Mister Nifty

I’m sure you’ve wanted to be a spy before at some point in your life, especially if you love tech as much as I do. You could sneak around with encrypted files that rogue regimes want badly. Then, when you’re captured, you fight to the last breath without giving them your super-secret password and the world is saved. Psych. You’re still in your church office!

As much as we all would love to know about encryption, it is a very scary and cumbersome topic for us common folk. But thanks to one of my favorite programs True Crypt, it’s easy to hide and encrypt any data you want without even being somewhat of an expert on encryption.

I’ve seen many a church accountant backup their Quick Books files on a thumb drive without ever encrypting their data. This could be bad for a company or a church if that data gets into the wrong hands. So, in order to help you protect your files, I’ve put together this simple screencast to show you how to use True Crypt. You’ll be up and running within 5 minutes!

True Crypt runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux! Woo Hoo!

Download True Crypt

Accessing your local church computers and information from an external location is not as hard as you think.   Here are some great ways to get remote access to your local network.

• Logmein FREE version LogMeIn.com offers a free service that gives you access to your remote computer as if you are sitting in front of it. It’s a great way to work remotely from home or on the road.  Some of the beefy features of their paid versions include printer sharing, and easy file transferring.  However, LogMeIn FREE is all you need to get you started.  This is also a great way to work on other computers at the office without ever leaving your desk.  Seriously, stop paying for these bloated web services that make you pay for what is FREE.
• DropBox DropBox has been one of my favorite and most productive tools I’ve ever used.  Basically, DropBox sets up a folder one multiple computers of your choice, and whatever you place in that folder, it syncs it to all computers.  If you are working on a file at the office, simply save it to your DropBox and then pick up where you left off at home.  You can also grab your files from the website.  It’s so simple and hassle-free.  And it’s free!
• Lacie Big Disk Network I’m a huge fan of Lacie network drives.  You can now get a 2 Terabyte drive for under $400.00.  It plugs into your network and withing a few configuration steps, you have a pretty complex file server.  It allows you to create users and share folders for each user/department.  Users can be restricted to viewing only certain file.  The great thing about this new Lacie is that you can backup your files to an external hard drive with built-in backup features.  It also comes with an FTP (file transfer protocol) server for you to access your files remotely from any FTP client.  Alternatively, it comes with it’s own web interface that can be access from any browser that takes zero configuration.   I highly recommend you getting one of these immediately to centralize your data and give you access to your important documents on the fly.
• Filezilla This is a great free FTP server that can be installed on any of your computers.  This is a software for the more advanced tech.  It requires opening up ports on your firewall, port-forwarding on your router and configuring your passive-mode settings.  The cool thing is you can create users to access certain folders.  This is great if you have a dedicated server on-site.  You can use it locally to share files with others while in the office or remotely (if you choose) to access files from anywhere.  Take a look at the instructions for installation.
• Abyss Web Server Setting up a web server is as easy as installing some software and making a couple changes on your router.  This is a great way to create an intranet site for your church employees.  Aprelium has great documentation to get you started.  By setting up port-forwarding, you can access your Intranet site remotely.  (Forward port 80 to the static Local IP of the computer where your web server is installed  — Example: 192.168.1.200).  You can even mask it with a domain from DynDNS.org with their dynamic ip service.  This part is not for the faint-hearted.  You need to dig in and learn about IPs and how they work.  Basically, if you have a simple internet service, your IP changes every week, or every other week.  This is called a dynamic IP.   This means to find your network from an external browser can become a nightmare.  DynDNS tracks your IP via a little program that runs on your computer.  It then gives you a domain that’s easy to remember and takes care of the hard part.   If you have a service that gives you a static IP (one that never changes), then all you have to do is update the DynDNS.org website one time and you’re set.

We’re living in the digital age.  There’s no reason your frequently-used files have to stay locked away on your church computers.  Figure out a good solution to help your staff be more productive in and out of the office.  You’ll be a tech hero!

This one’s for the real techies!   If you have an extra computer laying around the office, you won’t after reading this post.  Aprelium Technologies has released The Abyss Web Server X1.  It is an application that hosts websites from the computer it is installed on.  You do have to have a working knowledge of IP addressing and port calling.  In a nutshell, it’s very simple though.   The installation is user-friendly.  It will ask you which port you wish to run your server on.  Select something that is easy to remember such as the last four digits of your telephone number.  This will allow you access to configure the web server Basically a port looks like this when called from a web browser: http://localhost:5201/ .  (localhost is the computer you are running – others would access it by typing http://billscomputer:5201/)  This works just like a regular website works.  You can post your local INTRAnet website on your server (putting it in your hosting folder on your computer) with information such as tech solutions, leadership files, etc..  This is a great way to centralize your frequently used files and forms.  Normally, a user would only have to type in http://billscomputer/ and it would automatically forward to your website.

You can even configure your router to allow traffic to access your web server.  No one will ever know you are running your own server.   There are several hoops you have to jump through.  Start by configuring your computer/web server with a static IP address.  Secondly, forward port 80 (web access port) on your router to be directed to the IP address of your web server.

To get a more recongizable domain, you can use the free service www.dyndns.org and get a free dynamic dns account.  Then, you can point your www.whatever.com to your dyndns.org account.   It gets a bit complicated, so if you have questions, you can e-mail me and I will try to walk you through the basics.  I wanted to put this out there for the more advanced users of this site.   If you can’t understand this, give it to your IT guy…chances are, you will just make his day.

Have you ever been sitting at home wishing you could access data on your church computer? Now you can. Grab a free LogMeIn account, install the software on your computer, and be online in minutes! All you have to do is simply go to: logmein.com, login and access your computer. When you click the full screen button, it is as though you are sitting in front of your station at church. Your clipboards can be syncronized as well. Best of all, it’s free!

One reason your computer runs slow is that there are many programs running in the background before you even open your first application. These programs can be updaters for software you have installed, or adware toolbars, and many more different types of programs. The rule of thumb – You should have little or no programs starting up when you login.

I’m going to show you how to rid yourselves of these pesky programs that slow down your machine and cause undo stress in your life.

1. Click START, and then click RUN

2. A dialogue box will appear. Type msconfig and hit enter. (See example image)

3. A System Configuration Utililty will appear. Select the Startup Tab.

4. Uncheck all programs that you do not want to startup. Leave your antivirus program checked. That should be the only program you need to startup. If you are on a laptop, leave the lines with your manufacturer name checked because these processes may be your touchpad and quicklink buttons.

5. Click on the SERVICES Tab on top.

6. Make sure you click HIDE ALL MICROSOFT SERVICES. (You don’t want to uncheck the integral XP functions)

7. The list should be drastically shorter after checking the box. Now, uncheck anything that looks suspicious, but leave your antivirus software checked.

8. Hit OK and restart your computer

9. A box will show up at your next startup, check the box and hit ok.

FYI – If a program or peripheral is not working on your computer after this process, start over and CHECK THE BOX pertaining to that software or hardware. I PROMISE YOU DIDN’T BREAK ANYTHING!

VOILA – Your a speed racer now.