Ever Thought To Ask the IT Department

I wrote this when I was still working for an internal IT group.

There has always been discussions by business professionals about IT being part of the business decision process.  The truth is most IT departments have very little to do with the process of developing policies and rules. Most IT departments are forced into more of a  reactionary mode than being proactive to business needs.  If the people around the “big table on the top floor” would take the time to involve IT they may see an unexpected rise to the bottom line.  A lot of IT professionals know how to leverage technology in combination with business practices. This experience introduces concepts never thought of by business only minded executives.  If asked an IT professional may be able to solve a lacking or complicated procedure by using technology.

A real world example of this concept is how my firm’s administrative staff sent tax returns out.  They either used a typewriter to type the address or had stacks and stacks of preprinted labels for commonly used addresses.  The additional time and cost of labels and typing slowed down the mailing process a great deal.  After purchasing and installing SLP label printers the staff was able to print custom labels at their leisure.  The system allows them to store addresses which reduces the need to type  the address each time it is needed.  We even added our company logo to the label allowing us to reduce the cost of buying logo printed labels.

In the example above the question of what can we do to help reduce staff time and cost was asked.  The IT department was able to respond with a solution that resolved both issues and made the hectic life of our administrators a little easier. It never hurts to ask….

Facebook in the Corporate Enviroment

If you are in the IT profession you have probably heard a hundred times or more that access to Facebook is crucial to maintaining and getting new business. Can Facebook be an important tool for business?  Yes, it can be to some but should everyone in the company need access to it?  Probably not unless you work for Facebook or social media company.  The main issue IT professionals are worried about everyone having access to Facebook is fairly simple.  Security and bandwidth. Our job is to protect the company’s network from viruses and to stop the abuse of bandwidth misusage.  Facebook breaks both of these rules.  With the chat functions, the games, and embedded videos the company is at risk each time someone is granted access.  Can the same thing be said about other sites on the web?  Yes, but almost everyone you know has a Facebook account.  It is as mainstream as Google.  An associate sent me a link to a Yahoo article called “Biggest Facebook Security Threats” that points out 4 commonly used tactics to gain access to your personal information.  As the old saying goes, “Once on the Internet, it is there forever”.

A real world example of the dangers of Facebook is from a personal experience.  We use to block everyone from Facebook until our Marketing Manager received approval for his group.  We created a whitelist for his group and within the first hour our Symantec security monitor went off for one of the Marketing users.  The virus was caught by the system but after a few minutes of reviewing the logs we found that it was from a link on a Facebook post.

I am sure there are those who see this differently but they are probably not the one who has to remove a virus or explain why the internet is slow. What about your company?  Do you allow Facebook?

New N Router Installed? iPad and Printer Problems: Solved

I installed a Tenda N wireless router to replace my old Buffalo G.  Everything in our home is now wireless.  Our TV, Wii, Blu-Ray Player, Printer and all our computers use the wireless networking protocol.  Everything seemed to be working well… that is until my wife first started to notice issues printing to our Epson Artisan 810 printer.  Either the printer would take minutes to start printing or it just would never print.  Of course she blamed “that new white box you installed” for the issue but I am the professional right?  It had to be something she was doing.

Well on a rainy March day I tried to watch a Netflix movie on my iPad.  The connection took forever to connect and the video and audio was a little off.  After reading a few post on the Apple forum I found numerous people experiencing the same issue.  One common suggestion was to change the channel from Automatic to a high channel number.  After diving into the router I changed my channel number to 11 and all my issues have gone away.  Printing starts almost instant, my iPad syncs like lighting.

The true moral of the story is listen to your wife every once in a while  She might not understand technology but in this case she hit the nail on the head.  Post a comment if you have ever had an experience like this.

Good Vendor – Bad Vendor

In my ten plus years of being in the Information Technology world I have had my share if vendors. Some I love and some I could not wait to get rid of. A lot of the like/dislike is not about the company or the company’s policies but has to do with the person assigned to your account. There seem to be two types of sales people. You have the one that pushes products on you even though your budget nor your patience has time for them. I know a lot of the calls are forced upon them by their company but over time this can cause you to despise them when you see their number on your caller id or email hit your inbox. On the other side you have the sales person who is there when you need them and does not pressure you for that quote you asked them for budgetary purposes.

I maybe one of the lucky ones. About 4 years ago I received a cold call from a gentlemen from PCMall. I was working on my budget for the upcoming year and dreaded the yearly battle with my CDW representative. I sent both my wish list for the year and waited for the numbers to come back. When the numbers came back from both companies and we found that we had been paying too much all these years. The budget is formed and a few weeks goes by. My CDW representative must have missed the part about the list being for my budget because he called me everyday asking when I was going to move forward with each project. The representative from PCMall called once and asked if there was anything else he could provide. I hung up the phone and walked into my CFO’s office and told her we were switching vendors. We have been using them ever since and occasionally have to tell the CDW representing, no thanks we are happy.

Copier Down! Copier Down! Why Can I Not Scan?

Today we turned off our last few Exchange 2003 servers.  Before this we went through all the servers and services to make sure that we changed to SMTP address to the new environment.  Well, one way to find out what you missed is to turn off the old servers.  Not five minutes after turning the servers off our Help Desk started receiving tickets that the copiers are not scanning to email.  After logging in to the first copier’s interface I find the SMTP address is incorrect.  The moral of the story is no matter how much research and thought you put into a project, someone will find what you missed.  Luckily it was an easy fix and everyone is able to scan to email again from the copiers.

If this has ever happened to you please leave a comment.

SysAid Help Desk Software

In my past company we used the free version of SysAid close to when it was first released to replace our Outlook public folder.  We had less than 100 users and it enhanced the efficiency of our small IT group.  We were able to handle issues better with a full featured application and users were able to login and see what the status of their ticket was.  In my current company we had been using another help desk ticket system for a few years that was meeting our needs but the cost of the yearly renewal and features started to cause us to look for a new product.  We wanted a system that was easy to use and gave us a better way to open and close tickets. All IT staff have Blackberry smartphones and our current application did not have a nice way to update tickets.  This delayed the completion of old tickets and handling of new ones. After looking at a few products we tested and purchased SysAid’s Pro Plus Edition. 

The setup was quick and we were able to duplicate our categories and subcategories with ease.  The switch over for our users was invisible because they send an email to a Help Desk email address.  The IT staff quickly became pros at using the new application. We installed the SysAid Blackberry client and our ticket count and time to close incidents decreased dramatically. I even installed the free SysAid application for my iPad. The integration with the Outlook calendar has helped us remember issues that need our attention in the future. The asset module has helped us track software and equipment  better than we have been able to before. The ability to remote control a workstation has helped save time for the IT staff since we are on multiple floors. 

I would recommend SysAid to anyone looking for an easy to use Help Desk application.  http://www.sysaid.com/

iPad and Citrix

Today I finally received my iPad. I ordered it on May 5th and it arrived by FedEx today the 17th. The main objective set upon us by our Managing Partner was to find a business need for the iPad. We have a Windows 2003 Citrix XenApp 5.0 environment for our internal and remote users that uses the web interface as the main connectivity point to access applications. After a few failed attempts and a few firewall port changes we were able to get the PNAgent working on both the internal and external network on my notebook computer. Now it was time to power up my iPad and install the Citrix Receiver app from iTunes. After a few minutes configuring the application for our environment I was able to login to Outlook. You will read a lot about needing the Access Gateway or a Secure Gateway but we have found this not to be the case. If you can get the PNAgent working then the receiver app is a simple task. More to come soon after a day at the office with my iPad.

Evernote vs. Onenote

I am a huge note taker. I have to be because everyone at the office is always adding things to my to-do list throughout the day. I have been using Microsoft’s Onenote for years and I would say the upcoming 2010 version is going to be great. The one issue I have is Onenote can only work on a desktop/notebook computer or a windows mobile device. I carry a Blackberry, use a iTouch and will soon have a iPad so this does not work for me. Someone mentioned Evernote as a good alternative.

I used Onenote to keep track of my daily to do list. I am able to copy links and create a checklist of task needing my attention. There are quick key combinations that can add to do check boxes, the date, date and time and a few more dozen options. One nice feature is to turn a note into an Outlook task entry. Some of these features are not available in Evernote. More on that later.

I have been using Evernote for few days and it has been a good experience so far. I have successfully installed it on my office production Windows 7 computer, my Blackberry Bold 9700 and my 2nd generation iTouch. It installed without any issues on all my devices.

One thing I have to get use to is creating a separate note for each day. In Onenote a categorize my notes by month and keep a running list separated by the date. In Evernote I have been creating a note for each day. Either way seems to work fine. I can create a to do check box in Evernote but lose the ability to link to my Outlook task. Evernote also does not have all the quick keys options that Onenote does.

The Blackberry and iTouch application allows me to create a new note or amend an existing note. You can not edit or modify an existing note text created on a workstation. You can place a check in a to do check box of an existing item but you can not create new check boxes. This seems to work ok but it would be nice to keep the for mating the same through all devices.

The web version allows you to do the same functions as the desktop version which does help. All together I am pleased with the product but it has only been a few days. As I use the product more I will blog again once I master the features. So far it is nice being able to take my notes where ever I go!

Internet Security-Anti-Virus & More – Newsletter Article – 3/16/10

Check out my latest article published in the Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, LLP bi-monthly newsletter.

http://bit.ly/dfqss8

Corporate Computer Users

Typically, there is always a delay between a new virus release and the detection time.  Given the prevalence and seriousness of the various Banking Trojans and other virus or spy/adware programs, it is recommended that businesses that use online banking/financial transactions adopt a strategy to isolate workstations where these activities are carried out to reduce the risk of infecting their entire network.  This may include using a dedicated workstation for accessing financial accounts which is isolated from the rest of the local network and lock-down the internet except for the specific financial sites required to be accessed. Since viruses can also be spread using removable drives, systems that access financial information should have the ability to use these devices removed if possible to protect them from  auto run-type threats that may be stored unknowingly on the device. All workstations should be using a centrally managed anti-virus application.  An important benefit of a centrally managed product is the ability of infection alerts to be sent to key staff.  If a computer becomes infected, the system will send a email or SMS message to a key contact who then can remove the computer from the network until it is cleaned.  This can reduce the chance of a virus infecting the entire network.  Through the managed system, one can see if a computer has not been updated with the latest virus definition or latest antivirus application version.

Home Computer User Protection

It is recommended that everyone uses a good anti-virus program.  Some are paid subscriptions, while others are free.  In most cases, the application installed by the computer manufacturer is a limited trial.  The application will stop automatically updating itself within 3 -12 months of first use.  It is very important to subscribe or find a free product before the trial expires. AVG (http://free.avg.com) and Avast (http://www.avast.com) both offer free personal editions of their anti-virus products.  The free editions do not offer some of the advanced features, like firewall options that are available in their paid product.  For most home users, the free edition is all they really need to protect them from viruses and spy/adware. 

 

Other Security Tips

Think before you click on an email hyperlink.  Do you really think grandma wants you to look at her vacation pictures when she does not own a computer? 

Never e-mail or complete an online form with personal information like your social security number or bank account or pin number.  The bank and IRS are not going to ask you to update your personal information in an email correspondence. 

Be cautious when downloading plug-ins from websites.  Make sure you understand what you are downloading and if you do not understand what the plug-in is going to provide do not download it.

You need to make sure YOU have your security protections in place.  Make sure that you install updates for your computer’s operating system through Microsoft auto updates and update applications you have as they become available.

Do not install trial software from unknown vendors.  The children’s game you just installed could also contain spy/adware or a virus. You should be cautious about installing software (esp. software that is too good to be true – e.g. download accelerators, spyware removal tools) & be conscientious about pop-ups from websites asking users to download/execute/or run otherwise privileged operations. Often this free software and these pop-ups have malware embedded.

 

Windows 7 – Homegroup

Sharing files in Windows 2000, XP and even Vista has always been a challenge.  In most cases you have to set up a workgroup, create shared user accounts, and share out folders and/or files.  If you are lucky everything works on the first, second or maybe 10th try.  With Windows 7 Microsoft has added a new feature called Homegroup.  The Homegroup feature only works with Windows 7 operating systems as of now. 

To create a Homegroup open Windows Explorer on one of the Windows 7 computers and click the Homegroup option on the left quick launch bar and select create a Homegroup.  You will follow the group creation prompts and will need to note the password that is created and displayed.  When clicking on the Homegroup icon on the other Windows 7 computer instead of seeing create a Homegroup you should see join with the first computer’s name. Once you click on join you will be asked for the password that your noted on the first computer.  Once entered you should see the other computer and the files in read only format.  You will also have access to printers or scanners attached to the computer.

Seeing the files is nice but if you are like me you like to modify or copy from one computer to the other. On one of the computers select a folder and then click the share drop down and select “share with workgroup”.  Now you can create, modify or delete files freely.  No username/password prompts.  No troubleshooting or reviewing security rights to see why you can not do something.  It just works and it works well even with computers on a corporate domain.