by John Schmerold | Apr 23, 2024 | Security
The dark web, a term that often conjures images of a murky underworld thriving on illicit activities, has become a frequent subject of sensational journalism and research. This trend, however, poses several issues, notably the distortion of reality and the...
by John Schmerold | Jun 20, 2023 | Microsoft Office
There are occasions when an Outlook folder inexplicably vanishes. You’re certain it was previously present, but now it seems to have vanished. Frequently, the reason is that the folder has unintentionally been shifted under another Outlook folder, unbeknownst to...
by John Schmerold | Jan 9, 2023 | Mobile, Android, IOS
Are you an Android or iPhone user looking to improve the performance and security of your mobile device? Are you having troubles connecting your email or social media accounts. If so, you may want to consider using the Cloudflare app. Cloudflare is a well-known and...
by John Schmerold | Nov 9, 2020 | Networking, Web
When your local DNS server fails, reset DNS to 8.8.8.8 by following these steps: Click Start | KatyComputer.com | Network Connections Double click on Ethernet if hard wired into network, Wi-Fi if connected using wireless: Click on Properties box: Highlight...
by John Schmerold | Jun 1, 2020 | ACT!, Databases
With the upgrade to version 22 of Act! CRM comes the migration of notes and other fields from Rich Text Format (RTF) to HTML, this is probably a good thing, but made mess of old notes. The most obvious issue – edited notes from previous versions of Act! were...
by John Schmerold | May 19, 2020 | Technote
If you have updated your computer with all the latest Windows and driver updates and still find your computer reporting “No audio output device”, this tech note may help reconnected the audio and video chipsets in your computer to produce sound. Open the...
by John Schmerold | May 5, 2020 | Security
Introduction Serve one man bands and organizations with up to 75 staff members All clients have security systems in place We hold cybersecurity classes in our office Our client base went from 87% office based to approximately 20% office based within a week using their...
by John Schmerold | Apr 23, 2020 | Security, Web
When stay-at-home orders were issued in March, many individuals and organizations began using online communication tools such as Zoom. It has been reported that over 90,000 educational institutions turned to Zoom as their main provider of virtual education. Their...
by John Schmerold | Apr 18, 2020 | Web
I am not a fan of Google’s new search layout: Using a Tampermonkey script, we can return things to normal: Here is how it’s done: 1. Open Chrome 2. Install Tampermonkey 3. Install Better Google script
by John Schmerold | Apr 8, 2020 | Accounting
KatyCare clients can take advantage of our relationship with Intuit to purchase discounted QuickBooks licenses. QuickBooks Desktop Pro is $170 for a perpetual license, we recommend upgrading every three years. Using VPN technology, we configure your QuickBooks Desktop...
by John Schmerold | Mar 22, 2020 | Security
We are implementing a few changes in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. We rely on the Department of Homeland Security for guidance for these and other policies related to security. As an essential service, we will remain active in our office where we...
by John Schmerold | Jun 28, 2019 | email
With your Google calendar secret address in iCal format (“iCal url”), you, your family and colleagues can view your calendar in Outlook, to get the iCal url needed by Outlook. To get the iCal url: Go to your Google calendar, login if necessary Select the...
by John Schmerold | Apr 25, 2019 | email, Microsoft Office
This article was originally published on Microsoft’s TechNet website by Matt Soseman Have you ever needed to send an email to someone, but didn’t want them to forward the email nor copy sensitive text out of the attachment or email? You probably only want...
by Zach Pettit | Apr 11, 2019 | email, Microsoft Office, Web, Windows 10
Microsoft has been working on its digital assistant, Cortana, for some time now. As part of the broader effort to shift simple but time-consuming tasks onto computers, they’re testing the waters a bit with an automated scheduler. We’ve had good luck with it- and if...
by John Schmerold | Mar 22, 2019 | Web
Clearing your web browser’s cache, cookies, and history may remove data such as the following: Saved passwords Address bar predictions Shopping cart contents, etc. While you should clear your web browser’s cache, cookies, and history periodically in order...
by John Schmerold | Mar 6, 2019 | email, Microsoft Office
When you’re sending an email, you usually want your most common contacts to come up when you select recipients. To ensure this, you might want to change your default address book. On the Home tab, in the Find group, click Address Book. In the Address Book dialog box...
by John Schmerold | Mar 5, 2019 | email, Microsoft Office, Security
When transmitting your tax documents this tax season, ask your tax professional to use their secure portal to transfer your documents. We like and use CrushFTP. If your tax professional doesn’t have a portal (probably because they aren’t on KatyCare), you...
by John Schmerold | Jan 16, 2019 | Networking
When configuring a new network device, manufacturers will set the device to a static IP address – usually 192.168.1.1, or 192.168.5.1. To program this device we change the IP settings on one of our workstations, program the device to work within our...
by John Schmerold | Jan 9, 2019 | Managed Services, Security
KatyCare maintained systems are fast, reliable and secure due in large part to the policies and procedures we implement by proprietary scripting. From time to time, manual intervention is required to update and optimize our systems. Everything needed is found in the...
by Zach Pettit | Dec 18, 2018 | Security
Every computer system needs comprehensive protection against viruses, malware, and phishing attempts. At Katy Computer, we’ve found a winning combination of light impact on protected systems, and sturdy defenses with ESET. ESET offers multi-layered defenses against...
by John Schmerold | Nov 30, 2018 | QuickBooks
Utilities developed for QuickBooks add considerable value to a fully featured, well supported tool. Our favorite utility developers: QSalesData QuickBooks Link for Act! ProperSoft conversion tools to get from CSV/PDF/QFX/OFX/QIF to QBO or IIF format MoneyThumb convert...
by John Schmerold | Nov 17, 2018 | ACT!, email
When we sent our first marketing communication via email, it was 1994 and the world was a simpler place, I collected a few hundred emails and proceeded to tell everyone at the University of Missouri that we had a contract to provide workstations and would welcome...
by John Schmerold | Oct 17, 2018 | Web
We have standardized on Google Chrome to take advantage of the many well written Chrome extensions. Tampermonkey is a userscript manager, it enables you to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to web page content. Using Tampermonkey and Chrome, you can use...
by John Schmerold | Oct 8, 2018 | Security
If you’re logged in to Facebook and know your password: Click in the top right corner of any Facebook page and select Settings. Click Security and Login. Click Edit next to Change Password. Click Save Changes. If you’re logged in to Facebook and you...
by John Schmerold | Oct 8, 2018 | email
A member of your team was provided with a dedicated user mailbox and therefore an Office 365 License. Now the team member has separated from your organization or is on an extended leave, the License can be released. In order to keep the email for future reference and/...
by John Schmerold | Sep 29, 2018 | Hardware
We are frequently asked to help our clients source products. Some clients say “order me something”, we have been working with them and generally know if that means get me something for $500 or $1,500. The Internet provides a tool for research. We had a...
by John Schmerold | Sep 14, 2018 | Web
There are many reasons to use the Incognito or Private mode of Google Chrome including:- You want to login to Microsoft or Google using a personal email address- Your web application provider is asking you to clear your cookies- The adblocker is restricting your web...
by John Schmerold | Sep 14, 2018 | MultiMedia
Our computers are useful for creating and editing multi-media files. If you’re looking to record a podcast, conversation, music or webinar; or if you just need a tool to assemble and convert some audio samples, it’s tough to go wrong with Audacity....
by John Schmerold | Aug 20, 2018 | Microsoft Office, QuickBooks
QuickBooks has a useful feature in the Accountant’s Edition of QuickBooks. You can use a spreadsheet to enter transactions, then simply copy and paste the transactions into QuickBooks. If you provide bookkeeping services for a hundred clients, the obvious...
by John Schmerold | Jul 25, 2018 | Security
Every organization has the same problem, you have dozens, if not hundreds of websites that require (and we demand) secure credentials to access their services. Some websites, such as the IRS complicate matters by requiring an id, PIN and other identifier. So you need...
by John Schmerold | Jun 25, 2018 | Managed Services, Web
To keep your computer productive and secure, we install uBlock Origin ad-blocker on KatyCare computers. uBlock Origin is a lightweight ad blocker for Google Chrome. We recommend you run it to protect your computer from malware infected advertisements and to enhance...
by John Schmerold | Jun 21, 2018 | email
If you are on our Office365 platform, you can set your vacation or “Out of Office” message using Outlook: 1. Click File | Automatic Replies (Out of Office) 2. Complete the dialog box and enjoy your time out of the office: ...
by John Schmerold | Jun 19, 2018 | email, Microsoft Office
KatyCare clients can use our fax server to send scanned and other office documents via email. Send an email addressed to: ###-###-####@katyfax.com (###-###-#### is the recipient’s fax number) Attach the file you need faxed, this file should be a PDF, TIF or...
by John Schmerold | Jun 14, 2018 | email, Microsoft Office
Microsoft Outlook 2016 introduced the concept of the focused Inbox to help you manage your emails. Focused Inbox separates your inbox into two tabs—Focused and Other. Your most important emails are on the Focused tab while the rest remain on the Other tab. To turn...
by John Schmerold | May 19, 2018 | Android, email
When we transition your email account from our Fastnet1 server to Office365, you gain quite a few Exchange related features: Shared Calendars, Contacts, Notes and message searching capabilities. To take advantage of these features on your Android based device, you...
by John Schmerold | May 18, 2018 | email, IOS
When we transition your email account from our Fastnet1 server to Office365, you gain quite a few Exchange related features: Shared Calendars, Contacts, Notes and message searching capabilities. To take advantage of these features on your Apple IOS based iPhone, you...
by John Schmerold | May 7, 2018 | Networking, Web
Modifying your hosts file enables you to override the DNS for a domain, on that particular machine. This is useful when you want to test your site prior to going live and for other DNS-related reasons. Modifying your hosts file causes your local machine to look...
by John Schmerold | Apr 28, 2018 | ACT!, Databases, Microsoft Office, Web
Ever wish you could just type someone’s street and ZIP Code information and get a full address nicely populated (not to mention CASS-certified)? Now you can, with help from SmartyStreets. SmartyStreets “makes address verification easy” and best of all, it...
by John Schmerold | Apr 12, 2018 | Android, email, IOS, Mobile
You are a KatyCare client and added Office365 to your iPhone, now you have calendar items and contacts everywhere and no where – what to do? The best solution is to consolidate your information into one location, we recommend Office 365 or Google Apps if you...
by John Schmerold | Mar 30, 2018 | email, Microsoft Office
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is one of the core methods of retrieving and storing email. Unlike POP, IMAP stores your email on the server, allowing access from multiple devices. Post Office Protocol (POP) stores messages on the server until deleted, usually...
by John Schmerold | Mar 17, 2018 | email
Messages to our clients are often rejected when the correspondant’s domain fails to include a SPF record. When email transmission via Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) was designed, it provided for no real verification of sender. Email authentication is a...
by John Schmerold | Mar 14, 2018 | Microsoft Office
Blind carbon copy (abbreviated Bcc:) allows the sender of a message to conceal the person entered in the Bcc: field from the other recipients. Recipients of a message are specified using addresses in any of these three fields: To: Primary recipients Cc: Carbon copy to...
by John Schmerold | Feb 22, 2018 | Windows 10
A recent Windows 10 update has rendered many touchpads inoperable. Drivers from manufacturer websites are out of date. With a bit of digging, we found the answer on Microsoft’s website:...
by John Schmerold | Dec 19, 2017 | email, Microsoft Office
You can use 7-zip to encrypt a file for sending via email: 1. Save the file “My File” to your desktop 2. Right click the file, select 7-Zip | Add to Archive | Enter password in “Enter Password” box 3. Click OK, then attach the file to an email....
by John Schmerold | Dec 14, 2017 | email, Microsoft Office
The Autocomplete feature of Microsoft Outlook keeps a list of recently used email addresses that you’ve typed in the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields. Until recently, Outlook retained recently used Contact groups as well as email addresses. A recent Microsoft Outlook...
by John Schmerold | Dec 14, 2017 | email
You can manage your incoming mail using Gmail’s filters to send email to a label, or archive, delete, star, or automatically forward your mail. To create a filter: 1. Open Gmail 2. In the search box at the top, click the Down arrow 3. Enter your search criteria. If...
by Zach Pettit | Dec 8, 2017 | Web
Step 1: Register a domain. A domain is the address of your website, like “microsoft.com” or “freemoney.biz”. Registering an appropriate and snappy domain name gives you a good way to make it easier to find your blog. Registration gives you the...
by John Schmerold | Nov 29, 2017 | email
Outlook 2016 To unblock picture downloads for all messages in Outlook 2016: Click File. Click Options. Click Trust Center. Under Microsoft Outlook Trust Center, click Trust Center Settings. Uncheck the Don’t download pictures automatically in HTML e-mail...
by Zach Pettit | Nov 28, 2017 | QuickBooks
One of QuickBooks’ most powerful and frequently used features is the ability to run multiple user accounts. Often different people need different levels of access, or the organization needs a solid audit trail for determining who made changes. To start, log in to your...
by John Schmerold | Nov 10, 2017 | Security
It is important for organizations that require a greater level of security for inbound and outbound email traffic to understand the benefits of using Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. What is TLS Encryption? Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor,...
by Zach Pettit | Sep 14, 2017 | Security
Equifax, a major US credit bureau, has experienced a massive data breach. While analysis of the exact causes and the fallout from this breach are still under scrutiny, there are some suppositions and guesses that are, if not definitive on the Equifax side, at least...
by Zach Pettit | Aug 25, 2017 | Security
Recently, Brian Krebs posted a story about the information shown on airline boarding passes. It’s interesting to see exactly how much secret/secure information is printed on a disposable piece of paperwork; much of it is secured only by format; barcodes are difficult...
by Zach Pettit | Jul 28, 2017 | Managed Services
As we all know, the pace of technological change is fast and shows no signs of slowing. Even keeping mostly up to date can be costly, in time and effort as well as money. Getting too far behind can be even more costly- outdated hardware and software can very quickly...
by Zach Pettit | May 30, 2017 | Security
The recent burst of damage caused by WannaCrypt, the latest form of ransomware, should demonstrate more clearly than ever how important it is to both keep patched, and periodically upgrade your machines. Quietly, a few weeks before the attack, Microsoft released a...
by Zach Pettit | Aug 4, 2016 | ACT!, Managed Services
Sales-oriented businesses will be familiar with the idea of a CRM – Customer Relationship Management – program. Act! is the CRM software we support at Katy – it’s a powerful program, capable of being remotely accessible, and includes powerful tools for scheduling and...
by Zach Pettit | Jul 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
In any organization, different members will need different information and managing who has access to that information can quickly become a serious headache. This is one area where a few good computers and a few good policies can dramatically simplify that overhead. A...
by Zach Pettit | Jul 21, 2016 | Security
With large security breaches becoming a more consistent phenomenon, many companies are looking for ways to keep from being the next victim. One of the most intense concerns has been unethical employees – a person in a position of trust can do a lot of damage. The...
by John Schmerold | May 8, 2016 | Uncategorized
Windows Live Writer Blog Post
by Zach Pettit | Jan 20, 2016 | Managed Services, Security
Even perfectly useful software can sometimes hide unexpected packages. While it’s more common among free and repackaged software bundles, even such common and vaunted software as Windows is sometimes packaged with unnecessary programs. The common industry term for...
by Zach Pettit | Jan 5, 2016 | BDR, Managed Services, Security
Data loss is a strange beast- it’s an easy trap to fall into, and a hard one to climb out of. There are criminals who would hold your information hostage, mechanical failures that can ruin your day, and plenty of ways for small mistakes to snowball into costly...
by Zach Pettit | Dec 29, 2015 | Security
With the rise in fraud, many retailers online are taking extra precautions- as they should. There are some ways you can build on this higher baseline to help keep your money in your own hands in a busy day-to-day. Turn on Multi Factor Authentication: Multi Factor...
by Zach Pettit | Dec 22, 2015 | Managed Services, Security
As information security measures become more complex and powerful, many criminals and hackers are taking advantage of other kinds of vulnerabilities in what are known as “social engineering” attacks. If you’ve heard about the rising epidemic of tax fraud, then you’ve...
by Zach Pettit | Dec 15, 2015 | QuickBooks
For a small startup business, taking inventory is usually simple and quick- look around, see what’s there, see what’s missing. But as the business grows, and the stuff starts to pile up, using an automated system becomes more advisable and, eventually necessary. If...
by Zach Pettit | Dec 10, 2015 | Uncategorized
Some of the most effective recent hacking attacks have used very straightforward programs- ones that come to the front door and ask permission before taking over a computer. These attacks have cost enormous amounts of money, time and endless headaches for security...
by Zach Pettit | Dec 1, 2015 | Managed Services
A lot has been made recently of cloud computing- having the computational “heavy lifting” done by servers across the internet, rather than by the machine the user is seated at. There are some tremendous advantages that can be had in the cloud, but it can be expensive...
by Zach Pettit | Nov 24, 2015 | Managed Services, Security
Businesses don’t like changing their processes- it’s expensive, time consuming, and can put a (hopefully temporary) strain on daily operations. But there are a lot of risks associated with old or outdated technology, and being proactive about updating and replacing...
by Zach Pettit | Nov 17, 2015 | Managed Services
We’ve been getting some questions about the specifics in upgrading to Windows 10, especially regarding costs and compatibility. So here is a rundown of what to expect: Windows Vista and any previous versions are not being offered a free upgrade. There are concerns-...
by Zach Pettit | Nov 10, 2015 | Managed Services, Security
Encryption is becoming more and more necessary as more of our devices become connected to the internet- whenever sensitive information touches public data lines, it’s vulnerable- to hackers, to data collectors, even to occasional data line misfires. The best way to...
by Zach Pettit | Nov 2, 2015 | Managed Services
There is an ongoing push lately for BYOD options- “Bring Your Own Device”, where an employee can set up their personal smart phone or tablet computer to work on job-related information. These options can be a great savings for any company in costs, both for hardware...
by Zach Pettit | Oct 27, 2015 | Uncategorized
The arrival of Windows 10 is a bit of a sea change for business software. While no one is being required to switch over by Microsoft, there is a clear push for it to replace all previous Windows platforms. And while this will likely prove to be a serious benefit for...
by Zach Pettit | Oct 20, 2015 | Managed Services
Remote maintenance includes more than just update management. Using a remote access program, your IT provider can drastically cut the time and cost requirements for small repairs and minor changes. But there’s more to it than that, even: being able to quickly...
by Zach Pettit | Oct 13, 2015 | Managed Services
Remote monitoring & maintenance is a standard term for a common service in the IT business, but what does it mean from the other side? Let’s break it down a little. Maybe the biggest piece is monitoring updates. Companies like Microsoft and Quicken do frequent...
by Zach Pettit | Oct 6, 2015 | QuickBooks
Recently, a small business owner reached out to us about the amount of time they spent reconciling credit card statements. They felt like they were between a rock and a hard place- too small to justify a staff accountant, but too large for working through things by...
