January 11, 2011

Setting up a Business Network

Filed under: Data Doctors, E-mail, Internet, PC, Passwords, Tips, Wireless Internet — admin @ 3:32 pm

Setting up a small business network allows you to get more out of your systems and components, you’ll be able to access the internet on any computer, as well as share files on computers within the network.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you have the correct equipment for your needs, If you want your business wired, Ethernet cables will be needed, if you choose to go wireless, a wireless router will be required. You are also able to use a combination of the two.

There are two ways you can set up your network:

PEER TO PEER

When using a peer-to-peer setup, each computer acts as both the client and server, and is able to communicate directly with the other computers on the network. You will only need a router, and have the computers on the same work or homegroup, and enable print and file sharing. Windows offers a Network Setup Wizard that you can access to walk you through your setup.

CLIENT-SERVER

A client-server setup allows several computers to connect to a single sever where public data can be stored. This is more typical in a larger office setting. For this set up a server is needed, a computer with a ‘server-friendly operating system’ can be used. (For little companies, Windows XP, Vista or 7 Professional will work just fine.) Making sure everything is hooked up properly is the main thing, as well as making sure all of your client computers have separate names.

Setting up a business network is all a matter of preference and layout, call your local IT Company with any questions or concerns!

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-set-up-a-small-business-computer-network/

April 8, 2010

Open your eyes when surfing the internet!

Filed under: E-mail, Online Safety, Viruses, Wireless Internet — Tags: computer, computer expert, computer security, computers, cybercrime, Internet, minneapolis, minneapolis minnesota, minneapolis mn, minnesota, open wifi, security, spam e-mail, spam emails, spyware, surfing the internet, surfing the net, virus, Viruses, WiFi — admin @ 2:57 pm

Would you cross the roads with your eyes shut?  Open your eyes when surfing the internet!

Reading the Star Tribune on Sunday, we learned that Minneapolis is now ranked the seventh-riskiest city in America for cybercrime!!  Eeek, now that is hitting a little close to home.  Every day we are hearing or seeing in the news something about a new virus attack or online threat to our computers.  It’s not like all the computers in Minneapolis are going to grow legs and arms to strangle us.

The Minneapolis area does have one of the highest populations of in-home computers and computer users in the nation.  Minneapolis is growing to become known as a very internet savvy city.  Due to this, we are more likely to encounter spyware, spam emails and other viruses.

Keep yourself safe by never fully opening an email, use a preview window to read your messages  (both entourage and outlook allow you to do this), do not log into confidential sites when you are on an open wifi network unless it is secure, and make sure you know what you are downloading before you hit ok.  It’s just like you’re a kid again and your mother is teaching you how to cross the road. Look both ways to ensure that there are not any viruses coming before you begin to access the site and keep looking both ways as you access the site to make sure a virus doesn’t pop up out of nowhere.  If you are nervous or have questions, ask a computer expert. We’re here to help and answer questions.

March 31, 2010

Picking Better Passwords Is Key to Security

Filed under: Internet, Online Safety, Passwords — Tags: choosing a password, computer, computer security, computers, online security, password, password security, password use, Passwords, security, security expert, security experts, symantec, symantec report, symantec survey — admin @ 10:31 am

Security firm Symantec heard from 400 customers in a just-completed survey about password use.

Turns out far fewer of them (a mere 3%) admit to using the old favorite ‘password’ for their password.  The name of a pet is the top category of passwords in the survey, with 10% of respondents reporting that they tap in ‘Tigger’ or somesuch name when logging into secure accounts.

Security experts frown on using the name of a pet, a significant other, a child’s name, a middle name or a birth date when choosing a password. All of these passwords could be ascertained from information readily available or easily guessed, especially with the information now available on social networking sites.

Choosing and using effective passwords is considered an efficient and effective way to keep your online accounts secure and lower your risk with online scammers.

A whopping 59% of those who responded to the Symantec survey reported that they relied on their memory for recalling a password.

Here are some suggestions on how to choose passwords that will be memory-stickers for you, but will be tricky enough to thwart a thief:

• A longer password is more secure than a shorter one
• Alter passwords with numbers or symbols at the beginning or end
• Mix up letters and numbers. Toss in punctuation symbols as well. For example, if “Billie Jean” has always been your favorite song, replace each ‘e’ with a number, and toss in an exclamation point at the end, so now you have Billi9J9an! which is both memorable and difficult to crack.

You can view the full responses to the Symantec survey.

February 24, 2010

White House Goes Viral

Filed under: Internet — Tags: iPhone, IPod touch, live streaming, mobile, mobile applications, mobile apps, online live streaming, online political steaming, political live streaming, president, president barack obama, president obama, president of the united states, social media, united states, united states of america, us president, video streaming, white house, white house social media, whitehouse.gov — admin @ 9:15 am

Political junkies have a new way to keep abreast of activities at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, without the filter of the traditional news media or White House correspondents.

The White House has launched a first-of-a-kind application available through the Apple iPhone and the iPod touch. The app is free.

It will feature live streaming of President Barack Obama’s public events at the White House. It will also include web chats with officials in the Obama administration, daily press briefings and other events.

Subscribers also have access to content from WhiteHouse.gov. It provides access to behind-the-scenes photos, on demand videos and full videos from recent speeches, press briefings, and special events.

During the campaign, Obama and his strategists got high marks for utilizing new communications avenues to connect with voters, especially young Americans and the technically savvy. A White House spokesman reveals that the iPhone app is one piece of a larger mobile strategy, with other mobile products planned for the future, allowing WhiteHouse.gov to be accessed on all mobile phones.

Photo: photo credit: M☮nique

February 22, 2010

Protect Yourself Another “Big Brother” Could Be Watching!

Filed under: Google, Internet, Online Safety — Tags: big brother, computers, facebook, facebook profiles, george orwell, identity theft, keep yourself safe, online privacy, Online Safety — admin @ 8:28 am

In his ominous novel “1984,” George Orwell imagined an overarching government (“Big Borther”) that collected data about everyone, with no detail too small to track.

Today, you may have more to fear from yourself than from any vast bureaucracy. You may be giving away some of your own vital secrets to anyone who has access to your Facebook profile.

Most people with FaceBook profiles post their birthdays, and enjoy getting special wishes on their special day.

But identity thieves know that many of us use all or part of our birthdates as passwords or as personal identification codes. When numbers that should be guarded are given out freely, it can be dangerous.

Your Facebook profile may also include your nickname or the names of your children or pets, which are also popular categories for passwords. Perhaps your mother, complete with her birth name, is one of your Facebook friends. Ascertaining that information could allow a cyberthief to have a crack at that popular security question about “mother’s maiden name.”

Increasingly, people use FaceBook for business and networking purposes; for them it is impractical to suggest that they deny “friend” status to someone who may be unknown. That friend request could represent a lead as a new customer or client. Creating a list with different privacy settings for different groups of your connections is another way to control who sees what information included in your profile.

That’s why it is crucial that you take a critical eye to your page. Look closely at what you are revealing. You can still be yourself on FaceBook while deleting personal information that could put your identity in peril. It turns out “Big Brother” is watching, but it’s in the form of identity thieves, rather than the government.

January 25, 2010

Is airline Wi-Fi any good and is it safe?

Filed under: Internet, Tips, Viruses, Wireless Internet — Tags: airline, airline wi-fi, airline wifi, cloud computing, computer, computer recovery, computer repair, computer service, computer services, computer stores, computer support, computers, data recovery, file recovery, Gogo, internet safety, IT, IT department, laptop repair, recovery, repair computer, Row 44, safe airline internet, safe internet, Virtual Private Network, VPN, Wi-Fi, Wi-FI safety, WiFi, wifi safety — admin @ 3:17 pm

In-flight Wi-Fi brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘cloud computing’! In past years, the offerings were expensive, restrictive and inconsistent. But not anymore!

In our experience, speed, reliability and cost have all been reasonable. We’ve tried Gogo and expect Row 44 to be good, too. Just check with your airline before you go to see what is being offered.

Although Wi-Fi on airlines only works above 10,000 feet, the providers and airlines are not currently blocking access to any specific content or websites and are relying on passengers to behave themselves (this could change)!  One exception is voice traffic. The airlines decided that their passengers didn’t want to get stuck next to loud, obnoxious ‘deal makers’ flapping their gums about their latest conquests during these long flights.

Any device that is Wi-Fi enabled and has a browser can make use of the connection:  laptops, Netbooks, smartphones and even the iPod Touch and some handheld gaming systems should work.  You must have a browser in to get past the ‘I Agree’ terms of use gateway page.

As far as safety goes, this shouldn’t be approached any different than any other public Wi-Fi connection.  If you aren’t careful, you could expose your computer to others on the flight, just like in the airport or at a hotel (our column on public Wi-Fi safety is posted here: http://bit.ly/2ldfHp.)

Be very mindful that those in the row behind you can easily see through the gaps in the seats to your screen or lots of folks if you are seated in the aisle seat.  This means you should avoid typing in any sensitive information or websites that will display sensitive information.

As should be expected, if your company requires you to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to connect to the company network, you may have problems getting it all to work depending upon how restrictive your IT department has set the VPN to be (check with them before your flight for the best results).

December 23, 2009

FireFox running slow?

Filed under: Internet — Tags: computer, computer recovery, computer repair, computer service, computer stores, computer support, computers, firefox, internet connect, internet connection slow, repair computer, slow firefox, slow internet — admin @ 8:00 am

Is your Firefox browser running slow on your computer?  It may not be your computer or it’s hardware that is slowing it down.   Here is a tip for speeding up your Firefox browser!

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining

network.http.proxy.pipelining

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

You will see that these are turned off (“false”). Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. If you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. To turn them on, alter the entries as follows:

Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true” by double-clicking on it to toggle to “true.”

Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true” by double-clicking on it to toggle to “true.”

Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once. (Double-click and a box will open where you can type 30.)

3. Last, right-click(PC) or control click (Mac) anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “8243”. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Hopefully this helps!

The information is from Cnet Help Forum.

October 2, 2009

Am I really safe using public WiFi?

Filed under: Online Safety, Wireless Internet — Tags: computer, computer recovery, computer repair, computer service, computer services, computer stores, computer support, computers, data recovery, data recovery software, disk recovery, easy recovery, file recovery, hard drive recovery, laptop repair, partition recovery, recover files, recover my files, recovery, recovery software, repair computer, WiFi — admin @ 7:12 am

How many times have you logged onto public WiFi and wondered if you’re safe and secure? In order to intercept your transmissions, a hacker would have to install special software called a ‘packet sniffer’ which secretly copies unsecured packets transmitted on the same network or create a ‘man-in-the-middle’ exploit to trick you into connecting directly to their computer instead of a wifi access point.

Packet sniffers are readily available on the Internet and any motivated 14-year old could figure out how to use one, but that doesn’t mean that everyone around you has one.

The other issue is that even if someone can see what website you are surfing while you are at the airport, no harm is done unless you access your e-mail account, an online banking site or other normally secured resources on the Internet.

Secured sites on the Internet will show up as ‘https:’ instead of ‘http’. If you need to type sensitive information into your computer while on public WiFi, make sure you are doing it on a page that has the ‘https:’ prefix so that your transmissions are being encrypted.

Sadly, many web-based e-mail systems have a secured login page, but once you get past the login, the rest of the pages are not secured. The easiest way to tell if your webmail system is secure at all times is to log in, then go to your Inbox and see if the ‘https:’ remained in the URL.

If your webmail does not encrypt pages after the login screen, then you need to think twice about using it on public wifi networks without adding additional security software, such as VPN – Virtual Private Network software (more on this later).

To avoid the ‘man-in-the-middle’ attack, be very careful to look at the icon next to each available connection when you are attempting to connect to a wifi network. A fake wifi connection will appear as two computers instead of something that looks like an antenna.

Overall, you are pretty safe using a public wifi. Just remember to watch what you click and don’t go into confidential files without a secure login while you are public.