Ekaru - Newsletter

The Ekaru Gazette Vol 2-2. June 2002

Welcome to this month's issue! Our mission is to provide technology information you can use in your small business. In this issue we'll cover a quick note on virus protection, a client profile (new feature!), news from Ekaru, a technology spotlight on email, and a great recipe (which has nothing to do with technology)!

A Quick Note on Virus Protection
Many people think that if they install anti-virus software, no further action is required, and their systems are always protected. Wrong! A few tips:

Perform weekly virus scans on your systems. These scans can be automatically scheduled.
Perform regular live updates to keep virus definitions up to date. This protects against new viruses that are constantly being created by hackers. This feature can also be automatically scheduled.
Run Auto-protect to scan incoming mail messages.
Make sure your software license remains valid - most expire in one year.

New!Client Profile - "The Road Warrior"
As president of Insight Development Group (www.insightdevelopment.com), Mark Magnacca is an in-demand, business, peak performance strategist and motivational speaker helping clients boost their performance to a higher level of achievement. His work ranges from helping sales professionals develop effective elevator statements to corporate coaching individually with the CEO as well as with the management team to create a corporate culture that is consistent with the company's stated mission. Mark's business takes him on the road nationally and internationally, and he came to Ekaru to "ruggedize" his IT strategy. Mark needs to access client contacts, data, and proposals anywhere, anytime using his laptop, and also needed a robust back-up strategy to ensure vital data is not lost. Ekaru helped by developing and installing a back-up strategy to ensure reliable back-up to tape media, and a wireless office network to connect his laptop to his permanent file management computer. "What impressed me about Ekaru is that they took the time to really understand my business and IT needs, and then developed an intelligent strategy. They were able to schedule work around my busy schedule, and I have the confidence of knowing I have access to a technology expert just a phone call away." Mark Magnacca, President, Insight Development Group.

Ekaru in the News!
Bill Kazman of Ekaru was selected to moderate a one-day symposium: "HIPAA Coding and Transaction Update" on June 19, 2002. This critical update was attended by over 100 participants representing the 80 hospitals that span across Massachusetts. The meeting was sponsored by Massachusetts Hospital Association, and Ekaru was a sponsor with Amherst Computer.

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability, and will lead to sweeping changes and upgrades to healthcare information technology ranging from network security to transaction processing applications. The federal legislation puts requirements on providers (hospitals, group practices, clinics, VNA's), payers (Blue Cross, Harvard Pilgrim, Aetna, et. al.), and vendors (software and equipment vendors that "touch" medical information) to meet new standards for protecting integrity of medical data. The compliance deadline looms: by law, all parties must be in compliance by 10/16/2002 for the Transactions, Code Sets, and Identifiers portion of the standards, and can optionally file a one-time, one-year extension to 10/16/2003.

Technology Spotlight: The Miracle of Email!
Your business partner is in California ready to land the next big account. Her meeting is just a few hours away, and she needs the latest Excel spread sheet for a customer ROI calculation and calls you in a panic. No problem! You find the file, email it to her with plenty of time to spare. The meeting is a success, and you just gained a new account! Wow! Isn't email a miracle! On another day, you're in the same dilemma, but your email gets stuck in your "Outbox" and you get the dreaded yellow triangle error message. Ouch! Why does this have to be so complicated?

All small businesses today rely on email for fast and efficient communications. We thought it would be helpful to present a short tutorial on Outlook email to help you understand all the things that need to work together successfully to send email.

An e-mail message consists of the following parts:

Sender - embedded in Outlook setup

Addressee's "To:"

Those to be copied "Cc's"

The subject of the message "Subject"

Body of the message - Outlook e-mail is composed in text, rich text format (RTF), HTML or as a MS Word document. The format can be selected under options from the tools menu.

Attachments - any file format

The following folders are used for organizing Outlook mail:

Drafts - A folder where one can save an unfinished message
Inbox - The initial depository for all incoming mail
Custom Files - User generated file structure for organizing saved mail
Outbox - The initial depository for all outgoing mail
Sent Mail Box - the final depository for all sent mail
Deleted Items - the initial depository for all deleted mail

Outlook supports an address book where addressee's names, address, phone numbers and e-mail address can be stored along with other pertinent contact information. More on the address book in an upcoming issue, but some quick points follow:

The address book supports a lookup feature.
It can be accessed by clicking on the "To" or "Cc" buttons on the compose e-mail screen.
Incoming mail addressees can be added to the address book with a right click of the mouse.

How mail is sent:

When you click on the "send" button in the create mail window, the completed mail message is closed and placed in the "outbox" where it is stored until a send/receive mail cycle is initiated from Outlook.
The "outbox" serves as a buffer when using Outlook offline. Mail can be composed and accumulated before making a dial-up connection which reduces the time your phone line is tied up.
You can check your "outbox" to verify that your mail has been sent. Sent mail is removed from your "outbox" and placed in your "sent mail box".
The send/receive cycle can be initiated manually from Outlook's "tools" menu, or automatically, based upon a setting under "tools", "options", "mail delivery".
Mail is sent to your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) SMTP Server.
It is the SMTP server's job to distribute the mail to each addressee listed in the mail message.
Some ISP's require authenticated log-in to use their SMTP server. This is done to eliminate mail spam by preventing outsiders from using an unauthorized SMTP server.
Some ISP's prevent the relay of messages to another ISP's SMTP server so that they are not a conduit for a spamming campaign. Spam is unsolicited mail, usually from unethical advertisers, or the result of a virus or hacker activity.
The SMTP server sends the mail with any attachments to the addressees' POP server.

How mail is received:

Each ISP maintains a POP server which receives incoming mail for all of its clients.
The POP server stores the received mail until the client requests it.
Mail is requested from the POP server by the user when a send/receive is activated by Outlook.
The client's user name and password are recorded within Outlook during the setup procedure.
When a valid user name and password are authenticated by the POP server, the POP server sends the mail to Outlook's "inbox".
Outlook permits the user to leave a copy of downloaded mail on the server for a desired period of time. Caution should be had when leaving a copy of mail on the server because ISP's limit the volume of mail left on the POP server and will reject mail when their limit is exceeded
Mail received in the "inbox" remains unopened until the user decides to read it upon which time the mail is marked as opened.
Caution should be taken not to open any mail that looks suspicious, because e-mail is the prime transport for viruses.
Received mail can be saved and organized in custom folders, left in the "inbox', sent to the deleted items box, or forwarded to another recipients.

When you consider everything that has to work to send or receive email, it really is a miracle that it all works so well!

The All American Dessert
In most of our Newsletters, we like to include a recipe. What does this have to do with computers and networks? Absolutely nothing, but these recipes taste great!

4 cups boiling water
1 pkg. (8 serving size) or 2 pkgs. (4 serving size) Jell-O Brand Gelatin, any Red flavor
1 pkg. (8 serving size) or 2 pkgs. (4 serving size) Jell-O Brand Gelatin, any Blue flavor
2 cups cold water
1 tub (8 oz) cool whip
4 cups pound cake (cubed)
strawberries
blueberries

Stir 2 cups boiling water into each flavor of gelatin until dissolved.
Stir 1 cup cold water into each bowl.
Pour each color into separate 13x9" pans and refrigerate at least 3 hours or until firm.
Cut into 1/2" cubes

Layer cubes, whipped topping, cake, strawberries and blueberries in trifle dish.
Garnish top with cool whip and extra fruit

Happy 4th of July!

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