There are a lot of factors that go into deciding how much remote control to give to employees and vendors. Depending on your line of business, some governing body most likely has already given guidance regarding remote access. For example, HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm Leach Bliley all have their own requirements regarding data security and accessibility.

However, before I jump into the details, it should be pointed out that the ability to remotely access computers is nothing new (in relative terms, anyway). Microsoft first introduced the ability to remotely control its computers in the Windows NT 4.0 Operating System with Terminal Services Client, released in July of 1996. This was later renamed Remote Desktop Connection, and was expanded to include desktops with the release of Windows XP in October of 2001. The point? Your “IT Guy” has had the ability to remotely access your computer for quite a while.

So, the first question is “should I allow remote access at all”? The benefits of answering “yes” are many, and the following is not an exhaustive list:

1. Employee productivity since employees can access their work computers from anywhere
2. Reduced support time since vendors can provide technical support easily and quickly
3. Reduced travel expenses since training, sales presentations, and support can be provided remotely

And if you answer “no”? Here is a short list of benefits:

1. More sleep at night since you know that your data isn’t accessible remotely (though this may be a false sense of security)
2. Don’t have to spend any more time considering this topic… “no” is an easy answer!

Another thing to consider if you decide that you aren’t comfortable with allowing remote access into your network is whether or not you are prepared to spend the money to ensure that this decision implemented. In other words, do you have a firewall and/or proxy in place that can block remote access software? It’s advisable to have as good a firewall as you can afford. Your $100 router from BestBuy isn’t going to do the job.

Assuming you’ve gone with “yes” or at the very least “I’ll think about it”, here are some other things to consider:

You should start with determining what your compliance requirements are. For example, are you required to be compliant with HIPPA/HITECH (healthcare industry), Sarbanes-Oxley and/or Gramm Leach Bliley (financial industry). If you are bound by one of these acts (or others), you should then research the remote access softwares that are in use to determine if they are compliant. Most of these companies (like LogMeIn, for example) write whitepapers regarding why their solutions is compliant.

In my opinion, this ultimately boils down to trust. There are two people (or groups of people) that you must absolutely trust. Your financial guy (CPA, bookkeeper, etc.) and your IT Guy. Note: For the ladies out there, please excuse the use of the work “Guy”. I am using the term to mean “person” or “people”, not “male” or “men”. =)

References:

https://secure.logmein.com/LogMeInITReach_Benefits_for_OutsourcedIT.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Desktop_Services
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIPPA

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If you are using Outlook as your email client, and you are able to share your calendar, contacts, to-dos, etc. with colleagues, chances are you are using Exchange, the most popular email server application available (McCreath, 2007).

Now that we’ve got that over-simplified explanation out of the way, on to a couple of reasons why you should be monitoring this database. First, Exchange keeps a log of every single event that occurs on its database, in what are called Transaction Logs (Buike, 2006). These logs can become quite large, and if not maintained, can easily bring the operating system to a screeching halt, especially if Exchange is stored on the OS partition. Second, the Exchange database can become fragmented over time, appearing to be much larger than it actually is. This is a natural occurrence because of the way the database works. Depending on who you talk to, offline defragmentation of the database should be performed when the database reaches somewhere around 15% whitespace.

These were two in a long list of reasons why it is very important to not only perform preventative maintenance tasks on your exchange database, but to also monitor your Exchange database for potential problems. There are many things to watch for on your Exchange database, much more than I am willing to go into in this article. For a relatively detailed list of things to look for, check out Brett Johnson’s presentation (Johnson, 2004).

In conclusion, here are a few questions to ask of yourself, or to ask of whoever is maintaining your Exchange system:

• Are Exchange event logs being monitored?
• Is disk space on the Exchange server(s) being monitored?
• Are preventative maintenance tasks being performed?
• Is your Exchange database being regularly backed up, are backup logs being verified, and are test restores being conducted?
• Is mail flow being monitored?
• Are database (information store) counters being monitored?

Approximately 90% of Exchange administrators never attempt maintenance until a disaster hits (Johnson, 2004). Don’t allow your company to lose valuable working time while your IT guy tries to figure out what went wrong with Exchange database.

Bibliography

McCreath, M. S. (2007, Dec 1). Inferring Relative Popularity of SMTP Servers. Retrieved from Stillhq.com: Mikai, a geek from Canberra: http://www.stillhq.com/research/smtp/survey/poster-lisa2007.html

Buike, R. (2006, May 30). Transaction Logs, The Lifeblood of Exchange. Retrieved from MSExchange.org: http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Transaction-Logs-Lifeblood-Exchange.html

Johnson, B. (2004). Microsoft Downloads. Retrieved from Microsoft: http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/technet/learning/downloads/evenings/TechNet_Event_Exchange_Server_9th_Feb_Brett_Johnson.ppt

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1. Open Microsoft Outlook

2. Go to File on the menu bar

3. Scroll down and select Archive (about mid way down)

   

4. The archive dialogue box will open

   

5. Now from here select the folder you want to archive…you can select ‘personal folders’ which will archive your entire Outlook directory structure (not recommended). You can select ‘Inbox’, ‘Outbox’, ‘Contacts’ or sub folders within a particular folder…whatever you want. I’d recommend archiving individual folders or subfolders as in the example below, I expanded my ‘Inbox’ and I am selecting ‘A050470-Lakeshore to be archived:

   

6. Next tell it the items older than a particular date to archive. So lets say we are in October and you want to archive all A05047-Lakeshore e-mails in your inbox prior to September 1, 2009…then select that date. Once you start archiving regularly, then there should be much to archive each session. You can ignore the check box for ‘Include items with “Do not Auto Archive” checked. And finally select a destination to save the archive PST file (eventually this will be the project mail folder):

   

7. Repeat steps 1 through 6 for each folder you wish to archive.

   PART II – Opening / Closing an Archive Folder that has been created

8. OK. Now that you have archived a file…how do I reopen it you ask? Easy. Once again, go to the File menu and scroll down to ‘Open’ and the sub-fly-out menu call ‘Outlook Data File’:

   

9. The ‘Open Outlook Data File’ dialogue box will open. From there, select the PST file location you are looking for and find the PST file you want to open. In the example below I went to my ‘PST Outlook backup’ folder in my PM Tools folder on the K drive and selected my ‘01APR08 to 31May08 Outbox.pst’:

   

10. Select OK or double click the .pst file. Outlook then adds a folder to your folder tree structure on the left side called ‘Archive Folders’. Expand this folder and you will find your outlook archive from April 1 to May 31:

    

11. You can utilize this folder just like any normal outlook folder. When you are done with it. Select the ‘Archive Folder’, right click on it and choose ‘Close Archive Folder’. You always want to closet the archive folders when you are done with them as they are typically saved on the network (which makes Outlook slower) and it keeps them from possibly getting corrupted by a virus or with Outlook startups and shutdowns.

12. That’s it…you’ve mastered archiving! Congratulations!

Additional Note:

A .pst file is the native Microsoft Outlook extension for all Outlook data. Each day you open Outlook and utilize the files and message, Outlook is saving to a .pst file on your desktop. By archiving your Outlook data on a consistant basis, you avoid catastrophe and loss of valuable data (e-mails). It has been a quirk with Microsoft Outlook that when a .pst file reaches 2 gigabytes (which is a lot of information!!!) it become very suseptable to corruption. By backing up once a month, once a week or once a day, you avoid huge .pst files and keep your Outlook manageable. However, it would take most people a year or more to create a .pst file in the range of 2 gigabytes…and that’s even with lots of attachments. Better to be safe by archiving than sorry!

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Our green support button on the top of the right column will be changed to read “Get Live Assistance”. Instead of emailing us or calling us before you download the remote access applet, you will be able to fill out a simple form, briefly explain your problem and then initiate a chat session. During our Service Center operating hours, our technician will walk you through resolution, and if necessary prompt you to download the remote access applet from the chat session.

Can you imagine the possibilities? You don’t even have to call or email. Our world-class IT support staff truly is just one click away. We will let you know when this feature is released. Our target is next week.

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President Josh Phillips and Director of Content Management Solutions Rhonda Thomas will give a seminar presentation on Thursday. Rhonda will be presenting on Increasing Profitability in a Regulated Environment, and Josh will be presenting on Making IT Work For You.

http://dev.provisionit.com/content/?p=7