Kevin The Nerd

Newsletter for the Week of April 27, 2012

Posted on April 27, 2012 by admin

Nerds On Site | Nerds Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Request Service |

Note: apologies for the delay in releasing this newsletter. Very busy month. In most cases, it will be published every other week (usually on Fridays).

Nerds Blog Preview

Replace Your Server Rack with a NerdBox

Our NerdBox is the Nerds On Site appliance that suits a typical SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) of any sector as a behind-the-scenes technology that facilitates core essential services that every SME needs.

Why Use WordPress?

With thousands of clients around the world whose virtual existence we support and maintain, we sometimes get asked “Why WordPress?” when it comes to a Content Management System (CMS). In some people’s minds, it is still just software for blogging. Let me explain why it’s a feature-rich CMS that is usually the best choice for our clients’ Internet-facing public presence:

Highlighted NOS Service

TimeWellScheduled is a fully tailored secure online time and attendance system with employee scheduling and payroll export that enhances your workforce management capability.

It will help your company save money by making employees more accountable for YOUR time, and by reducing scheduling and payroll admin time.

Featured Web Service

The last password you will ever need to remember.

We all struggle to remember passwords, and keep on top of them by changing them periodically, and making them more secure. We’ll write them down somewhere, or just make them simple so they’re easy to remember. Bad idea. Hacker tools are getting more sophisticated, and many services won’t allow users to have dictionary words for passwords.

The beauty of Lastpass – it’s FREE (though there are paid extras). You set it up, give it a single, secure password, and as you go to your favorite websites and login, it will offer to remember that information (on it’s encrypted servers), and will fill it in for you from now on.

This Week’s Tech News – and How We Can Help

Follow Nerds On Site on Twitter for the latest tech news!

Story: New Scareware E-Mail Uses Warnings in an Attempt to Scam Money: The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has issued a warn… http://bit.ly/IqftkY

How Nerds On Site Can Help: If you’re unsure of whether to click a link in your email, or why your bank or the government would suddenly be sending you an email, please give me a call or email me and I will help you figure out what’s going on.

Story: Adobe Acrobat Reader X Network Printing Issue and How to Fix It: An issue exists with Adobe Reader X version 10…. http://bit.ly/J4HcJ4

How Nerds On Site Can Help: All programs have necessary updates that are released on a regular basis to patch flaws, or add features. but occasionally one of these updates causes a problem or two, as they cannot predict what will happen in every environment. The fix for the Adobe Reader X glitch is straight-forward, but not all solutions are. If you’re facing an issue as a result of a program, let me know and we’ll get it sorted out.

Story: Flashback cleanup stalls, 142,000 Macs still infected, says Symantec. http://bit.ly/HTikRY

How Nerds On Site Can Help: Macs have a reputation for being invincible – not susceptible to threats like Windows is. For the *most part* this is true, but there threats DO exist for the Mac, and Flashback is one of them. If you’re unsure if you’re infected, or don’t have an antivirus installed to tell you you’re infected, contact me, and we’ll make sure.

Some Great Deals

My System Cleanup promo is running until April 30th. $129 + $85 / Extra Computers. Depending on response, I may extend the deal.

Weekly Tips

Small Business Tip and How Nerds On Site Can Help

Nerds Blog: Network Attached Storage Devices – What’s Right for your Business? http://bit.ly/ImYbRU

Having one copy of your data is never a good idea, having a backup your must remember to manually run isn’t much better. Using a Network Storage Device can allow for centralized storage of your files, and run backups automatically.

Social Media Feedback Wanted

Your feedback is wanted! Send us an email [socialmedia@nerdsonsite.com], or leave a comment on our blog, Facebook page, or send us a tweet!

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in newsletter | Tagged newsletter | Leave a comment

Biweekly Newsletter for the Week of March 16, 2012

Posted on March 19, 2012 by admin

Nerds On Site | Nerds Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Request Service |

Note: apologies for the delay in releasing this newsletter. In most cases, it will be published every other Friday.

Nerds Blog Preview

Set up an iTunes Allowance for Your Kids

Most young people today have some sort of mobile device, be it an iPhone, iPad, or otherwise. In some cases, their parents cover the cost, and want to keep their kids accountable to what is being spent on things like apps and music. Setting up an iTunes Allowance can do that.

Watch Out for Tax Season Scams via Letters, E-Mails, and Online Forms

It’s tax season, which means there are bad guys out there looking to take advantage of those filing returns, and who may expect to be contacted for whatever reason by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Highlighted NOS Service

Nerds On Site Will PROTECT Your Domains

Our clients are busy trying to run their business. Why should you have to worry about silly ‘little’ things like the status of your domain name? The Bay Citizen (a non-profit San Francisco area newspaper) is in disarray these days, what with merger talks and the recent death of their founder. Their domain name was with GoDaddy, and they naturally had more important things to focus on than what their domain name was doing. Sadly, all was not well, and they failed to renew their domain, whereupon it expired and their website went down.

Nerds On Site works day by day to remove these type of stresses from a client’s life. Don’t you have enough to worry about? With Nerds On Site, all domain name are AUTOMATICALLY renewed and constantly managed. We don’t ask a client if they want to keep their domain, we don’t wait for approval or authorization or for you to take a few moments out of their day to understand what the Nerds want this time – we just protect your domain. Also AUTOMATIC, INCLUDED and FREE is domain locking (to prevent unauthorized individuals from stealing the domain) and WHOIS Privacy for supported domains (to help prevent theft and spammers).

If you don’t currently have your domains with Nerds On Site, consider the differences we offer. Sure, our domains are a few pennies a month more expensive than a GoDaddy domain, but isn’t it worth it to prevent this level of embarrassment?

Featured Web Service

The last password you will ever need to remember.

We all struggle to remember password, and keep on top of them by changing them periodically, and making them more secure. We’ll write them down somewhere, or just make them simple so they’re easy to remember. Bad idea. Hacker tools are getting more sophisticated, and many services won’t allow users to have dictionary words for passwords.

The beauty of Lastpass – it’s FREE (though there are paid extras). You set it up, give it single, secure password, and as you go to your favorite websites and login, it will offer to remember that information (on it’s encrypted servers), and will fill it in for you from now on.

This Week’s Tech News – and How We Can Help

Follow Nerds On Site on Twitter for the latest tech news!

Story: Windows 8 Is Not Intuitive To Use, At Least For Now http://bit.ly/yGGOw4

How Nerds On Site Can Help: No matter how tech-savvy (or non-tech savvy) you are, computers can be complicated, and completing tasks isn’t always as straight-forward as it should be. If you’re struggling, give me a call! We’re happy to help walk you through things.

Story: Spambots are here to stay, so learn from it! http://j.mp/yPwFmN

How Nerds On Site Can Help: Viruses and the like aren’t going away anytime soon, so it’s important to never let you guard down when surfing the internet or using your email. If you think something is suspicious – it is! If you’re unsure of what to do, give me a call!

Story: Avast leads, Microsoft free antivirus gaining in AV market share report: http://bit.ly/vZun3M

How Nerds On Site Can Help: Depending on your daily use, having a free antivirus product like Microsoft Security Essentials may be all that you need, but if your computer is shared among others, or if it is used heavily, the better option is a product like NOD32.

Some Great Deals

BROTHER HL-2240D Monochrome (black and white only) LASER PRINER-24PPM

Price:$ 217.34 (including tax) +$149 setup (discounted when performed with other work on same service call)

Price: $593.24 (including tax) + $250 setup

HP 635 – E-300

monitor: 15.6″

operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Hard drive: 320 GB

Stylish performance. Watch, present, video conference, and multitask on this durable, stylish notebook. This versatile and secure HP 635 boasts a 15.6″ diagonal HD monitor to make an impression in and out of the office.

Weekly Tips

What Is The Difference Between A Worm, A Trojan & A Virus? [MakeUseOf Explains] http://soc.li/6VgAiVm

How to Open Files that have Unknown Extensions: There are countless different types of file formats that exist, … http://bit.ly/zVvziz

Telus vs Shaw vs Rogers vs Bell: The Techvibes Guide to Choosing Your Home Internet Provider http://ht.ly/9CkHA

Small Business Tip and How Nerds On Site Can Help

Why Getting a New Computer Is More Than Just About Make and Model http://www.nerdsonsite.com/blog/2012/03/16/why-getting-a-new-computer-is-more-than-just-about-make-and-model/

Nerds On Site can help you choose the computer that is right for your home or office, and we’ll set it up for you, so won’t have to worry about it!

Social Media Feedback Wanted

Your feedback is wanted! Send us an email [socialmedia@nerdsonsite.com], or leave a comment on our blog, Facebook page, or send us a tweet!

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in newsletter | Tagged nerds on site, newsletter | Leave a comment

Bi-weekly Newsletter for The Week of March 2, 2012

Posted on March 2, 2012 by admin

Nerds On Site | Nerds Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Request Service |

Nerds Blog Preview

How to Turn Off Google Search History on Google Apps

Anyway, it’s quite simple to turn this off for your Google Apps domain. Go into your domain management menu. Lately, this can be the biggest challenge as they’ve moved this around. It’s in the SECOND gear icon.

Eight Ways to Keep Your Small Business Secure

If you own and operate a small business, lowering costs is an important part of keeping your company in the black. Cutting costs on your IT budget could inadvertently compromise your company’s security. Even though small businesses may not have all of the resources that large corporations do, they are still just as vulnerable to the same security threats. Here are ways to help secure your small business:

Highlighted NOS Service

40% of SMEs Don’t Backup?!

According to a recent Business Insider article, 40% of small and mid-sized businesses do not have a data backup strategy and solution in place. Business Insider did a survey of their readers, and found that 40% of them used a cloud-based backup service like NerdsBackup. 47% did backup to a local backup device, such as a USB drive, which does offer a small glimmer of protection, but not much. You can read the article here: http://read.bi/tPxFba.

If your business is to survive a hardware failure, a cloud backup solution is critical. On-site data backups do not protect your business from theft, fire, flood or any other major disaster. Contact our team today via e-mail or call your Nerd today to learn more about NerdsBackup and how we can protect your data!

Featured Web Service

Have You Heard of Dropbox?

On almost every client service call I have had over the past year, I have installed Dropbox on their computer(s). It takes only moments to setup, it’s free, and once the benefits are explained, every client has expressed excitement about the service!

The concept of Dropbox is simple, and I always give a practical example to my clients. I have three computers, one of which is a laptop. I have Dropbox installed on each of them. Dropbox creates a folder, like any other, on each computer, and anything I put into that folder on each computer, appears on each of my other computers within minutes, automatically, providing there is an internet connection, or, as soon as there is one.

In addition, you can log into your Dropbox account on dropbox.com and access my files there as well.

The free version comes with 2GB free, and 50GB is only $10 a month. In addition, you get 250MB free for each person you refer Dropbox to (using your referral link)

If you’re interested, check out their website! (referral link)

This Week’s Tech News – and How We Can Help

Follow Nerds On Site on Twitter for the latest tech news!

Story: Bill C-30 Has Real Dangers You Should Beware of! http://ow.ly/9efvK

How Nerds On Site Can Help: Blog Post: Online Privacy Rights and How to Browse the Internet Anonymously

Story: There is actually a way to get a refund from the iTunes App Store. Here’s how: http://ow.ly/9idQS

How Nerds On Site Can Help: With mobile devices, like iPhones and iPads, becoming increasingly popular, we are happy to show clients how to perform certain tasks (training), or do it for them. If you need help, we encourage you to contact your Nerd!

Story: Why Is My Laptop So Hot and What Can I Do About It? http://ow.ly/97r7e

How Nerds On Site Can Help: If your laptop is overheating, it can cause serious damage if it happens on a regular basis. Generally, they will automatically power off to protect the components. If your laptop does not have proper air circulation, you can purchase an effective cooling pad through us, or a modern laptop with proper ventilation.

Some Great Deals

Processor: 1 x P G850 / 2.9 GHz

RAM 4 GB

Hard Drive: 1 x 320 GB

DVD-Writer

HD Graphics

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Price: $697.19 (with tax) + $250 New System Setup

APC Backup Universal Power Supply ES 750

750 VA power capacity, 450 Watt power provided, AC 120 V, 3 year warranty

Price: $162.74 (with tax) + $99 installation charge

Weekly Tips

How to speed up file transfers in Windows http://cnet.co/AvEQ8I

How To Sit At A Computer Correctly http://muo.fm/xpE9C9

How to Reset your Email Password: It is always a good idea to change your email password regularly http://t.co/1qc4NDrb

Small Business Tip and How Nerds On Site Can Help

Why Would Anyone Want Access to Your Network?

“I actually personally met a successful business person this week (let’s call him Bill) who admittedly didn’t care if his network was breached, until I pointed out the dangers (and I’m sure there are more)… http://t.co/fwzXhxt7

Social Media Feedback Wanted

Your feedback is wanted! Send us an email [socialmedia@nerdsonsite.com], or leave a comment on our blog, Facebook page, or send us a tweet!

Share and Enjoy:

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How to Stop the Screen From Going Black Suddenly (going to sleep)

Posted on December 18, 2011 by admin

I suspect most people know how to fix this in Windows, but I think it’s worth a mention. If your computer screen goes black after 10, 20, or 30 minutes, even with the screensaver on, this is due to the Power Options settings turning the signal to the monitor off to conserve power.

This normally shouldn’t happen if the screensaver is enabled, but you or someone else may have changed the settings.

In Windows XP

1. right-click on the desktop, and choose “properties”

2. on the “screensaver” tab, click on the “power” button

3. Choose options from the drop down menus, and click “ok”, then “ok” again.

To change the Power Options, in Windows Vista and Windows 7…

1. In the Start Menu, then select “Control Panel”

2. Click on “Power Options”

3. on the left hand side, choose “Choose when to turn the display off”

4. In the window that opens, choose from the drop down menu the option you want, and click “save changes”

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in How-Tos, tips, windows, windows 7 | Tagged how to, power options, screensaver, sleep, windows, windows 7, windows xp windows vista | Leave a comment

E-Mail Address Spoofing and What to do About It

Posted on December 17, 2011 by admin

Understandably, people are concerned and frustrated when they start receiving e-mail from people they know (or don’t know) asking why they are being sent junk mail. In some cases, the junk mail contains malicious attachments, or links to websites that can contain viruses.

Why does this happen? Usually, it’s because their email address somehow go on to a spammer’s list, and the spammer just happened to pick their email address that week. Spammers aren’t going to use their own email address to send out junk, because they don’t want it traced back to them, so they “spoof” someone’s email address, making it seem like the junk email is coming from them instead.

Once that starts happening, it’s nearly impossible to stop it until the spammer moves on to another email address in their list. In the meantime, recipients can create rules or filters to block certain keywords or move them to certain folders automatically until their friend’s email address is no longer being spoofed.

Taking proactive steps is the best approach, though. Guard your email address. Don’t give it out to just anyone, or to any website. Many of those websites say they won’t sell your information, but in some cases the spammers still end up getting the information.

If you sign up for something online, have an email account specifically setup to only receive those emails, and use another email account for correspondence with people you know. That way if the other account is compromised or spoofed, it won’t affect your important emails, or annoy your contacts.

Many junk and scam emails appear to come from legitimate sources, but in fact do not. Depending on the email program you use, you can view who the email supposedly came from, and the actual email address email address is usually in brackets. This may also be visible when the user attempts to reply to an email.

We’ve all seen Chain Letter emails, with jokes and whatnot. They may be funny (or not), but it’s all of the email addresses in the “to” or “cc” fields that is the larger concern. Who knows where that email originally came from, or where it’ll end up eventually, which is likely on a spammer’s list. All those email addresses are gold mines for spammer.

If someone is sending you those kind of emails, and you want to receive them, insist they use the ‘bcc” (blind carbon copy) field instead, so each recipient can’t see anyone else’s email address.

If you start receiving suspicious email from people you know, contact them and ask if they actually sent it to you.

Be sure to take precautions when it comes to who you give your email address out to, and the emails you open or click links in. They can be very persuasive, and in some cases appear very credible. If you’re suspicious of an email, take that as a sign and be cautious.

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Posted in email, freelance | Tagged email, freelance, spoofing | Leave a comment

The Difference Between Windows 32-bit and 64-bit

Posted on December 15, 2011 by admin

I’ve been asked what is the difference between Windows XP and VIsta 32-bit and 64-bit. It’s a great question. So here’s what I was able to dig up…

According to Microsoft itself… (more information is available here)

“The main differences between the 32-bit versions of Windows and the 64-bit versions of Windows relate to memory accessibility, memory management, and enhanced security features. The security features that are available in the 64-bit versions of Windows include the following:

•Kernel Patch Protection
•Support for hardware-backed Data Execution Protection (DEP)
•Mandatory driver signing
•Removal of support for 32-bit drivers
•Removal of the 16-bit subsystem

One of the greatest advantages of using a 64-bit version of Windows is the ability to access physical memory (RAM) that is above the 4-gigabyte (GB) range. This physical memory is not addressable by 32-bit versions of Windows.

Depending on the version of Windows that is installed, a 64-bit version of Windows supports from 1 GB of RAM to more than 128 GB of RAM. The ability to address more physical memory lets Windows minimize the time that is required to swap processes in and out of physical memory. Therefore, Windows can manage processes more efficiently. This memory management feature helps improve the overall performance of Windows.”

According to Webopedia…

-Users would note a performance increase because a 64-bit CPU can handle more memory and larger files.

-Most benefits of a 64-bit CPU will go unnoticed without the key components of a 64-bit operating system and 64-bit software and drivers which are able to take advantage of 64-bit processor features.

-Benefits of 64-bit processors would be seen with more demanding applications such as video encoding, scientific research, searching massive databases; tasks where being able to load massive amounts of data into the system’s memory is required.

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Posted in 64-bit, processors, RAM | Tagged 64-bit, processors, ram, windows | Leave a comment

How to Use the SFC (System File Checker) in Windows

Posted on December 14, 2011 by admin

The System File Checker scans the integrity of all the protected system files. If it finds a incorrect or modified system file, it replaces it with the correct version.

The following is from: mvps.org

“To check your Windows protected files, proceed as follows:

1. Click the Start button

2. From the Start Menu, Click All programs followed by Accessories

3. In the Accessories menu, Right Click on the Command Prompt option

4. From the drop down menu that appears, Click on the ‘Run as administrator’ option

5. If you have the User Account Control (UAC) enabled you will be asked for authorisation prior to the command prompt opening. You may simply need to press the “Continue” or “yes” button if you are the administrator.

6. In the Command Prompt window, type: sfc /scannow, and then press Enter

7. A message will appear stating that ‘the system scan will begin’

8. Be patient because the scan may take some time

9. If any files require replacing SFC will replace them. You may be asked to insert your Vista DVD for this process to continue

10. If everything is okay you should, after the scan, see the following message “Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations”

11. After the scan has completed, Close the command prompt window”

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Posted in How-Tos, windows, windows 7 | Tagged how to, sfc, windows, windows 7, windows vista | Leave a comment

How to Backup Microsoft Outlook 2007

Posted on December 13, 2011 by admin

It’s always a good idea to keep backups of irreplaceable data, such as email. Some time ago, I was asked today by a friend how to backup and restore Outlook 2007 data, such as personal folders, rules, alerts, and other account information (also known as Identities).

I’ve never been able to figure out how to backup the Identities, but here are the details on how to backup everything else.

In Outlook 2007, you can export your PST files (personal file folders)…
1. Click on “File”, then on “data file management”

2. click “open folder”, then copy/paste the contents to your backup location.

You can also use this method,
1. Click on “File”, then “Import and Export”

2. Click “export to a file”, then click “personal file folder”

3. highlight “personal file folders”, and check “include subfolders”

4. tell it where to save the PST file, then click finish, and let it do it’s thing.

To export/import your Rules and Alerts…
1. Click on the “Tools” menu, then “Rules and Alerts”

2. Click “Options”, then “import” or “export”, and tell it where to save the file.

For the Identities, I’m not sure where that information is located, I’ve never had much luck in researching that. If I find out, I’ll be sure to post it here.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in email, How-Tos, office, office 2007 | Tagged backup, email, how to, outlook, outlook 2007, outlook 2010, pst file | Leave a comment

Speed Up Firefox via about:config

Posted on December 13, 2011 by admin

source: two videos from Tekzilla,

METHOD 1

1. In the address bar, type “about:config”, and in the filter bar, type network.http to filter the list

2. Double click “network.http.pipelining”, which changes the value from false to true.

3. Double click “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to change it’s value to true

4. Double click “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” and change the value to 30.

5. Next, close the and restart the browser to have the changes take effect, the next time a page loads, you should see a noticeable increase in the speed at which it loads, because instead of loading each thing one step at a time, it loads everything at once.

METHOD 2

1. In the address bar, type “about:config”

2. Right click anywhere and choose “new”, then “integer”

3. 3. Name the new integer “nglayout.initialpaint.delay”, press “ok” and set the value to “0”. This is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

4. 4. While it doesn’t load the page any faster, it lets you see what has been loaded sooner.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in firefox, tips | Tagged browsers, firefox, tips | Leave a comment

Tips and Tricks to Make Using Windows 7 Easier

Posted on December 8, 2011 by admin

Sadly, no user manual comes with computers, only useless little booklets and pamphlets that bore you with warranty details and support information. We must learn for ourselves how to make our time spent on computers more efficient, and more user-friendly.

Computers are part of our daily lives, and with as many mouse clicks and taps on the keyboard that need to happen, it’s comforting to know there shortcuts to increase productivity, and ease frustration. Here are some tips for Windows 7.

When you’re surfing the internet, sometimes you may want to zoom into a YouTube video, or maybe some text that you’re finding a little hard to read. In Firefox and Internet Explorer, press the left CTRL and the “+” next the backspace key to zoom into the area where your mouse is hovering. Use CTRL and “-“ to zoom back out. With some mice, you can press the CTRL key and use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out as well.

We all hate the tedious task of sifting through the start menu to find a program. In Windows 7, simply type the Windows logo key on your keyboard, and start typing the first few letters of the name of the program. It should show up in a list. You can use your mouse to click it, or use your arrow keys and press the enter key.

If you use a program on a daily basis, you can assign a key on your keyboard to open it quickly. Use the last tip to find the program in the Start Menu, then right-click the program and choose properties, then in the field next to shortcut key, press a key you won’t use for anything else. In my case, I chose F9 to open Editpad Lite (similar to notepad, but with tabs), and F4 for Paint.

You can avoid the painstaking task of renaming a group of files individually. Click on the first item, then hold down the left shift key and left-click only once on the last file in the group. Then press F2 to name the first file, and Windows will rename the rest in numerical order (i.e.: vacation_photo(1), and so on). This can be helpful when dealing with files from digital cameras that assign odd files names.

You can get a real-time preview of each of your open windows or programs by pressing the Windows Key and tapping the tab key. This is useful for quickly switching between a few open programs and saves the extra mouse clicks.

In the early years of the internet, in Internet Explorer, we had to type the “http://” and “www ” before the actual website address. Now, you can avoid that altogether, and just type the address, such as nerdsonsite.com.

If you have any tips or tricks that you think other readers may find useful, please send them my way at kevin.lloyd@nerdsonsite.com.

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in How-Tos, tips, windows 7 | Tagged business, how to, nerds on site, small business, tips, windows, windows 7 | Leave a comment

How to Stop the Screen From Going Black Suddenly (going to sleep)

E-Mail Address Spoofing and What to do About It

The Difference Between Windows 32-bit and 64-bit

How to Use the SFC (System File Checker) in Windows

How to Backup Microsoft Outlook 2007

Speed Up Firefox via about:config

Tips and Tricks to Make Using Windows 7 Easier

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