CLEAR SAILING, INC.

Newsletter 2
  COMPUTER SMARTS FOR BUSINESS
Welcome to this edition of Computer Smarts for Business. Our objective is very simple - to keep our clients and friends abreast of important computer and networking news and to provide practical tips. We value your feedback, ideas, and suggestions for future topics.

We know that your time is very valuable, and hope that you’ll find our newsletter worthwhile. If you’d rather not receive it, just send an e-mail with the subject "unsubscribe" to sales@clearsailing.com. Or, better yet, send us your questions, feedback or suggestions for future topics.


Storing Computer CD's, Manuals and Software Documentation
What do you do with all the stuff that comes with a new computer? At Clear Sailing, we use zip lock freezer bags to store all the material that comes with a new computer or accessory device. We even cut up the box that the software or accessory item came in and add that to the freezer bag, along with any disks, CD's and documentation. We label the bag with the computer's name and file it away in a file drawer.

This way, all the items remain together, associated with the computer to which they belong.


Do you need your own E-mail server?
Many small and even medium-size businesses use e-mail services (POP mail) provided by their Internet Service Providers. The problem with this arrangement is that all email goes out over the public Internet, even when an employee is sending email to another employee within the same office.

Sending e-mail over the Internet is the same as sending a post card through the US mail. Anyone can read it.

A law firm or accounting office using POP mail may therefore be unnecessarily exposing confidential client information to the Internet if the information is sent from one employee within the office to another

We stronly urge businesses to run their own mail server to avoid this situation. That's one of the reasons we freqently recommend Microsoft's Small Business Server to our clients. This software package includes Microsoft's Exchange Server, a very reliable internal mail server.

How fast is your Internet connection?
You can check the speed of your Internet connection at www.nyc.speakeasy.net.


Your Backups
Sure, you're doing your backups regularly, and you're peridically taking a backup tape or disk off site... so you feel safe and secure... right?

 Alas, there's more to it. Are you certain the tape contains the backup files you think it contains? Have you tried a test restore to make certain that the files are indeed there and that they are readable?

Take these extra steps and you'll really have peace of mind.
Computer Smarts for Business is published periodically by Clear Sailing, Inc. to keep our friends and clients informed about computer topics and issues that affect their businesses. To subscribe, send an e-mail to rbutler@clearsailing.com or visit our web site www.clearsailing.com. We provide computes systems, networks and support for growing businesses.