May 2008

Addictive sites such as Facebook and YouTube are costing you significant money. Salary.com reported in 2006 that the average worker admits to spending nearly an hour a day outside of lunch and breaks surfing the internet for personal reasons – a truly astonishing figure!

To learn more about how you can control your employee’s use of the internet click on the link below to request your free White Paper on FIVE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF EFFECTIVE WEB CONTENT CONTROL.

This month’s featured articles focus on what to do if you’ve been SPAMMED and business tax incentives available under the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. Frank Hayes, President of Hayes & Associates, provides a run down on the tax benefits available to small businesses.

Also, don’t miss our June’s newsletter which will provide you with the key features and benefits of Windows 2008 Server release, concerns with Macintosh OS security, and, of course, our Tips and Tricks.

• 2008 Tax Breaks For Your Business Check It Out!
• Hardware Rotation Hints  Keep Your Network in Optimum Condition
• You've Been Spammed! And What You Can Do About It

New tax breaks for small businesses could make investing in new equipment a tax-smart move in 2008. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 offers generous business expensing and depreciation limits to encourage capital purchases. But like most IRS breaks, there are a few strings attached.

The new rules increase what is known as the “Section 179” deduction, which is a direct write-off of the cost of qualified new or used business property in the year purchased. For tax years beginning in 2008, this deduction is nearly doubled, rising from $128,000 to $250,000. This means that if you purchase as much as $250,000 worth of property, you may be able to deduct the entire amount from your 2008 taxable income. To qualify, the equipment must be tangible business property or computer software (no real estate).

The catch? The asset must be both purchased and placed in service before January 1, 2009. Also, if your total 2008 equipment purchases exceed $800,000, the deduction is reduced dollar-for-dollar by the amount exceeding $800,000. Equipment costs not eligible for the deduction must follow normal depreciation rules.

The good news, however, is that the Economic Stimulus Act also increased first-year depreciation limits to 50% of the adjusted basis of new property. The types of assets eligible for bonus depreciation are generally the same as for Section 179 expensing, except that the asset must be new, not used. In addition, leasehold improvements to real property may qualify.

Business vehicles also get into the bonus depreciation act. Brand new cars and trucks purchased and placed in service in 2008 may qualify for around $11,000 in first-year depreciation — an increase of $8,000 over previous limits.

Take note: These changes are good for 2008 only, so you must act before the end of the year. For complete details, give us a call at 402-390-2480.

Hardware Rotation Hints
Keep Your Network in Optimum Condition
Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston, Vice President of Systems, OurTech Solutions

You've Been Spammed!
And What You Can Do About It
Nick Donner, Senior Engineer, OurTech Solutions

In 2002, spam percentages were 2.3% of all e-mail traffic. Today we have reached a staggering 63.3% of all e-mail traffic consisting of spam. Of this 63.3%, 4.2% contain viruses! (ieinternet.com) Spam is not only annoying to the average user and a security risk, but it takes away valuable time from everyone. If it takes 5 seconds to delete a spam message, over the course of a year, a business owner can spend thousands of dollars just in wasted time due to spam.

I don’t know about you but this is something I can do without! So what can we do about this? There are many methods available in dealing with spam, from small tips and tricks to complete business solutions:

• Be careful about using your e-mail address online. In most cases, when you sign up for a service or purchase something online, they ask for an e-mail address. Take a second to verify that the website has a policy that they will not sell or otherwise hand out your e-mail address to other parties.
• Disable the viewing window in your e-mail application. Some spammers can hide code in e-mails upon viewing, which verifies your e-mail address as valid and, you guessed it, they can send more spam to you. This same method can be used to place viruses or other malicious software on your machine.
• A lot of spam messages have a link at the bottom of the message which allows you to “unsubscribe”. Don’t fall for this! Again, this is another method used to validate your e-mail address.
• Avoid sending out large numbers of advertising messages yourself. If you or your company requires marketing via e-mail, then consider an alternate e-mail marketing solution such as Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com). These companies are equipped to handle the spam they will receive from sending out mass e-mails.
• If you are still receiving a large amount of spam, ask your network administrator about spam verification on your mail server. There are services out there that monitor and record e-mail addresses and domains that are known for sending spam. Your network administrator can have your mail server check all incoming mail against these anti-spam services before it will accept the message. OurTech Solutions configures this for all our clients by default.
• Lastly, there are hardware solutions available from companies such as Barracuda Networks, which can filter spam before it reaches the end user.

Spam has been growing steadily each year and has not shown many signs of slowing down. It wastes time, is harmful to your network or computer, and just plain annoying. OurTech Solutions offers a very inexpensive and effective spam solution that stops spam before it even reaches your network. Each user has individual control over this spam solution, enabling them to decide for themselves if it is actually spam. We understand how crippling spam can be, and how important it is to receive your critical e-mails. How many spam messages are you needlessly receiving? Call OurTech Solutions for an anti-spam solution that fits you.