Happy Holidays from CMIT Solutions of Central RI

As 2009 draws to a close, we’d like to thank our friends and customers for sharing another year with CMIT Solutions of Central RI. We really appreciated your friendship and support through what was a very challenging year for businesses across America. Here’s to a wonderful 2010!

If you’ve already departed for a much-needed winter break, congratulations.  Many people still need to stay in touch with the office even when they’re on the road or on vacation. If you’re one of those people, here are some tips for setting up a “virtual office” that makes sure distance is no impediment to getting things done:

1. Set up a VPN (virtual private network) that allows you to securely access company servers and share files.
2. If you’re not already on a VoIP (voice over IP) phone system, think about switching over. VoIP phones can forward voice mails to email so that you don’t miss calls while you’re away.
3. Find a good web conferencing provider so that you can hold impromptu meetings and share documents in a pinch.
4. Don’t forget about security. If you’re traveling with a laptop, make sure you encrypt all your important documents and then back them up to your company server, a remote server, a hard drive, or some combination of the three.

Don’t fear the phone! Sure, if you’re vacationing in Paris and want to check in with the office, you don’t want the hassle or expense of making an international call. But if you’re vacationing domestically or it’s otherwise feasible to make a quick call, you can save yourself mountains of email correspondence and the chance you’ll miss an important communication.

Don’t Fall for the Latest Phone-Based “Tech Support” Scam

We’ve heard news recently about a new form of scam that preys on people’s fears about accidentally downloading computer viruses and spyware. Here’s how it works: the scammer calls the victim and claims to be working for a computer monitoring firm, a security software provider, or “your Windows XP provider.” They say that they have reason to believe the victim’s computer has been compromised, and that they can investigate the problem if the victim gives them access to his or her computer using a popular (and legitimate) remote access program such as LogMeIn. If the victim complies, the scammer has the entire contents of the victim’s computer at their fingertips — including passwords, logins, and all kinds of information that are catnip to identity thieves.

Here’s how to spot the scam:

1. They say they’re from “your monitoring service” or “your provider” but they don’t identify themselves by name. This is a huge red flag, particularly if you aren’t signed up for a monitoring service!
2. They’re contacting you by phone. If there’s a real security problem, you’re usually notified automatically when your security software runs.
3. They want a credit card number before they’ll render their “services.”

Naturally, we’re concerned about this because we don’t to see innocent computer users getting scammed — particularly by people purporting to do the same kind of work that we do!

Here’s how we’re different:

1. When we contact our clients, we identify ourselves as CMIT Solutions, not “your provider.” And because we value our relationships, our clients know us personally and by name — so there’s no question that we are who we say we are when we call.
2. If it’s a screaming emergency, we might contact you by phone — but because you know us and can always call us back if you’re in doubt about who’s really calling you, you can feel safe knowing you’re working with a trusted resource. Otherwise, we can take care of most security issues for our CMIT Marathon customers without them even noticing. (CMIT Marathon is our remote monitoring and maintenance service, which includes security updates.)
3. If you’re a CMIT Marathon or Guardian customer, you’re subscribed to an ongoing service and won’t have to provide payment over the phone if you ever call us with a question. Depending on your individual plan, we might have to bill separately for a visit to your office — but you’ll get a proper invoice, not a pushy technician pressuring you for a credit card number on the phone.

For more information about the phone-based “tech support” scam, you can check out this helpful AARP Bulletin article: http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourmoney/scamalert/articles/scam_alert_helpful_hackers_.html. For more information on CMIT Marathon, click here: www.cmitsolutions.com/centralri/marathon.php.

Smart Spending Helps Minimize Your Taxes

If you’re a small business owner who turned a profit in 2009, congratulations! It’s been a tough year, and any business that succeeded in a very challenging economic environment deserves a pat on the back.

The downside to making a profit, of course, is that it can be subject to taxes. In order to minimize the amount they’ll have taxed at the corporate rate, many businesses look for ways to spend down their excess profit. Here are just a few purchasing options that might help minimize your tax liability while also enhancing your business:

• Hardware. Need new PCs, external hard drives, servers, wireless routers, or other physical equipment? Get it before the year’s out.
• Software. It might be time to do that big OS upgrade you’ve been planning. Ditto that accounting software purchase you’ve been putting off: once you’ve mastered it, it will save you hours of bookkeeping every week. And that’s an investment worth making any time of year.
• Office Supplies. Think about what you’ll need in the first quarter of next year and buy it now to maximize deductions for 2009. Stock up on paper, photocopier and printer cartridges, and other supplies you know you’ll use.
• Services. CMIT Solutions of Central RI offers service hours in blocks that you can purchase in advance and use over the course of the year. Check with us for details.

One thing you’ll want to consider with equipment purchases is whether you want an immediate write-off or whether you want to depreciate the item over several years. (You’ll also need the equipment in your office, in use by year’s end.) Your accountant should be able to advise you on how to maximize your deductions and structure a plan that’s best for your business.

A Thank You From CMIT Solutions of Central RI

Happy Thanksgiving! 

This Thanksgiving, we’re thankful for family, friends, and all of our wonderful clients and QuickTips subscribers. We owe you a debt of gratitude for your continual feedback, support, and the many ways you help us to be a better business. Every day we’re inspired by the example you set. Small businesses are the backbone of America, and though the year ahead may be challenging for many, we hope it will be fruitful for all. Thanks again for making us your IT partner, and keep your suggestions and comments coming!

If you’re looking for ways to say “thank you” to your community this Thanksgiving, Meals on Wheels and Feeding America are two great national organizations to contact. Or you can get in touch with local soup kitchens, religious organizations, homeless shelters, and food banks for other volunteer opportunities. Volunteering on Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful way to get involved – and it only takes a couple hours to deliver meals to seniors or feed hungry families, so you have the rest of the day to spend with your own family.

QuickTips: Alert – Fraudulent Email Is Not From Intuit

A number of fraudulent emails have gone out recently purporting to be from Intuit. The latest one claims to be from the QuickBooks Update Center and contains the subject line “Intuit Secure Update.” This email is not legitimate. Ignore it and delete it.

For reference, the text of the fraudulent email is as follows:

From: QuickBooks Update Center [mailto:software@quickbooks.intuit.com]
Subject: Intuit Secure Update

As is the case with many companies that maintain large databases of information, Intuit is the target of fraudulent attempts to get access and extract information from its database. We recently watch our database was illegally accessed and certain contact and account information were taken, including QuickBooks email addresses, names, phone numbers. The data accessed does not include banking information.

Immediately upon learning about this, Intuit started an investigation and took corrective steps. It is important to know the company continually monitors for any illicit use of information in our database, and so far, we have not detected the misuse of this information.

In order to help assure the security of your information, we have developed a special plug-in for browser and Windows® – QuickBooks Update. This software will protect yours private information from any kinds of spyware or malware.

System requirements :

* Windows XP, Vista, 2000, 2003
* Internet Explorer 6.x, 7.x, 8.x

ATTENTION: You will not be able to use our service without update from 17 of November 2009

Download :

* Windows® QuickBooks Update
* Internet Explorer plug-in

If you are not Microsoft Windows® user you can use our services as usual

Intuit has confirmed that this is a fraudulent email (for more details, see the Intuit security blog at http://security.intuit.com/alerts/alert.php?a=8). But even without their confirmation, it’s pretty easy to tell. Here’s how:

1. You can often spot a phishing attempt because it contains misspellings or poor grammar. In the above example, a phrase like “We recently watch our database was illegally accessed” is a big red flag that the email was probably written by a scammer whose first language isn’t English.
2. Any email that requests personal information or asks you to download something is probably a phishing attempt. Legitimate companies do not ask their clients to re-supply information the company already possesses. Nor do they ask their clients to download plug-ins by clicking on an email link.

If you receive a phishing email, do not click on any of the links or consent to download anything. Forward a copy of the email to your IT administrator so that they’re aware of the problem and can alert other users. Then delete the email from your inbox and trash bin.

Give Your Documents a Uniform Look with Themes

A nice feature of Office 2007 is that you can make documents from several different programs – Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook – all have the same look and feel. Whereas in the past you’d have to alter the color and style of every table, chart, and shape in every document separately, you can now just select a theme that takes care of all those details automatically.

For example, here’s a simple chart using the theme called Office:

Here’s that same chart using the theme called Perspective:

As you can see, the theme affects the font, color, shading, and shadow effects. And because it’s available in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, your chart will look the same no matter what program it appears in – and all the other charts you use will have a similar look.

The Themes gallery is accessible from the Formatting Palette. To create your own custom theme, you can open up a given theme and then alter the font, colors, and effects, and then save as a new theme. Just use the customization settings to the right of the thumbnailed themes, visible in the screen shot below.

   

QuickTip: What’s a Netbook … And Why Would You Need One?

In the hardware world, there’s a pretty lively discussion going on about the difference between laptops, notebooks, and netbooks.

Opinion seems to be converging around the idea that laptops and notebooks are virtually the same: small, portable, but powerful computers that can function as a more travel-worthy substitute for a stationary desktop model.

Netbooks, on the other hand, are a relatively new innovation – just a couple of years old, which might make them ancient in some technology circles, but it means that some folks are still figuring out what the term means.

Way back in the beginning of netbooks, these ultra-small, ultra-light computers offered pared-down capabilities that could satisfy most of the needs of a user on the go. You could access a Web browser and email, and if you used cloud-based applications like Google Docs you could even do some word processing and basic spreadsheet operations. But your average netbook, lacking an optical drive and equipped with a slower processer, wasn’t going to be terribly fast or powerful or great at running really resource-intensive applications. And the tiny keyboard made prolonged use a bit of a pain.

But then a funny thing happened: the year 2008. And as the economy took a dive, more and more users started looking at netbooks and deciding they made a very good, affordable alternative to regular laptops. By Q1 of 2009, netbook sales were seven times larger than they were in the first quarter of 2008. http://bit.ly/1LNNFD

Not surprisingly, manufacturers noticed a huge new market that was growing like gangbusters in the middle of a downturn. New entrants joined the game, and in order to differentiate themselves, started adding features and enhancements to the stripped-down netbook. Screen sizes and keyboards are now getting larger. Graphics are getting better. Some folks argue that, at least among certain brands, there’s virtually no difference at all between a netbook and an ultralight laptop. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10312430-1.html)

Still, as a general rule of thumb, if you’re looking for a very cheap and light machine that you wouldn’t be heartbroken to lose or see destroyed – in other words, if you’re a student who needs a note-taking device, or a frequent traveler who has robust offsite storage and just needs an on-the-road Internet access device – a netbook could be the perfect thing.

Is Your Computer Protected? 4 Basic Internet Security Tips

October has been named National Cyber Security Month. Microsoft and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) have joined forces to promote awareness of internet security issues.

They recommend the following steps to help protect your computer:

1. Turn on your Internet firewall.
2.  Keep all your software current (including your Web browser) with automatic updating.
3. Install and maintain antivirus software and antispyware software, such as Microsoft Security Essentials.
4. Only install software from a company that you trust. Watch out for fake antivirus or antispyware software.

QuickTip: The Many Uses of the Windows Logo Key

Master Microsoft Keyboard Shortcuts

A lot of folks can go for years without ever using – or figuring out how to use – that funny-looking key in the lower left-hand corner of their Microsoft keyboard. But the Windows logo key can help you switch between applications, clear open windows off your desktop, and a whole lot more. The chart below shows you how.

Key Combination	Result
Windows logo key	Open or close the Start menu
Windows logo key +PAUSE	Display the System Properties dialog box
Windows logo key +D	Display the desktop
Windows logo key +M	Minimize all windows
Windows logo key +SHIFT+M	Restore minimized windows to the desktop
Windows logo key +E	Open Windows Explorer
Windows logo key +F	Search for a file or folder
CTRL+Windows logo key +F	Search for computers (if you are on a network)
Windows logo key +L	Lock your computer or switch users
Windows logo key +R	Open the Run dialog box
Windows logo key +T	Cycle through programs on the taskbar
Windows logo key +TAB	Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Windows Flip 3-D
CTRL+Windows logo key +TAB	Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Windows Flip 3-D
Windows logo key +SPACEBAR	Bring all gadgets to the front and select Windows Sidebar
Windows logo key +G	Cycle through Sidebar gadgets
Windows logo key +U	Open Ease of Access Center
Windows logo key +X	Open Windows Mobility Center
Windows logo key with any number key	Open the Quick Launch shortcut that is in the position that corresponds to the number. For example, Windows logo key +1 to launch the first shortcut in the Quick Launch menu.

QuickTips: Twitter Do’s and Don’ts for Professionals

A lot of companies are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, but before you make your move, make sure you know what you’re getting into.

Twitter is what’s called a microblogging application. It provides a convenient Web-based platform that lets you send and read updates, called “tweets.” Tweets run no more than 140 characters in length, and can be sent to subscribers, called “followers.” You can update by going to your Twitter page, sending a message by phone, or via a Web plug-in.

Many companies use Twitter in conjunction with Facebook and other social media applications. It provides a means of periodically reaching out to people interested in your company with brief, minor updates or even big news.

In the best situations, Twitter acts as a clearinghouse of first-hand news, informative Web links, and insights into the activities of prominent leaders in everything from retail to Congress.

For example, Whole Foods keeps a lively and useful Twitter account here. (http://twitter.com/wholefoods) The Zappos CEO keeps his own Twitter account; so does Senator John McCain. (http://twitter.com/zappos, http://twitter.com/senjohnmccain )

But, as many Twitter users discover firsthand, this hobby can quickly turn into an all-consuming obsession. If you’re not careful, you can end up Twittering about, say, the chorizo breakfast burrito you’d like to have, http://twitter.com/diiskrej/status/1577310161

or the symbolism behind cleaning your cat’s litterbox, http://twitter.com/reidstott/status/1578187119.

As a small business owner, you want to project a professional, knowledgeable image to your universe of current and potential customers. In order to do that, here are some tips:

1. If you keep a corporate blog, you can have it automatically send an update to Twitter every time you post something new. That will encourage your Twitter followers to check out your blog, where they’ll find useful information (you are posting useful information on your blog, right?).
2. Link to books, blogs, or items in the news that are relevant to your business.
3. Write about upcoming events – if you’re hosting a lunchtime seminar or giving a presentation to your local Rotary Club, let people know.
4. If there’s information you want to share with a customer, think about whether it might interest other people, too. Let’s say you’re a veterinarian treating a dog that just came in with heatstroke – you might tweet a few helpful tips for keeping your pets cool in the heat.
5. Sign up to follow Twitter users who are authorities on topics that interest you.
6. Don’t overload readers with too many updates in a day.

Twitter can be a fun, easy way to reach out to customers and show people another side of your business. Just make sure it’s the right side, and leave more personal musings to your personal Twitter account.