This week we have had two clients get infections after visiting WhitePages.com. This is part of a rapidly spreading threat which presents itself to the user as an anti-virus program. Users report seeing pop-ups that warn them that they are infected. The popup screen, however, is not the real antivirus software, it is a fraud. The malicious software is apparently being installed via banner advertisements from infected websites. It seems that no user interaction other than visiting the site is required to become compromised.
If you notice a virus software popup which says your machine is infected, shutdown the computer and call our helpdesk at 502-253-4525 x1.
To limit your risk, use extreme caution when browsing. Additionally, make sure your operating sytem, applications, and security software have the latest updates installed.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
CisCom Hosts Office 2010 Sneak Peak Event March 26 in Louisville, KY
What's holding your team back from even greater success? People in multiple locations? Inaccessible information? Come and see how the Microsoft® Office 2010 Beta can help you break through the barriers that are slowing your people and data down. Join CisCom Solutions at an exciting preview event. Office 2010 lets you and your team stay productive, and helps you securely access files from just about any computer, smartphone, or browser. So you can meet customer needs, whenever and wherever they happen.Office 2010 connects your people and information wherever they are, enabling individuals to work better on their own or as part of a team. You can respond with the right information to the right people, no matter what the situation.
Join us at the FREE CisCom Solutions Office 2010 Sneak Peek event for a hands-on demonstration of all the ways Office 2010 breaks down barriers in your organization. Space is limited, so register today.
Note: For online registration use http://www.clicktoattend.com/ and event code 146284.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
CisCom Presents Windows7 Workshop March 9th
Are you curious about Microsoft's Windows7? David Ely will present a workshop to answer all your questions about the new operating system on Tuesday, March 9. Time is 7:30 am, at Republic Bank's Community Room at 9600 Brownsboro Road (across from the Summit Shopping Center). This workshop is presented through the Prospect Area Chamber of Commerce. There will discounts offered that day courtesy of Microsoft and also some fantastic door prizes! Butcher's Best Meats & Deli will be catering the meal. Please RSVP and pay online today at http://www.prospectareachamber.org/event_overview.htm?utm_source=IT&utm_campaign=8c7a92bb79-march2010enews&utm_medium=email or contact Patty Mason at 502-253-4525 x205 for more information.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Charity Bowl Results and Thanks
Here we are at the January 29, 2010 Charity Bowl! The event was held for the benefit of Kosair Charities and was 
hosted by the Prospect Area Chamber of Commerce and the Lyndon Area Business Association. We may have set the record for best team shirts and most gutter balls. It was a fun time, though. Again, we extend our sincere thanks to Liz Welsh, President of Executive Communications, who was the first one to respond to our charity donation request. Top row from left to right: Ken Higdon, Scott Walters, David Ely. Bottom row: Patty Mason and Dustin Riley
hosted by the Prospect Area Chamber of Commerce and the Lyndon Area Business Association. We may have set the record for best team shirts and most gutter balls. It was a fun time, though. Again, we extend our sincere thanks to Liz Welsh, President of Executive Communications, who was the first one to respond to our charity donation request. Top row from left to right: Ken Higdon, Scott Walters, David Ely. Bottom row: Patty Mason and Dustin Riley
Monday, January 18, 2010
ADDITIONAL OFFER
Congratulations to Liz Welsh, President of Executive Communications who was the first one to respond to our charity donation request. I am not surprised that she took us up on the offer as she is committed to a number of charitable causes and is very active in the community. Please check out their website at http://www.executive-com.com to see what they do.
Because of the great response we received with our request, we decided to extend an additional offer. If we receive a check for $100 made out to Kosair Charities received by January 29th, we’ll credit your account for one free hour of support OR we will waive our set up charges (typically between $250-500) if you sign up for one year with our C-Now Advantage Maintenance Plan. For more information regarding the C-Now Advantage Plan, please contact David Ely at 502-253-4525 x200.
Thank you again for such a great response.
Because of the great response we received with our request, we decided to extend an additional offer. If we receive a check for $100 made out to Kosair Charities received by January 29th, we’ll credit your account for one free hour of support OR we will waive our set up charges (typically between $250-500) if you sign up for one year with our C-Now Advantage Maintenance Plan. For more information regarding the C-Now Advantage Plan, please contact David Ely at 502-253-4525 x200.
Thank you again for such a great response.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
SPECIAL OFFER!
One Client will Save $100 and Earn a Tax Write-Off too! CisCom Solutions is currently offering 4 hours of service for just $400 to the first client who accepts this offer. (Sorry, we can only offer one of these.) That is a savings of $100 off of our Services! Additionally, the $400 is a charitable contribution to Kosair Charities (verify this with your tax professional). It's all part of our participation in the 2010 CHARITY BOWL between the Prospect Area Chamber of Commerce & Lyndon Area Business Association held for the benefit of Kosair Charities. We are not great bowlers, but are entering the event for good fun and to help children in need. WE NEED PLEDGES! Payment for the above offer will be accepted as a check payable to Kosair Charities which will be pledged by CisCom for the event. Others can help too. Send checks and make sure to note that it is for the 2010 Charity Bowl. We appreciate your support! Submit inquiries to Patty Mason at pmason@CisCom.com.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Should I upgrade my computer to Windows 7?
This is a question that a lot of folks who have been frustrated using Windows Vista have been asking since Microsoft announced the new operating system was shipping. While I had tested beta version on a couple of computers, I recently decided to upgrade my working laptop computer because we are planning some Windows 7 seminars in the near future and I wanted to have something to show off.
Prior to Windows 7, when folks would ask me “is it worth the time and money for me to upgrade my computer?” I would respond with “just wait until you need a new system and just get it preinstalled.” This advice has changed with my experience upgrading my laptop to Windows 7.
My laptop is a Dell Vostro 1400, purchased 2.5 years ago. It has an Intel Duo-core processor and 2GB of memory and a 60GB hard drive. It was shipped with and running Vista Business very s-l-o-w-l-y. To be honest, I had a 5-year old laptop running Windows XP that I preferred using because it was so much faster. My hopes were that after this revamping process, my Vostro laptop would be much faster and usable.
The first task was to research if the laptop was Windows 7 compatible. I researched Dell’s support site only to find it was not officially supported. For most folks, this should have been a deal breaker. For a tech geek such as myself, I considered this a challenge. I knew that if it did not work, I could just reload Vista Business and go on.
I never, ever recommend doing an upgrade to an operating system. Rather, I recommend a new install. This keeps the registry clean and can prevent incompatibilities with older drivers, etc. So I stuck in my Windows 7 Business 64-bit DVD and started the process of installing the operating system.
To my surprise, the installation recognized all of the hardware in the laptop and everything installed without a hitch. Even the Bluetooth capability which I use with my iPhone tethering was enabled and worked properly. I could not believe how much zippier the computer seemed to respond. When I did this same thing going from Windows XP to Vista, the computer was noticeably slower. This was the exact opposite. It was much faster. Maybe Microsoft got it right this time?
After installing Windows 7, I needed to install my applications. Instead of using Office 2007, I opted to install Office 2010 Beta instead. WOW!! I could not believe how fast Outlook ran. In fact, everything ran much faster except Internet Explorer 8.0 which seemed to run about the same speed.
Not content with having my Internet experience slow me down, I decided to try out Google Chrome as my browser to see if it made a difference. I had tried Google Chrome when it first came out and was disappointed. After installing it this time, I was pleasantly surprised. It was much faster than IE 8.0 and the only limitation is that it does not support ActiveX which is required for us to remote control servers we manage. Not a problem, as IE 8 is still available to use for that purpose.
The final step in my re-install process was to encrypt my laptop. I needed to test this for a client and thought this would be a good opportunity. Microsoft offers encryption out of the box with some of the Windows 7 versions but it requires that the computer have a special feature built in to the system board. After researching the other options, I settled with Trucrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/) a free, open source on-the-fly disk encryption software. I installed it and configured it per the instructions and all worked perfectly.
Now, back to the question, “Should I upgrade my computer to Windows 7?” My answer is: if your hardware supports it and you have at least 2GB of RAM, I would definitely consider doing it. After going through this process, my laptop runs much faster and more reliably. I feel I have increased the usable life of my laptop (pending any hardware failures) by a couple of years. Of course, your mileage may vary (YMMV) as all computers are different.
If you are interested in finding out more, please try to attend one of our upcoming Windows 7 seminars. We are planning them in conjunction with Microsoft and local Chamber of Commerce organizations. To get on the seminar list, please send an email to seminar@ciscom.com and we will keep you posted to upcoming events.
Prior to Windows 7, when folks would ask me “is it worth the time and money for me to upgrade my computer?” I would respond with “just wait until you need a new system and just get it preinstalled.” This advice has changed with my experience upgrading my laptop to Windows 7.
My laptop is a Dell Vostro 1400, purchased 2.5 years ago. It has an Intel Duo-core processor and 2GB of memory and a 60GB hard drive. It was shipped with and running Vista Business very s-l-o-w-l-y. To be honest, I had a 5-year old laptop running Windows XP that I preferred using because it was so much faster. My hopes were that after this revamping process, my Vostro laptop would be much faster and usable.
The first task was to research if the laptop was Windows 7 compatible. I researched Dell’s support site only to find it was not officially supported. For most folks, this should have been a deal breaker. For a tech geek such as myself, I considered this a challenge. I knew that if it did not work, I could just reload Vista Business and go on.
I never, ever recommend doing an upgrade to an operating system. Rather, I recommend a new install. This keeps the registry clean and can prevent incompatibilities with older drivers, etc. So I stuck in my Windows 7 Business 64-bit DVD and started the process of installing the operating system.
To my surprise, the installation recognized all of the hardware in the laptop and everything installed without a hitch. Even the Bluetooth capability which I use with my iPhone tethering was enabled and worked properly. I could not believe how much zippier the computer seemed to respond. When I did this same thing going from Windows XP to Vista, the computer was noticeably slower. This was the exact opposite. It was much faster. Maybe Microsoft got it right this time?
After installing Windows 7, I needed to install my applications. Instead of using Office 2007, I opted to install Office 2010 Beta instead. WOW!! I could not believe how fast Outlook ran. In fact, everything ran much faster except Internet Explorer 8.0 which seemed to run about the same speed.
Not content with having my Internet experience slow me down, I decided to try out Google Chrome as my browser to see if it made a difference. I had tried Google Chrome when it first came out and was disappointed. After installing it this time, I was pleasantly surprised. It was much faster than IE 8.0 and the only limitation is that it does not support ActiveX which is required for us to remote control servers we manage. Not a problem, as IE 8 is still available to use for that purpose.
The final step in my re-install process was to encrypt my laptop. I needed to test this for a client and thought this would be a good opportunity. Microsoft offers encryption out of the box with some of the Windows 7 versions but it requires that the computer have a special feature built in to the system board. After researching the other options, I settled with Trucrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/) a free, open source on-the-fly disk encryption software. I installed it and configured it per the instructions and all worked perfectly.
Now, back to the question, “Should I upgrade my computer to Windows 7?” My answer is: if your hardware supports it and you have at least 2GB of RAM, I would definitely consider doing it. After going through this process, my laptop runs much faster and more reliably. I feel I have increased the usable life of my laptop (pending any hardware failures) by a couple of years. Of course, your mileage may vary (YMMV) as all computers are different.
If you are interested in finding out more, please try to attend one of our upcoming Windows 7 seminars. We are planning them in conjunction with Microsoft and local Chamber of Commerce organizations. To get on the seminar list, please send an email to seminar@ciscom.com and we will keep you posted to upcoming events.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
