If you had an experience with JP Technical, I invite you to write us a review. If we bent over backward or pulled some rabbit out of our hat, that is great, tell your story. If we just answered your question or gave you some free advice, tell your story. You can write your review on our Google Places page at this link.

Thanks a bunch! Oh, be sure to email me and let me know you wrote a review, I will give you a $10 credit on your next bill for ANY reviews given.

Of course, Gmail is gorgeous in Google Chrome, it just works so smoothly. One feature, however, that is not so beautiful is the offline mail feature. It works, but it leaves some to be desired. Well, with the release of Chrome version 12, the support for Google Gears is going away. As a result, Google Gears-based Gmail Offline will no longer work with the Chrome browser as of Tuesday, May 24, 2011.

The new Gmail Offline capability is targeted for delivery as a Chrome browser web app early this summer. I am sure it will be awesome.

BTW, have you seen some of the great Chrome apps that are out? My favorite time waster has to be the Super Mario Crossover app, which lets you play Super Mario with a bunch of other Nintendo characters… Bill R. from Contra is my personal favorite. And yes, there are business productivity apps as well, tons of them. Check out the Chrome Web Store.

If you use Chrome and Gmail Offline:

Google Gears-based Gmail Offline will continue to work with versions of Internet Explorer 8.0 and Mozilla Firefox versions 3.6. We suggest that you change to Gmail Offline and use one of the following options for offline access:

• Mozilla Firefox 3.6
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
• IMAP client (such as Thunderbird – the best offline solution)
• Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook (requires installation of client plug-in and certain versions of Office)

To learn more about the change to Gmail Offline in Chrome, see the Gmail Offline Update in the Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1308394.

The Google Apps Team Acknowledge that there’s a temporary gap in Gmail offline access via Chrome, and they are working hard to deliver offline capabilities through a new Gmail OfflineChrome web app as quickly as possible.

I look forward to giving it a try. Let me know what you think about Google Apps and Google Offline in the comments.

~JP

Like many other Facebook scams, the first order is for the virus to gain access to your Facebook account. This is not by getting your login credentials, all you have to do is click a link posted on your wall or someone else’s wall. Of course, the scammers have made the link very appealing by offering something many people would just love to know, but Facebook won’t tell you: a comprehensive list of all the people viewing your profile. This is what an email might look like (notification about a link posted on your wall):

“LOL !! Me cant believe that you can see who is viewing your profile! I can see the TOP 10 people and I am really OPENMOUTHED that my EX is still checking my Pix and my Profile. You can also see WH0 CHECKS YOUR PR0FILE here)”

Above all, you must understand that this scam will not work if you just DON’T CLICK THE LINK! It really is that simple, don’t click and don’t opt-in. If you click the link, however, and you are also logged into your Facebook account when you do, then this virus immediately goes to town posting this same scam link and content on your friends’ walls. Once it starts, you can’t stop it. Then it is damage control time – the only way to repair the damage is to visit each of your friends’ walls one-by-one and remove the post, or contact them all with a warning and hope they haven’t already clicked that link too.

Now, there is an email component to this Facebook virus for those who have chosen to be notified via email when someone posts to their wall, we’ve seen a surge in submissions of this scam to a website called PhishTank, the anti-phishing site operated by OpenDNS (awesome DNS services btw, call us or email us to get your business setup with this DNS service and save yourself some headaches). Here is the funny thing though… OpenDNS says that this scam will not be confirmed as a phish (definition) because it is solely within Facebook. Nuts!

Obligatory cautionary message about social networks:

When using any social network, you and you alone are accountable for your own safety. The most important thing to remember is: if there is even a shred of doubt… don’t click that link!. Facebook offers this bit of (oft unheeded) advice:

“Always use caution when clicking on a link or opening an attachment, even if it’s been sent or posted by a friend or other reputable source. If you have any doubt, get confirmation directly from the sender. Be especially wary of messages that include attractive offers or urgent requests, and watch out for links that require you to immediately provide a login and password.”

Keep safe out there!

JP

JP Technical
jp@jptechnical.com
360-797-5784 or 907-748-2200

Hi, this is Jesse from JP Technical, you can call me JP.

In the last decade or so of computer repair services, we’ve found that most computer owners have no idea about whether their anti-virus program had updated to the latest version each day, their hard drive holding their precious data is healthy or if Windows is ready to crash at any moment.

We just thought that this was AMAZING – I mean can you imagine if your systems crashed and you lost your family photos or saved email? What if you had a virus attack that wiped out your computer for two or three days… HOW ABOUT A WEEK?

So we’ve put together a very affordable service that checks your computer health each and every morning. We call it the Watchdog - Workstation Daily Health Check. If there’s a problem, we’ll receive an Instant Alert, and if it is an easy fix, we will TELL YOU HOW TO FIX IT YOURSELF… FREE! Of course, you can always call us at 907-748-2200 to let us fix it for you.

What do you get with Watchdog? You get a rapid, accurate response and dramatically reduced downtime, with the BEST SUPPORT ANYWHERE, or you PAY NOTHING!

Here is the cool part, you can try it for FREE for 30 days. I GUARANTEE you will LOVE WatchDog, or you don’t pay a DIME!

We won’t pressure you for more work.
That is not what this offer is all about.

WatchDog is only $5 per computer per month. If you get a full year of WatchDog, you get TWO MONTHS FREE. That means a full year of protection is only $50 per computer. However, the offer ends in two weeks, so hurry and call us today at 360-797-5784 or 907-748-2200, or email us at info@jptechnical.com.

Sincerely,

“JP”

JP Technical

2440 E88th Ave, Suite D, Anchorage, Alaska, 99507

718 Griffin Ave, Suite 105, Enumclaw, WA 98022

P.S. Please give me a call anytime at 907-748-2200 and I hope to see you soon.

We are super excited to announce that Vipre Antivirus Enterprise Edition is available as a part of Watchdog. This means you can have the very best possible Antivirus and Antispyware protection regardless of the number of computers you have, no more volume orders, costly management tools and expensive setup.

Why use Viper Antivirus instead of just getting AVG or even Microsoft Security Essentials?

1. Vipre works better than any other Antivirus we have worked with. It is the only Antivirus that has not been compromised by the recent wave of malicious software, whereas we have seen lots of AVG, Norton, McAfee and Microsoft Security Essentials computers infected.
2. Keeping track of different computers and different licenses expiring at different dates is a pain! You have to buy at least a year of licenses for any other product, and you either have to buy extras in anticipation of additional computers, or manage them separately.
3. Speaking of licenses, there is no contract, no license terms, no renewals with Watchdog + Vipre… we just turn it on and you are protected… piece of cake.
4. You don’t have to buy 20+ licenses to get the benefits of an enterprise class Antivirus, you can have it on as many or as few computers as you want.
5. Simple pricing, starting at $5 per computer, it is very simple to calculate how much your Antivirus costs with Watchdog + Vipre.
6. Spread the the cost of the Antivirus over the year rather than lay down a big lump at once.
7. Here is the big savings, labor! Any competing product costs real $$$ to install and maintain. You need a technician to install it, configure it and then maintain it, sometimes even rebooting your server in the middle of the day because of some issue. With Watchdog + Vipre we manage it all in the cloud for you. You don’t have to worry about it… no fuss.

Now you can get Vipre Antivirus Enterprise enabled on your computers all through the Watchdog system. The cost starts at $5 per month per computer. Each computer will report directly with Watchdog with it’s status, we start and stop scans, clean out the quarantine, reboot and fine tune the protection individually all through the Watchdog dashboard.

If you want more info, or an evaluation of your current Antivirus system, just click here and we will follow up with you right away.

These malicious programs certainly exist, perhaps the rash of three in one day on my repair bench yesterday may be the results, but awareness is the best prevention. In my research, I was able to find a malicious java application on the first click of a Google search for “Osama Bin Laden Video”. It really does highlight how dangerous the web can be when you suddenly find yourself in their target market, and people looking for info about this are squarely in their sights.

A few reminders:

• Don’t open attachments from people you don’t know
• Don’t click on links in emails from people you don’t know
• Don’t click on links in emails if the message is even the slightest bit funky…
  • for instance, if your college buddy (the smart one ) sends you a really poorly written email, filled with bad spelling and weird grammar, it is a fair bet their email account was compromised and it is spewing out malware.
• Only get your news from the big news sites, their videos should be safe.
• If there is a YouTube video, go to www.youtube.com and search for it there, the link to it in the email may very well be false.
• For the love of pete, take a step back from Facebook for a while. Facebook is reported to be the delivery method of nearly 50% of all malware and is universally recognized as the worst failure regarding privacy and security EVER.

Some silver-lining notes:

• If you are using Google Apps, you have reduced your surface of attack tremendously! I have never seen a virus or spyware slip through Google’s mammoth detection grid. Also, Google filters out suspicious emails and puts big bright warnings if something is suspicious.
• If you are using OpenDNS, your entire network is being filtered for malicious content. This free service, which we recommend for all of our network clients, is constantly being updated with known bad sites.
• If you are using Vipre Antivirus, well, you have the best possible protection for these attacks. Vipre was built from the ground up to combat these new forms of attack. Unlike Norton, McAfee and others, they have no ‘old code’ they have to maintain compatibility with, which in the end only cripples their protection and slows you down to a crawl.

If you would like to get advanced notice of more of our virus warnings and critical notifications,please click here: (https://jptechnical.infusionsoft.com/app/form/virus-alerts-signup) and we will make sure you get them.

It has become a crazy place out there in the interwebs… be careful and be smart!

I noticed 2 different updates this morning, they are subtle, but worth noting. Here they are:

1. The ‘Compose mail’ link is now a button.
2. The selection links (to select read, unread, all, none, etc) is now a drop-down choice box with select all as the default.

Here is a screenshot with the obvious changes.

Meet Hobbs, he is our chief virus engineer. You will likely get the chance to meet him if you bring your computer in to our computer repair shop for a virus cleanup or computer tuneup.

via CEBIT: Asus motherboard box doubles as PC case [video] | ITworld.