Mozilla firefox | Small Business Tech Tips

A few weeks ago, ZDNet’s Ed Bott reported on the way that potentially unwanted software gets installed with Java. Here’s what to look out for.

With the frequency of Java updates, you have probably seen (and ignored) the popups that ask you to install. But if you do run an update (which you very much should, if you need to have Java installed at all) or if you are about to install Java for the first time, here’s what you want to look out for.

In the installation process (that most people just click through without worrying about what the default settings actually are), one of the screens that comes up is the one above. It clearly states that Oracles recommends installing it, and it provides a whole bunch of things that need to be right in front of you at all times, like Facebook status updates and YouTube videos. And it works with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. What’s not to like about any of that? So you click next, the Java installer does its thing, and then you see this screen:

Success! You click close and you open up Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and/or Mozilla Firefox to check out your shiny new Ask Toolbar. But the toolbar is not there. What gives? Without telling you, the Ask Toolbar installer sits on your system and does not run for 10 minutes. And only then it runs silently, with no GUI or any other indication that it’s running except for a momentary blink of an hourglass cursor while you are doing something else.

Along with the annoying toolbar, your browser’s default search engine also gets set to Ask, so even when you don’t use the toolbar, you are getting results from Ask unless you explicitly visit another search site’s URL first. Aside from the poor search results compared to Google or even Bing, this is shady and dishonest and Oracle owes Java users more than that, since we have so many security problems with Java to begin with.

Do you have questions about toolbars or search engines that are in use by your organization? Give Everon a call today!

September 14, 2012 Forrest Garcia

Draw on your screen in Firefox

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Have you ever had those days when your trying to explain something to someone and wished you could draw on the computer screen? Or maybe you are like me and give computer support, where being able to draw on the screen can make things clearer for the people we are trying to help. Then there are times when you would like to add comments to the screen and save the results, for reference in the future? If you use the Firefox browser, there is a free add-on that lets you draw or type on any web page and save the screen as a JPG or PNG if you wish.

It’s called Screen Draw and is available at this Mozilla link. When installed it adds a pencil icon to your Firefox toolbar. Clicking the icon opens the toolbar shown on the left.

The toolbar has the functions Clear, Save, Text, Erase, and Brush. There is also a slider to adjust the size of text or of the drawing brush. Configuring of colors and font can be done from the Firefox Add-Ons Manager with the dialog shown in the figure below.

Screen Draw may have fewer features than some commercial programs but it is free and sufficient for situations where you want a simple way to draw or to place comments on a Firefox page.

September 4, 2012 Austin Leach

It’s time to throw a retirement party for Exchange 2003!

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Exchange Server 2003 came into this world on September 28, 2003. It brought with it a host of new features, including improved migration tools to ease the transition from older versions of Exchange, enhanced heuristic message filtering to help direct spam into the Junk folder, and, if you had Service Pack 2 installed, a database size limit of 75 gigabytes. This was unimaginably large for the time.

That was eight years and eleven months ago. In that time, we have also seen Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010 come into the mix as well. If your organization is still running Exchange Server 2003, here are some reasons why it is time to upgrade.

Microsoft created a handy chart to break down the differences between Exchange Server versions.
Modern desktop mail clients like Outlook 2010, Outlook for Mac 2011, and Apple Mail all require Exchange Server 2007 or later, and they won’t talk to Exchange Server 2003 at all. So if you get a new Windows machine with the latest version of Office or one of those shiny new Macs, those users will be stuck using Outlook Web Access webmail to access email, calendars, and contacts.
Outlook Web Access on Exchange Server 2003 forces browsers other than Internet Explorer to use “Light” mode, which just means that many of the features and options beyond simple sending and receiving email are disabled or invisible to anyone running a different browser (such as Firefox, Chrome, or anyone on a shiny new Mac).
The 75 gigabyte size limit I mentioned before applies only to Exchange Server 2003 Standard, but there is a lot more email being sent today than there was 9 years ago. It does not take very many users with large mailboxes to hit that size limit, and when you do Exchange Server 2003 will shut itself off to prevent database corruption or data loss. That means no more email until the size of the database is reduced. The newer versions of Exchange Server do not have this limitation.
If the software package is nearly 9 years old, chances are that the hardware running it is on its last legs too. While it might be running just fine, it is most likely out of warranty and may even be in End Of Life status, making replacement parts hard to find, making disaster recover more difficult, and increasing costs and downtime.
The prospect of replacing an Exchange server can be a daunting one, costing many thousands of dollars. One way to avoid this expense and to simplify your office network is migrating to a hosted Exchange system in the cloud instead. By getting rid of your old office server, your business can keep running if there is an internet service failure or power outage in your building. Take a look at Everon’s own cloud email and business continuity solutions.

If you are considering retiring your old server hardware running Exchange Server 2003, there has never been a better time. And Everon can help you do it. Call us at 888-244-1748 if you have questions about server migrations or our cloud email solutions.

December 29, 2009 Everon TechTips 0

Mozilla users must wait longer for 3.6 release

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It looks like Mozilla fans are stuck with version 3.5 for the time being, as Firefox recently stated they are planning on falling short of their 2009 deadline of 3.6′s release. In addition, Firefox 4.0 which had been due in 2010 is now looking at a release date of late 2010 to even early 2011. This push back is not unusual, as scheduled delays are very commonplace in the software and hardware world.

The arrival of Google’s Chrome has specifically made browser development more stressful and crazy than usual, as the competition is literally up day and night trying to keep up with Google’s advancements. Mike Shaver, Mozilla’s VP of Engineering states ” We’ve always been more quality-driven than time-driven, but we understand timing in the market matters to our users and our competitiveness.”

There is an exciting future for Firefox on the horizon; the new big feature in its 3.6 version is incorporation of the Personas plug-in that will allow people to customize their browser’s appearance. Other enhanced features will bring improved security and faster browser time to Firefox, along with other improvements.

Version 3.7 will bring even more development to Mozilla. This version will introduce even more changes in overall performance. A development called “Electrolysis” will separate computing processes into individual compartments for better stability, among other benefits. Another expected addition will be more enhancements to the “Weave” a plug in that synchronizes bookmarks, passwords, plug-ins, and open tabs across different instances in Firefox.

Version 4.0 you ask? Well the list of changes this rollout will bring keeps growing. In all honestly, it’s release is too far in the distance to get into detail about. For the time being, it’s safe to say you can definitely expect significant user interface changes and a new way to replace the standard “menu” bar.

Until then, it’s still version 3.5 for Mozilla addicts. Feel free to keep on top of Firefox’s development progress here.