I woke up today around 4 AM when one of our cats jumped on my stomach.  By now, it’s a pounce and jump operation because he knows if I catch him, I’ll throw him across the room and bounce him off a wall.  So he pops up from the floor to the window pane, pounces on my … Read more

I just finished wading through 471 new comments from the past 3 days on my blog post from late March titled, “How to spot a phishy email”.   The good news, I guess, is my blog post found its way onto the search engines and is getting some visibility.  The bad news – every single one of those 471 … Read more

I did a presales call with a small dentist office a few months ago.  I have some dentist customers, so I’ve come to understand a little bit about how dentist offices operate.  But this office was, well, different.  The “server” was really an old, failing Windows XP PC tucked away in a dusty corner of … Read more

­ In part one of our computer detective saga, the story opened with a few users unable to access their emails. Similar to a Hollywood detective story, we followed the clues through several unexpected twists and turns, with each clue answering questions and generating new questions.  Continuing in the style of great whodunit detective mysteries, … Read more

­ I spent an awful day yesterday with Microsoft Office 2013 Home and Business Edition.  Full disclosure – my company is a Microsoft Registered Partner and this blog entry won’t make me any friends in Redmond.  But right now, I am frustrated beyond belief and I will have trouble sleeping until I put electronic pen to virtual … Read more

Big versus small may be one of the oldest debates in business. Big companies are perceived as safe, stable, predictable, comfortable.  Small companies are the opposite; just prefix “un” to all those adjectives.  This debate is especially contentious in the IT industry, where everyone wants safe, stable, predictable, and comfortable. Full disclosure – Infrasupport is currently … Read more

­ This story is personal.   It is one of the best examples I’ve seen where poor IT security practices and the physical world collide and leave a trail of destruction. Way back in 2006, I registered my name with the Norm Coleman for Senate campaign. Although the US Senate election was two years away, I felt … Read more

This story is a great example of characterizing a problem, getting closer and closer to a solution with each step, and why the process is so important.  The story flows like a detective novel, with Greg the gumshoe uncovering new clues with each new step, all leading to a surprising conclusion that generates more unexpected questions … Read more

Just like most IT professionals, I get computer troubleshooting questions all the time from customers, friends, and family. A few are, uhmm, well, memorable. For example, the one about email a while ago.  The conversation started out something like this: Friend:  My email doesn’t work. Greg:  (Trying to be helpful)  OK, what email program do … Read more

­ This Wikipedia article provides as good a definition as any for phishing: Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. The challenge is, how do you tell a phishing email that … Read more