eNewsletter

According to IRS.gov, a phony e-mail claiming to come from the IRS has recently been circulating in large numbers. The subject line is typically �Notice of Underreported Income,� and the e-mail may contain an attachment or link to a bogus webpage directing taxpayers to their "tax statement." In either case, when the recipient opens the attachment or clicks on the link, they download malware including the hard-to-detect Zeus Trojan.

This malicious code can take over the hard drive, giving someone remote access to the computer, or it could look for passwords and other information and send them to the scammer to gain access to bank accounts. Researchers estimate that the Zeus criminals are emptying more than a million dollars per day out of victims' bank accounts with the software, and it's the most prominent spam-delivered virus in the world right now.

Please remember that the IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails to taxpayers about their tax accounts. If you receive an unsolicited e-mail claiming to come from the IRS, do not open any attachments or click on any links. Those who believe they may already be victims of identity theft should find out what to do by going to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's website, OnGuardOnLine.gov.

Wireless networks are convenient, but it is important to be aware of the risks that can arise from an unsecured network:

Anyone within range of your network can access your Internet connection causing you to lose speed or connection.
Someone could hack onto your network, perform illegal activities and you could be held liable.
You can unknowingly receive or spread computer viruses.
The "borrowers" could access your personal information, such as websites visited, banking information and credit card numbers.

To prevent these things from happening, be sure to have your wireless network installed and secured by an ACS certified technician.

If you install your own wireless network, be sure to take these steps:

Create a username and password for accessing your router, the password should consist of at least 8 characters and include letters and numbers.
Use MACS filtering to only allow permitted computers access to your router.
Enable WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption and avoid WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption.
Change the default SSID and don't broadcast the name. This makes your wireless signal invisible and harder for a hacker to detect.

A wireless network presents some risks, but these risks can be managed with these few simple steps. Wireless routers are available for purchase or lease from ACS.

Call 1-866-937-4227 or stop by an ACS Retail Center for more information about wireless routers, or if you would like one of our technicians to install an affordable and secure wireless network in your home or business.

Question: The typing box at Twitter.com is labeled: "What are you doing?" Am I limited to answering that question in my tweets?

Answer: No, you are certainly not limited to answering the "What are you doing?" question on Twitter. (Especially if that results in tweets that contain just the mundane details of your everyday life, like the fact that you're now eating a bowl of cereal.) You can use those 140 characters for other things, and doing so often makes tweets more interesting and valuable to others. For example, you can pose questions to your followers such as, "What's got your attention and why?" or "What do you think about _______?" You can also send links to neat stuff you've found online, or spread the word about breaking news events.

Money Made Easy
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/index.html - Is 2010 the year you'll finally start saving more? Reallocate your investments? Get out of debt? If your New Year's resolutions are financial in nature, some lessons in money management may be in order. Here you'll find Money 101 featuring 23 lessons from Setting Priorities to 401(k)s-all designed to help you make smarter financial decisions.

Christmas Cookbook
http://northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook - If you're not already in the Christmas spirit, cooking up some delicious holiday treats just might get you there. At this site, you can download recipes from Mrs. Claus herself! Recipes are available for cookies, fudge, candy, cakes, pies, and more. And, don't forget to check out other areas of the site to see Disco Dancing Santa, write Santa a letter, or track his travels on Christmas Eve.

Holiday Hiccups
http://emilypost.com/everyday/holiday_FAQs_entertaining.htm - A lot of holiday stress can be attributed to wondering about appropriate behavior: "Is it acceptable to bring an extra guest to dinner?" "How elaborate a gift should I give my new boyfriend/girlfriend?" "Should my tipping habits change during the holiday season?" The Emily Post Institute site offers gracious suggestions to address these and other tricky holiday situations.

Family (Medical) Tree
http://mayoclinic.com/health/medical-history/HQ01707 - This site covers an important topic you may not have given much thought to: your family medical history. Such a history can provide useful information to your doctor in assessing your disease risk, recommending treatments or prevention steps, and ordering tests. The site discusses what information to get, and how to gather it in a way that's comfortable for family members. The holidays are a great time to start collecting this vital data.

Sesame Street Turns 40
http://sesamestreet.org/onair/history - On November 10, 1969, television history was made as the first episode of Sesame Street aired. This year, the show's website is celebrating the program's 40th anniversary with history, trivia, and fun videos. Vote for your favorite videos, watch rare clips, download character computer wallpaper, and read behind-the-scenes stories. Those who watched the show from the beginning will be happy to know some of the original characters still live on Sesame Street!

Want to unleash your creativity and broadcast your talents to a global audience? YouTube makes it pretty simple for anyone to upload a video to the site. They accept video files from most digital cameras, camcorders, web cams, and cell phones in the .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, and .MPG file formats. Once you've finished editing your video, make sure it's less than 10 minutes and smaller than 100MB.

YouTube recommends using the following settings to upload a video of high quality:

MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format
320x240 resolution
MP3 audio
30 frames per second

Resizing your video to these specifications before uploading will help your videos look better on YouTube.

To upload a video on YouTube:

Create a YouTube account by clicking on the "Create Account" link in the upper right corner of any YouTube page and then log in to your account.
Click "Upload Videos" in the upper right corner of any YouTube page. The "Video File Upload" page will appear.
Click on the "Upload Video" button. The "Select File" dialog box will appear.
Navigate to the file you would like to upload and click on the "Select" button. Your upload will begin.
While your video is uploading, enter as much information about your video as possible, including Title, Description, Tags, and Category. The more information you include, the easier it is for users to find your video. Make your tags as descriptive as you can. For example, if you took a video of your friends at the beach, you might want to tag it like this: party beach surfing. Each tag is separated from the others by a space.
Determine if you want your video set to Public (so anyone can access it) or Private (so only your friends and family can view it). You also have the options to prevent people from posting comments or to filter comments yourself.
Click the "Save Changes" button.
To see your video, click on the "Go to My Videos" link towards the bottom of the page.

Depending on your Internet connection speed and the size of the video, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to upload a video. If you have a high speed connection, you can generally expect the upload to take somewhere between 1-5 minutes for every 1MB.

We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings here. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click here.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

ACS eNewsletter
Arvig Communication Systems
www.arvig.com

To subscribe to the ACS eNewsletter, please click here.

Arvig Communication Systems
150 Second Street SW
Perham, MN 56573
1-866-YES-4ACS (1-866-937-4227)

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2009 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this e-mail are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.