High Flying Technology

A Bicoastal Blog by Small Business Network Management Experts

Archive for category Technology News

HOW TO: Put a Delay on Emails in Microsoft Outlook

Mar 15

Posted by molly.moore@wingswept.com in Managed Services, Technology News, Technology Tips | No Comments

If you want to be able to hit “send” but have the email stay in your outbox for a time, use the following rule. When it is in your outbox, you are able to re-open it and make changes without using the Recall feature!

 In Outlook, go to the Tools menu Rules and Alerts

  1. Click on New Rule
  2. Click Start From a Blank Rule
  3. Highlight Check Messages After Sending, then click Next
  4. Do not select any check boxes showing, then click Next
  5. Answer Yes to dialog box asking if this applies to all messages
  6. Select the last check box – Defer delivery by X minutes
  7. Under Step 2 that now shows, click on minutes
  8. Edit number of minutes you would like the delay to last (suggested delay 2 minutes), Click OK and Next
  9. Decide if you want an exception – Some use “Importance” to have emails go immediately  
  10. Name your rule and click Finish! You can now go grab and delete from out Outbox for 2 minutes if you realize you didn’t mean to send a certain email

This “How To” is presented to you by the collaborative minds of, IT and Managed Services experts,  WingSwept of Garner, NC and Clever Ducksof San Luis Obispo, CA

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Beware of Emails from the IRS. Scam alert!

Jan 27

Posted by molly.moore@wingswept.com in Technology News, Technology Tips | No Comments

WingSwept and Clever Ducks would like to warn you about the a identity theft scheme that is being accompanied by tax season.  The newest scheme developed by identity thieves is to send an e-mail posing as the IRS.

One version of the scam IRS messages has victims receiving an e-mail advising they did not report all of their income to the IRS.  The recipient is then asked to download an attachment which the scammer claims is a portion of their most recent tax return.  When the attachment is downloaded, the victim’s computer has acquired a virus.

Another similar scam plays on a victim’s fear of being audited by the IRS.  A bogus information form is sent to the victim by e-mail who is told they must complete and return it.  If the victim does not complete the form, the scammer will then threaten them with levy penalties and interest.

In order to avoid the newest scam this tax season, it is important to remember one thing:  The IRS uses the US Postal Service to contact taxpayers—they never use e-mail.

Read more about the article this blog entry is based on.

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What Small Businesses Need to Know About Hard Disk Failure

Oct 12

Posted by molly.moore@wingswept.com in Technology News | No Comments

What Small Businesses Need to Know About Hard Disk Failure

WingSwept and Clever Ducks found that this study done by Google to be informative and useful to those interested in hard disk failures. Google only released some of their results, but three major conclusions are below. To read an article about this study click here.

The Surprising Truth about Temperature!

 Despite what most believe, high operating temperatures aren’t the worst things to happen to your system. Disk failures are more common in LOW temperature environments.

Tracking Performance

Google found that tracking four specific SMART counters (scan errors, reallocation count, offline reallocation, and probational count) were clearly associated with subsequent hard disk failures. But, they also found that more than HALF of the failed drives in its sample of over 100,000 disk drives showed no problems in these four categories before failure occurred.

Does Age Matter?

This is one thing Google could not pin-point in their study. There seems to be a slightly higher failure rate during the first three months; disks that survive this burn-in period are then uniformly reliable for around a year. The manufacturer of a three year-old drive has a bigger impact on reliability than the fact that the drive is three years old. Unfortunately, Google was unwilling to share WHICH manufacturers they found to be the most reliable.

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Managing Technologies in Uncertain Economic Times

Sep 15

Posted by molly.moore@wingswept.com in Technology News | No Comments

The current economic downturn has challenged many business owners to re-evaluate existing business models, operational efficiencies, and capital expenditures.  Many forward thinking organizations are finding unique opportunities and looking past near-term challenges to position themselves for success when market conditions calm and return to vibrancy.

 Doing More With Less

A critical role information technology firms play in uncertain economic times is to help clients manage costs and identify inefficiencies.  Taking advantage of technologies that are already owned can create returns through reduced management costs, more effective compliance with regulations, and increased efficiencies in operational execution.  Cost savings and efficiencies free cash flow for investments and capital expenditures that competitors may not be positioned to leverage.

Clever Ducks and WingSwept apply best practice solutions that are unique and optimized to our specific customer’s needs.  IT is not a one size fits all business and through investments in technology and people we are able to deliver unique strategic solutions, exceptional customer service, and timely technical support. 

 In 2008 Gartner released a study of the total annual cost of ownership of workstations and laptops in an unmanaged environment versus a managed environment.  The study took into account all direct (hardware, software, support consumables, network-related costs, facilities, and administration) and indirect costs (downtime, suboptimal functioning, user-induced problems, user-to-user support costs, non-business computer usage, time spent customizing desktops, time spent researching technology purchases, getting quotes, and dealing with vendor problems).  The cost savings on a well managed workstation was nearly $2,500 annually while the savings on a laptop was nearly $3,000.   These are real cost savings for companies, achieved by minimizing time spent by employees trying to make their systems work, minimizing downtime, and extending the life of equipment through proper maintenance. Ultimately, as the Gartner study show, well managed technology not only saves money, but provides you the freedom to manage your business.

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Personal Anti-virus, a new threat to users

Sep 10

Posted by molly.moore@wingswept.com in Technology News, Technology Tips | No Comments

Personal Anti-virus (PAV) is becoming one of the newer types of malware that is not being caught by most programs. The trickiest part of this “scareware” is that it starts as a pop-up window that coerces the user to click and accept the installation, which itself looks like a virus scan. The reason many anti-virus programs don’t catch PAV is because it does not act like a typical virus behavior and your anti-virus programs assume that most installations are allowed by the user.

This article claims one of the only defenses you really have is your common sense, which is exactly why we are blogging on this topic. Beware!

WingSwept’s and Clever Ducks’ technicians recommend this reading to help you further understand PAV.

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The Smarter the Phone, the More at Risk You Are

Aug 18

Posted by molly.moore@wingswept.com in Technology News | No Comments

The WingSwept and Clever Ducks team and many of you are major fans of the smartphone simply because they make almost everything accessible through a couple of clicks. Think about how much you do on your phone. Many of us check multiple personal accounts daily (including email and bank accounts). Many of you save your password for these accounts on your device, and identity thieves know this. This article reminds us to be careful about the information you store on your phone and to seriously consider password protecting and automatically locking your smartphone. Click here to read more.

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Today’s Technology Trend

Jul 6

Posted by molly.moore@wingswept.com in Technology News | No Comments

It has now been reported that Mozilla Firefox has become the most used internet browser today.  Internet Explorer has fallen from the top-spot, although there are still a large amount of users.  Why? It may be due to people’s hesitation to update their programs and comfort with sticking to what they know.  Read more here.

Although this is just one recent change, it makes you realize how fast things really do change in technology.  It is a job in itself to keep up with these changes, and may be one of many reasons your business has an IT provider.  A new web browser is a trend that may not modify the way you do business day-to-day, but there are new and more advanced things that do pop up all the time, like viruses, that can prevent your business from running at all.  At Clever Ducks and WingSwept, it is our job to understand these changes and keep you from worrying about them.

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