This past ​​​​​week MLD Services ran into a particularly nasty virus​​​​​ called Win32 Alueron that was installed on a clients laptop. Symptoms of the infection were the disabling of the free version of ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Avast ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​and redirects from the website the user was trying to view to infected sites attempting to install more malware.

Here is Microsoft’s definition:

Win32/Alureon is a family of data-stealing trojans. These trojans allow an attacker to intercept incoming and outgoing Internet traffic in order to gather confidential information such as user names, passwords, and credit card data. The Win32/Alureon trojan may also allow an attacker to transmit malicious data to the infected computer. The trojan may modify DNS settings on the host computer to enable the attacker to perform these tasks. Therefore it may be necessary to reconfigure DNS settings after the trojan is removed from the computer.

Win32/Alureon may also infect and corrupt certain driver files, causing them to become unusable.

This virus is especially hard to detect and hard to properly remove. The Anti-virus products that do identify the problem label it as RAS Automatic Connection Driver infection (rasacd.sys) or some form of Win32 Alureon.

Some online articles refer you to a set of instructions which will remove the infected file rasacd.sys and then restore the original file either from a CD, DVD or the i386 directory, but somehow MLD Services found a way around this using a combination of products that apparently have resolved the issue. It is quite possible that our issue had not corrupted the file rasacd.sys even though OneCare Live pointed out that file as the issue.

The first step in troubleshooting any malware or computer virus infection is to properly identify the problem! In this instance we used OnceCare Live from Microsoft to identify the problem and allowed it to cleanup what it could.​ Note that the Anti-virus software installed on the system was disabled and useless.

The second step was to run a lesser known tool called ”VIPRE Rescue Program” from Sunbelt software. You can find the instructions for use and download the tool here on Sunbelt’s website.

Our third step was to run Malwarebytes and clean any problems that it detected.

The fourth step was to run OneCare Live one more time, and if it was clean we tested by browsing multiple websites like; msnbc.com, google.com, symantec.com, and other popular web sites.

Some of the free Antivirus products claim to be able to stop this infection, but running a full set of security tools is the only way to go. This includes tools that include Anti-Virus, Spyware, Malware, Firewall, and possibly using of 3rd party tools such as OpenDNS to assist in keeping you safe on the Internet. All computer users regardless of operating system need to run daily updates and then run full scans at least once a week.

If you have any questions or concerns please use our contact page for information on how we can be reached.

Related posts:

1. SecurityTool Malware and it’s Removal
2. ISO Burning in Windows 7?
3. Windows 7 Hot Keys

My previous article discussed the highlights of Puppy Linux, as well as the advantages of implementing Puppy in your everyday life. Now let’s learn how to create a bootable Puppy CD.

First, there are a few things that you’ll need:

• Download the latest version of Puppy Linux from this site.
  Note: As of 07/29/2010, the latest image is lupu-501.iso (Lucid Puppy).
• If you do not already have a 3^rd party ISO file processing application, download and install one of these:
  BurnCDCC
  PowerISO
  Create-Burn ISO
• Of course, you’ll also need CD/DVD burner and a blank CD or DVD

Although you can use the program of your choice, I will show you step-by-step how to burn the image file to disc using BurnCDCC.

Open BurnCDCC.

Next, browse to and open your .iso image file.

Insert your blank disc into the drive and click Start.

Once the image is finished writing to disc, you should have seven to nine files on the disc. You’ll need to reboot your computer and change the setting in your BIOS to boot from your CD/DVD drive.

Note: Not sure how to access your BIOS? Take a look here.

When the disc begins to load, you will see a screen like this one:

Followed by several configuration settings that you get to choose from: your keyboard, your country and your time zone.

Don’t worry, you’re nearly finished…

Last, you will need to pick your video driver. You can either do this manually, or you can let Puppy choose for you by selecting “Probe”. This will automatically determine the right driver for your video hardware to output the best results.

If you selected “Probe”, Puppy will allow you to test this driver before committing to it. When you’re satisfied with the results, confirm the driver selection.

Now for the screen we’ve all been waiting for….

Congratulations! You’ve successfully configured Puppy Linux!

Until next time.

Related posts:

1. Puppy Linux

That’s a Good Puppy

Today, I am going to talk about a Linux distribution that, in my opinion, is quite understated.  Right now you’re thinking: Wait, Linux?  I can’t use Linux, that stuff’s only for the expert geeks.

Well, I’m afraid that ripe old excuse isn’t nearly as valid as it once was.

Linux distributions are successfully working to become friendlier to the average user; while at the same time, becoming more and more compatible with Windows applications.  In fact, increasingly more people are using their favorite Linux distros to completely replace their current operating system (OS).  There are hundreds of distributions to choose from that are uniquely crafted and developed, all at no cost to you.  You can even create your very own if you’re feeling really ambitious!

But this is all a bit off topic because I’m here to shed some light on one distribution in particular: Puppy Linux.  With its lightweight interface, its immaculate speed and pocket-friendly size, Puppy has gradually matured into an incredibly useful and dependable tool that is sure to make your chaotic day a bit more bearable.

Puppy’s got it all.

Granted, Puppy didn’t start out to be so practical initially, it has grown to encompass all of the most common features for everyday use, such as: multiple web browsers, word processors, photo editors, PDF viewers, instant messaging clients, even media players and burners.  You can find a full list of preinstalled applications (pets) here.

You say that list isn’t thorough enough for your needs?  Installing additional applications is as easy as accessing Puppy’s PETget Package Manager.  Compartmentalized by categories, the PET package repository makes it effortless to find and install all of the supplementary applications that you crave.

Fast Puppy.

Puppy’s astonishing speed can be attributed to both its jaw-dropping size and its atypical method of operating exclusively in memory.  Weighing in at a whopping 70 Megabytes, Puppy’s most charming trait is its portability.  Load it on to a CD or USB drive and take it anywhere!  The latest versions even allow you to save your data to the device after each use, permitting you to take your files and your entire OS with you everywhere you go.  Now, that’s convenient!

The latter of Puppy’s noteworthy characteristics is that of its speed.  The secret is that the entire system loads and runs in our computer’s volatile memory called Random-access memory (RAM).  Requiring a mere minimum of 32MB of RAM*, Puppy Linux can even run without any existing hard drives in place!

Puppy loves kids, too!

Worried about the malicious junk that may make its way on to your computer when the kids are surfing the web?  Not anymore.  Each time you shut Puppy down, all of the temporary data is wiped.  Say goodbye to pesky malware and Trojans infiltrating your PC.

Well, that is Puppy Linux in a nutshell, folks.  So next time you find yourself pounding your head against the monitor of that sluggish PC, save your valuable time (and not to mention a throbbing headache), by loading your Puppy disc and begin soaring through today’s lengthy to-do list.

*To compare, Windows Vista requires at least 2 Gigabytes of RAM, or 2048 Megabytes, just to be installed.

Next, I will be providing a guide for creating a bootable Puppy CD/DVD or USB drive.

Related posts:

1. Installing/Configuring Puppy Linux

The biggest problem with your computer might just be you!

When was the last time you ran a disk cleanup, defragmented the hard drive, or emptied the cache in Internet Explorer?

Sure there are a lot of third party tools that make a lot of promises and some do deliver, but today let’s just focus on the tools included in Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows 7. OK you say, but what about Microsoft Windows Vista? Well if you are running Vista, save your money  as well as your sanity and upgrade to Windows 7 and then come back and read this article.

So your computer performance has slowed to a crawl? This is the number one complaint from users everywhere. So what can we do to speed up or tune up our systems? Follow the steps below.

First run the disk cleanup wizard built into the Microsoft Windows operating System.

For Windows 7:

Start, All Programs, and then Accessories, System Tools to locate Disk Cleanup to begin the tune up process.

The wizard starts and just about everything here can be deleted, but remember that everything is really deleted, so if you are one of those who uses the recycle bin as temporary storage then remove the check mark from Recycle Bin. Click OK and wait for the tool to do its job.

For Windows XP:

Start, Programs, and then Accessories, System Tools to locate Disk Cleanup to begin the tune up process. The process is the same as 7, but review what you are about to delete and then choose OK.

Now run the disk defragment tool built into the Microsoft Windows operating systems.

For Windows 7:

Start, All Programs, and then Accessories, System Tools to locate Disk Defragment to begin the defragment process.

The task is automated in Windows 7 and is scheduled to run on Wednesday night at 1 AM. So you can either leave the computer on all night, or reschedule it to run during a more convenient time, but remember that large hard drives can take a while to defragment.  You can also schedule backups, virus scans, and other tasks to take advantage of the computer being left on all night.

Windows XP:

Start, Programs, and then Accessories, System Tools to locate Disk Defragment to begin the defragment process.

The defrag utility is not already scheduled to run in Windows XP, but it can easily be automated using the Task Scheduler, located in the Control Panel and a batch file.

Startup notepad, copy and paste the line below, or enter the following:

defrag c: >c:\defrag.log 2>&1

Now save that as “c:\defrag.cmd”.

From Start, Settings, Control Panel, Scheduled tasks, create a new scheduled task. It should point to and run c:\defrag.cmd. Set this up to run one night a week and set the time for like 3 AM. Check the log every once in a while to make sure that the process is happening as you expect.

You can run defrag.cmd at any time yourself, if you like. Just open up a command prompt and type c:\defrag.cmd.

This article is not a how to on writing batch files but I took a screen shot from the Task Wizard just in case.  Start -> Settings -> Control Panel and then Scheduled Task. Select Add New task and follow the prompts, when prompted choose the browse button and locate the batch file.

This should clean up unwanted files, and put everything back into order on your hard drive, and hopefully boost your performance.

Subscribe to our RSS feed for upcoming articles on caring for your PC.

Matthew L. Davidson: MLD Services: Lexington KY

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1. Win32 Alureon and it’s removal from Windows computers​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Google Reader is a web based application rich in features that can be used “out of the box” for those beginners that just want a point and click solution, or customized and tweaked so that even power users will be satisfied.

Google Reader has very few requirements to use. The first and only real requirement is that you have an account with Google to access this web based application, so if you already have an account with Google just point your browser to http://www.google.com/reader and let’s get started.

On Google Reader’s default page, you will find on the left column a tool bar that we will use to get started.

Probably the easiest way to get started with Reader is to choose “Browse for stuff” (see the image above) where we will find prebuilt bundled feeds from Google and others. Bundled feeds are based on a topic such as news, sports, or technology. At last count, Google had 449 premade bundles covering everything from Adobe to Zune, feeds from popular columnist Thomas Friedman; Michelle Malkin, and Paul Krugman.

I personally like the lifehacker website and technology articles in general so a bundled feed called lifehacker will be the bundle that I will add today.

Before adding a bundled feeds to Google Reader you can see all of the feeds that make up a bundle by clicking the plus sign in front of the number of feeds as shown in the next screen shot.

In our example we will click the subscribe button and Google will add the 9 feeds under the subscription toolbar on the left side of the screen.

Now that the lifehacker bundle has been added to my subscriptions, I see that lifehacker’s feed has ten new articles for me to read, and all feeds combined have 78 new articles that I can browse from nine different sources! How cool is this tool!

To view that articles, under subscription I simply click on the Lifehacker feed and in the main window I now see the feed articles.

You can also rank articles by clicking the Like button, share, and email the articles.

Other reasons to use Google Reader is being web based you are not tied down to one computer with an RSS application to access your feeds.

For the RSS beginner, Google has taken the work out of adding feeds from multiple sites on topics that you enjoy.

For the advanced user Google allows you to create your own bundles, and standalone feeds.

So what are you waiting for, bring the world wide web to one location that is easy to format and browse!

Matthew L. Davidson: MLD Services: Lexington KY

Related posts:

1. A beginner’s guide to Really Simple Syndication or RSS.
2. Google Voice
3. Google Wave

Today’s article is the second part of our series on using RSS feeds. If you have not read part one then please do so before continuing.

Today we will look at Apple Mail running on the latest version of OSX, Snow Leopard. In the next article of this series we will review Google Reader.

Here again is a list of feeds that I find interesting. Let’s review a few places to get feeds and then add a feed to Apple Mail. Simply click on a link to view the feeds.

1. NPR Feed list – Contains everything from Arts and Culture to World News.
2. Yahoo Feed list – This is another site that covers a lot pf topics but also has a unique feature in that you can create custom RSS feeds with very little effort.
3. Google’s page on RSS – Google has a page with information on RSS feeds, click the link to Available feeds.
4. CNN’s Feed list – This is a link to CNN’s website feeds, and the Money feed is one that I personally subscribe.
5. RSS Weather Feeds – Go on and setup your local weather!
6. Ebay Feeds for sale items –  Would you like to monitor Ebay for a hard to find item?
7. Slashdot RSS Feeds –  Nothing like slashdot to keep us techies satisfied!
8. Funny feeds here –  Because everything in our feed reader does not have to be serious.
9. Financial Feeds – Well not one feed but 100 Best RSS Feeds for Your Financial Literacy.
10. RSS Feeds from The Onion web site –  Sarcasm

Have you found something you want to add to your Apple Mail RSS reader? Great! For this example I am again going to use NPR, but they all basically work the same. So open your Safari web browser and go to http://www.npr.org/rss and then open Apple Mail and we will add the feed.

I have opened the NPR page and clicked on the RSS feed link for Morning Edition.
Screen Shot of RSS links on the NPR page from Apple Safari.
Safari should open a new window with the URL we need to copy.
Screen grab of RSS URL in Apple Safari - Apple OSX
Copy this link and go back to Apple Mail and choose File -> Add RSS Feeds and the RSS feed dialog opens.
View of menu in Mail to add RSS feed - Apple OSX
Now the new RSS Feed dialog box opens. Select Specify the URL for a feed button and then paste the URL from the last step into the box and click add.
Screen grab showing the last step in adding RSS feed to Apple Mail - Apple OSX
And, unlike Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail just adds the feed!
Showing that the RSS feed has been added to Apple Mail - Apple OSX
Depending on how you have Apple Mail setup, you can see the feeds, the title and a brief summary of the story. Links are included to forward this on to friends, add to Del.icio.us, Technorati Links, or view the whole article. How is that for setting up the news that you want all in one easy access location!
Screen grab showing the RSS feed added to Apple Mail - Apple OSX

Besides news, finance, and jokes what else is RSS good for? Well MLD Services new online backup service will offer a weekly email recap or an RSS feed of your backups that provide you with all the important information on systems that are being backed up over the Internet. Contact us for more information.

In the next article I will setup Google Reader.

Matthew L. Davidson: MLD Services: Lexington KY

Related posts:

1. A beginner’s guide to Really Simple Syndication or RSS.
2. Purchased an Apple MacBook Pro
3. Continuing our beginner’s guide to Really Simple Syndication or RSS using Google Reader

Today’s article is the first in a series of short but informative articles on how to use a tool to collect information from different websites and bring them to your desktop for easy review and access.

So let’s begin this series with a simple question: what exactly is an RSS feeds and what does RSS mean? Put simply, RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. These feeds can be subscribed to and added to a software client running on your desktop. The client is known as an aggregator and this functionality exists in Microsoft Outlook, Apple’s Mail application, and on Linux with an application called Liferea. A simple Google search will give you a lengthy list of RSS applications far beyond the few that I have just mentioned, but these are the few that I am familiar with.

What about a “cloud” or Internet based solution? Well Google has a product which works really well that is known as Google Reader.

OK, so you have told me about several desktop applications and one web based application but why would I want to use this RSS stuff for anyway? Let’s say that you are starting to use the Internet more and more everyday as your main source for news about financial information and entertainment. You open your web browser and start pulling up sites to find the information that you want to view. This is all fine because that is what your computer and web browser were made for.

But what if you could bring all of the headlines and stories straight to your desktop or a web application and see them all in one spot?

OK, that sounds great.  So I am using Windows and I have opened Outlook 2007, and in Outlook 2007 I see something for RSS but the links there appear to be only about Microsoft and Microsoft products! Yes you are right.  As by default, Microsoft Outlook has feeds pertaining to Microsoft products.  Just as if you are a Mac user you will see that Apple Mail opens with one RSS feed and it is relative to Apple products.

Today we will look at Microsoft Outlook 2007 and in future articles we will review Apple Mail and Google Reader.

Let’s review a few places to get feeds and then add a few feeds to Outlook 2007.  Here is a look at my top ten list of news feeds that we can easily subscribe. Simply click on a link to view the feeds.

1. NPR Feed list – Contains everything from Arts and Culture to World News.
2. Yahoo Feed list – This is another site that covers a lot pf topics but also has a unique feature in that you can create custom RSS feeds with very little effort.
3. Google’s page on RSS – Google has a page with information on RSS feeds, click the link to Available feeds.
4. CNN’s Feed list – This is a link to CNN’s website feeds, and the Money feed is one that I personally subscribe.
5. RSS Weather Feeds – Go on and setup your local weather!
6. Ebay Feeds for sale items –  Would you like to monitor Ebay for a hard to find item?
7. Slashdot RSS Feeds –  Nothing like slashdot to keep us techies satisfied!
8. Funny feeds here –  Because everything in our feed reader does not have to be serious.
9. Financial Feeds – Well not one feed but 100 Best RSS Feeds for Your Financial Literacy.
10. RSS Feeds from The Onion web site –  Sarcasm

Have you found something you want to add to your Outlook RSS reader? Great! For this example I am going to use NPR, but they all basically work the same. So open your web browser and go to http://www.npr.org/rss and then open Outlook and we will add the feed.

I have opened the NPR page and clicked on the RSS feed link for Morning Edition.
Screen shot from NPR web page.
Depending on the browser used we now have opened either a new window or tab with the URL we need to copy.
Example RSS url shown in browser.
Copy this link and go back to Outlook and find the RSS Feeds folder. Right click on RSS and choose add feed.
Add a new RSS feed to Outlook 07
Now the New RSS Feed dialog box opens. Paste the URL from the last step into the box and click Add.
Outlook 2007 Add RSS feed dialog.
And, of course instead of being added to Outlook we are next prompted to make absolutely sure that we want to add this feed! There are some other options that we may or may not want to review under the advanced button, but they are not required.
Outlooks confirmation dialog to add a RSS feed.
You can click the Advanced button and change the feed name and a few other options, but normally I just choose yes and, depending on your network connection speed, the RSS feed will populate with the latest stories from NPR’ Morning Edition.
Depending on how you have Outlook setup, you can see the feeds, the title and a brief summary of the story. Links are included to forward this on to friends, add to Del.icio.us or view the whole article. How is that for setting up the news that you want all in one easy access location!
Screen shot of outlook showing RSS feed and stories.

Besides news, finance, and jokes what else is RSS good for? Well MLD Services new online backup service will offer a weekly email recap or an RSS feed of your backups that provide you with all the important information on systems that are being backed up over the Internet. Contact us for more information.

The next article I will setup Apple Mail and talk a little bit about the new MacBook.

Matthew L. Davidson: MLD Services: Lexington KY

Related posts:

1. Continuing our beginner’s guide to Really Simple Syndication or RSS using Google Reader
2. RSS feeds for Apple Mac OSX – Apple Mail
3. How to create envelopes, labels and other merged documents using Word 2007!

I recently heard the story of a laptop that was stolen from a salesperson, and the confusion that occurred because his company did not have an IT policy in place concerning portable devices. The lack of his companies planning has now surfaced, and has caused everyone a lot of grief. First all of the data that this salesperson collected is completely lost, both personal and business, and access to this data is simple due to a relaxed security policy! On top of that their lack of documentation led to a highly stressful situation while trying to contact the cellular provider to stop the account as multiple salespeople have cellular cards, but nobody bothered with creating documentation that determined which card went to which account. In fact there is no documentation that was ever made for any of their hardware.

While we all are being asked to do more with less these days, this is a perfect example of where letting your IT personnel or a provider like MLD Services help you create a hardware database that keeps track of which employee has which device, what hardware is tied to which accounts, such as cellular providers, and what computer accounts might need to be canceled. This also provides you the added benefit of having all of this information, such as MAC addresses, serial numbers, the make, model, and color, of the hardware in one well documented and easily accessible place for when you have to file a police report. Do not underestimate the value of this information! When I worked for the U.S. Federal Government a workers home was broken into and their Government laptop stolen, but it was returned to us because of a simple property sticker on the bottom of the laptop which listed the branch of Government and our location. A simple sticker that could have been peeled off, yet the criminals took the laptop to a pawn shop with the sticker still there on the bottom. Nobody ever said criminals were very smart.

But what about the data? Sure with time the salesperson, and possibly with the help of other company personnel they will be able to recreate a lot of the lost data, but at what cost? A simple online backup solution such as the one offered by MLD Services would allow a client to restore their data to a new laptop and have the salesperson back out in the field doing what they do best, which is selling the company product, and not sitting on the sidelines recreating the data.

What about securing the data? Well most modern operating systems allow encryption of your data and with a strong password it would take years to break, and now most hardware and Operating Systems prevent booting the system from a GNU/Linux CD and mounting the drive which would then render the data readable and available to be copied! Applying these encryption methods would keep all of the information secure from all but the most determined hackers.

You should also have a password policy that sets the length of your passwords to a minimum of eight characters, and requires the use of symbols and numbers. Do not use words, names, or popular sayings.

You should also have antivirus, firewall, malware and spyware detection which probably means goodbye to the freebies such as AVG. AVG does sell a product that covers all aspects of security, but so few of us seem to be willing to pay this small fee, which is unfortunate because the AVG products are well worth the small fee that they charge.

Use a software firewall, especially while using wireless “hot spots.” Be aware that these free and open connections increase the chance of eavesdropping or hacking.

And turn off the file sharing! I was recently in a coffee shop and noticed that my MacBook had found another Mac and had mapped this users shared folder. A quick look in their folder showed photos, documents, music, and other files ready to be copied or deleted. Not very smart. I looked at the other MacBooks in the shop, guessed the owner and mentioned it to them on my way out. Their eyes were big as saucers!

While away from the office and connecting through hotspots, if your company offers VPN then use it, and use the VPN software whenever you connect to the Internet through a public wireless connection as this provides you with an encrypted connection and prevents eavesdropping.

In the end you can either take time away from your business performing these operations you have learned from this post and other posts on the Internet, or call an IT consultant, such as MLD Services who can do this for you at a fraction of the cost and time to your business. You have to remember that your time is money, and a salesman sitting at home or in the office recreating data is a salesman that is not in the field taking care of your customers, all while your competitors sales force is out there talking to your customer.

So ask yourself what is the true cost of a lost or stolen laptop and no IT policy?

There are also a number of other tools such as Loki; Adeona, locatemylaptop, and other techniques which can be employed to secure or recover stolen IT equipment, so please contact us with any questions or concerns.

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1. Why Bother Backing up Your Data?
2. The season for new laptops and computers is upon us!

As I go about my day to day routine I constantly see Small and Medium sized business customers, and home users, particularly home users, who have no online or local backup plan in place and then when their PC or laptop experiences hardware failure, becomes infected with a virus, or the Operating System becomes corrupted, are in a state of shock and ask me how this could happen to them. Well it happens to all of us sometimes or other, and having a good online backup plan is important.

The purpose of this post is to briefly explain several types of backups and their benefits and short comings, but first let us analyze some of the reasons for backing up your valuable data.

Hardware Malfunction: Without a backup plan in place, recreating data from a failed hardware can take days, weeks, months, if it can even be recreated at all. Look through your data right now in your My Documents folder, or home folder, what with all of the email, PDF files, word documents, and others, could you recreate these from your failed hard drive?

Human Error: Accidentally deleted your contacts in Outlook? An employee who thinks they are being helpful by deleting old files they think are no longer needed. We have all done this at one time or other and frequent online backups are the only remedy.

Software Corruption: It happens all the time. An employee or the kids install a new program and it breaks another program such as QuickBooks, or your custom applications. What now?

Computer Virus: More and more computers are getting infected with viruses that seem to be getting worse and potent! After an infection what was once a system that ran perfect will never again run just right. Do you rebuild the system from scratch or back up your essential data? Obviously the latter option is the more feasible one.

Natural Disaster / Fire / Flood / Theft: Not wanting to spread fear, but these unfortunate incidents can occur unannounced, and if they do, is your USB drive connected to the computer still of any value? What about the tape that was left on top of the server?

Government Compliance: Depending on your type of business, there can be Federal or State laws that require you to backup and maintain emails and other data for a certain amount of time. Do you have data contingency measures in place? If not, now is the time to start.

Backup to Network Attached Storage (NAS) or a USB disk

First up are the NAS devices, and as the price of hardware has dropped these items are ridiculously inexpensive and do work well. A simple NAS with a terabyte of disk space can be had for under $200 and includes streaming media servers and shareable iTunes folders. You can also buy simple home servers from Acer or HP running Windows Home Server for under $500 dollars. MLD Services uses these in its office with great success.

Most come with their own backup client such as Seagate’s Black Armor. We only see two down sides to these devices. One, they are in your home or office and if you experience a fire, flood, natural disaster or theft the NAS might be destroyed along with the other computers. The second issue is with a wireless network that can take a long time to backup.

USB devices are another item that can be used to backup your data, they are inexpensive and portable! Some are now small enough to fit into a safety deposit box at your bank. Most come with software that manages your backups. Alternately, in Windows 7 you can now create an image of your hard drive and then run incremental backups to your USB drive.

We use these in our office with great success. Most come with their own backup client such as Western Digital’s SmartWare and can range in size from 80 GB and up to a couple of Terabytes in size. MLD Services only sees two down sides to these devices. One they are in your home or office and if you experience a fire, flood, natural disaster or theft then the USB drive might be destroyed along with the other computers. The second issue is if you do take the device offsite, to a bank or your office, will you remember to routinely back up the drives? In some cases old backups can be next to useless.

On-line drive services such as dropbox.com or Windows Live

These services may have a place in your strategy or they may not. Some of the pluses that we have seen in testing these services are the ability to access your data at other computers, keep multiple computers data in sync, or share with colleagues, family, or friends. These are not really backups but are sync or storage services that could be used. Most offer a free plan, and then have a charge for more storage.

On-line Backup Services

True online backup services offer a desktop, or server client that allows you to backup whole or just parts of your computer, laptop or server to the Internet “cloud” and gets your data offsite with little effort on your part. These services can also offer multiple copies of a file available for a restore. This is useful if say your server is shared by a group, and someone needs a file restored from two weeks ago. Some of these services now offer mapped drives that can be used like dropbox or Windows Live and can be accessed through My Computer or through a web browser. Some services even offer email updates on the backups that were performed with how much was backed-up, lists of files and folders, and if it was a success.

What about MLD Services?

We will soon be offering an online backup service as part of our effort to provide our customers with a one stop IT shop. The service will offer backups, online file shares, all of which will be encrypted on the server and during transmission from your computer, laptop or server to the cloud. Emails will be sent giving MLD Services customers a list of what was backed up and whether it was a success. Contracts will be offered on a month to month or yearly basis. Look for prices and software downloads soon.

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3. News! Online Backups and Remote Desktop Support are coming soon!

Since moving to Zoho the first tool that was used is the Word Processor. Zoho’s word processor is called Writer which offers all of the  tools that the average user might need; such as mail merges, lists, basic formatting of font, and font size, and Writer is also able to export your files to formats like PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODF, RTF, TXT, HTML.

What about your existing documents? So far Zoho has handled the import of my Word DOCX files without a problem.

One great feature is the ability to share your documents with the other users in your organization or the ability to let the world have access via a URL.

Another great feature is the ability to open up documents and work on them from wherever you might be at the time and no longer having to worry if you’re on a Windows, Linux, or OSX computer, because the documents are edited and viewed in the web browser, and testing shows that Zoho’s business tools run fine in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.

But with all the good that comes along with this product there are a few issues. Printing for one has been somewhat of a challenge; it seems that printing from different web browsers can give different results, and a clunky way of working around this issue is to export the file to the desktop as a PDF file and then printing. Way to many steps to print, and hopefully that will be addressed in future versions.

One other issue occurred while using Safari as the web browser running on Apple OSX where everything seemed to lock up whenever we tried to paste text into Writer from another source, such as another web page or a text document, which produced an error that stated the file, could not be saved. To break out of the error we had to exit Safari, restart the Safari web browser, log back into Zoho, where it was discovered that all of the last updates to the document were gone, even though the Zoho FAQ page claims that there is an auto save feature in Writer to prevent data loss, but in this instance it did not work. Not much fun there and it only happened once so maybe it was a fluke, because this article was completed on my new Mac. Interesting that on the FAQ page that Apple’s Safari web browser is not listed as a supported browser.

In the next article MLD Services looks at Zoho Writer in more detail.

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1. Zoho Office Suite as an Alternative to Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and Apple iWorks
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