Microsoft has
taking its fair share of criticism lately regarding Windows
To address these
issues and make a bigger impact on the business community, Microsoft has
planned the release of Windows 7 at some point this year. It will, we hope,
combine the best features of Windows XP and Windows
How it works out
is yet to be seen.
E-MAIL
ISSUES / PROBLEMS
By now the
majority of our clients have implemented both Internet and E-Mail access from
within the office. Along with this comes the usual slate of related problems.
Viruses & Spam are just the beginning of the problems you may encounter in
this brave new world.
In the early days
of corporate e-mail, viruses were the main problem plaguing e-mail customers.
When I first set up my e-mail account with
Many smaller
Internet, Web-Hosting and E-Mail providers do continue to experience these
problems from time to time however. For this reason and because viruses are
always finding new ways to get to users through Messenger programs, Malicious
Web-Sites and the like, you still need good Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
protection on all computers. We continue to recommend Symantec’s Anti-Virus and
Spybot’s Anti-Spyware as a solid defence for these
vulnerable areas.
The other major
problem with e-mail these days is Spam. Spam is the junk mail equivalent of the
electronic age and it is a constant problem for many companies.
Again, the better
Internet providers have provided users with Anti-Spam tools to reduce the
problem. As someone that receives about 500 junk e-mails a day I have learned
that no system is perfect in dealing with Spam. Earlier end-user programs were
far from perfect and cost you extra money to boot. Newer tools are free but
require your time to configure and fine tune them.
Fighting Spam
seems to be a choice of lesser evils. If you trust your Internet provider’s
tools you may be able to eliminate 98% of Spam, but the occasional one will
still get through. As you approach this apparent utopia you will find that
these programs also occasionally filter out legitimate e-mails. Uploading your
address book and adjusting filter settings and the like may improve the
situation but nothing is perfect at this point in time.
I’ve even had an
occasional new client inform me that the e-mail they were about to send me
would be flagged as Spam. I had to deliberately set a filter to allow their
e-mail to go through. This had been happening to them for some time as they
were accidentally identified as a Spam source by
E-MAIL
FRAUD
I’m sure just
about everyone has received an e-mail requesting you to confirm your bank user
id and passwords. These are virtually always fraudulent and should never be
acted upon. Banks will never request passwords and such unless you contact them
first. Then there’s the one from a lawyer that needs a $1000 or so to process
your inheritance from a long lost relative in
E-MAIL
THEFT
E-Mail theft
occurs more frequently than people realize.
You can of course
configure e-mail accounts to leave copies of your e-mails at the e-mail server.
Many users do this deliberately so that two or more people can view every
incoming e-mail. This feature can occasionally be used to steal e-mail without
a company suspecting it.
E-Mail Theft can
actually occur in two ways. Existing employees could just forward important
mail to their home or to a competitor while in your employ. Requests for
quotes, purchase orders and other important mail are often targets for this
type of theft. This type of theft is rare but sometimes happens when an
employee is contemplating leaving to work for the competition.
More significant
theft can occur after an employee leaves and goes to work for a competitor. If
they were to take e-mail account information and passwords with them, they
could setup a remote computer to retrieve your e-mail while leaving a copy for
you on the e-mail server. In this case, the safest thing to do is to just call
your provider and change all your e-mail passwords.