Tag: Microsoft Email Support
3 Good Reasons Your Business Needs Paid Antivirus and Security
In today’s blog, Call That Girl is going to talk about the lesson one client learned during a routine Outlook support session on the importance of having a paid anti-virus protection, reliable data backup and secured routers for your business.
Some time ago I was working with a client on a remote Outlook project and as usual…I had them fill out my client agreement form and they stated they had been backing up and had antivirus, good deal….we moved on. If they had not had either, we would have had a short discussion on why having both, a good paid for antivirus program and a solid back up plan is important. Of course, Call That Girl sells both packages, but they were fine.
When Viruses Strike
I went ahead with the Outlook work and during this time, a virus struck one of the computers in the office. It was so bad that Century Link banned them from internet usage. The whole office was then under attack and shut down; no internet. We moved our Outlook project to the side to focus on the virus and getting their internet back on. Luckily the client had a hot spot and we could install programs from a flash drive, but could you imagine the nightmare that could have happened?
More Technical Trouble
After I tried to help them as much as I could remotely, we also found the router was not secured. Whoever installed the router did not put on a security password to log into the router; so, anyone in their building could have accessed it, got on their network and potentially hacked their systems. As far as backup, they are using local external hard drives. After this situation, we will be moving their data to the cloud – mostly because of theft or fire.
In the end, we secured their router, removed the virus, returned the internet and got back on track with the project. Slight delay…but it could have been way worse for this company.
Reasons for paid anti-virus protection!
1.) Free Anti-virus is never a good answer for a company. We prefer paid anti-virus, because it is more reliable, capturing about 90% of the attacks out there, and can be backed up with a free program like Microsoft Security Essentials to get the rest.
2.) If you are not sure about your router being secure, we do spot checks here at Call That Girl. We will remote in, check your security and if you wish, change your Wi-Fi passwords. This is a good idea, too, if you have a lot of guests. We can also set up a guest account, so they don’t have any access to network devices or computers.
3.) Go online backup, that trusty external hard drive you’re been using for years can crash at any moment, any time. Data recovery is very expensive and lightening has struck and zapped too many of my clients computers to not have backup in the cloud. The cloud is not expensive and worth every dollar.
If you and your company need some help with these issues, please call in for an appointment at 612-865-4475. We will be glad to help!
Do you need Outlook relief from a support expert?
The Outlook Expert
Microsoft Outlook is the number one used software program for businesses for a reason. It’s great, works well and usually does what you need it to do – manage your email, create rules and help manage your day to day. Not every computer repair technician knows Outlook well enough to service your calls quickly, though. This is where I step in. Since the 1990’s, I have been supporting email programs. I started off with a program called “Mulberry” and it worked great, but only managed email. Then in 2000, when I graduated college I got my first job in the corporate world supporting Lotus Notes for American Express. Lotus worked ok, but was clunky at that time. Two months later I secured a new position with Honeywell and they were a Microsoft shop and this is where my love for Outlook began.
For 13 years I have engaged in all the Outlook versions and in the past two years moved into supporting all types of email, not just Outlook, but Mac Mail, Entourage, Outlook 2011, Thunderbird, Windows live mail, you name it…I can support it. Outlook is my love, though. I know it very well and am fast at repairing and training my clients to use it most efficiently.
The Outlook Relief
Is your Microsoft Outlook giving you just too many headaches? Let’s schedule a tune-up for you and your Outlook program to learn how to use it better, repair your minor glitches and get you back on track…and back it up! Most people have no idea that they need to back it up.
Schedule an appointment today for a one hour session with Lisa for $99 (Save $30)
During this appointment we will cover the following:
- How you are doing your email (Pop or IMAP), insure it’s the best choice for you
- Repair Outlook if necessary
- Should you upgrade to the latest Outlook 2013
- Check Add-ons and remove those not needed
- Local Folder Check (PST files) for size and organization
- Fix odd glitches you may be experiencing with address books, multiple calendars
- Help you organize your files correctly
- Show you how to create rules for non-work essential emails
- Verify backup
Extra Services
- Synchronize calendar and contacts with the cloud
- Smartphones
- Hosted Exchange Transition
- Google Gmail Transition
- iCloud
- 3rd party synchronization products
- Upgrades for Outlook 2013
To book an appointment, please click here or call 612-865-4475
What are RSS Feeds In Your Outlook?
When you set up Outlook for the first time, welcome to RSS feeds friends! You get them set up in the installation process. You sometimes have a chance to not turn them on, but most people just blaze right by that option, so most people have RSS feeds in their Outlook. Let’s start with what RSS feeds are…and what they can do for you and how to turn them off.
RSS means “Rich Site Summary” or the average person calls it “Really Simple Syndication” or just RSS.
RSS feeds are a way to get updates from your favorite websites in your Outlook. It could be news alerts from MSN or a blog post from your favorite blogger (like me!). If you look down the folder list in your Outlook, you may see RSS with tons of blue numbers. This is common, I see it everyday here with my clients. See the example to the right for where my RSS feeds lives. For the purpose of this blog, instead of removing RSS (which you can do and we will cover in a bit) I saved up a bunch to show you. See that MSNBC News one? 8794 feeds that I didn’t really sign up for, Outlook signs you up by default when you agree to RSS feeds in the setup process. This will be removed now!
How to remove RSS feeds
In your Outlook, you need to find your email settings. See pic below. You can click on the “remove” button on each and get rid of them.
Now how do you add an RSS feed from your favorite blog? Go to the top of my website and you will see the RSS feed button. My site says “Posts” but on some websites you may see “Feeds or RSS” with the commonly known logo. If you are new, you can click on the “subscribe” button and then those feeds will be in your Outlook or whatever other program you use.
Outlook Isn’t Sending Due to Comcast Port 25 Change
This posting, while old…still receives a lot of Google hits. I keep it up here for a reason. Not only are people having issues still with Comcast email, they also are getting hacked. As an Outlook Expert, I recommend if you are using Comcast email for your business, to move off this program and start using a more secured business email account. (This usually is your business name.com) I can assist with this transition for you.
Please email me for help Lisa@callthatgirl.biz
want help faster? Fill out this online form!
Just a heads up to all of our followers, Comcast had a port switch some time ago… that may cause your email to stop working properly. You probably received a notice from Comcast on this issue and for many people, it will work. For some of you, the instructions DO NOT WORK.
If you have an older version of Outlook or some other host, you may be having problems sending email. First, close and re-open your email, then try sending again to make sure Comcast is the root of your problem. If it’s still not working, check out this site for instructions on how to fix it, .
Do you need an email therapist?
Maybe you do, maybe you don’t? Many of my clients have told me over and over that when they book an appointment with me, they feel like they are booking a therapy appointment. I am guessing it’s because of the calming methods I use to get information out of them and how they manage their inbox. Or because they feel they went through a minor exorcism. Either way, at the end of our appointments, I have you thinking completely different about how you manage your email and more importantly, your email life.
- If you find yourself lost in your own email on a daily basis, you may need some help with your set up.
- If you can’t find important emails, you may need organizing help.
- If your Outlook is getting clunky and slow, you should call me quickly because that’s a sign of it crashing.
- If you have multiple email accounts and nothing syncs, there are solutions out there to help you.
- Are you and your team (or just you) emailing yourself documents so you can have a copy on another computer? Stop that madness now. I know I have solutions to help you with this!
- Are you an email hoarder? Can’t let anything go? I am an email hoarding specialist and work with you to learn to let go, but yet keep those emails…just somewhere else.
I have written many blogs about Outlook and helping. If you’re not sure you’re ready to book an appointment yet, please go to our search function at the top of the page and type in “Outlook” and you will find many more blogs I have done on the subject to help. Are you ready right now? Please call 612-865-4475 and ask to get on Lisa’s calendar. I’m here to help!
Free Outlook Google Sync For Calendar Tool May Not Work Anymore
Sometimes when you work with larger companies such as Google, they may change a policy on the use of their free software, and many times they are not exactly clear on what is going on. Here is what I know about Google calendar syncing…
Google calendar sync was a nifty little tool to allow Outlook users to sync those calendars with their Google calendars. From my research, this tool is not available on the Google websites anywhere to download and use for free anymore.
Also I have learned that if you had it installed at one point, you can continue to use it…but any new users need to sign up for their Google Apps plan to be able to sync.
This is the paragraph I read…
Starting January 30, 2013, users, other than paid Google Apps users, won’t be able to set up new devices using Google Sync and should see our sync site for instructions. You can also consult with your device carrier or manufacturer for how they recommend to sync with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Contacts. Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government customers can continue to set up new devices with Google Sync after this date.
To read the full article…
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2716936
So how this technician reads it, Google is not allowing free calendar syncing. If you have found a solution to this and know where the tool is, feel free to let me know and I’ll update this blog article!
If you want to get on board with their Google Apps plan, we can help. If you want to move to a Microsoft solution, hosted exchange in my opinion just works better overall for business needs. Everyone will have their own opinion though on this!
