Ask the Tech- Marc Everlove, Director of Information Technologies:Question: "What are some of the dos & don'ts of web design?" -Alex
Aside from the fact that "there's no accounting for taste" there are many elements that separate a great website from a mediocre site, and a mediocre site from a what-the-heck-were-you-thinking site... If you are doing your own website it is easy to give in to the temptation to show off and fill your website up with flashing animations, music, scrolling banners and whatever else you can get in there... All of this on a high contrast and intricate background.
Good Luck and e-mail me to have your question answered! All information contained in the article is the opinion of the author and is offered for use with your discretion and without warranty of any kind. Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of The South Bay Association of REALTORS® or its affiliates. Written By: Marc Everlove All rights reserved. Marc Everlove has affiliations with Template Monster and Google. |
Friday, July 27, 2007
Techie Knick Knacks
Monday, June 18, 2007
Making The Switch
Question:
What are the advantages of Windows Vista® and should I upgrade?
Answer:
Windows Vista®, the new operating system by Microsoft®, offers many new features that make good sense. It offers a completely new level of security, reliability and ease of use. The interface is intuitive and attractive. There are many added features that are both useful and well thought out.
The most important aspect of Windows Vista®, in my opinion, is tighter security. Microsoft really did a good job here. Their previous operating systems had many security flaws that could be exploited by malicious code and/or hackers. Viruses and spyware were simply something that you had to deal with. I can’t say how many people call me, because their machine is completely unusable due to viruses and spyware. In many cases all that can be reasonably done is to simply wipe the whole system clean and start over (yes, they would lose all the data that is not backed up). Even worse, on many occasions, the user’s backup copies are infected as well. If I restore from the infected backup, I am simply reinstalling the virus too. Not good. Sometimes, it is possible to remediate an infected machine, but it is usually costly and difficult to be certain the virus has been completely eradicated.
So, Vista’s® high security is good news indeed. I have not heard of any significant threat, at the time of this writing. This doesn’t mean that Vista® is invincible, however, it is extremely encouraging. Believe me, I would love to stop writing articles about viruses! With that said, I agree with the philosophy, “Trust God, but lock the car doors.” So, even though Vista® is apparently virus resistant, I still recommend a good anti-virus program such as Nod32 or Grisoft AVG.
Regarding the new features in Vista®, there are quite a few changes. It will take a little getting used to, but in all, the interface is pretty intuitive, and if you can use Windows XP®, you will be able to use Vista® without too much trouble. The interface (how you interact with the computer) is clean, with smooth animations and outstanding graphics. The windows even become transparent, so you can see what is underneath. There is a cool sidebar that allows you to add “Gadgets” such as; a calculator, a clock, random photos, RSS feed viewer and many others. You can customize it with whatever Gadgets that you find useful. There are many other goodies, but I will let you discover them yourself.
There are many different versions of Vista®. This can be a little confusing. There is; Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business and Enterprise. You can see a comparison of features here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx.
So, when should you upgrade? While some people like to get a jump on new technology, many people like to wait to upgrade. If you have important files and applications on your computer, then you may want to be cautious. I have several computers at home. This made it easy for me. I started using Vista® on my personal-non-business-computer home for several months now. It was like testing the water with my toe. So far, so good, I have been very happy with it. I then installed it on my son’s computer to see how it runs in a gaming environment. My son (he is ten, and therefore an expert on everything…) loves it. I am still running my business computer on XP, though I believe I will probably upgrade it before long. My computer here at SBAOR is also running XP, but again, I will upgrade it soon. If you don’t have the option of testing on a less important system (and even if you do), then I recommend backing up your entire hard drive before making the switch.
There are a few issues that I have noticed. This is a big step in computing, and therefore there will be some programs that aren’t going to work properly in Vista. Most notably, Peachtree 2006 (and previous versions) is incompatible, and WinZip doesn’t work quite right. There are many, many others, so, before you upgrade be sure to check with the manufacturer of any important program you will need to run to make sure it is compatible. Outside of that, Vista® prompts you when you want to start an application (while this is a good idea from a security standpoint, it is slightly annoying, but I will give it to them as it is much less annoying then dealing with a virus-ridden machine.)
So, in summary, Vista® is a well thought out, secure operating system that is intuitive and elegant. However, the choice is yours. If you have mission critical applications, you may want to wait awhile and be cautious. Check with manufactures for compatibility and/or patches for Vista®. Even though it is much more secure than anything Microsoft® has put out, still use a good anti-virus program!
What are the advantages of Windows Vista® and should I upgrade?
Answer:
Windows Vista®, the new operating system by Microsoft®, offers many new features that make good sense. It offers a completely new level of security, reliability and ease of use. The interface is intuitive and attractive. There are many added features that are both useful and well thought out.
The most important aspect of Windows Vista®, in my opinion, is tighter security. Microsoft really did a good job here. Their previous operating systems had many security flaws that could be exploited by malicious code and/or hackers. Viruses and spyware were simply something that you had to deal with. I can’t say how many people call me, because their machine is completely unusable due to viruses and spyware. In many cases all that can be reasonably done is to simply wipe the whole system clean and start over (yes, they would lose all the data that is not backed up). Even worse, on many occasions, the user’s backup copies are infected as well. If I restore from the infected backup, I am simply reinstalling the virus too. Not good. Sometimes, it is possible to remediate an infected machine, but it is usually costly and difficult to be certain the virus has been completely eradicated.
So, Vista’s® high security is good news indeed. I have not heard of any significant threat, at the time of this writing. This doesn’t mean that Vista® is invincible, however, it is extremely encouraging. Believe me, I would love to stop writing articles about viruses! With that said, I agree with the philosophy, “Trust God, but lock the car doors.” So, even though Vista® is apparently virus resistant, I still recommend a good anti-virus program such as Nod32 or Grisoft AVG.
Regarding the new features in Vista®, there are quite a few changes. It will take a little getting used to, but in all, the interface is pretty intuitive, and if you can use Windows XP®, you will be able to use Vista® without too much trouble. The interface (how you interact with the computer) is clean, with smooth animations and outstanding graphics. The windows even become transparent, so you can see what is underneath. There is a cool sidebar that allows you to add “Gadgets” such as; a calculator, a clock, random photos, RSS feed viewer and many others. You can customize it with whatever Gadgets that you find useful. There are many other goodies, but I will let you discover them yourself.
There are many different versions of Vista®. This can be a little confusing. There is; Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business and Enterprise. You can see a comparison of features here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx.
So, when should you upgrade? While some people like to get a jump on new technology, many people like to wait to upgrade. If you have important files and applications on your computer, then you may want to be cautious. I have several computers at home. This made it easy for me. I started using Vista® on my personal-non-business-computer home for several months now. It was like testing the water with my toe. So far, so good, I have been very happy with it. I then installed it on my son’s computer to see how it runs in a gaming environment. My son (he is ten, and therefore an expert on everything…) loves it. I am still running my business computer on XP, though I believe I will probably upgrade it before long. My computer here at SBAOR is also running XP, but again, I will upgrade it soon. If you don’t have the option of testing on a less important system (and even if you do), then I recommend backing up your entire hard drive before making the switch.
There are a few issues that I have noticed. This is a big step in computing, and therefore there will be some programs that aren’t going to work properly in Vista. Most notably, Peachtree 2006 (and previous versions) is incompatible, and WinZip doesn’t work quite right. There are many, many others, so, before you upgrade be sure to check with the manufacturer of any important program you will need to run to make sure it is compatible. Outside of that, Vista® prompts you when you want to start an application (while this is a good idea from a security standpoint, it is slightly annoying, but I will give it to them as it is much less annoying then dealing with a virus-ridden machine.)
So, in summary, Vista® is a well thought out, secure operating system that is intuitive and elegant. However, the choice is yours. If you have mission critical applications, you may want to wait awhile and be cautious. Check with manufactures for compatibility and/or patches for Vista®. Even though it is much more secure than anything Microsoft® has put out, still use a good anti-virus program!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Internet Scams
Wow, have I been busy.
At any rate, I wanted to take a moment out and talk about Internet scams. I am speaking to those of you out there that are not complete nerds. In saying so, I promise to speak English and keep the Nerdese to a bare minimum.
You see, the threats out there have multiplied and become both sophisticated and devious. If you are not careful, you could end up very unhappy. The good news here is; With just a little bit of common sense you can keep yourself safe.
Phishing- I hope you have heard this term by now. Basically, this is a scam to lure you into providing sensitive information about yourself. The typical scam involves an email that appears to be from a bank, paypal, eBay, the government or some official source. The email is a fraud and if you click on any of the links contained in the email, you will be directed to the scam artist's site. This will be a replica of the site indicated in the email (Wells Fargo for instance), there will be a form that will require you to fill out your personal information. This could be anything from your SSN to just a simple user name/password...
Think about it. The con-artist now knows where you bank, your user name and your password... Or worse, your Social Security Number. This leads us to our next paragraph...
Identity theft... Once a con-artist has your information, they can do any number of things. By the time you have uncovered the fraud, it is too late, the damage is done and you are left holding the bag. Imagine getting stuck with the bill for a new Porsche. It will be up to you to clear it up. The crooks out there are way ahead of the law which hasn't even gotten it's pants on regarding electronic crime... If you want to buy yourself some added security talk to the folks at http://www.prepaidlegal.com/ they will monitor your credit and help you clear it up if needs be.
Here are a few tips to help you stay safe.
- Be very leery of email.
- Banks are not going to contact you via email.
- Nobody needs you to help them transfer money out of their country.
- If you mouse over (hover your mouse over) a link and it goes to a strange address, it is most likely bogus.
- When in doubt call the institution in question to verify the validity of an email.
- Never use the links provided in an email. Always log on to the site directly. If there is a problem, believe me, there will be a red flag somewhere on the site once you log in.
Remember this is big money. There are virtually no convictions or even arrests for cyber-fraud. This attracts some clever thieves. The emails have become alarmingly realistic and diverse. I have seen the following phishing scams in my inbox:
- eBay Unpaid Item Strike. This appears to be an unpaid item strike from eBay. However, you have not purchased anything lately... This email contains a link to dispute the strike. Of course, the thief is attempting to get your ebay login info. With this information they can do a number of things. Most likely they will sell bogus items with your account. After they receive the money, they are gone and you get the bad feedback/hassle of clearing the matter up.
- FBI Investigation This scam is an email informing you that the FBI is investigating fraudulent transactions with your social security number, identity, credit cards etc... It (or a link) will ask you for personal information to help solve the "crime". Guess what. If they get your drivers license number, or social, they have you. Imagine getting arrested for something somebody else did using your social or driver licence number. What are you going to say?
"It wasn't me! You've got the wrong guy.".
"Sure pal, save it for the jury... Watch your head..." - Nigerian 419 This one will state that the author who is in some other country and has somehow come into a large or undisclosed amount of money. They need help tranferring it out of the country... This scam is looking for you to either open a account with anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars(after all they are going to trust you with millions right?) or simply provide them with your account number... Guess how long it will take them to empty the account and vanish into thin air...
- PayPal Payment Confirmation This one is a bogus PayPal payment confirmation. Similar to the eBay scam, it will have a dispute transaction link to a phoney login page. Once they have your PayPal information it is time to go shopping... Careful here, this one looks authentic...
- You have won! This con-email informs you that you have won a contest or some such thing. When you go to the page to claim your prize the crook claims your personal information.
Additionally, if this wasn't enough to worry about, some email will contain links or attachments that will install various spyware viruses when clicked...
Good luck, stay safe and use your head friends.
Best Regards,
Marc Everlove
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
PopCon 3rd Party Pop3 Connector
After dealing with a grueling Exchange Server install, all I can say is: If you have pop3 email to retrieve, then popcon (Google is your friend) will save you hours...
So, if your co-workers start looking for a rope and a good tree, then it's time to order...
So, if your co-workers start looking for a rope and a good tree, then it's time to order...
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Configuring Exchange
Ok, I have avoided Exhange for years now. However, it was recently thrust upon me. There was no escaping this time. I spent some time configuring it during the installation of Small Business Server. I didn't think much of it as I was going through...
The long and the short of it is this, SBS sets exchange to default every time the user logs in. This is problematic when you have all of your clients all dialed in with their pop3 accounts. So, effectively, you are locked into using Exchange as your outgoing SMTP server. Ok fine. If you configure it properly no sweat.
However, if you don't it can be slightly less than fun sorting it out. In my case we had the website and mail server located on an external host. Let them have the security headaces you know... At any rate, as I was configuring Exchange, I set the virtual server fully qualified domain name to my external .com rather then to my internal .local.
As a result there was no problem receiving email and we could send email to any domain other then our own .com.
Well, users might notice this one.
After much hand wringing I was able to piece together the solution.
The WinRoute Utility (which you can download here, for those of you too lazy to do a Google Search) revealed that my bridgehead virtual server fully qualified domain name (FQDN) was set to the same name as my external .com.
This caused all outgoing email to think that the internal server DNS was authoritive for the domain. The email then bounced and returned a non-delivery message... Not good. However, now that I knew what the issue was I could proceed to change the FQDN to the .local that is should have been set to initially. Clear as mud?
After much adu I located the area in which I could make the change... Here it is...
1. Open the Exchange System Manager.
2. Go to recepients > Recipient Policies
3. Right Click Default Policy > Properties > Email Addresses (Policy)
4. double Click SMTP type
5. Change the address to your local domain.
That's it...
Just one more thing though, might save you some headache. Go to active users and computers and make sure the email addresses are the actual email addresses that you wish your users to receive their mail. Otherwise all replies will go to your internal domain...
good luck and as always, advice here is to be used at your own risk and is offered without warranty...
The long and the short of it is this, SBS sets exchange to default every time the user logs in. This is problematic when you have all of your clients all dialed in with their pop3 accounts. So, effectively, you are locked into using Exchange as your outgoing SMTP server. Ok fine. If you configure it properly no sweat.
However, if you don't it can be slightly less than fun sorting it out. In my case we had the website and mail server located on an external host. Let them have the security headaces you know... At any rate, as I was configuring Exchange, I set the virtual server fully qualified domain name to my external .com rather then to my internal .local.
As a result there was no problem receiving email and we could send email to any domain other then our own .com.
Well, users might notice this one.
After much hand wringing I was able to piece together the solution.
The WinRoute Utility (which you can download here, for those of you too lazy to do a Google Search) revealed that my bridgehead virtual server fully qualified domain name (FQDN) was set to the same name as my external .com.
This caused all outgoing email to think that the internal server DNS was authoritive for the domain. The email then bounced and returned a non-delivery message... Not good. However, now that I knew what the issue was I could proceed to change the FQDN to the .local that is should have been set to initially. Clear as mud?
After much adu I located the area in which I could make the change... Here it is...
1. Open the Exchange System Manager.
2. Go to recepients > Recipient Policies
3. Right Click Default Policy > Properties > Email Addresses (Policy)
4. double Click SMTP type
5. Change the address to your local domain.
That's it...
Just one more thing though, might save you some headache. Go to active users and computers and make sure the email addresses are the actual email addresses that you wish your users to receive their mail. Otherwise all replies will go to your internal domain...
good luck and as always, advice here is to be used at your own risk and is offered without warranty...
Friday, January 5, 2007
SBS Connect Computer Wizard issue.
I have been recently installing a brand new SBS domain. It is a 20 workstation environment. The workstations were on a hodgepodge of a network that included 3 different workgroups and an old defunct domain. Some clients were on each of the different segments.
To make a long story short, I noticed several of the machines were returning an error that stated the profile I was attempting to migrate was a private profile and I needed to visit the permissions on the profile (right click on the systemroot/documents and settings/username folder) and remove the checkmark from the "Make Folder Private" checkbox. Of course, there was no checkmark there. Par for the course. So I put a checkmark in the box hit "ok" and let it set the permissions. Once the folder was made private I then proceeded to remove the checkmark and hit "ok" again, removing the private settings from the folders.
At this point I ran the sbsserver/connectclient wizard again and it worked like clockwork...
This worked for the majority of clients. However, a handfull of clients were holdouts from a long deceased domain. These had the full permissions page rather than the simple "make folder private checkbox." I gave the administrater full control. Ran the wizard... Nope, didn't work. I then took ownership of the profile, and ran the wizard... Huh uh, that didn't work either. Flummoxed, I began to look around... Here is how I finally solved it.
1.) Go to systemroot/program files/Microsoft Windows Small Business Server/Clients/SBSNetSetup.log
2.) Once open, hit ctrl+f and find the line that says: CProfileList::FindPrivateDir() - returning true
3.) Next to that statement will be a filename. This file is the culprit. Delete this file. There may be more than one line here, so look at the following lines. Delete all of them.
4.) Rerun the wizard and you should be good to go!
Good Luck. As always, the information provided here is for informtional purposes only. I assume no responsibility for anything resulting from it. Use it at your own risk...
To make a long story short, I noticed several of the machines were returning an error that stated the profile I was attempting to migrate was a private profile and I needed to visit the permissions on the profile (right click on the systemroot/documents and settings/username folder) and remove the checkmark from the "Make Folder Private" checkbox. Of course, there was no checkmark there. Par for the course. So I put a checkmark in the box hit "ok" and let it set the permissions. Once the folder was made private I then proceeded to remove the checkmark and hit "ok" again, removing the private settings from the folders.
At this point I ran the sbsserver/connectclient wizard again and it worked like clockwork...
This worked for the majority of clients. However, a handfull of clients were holdouts from a long deceased domain. These had the full permissions page rather than the simple "make folder private checkbox." I gave the administrater full control. Ran the wizard... Nope, didn't work. I then took ownership of the profile, and ran the wizard... Huh uh, that didn't work either. Flummoxed, I began to look around... Here is how I finally solved it.
1.) Go to systemroot/program files/Microsoft Windows Small Business Server/Clients/SBSNetSetup.log
2.) Once open, hit ctrl+f and find the line that says: CProfileList::FindPrivateDir() - returning true
3.) Next to that statement will be a filename. This file is the culprit. Delete this file. There may be more than one line here, so look at the following lines. Delete all of them.
4.) Rerun the wizard and you should be good to go!
Good Luck. As always, the information provided here is for informtional purposes only. I assume no responsibility for anything resulting from it. Use it at your own risk...
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