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Tackling IT Administration from a MacBook Pro

August 4, 2017 by Mike Ellis Leave a Comment

Recently, I was given the opportunity here at Tech Solutions NC to try out a brand new MacBook Pro as part of a focus group. This is something that really intrigued me, so I signed up for it. Last week, I received the MacBook Pro, and am now in the process of testing it out.

First, a little background information. The computer is a Mid 2015 MacBook Pro, with a 15″ screen, Retina display, 2.5 GHZ Intel i7 Processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD.

For the computer itself, it is incredibly responsive, quick, and does just about everything I could ask of it.

Well, that was a short post, wasn’t it? Well, I’m not quite done yet.

Using a MacBook Pro in a Windows Environment

There are a few things related to the environment that I am in that do make things a bit problematic for the MacBook Pro. Most of these are common sense things, but still, if you are considering making the switch from a Windows system to a Mac system, and you manage any sort of IT environment, these are things you’ll probably want to consider.

Remote Administration

Like you would expect, on a Mac OS X system, the options for connecting to a remote system are suited primarily for connecting to other Mac systems. Fortunately, though, the Microsoft Remote Desktop app is available, it’s free, and it makes connecting to a Windows system pretty seamless. Search in the App Store for Microsoft Remote Desktop or click the link.

Office 365 Apps

For many businesses, Office 365 by Microsoft is the tool of choice for productivity software. Unfortunately, though, while Microsoft has released 2016 versions of their software through Office 365 for the Mac environment, not all the apps are created equally.

The biggest issues I’ve had with this new laptop is related to how Outlook 2016 for Windows works verses how Outlook 2016 for Mac works. There are some significant differences that I’ve documented here.

The CRM I use for my business is from Hubspot. I came across them over the Internet, and knew them from other stuff, but had never used their CRM. The good news with Hubspot is that they have a plugin that you can install in your Outlook 2016 for Windows program that will log the emails you send to your clients to the client account you have setup in your CRM. The bad news, though, is that, due to limitations with Outlook 2016 for Mac, such a plugin does not exist, so you can’t seamlessly log those emails to your clients.
One workaround for this problem is to just BCC the address that logs the email in your CRM. Doing so is fine, and is what I do right now, but I’d prefer a simpler way to do that rather than type it each time. Of course, I can set a rule that automatically BCCs the correct address, and I may do just that, but I’d rather not have to do that.
The only other thing with Outlook 2016 that isn’t quite up to my standards is the calendaring portion. Since my mail is driven through GSuite, my calendar is also, and the calendar for Outlook (either version, really) just doesn’t handle Google’s email very well. This is definitely something that Microsoft and Google should work on. The good news, though, is the the built in Calendar app for Mac OS X works all of my email and calendars really well, and I’ve not had any issues with using that.

Having just started working on this MacBook Pro, there are other things that I’m sure are not as good from an IT perspective as they are on the Windows platform, but I haven’t run across them yet. The great news is that, by and large, operationally, there has been very little I have had to do to utilize my MacBook Pro in a Windows environment, and still be able to perform the IT tasks that I need to do day in and day out. That, my friends, makes this testing a win in my book.

What do you all think? Are you able to perform IT administration work on a MacBook Pro or other Mac system? Let me know your thoughts on what works well and doesn’t work well, and thanks for reading!

Saving a Contact Group in Outlook 2016

February 14, 2017 by Mike Ellis Leave a Comment

Have you ever received an Outlook 2016 contact group from someone and weren’t sure how to handle saving it into your contacts so that you could use it? I know that I have, and others I’ve worked with have as well. You would think it would be as simple as opening the group (which usually arrives as an attachment in an email) and saving it. In fact, as this screenshot shows, “Save & Close” is one of the options available to you.

But the key here is at the top, with the red arrow pointing at it. It’s the dreaded “Read-Only” message, hiding in plain site like malware hidden in a steganography file. What that tells us is that, no matter how many times we click the “Save & Close” button — over and over and over again, we’ll never save that contact group into our contacts.

So, how do we get around this? Well, there may be multiple ways around this, but for me, the simplest way for me is this.

Open the message up in it’s own window. So, when you do this, you’ll have one window with your main Outlook program running, and another window with the mail message that contains the contact group.
In the main Outlook 2016 window, click on your contacts.
Switch back to the mail message with the contact group, and click and drag the attachment to your contacts in the main Outlook window. The contact group will be created in your contacts, and all of the names and their email addresses will be there.

So there you have it, a simple way to add a contact group from someone else into your Outlook 2016 contacts.

NOTE: Another option for doing the same thing is to drag the contact group directly to the contact icon.

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Watch Out for Pokemon Go Scams!

July 15, 2016 by Mike Ellis Leave a Comment

Pokemon Go is seemingly all the rage since it’s release this week, but beware – there is a great risk in spending all your time with this game and losing track of your surroundings in the process. There have been reports of robberies in the St. Louis area, reports of two men falling off a cliff while playing the game, reports of a player coming across a dead body, and now, from our friends at the NC Department of Justice, concerns over Pokemon Go scams. From the alert email I received today:

WANT TO CATCH ‘EM ALL? HAVE FUN BUT AVOID POKÉMON GO SCAMS

The new mobile game Pokémon Go has attracted millions of excited new users, but unfortunately scammers aren’t far behind. A new scam is out to trick Pokémon Go users into giving up their personal information and paying money to play the game that’s actually free. If you’re trying to catch ‘em all, make sure you know how to avoid Pokémon Go subscription scams.

The scam begins with a phony email claiming that because of a record-breaking number of users, game developer Niantic has begun charging players $12.99 per month to play Pokémon Go. The email claims that anyone who doesn’t pay the upgrade fee immediately will have their game accounts frozen within one day. Concerned users who click the upgrade link are asked to provide their email login credentials, giving the scammers access to information in their email accounts that can be used for identity theft.

Remember:

Don’t be fooled by logos, websites, or links that seem like the real thing. Many scam emails use real company’s logos to seem authentic. Past phishing emails have claimed to come from major companies like Paypal, eBay, banks, credit card companies, non-profits, charities, and even government agencies like the IRS.

Report phony emails to the legitimate business directly. Contact the company using a telephone number or web address you know to be right, not using the contact information in the phishing email. Also, forward the entire email to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov.

Never share your personal or financial information by email. Be wary of any email that asks you to key in login credentials to one of your personal email or financial accounts. Instead, use legitimate, secure login websites to access your accounts, not links included in questionable emails.

If you receive one of these phony emails, report it to the Attorney General’s Office at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or online at ncdoj.gov.

This message brought to you on behalf of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The point of all of this is to remind you that you need to make sure that you are aware of your surroundings, make sure that you are not falling into some sort of scam, and you need to make sure that you use good old common sense when playing games like this and others. Remember, there are a lot of different apps out there that track location, Pokemon Go is not the first by any stretch, so just be thoughtful when playing these games. Have fun, but don’t do something that could end up getting yourself or someone else hurt.

WordPress Security Update to 4.5.3

June 23, 2016 by Mike Ellis Leave a Comment

©WordPress

For all of you that blog, many of you choose WordPress as your platform of choice for your blog. I run WordPress here at Tech Solutions NC, as well as on my personal blog. WordPress recently released version 4.5.3 of their software, which takes care of a host of security issues that were exposed in version 4.5.2. Among the issues:

Redirect bypass in the customizer
Two different XSS problems via attachment names
Revision history information disclosure
oEmbed Denial of Service
Unauthorized category removal in a post
Password change via a stolen cookie
and more…

As we discussed on our post on the security settings you need to have enabled on your computer, automatic updates is a key part of that strategy. While automatic updates for your blogging software may not be feasible, it’s still important to make sure that the update is taken care of. For some of you, your host may take care of the update for you; for others, it may be automated; but for the majority of bloggers, especially in a self-hosted environment, you need to take care of it yourself. Make sure you do so as soon as is feasible.

Kudos to WordPress for dealing with these issues quickly, and also to those that discovered the vulnerabilities and reported back to WordPress. If you haven’t upgraded your WordPress yet, go ahead and take care of that soon. If you aren’t sure what to do, then by all means, reach out to us — WordPress site maintenance is just one of the services we offer here at Tech Solutions NC. Reach out to us via our Appointments page and we schedule an appointment with us today!

You can read the complete security release on the WordPress website.

What Security Settings do you need enabled on your computer?

June 23, 2016 by Mike Ellis 3 Comments

What Security Settings do you need enabled on your computer?

By Mike Ellis.

Before you enter your credit card on a website to make that purchase, there are things you look for that tell you that it is okay to safely do so. Your web browser — whether it be Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge (or it’s predecessor, Internet Explorer) will tell you whether or not the connection is secured by encryption. Just like purchasing online, there are things you should absolutely have enabled on your computer. If they aren’t enabled, then your goal is to find out why, and get them enabled. Here is my list of four security settings you absolutely should have enabled.

Anti-Virus Software

Regardless of the computing platform, anti-virus software is a must when it comes to securing your computer. Anti-virus software comes in many forms and fashions, both paid and free, and each version has it’s own quirks. As a result, it can get quite overwhelming trying to choose between the different products. Fortunately, Microsoft is getting smarter about providing anti-virus protection, and has it’s own tools that you can use for free. If you are running Windows 10, at the minimum stick with Windows Defender, which is included in the OS by default. Or, if you are running Windows 8 or 7, get Microsoft Security Essentials from the Microsoft website. Other anti-virus options, which, in my experience, are all good, include AVG Free, Avast, or if your Internet Provider offers it for free to you, go with their solution (commonly McAfee). For Mac OSX users, I recommend either Sophos or AVG, both of which you can get for free. The key here is that there are a lot of good solutions available, at little or no cost, and it’s better to utilize one of them than to go without one at all.

Firewalls

Firewalls come in two main varieties — network based and host based. Generally speaking, host based firewalls are included in most operating systems by default, but often they are disabled, either by software installs, end users, or because of some other reason. Network based firewalls, for you home users, will often be included in your network modem, along with your Wi-Fi and physical connections. Generally speaking, the firewalls in systems today are configured to allow access out from your computer to anything, but inward traffic for unknown applications is blocked. On my systems, I just run the built in firewall that comes with the operating system, whether it be Windows or Mac OSX. There are other alternatives out there, but generally speaking, most users aren’t going to need something more than the standard solutions. Often, for purchase anti-virus solutions will include their own firewall programs that will take the place of the built-in Windows solution. This isn’t often a consideration for free anti-virus programs.

Automatic Updates

Without question, absolutely, positively, all home based computer systems should have their automatic updates enabled. In corporate environments this is up for discussion — often automatic updates are disabled by group policy because of a product that is used to take the place of that. But in a home environment, automatic updates are a must, and if they aren’t enabled, we need to rectify that quickly. You’ll be amazed at the number of updates a Windows computer will need.

User Account Control Settings

One security feature that Windows implemented back in Windows Vista is User Account Control (UAC). The idea behind UAC is that Windows would alert you when something was attempting to change a setting that could impact the security posture of your computer. There are four settings, as seen in the screenshot below, with the next from the highest being the default behavior.

On my system, I actually put my UAC settings at the highest level, which means I’ll be notified on these conditions:

Apps try to install software or make changes to my computer.
I make changes to my Windows settings.

I know that this may seem like overkill, and for most of us, it may be. Keeping the default behavior is probably fine for most users, but for me, I think — at least for now — I’m going to set it at the highest setting.

The problem with things like UAC is that far too often the end user (including myself, I’m guilty here too) just clicks yes when prompted instead of investigating why, so it’s important to make sure you actually look into why you are being prompted.

Surfing the web, making purchases, banking online, all of these activities involve risk of exposing your computer to things that could harm you, not just your computer. It’s important to protect your computer, because by doing so, you are also protecting things more important than just your computer, such as your identity.

At Tech Solutions NC, we are here to help. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to give us a call at 919-606-6725, send us an email to mike@techsolutionsnc.com, or leave us a comment below.

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Using a MacBook Pro in a Windows Environment

Remote Administration

Office 365 Apps

What Security Settings do you need enabled on your computer?

Anti-Virus Software

Firewalls

Automatic Updates

User Account Control Settings

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