Frequently Asked Questions
This area is new to the updated website, and might take some time to be populated.
- I'm confused by your company name. Exactly what do you all do?
- Can you help me set up my email account in Outlook Express?
- Is my email secure, and since you have the passwords could you read it?
- Where can I get printer drivers?
- We have a client who was discouraged from shopping by a "Security Alert" that popped up as she tried to log on to our shopping cart.
- Is a router firewall enough or do I need one on my PC also?
- Do you recommend or use templates?
- Is there a way for us to manage some of our own website content?
- You changed my home page and I can't figure out how to set it back to the one we had before.
- I hear a lot about Internet Explorer being insecure. What can I do? Is Firefox the way to go?
- How can we see our email from another PC using Webmail with ICDSoft hosting?
When our business was launched early in 2003 we went
through a discernment period. During that time the "Will it Float" feasibility study
was undertaken. With the help of that and the passing of time we evolved to be
95% web development and 5% PC tune up.
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We have some instructions for those new to setting up e-mail accounts
with their domain. Follow the link and if that doesn't help please let us know.
You will also find help in using Webmail so you can check mail from anywhere
in the world you might be.
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Search the internet and you will find numerous articles advising that email
is basically insecure. Wherever you have your email there is someone with access
that could conceivably read your mail. It can be intercepted during transit, or read
by someone if you are away from your computer and you have left it logged on. It
could also be made public through some type of legal action. Encryption would be
the way to go if a high level of security was needed. Check VeriSign for a free guide
called,
"Securing Your Web Site for Business", or Google search for "email encryption". Here
is a link to VeriSign's "Encrypting your E-Mail with Outlook Express".
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I noticed a good list of driver downloads when poking around at PrintCountry the other day. Look for the link in the upper right of the page.
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If you saw an alert like the one shown here then this is the explanation.
In our case we use shared certificates to save money. The host
that provides a place for the website to exist buys a certificate and shares it for free as part of his hosting package.
This puts some people off, and is a disadvantage from that perspective. The alternative is
to pay several hundreds of dollars to have your own. You can safely click yes if you know the site and
trust it. My brokerage account has the same "Security Alert".
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The router will protect you from inbound attacks, but not from malware making outbound connections. You need a good software firewall that can inspect outgoing packets and allow you to set permissions. ZoneAlarm is good and has a free version available. If you want more do a search for "router firewall enough" and you will get all kind of hits. The ones I saw agreed with the above. Then to make life complicated I looked at some posts over at WindowsBBS which is a really good forum with some advanced folks posting. There seems to be two schools of thought over there depending on the quality of your router. For my purposes I want both.
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Often a template is the way to go as it can save work on the design end and by doing so save the client money. We will use Dreamweaver Templates in conjunction with Fireworks MX. Sometimes we will build the template, but often it is more cost effective to buy one. We provide this short list for those trying to decide on which template to use.
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If we use a template in Dreamweaver and plan ahead Macromedia's Contribute is fairly easy to use on predetermined areas within the pages. We have a little demonstration that we can let a client with Contribute attempt to edit so that they can see if this application works for them.
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Here are some simple instructions for reseting your home page in Internet Explorer 7.
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Kim Komando and other online experts have been recommending changing to another browser. She is pulling for Firefox 1.0 in her Newsletter which is the one I use. It's a free download, but you will still need Internet Explorer for getting Windows Updates. Another good alternative is Opera, but it has a little Google ad bar at the top which is not too bad. If you want to try Firefox you will find many Extensions to customize it to suit your needs. Anyone wanting to see the ones that I use feel free to check my setup with links to all the Extensions.
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Sometimes it's nice to be able to check your mail from another PC without having to set up an account in Outlook Express or some other mail utility. That's where Webmail comes in handy. Here is a little explination of Webmail that comes with your ICDSoft hosting account. It should open in Windows Media Player and is our first effort in creating a tutorial of this sort. Let us know if you have any problems viewing it.
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