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A spam attack is now circulating e-mails that appear to be sent from Microsoft Support, advising users of a new security update for Outlook/Outlook Express. Recipients are told that this is a critical update for stability and security, and are given instructions for opening the attached zip file to complete the installation. In actuality, the only thing that would get installed in this process is the malicious Bredolab.Y virus and a rogue antivirus program called SecurityTool—both of which could cause serious problems with your computer.

If you receive an e-mail like this that claims to come from Microsoft, delete it and do not open the attachment. Keep in mind that Microsoft NEVER sends patches or security updates as e-mail attachments. Any e-mail asking you to install such items should be considered a dead giveaway of fraud.

In addition, Microsoft advises the following precautions:

Keep your firewall turned on.
Keep all your software and your operating system up-to-date.
Keep your antivirus software up-to-date.
Keep your antispyware technology up-to-date.

To learn more about how to get authentic Microsoft security updates, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/security/updates/bulletins/201001-oob.aspx

Reminder: Hartelco is doubling the size of email storage space for each of our Hartel.net customers. Please read carefully!

Currently 50Mb of storage space is available for emails. This has now been doubled to 100Mg of storage space for each and every Hartel.net customer.

In the past, if the size of your email waiting on our email server (also known as Hartel.net webmail) for you to download to your PC exceeded 50Mb, you would receive an email notice from us asking you to clear your account of unwanted emails. If after 10 days, the file size was not reduced to below 50Mg in size, your inbound email may have been blocked. This will no longer be the case.

On a going-foward basis starting March 1st, if the 100Mb file space is exceeded, a $5/month fee will be automatically assessed for each additional 50Mb of space used above the initial 100Mb allotted to each customer's email. Again, this is only the amount of space used to store email in each customer's webmail account each month, and NOT the amount of email that is downloaded to your computer which is unlimited.

Some email software have settings that keep a copy of all emails on our Hartel.net email server AFTER you've already downloaded them to your computer. This is also a way to protect emails that contain pictures and save documents with attachments in case of troubles with your home or business computer. Some customers use this file space as storage, which is fine as long as the 100Mb file space is not exceeded.

To find out how much space your email account contains on our webmail server, just log into your webmail account by clicking on the View Mail icon in the top, right-hand corner of the Hartel.net homepage. You can use your normal email username and password to login to the webmail, where you will see your file space size in the top, right-hand corner just above the Trash button. Be sure to logout again once you are done viewing your email on our server.

Webmail is also how you can check your Hartel.net email account when traveling or away from home.

Again, please note that these size limits have no bearing whatsoever on the amount of email that you download to your computer. This is only regarding the amount of email that you store on our server.

If you are concerned about spam email filling your allocated 100Mb of email storage space, we suggest using our Postini email filter. Postini is only $1/month and reduces the number of spam emails received by over 90%.

Please contact our office at 402-254-3901 for more information on Postini, or if you have any questions regarding the size of your email/webmail account.

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Several Hartel.net customers reported to us that they had received an email that seemed to be from our office. As we told them "Don't be fooled!".

Whenever Hartel.net sends out an email to customers, which is rare, we always include our phone number and street address in the email. Also notice in the spam example below that the link is actually a .exe file, which means when you click on it, a website program will run...and likely infect your computer with a virus.

The spam email below also showed that it was not only intended for the reader, but also that it was sent FROM the reader's email address. That just doesn't make sense.

Also, note the poor grammar and spelling in the Subject line. That is a clue that the spam email is not legitimate.

Just delete any emails that are suspicious, or call the sender to be sure!

The spam email example is immediately below:

If you have more than one desktop or laptop computer in your home or business, chances are that you are using a wireless router to connect the two computers.

It's vitally important that you make this wireless network secure by creating a password for your router to stop public connectivity to your network! If your wireless network (created by a router) is not secure, anyone within range of your wireless network can potentially see any files on any of your computers that are connected to the network!

Not only that, but a neighbor may be secretly using your network to connect to the Internet and could also be sending out spam, causing your Internet account to be suspended!

We've recently noticed many home networks unsecured right here in Hartington. This normally happens when a customer sets up their own wireless network router without our assistance!

So please secure your wireless network -- it could save not only a headache, but also save your financial and private data from being available to the public!

Please note that Hartelco technicians have always installed a password whenever setting up a wireless network in any home or business.

Please call Hartelco Computers at 402-254-3901 if you need assistance or have any questions.

We've had a long hard winter, and we typically get a big snowstorm or two in the springtime.

Ever want to actually see who is calling you?

A Photophone is a cordless telephone which has a 7" diagonal digital picture frame. You are able to input hundreds of pictures from most styles of memory cards into the digital picture frame and they'll display automatically.

But that's not the best part. If you subscribe to Caller ID, you can associate the phone number of your relatives and friends with pictures. The result is that when your family or friends call you, their picture is automatically displayed on the digital picture frame along with their Caller ID information so you can also see a picture of who is calling you!

The Photophone makes a great Mother's Day gift, and you can download pictures into the phone before you give it to mom! The phone is desk-style or wall-mountable, and comes with both silver and black interchangable frames.

Hartelco now has Photophones on sale for only $40. Stop by our office at 103 W Centre Street to see a demo before they're gone!

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Online Backup - Great, Inexpensive Insurance

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This Month's FAQ - What's The Polite Way To Decline A Facebook Friend Request?

Question: People I knew (and didn't particularly like) in high school have been contacting me about being a friend on Facebook. What's the polite way to decline a Facebook friend request?

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Answer: The mechanics of this are pretty simple. You have two options for responding to a Facebook friend request. You can either click on Ignore or Confirm. When you click on Ignore, the friend request is removed from your inbox and the requester receives nothing. When you click on Confirm, the requester receives a notification of your decision.

So, if that former classmate is paying attention and notes that a friend notification regarding you never shows up, he or she can figure out what happened. However, you probably don't need to be too concerned about hurt feelings. Chances are good that this person was sending friend requests to everyone they ever knew, and in a few days, won't even remember sending one to you.

Everyone uses Facebook differently. Some people want to collect as many friends as possible, and others want to limit their Facebook interaction only to close friends and family. Do what feels comfortable for you.

(If you'd like your business' website featured, contact us at htc@hartel.net. This is a free service.)

www.wehaveitallincedarcounty.com

We Have It All In Cedar County

Why this website is here
We wanted a regional website to reflect our quality of life in the rural communities of Northeast Nebraska. Our land holds great riches with a wide array of opportunities and people can fulfill their dreams here! These dreams are about better lifestyles for ourselves and the ones we love. Believing in our dreams allows us to start our own businesses where people pull together in support of each other. In these difficult times where our nation is struggling economically, we believe that Northeast Nebraska has the economic climate where families can still live in a quality and safe environment where they can have good paying jobs or start a business of their own.

This website is in its initial stages and will be growing in the next 1-2 years. Some of our goals will be to provide a website where people can go to find available jobs, available buildings for businesses, residential housing, post a resume, find out about our existing businesses, schools, and much more! We hope that it will lead you here to Northeast Nebraska not only to visit, but to stay and fall in love with our land and its abundance of opportunities.

Be sure to watch the video on the website about why "we have it all in Cedar County".

The website was funded in part by a grant from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development administered by the Nebraska Rural Development Commission. Many long hours were put into the project by many local area residents. We hope you like it.

Just click here to be taken to this regional website..

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Nebraska High School Sports
http://www.nsaahome.org/- This is your guide to all of the activities of Nebraska high schools. Whether your interest is football, volleyball, basketball, track, speech, drama, or music, this official site of the Nebraska School Activity Association has it all and much more! For you state basketball tournament lovers, this is the place to see all the team records and the state tournament brackets, plus the rich history of past state tournaments.

Trouble Typing?
http://keybr.com - Is your hunt-and-peck typing method amusing to your friends? Typing (or keyboarding) is an important skill, and this site helps you improve your speed and accuracy. It will give you sample text or you can import Web content to practice on. With each session, you'll see your words-per-minute rate and number of mistakes. You can also view a chart showing your progress and see the letters that cause you the most trouble.

Cooking Outside the Box
http://backofthebox.com - This site contains thousands of recipes literally taken from the back of food product boxes. You can search for recipes under food type, reader favorites, or "quick and easy." You can also check out the helpful cooking hints. If you'd like, let the recipes come to you by subscribing to the Recipe of the Day or the weekly newsletter.

Healthy Eating With the Biggest Loser
http://nbc.com/the-biggest-loser - March is National Nutrition Month, and you can celebrate by finding out more about healthy eating. One way to do so is to visit the Biggest Loser site, where you can join the Biggest Loser Club. Club members gain access to ideas for better food choices for weight loss and health, as well as recipes, meal ideas, exercise demonstrations, interactive assessments, ways to handle everyday food challenges, and other resources.

"Four" Events and More
http://ncaa.com - Visit this site to get all your college sports information in one place, including scores, statistics, rankings, and videos. Check on tickets and get details on the three big championship events coming up in April: the Final Four in Indianapolis, the Women's Final Four in San Antonio, and the Frozen Four in Detroit. Still want more? Visit the site's shop to find clothes and accessories from your favorite teams.

Be Part of the Next Mars Mission
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate - In the fall of 2011, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will launch the Mars Science Laboratory rover to help determine the "habitability" of the red planet. On this site, the Laboratory invites the world to participate in the mission by following its progress on Twitter, submitting your name to be included on a microchip on the rover, becoming a virtual citizen of Mars, or competing in the Pathfinder Innovation Challenge.

When a rich text e-mail has been forwarded many times, it can be full of vertical colored lines on the left side. These items detract from the e-mail's appearance and can be annoying to recipients of the message. Follow the steps below to adjust your settings to prevent colored lines from appearing in your forwarded e-mails. You'll also find notes on how to "clean up" an e-mail from someone else before you send it on to other people.

Preventing Colored Lines In Forwarded E-mails Using ...
E-Mail Program: Outlook Express
Computer Operating System: Windows XP

With Outlook Express open, click your cursor arrow on the "Tools" menu and select "Options..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Options window opens, click on the "Send" tab.
Within the "Mail Sending Format" section, click on the "HTML Settings..." button.
When the HTML Settings window opens, uncheck the box next to "Indent message on reply." Click "OK" to return to the Options window.
Click on the "Apply" button and then the "OK" button to close the Options window.

NOTE: If you receive an e-mail that already has colored lines from being previously forwarded and you want to eliminate them before forwarding it, address the message as normal. Then select all of the text in the message by clicking in the body of the message and pressing the Ctrl and "A" keys on your keyboard. The contents of the message will be highlighted. Click on the "Format" menu and drop down to "Decrease Indent." Repeat as needed.

Preventing Colored Lines In Forwarded E-mails Using ...
E-Mail Program: Windows Mail
Computer Operating System: Windows Vista

With Windows Mail open, click your cursor arrow on the "Tools" menu and select "Options..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Options window opens, click on the "Send" tab.
Within the "Mail Sending Format" section, click on the "HTML Settings..." button.
When the HTML Settings window opens, uncheck the box next to "Indent message on reply." Click "OK" to return to the Options window.
Click on the "Apply" button and then the "OK" button to close the Options window.

NOTE: If you receive an e-mail that already has colored lines from being previously forwarded and you want to eliminate them before forwarding it, address the message as normal. Then select all of the text in the message by clicking in the body of the message and pressing the Ctrl and "A" keys on your keyboard. The contents of the message will be highlighted. Click on the "Format" menu and drop down to "Decrease Indent." Repeat as needed.

Preventing Colored Lines In Forwarded E-mails Using ...
E-Mail Program: Mail.app
Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5

With Mail.app open, click your cursor arrow on the "Mail" menu and select "Preferences" from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Preferences window opens, select the "Composing" tab by clicking on its icon.
Under "Responding," uncheck the box next to "Increase the quote level."
Close the Preferences window by clicking the red dot in the upper left corner.

NOTE: If you receive a message that already has the colored lines from being previously forwarded and you want to eliminate them before forwarding it, address the message as normal. Then select all of the text in the message by clicking in the body of the message and pressing the Command and "A" keys on your keyboard. The contents of the message will be highlighted. Click on the "Format" menu and drop down to "Quote Level" and then "Decrease" from the submenu. Repeat as needed.

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
103 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.)

©2010 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.