CyberArtisans Newsletter Vol 5, Number 5

Welcome to the May 2006 issue of the CyberArtisans monthly newsletter!

Our goal is to present information that will be useful to you as a website owner and as a user of the web. If these newsletters are useful, please forward this to a friend. To unsubscribe, follow the directions at the bottom of this email.

This Month's Topics
Internet Security

Internet Security

Every year some enterprising folks put a few computers online totally naked — that is, without any protection whatsoever -- and wait to see how long it takes for them to acquire an infection on average. A few years ago the average time was about 40 minutes. This year it averaged 20 minutes. And that's just the average. We're aware of an instance where a system was unintentionally left online only 4-5 minutes and was found to be infected.

While Macs are, for the most part, not suffering from this yet, the emphasis is very much on the "yet." There was one reported Mac infection recently but it didn't amount to much. Most Mac experts say that for now, Mac users can probably not worry about antivirus and antispyware software. But they warn that Mac users should expect to see a serious Mac infection within 2-5 years and be ready to install protection when it becomes necessary.

For the rest of us with PCs, antivirus and antispyware software is no longer a luxury. So listed below are the top protection picks based on the current market. Note that we're just listing those packages that were rated best by a variety of experts we trust. Other packages may be almost as good and for people whose online ramblings are restricted to name-brand sites like the NY Times or Amazon.com, they are just as good. If you have anyone on your home network between the ages of 11 and 25, however, you need gold-plated protection.

Hardware firewall: Linksys Wireless-G WRT54GL router, about $70. For small-office Wi-Fi networking, this router offers the most affordable secure firewall and also offers four ports for wired Ethernet. To cover more than a few adjacent rooms, consider the Linksys WRT54GX ($160), which doubles the usual "g" range. Be sure to enable WPA or WPA2, either of which provide strong Wi-Fi security. Note that the Linksys WRT54G, which used to be a well-established favorite, has recently had a software change and newer models have been reported to be "operating erratically." The original WRT54G is now the WRT54GL and costs about $10 more than the problematic 54G.

Security Suite: ZoneAlarm Security Suite 6, about $60. Rated as the best all-in-one software firewall, antivirus program, and antispam filter -- now with antispyware scanning and Windows OS kernel protection. It's received Editors' Choice awards from both PC Magazine and CNET. But turn off ZA's real-time spyware protection so this can be handled by your antispyware program, see below.

AntiSpyware program: Webroot Spy Sweeper 4.5, under $35 per year. For individual PC users, this is the most effective remover of spyware according to comparative tests published by PC Magazine. The previous version, 4.0, was also top-rated in tests by PC World. (Note: PC Mag has also given an Editors' Choice to Encore PC Tools Spyware Doctor 3.2.) For businesses that are looking for a centrally managed solution for 10 or more seats, Webroot's Spy Sweeper Enterprise ($240 per year for 10 users) has won the latest comparative review by Windows IT Pro and was rated a Best Buy by SC Magazine.

Update management: Microsoft Update, free. Note that this should be used *instead of* Windows Update. Most users should turn Automatic Updates on and forget about it. Advanced users should turn off Automatic Updates and launch Microsoft Update only after reading the advice in the Windows Secrets free and paid newsletters (http://www.windowssecrets.com), which are always published just 2 days after Patch Tuesday. For small- to medium -sized networks, Microsoft provides the free WSUS (Windows Server Update Services), which helps manage the downloading of critical patches for Windows, Office, and Exchange.

Now here's the important part: You pay nothing at all for this ad until somebody clicks on it. Then how much do you pay? It depends. If there's not a lot of competition for the keywords you have chosen, you can pay as little at $0.25 per click or even less to get a position near the top of the listing. If you are in a competitive business you could be paying $3.00 or more per click to even get on the second page. What if lots of people click on the ad but nobody buys anything from you? That's tough -- you still have to pay Google for the clicks.

Unfortunately, what looks like a fairly simple process can get very complicated very quickly. It's possible to design an ad that will bring lots of traffic to your site but no business (yes, we've done it). The trick is to design an ad that tempts the right people to come to your site. Who are the right people? The ones who buy, of course. Sometimes a minor change to the wording of the ad will do the trick, but sometimes it takes bigger changes or many tries until you get it right. It looks like a simple way to get more customers, and for a lucky few it may be, but usually you find yourself using a lot of time tracking results, making changes, tracking those results, making more changes, etc. In most businesses, time is money, so Google Adwords are no more a free lunch than anything else in business.

The good part is that Google tracks every click, so it is easy to figure out what is and what isn't working. Also, you can put up as many different ads as you want for no additional cost (except for the additional clicks they produce, of course). Google recommends putting up different "landing pages" on your site for each ad and even offers a tracking mechanism (also free), so you know which ads are producing and which are not. There are many more choices you can make within the AdWords structure, and part of the challenge is managing all those variables and tracking how each one affects your results.

Clearly, this is a well thought-out advertising mechanism. Its biggest problems are (1) it takes a lot of work to get good results and (2) it has the potential to cost a lot for little or no return if you don't monitor it very carefully.

There are several ways you can learn to use AdWords. Probably the least expensive method is to ask us to lead you through the process and then you take it from there, but of course we can do it all if your time is at a premium. As usual, it's a question of whether you are more comfortable spending time or money. Call or email us -- we are always happy to talk with you about the options.

Thanks for joining us this month. See you next month.

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Jonathan Spencer
CyberArtisans Web Developers

http://www.cyberartisans.com/
617-965-4110