Archiving Outlook Express Messages

In an earlier post I talked about the 100 spam messages a day I was getting and how I used the spam filter in Trendmicro’s PC-Cillin to filter out most of the spam. I have a folder now called spam, that all the tagged emails go to and then I delete these messages every day. I then delete my deleted items at the end of the day.

I have at times become over zealous as I am deleting things and occasionally, I have deleted something of importance. I always have a backup or two that I can recover lost messages from, though sometimes there are problems.

I recently stumbled upon what I think may be a cool way to save all your email messages and have another level of backup protection.

Outlook express allows you to have more than one identity. Not necessarily multiple personalities, that’s another subject for another time.

I was adding a new employee to a client’s computer and I created a new identity for that employee. I need to transfer only one folder of the inbox to the new users account, all the rest was not needed. I started to use the import tool, when it hit me. This would be a great way to archive messages in outlook express.

I rushed home and tried out my brilliant idea and it worked. I set up a new identity and then imported all the messages from my existing identity into the new one. I now had an exact duplicate of all my mailboxes. When I ran my nightly backup, both identities were now backed up.

A few days later, I switched to my new identity, and imported again. Since the program will recognize duplicates, I only got the new messages. I was on my way to archiving success.

There are a few caveats of course. Depending on how often you delete messages, you could still lose things. If you only delete once a week or so, then do your archiving before you delete.

Let me know what you think,

Marc

Take a look at 37signals.com

I have found another site that is going to make my life a lot easier.

http://www.37signals.com

This site has 3 programs that allow you to do online collaboration. Sometimes for free. When you do have to pay, it isn’t that much so it is worth checking out.
I have started using basecamp to share information with 3 associates on a group project we are working on. The great thing is that we can store all of our information in one place. We are currently working on several sub projects that require task to be completed, documents to be produced, etc.

Since we all are in different geographical locations, we are able to all view our basecamp when we have our conference calls. We have started documenting every call, and now we just create a document and it posts immediately.

The software has so many cool features. We create to do lists and assign tasks to participants and the program will email us to remind us that things need to be done. We also can create a calendar so we know what needs to be done, when.

Wow, isn’t the Internet great!

Let me know what you think,

Marc

Are you backing up correctly?

Greetings,

I have always stressed to my clients the importance of backing up their data on a regular basis. I have setup many backup systems that automatically backup what we believe to be the critical data. I have also suggested that on occasion, we test the backup to make sure that it works and that we can recover from a loss.

Yesterday, a client lost a folder from his Outlook Express inbox. This folder contained hundreds of email dating back over 2 years. It just mysteriously dissapeared. Not a problem though, we had been backing up the Outlook Express folder for the last year. Restoring the lost folder would be a breeze.

A breeze would have been nice. This was more like a Tropical Storm with hurricane gusts. We had been backing up the data everyday. We have two removable hard drives that are rotated daily and the previous night's backup is take off site. In theory we should have had two good backups of the OE files.

The first problem started with the previous night's backup. There wasn't one. No explanation from the person responsible, it just wasn't available. Not to worry, in addition to the removable drives, I has set up a super secret (only I knew about it) backup drive in a locked room.

This drive had the backup folders that I thought we needed. The files were located and restored and .... the directory was still missing. It seems that the missing folder had been missing for a couple of days, and nobody thought to tell me about it.

We retrieved the second removable drive and the files were where they were supposed to be and everything was restored. We weathered the storm with just a few bumps and bruieses.

I did however learn that there were several flaws in our backup procedures. We are backing up only the files that have been changed, or created since the last backup. We are using a program that syncronizes the files on the backup with the files on the server.

Syncronization works well for most types of files. You open a file, make changes, save it and the program knows that the copy on the server is newer than the copy on the backup drive and replaces it. Not really a problem most of the time.

With a program like Outlook Express, you have a great deal of data that accumulates and grows on a daily basis. Occasionally, you delete things that you should not delete, and by the time you realize it, your backups have been overwritten with more current versions of the files.

Are we backup up the right things at the right times, or are we just backing up our current files.

We need to take a good look at this.

Let me know what you think,

Marc

Why I Love Google or is that To Google II!

I have used and abused Google for many years. With Google, and Google Groups, I am able to solve most of the problems that my clients run into relating to their computer systems and their software issues. Fortunately, my clients are not the first to have the problems that they are having.

Someone else has had the same blue screen of death, or program freeze or whatever it happens to be. I just Google it and find the answer. I have had a few things take more than a couple of searches, though for the most part Google provides me with either the answer, or a direction to look in to find the answer and solve the problem.

So, Google gives me and you the answers? Not just to web searches.

Try these in the Google search bar next time you have a few minutes:

Define: - Google will show you all the definitions it finds on the web.

Search by Number:
If you have a tracking number from UPS, Fedex, etc. you can just put that number in the Google search bar and let Google do the rest.

Visit http://www.google.com/help/features.html#number to see what other numbers you can search for.

I get a few phone calls from numbers that I don’t recognize. If I put the number in Google, I can usually see who owns the number. Try it with you number.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks Google,

Marc

Free Website Templates

I am in the process of revamping my website(s). I am not a designer at all, though once I have the structure in place; I can make most things work the way that I want them to.

Recently I came across a website that will save me and hopefully you, if there is a website in your future, a great deal of time and money.

The website is www.oswd.org. On this sites there are more website templates for free than a person could ever want. It is a bit time consuming trying to decide which template is best for your site.

If free templates aren’t a good enough reason to visit this sites, there are also very helpful forums on many subjects. As an example there is a designer link blog that has a link to a site that will make buttons for you for free. Wow, who needs a webmaster!!!

The site has a very small Google Ad-Sense area and a very simple usage agreement:

If you use a design from OSWD, it is recommended, but not required, that you link back to OSWD.org.
Who could ask for anything more?

I am currently searching the site to find my new design… Stay Tuned…

Marc

Why I Love Google or is that To Google!

I have a new best friend. Google!

Big deal, everyone knows that Google is the best or at least the biggest, most powerful, most often used search engine. Why is Google my new best friend?

I have been using quite a few of Google’s programs to help me run my business and to get more out of my computing.

Over the next few weeks I will share with you some of the things that I do with Google. I know that everything that I use Google for can be done with another program that I already have, or have access to, though, with Google, it seems that I can have it all in one place.

Let me start by saying that this blog is powered by blogger, which is run by Google. I also use Gmail as one of my primary email addressed. Both of these programs, as with everything from Google, is web based and free for me to use.

Gmail allows me to store up to 3 GB of emails on their server. I don’t have to download the email to my hard drive, which helps when it comes to spam and viruses. I do have the option to download if I want to.

As I have shared with you previously, I am always out and about, working with clients. I can now check my email with just a few clicks of the mouse on any computer that has internet access.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks Google,

Marc

Best Practices – Sometimes we get it right

So I thought I would share some success stories with you to go with the horror stories I shared last time.

Quite a few clients are getting tired of my hounding them to create a “best practices” disaster plan, and are finally seeing things my way and taking the first steps.

A small 3 person law firm has gathered up all of the software and information on the hardware and organized it in a 3 binder system. We now can find all the information, original CD’s, recovery disks and documentation in just a few minutes. The firm also has setup an onsite automatic backup system that synchronizes the data every night.

The next step for this law firm will be creating images of each machine and getting a more formal process for taking the data offsite.

Another small law firm has recently installed a removable backup system and is taking one of the drives offsite almost every day. We also have the data backing up to a second hard drive in the secretary’s system.

A dentist client recently had a hard drive go bad in one of his systems. We had previously created an image of this drive, as well as all the other drives in his office. It was about a 20 minute process to get the system back up and running. The data on the system had been backup up to the server and was easily recovered.

Sometimes we do get it right. How about you…. Are you able to say the same.

Let me know what you think,

Marc

Learn about those extra keys on your keyboard

One of my favorite interactions with a client happened a few years back and thinking about it still makes me smile. As I was working with a woman who I had always thought was the most computer literate employee at this particular client, I asked her why she was using so many keystrokes to perform a particular function. I asked her “why don’t you just right click?” She clicked on the right button on her mouse and said with a surprised tone, as the menu popped up in excel, “is that what that button is for!”

I thought about this today as I was looking at all the extra keys on my HP laptop and wondering why I never used any of them. Most newer keyboards have a lot of extra keys that allow you to do things with only the touch of that button.

I looked at the extra keys on my keyboards and wondered how many other people never use these keys. On my keyboard I have QuickPlay keys, Media control Keys, Function Keys, and a button for “back” and “ok”. Take a look at your keyboard and see what you have.

I have posted before about using short cut keys in your programs. I now think we should take a look at the keys on our keyboard that will help us. I am going to make an effort to use one new extra key each day for the next week. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Let me know what you think,

Marc

How Safe is your Data?

Greetings,

This is not another post about backups!

Most of what I do these days is troubleshooting and repairing computer systems. Most of the problems come from malware and spyware download from the web.

My business has always grown via word of mouth. I usually get a referral or two every week and I am able to convert most of the prospects that fit my model of what a good client is**, to clients.

Just recently I started to work with a new referral on converting his existing Quickbooks to a newer version of Quickbooks. The conversion required me to make a backup of the existing file and convert it to an version that was a few years old, before I could convert it to the newest Quickbooks 2006 version. Since I had the older version load on one of my systems at home, I asked the client I could take the data home and convert it and then update his system. He didn't have a problem with that at all.

I think that he should have had a problem with it. At the time I made this request, I had only met him 3 times and had spent no more than two hours with him. He let me take his entire accounting file off site and out of his control.

Another factor, I met him through a company who competes with him on several of his product lines. What if I shared the info I now had with the competitor? I had his entire client list, his cost structure as well as his profit and loss statements. Everything a competitor would love to have.

I thought about this the other day when a friend metioned that he had to take his computer into the shop for a simple repair. He is a lawyer with gigabytes of confidential data on his computer. What guarantees does he have that the techs at the computer shop won't take a look at his documents. What liability does he have if someone reads something confidential and share it with someone else.

I don't have an answer for this one yet, any suggestions?

Marc

** I have certain criteria that new clients have to meet before I work with them. I have a little routine that I do, to see how people react to me and to my way of doing business. If at any point I get a bad feeling about the prospect, I find a way to discourage them from wanting me to help them. I have had numerous discussions with people about my methods of choosing who to work with. It comes down to this, I want to work with people I like, who value my services and who pay me promptly.