Please update your contact information with our new emergency support number …

07515 509 568

Thanks!

vps.gdp1.com (207.58.155.94)

Due to network issues with our host provider the server will be offline for a short time while the problems are fixed.

We apologise to clients with websites on this server and will resolve this as soon as possible.

If you’ve noticed an increase in the amount of spam you’re not alone.

Newer image based spam, mainly for Penny stocks at the moment, is currently running rampant and causing more spam related problems for everyone. This kind of spam by and large defeats many of the current techniques for anti spam solutions.

For more information try the following articles …

PCWorld Net Watchdog: Seemingly Unstoppable Spam
USA Today: A Sneakier Kind of Spam

We’re talking to our hosting company about this and keeping our eyes peeled for a reliable and solid solution.

If you’ve noticed an increase in the amount of spam you’re not alone.

Newer image based spam, mainly for Penny stocks at the moment, is currently running rampant and causing more spam related problems for everyone. This kind of spam by and large defeats many of the current techniques for anti spam solutions.

For more information try the following articles …

PCWorld Net Watchdog: Seemingly Unstoppable Spam
USA Today: A Sneakier Kind of Spam

The body that oversees net addresses has approved a controversial deal over the future of the .com domain.

The deal gives US firm Verisign control of .com until 2012 and lets it raise prices in at least four of the next six years.

For the full story see the article on the BBC website.

If you ever needed proof that ‘underhand’ techniques such as doorway or gateway pages are a bad idea for improving your search engine postion then BMW’s latest predicament is a good example. The German website has recently been given a zero page rank after Google found they were manipulating search results.

For more information see this interesting acticle on the BBC website.

Graphite will be easing up gently for the Christmas period and getting back to full speed on 3rd January.

As usual, any urgent support requests can be sent through via phone or email and will of course be responded to promptly.

Main office/voice mail 01225 722993
Urgent out of hours support voice mail 07811 942217
Email support@graphitedesign.net

And don’t forget our support pages.

Have a good break and see you in 2006!

Wishing all our clients a very merry, and relaxing holiday season.

Thanks to all of you we’ve had a great 2005, and we look forward to working with you in the coming year.

Richard & Fiona

Finally, after 9 months of building work we have a new office. There is some tidying to do but it looks great. This also means we have a dedicated photography studio area for products and promotional work.

It’s been a seriously long haul and our biggest investment to date, but we are now more motivated than ever and really looking forward to an exciting future!

We’re going to be closed for 10 days from Monday 25th July for a short summer break.

We have cover for all emergency issues, so please make note of our support contact details.

Email support@graphitedesign.net
Emergency support number 07811 942217

We’re looking forward to returning refreshed and revitalised!

If you spend much time out of the office or just want portable email from where ever you happen to be, then many of you may have tried different webmail services such as Hotmail or the webmail accounts which come with your hosting or ISP packages.

Google has been offering a offering a webmail service called Gmail. All your email from multiple accounts can be sent to Gmail and you can sync it with your PC if required. There is over 2Gb (!) of storage, powerful spam filtering, you can import your contacts, connect to your account using your standard email software or via a web browser (Microsoft, Apple and Linux supported) and best of all it is FREE!

The service is still in beta so we are not suggesting it is ‘enterprise ready’ or necessarily suitable for discussing trade secrets, it is after all a free webmail service, but having used it for many months it does look very promising.

As it is beta you can only get an account if you are invited so please get in touch and don’t forget to check out the Gmail website.

Microsoft is planning on entering into the security market with a subscription based package available later this year the BBC reports.

The article is worth a read as it points out some solid security tips and gives background and links relavent to the virus problems faced by Windows users.

The server has now been moved and is back online as of 4am this morning. There are no reported problems.

Thank you for your patience.

Relocation of our original server will occur overnight 12th May. The server will be diconnected from 9pm and relocated to our hosting companies new data centre in central Manchester.

Downtime will be restricted to a number of hours overnight while the system is relocated.

Should you have any problemswith your site from Friday morning please let us know and we will immediately prioritise these support requests.

Please email support@graphitedesign.co.uk or graphite@orange.net if you have any questions while the server is relocated.

Thank you for your patience.

The BBC reported on useful security information regarding Windows and Word this week.

According to many sources, there is already a trojan program which circumnavigates and switches off Microsofts latest anti-spyware software. The package was only released within the last two weeks and appears to be compromised already.

The second report covers the well known (or maybe not!) subject of hidden information in standard Word files. Potentially sensitive information is saved in Word files which can then be accessed by anyone that the file is sent to. If this is a concern, and we recommend reading the article, then Microsoft’s free hidden data removal tool goes some way towards solving the problem.

Microsoft released patches for a number of critical and non critical flaws in Windows XP, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger and other applications today.

Use Windows update to grab the patches manually if you do not have automatic updates turned on. For more information see the security updates for Windows and Office.

In contrast, Symantec (Norton to those of us who have been around for a while!) released information about a possible threat to Mac OS X in the Yahoo! eWeek column. As noted in MacUser the vunerability has been described as ‘no real concern’!

For information on how to protect your Windows PC see this Microsoft webpage.

Alternatively get one of these. Then kick back, read these security items with mild amusment and get on with your work. Like us.

We have recently taken on two new servers and will be moving clients onto these over the coming weeks. These should be faster, more secure and feature lots of extra services to make your site and email work better. It’s our biggest upgrade to date and we are really excited about the new systems. Expect an email from us with details about your move in the next few days.

For questions and support please email support@graphitedesign.net. We get emails sent to this address where ever we are.

As usual, emergencies can be phoned through on 07811 942217 if you are unable to get through to the office.

Additional documentation will be added to the support area of the site very soon. Please keep checking these news pages for any updates or subscribe to the RSS feed if you are a techy like us!

ZD Net is reporting a new scam which opens up a vunerability in the post XP SP2 security. Reported by security experts Secunia, in a nutshell it uses ActiveX to display fake ‘trusted website’ credentials. Phising is popularly used to trick people into visiting fake bank or credit card company websites and entering account details.

We strongly advise checking the Microsoft security pages and keeping your Windows Update ‘up to date’.

For more information on this and other Internet Explorer security bypasses see the Secunia website.

Jemima Heather born at 12:41 today, 19 August 2004 at Bath RUH.

A born designer, Jemima spends much of the time either aspeep or kicking and screaming when she doesn’t get her way! But she is beautiful and we all love her.

We’d just like to put forward our own hands on experience of the SP2 upgrade.

We have now upgraded two customer machines and our own internal test machine completely sucessfully! So if you’ve only been reading the doom and gloom stories then maybe this will help settle your mind.

Business users and professionals with more then one or two machines can grab the massive 266mb udpate from the Microsoft site now. Other users are currently advised to set their machines to use the built in Windows update feature.

Please note, this post is our own experience only. It does not imply that there are, or you will experience, no problems. Always backup all data before performing any kind of operating system update. If you are updating a ‘mission critical’ machine then make sure you have some kind of fallback plan if it all goes horribly wrong.