DSD Business Systems News
Product News, Tech Tips and the Inside Scoop
November 2003 l www.dsdinc.com l 619-683-9900

Index

MAS 90 / MAS 200 - MAS 500 - Enhancements - CRM - The IT Guys

Up Close and Personal

by Doug Deane, President of DSD

As you know, nearly a quarter of a million acres, over 2,000 homes and more than a dozen lives have been lost here in San Diego in the past week, and the fires are still raging. They have directly or indirectly affected everyone in this county, and DSD is certainly no exception. Many of our staff did not know until Tuesday if they still had homes standing. Thankfully, we all did, but many of our neighbors were not so fortunate. Shown is a picture of my next door neighbor's house, soon after the fire.

I remember watching the fire on Sunday afternoon, burning toward my house. I saw and heard the "wham" of propane tanks exploding in the valley below us, and I watched as a 400 foot tall fire tornado rose from the ground into the sky. Time to leave.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by our not being available on Monday and Tuesday, October 27-28th, and we hope that you'll join us in mourning the loss of those who perished, and that you'll also join us in helping those affected by these fires by clicking on the link below.

http://www.sandiego.salvationarmy.org/index.htm

Miles for Melons

On November 21^st, thousands of men and women will come together in San Diego to participate in a 60 mile, 3 day walk in support of breast cancer research. I have made the commitment, with the support (emotionally and financially) from DSD, to raise $2000 and to complete the 3-day walk. My team, appropriately named Miles for Melons, has been training for a couple of months. During this time, I have been pursuing my fundraising goal of $2000 with the net proceeds benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to fund breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment programs, as well as the National Philanthropic Trust, to provide a special field of interest fund for breast cancer initiatives.

If you wish to make a donation (anything helps), please make check payable to BREAST CANCER 3 DAY, and send to:

DSD BUSINESS SYSTEMS
C/O Stephanie Smith
7050 Friars Road
Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92108

DSD thanks you for your consideration and support!

Stephanie Smith

Account Manager

MAS 90/MAS 200

MAS 90 and MAS 200 2003 W2 and 1099 Notice

It's not too early to be planning ahead for End Of Year! Currently there are no major changes anticipated for 2003 W2s and 1099s, except for changes to 1099-DIV, and the inevitable changes to Q1 2004 Tax Tables.

Sage Software will be releasing an IRD (Interim Release Disk) for download from the Best website to accommodate the 1099-DIV form changes later in the year. It has not been stated if Magnetic Media is affected, but if it is there will also be an IRD released for Magnetic Media. The new 2004 Tax Tables may be auto-shipped to current SMP clients, and will be downloadable from the Best website.

Note: If you plan on using 4-per-page W2s, Sage Software recommends purchasing the W2 forms from Sage Software forms division to ensure MAS 90 compatibility. Apparently there are several different variations of W2 4/page forms available. To order W2s, call 800-538-5514.

Tax Table Updates (or TTU) and IRDs can be downloaded from www.bestsoftware.com Support section.

Upcoming MAS 90 and MAS 200 Classes

Library Master & Security	$425	Nov 10, Dec 8, Jan 12
General Ledger	$425	Nov 11, Dec 9, Jan 13
Accounts Payable	$425	Nov 12, Dec 10, Jan 14
Accounts Receivable	$425	Nov 13, Dec 11, Jan 15
Inventory Management	$425	Nov 18, Dec 16, Jan 19
Sales Order	$425	Nov 19, Dec 17, Jan 20
Purchase Order	$425	Nov 20, Dec 18, Jan 21
Crystal Reports (2 days)	$800	Jan 22 & 23 (2-day class)

You must sign-up a week before the class to reserve your spot!

All classes are held from 9am - 5pm, and cost $425 per person unless stated otherwise. Lunch is provided. They are held at the DSD Building in beautiful Mission Valley in San Diego.

To register, call Sandy McCauley at 619-683-9900 or e-mail SandyM@dsdinc.com

MAS 90 and MAS 200 Promotions

Existing Customers

Receive up to 15% off Distribution Productivity modules*
Receive 20% off on Visual Integrator upgrades from Import Master*

For more information, contact Stephanie Smith at 619-683-9900 or StephanieS@dsdinc.com.

* Some restrictions may apply, please contact Stephanie Smith for promotion details and expiration dates.

Module Spotlight: Bar Code

by Jennifer Phillips

Would you like to speed up your Physical Inventory process and increase accuracy at the same time? Would you like to be able to scan a UPC code during Shipping Data Entry or Receipt of Goods and simply enter the quantity being shipped or received? Bar Code along with the use of a hand-held terminal may be the answer for you.

Using hand-held terminals as data collectors, you may scan an item barcode and enter quantities. Via Warehouse software will allow you to download this information from a hand-held terminal to your PC. Bar Code will then take that information and will update your MAS 90 or MAS 200 files.

Using Bar Codes for Physical Inventory not only reduces time, but will increase accuracy. Your warehouse employees will only have to freeze items to be inventoried, scan the item's barcode and enter a count. Via Warehouse software will push the data from the hand-held terminal into your MAS 90 or MAS 200 system. Update your variance register, and the inventory is complete. It's that simple.

Bar Code and hand-held terminals can be used for other functions too. Via Warehouse software will allow you to scan your inventory receipts and/or your Sales Order Shipping Data Entry. You may also use this technology for warehouse inventory control when moving stock to different bin locations.

Give Stephanie Smith a call at 619- 683-9900 to see whether the Bar Code module and a hand-held terminal would be right for your business.

Recovering Hard Disk space from MAS 90 and MAS 200

by Ken Phillips

DSD customers often ask how to reduce the amount of disk space MAS 90 uses either because the server is running out of disk space, or the MAS 90 backup is too large for a single tape. Here are several tips you can use to recover some of the disk space MAS 90 is using.

Delete Duplicate Company Codes: Archive duplicate or prior year copies of company data files, and delete these extra company codes. Often times DSD suggests using SVDATA to copy your live data to another company code for test or backup purposes. Other clients (especially Payroll clients) use SVDATA to copy live data to a prior year company code to print W2’s or retain prior year detail. Go to Library Master/Utilities/Company Maintenance, and verify duplicate or test Company Codes. Archive to a backup tape, or CD ROM those company data files you wish to keep. From Company Maintenance, select the old company code, and click the DELETE button. A list of modules will be displayed with No under the Remove Data column. Check Yes for the modules to be deleted, and click PROCEED. The company’s data files and company code will be deleted. You can feel free to delete the Demo Data files for ABC, EEC, FDD, LWW, UWI, and XYZ since they can easily be reinstalled.
Print Deferred Reports: Deferred reports can take up a lot of space in the ..\Home\Textout folder. Check the Deferred Printer (from the MAS 90 toolbar), and print or delete your Deferred Reports. Note: Deferred source journals cannot be purged, and must be printed. The DPnnnn files should not simply be deleted since detailed information regarding the report is recorded in MAS 90.
Perform Period End Processing: Verify and modify your history retention settings in each module’s Setup Options (i.e. Number of Days to Retain Paid Invoices). MAS 90 uses these flags to purge old data during Period End Processing. Some history, such as A/R Invoice History, A/P Payment History and I/M Transaction History is not purged automatically, but can only be purged by selecting the Clear Only or Purge Only option found on the Period End Processing menu.
Purge A/P, A/R, and I/M Audit Masterfile: Many clients have turned on their Audit Masterfile flag in Setup Options. Each time a customer, vendor or item is added, changed or deleted, a record is created in this file, so the corresponding file (AP_99, AR_99, IM_99) can be huge. If this flag is set, DSD recommends clearing the file (from the module’s Reports Menu), and turning off the Audit flag. If you decide to keep the audit flag on, be sure to look at and purge these files on a period basis (at Period or Year End).
Delete .OLD Files: When MAS 90 data files are rebuilt, you are provided the opportunity to Save the Original File. The original file is saved with a file extension of *.OLD, (or if you rebuild using DSD’s DATA Rebuild Master, *.OL1, *.OL2, etc). Often the largest data files you have are the ones you must rebuild! Since MAS 90 does not have a utility to delete these files, you must delete these files manually. Use Windows Explorer, drill down to your company data folders, change the view to DETAIL, and click on the file Type column. All the OLD files will be grouped together, selected and deleted. Also look for other renamed data file extensions like .BAK or BAC, which may also be deleted. Company data folder names are formatted AACCC, where AA is the application, like GL or AP, and CCC is the company code.
Delete Copies of Prior MAS 90 Levels: When performing a MAS 90 upgrade, a copy of the ..\MAS90 folder and all his sub-folders are copied to another location as a backup. After the upgrade the old MAS 90 system is no longer required, and can be deleted. Look for prior versions of MAS 90 on your server. You can search for MAS90 (since both a the folder and a MAS90 program both exist), or search on *.SOA, since all live MAS 90 system and application data files use the .SOA file extension. DSD suggests you archive the old MAS 90 system to backup tape prior to deleting, just in case you want it back later.
Delete Copies of Data Files in Sub-Folders: Often times DSD finds clients have made a backup copy of their data files below the company data folder (using the same folder name). For example \MAS90\APXYZ\APXYZ. MAS 90 does always behave properly since it uses the file hierarchy to locate data files. Check and delete any old data folders using this technique.
Remove Modules No Longer Used or Owned: Go to Library Master/Security/Product Registration to get a list of applications or modules you own. Those applications without Unlocking Keys are those you do not own. Go to Library Master/Utilities and select Uninstall Modules to delete modules you do not own, or no longer use. Note: You must delete any company data files setup for these modules before the module can be uninstalled.

Normally you can recover quite a bit of hard drive space simply by (1) purging prior levels of MAS 90, (2) deleting backup and test company code codes and (3) deleting the *.OLD MAS 90 data files.

If you have any questions regarding deleting old MAS 90 data files, or need assistance with the above procedures, please call DSD Business Systems Professional Services for assistance.

Testing Your Tape Backup System

Last Things First: Testing Your Backup

While this needs to be done after your backup system is in place, it is so important that it is being discussed first. This is a key part of ensuring that you can recover from a data disaster.

The most important part of backing up your data is to test your backups regularly and ensure that you can restore the data when required. A common and tragic problem is when tape backups have been made every day and then when they are needed it is not possible to restore data. For a variety of reasons, backup restoration can fail.

Some reasons that restoration can fail:

Tapes are worn out.
Wrong files are being backed-up.
Back-up job is not being executed.
Tapes are not being changed according to schedule.

For this reason, it is necessary to periodically test your backup. Do not test the system once - you must test it regularly. If someone cancels the back-up job or a tape wears out, you will not be able to recover from disaster.

Ideally, you should restore the data to a separate file system (such as a hard disk or array) and then compare the restored data to the production file system file by file. This is not practical as it would require a duplicate file system just for testing purposes. For this reason this is not done.

Instead, tape backup software usually permits the testing of backup media sets. After a backup is completed, this allows the backup tape set to be compared to the file system that was backed up. It is even possible (though not always desirable due to system performance and time considerations) to automatically perform this compare each time the job is completed. This is OK only if someone in the organization is checking the comparison log on a periodic basis.

In any case, it is important that your system operator be able to restore data. You must periodically restore a selected group of files to a scratch directory to be sure that the system is working. You must be sure that in the case of equipment failure, destruction or theft that your backup set can be restored to replacement equipment. For this reason, it is desirable to use industry standard software, hardware and techniques. This is not a good place for experimentation.

What Comprises an Adequate Backup System?

An adequate backup system must include the following elements:

Enough tapes for complete backups to occur on a predefined rotation
Regular testing of the system and media to ensure that restoration is possible
A person that is responsible to execute the backup plan on an on-going basis
The backup usually needs to occur when processing is not taking place (off hours)
A logical tape rotation schedule must be established and followed
Tapes need to be rotated to a secure location off site in case of disaster or theft
A calendar/log must be maintained to schedule tapes and record results

Information Specific to a MAS 90 or MAS 200 Backup

The following is necessary or helpful when backing up a MAS 90 or MAS 200 system:

All MAS 90 and MAS 200 data files should be backed up at the same time. DSD does not recommend incremental backups because if a massive computer failure were to occur, multiple incremental backup tapes are probably need to be restored and it is difficult to ensure that all data are restored from the series of backup media.
For ease, DSD recommends the entire "\Mas90" folder be backed up. If this is not possible, then at a minimum you need to backup your MAS 90 company data files, the "\SOA" folder (system files) and "\Home" folder (more system files). All folders below "\SOA" and "\HOME" needed to be backed-up as well.
MAS 90 and MAS 200 use a consistent folder naming convention enabling you to identify program and data folders.
Program folders always use the two-character application code. For example, the "\GL" folder contains the General Ledger program files. Program folders tend to be 5MB or less.
The company data folder format is five characters long including the two-character application code, and three-character company code. For example \SOABC is the ABC Demo Data Sales Order data files.
If the "\Mas90" folder is too large, check to see if you have multiple test company or demo company data files which could be deleted. If you no longer need the test company or demo company, you can delete them in Library Master/Utilities/Company Maintenance. When you delete a company the program will list the existing applications, and allow you to select which application files to delete. This can recover a lot disk space. Additionally, the MAS 90 program folders don’t always need to be backed up, since they can be reinstalled from the MAS 90 installation CD. (Don't forget any program patches or enhancements would then also need to be reinstalled).
Another technique for reducing the number of MAS 90 files is to periodically delete all the "*.OLD" files. When the MAS 90 rebuild utilities are run, you can save the original file. The original file is saved with the ".OLD" extension (from the standard ".SOA" file extension). MAS 90 does not provide a tool to purge these "*.OLD" files automatically, so deleting files will need to be done manually through Windows Explorer, or Find Files.

Example Ten Tape Backup Plan

A ten backup tape rotation is very common. The following backup plan is presented to give you a recommended schedule and method for daily backups, which will minimize potential data loss and re-entry time.

This backup scheme requires ten separate sets of backup media. A "set" of backup media means the number of tapes (or other media like disks) needed for a complete backup. This may be one tape (for other media) or more than one tape. Each set of backup diskettes or tapes should be labeled as follows:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3

When creating the calendar for a given time period, such as the next six months or year of tape rotation, use a standard calendar (whether paper or electronic) and enter the schedule in advance with the planned tape for each day. Then, each day, enter the results of the most recent backup, including:

Who performed the backup
When the backup was performed
Comments about the backup set

The backup schedule provides a daily backup for Monday through Thursday, followed by a weekly backup on Friday. The daily media is then recycled again until the next Friday, when the media for Week 2 is used. The cycle continues until all of the weekly media have been used. The next monthly media set is used in place of the weekly set, and the cycle repeats.

Day1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4 tapes correspond to Monday through Thursday and are used every week.
Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 are used the first three Fridays in a month cycle.
Month 1, Month 2 and Month 3 are used instead of a "Week X" tape on the fourth Friday of a month cycle.

Off-Site Copy

It is essential to keep an off-site copy in case of disaster or theft. In this example, the off-site copy could be the Monthly or Weekly media (tapes made on Fridays). Additional backups performed at year-end and before period-end processing may also be very helpful in the event that any unforeseen processing problems occur which may affect your data.

Tape Rotation Over the First Four Weeks

Each tape made on a Friday under this plan should be rotated off site when it is done recording. As a practical matter this means that on Monday the backup person should take Friday's backup to the off-site storage location and bring back the previous off-site tape (from the previous Friday).

Week One

Day:	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Tape:	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	*Week 1

Week Two

Day:	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Tape:	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	*Week 2

Week Three

Day:	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Tape:	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	*Week 3

Week Four

Day:	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Tape:	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	*Month 1

*Note that what differs from week to week is the tape selected for Friday.

MAS 500

MAS 500 Promotions

Existing Customers

Receive Up to a 15% Discount on eCustomer and eSalesforce*
Receive Up to 15% Off Distribution Modules*

For more information, contact Stephanie Smith at 619-683-9900 or StephanieS@dsdinc.com.

* Some restrictions may apply, please contact Stephanie Smith for promotion details and expiration dates.

MAS 500 Tip – Printing Reports

by Jennifer Phillips

Most MAS 500 report setup screens have two tabs: Main and Options.

The Main tab page is used to define the sort and selection criteria for the report. For example, you may select to print a report of all customers in a particular sales territory. Or you may want the report to print sales by customer in a descending order – so you see the customers that purchase the most at the top of the report.

The Options tab page is used to determine the overall report format. This includes items such as: Detail or Summary, Date criteria, whether to print comments or messages.

Because the Options tab is the second tab on the screen, it often is overlooked. If you run a report and the date range or aging is not correct, check the setting on the Options tab.

Remember, you may check the box to “Print Report Settings” when you are printing a report. This will cause the settings you selected to print at the bottom of the report. This may be helpful to you should you wish to duplicate the report at a later date.

CRM

Do You Have "Silos of Data"?

by Mike Mahoney

Software created for business has been like watching a child growing up. If you’ve been working with computers since the late 80’s, you probably remember some of the early popular business software programs that helped you get things done faster – WordStar, WordPerfect, VisiCalc, dBase II, and Lotus 123 to name a few. In the 1990’s came contact manager programs like ACT and TeleMagic. These programs vastly improved sales and customer service efforts. In tandem with those programs were general purpose accounting programs, and specialty software for specific industries.

Business software has now reached its maturity – similar to a person turning 21. It’s amazing, however, to see how many software programs that are still run by businesses have no way to communicate with other programs. It’s also amazing to see how many businesses there are in this region that still use these legacy programs. I see many clients today that have one program for sales, one program for accounting, and one for service or support of their customers. They also use a program for e-mail, and have a separate address book for each employee, usually in Outlook. In 75% of the cases that I have seen, these programs do not talk to each other.

This is a critical problem that CEO’s and CIO’s need to consider. Do you currently have a sales program, an accounting program, and a customer service program that don’t talk to each other? If so, you should know that software that cannot synchronize or communicate with other programs is going to be the “WordStar of tomorrow” – obsolete and unusable.

A CRM program can assist in these endeavors. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) programs have their roots as contact manager programs meant for the sales force. They have evolved into a single source program that can hold everything there is to know about the people and companies that you are doing business with. A CRM solution, such as SalesLogix, has solutions beyond sales, including marketing, customer support. They have links to talk with many different programs, and exchange data. In most cases, the CRM program is the repository of all information on a customer or prospect. In this regard, you can send the right marketing message to that customer, because you have a 360-degree view of that customer.

Do your company a favor. Consider eliminating the “silos of data” that have been at companies for many years. If a program has no capability to share its information with other programs, then don't buy it!

Zero Percent Leasing from American Express for SalesLogix!

SalesLogix is still offering 0% leasing from American Express Business Services for the purchase of SalesLogix software. Choose you term – 24, 36, or 48 months, with 0% finance charge.

This special offer is scheduled to end when the year 2003 ends. Please contact Nicole Stone (nicoles@dsdinc.com) for more details.

Feature Software of the Month

DynaLink

DynaLink is a software program specifically written for SalesLogix that integrates accounting data inside of SalesLogix. Features include:

Provides timely, accurate financial information critical to selling to and supporting customers
Presents sales people and accounting personnel the information they need in a familiar interface they understand
Enables exchange of sales and financial information for workgroup users and remote users via powerful synchronization

Provides the flexibility to accommodate customizations and work in concert with unique business processes

With integration, Sales wins! Unprecedented levels of insight to the order and invoice process

Access current product information, pricing, discounts and inventory when creating quotes or taking orders
View account credit status, terms, and account balance before placing an order
Service customers better with invoice, payment, outstanding balance, and aging information at your fingertips
Use SalesLogix processes to follow up with customers after they purchase
Analyze past product purchasing information to plan future sales and marketing campaigns

With integration, Accounting wins! Increased control of the order entry process

Ensure salespeople generate accurate and complete orders
Drive product pricing and discounting into SalesLogix from the back-office systems
Eliminate need to respond to inquiries from Sales regarding product, orders, invoices, and outstanding balances
Reduce double work re-keying orders
Reduce duplicate data entry by accessing updated customer information from SalesLogix

With integration, everyone wins! Efficiency and effectiveness gains across the organization

Orders get to accounting quicker
Customers receive product sooner
The company gets paid faster
Salespeople get commission checks earlier
Customers are serviced better

CRM Tip: How to Customize a Field

For each of the three CRM packages that we work with…

ACT!

If you are fairly new to ACT!, you may not know that you can customize fields. You may have noticed all the user fields available on the contact screen. But, did you know that you could continue to get more out of ACT! like most of our users by customizing fields to be more specific your business needs?

You can change the field label, for example changing "User 1" to "Invoice #" or "Business Type". Or change the size of the field so you type more or less information. You can even change the field type to be "yes or no", for instance. Just follow these simple steps:

Display the contacts screen. Move the cursor to the field you wish to edit.
From the Menu bar, choose Edit, Define Fields.
Change the options that you wish, and press OK!

TeleMagic

TeleMagic was built on the premise of easy customization. To add or change fields…

From the menu bar, choose File, Add/Edit Fields.
Click on the level of the database (1, 2, or 3).
Click on the add button to add a field, or highlight the field you want to change and click on the change button.

SalesLogix

Version 6 and higher: Launch the Architect program.

From the menu bar, click on Manage, Database.
A window appears with table names on the left, and field names on the right. To edit an existing field, right-click on the field and choose properties. To add a field, right-click anywhere on the right-hand pane and choose “add new field”.
Fields cannot be added to the “base” tables, such as Account, contact, or Opportunity. In those cases, you must add an additional table, such as “DSD_ACCOUNT” and add your custom fields to that table.

Version 5.x and lower: Same as above, but the database manager is located in the Workgroup Administrator program, instead of the Architect program.

Enhancements

Product of the Month:
APDT Accounts Payable Expense Distribution Entry

The APDT enhancement for MAS 90 and MAS 200 Accounts Payable module allows the user to simplify and automate frequently utilized General Ledger Distributions for A/P Invoice Data Entry. (This feature is not implemented in Manual Check Invoice Distribution Entry). Where standard MAS90 and MAS 200 allow for only one default General Ledger Account to be assigned to a Vendor, which then defaults to 100% of the Invoice Amount, Distribution Table Codes allow for multiple General Ledger Accounts to be assigned on a percentage basis of the total Invoice Amount.

Distribution Table Codes can be maintained on the Accounts Payable Setup Menu, Distribution Table Maintenance. Within each Code, multiple Distribution Lines and individual percentages of distribution can be assigned to each Code. Two types of Distribution Table Lines are supported:

Multiple discrete General Ledger accounts can be assigned to a Distribution Table Code, each with their own percentage. These override the default Vendor General Ledger Account.
A General Ledger Segment can be indicated and percentages assigned to values for that segment. These are applied to the default Vendor General Ledger Account.

Default Distribution Table Codes can be assigned to each Vendor on the Main tab in Vendor Maintenance.

In AP Invoice Entry, if a Distribution Table is assigned in the Header panel, the Lines panel is calculated based on the Table Type and General Ledger Accounts. The Line Panel Distribution can then be manually edited if desired.

For more information, contact Kim Clark at 619-683-9900 or KimC@dsdinc.com.

The IT Guys

Is that E-mail Message Really from Microsoft?

Lately it seems like opening an e-mail client is more and more becoming a high stakes poker game. Yes, it is essential to exchange messages electronically, but sometimes it can seem like more trouble than it is worth. So, we all have to continuously educate ourselves about what is safe and how to identify a hostile spammer sending messages that look like legitimate e-mail.

Having a constantly updated spam filter on your e-mail system is a great start. Don't rely only on the filter, though. DSD receives large quantity of messages and many hostile payloads make it through our system, which is updated every day. The problem is that it takes time to identify new hostile e-mail payloads and systems are vulnerable until they are identified.

First, you need to use good judgment. Pay attention to messages and don't open attachments unless you are certain that it is legitimate. Keep in mind that just because a message says that it is from someone you know, it may not be. This is called spoofing. The header (the hidden part of the message containing routing and other information) is composed by the sender and can easily contain lies about who sent it.

One technique becoming more common is to trick the receiver of a message into thinking it is from a trusted person or organization. For instance, the message may try to look like a message from Microsoft containing security updates.

Microsoft never sends attachments. If a message "from Microsoft" has an attachment, it is hostile spam. Delete it.

Unless you are double dog sure that a message is from someone you know, never click on hyperlinks in the message - do not click on a link to a web page. It is pretty easy to make a link appear to be going to www.microsoft.com and actually be going somewhere else. Instead, just go to that website and navigate to the page yourself, it you need to.

As you can see, the angry little people that send hostile spam e-mail message use a combination of technical knowledge and human behavior to try to take advantage of people. Don't be a victim!

For more information, contact David Yeager at 619-683-9900 or DavidY@dsdinc.com.

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