 About KDB IT
KDB IT Consulting is a dynamic and professional IT solutions provider. We specialise in providing ongoing maintenance and support for business computer networks. We can support your business on every level. From desktop support right up to managing your servers and infrastructure for which we specialise in.
The services we provide are based on proven methodologies that have been developed through the experience of our team and industry best practices. If you would like to find out more about us you can contact us through our website or email ahmed@kdbit.co.nz.
Microsoft Office
Tips
Have you started using Microsoft Office 2007?
If you have had a chance to try out the latest Microsoft Office then you would have noticed the new ‘ribbon’ design which replaces Microsoft’s traditional “file, edit, view...” menu system. The aim of the ribbon is to make it easier to access commands and options that are relevant to what you are working.
The new Office does take time to get used to so if you are wondering where your favourite commands are located in the new Office 2007 interface Microsoft has provided these handy interactive guides where you can click on a option in the old version of Office and it will then show you where it is in the new interface:
For those who you really don’t like the new ribbons some developers have even developed a patch (for small fee) that will bring back the old menus
Internet Security: Email Spoofing
If you use email you most likely would have come across this situation: You open your email program (most likely Outlook) and in your inbox is a bounced email that was supposedly sent by you to an email address that you have never heard of before. Sounds familiar? If so then it is most likely that your email address has been ‘spoofed’.
Wikipedia defines Email Spoofing as:
fraudulent e-mail activity in which the sender address and other parts of the e-mail header are altered to appear as though the e-mail originated from a different source
How Spoofing Works
Many spammers use software applications to generate random lists of email addresses at common domains, based on words in the dictionary. Spammers then use these lists to send illegal mass mailings. This practice is called 'dictionary spamming'.
If you receive a reply to a message that you never sent, you may be the victim of a 'spoofing' attack.
Many of the addresses randomly generated by dictionary spammers are invalid. If a spammer spoofs your email address to send dictionary spam, you will probably receive reports of delivery failures, which appear to be replies to messages sent from your account.
Another way your email can be spoofed is when a computer is infected with what is known as a mass mailing worm. Once the PC is infected the worm gets the list of email addresses in the addressbook of the infected PC and then uses those email addresses as the ‘From’ address when sending spam emails. This means that if someone has your email address in their address book and gets infected by the worm then emails may get sent out using your email address without the awareness of either you or the owner of the PC.
What can we do about it? Well there has been some improvements introduced to the internet known as SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records that would combat this problem but it can only be effective if it is adopted and implemented worldwide. So far progress has been relatively slow so in the mean time the best you can do is delete those annoying emails.
Browser Wars Continue
 Google has introduced its new internet browser Google Chrome to compete with the likes of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.
The first release is a beta edition of the browser meaning that the browser is still being tested and has not been finalised yet. The browser promises faster internet browsing and a lighter, more easy to use interface.
We downloaded a copy at KDB IT to have a play and found that aesthetically it has a clean and simple design which is what we are used to with Google but did find a few bugs when going to certain websites including and funnily enough, Gmail which is Google’s own webmail site!
You can download a copy of Chrome
KDB IT News
We’ve been listening to some of the things you would like to see from us and to help us get there we have recently started using the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system which has helped us improve the logging, monitoring and tracking all your IT support requests. Although you may not have noticed much yet we’ve seen great gains from using the software so far and we will be looking at customising it further to provide an online console for you to easily access an up-to-date list of your logged IT requests which has been a popular request by many of our clients. We will keep you posted as to the launch date of the console.
Ahmed's Green IT Corner
 eDay is coming to a town near you!
If you have old computers, mobiles, printers etc that you want to get rid of responsibly then you need to know about eDay.
What's eDay?
eDay is a cars-only drive-through recycling event which gives you the opportunity to recycle old computers or mobile phones in an environmentally sustainable way. It will be held on the 4th of October 2008 in regions around New Zealand
There will be two drop off areas in Auckland, one in the University of Auckland Tamaki Campus and the other in North Shore Stadium. KDB IT Consulting is proud to be getting involved this year to do our bit for the environment so you may bump into me and the team if you are going to the Tamaki drop off!
We still need more volunteers for the one day event so if you would like to find out more or volunteer to help out for the day you can visit their website
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