At times, you may find you cannot gain access to a certain folder on a hard drive. This may be more of a problem when you install a new Computer, and attached your old hard drive to the new Computer so you can copy the data. In general, the new Computer will treat the old hard drive as a “foreign” drive…and NOT trust you to have access to all the folders. You may experience this problem at other times, like if Malware changed the permissions on various folders. How do you get access without having to go through various permissions/security settings?

One easy solution, try to use a Directory program, like TreeSize. This program from www.jam-software.com is considered “freeware”, which suggests you can use it for free. At times, the license may suggest it is free for personal use and not for commercial use. So, please pay attention to the terms and conditions before using it in a commercial environment.

TreeSize will scan the entire contents of the attached hard drive and can allow you access to all the folders. It does this because it can login with “system” account and gain access. You can right click on any folder and/or file and perform a copy to copy all the files you need to your new Computer. TreeSize Free will not scan Mapped Drives, so for that you would need to purchase TreeSize Pro. TreeSize Pro is available as a trial version, so you can test it before purchase.

I often use TreeSize to inform me about where all the data is and how it is stored. With this information, I might find some programs are taking more of my hard drive than they should. For example, your Antivirus program may keep years of updates in an “update” folder and these can be cleared out to save space.

TreeSize is highly recommended. There are many others that do the same thing, so you can experiment on your own.

Hope that helps.

Best regards.

Krume

I had attempted to upgrade the Memory on a Dell Vostro 230 Desktop PC, but ran into problems. The Client’s Computer had 2 Gb of Memory (2 x 1Gb), and I attempted to upgrade the computer to 4 Gb (2 x 2Gb). Each time I upgraded (I attempted this 3 times, with 3 different types of Memory–different Memory products), the Computer would NOT boot and would give beep codes. Yes, at times the you may experience a problem with incompatibility. After the 3rd attempt, I was convinced the Memory could NOT be the problem. Instead, the Dell Vostro 230 had to be the problem. The Dell Vostro 230 took DDR3 Memory, but all new Memory modules were running at faster speeds than the original Memory.

After some research, I decided to upgrade the BIOS via “dell.com” download…and that fixed my Memory upgrade issue.

Moral to this story…probably a good idea to upgrade the BIOS of an older Computer before upgrading it’s Memory. Normally, I don’t suggest you upgrade the BIOS as this could render the Computer totally useless if the BIOS update fails.

Client is now very happy…as moving from 2 Gb to 4 Gb was a significant improvement.

Hope that helps.

Best regards.

Krume

A client contacted us about a problem he was having with most new emails going directly to Outlook’s Junk Email Folder. At first, it was suspected the client had setup up a faulty rule in Outlook. That was not the case. We reviewed and researched issues with Exchange Server possibly marking these emails as spam. No luck with Exchange. At this time, we performed various possible solutions such as setting up a new Outlook profile, turning off spam protection, etc. The problem continued. The client had been receiving emails on his laptop for years with no trouble.

It did not appear to be a problem with Outlook/Exchange Server. Therefore, could it be something else?

Most clients have a mobile connection to their Exchange Server. Turning off the ActiveSync connection corrected the problem. Additional research suggested there may have been a spam filter on the Mobile (Android based). Finally, it was discovered that a new App had been installed and it only allowed emails from the “safe list” to pass properly to the Inbox. All other emails would be forwarded to the Junk Email Folder. We revised the settings and emails started to flow properly.

Moral to this story: Be careful installing Apps on your Mobile. It may have some unintended consequences.

Hope that helps.

Best regards.

Krume

Tags: Mobile, Outlook, Spam Filter

This is an article obtained from another website. While not my own, it is worthy of publishing.

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Hundreds of thousands of people received “phishing” emails that appeared to be from the large domain name registrar Godaddy. The email looks like this:

From: GoDaddy [mailto:admin@mya2.godaddy.com]
Subject: Status Alert: Code:306690

Dear Valued GoDaddy Customer.

Your account contains more than 4969 directories and may pose a potential performance risk to the server. Please reduce the number of directories for your account to prevent possible account deactivation.

In order to prevent your account from being locked out we recommend that you create special tmp directory.

Or use the link below:

https://www.godaddy.com/make.aspx?user=b2b7c555125ecacf4bb7678d9dc39a21

Sincerely,

GoDaddy technical support.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Copyright (C) 1999-2014 GoDaddy.com, LLC. All rights reserved.

Though it is official looking, clicking that link might cause you some problems. It did our client, though we were able to quickly sort them out because of our monitoring system. That link goes to an official looking phishing page. The link in the email, despite its anchor text, points to a phishing page designed to look like GoDaddy’s login page. The page is hosted on SKM-DIGITAL.RU.

Moral of the story: Do NOT click any links in e-mails that you are not 100 percent about. Ever.

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Question: How do we protect ourselves from Phishing? Perhaps a bigger question: What is Phishing? Wikipedia defines it as “an attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

Here are some tips to protect yourself:

1. Learn how to spot phishing emails. Most have poor wording in broken English, usually due to the fact it may have originated from another country and the translation does not work properly. Look for other obvious errors. In addition, look carefully at the sender’s email and look where the “link” is directed. For example, if the email is from a USA bank and the link is directed to “xxx.bank.ru”, where “ru” at the end is the country code for Russia, then something is wrong. Also, always remember to use “common sense”. A company, bank, Gov. Agency, etc., will never ask for your personal information via email.
   
   
2. Upgrade your security program. Most now have the ability to monitoring for phishing.
   
   
3. Implement a web filtering program that can block malicious websites.
   
   
4. Never open any attachments. Never open any of the “links” either.
   
   
5. Trust, but verify. If you do not know, then call the company. I received an email supposedly from American Express recently that almost fooled me. I called American Express and they verified it was not legit. One other email that caught many of our clients was supposedly from UPS or Fedex. It was a short two sentence email, poorly worded, that suggest UPS had failed to deliver a package. The email did not have any graphics. If UPS had sent it, it would have had their logo, tracking number, sender information, order numbers, etc.

Remember, if it’s “phishing”, don’t take the bait. If it is “fishing”, don’t forget the bait…otherwise you may not catch any real fish.

Hope that helps.

Best regards.

Krume

Tag: Godaddy, phishing