Skype | a Free Refrigerator

September 7, 2009 By John Paulsen Leave a Comment

Why is it that when there is something Free in the world people don’t take advantage of it.

Case and Point: Free Refrigerator

refrigerator-byrichanderson

How many of you have see a refrigerator sitting on one of your neighbors driveways?  Let’s say it had a huge Free sign on it.  Would you take it?  Could you use some more cold storage?  We’re all buying meat at Costco and Sam’s Club these days right?

Skype is a lot like this refrigerator.  A wonderful well working tool that if used in the proper way can help you communicate better with friends, family, co-workers anywhere in the world.  So why is it only deep tech savvy people using it?

Last week I had a client ask me about Magic Jack.  A informational based product that offer FREE local and long distance calls to anyone, all for $19.95.  The client said it was to communicate with family members.  After a few probing questions later he said the family members are currently using a Vongage USB line and he wants something like they have,but without all the Vonage billing mess.  I asked him if he had ever heard of Skype.  He said yes, “but it’s free and I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in free stuff these days”. I then told him I know of someone with a perfectly good working refrigerator for free.  He looked at me puzzled?

Folks why are we so scared of free stuff these days.  Skype is a perfect way to chat and video conference with friends, family and co-workers.  It’s free if both parties have a free account and a computer.  Don’t be silly, use it.

My Skype ID is of course “CEOself”

No I didn’t ask him if he need

Filed Under Consulting, Software Tagged With Colorado, consulting, Search Engine, SEO, skype, small business, small business consulting, web, Web Development

Small Business Wi-Fi Hacked

November 8, 2008 By John Paulsen Leave a Comment

Crowding your small business airways with Wi-Fi is the trendy thing to do these days.  While it is a great thing to have, you need to be careful.  Many of your company files can be access easily by someone with very little skill.

What’s that you say? “John I have security features in place, I have nothing to worry about”.  Wrong.  Check out this article.

WEP Wi-Fi security has been known as an easy-to-crack security protocol for a while now, which is why it was superseded by the more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard. But now a PhD candidate studying encryption has found an exploit in the WPA standard that would allow a hacker to “send bogus data to an unsuspecting WiFi client,” completely compromising your Wi-Fi security and opening your network to all sorts of hacking. Lucky for you, it’s not terribly difficult to protect yourself against the new exploit.

The key: Just log into your router, switch off Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) as an encryption mode, and use Advanced Encryption System (AES) only. TKIP is the only protocol that the hack applies to, so switching to AES-only will ensure that your Wi-Fi network is safe again. It’s quick and easy, so do yourself a favor and make the adjustment now so you don’t run into any problems in the future.

via [Lifehacker]

Filed Under Consulting, Hardware, Software Tagged With AES, airport, apple, business, Denver, hack, iphone, lifehacker, mobile, pocketpc, router, TKIP, wi-fi, windows, Wireles

safekeep your data…personally

June 4, 2008 By John Paulsen Leave a Comment

These days it is so important to guard your old data. Read the story below, taken from NBC affiliate 11 in Cincinnati. A customer trusted a local retail chain with erasing the data and destroying the hardware.

When computer drive crash give us a call. Our tech will personally come out with a new drive in hand. Your old data will be transferred to the new drive. the drive will be installed and the old drive removed. At that point the decision is yours. Keep the drive or watch the tech physically destroy the drive on site.

We also have options for storing your data, online behind our secure server.

CINCINNATI — A year ago, Henry and Roma Gerbus took their computer to Best Buy in Springfield Township, Ohio, to have its hard drive replaced.

Henry Gerbus said Best Buy assured him the computer’s old hard drive — loaded with personal information — would be destroyed.

“They said ‘rest assured.’ They drill holes in it so it’s useless,” Gerbus told television station WLWT.

A few months ago, Gerbus got a phone call from a man in Chicago.

“He said, ‘My name is Ed. I just bought your hard drive for $25 at a flea market in Chicago,’” said Gerbus. “I thought my world was coming down.”

Gerbus and his wife had good reason to worry.

A total stranger … [Read more...]

Filed Under Consulting, Hardware, Software Tagged With business, Castle, CEOself, Colorado, company, consulting, County, design, Douglas, hosting, old hardware, Rock, safekeep data, small, web

FaxZero

August 31, 2007 By John Paulsen 2 Comments

Every been in a coffee shop an airport and need to send a fax. Yes some people still use these. :) Maybe it’s a customer finally closing themselves on that contract you were working so hard on. Now they want to sign and you want to take advantage of that decision. Find some internet access and log in to FaxZero. Attached the file and put in the fax number. It drops an advertisement on the cover sheet, but who cares. You just made a sale and the customers documents are getting signed. You can send an ad free fax for $1.99.

[site link] [720.279.4709]

Filed Under Software Tagged With business, Castle, Colorado, company, consulting, County, design, Douglas, faxzero, hosting, Rock, small, web