A very large thank you to our customers!

Really, it is very nice to come into the office and to be told by someone else that Customer Smith called and ALL they wanted to say was 'thank you for the new mail server', 'it is so nice not to have spam anymore', 'you guys are the greatest for fixing this email problem'. Seriously, we must have had over 20 emails, 30 phone calls, and 3 people stopping in to JUST say thank you. Anyone knowing about direct mailings and the like know how great of a return this is in the industry. We are very happy ourselves about how great the new server is doing too.

But, the message in this little blog is to say thank you to you, our customers for notcing, appreciating, and for being our customers. LTOL wouldn't be LTOL without you.

*SHAMELESS COMMERCIAL PLUG* We have also had more then a few people when thanking us ask about our DSL, when are we getting it, how can I be put on the list for it? Well, LTOL has DSL, we provide DSL, it is LOCAL DSL. So, if you are one of our email only customers, you want the same great service you like for your email for your interent, give us a call at 530-582-2080. *END OF SHAMELESS COMMERCIAL PLUG*

My Search Engines are back and there's going to be trouble, nah, nah, nah, nahnah, nah.

Ok, so I can't sing on a blog but you get the idea. Here was the thinking behind the change. LTOL is a local ISP, computer repair, website hosting, website developing, network creating, virus removal, computer upgrading, computer purchase assist...well you get the idea, type of shop.

We wanted the website to be local friendly, support local businesses as local business support us and, and, and well that is about it. The search engines, Amazon.com, NBA, eBay and the like just were not part of the local economy.

Ok, we were wrong, they were. Ok, we were slightly wrong and some people use those links a lot more then we had expected and called, emailed, wrote on invoices to say something to the effect of: Hey, where is my link to (fill in the blank) I use that a lot.

So, we listened and had a meeting, (Yes, lots of Mountain Dew Red was involved), and came up with a compromise which hopefully you have already noticed on the website.

Now, if you have other suggestions that you might like to see, reply to this blog, email, fax, phone, etc and we will take them into consideration. Do realize that we have to look at the big picture and some of your ideas might not get added, but please don't stop suggesting so we can make this a better internet for all.

Thanks again for reading.

The Vista/Office 2007 Class that YOU missed.

Well you did, well if you weren't in attendance last night, missed a very informative class on the new Operating System Vista and the new Office 2007 suite that LTOL put on last night.

These classes are FREE to the community, they are to provide information, give a time to ask questions, and some time to get together with other LTOL customers, Truckee residents, North Shore residents and ask questions of......(Normally someone would say experts, but we aren't, but we do know where to find the answers to questions so..) research fellows on all things computeree?

You also missed out on great coffee, good cookie, great wasabi nuts, and a fun and informative time had by all. Please check out the website under training for the next class. And if you don't see a class you like, suggest one and one of the 'research fellos' will look into how to make it happen.

Did we mention they were free these classes, did we also mention that other places charge up to 500.00 a person for these same classes that we don't charge a for in the least? Free...500.00...free....500.00 Which one to choose?

To Vista or not to Vista THAT is the Question:

Whether it is nobler to stay with Windows XP or to suffer the slings and arrows of Windows Vista.

Ok, that is MORE then enough bad Shakespere.

Do you need Vista? No. Certainly not. Is Vista cool? Kinda. Is Vista going to be THE OS (Operating System) in the next 2 years? You bet. Microsoft has what is called a 'Life Cycle' for it's OSs. This is about every 5 years. You might recall this back when Windows 98 bit the dust. (In the background you can hear the resounding cheers for the death of Windows 98.) Windows 2000 is really on it's way out, XP is in the latter middle of it's life cycle and Vista is here to stay. (As an side note, if you read Time Magazine for the week of Feb 12th Bill Gates has a short interview of like 10 questions, talks about the future of Microsoft, what he is going to be doing after he steps down, blah, blah, blah. However he does mention that the next OS is already in development and he thinks he will be around for it's debut. Think about THAT for a minute.)

For all the hype Vista was getting, especailly when it was called Longhorn, this was going to be the system that was going to be up there with sliced bread. It was going to make coffee, do your homework for you, make your breath better and make you better looking to the opposite sex all you had to do was purchase it. Guess what? Didn't happen.

Don't get me wrong, Vista has some nifty features. The Aero screen, looks cool, the crispness of the display, very cool, 6 or 9 different versions depending on where you live in the world, again very cool. If you're the guy that just needs a computer to run, Vista Basic. If you're the guy, or girl pardon me ladies, that needs to have every toy under the sun? Vista Ultimate. However there is a price tag for all of this.

RAM. RAM. RAM. Have I mentioned RAM yet? For the computer to run well, you need, probably, and I say this as I'm testing it out on two machines, probably 2 gigs of RAM on the motherboard and at least a video card with 256 megs of ram on it. Processor has to be fast, etc. etc. etc. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this, or Microsoft is.

You pretty much need a new, Vista made, computer. Dell for example before Vista was selling a desktop for about 299.00 which was perfect for the 3 day a week computer user. Today, I don't think you can get a PC from Dell that has Vista on it for less then 359.00 (and you can't buy an XP machine) http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/dimen?c=us&cs=04&dt=List&l=en&s=bsd

So....Vista is neat, you don't need it, and we at LTOL are suggesting waiting till about April till you purchase a new machine with Vista just to see what the bugs are and have them fixed.

This is ESPECIALLY true if this is the business machine for you. I doubt you would go out and purchase the first production year of a a new car, why do it with a computer that you also use everyday when your old computer will be just fine.

Also, as a part of the shameless plug division of LTOL you can always come in to get a RAM upgrade for your XP machine which will make that machine happier by far. RAM up to 1 gig is running ABOUT, close too, not for every machine, but a 100.00 so give us a call and we will be happy to discuss Vista, XP, Microsoft, Congress, Flying Monkeys from the Wizard of Oz with you.

Does your computer know about Daylight Savings Time?

Has your computer been keeping up with C-Span? Hopefully it has been because then your computer will know that Congress has changed Daylight Savings Time to start on 3/11/2007. Who, what, when, where, why? Here is a ‘Readers Digest Version’ taken from the Wall Street Journal, Feb 16th in the Marketplace section:

Congress adopted in 2005: “The Energy Policy Act of 2005” (As a side note, I’m curious does that mean that there was an Energy Policy Act of 1787??) Again WSJ reports: “The idea is to shrink the hours between sunset and bedtime so that people will reduce the amount of electricity they use at home, thereby saving energy.”

Ok, so saving energy, not a bad thing, switching a clock back a couple weeks early again not a bad thing so what is the problem?

Well, if you remember the Y2K bug? That HUGE problem that fizzled down to nothing because everyone caught it soon enough and it became a non problem? This is kinda/sorta the same thing. Microsoft and Apple both have updates to fix this in fact Microsoft released theirs on Feb 12th. Windows Vista users have the fix already in the program. Apple has sent out the updates for OS X, if you have OS 9.2 or before Apple is suggesting that you just manually update the clocks. (I do have to wonder why that isn’t on the Microsoft site as well I mean that seems like a pretty easy fix to me. I’m already going to set my clocks ahead/back whatever. But then again I don’t have billions of dollars either like some folks at Microsoft.)

Now, finally what happens if you don’t get the update? You might wind up scheduling an appt. for 10am and you would miss the appt. because you’re an hour off. There are some anti virus issues that could crop up but for the most part it is again a lot less of a problem now because most of the fixes are in. But a manual fix of your comptuers clock should take care of the problem.

So, what this all boils down to is what LTOL is always saying: “Keep up with your Microsoft/Windows/Office updates and you should be ok.”

New Feature - Spam Folders

You may not be aware of a new feature of our new mail server and we'd like to bring it to your attention. If you go to our website, select Webmail and log on with your email address and password you may see a new folder called Spam.

The new mail server does a superior job at blocking spam. Email from known spammers, email that isn't structured correctly or that holds a virus is immediately blocked.

However, when the mail server encounters email that looks like spam but could be legitimate email, it places it in the Spam folder for your review. Please check this folder a couple of times in the next month. Review the email within and determine if any email that the mail server thought was spam was in fact something you wish to receive.

Let us know when this happens so we can investigate why it was tagged as spam. If it is email that you always want to receive you can add the sender to your personal whitelist by clicking "Allow Sender".

Spam folders and trash folders are automatically deleted after 30 days. This should help with folks who are sometimes over quota.

Please continue to let us know what you think about the new server. We sincerely appreciate your business.

Mail Server Update!!!

I know, pretty soon you will get tired of hearing about it but we thought you might like a little update. First things first, Veronica finally got a full nights sleep so at least she is no longer finding Capn Crunch in her hair from where she fell face down into her breakfast cereal. If you're at all curious, yes this is a good thing.

Second: The mail server has now blocked in an hour what it would have blocked all day on the old mail server. Now, hopefully no one out there is taking to bashing our old mail server, it was doing a fine job with the tools that it had, it was just old. In a comparison of server software to dog years to people years the mail server software was ready for retirement, which is what we have done. It did a good job but it is now time for it to go out to pasture.

Third/Last: Gosh darn this new mail server is fast too. It is processing mail at lightening speeds.

Ok, enough for now, go email someone.

New Mail Server Up, Up, and Up

Well, you really didn’t ask for it, but you also kind of did. So, the new mail server is up and fully operational.

First, a big thank you should go out to Veronica for finding the thing, finding the correct type of software and the people to implement it. She did, so that was very lucky for us.

The second big thank you goes to, yes Veronica for starting at about midnight on Wednesday night, pretending she got some sleep Thursday, running back to the office when there was a hiccup Thursday night and up bright and early on Friday to be the first person to answer the phone with the first email question.

Third, thanks should go to Gayla and Brett for being on top of things when the phone started ringing with the questions about: “What happened to web mail? It looks different, is my computer broken? And my personal favorite: “Did you guys get sold my email looks different?” So, the new server and software is the reason why the web mail looks different, your computer is not broken, and no we did not get sold.

As little bits of techie info for you, in an hour the mail server had blocked over 1000 NEW pieces of spam that didn’t even make it to the server it just got turned around and sent packing back where it came from. We have multiple tests for the legitimate email when before we had less then five. (Yes, 5 is also multiple but I mean we have MULTIPLE tests for email.)

So, for all of you that called and said how much they appreciated the new mail server, the staff for being so polite on the phone and how helpful those people were? Thank you very much.

For those of you that called and were upset slightly that we didn’t email you about the new mail server? We really are sorry, that and we hope that you will start to use our webpage and blog for a technical resource for all things LTOL.

Lastly? If you like our service, our new email server, the DSL, the helpdesk folks that answer your questions and anything else about LTOL? Tell your friends and neighbors so they can get this great service too!

If there is something you don’t like about the above? Please let us know so we can either fix that problem or let you know why the change was made. Overall the internet is indeed the customers we are trying to make it a little easier to connect to.

Thank YOU very much for your business.

Well, you’ve asked for it and now you’re going to get it. Here is a short bio of the employees of Lake Tahoe On Line. As a FYI: Veronica, Darren, Brett and Gayla are all studying for a Microsoft Desktop and Help Desk Technician Certification and when, WHEN they pass the shop will stop being a Microsoft Registered Partner and become a Microsoft Certified Partner.

Veronica “That Gal That Runs the Internet” Cannon: Veronica is actually a long time customer of the former owner Jon DeLee; she was one of the first ‘guinea pigs’ to try out Jon’s wireless service. Veronica is the ‘smart one’ in the office about computers holding a degree in Computer Science from Sac State. Her small, not very important, previous job experiences are things like working for: Data-Logic Oracle, One Wave, POMS, Honey-Well POMS, and Digital Paper to name just a few. She has literally been all over the world except for Africa and Antarctica she is our Web, Technical, Computer, Apple/iTunes, Server, Linux and Mountain Dew Red Guru. Seriously if you have a question about any of those things listed and those things that aren’t listed Veronica is your go to person.

Darren “eBay” Cooke” Darren is the official buyer for LTOL; if he can’t get it for you then you probably are better off without it. Darren stayed with the company after Veronica bought the company from Jon. Darren is our CompTIA certified tech as well as a Computer Service Technician. He’d like to be able to say that he uses his undergrad degree and grad school degree every day but since they are in History and Education? He really can’t. Darren is our resident author and hopefully we will be seeing more of his work in print in the very near future.

Gayla “Short Timer” Conway is the newest edition to LTOL: She is our ‘junior tech’ who has not had a lot of experience with computers besides being a home user herself but this gives her a great affinity for those of our customers that call up frustrated with their machines. Gayla is learning more and more all the time, so keep those interesting questions coming, the odder the question the more she learns. Being the ‘short timer’ of the group this means that in about a year and a half she will be leaving LTOL to fulfill one of those annoying long term goals/dreams of living on one of the Hawaiian islands, she has picked Kona as the one she is going to inflict herself on and hopes to use what she learns at LTOL to turn into a PT job once she gets to the island. (Little does she know that LTOL is sending her there as an advance team to set up LTOL on Kona because Veronica wants to move to Maui herself.)

Brett “DSL Slave” Bond: “Sadly, Brett was going to write this but he didn’t get it turned in on time, so the rest of us got together and wrote it down for him. Brett is most often the person you will get when you call on the phone, because, well we make him. He is also the person that sets up most of the new DSL accounts and is being quite helpful with any questions that come up. He is also our slave to fashion, what that means? You really will have to ask him.

What is spam?

The formal definition of spam is unsolicited bulk email. That is, email that is was not requested by the recipient and sent to multiple addresses at one time.

We all can tell if an email is spam by just looking at it. Unfortunately, computer programs cannot tell what is spam and what is not quite so easily.

Lake Tahoe On Line has been fighting spam for years. We work hard to block unwanted emails sent to our customers and our new mail server will be even more effective in this battle.

The first line of defense is SMTP data checks. Mail is checked before it is accepted and if it is not addressed to a valid email address it is rejected before processing. "Malformed" email is also blocked at this level. Malformed email does not conform to industry standards, may not have correct headers or protocol, or has some other flaw in the technical structure of the email.

We also use RBL (remote blocking lists) or blacklists. These services compile lists of known and suspected spammers and mail from those sources is blocked by our mail server. Rarely, a legitimate mail servers are listed on RBL but they are usually dropped from the list within one day.

The new mail server also protects our customers with rate limiting. This works in two ways. It blocks any mail servers that send more than 125 pieces of email in a five minute period. This protects against bulk emails and also against computers that have been turned into a spam bot (spam robot) by a virus. Additionally, it blocks email from any of our customers that may be infected by a virus.

Our previous limit for our customers sending email was 29 emails at one time. We have this limit in place to prevent our mail server from being blocked by other mail servers. In other words, if one of our customers sends out too many emails at one time we could be considered a spammer. Give us a call if you have a need to send more than 125 emails at one time and we'll offer some solutions.

Once an email is confirmed to be correctly formatted, not from a known spam source and is not bulk mail, it arrives in your mailbox. Additional spam checks are applied here and if an email looks like spam, it is delivered to the quarantine folder. You can review this folder and retrieve any email that you do not consider spam.

User whitelists allow you to indicate that a particular sender's email should always be delivered to your inbox -- even if the mail server checks indicate that the email is spam. This feature allows our customer to receive automated messages and other emails that look like spam while other customers can block similar emails.

Not all unwanted email is spam. In some cases, you may have signed up for a newsletter or a commercial advertisements. The best plan is to return to that vendor's website and remove yourself from their mailing list. Do not click the "unsubscribe" link on the email as it may not remove you from illegitimate lists.

Your quarantine folder is cleared after 30 days so you'll want to check this folder frequently. Go to our web page, click on webmail and login using your email address and password. If you have received email that was tagged as spam, you'll find it in the quarantine folder on the top left hand side.

LTOL finds spam as frustrating as you do. If you'd like to learn more about who profits from spam, we recommend the following article:

Who Profits from Spam?

We're very excited about the protection provided by our new mail server and hope you'll enjoy the powerful spam blocking. Please call us if you have any questions.

Lake Tahoe On Line is thrilled to announce that we're implementing a new mail server. The new server employs the latest in spam blocking technology and processes email very efficiently. We expect to migrate to the new server in mid February.

Some of the new spam blocking features include:
• SMTP data checks
• advanced RBL
• rate limiting
• spam quarantines
• user whitelists

Don't worry if you don't understand these features -- we'll be covering them in additional blog posts about the new server. Please do know that we'll be blocking even more spam and that you'll be able to receive the email you want to receive.

Along with better spam protection, the new mail server offers a streamlined and attractive web mail interface. More and more of our customers are using web mail instead of traditional clients like Outlook Express or MacMail and we want to make their experience as smooth as possible.

Within web mail, you'll be able to setup calendars and contacts, email folders and your own spam rules.

Please call our office or add a comment to our blog if you have any questions about the new mail server or any of our service.