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WyzGuys provides
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security for residential,
home office, and small business clients in the St Croix Valley,
the East Metro, and St. Paul area.
Call us at 651 387-1668 for quick, reliable, and inexpensive
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As many of you know, I have taught a Community Education
Class about computer security issues since 2002. Over the
course of time, the nature of computer security threats have
changed, and the exploits have become much more sophisticated.
Instead of pimple faced script kiddies writing mass mailing
worms in their mom’s basement, we now have sophisticated
software exploits that are underwritten and managed by organized
criminal gangs. What they are infecting your computer with
cannot really be called a virus. This is software written
by highly educated computer professionals. Much of it
installs without alerting the computer owner, as a result of
clicking on a link in an email or visiting a legitimate website
that has been attacked, cracked, compromised, and set up as a
software distribution site. It can be hard to remove.
Much of it reinstalls itself if it is removed. Scary,
scary stuff. How can we protect ourselves from these attacks?
Here is the list.
Do not run computers that use pirated versions of the Windows
operating system. Microsoft does not supply critical
security updates to computers that are running illicit copies of
Windows, and enforces that with the Windows Genuine Advantage
validation tool that it sends out via Windows Update about once
a month. Keep your shields up. Turn on your Windows
Firewall or use the firewall that comes with your Internet
security suite. I find people turning off their firewalls
to solve file and printer sharing problems, but this is a
dangerous practice. There are other ways to solve that
issue. Also, many wireless access points also provide a
pretty decent hardware firewall at the point your network
connects to the cable or DSL modem. If you have one, make
sure this feature is enabled, and if you don’t, it may be wise
to get one now. Run your updates. Windows Update is
scheduled to run automatically by default, but if yours is set
to ask your permission, you should make sure to grant it
regularly. Letting other updaters run, like Adobe, flash,
and Firefox, is also a good idea. Legitimate software
developers send out updates to fix known security issues, but
you have to let the installers run and apply the fixes. Keep
your Internet security suite up to date. Renew your
subscription when it comes due, and upgrade to the most recent
version of your preferred security vendor. I use and recommend
AVG in part because upgrades to the latest version are automatic
and included in your subscription. The security vendors
are improving their products continuously to thwart the efforts
of the bad guys, but you have to do your part to stay secure.
Keep your anti-spyware product updated. Usually this is a
component of your Internet security suite, but if you are
running separate products, or an additional anti-spyware
package, do not neglect this either. My personal favorites
in this category are Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and PC Tools
Spyware Doctor.
If you have any questions about the state of your own
computer security, I can provide an analysis and make
recommendations. Or your can run a free tool from
Microsoft, the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. There
is a comprehensive article on the Microsoft website that may
also be helpful, and can be found
here.
Have a happy and safe New Year.
In my November 22 post about smartphones, I
pretty much dismissed Blackberry as a not too
technically brilliant product. I have revised
my opinion. My original Blackberry was a lowly
8700 model, which too be fair, was $49 on a new cell
phone contract. There was a reason it was $49
– because that was all it was worth!! Thanks
to the quick work of the thief who stole my
Blackberry, wallet, credit cards, driver’s license,
and watch from my locked gym locker, I was able to
upgrade to the Blackberry Bold 9700. At $450
it was the most expensive of the four Blackberry
options at the T-Mobile store. It is far and
away an entirely more enjoyable smart phone
experience. The screen resolution is crisp and easy
to read, the keyboard buttons easy for my fat thumbs
to use without a lot of typing mistakes. The
SMS chats exist as a string instead of a bunch of
separate send and receive messages. There is
built in WiFi connectivity, which means I can link
up to speedy wireless connections when using the Web
enabled applications in my home, office,
client site, or coffee house. It has GPS
capabilities, which incur an additional monthly fee,
but its there at least. A pretty decent 3
megapixel camera, with a flash!!
So, surprise – you get what you pay for in the
Blackberry too. But I still think the Android
phones are the ones to watch, you just cannot beat
the advantages of open-source, unfettered by the
controls of an oligarchic megalomaniac (Steve).
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I am often asked by clients and others about the
relative merits or necessity of having a server on the
small business network. Here are some points to
consider:
- Do your employees share files through a
confusing system of shared network drives and
folders that actually exist on coworkers computers?
Having a central file server to manage that process
would be simpler.
- Do your employees share printers across the
network? Having a central print server would
streamline the process.
- Do your employees get a lot of email spam? A
central email server could help to filter and reduce
the amount of spam they have to deal with.
- Are you having problems with web and email borne
security threats? A server can centralize and
manage security for all the computers on the
network.
- Do you have remote workers and business
travelers who need access to files and applications
that are in the office? A server can streamline
remote access without sacrificing security or
increasing costs.
- Does your company run a line of business
application that many of your employees need to
access and share? These types of applications run
best on a server.
- Do you have a backup strategy in place? Are you
certain important data on an employee computer would
not be lost in case of a disk failure? A server can
provide a central data repository that is easily
backed up.
- Are your employees spending too much time trying
to connect to resources on the network that are hard
to find?
- Do you need a reliable way to control and
validate computer user access, that also makes it
possible for several employees to share one or more
computers?
The more “yes” answers you have, the more likely that
your company could benefit from having a server on the
network. The sever could be a full-fledged Windows
Small Business Server, or it might just be a dedicated
computer acting as a file or print server on your
network. While they can be expensive to implement,
depending on your needs, they can also be a fairly
inexpensive addition to your business network.
For instance, you may not need an actual server class
piece of hardware, you may be able to utilize a higher
end desktop computer, or even a computer that is being
retired from desktop use.
In the same vein, you may not need an expensive
server operating system, with the attendant expense of
client access licenses, either.
When looking at this investment, it is important that
you discuss your actual requirements and expectations
with your computer consultant, to be sure that your
system is scaled to support your present and future
operations. Investing in a state-of-the-art,
“build it and they will come” server infrastructure that
is too big and too expensive when compared to your usage
patterns, can be a waste of financial resources.
As a Microsoft Small Business Specialist, this is an
area of our business practice and expertise.
Rather than pushing boxes, we try to match our clients
needs and budgetary limitations with a server
installation that provides high efficiency and
represents a good value to the client. There is an
informative
whitepaper available from PC World, and is worth a
read if you are looking into a server for the first
time, or contemplating an upgrade or replacement of an
existing server. And of course we we would be
delighted to consult with you about your particular
computer environment and the solution that would make
the most sense for your company.
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