Voxer is here, and its going to help transform the way you do business.

Do you remember the good ole days of Nextel? Back when it was cutting edge? Oh wait, but then I’m sure you also remember the good ole days of the horrible “beeeeeeeeeeeeep” mid-sentence with your speech being cut off and having to start over. True, Nextel had many flaws like that, and audio quality was not much better.

Fast forward to today, and relatively new app called Voxer for both Android and Apple  iOS. Its a free app that really started gaining traction about a year ago. In a nutshell it adds very high quality nextel-like walkie talkie features without the negatives that Nextel had. The system also can be described as voice-text-messaging. Essentially push a button, say what you want to say, and boom the other party hears it, either in real time, or later if they were away. Thats one of the real kickers, unlike Nextel where if you were away when the other party spoke, you missed it. In Voxer, every nugget of speech is sent and stored like a voice-text-message. So you can listen later if you were busy or whatever. Another cool feature is it can GPS stamp each message, with an easy to view map. Great for dispatch purposes in your business.

To use Voxer, you simply download it from either store (iTunes here, Android here), create a new identity or log in with Facebook, sync it with your phone’s address book and/or Facebook, then start chatting with other individual friends, or groups that you join or create. The interface shows a text message style interface. You hold a talk button to record a quick message for the other party, although there’s also an option to listen live to an incoming message that a friend is recording. You can also send text messages within the flow of correspondence.

The system does require a data plan, and works fine on second generation and later phones. It works really slick on 4g as well with the newest iterations of phones.

How will this app help your business? Easy, it gives you near instant walkie-talkie like communication with your staff and other vendors and 3rd parties when needed. No need to give each employee their own phone anymore. With today’s smart-phones and platforms like our EasyVOIP service, your staff can use company resources with little to no impact on their own personal phones minutes, yet still get all the features and benefits of carrying around a company phone. This saves you money, saves them headache of having to carry around two phones and more.

Download the app and check it out. If you want help deploying this or any other app, or want more information about how this can integrate with our EasyVOIP system give us a call today.

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

There has been a lot of hoopla recently about Android and the apparent (now proved false) reports of massive malware infestations in the Android Market. Thats been proved false by no-less than Symantec themselves (The ones who reported it originally!), but Google is indeed bumping up their efforts to keep the Android Market clean with Bouncer as well as reinforcing through words the security that’s already in place and has been for some time with Android.

Bouncer sits at the heart of the Android Market and checks for malicious software once an app is uploaded, checking it for known viral bits as well as codes that show that it was built by a known malicious developer or has hidden codes made to mess with users in any way at all. Each app is run on Google’s cloud infrastructure and actually tested out so that simulations can show how the application really truly works. Google also mentioned that Android malware downloads have decreased between the first and second halves of 2011:

“We saw a 40% decrease in the number of potentially-malicious downloads from Android Market. This drop occurred at the same time that companies who market and sell anti-malware and security software have been reporting that malicious applications are on the rise. While it’s not possible to prevent bad people from building malware, the most important measurement is whether those bad applications are being installed from Android Market – and we know the rate is declining significantly.” – Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering

In addition, Google mentions that Android as a software sitting on all of your phones right now has Sandboxing features which keep a malicious bit of software contained in one area of your phone if it does exist, first of all. Second there’s a screen between you downloading and you installing your applications one by one that asks whether you want to give that app permission to touch your device in many different ways – that’s all on you. Third, malware removal is simple on an Android device, from the Android Market being able to remotely remove malware from your device to your own ability to see into the guts of your Android device if need be and take the malicious software out yourself. So stay safe, Android users, Google has your back!

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

Not one week after the security group known as Symantec announced that they’d discovered the largest malware attack in the history of Android planted firmly in the guts of the official market, they’ve announced that there is no such infection. In fact, the malware the group said it’d found, Android.Counterclank, is actually just an overly-aggressive adware code. This is in accordance with a report put out by rival security group Lookout whom has essentially “told them so” late last month – always double check!

OOPS!

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

T-Mobile has announced that they will soon be offering the Square Mobile Credit Card Reader for free with any business sign up. If you are not familiar with Square, its an amazing little gadget and app that goes on your smartphone (iPhone or Android) and basically it lets you accept credit card payments quickly, simply, and from anywhere.

Its really great, and it was instrumental when I launched Legendary Jerky. It allowed me and my sales team to accept credit card payments easily while out and about. For T-Mobile to now offer Square with their business mobile plans speaks volumes about what they are trying to do to woo over business clients. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with T-Mobile trying to win back some market share.

Best thing about Square is there is no monthly fee, and the per-transaction fee’s are very reasonable. If you need to accept payments while in the field, you really should check out Square.

How easy is to use Square? Check out these simple steps or watch the video below:

1. Sign up and activate your Square account if you haven’t already.
2. Open the app on your phone by tapping the Square icon:
   
3. Plug the card reader into your 3.5mm headset jack.
4. Input the amount and item description for your payment.A payment for $3.50 with the description “Sticky bun” will look like this:If you have an iPad, you can select a pre-made item from your Item Library by swiping the keypad to the left.

   

5. Swipe quickly and smoothly, making sure the black magnetic strip is facing the thick end of the reader. Having trouble? Try these tips.
6. Once you see the signature screen, have your customer sign with their finger. (Note: If you have signature turned off for payments under $25, this screen will be skipped. More info here.)
7. Tap “Continue” and input your customer’s phone number or email address to deliver a receipt. If you use an iPad that’s connected to a receipt printer, you’ll also see the option to print a receipt. Tip: You can always find your payment history by viewing your Sales History menu in the app or on yourPayments page.
8. You’ll see the final Thank You screen after the payment is completed.

If you’d like to practice swiping before you start charging customers, try a few test swipes with your own card. Visit this article for more information.

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

Like you, I used to get “Passwords Headache” all too often. Remember 500 passwords is unfortunately becoming more and more a fact of life and its something we all have to deal with. Passwords were originally created to help us, but these days we are faced with having to remember an ever growing list of passwords to access the websites we need to get to in order to conduct our daily business.

The problem is there is a myriad of different requirements to get in to the variety of sites out there; some are a simple user-id and a password, some have additional security questions as well. It seems that as time goes on there are more and more passwords you have to remember, even for something as simple as buying some Legendary Jerky, but often times is for something business related such as your bank website or to order parts/supplies online, endless passwords!

Like everybody knows, passwords are not always easy to remember, especially with the dizzying array of complexity requirements that many websites employ these days. Most people try only to remember one password, and they use this password on all websites where they need to provide such information which is a big no-no!

We see it all the time where one of these websites gets compromised and since they used the same info and/or password, all of their information is at risk.

This is where a tool like LastPass comes in handy, as it allows you to create a different password for all the websites you are using. It even helps you in generating the complex passwords that some websites require. It stores all these passwords in a secure way and retrieves them automatically when you need them with little effort on your part.

Why use LastPass?

Well, you could use your browser’s “remember password” feature to help you remember your passwords (like Firefox, IE, … and others do), but this technique stores these passwords in an insecure method on your computer. If anyone uses your computer, they can automatically get into everything with the click of a mouse. Besides the fact that LastPass helps you to pick proper passwords, it allows you to share your favorites and login credentials between your Mac at home and PC at work too.

According to LastPass themselves:

• LastPass allows you to stay synchronised; you’ll have access to all your sites and can add new passwords that’ll be available on all your computers
• LastPass catches and supports far more logins than Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, or Opera.
• LastPass has Internet Explorer, Firefox (for Windows/Mac/Linux), Safari (for Mac/Windows), Opera, and Google Chrome versions.
• Access to your passwords on the road
• LastPass Pocket allows you to access your data on your USB drive, Firefox Portable, Google Chrome Portable, and for premium users, IE Anywhere support for browsing from your USB drive
• LastPass has a Form Fill feature which will save you time; it encrypts your sensitive data locally and available on the website
• LastPass is far more convenient than existing site information storage programs available
• LastPass has gone to great lengths to protect your privacy
• Unlike solutions like OpenID and Microsoft Passport, LastPass works within the way the web works today without relying on others.

The best part? LastPass is free, get it here.

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

You’ve heard of Viruses, Spam and Spyware, but there is another, arguably more dangerous threat to you and your business: Phishing.

Phishing in a nutshell is a method of social engineering sensitive and valuable information from people that can be used to commit fraud against you. In a nutshell, its a way for nefarious and unscrupulous people to trick you into giving them your bank account, your passwords, or other information that they can use to steal from you.

“Email phishing defrauds millions of people and companies every year, resulting in a loss of consumer confidence in email and the Internet as a whole. Industry cooperation – combined with technology and consumer education – is crucial to fight phishing” -Brett McDowell, Chair of DMARC.org and Senior Manager of Customer Security Initiatives at PayPal

If you have ever received one of those “Nigerian Email Scams”, where you get an email from some alleged king or prince from Nigeria asking for your help to get his money into the United States, then you have experienced Phishing. Unfortunately these Nigerian Email Scams are only the tip of the iceberg and frankly error on the side of being almost too easy to spot.

The amount of scams are endless, but one of the most clever ones I have seen recently is the “Ebay Paypal Scam”, where you list something online for sale and some nefarious buyer wins the auction or uses “buy it now”. Once they win the auction, they send you a forged, but very legitimate looking paypal notification that essentially looks like they have paid you for the auction. Only upon careful observation can you determine that the email is forged, that you have not been sent any money, and that the links contained within the email actually take you to another fake paypal webpage where they try and trick you into giving up your Paypal name and password.

We at DCS get a lot of calls and Email’s on a regular basis from clients who are unsure about certain email’s they have received. In most cases they are bogus (so their suspicion was correct), but occasionally they dont call us until its too late and they have already given up their information.

DCS Pro-Tip: A great way to try and verify if a link you are about to click on is valid or not is to “hover” over the link with your mouse. It should pop up a balloon with the actual website link that it will take you to. Pay close attention to address. Often times bogus ones will try and sound official, but will have other “junk” in the address. Example, a PayPal phishing link might say www.paypal-account-tracking.com. Sounds real right? Its not. Most big companies will only send you to a link on their main domain (www.paypal.com/order-tracking). If you are ever not sure, just open a browser on your own and go to the website however you normally do (bookmarks, or typing the address by hand). – Brian Martin, DCS.

So, what do you? Obviously you can hound your staff to not open links, or try and master the art of spotting the clues for phishing attempts. Frankly up till now those have been your only sure-fire options. Many Antivirus companies claim to help prevent ID theft and Phishing, but this stuff changes so fast they cant keep up. There is hope on the horizon however!

Recently it was announced that Google, Microsoft, PayPal, Facebook and other big names have teamed up to form a new anti-spam and phishing project, DMARC.org. This system calls for email authentication that promises to learn from past attacks. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) will use “a feedback loop between legitimate email senders and receivers to make impersonation more difficult” and, the group hopes, will eventually be adopted by the IETF as a standard.

We think a system like this will greatly enhance the “trustworthyness” of Email and the Internet as a whole, but until a system like this is widely adopted, keep your eyes peeled and be very careful what you click on or give information to while online.

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

How VoIP (Voice over IP) works is a mystery to some small business owners and employees. Its the backbone of our EasyVOIP service, so if you understand how it works, you can more easily use the technology to your company’s advantage.

How VoIP Works at a Glance

• With VoIP, analog voice calls are converted into packets of data. The packets travel like any other type of data, such as e-mail, over the public Internet and/or any private Internet Protocol (IP) network.
• Using a VoIP service, you can call landline or cell phones. You can also call from phone-to-computer, or even computer-to-computer (with both parties speaking into a computer microphone and listening through computer speakers or headsets). These all work together, seamlessly.
• You still place and receive calls exactly as you use now, only there are more options and the way it works behind the scenes is different.
• Since VoIP works on the same computer network as the rest of your office, most Internet Providers and Network Firewall/Router Companies have designed their systems to be able to give “priority” to Voice calls, so with proper setup, your system should be reliable.

How VoIP Works for Your Business

• How VoIP works for your business is simple: By adding voice to a data network, you’ll reduce costs, improve productivity, and enhance collaboration.
• You’ll save money by having one network to manage instead of two. You can easily add, move, or change phone extensions and locations, which saves money and gives you more flexibility.
• Your workforce can use your communications system from home or on the road. Also, wireless IP phones connect users to your communications system and data resources, such as customer information, while they’re in the warehouse, on the sales floor, or anywhere they can access your data network wirelessly.
• Unified communications solutions for small businesses go beyond basic VoIP capabilities in enhancing collaboration. With a unified communications solution, workers can easily collaborate through voice, video chat, Web conference, and instant messaging. Employees can collaborate using each technology individually or all of them simultaneously, and from a single, easy-to-use interface.

VoIP is the future, in fact most telephone companies are actually running variations of VoIP right now to handle the calls you currently make from your home or business. Contact our office today to see how our EasyVOIP Service can help you save money and improve efficiency.

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

Symantec announced today that currently the largest outbreak of malware on the Android platform ever is ongoing. Its not a virus per-se, its just a set of junk programs that has some embedded trojan’s in them. Its one of the negatives of having such an open platform as Android is that some people out there can take advantage of the system and prey on others. The only clear way to get it off your device if you have been so unlucky is to factory-reset it.

By looking at the list of app’s that carry the malicious payload, the odd’s of you getting infected are not high. Take a look at this list here and see if any of these app’s look familiar. If so, contact us and we can assist in cleaning your Android device.

As always, dont go installing random app’s on your devices, always do your research and read the reviews. Contact our office at 951-488-1010 if you are concerned you may have been infected or you installed one of the listed bogus app’s.

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists

Revolutionary network protection for your business.

OverviewModel LineupCompare ModelsTechnology Alliances

The SonicWALL® TZ Series offers a revolutionary breakthrough with higher performance protection, new redundancy capabilities, comprehensive Anti-Spam integration, application intelligence and control, and other innovations to protect and improve the efficiency of distributed enterprises and small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Available in standard and wireless configurations, the TZ 100, TZ 200 and TZ 210 Unified Threat Management (UTM) firewall appliances keep you ahead of increasing bandwidth requirements, emerging security threats and rapid expansion of Web application use enabled by Web 2.0 advancements.

Higher performance protection.

The ultra-performing security processor architecture, honed in the SonicWALL Network Security Appliance (NSA) Series, has increased the TZ Series performance up to five-fold.1 Utilizing SonicWALL Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection™ technology, the TZ Series boosts throughput and real-time inspection to provide greater performance than the competition at the same price point.

Comprehensive security.

The SonicWALL TZ Series revolutionizes UTM protection by adding the Comprehensive Anti-Spam Service to its arsenal of Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Intrusion Prevention, Application Intelligence and Control2, Enforced Client Anti-Virus, and Content Filtering services. The higher end TZ 210%

via TZ Network Security Appliance Series – SonicWALL, Inc..

Originally Written by %AUTHORLINK%% Originally Posted on Dynamic Computer Specialists