Filed under: email & phone management, software & hardware | Tags: anti-virus, antivirus, antivirus software, backup system, backups, benefits and risks, business ethics, computer, email, ethics, firewall, firewalls, McAfee, MS Outlook, Norton, outlook, pros and cons, RAM, random access memory, responsible business, security, virus, virus protection, viruses
A great question from an associate:
What program do you use for managing your email account? I like that you can have your picture on it.
Here’s my answer:
I just started using Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express, which is a truncated version of Outlook handling email only).
Outlook combines email, calendaring and contacts all in one application. It’s really slick. Being able to embed a photo or logo in outgoing emails is only the start of its really cool features. It’s also pretty easy to get started on.
On the downside, the most cool features require a bit of a learning curve to implement; however, once you get them set up, you never have to think about them again….unless your system crashes and you have to do a complete system reinstall.
That said, a major downside to Outlook is that it is HIGHLY susceptible to viruses – more so than about any other software on the market. So if you decide to use it, make sure you have a system in place for protecting your computer from viruses and backups.
I can’t stress backups highly enough. I once paid $2000 to get my data back after a system crash. I would have paid $10K. To avoid any expense, I could have paid $100 and done weekly backups.
I can’t recommend to anyone, anywhere, for any reason, at any time using virus protection software (McAffee or Norton) – but instead using hardware in the form of an external firewall, hardware offered by Internet service providers like Comcast or McLeod. (Qwest DSL is terrible, can’t recommend that either.)
The reasons I recommend against software virus protection are:
- Virus protection software companies have an incentive to put viruses ON people’s computers; doing this keeps them in business. Some have actually been caught doing this.
- Virus protection software interferes with the use of other software, particularly email and browsers.
- Virus protection software requires an enormous amount of RAM (Random Access Memory). RAM is what determines how fast your computer is able to think. The amount of RAM that comes standard in most of today’s computers is a healthy amount – but the anti virus software requires ALL of it to run properly. This means that there is no RAM left for your computer to run other software (like the operating system and Office); therefore, your computer will appear to function VERY SLOWLY – taking forever to do very simple things….like open a Word file.
- Virus protection software has been the #1 cause of support calls I have received in my 15-year career. It is likely the bane of most internal PC support technician’s careers — and a pretty good source of income for most external (contracting/consulting) PC support technicians.
So my recommendation is to get high speed cable with an external firewall (hardware). Fewer hassles. Much lower cost short and long term.
I’ve only had 2 viruses in the last 5 years — which was my own fault on both counts; I clicked on a nasty link while doing research. I also have a good backup system (external hard drive) and system recovery process (VMware) in place – so restoration only takes me 20 minutes as opposed to 2-3 days.
This all makes Outlook a good solution for me.
Filed under: email & phone management | Tags: do not call, phone, phone calls, telemarketers, telemarketing
Especially when you depend upon your home phone for your business calls, unwanted calls can disrupt a work day and decrease your efficiency. The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether or not to receive telemarketing calls at home. The majority of telemarketers should not be calling your number after it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at the following web site. You can register your residential (home or home office) and mobile phone for free. Best of all, once you register your number, you’re finished; your registration will not expire.
www.donotcall.gov/
Filed under: email & phone management | Tags: email, email management, email servers, how to, managing email
After you have your new email settings in place and are able to send and receive successfully, you’ll need to consider how you will be using and managing your email messages.
– DEFAULT ALLOTMENT OF SPACE ON SERVER FOR EMAIL MESSAGES —
The default setting for email quota on most servers is 10M. This is generally more than most people need.
If you regularly send and receive messages with attachments that are graphic related or otherwise large, contact your hosting provider to raise the quota right away so that your correspondent doesn’t have their message bounced back to them.
– MANAGING EMAIL MESSAGES –
People (even me) reach a point in time where their email box is full. This happens when you keep email over a long duration of time in your email box. Maybe it’s a note from a sweetie or a 
correspondence with a client containing important information, and our instincts are to save them. Whatever the case may be, they pile up after awhile.
To avoid this situation, I recommend routinely saving email you want to keep on your hard drive (rather than on the email server) and then delete it from your IN box. Again, your hosting provider can raise the quota; however, eventually, you will be inundated with email that it will become difficult to find messages and making it harder to manage your information. This is like leaving opened mail to pile up on the porch — so much that you can no longer get in or out of the house.
– ANOTHER WAY TO SAVE YOUR EMAIL —
When saving messages, I recommend saving the files as .HTM files or .TXT files since they tend to produce small file types in size. Also, you save yourself all of the extra steps involved in cutting and pasting your email text into word processing. You just “File > Save As”, name the file and you’re done. I prefer .HTM files because they retain their paragraph formatting and are easier to read when I open them later. They also can contain imagery.
– FINDING EMAIL MESSAGES ON YOUR HARD DRIVE —
Some people keep email in their email box because they know that they c
an easily find or search for their messages, forgetting that you can do this just as easily in Windows Explorer:
- Right-click on the folder you suspect it’s in. If you forget what folder, you can search “My Computer” to search all folders
- On the pop up menu, select “Search” or “Find.”
- A dialog box will appear allowing you to specify characteristics of the email in various combinations: when you originally saved it, when you last updated it, what filename is, what kind of file it is, what words or names might be contained inside the file, etc. >>>>
You don’t need to know the exact information about your email filename– just specify the parts you know. For the parts you don’t know, use an asterisk (*). Examples:
- Don’t know the filename: >>> jenkins.*
- Don’t know the spelling of a term: >>> ser*dipity.txt
- Don’t know the spelling of a name (olsen or olson?): >>> ols*.htm
Neither do you need to know the exact date you created the file. You can search by a range.
Filed under: email & phone management | Tags: computer headset, headset, mac headset, pc headset
Finding a great computer headset is not an easy task. So when I found the Altec Lansing AHS202i Computer Headset with Microphone, I bought two.
After having purchased a similar headset from Radio Shack — and returning it because the wires came loose — I bought Altec Lansing AHS202i Computer Headset with Microphone, and I’ve had it for over a year now. I found a great source where I can purchase these computer headsets at a special price, so I thought it would be a great benefit to the supporting members of the Cultural Creatives Business Network — as one of our standard network benefits.
