Reminders from the Techs

Sonicwall Firewalls—Critical Updates, All Devices

You may have already seen our update on this. Sonicwall has security firmware updates across its product lines, including all TZ and NSA units, two of the most popular products used by us and our clients.

Is there a problem? No, nothing ‘dire.’ Sonicwall is one of many IT vendors who is taking the security risk seriously and continuing to lock down their devices. Firewalls are the first line of defense for your network or home office; these are critical for the safety and security of your data.

We have a list of all Sonicwall units across our clients. We have scheduled these updates with you since there was a short work interruption. We logged into the firewall, installed the firmware update, then let the unit reboot.

Thanks for your help in getting these important updates rolled out! If you have questions, feel free to call! – CMW

Anti-Spam—Moving to M365

 Many of you have just moved, or are in the process of moving to Microsoft 365 for email.  From a day-to-day perspective, not much has changed; you launch Outlook and work through your email. You already have email on your phone, too. If you’ve used Outlook Web Access (OWA) in the past, then you’ll just log into Office.com to get email from the internet; easy.

What has changed is your anti-spam. Within the last two years, Microsoft’s anti-spam offering has matured and is ready for prime-time. We moved to it last year, ending our AppRiver service. I have to say I’m really glad to have made this change since I don’t have to log into a separate portal to review email caught by the spam filters, and I don’t have to request that someone flag something as ’never’ or ’always’ block. But, I’ll also admit it’s a transition.

With M365, I can right-click on any email address and choose ’Junk’ to either flag something as ’Always Block’ or ’Never Block’ (and there are a few other choices, too). I can also click on my Junk folder and view all the email that has come in that might be junk. We have a rule that automatically removes these after 60 days so my Junk folder doesn’t get too out of hand. If anything in that Junk folder is legit, I just right-click and make the change.

Lastly, anti-spam actually has a ‘learning’ component. As you work with the incoming email, it begins to ‘learn’ what you do and don’t want to let through. During this process, we ask that you remain calm and be patient. In no time at all this will get better, and in the meantime, you have more control and one less portal to visit. This is a ’win’ for each of our clients, too. If you have questions or need some help, give us a call.  – CMW

Changing Banks

 Our bank has changed hands too many times, so we’re moving on. We had to provide new ACH information to clients and we’re happy to report one of them called us to confirm it was really us! Everyone should do this. Go Team!!!! – CMW