My final story posting. I'm aware that these may be junk stories, but judging by some of the computer neophytes I've dealt w/ over the years (especially here in the military), I feel they may do some good for the new members who are looking for advice. So if you feel the need to flame me after these posts, go for it. I've got asbestos underwear on.

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Computer etiquette and corporate policies are not things people think about often. Spamming people with email jokes or sending 20MB PowerPoint files can not only annoying, but affect network security by creating extraneous data that must be checked and filtered. Lack of bandwidth is a problem many people have; waiting several minutes for a web page to load is frustrating, especially if you need it to finish your work. When you have Internet radio or other streaming media running on your computer, the available bandwidth for other people on the network drops. If you have a roaming profile with large files in it, the network can bog down as you log on to different machines.

When sending files to other people, especially large or multiple files, compress them first using Winzip or a similar program. Some files don’t compress well, such as JPEG pictures, because they are already compressed. If you send pictures, resize them first to make them smaller; this also makes it easier to view them on screen. However, one of the problems with zip files is that some antivirus software can’t “look into” the file, so if a virus is included in the zip, it may not be found. Some virus writers create viruses in encrypted zip files that can bypass AV software, so be wary of zip files you don’t ask for specifically. Many places, including IMF, fix this by simply preventing zip files from being sent via email.

A prevalent problem for business networks is privately installed software. Some viruses that spread through a network are caused by infected software installed by individuals. This is one of the reasons why system administrators tell employees not to install personal software. Additionally, private software can create problems for your computer and tech support personnel may not be able to correct the problem, since the computer is no longer at “factory-specifications”. Not knowing what exactly is installed on your system, they may not be able to find the fault.

With the volume of email in the U. S. expected to double in the next 3 years (from 1.5 trillion in 2003 to 2.7 trillion in 2007), office workers are starting to complain about the number of non-work related emails they receive. While the number of actual “spam” mail is relatively small, there is a larger number of “unofficial spam” circulating around. This unofficial spam includes chain letters, jokes, urban legends, etc. Some people might also classify as spam business-related information that’s in a poor format, e.g. overly large attachments.

When responding to an email that was sent to multiple people, think twice before hitting “Reply to All.” Your reply most likely doesn’t need to be seen by everyone, just the original sender. Continual forwarding of emails upsets people by forcing them to scroll down the email to find the “guts” of the letter; every time it’s forwarded, the new recipient(s) are included in the body, adding to the length. Before forwarding an email, consider investigating it on an urban legend web site; it may be very old news. In a related thought, don’t forward virus warnings. Often times it’s a bogus message already covered on a virus-related urban legend site.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.