Homeland Secure IT Alert

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, February 23, 2011

Microsoft has released Security Advisory 967940, titled “Update for Windows Autorun”, and it covers an issue that has long plagued Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. When you insert a USB flash drive, or USB hard drive, Windows has attempted to treat them like CD/DVD material and perform an autorun on it. While most IT professionals and tech savvy individuals have disabled that feature, and anti-virus developers such as Trend Micro have provided an option to disable that function, as gaping hole has been there for everyone else.

How has it affected people? Many ways, from a person inserting their USB flash drive from home into a business computer and the autorun functionality automatically installing the malware that was on the home system directly onto a network computer, creating a huge network security issue, down to malicious people dropping a flash drive containing malicious software on it in the parking lot of a large company they wanted access to. This resulted in workers at said company picking up the flash drive and inserting it into a computer on the corporate network in an attempt to see what was on it or find the owner to return it, and unknowingly permit software that would allow remote access to the network.

So, finally, after years of this, Microsoft has addressed it!

Microsoft has also published MS10-077, a revision to a bulletin posted in 2010 for a change to the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 update package. And MS10-070, which is yet another revision to .NET Framework 4.0. These are labeled “Critical” and “Important”, respectively.

Keep your systems up to date, and be sure you have current anti-virus… We recommend and sell Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security and Titanium. In Greenville / Upstate, SC please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for more information…

Homeland Secure IT Alert

A New York Times article that was tweeted yesterday by @randomlycb really caught my attention…

It involves a well-to-do gentleman who takes his computer to a local (New York) computer repair facility for a simple virus cleanup / removal in 2006, and things go horribly wrong. The owner of the computer service center tells the PC owner that he has fallen victim to an elaborate attack from a foreign entity that has not only his data in danger, but the well being of his family!

Over the next six years, the computer owner pays the computer service shop an estimated SIX MILLION dollars to keep him safe. The article goes on to explain further oddities revolving around the strange relationship between computer owner and shady computer repair clinic owner.

This is so intriguing that it could be a turned into a movie, except for the part where it is all too real, and a man, his family and others were hurt by the very people he trusted.

The next time you are in need of computer service, don’t let the technician tell you that you need to pay millions of dollars… Select a quality IT company who will give you a reasonable estimate for the labor and a time frame for the repairs. A typical virus cleanup / malware removal can take an hour, sometimes more depending on the severity and the data being dealt with. A reputable repair facility will generally have your computer back to you the same or next business day.

Homeland Secure IT provides business & personal computer service and repair in our Greenville office, or at your Upstate location, including Simpsonville, Anderson, Spartanburg, Easley, Piedmont, Seneca, Duncan, Taylors, Pickens, Mauldin, Clemson, Six Mile. Please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for additional information.

Shiny Happy People

According to a story published in the Washington Post, computer users are happier with their PCs than at any time since the first year (1994) that this was tracked! This was based around a poll run by ACSI LLC.

It was not surprising that Apple had the highest user satisfaction with their “cult-like” Mac following, though it may catch some off guard that Microsoft held its own. The article cites improvements in Microsoft customer satisfaction since the release of Windows 7, which we have seen ourselves. In fact, since the release of Microsoft Windows 7, we have been seeing people dump their aging Macs and opt for less expensive Windows machines as replacements.

Some factors that appear to be contributing to the migration from Mac to the Windows platform are the consistently lower prices for Microsoft Windows based machines, security holes being exploited in the Mac rapidly narrowing the “Mac is more secure” gap, the overall user friendliness and reliability of Windows 7 and of course the larger software selection.

Either way, across the board people are as happy as ever with their computers!

If you find your experience is less than satisfactory, I would like to hear from you. Reply here, shoot me an email, give me a call, etc. We can likely help improve your satisfaction!

Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 With BPOS Goodness

So you are setup with a FREE trial of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite and are enjoying all the online apps but something is missing, you don’t want to use web apps, you want to use all the features of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or 2010 that you have already paid for and know your way around.

Well it is possible to have your cake and eat it too! *IF* you signed up for the BPOS Standard trial instead of the “Deskless Worker” trial, then you can configure your Outlook to view the same Exchange data you see with Outlook Web Access. You will see the same emails, the same contacts, the same tasks, folders, public folders, calendars etc!

Wait, you didn’t get the Standard version of the BPOS demo? That’s okay, you can log back into the portal and activate the Standard version, then deactivate the Deskless Worker product and not even lose your configuration. YOU MAY lose your emails though and have to start over, but hey, it’s just a demo, you didn’t have that much anyway!

Okay, so back to task at hand, getting Outlook configured. It’s EASY, relatively speaking to accomplish this. First you log into your online mail app (OWA) at http://mail.microsoft.com and once in there, click on OPTIONS at the upper right hand corner, then, select ABOUT from the left hand menu. You will see something that looks like this:

Data to gather from OWA to setup Outlook

The important information for you to gather will be the “Outlook Web Access host name”, and the “Mailbox server name”.

Now, close out Outlook on your desktop and go to START/Control Panel and select Mail (If using Win 7 64 bit, once you open Control Panel, type “mail” in the Search Control Panel input at the top right hand side and select “Mail (32-Bit)”).

Select “Show Profiles” and add a new one… Let’s call it “BPOS”.  Next, select the checkbox for “Manually configure server settings or additional server types” then hit “Next >”. Select “Microsoft Exchange or compatible service” and hit “Next >”.

In the “Server:” field, put the information you gathered from Outlook Web Access for the Mailbox Server Name… (Ex: A3DIAXVS251.RED001.local). For “User Name:” enter your email address, then select “More Settings”. Don’t bother hitting “Check Name” as it will not function (yet)…

Select the “Connection” tab, at the bottom, select “Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP” and then hit the button “Exchange Proxy Settings…”, for “Use this URL to connect to my proxy server for Exchange:”, you need to enter the Outlook Web Access hostname from OWA (Ex: red001.mail.microsoftonline.com) and do not include the “https://” or the “/owa” here, just the hostname.

You can select to “Only connect to proxy servers that have this principal name in their certificate” if you wish, but not necessary.

DO select both of the checkboxes at the bottom for “On xxxx networks, connect using HTTP first, then connect using TCP/IP”, and set the proxy authentication settings to “NTLM Authentication”.

Click OKAY and apply those settings and now try to open Outlook… You should be prompted with a login.

Sounds complicated? Kinda-sorta, but it works well, and you only have to do it once. You can also use the Microsoft single signon client if you wish, which will remember your login and password and allow you to open Outlook without any issue, but some company policies may not allow you to install additional software, or automatic login applications so the above should work for you.

If you get stuck, please reply here or shoot me an email at info@homelandsecureit.com and I will try to give you a hand.

Just saw where another computer user in Greenville could have avoided a nightmare. They posted their computer was toast. Bad hard drive according to some geeky type people that looked at it. The computer is back to running, but their data is GONE.

Homeland Secure IT offers many backup solutions that can protect you from this scenario, but our favorite is Servosity Online Backup, which runs on your computer, regardless of the operating system of that computer (Server, Workstation, Notebook, etc) and quietly backs up your data to a secure server located “in the cloud”.

It is affordable, it is reliable, and the president of Servosity is an Upstate SC native. What more could you ask for?

If you would like to try this awesome online backup service, we offer a FREE trial, just call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for additional details or get setup for a trial.

Please do it before it is too late. Losing your pictures, music, documents, etc is a painful experience, and potentially devastating. The cost of recovering hard drives can be in the thousands!

@RussellTripp posted this to Twitter and I had to save it, thus it got posted to the blog so I don’t forget about it myself…

Thanks Russell… I didn’t even know about the Code Search until today. I can promise you I will be using this

10 Google Services That Don’t Get the Limelight They Deserve  posted on MakeUseOf.com

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

Yes, the subject is correct! Microsoft is offering students the deal of a lifetime…   Windows 7 Professional for only $29.99!

Follow this link to get the whole scoop…  In short you must have an email address ending with .edu, or be enrolled at a college listed as eligible on that site.

There is also a link at the bottom of that page for Microsoft Office Professional Academic version for $79.95, but last I checked, that link is broken.

If you have not checked out Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Office yet, you should do so using the free trials that are available, or if you happen to be a student, upgrade to both for only 100 bucks!?!  What a great deal! What a way to start out the new school year, with the latest software!

If you really need a reason to upgrade other than features and having the latest, how about security? Windows 7 Professional and Office 2010 Professional address security better than any previous version!

Students with Macs are loading Windows 7 Professional on their computers for compatibility with the latest software and requirements of colleges, giving them the best of both worlds!

If you require assistance, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864-990-4748 – we can provide help in installing either of these software packages to those in the Greenville / Upstate SC area.

Whatever you do - Don't panic...

It seems like once a month or so we get a phone call from someone who is freaking out over their computer not booting up…

In the case of the system giving a blank / black screen, or the even more ominous “Operating System Not Found” / “Missing operating system” message and nothing further upon boot up, you might be surprised to find that the solution is easy…

Many newer computers come from the factory with the ability to boot from external media, such as USB hard drives, flash memory sticks, card readers, smart phones such as the iPhone, digital cameras and other devices. This applies to machines running Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, and even Windows Server.

I always suggest to the person with the trembling voice that they take a deep breath, and unplug anything they may have plugged into the computer since the last time it was booted up. Remove any memory cards, flash drives, USB devices, etc. Make sure there are no disks in the CD drive or floppy drive (What? Someone uses a floppy?) and then reboot.

In more cases than I could possibly remember, their machine will boot up as normal and their blood pressure will drop tremendously.

I have heard stories that unscrupulous computer service technicians will “diagnose” this problem as a faulty hard drive and charge the client for unnecessary computer repair and parts. Hopefully, if this is the case, you will not fall into that trap because you just read this post. If I saved you from a heart attack, please respond here, or buy me a coffee.

The computer can be set to NOT boot from USB devices in most cases, so if you encounter this regularly and wish to make that change, it should be possible in the BIOS. Should you require assistance with that, or your system does NOT boot up even with USB and memory devices unplugged, please give us a call at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We offer complete computer service, repair and sales to Greenville / Upstate SC.

Microsoft BPOS

Are you tired of dealing with POP3 or IMAP mail from your ISP? Tired of SLOW email? Do you want to share calendars between coworkers? Do you want to see the same contacts, calendar entries and emails on your phone as you do in your Outlook on your desktop and also via a web interface? Do you want your mobile workforce to have access to the same resources you do, including public / shared calendars & contacts? Want support for your Mac, Apple iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry?

Then Microsoft Exchange is the way to go, however, there are costs associated with hosting your own Exchange server that are unattractive to many smaller businesses.

Fortunately there are Hosted / In-The-Cloud alternatives, such as Microsoft’s Own BPOS, the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite which features a Hosted Exchange server, SharePoint, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online. Using BPOS can eliminate the need to purchase, deploy, maintain, backup and eventually upgrade a Microsoft Windows Server with Microsoft Exchange Server. The services are hosted “in the cloud”, in a data center, where all maintenance and upgrades are maintained FOR you. No need to worry with backups either.

This solution isn’t right for everybody, but it could be the answer to your problems if you have a smaller office, a large mobile workforce, a small budget or possibly no central location to place a server at. Would you like more information? Please call us at 864-990-4748 ext 201 or email info@homelandsecureit.com to arrange for a free, no obligation consultation.

Free 30 Day BPOS Trial

Optionally, you can sign up for a FREE 30 day trial of BPOS - Business Productivity Online Standard Suite - This trial includes 20 user licenses for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online.

Homeland Secure IT offers Hosted Microsoft Online Services including the full BPOS / Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting & Office Communications Online) as well as the Business Productivity Online Deskless Worker Suite (Exchange Online & SharePoint Online), and each service individually.

If you are in the Upstate / Greenville SC area, we can assist you with configuring your Outlook to work with the Hosted Exchange Online service at your location or ours.

We also offer full remote support and phone support to clients anywhere in the United States.