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<h2>Tech notes from <a href="index.html"> Nostradamus</a></h2>
<h4>
AOL</h4>
<p>2/8/03: We've heard of various problems people have had with formatting web
pages and email for AOL users. Here's a page devoted to the subject: <a href="http://www.templatekit.com/article.php?art_id=6">http://www.templatekit.com/article.php?art_id=6</a>
NB: We haven't yet tried these suggestions ourselves.</p>
<h4>BROADBAND</h4>
<p>Our DSL connection runs at 608/128. If you know an affordable way to get
better upload speed, please drop Nostradamus a note.</p>
<h4>BROADCAST EMAIL</h4>
<p>If you want to maintain your own email list for sending periodic
announcements to customers or prospects, see "Mail Merge" elsewhere on
this page.</p>
<p>But simple mail merge won't suffice if:</p>
<ul>
<li>you want your subscribers to be able to add or unsubscribe themselves
without your intervention</li>
<li>you want to host an email discussion group where any subscriber can send
mail to the whole list</li>
<li>several different people (say, officers of an organization) need to be
able to mail to the list.</li>
</ul>
<p>In any of these situations, you'll need a broadcast email solution. You can
either obtain software and install it on your computer or server (e.g.,
Listserv, Majordomo, Lyris) or you can outsource (e.g., Listserv, Lyris,
Yahoo). </p>
<p>We like Listserv from <a href="http://www.lsoft.com">L-soft</a>. They offer
software in a variety of versions (including free), they offer hosting, and
their product has been around since 1986. The interface can take some getting
used to, but the software is as close to bug-free as anything we've seen.</p>
<h4>BROADCAST FAX</h4>
<p>We first learned of jfax (now j2) from Larry Yudelson. We use them as an
alternate route for incoming faxes and for conference calls. Now Bill Wollheim
tells us that he has a client who's happily using j2's fax broadcast service to
send faxes to multiple recipients. We've used Winfax plus ACT for years, but
j2's system sounds easier and -- for some clients -- cheaper.</p>
<h4>BROWSER ISSUES -- INTERNET EXPLORER</h4>
<p>We couldn't get the <b> specialized characters</b> (e.g., . ^ $ * + ? { [ \ | ) on
some web pages
to appear correctly until we went to the Accessibility
section of the Internet Options settings and selected "Ignore font styles
specified on web pages."</p>
<p>At another point, we started seeing red x's where some pictures --
but not all pictures -- should have been. We solved the problem by changing the
browser's language specification, thanks to <a href="http://www.uninet.net/~blaisdel/IE_3.html">Blaisdell's
Little Corner of the Web</a>. We also had to turn off "Auto Select"
encoding, under View. </p>
<p>Then we started getting weird
symbol-type characters when printing a web page with Internet Explorer. Yet
another adjustment to the "Encoding" seems to have been solved it.</p>
<p>When the weird
symbol-type characters returned -- this time when printing an email from Outlook
Express -- we replaced a missing Courier New font, and that seemed to do the
trick.</p>
<h4>CD BURNING</h4>
<p>The jury is still out, but it seems that some systems are very particular as
to what brand of CD you write to. Warren can write to anything. Wendy has
trouble with Fuji CDs but better luck with HP. Bill and Sarah both had trouble
writing audio CDs to Fuji and Imation disks, but did better with Maxell. Nos is doing ok
with Fuji so far.</p>
<i>
Our buddy Bill Wollheim sent us the following
on 2/6/03:</i>
<blockquote>
<p>OK, this is my current state
of knowledge about CD burning.</p>
<p>Burning audio CDs is more
temperamental than other CD burning activities. The specific combination of
drive, disc, computer, and burning software is important. The wrong
combination can result in skipped tracks or other problems.</p>
<p>If you are getting errors any
or all of the following might help: reboot the PC, unload all unnecessary
software, burn at less than the maximum speed, try a different brand of disc,
try different burning software.</p>
Once you have found a formula
that works, don�t change it unless you�ve got a good reason.
<p>
The second most temperamental
CD burning is with CD-RW discs used repeatedly. I have not found any patterns
yet, but some discs start becoming unreliable after they�ve been used maybe
ten or twenty times.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
See also <a href="http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq01.html#S1-1">Andy McFadden's
CD-Recordable FAQ - Section 1</a>.</p>
<h4> CHARACTER MAP</h4>
<p>At some point, CHARMAP stopped working for us. The solution was simple once
we figured it out: just extract the current version of CHARMAP.EXE from the
appropriate Windows 98 CAB file.</p>
<h4>CONFERENCE CALLS</h4>
<p>We use jconnect <a href="http://www.j2.com">http://www.j2.com</a>. The web
interface takes a bit of getting used to, but the system really works and the
price is affordable.</p>
<h4>DESKTOP PUBLISHING</h4>
<p>Most of our jobs are done in Quark Xpress 3.3 for Windows. Some of the other
software we use:</p>
<div align="left">
<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td><b><font size="2">Windows/PC</font></b>
<p>Adobe Illustrator 10<br>
Adobe PageMaker 6.5<br>
Adobe PhotoShop 4, 5, 5.5<br>
Aldus PageMaker 5.0<br>
CorelDraw 2.01, 3, 5 and 9<br>
ThumbsPlus<br>
Microsoft Word<br>
WordPerfect</td>
<td valign="top"><b><font size="2">Macintosh</font></b>
<p>Quark Xpress 4<br>
Adobe PhotoShop<br>
Adobe Illustrator</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>We can read most file formats and most media. Call ahead to be sure.</p>
<h4>EMAIL</h4>
<p>See "Broadcast email" and "Spam."</p>
<h4>FLASH ANIMATION</h4>
<p>Prompted by David Miller, one of our technical consultants, we did a bit of
research into the use of Flash on websites. We found that Nabisco, JP Morgan,
Duane Reade, NY Times, Sony, Rite Aid, Netgear, HP, Ford and LL Bean use
Javascript. Random House uses just HTML and CSS. The only major
corporation we found using Flash was Xerox.</p>
<h4>ISP</h4>
<p>When choosing a new ISP, you might find our <a href="files/isp3.doc">checklist</a>
helpful.</p>
<h4>LARGE FILES / DOCUMENT TRANSFER</h4>
<ol>
<li>We used to move large files via UPS Online Courier, but that
service was discontinued. A similar service is offered by <a href="http://www.hypersend.com/Home/Welcome/Entry">hypersend.com</a>
but we haven't tried it.</li>
<li>We've switched to a different SMTP server so
we can now email larger attachments, so that will help some. </li>
<li>The best solution so far, for our needs, has been to use FTP to put files
on clients' web servers and have people download from there as needed. We
can even password-protect the directory. </li>
</ol>
<h4> MAIL MERGE</h4>
<p>We are periodically asked about mail merge. One client, Joseph Mercurio of <font FACE="Slimbach Medium" SIZE="3" color="#66CCFF"><a href="http://www.nationalpolitical.com">National Political
Services</a></font>, has been very successful maintaining his list in Microsoft Access
and merging it with his outgoing messages in Outlook.
</p>
<p> We've gotten ACT working for email merge. We wouldn't recommend it
if you're not already an ACT user, but if you <i> are</i> using ACT the merge feature
works well enough.
</p>
<h4>"MESSENGER" SPAM</h4>
<p>Computers running Windows XP/2K/NT should generally block port 139 to prevent
"Messenger spam." See <a href="http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/story/0,24330,3374542,00.html">http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/story/0,24330,3374542,00.html</a>
Thanks to Bill Wollheim for this heads-up.</p>
<p>Our latest information says to block UDP port 135 (Windows Messenger Location), TCP port 445
(SMB), as well as
137 thru 139 (NetBT). Other sources say to block all of 135-140. We wish we
could be more definitive, but that's the best we can do so far.</p>
<h4>MUSIC</h4>
<p>A composer friend has written a piece of music for our website -- you can
hear it on our home page. If you'd like original music for your website (he's
won two Emmys), just ask.</p>
<h4>NETWORK SECURITY</h4>
<p>We have given a lot of thought to Internet security issues recently. While
there are as many opinions as there are consultants, here's what we think will
help the kind of small businesses and organizations that make up our clientele:</p>
<ol>
<li>Run a virus checker regularly (we like Norton) and make sure the
definitions are up to date.</li>
<li>Run AdAware to find and delete stealth programs.</li>
<li>Open no file attachments that arrive in email. If you're not sure, CALL
the sender before opening.</li>
<li>Turn off �Active scripting� and �Run ActiveX controls� in Outlook Express and make sure the latest patches are
installed. Consider switching to a more secure email program such as Eudora.</li>
<li>Turn off file sharing.</li>
<li>Limit physical access to your computer.</li>
<li>Skip the personal firewalls and use a router with network address
translation (NAT) instead. NOTE: two of our colleagues disagree with this
advice and say that running Zone Alarm is better than nothing.</li>
<li>Don't run any servers, particularly MS Exchange Server.</li>
<li>Make sure your operating system (even *nix) has all current security
patches installed.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks to ace computer consultant <a href="http://www.wollheim.com">Bill
Wollheim</a> and tech gurus David Miller and Tony Sabatini for their input. If you need help setting up any of these procedures,
give Bill a call. </p>
<p>According to a recent message on the news.admin.net-abuse.email Usenet group,
"Spammers have started breaking in to DSL/Cable routers with default passwords. Once they have access, they set up NAT with port
forwarding." The point is: when you set up your NAT box, firewall or
broadband router, you MUST:</p>
<ol>
<li>change the default username,</li>
<li>change the default password, and </li>
<li> turn off remote
administration.</li>
</ol>
<h4>SEARCH ENGINE</h4>
<p><a href="http://www.wollheim.com">Computer consultant Bill Wollheim</a> and
I were discussing why a certain website wasn't listed in Google. We looked at the source code for
the home page and found virtually no text -- it was all Flash animation.
Not only that, there were no HTML links to the rest of the website, so Google
would be unlikely to ever find those pages either. Moral: Make sure to look at
your pages the way a search engine does. </p>
<h4>SPAM</h4>
<h5> SpamEater Pro</h5>
We're happily using <a href="http://www.hms.com/spameater.asp"> SpamEater Pro</a> to filter
out spam. We have it set to use
the following DNSBLs: SPEWS, SpamCop and the China and Korea zone files at <a href="http://blackholes.us">http://blackholes.us</a>.
Also, it's configured to save our spam (!) in a separate folder. Sure it's
icky, but we look at that folder from time to time, requeue the occasional false
positive and then delete everything.
<h5> SpamCop</h5>
<p>Another way to counteract the flood of spam is to set up a <a href="http://spamcop.net/">SpamCop</a>
account. You can read your mail using your regular email program
(Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.) or using the SpamCop web interface. The web
interface also makes it easy
for your computer consultant to maintain the system without coming to your premises. </p>
<p>While SpamCop offers POP and Web interfaces, it will <i>not </i>POP mail from your
current mailbox -- so your ISP must be able to forward the mail to SpamCop.</p>
<h5>ISP</h5>
<p>When selecting a new ISP, you might want to ask
what spam filtering they offer.</p>
<h5>Preventing address harvesting</h5>
<p>We're starting to use Javascript to hide email addresses on our websites from
automated address harvesters. Another method is to make a .GIF graphic of the
email address and link it to a web form. Some people also link a .WAV file for
accessibility.</p>
<h5>What to do if you're on a spam-blocking list.</h5>
<p>If your outbound email is bouncing back because you're on a spam-blocking
list (e.g., SpamCop, SPEWS), you'll first want to arrange for third-party
outbound email. For small operations, a few AOL accounts may do the job.
Otherwise, contract with another ISP for unblocked SMTP service.</p>
<p>Next, determine how you got listed. There are only four ways to get on a spam-blocking
list:</p>
<ol>
<li><b>You're sending bulk email.</b> If so, stop immediately and consult a
competent email professional to review your operation before the
entire Internet blockades you.<b> </b></li>
<li><b>Spammers are using your system. </b>Most frequent vulnerabilities are
open formmail scripts, open relays and open proxies. They must be shut down.</li>
<li><b>Your ISP is hosting spammers. </b>Tell them to boot the spammers. When
they don't, change to another ISP. </li>
<li><b>There was a mistake. </b>There probably wasn't. </li>
</ol>
<h4>VIRUS HOAXES</h4>
<p>Before you send everyone you know an email about the latest virus, check that
it's not a hoax. The easiest place to check is <a href="http://www.sarc.com">www.sarc.com</a>.</p>
<h4>WEB DEVELOPMENT</h4>
<p>Our friend Larry Yudelson got us to try a demo of Adobe ImageStyler a few
years ago. We liked it, but the demo expired and Adobe took the product off the
market. We finally located a legit copy on eBay and we're having lots of fun!</p>
<p>Most of our web work is done in Dreamweaver, the professional-strength web
design program. On the other hand, FrontPage has a number of key features
built-in (such as menu/navigation and forms handling), making it a good choice
for simpler sites.</p>
<h4>WEB MAINTENANCE</h4>
<ul>
<li> If you are a Nostradamus client, ask us for our latest
Checklist for Website Owners.</li>
<li>We're using Xenu to check for dead hyperlinks. We like it. You can get it
for free at <a href="http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html">http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html</a>
or ask us to do a link check for you.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
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<font size="1">Your comments are welcome. Please drop a note to the <a href="mailto:[email protected]">webmaster</a>.<br>
</font><font size="1">Last revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED"
S-Format="%A, %B %d, %Y" startspan -->Monday, July 28, 2003<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="28435" -->
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