5 reasons to back up the information on your computer

More frequently we rely on our computers to store essential information about our lives and our businesses. We  expect the information to be there whenever we need it without making sure it is backed up.  Sometimes we may put the data on CD’s which is a start but then we have to manage multiple discs and hope we can find them when we need them or that they haven’t been damaged too.

Here are the 5 main reasons for automated data backup:

1. The cost of forensic data recovery (getting the information out of crashed or destroyed hard drives) can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars and take a week or more to get the data back.
2. The above costs do not include technician service fees to remove the hard drive and prepare it for shipping or the cost of actually replacing the hard drive and replacing the data if it is recoverable.
3. The cost of lost productivity may be measured in days, weeks and months.
4. Sometimes the data can NEVER be recovered.
5. Some businesses that lose their data never recover from the data loss and go out of business.

Spotting Potential Email Fraud

Terry Anderson is the President of Fast-teks On-Site Computer Services of Central Iowa www.fastteksdm.com

Yesterday, while deleting my junk email I noticed the following Golden Opportunity:

From: JAMES SULLIVAN
To: Terry Anderson
ReplyTo: jamessullivan9@gmail.com

Subject: PAYMENT OFFICER NEEDED !!
Sent: Dec 21, 2009 3:01 AM

Dear Prospective Representative,

I am looking for someone to employ in the position of a Personal
Assistant for me part time or full time. I need someone who would attend seminars and conferences all expense paid, receive and handle phone calls. You would also receive and issue payments on my behalf as at when due (Utility bills and allowances), These payments are in form of bank checks,travelers check and they would be paid into your Bank Account or a designated account.

JOB DESCRIPTION?

1. Receive payment and issue payments.
2. Receive and make phone calls
3. Receive and forward letters and documents.
4. Attend seminars and conferences, not mandatory. But there is extra pay for attendance.

HOW MUCH YOU WILL EARN?

The pay is on contract basis.. It depends on how much work and efficiency with which you work.

The pay is very lucrative.

ADVANTAGES

You do not have to leave your house unless there is a seminar or
conference to attend. And attending such comes with great reward and benefit.

If you are interested, please signify your interest by sending your full name,address and phone number. I will be expecting to hear from you as your utmost consent will be awaited.

Regards….

James Sullivan

Obviously Mr Sullivan has me confused with a personal assistant and figures the best way to get a personal assistant is by making a blind mass emailing instead of placing an ad on craigslist or Monster.com.  Keeping with Mr. Sullivan’s logic I thought that I should pass along his email and his unbelievable opportunity to all of you!

It is absolutely wonderful that James is willing to let ME use MY Checking Account for his payments, where I can receive payments or make payments fon his behalf!  Until we contact Mr. Sullivan, accept the position and actually receive the “very lucrative” pay he promises;  we cannot be certain that this is not an email designed to scam you out of money.

How could this golden opportunity possibly be a scam? After all, James Sullivan will be giving you checks to deposit in either your bank account or the account he has you to sign up for with you having all financial responsibility.

Based on those checks Mr. Sullivan gives you to deposit you will pay utility bills and the like.

What could possibly go wrong? It’s not like the checks you deposit would be non sufficient after you paid out funds on Mr. Sullivan’s behalf  and you would be left owing money.  I mean this is “the” James Sullivan that took the time to send us an email and give us this opportunity!   Right? I mean, what about all of the great seminars you get to travel to?

If you decide to pursue this life changing position there is a chance you may need this additional information:

When you suspect someone may be trying to defraud you either by email or on the internet (including virus pop-ups that demand money via your credit card ), contact the FBI. You can file a complaint at: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx.

Tis’ the Season for Computer Virus …

Terry Anderson is the President of Fast-teks On-Site Computer Services of Central Iowa www.fastteksdm.com

In the last few weeks I have noticed a definite spike in virus activity.  Our technicians have been on more service calls related to virus infested computers that range from malware claiming they are an antivirus while trying to extort money for removal of a virus on your computer  to pop-ups claiming to be pornography infected viruses.

Our family computers have gotten a rash of emails with Virus laden attachments or links asking us to update our passwords for Facebook or digital signatures for Quickbooks.

Both our business and residential customers ask the same question “What are these malicious programs after?” Some people have provided  interesting theory’s such as  ”The Anti-virus companies are trying to make sure your need them to increase their sales”

The main reason the fine makers of malware create viruses is for the money.

In the 1980′s and 90′s I worked as a bill collector and collection manager mostly in revolving credit.   Fraud was and is possible by getting enough information about someone to make others think that you are that person.  Many times it was as simple for the criminals as submitting a change of address for their target.  They then got your mail, changed the addresses of a few creditors to the new address and established credit.  There was usually a few months lag before their target knew they had a bill for a new car, appliances or credit card charges.

Fraud isn’t as easy today as it was then but it’s not overwhelmingly harder either.  Most of us never realize the massive amount of personal information we have on our computer.

Raise your hand if you:

• Have your name an address on your computer?
• Ever used your credit card for an online purchase?
• Use online banking?
• Keep electronic versions of your tax forms on your computer?
• Have or access an email address book on your computer?
• Keep any other type of document on your computer that contains personal information?

I have probably missed a few key points but the main idea is that many us put our key information on our computers.

Viruses, Trojans and Malware really want to collect your data.   If the people behind them can get your online banking information because you store it in a file so you can remember it,  they love it.  They want you to think their pop-ups are real so they can get you to enter all of your credit card information.

Tax forms have it all, name, address, employer information and social security number.

You say all you have is an email address book and nothing else?  Fantastic! Maybe your contacts have the information available on their computers that you don’t.  The scammer’s then use your address book to generate an email to your contacts computers who perhaps aren’t as tight with their personal information.  Maybe they can just use your computer as a relay to another unknown computer to get information and hide their tracks.

If all of this isn’t enough these malware bandits place “redirect links”  on sites like Twitter and Facebook and have even pirated Microsoft links to make you think you are linking to some intended destination and then redirect you to a virus download.

The real question is what are you doing about your personal information safety on your computer?

Have you purchased an antivirus like AVG or Kaspersky that you:

• Use to run complete virus scans regularly?  Base this on you amount of time spent on the internet – if you are on a lot set the scans for every night after your bedtime.
• Get virus definitions updated every couple of days? This assures that your antivirus can fight the newest viruses to come out.
• RENEW the anti-virus subscription when it expires?

Do you:

• Delete emails from unknown people without clicking links or opening attachments?
• Carefully review emails from known people or businesses to make sure that the links are correct? To preview a link or verify link correctness hover your cursor over the link and you will see the actual address in the lower left portion of your monitor above the start button.
• Preview links of the unsecured websites (banks and websites of this type are usually secure) before you click them?

I hope this information gives you a better understanding of the steps you need to take towards having a virus free holiday season!

Outlook Express – the Importance of Email Management

Terry Anderson is the President of Fast-teks On-Site Computer Services of Central Iowa www.fastteksdm.com

Do you try and save all of your old Outlook Express emails by organizing them into folders instead of deleting or saving them on your hard drive as a text or html file? Many people think that as long as they they keep sorting their email they can keep accumulating them.

Unlike Outlook ;  Outlook Express has a maximum email storage limit of 2 GB for any one folder. A folder would be considered your “Inbox”, “Sent” or customized folders that you may have set up to keep all of your email from 2004 or to save all the pictures your family and friends send you.

When the folder hits the 2 GB limit  Express stops you from sending and receiving new email and you may have errors trying to delete email to clear it out.  When this happens you will need to go to the folder on your computers hard drive where the Outlook Express file folders are stored and start deleting files.  The biggest problem with this is that each folder in Outlook Express, such as “Inbox”  is a file so you loose all of the emails in it when you delete the file.

If your Inbox is full and you need to delete the file you have to navigate to “C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express” and delete your Inbox.dbx (.dbx is the Outlook Express file type extension) if that is the problem file.

The best solution is to manage your email by making a folder on your “C” Drive, label it email (create a sub folder inside for each place you want to store specific email) and then create a  link on your desktop. Once that is done save your important email, pictures and documents to the correct folder inside the Email folder.  At a minimum you should review email for deletion monthly more often depending on daily volume.

Remember that your Sent folder also counts and takes up space and needs just as much management as your Inbox.

While these suggestions won’t fix every problem in Microsoft Express, if you manage your email it will make it a lot easier to use.

Why Your Business Needs a Website

Terry Anderson is the President of Fast-teks On-Site Computer Services of Central Iowa  www.fastteksdm.com

In today’s competitive business environment a website lends legitimacy to your businesses. According to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm approximately 16.688 billion people worldwide have internet access. No matter what your business is, how can you ignore over 16.5 billion people? To show customers that you are interested in serving them, your business needs to be online. Your competitors are.

Business is about making connections with other people. Smart business people know it’s not only about what you know but also who you know. Passing out your business card is part of every good networking opportunity. What if you could pass out your business card to thousands, maybe millions of potential clients and partners, saying “This is what I do and if you are ever in need of my services, this is how you can reach me”? On the internet you can; simply and inexpensively, 24 hours a day.

Your website can list all the things your business card may be too small for:

• Businesses hours
• What your business does
• How your business can be contacted
• What payment methods you take
• Your business location(s) and directions
• Special sale prices
• Provide coupons
• Your interest rate
• Personal information about you
• Today’s lunch special
• How your business can benefit your customers

What would it be worth to your business financially to be able to:

• Sell your products 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Make your own commercial inexpensively, show it on your website and then link to it from other websites to increase your website traffic.
• Make your business forms available for your customers online so they can fill them out in the comfort of their own home before they come to your business.
• Prequalify your customers allowing them to browse your products before they come into your store.
• Place your restaurant menu online so customers can order takeout or even make your menu available for online ordering.
• Have an online scheduler available so your customers are able to request appointments or reservations from your website.
• Get time sensitive information out to your customers quickly and inexpensively.
• Have online applications (like timecards or sales receipts) available for your employee’s.
• Test market new services and products without paying the high cost of TV and newspaper advertising.
• Establish your staff as experts in the marketplace.

If you still think your business doesn’t need to have a website it may be that you are one of the lucky few that have many more customers than you can profitably handle.

How to Maximize the Free Memory in Your BlackBerry.

Terry Anderson is the President of Fast-teks On-site Computer Services of Central Iowa

How to maximize the free memory on your BlackBerry.

Is your Blackberry Smartphone slowing down because you have too many emails or pictures and not enough memory?  Let’s go through a few things to rev up your Blackberry.

How much free memory do I have?
To check the memory available on your Blackberry?  To view the available memory on the BlackBerry, go to Options > Status > File Free .

To better understand how much memory you have available 1024 bytes is a kilobyte (KB), 1024 KB in a Megabyte (MB) and 1024 MB in a Gigabyte (GB).  If you have Bytes free in your memory it equals:  2525.58 KB, 2.466 MB or .00241 GB (go to http://ow.ly/xXbs to use their converter).  Your amount of available memory should help put the Low Memory Manager (next) into context.

What is a Low Memory Manager?

The Low Memory Manager (LMM) is automatically activated when the available flash memory on the BlackBerry Smartphone decreases to less than 400KB. Flash memory is used to store BlackBerry applications such as Messages, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Memo Pad, and third-party applications.

The LMM frees up memory by removing low priority items such as cached data. Medium priority items such as very old email messages and out-of-date calendar entries are deleted if additional memory capacity is required. If the memory situation on the BlackBerry Smartphone becomes critical, the LMM will cause the email application to remove email messages on a last-accessed basis. Calendar entries and email messages removed by the LMM are not reconciled back to the mail system.

Remove rarely used data
By removing rarely used applications and old data, BlackBerry Smartphone users can increase the amount of memory on their BlackBerry Smartphone. Make sure to regularly transfer pictures and videos to your computer to save space

Delete Old Items
The BlackBerry user can delete old and unused items and also adjust settings so that the BlackBerry deletes old items as part of its regular routine maintenance.

• Delete Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages that are no longer needed. Because MMS messages can contain large media files and cannot be stored on a media card, MMS messages can use a lot of flash memory. If you do not want to delete the media files in an MMS message, open the MMS message and save the media files on the media card before you delete the MMS message.
• Change the Keep Messages setting on the BlackBerry to reduce the number of old messages using flash memory.

To change the Keep Messages setting, complete the following steps.

1. On the Home screen, open Messages.
2. Display the menu and select Options.
3. Select General Options.
4. Set the Keep Messages field to either 15 Days or 30 Days.

IMPORTANT: Always make sure that you are using the most recent version of BlackBerry Handheld Software for your specific device and that your device has a Micro SD card. In general, by using the newest software and saving files such as pictures, videos, and music to the memory card will greatly reduce your chances of losing information.

If you follow these very basic steps you should be able to keep your Blackberry memory at a maximum.

Computer Keyboard Shortcuts – making your own

Terry Anderson is the President of Fast-teks On-site Computer Services of Central Iowa; 515-276-3278,  www.fastteks.com

Programming your own computer keyboard shortcut keys often depends on the application (software or program) your want to create  the keyboard shortcut for.   Lets start by creating a shortcut with an application.

Creating a keyboard shortcut

1. Right-click the desktop shortcut, and then click Properties.
2. On the Shortcut tab, click in the Shortcut Key box.
3. Press the keyboard combination that you want to use to start the program. The shortcut combination must consist of one character (a letter, number, or symbol) plus at least two of the following three keys: CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT.
4. Click OK.
5. Always make sure you document your shortcuts so you don’t have to look up each one later.

How to program shortcut keys by making a macro in Word 2007

Macros are generally used to automate a recurring task to speed up your work.

Before you get started make sure you have planned exactly keystroke by keystroke what you want your macro to do because your actions will be copied by the macro later on.

To set up a macro in word start by selecting the  View tab-> Macros-> Record Macro.  This will give you a pop up window like the one shown below:

In the Record Macro window you will see two buttons labeled “Button” and “Keyboard”, with them you can assign your macro to either a button on the Quick Access Toolbar or a keyboard shortcut.

Select “Button”  the following box will appear:

To add a macro, select “Normal.NewMacros.MacroX” (X represents the number of macros you have already made plus one) in the box on the left and click Add. You can modify your macro name now by selecting the new macro and clicking Modify.

A pop up box will appear that has:

• Several Icons to choose from to be used as a symbol for your macro.
• A text box in the lower left corner of the box.

Select a symbol and type the new name for your macro in the text box.   Click OK, then click OK again.

You will see your new macro symbol on the tool bar! Here is teh part I warned you about earlier, your keystrokes are now being recorded.

Perform the actions you want the macro to duplicate and then select View->Macros->stop recording.

Finally, select your new macro icon to see if you got you intended results.

If you didn’t delete your macro and try it again!

You can find out more about macros at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100997691033.aspx

 

 

 

 

 

Computer Keyboard Shortcuts – Navigation

Computer keyboard shortcuts discussed so far are:

CTRL+S:	Save in Word/Excel (many others) and Send in Outlook	CTRL+C:	Copy
CTRL+X:	Cut	CTRL+V:	Paste
CTRL+Z:	Undo	CTRL+Y:	Redo
CTRL+B:	Bold	CTRL+U:	Underline
CTRL+I:	Italic

There are also computer navigational shortcuts like:

CTRL+TAB allows you to navigate from right to left through the tabs in Windows Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Excel and QuickBooks to name a few.

CTRL+SHIFT+TAB changes the navigation to left to right through the tabs.

ALT+TAB brings up all of your computers open files or applications in a “box of icons” in the order of most recently used to the least recently used. If you minimize a program it is automatically placed in the least recently used position. The  ALT+TAB computer shortcut  allows you to navigate through your open applications or programs by continuing to hold down the ALT key and reselecting the TAB key to navigate forward through them.  You can select ALT+TAB once to navigate to your last used last program so it is very useful if you want shift back and forth between two programs.  This is one of those cases where when you try using it you won’t stop!

ALT+SHIFT+TAB allows backwards navigation through your computers open files or applications so you can get to the least recently used program icon quickly instead of sorting through all of them.

CTRL+TAB allows:

You can find a list of many other keyboard shortcuts at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Keyboard+shortcuts

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

There are many more computer shortcuts – if you Google the phrase “computer keyboard shortcuts” you can find new ones.  Next we will look at how to program keyboard shortcuts of your own!

CTRL+TAB allows you to navigate from right to left through the tabs in Windows Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Excel and QuickBooks to name a few.

CTRL+SHIFT+TAB changes the navigation to left to right through the tabs.

Computer Keyboard Shortcuts – Formatting

Many of us spend a lot of time at our computers and have learned some of the basic formatting shortcuts like

• “Ctrl+a”= Select all  – this selects differently in different environments.
• “Ctrl+c”=copy – Copies selected (highlighted) text, pictures or documents
• “Ctrl+v”=paste – Pastes the text, pictures or documents that were copied.
• “Ctrl+x”=cut – Copies selected (highlighted) text, pictures or documents like ”Ctrl+c” but when pasted (“Ctrl+v”) original text, pictures or documents are removed.

If you do a lot of text editing the ”Ctrl+z” command is invaluable – it undoes your last bit of work and depending on the environment (in Notepad you can only us it once.) you can leep using it over and over until your last “Ctrl+s” point.

The reverse of “Ctrl+z” is “Ctrl+y” which will “redo” what you just “undid”.  An example of both working together is :

• Before Ctrl+z:  Bob
• After Ctrl+z: Bo
• After Ctrl+y: Bob

Other useful formatting shortcuts are:

• “Ctrl+b”=Bold – makes selected (highlighted) text or font bold
• “Ctrl+i”=Italics -converts selected (highlighted) text or font into italics.
• “Ctrl+u”=Underline – underlines selected text or font.

Using shortcuts takes practice but are well worth it to gain productivity.

Computer Keyboard Shortcuts, Want Save Time?

We all love a good shortcut, when we drive we use navigation software,  when we chat we use acronyms (LOL!).  We use speed dating and speed networking but when it comes to saving time typing we hunt and peck and grind out our projects.

When we have to work at top speed to get projects done on time we forget that working quickly is less about fast hands and more about knowing a few keyboard shortcuts to save time.

The first rule about shortcuts is that some shortcuts are software specific.  In Microsoft Word and Excel “ctrl+ s” is the shortcut to save your work  but if you get used to doing it and try it in Microsoft Outlook you just sent your email!   You may also never know if a shortcut works for certain applications if you don’t try it so save your work first and yes,  ”ctrl+ s” saves your work in Word Press too.

The second rule of shortcuts is if you don’t know what the shortcut does in a specific software environment make sure to save your work in a safe place or risk loosing it, remember to “ctrl+ s” early, “ctrl+ s” often!