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Computers & Software

Jerry Doyle

2004-10-01 15:05:00

: How can scanning be helpful?

ANSWER: Most business documents are created digitally using a computer. However, every business already has thousands of hard copy documents stored in file cabinets, boxes, basements, closets and inconvenient off-site locations. When one of these stored documents is needed, retrieval can be a real headache. How many times have you asked yourself, "Isn't there a better way to store this info?"High resolution scanning technology has been available for some time. It is usually done with a dedicated desktop scanner connected to a computer. These scanners are generally very slow and time consuming particularly when scanning a multi-page document. Because of these limitations, scanning has not achieved much success in the corporate world.With the introduction of networked, digital multifunctional devices (mfp's), effective scanning has become a reality. These mfp's offer document feeders capable of scanning both single and two-sided multi-page originals with lightning speed. Control panels walk users through the available file formats and resolution levels that offer the best choices for the user's applications.Scanned documents can be named, distributed and stored at one device. This enables users to then e-mail, fax and store, and retrieves documents in seconds with ease. The benefit from this technology is better image quality while saving valuable time and office space. Today, document scanning promises greater productivity in the workplace and it is as easy to use as your office copier!

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Computers & Software

Dave Geist

2004-08-01 11:28:00

:  The power pole outside my brother's house got hit by lighting during one of the storms we had a few weeks ago. He had his computer plugged into a surge protector but his computer was destroyed anyway. Why didn't the surge protector work?

ANSWER:  A surge protector does a pretty good job of keeping a safe voltage at the power cord of your computer. They are designed to allow excess voltage to be safely diverted away from your computer and any other device you have plugged into it. I suspect that the lightning bolt that hit your brother's power pole created a power surge that was more than the surge protector could handle.A surge protector does its best work protecting your PC against the most common sources of power surges, mainly big power demanding devices such as TV sets or motors in air conditioners. These devices draw lots of power when they are running, so when they turn off the laws of physics take over and a power surge appears on the power line. The bigger the motor, the bigger the surge is when that motor is shut off. While things like lights, hair dryers and electric blankets are unharmed by these surges, our PCs can be damaged by them fairly easily.Surge protectors are valuable insurance to help protect your PC. When you are shopping for one, look for the model with the highest rating in joules. Joules is a fancy way of saying how much power the surge protector can take and still protect your PC. A rating of 200 joules is ok, but a rating of 600 joules is better. A higher joules rating is better.Another rating you should pay attention to is the clamping time, which is how soon the protector will do its job when it is hit by a surge.  You want a protector to work quickly, so a lower clamping time is best.Also look at how many load watts the protector can handle. A 200 watt protector would be ok for a laptop, but a desktop PC needs at least a 600 watt protector. For wattage rating, bigger is better.Some surge protectors also feature jacks for your phone modem and cable TV. These are also good features to consider because power surges can find a way directly into your PC on these lines as well.Some cheaper surge protectors are designed to work like a safety fuse and burn out when they function. Although you can still use your PC, they lose their ability to protect your PC once they have operated. You have to visually inspect the cheap protectors to make sure they are functional. I do not recommend these type of surge protectors because it is easy to forget to check them. Prices will vary from store to store, so shop around and compare features and prices.Surge protectors are valuable protection because you never know when your PC is being exposed to damaging high voltages. My surge protector has an alarm that sounds off for two seconds when it isolates a voltage surge, and I hear it beep a few times a week.Lightning striking a power line outside your house will certainly create a power surge. Lightning strikes on power lines are common, and the electric power industry does a great job to prevent lightning strikes from entering our homes. Your brother's house suffered a rare fate: a direct lightning strike to the power pole outside his house.Lightning bolts are at least 1 billion volts and deliver between ten trillion (10,000,000,000,000) to 200 trillion joules of energy. When the lightning bolt struck the power pole, most of that power was safely diverted by the lightning arresters on the pole and power line. So let's assume that 99.999999 percent of the lightning's energy was dealt with safely. That still leaves at least 10,000,000 joules of energy on the power line in your brother's house. A really good surge protector will protect a PC from about 600 joules of energy. The surge protector on your brother's PC was simply overwhelmed. The best way to protect your PC from a lightning strike is to unplug it during a thunderstorm.If you are among the brave who say 'it'll never happen to my PC', I hope you are backing up your data files on a regular basis.

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Computers & Software

Teajai Kimsey

2004-05-01 16:34:00

:   We are wanting to build a corporate website.  We would like it to be unique and offer things most sites don't offer.  We are concerned however about the speed at which things we add will load.  Is this a consideration any longer with high speed access in so many places, or are there still a lot of people and businesses with dial-up or slower speed connections?

ANSWER:  Having a website that is equally accessible to the majority of visitors is important in any development project.  The difference between having a high speed connection to the internet and a dial-up connection is significant and can affect the overall experience of visiting a website.Although high speed connections like cable or DSL are becoming more common, the latest statistics show that broadband usage (high speed internet access) is still lagging behind narrowband (dial-up) connections.   In the Midwest, there are 33% more people on dial-up than both DSL and cable.*  Companies that are planning to launch a new or redesigned website need to bear this in mind when considering unique or cutting edge applications.  Part of the reason that broadband has not been more widely adopted is because there is very little if any access to broadband in rural communities outside metropolitan areas.  Additionally, the cost of broadband is still considered too high for many small to mid size businesses and residential customers.  If your target market includes these groups, designing a website that will be effectively transmitted through dial-up will be important.  For example, having photos on a website is fine with dial-up and broadband but too many photos or photos that are larger than normal will cause web pages to take longer to load.  Relatively new applications like "flash" can also cause a drag on website loading time, although, like images, smaller files are fine.  The most noticeable problem when looking at dial-up versus broadband is streaming videos, streaming audio, and virtual tours.  These applications are jerky at best when accessed via the typical dial-up connection.  Many times dial-up visitors simply cannot connect to the applications at all, sometimes causing them to miss important information.The good news is that broadband is being adopted at an increasing rate.  The number of broadband users is "expected to more than double to 46 million-plus households in the United States by 2008, up from 21.5 million at the end of last year" according to a Jupiter Research report in January of this year.  The anticipated increase is due in large part to the competition between the different internet service providers causing more affordable rates.  A good rule of thumb when designing a website is to strive for load times around 10 seconds per page.  Studies have show that visitors will not wait much longer than the 10 second mark before giving up completely and going to another website.  That doesn't sound like a lot of time but when a visitor comes to a website, 10 seconds seems like an eternity.

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Computers & Software

Teajai Kimsey

2004-03-01 16:16:00

Question:  What is this program I have heard about called Summer Youth Beat.  How does it work?  How do businesses participate?

ANSWER:  Summer Youth B.E.A.T. is a program originating with the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas.  B.E.A.T. stands for Business Education And Training.The pilot program was developed in 2003 by the participating youth: including initiating the project, determining eligibility and participation requirements.  The 2003 program was very successful!  Eighteen youths were certified by completing three weeks of training on attendance, attire, teamwork, ethics and interviewing skills.  Of those, 14 were employed through participating businesses, 4 obtained employment on their own.  The youth involved must meet certain eligibil  ity requirements including:• Documented 2.5 grade point average• Excellent standing in school (no disciplinary  actions, good attendance)• 2 Letters of recommendation• Low socio-economic conditions

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Computers & Software

Teajai Kimsey

2004-03-01 15:44:00

Teajai Kimsey Question: I have a website but I don't seem to be getting any leads from it.  What can I do to change this?

ANSWER:  A website is a potentially powerful marketing tool because it can enhance any other advertising you do.  When properly promoted the website can create awareness, generate interest, gather leads and make sales.  Unfortunately many website owners don't understand how to get the most out their website.  Simply putting the site online and waiting for visitors is the same as opening a business and just waiting for the phone to ring without telling anyone about the business.To get the most out of a website it is important to combine traditional advertising and online promotion.  Putting the web address on business cards, signage, vehicles, on hold messages, answering service, customer invoices and receipts is a good start.  And when you advertise in the newspapers, on the radio or on television remember to include your website address.  Long after the jingle has faded people will remember the website address and check there for additional information about your business.Online promotion of the website is equally important.  It's estimated that over 79% of people use the internet to research products and services.  In the local market over 63% of people use the internet to look for local products and services.  Since more and more people are using the internet it makes since that those people have to be able to find your website online.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is important when promoting the website online.  This involves researching keywords and key phrases that people will use when searching for the website online.  Once you have decided upon the keywords, they must be programmed into the website in various ways to assure that the search engines pick up on those words and phrases.When the website has been fully optimized it is time to submit the site to the search engines.  This must be done manually for best results.  And since some search engines won't capture the site for up to 3 months or more it's important to go back to the search engines and verify that the site has been listed.  If not, resubmit the website.  And, looking through the internet for specialty indexes or directories that list products or services in groupings by type like contractors, cooking etc. is another way to be found.Some search engines only accept paid submissions.  Yahoo, for example, charges a fee of $299 to review a business website but does not guarantee listing the site.  Overture, another top search engine, only accepts listings on a "pay per click" basis meaning that the website owner will pay every time their site comes up and is "clicked" by a visitor.In addition to search engines website owners should consider reciprocating links with other sites that have the same target market. This can actually lead to 21% of traffic to the website.  And, reciprocating links can actually raise your rankings in the search engines helping people find you more easily.Marketing the website is as important as having a website itself.  By spending a bit of time making sure people see the website you will gain increased exposure which leads to more sales.

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Computers & Software

Teajai Kimsey

2004-02-01 15:36:00

: With all of the porn on the web (and in my email!), how can I keep my kids safe on the internet?

Teajai Kimsey Question: With all of the porn on the web (and in my email!), how can I keep my kids safe on the internet?Answer: In a recent Roper Starch study, 25 percent of parents said their children were coming online as early as age 2, with that number increasing to 60 percent by age 6.  A 2003 report by Internet Filter Review found that the average age a child is first exposed to pornography online is 11 years old. Nearly all (90 percent) of kids aged 8-16 have viewed porn online, mostly while doing homework.  With over 260 million pornography websites and numerous accounts of child predators, keeping children safe while surfing is an important and necessary part of parenting in the technology age. There are several things parents can do to protect children including software solutions.  First and foremost parents should learn about the Internet, if your kids can out surf you, then you may want to gain more knowledge about the Internet.  A good way to get better acquainted with the Internet, and your child, is to surf with them.  Look at websites together while helping with homework.  Talk about online friends and set rules like:1. Don't give out personal information like your full name or address, anything that could help a stranger track you down offline. Never send a digital photo of yourself without your parent's permission. 2. Never agree to meet someone in person without talking to your parents. This is a biggie, because this is when things can get dangerous. It's critical to make sure this one is crystal clear. Draw clear lines. 3. Never respond to bad or threatening language. Instead try to report it to your online service provider or Web site and always tell your parents or teacher immediately. In short, don't pick a fight or fight back. 4. Never go into a new online area that is going to cost additional money without first asking permission from a parent or teacher. Do not give out a credit card number online without a parent present.Another way to monitor Internet usage is to put the computer in the family room instead of in the child's bedroom. Keeping the computer in a common room will assure that surfing is kept to acceptable websites.Take advantage of the technology and look into using a filter program.  While Internet filtering is not perfect, there are some excellent choices. Programs like Net Nanny and Cyber Sitter in addition to parental controls can help keep your children safe. Email is also a concern with the amount of spam related to adult topics.  Parents might want to consider sharing an email account or knowing the password to your child's account so it can be easily accessed.  While the Internet offers many opportunities for learning and fun, setting out the rules and being available to children while they are online goes a long way toward protecting a child from the dangers of the Internet.

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Computers & Software

Teajai Kimsey

2004-01-01 12:02:00

: Our company is looking at redeveloping our website.  What can we do to make sure our new site is user friendly?

ANSWER: Companies that are developing or already have an online presence often find that the internet provides an efficient way to cut costs while offering convenience to their customers.  But often overlooked in the zeal to have a great website is the end user experience.  To be successful on the Internet, companies must focus on making the customer happy by providing a truly user friendly website.   A recent study was compiled by Vividence* based on a number of reliable sources.  The study revealed several issues often confronted by website users that manage to frustrate and drive away potential customers and clients.  Here are a few examples:• Pop-up surveys that appear without selection at inopportune moments.• Slick images, animations and movies that load slowly, cause computers to crash and deliver little useful information.• Home pages cluttered with too much information.• Flashy features that look good but only work with high-speed connections.• Registration forms that request unnecessary personal information.Because the web allows for a quick switch to competitor websites, it's important to weigh the risks and the benefits of using features and applications that may put a roadblock in the way for some users.Putting the customer first by making a "user-centered" website can go far in impressing potential customers and leading clients to your lead generation form or into your office.  Here are some basic, very simple ways to meet this goal.  First, reduce clutter.  Most home pages try to impart too much information thus inundating and overwhelming the user.  If the user cannot figure out what specific value proposition or benefits the site has to offer, they will quickly leave and go on to the next website.  Provide an easily traceable path through the website.  Highlighting the location and subdirectories in the path to the user's current location can do this.  For example:  Home > Services> Printing.   Cross categorizing information also gives a great advantage as the website visitor will be able to find relevant information in several ways instead of drilling down through a specific path.Another suggestion is to provide buttons.  The Vividence study found that users expect to find buttons that will facilitate tasks on the websites more so than an actual link within the text. Novice web users in particular are more prone to use a button over a text link, which was found to be confusing.When a site is new, newly updated or will undoubtedly attract web novices it is helpful to provide brief instructions on the home page on how best to find information on the website including a search feature.  The search feature should be tested to assure relevant results from the standpoint of the end user.One-way to find out how your website is performing in the eyes of your customers is to ask.  By using a simple, permission launched survey to find out how the site is being used, if the information is found, and provide feedback in the form of comments that can assist in developing the website to serve the customer.As with any business, listening to the customer is key to developing a website that works for you and for your customer.----------------------------------------------------*2002 Vividence Corporation, Dr. Bonny Brown & Dr. Anthony Bastardi

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Computers & Software

Teajai Kimsey

2003-12-01 08:39:00

:  Why do I get all of this unwanted email and how do I stop it?

ANSWER: Unwanted email or "spam" is the bane of the Internet.  The reason it is getting more and more frequent is because 1% of people who receive it, actually respond to the spam and buy the product, send in the money etc. That alone makes it worth the time of the person sending the unwanted email and encourages ongoing use of spam as a means to make a quick buck.   Another thing to consider about all this junk email is that the majority of it is coming into your mailbox from another country.  Most common is South America and Asia with the Netherlands coming in third.  So even if our government passes legislation to restrict spam, there is no way to legislate that, which is not under our control to begin with.   That being said, how do you get it to stop?  Well the best way is to be proactive and not set yourself up to be the target of spam to begin with.   First and foremost, don't give your email address to anyone you don't know or trust.     Many websites ask for your address for online newsletter subscriptions, to order merchandise or to participate in a website (like Ebay).  If you want to be a part of these, first read the privacy policy carefully to be sure that by joining you are not giving them the right to sell or rent your email address to anyone else.     If you can't find the privacy policy or you are concerned that you email address will be given to others without your knowledge you have two choices.  Either don't give your address or, set up a separate email account to use for the questionable lists and registrations.  Many people use Hotmail or Yahoo for this purpose.     Maybe you are one of the millions who are already receiving spam.  What then?  Well there are a couple of things you can do.  The most obvious is to change your email address and stick to the suggestions about joining lists.  But if you are like most people you have close ties to your email address so this option is not very attractive.   You can filter your email in most email programs.  In Outlook Express for example go to the "Message" tab and select "Create Rule from Message." This will walk you through the steps to block the offending mail.  Understand however, that the mail will still come in; instead of you seeing it the mail is automatically placed in the "deleted" files.   You can also report spam to the source.  To do this you will need to find the "head tags" that are programmed into each email.  This is accomplished by selecting the email you want to report then right click which will bring up a box of actions.  Select "properties" towards the bottom of the list.  This will bring up another box; select the "Details" tab and you will see the "header" of the email.  You will want to highlight and copy everything in the Details tab then paste it in a new message to the company from which you received the email.     With this method, however, you will have to become adept at interpreting the "header" because messages that seem to come from "cox.net" for example may really be coming in from South America in which case cox.net isn't going to be able to do much. However, many Internet service providers (ISP) and web hosting companies are now attempting to stop spam by filtering the email when it comes in before getting to the end user.  They do this by reading the headers to determine the true source and block that source.   The downside to filtering in this manner is the risk of blocking email from a customer's legitimate friends, family, suppliers or customers because they happen to use the same ISP as the person sending the junk email.   As you can probably see, this is an ongoing, never ending, time consuming problem.  One, which even the Kansas Attorney General, has recently attempted to regulate.  Unfortunately, the spam epidemic will probably get worse before it improves.  But if you follow the email guidelines in this article (and don't respond to the junk!) you will see an improvement over time in your email.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2003-08-01 11:28:00

QUESTION: What is the difference between sending files via FTP and via email?  

ANSWER: The first one is the right way and the second one is the wrong way ;-]   Seriously, sending files via email should really be limited to smaller files as the protocol that email uses is not really designed for moving very large amounts of data. One real problem is that with email there are really two different protocols at work.   Sending email is usually done with using the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). Because email is primarily a text based application, most SMTP email is also converted to text before it is sent. This increases the size of binary files by approximately 30%. There may be more than one of these SMTP transactions as the email is sent. Each of these "hops" means the file must be processed an additional time.   The protocol used to pick up email once that email is on the other end though is quite different than SMTP. Usually email is picked up via Post Office Protocol (POP), which works quite differently from SMTP. With POP, the person's entire mailbox contents normally have to be loaded into memory when they check their mail. In order to do this, an index of the mailbox must be built. This requires scanning the complete contents of the mailbox to find out where messages start and stop and perhaps doing other intensive types of scanning. This means that picking up mail is actually much harder than sending it. Because of this we often see customers who have so much mail in their mailbox they may have problems opening it.   In addition to these problems, the modern process of handling email also has introduced other problems with very large emails. We for instance scan all incoming emails for viruses. This means breaking down each email into its component parts, uncompressing compressed components and scanning all the contents. We also scan all messages for their SPAM (junk mail) content and mark the messages according (so the customer can filter out messages they don't want automatically). All this added scanning and processing of email messages makes sending very large files even more of a disadvantage.    File Transfer Protocol (FTP) on the other hand, is specifically designed to move large files. With FTP the file is only moved once and is usually done as binary data (no conversion to text). FTP has very little overhead and usually very little processing is done to the file. Because of this, FTP is far more efficient. FTP does require a separate FTP client though and a FTP server on which to place the files but if you are planning on moving large amounts of data it is definitely the way to go.   Generally, we recommend that you not send files larger than about 5MB via email. If the person on the other end may be using dialup access you should limit your file size to probably less than 1MB. Most Internet Service providers will generally limit the size of emails they will receive (usually in the 5MB to 20MB range) so anything larger may not even be possible.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2003-06-01 12:47:00

QUESTION: I have a range of IP addresses but my ISP says the range belongs to them. Who owns the IP addresses I use?

ANSWER: First of all, no one "owns" IP addresses. IP addresses are allocated for use by central agencies for use by people/companies/ISPs on the Internet. In the United States IP addresses are normally allocated by the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN). ARIN has very specific policies on how IP addresses are to be used if you want to get and keep allocatations of those addresses. Normally IP addresses are only allocated to ISPs or very large organizations.   At one time it was possible to get IP addresses allocated directly to you in small blocks. It was not uncommon to see an organization with an allocation of 255 IP addresses. Today, however it is not possible to get your own allocation of less than 4,096 IP addresses from ARIN. In order to even do that, the organization requesting it must show that they are already using at least 75% of number of addresses (someone else's addresses). If your organization is multi-homed (you have more than one provider and balance your connection between the two), the requirements are less strict but still require you be using at least 2,000 IP addresses.   So unless you using at least 3,000 IP address (1,500 if multi-homed) it is unlikely you have been allocated IP addresses directly from ARIN. If you had you would definitely know it because the paperwork required can be daunting and you would also be paying ARIN at least $1,500 a year for your allocated addresses.   What is more likely is that the IP addresses previously allocated to your ISP have been "assigned" to you. End users are normally assigned IP addresses by their provider. The addresses are non-portable and the addresses can not be moved to another provider (or in general not even advertised to another provider). So in most cases, the addresses you will be using are allocated to a specific provider and can be used with anyone else.   There is one additional thing to note about this whole process of who "owns" IP addresses. While it is completely normal for an end user to be using their provider's IP addresses (and this is what ARIN wants) it is important when looking for an ISP to look for one that does have their own IP address allocation directly from ARIN. Without their own IP addresses it is difficult for a provider to be connected to more than one upstream provider in a meaningful way. In addition should the ISP ever change their upstream provider, without their own IP addresses, you as the end user will be required to change all your IP addresses. This can be a significant problem especially if it happens very often.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2003-03-01 13:26:00

QUESTION:  Our company has a well-designed web site. We distribute a consumer product nationally. How can we get our web site positioned so it is picked up more quickly on the major search engines, such as google.com and yahoo.com?

ANSWER:  Controlling how your site is positioned in the various search engines and directories is definitely a cause of concern for all web site owners.The first thing to realize when looking at this particular problem is that there is a difference between a "search engine" and a "directory" site. google.com for instance is a search engine. It obtains its information by going out into the world and examining all the sites it can find. Since the search engine is coming to your site, how it ranks you is going to be decided by information it finds on your site (and on other sites). The process is usually completely automated and humans are not involved. In such a model all pages of your site are usually indexed by the search engine.  yahoo.com on the other hand is a directory site. Rather than come to you yahoo.com requires that you submit your material to their site.You will go to their site and enter the way you want the site to be listed. Although much of this process is automated, human interaction to confirm and verify the information is often required.In this model usually only the main page of your web site is listed in the directory.With a web directory like yahoo.com there is usually little you can do directly to manipulate your listing. The only way to really improve your position is to pay the directory for a "sponsored" or priority listing. yahoo.com does sell these type of listings and purchasing one will increase position significantly.  With a search engine like google.com there are lots of things you can do to increase your position. For google.com you can find these listed at http://www.google.com/webmasters/  These can include such features as META tags and keywords. However, it is very important to read their rules in regard to the use of these features. Many of the "search engine positioning" services you will see advertised are scams that will do things that can actually get you banned from search engines. If search sites find you trying to artificially manipulate their search results they may just remove your site completely.Few people know that one of the most imporant things about how google.com lists your site in the results is how many other sites on the web link to yours. So one of the best ways to increase your score at google.com is to make sure that your site is linked as many other places as possible (which obviously is a good thing in itself).While they don't sell positioning in their search listings, google.com does sell "sponsored" links that come up next to their search listings. These listings are usually sold on a "click through" basis so you only pay for those listings that actually result in someone visiting your web site. At only a few pennies per click through, these are one of the best values on the net.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2002-11-01 16:36:00

QUESTION: The other day I received 18 e-mails from people I do not know saying that they had received a junk e-mail from me. I didn't send out anything. What's up with this?

ANSWER:  There are several possible causes of this problem.  The first is that someone out there has actually used your return address to send out junk email.  Most people don't realize it but it is very easy to forge the return address on an email.If this has happened your best bet will probably be to report this to your internet service provider.  They should be able to help track down who did this and if you are using an email address under their domain name they may also be very interested in finding out exactly who is forging their address.Another possibility is that the email your correspondents received is not actually junk email but was caused by a virus on someone else's computer.  The newest generation of email based viruses will often forge the return address that the email is coming from.  So if person B is infected and has email addresses for person A and person C in their address book, the virus will send mail from person A to person C.  This mail is actually from person B but appears to person C to have come from you (person A).Unfortunately, there may not be much you can do about this particular problem.  The person whose computer is infected probably has no idea their computer is infected or is sending out these emails.  Again your best bet may be to contact your internet provider for assistance in tracking the source of the email.The last possibility is that it is your computer that is infected with a virus and you (or your computer) is actually sending out theseemails without you knowing it.  This is probably the worst possibility, but fortunately the easiest to fix.Regardless of this particular problem, if your computer is connected to the internet you MUST have an antivirus program installed on your computer.  However, just having a virus program installed is not enough.  You also need to update that virus software at least weekly in order to have it really do much good.  With most antivirus  software running under $50 it is a must have purchase for a computer on the internet.One last thing you can do to make sure that you don't fall victim to this problem is choose an internet provider that scans all incoming (and preferably outgoing) email for these type of viruses.   ISPs that do this type of scanning will update their virus definitions daily. This will give you the absolute best chance of avoiding these type of problems.  Such scanning probably doesn't mean you can skip getting your own antivirus software but it will stop almost all of these type of viruses.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-10-01 13:43:00

:  Does a T-1 need more or less security (i.e. a firewall) than a dial-up or cable modem?

Randy Johnston Question:  Does a T-1 need more or less security (i.e. a firewall) than a dial-up or cable modem?Answer: The T1 connection needs more security because there will be a larger number of users and the probability is high that you will have sensitive information accessible via your network. However, the need for security is no less on a cable modem, DSL or dial-up connection if you have sensitive business information on your network or computer.  Our current working rule is very simple: if you don't have firewall protection for your Internet connection, stop using the Internet.  You don't need access to email and web browsing badly enough to continue to use the Internet without protection. Firewalls are a combination of hardware and software that provide filtering of traffic that result in protection for your applications and data.Understanding the level of firewall protection that is required can make your files safer, and your Internet experience more secure without being troublesome. Most of the time that a computer is connected to the Internet, it has an IP address that identifies it to other computers.  A firewall shields, protects, and often translates an IP address so that other computers can't address your computer directly.  This is particularly important whether you are protecting your computer from the outside world (hackers and crackers) or from other departments in your company (payroll from everyone else).  A T1 line is a high speed permanent communication line that runs at approximately 1.5MBps (Million Bits per Second). This line can be used privately with no Internet tie, but the way you asked your question, it looks like you have a T1 for Internet communications or provisioning.  This line has either 23 or 24 channels of 56KBps (Thousand Bits per Second) where each channel will support about 10 heavy Internet users.  Your T1 may well provide Internet services for 200 users or more.  Since you have such a large Internet pipe, this implies you are using it for business purposes. You probably have confidential information on your network and you are large enough to have an IT staff.  Your needs are more sophisticated, and we would commonly recommend firewalls from vendors like Cisco using their PIX firewall software.  This product is expensive, and difficult to configure, but is one of the better firewalls in the marketplace.  Competitors include products like CheckPoint.Smaller Internet pipes for fewer users can be provisioned using services like DSL or Cable Modems.  These communications links are almost always Internet enabled, and should have a firewall as well. Both DSL and Cable, like the T1, are always on or always connected to the Internet.  Since the services are always on, your users will have immediate access to the Internet without waiting for a dialing connection.  It also means that computer users from the outside world could always have access to your local area network if you have no protection.  We suggest that for less expensive DSL or Cable connections to the Internet that a less expensive and less sophisticated firewall is adequate.  There is a pretty good chance that you have a smaller number of computers if DSL or Cable has enough capacity for your business.  Additionally, it is likely that you have a smaller or less capable IT staff as well.  For this type of application, we recommend SonicWall firewalls, either in the SOHO family (10, 25, 50 users) or the Pro family (100, 200 or 300 users).  This firewall product is an appliance that is slightly bigger than the size of a VHS videotape, and has software that can be updated without operator intervention.  This product is far less expensive than comparable Cisco products, and provides roughly the same level of protection.  Far less protection comes from inexpensive appliance firewalls like those from LinkSys or DLink.  For home protection, we ask users to consider one of these three appliance firewall vendors.If you want to be able to connect securely at high speed from your home back to your office over the Internet, remember that Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology can provide secure, seamless integration.  This will take firewalls that have VPN software loaded and configured.  Again, we recommend Cisco or SonicWall products for this application. The SonicWall Tele3 product is a nice combination of appliance firewall hardware, good software protection and VPN software for around $500 at the home.  I use my own SonicWall to connect back to my office network and have the ability to use servers and printers as if I was sitting in the office.Finally, if you are using dial-up, you still need protection.  When you connect to your Internet Service Provider, you are assigned an IP address that makes your computer accessible by others on the Internet.  You do not want your local or personal files to be at risk while you are on the Internet.  A software firewall is probably adequate protection, although we would still prefer an appliance firewall product that has a modem port.  Software solutions include: Symantec Norton Firewall, BlackIce Defender, and ZoneAlarm.  Software products that run on your local computer do not provide as much protection as hardware products that run on dedicated appliances, routers or computers.Regardless of the speed of your protection, get a firewall! It is a requirement for doing business safely over the Internet.  If you choose not to implement a firewall, it won't be a question of if, but a question of when your personal computer or network will be attacked.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2002-09-01 09:27:00

QUESTION: I have recently gotten taken in by a couple of hoaxes. In one case a good friend told me to delete a file in my Windows/System directory which they said had a virus. I found out this was a valid file that I needed and was not infected. This still wasted quite a bit of time, even though it was not a virus. How can I find out what is just a hoax? Is there a web site that can tell me the latest hoaxes, or do I just have to call my Internet provider?

ANSWER: First of all, a good rule of thumb when dealing with these type of emails is to always assume they are not true. Most of them aren't so this is probably the safe bet. Many of these hoaxes can actually cause damage to people's computers, reputations or businesses so never pass something on as if you know it is true unless you actually do know the source and accuracy of what you are passing on.So how can you tell what is a hoax and what isn't? Ultimately you may have to research the issue but here are a couple of good guidelines:1) Has the email been forwarded many many times before it got to you?This is a good sign that the person sending you the email has no more evidence that the email is true than you do.2) Does the email ask you to forward this on "to everyone you know"? This is a classic sign of a hoax email.3) Does the email claim it is not a hoax? This may be the best sign of all. Any email that says it is not a hoax probably is.4) Does the email sound too good to be true or so bad you can't help but pass it on? You know what your mom said about things that seem to good to be true. Don't forget her advice now just because you got it in an email.Of course it is always possible that an email that has the above characteristics could be true, however the odds are that if it looks like a hoax it probably is.If you still have questions there are quite a few web sites that have examples of these type of hoaxes. Most antivirus companies maintain lists of hoaxes on their web sites. There are also a number of independent sites that maintain such lists. One of the most comprehensive is http://www.truthorfiction.com/.Visiting one of these sites may allow you to uncover most hoaxes.  However, if you are still unconvinced, then before you forward anything you should probably check with your internet provider.Remember that these hoaxes can be terribly harmful to the people or businesses that they target. Before you participate in their spread you should really make sure you are sure that what you are passing on is accurate.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-08-01 11:48:00

:  I am able to access our company's computer with my PDA. We do not use any encryption software. What are our risks and what can we do about it?

Randy Johnston Question:  I am able to access our company's computer with my PDA. We do not use any encryption software. What are our risks and what can we do about it?Answer: Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have made my life easier, and it sounds like that may be true for you, too. There are many risks, and your PDA can put your company's information at risk. We think that most companies are not worried enough about the loss of confidential or proprietary information through PDAs. The risks we will outline are true whether you are using a Palm-OS based device (Palm, HandSpring, etc.) or a Pocket PC (iPAQ, Jornada, etc.). Let's look at some of the issues.First, you state that you have access to your company's computer.  If you are fortunate enough to have wireless access built into your PDA and access your company's Local Area Network and servers as well as the Internet with your PDA, the data that you are transmitting is exposed unless your Information Technology department or technology consultant has secured the PDA at a hardware level using MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. We see very few wireless applications secured properly.A much more common implementation is to simply synchronize your company information between your PDA and other software at your company.  Common software that contains information that can be synchronized includes Outlook, ACT, GroupWise, Notes, and many other products.  The synchronization is usually done with Intellisync or ActiveSync software.  These products allow you to coordinate your calendar, to do lists, as well as contact names, addresses and phone numbers.  This allows you to conveniently carry all of this information with you.  I do this myself by synchronizing all of these items, including approximately 4,000 contacts, and their complete histories.  If my Palm Phone (the Samsung I300) was lost, there is a lot of confidential information that someone could synchronize into their system.  Even with a password set in the Palm or PocketPC OS, this security is so weak that it is easily broken.  This risk is so large that some organizations have banned the use of PDAs.  Additional software can be added to secure the device further, and these password or encryption software add-ons do help.An additional risk occurs when your PDA can be accessed even for a few moments in a restaurant or on a plane.  Assume for a moment you leave your PDA at your seat to do something else for a moment.  A person sitting near you can electronically transfer your data ("beam it") in a matter of seconds. Further, while you are using the PDA, your information is visible from quite a large angle, making the information less confidential. Having at least a password will prevent some of this unauthorized access, but it is painful to enter the password every time you want to use your PDA.More sophisticated applications on PDAs can put even more of your company data at risk. A wonderful application available from Best Software for their accounting product, MAS90, allows a salesperson to carry all of their customer's information to the field, along with inventory information and actual pricing to the customer.  The capacity in an 8MB Palm allows for 3,000 customers and 80,000 items.  Orders can be entered on the PDA, and synchronized with the accounting system when you return to the office.  But, as you can perceive, you are now carrying all of your customers and products with their prices to the field on a device that can be easily lost.  You need to have a company policy controlling access to these devices, but mistakes will still occur.With all of these situations causing risk, the value of having access to the data is so great, that we think it is still acceptable to use PDAs assuming that 1) a password is set, 2) the PDA is synchronized regularly, 3) Additional encryption or password software is used.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2002-07-01 15:42:00

Question:  What is a firewall? Should everyone have one? Does it prevent all types of hacking into a system?

Answer:  The standard definition of a firewall is a device that protects a private network from a public network. In reference to internet access it is usually designed to keep a private home or business network separate from the public internet.Any business connecting its internal network to the public internet should definitely have some sort of firewall to keep the two separate. Home networks with a "always on" internet connection (such as DSL or cable access) should also have some sort of firewall, although it can usually be much simpler than for a business network.The type of firewall that is required (and therefore the cost of that firewall) is largely a function of how much access you want that outside world to have to the internal network. If you have a number of computers inside your private network you want the outside world to be able to access you may need a more complex firewall. This is because the firewall has to monitor and control access to some machines inside the office (say a corporate web server or email server) while preventing access to others (your accounting computer or personal workstations). The less access you allow from the outside the less complex the firewall.For this reason, most small businesses will outsource the public parts of their network to someone else (for instance to their Internet provider) and then deny most or all access to their internal network. Alternatively they may put this public services on a public network and then put the firewall between this public part of their network and the private part.For home networks a similar approach is recommended. By not running any services on your home network you can use very simple but very effective devices to deny all access from the internet to your private network.The firewall required for this type of solutions is quite simple and inexpensive. Usually marketed with descriptions such as "DSL/Cable sharing device" these devices usually cost less than $100. In many cases this type of firewall may even be built into the router that you use to connect to your provider. As their name would suggest these devices also allow you to share a single high speed connection between all the computers on your network.These type of firewalls use a protocol known as "Network Address Translation" (NAT). NAT sets up a simple "one way doors" from your network to the public internet. Computers inside the network can make connections out but no one outside can initiate a connection into the network. Potential bad guys on the outside only see the firewall and nothing beyond it.NAT devices do have their downside however. Some applications such as Internet telephony require that outside computers be able to initiate connections into the private network. However, NAT devices are ideal for normal web "surfing" and email use and should prevent anyone from outside the network from getting into your private network.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-07-01 11:41:00

Question: I read the other day there are nearly 5 million web sites. Lots of them do neat stuff when you open them. I would have to believe that one of the most interesting things we are all going to see in the future is the technology in what one sees when he or she first arrives at a web site. Am I wrong? What is on the horizon?

Answer: Web technology will continue to change even more rapidly than it has in the last five years. Why? Because more and more end-users will have high speed access to the Internet, and this higher speed access will allow richer media to be used by web developers.For example, picture what has happened in the video industry with the evolution from film to videotape to Digital Video Disks (DVDs).  The quality of a recording on a DVD is much stronger than what we have available on tape, and there are more features such as the ability to look at a scene in a movie from several different positions. Another feature is the ability to play back the sound track in other languages. Usually there is enough capacity to have additional information about the movie, and to include outtakes and other special features. This is because the storage capacity is increased, the quality has increased, and the cost has decreased.High-speed media for web sites does the same thing.  Your expectation should be that you will have good quality, full-screen video, digital audio, speech recognition and interactive elements that understand what functions you want.  Web sites will also start to use the equivalent of Microsoft Smart Tag technology to give you direct access to related items, in context.Contextual information from web sites is not new technology, but has been around for at least five years.  When a web browser drops a cookie on your local computer, it is actually storing your preferences on how to use that web site.  Some vendors, Lands End for example, use the cookies to better understand your shopping habits to serve you better. For example, if you purchased a navy sweater last time you were shopping on the site, the current sale on dress shirts or blouses that match navy sweaters may be presented to you as a convenience.  Yes, you could think of this as a sales tactic, but there is high probability that you will want this type of product or service.  The same types of things are being done on travel web sites to make it easier to coordinate airline, hotel and car reservations.Additionally, the web site delivery will be more flexible at delivering data to you in the format that you want it.  Numbers, schedules, pictures, and other content will be able to be transferred to other applications without rekeying, as we discussed in an earlier article on XML (Extensible Markup Language).We also believe that many of the web sites will deliver content to the devices that you would like to use.  For example, I currently use a SamSung I300 Palm/cell phone.  Since I travel frequently, I have loaded the Palm application from Delta, United, Continental, and American Airlines to deliver their most up to date airline schedules via the web into my combination Palm/cell phone. Then, if I need to make a trip, I can actually use the Palm/Web data to schedule my flights directly onto my calendar. In fact, I did that exact process this very morning. Web sites will become more sensitive to the devices that we want to use whether it is a PDA, cell phone, or a new generation tablet computer.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2002-06-01 17:41:00

Question: Our company web site is very important in our business. We would like to add some new "bells and  whistles" so users will find it interesting to come back to our site again. One suggestion is to make it dynamic so the content will change frequently. How would this work? If we do this we are worried about what the performance will be to those that still use 56-Kbps modems. How would we handle this dilemma?

Answer: It is important to remember that dynamic content and "bells and whistles" are not necessarily the same thing and could really actually be at odds with each other. Having dynamic content on a site does not necessarily mean it has to have a lot of "bells and whistles". In fact, "bells and whistles" are often used on web sites to make up for a lack of real content."Bells and whistles" usually take the form of large images, animated images, music or movies. This "eye candy" can make a site more visually appealing but probably do little to actually bring people back to your site. In fact because of the large size (and therefore long download time) for many of these features, "bells and whistles" can often prevent people from returning or cause them to leave the site prematurely. I don't know how many times I've left a site before the main index page even loaded because of the time it took to download and I haven't been on a dialup connection in years.The most important features of a web site are: content, content and content. In the end the content on your site will be more important than the dynamic nature of that content. Unless you run an entertainment site of some nature the most important purpose of your company's site is going to be to provide information about your company and its products or services. It is important not to let the packaging of that information get in the way of the information itself.Yes, people want to see information displayed in a way that is interesting and appealing. However, they also want to be able to navigate the site quickly and find the information they are looking for without having to wait for unnecessarily large images or other items that can actually take away from the information on the site.I often see people offering advice to web designers along the lines of "remember that many people are still accessing your site at 56K".This advice is well intentioned, however it doesn't go far enough. It is important to remember that many people do not have 56K modems and even those that do often are limited to 26K due to their particular phone lines.A quick look at a Wichita dialup pool shows that 23% of people are connecting at less than 30K while only 18% are connecting faster than 50K. I think most people would be amazed that nearly 5% were still using 9600kps modems.Given these type of numbers, it only makes sense to make sure that a web site is designed with these slower connections in mind. That means only using these higher bandwidth features when they make sense. It also means giving people choices to avoid these higher bandwidth parts of the site if they so choose while still providing them the content they came for.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-06-01 14:42:00

Question: For some reason I get a lot of temporary files created on my computer. About every two weeks I clean them out but there are around 5,000 or more each time I do. I just delete them then 'empty the trash'. What are temporary files? How and why are they created? Am I hurting anything to delete them all?

Answer: Temporary files are like the scratch pad of the applications that run on your computer.  When an application is running, and needs some more space than it has available in main memory or RAM, the application will choose to write this information on your local hard drive.  The applications are supposed to remember to delete all of these temporary files, but as you can see from your own experience, many applications are not doing a good job of cleaning up after themselves, a task in the computer industry known as housekeeping or garbage cleanup.Temporary files on your computer can make your computer run unreliably. That is why we have to take strategies to minimize them.  Besides the applications that create these files by not doing their job correctly, temporary files can be created by applications that are doing their job in the way they were designed.  For example, a web browser is supposed to bring files from web servers to your local computer so you can display them on the screen.  These files are kept "temporarily" on your local hard drive in several places, including the disk caching for the web browser, as well as folders designed for temporary file storage.  These temporary files consume a large amount of disk space, and are designed to be cleaned up easily. Internet Explorer, for example, has under the Tools, Internet Options menu the options; Delete files as well as Settings.  You should look at the Settings to make sure your system is not taking more temporary file space for the web than you want (I suggest no more than 10% of the size of your hard drive).  You should also occasionally delete the files to speed up your system performance.  This seems to be a very safe clean up of temporary files.Another type of temporary file that can be on your system is created by the operating system itself.  In the Windows environment, these files often have a name that begins with a tilde (~). The files may also have name extensions that begin with a tilde, the letters TMP or BAK.  All files that have a TMP, BAK, or tilde extension or have a tilde at the start of the name can safely be deleted.  In fact, your system will become more stable if you eliminate all of these files. We suggest cleaning all the temporary files off your system, powering down, cleaning all the temporary files again after reboot, and powering down one more time.  Do this procedure again in a few days.  You should find that your system becomes more stable if it has been prone to locking up.Speaking of locking up, a system freeze can be a major source of the temporary files.  Utility vendors try to sell you products that make your system run faster, and one of the strategies they use is eliminating temporary files.  Built into versions of Windows 98 and later, there is a Disk Cleanup tool under the Accessories, System Tools menu.  This utility will clean up most of the extra files without a lot of manual labor using the search or find command looking for files that start with a tilde, then deleting those files, then looking for the TMP files and deleting those, emptying the recycle bin and so forth.  If you have frequent lockups, it is a chicken or egg situation.  Lockups create extra temporary files and extra temporary files can lead to more lockups. When your system locks up, you can be sure there are temporary files left behind. Make sure you clean your system on a regular basis to speed it up and make it more stable.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-04-01 14:47:00

Question: What exactly is RAM? Does it relate to the resources available and/or used at any given time on my computer? With all of the advancement in technology over the last several years, why hasn't anyone figured out how to solve programs using up too many of the available resources?

Answer: RAM (Random Access Memory), sometimes referred to as main memory or volatile memory is where all data and programs reside in computers. Current computer designs currently have four main components. If you think of a computer as having a Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory, input and output, you can see with RAM we are focusing on one of the four main components of all computers.  Since all programs and data must reside in RAM to be processed, RAM is definitely one of the constraining factors of computers.RAM is measured in bytes, the equivalent of a single character, and then for convenience, larger amounts of RAM are spoken about in metric terms or units of measure.  1,024 bytes = 1K (sometimes people mistakenly think that 1K means just 1,000), and 1,024K = 1 Megabyte (MB). We buy RAM in increments of 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512 MB.  RAM costs vary widely as a commodity, but 64MB of RAM is currently $30-50.When an operating system is loaded in RAM, it takes some portion of the RAM available to provide all of the interfaces between application programs and the hardware itself.  We then can load one or more application programs to perform specific tasks.  At this point, we may have taken a relatively small portion of the RAM available, or almost all of it, depending on the operating system and the applications and the amount of RAM physically installed in the machine. In the Microsoft Windows environment, for the operating system plus two applications, you might use 32-80MB of RAM. Every time we start more applications, or every time we start and stop an application, we aggravate the memory loss or usage problem.The data that is going to be used must fit in the remaining RAM in your computer, but because data often takes a large amount of space in RAM, it is rare that all your data can fit in RAM at one time.  Therefore, programs read in data in a few records at a time from your hard drive or disk, update them, and put the records back.  In the case of word processing, the entire document is often in RAM, but occasionally becomes so big, portions of the document must be read from disk reducing performance.  RAM is at least 100 times faster than disk. Disk has the advantage of remembering the value when power is turned off.  RAM loses all values when power is lost.The way your operating system uses (or loses) resources will be determined by the operating system.  When portions of RAM are no longer in use, one job of the operating system is to gather up the unused portions of memory, and reuse them.  If the routine to gather up the now unused memory (called garbage collection) is not efficient, you can run out of resources.  In the Microsoft Windows environment, you can see the effects of these processes in the percent resources free (viewed by right mouse clicking on My Computer and selecting properties).  The operating system, support programs and application programs all consume these resources.  When the percentage of resources free drops below 70%, most Windows operating systems become less stable.Different operating systems do a better job of garbage collection or clean up the unused resources in a better way.  Desktop operating systems like Red Hat Linux tend to have far less problems with improper garbage collection.  Microsoft Windows operating systems are some of the worst at losing memory, and locking up from a lack of resources.  People in the minicomputer and mainframe world have been aware of the performance loss when memory is not recovered. They have accommodated this by restarting or IPLing (Initial Program Load) their machines in the middle of the night.  This results in a far more stable system, and performance gains.  It is clear that some of the Linux/UNIX operating systems or midrange operating systems like OS/400 are very stable and don't lose much memory that they can't recover.  As consumers, though, we tolerate this reduction in performance without much complaint, and simply restart our machines when they lock up or restart them on a regular basis (daily, weekly, whatever).  Most of us are reluctant to give up our Microsoft operating systems and application compatibility on the desktop just to gain more stability.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-03-01 16:18:00

Question: We have a cable modem at home for connecting to the Internet. Why is it that some sites take so long to load and others load much more quickly?

Answer: There are many factors that determine Internet site download speed. You have addressed one of them, connection speed, with your cable modem.  What are the factors? Computer speed, including processor speed, RAM, the amount of disk caching available, virus checking, firewall software, and connection speed.  Things outside of your control include ISP router congestion, Internet backbone and router congestion, the web site's line speed, and the server(s) at the web site.As you can see, there are other factors to consider when it comes to Internet speed than your connection speed alone.  Loosely speaking, the Internet will be faster in the morning than it will be later in the day or in the evening. Why? Because there are so many more users on the Internet later in the day.  When you realize that 25% of all Internet users in the world live in the state of California, all you have to do is think about when Californians would be using the Internet, and try to use it at other times.People who manage sites try to make sure that their site and communication lines are responsive to the demands that they see.  It is actually fairly rare for a single site to have performance problems that aren't easily addressed with minor upgrades in technology.  If you are on a very popular site during a very popular time frame, for example superbowl.com during the game or olympics.com during the biggest event of the Olympics, you would expect this site to be slow, but designers build these sites for the expected traffic load, and create many redundant servers to provide you the information you demand.  If a site you use is often slow, inform the site administrator.Other factors beyond your control are Internet congestion.  For example, your local ISP or cable modem provider may have oversubscribed their service, because they know on average that not all users will be on at the same time.  For cable modems, everyone in a neighborhood shares the line speed, with the connections commonly concentrated in a wiring closet that shares the total speed (or bandwidth) of that closet with everyone else in the neighborhood.  In the old days of local area networking, hubs were used to share Local Area Network (LAN) connections,  much like old party line phones were shared. Today, switches give every one their own private line, and better performance, but very few cable companies have used switches in the neighborhood wiring closets. They have chosen hubs to control costs.Some factors that you can control include your CPU speed, memory, browser caching (buffer settings), and the type of software you have running while on the Internet. A new computer can often make web browsing significantly faster.  Clearing your Internet cache can also make your performance significantly faster. The software you have loaded, like virus scanning or firewall software can significantly slow you down, but you would see this type of slowdown across all web sites.  As ever, since you have a permanent connection to the Internet, make sure you have firewall protection.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-02-01 16:35:00

Question: We have always been a small office of about 10 people. Over the next year, we will be increasing in size to around 20 people. We have done all of the office layouts, but I was wondering if our present MS system of networking will work or whether we need to be looking at something else. We are already experiencing a bit of delay in getting our e-mails and connecting to the Internet. Is there something made for offices like ours?

Answer:  The lack of speed of your network could have several causes. First, your small network probably uses peer-to-peer networking technology. Peer-to-peer lets you share resources such as disk and printers between all users, but the sharing (also called serving) takes resources away from your normal processing or applications. This technology works acceptably on small Local Area Networks, but begins to show noticeable slowdown above 12 users, and often for more than just 5 users.  Since you are noticing operational slow downs with 10 users, you will probably have to change from peer-to-peer to a file server based system.  A file server system has one or more computers that only share resources like files or printers.  You will definitely see a performance improvement by switching to file server technology.Peer-to-peer networking capability has been built in Microsoft desktop operating systems since April 1992. However, it has never been a fast solution for larger networks.  Microsoft's current file server operating system is Windows 2000 Server, which comes in three different editions (Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server).  Based on your size of 25 users, you will be best served by the Windows 2000 Server version.  There has been a small business edition of the Windows Server system for up to 25 users with additional mail, fax and other capabilities, but Microsoft has discontinued this product, so we do not recommend it.Other competitive file server operating systems are offered by Novell and several different Linux companies such as Red Hat.  Novell has just released a new version of their product, Version 6, which is working very well, and is very fast and reliable for your application.  Many pundits in the industry claim that NetWare will not survive, but we are very comfortable recommending this product as an alternative to a Microsoft Server solution.  NetWare has been shipping in different versions since 1982. You may be a candidate for a server running Linux, but your applications may not be compatible.  We are pretty comfortable knowing that the common applications you are currently running will be supported by both NetWare and Windows 2000 server.The file server hardware required for your size business has dropped radically in price in the last three years.  You can get a very good server for $1500-4500.  You should make sure to have at least 512MB of RAM in your server, but 1GB is probably better.  You should have at least 2 disk drives that duplicate each other (mirrored), but a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) would be a better choice. We encourage clients to select file servers made by larger, reputable vendors like Compaq, IBM, HP or Dell.Another potential speed issue is your connection device.  There are two primary types of connection devices: hubs and switches.  It is likely that your connection device is a hub, which you may have selected because it was significantly cheaper than a switch.  Switches today are only marginally more expensive than a hub, and certainly worth the price from a performance perspective.  Substituting a switch for a hub might yield 2 to 4 and as much as 16 times greater performance depending on how your connection devices are configured.Another issue that may affect your speed is the network cards and cabling that you are using.  If you are running Ethernet, you should be using 10/100 cards, and these cards should be running at the 100Mbps speed.  Sometimes your cabling can cause your system to run slow as well.  When you move to your new building, make sure that you have your cabling system professionally installed, certified, and documented.  You may want to consider wireless technologies if you are forced with replacing many of your desktops.Finally, the configuration of your desktop computers might be causing part of your speed problems.  You may have too little memory (256MB is our common recommended minimum) or your applications may have increased in size and complexity to the point that you need to consider upgrading some of your desktop hardware to get more speed.You did not mention how you were currently getting your email or Internet access, but we would hope you have some sort of shared access today, and that you have graduated from using dial-up access to a higher speed technology like DSL or Cable modem.  If not, choosing to use either of these communications technologies will radically improve your Internet connection speed.  The typical home cost is $30-50/month, and the typical business cost is $50-200/month. You should make sure that you have an appliance hardware firewall, some of which include switch technology.In summary, when you make your move, check the following: 1) new, certified cable system, 2) all network cards are running at 100Mbps, 3) switches are used as the connection device, 4) run a new file server, 5) choose a high speed internet service behind a hardware firewall.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2002-02-01 16:35:00

Question: I have owned a small business in Wichita for many years. Like most businesses, I need to advertise. For years in electronic media it was 3 TV stations and about 8 Radio stations. Then along came Cable... FOX... more Radio stations... then group ownership. The audience is so 'chopped up' compared to what it used to be yet the prices still go up every year.People can't be spending much time watching or listening to any one media.Then there's the Internet. Are there any studies on how big of a 'bite' the Internet takes out of the consumption of media?

Answer:  In the Summer of 1999 the UCLA Center for Communication Policy began the first comprehensive study of the impact of Internet usage on a wide range of issues, including its impact on traditional media. The study was funded by a wide range of traditional and new media organizations, including America Online, Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company, Sony, GTE, Pacific Bell and the National Cable Television Association.The study looked at approximately 2,000 households throughout the United States. Those households represented both the approximately 50% of US households that currently have Internet access as well as the 50% (a number which is declining each year) that do not have Internet access.In November UCLA released their report for year two of the study. This report showed that Internet usage had a major impact on the amount of time Internet users spent on other activities. Internet users spent significantly less time each week reading books (6.6 versus 7.6 hours), reading newspapers (2.7 versus 3.9 hours), reading magazines (2.3 versus 3.2 hours), listening to the radio (9 versus 11 hours) and talking on the phone (4.9 versus 5.9 hours). However, the biggest difference was in television viewing. Internet users in the study spent 4.5 hours less a week watching television (12.3 versus 16.8 hours). That represents 27% less viewing by Internet users.The only activities that Internet users spent more time on were non-advertising supported. Those included playing video games (1.5 versus 0.6 hours) and listening to prerecorded music (7.2 versus 6.4 hours).In real terms, Internet usage by households that have access now exceeds all other activities except television viewing (and even then it is a close second). Households with Internet access now spend 9.8 hours per week online, up from 9.4 hours in year 1 of the study. The impact on television viewing has been so dramatic for instance that viewing by 14 year olds declined last year for the first time in history.The impact on traditional media by Internet usage need not necessarily be a negative for a business however. Despite the continued increase in hours spent online by consumers, the "dot bomb" bust of the past year has made online advertising more affordable than ever. The UCLA study also found that consumers were buying online slightly less than the year before, but that nearly one half did so during the year.There is little question that the Internet has had a negative impact on advertising on other media. However, much like the cable television and other newer media types, advertising on the Internet allows businesses to specifically target their advertising expenditures. Web sites that focus on specific types of consumers for instance can allow businesses to drill down to exactly the type of consumer the business would like to reach.Depending on their market, this may allow businesses to spend less money reaching just those consumers they wish to reach with their advertising message.Full results of the UCLA study can be found online at http://ccp.ucla.edu/

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2002-01-01 14:20:00

Question:  I am always receiving e-mail that has been previously forwarded several times. I end up receiving a lot of e-mail addresses of people I do not know. I would like to protect my e-mail address from being forwarded on when I send someone something. Is there a way to do this?

Answer:  What you are seeing when you get those emails with pages and pages of email addresses at the top are the cumulative "headers" of each of the emails that were forwarded from person to person.The headers are a set of information about that email, and include such things as: return address, subject and date the email was sent. In addition to the four or five lines that are visible in your email client there are usually between ten and twenty more lines that are normally hidden. For a full discussion of email headers see:  http://www.stopspam.org/ /email/headers/headers.htmlWhen a message is forwarded from one person to another, email programs often include the visible portions of these headers as part of the forwarded message. Because of this, there really isn't any way you can prevent someone else from forwarding your email address as part of these headers. Technically, it would be possible to avoid putting your return email address in the headers you send out, however this probably wouldn't be a good idea since if you did this no one would be able to reply to your emails.What you can do though is make sure you don't fall victim to this common email mistake. Although it is sometimes appropriate to forward the headers of an email (for instance if you want to make sure the person receiving it knows where the original came from), most of the time these headers are not necessary.In fact, including the headers might even be undesirable. Not only for the privacy reason you mention, but also because they can clutter the email with unnecessary content. It can be very annoying to have to scroll down through pages and pages of unnecessary headers just to read a small amount of actual content at the bottom of the message.The solution is to make sure you edit the forwarded email before you send it on. After choosing the "Forward" command in your email program you have the opportunity to edit the message before you send it on. Instead of just adding "Though you would find this funny" to the top of the message and pressing the send button, you should highlight the headers,footers and any other unnecessary content and delete them before you send the message.In addition, when composing a message that you are going to be sending to several people at one time, you can also put the addresses of the people you are emailing in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field rather than in the TO or CC field. By doing this, the addresses you are emailing will not be shown on the receiving persons computer and will not be included as part of any forwarded headers. It won't prevent them from forwarding your email address, but it will stop them from forwarding the addresses of everyone else you are sending the message to.In short, although you can't really prevent anyone else from forwarding your address in your way, you can make sure you don't do it to anyone else. Remember: "Only you can prevent ugly emails" ;-]

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2002-01-01 13:32:00

Question: What is XML technology? Can you create a portal on a web site and have information from another web site directly feed it? Do you have to have approval from the other web site to get the information?

Answer:  XML is the new language to transfer data on the web.  XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a standards-based approach to sharing data content on web pages.  The standards or rules that are developed allow applications that follow these standards to transfer data from one application to another.  Some sources claim that by the year 2004, there will be as many as 500 variants of the XML standard customized for specific industries.  As a user of XML technology, however, you do not have to worry about the mechanics behind XML, as long as you know that your application supports XML.For example, a variant of XML for the accounting industry is XBRL.  This standard defines the exchange of data for cash flows, income statements and balance sheets between financial systems and analysis tools like Excel spreadsheets.  Excel supports XML today, and can read XBRL data.  Accounting software from vendors like ACCPAC, Best Software, Navision and Microsoft/Great Plains have all supported XBRL for over a year.  The standards organization driving XBRL has a web site at http://www.xbrl.org/.Other industry specific XML definitions include HR-XML which is currently supported by a consortium of 110 organizations.  This standard was approved this year, and allows for the interchange of Human Resources information between systems without rekeying the data.  Your expectation should be that data processed by an outsource payroll company like ADP, Ceridian, Paychex, or any other payroll service can be exchanged between your in-house system and the outsource provider with security and no re-entry of the data.  Eventually, you can expect job placement and temporary agencies to send you potential employee information in HR-XML format.Also this year, key financial players like Fidelity Investments, American Express, the stock exchanges, and other financial advisors agreed to create an exchange standard for securities related data.  Fidelity has a working model of this type of XML today.All companies can use XML, and most industries will have a specialized type of XML that will make doing business easier between companies because of the well-defined data interchange mechanism specific to that industry.  This will reduce the need for older standards like EDI, and will make supply chains, exchanges and portals far more effective, and easier to implement or join.This really brings us to your second question.  Yes, you can create a portal on your web site using XML and have data from your accounting system or from someone else's accounting system or web site feed information into your web site.  Part of the definition of XML data relates to the security of the data.  You must agree with your potential partner on what data needs to be exchanged, and how to protect the security of the data. This process today is not simple, but should be understood by people in your Information Technology department.  Third party tools like those from eBridge (http://www.edi-bridge.com/) may be required, or your accounting software may do this integration for you.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2001-12-01 16:44:00

Question:  The other day my wife and I were at my son's house and watched him log on to the Internet. It was so fast. We have had a dial-up account for several years. He said he was on DSL. Is this expensive?

Answer:  DSL may be slightly more expensive than traditional "dial-up" Internet access using a modem. The cost difference between the two however may only be around $5 monthly when you consider all of the expenses involved. An additional $5 a month for 25 times the speed isn't too bad of a trade off.Take for example a household where a second phone line has been installed expressly for dial-up Internet access. The access fee paid to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) may only be $20-22. The cost for the additional phone line will be nearly $30 after all options, fees and taxes (and at least $35 for a business line). That makes the cost of the dial-up service at least $50. This is nearly as much as a basic DSL connection. With DSL service the second phone line would not be necessary.Even if you don't have a phone line dedicated to Internet access, there are other costs associated with dial-up when you share your existing voice or fax line for Internet access. When you are using that phone line for Internet access no one else can call in or out on the line. This can lead to lost calls and faxes or just frustration on the part of those trying to call in or out on the line. With DSL service, you can continue to use your voice line normally even though you are on the Internet.For a business, DSL service will most often actually save money compared to dial-up access. This is because many businesses will have multiple phone lines dedicated to dialing up to multiple ISP accounts. Since DSL is so much faster, it can easily be shared between multiple computers. This can mean considerable savings if multiple phone lines and ISP accounts can all be consolidated into one DSL account.Ultimately though, comparing dial-up service and DSL by cost alone isn't a fair comparison. As you mention, DSL is so much faster than dial-up service... what your Internet access dollar buys you with DSL is a much better value. The average dial-up connection speed is somewhere between 26 Kbps and 50 Kbps (kilobits per second). Basic DSL download speeds are up to 1,500 Kbps, and advanced DSL service going up to 6,000 Kbps. In addition to increased speeds, DSL is an "always on" service which means you are always connected to the Internet and don't have to wait to log on each time you want to us it.The productivity increases and frustration decreases that DSL speeds bring can't always be measured in dollars and cents,  but anyone who has made the switch to DSL will tell you they are definitely real. How much that means to you will depend on how much you use the Internet, but even casual users report that their Internet experience is definitely better when using DSL.By Chris Owen

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2001-12-01 14:29:00

Question: Every time a new operating system comes out, such as Microsoft's new XP, I am always reluctant to change because (a), I don't need any new problems that are attributable to bugs, and (b), I don't want to have to go buy new versions of all my software to accommodate the new operating system. Should I be worried? How often should one change an operating system? Will I have to go get new versions of all of my programs?

Answer: Your reluctance to change operating systems reflects good business sense.  According to studies from the Gartner Group, Microsoft operating systems have a practical life cycle of about four years.  During the first year, the product has compatibility and bug problems.  Most of these problems are corrected through fixes to the operating system called service packs, and we normally recommend waiting to deploy new Microsoft products after the first service pack has arrived.  This is commonly 4-6 months after the initial release. You do not have to be the first person or company to use a technology product to maintain a competitive edge.Microsoft recently released their latest version of their Windows operating system, named Windows XP.  There are two versions of this product, one called Professional and the other called Home.  We only recommend the Professional version for businesses, even home-based businesses, because of the networking technology that is included in this version of the product.  The other product is designed for a home computer that is primarily used for recreational purposes, and that is not attached to other computers in a network.  We are recommending Windows XP Home over Microsoft's prior home operating system, Windows ME.  Windows ME has so many technical problems; it should never have been released.Another key part of your question concerns upgrading.  We normally don't recommend changing from the operating system that originally shipped on your computer hardware.  You are far more likely to have compatibility problems by attempting to use a new version of an operating system on older hardware.  As quickly as technology is upgraded, it is probably a wiser fiscal choice to replace your computer on a regular basis every 3 or 4 years.  You will get the benefit of greatly improved productivity because of the speed of the hardware, and the new features that are supported by your applications.  Further, you will spend less on upgrades during the time that you own the computer.  In all the years we have made the "don't upgrade" recommendation, we only have one exception, and that is for all computer running Windows ME: upgrade to Windows XP now.  If you insist on upgrading, never upgrade to a new OS on hardware that is older than two years.Finally, many of your applications will not be compatible with Windows XP in their current versions.  When you choose to upgrade to Windows XP, we would suggest you also plan on the expense of upgrading all of your applications at the same time.  You may get lucky and only have to upgrade some of the applications.  Waiting to upgrade is also advantageous here.  Some vendors take 6-9 months to upgrade their product to be completely compatible and to take advantage of the new features added to the operating system.

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Computers & Software

Chris Owen

2001-07-01 09:02:00

QUESTION: We do not have DSL in our area. I was wondering if it is possible to use two modems in some way to increase the speed at which I can access things on the Internet?

ANSWER:  It is possible to "bond" two modems in this way to get a wider connection. This can either be done within the computer with more than internal modem or with an external device designed specifically for this purpose.The latter of these choices is probably the superior solution. Devices like the WebRamp (now owned by Nokia) allow you to connect to the internet simultaneously with up to four modems. These devices then can be connected to your computer via a network card. One advantage of this type of setup is that the combined internet connection is then available to all machines on the network so one or more computers can then share the higher speed connection.This allows normal dialup connections to be combined in order to give you a higher total throughput with your connection.There are a couple of issues to be aware of with this type of situation however. First is that the cost of this solution is probably such that it should really only be considered when there are no other broad band options available. In order to use this type of solution you will need to have at least two phone lines and two separate internet accounts. Assuming average phone line costs of around $30 per line and $20 per internet account that can mean a monthly cost of over $100 per month for this type of connection.Second, it is important to note that although this solution will allow you to have a total bandwidth of twice that of a single modem connection, in most cases you really only have two parallel slower connections, not one higher one. What this means is that if you are using a web browser and looking at web sites with lots of small files that page will appear to load twice as fast. This is because one file can download over one of the connections while another file is downloading over the other one. The files will roughly "alternate" between the two connections to load the total page twice as fast.However, if you are trying to download one large file such as program update or CD image, generally the technology used by these devices will only allow that single file to come in over one of the two connections (there are specialized ways of actually bonding the two connections but those require a special type of connection to your internet provider and can't be used with two normal dialup connections). In these cases the time it takes to download a single large file will not be any faster than if you only have one modem in use.The same type of limitations would apply to any other single connection type applications such as sending or retrieving your email or uploading large files.Although it does have its limitations, for normal web "surfing" however, this type of solution will allow a much "faster" experience than a normal dialup connection. For those locations without any other broadband options this can be a convenient way to improve your internet experience.

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Computers & Software

Randy Johnston

2001-07-01 09:02:00

Question: I run my business from my home. I have 4 computers connected via peer to peer in a LAN. The computer I use contains most of the files the other stations use. For some reason, every so often, I have hardware and software disappear. For instance, I can be printing something on my laser printer then print another document and the error message says "no printer found". Another example is I have a scanner for doing graphics. Sometimes... again in the middle of doing scanning... I will get an error message that says "no scanner found". This is most frustrating as you can imagine. Where would you begin to fix the problem?

Answer:  Intermittent problems like you have described can be very frustrating. I may not have all the facts I need to address every issue, but let's give it a shot, and I will follow up with you more individually if necessary.Your peer to peer network is a very common configuration, particularly since Microsoft began building this into Windows in April 1993.  The mechanism that they use to let the computers and devices talk to each other is a software protocol interface known as NetBIOS.  This technology is fragile at best, and will often lose communications because of overflows in buffers, and other settings that can be adjusted.  However, Windows is not very friendly at letting you adjust these settings, and there is a better way to fix this problem.  Simply add additional, more reliable protocols to all of your machines.  We will often recommend the proactive (or active) protocol IPX, which was commonly supported by Novell NetWare, and appears in all Microsoft operating systems.  Another protocol that can be loaded is TCP/IP, which is a passive protocol. You probably have this loaded because of accessing the Internet, but this protocol is not as likely to fix the problem as IPX (active vs. passive).Another issue could be that you are using a non-dedicated server in your peer to peer LAN.  Non-dedicated servers are nowhere near as reliable as dedicated servers. However, your size of four stations is in the safe zone. We normally allow non-dedicated servers up to 12 users, but begin to caution companies at the five user level. You may want to consider purchasing an additional server, and make it a dedicated server, even in your small home-based business LAN.  The cost of a server is very small compared to the cost of lost productivity of your people, lost files, and worse yet, lost business.