What’s New

I will be a special presentation titled “Making Your Web Site Work for Your Business” at the Southern Saratoga Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, May 16, 2007. The time is listed on that Chamber’s Web site as 7:45 am to 9:30 am. Full details are at http://www.southernsaratoga.org/inner.asp?show=PC&pageid=29. Just click on the appropriate date on the calendar. But watch out, apparently they didn’t make it to the SCORE seminar and missed the point about being sure your site works with all browsers!

This is an updated version of the seminar I presented at the local SCORE organization last year. That particular event was about 3 hours long and was extremely well attended. We had a great question & answer session along the way, and I am hoping we will be able to duplicate that feature on May 16th.

The Southern Saratoga Chamber of Commerce is at:

Call 518 371-7748 ext. 107 for details.

Recently we have been asked about firewalls. Apparently, there is some degree of confusion about the topic. Here goes a thumbnail sketch of what firewalls are and what they do.

Firewalls are “barricades” that prevent unwanted intruders from breaking into a computer or computer network. They can be software programs or hardware devices that connect between a computer and the Internet. Many routers have firewalls built in. Most modern operating systems, such as Windows XP and Vista come with firewalls.

While all firewalls keep track of attempted intrusions, many third-party firewalls (such as most of the ones made by the top-line anti-virus software companies) also block software that is installed on your company from trying to get out and “phoning home.” This means that if some sort of malware has infected your computer, your firewall may be able to stop it from sending confidential information to the “bad guys” or sending out tons of spam.

It is important to note that according to recent studies, most of the spam that is transmitted comes from improperly secured home computers! A firewall can prevent your computer from being a spam sender.

Here at the Web Headquarters we have firewalls on all our computers that control what gets in, and what gets out. In fact, we use a well-known and highly respected free firewall, and it does a remarkably good job.

But, please remember that a firewall is not a substitute for good virus protection. It is, however, an important tool that works in conjunction with your virus protection and spyware protection to keep your computer safe and ship-shape.

One May 9 I will be leading a round table discussion titled “Managing You Daily Schedule: Setting priorities and eliminating the need for the 30 hour-per-day clock” at the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce’s Lone Rangers meeting. The Lone Rangers is a group for small business people and sole proprietors. The monthly meeting is at the Guilderland Public Library, 12:00 High Noon. It is free, and everyone is encouraged to attend.

We launched the exciting new site www.cdutsara.org for the Capital District Urban Technical Search and Rescue Association. This is a volunteer organization that specializes in rescues from difficult situations. The members have worked in some of the most amazing situations.

Included on this site is their moving 911 Tribute. Be sure to visit today.

If you have been reading the news recently you may have heard about an infected Zip file that is sent as an attachment to email. If that file is downloaded and unZipped malicious code infects the recipient’s computer and all sorts of bad things happen. Some experts claim that as many as 60 million computers will be infected within the next few days.

The best way for people to avoid having their computers compromised is to simply NOT open any files attached to email messages. Even if the messages are from somebody you know, it is best to not open the files. You can always check with the sender to make sure that it is a legitimate message. Remember, Zipping a file and then sending it is a very deliberate act. It is not something that is done accidentally.

One clue is that if you find yourself asking, “Why is that person sending me a file?” it is probably a good idea to be suspicious.

As a courtesy to the recipients of files that I forward, I send a preliminary message that tells them they should expect a file from me. I often send a follow up message after the file is emailed just to make sure that the transfer was successful.

The best way to prevent infection by bad files is for both recipients and senders to use common sense.

The Interactive Media Center at the University at Albany’s University Library has a free class titled “Getting Started with PowerPoint” coming up on April 19. The classes are free and open to the public. Registration is easy, just go to http://library.albany.edu/imc/signup_form.htm and fill in the details. The class starts at 9:30 am and will last about 2 1/2 hours.

It is a good idea to periodically check your Web site’s domain name registration information to make sure that it I under control and that the information on record is accurate. It takes only a few minutes to do this and it is very easy.

All you have to do is go to your Web site’s registrar and check the Whois information. Unfortunately, some people do not remember who their registrar is. In that case, you can go to just about any registrar to make your check. Popular ones are www.netsol.com, www.doteasy.com, www.register.com, and www.whois.com.

Look for the link to the Whois database and enter appropriate information in the search box. When the data is displayed on your screen be sure to check the name of the registrant, the administrative contact, the technical contact, and the name of your site’s host. Be sure that all your contact information is correct, too, especially your email address.

If the Whois information is not right, take immediate steps to get it updated. This is the only way to be sure your Web site is under your control.

We recently launched a Web site for Guilderland-based Saginaw Lumber. Go to www.saginawlumber.com to learn about the company. An interesting feature on the site is a retailer search function. Visitors can enter their Zip code and list of local retails that sell Saginaw’s products will be displayed.

We have been informed that Albany Tile’s new Web site has a new online home. You may know from our launch announcement that the site could be found at www.eclectictile.com. The big news is that the site now resides at www.albanytile.com.

Check out this site today!

Many people have been asking about email security. There are several things that everybody should know about the lack of privacy for email. It has been said that we should never send a message that we would not be comfortable with if it was on the back of a post card. Here’s why–

1 - Email is never truly private. You never know who reads it, and you cannot tell to whom it has been forwarded. Your recipient may blind copy (that’s the “bcc” option) to somebody. Once a message is “in the wild” it can be cc-ed or bcc-ed all over the place!

2 - Is your email being saved on your computer or the recipient’s computer? People do not know that many (if not most) email programs save all sent messages by default. That means that even though a sent message is “gone,” it really isn’t gone. It may be hanging around where you least expect it.

3 - Do you know the mail storage policy of your email service? If you send email through your business or organization, how long is that mail kept as backups? Some government agencies must keep it indefinitely. If you use a free service, such as Hotmail or Gmail, do you know how long they keep the backups? You may “delete” the mail from your inbox, but that doesn’t mean it is truly removed from the servers.

TIP OF THE DAY: Use caution with using email. You never know where it will turn up.