5. Click Apply.

That's it.

Treo 700w Email Signatures

We have setup Outlook Mobile Access on several Treo 700w cell phones for our Clients. One of the things that several users have noticed is that their Outlook email signatures are not generated when they send or reply to a message from the 700w. This is true. However, it is easy to setup the Treo to send a signature with your emails although they can not be as pretty as your Outlook signatures. Here is how to do it.

On your Treo 700w

Click Messaging
Click Menu
Click Tools
Click Options
Click on the Signatures button
Make sure you have the Outlook E-Mail account selected
Create your signature

The signature will be attached to all new messages by default. If you want it attached to replies and forwards make sure that option is checked.