Newsletter Archives

• Win7 ESU License purchasing now open

  Posted on January 4th, 2021 at 13:49 Amy Babinchak Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  For the second year Harbor Computer Services has agreed to make the Win7 ESU licenses available for small quantity purchasers. What do you know? Microsoft and the distributors both got their act together this year and opened up Windows 7 – Year 2 Extended Servicing Updates license for sale on time. That means it’s available now! The cost of year two licensing is $142.

  To prepare for your license purchase you will need:

  • Your tenant information from last year. Find that email from Ted. It’s in there and you were instructed to keep it in a safe place.
  • Credit card
  • Number of licenses needed
  • email address

  If you have any Windows 7 computers that do not have year 1 applied, then you will also need to purchase year 1 for that computer. There’s a note section to let Ted know that you need one of those too. After you submit the form, Ted will process the information, make the purchase and the send you an email response with the license and instructions for installation. Just like last year. Please be a bit patient as we get ramped up to process these.

  Here ‘s the link to the form

  Small Business Computing, Windows 7, Windows Patches/Security Win7, Win7 ESU

• A new way to manage Exchange’s auto-forwarding rules

  Posted on December 6th, 2020 at 21:05 Amy Babinchak Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  SMALL-BUSINESS COMPUTING

  By Amy Babinchak

  Here’s one never-changing rule for IT pros: Microsoft will always change the way that things get done.

  For example, in September, the company rolled out a new version of the Exchange admin center (EAC). This change and others mean that we’re forever working to keep our system/service settings and configurations up to date.

  A security staple for IT staff is preventing email from auto-forwarding off domains. Recently the transport rule that powered this function stopped working for two of my clients. It’s continued to work for others, but it’s probably just a matter of time before they run into this issue, too. So, my staff is off making changes — proactively.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.48.0 (2020-12-07).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Custom policies, Email auto-forwarding, Email security, Exchange admin center

• Business cyber insurance: A sea change

  Posted on November 15th, 2020 at 21:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  SMALL-BUSINESS COMPUTING

  By Amy Babinchak

  For IT businesses — and by extension, their clients — adapting to a rapidly shifting technology environment has been a challenge.

  Not the least of those changes is insuring for data-related privacy and security losses.

  Not that long ago, insuring my business was relatively simple. We were covered primarily for liability and errors/omissions. Today, the array of events covered by my policy is mind-boggling — much of it focused on data security and privacy.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.45.0 (2020-11-16).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Business insurance, IT changes, privacy, security

• Online presence: Currency, continuity, and commitment

  Posted on October 25th, 2020 at 21:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Small-Business Websites

  By Will Fastie

  So your website is now up and open for business? That doesn’t mean you can just walk away.

  In previous installments of this series on small-business websites, I stressed the important basics of ensuring your site can be easily found. For example, in the September 21 article, “Web presence: Working with search engines,” I discussed understanding the Google search engine. What I didn’t mention was that search engines take into account a site’s age.

  In short, if your site isn’t considered current, its perceived value will drop, and it’ll fall lower in search-result lists.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.42.0 (2020-10-26).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Google searches, Web presence, Website content

• HP Issues Sure Click Enterprise 4.2 Patch 1 to fix Initialization Failures caused by Windows Updates (October 2020)

  Posted on October 16th, 2020 at 10:34 PKCano Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Posted on October 15, 2020, HP announced the release of HP Sure Click Enterprise 4.4 Patch 1 and Bromium Secure Platform 4.1 Update 8 (Patch 5) to fix Initialization failures caused by October 2020 Windows Updates.
  

  Issue Description

  After installing any of the referenced Windows Update KBs below, HP Sure Click Enterprise and Bromium Secure Platform will be unable to successfully initialize. New initialization attempts will fail with error UPDATEGUEST_NETWORK_SETUP_FAIL. Your devices will continue to work until a new initialization is needed, giving you additional time to rollback the Microsoft KBs. New initialization requests would generally be caused by:

  • Upgrading supported applications to a new major version, such as Chrome, Microsoft Office or Adobe Reader.

  • Manually requesting a new initialization from the Desktop Console

  • Installing a new version of HP Sure Click Enterprise

  This is a list of the Windows Updates affected

  • KB4579311 – Windows 10 Version 2004 x64
  • KB4577671 – Windows 10 Version 1903 x64
  • KB4577671 – Windows 10 Version 1909 x64
  • KB4577668 – Windows 10 Version 1809 x64
  • KB4580330 – Windows 10 Version 1803 x64
  • KB4580328 – Windows 10 Version 1709 x64
  • KB4580346 – Windows 10 Version 1607 x64
  • KB4580327 – Windows 10 RTM x6

  HP Sure Click Enterprise 4.2 Patch 1 Released.

  According to Windows Central

  There’s HP Sure Click Enterprise. HP calls this the “world’s most secure endpoint application isolation and containment solution.” Supported on Windows 8 and Windows 10, Sure Click Enterprise brings enhanced run-time protection with non-persistent virtual machines. It can also protect user credentials from phishing attacks and supports large-scale deployments.
  

  Gunter Born has more details on Born’s Tech and Windows World.

  Enterprise, Small Business Computing, Windows Patches/Security HP Sure Click Enterprise, Windows 10

• What is Microsoft saying to SMBs?

  Posted on October 11th, 2020 at 21:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  SMALL-BUSINESS COMPUTING

  By Amy Babinchak

  Microsoft’s 2020 Inspire and Ignite conferences are now literally history; as with most other major tech meetings this year, they were, for the first time, both entirely virtual.

  Inspire is focused on Microsoft-partner marketing, while Ignite is more about technology. Both events showcase the company’s vision of future business computing. But sometimes you have to read between the lines, too. Here’s what I think Microsoft is saying to small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and IT professionals.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.40.0 (2020-10-12).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Business security, Data privacy, Desktop management, Remote computing, Remote printing

• Web presence: Business social networking

  Posted on September 27th, 2020 at 21:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  SMALL-BUSINESS WEBSITES

  By Will Fastie

  The major-league social networks such as Facebook and Twitter can be a big help in establishing your company’s persona on the Web — but often at a cost.

  I have an instructive tale about Facebook. The story is a bit dated, and hopefully the world’s mightiest social network has improved somewhat, but it will give you a small perspective into the intricacies of social networking — and the sorts of trouble they can pose.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.38.0 (2020-09-28).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Business Web presence, Faceboook, Google, Social networks

• Microsoft 365 privacy tools

  Posted on September 6th, 2020 at 21:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  SMALL-BUSINESS COMPUTING

  By Amy Babinchak

  I’ll assume that most AskWoody readers take their personal privacy seriously.

  But how many of you extend your privacy concerns and actions to your work? Linked tightly with security, protecting business privacy extends to coworkers, clients, and all stored data.

  In the past, Office has been both a critical business tool and a significant security risk. Fortunately, today’s Microsoft 365 for business has an excellent collection of robust security features.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.35.0 (2020-09-07).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Business privacy, Data Loss Prevention, encryption, MS 365 for Business, Security tools

• Choosing a web-hosting service: The ins and outs

  Posted on August 16th, 2020 at 20:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  SMALL-BUSINESS WEBSITES

  By Will Fastie

  The heart of the Web consists of millions of web servers, constantly streaming out trillions of webpages.

  Relatively speaking, web servers are simple affairs — but choosing whose servers will host your website … not so much.

  Years ago, a brilliant programmer I know once quipped that he could build a web server with just 12 lines of code. He was probably correct: for an exceptionally simple website, one containing nothing but text-based HTML, serving up pages is nothing more than requesting a file from the server and rendering it in a web browser.

  Today’s websites are, of course, far more complex.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.32.0 (2020-08-17).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cloud services, SSL Certificates, Web-hosting services

• Choosing an email provider: Your biggest decision

  Posted on July 27th, 2020 at 01:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Small-business websites

  By Will Fastie

  Despite the popularity and widespread use of texting, email remains critical for business communications.

  Business email is universal, ubiquitous, and not necessarily tied to a specific person or phone number. Its long-form nature, broad capabilities, and nearly automatic communications archiving are unmatched by other forms of correspondence.

  All of which makes choosing an email provider one of the most important decisions you’ll make when establishing your business’s online presence.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.29.0 (2020-07-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Business email, Email providers

• Patch Lady – Use the domain of remotewebaccess.com?

  Posted on July 24th, 2020 at 08:59 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/de635d5c-1a89-43d0-a307-bdd7065560e1/domain-remotewebaccesscom?forum=winserveressentials

  As of yesterday the domain that Microsoft provides as a service to users of Essentials Servers is non functional.

   

  “Basically what has happened is the Nameservers against remotewebaccess.com have changed to a non-microsoft owned Namserver which doesn’t respond to the subdomains.  Not sure if Microsoft has had their domain hijacked or if someone has accidentally updated the nameservers against this domain.  Either way Microsoft has not responded about this yet”

  Edit at 11:24 a.m. pacific time:  Getting word that this may be fixed.  Can you guys check and let me know?

  Small Business Computing

• Six steps for securing your WordPress site

  Posted on July 20th, 2020 at 01:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  SMALL BUSINESS

  By Nathan Segal

  There’s a good reason WordPress is the foundation for many small-business websites: it’s comprehensive, flexible, and relatively easy to use.

  But poor security practices also make these sites popular targets for malicious hackers. Fortunately, there are tools for protecting your WordPress-based assets.

  To make sure I have WordPress security set up correctly, I spoke with FortiPress creator Brandon Zundel, a WordPress security expert. Here are his suggestions.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.28.0 (2020-07-20).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, iThemes Security, Wordfence, WordPress security
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