SusanGuggenheim-IS Your Answer Blog

Best thing to do for a Nonprofit IT environment

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:16:00 -0500

I've been working with a client in Philadelphia who, like so many other nonprofits, found it easier to put off creating a password policy.

Over time, the settings in AD were for non-expiring passwords, user cannot change password.

Two weeks ago I pushed out a company password policy, with a minimum length, some complexity, and users have to create a different password 4 times a year. The basics in other words.

Guess what? The Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) report for this past week showed zero potential intrusions. That's right, zero.

Don't put off developing a strong password policy. It's an important first step to securing not only your physical network, but also your data, your consumers, your staff and your business.

5 things nonprofits need to know about Cloud Computing

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:47:00 -0500

1) All nonprofits should review their organization and assess whether or not to move to the Cloud. I'm recommending they should make this assessment. Why? Two big reasons - cost and remote access.

2) If your nonprofit organization is suitable for Cloud computing, you will save on hardware and software costs, server maintenance and upgrades, licensing for all kinds of nonprofit software. There are no upfront costs, you will need much less IT support.

3) The question I am asked most frequently is how can my staff access everything we own, at any time? Remote access in other words. If you move to the Cloud, your staff can access your Cloud any time. You do not have to install, maintain and resolve issues with a VPN system - which is a costly business.

4) I have not met a nonprofit yet that did not have staff in far flung places, or Board members in different cities, or staff who wanted to work from home (esp. development staff). Moving to the Cloud can mean you can ditch your office or get a smaller office. If 30% of your staff already travel or work from home, then moving to the Cloud is probably a no brainer for you.

5) Computing is changing, as I'm sure you've noticed. I'm predicting that in less than 5 years, desktops at nonprofits will be phased out in favor of staff laptops, that most small to medium sized nonprofits will retire all their servers in favor the Cloud. You can start saving that money right now by exploring Google mail, calendar and docs or DonorPerfect or Salesforce products.

Need an assessment of your nonprofit environment? Would you like a list of easy to digest Cloud information, to help you understand this technology?

Good advice on protecting your environment, small and big

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:27:00 -0500

I got a lot out of this short video on protecting one's computer or network from malware.

Fighting Today's Malware

How bad is it? Worse than you think. Security expert and InfoWorld contributing editor Roger Grimes offers a guided tour of the latest threats and explains what you can do to stop them.

New versions of old favorites

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:09:00 -0600

I continue to use Avast Free Anti-virus , Malwarebytes.org anti-malware and Safer Network's Spybot anti-spyware product.

They work well together, no issues if you turn off Spybot's Tea Timer (or don't install it to begin with).

If you want to install these products, and need help downloading or configuring, please call me!

Bridge Two Computers

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:29:00 -0600

"You can connect two computers via a USB cable in order to share files, but you can’t use standard USB cables. Warning: If you use a standard USB cable, you might damage the USB ports on both systems, or even the respective system boards.

Instead, you need to use a special USB cable, known as a USB Bridge cable. A USB Bridge cable reverses both the send and receive signals as well as the power voltage, so that you don’t create a short." From New Horizons newsletter that I get.

Avast, not AVG 2011

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:37:00 -0600

I have discovered over the past month that AVG Free 2011, the latest model, is freezing up my browsers, all the time.

So reluctantly, I uninstalled AVG and installed instead, Avast Free.

The symptoms for me were that Firefox would not open, and then I'd end up with 3 firefox.exe processes in Task Manager, which really will kill the app. IE would open, but never get to an address. This would not start right away, but only after going to a website and clicking deeper into webpages, especially those pages where you want to see an item up close.

I think AVG's link scanner and webpage scanning software bogged down at this point, but I'm guessing.

So now I run Avast Free, just for email, Malwarebytes for malware and Spybot (less often) for adware.

Prescription for Removing Bad Auto-Complete entries

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:33:00 -0600

You know how you enter a wrong email or userid into a webform, and then when you start to type your email address or userid somewhere else, all those bad entries appear in the Auto-Complete pop-up?

There is one way and one way only apparently to get rid of them.

When you start the type your information, and the Auto-Complete pop-up appears, gently slide the mouse (No Clicking!) over the incorrect entry.

It will then highlight, probably in blue.

Then, without mouse clicking, press the DEL or Delete key on your KEYBOARD.

Repeat as needed! You can do this anywhere an Auto-Complete pop-up appears. I love this tip, it's made my online life so much better because now I don't have to try and figure which email address is the one where I spelled hotmail.com correctly.

Ever wonder about how the Internet got started?

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 09:42:00 -0500

Or what the acronyms really mean?

The LivingInternet website is a very clever way to find out!

How to delete your account information from websites

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:49:00 -0500

After a few years of browsing, you probably have quite a few logins dotted around the Internet.

Here's how to delete them from Facebook, Twitter, Google, MySpace, Ebay, etc. -
Smashing Magazine Account Deletion article

Want a faster Laptop, Netbook?

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:18:00 -0500

After months of testing various combinations of security applications, I think I have a good set to recommend for laptop and netbook users, that will not bog you down in real-time scanning.

1) Install and buy the $25 license for
Malwarebytes. This is your anti-malware software and primary defense against Internet malware. I consider this the most essential security product available today.

2) You still need an anti-virus, but the problem with the suites (McAfee, Norton, Vipre) is that they are resource hogs. So let's go for just anti-virus and not Identity, Firewall or Spam protection. I am still recommending AVG Free. Uninstall the trial or subscription suite from Control Panel|Programs BEFORE you install AVG Free. And do choose to install the AVG Browser Toolbar, it's v. useful.

3) Third, you still need spam protection, so use either Windows Defender, which is auto-installed on Windows 7 computers, or download Spybot, which is free, too.

This is a good balance of protection and speed and use of resources, but if you still are slow, then disable Windows Defender/Spybot.

Before I made these changes to a netbook, it was using 880MB of 1GB RAM, and 59 processes just to boot up. After making these changes, it dropped one process to 58, but regained the use of over 230MB memory.

Want to know what Facebook is sharing about you or your children?

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:56:00 -0500

Computer Hope, a very cool tips website, has released this webpage, which, after you enter a Facebook name or email address associated with a Facebook name, will display what it is being shared to other Application developers, who are building programs that will connect to Facebook.

I just checked mine, to make sure that my profile picture was the only shared item, and it is. And please note that shared in this instance means available to APIs that build off or connect to Facebook, it doesn't mean your approved family and friends, who see what you allow from the new Privacy pages in your Account.

I will include graphics, with step by step instructions, in my July newsletter.

Computer Hope's Facebook API Checker

Very good PDF about Computers

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:57:00 -0500

I was searching for a printed manual to give my digital literacy students and found this one

from the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Lovely pictures, clear text, it's a keeper!

10 Word Processing Products You Never Heard Of

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:33:00 -0500

Here's a link to the page that lists 10 FREE word processing products I've never heard of, but work great,especially if you can't afford to use Office.

10 FREE Word Processing Programs

How to easily split pages in Excel

Sun, 02 May 2010 11:51:00 -0500

The Computer Hope website this month offered a quick and easy tip on how to split Excel spreadsheet page so you can keep the top rows (labels) static, while you are scrolling down the sheet.

It can be difficult working with long Microsoft Excel spreadsheet documents and knowing what row or column you're working in when scrolled past the top row or far left column. To keep a row or column locked in place split the spreadsheet by moving the mouse cursor over the icon above the right scrollbar or to the right of the bottom scrollbar. Once positioned correctly your mouse cursor will turn into a double-arrowed cursor as shown in the picture to the right. Hold down your mouse and drag down or to the right until the document is split where needed.

How do I unsplit?

If you wish to remove this simply click-and-drag the split line back up to the top or far right of the spreadsheet until it vanishes and let go of the mouse button.

Good videos that explain well

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:12:00 -0500

CommonCraft makes really good videos that explain stuff well.

This is a link to their Computing section.

How to reorder your All Programs list

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:03:00 -0500

Whenever I visit client sites, I'm curious as to why they never sort their All Programs list in alphabetical order.

It's easy to do - here are the XP instructions (Windows 7 does this for you!):

Click Start, then All Programs, from anywhere in that list, on any icon, RIGHT-CLICK and choose Sort by Name.

It won't persist, meaning that as new programs are installed, they are not automatically sorted alphabetically, so every once in a while, just right-click and sort by name.

Cool Google Search tricks

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:21:00 -0500

A librarian friend of mine sent me the link to a site I had never visited, called Computer Hope.

Check it out, this is a good site, with help for hardware and software problems.

Another link on the site will get you a page of little known Search shortcuts Google Search tricks

New version of Malwarebytes released!

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:15:00 -0500

It's way better than version 1.44, and it's available here:

Malwarebytes 1.45 Download Site

For my clients, this upgrade should auto-install, but will require a reboot, so if you see a message from Malwarebytes asking to reboot, please do so. (AVG Anti-virus requests this occasionally, too).

But after installing, everyone including my clients will need to schedule the scan and update jobs from the Malwarebytes application window.

If you need help with this, call or Email me.

How to use an ISO file

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:23:00 -0500

Do you have a netbook that does not have a CD ROM drive? Are you frustrated with trying to install ISO or image files?

I have 3 computers without CD drives and I spent today learning how to create a virtual CD ROM drive so I could install Office 2007 from an ISO file.

I ended up using CD Burner XP to burn an ISO image of Office 2007 to my flashdrive. That's the first thing you need to do, is create an ISO image on a flashdrive or on the hard drive of the computer without a CD Rom drive.

(This info is courtesy of Microsoft.com)

How do I download and use .ISO files?

Downloading .ISO files

There are 3 methods to download products as .ISO files:
1.   Use CD-R software to download an image file and write it to a blank CD-R or DVD-R. (This won't work for us, because if your computer is without a CD ROM drive, you can't insert the CD!)
2.   Open and copy .ISO image files to a local folder, much like ZIP files. (Note: This method would work.)
3.   Virtually mount and access .ISO files as a device. (Note: this is the method I chose to use.)

Writing .ISO files to CD-R or DVD-R

Most CD-R/DVD-R writing software includes a feature to create a disc from an image file.
Note: you must use the special "copy image to CD" or "burn image" functionality. See your software's Help for detailed information.

When you have burned the ISO to a CD, it may run on auto-play, you may have to navigate to the CD from My Computer and click on Setup. (Again, only if you have a CD burner in the computer you're trying to install to.)

Copying the contents of .ISO files to your hard drive

Contents of .ISO files may be accessed directly using third-party tools. This will allow you to extract files from an .ISO file to a temporary folder on your hard drive, and then run Setup.

The following tools offer such .ISO file support:
•   IsoBuster
•   CDmage
•   Daemon Tools

While other products can manipulate .ISO files and may work, they have not been tested. The products listed above have been known to work.

Mounting .ISO files virtually

The tool below is for Windows XP and allows .ISO files to be mounted virtually as CD-ROM/DVD-ROM devices. The link to this tool is provided for your convenience and is unsupported by Microsoft Product Support Services.

This is what I did then - created an ISO image on my flashdrive, installed a virtual CD drive to the computer without one, then mounted that drive, navigated to the ISO on my flashdrive and clicked Setup to install Office 2007. Cool, huh? Well, I guess you have to be there!

Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP

Here’s the Readme from the VCDRom tool:
Readme for Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel v2.0.1.1

THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORT BY MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES
System Requirements
===================
- Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional
Installation instructions
=========================
1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder.
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click "Driver control"
4. If the "Install Driver" button is available, click it. Navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open.
5. Click "Start"
6. Click OK
7. Click "Add Drive" to add a drive to the drive list. Ensure that the drive added is not a local drive. If it is, continue to click "Add Drive" until an unused drive letter is available.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click "Mount".
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click "OK". UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM device. When you are finished you may unmount, stop, and remove the driver from memory using the driver control.

Another Rinker Rock recipe - "Sunny Tom" Salad Dressing

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:28:00 -0600

My all time favorite salad dressing, from a Bellaire, TX restaurant.

This recipe makes a luscious, deeply red, glossy, tangy dressing for greens or pasta salad or even a BBQ sandwich.

1 c. sundried tomatoes (in oil or soaked dried)

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 c. balsamic vinegar

2 c. olive oil

Process the sun-dried tomatoes and brown sugar. Add the balsamic vinegar, process again. Pour mixture into large glass jar, add 2 c. olive oil, and shake well.

Obviously, the better your sun-dried tomatoes, vinegar and oil, the better the dressing. We served this dressing on mixed greens, with feta cheese.