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July 31 Advanced Features with Outlook and ExchangeDelegate Access In ExchangeA delegate is someone who has been granted permission to open another person's folders, create items, and respond to requests on behalf of that person. To become someone's delegate, the account owner must grant delegate access to his or her calendar and email. Delegate access is a more advanced feature than just sharing your Outlook folders. If you want to grant additional permissions, such as allowing a delegate the ability to create e-mail messages or respond to meeting requests on your behalf, you must use Delegate access. Two Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003 users who both use an Exchange account in the same organization can share their Exchange folders with each other and control whether the delegate has read-only or more advanced permissions. Important notes:
This is a very advanced feature available to our clients that take advantage of the Hosted Exchange system we offer through Tri-State Datacom. If you wish to know more about this and like to read really technical stuff, please visit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb204081.aspx Dennis “The Exchange Administrator” Wilson July 28 US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA09-209A -- Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, and Active Template Library (ATL) VulnerabilitiesI wanted to share this information with all who subscribe to my BLOG and also my Facebook friends and LinkedIn Connections. Posting it on my BLOG will automatically post it on my Facebook Profile and LinkedIn Profile. This issue has the potential to be a major issue and therefore even the Emergency Email Network sent out a critical notice today. You can read the details below if you are interested but just in case you are not interested in the details, the bottom line is RUN YOUR MICROSOFT UPDATES right away. (That is the short version.) If you wish to have a link to forward to your friends send this link: http://TheComputerGuysLLC.spaces.live.com and that will bring them directly to my Blog where they can read this for themselves. Dennis “The Computer Guy” Wilson National Cyber Alert System Technical Cyber Security Alert TA09-209A Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, and Active Template Library (ATL) Vulnerabilities Original release date: July 28, 2009 Systems Affected * Microsoft Windows and Windows Server Overview Microsoft has released out-of-band updates to address critical I. Description Microsoft has released updates for critical vulnerabilities in II. Impact By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document III. Solution System Administrators IV. References * Vulnerability Note VU#456745 - * Vulnerability Note VU#180513 - * Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) Could * Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-34 - * Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-35 - * Protect Your Computer: Active Template Library, Security Updates - * Microsoft Security Advisory 973882, Microsoft Security Bulletins * Black Hat USA Spotlight: ATL Killbit Bypass - * ATL - * ATL, MS09-035 and the SDL - * Internet Explorer Mitigations for ATL Data Stream Vulnerabilities - * Microsoft Windows Server Update Services - * Impact of Microsoft ATL vulnerability on Adobe Products - * Cisco Security Advisory: Active Template Library (ATL) * CVE-2008-0015 - July 23 The Computer Guys now offers Alienware brand of super fast PC’s and LaptopsIf you want the latest and greatest in gaming systems, you want Alienware. As a Dell Premier Value Added Reseller The Computer Guys LLC is now able to offer Alienware. We checked on a model this morning and just wanted to give you an idea of their capabilities. Processor: Alienware M17x: Operating System: LCD: Memory: Hard Drive: CD ROM/DVD ROM: Video Card: Wireless: Bluetooth: We can offer this to you for $3,099 plus shipping and tax. Let us order one for you today! July 20 Is anyone you know experiencing a PC that is stuck in a loop at the login screen?There seems to be a rash this past week and continuing this week of PC’s infected with a Trojan that displays the following symptom: You attempt to login to your PC and your PC responds by saying “Loading your personal settings” followed immediately with “Saving your personal settings,” then taking you right back to the login screen. What the trojan is doing is deleting a file called the “userinit.exe” file and renders your PC useless to you. However, what you don’t know is that even though your PC is useless to you, it is still running all of it’s background services. So what? Well the “so what” is that the person who infected your PC could be using your PC as part of a botnet and sending out spam or executing denial of service attacks on other computers. They could be doing all sorts of nefarious stuff and you wouldn’t even know it. And the worst part is, they are using your computer and you cannot! Fixing this issue is fairly easy if you have the right tools. Unfortunately, there is still a certain amount fixed costs involved in running any business so we have to charge a minimum service fee just for stopping by to perform the fix. However, if we have you on our subscription support service, we can log in remotely and fix it without ever having to leave our shop. And with our subscription support service, there is no charge for this fix. (If you are not already on the subscription service, then this remote fix is not possible but we can come to your place or you can bring your PC in…just be sure to call first to schedule a drop-off time.) By the way, for skeptics who think there is no way you could log into a computer that the userinit.exe file is deleted from, you are flat wrong. We had a computer on the subscription plan today that got infected with this same trojan and the user could not get past the login screen, not even in “safe mode.” However, we were able to get into the computer replace the userinit.exe file and the computer returned to normal working order without even being re-booted and never had to leave the office. One of our other customers today did not have the paid support plan so they did not have the right tools installed for us to perform this task remotely. They ended up having to pay 6 hours of labor and 200 miles round trip mileage because we had to be on site to fix this for them. There wasn’t a choice. We would love to talk to you about becoming YOUR Information Technology Department. Just give us a call. Dennis “The Computer Guy” Wilson http://TheComputerGuysLLC.spaces.live.com
Please resist temptation!What am I talking about? I am talking about the temptation to “click here” for anything. Over the past few years bad guys have gotten really clever at what we refer to as “social engineering.” What is that you may ask? This is where the malicious software writer knows that if he sends out thousands of emails with a phrase like “Click Here for nude pictures of (Celebrity)" that he will trick some persons into downloading his malicious software simply by clicking on the link. The most recent examples of this were: “Click Here for videos of the Michael Jackson memorial service.” (Perfectly innocent sounding.) “Click Here for the sex video of Erin Andrews.” (Obviously going to a “porn site” the user thinks.) By clicking on those links you are almost immediately infected and you won’t always know it right away. It will take a few minutes before you realize what happened. This has resulted in some PC’s being rendered inoperable until we come and fix them. (No we did not write this malicious software to generate repairs.) One client is two hours away, so they paid travel time and mileage on top of the 4 man-hours to fix all the computers. Please don’t “CLICK HERE” for anything. Only go to reputable web sites and go to the sites by typing on the appropriate URL yourself. If you have questions, please post them here on the Blog so that we can respond. Or if you are reluctant to let anyone know you tried to see Erin Andrews sex video, send a private email. We are discreet when it comes to this particular type of infection. Dennis “The Guardian” Wilson July 12 Watch out clicking on websites with videos about Michael JacksonA friend of mine told me today that he had missed the MJ Memorial and wanted to watch it on-line. So, he did a search to find it and clicked on a link. His PC was immediately infected with a “virus” or malicious piece of software. How did he know, his PC suddenly said “Your computer is infected. Click here to have it removed.” This is a slick way for the malicious software writer to get your system. What’s worse, it appears that this virus wiped out his Restore Points too. So, he cannot simply restore to an earlier time. We’re going to have to spend considerable time trying to disinfect it. So, once again, the writer of this malicious software has taken advantage of “social engineering.” He knows millions of MJ fans are searching for anything and everything they can about MJ so if he gets just 1% of MJ’s fans to click, he has infected tens of thousands of computers! Please be careful when searching the web, never click on “unknown” or “off-brand sites.” He now wishes he had gone to MSNBC or some other reputable site to get his information. Happy web surfing and stay safe! Dennis “The Computer Guy” Wilson Want to raise money for your favorite charity every time you search the Internet?I had been using GoodSearch for a while when I changed computers. Unfortunately when I changed a few weeks ago, I failed to setup my system to use GoodSearch once again. What is GoodSearch? We all have a cause we care about - whether it's finding a cure for cancer, saving the environment, finding homes for abandoned pets or so many other worthwhile endeavors. But what we don't all have is the time or money to support these efforts as much as we'd like. So, what if we could raise money for our favorite charities and schools by doing something we do every day — searching the Internet? That's the question Ken Ramberg (the former founder of JOBTRAK, now a division of Monster.com) and JJ Ramberg (an MSNBC anchor and the former Director of Marketing at Cooking.com) asked themselves a few years ago. After realizing what a fraction of the $8 billion generated annually by search engine advertisers could do if it were directed towards organizations trying to make the world a better place, they launched GoodSearch in 2005. GoodSearch is a search engine which donates 50-percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It's a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine. Because it's powered by Yahoo!, you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers — the users and the organizations do not spend a dime! Go to GoodSearch.com and register. And, if your favorite charity isn’t there, then please consider adding Aubrey’s Song Foundation as your preferred charity. July 08 What in the world does DNS have to do with my delayed or lost email?The issue of possible delayed email involves a very technical issue involving the Domain Name System (DNS) that we will try to explain. If you don’t really care why it could happen then you can disregard this “book.” The thing to remember is that there is the slightest possibility that some email could be “lost” and most all email sent to you after the cut-off time, will be delayed for 12-24 hours. Every computer and website on the Internet has a specific address, just like every house has a specific nine-digit zip code. But with computers we don’t call them zip codes, we call them IP addresses. . Humans cannot remember these addresses, so we use names. The DNS (Domain Name System) translates Internet website and host names to IP addresses. DNS automatically converts the names we type in our Web browser address bar to the IP addresses of Web servers hosting those sites. So when someone types in http://www.cnn.com their PC looks at it’s assigned DNS Server, like a card catalog in the library, and your DNS Server looks up “cnn.com” and says oh, so you want “64.236.91.24”. I guess it’s also sort of like “Sarah” on The Andy Griffith Show. When Andy would pick the phone and ask to be connected with Aunt B, Sarah connected them and then was supposed to disconnect herself. DNS implements a distributed database to store this name and address information for all public hosts on the Internet. DNS assumes IP addresses do not change (are statically assigned rather than dynamically assigned). The DNS database resides on a hierarchy of special database servers distributed across the entire globe. When a user types in a URL or Domain Name in the internet browser, a piece of software called the DNS resolver (usually built into the network operating system) first contacts a DNS server to determine the server's IP address. If the DNS server does not contain the needed mapping, it will in turn forward the request to a different DNS server at the next higher level in the hierarchy. After potentially several forwarding and delegation messages are sent within the DNS hierarchy, the IP address for the given host eventually arrives at the resolver, that in turn completes the request. At this point, your web browser would attempt a connection to the web site and request the “home page.” In other words, your computer asks it’s designated DNS server to look up www.cnn.com, or whatever site you are trying to look at and then if it doesn’t know, it asks a “smarter” DNS server and so on up the line until eventually if none of them know it, you get that infamous screen…”Internet Explorer Cannot Display the webpage.” Now, to what this has to do with the email. Most large companies host their own website and email. So, if 64.236.91.24 is the IP address it would be for their website and email. But, most small companies don’t host their own website. And when you don’t host your own website but you want to control your email, then you have a web hosting company host your website and you host your own mail server, or subscribe to a hosted exchange system like Tri-State Datacom. In this instance, the web hosting company must make an entry in the DNS that says, for all email, use such and such IP address. This entry is called an MX Record. This stands for Mail Exchanger, and it is critical that the MX record point to the right address to get to the right mail server. (Other entries may be needed to also go through a Spam Filter.) For an example of this in the normal world think about when move your office. You will need to provide the USPS with your new address and they will need to setup mail forwarding. If this isn’t done right, then some of your regular mail will not make it to your new location and will likely be “Returned to Sender, Addressee Unknown” as the Elvis Presley song said. When making a change of servers a new MX record must be made in the DNS. If the web hosting company makes an incorrect or incomplete entry then problems will occur. As mentioned previously it takes 12-24 hours for an entry to make it all around the world to all the DNS servers. During this time someone sending you email may experience a “bounce” without explanation or the email may be held until the sending server gets a response from Tri-State Datacom’s server. The possibility of problems is greatly reduced if you move both your email and web site to TSDC. This is why we strongly encourage moving your web site to the same company that is hosting your Exchange Server. It isn’t just about a few more dollars of web hosting fees. Thanks for wading through this lengthy book and I hope it will help you understand why it might take so long for your email to start rolling in. July 04 Semantics: Is it necessary to agree on the meanings of words if we are to understand one another?I am part of a small group that is studying a book by Lee Strobel entitled "The Case for Faith." In it he proposes it is perfectly OK for a Christian to have doubts. I disagree with this position and cite Hebrews 11:6
If you look up the word "doubt" it implies mistrust. If we doubt God, then we don't trust God. If we do not trust God, then wouldn't it be the same as a "lack of faith?" I have pasted a listing of synonyms of “doubt” at the end of this article and while the word “question” is listed as one synonym, when you look at the totality of the synonyms, I still maintain that Christians should not “doubt” God. Perhaps, we can “doubt” our understanding, but not doubt Him. Now, I will agree that Christians can have questions about such things as "Why would God allow evil to exist?" etc. But, questions to me are quite different than doubts. Some members of the group say it is "semantics." I personally see nothing wrong with studying the meaning of words for how else can we communicate? In fact, most in this class have a basic set doctrinal beliefs based on the study of the original languages of the New Testament. For many things they state that we must go back to the original language to determine meaning and some make it a matter of “Faith.” If I say the cinnamon rolls at Panera Bread are "bad?" What does that mean? The only way to know is either ask me for clarification, or study the context in which I said it and to know a little about me. But, definitely more needs to be ascertained prior to concluding that one understands my meaning. (Incidentally, they are “bad” in a good way.” What do I mean by “The salmon at Sam’s was bad.” It smelled awful! Am I making too big a deal out of the importance of understanding terminology when it comes to communication? I really don’t think so. If a doctor told you that you were suffering from “Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria,” would you know what he meant? Not likely. So he has failed to clearly communicate what your condition is. Therefore, you would not know how to treat it. Until you understand the terminology you cannot ascertain the meaning. So, what do you think? Is there a difference between “doubts” and “questions” or is it really just a matter of semantics? Please leave a post. Dennis “No Doubts but many questions” Wilson doubt noun 1. uncertainty, confusion, hesitation, dilemma, scepticism, misgiving, suspense, indecision, bewilderment, lack of confidence, hesitancy, perplexity, vacillation, lack of conviction, irresolution, dubiety << OPPOSITE certainty noun 2. suspicion, scepticism, distrust, fear, apprehension, mistrust, misgivings, disquiet, qualms, incredulity, lack of faith << OPPOSITE belief verb 3. be uncertain, be sceptical, be dubious verb 4. waver, hesitate, vacillate, sway, fluctuate, dither chiefly Brit. haver, oscillate, chop and change, blow hot and cold (informal) keep changing your mind, shillyshally (informal) be irresolute or indecisive, swither Scot. verb 5. disbelieve, question, suspect, query, distrust, mistrust, lack confidence in, misgive << OPPOSITE believe >> no doubt certainly, surely, probably, admittedly, doubtless, assuredly, doubtlessly USAGE In affirmative sentences, whether was in the past the only word considered acceptable for linking the verb doubt to a following clause, for example I doubt whether he will come. Nowadays, doubt if and doubt that are both considered acceptable alternatives to doubt whether. In negative sentences, use that after doubt, for example I don't doubt that he is telling the truth. The old-fashioned form not doubt but that, as in I do not doubt but that he is telling the truth, is now rarely used and sounds very stiff and formal. Collins Essential Thesaurus 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2005, 2006 July 03 A title for this blog entry is hard to come by, but Do you know Uncle Jay?I realize that this has nothing to do with technology or spiritual matters, which is what I normally blog about, however, I just have to share this with my readers. There is a website called Uncle Jay Explains The News and can be found at http://unclejayexplains.com/ He has a very special way of explaining current events and I must say I haven’t really figured out if he is a “conservative” or a “liberal.” He seems to be an equal opportunity satirist. This means no one is safe. He has a special today for Independence Day. Anyway, I hope you like this site. Dennis July 02 Did you delete something by accident and then also empty the recycle bin? Never fear The Computer Guys are here!What should you do if you ever delete a file and then empty the recycle bin only to realize you made a mistake?
Some of you may be thinking that once you empty the recycle bin there is no hope of recovery. That is not true. We can and have recovered some documents for clients and recently even recovered their Outlook files AFTER the system was “blown away and reloaded.” Yes, a tech, not ours, deleted the partition and reloaded everything. However, the tech did not make a proper backup before he did this. In theory, the user’s information was gone forever and they had TONS of information stored in folders in Outlook. Some of this information had to do with Human Resources issues and had to be kept. Ouch. The computer was brought into our shop and our resident Genius Computer Tech, not me but Drew, was able to recover her stuff! We saved the company thousands of dollars in labor to reconstruct years worth of data and perhaps some nasty non-compliance issues. The client even said “Would it be inappropriate for me to say I love you!” after she realized we had come through. We appreciate the love and were also rewarded with having saved the day for this firm. Now, not all of these turn out so nice. We have had times when we could not recover a document. So, please please please, backup your data, including your Outlook stuff, frequently and keep the backup off site. Don’t keep your backup right next to your PC. Or call us to learn more about our Unattended Automated Backup server. Please don’t panic when you make a mistake and don’t delay in calling us at 270-344-4286, we’re here to help. Dennis “The Shining Knight” Wilson Have you backed up your family photos, vacation photos, word processing documents, spreadsheets etc.?I don’t know how many times over the years we’ve been asked to try to recover data, such as the stuff listed above, from computers that have died. I truly could not begin to count the times. However, I can tell you that we are successful some of the time. That’s right, we can sometimes recover data from computers that have died. But frequently, the only hope is to send the hard drive off to a firm specializing in data recovery and that can run hundreds if not thousands of dollars. If the person were using our automated unattended off-site backup program, it is a fairly simple matter to restore the data. How is that? When using our system the user’s computer and our backup server communicate every night and a backup of the users files are stored in a secure location on our server that only the user has access to. We keep backups on file for a specified period of time and the user can easily recover their files without our assistance. Please if you haven’t backed up your computer recently stop what you are doing and perform that backup NOW! Don’t put it off because it probably won’t get done and then you’ll have to call us to try to recover your data. If you don’t know how and don’t want to fool with this, please call us today and make arrangements for us to do it for you. Dennis God’s Will for Marriage – 1 Peter 3:1-7 in two partsI recently viewed two lengthy videos of two sermons, or one sermon in two parts, on marriage. The preacher’s views are basically in alignment with what I believe God, through the bible, has told us. However, I am not sure I am in complete agreement with this message, or the attitude that comes across in his delivery. Please take some time, and it will take quite a while, to watch these videos and then come back here to post a comment on your thoughts. I’d love to know what others think about this. http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-women http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-men Dennis Do you have any “pet peeves” with regard to technology? I do!I know that title could sound bad, but there are some basics that I would love for email users to follow: Always include a descriptive subject line. The description should clearly reflect the content of the message. If you use REPLY, be sure the content of the reply has to do with the subject line. I know that may seem petty, but for those of us who try to support hundreds of users, it is very important that the Subject Lines and actual Content are related. When using REPLY to start a new subject, PLEASE change the Subject line to match the content/body of the email. At The Computer Guys LLC we have literally tens of thousands of email history on file and when trying to search for a particular email it makes it very difficult to find the right one if we cannot depend on the Subject line to match the content. Example…we have one user who almost NEVER starts a new email from scratch. He almost always finds an email from us and hits REPLY but fails to change the subject line to match what he is writing about. Today I spent over an hour trying to find an email about a certain subject and I have to read each and every email sent between us this calendar year because I cannot depend on the subject line as correctly reflecting the content of the email. And, when you bill by the hour, this can get very expensive for the client. (You might ask why that bothers me. I don’t like having to bill for my time when it shouldn’t be necessary.) What pet peeves do you have concerning email? Let us know…please leave a comment on our blog. Dennis “The Computer Guy” Wilson |
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