What happens when you get canned?

The danger of having a single computer for personal and business. (Or what I like to call techno-cross-contamination) What happens when you work for a company and lose your job? The attached Wall Street Journal article talks about people who work for decades for a company only to find out that when the IT staff is given the go-ahead, they cut off access to a computer at a moment’s notice before the now ex-employee had a chance to get their data. We can help migrate data (most importantly contacts, calendar, personal emails and browser favorites) from your work computer to another computer or to a safe data storage device like a flash drive, CD, etc. before it’s too late.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124105119428271155.html

Netbook with 3G Cell Phone Support

A NetBook with 3G?!?! – OK, I’d love this deal if it was with Verizon Wireless, but I still might bite. Now through May 31, buy the Acer Aspire 10’ Netbook (1 Gig RAM, 160 Gig HD, Windows XP) for $429 - $250 instant rebate IF you sign up for $60/mon AT&T wireless data service on their 3G service for 2 years. Which means, for roughly $69/mon, you get a laptop that you can use anywhere that there’s an AT&T network. Your limit is 5 Gigs of downloads a month. Apparently more laptops and deals are to follow, but this seams pretty cool. Even though $69/mon sounds like a lot, when you start analyzing the last $1,000 laptop that you purchased, it’s not that much more expensive.

Update Your Antivirus Program

Antivirus Updates. Make sure your antivirus program is updated. If you use any of the ones I recommend, AVG or Avast!, make sure that you’re on AVG 8.5 or Avast! 4.8.1335. Even though AVG might have popped up saying, too bad, you need to pay, it’s not true, and every time they do this it annoys me. Go to www.filehippo.com and search for AVG. Download the most current version. For Avast!, there is a green box that will appear on your desktop that says “A new version of Avast! is available, click here to download”. Go ahead and do it, and then follow the instructions to reboot. If either product is saying that you are expired, or you don’t see their icons in the bottom right, do something about it!

Online Backups

Another plea for online backup. Dunwoody PC still believes that an online backup is the safest place for your data. We recommend Carbonite. They back up, automatically, all your personal data to the internet. Unlimited storage capacity for 1 computer, $54.95/year. Only two negatives, no video file backup and you can’t back up your external hard drive should you already have one. As my client Diego Montoya found out (name, sex and ethnicity changed to protect the formerly unprotected), not backing up stinks. We even tried the company that I recommend to restore the unrestore-able, and they didn’t have any luck bringing Diego’s data back. Kids pictures, videos, checkbook and tax data, all gone.

http://carbonite.com/aff/cj/cj/buy1.aspx?cmpid=BA_CJAFF_BUY1

Preventative Maintenance -

Residential Customer Preventative Maintenance (or “Pay Dunwoody PC a little now, instead of a lot later”) – For $99/year for the first computer, $49/year each additional computer, we will come to your home 2 times a year and provide the following services:

Check Antivirus, Windows Updates, Wireless Encryption, Backups, Clean Temporary Files

Recommend Product Updates, additional software, computers, peripherals, internet services

Legal fun with compressed air cans including keyboard and case cleaning

At that point, additional services can be scheduled should they be necessary. And, if you are taking advantage of this promotion, we will provide a 20% discount on all repair work (not including parts) during the year that you are a member. Restrictions do apply. Please call with any questions. Keep in mind that this promotion is for preventative maintenance and does not apply if your computer issues are already crippling! Call us at 404-702-3726.

Offer valid for Dunwoody and the surrounding areas only.

How To Disable Gmail Spam Filter

I, and a few of my clients use Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows mail to frontend Gmail. One of my clients said "hey, why can't my wife email me?" I did some searching and found that Gmail had filtered the emails and marked them as SPAM. Here's how to fix it.

Log into your gmail account.
Click on Settings
Click on Filters Tab
Click on Create a New Filter
In the "Has the words" field, type in:spam
Click Next Step
Click OK through their warning message
Click Never send it to spam
Click Apply Filter

If you already have emails in the filter, click on your SPAM folder
Click Select All
Click Not SPAM

You're Done!