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Editorial

Since my last Editorial in our December Newsletter, I have had to carry out a system recovery operation on another customer computer. This was a Dell Laptop; the owner unintentionally upgraded to Service Pack 2 (SP2) via Windows Update. Windows Update will do this if you accept "Automatic Updates". Be very careful.

The result of this update left the computer completely unusable and exhibiting the dreaded Windows Blue Screen...

Engadine Web Services is now offering Website Hosting and Domain Name Renewal Management Services for its customers.

Having problems with Windows XP? Visit Kelly's Korner for all your answers... If not confident, don't go it alone...

Bruce Beresford, Manager & Editor

In this Issue:

• Featured Site
• Virus Watch
• New and improved version of Ad-Aware - Ad-Aware SE
• Engadine Web Services now offering Website Hosting
• Engadine Web Services now offering Domain Name Registration & Renewal Management
• An opportunity to manage all that SPAM you are receiving
• Tech Tips
• Quotes of the day

Featured Site  

This month's featured site is Diana Gibbs Australian Collection.

Made from pure Australian wool, the “Diana Gibbs – australian collection” is an exciting range of high quality wraps and scarves. The collection was launched at the Mercedes Australian Fashion Week in May 2003, and has created a huge buzz within the fashion industry.

The company is owned by wool producers from the Riverina region of New South Wales, who are proud of the world-class fibre their Merino sheep deliver. The collection consists of soft, luxurious items, which incorporate the finest Australian wool into superbly made items using Italian spinning and weaving expertise. Nothing but the best is good enough for this exclusive range of high quality fashion accessories...

Visit the Diana Gibbs website and check out their range of high quality wraps and scarves...

Virus Watch  

Latest Threats - from Symantec

19-02-05 W32.Derdero.B@mm

18-02-05 W32.Kipis.L@mm

New and improved version of Ad-Aware - Ad-Aware SE  

There have been some nasty little Trojans about lately infecting computers and recording keystrokes. Something to watch for is your browser being very slow to load. Something you should be doing on a regular basis is keeping your system clean. There are several Free programs that can assist you with this task. Programs such as Spybot - Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware. Both are good and I have both loaded. I find Ad-Aware a little more user friendly, so that's my suggestion.

From our April 2004 Newsletter:

Ad-Aware is a privacy tool, that scans your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known data-mining, aggressive advertising, and tracking components. It then lists the results and offers to remove or quarantine the components. The program detects a wide range of adware/spyware related issues and can be updated with the latest signatures via the built-in update utility. Please be advised that removing certain components may impact the functionality of effected software applications. You should read fully the included Ad-aware documentation before removing any files!

LavaSoft have a new and improved version of Ad-Aware. The new version is called Ad-Aware SE. If you don't have it you really should get it. If you do have the earlier version of Ad-Aware, then you should now upgrade to Ad-Aware SE. To upgrade is is necessary to remove your existing copy using the "Add or Remove Programs" tool, located in Control Panel and then install the new Ad-Aware SE.

Ad-Aware SE is Free and can be found at http://www.lavasoft.de/

I found some very good setup information that will assist greatly in keeping your system clean and clear and protecting your privacy. The following link will take you to a forum page that contains the setup data. Once you have loaded the page, scroll down to an entry heading "Matrix420" where you will find the setup data.

Only carry out this installation or upgrade if you are confident in the use of your computer system, otherwise get assistance.

Engadine Web Services now offering Website Hosting  

Since December 2004 Engadine Web Services has been carrying out Website Hosting services for it's customers.

Many of our customers have achieved 50% savings in their hosting fees by using our services. For our Hosting Shop customers, we can only match their price at this stage, however we can provide a more personal service with Free Host Management Support.

The major advantages in using our hosting services is the assurance that site-suspension through non-payment will only occur following personal contact plus we also provide free management support.

During the past 12 months a number of sites have undergone a site-suspension process as the customer omitted/forgot to pay their account on time. We worked with the customer and the Host to get these sites re-established quickly.

But it can happen without warning, as your current Host processes are most probably controlled by a computer. That's where we provide the difference, we manage the process and make the contact before any site-suspension is put in place.

As an Engadine Web Services Customer with a Hosting Account with another provider (e.g. Hosting Shop, Precisium, PPS, Shoalhaven Internet, Telstra, Ozemail, Optus etc etc.), we will contact you when your host account becomes due for renewal and given the option to transfer over to us. For customers currently hosted with Hosting Shop, we cannot offer a cheaper option but we can match their fees of $125.00 per annum. For other hosting accounts I am confident that we can provide a considerable $ saving.

As our customer base has grown, our Free Host Management Support can only be made available to customers hosted with Engadine Web Services. However we will continue to provide these Services free up to your next Host Account renewal date. If you are not sure when this is, send me an email and I will provide you with these details.

Engadine Web Services offering Domain Name Registration & Renewal Management  

As with our Hosting Services, we also offer Domain Name Registration and Renewal Management Services to our customers. We currently manage most of our customers' Domain Names and now offer this service to all of our customers.

Our current Domain Registration & Renewal Management fees are $ 88.00 for .com.au (two years registration) and $25.00 for .com (one year). These fees include total domain management, with Engadine Web Services carrying out the registration & renewal and invoicing it's customer.

For those customers not currently using these services; as your Domain Name becomes due for renewal we will contact you and give you the option to renew through us. If you prefer to stay with your current Domain Management Service and manage your domain yourself, we will provide you with your registration renewal details.

As our customer base has grown it has become necessary for us to establish a more efficient domain management system which must include control by Engadine Web Services.

An opportunity to manage all that SPAM you are receiving  

SPAM is a growing problem, even with countries like the UK, Australia and the US legislating laws to control it. According to the Associated Press, Bill Gates gets millions of spams daily, 4 million to be exact. Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, gets millions of e-mails a day, the vast majority of it is also spam.

During his annual visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill Gates made the pledge to end spam within 2 years. So lets say your getting 50 to 100 spam emails a day now, what will it be like in two years?

In the meantime I can assist some of my customers. Most of my customers' hosting is on Linux Servers. The Mail Manager on these servers now has Spam Assassin installed.

Spam Assassin is an automated mail filter that uses a wide range of heuristic algorithms on mail headers and message body text to identify "SPAM" (unsolicited email). Once identified, the mail is tagged as SPAM for filtering and deletion.

I have been carrying out testing of Spam Assassin with my own account and have achieved a 90% reduction of spam. This is significant, as I have been receiving, at server level, up to 200 sometimes 400 spam emails a day. I have been keeping my computer clean by using MailWasher Pro to detect and remove these unwanted spam messages. But this still takes time to manage each day. Now with Spam Assassin installed, most of these spam messages are deleted for good, I never see them and never have to manage them.

So; for those customers utilizing the Linux Servers, and who wish to significantly reduce their levels of spam, I can carry out the installation of Spam Assassin. This will be done as a free service, and my opportunity to stick it to the SPAMers.

If you would like Spam Assassin installed on your Host Mail Manager, just send me an email request.

Some customers are utilizing Win2000 servers for specific design purposes, unfortunately Spam Assassin is not available for these Mail Managers at this stage.

Tech Tips  

Scheduled Tasks - Applying/Running tasks without a user password

I have been asked to find out why there are sometimes problems in getting Sheduled Tasks to operate.

Scheduled Tasks Overview

With Scheduled Tasks, you can schedule any script, program, or document to run at a time that is most convenient for you. Scheduled Tasks starts each time you start Windows XP and runs in the background.

With Scheduled Tasks, you can also:

• Schedule a task to run daily, weekly, monthly, or at certain times (such as system startup).
• Change the schedule for a task.
• Stop a scheduled task.
• Customize how a task will run at a scheduled time.

Windows "Scheduled Tasks" is located in Control Panel.

The most common problem in Sheduled Tasks not operating properly is the lack of a user password. Most people do not use a user password when installing Windows. Microsoft by default requires a user password to get Shcheduled Tasks to function properly (go figure)...

So there are basicly two options, first you can set a login password by accessing User Accounts in Control Panel, or second (a bit more difficult) change the default windows settings.

To change the default setting

For XP Pro: Go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Local Security Policy/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options/Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only. "Right Mouse Click" this option and select Properties. This is enabled by default, select disable.

For XP Home: (Only for those that understand how to use Regedit) Go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\[user name}

Value name: limitblankpassworduse, Type: REG_DWORD, Data: 0 (disabled) 1 (enabled)

For XP Home: (For those that may have problems with Regedit) Run Scheduled Task without a Password (Line 67) at http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND REGEDIT DON'T USE IT - AS IT MAY BE THE LAST TIME YOU USE YOUR COMPUTER.

Once you have performed these changes you will have no more problems running Scheduled Tasks.

Quotes of the Day  

Life is a sexually transmitted disease. R. D. Laing

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights. J. Paul Getty (1892 - 1976)

I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises. Neil Armstrong (1930 - )

Brought to you by The Quotations Page

Have any questions relating to the internet or your computer? Let me know and I will research an answer and use this for future entries in our newsletter. Pass on your questions via the Enquiry Form on our Web-Site or send me an email.

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