I know, you don’t need to be reminded of this, you diligently backup your system at least…when you remember. Ok, so you need some help, admitting it is the first step. I’ve selected some products to help you out.

Software:
EMC Retrospect

Retrospect is a great little app that helps you backup the files that have changed and not waste time with the ones that haven’t. It can automatically run at scheduled times and runs on both Mac and Windows. If you have a workgroup there are server versions available.

Hardware (Workgroup):

Exabyte

Exabyte still makes the most reliable tape drives with its VXA technology. Just choose the storage size that is appropriate to you.

Hardware (Computer or Workgroup):

LaCie

LaCie makes great external hard drives. Again, choose the size that is appropriate for you and that is you backup.

Many of you have asked about an alternative to Microsoft Office. Some of you are concerned about the constant security holes, some about speed on your aging machine and some about the cost. The answer for all of these problems is OpenOffice.

OpenOffice is developed by a community of developers, working in their free time, in much the same way that Linux or Mozilla Firefox. OpenOffice runs on all major OSs (Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris) and requires 64 MB of ram. So if your concern with you older computer is your office suite, you probably can get a couple more years out of the machine. OpenOffice includes program equivalents to Word (Writter), Excel (Calc), Picture It (Draw) and PowerPoint (Impress). But its much cooler then that, the entire OpenOffice suite is built with a powerful data system; it’s like having Microsoft Access embedded in every program, but better. In Access you save all of your files in .mdb files. Files are saved locally and cannot be shared across programs. In OpenOffice you can make data files just like in Access, but you can also post your work to your office enterprise data system. If you are one of my Unix using clients you probably already have a powerful database server, MySQL. MySQL is very stable but admittedly cryptic. But OpenOffice allows normal users in the network to connect, manage and merge with relative ease.

OpenOffice writes all of its files in normal MS Office formats, so your clients won’t even know you are using something different. But what really puts it over the top is its ability to export to PDF and SWF. As I stated in my last newsletter, you should never open an executable attachment in email and MS Office documents are executable. Well, you might be asking, what should I send my clients instead? The answer is Adobe PDFs. But in MS Office you would have had to spend $300 per seat to make this happen. Not in OpenOffice an “Export to PDF” is right in the file menu. Making Flash files are equally as simple.

And because its open source its free.

Windows has three main threats: spyware, viruses and hackers. Spyware and viruses are much more of a concern then the latter. Spyware, sometimes called adware, is software written by companies to track users on their computer. Sometimes this is fairly harmless, their just collecting information about the sites you visit. Other times this is very dangerous, they could be collecting passwords or financial information. Viruses are simply malicious programs that people install, usually from email attachments. Most recent viruses either use your computer to send out spam or to attack companies’ web servers. The last concern is hackers. For the most part you need a firewall.

Steps to make your computer safe:

1) Update your computer. Microsoft is always releasing bug fixes to windows. About once a week you should: click start -> Windows Update. You really need to install all of the updates not just the critical ones.

2) Install an Anti-Virus and update it. Most of you probably have an Ant-Virus, but not all of you are updating it (you know who you are). Please update it and run a complete scan once a week. If you do not have an Anti-Virus, please go to http://free.grisoft.com.

3) Install Anti-spyware. You can download Adaware for free here: http://www.lavasoft.de/. Please update Adaware and scan your computer once a week.

4) Don’t open executable e-mail attachments. All Office documents are executable attachments, all Adobe and AutoDesk files are not. If you are unsure of an extension look it up at http://www.filext.com.

5) Stop using Internet Explorer. Most spyware is written for Internet Explorer, so you can avoid this entire problem by not using the dominant browser. My recommendation would be Firefox, which is free and can be downloaded at http://www.getfirefox.com.

So with a little effort, you can remain safe using Windows.