Computer Support Hastings

Hastings Musical Festival Syllabus on line!

2010-10-04T12:08:00.002Z

The syllabus for the 2011 Hastings Musical Festival is now online

Hackers

2010-10-04T12:07:00.002Z

A site I designed for a local petshop has been hacked yet again. This time, it appears that the hosting company server had been hacked using another users account.

Time to find a new host I guess

Disaster Recovery

2010-02-25T16:56:00.000Z

Followers of this blog will know that I help out the Hastings Musical Festival with their computer systems. We had a bit of a disaster today. With the opening day of the Festival only three days away, the main website went down. I notified the hosts of the fault and quickly put up a holding page.

Whilst waiting for the hosting company to fix the fault, I set about restoring a recent backup of the site to my in-house server and re-directing the domain (together with the associated paraphernalia such as editing DNS entries, both with the hosting company and on my own server).

As luck would have it, as soon as I'd got my temporary server up and running, the hosting company emailed me to say they had resolved the fault.

At least it gave me a good chance to implement and test my disaster recovery procedures.

Hastings Musical Festival - 2010 Programme now available

2010-02-18T21:31:00.002Z

The 2010 Programme for the Hastings Musical Festival is now available both from the usual outlets and a class schedule on the website.

Hastings Musical Festival - Linkup with Hastings Rock

2010-02-16T16:32:00.000Z

I've just had an email from Molly informing me that Hastings Rock have agreed to give all entrants in the Rock Band classes of the Hastings Musical Festival have a chance to get their music played on Hastings Rock Radio station. More information is on the Festival Website.

More work on the Musical Festival administration

2010-02-16T16:28:00.000Z

Work on the Hastings Musical Festival administration site continues apace. The latest phase is the production of certificates. Unfortunately,. I have been unable to get the PDF conversion routine to handle a full A4 page image as a background, so we will fall back onto over-printing the certificates for this year, but I hope to have it cracked by the 2011 Festival. The only bits remaining to migrate from the old Microsoft Access database onto the PHP/MySQL solution are that of inputting marks and calculating the winners of the Aggregate trophies (of which there are more than 100!).

Attracting Birds

2010-01-28T19:57:00.002Z

In an effort to do my bit for the local wildlife population, I have taken to putting some mixed seeds out for the birds each day. So far we have one robin and a dove pecking around. Hopefully we'll get a few blackbirds too. They should do a good job on the slugs that I spent much of last year impaling on a home-made spear (bit of bamboo with a pin on the end).

.htaccess

2010-01-28T19:23:00.002Z

After too many queries about how to write .htaccess files, I have succumbed and am in the process of writing a PHP script to generate the most common of them. Whilst this work is nice in terms of easy profit, I feel guilty about charging for this basic service and will work to migrate most of my customers to the online version.

More PHP Development

2010-01-22T22:09:00.004Z

Yet another satisfied customer. He is launching a web-based music collaboration site and wished interactivity that was not currently available. As a result, he approached the webmaster of 1066online.com for help and was referred to Roy Penfold Computer Services.

We discussed his requirements and very quickly put together a custom PHP based site that fully met his requirements.

Why not head over to noisecube and have a look.

Website Design in Hastings

2009-12-13T21:05:00.002Z

We now offer a fully bespoke web-design service providing affordable website design for companies and individuals in East Sussex.

Using traditional technologies such as PHP and MySQL we can create a fully content managed website for you. If you require more interactivity, we can give your site the 'Facebook' feel by incorporating AJAX programming to make pages dynamic with the 'Web 2' feel at no extra cost to you.

All sites include domain name registration for a year and the setup of unlimited email addresses.

Hastings Musical Festival

2009-10-07T15:38:00.001Z

The syllabus for the 2010 Musical Festival is now available. There is a lot of exciting news about the Festival, not least the fact that Roger Daltrey of The Who is judging the Rock Band competitions!

Why not pop over and have a look.

Finished another site

2009-09-30T06:04:00.001Z

I've just designed a simple one page site for a local petshop. This includes 5 selectable templates, full Content Management of the page and randomisation of special offers.

A Shameless Plug

2009-08-25T08:40:00.001Z

I'm currently working on a couple of ideas with a talented web designer at the moment, Ben from B A C Productions. He is a specialist in Zen Cart and also provides a photo printing service with very reasonable prices; http://www.a3prints.co.uk/

Another Site Finished

2009-08-22T09:37:00.002Z

Another site that has just been completed is that of http://www.samphire.it. This is a completely custom site designed for a racing tipster. The code is a mixture of PHP, Javascript and HTML with a back-end MySQL database.

The site features full CMS on all pages with automatic updating of results summaries in real time. In addition, it links through to PayPal for handling subscriptions.

Just finished a modification for Zen Cart

2009-08-22T09:33:00.002Z

I've just finished a modification for Zen Cart that permits variable pricing of products by multi-dimensional attributes. This is ideal for all those Zen Cart owners who sell products such as custom doors, carpets, tiles etc. The modified code is 4 PHP files that need to be uploaded to your store and over-write the existing files. All database modifications are taken care of within the code.

Removing add-ons from Internet Explorer 7

2009-07-01T14:49:00.001Z

Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Manage Add-ons.
Click the name of the add-on.
Use one of the following methods:
Click Update ActiveX to replace the add-on with the current version. This option is not available for all add-ons.
To enable an add-on, click Enable, and then click OK.
To disable an add-on, click Disable, and then click OK.
You may have to restart Internet Explorer

If that doesn't work, then try this;
Go to Start > Run, type iexplore –extoff and press Enter.
then internet explorer should load and you can remove the add-ons from the tools menu

New service from Roy Penfold Computer Service

2009-05-28T09:11:00.001Z

I am pleased to announce that Roy Penfold Computer Services can now supply hardware. Please visit http://www.roypenfold.co.uk/page19.html and browse our on-line store.

Returning an alphabetical list consisting of the first letter in MySQL

2009-05-13T10:10:00.003Z

In a recent project, one task involved returning the unique first letter of the data held in a MySQL field in order to provide hyperlink navigation through the web-site as opposed to a drop down menu.

This was accomplished using the MySQL statement below;

SELECT DISTINCT (left( [field], 1 ) )FROM `[table]` ORDER BY [field]

Revisions to websites

2009-05-08T09:07:00.002Z

I'm spending the next few days making some changes to websites http://www.findapro.co.uk and http://www.hastingsmusicalfestival.co.uk

The Findapro one is a directory of professionals (accountants, builders etc) and I am employing a few SEO tactics to get its Google pagerank up a bit, not to mention permitting inclusion of banner adverts. The Findapro site is totally bespoke written using PHP and MySQL.

With the Musical Festival, it is a case of extracting the results from their bespoke Access database, re-formatting then uploading results pages to the website which is based upon Joomla. As time permits, I plan to write some custom Joomla modules to permit on-line entry and real-time updating of results.

Badly installed network

2009-04-30T20:03:00.002Z

Had an emergency call out to a local supermarket today, their network had gone down making their tills inoperative.

When I arrived, there was a long patch cable strung across the shop floor to the point of sale terminals. The manager informed me that they had previously had an engineer in who said there was nothing wrong with the wiring.

Normally I attempt to repair before re-wiring (this is an 'open all hours' supermarket and removing ceiling tiles to re-lay the cable or pull new cable using the existing would have been extremely disruptive requiring dismantling of much of their counter displays). Hooking up the network tester to the two points revealed that one had two wires reversed on the cable and another was showing open circuits across two pairs. Opening up the Cat 5 outlet behind the till revealed two wires that had not been punched down correctly and examining the RJ45 connectors in the back office revealed the one which the owners had been informed was damaged during installation had in fact been wired incorrectly.

All in all the diagnosis and repair took about 20 minutes which was much less disruptive than re-cabling.

Google Streetview car spied in St Leonards

2009-04-23T14:35:00.001Z

Saw the google streetview car in St Leonards today. At about 15:00 it was driving down Tower Road from Bohemia Road towards London Road, then a few minutes later driving down St Peters Road, obviously having been round the block.

A 'Rupert'

2009-03-08T20:16:00.002Z

Had an unusual one with a laptop today. I don't normally do laptop repairs, but this one seemed straightforward if the cause wasn't so bizarre.

The CD mechanism had been pushed down so the tray wouldn't open. This was caused by the user burning a CD and setting the laptop down on the floor whilst it completed.

What the user hadn't bargained on was their dog, Rupert sitting on the tray as it ejected on completion of writing the disc.

Stripping the drive out of the laptop and removing the outer casing revealed a simple repair - one of the runners had been bent and was easily straightened.

A large project and a puzzle

2009-02-24T18:10:00.005Z

I have volunteered to help the Hastings Music Festival with their information technology systems and have the task of migrating their bespoke Access database to an online version. This is going to be a challenging project, which hopefully will reduce the administrative burden on their army of volunteers.

The other newsworthy post of today is a puzzle. One of my clients runs a linux server with Samba providing file-sharing to their network. Part of the role of this machine is to provide real-time telephone statistics via a plugin I wrote for PHP-Nuke. In order to make this system work, it needs to map a shared windows drive into the linux filesystem. The mount is set to activate at boot in fstab, yet every time the server is downed, the shared drive is not mounted. Any suggestions?

fstab snippet below (username and password blanked out)

//oak/advance /var/www/html/modules/Phone_Stats/raw smbfs password=*****,username=***** 0 0

Bits and Bobs

2009-02-23T18:20:00.003Z

A few jobs on today, some not even IT related (although you could argue that wiring a scart lead from a video recorder to a tv is technology).

I set up a blog for a racing tips service at http://www.samphire85.info/ and sorted out a few network niggles for one of my bigger clients, including re-training spamassassin so it didn't mis-identify emails from their domain as spam. sa-learn is a useful tool - I'll have to spend a few hours learning the various command line options for future reference.

A synopsis of the options are below;

--ham Learn messages as ham (non-spam)
--spam Learn messages as spam
--forget Forget a message
--rebuild Rebuild the database if needed
--force-expire Force an expiry run, rebuild every time
-f file, --folders=file Read list of files/directories from file
--dir Learn a directory of RFC 822 files
--file Learn a file in RFC 822 format
--mbox Learn a file in mbox format
--showdots Show progress using dots
--no-rebuild Skip building databases after scan
-L, --local Operate locally, no network accesses
-C file, --config-file=file Path to standard configuration dir
-p prefs, --prefs-file=file Set user preferences file
-D, --debug-level Print debugging messages
-V, --version Print version
-h, --help Print usage message

Network Cabling

2009-02-19T18:27:00.002Z

Spent much of today up to my neck in Cat5 cable, wiring a network for a firm of
Will Writers.

My back is now killing me!! At least all the points tested ok and I was able to hand-over the installation smoothly.

The ongoing saga of my HP Laptop

2009-02-14T13:02:00.002Z

As readers of this blog may be aware, I bought myself a HP G70-111EM laptop back in January, however had to return it for repair following a burning smell when booting. For many years, I have used only Toshiba laptops, but was convinced by a special offer in my local electronics store.

I received the repaired unit back from HP last Thursday. For two days it was fine, but upon booting it this morning, had exactly the same symptoms as when I sent it in for repair. I telephoned HP and asked whether I could have a replacement unit, as clearly mine was unfit for purpose. I was informed that no, I had to send it in for a further repair. This means that out of ownership for one month, I have had 5 days usage from this machine.

I have sent an email to the CEO of HP in the UK asking him to take some remedial action before I start bringing in big guns such as Trading Standards etc.

Their response will be posted here.

Is there anyone out there?

2009-02-13T20:51:00.001Z

Just curious - does anyone read this blog?

Networks

2009-02-13T20:39:00.003Z

I had a call today from a client stating that one of the network printers at a remote site was not responding to the Head Office print server, yet would respond to individual workstations at Head Office. This company runs two networks (one for external support and one for internal usage).

The main routers for the IP Clear circuits used for WAN connectivity provide NAT services to route across the two networks.

Pinging the printer from the main server produced a response, yet pings from the print server were being lost.

The printer had its default route set to a broadband router (which mainly provides DHCP services and redundancy in the WAN link) this router had full connectivity to the internal network and the the print server was set to have its default network as the support network and to utilise the support router.

Changing the default route on the printer to the main router gave immediate connectivity both from Head Office/remote workstations and the Head Office print server. Perhaps I was being a bit too clever for the broadband router when I initially set up the routing tables.

Support for TurboCash

2009-02-12T17:57:00.002Z

I am now an approved consultant for TurboCash. If you wish advice with accounting software (I am also experienced in Sage and Quickbooks), please do not hesitate to contact me.

Setup/Custom Reporting can all be provided at a reasonable price.

FindaPro Relaunch

2009-02-10T14:23:00.002Z

I've just uploaded the re-work of the FindaPro directory website. There are still a few tweaks to put in place, but the client wanted the revenue streams up and running as soon as possible. The site has been written using PHP and MySQL and is fully bespoke, featuring postcode searching and a content management system.

Why not pop over there and have a look?

Duplicated MAC addresses

2009-02-10T14:21:00.002Z

Had a fairly interesting one today, a client complained about the speed of their proxy server running squid.

This machine has two network interfaces and upon investigation it transpired by looking at their router logs that both had identical MAC addresses leading to all sorts of mayhem.

Disabling the second network interface (which was only in the machine as a 'hot spare' resolved the issue.

Odd Jobs

2009-02-09T13:15:00.002Z

Not much of note for today, setting up a VPN endpoint for a customer using a Draytek router, re-installing some network printers that had been inadvertently deleted and re-mapping a windows share onto a linux machine.

My daughter will be happy

2009-02-04T11:44:00.002Z

Her Nintendo DS went wrong, when switching on, the displays flashed, then the system powered down. After getting extremely poor service from Nintendo (no response), I researched this on the web and found that it is a common fault. The ribbon connectors to the displays work loose causing the console to shut down.

After ordering the required screwdrivers from ebay, I was ready to follow the dis-assembly instructions at http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=98240 and re-seated the ribbon cables after giving them a clean with a dry cotton ear bud.

Putting it back together it now works!

Spam Email

2009-02-04T11:37:00.003Z

Big problems with one of my clients, they are receiving thousands of spam emails per hour. Their ISP is not much use, nor is their web-host who is complaining about the volume of traffic.

I have set up a whitelist on their email server to dump everything except for legitimate email addresses, however their host is not able to do the same and is having to forward all of the messages to their ISP for collection.

There are four alternatives;

Change the customers domain name. This may be the only course of action to stop the influx, however will involve a fair amount of disruption to the customer.
Set up a free address with Google mail for example and point the hosts mx record to Google.
Set the mx record with their host to point to their internal mail server. This will most likely saturate their bandwidth and server.
Transfer the domain elsewhere, and point the DNS 'A' record (website) back to their original host.

I'm waiting for instructions from my customer and have asked them to make direct contact with the host.

The case of the missing CD Rom

2009-01-30T15:43:00.003Z

A help desk call arose today, where the CD-Rom drive was detected in the BIOS, but not within Windows XP. Device manager showed error 39.

After attempting removing the device in device manager and re-installing did not work, it was time to dig out the registry hack.

In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
Expand Control, and then expand Class.
Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
In the details pane of Registry Editor, on the right side, click UpperFilters if it exists and delete.
In the details pane of Registry Editor, on the right side, click LowerFilters if it exists and delete.

Re-starting the computer then revealed the CD-Rom. Please note, ensure your registry is backed up prior to editing it.

Apparently this can be caused by removal of some CD burning software

Unravelling Paypal IPN

2009-01-30T11:25:00.001Z

Back to work on the Findapro website. Just unravelling the Paypal payment notification system in order the backend can be as automated as possible.

Interesting ones from yesterday

2009-01-30T11:21:00.003Z

The laptop turned out to have a large number of trojans on it, which were detected after booting from my ultimate boot disk. Whilst I had the machine booted, I backed up the users documents to a removable USB drive, then re-formatted the hard drive and re-installed XP just to be on the safe side.

No news on the email case.

A couple of interesting ones

2009-01-29T14:33:00.002Z

The first is a laptop that the user reports has a virus, it keeps re-booting when CTRL-ALT-DEL is pressed to log in. The user states this happens in both safe mode and normal and thinks it is a virus. I'm not so sure - I'm going in tomorrow to carry out a data recovery and will post back the actual cause.

The second is a user complaining about not receiving emails. I have asked that he gets the senders to send me their bounce messages so I can investigate further. There is no filtering on the server other than to flag spam/viruses.

I'll keep you all posted.

HP Technical Support

2009-01-29T11:41:00.003Z

Whilst on a client site on Monday, I plugged my new HP laptop in to carry out some checks and found that some of the smoke that makes it work escaped.

Not a major problem thinks I, I'll log it with their technical support when I get back to my office...

The error report was raised fairly easily, usual sort of stuff...purchase date, serial number etc. I then sat back to await their response.

Within an hour an email had arrived advising me to fill out a questionaire (serial number, date of purchase etc). All of these details were conveniently attached to the bottom of their email. This was filled out and sent back.

Approximately two hours later a subsequent email was received advising me that they needed to escalate my call and could I provide some details (serial number, date of purchase etc). Is this starting to get familiar?

I finally received a phone call from them advising that a courier would collect my laptop for repair today.

I'm not sure about you, but I would have expected a company like Hewlett Packard to have a more joined-up support system.

Free telephone support

2009-01-28T21:05:00.002Z

Due to abuse of my free telephone support by one of my customers, I have had to take the regrettable decision to cease providing free telephone support with effect from the end of next month (February).

Customers who have a support contract will still enjoy the free telephone/remote support, but all others will have to pay my published fee for off-site support of £25.00 per hour.

Adsense

2009-01-28T21:00:00.001Z

I have finally decided to dabble with Google Adsense to generate a modicum of residual income. If you see any adverts of interest, please click through to them!

Hastings IT Support directory

2009-01-28T17:27:00.000Z

I've just created a directory for IT Support in Hastings. The first month is free, with subsequent months costing just £5.00

Network Down

2008-12-10T18:26:00.000Z

One of my clients phoned me today and informed me that two out of the four buildings on their main site were down on the network.

The network 'daisy chains' from one building to the next and it was readily apparent that the outage was due to an uplink cable being disconnected from one of their switches.

Fixed Price Computer Servicing

2008-11-27T22:01:00.001Z

A new service I can provide is fixed price computer servicing, a basic service which will take about one hour to complete is £45.00 and includes advice on defragmentation, checking of system resources and virus/spyware checking.

Why not contact me and book your PC a service?

New Support Extranet Launched!

2008-11-09T14:44:00.000Z

I've just launched my support extranet at http://www.rpcs.org.uk. It includes forums, a terminology dictionary, handy hints and much more...

Content is being added daily.

New website

2008-08-02T14:05:00.000Z

Just designed a flyer site for a couple of great guys who are Electrofied. They are playing at Al Duomo, 7 Pavilion Buildings, Brighton on the 22nd of August. Why not pop over and say 'Hi'

What to watch for with online backup

2008-01-21T18:01:00.000Z

Automated offsite backup services are all the rage. Spare Backup, Dr. Backup, Remote Data Backups, and Mozy Online Backup are among some of the best-known contenders.

Unlike online storage services, such as those offered by ADrive, Xdrive, and Amazon with its Simple Storage Service (S3), offsite backup providers offer not only gigabytes of offsite file storage but also automated backup software designed to automatically back up the data you specify. That’s a critical difference that should be noted: Online storage services don’t provide automated backup functionality. Sure, online storage services are cheaper. But they’re useless in protecting your data if you forget to manually back up files every day as they change or as new files are created.

Unfortunately, not all offsite backup services are created equal. Some of the services work better than others, and pricing varies, as does the quality of the automated backup software. Here are some things to keep in mind as you evaluate offsite backup providers.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Reliable software
Backup firms, like any other service provider, will promise the world. But actually delivering on all the promises (simple backup configuration, HIPAA-compliant security, easy recovery, seamless integration in Windows, etc.) is another matter altogether.

I’ve sampled and deployed automated backup services from a number of providers. Some that propose to provide easy 1-2-3 backup operations fail to run, prove incompatible on server platforms, or generate cryptic errors.

Backups are too important to trust to chance. Make sure that the backup software you deploy works well on the OS platforms you require. Many automated offsite backup services run best on Windows XP, while others perform well on Windows Vista and Windows server OSes. The only way to really know is to test a service’s application before rolling it out on production systems. That’s why item #8 (free trials) is so important, but more on that in a moment.

#2: Storage plans that meet your needs
Some offsite backup services bill by the gigabyte. That’s fine. There’s no trouble there, other than the fact that the fee structure makes budgeting backup costs more difficult.

Other service providers, though, sell accounts with specific storage limits (100MB, 4GB, 10GB, etc.) and flat fees. Those plans work well and simplify budgeting, at least until organizations unexpectedly exceed their storage limits.

Look for service providers with storage limits or pricing plans that meet your organization’s needs while also proving flexible. Remote Data Backups, for example, makes it easy (just a few clicks) to upgrade from a 4GB account to a 10GB plan (or from a 10GB to a 30GB account). Clients need only pay the difference between the two storage plans (not start from scratch).

#3: Stellar reporting tools
A leading benefit of automated backup services is peace of mind. Knowing critical data is automatically being backed up offsite is more than just a relief. With critical data safely secured, you can move on to addressing other tasks.

IT professionals, though, are typically (and rightfully so) a skeptical crowd. So they want, or require, more than just a promise that critical data is being backed up; they need confirmation.

Only with detailed and accurate backup reporting can you be sure that systems and data are being properly backed up. Insist on file-level reporting with any backup service provider. In addition to a daily list of every file that’s backed up, look for reporting tools that list file sizes, time of transfer, and any error details.

#4: An approachable backup application
The backup application itself must be easy to use and as close to foolproof as possible. Many leverage Windows Explorer-like interfaces, where you just need to check boxes for those files and folders that require backing up.

Take advantage of a trial period. Work first hand with the software. Confirm the service’s backup application and interface are sufficiently simple to avoid confusion but flexible enough to meet the organization’s needs.

The Mozy Backup tool features a simple Explorer-like interface for specifying which files/folders should be backed up.
In most cases, backup software isn’t Microsoft Exchange aware (or can’t properly back up active databases). In such circumstances, confirm that you can automate an Exchange or database backup (using Windows’ built-in or another locally installed backup program) and have the alternative backup program park copies of the backups it creates in folders the backup provider’s software can accommodate. Better yet, seek backup applications that can manage active database and e-mail systems’ data (but be prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege — I’ve yet to find one that justifies the cost).

#5: Simple recovery
When hard disks fail, users accidentally delete files, or other systems errors occur, IT professionals need to be able to recover files quickly. Conduct tests of backup providers’ recovery functions to confirm that file recovery is simple, fast, and secure.

In other words, make sure it’s easy for you to recover data that’s been backed up offsite but that unauthorized parties won’t be able to do the same.

#6: Secure file transfer
Security has always been an issue with backups. Whether strategies involved giving one set of IT pros backup rights and another set restoration privileges, organizations have always struggled for a reasonable balance between security and operational efficiency when addressing backup issues.

Security remains a concern when selecting an automated offsite backup provider. Insist on deploying a service that meets HIPAA and SOX/Accounting security requirements. Most backup providers support at least 128-bit AES encryption and SSL security. Don’t work with a provider offering anything less.

Further, when creating automated offsite backup accounts, protect the account information (and recovery hashes or passwords) carefully. Distribute such keys sparingly and change them whenever technology employees leave the organization.

#7: 24/7 support
Disk failures and other data loss episodes don’t always occur during office hours, and they almost always require repair and recovery operations after hours (to minimize disruption to other users). Thus, you should confirm that your backup service provider’s technicians will be available when you need them most. Many backup providers boast 24/7 support. Before signing any contracts or purchasing service, make sure you’ll be able to reach its support personnel during odd hours should troubleshooting assistance ever be required.

#8: Free trials
The best way to determine whether an offsite backup provider works well for your organization is to sample its wares. Not only should you test the backup software application, support procedures, and reporting tools, but you should conduct a test recovery as well.

Only by walking through the process (creating an account, installing the backup client application, running backup operations, contacting technical support, reviewing report files, and performing a data restore) can you accurately determine whether a backup service provider offers an approachable backup program, quality support, and reliable reporting and recovery processes. Also, potential incompatibilities (between data files, databases, Windows, and the actual backup software itself) are too numerous to ever reasonably forecast, so the process of testing online backup tools on systems with similar configurations to those running in production environments will help eliminate any surprises and potential downtime when the time for real-world deployment arrives.

#9: Version tracking
Several backup providers support the ability to maintain multiple file versions. The ability to go back and reference several versions of a particular file can prove quite valuable.

When simple backup operations run, files from the previous backup (such as those backed up the night before) are written over. Most organizations back up data daily (at night). With such backup schedules, little time exists to discover errors (such as an accountant realizing he or she entered incorrect data in a budget file). If such errors aren’t caught within a day, of course, the budget file with the correct data will be written over by the file containing errors that night. With versioning file systems, several versions (or historical copies) of the same file can be maintained to recover from just such mistakes.

Look for this feature. It can bail out harried users who mistakenly corrupt good data.

#10: E-mail alerts
Numerous distractions demand IT professionals’ attention. Whether failed routers, nonfunctioning remote connections, new user accounts, or other common break/fix issues arrest your workday, backup operations must still be monitored. Unfortunately, in the heat of putting out fires and attending other crises, it’s easy to overlook backup issues until it’s too late.

Some offsite backup providers support sending alerts, bringing your attention to problems via e-mail. Without this feature, you might remain unaware that backups are failing or larger issues exist. By insisting on selecting a backup provider that supports forwarding e-mail alerts when backups fail or encounter errors, organizations can ensure their IT staff stays on top of backup operations and receive SOS messages when troubles do arise.

How being techie can assist with internet search results

2008-01-21T17:45:00.000Z

Most internet search engines use a program known as spiders (crawlers or bots to use their original names) to trawl the internet looking for links and sites to include in their index.

Since the early days of search engines on the internet (certainly since 1996), certain commands have been available to embed within web pages to modify how these spiders behave. It should be noted however that not all spiders obey the commands.

There follows a brief list of these commands and what effect they have on spiders;

meta name="robots" content="index"

This is perhaps completely redundant for all it does is tell the search engine spider to index the page.

meta name="robots" content="follow"

This is a bit different from index in that it tells the spider to follow all links within the page. Again, it is a bit redundant because that is what spiders do anyway!

meta name="robots" content="noindex"

When not used for legitimate purposes, this tag can be dangerous because it can put you at risk for penalization by most, if not all search engines. This is because you can use a noindex tag to hide pages with multiple links that you don't want visitors to see but that you do want all search engines to index. There are however some legitimate uses for the noindex command. For example, if you have a dynamic site and you've created static pages to replace some of your dynamic pages, which can make them easier for search engine spiders to access, you could put a noindex tag on the dynamic version.

meta name="robots" content="nofollow"

This tag tells search engine spiders that it's OK to go ahead and index a page and list it but that they shouldn't follow any of the links that are on the page. This can be useful if, for example, you had some partners that requested a link on your site that you felt obligated to give, but you wanted to hold onto as much Page Rank as possible.

Now this is of course between you and your own personal god, but you would be able to in effect have a partners page, add the nofollow attribute to the meta tags, and basically not pass on any of your Page Rank to any of the sites to which you are linking. The nofollow command in effect tells all search engines that this is the end of the line.

meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"

Obviously, noindex and nofollow are powerful tags - and in combination, they can make a page and the subsequent pages to which it links invisible to nearly all search engines. This combination command tells search engine spiders, "Do not read this page; do not follow any of the links on this page; do not include this page in your index." This command has its beneficial uses. For example, it can be placed on pages on a site that have duplicate content for legitimate reasons. A website might have both a page for the United States and a page for England that cover the same product with exactly the same content. However, nearly all search engines would see this as duplicate content and could devalue both pages. So placing this command on one of them means that search engine spiders will walk on by and you won't be penalized.

meta name="robots" content="noarchive"

Finally, almost all search engines today, including Google and Yahoo, offer a cached version of a site alongside its listing that provides a snapshot of what the page used to look like. The noarchive tag, therefore, is available to be used in circumstances where there is content on your website that is of a timely nature and therefore that you might not necessarily want search engine spiders to cache for people to have access to moving forward. For example, a business might run a one-time special that has a ridiculously low price to drum up some business while things are slow. The business will want to be able to shut that sale down as soon as sales are back up to a solid level. However, it is conceivable that someone could click on the cached version of the business's site, see the old deal that was out there, and insist on getting it for themselves. By using the noarchive tag, you are telling search engine spiders, in effect, "This page is subject to frequent changes, and I don't want my visitors to have access to some of this content at a later time."

These commands are placed within the head section of web pages (if you click 'view source' from your browser, you should see examples of them.).

Warning on stealthy Windows virus

2008-01-11T18:24:00.001Z

Security experts are warning about a stealthy Windows virus that steals login details for online bank accounts.

In the last month, the malicious program has racked up about 5,000 victims - most of whom are in Europe.

Many are falling victim via booby-trapped websites that use vulnerabilities in Microsoft's browser to install the attack code.

Experts say the virus is dangerous because it buries itself deep inside Windows to avoid detection.

Old tricks

The malicious program is a type of virus known as a rootkit and it tries to overwrite part of a computer's hard drive called the Master Boot Record (MBR).

This is where a computer looks when it is switched on for information about the operating system it will be running.

"If you can control the MBR, you can control the operating system and therefore the computer it resides on," wrote Elia Florio on security company Symantec's blog.

Mr Florio pointed out that many viruses dating from the days before Windows used the Master Boot Record to get a grip on a computer.

Once installed the virus, dubbed Mebroot by Symantec, usually downloads other malicious programs, such as keyloggers, to do the work of stealing confidential information.

Most of these associated programs lie in wait on a machine until its owner logs in to the online banking systems of one of more than 900 financial institutions.

The Russian virus-writing group behind Mebroot is thought to have created the torpig family of viruses that are known to have been installed on more than 200,000 systems. This group specialises in stealing bank login information.

Security firm iDefense said Mebroot was discovered in October but started to be used in a series of attacks in early December.

Between 12 December and 7 January, iDefense detected more than 5,000 machines that had been infected with the program.

Analysis of Mebroot has shown that it uses its hidden position on the MBR as a beachhead so it can re-install these associated programs if they are deleted by anti-virus software.

Although the password-stealing programs that Mebroot installs can be found by security software, few commercial anti-virus packages currently detect its presence. Mebroot cannot be removed while a computer is running.

Independent security firm GMER has produced a utility that will scan and remove the stealthy program.

Computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 that are not fully patched are all vulnerable to the virus.

Support Rates for 2008

2008-01-10T20:57:00.001Z

Please note that my support rates for 2008 are as follows;

Private (domestic) computers £30.00 per hour.

Business computers £45.00 per hour.

Many thanks

Roy

Who needs manuals

2008-01-10T20:52:00.001Z

A quick word of advice to those who have treated themselves to new kit over the Christmas period, or been given new kit...

Many of my support calls in the new year are fairly quickly resolved by a brief scan through the instruction book (which is often still in pristine condition in the box/packaging).

If you wish to save money, try reading the manual before calling for help.

By the way - Happy New Year!

Just thinking about ancient bits of kit

2008-01-10T20:28:00.000Z

I was reading an article on Tech Republic about ancient bits of kit still being in use and it got me thinking....

What is the most ancient bit of kit that you still use daily (and I dont mean the significant other!).

Just updated my website

2007-12-28T15:08:00.000Z

Hope all readers of this blog had a good Christmas. I've just spent the past few days updating my website. Why not head over there and let me know what you think.

All the best

Roy

Toying with the idea of a website overhaul

2007-12-16T15:39:00.000Z

I'm toying with the idea of completely re-designing my own website, but am stuck for inspiration as to what feel to apply. It is almost tempting to point my domain to one of the blogs to which I post, but again, I am torn between the feel and content of them.

Website hosting now available

2007-12-15T10:38:00.000Z

I can now offer web hosting services including PHP and MySQL for active content.

An old virus hoax has resurfaced

2007-11-06T16:19:00.000Z

One of my clients phoned in a bit of a panic earlier...they had received an email warning about a virus called 'life is beautiful', warning them not to open a powerpoint attachment of this name and promising all sorts of dire things would happen should they open it.

This is an old hoax virus which first surfaced in 2002. See snopes or symantec for more information.

Some interesting ideas on getting links

2007-10-29T18:12:00.000Z

Sujan Patel over at singlegrain.com has some innovative ideas on getting more backlinks, particularly point 3, where he advises to upset someone!

Creating a secure password

2007-10-23T14:41:00.000Z

To create a secure password that is easy for you to remember, follow these simple steps:

Do not use personal information. You should never use personal information as a part of your password. It is very easy for someone to guess things like your last name, pet's name, child's birth date and other similar details.

Dont use real words. There are tools available to help attackers guess your password. With today's computing power, it doesn't take long to try every word in the dictionary and find your password, so it is best if you avoid real words.

Mix different character types. You can make a password much more secure by mixing different types of characters. Use some uppercase letters along with lowercase letters, numbers and even special characters such as '&' or '%'. You can substitute some letters for numbers e.g. i = 1 e = 3, L = 7.

Use a passphrase. Rather than trying to remember a password created using various character types which is also not a word from the dictionary, you can use a passphrase. Think up a sentence or a line from a song or poem that you like and create a password using the first letter from each word.

For example, rather than just having a password like 'yr$1Hes', you could take a sentence such as "I like to read the news" and convert it to a password like '1l2rttn3w5". By substituting the number '2' for the word 'to' and using a 1 to replace I, you can use a variety of character types and create a secure password that is hard to crack, but much easier for you to remember.

How to show filename extensions in Windows

2007-10-23T12:41:00.000Z

Windows is designed to be user-friendly, to the point where filename extensions (the bit of the filename that Windows uses to decide which program should open a file) are by default hidden.

This can have serious repercussions, where some viruses attempt to disguise themselves as an innocuous spreadsheet or word document. Double clicking on the filename does not open Word or Excel as expected, but executes the virus.

There is a simple way to ensure that filename extensions are shown however;

Double click on My Computer from the Windows Start menu. (You can use any method for launching Explorer.)

Choose Folder Options from the Tools menu. Then, click the View tab.

In the Folder Options dialog box, uncheck the Hide Extensions for Known File Types option.

Click OK.

Now when you view filenames, you can see exactly what sort of file you are about to open.

Slow computer

2007-09-27T20:08:00.000Z

A new client presented me with an old computer (running Windows 2000 pro) that was running incredibly slowly for the spec (1.4G processor, 80Gbyte hard drive and 1.5Gig of ram). Lets put it this way, instead of making a cup of tea whilst waiting for it to boot (I drink coffee by the way), you could have gone out for a full dinner at your local eatery!

Loading up defrag, the analysis screen showed almost all red. After setting a defrag going and popping back the next day to check, the system was re-booted and performed almost like a new machine.

For good measure, I also ran a spyware and virus scan that fortunately turned up clean and left the client with a PC that was running as good as new.

After chatting with the client, it transpired he had never run a defrag, so a quick ad-hoc training session was organised.

Random Failures

2007-09-27T20:03:00.000Z

A client of mine who runs a financial services company was experiencing random failures across his network.

In a very short space of time, he had fried two flat screen monitors and 3 power supplies. In spite of his insistence that the power into his offices were ok, the only thing that could explain the damage was power surges.

A quick trip down the local electrical shop and clearing out their stock of surge protected extension leads provided a reliable fix for the client, not to mention low cost.

Computers are sensitive devices and even a slight surge can cause inexplicable damage.

Hospitals

2006-12-30T10:50:00.000Z

My son was admitted to hospital with severe breathing difficulties just before Christmas and had to stay in over the festive season. He has now been discharged and is on the road to recovery, however I met a very interesting chap in the cubicle opposite.

He describes himself as possibly the tallest ukelele player in the world!

Have a look at his site and wish his daughter well (she was still in hospital when my son and I were discharged).

Whilst I am on this topic, I would like to offer my vote of thanks to the excellent staff in Kipling Ward at the Conquest Hospital, Hastings. In spite of their unit and jobs being at risk due to NHS cuts, they provided both me and my son with faultless care and attention and ensured that in spite of my sons illness he had a good christmas (even down to a sack full of toys being at his bed on Christmas day!)

Well done to all of the staff and wishing you a Happy New Year!

Seasons Greetings - Roy

Web sites

2006-12-30T10:43:00.000Z

Why is it some companies charge the earth for providing basic services?

I recently was approached by one of my private clients (an elderly gentleman) who wished to produce an on-line gallery for his paintings. Other designers had named fees well in excess of £1000.00 to produce a 7 page site which merely had scans of his paintings.

Completing the work took me no more than 2 hours and I agreed on a profit share arrangement for payment. Is it just me, or are techies getting a bit like plumbers and car mechanics?

A spot of web design

2006-12-30T10:36:00.000Z

One of my long-standing clients, a retired gentleman in his 70s who could perhaps be described as eccentric approached me over the Christmas period to design a website for his new-found hobby - nude oil paintings.

He has already written a book about impotence and made a breakthrough with discovering an alternative cure for erection difficulties by means of a commonly available root vegetable. In researching his book, he hitched up with a 30 year old woman and the story takes off from there....

Trying the obvious

2006-10-22T07:43:00.000Z

Most of my support calls seem to be a case of users not engaging their brain before pressing the panic button.

In my experience 90% of faults are due to something trivial, such as loose leads and the such like. Please check before calling. It is one of the first checks I will carry out when arriving to fix your problem.

What to check:

All the leads at the back of the PC are plugged in correctly (Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse/Power/Printer/USB etc)

That there is actually power going through to the socket where the PC is plugged in (if it appears completely dead).

Making websites accesible

2006-03-08T21:29:00.000Z

The Disability Rights Commission in the UK have produced a report into web accessability for the visually impaired. Whilst this initiative is to be applauded, surely, if the DRC really wish to improve web access for those of less than 20-20 vision, why are they charging £30.00 for access to the report?

Spam

2006-03-05T18:20:00.000Z

After my last post was spammed, comments are now restricted to members of Blogger.com.

Mind, you it is interesting that the post was actually about spam....

What is SPAM??

2006-02-11T21:25:00.000Z

What is Spam?

Over the years, people have often asked me to explain the various concepts of Marketing Communications. The following analogies might help clarify the "tools of the trade."

You see a handsome guy/girl at a party. You go up to him/her and say, "I'm fantastic in bed." -- That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy/girl. One of your friends goes up to him/her and pointing at you says, "She's/He's fantastic in bed." -- That's Advertising.

You see a handsome guy/girl at a party. You go up to him/girl and get his/her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed." -- That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy/girl. You get up and straighten your clothes. You walk up to him/her and pour him/her a drink. You say, "May I," and reach up to straighten their clothes brushing lightly against their arm, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed." -- That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy/girl. He/she walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed." -- That's Brand Recognition.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy/girl. You talk him/her into going home with your friend. -- That's a Sales Rep.

Your friend can't satisfy him/her so he/she calls you. -- That's Tech Support.

You're on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men/women in all these houses you're passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated toward the center and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm fantastic in bed!" -- That's Spam.

Another host to avoid

2006-02-11T20:52:00.000Z

Just received an email as follows;

Envelope-to: xxx@xxx.co.uk
Delivery-date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:54 +0000
Received: by ptb-mxcore01.plus.net with spam-scanned (PlusNet MXCore v2.00) id 1F80pZ-0007Mn-8J
for zzz@zzz.co.uk; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:54 +0000
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1])
by ptb-mxcore01.plus.net with esmtp (PlusNet MXCore v2.00) id 1F80pZ-0007Mc-4F
for zzz@zzz.co.uk; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:53 +0000
Received: from smtp.mailix.net ([216.148.213.132])by ptb-mxcore01.plus.net with esmtp (PlusNet MXCore v2.00) id 1F80pY-0007M4-33 for zzz@zzz.co.uk; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:54:52 +0000
Received: from [192.168.8.8] (helo=localhost)by smtp.mailix.net with asmtp (Exim 4.24-MG)id 1F7zan-0004Di-Iv; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:35:33 -0800
Received: from 81.199.189.96.rmts.satcom-systems.net (81.199.189.96.rmts.satcom-systems.net [81.199.189.96]) by webmail.namezero.com (IMP) with HTTP for ; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:35:24 -0800
Message-ID: <1139682924.43ee2e6ca3974@webmail.namezero.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:35:24 -0800
From: soo cho
Reply-to: soocho01@hellokitty.com
User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) 3.2.3
X-Originating-IP: 81.199.189.96
Bcc:
X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: soocho012@walla.com
Subject: [-SPAM-] Letter of intent
X-SA-Exim-Version: 3.1 (built Thu Oct 23 13:26:47 PDT 2003)
X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No; Unknown failure
X-uvscan-result: clean (1F7zan-0004Di-Iv)
X-PN-VirusFiltered: by PlusNet MXCore (v2.00)
X-PN-SpamFiltered: by PlusNet MXCore (v2.00)
X-Antivirus: AVG for E-mail 7.1.375 [267.15.6/257]
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Mr.Soo Cho
CHO HUNG BANK.
14 1-ka Namdaemun-ro Chung-ku
Seoul, Seoul 100-757
South Korea.
www.chohungbank.co.kr

I am Mr.Soo Cho, credit officer of CHO HUNG BANK. I have an urgent and very
confidential business proposition for you.
On July 8, 2000, a British Oil consultant/contractor with the South Korea Solid
Minerals Corporation, Mr. Phillip Morris made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit
for twelve calendar months, valued at (Twenty-eight Million American Dollars
only) in my branch.
Upon maturity,I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got
no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his
contract employers, that Mr. Phillip Morris died from an auto-mobile accident.
On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL,and
all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr.Phillip Morris did
not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents,including his
Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.This sum of US$28,000,000.00 is still sitting
in my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the
end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it.
According to Laws of South Korea, at the expiration of (five) years,the money
will revert to the ownership of the South Korea Government if nobody applies to
claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as aforeigner
to stand in as the next of kin to Mr.Phillip Morris so that the fruits of this
old man's labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt government
officials.
This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full names and
address so that the attorney will prepare the necessary documents and
affidavits that will put you in place as the next of kin. We shall employ the
services of an attorney for drafting and notarization of the WILL and to obtain
the necessary documents and letter of probate/administration in your favor for
the transfer.
A bank account in any part of the world that you will provide the will, then
facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin.
The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 70%for
me and 25% for you and 5% for Expenses
Incurred in the course of the transaction.There is no risk at all as all the
paperwork for this transaction will be done by the attorney and with my
position as the credit officer guarantees the successful execution of this
transaction. If you are interested, please
reply immediately to my email box.
Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details that will help
you understand the transaction.
Please send me your confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy
communication. You should observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that
this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall
require your assistance to invest my
share in your country.

Regards,
Soo Cho,

This looks like another hosting company to avoid - unless you want your emails blacklisted!!!.

Any spam-baiters fancy a go - you're more than welcome!!!!

I'm unable to print.

2006-02-06T19:53:00.000Z

One of the most common calls I receive relates to printing. The following tips could well save you an expensive (if not embarrassing support call).

If nothing has changed on your printer or in your printer settings on your computer then chances are that the problem is quite straightforward.

First check to see of the printer is on, especially if the trouble occurs first thing in the morning. Perhaps you or someone else turn the printer off when you finished your work the last time you sat down at you desk.

Check the printer status lights or status LCD screen. If there's a flashing light or if the status screen shows an error, then it's your first clue to a problem. Most printer manuals have a diagnosis process for alerts.
Check to see if the paper tray is empty. If so refill it. Make sure to feather the pages to eliminate static. Hold the pages in one had and flip through the pages at a fast rate with your thumb.

If the paper tray is not empty check for a misfeed. A sheet may have been caught in the mechanism. There may be a variety of printer access doors to check. Pull out any remnants. Even the smallest piece of paper could be causing the problem so check carefully. Tweezers are handy for this procedure.

If the problem is toner-related, check to see if the toner cartridge is empty or low. The printer warning should indicate this. Swap it for a new one and the unit should work.

Some laser toner cartridges have an ejected toner reservoir. There is usually a trap that can be emptied.

The toner drum on laser printers also needs to be replaced usually once a year depending on the volume of printing the device handles. The printer's error lights should indicate this if it is a problem. Print-outs will become fuzzy or faded when this starts to go.

If all the physical hardware on the printer seems to be fine check to see that it is connected to your computer. Personal printers connect via either a parallel or USB (universal serial bus) connector to the back of the printer. Follow the cable from the back of the printer to the back of the computer to make sure the connection is good.

If the printer is connect by what looks like an oversized telephone cable or coaxial cable (like the cable for cable television) then your printer is connected through a network. If this is the case the problem gets suddenly complicated. If your network based printer is acting up for everyone in the office then you'll need to call in your resident network expert. You probably have a print server, hub or cable problem. If it's just you that's having a problem with your network printer, make sure that your computer is connected to the network.

If the printer works but spews strange characters or it appears as if the PC and printer creates error, it likely that you have a printer driver problem. When a printer acts up and there is no hardware problem, the solution is often driver-related. A driver is a piece of software that allows a computer to "talk" to a printer. It's a kind of translator.

Occasionally if a printer has worked previously, but won't work with a newly installed program, there could be driver problems.

To remedy this, download a driver from the printer maker's Web site, remove the old driver and install the new driver. Drivers are normally available under the "support" area of a Web site.

If you have an inkjet printer and you get smudged or blurry images, you might want to look up the utility on the printer that cleans and or aligns the printer heads. Most inkjet printers either have software that can start this process or have a setting on the printer itself that can kick start it.

If all of these solutions fail, you might want to search the manufacturer's support area for printer issues. Often there will be bulletins issued on how to fix newly discovered bugs.

If you have a scanner and printer and experience printing problems take heart, this is easily solvable. Detach both devices and remove the software and drivers for both devices. Then reinstall the printer first and then add the scanner second.

Help - The printer's not working

2006-02-06T19:51:00.000Z

Computer Support

2006-02-05T13:16:00.000Z

I was scanning my local free advertising supplement (Friday Ad) checking out the competition, when I noticed something disturbing.

Out of seven advertisers providing computer support, only one provided his name within the advert. Upon telephoning the other six, none of them answered with their name and had to be prompted to get this fairly important detail (I don't know about you, but I like to know who I'm dealing with).

This begs the question, do the six who withheld their name from the advert have something to hide, or are they too cheap to pay for another two words????

I personally have learnt from experience that in marketing, the brand precedes the service and most of my clients come from recommendations due to being open and not afraid to admit 'I dont know'.

Five Tips for getting the best value out of your IT guy

2006-02-04T09:12:00.000Z

Don't go to your IT guy with solutions, give him problems. A lot of clients might propose throwing extra storage into their computer system, when perhaps a better document storage format may suit the business better for example. A good IT guy will carefully fit the solution to your business model.

Give your IT guy the big picture. Computers and Information Technology are but a small part of business operations. You need a solution that integrates with your business seamlessly.

Manage the task. Do not rely on your IT guy. Ask for written progress reports and proposals/specifications. You don't want to waste the money you have spent on this task without retaining some knowledge after the IT guy leaves.

Understand the big picture yourself and how the details fit into this jigsaw. The key to most successful IT projects is to implement the key, essential parts first then work on an iterative process of optimisation and enhancement.

Get a proposal for the project in writing. Ask that a timeline or other indication of how the project should proceed is included. This can help identify any scheduling conflicts early on in the project so they can be resolved easily and with minimal expense.

Surviving a computer crash

2006-02-04T09:10:00.000Z

It's the day of the week when you run your invoices...You load up the paper in the printer, press print and....An error message pops up 'Unable to read drive'.

Sound like the stuff of nightmares? It could well signal the end of your business unless you plan for this eventuality. All computers are like cars – highly complex machines with many parts to go wrong at the worst possible moment.

How can you protect yourself against this nightmare?

In one word – Backup. Ensure all critical data is stored in at least one other location than on your server or main computer. This could be in the form of tapes, recordable CDs, floppy disks, external hard drives, online storage or many other options. Ensure that the backup is carried out at least daily and periodically check the backup by attempting to restore data (like computers all back-up media can fail).

Ensure you have a UPS (Un-interruptable Power Supply) running your main computer. This could buy the critical minutes you need to save open documents and shut down cleanly in the eventuality of a power outage.

Set your office applications to 'auto-save' every 5-10 minutes. This could also save hours re-creating documents, not to mention prevent the frustration should the computer lock up for no apparent reason.

New attempt to halt spyware

2006-02-01T19:54:00.000Z

Five computer security firms (ICSA Labs, McAfee, Symantec, Thompson Cyber Security Labs and Trend Micro) are joining forces to tackle spyware.

Spyware has become a huge problem as many hi-tech criminals, advertisers and vandals use various techniques to sneak their software onto users' PCs without the users being aware.

Some spyware gets in via email, although the bulk is by means of visiting booby-trapped websites or by downloading programs from the internet.

Some spyware is simply a nuisance as it bombards users with pop-up adverts they did not ask for or services they would never use.

However, other spyware programs are explicitly criminal and aim to hijack computers or steal confidential information.

The work of the group will be collected on the spywaretesting.org website and the prime aim is to remove confusion about "the origins of spyware and effectiveness of tools used to remove it" according to Larry Bridwell from ICSA Labs.

Full story on BBC News

Spam Email bounced replies

2006-02-01T19:02:00.000Z

Please people, turn off bounce replies for Spam email and whilst we're at it rejection messages for unknown recipients (who are often random strings of characters generated by spammers/viruses).

Over a twelve hour period last night, the generic in-box for my domain was bombarded by over 18,000 spurious emails that had to be filtered. This equates to one message being delivered every 2.5 seconds.

Whilst I have a fairly sophisticated automatic system for binning them, it still ate up considerable bandwidth downloading them. The total file size was approximately 15 Megabytes.

DIY Computer Maintenance to keep things running smoothly

2006-01-29T13:09:00.000Z

What can I do to prevent Computer problems?

This is a question that people have asked on numerous occasions. The entire process of reducing Computer problems can be bundled under the banner of Computer Preventive Maintenance.

It is not rocket science and you don’t have to be an IT professional to keep your PC in a good shape. Any computer user can follow the guidelines mentioned below and can reduce their PC problems dramatically.

Use this article as a computer maintenance checklist.

So what you should do as part of preventive maintenance?

1. Use a good anti virus program. This is possibly the most important piece of work in preventive maintenance. Installing the anti virus program however is not enough. You should do the following as well.

* Set-up the program to download and install updates automatically.

* Schedule periodic full system scans.

* Check the virus definitions date regularly and see whether it is up to date.

2. Set-up your PC to Download and install “Windows Updates” automatically.

Windows updates include Operating System patches for bugs and PC security related issues. These patches can reduce many unknown computer problems.

3. Install anti Spyware program to detect Spyware tools.

4. Install a Personal Firewall. Most of the anti virus programs are bundled with a Personal Firewalls these days. Personal firewall is a barrier between your PC and the outside world. This can prevent your PC from hackers and Spyware tools.

5. Do not download and install unknown software from Internet. This is the biggest mistake that most PC users make. Some of this software can damage the Windows registry, which cause lot of errors.

6. Uninstall unnecessary programs installed in your PC.

7. Be very careful when opening emails with attachments (particularly if you are not expecting them).

8. Perform Scandisk periodically to check the Hard Drive.

9. Defragment your hard drive regularly.

10. Ensure that you have a backup system in place to copy important documents and make sure it works.

How to speed up backups with zero cost

2006-01-29T12:19:00.000Z

A recent study showed that more and more companies are not backing up data on a daily basis because the backup was taking too long to execute.

If you are running a Microsoft Windows Server, you could in fact speed up your backups by simply defragmenting the server hard drives. Tests have shown a reduction in backup time of as much as 60%

Scary Stuff

2006-01-28T21:48:00.000Z

A story on the BBC news site makes for scary reading....

"A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.

The document says information is "critical to military success"

Bloggers beware.

As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the modern media offer.

From influencing public opinion through new media to designing "computer network attack" weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic war."

Forget about locking up your daughters - lock up your networks!!!

How much information are you giving away when you sell that computer?

2006-01-28T12:52:00.000Z

Companies and individuals frequently sell on old pieces of kit, or consign them to the dump. One thing that is often forgotten is cleaning the hard drives of data. Whilst the most secure method (and possibly most satisfying) is a few well placed clouts from a club hammer, this does little for the re-sale value of the machine.

How can you ensure your data is wiped?

At the very least do a low level format of the disk (fdisk), then re-format and install the operating system. This will remove the data from your drive, although a determined forensic study can still retrieve the data from residual magnetism within the drive.

A better solution is to use a package that over-writes the disk several times with random data (such as http://dban.sourceforge.net/), follow this up with an fdisk and re-install and you should be OK.

Blocking Search Engines from indexing pages

2006-01-26T20:37:00.000Z

It may sound bizarre, but occasionally when promoting your site to search engines, you do not want certain files/directories to be scanned and indexed by the search engine spiders such as configuration files and any personal files/directories you are using your webspace to store.

The most common approach is to use a 'robots.txt' file in the home directory of your site.

This file is normally created using a simple text editor that does not insert any formatting such as Microsoft's Notepad and follows the following format, with two lines making up a record;

[field]:[value]

There are two field types, the first 'User-agent' which specifies the type of spider you wish to apply the following rule(s) to and 'Disallow' which specifies prohibited content. The * symbol can be used as a wildcard in either of the fields.

The following allows all robots to visit all files because the wildcard "*" specifies all robots.

User-agent: *
Disallow:

This one keeps all robots out.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

The next one bars all robots from the cgi-bin and images directories:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /images/

This one bans Roverdog from all files on the server:

User-agent: Roverdog
Disallow: /

This one bans keeps googlebot from getting at the cheese.htm file:

User-agent: googlebot
Disallow: cheese.htm

Why not visit my main site for more tips and hints

More security information and mis-information about the WMF bug

2006-01-25T07:07:00.000Z

Steve Gibson (http://www.grc.com) has managed to put his foot in it again by claiming the WMF bug is a Microsoft conspiracy according to a post on his site and at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/21/wmf_fud_from_grc/

Whilst his security scanner is a useful tool, I feel that he just likes to keep his name in the press by hyping and distorting any potential weaknesses in operating systems.

Computer Security - Keeping it Safe

2006-01-24T07:04:00.000Z

If the phrase 'computer security' was mentioned to you, what would come to mind?

Viruses?
Hackers?
Physical Security?
Users?
Backup?

It may be surprising, but most (if not all) breaches in security arise as a result of user actions.

In my role as an independent computer consultant, I frequently require user names and passwords to access systems. I have lost count of the number of times, I have telephoned a client and asked whichever user for a user name/password combination and been given just that without even basic security (such as a telephone call-back to my published number).

In addition, many passwords are referred to as 'weak', consisting of the name of significant others/children or even as basic as 'password'. For password security, users should be forced to change their passwords at least once per month and each password should be unique. In addition, it is recommended that passwords are at least 5 characters long and contain numbers as well as alphabetic characters. An easy way to prevent 'dictionary' attacks (one of the most common password cracking schemes) is to substitute numbers for letters e.g. 1 for i, 3 for e, 5 for s, 7 for l and 0 for o and adding 3-4 numbers at the end.

Viruses are fairly easy to deal with, assuming fairly simple common-sense rules are applied;

Ensure you have anti-virus software installed, both on servers and workstations (AVG make an excellent package that is free for single machine use).
Do not open unsolicited emails, or emails that contain attachments that are unexpected.
If an email requires you to run a program ensure you scan this for viruses before executing it.
Educate users to the steps above.

Hackers pose a constant threat to security, but realistically, a small business is unlikely to be targeted for commercial gain. Install a firewall (such as ZoneAlarm), switch off internet routers when not in use, however, again user education is the best step most hacker attacks succeed due to 'social engineering', where a hacker pretends to be from a support company and elicits passwords from users. Having said this, most hacking attempts arise from within organisations, so ensure that you have robust policies in place with regards to computer usage.

Physical security is another consideration. If your server is located in your main office, what is to stop the cleaner from un-plugging it to plug in the vacuum cleaner? In addition, if you have technically aware users, or visitors ensure that there is no monitor/keyboard attached. I have seen numerous clients where the server is in the main office and administrator password is on a 'post it' note attached to the monitor. At the very least, your server should be in a locked cupboard/closet that provides sufficient ventilation for cooling.

Users have already been partially covered above, but to re-iterate;

Ensure you have a password policy.
Ensure you have an acceptable use policy.
Keep your users happy (most successful attacks on computers originate within the organisation).

Backup is another issue altogether which I will cover later, but you should aim to ensure that you can recover from complete failure/loss of your server/computer system with minimal downtime. There are various options available from on-line storage, through to re-writable DVDs/Tape.

Roy Penfold Computer Services

Do you really need CRM Software

2006-01-23T21:40:00.002Z

Knowing your customers, their needs, likes/dislikes etcetera is essential to many businesses today, particularly those that provide a service as opposed to tangible products. CRM, or Customer Relationship Software is often touted as the prime tool for increasing customer spend.
CRM software is generally highly configurable and can capture almost endless information about clients including sales data, meetings, telephone calls and much more.
So how can you tell whether you need to purchase a CRM system?
There are several pointers that may help steer your decision;
How different are your customers? Are they spread over a large geographic area, do they fall into vastly different backgrounds, are their age ranges similar and many other factors? If your customers are similar to each other, you may not need CRM software because there is not a large range of demographic information that requires organisation. If, however, they differ then CRM may help you organise them and target promotions according to demographic parameters.How often do your customers make a purchase, and what do they purchase? If your business only sells a small range of items, then tracking purchases may not present too much of a problem. But if customers buy on a frequent basis or buy a vast range of products, then CRM may help you spot buying patterns and trends.Do customers complain about duplication of sales calls/follow up calls? If you have a number of staff working for you with a shared pool of customers, then this can and will happen. CRM software will permit staff to track activity with specific customers to avoid this duplication. If your sales team are each responsible for a sub-set of your customers, then this is less likely to happen.Is your customer base manageable? For some organisations, keeping track of 10,000 customers is easy without the need for specialist CRM software, others as few as 20 can cause problems, for example missed follow-up calls.
If you have decided to embark on the CRM route, bear in mind that getting the system to work with you and your business is a complex task. Whilst there are numerous CRM systems available at a wide range of prices, you may find that only one really meets your needs. Purchasing the other systems could prove a costly mistake.
Some of the factors to be considered when choosing a CRM system are as follows;
Sales management. All CRM systems should have a strong customer component; that is, they should be able to match the information you have on your customers to their transactions, providing a meaningful analysis for your sales force to use in retaining those customers in the future. With a simple click, you should be able to see the entire history of your transactions with a given customer. Fulfillment. Good CRM software systems should also quickly update your inventory or project databases so that each customer's latest orders can be fulfilled and shipped (if applicable) quickly and easily. After making a sale, your sales professional should be able, through CRM software, to place an order and have those products in the works within seconds. Customer service. Good CRM systems will be able to record service calls, customer comments and other service notes. That way you can quickly respond to a customer who calls with a problem. Miscellaneous add-ons. How flexible is the system? Will it integrate with your accounting system and many other possibilities.

One thing to consider with off-the-shelf CRM software products like GoldMine and ACT! is that the support offered is dependant on where these products are purchased. The integration of customer data between various devices such as a PDA and a cell phone can be more complicated than your technical support contact might want to get into.
If you are going to invest in CRM software, you want everything to work, so make sure good technical support and training is available if needed. You also want to make sure you know what you want. Although these products are off-the-shelf, they are by no means limited, and some offer really sophisticated features for future growth. For example, FrontRange's GoldMine has many features available that instruct and support you in expanding your customer service energy and possibly any sales efforts.
A few final things to consider: CRM software is a very personal tool just as a to-do list can be. It manages data that is close to the heart and sometimes very private. It tracks how you interact with your customers and associates. Anyone considering CRM software must weigh how changing this tool will impact productivity.
Source: http://www.roypenfold.co.uk/