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.
