Want an iPad, but don’t want A T & T service? No problem….

One of the hottest tech gadgets of 2010 is Apple’s iPad.  It comes in two varieties, WiFi and 3G.  WiFi is OK, but if you are not in a WiFi hotspot……well, the iPad still looks good.  When the 3G version came out, it was the hotter item but many were not excited about having to change to AT&T’s service from their previous wireless provider.

A solution can be now found in Fortune Magazine, here is the story via CNNMoney.com.

To be perfectly honest, this may run you more than the $30 unlimited data plan that AT&T offers for the iPad, but sometimes the simplification of having just one wireless bill is work a few bucks more.

Then again, the added benefit of having a MiFi system could be worth going the other direction.

If you need help sorting all of this out, drop an e-mail or make a call to your Midwest Computech account manager.

Bug in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but the outrage is…

Microsoft announced Thursday that Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 contain an unpatched bug that could feed the coffers of those “phishing” for your information.  Read on at Computerworld.

The bad news is that many users have NOT transitioned from these operating systems, but the good news is that it does NOT impact users of Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.  Obviously, to see if you are concerned about this situation and how in could impact you, contact Midwest Computech to discuss your concerns.  There is not a patch yet, but Microsoft is working on it.

So the outrage is coming from a Google security engineer.  Remember a previous blog entry about Google discontinuing support for Microsoft operating systems?  Tavis Ormandy, the Google security engineer, reported the problem to Microsoft back on June 5, 2010.  Microsoft is upset that Ormandy made the news public on June 9, 2010.

Microsoft is angry, understandably so.  But Ormandy felt the move to go public was in the public interest, even though it was a move contrary to the policies of Google.  [Google policy is to NOT reveal a bug until the vendor, in this case Microsoft, has a chance to fix it.]

No matter where you fall in your opinion in this “battle” continuing to brew, you should first be sure that you are taken care of while waiting for the patch to be released.

Stay tuned and stay in touch with your account manager and service department at Midwest Computech…..meanwhile, Midwest Computech will not be taking sides in this battle between Microsoft and Google.  Our clients are our concern.

iPad users – WARNING!!! E-mail possibly hacked!!

This from Information Week.

Apparently hackers broke into the servers and stole account information on more than 100,000 iPad users, AT&T told Reuters on Wednesday.

Now what?

AT &T says that it is fixed, but the information has been grabbed by the hackers.  Since identity theft is such a big problem that the complete damage may not be known for quite a while.

The bigger question is this: How do you protect yourself?  The second question is: Who is liable?

To the first question, you can completely shut down your online activity, pay for everything with gold coins and deliver messages with invisible ink, in code, by armed horseback courier.  That courier could be attacked and your message decoded by someone with a surplus Enigma machine, so that may not be a good idea.  And following the lifestyle of Theodore Kaczynski is probably not a good idea either.

Be sensible is the best course of action.  If you fear that you are one of the iPad users who had their information stolen, check with AT&T to see what you can find out.  And in the meantime, work on secure websites and secure e-mail sources rather than on the iPad.

If you read the article linked up above, you will see that some rather well-known folks may be victims.  And that this may have been just a test of AT&T’s security by an unauthorized third-party.

As always, if you have more questions regarding this or other online security concerns, contact your Midwest Computech Account Manager for advice and assistance.

Need to Reboot….this time, your TV/DVR

Did you wake up on Tuesday morning and your DirecTV DVR didn’t work?  Or did you get home from work and have this happen?

Midwest Computech’s Jefferson City Account Manager Jay Kersting woke up to this situation on Tuesday.  His DVR would not even power on.

So, call DirecTV for help?

Well, Jay and his family have been DirecTV customers for ten years and have been through multiple generations of equipment.  Currently, the Kersting Family has their three DVR’s networked and connected into their router at the house.

With this bit of knowledge and confidence in working with computers, Jay simply rebooted the DVR’s.  Unplugged the DVR from the outlet, counted to 30 and then reconnected it.  Once it rebooted, it worked…sort of….couldn’t change channels, but could watch the last channel it was on.  Then Jay pressed the red reset button.  The DVR again rebooted and this time it was fully functional.

DirecTV actually used their Twitter account to advise their subscribers to do what Jay had done.  Tuesday afternoon, DirecTV acknowledged a transmission error as the cause and stated it was fixed and e-mailed their subscribers to let them know AND apologize.

What is the point of this?

Those of us who have been using computers for years have known that if all else fails, reboot.  In fact there is an old joke about engineers in a car that illustrates this point.

Here it is:

Three engineers are driving down I-70 when the car starts acting up.  They pull to the shoulder.  The chemical engineer asserts that it is a problem with the fuel….possibly that water has gotten in the fuel causing the problem.  The electrical engineer disagrees and thinks that the alternator has failed.  Finally, the software engineer says they should turn off the car, get out, shut the doors, wait a minute, get back in the car and restart it.

This sound ridiculous to some, but if you think about it, the more wired we become, the more likely this scenario becomes.  Televisions are now being advertised as having a music download service included with them.  Used to be that you had to tune to MTV to get that, then you had no control over what you got.  Now, you tune to MTV and you get Snooki and The Situation, but little actual music.  So maybe having Rhapsody on your TV is a good thing.

Even coffee pots and cappuccino makers might need an occasional reboot.

Here is the thing you need to realize, computers have gotten more complicated so a reboot of your desktop or laptop may not solve your problems.  Calling your Midwest Computech Account Manager or the service department might be a good first step.  But, with your DVR, your smartphone, your toaster oven (??), a simple reboot might be the fix.

Or in the case of your DirecTV HD DVR, rebooting twice.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

Twitter users – Change your password when YOU decide

Everyone has heard of fishing, but do you know Phishing?  Sounds the same, spelled different.  One feeds you, the other feeds a scammer.

Phishing is a scam that involves tricking someone into providing them information.  That information CAN cost you money.

55,000 Twitter users have already gotten e-mails asking them to change their passwords.

DON’T DO IT!!!

This from Information Week.

Protect yourself by learning some good online practices.  If you need help with these, contact your Midwest Computech Account Manager and get the help you may need.

The most obvious one is this.  Never change your password via a link provided in an e-mail UNLESS you requested a password reset.  No financial institution, no government agency and most all businesses will ever ask you to change a password unless you first requested it.  If it looks like a possible scam, go back to a reliable contact with that organization and verify.  Do not put yourself, nor your company, at risk.

And speaking of Twitter, are you following Midwest Computech on Twitter? http://www.twitter.com/midwestcomputec (yes, without the “h” on the end)  Follow us there, you never know when we may decide to offer a contest to our Twitter followers.

If it has more moving parts than a rock hammer, have a backup.

The title of this blog entry is a saying that some of us heard many, many years ago.  While the moving parts might not physically be moving, they are moving electrons and that can be an issue.

Have you become dependent on having an internet connection in your business?  If you answer that question in the affirmative, you need to think about your backup plan.  Do you have one?  Or do you just wait for the internet connection to be fixed?

The first step in addressing this possible problem is to sit down and determine your dependency on the internet.  Next, you need to determine how deep and wide the dependency is.  Is is limited to one or two users, or is it everyone on your network.  Knowing that will help you find a solution.

Your Midwest Computech Account Manager can help with this and recommend some solutions.  And some of those solutions might be more than just a backup plan, they could be used to help out as an increased efficiency as well.

There are several organizations who are using a T1 line partnered with a DSL line or a cable modem line.  Or maybe using both a DSL and a cable connection.  One is the primary and one is the backup….or maybe something more creative is going on.

Did you know that you can bridge connections to balance your internet traffic across two or more providers?  That gives multiple users multiple paths to the internet and it gives you a faster access to the internet for your entire network.

For example, you have a T1 line.  That runs 1.5 Mbits up and down.  A DSL line might have a 5.0 MBit download with a 768 KBit upload speed.  If you combine the two in a load balancing way, you do not end up with the ability of a single user to download at 6.5 MBits, but you do have a total of 6.5 MBits available across all of the users of your network.  So, you get the reliability of a T1 line with the speeds of a DSL added.

And then, if one of those goes down, you still have the other as a backup.

That is just one example of how having a backup plan could also provide you more efficient, i.e. faster, internet activity.

If you have an Astaro firewall from Midwest Computech, you may already have the hardware and software on site to make this happen.  Again, check with your Midwest Computech Account Manager to find out more.

Admittedly, we cannot do much about that rock hammer if it breaks.  But, someone on our staff did get an A in their college geology class.

Not sure how that would help.

E-Reader, Netbook, Tablet, Notebook…what to get?

Years ago, you had two options.  Desktop or Portable.

As recently as the mid 1990′s, you could buy a portable computer that required AC power.  Battery technology has improved which allowed devices to become smaller, lighter and, at the same time, more powerful.  That led to the boom in the notebook computer market in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s.  A device called a “sub” notebook came and went in that time….a “sub” notebook had no internal floppy nor CD-ROM drive, just an internal hard drive.

Notebook computers became powerful enough to replace desktop computers.  Then notebook computers became as big as desktop computers, with 17″+ screens.  Many bags for carrying the notebook computers now have wheels on them, due to the size of the computers.

So, the successor to the “sub” notebook was introduced.  That was the Netbook.  Smaller, lighter and able to load software via WiFi downloads of USB drives.  Some even had handles on them.  WiFi being the real difference between the Netbook and its “sub” notebook predecessor.

Then came the e-readers.  Kindle was the first commercially successful one.  Sony has theirs.  Nook is another e-reader.

Then the iPad came out this year.  It is something between the three.  It has features of e-readers, the size and layout give that obvious role.  But it also serves the roles that netbooks filled.  And it is like a tablet as well, something that has hit some niche markets but has yet to gain wide appeal.  But the iPad has limitations, specifically in the area of external physical inputs like USB ports, Firewire ports or SD card readers.

So, with all of these options, what do you get?

If money was no object, you’d get all of them and see which one you use the most.  But, we are in a recession so money IS an object.  The advice that we can give is to follow the successes and failures of others.  See what others are doing, ask a lot of questions.

Do your research.  And check with us here at Midwest Computech.  Your Account Manager can provide you with some of these devices, but more importantly, your Account Manager can provide you with the information that you need in order to make the right decision so that you get the right fit for what YOU need.

The answer might be that you need to use the resources available on your smartphone…something you already have…rather than spending more money on something you don’t need and may not use.

Saving money…that would be really smart.  But until you ask the questions, you won’t know.

Google slams Windows shut….

Google is to release its own operating system later this year, Chrome.  For now, many thought that they would stick with Microsoft’s Windows operating systems.

Nope.

Google is no longer offering support for any Windows operating systems to their internal users.  But this is not just a move to keep the competition out of their own house.  Obviously, you would not drink a Pepsi while working for Coke.

The move began back in January after Google’s Chinese operations were broken into, virtually, due to some security issues with the Windows OS.  Later, Google announced that they were leaving China.  On Monday, Google announced that Windows is done, too.

Read more at the Financial Times website.

Google does admit that the move to using their own OS started before the Chinese hacking incident, but that action expedited this move.

Linux based OS’s are the flavor of the day, when not using the pre-release versions of Google’s Chrome OS.

Should you be concerned?  If you are a large search engine/internet guide/news source and you do a lot of business in China, yes you should.

Otherwise, you are probably not a major target.  But, stay safe with a good firewall….we recommend Astaro.

Check with your Midwest Computech Account Manager for more information.

Think you are safe due to your OS? Think again!

Better than we could even say it, and we think that we do a pretty good job of it.  But the folks at AVG have their own bloggers.

Many think they are safe from viruses, spyware, malware, bugs, etc., because they run something other than Windows.

Read this…AVG nails it and provides some help.

Need to know more, contact your Account Manager at Midwest Computech today.  Firewalling, anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-malware, while it is possible that you can have too much, but be sure that you have enough!!

Did you quit Facebook yesterday?

A couple of weeks back, the Midwest Computech Blog made mention of the changes to the Privacy settings and standards on Facebook.  Mentioned the mess, how it got to be that way, how your “friends” try to suggest how to fix it and what Facebook is doing now.

And no, we never did get the Oatmeal Raisin cookies.

Well, one user of Facebook out of every 15,000 pledged to quit using Facebook.

One in 15,000?  And they pledged to quit, didn’t actually quit.  They might.

Or, they may cave in and go back to using Facebook again.

Facebook does have some serious concerns over how they deal with privacy issues and how they tinker with the settings.  The root cause is probably that Facebook grew a lot faster than anyone expected.

Four years ago, much of the social networking buzz surrounded myspace.com over any other website.  Today, most people say, “my what?”

Facebook is still hot.  And Facebook will remain hot.  Individuals, businesses and even political campaigns embrace the use of Facebook.  Until something better comes around, Facebook will be hot.

Oh, and check out our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/midwestcomputech when you get a chance.  Thanks, friend.