Use OpenDNS to Protect Your Office and Home from Inappropriate Websites
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 So there you are surfing the Internet looking for something you need and WHAMO! Somehow you land on a website that would make a merchant marine blush. It's happened to all of us. I recall an incident that happened to me several years ago. While working for another I.T. firm in Lafayette, I was typing in a web address when my manager walked in to ask me a question. I turned my back to my computer in order to face my manager and saw her eyes go wide as saucers. As it turns out, I had made a type-o while entering the web address and a very inappropriate image was loading on my computer screen. It took awhile before the team let me live that one down :)
So my point to that story is that it is very easy to find yourself in the dark alleys of the Internet. How can you protect yourself, your home and your business? OpenDNS is a free service that offers Internet content filtering. It does not have some of the bells and whistles that are found in many commercial solutions, but it is free and works very well. You can use this service at your business, church or school, as well as at your home to protect your children. The OpenDNS service is relatively easy to setup and good tutorials are provided. Visit the OpenDNS Website for details and testimonials.
And you can always call us if you would like assistance setting up the service :)
-Jason
About OpenDNS
OpenDNS is the leading provider of free security and infrastructure
services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content
filtering, anti-phishing and DNS. OpenDNS services enable consumers and
network administrators to secure their networks from online threats,
reduce costs and enforce Internet-use policies. OpenDNS is used today by
millions of users and organizations around the world.
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What!? You are still not backing up your important files offsite???
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 O.K., not to wear everyone out, but I'm going to pester you about offsite backups one more time. Since the last newsletter, I have helped out several individuals and companies that came dangerously close to losing financial records and other critical business files due to computer failures.
- If your computer or server crashed right now, how much pain would you be in?
- How are you backing up your data now? To tapes? DVDs? Memory Sticks? External Hard Drives?
- Do your backups stay in your home or office? What if there were a tornado, flood or fire?
- Do you take your backups somewhere else? Are they encrypted? What if they were lost or stolen?
An offsite backup with a reputable company can aleviate these concerns. IDrive lets home and small office users sign up for a free 2GB offsite backup account. That is more than enough space to backup your accounting files and other critical data files. Do you need to backup more than 2GB (perhaps a large number of pictures and music files)? Then you can sign up for 150GB of storage space for $4.95 a month or $49.50 per year. The setup is pretty easy, just make sure you are getting those Quickbooks or Peachtree files! Are you unsure about setting up IDrive? Call or email us for our super low top secret IDrive flat rate setup fee.
And for servers, check out IBackup with pricing plans as low as $9.95 per month!
-Jason
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| Your Computer Is Infected!!!! (Or is it?) |
 My apologies for being so long winded this month, but I want to make sure everyone is aware of the dangers posed by rogue security programs. A rogue security program looks like a legitimate anti-virus or anti-spyware program that is in fact malicious. Most often we stumble across them while surfing online. The Rouge programs pop-up and look very convincing. They tell us our computers are infected with all sorts of bad things and urge that we install a program to clean the infections. If this happens to you, do not download the program. Instead attempt to shut down your computer and reboot. Power off your computer if necessary. Once these programs take root in your system, it can be very challenging to remove them.
Here are a few Rogue Securit Programs that I've cleaned up recently:
* Personal Antivirus
* System Antivirus
* Total Secure 2009
Check out these links for additional information:
Microsoft Security: Watch out for fake virus alerts
Wikipedia: Rogue security software
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