There are two bills before congress that would enable the U.S. government to censor what Web pages we are able to see. Please sign Google’s petition to help keep freedom alive online.
Protecting Your Computers in a Storm or Hurricane
Hurricane Irene is on the way. Electrical storms can severely damage computers and other electronics. Not only are your computers at risk but so too are any peripheral devices such as external hard drives, printers, routers, etc.
At first sign of electrical storm activity, turn off and unplug all electronics.
And stay safe out there!
Solved: Unable to Save / Remember Password for Mapped WebDav folder
Comments Off
Written on June 2nd, 2011 by Dylan Hall
Categories: SharePoint, Tips and Tricks, WebDAV
Categories: SharePoint, Tips and Tricks, WebDAV
Symptom: In Windows Vista/7, after you map a WebDAV shared drive, such as a SharePoint document library, you are required to type your password every time you open it. Clicking the “Remember Password” checkbox seems to have no affect. Additionally, you get an “Unable to connect to network drive” message when you start the computer. This is particularly a problem when the WebDAV share is located outside of your local network (on the Internet).
Solution: When you check the Remember Password box, Windows is actually saving your password. You should be able to see it in your Credentials Manager Control Panel. The problem is that as a security feature Windows does not allow this password to be sent automatically. (This only applies to WebDAV shares that are outside your local network.)
With a little registry editing, however, we can set the system to allow saved passwords to your external WebDAV servers. (I believe you can wholly disable this security feature also, however it is not recommended). By the way, modifying your registry incorrectly can cause damage to your computer, so always back up your registry first by using the export command with the registry editor.
We find the solution to this problem in Microsoft KB 943280 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943280/en-us).
- Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
- Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters
- On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
- Type AuthForwardServerList, and then press ENTER.
- On the Edit menu, click Modify.
- In the Value data box, type the URL of the server that hosts the Web share, and then click OK.Note You can also type a list of URLs in the Value data box. For more information, see the “Sample URL list” section in this article.
- Exit Registry Editor.
Here are some sample URLS you might use for reference:
https://*.Contoso.com
http://*.dns.live.com
*.microsoft.com
https://172.169.4.6
If you are connecting to an SBS 2008 server, for example, the entry would probably look like this: remote.domain.com.
Avoid using wildcards here, if used improperly they can completely lift this security feature.
I hope this helps save some people some frustration. I nearly pulled my hair out dealing with this one.
Google Docs Overview
Comments Off
Written on November 30th, 2010 by Dylan Hall
Categories: Business, Google Apps, Small Business
Categories: Business, Google Apps, Small Business
Google Apps Series Episode 3: Google Docs
Here is a great overview of Google Docs for business use. One of the most amazing features is that multiple workers can edit the same document or spreadsheet at the same time. This represents a substantial productivity gain as compared to workers emailing files back and forth.
Google Apps for Business Testimonials
Comments Off
Written on November 29th, 2010 by Dylan Hall
Categories: Business, Email, Google Apps, Small Business
Categories: Business, Email, Google Apps, Small Business
This video demonstrates how Google Apps for Business provides small businesses with an easy to use productivity boost.
Gmail Spell Check
If you have tried out Gmail, you might find that there is one thing seriously missing: spell check. I have good news for you — the solution is simple.
Simply download and install Mozilla Firefox or the Google Chrome web browser. Both of these browsers have active spell check integrated, so no matter what web site you are typing in, it will underline your misspelled words on the fly as you type.
Here’s an example of how it looks:
Happy Emailing!
Google Apps Series: Welcome to the Cloud
Comments Off
Written on November 29th, 2010 by Dylan Hall
Categories: Business, Email, Google Apps, Small Business
Categories: Business, Email, Google Apps, Small Business
Google Apps Series Episode 1: An Introduction to Google Apps for Business.
Google is providing small and medium sized businesses with tools that were previously only within reach of large organizations that can afford expensive server rooms and IT staff. In this series of articles, we will be looking at the Google Apps suite as it applies to small to medium sized businesses. My objective here is to provide business owners with a basic understanding of what Google Apps is and how it may be beneficial to them. Google Apps is an opportunity every business owner should be aware of, whether you are a one man operation or have hundreds of employees.
What is Google Apps? Basically, Google Apps is a suite applications, like Microsoft Office. These include Gmail, calendar, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation creator, chat, voice, and more.
What’s the big deal? Firstly, the price. The Google Apps suite is extremely inexpensive, and it is efficient to deploy, and is extremely low maintenance. Previously, businesses invested in expensive Microsoft Exchange servers for email and calendar sharing. This is now available from Google liternally at a fraction of the cost. And there is a second deal this is a big deal — the Google suite offers many beneficial features that Microsoft does not.
Let’s take a look. Here is a quick video overview of Google Apps for Business:
Bravo to Google for helping the little guys compete with the big boys.
Here at Geeks on Wheels we have helped numerous businesses take advantage of Google Apps to increase productivity, while at the same time dramatically reducing costs as compared to using Microsoft solutions.
Call us at 914-562-1800 for more information or help determine if Google Apps is a good fit for your organization.
In the next episode of this series we will be looking at some examples of how businesses use Google Apps.
Uncluttering Your Gmail
Many people find the Google Apps mail interface a bit cluttered at first. There are quick and easy ways to customize the view settings for your mail to make it less cluttered. The two changes I recommend are:
1. Remove Web Clips
2. Remove Snippets
Here’s a picture of how Google Apps/Gmail looks at first with these options enabled:
After we turns these off, we get a cleaner view, like this:
Making these changes is simple. Just click on the “Settings” link in the top right hand corner of your mail. This will take you to the general tab of your settings. Scroll down until you see snippets, and click the radio button for “No Snippets.” Here’s what it looks like.
After changing this option scroll down and click the “Save Changes” button.
To turn off Web Clips, go back into Settings, and click the tab for “Web Clips.” In this tab uncheck the box at the top for “Show my web clips above the Inbox.” You don’t have to click any save button on this page. Here’s what it looks like.
Happy Gmaling!
Managing Spam with Multiple Email Addresses
Comments Off
Written on October 10th, 2010 by Admin
Categories: Email, Microsoft Outlook, Small Business, Spam Management, Tips and Tricks
Categories: Email, Microsoft Outlook, Small Business, Spam Management, Tips and Tricks
Every day our time is wasted by unsolicited email. Spam filters help us separate out the stuff we definitely don’t want to be bothered with. They fall short, however, in separating the important stuff from the maybe-I’ll-read-it-later materials.
Here is where we can utilize multiple email addresses to save time. When you shop online, sign up to receive information about a product or service, join a bulletin board — give them a secondary address. Keep private the email address you print on your business cards and use to collaborate with colleges, clients, and friends. Many people can tell you from experience that once some online marketers get a hold of your email, they will never give up sending you spam and they wont stop selling your email address to other marketers either.
Executive Summary
- Use a secondary email address for online activities such as shopping and forums.
- In office environments create departmental email addresses which can be shared by multiple employees for increased productivity and quick business data access.
- Use a program such as Microsoft Outlook to make comprehensive view of multiple email accounts quick and simple.
One you have the really important email separated out from messages containing sales receipts and product updates, you can work more efficiently. If you are having a busy day, you can stay focused on the inbox that matters, and when you need to find that receipt or are wondering if some company or sales person out there has sent you a discount offer, give your second inbox a look.
If you are a small business this comes with added benefits — You can share such an inbox with other employees. I recommend setting up an email account such as purchasing@yourdomain.com and adding this inbox to Outlook for everyone in the company with the ability to spend money on its behalf. This provides you with a single email inbox where you know you can find every invoice from all of our major vendors, for example. How much did that new inventory item one of your employees just purchased cost? A quick search for the part number gives you the a list of every time this item was ordered, what it cost, and even what the invoice number was.
A great way to manage two email accounts to use software such as Microsoft Outlook, and set them up as separate inboxes that you can conveniently click between.
Organizing your email is a simple and effective way to improve productivity. If you would like assistance from a pro on best managing your email call 914-562-1800.
Driving Traffic to your Local Business Web Site
Comments Off
Written on July 23rd, 2010 by Admin
Categories: Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business
Categories: Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business
For small businesses online marketing can be intimidating. You don’t just need a web site, you need it to appear in search engines results. But the Internet is a big place, and how is your small business going to compete with national companies with massive budgets for online marketing?
I have good news for you. Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines are expanding their emphasis on local search results, delivering local business listing over national search results in more and more search results.
You can take advantage of this by creating free local listing for your business with the major search engines at the following sites: Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local. It doesn’t take much time and it is definitely worth the effort. You should include a link to your web site in the listings of course if you have one.
You also need to know how many people are visiting your site, and see how that changes over time. Are you moving in the right direction? A great free way to do this is Google Analytics.
Finally, and here’s the big one, you should improve your web site to draw local search engine traffic, also called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Of course your site should be quality enough to convince visitors to pick up the phone, however that will have to be the subject of another post.
Search engine optimization firm David MIHM, Inc recently published the results of in-dept survey of SEO experts into what the most important factors are for driving visitors to your web site.
Here are the key takeways from the report:
- Get your Google and Yahoo local business listings up and keep them up to date.
- Keep your website and directory listings addresses in sync. One address and phone number everywhere.
- Enhance your local listing with customer reviews, photos, videos and the right keywords.
- Get inbound links. Each one is a vote for your site. Find your local business directories and add your listing. More is better.
The complete report can be found here.
A list of major online business directories can be found here.
914-562-1800
