• A hard disk scan: go to My Computer – right click on the C:\ drive and select Properties. In the properties sheet choose the Tools tab. In the Error Checking section click Check Now. In the window that pops up check both selections. You will get a warning that says something like “the check can’t be performed now, do you want to schedule for the next time you reboot” click yes and restart your computer.
• sfc -scannow This command checks all the files in your Windows installation and makes sure they are the same files that were installed originally and that they have not become corrupted. To run click on the Start button and select Run. In the text box type “sfc -scannow” (without the quotation marks) and click ok. If the scan needs to rebuild or recopy a file you’ll need a copy of the Windows cd that is the same version that you have installed.

1. Active Directory – domainName.nnn – Users – userName properties – Exchange General tab – Delivery Restrictions Button. Under the Sending or Receiving message size areas click the radio button for “Maximum KB” and set as desired. 1000 KB is approximately 1 MB (20,000KB = 20MB)
2. Exchange Server Manager: Under the “First Organization (Exchange)” open the Global Settings folder, then Message Delivery, and then Defaults to set the limit.

Act! Answer ID  19640  http://is.gd/rpqb

In this user’s case the SQL Server (ACT7) service keeps stopping or doesn’t start when the laptop is rebooted (we’re tracking which). So I wrote a batch file (of which I’ve only done a couple)  that will start the service.  For those of you who don’t know, a batch file is just a text file saved with the .bat extention instead of  the .txt extention and the contents contain a command for Windows to perform (careful that you have “Hide extensions for known file types” unselected in “Folder Options” -> “View”. In this case the command in the batch file is

::Turns on Act SQL Server Service
@ECHO OFF
NET START (or STOP) “exact name of service”

Programming is fun!! BTW, I stole this batch file from http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-137177.html

I was very nervous. I have all but stopped listening to the radio. I roll my own driving entertainment in the form of my sleek (beatup) new (fairly old) 5th generation iPod. I know its old but its the best 30gig jump drive money can buy. I use it in the car, work, Wal-Mart (It is amazing how much more tollerable walmart is when you can’t hear what’s going on around you…) Anyway the battery died last week and – again – I know I’m not the first person to do this but it is nerve racking to open up an electronic device that you’re not sure will ever go back the same way again. We’ll its over now and here are the pics. And it cost less than $10. bucks.

The scary bit.

Its Alive - Closing it back up

Fight Back

A client has a need to block email from a domain (that’s the part of an email address behind the @).  This post from Daniel Petri at the Petri IT Knowledgebase explains how. I’ve been using this blog as a reference for years; If you can do it with a Windows Server then this guy knows it- and probably has a post on it. In this article Petri shows you how to configure an Exchange tool called the Intelligent Message Filter. Once configured, use this article from Microsoft to enable the feature.

If you would like help emplementing this or any other email feature, get in touch with us at IT Solutions.

I’ve had a couple of questions lately about spam and how one gets such offensive spam if you don’t go to “those” kinds of web sites. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter where you’ve surfed while online, your email is not transmitted to websites when you visit them. Spam works the other way around. There are many ways spammers get your email address; They will buy email lists from “brick and mortar” retailers, online retailers, people who get you to fill out slips of paper to win a cruise, or anyone else that loves having money more than they care about what’s in your in-box. Or, Programmers build software (“bots” short for ‘robots’) that scour the web looking for strings of words that look like email addresses. someone@domain.com (even now someone@domain.com is getting collected and will get unsolicited email).

“E-mail addresses are collected from [among other places] chatrooms, websites, newsgroups, and viruses which harvest users’ address books, and are sold to other spammers. Much of spam is sent to invalid e-mail addresses.” –wikipedia

As for these bots that are actively, constantly searching the internet, it means that if your email address is posted on a website in plain text it can be collected by one spammer and sold to thousands of others. You should instead use a contact form so people can contact you without “seeing” your email address. Your email can also be intercepted, or if your ISP hasn’t properly secured its SMTP (outgoing) mail server then it is vulnerable to hacking. Or if someone else has responded to a piece of spam while also forwarding it to you at your email address. Or if you ever responded to a piece of spam by telling them NOT to send to you again Then you’ve just told that spammer that they have proof that your email is a “live” account and will then sell the list to other spammers… I could go on. The main point is that the average email address is only live for 6 minutes before it begins to get spam, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, only slow it down.

We have a client, a Women’s Hospital, run by women, with a staff of women nurses, and all women patients. They were being overrun by spam of the worst sort. Male Enhancement, Nigerian money schemes, little blue, red, or white pills, etc. They invested in a device called the “Spam Firewall” by Barracuda as soon as we turned it on 90% of their email was blocked, none of that blocked email was their business correspondence. Imagine that, 90% of their incoming email was trash. Unfortunately the spam firewall costs about 1500 bucks with a 500 a year renewal. I’m trying to find a way to let customers route their email through a company spam firewall and then back to them to combat this issue without having to spend an arm and a leg for it. The way I combat it is with rules set up in my email client. When a new wave comes in I build a rule to try and block it. But as soon as I do I they change the wording and get it past so I have to edit or build a new rule.

And as for the content, lets face it, if you want to be profitable but you don’t know your audience then you should prey on the most base characteristics of humans, sex, greed, and fear.

“Be better in bed,” “If you help me move this money I’ll give you some,” and “If you don’t send this to 10 people God won’t love you.”

If you are one of the folks trying to connect spam with online activity you’re looking in the wrong place. I have many many clients that have never visited a questionable site that get flooded with inappropriate spam. Clean out your junk mail box daily and leverage all the rules you can with your email software. Once an email is on the list, no matter how it got there, your doomed to get spam. And Internet filters don’t have anything to do with your email. Services like K9, OpenDNS, and others only stop your internet browser. This is only helpful when clicking on a link inside the email, which is possibly the dumbest thing you can do with your computer. K9 keeps a password protected history of websites visited which will tell you exactly where someone has been surfing.

Some Services:

JunkEmailFilter.com – I’ve heard this one highly praised by the guy quoted on the site.

AVG - Love the Virus protection but I’m not sure about how in-depth the spam blocker is. Worth a call to support to find out.

Kaspersky Labs Internet Security – Highly configurable Internet protection suite with spam guards

SpamHelp.org – Software list, please don’t use the challenge/response software its highly annoying to your friends.

SpamHelp.org – Managed/Hosted Anti-Spam Service

BTW Here’s a sample of my Junk mail folder. Notice the repeat of subjects, these would have been sent by the same spammer from multiple hijacked PCs or servers.

Today I was unable to add an email account in Outlook on a Vista laptop. I went to an XP machine and was able to add it with no trouble. Came back to the laptop in question, turned off the Windows Firewall, added the account with no trouble, turned the firewall back on, and was able to use the account in Outlook with no problem. So, Vista wouldn’t let me add the account but once I got it working it didn’t mind using the account… go figure.

Windows Key + R type   shutdown -a in the box and press Enter

Important You must exit Outlook before starting the following procedure. The names will be included in AutoComplete when you restart Outlook.

1. On the computer with the saved AutoComplete names, go to drive:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

Note Depending on your file settings, this folder might be hidden. To enable viewing the files in this folder, click here
2. Right-click profile name.nk2, and then click Copy.
Tip You can copy the file to removable media, such as a floppy disk or a CD, and then copy the file to the correct location on the other computer. Or you can attach the file to an e-mail message and send the message to yourself. On the new computer, open the attachment in Outlook, and then save it to the correct location.

3. On the computer where you want to populate the AutoComplete feature, copy the file to drive:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

If the Outlook user profile name is different on the computer where you are moving the .nk2 file, you must rename the file with the same Outlook user profile name after you copy it to the correct folder. For example, if you move Kim Akers.nk2 from the original computer with an Outlook user profile name of Kim Akers, and you copy the Kim Akers.nk2 file to the new computer, you must rename it with the Outlook profile name being used on the new computer.

4. When prompted about replacing the existing file, click Yes.

5. Open Outlook to view changes.

**Reprinted from Microsoft Article: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011394511033.aspx