What is new about Digital Cameras you might ask?  One aspect of them, increasing mega pixel size, is getting critical to email senders and receivers. How many of you have taken the call where the caller states, "I am getting only 3 of 22 of my emails, and it took an hour to get that far!" One of the side-effects of the of the digital camera boom is a corresponding file size, which is not readily apparent to an end-user.
   The difference gets even worse when a high-bandwidth user pushes a large email off to a dialup user.  I recommend educating users to send one, or a few pics at a time, and or to use the file and or to use the file shrink capabilities of

   Windows XP by Right clicking on the jpeg and select "Send To -> Mail Recipient" or the cameras built in software to shrink a pic.  Also callers can learn to shut off the mail program they use and sidestep to a web-based email access method to identify and control these large attachments when they recognize the symptoms of the 'large photo effect.'  Hopefully this awareness will save us all the traffic to the mail servers, our inboxes and the outboxes of unwitting senders.
   If the photos are that great, they can just send them all, in their full size glory on burned CD through the USPS.

 

   This month’s featured staff person is Chris Monsey. Chris has been with GTC, Inc. since February of 2001, and holds the position of Technical Account Manager resolving those unique and difficult issues for your clients. Chris is also GTC’s in-house Mac guru, and has a vast collection of Macs from every generation.
   Chris is a third generation gold miner (as well as a Master Gardener who grows the most amazing garlic in Central Washington) born in Fairbanks, Alaska. He settled in Wenatchee over 10 years ago after acquiring a BA in History from Washington State University. He is married, has a daughter in high school, and the family shares their home with two precocious cats.
   Chris believes that his favorite quote “stick a fork in it, its done” applies equally to barbecuing and computer problems.

   The customer comes first at GTC and that extends to our billing procedures.  We are striving to improve the process by expanding our billing dates to three separate dates per month.  Please let us know if we can accommodate you with a change in your current billing date.
   Our invoices are sent out on the 3 rd , 10 th , and 20 th of the month.  In addition, we would love to email your monthly technical support invoices to you! 
   If you are interested in either of these choices please contact Laura Beardsley at 877-948-2266, ext 220 or send an email to lbeardsley@ygtc.com .

Remember to include your email address and contact name!

   No matter what the customer’s problem or request, it is important to confirm or verify what they have said. This is easy to do. Simply summarize back to the customer what the customer has said and then ask if your assumption is correct. Confirming builds the customer’s confidence in you, and it shows you care about getting the request right. It can also make the customer think about the problem or request and state it in a different way. Perhaps in a way that might be easier to understand.
   There is another advantage to confirming. Repeating the problem or

situation in the customers own words means that they will agree with your description, and they will agree with you because you will be correct. One of the keys to handling angry customers is getting them to agree to anything as quickly as possible. Confirming or verifying is an excellent opportunity to get these customers to agree with you.
   Finally, confirming will keep you from spending time on a misunderstood request, or even worse, troubleshooting a problem that a customer does not have.

   AOL Time Warner has just released its newest Internet browser, Netscape 8. This version is built on the same Gecko engine that powers the Mozilla Firefox browser, but can also run the same engine as Microsoft Internet Explorer making it great for accessing a wide range of Internet sites.
   It has a list of new features that include Pop Up blocking, added site security and customizable tool bars. Along with those it now includes live web content like weather and stock information that can be streamed right onto your desktop. The two big items that the team at AOL Time Warner are pushing are its leading edge

security features and ability to offers the best of both worlds by combining the intuition of Firefox with the user-friendly capabilities of Internet Explorer.
   On another note users will notice the absence of a e-mail client that has been in previous versions of Netscape 8, this browser now will only support surfing the web and no longer becomes packaged with an email client. With the stylish new look and added features of Netscape 8 may become the most attractive browser they have released yet. For more information about Netscape 8 visit http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/.

 

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a method of validation to thwart the tons of unsolicited mail hitting your servers and flooding your inboxes. SPF in theory is definitely a great idea; however, there are a few setbacks that could cause issues for your end users. We list here a few pros and cons to SPF to assist you in deciding whether or not SPF is indeed for you and your company.

Pros
1. Reduced spam and virus emails (both tend to be forged)
2. Reduced need for anti-spam server software
3. Less likely to become a victim of the “Joe Job”

Cons
1. Both servers must support the system
2. Broken mail "forwarding" (cannot forward email, it must be re-mailed)
3. Limited usage currently

These are just a few of both the pros and cons to SPF and should by no means be the only source for your decision to implement the system onto your servers. More in-depth research from non-bias sources (which tend to be hard to come by) are definitely needed in order to finalize a decision such as this. Although not a brand new method (it is nearing two years old), SPF appears to be the direction that many large-scale companies are going in an attempt to stop junk email from entering their systems.