Jaydien Network Solutions - Corporate Blog

My Small Business Needs Computer Support, How Do I Reach A Help Desk?

jaydiennetworksolutions — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:32:02 +0000

If you are a small business like us, you understand the value of your time. And nothing makes a small business owner more upset than when you start spinning your wheels with a pesky computer problem. I mean let’s face it, time is money and your time is better spent focusing on the tasks that you do best, like running your business.

So what do you do in this situation? How do you get in touch with a reputable IT Consulting Company or Help Desk Support Company? Well you could call a name out of the yellow pages or google someone in your area, but let’s face it, computer guys are a dime a dozen and who knows if you are going to reach a qualified professional.

But for starters, you could try these two suggestions:

Think of a colleague that you consider as having a good business mind or that has a booming business that seems to run real well, and call that person to see what IT Consultant or Help Desk Support company that they currently use. Chances are you’ll be taken care of.
Or you could search the internet or print directories for an IT consultant in your area.

If you plan on doing some blind calling for computer help, try to look at their certifications, if posted, or also take a look at what vendors they happend to be partnered with. A lot of times you can tell the skill of the IT consultant by the type of equipment that they can support.

For instance our company, Jaydien Network Solutions, it a Cisco Select Partner. This means that we can sell Cisco routing and switching products as well as the unfied communications line of products. And not just any consulting firm can sell these products, you need to become certified by Cisco to do so. So this will indicate the level of commitment and education that a particular IT firm has to the industry and the technology they support.

Another good way of determining if an IT support firm is qualified is by looking at their client list. If they post a client list or even some customer testimonials, you can get a good idea of what types of businesses use them already and if you recognise any names. Jaydien Network Solutions posts our customer testimonials right on our website.

Lastly, just call them up and try to give the help desk company a good interview. Sometimes just asking good questions will open a can of worms in the insight department.

So if you need a good IT Consulting Firm to call, just follow our steps or even give us a call. We offer free consultations and top notch technology support.

Jaydien Network Solutions
www.jaydien.com
877-561-6734
35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A
Brick, NJ 08723

How To Protect Your PC Against Malicous Advertising

jaydiennetworksolutions — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:23:00 +0000

We have seen in the past 18 months, a real surge in Spyware, Adware and Viruses. These different infections are all collectively known as Malware. Big business is trying to fight these developers in court, as recently seen by Microsoft. They are trying to hit them where it hurts, their wallet, in hopes of shutting down their operations for good and making them pay for damages for the messes that they create.

But what can you do as an end user?

Well, with the modern proliferation of Malverstising (Online advertising that delivers malware) these days, it is essential to have to good tools available to help clean and/or repair an infected PC. .

We have been using 2 FREE tools in particular that, when used in combonation, seem to work flawlessly everytime.

The first tool that we use to scan and remove Malware form a computer is called ComboFix made by BleepingComputer.com. This is a DOS based tool that combines many popular and effective scanning engines to remove infections from a computer. It is a no-frills tool that really gets the job done at a low level and with a really high effectiveness. This tool is completely free.

The second tool is called Anti-Malware by MalwareBytes.org. This is a great free tool that does a good job finding and removing most common Malware infections that we’ve seen. This tool is free to use but you can pay for a more feature rich version that will run in your taskbar, similar to an antivirus program, and can also be scheduled to scan your PC.

Any questions, comments or additions that you would like to make to this article? Just comment below. Thanks for reading.

Jaydien Network Solutions

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723

10 STEPS To Disaster Recovery for Microsoft Small Business Server 2003

jaydiennetworksolutions — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:45:00 +0000

I would wager that if you are visiting this page, you have a Microsoft SBS 2003 server that has crashed. Well don’t be too frazzled about this because as long as you have access to the old data, I.E. the hard drives are not completely shot, then you should be OK.

Here is our 10 STEP procedure that we recently followed to recover a customer’s SBS server completley.

Move all pertinant data from OS partition to Data partition. Particullarly your Exchange and SQL databases if you have not already configured them to be located on your DATA partition.
Format and reinstall MS SBS 2003. It is important to use the same exact server name and domain name as the failed installation.
Once the server is back online, service pack and patch the OS to the previous installation’s level.
Create all your previous user accounts but do not create user mailboxes.
Install Exchange using the SBS installation wizard. Please note that you can install all the other SBS applications that you use at this point as well. Don’t worry if the SBS installation installs Exchange using a different OU & O name than your previous installation. We will fix that later.
Patch and service pack exchange.
Dismount current BLANK database and move all files in MDBData folder into a new folder. Copy your previous installation’s Exchange data files into the working MDBData folder.
Attempt to mount you old Exchange Data files.
- If they do not mount because your OU and/or O names are different (This will be logged in the event log), run the following utility: Microsoft Exchange Legacy DN Utility
- If they do not mount becuase the databases are inconsistent, follow this article to repair: How to use Recovery Storage Groups in Exchange Server 2003
After you successfully remount your databases, use the Mailbox Recover Center in your MS Excahnge Toolbox to remap your AD users to the mailboxes in your database.
Recreate all your shares and settings and you should be back in business. Please remember that even though your server and domain names are the same, you will most likely have to re-add all of your workstations to your newly created domain.

If you have any questions about this post or would like to add to it, please comment. Thanks for reading.

Jaydien Network Solutions

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723

How To Decrease POP3 Connector Polling Interval For Exchange

jaydiennetworksolutions — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:26:00 +0000

Have you ever wanted to decrease the New Mail Polling Interval for the POP3 connector in Exchange to something a bit smaller than 15 minutes?

Well here’s how you can do it:

To set the polling interval so that polling occurs more frequently than every 15 minutes, you
must configure the ScheduleAccelerator registry entry.
1. Click ‘Start’, click ‘Run’, type ‘regedit’ (without the quotation marks)
in the ‘Open’ box, and then click ‘OK’.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Network\POP3
Connector’
3. On the ‘Edit’ menu, point to ‘New’, and then click ‘DWORD Value’.
4. Type ‘ScheduleAccelerator’ (without the quotation marks) as the entry
name, and then press ENTER.
5. On the ‘Edit’ menu, click ‘Modify’.
6. In the ‘Value data’ box, type the value that you want, and then click

‘OK’. To determine the polling interval, the value that is configured on the
‘Scheduling’ tab in the GUI is divided by the value that you type for the
ScheduleAccelerator entry. For example, if a 15 minute interval is specified
in the GUI and you set the value of the ScheduleAccelerator entry to 3, the
connector will poll ever five minutes.

7. Quit Registry Editor

Jaydien Network Solution

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723

Introducing The Cisco UC500 Phone System

jaydiennetworksolutions — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Roughly 2 years ago, Cisco Systems, INC introduce the UC500 Series of products. The UC stands for Unified Communications.

Q. What are we unifiying you may ask?

A. Voice & Data over the standard office network.

Q. How does this help me or my company?

A. Well it allows you to converge what used to be 2 separate networks, your phones and your computers, into one very functional voice & data network.

We’ve had quite a lot of experience with the UC500 series PBX and it has a lot of great features:

Integration of your voicemail with your email. – You can now get your voicemail in your inbox and subsequently on your iPhone or BlackBerry
MeetMe conferencing bridge. – You no longer need to use a third party service like WebEx etc…
LiveRecord – Record phones calls by pressing just one button on your phone and the recorded conversation goes right into your voicemail inbox.
Power Over Ethernet (PoE) – This means that yourt phone gets the power it needs right from the switch which is sent directly over the CAT5 cable. That means that no extra power cords are needed. And since your phone uses a CAT5 cable for communications, Cisco has builtin a switch into the back of the phone where you can plug your PC right into. There is no more needing to run a separate cable for phone and voice saving your company money on infrastructure costs.
The system is completely configurable using Cisco’s CCA 2.0 configuration tool. This is a GUI based tool that allows you to configure the system from start to finish.

There is a lot more to talk about, too lengthly for a BLOG. Call us today to get a free DEMO and to recieve more information.

Jaydien Network Solution

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723

Microsoft CRM 4.0

jaydiennetworksolutions — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:23:00 +0000

Sales and your pipeline are critical to the growth of your business. Without a pipeline it is like living pay check to pay check with no hope for the future. So how do you grow your pipeline? Well that is the function of the sales team, however the pipeline needs to be managed and tracked.

Using Hosted CRM from Jaydien is the optimal way to manage your contacts, opportunities and overall sales, service and financial aspects of your business. Using MS CRM not only integrates with your desktop applications, but is a cost effective solution for small to medium business that would otherwise have to host this in house.

Month to month or annual contracts are available and pricing starts at $54.99 per use. For more information contact us for a demo and quote.

Jaydien Network Solution

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A
Brick, NJ 08723

How To Select An IT Support Company

jaydiennetworksolutions — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:24:00 +0000

How To Select An IT Support Company

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. How about if it ain’t broke, it will be?

Computer and network problems are going to happen; it is a fact of life. So are you reactive; wait and see, or do you take a more proactive stance?

The old wait and see; aka burying your head in the sand approach can cost your company a significant amount of valuable time and money. Just how much would it cost your company if you lost access to email or customer files for an extended period of time? Probably more than you want to think about. And in many cases, more than some companies can ever recover from.

That is why being proactive is one of the best investments you can make for your company’s long term objectives. By proactive we mean continual monitoring of your network to identify potential problems early, before they become an issue. When developing patterns are identified early, corrective action can be taken before major problems arise. Keeping on top of anti-virus, spam filters, critical updates and database management also helps to minimize unscheduled downtime.

We know, you are thinking right now that everything is working fine and has been for months if not years. Well you have been very fortunate indeed, but at some point when you can least afford the time or expense to deal with it, things will change and a hardware or breakdown will occur.

In an ideal world, every company would have an in-house IT staff, but this isn’t an ideal world. More typically, computer and network maintenance is often an afterthought at best. Thought about after the server crashes, or after problems arise, or after the customer database becomes corrupted and you can no longer process billings or collections.

But let’s think positively, let’s think about selecting a company that can help you proactively minimize problems and downtime. Let’s think about a business partner to help you keep things moving along as uneventfully as possible.

That is not to say that with the proper support structure in place you will always realize 100% uptime, but the odds are a whole lot more in your favor than crossing your fingers and just reacting to problems when they arise.

So what is the real dollars and cents impact if you do have problems? Every organization is different. For some, email is not critical, but for others it is. And while some companies might be able to operate without the internet for days (indeed, employees may even get more work done), other companies could lose thousands of dollars not being able to access emails, customer files, critical applications or research web sites on the web.

All in all, the impact is relatively simple to calculate (Click Here To Instantly Calculate Your cost Of DiY Computer Repairs). If you have 10 employees who each need the server for their jobs and the server is down – you lose the productivity of 10 employees x 8 hours x their average (burdened) hourly pay rate. For example: 10 x 8 x $40 = $3,200. That’s $400 an hour!

Not to mention lost revenues, delayed collections, aggravated customers and disgruntled employees. What about corrupted database files or a failed back-up? Now we are starting to talk about some real money. At that rate, it’s again not surprising that some companies never recover from a major systems failure.

So are you now starting to see the need for a plan? Are you finally starting to see a need for professional approach in maintaining and managing your IT infrastructure? Ok terrific. But where do I go for assistance and how do you choose the right support company you now ask?

Many companies only consider advertised hourly rates which are deceptive at best. Remember the fact that your company does not give away your products and services for free and that you expect to make a fair and reasonable profit, and so do the support guys. The best companies are not always be the most expensive, but they definitely won’t be the cheapest.

Consider company A is charging $80 per hour and takes two hours to fix a problem while company B bills their labor at $120 but has you back up and running again in an hour, who is really the best value?

It comes down to doing a little research …

1. Is the company fully bonded, insured and licensed?

2. Are their technicians properly certified and trained?

3. Does their technical staff keep current on new and emerging technologies?

4. Are they members of the local Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce and active within the local community?

5. Do they have experience supporting companies similar to your own or are you going to be paying xxx dollars an hour while they learn how you business works at your expense?

6. Can they provide local references from satisfied customers of similar size and industry as yours?

7. Do they offer hours of support that match your businesses hours and what about after hours or holiday support in an emergency situation?

8. Do they provide a guaranteed response time?

9. Do they offer flexibility in structuring a support program that matches up well with your specific needs and budget or do they take a one-size fits all, take it or leave it approach?

10. Are they a full service support company or are they only able to provide support for a portion of your potential needs?

If after doing a bit of research you find that you can’t answer yes to all 10 of the above questions, it’s probably best to keep looking. Talk to your local Chamber of Commerce, other business owners and most importantly, do some more research. With just some due diligence, you will make the right choice and have one less thing on you desk to deal with in the future.

So how do most support companies stack up to the above, all we can say is that Jaydien Network Solutions gets a big yes on all 10 points. Where is your support company on a scale of 1 to 10?

Jaydien Network Solution

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723

Back It Up Before It Is Too Late

jaydiennetworksolutions — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:22:00 +0000

It’s going to be one of those days today. You decide to come in early to catch up on your emails and other correspondence but when you boot up your computer, you are greeted with a serenade of ominous whining noises from your tower and the screen of your new LCD stares back at you with nothing but complete blackness. The dreaded computer crash has occurred!

It looks like you may have just lost your system disk to an inevitable hardware failure. It is a fact that every system disk (hard drive) has a normal lifespan, as do all of the other parts within your PC. What most people do not realize about their seemingly ageless PC or MAC is that it is always a question of when something will fail, not if something will fail.

OK, your system is relatively new and you feel comfortable that everything is going to work well for the foreseeable future. But did you foresee the actions of that temp employee that you had in yesterday who accidentally deleted the file with last month’s receivables data? Or how about that power surge, lightning strike or some other “can’t-happen-to-you” disaster that is, without question, going to occur in your office some day? Are you prepared for any of those scenarios?

Yes, you reply out loud, becuase you are doing back-ups regularly which makes you well prepared for any disaster, right? Not really. When exactly was the last time you tested your backup system to see if it really worked? If the answer is never, you could be finding out about data loss and failed backups the hard way.

A well planned and automated backup strategy as well as scheduled testing of restores will save you both time and money when your computer or server fails or in the event that files are accidentally deleted.

Eventually, almost everyone faces a data disaster. The question is, are you ready? Unless all of your electronic files are expendable, you should be making backup copies of your most important data on a regular basis. Not to be a pessimist, but you should imagine the worst case scenario and do backups based on that premise. If you need information that is up to date as of an hour ago, then you should think about doing multiple backups per day. If you can live with yesterday’s information then a once a day backup should be sufficient. Whatever you requirements are, just remember that regular backups are as important as your data because it is going to cost you a lot of time and money when something goes horribly wrong and there is no backup available.

Lost computer files and hardware failures have cost many businesses weeks, months or even years of work. Hardware can fail, become damaged or even stolen. Files can be accidentally deleted or computer viruses can make them vanish. Having backup files available in the event of trouble could be the difference between your business staying open or having to shut down.

As to what files you need to backup regularly, critical files typically include banking and other financial records, inventory lists, electronic catalogs, customer data and marketing materials. There is nominal importance to backing up program files, such as office applications; so long as you have the originals CD’s available for reinstallation.

There are several ways to backup your data ranging from burning your files to a CD, to disk mirroring and automated tape backup systems. What is best for your business is really dictated by the amount of backup information required and how important those backups are toward keeping your business operational.

Depending on the amount and type of data you need to save, you may be comfortable with just a simple method of backing up such as floppies, zip drives or Cd’s. Keep in mind however, those type of backup media are fragile and could become damaged by heat, humidly or even dust. Businesses with mission critical data should consider a combination of disk mirroring, where files are written to two duplicate disks (hard drives) simultaneously, along with an automated tape backup system. This combination provides a very high degree of data integrity and will facilitate getting things back to normal as quickly and economically as possible.

And although a Zip disk costs much less than a tape drive, a single tape cartridge can hold as much as hundreds of Zip disks or thousands of floppies. And with a tape backup, there is less to physically store or transport from one site to another, further eliminating any possibility misplacement or theft of your backup media when they are not being used. Regardless of the methodology you choose, it is important to remember that no business is too new or too small to not require a well thought out backup plan.

And lastly, one very important aspect to consider when developing your backup plans is what degree of user intervention are you willing to tolerate? Are you willing to put the responsibility of your backups completing successfully in the hands of an airhead secretary by hoping that she remembers to insert the proper tape or disk everyday? Most business executives are not willing to take that risk and instead decide to implement a robotic tape library that will automatically changes tape everyday based on a predetermined schedule. Although that is an extreme solution as far as most companies are concerned, it can be completely justified financially when you consider just how much money your data is actually worth to your company.

Here are the top five essentials in developing your backup plan:

Select the method or methods you will use to backup your data.

Decide which files or data are critical to keeping your business operating.

Perform a full backup at least once a week and backup any critical data daily to a removable device.

Store your backups offsite – far enough away so a disaster won’t strike both locations. You can also keep a full backup copy onsite.

Test your ability to restore your files at least quarterly. In other words, make sure the backup systems really work. An easy way to accomplish this is to schedule frequent test restores of important files or folders and see if it actually works. Don’t wait until it’s too late to find that the restore process doesn’t work.

Backing up your system can be boring and a time consuming task, especially if it is not automated. But like buying insurance, you risk jeopardizing your entire business without a proper backup solution in place that is regularly tested for reliability. The productivity and potential financial losses caused by a catastrophic system failure that lacks a good backup cannot be underestimated.

So what are you waiting for? It is time you talk to your in-house IT staff or your IT support company about your backup needs and procedures. Don’t wait until a catastrophe happens because putting off proper backups of your system could be the last business decision you make.

Jaydien Network Solution

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723

It Is Time For A Change In Management?

jaydiennetworksolutions — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:21:00 +0000

What if I told you that you could employ an experienced, full-time, IT support manager to oversee and monitor your entire network infrastructure and you would not have to provide benefits, sick days or even vacation days? And what if I went even further and stated that this employee was willing to work for less than minimum wage? This is the description of one of the most rapidly developing sectors within the IT support industry, Managed IT Services. And you can employ these services at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee, regardless of your company’s size or level of technology.

Only recently has the benefit of remote network monitoring and administration been available and affordable to companies other than the fortune 500. Companies of all sizes are now able to join the big guys in enjoying the nearly 100% network uptime, reduced operating costs and piece of mind attainable through managed services.

Advances in broadband connectivity and other technologies now permit IT support companies to keep an eye on everything from copiers and printers status to workstations and server availability, 24 hours a day. Oftentimes you can obtain this level of service for less of a cost of those office supplies that mysteriously vanish from your supply closets every month.

And while we want to point out that no system or systems can have an uptime that is guaranteed at 100%, managed services come very close to providing that. So what exactly is managed IT services?

In a nutshell, and as succinctly as can be stated, we are defining managed IT services as the real-time monitoring of any or all of the components within your office that have an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Everything from printers, faxes, copiers, telephone systems, network switches and routers are all candidates for real-time monitoring. Through real-time monitoring, if something is not functioning as it should, even slightly, you can be alerted prior to failure and your support company can schedule corrective action. It is as if you have someone sitting on top of the mountain keeping a watchful eye on the valley below rather than trying to dig out after an avalanche.

There are enough monkeys on your back just trying to manage and grow a company so wouldn’t it be great to shake the IT support monkey off your back and into the hands of highly qualified experts? And best of all, it costs less than what is presently spent with the traditional break-fix approach. Still not convinced of the cost savings? It is a fact that less downtime makes employees more production, helps maximize the return on your investment in technology, helps to enhance customer service and generally provides an overall lower TCO – total cost of ownership.

Some other key benefit of managed IT services are that the monitoring of network traffic identifies possible systems bottlenecks and or security compromises, operating system patches and software updates can get applied immediately rather than when whomever gets around to it, viruses and spyware is kept off your workstations and servers, potential hardware failures are caught in advance and your scheduled backups are completed and verified with minimal employee intervention. And these are just some of the possibilities. Keep in mind that the potential savings in support and maintenance costs and fiscal management is in direct relationship to the complexity of your systems. In other words, the savings can be huge if your network is huge, but even if your system only consists of a few workstations and maybe one server, there are still savings to be realized.

Managed IT Services is not just another fleeting DOT.com fad. In fact the task of developing this service was initiated from the shouting mouths of corporate executives desperately seeking a way to add value to their vital computer network. And we are now in the stage where this service in not just available to companies with enormous IT budgets but to companies of all sizes. Because as computers and computer networks become more and more critical to conducting business, companies strive for more efficient ways to keep these systems stable and more productive. And managed services are just the way to accomplish that task.

Jaydien Network Solution

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723

Phishing, Pharming, and Identity Theft

jaydiennetworksolutions — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:20:00 +0000

No, the spell check isn’t broken and we are not talking about a quiet afternoon drowning worms at the local farm pond. Phishing and Pharming are methods of identity theft and are accomplished through means of bogus emails or a web site that appears to be a legitimate company. Victims are typically asked to provide personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers or their social security number in a reply email or at a web site that looks convincingly legitimate. The verbiage that you will typically see in an email or on a web site trying to obtain your personal information are as follows:

“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account.
To ensure that your account has not been compromised,
please click here to authenticate your personal profile.”

“During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information.
Please click here to update and verify our records.”

Never reply or respond to any such request or solicitation. There are no legitimate credit card companies, financial institutions or retailers that will ever make such a request via email or through a website.

Above are examples of Pharming and Phishing schemes. Simply put, they are processes by which scam artists chum the water with millions of emails and / or instant messages, hoping a few fish will take the bait with very good success.

Here is how the process of stealing personal information unfolds. A user simply clicks on a legitimate looking link located contained within an email or website. Then the user will be redirected to a website cleverly disguised to appear legitimate, but in reality is running illegal computer code in the background, unbeknownst to the user. That code is silently searching your computer for personal or financial information that may be stored in a temporary file, a cookie, a word document, etc…

Another even more sinister technique exploits the vulnerability of the Internet’s domain name system (DNS). The DNS system exists to resolve internet names or hosts such as www.google.com to the actual server IP addresses: 64.233.161.104. A hacker can “poison” a DNS directory by altering it so that a familiar URL or web address becomes associated with a string of numbers pointing to a fraudulent website. The hacker then channels hundreds of unsuspecting victims into his trap, even though they typed the correct URL into their browser.

And worse yet, there are viruses that exist that can accomplish the same goal as DNS poisoning by rewriting your computer’s local host file. The local host file is a file that exists locally and helps resolve host names or website addresses to their respective IP addresses. This file is checked first by your web browser when browsing to a particular web site. If no entries are found, your system will then check with the DNS servers in its lists. If, however, a bogus entry is found, the result is the same. The thief directs you to a bogus website, obtains your bank login or other personal information and you have no idea until it is too late. When the hook is set, you are in for a long, grueling battle.

So how do you protect yourself? Actually, it’s pretty simple. Use a quality internet security suite like McAfee, Symantec or Trend Micro and keep it up-to-date. They all include anti-virus, anti-phishing, firewall, and other protection components. The key is to be sure that auto-updates are enabled and that the software is kept current.

Now add a little common sense:

1. Never reply to an email asking you to confirm your identity.

2. If you are the least bit suspect of an information request or message, hit the delete key!

3. Never click on hyperlinks within email messages. Type the URL into your browser, instead, and bookmark the site for future reference.

4. If a web site asked for your password and user ID and you do not fully trust the site, try inputting a bogus password. If it is accepted, you know something is wrong.

5. Most importantly, keep your web browser, messaging and security software up-to-date.

In addition, on the non-internet side of life (Yes there is life beyond www.dot.whatever)

1. Shred all copies of bills, monthly statements, credit card offers, convenience checks, receipts, etc. before putting them in the trash or recycling them.

2. Opt-out of pre-approved credit offers by calling 1-888-5-OPTOUT.

3. Periodically review your credit report. New Jersey residents are entitled to get one free report per year from each of the major credit bureaus. You can get your free report at www.annualcreditreport.com.

4. Finally, if you choose to be more proactive, consider using the recently implemented NJ security freeze. The security freeze, signed into law by Former Governor Codey last year, enables New Jersey residents to prevent anyone from looking at his or her credit files for the purpose of granting credit, unless the resident specifically chooses to allow access to that information. Thieves cannot gain access to your credit report without knowing your PIN and potential creditors won’t extend credit without reviewing it. Under the New Jersey law, all consumers can place a security freeze on their credit files for free and lift it temporarily for $5 when applying for credit. New Jersey is now the 12th state to adopt some form of a security freeze law. Go to http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/creditfreeze.htm to learn more.

Already hooked?

Depending on what type of identity theft has occurred, there are several different agencies that you must contact in order to restore your identity and help bring the thieves to justice. Here is a list of some important agencies that will help you in that process.

· Your local police and file a fraud report.

· The Postal Inspection Service @ http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/locators/ if you have any indication or suspicion of mail fraud.

· The Social Security Administration @ 800 269-0271, if you think your SSN is being fraudulently used.

· Possibly the Internal Revenue Service @ 800 829-0433.

· The three major credit reporting companies:

Equifax @ 800 525-6285

Experian (formerly TRW) @ 888 397-3742

Trans Union @ 800 680-7289

· Banks, Cable TV, Credit Card, Internet Access, Financial Institutions, Telephone, Utility and other companies where you have established credit to either freeze accounts and or request a change of account numbers, passwords, user IDs, PINs, etc.

Want to learn more about identity theft and how you can avoid becoming a victim? Visit the U.S. Department of Justice web-site at http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html .

Jaydien Network Solution

www.jaydien.com

Email Us: info@jaydien.com

Call Us: 877.561.6734

35 Beaverson Blvd, Suite 3A

Brick, NJ 08723