Alan Feldman

Don't Rely On The "Luck Of the Irish" To Keep Your Data Safe!

2009-03-17T11:09:00.001-05:00

Can't
afford to be down for days? Then take heed to these 3 easy (but
critical!) steps to make sure you never have to experience extended
downtime, data loss or corruption:

http://ping.fm/5qaao
Itemid=1.

Recession Proof Your Life

2009-03-16T11:25:00.001-05:00

I met Pam Viveiros last year in Nashville
at the Robin Robins bootcamp. Here she is being interviewed on TV by
Eyewitness News 3. Watch her talk about simple ways to Recession Proof
Your Life, http://ping.fm/QENgV Congrats on
the baby Pam!

:4Runner Headlight

2009-02-26T10:10:00.001-05:00

Man I feel like a weekend warrior, but did it
during the week! I replaced the broken headlight in our 2000 Toyota 4
Runner. Took me a little while to get the grill off, but after that
things moves very smoothly. New headlight makes the old one look dim.
Maybe I'll do that one later too.

:Free PDF Writer for Office 2007

2009-02-13T15:42:00.001-05:00

Office 2007 has so many advantages
over older versions. One of the really nice features I like is the
ability to write a PDF directly from Word. Download the update directly
from Microsoft
http://ping.fm/Z07SU
F15-991B-63B07BA5F2E5&displaylang=en.

More information on PDF and XPS files in Office
http://ping.fm/Kal4J

:Here's to a Prosperous 2009

2009-01-12T11:15:00.001-05:00

I just read Matt Best's latest
newsletter, Passport for Success. The 10 Steps to a Prosperous 2009 is
awesome. Sign up for free on his website www.somedayisland.com. Be sure
you mention who sent you.

:Sheep in Wolves Clothing

2009-01-06T11:27:00.001-05:00

Spyware popups constantly and argue with
you to install nasty stuff? Here is a nice article on why, how, when and
what to do.

http://ping.fm/AEw3y
html

Spyware and Adware Protection

2009-01-06T11:00:00.001-05:00

Just came across this article from Microsoft http://ping.fm/F61Wb re.mspx about protecting yourself from spyware and adware. It also goes into a general overview of what they are.

:Geeky Redneck

2009-01-05T17:58:00.004-05:00

I just found out today that there is a Dell sales and
technical support facility in Nashville.
http://tinyurl.com/9b6z5v
From here it doesn't look small at all. Nice parking. Bad roof.

:Plugging Power Leaks

2008-10-28T10:32:00.002-05:00

Want to know how much power is being sucked from your appliance? I found this really cool wattage meter in a magazine the other day. It's called Kill A Watt EZ and runs about $60.

:Everything is Bigger in Texas

2008-10-27T09:29:00.001-05:00

I was in Dallas last week for the annual N-Able Partner Summit. I get a huge benefit from these meetings and look forward to them every year. I meet a lot of business owners that are very successful. These guys are great and I feed off their energy. Many of them share so many great ideas, it's amazing. But as my business coach Matt Best says, "knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is power."
I can't wait to start applying these ideas this week in my business.

:Xerox Phaser 8560 Prints Slow

2008-02-18T10:03:00.003-05:00

Just installed a new Xerox Phaser 8560 on a small network with 6 computers and a Small Busines Server 2003. I installed the printer on the server and shared it out for the desktops, but everytime they print it takes 2 minutes to start printing, even after the printer is warmed up. After trying many things, the printer drivers were installed to each desktop directly from the CD and now everyone prints much much faster.

:Adobe Flash Download Installer

2007-06-04T07:37:00.000-05:00

Adobe doesn't make it easy to download their popluar free flash player and install it on another computer. For example, I have a computer that isn't connected to the Internet that needs the flash player to install the network drivers. Talk about a catch-22. But the public side of Adobe has to flash player offline installers that you can download. All the links take you to distributing documents about bundling the flash installer. All I want to do is install the darn thing. Finally found the link at a Yahoo Answers forum to download the Adobe Flash Player Installer from Adobe's ftp site. Ahh, finally.

:XPS Opens Office Documents

2007-04-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

Microsoft's new standard for office documents has just opened up a whole new way to share documents from any application. This format will allow you to open and view documents regardless of the application used to create them. For example, I'm running Excel 2007 and I print a spreadsheet to the XPS printer and email the file to a business contact. They don't need Excel 2007 to view the document exactly as I wanted them to see it, they only need the XPS viewer.

XPS is built into the new Vista operating system, but downloadable for free.

Features include:

easier printing
easier sharing
easier archival
easier retrieval
more secure

All hope is not lost though for users that want to share Office documents between Office 2007 and Office 2003. A free file converter is available for download.

:Vista Tour

2007-03-31T13:04:00.000-05:00

Need to get aquianted with all the new terms and nuances of Microsoft Vista? Here is a nice overview of whats included to make our lives easier.

:Google Me

2007-03-15T16:08:00.000-05:00

Have you ever "googled" yourself? Oh nevermind, of course you have. Ever wonder how many people in the US have your name? With the same spelling? Check out howmanyofme.com.

Here is what I found out about me.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
25
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

:Vista On The Downlow

2007-02-28T15:44:00.000-05:00

Many new computers are coming with the latest and greatest from Microsoft, Windows Vista. Users (and their technical staff) are finding out the hard way that some things just don't work, or won't work. For example, I ran into a firm that got 2 new PC's with Vista, but none will run their mission critical app, so both are being reformateed with Windows XP.

However, there is no migration path from Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium to Windows XP. You have to have licences for XP. You are basically stuck if you want to downgrade.

But if you are really a business user, you should be purchasing Vista Business anyway. That included the rights to downgrade to Windows XP Professional for nominal costs (costs of CD). According to this document on Microsoft's website, this is what they say about downgrade rights...

Can I downgrade my OEM version of Windows Vista Business to Windows XP Professional?
Yes. OEM downgrade rights for desktop PC operating systems apply to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate as stated in the License Terms. Please note, OEM downgrade versions of Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate are limited to Windows XP Professional (including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP x64 Edition). End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement), retail (FPP), or system builder hologram CD (provided the software is acquired in accordance with the Microsoft OEM System Builder License). Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista Business. There are no downgrade rights granted for Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium.

In the same breath, if you still need access to Microsoft's older products like Windows 98 or, God forbid, Windows 95, you can still purchase licences for them. What you do is purchase licenses for Vista Enterprise, then you have rights to Windows Vista Business, and it can be downgraded to the Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT® 4.0, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 98, or Windows 95 operating system.

According to the same document at Microsoft...

If I have Windows Vista Enterprise, what can I downgrade to?
Downgrade rights in the Volume Licensing programs provide customers with the right to downgrade to any prior version of the same product. Windows Vista Enterprise is a new type of product and does not have a prior version. However, customers licensed for use of Windows Vista Enterprise are licensed for Windows Vista Business, and it can be downgraded to the Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT® 4.0, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 98, or Windows 95 operating system. You would not, however, be able to downgrade to Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, or Microsoft Windows Millennium as those are different products and not considered previous versions of Windows Vista Business.

So if you are even sceptical about buying a new computer, that you just might throw in the towel with Windows Vista, do yourself and your IT staff a favor and get Vista Business for the free downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional.

:Snow Day Doesn't Mean Day Off Anymore

2007-02-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

I just watched the weather report from Weather Plus and according to them we are having some weather today. What I would like to point out here is that I don't even have to go to work today. I mean I don't have to go to the office. I can work from home and have access to everything that I would normally have. Everything is secure, everything is fast. No one knows this is what I do on a regular basis. Not just when we have weather. You see, I don't have to be in my office (or at work) to be working and productive.

I can remote into my desktop in the office to run any application just like I was sitting there.
I can remote into my Outlook email, to see my calendar and tasks.
I can remote into a web version of Outlook and get to it another way.
I can use my Intranet from anywhere and collaborate with my co workers.
I can login with my laptop and see all of the files on my company network....LIVE.
I set my phone extension to forward to my home office and cell phone.

And all of this is encrypted and secure.
And (best part) it is all included with any new Small Business Server from Virtual October, Inc.

And everything that I'm doing, I can do for you. If you would like to find out more about how this all works, download my free guide The 12 Surefire Signs Your Business Is Ready For A Server. In it I'll explain how I can help you make your life (and your business) a little easier...And show you how a snow day can still be a work day!

:Web 2.0 Overview

2007-02-11T17:05:00.000-05:00

What is Web 2.0 all about? What will Web 2.0 do? What will Web 2.0 do for me? my business? my family? the world? I think this starts a very nice conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

:What Cell Phone Are You Using?

2007-02-11T16:55:00.000-05:00

I recently upgraded my cell phone to the Cingular 8125. This is a Mobile Windows Pocket PC enabled phone. It has a small slide out keyboard and a touch screen.
It took me a little while to get it sync'd with Outlook 2003, but eventually (after turning on USB support on the phone) I know have all of my contacts, calendar and tasks sync'd up.
I'm using the XpressMail service from Cingular right now to send me mail. I have the XpressMail client running on my desktop in the office. It will sync my email and calendar live.
I just ordered a dashboard mount kit for my car and a GPS add on. I'll let you know more later.

:Winner, Again

2006-09-13T12:56:00.000-05:00

From the Colligo Reader User Satisfaction Survey...

"CONGRATULATIONS TO ALAN FELDMAN – I am pleased to announce the winner to the Samsung MP3 player. Alan Feldman is President of Virtual October, Inc. - a firm based in York, PA that specializes in server maintenance, installation, and support for small businesses."

:Dude, You're Dell Is On Fire

2006-08-25T07:29:00.000-05:00

Despite being threatened by Dell that I wouldn't see my Dell laptops replacement battery until hell freezes over, it arrived the other day. About a week is all it took. I was preparing to make alternate plans if I didn't see it soon. I stuffed the explosive battery back in the mail, and sent it postal mail back to china. The poor mail person. Little did they know they would have to handle 4 million defective batteries that are anticipated to explode at any moment.

:Earthlink Spam?

2006-08-15T13:36:00.000-05:00

Well you might think that Earthlink is only worth as much as spam. But Earthlink is now listed on spam blacklists. If you use smtp.earthlink.net to send mail for your home or office, you might be surprised to see that some of the mail is now coming back as "not delivered" because the sending server is "know for sending spam".
After about an hour phone call to Earthlink technical support, I was able to somehow decypher what the foreign tech support staff was trying to say. Instead of using smtp.earthlink.net, we are now to use smthauth.earthlink.net as our outbound mail server. And to top that off we need to authenticate with our earthlink email account and password and use connect to them only on port 587.

New outbound mail server: smtpauth.earthlink.net
New outbound mail server port: 587
Authenticate with your earthlink username and password.

Talk about a mess for a small office. And a mess for anyone not using earthlink.net as their email address anyway. My clients office just uses them for the DSL line. Earthlink makes us use their mail servers because they are afraid we will send spam. What a crock!
For my client, that meant digging through ancient documentation to find out firstly what their earthlink.net email address even is. Since no one used it before, no really knew. I found an ancient piece of handwritten notes stuffed in a drawer near the server that finally did the trick.
I also had to change the ports that their internal Exchange server was using to send mail. Instead of the default port 25, I had to change it deep in the Exchange server settings to the new port, 587. Not only the port, but I had to change Exchange 2003 to authenticate to send mail with the new settings. I actually added this is two locations in Exchange before my test emails worked.

Try these links if you need to change your settings in Outlook or Outlook Express.

:BlackBerry Sync

2006-06-29T15:05:00.000-05:00

BlackBerry calendar and contact sync used to only be for the big guys. Now There is a FREE single user edition of BlackBerry Enterprise Server! Additional users can be added for $99 each up to 15 users. It will run on Small Business Server 2003. I just completed my first implementation and am ready to deploy on a regular basis. If you are interested in learning more, please feel free to contact me.

:SBS 2003 Client Application Deployment

2006-06-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

I was searching high and low to figure out if Small Business Server 2003 could deploy client applicatoins to Windows 2000 Professional. I know it works for XP Professional. I think I finally figured out that it does. It does not deploy for Windows 98 or Windows ME.

The Set Up Client Applications Wizard only works with client computers running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Microsoft Windows XP Professional. If you have a client computer running a different operating system, you must connect to the share manually from the client computer.

:Service Pack 2006

2006-06-13T15:03:00.000-05:00

Numerous vendors have now posted service packs, including Trend Micro and Microsoft. Trend Micro has SP1 available for it's Client Server Messaging Security Suite for SMB. Microsoft has SP2 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and SP2 for Windows Sharepoint Services. Contact Virtual October to have your updates completed.