Welcome
to the Tech Notes information center. Our goal is to provide
up to date information about issues that may effect your
CIS Data website features, functions and service.
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General
Topics
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| Pop-up Blockers- block your Pop-up
forms |
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Many folks have called in to inquire about why their pop-up
forms are not working.
Many ISP's and third party companies are now providing Pop-up
blockers which will keep your pop-up forms from displaying. Most
Pop-up blockers allow for setting certain domain names as OK
for pop-ups. Check the help section of your pop-up blocker program
for information on how to exclude your domain name from the pop-up
block.
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| ISP "accelerators"-
Keeps user from seeing latest updates (i.e. EarthLink Accelerator) |
Several ISP's (Internet Service Providers)
now offer services which speed up web page download time. These
services usually called accelerators, cache or store web page
data on the ISP servers so they can be quickly recalled by your
browser.
When web site pages are updated, the accelerator program may
not display the latest version of your site. What is displayed
is the ISP cached version of the page which may not be the latest
version.
Solution- Disable the Accelerator program. Contact your ISP
or view the help section for the program on how to disable the
accelerator feature. You can usually disable the accelerator
by clicking on the small icon in the icon tray (lower right corner
of your task bar) and select "disable".
Known services that will keep you from viewing the latest version
of your web pages-
"NetZero
High Speed", "EarthLink
Accelerator", |
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Email
Topics
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| Email
And Related Virus News |
Nobody is immune to virus attacks
whether they are email related or not. That does not mean you
can't protect your computer from viruses.
Expending a few dollars annually may save hundreds of dollars
and countless hours and down time. Following are suggested
services that can be used to protect against viruses.
- Norton
AntiVirus by Symantec- Windows® XP Home/XP Pro/2000
Pro/Me/98
For use with POP3 email programs. Auto-updates virus definitions.
- McAfee
VirusScan Online- Windows® 98, ME, 2000, or XP
For use with POP3 email programs. Auto-updates virus definitions.
- F-Secure
Anti-Virus- Windows® 98, ME, 2000, or XP
For use with POP3 email programs. Auto-updates virus definitions.
- Latest Virus Threats
You can get information on the latest virus threats and suggestions for
protecting your computer at the following links.
- Microsoft Updates
More than 90% of the consumer market uses one form or another
of the Microsoft Operating system. Many viruses and computer
attacks can be prevented by keeping your operating system
updated with the latest security patches provided my Microsoft.
The following link provides updates and tools to ensure your
Windows system is protected.
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| Viruses send email using your email address |
Recent viruses such as SoBig have the
capability to send out spam email and viruses using any "from"
email address.
This is commonly called "spoofing". Although this type of virus
has been around for some time, recent versions can schedule themselves
to send out hundreds or thousands of emails at a time.
Anyone who
is a domain "owner" can be effected by these recent
viruses. This includes anyone who uses their own personal or
business domain name for email. More on the effects of email
spoofing can be found at the following site:
http://www.mailsbroadcast.com/email.broadcast.faq/46.email.spoofing.htm The most common question or complaint is that people think we,
or someone else, has hacked into their site and sent email or
that their email address was given or sold to a third party.
In our case, neither of these scenarios is true. The most likely
reason you email may have been spoofed is: A) your email address
was in the address of someone who was infected with a virus.
B) You computer was infected by a virus. |
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| Spam
Filters may block email contacts from your site |
This only effects email accounts that
are set up to forward email from your site to another third party
email account.
Many third party email services like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo mail
etc. offer spam blocking filters that may block emails that
are forwarded from your site to you.
Most services provide for selecting specific types of email
to be removed from the filter. Check the help section of your
specific email service for options to keep your important email
from getting filtered.
Optionally, many services provide for spam filter levels..
High, Medium Low etc. Changing your filtering level to a lower
level may allow delivery of your forwarded emails. Unfortunately,
this may also increase the amount of spam email.
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| Cox Cable Email Change- Cannot
send email |
Cox Cable customers may experience errors
when trying to send email. This effects POP3 email (Outlook etc.).
If the Outgoing Mail SMTP server is set to mail.yourdomain.com (i.e. mail.johndoehomes.com) you may need
to change the Outgoing Mail Server to a server designation provided by
Cox Cable. Contact Cox Cable for the correct settings or review the following
Cox Cable information page.
http://support.cox.net/custsup/email/POP_SMTP_settings.shtml or http://support.cox.net/custsup/email/index.shtml
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| Using
Top Producer with CIS Data email services |
Top Producer provides for several methods
to integrate your CIS Data email with TP7i including setting
up email forwarding to a Top Producer email address and creating
a "Lead Inquiry Page".
For details on setting up Top Producer with our service visit
our Top Producer help page.
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Scams
and Other Notables
As a general rule of thumb, if
you receive any notice from a company you
have never heard of or claims to be representing another company, do your
homework
before giving out any money or personal information.
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| Top
Sites - Scam "Renewal" notices, "non-payment" threats...
etc. |
For several months now,many of our clients
have been receiving spam from a directory calling itself variously
Topsites.us,
Topsitez.us, Topsites-us.com, TopsitesUSA.com, Www-topsites.com,
Top-site.net and probably many other names.
The "Renewal Notices" attempt to solicit money for a
listing in the "Topsites Directory".
(Note that the domain
topsites.com is not related to the scam)
This is a Scam... See the following link for more details.
http://www.dynamoo.com/diary/topsites_topsitez_us.htm |
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| Beware the "Yellovvpages" as in Yello V V pages |
Many businesses are receiving mails
asking them to re-register their details with yellovvpages.com.
www.yellovvpages.com with two 'v's that
look like a W when next to each other is not connected with the
US business called Yellow Pages.
By registering on their "look alike" website, you effectively
are giving your contact information to a spam machine.
Although this site was down at publication, when up, it looked
much like the real YellowPages.com website with logo, color theme
and all.
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Adware and Spyware
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| What is adware? |
Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays,
displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.
Adware on its own is relatively harmless. Some programs are offered with no charge because the programs are supported through adware.
However, adware is often bundled with spyware and that is when adware no longer becomes harmless.
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| What is spyware? |
Spyware is software that collects data on your computer usage and transmits it to central
server. The data that is transmitted is often collected without the knowledge or consent of the user. The data that is
collected can range from your web activities, what applications you use or information about your computer.
A user profile is created from that data so that advertisers can send advertisements closer geared toward your interests.
These targeted ads can appear in the form of pop-ups and/or email.
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| How adware & spyware get on your computer |
Some of the software you install is supported by advertisements and installs adware and/or spyware to support
itself. These programs are easy to spot as they usually have advertisements integrated into their programs.
However, some software that
you install can be a little trickier. Some software places text in the installation screens, usually on the End-User License Agreement (EULA) allowing them to install their software
once you click "Yes", "Continue", "Agree", etc.
The most common way for adware & spyware to get on your computer is by exploiting security
holes in your web browser and/or your operating system, installing software without your consent or knowledge.
The best way to protect your computer from any harm is to know what you are installing. |
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| Protecting Yourself against adware & spyware |
There are many useful programs that you can use to eliminate adware & spyware. Listed below
are free programs that effectively catch and eliminate adware & spyware. Be sure to keep yourself at an optimized protected
state by keeping anti-adware/spyware software up to date just as you would for your anti-virus software.
NOTE: For further information on how to use these programs please check their product documentation.
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| Additional Information |
Below are additional informative articles:
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