Link to
 


Inside This Issue

E-Mail Hoax
Beware Of Fake Microsoft Update E-mail

Hartelco Update
Moving Soon

New Service Coming
This is THE Best Insurance

Going Out of Town?
How to Check Your Email While Away

Top 10 Reasons to Bundle

Cedar County Fair
Great Tech Displays to Help You

Why You Need Your Landline Phone

Hartelco Website
Have You Seen the Re-Design?

Ask The Help Desk
What Are The Squiggly Codes I Often See te?

Sites Of The Month
Great Sites To Check Out In July

Short Tutorial
Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using Column Headings



   

Hello Hartel.net Subscribers!

We offer helpful information about many activities in this July issue, so no matter what's keeping you busy these days, you're covered. Are you worrying about Internet security? Don't miss the latest news about fake security alerts that pretend to be from Microsoft but are really from spammers. Are you struggling to keep up with an overflowing Inbox? Learn a fast and easy way to delete multiple e-mail messages simultaneously. Do your summer plans include baking a special cake, hiking and camping in a new place, improving the quality of your sleep, or helping out a worthy cause? If so, you'll find plenty of great ideas in Great Sites.

The goal of each of our monthly eNewsletters is to keep our subscribers informed regarding their Internet connection and to improve their Internet experience. We think you'll find this information interesting. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click here.

To see what's inside this issue, simply scroll down the eNewsletter or click on the links within the index to the left. Thanks for reading!

- The Hartel.net Team
 
  
 

 

E-Mail Hoax - Beware Of Fake Microsoft Update E-mail

If you receive an e-mail that appears to come from Microsoft about an Update for Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express (KB910721), do NOT click on the link or open the attachment. These e-mails, while quite convincing in their appearance and lack of the usual spammers' misspellings, are actually fake security alerts. They are designed to get you to download Trojan malware in the form of a file named officexp-KB910721-FullFile-ENU.exe.

Examples of the e-mail subject lines are:
  • Install Critical Update for Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Outlook Critical Update
  • Install Update for Microsoft Outlook
Take a look at one such e-mail:

Microsoft E-mail Hoax Example

This is a good opportunity to remind you that Microsoft never sends e-mails about a single security update. All Microsoft security updates are released together on the second Tuesday of each month and are posted at http://update.microsoft.com. You can visit this site monthly to manually upload your choice of available updates. However, Microsoft recommends that you get the updates delivered automatically to your PC.

To learn how to turn on automatic updating for your particular operating system, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windowsupdate/automaticupdate.mspx.

You can also sign up to receive the Microsoft Security for Home Computer Users Newsletter at http://www.microsoft.com/protect/secnews/default.mspx.

In addition, don't forget to keep your antivirus software updated, and remain cautious about opening e-mail attachments (especially executable files ending in .exe).

Back to Top

Hartelco Update - Moving Soon

Thank you to all of our customers and friends who have given us compliments on the looks of our new office building. To keep everyone updated, we hope to be in our new office by August 1st.

Be sure to watch for signs in the windows of both buildings as to the status of our move, and please continue to use our current drop box for your after-hours payments so we can credit your account accordingly.

We will be having an Open House in early fall, so please make plans to come and celebrate with us. Be watching for announcements in the upcoming months.

Back to Top


New Service Coming - This is THE Best Insurance

Have you ever wished that you would have backed up a file or photos before disaster hit your computer? Ever found yourself without a hard drive after a lightning strike or electrical storm and all of your valuable data was lost?

Hartelco is proud to announce a new service coming soon. Hartelco Backup will allow you to easily manage and safekeep all your valuable documents, photos, and files in secure locations copied to multiple sites across the U.S. This service works for both residential and all types of businesses that may have larger data storage needs. Hartel Backup's service is approved by both the banking and medical industries, so you can be assured your data is kept confidential and private. And the best thing is that this service is very inexpensive!

This is THE best insurance you can get for your valuable data! Stop by our Hartelco Computer office for more information on Hartel Backup, or just call us at 254-2110.

Back to Top


Going Out of Town? - How to Check Your Email While Away

Did you know that you can check your Hartel.net email account from any PC with Internet access? It's easy! Here's how to get started.

  1. Make sure you know your email address and password
  2. Direct your browser to www.hartel.net
  3. Click the "View Your Mail" icon towards the bottom center.
  4. In the UserID box, enter your email address MINUS the "@hartel.net".
  5. In the Password box, enter your email password.

You will then view your email account on our webserver, more commonly known as "webmail". You can click on the Subject of each email to read the text of the email, or you can simply delete the emails or leave them untouched if they aren't of interest to you. Please note that any emails remaining in the webmail folder's Inbox will be downloaded like normal when you return to your home or business and open your usual Email software (such as Outlook Express or Outlook) on your PC. Any emails that you delete while in webmail are deleted on a permanent basis.

Also important to know is that if you're outside the US, you should use the website www.mail2web.com. This will give you access to your Hartel.net webmail account from any foreign country. Because of security concerns, our technicians have "locked down" access to our normal webmail link from outside of the US. Please use the mail2web website while outside the US to access your Hartel.net emails.

While webmail is a fantastic way to keep caught up with your email while away from home, there are just a few basic rules to remember:

  1. Be sure to test your webmail account prior to leaving, so you're accustomed to its use.
  2. Make sure that the PC you're using while on vacation doesn't save your password.
  3. And NEVER give your password to someone who assists you on a public-access PC.
  4. Remember that if you've recently received email in your normal email software such as Outlook Express, you likely won't have any emails remaining in your webmail account.
  5. Please realize that if you delete an email from the webserver, it will not be available for downloading later when your return to your home or business.
  6. Try to keep the number of emails residing in your webmail account to a minimum.
  7. When you're done reading your email, delete your browser's cache and close all running browser windows.

So webmail just isn't for business people anymore. Anyone can take advantage of checking their emails while away from home -- whether on a business trip or on a vacation!

Back to Top

Top 10 Reasons to Bundle

  1. DSL Internet download speeds up to 6Mg per second
  2. Unlimited local phone service
  3. 100 long distance minutes free each month
  4. The lowest long distance rates we offer
  5. Great Hartelco TV channels with VIP bundle
  6. Voicemail (with free transfer to email included)
  7. Caller ID
  8. Up to three calling features included for free
  9. Simple billing
  10. BUNDLING SAVES YOU MONEY!

Back to Top

 

Cedar County Fair - Great Tech Displays to Help You

Be sure to stop by our booth in the Commercial Building at the Cedar County Fair to see some great ideas and displays with technology! We'll have PCs on display to help you with your questons. You will not want to miss this! We'll see you there.

Back to Top

 

Why You Need Your Landline Phone

Many people may have thought about eliminating their landline phone and replacing it with a cell phone or Internet-based phone such as a "digital phone" or "VOIP". But a landline phone is the most reliable device on the market today. It has many advantages over a cell phone or "digital" phone. Here are the reasons you need a landline phone:

  1. Provides security in an emergency with reliable 911 service.
  2. Superior quality of sound and clarity.
  3. Works in a power outage. Never needs charging.
  4. Provides unlimited local calling.
  5. No dropped calls and always a strong signal.
  6. Can't be "hacked".
  7. It's cheaper in a bundle.
  8. Provides you with a directory listing.
  9. You don't have to access (and pay for) the Internet to use the phone.
  10. Provided by a local company with local employees in a local office.

As the summer season arrives and especially with all the storms we've been having, it's a good idea to have a basic wired phone. Cell phones, "digital" or VOIP phones, and cordless phones all rely on power or batteries that need to be charged to work - wired landlines don't! Connect one today!

Back to Top


Hartel Website - Have You Seen the Re-Design?

Hartel has recently re-designed our website. Please take a look and let us know what you think of it. You can still check your email via our Hartel website, and your Favorite Links are in the top right-hand corner. Plus there's more! Be sure to check us out at www.hartel.net.

Back to Top

Ask The Help Desk - What Are The Squiggly Codes I Often See When Logging Into A Secure Website?

Question: When I'm logging into a secure website, I often see squiggly codes such as a distorted word or phrase that I have to copy. I heard these codes are supposed to stop spammers. How do they work?

Answer: You're talking about CAPTCHAs, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. These codes are alphanumeric and made of several distorted characters. Users are asked to copy the characters into an empty field—a task that's easy for a human but difficult for a computer.

This is an example of a CAPTCHA:

  CAPTCHA example

CAPTCHAs are designed to "trip up" the automated software used by spammers. While this software is good at reading text, it has a hard time with distorted characters and will therefore be denied access to whatever website it was trying to exploit. Spammers' programs can sometimes crack a CAPTCHA, but it's a complicated process with a low success rate so most spammers are still blocked.

Back to Top

Sites Of The Month - Great Sites To Check Out In July

Ace Of Cakes
http://foodnetwork.com/ace-of-cakes - Art and cuisine meet on the fun new Food Network show, Ace of Cakes. The show presents the creations of Chef Duff and his staff as they decorate up to 20 cakes per week, including whimsical designs and detailed replicas. The Ace of Cakes website features videos highlighting the show's sweet creations and cool cakes baked by viewers.

Sleep On It
http://sleepfoundation.org - The National Sleep Foundation website is packed with helpful information about sleep including articles, videos, and quizzes. You can learn about the correlation between exercise and sleep, food and sleep, how medical problems can affect sleep, and more. The site also lists international sleep care centers, and a variety of online communities to share your experiences with sleep and sleep disorders.

YouTube U
http://youtube.com/edu - What do Dolly Parton and President Obama have in common? They both have recently delivered university commencement addresses. You can view them, as well as other addresses and interesting lectures at the YouTube EDU site. You'll find videos on medical, scientific, political, musical, business, and other topics from YouTube's college and university partners.

The Great Outdoors
http://gorp.away.com - If you love to enjoy the great outdoors, you'll love this site. Find the best places to go worldwide and discover what to do once you get there. Featured activities include hiking, camping, biking, fishing, paddling, and climbing. Get advice on gear, clothing, and electronics, and tips on things like what to pack for a backpacking trip, how to find a good trail, international travel, and family trips.

Reader To Reader
http://readertoreader.org - Reader to Reader is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "bringing books, free of charge, to needy school libraries and public libraries across the United States." You're invited to donate books or money via their website to help make it happen. When you visit the site, you can also read about the organization's programs and success, and check out their blog to learn about recent activities.

Back to Top

Short Tutorial - Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using Column Headings

It can be a daunting task to keep up with managing your e-mail, so here's a way to save some time when you're ready to clean out your message folders. By using column headings, you can quickly delete all messages from a specified sender simultaneously—much easier than hunting down that person's messages scattered throughout your Inbox. Simply follow the steps below to delete multiple messages from a particular sender:

Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ...
- E-mail Program: Outlook Express 6
- Operating System: Windows XP
  1. With Outlook Express open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click on the "From" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names.

  2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted.

  3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar.
Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ...
- E-mail Program: Windows Mail
- Operating System: Windows Vista
  1. With Windows Mail open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click on the "From" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names.

  2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted.

  3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar.
Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ...
- E-mail Program: Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0
- Operating System: Windows XP or Vista, or Mac OS X 10.5
  1. With Thunderbird open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click on the "Sender" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names.

  2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted.

  3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar.
Deleting Multiple E-mail Messages Using ...
- E-mail Program: Mail.app 3.1
- Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5
  1. With Mail.app open, click on the column heading that will most help you delete the group of unwanted messages. For example, if you want to get rid of all messages from a particular person, click the "From" button to sort the messages into groups sorted by names.

  2. Scroll down to the first message in the group you want to delete. Click on the first message in order to highlight it. Then, while holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard, click the last message in the group. The group of messages you want to delete should be highlighted.

  3. Click the "Delete" button on your toolbar.

Back to Top

We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings here. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click here.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

The Hartel.net Team




Hartelco
104 W Centre
PO Box 157
Hartington, NE 68739

Ph 402-254-3901

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2009 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this e-mail are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.