Avoiding SPAM

Newsflash

It's pretty clear to most of us that energy costs are unlikely to tumble in the near future and that means either coughing up or identifying some areas where savings can be made.

Unfortunately, IT is like any other area as far as energy savings are concerned and that means you have to invest, but in what?

Take a look at VMware as an opportunity to save energy. Mosts servers are under-utilised and simply consume more power than required whereas, if they were virtualised, significant savings could be achieved.

For example, you have one server for file storage and printing plus a further server for e-mail. Each is powerful enough to handle the entire load but you have resisted merging them because it's 'Best Practice' not to. However, with VMware you can keep them as separate instances running on the same physical hardware so you get the best of both worlds and save energy. In this case by about 50%!

For more information on VMware look here.

What else can be done? Well, you could do a lot worse than look at Citrix or Terminal Services (depending on how many PCs you have). Many PCs are left running for long periods with no-one using them and that just like pouring money down the drain. However, you could reduce the specification of the PC to a thin-client terminal which consumes significantly less power; has a smaller foot-print and costs about half that of an equivalent PC.

For more information on Citrix and Terminal Services call Aaland on 01757-633737.

Finally, virtualise your support services by implementing the highest possible levels of remote monitoring, diagnostics and service. This reduces staff cost and speeds up service delivery as much of the time wasted is taken up visiting users and providing one-on-one support. This is wasteful and should be seen as such.

IT Departments are not exempt from scrutiny and, in many cases, staff are under-utilised. Perhaps there are extra staff just to cover holidays or possible illness? Once virtualised, you could leverage further savings by out-sourcing part, or all, of the IT operation and lose the excess.

For more information on out-sourcing call Aaland on 01757-633737.

Main Menu

Administrator

Avoiding SPAM

Okay, it's probably impossible to avoid SPAM altogether but there is a lot you can do to cut it down to size. Incidentally, if you arrived expecting recipes then you are probably looking for the official SPAM website here.

If you have your own web space

That's either a website or blog or any other Internet hosted area. Ensure that explicit mail addresses are avoided as it's very simple to 'harvest' addresses in this way. Use a form to collect information. To avoid the form 'bots' add some text such 'Anti-SPAM, do NOT remove' and check in the script that it's still there before accepting. Alternatively, you can generate some random characters and get your user to type it in. This will help pin it down to a human operator.

Keep a SPAM address

Maintain a second e-mail address and use it to provide details to websites. In this way you will keep your permanent address away from unknown senders. If the second e-mail address starts getting deluged with SPAM drop it and get another.

Hang on to your information

Avoid giving out personal information but if you must then provide the second mailbox address as described above.

Lock your system down

Make sure that your system cannot be accessed from the Internet without your knowledge. Get a reliable hardware firewall for your ADSL connection - don't rely on the software versions as they can be inadvertently turned off. This is particularly important as a significant proportion of SPAM is sent from insecure systems that have been hijacked.

Internet browsers

A common point of entry is via your browser. Some are more secure than others but whichever browser you opt for check the security levels are set appropriately. Ensure the browser is set to prompt when software is to be installed - be wary of Active-X controls for example.

Do NOT reply

Don't reply to anything you suspect is SPAM as you will only confirm your address.

Get SPAM filtering software

Most Anti-Virus software contains SPAM filtering too. Get yourself a reputable example and keep it up to date. Aaland recommends Trend Antivirus.

For a glossary of SPAM terminology look here.

Too late? Got some form of malicious software on your system? Give Aaland a call on 01757-633737 and we'll get rid of it for you

Trend Micro

< Prev		Next >

Weather

Weather for York

10C	8C	3C
Thu	Fri	Sat
Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy / Wind	Partly Cloudy

Random Image

World Time

York