The Internet is everywhere, being accessed on phones and tablets, tied into our cameras and our TV’s. Wi-Fi is accessible from everywhere and the world grows smaller every day as a result.

Internet Day is a celebration of this computing and communication technology, and they way it has brought all our lives together.  Did you know that the first letters ever transmitted across the internet (which consisted of two computers) were “L” and “O”. This was as far as they got before the "Net" crashed, and they had to reboot to get things in running order.


Internet Day celebrates the origin of the very first internet transmission ever sent.  Hard to believe that this was just months after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

Why don’t you start your celebration of Internet Day by visiting the original website, which happens to still be online! Take a moment to gander at its high-quality graphics and it’s sleek and streamlined design.  LOL  Realize that at its time, this was the internet, this was how things were designed and put together.  Boy has it changed!  Think about what it may look like in another 50 years!  Happy Internet Day!

You know them! 
We ALL know them!
Are YOU one of them?

That person who doesn’t seem to know how to turn off the Caps Lock button, or worse, people who do it on purpose thinking it gets their point across better.
What in the world are we to do with people like this?
How about we just campaign to remove the Caps Lock Button?

Caps Lock Day was invented to poke fun at people who use this abomination of a typing style.  The best way to Celebrate Caps Lock Day is simple, don’t use caps lock!  Even better, remind your friends on social media about the horrid habit that is using Caps Lock in communications.You can also start an ironic campaign of using CAPS LOCK all day to make a more blatant statement about how this makes other people look. Send your memes, poke your friends, let them all know that it’s time to embrace proper grammar and stop looking like an angry, screaming person.

There is a new scam going around via text message. My wife and I were out running some errands on Thursday (10/18/18) and she got a text message from what appeared to be PNC bank. We don't have a PNC bank account so we knew it was fake right away but, then I was talking with a client on Friday and she got the same message around the same time and thought it was legit. If you were to click on that link you would be directed to what looks like a legit website that asks for your user name, password, and eventually your social security number. This is a scam trying to collect or phish information out of you to either take money out of your accounts or worse, steal your identify. 

How to tell this is a scam? Well there are a few "tells" that give it away. At a quick glance it looks like the message is from PNC, but when you keep reading the email address it came from some other service or website avant.com but in this case is also spoofed or faked. Either way, the person or company this is from is looking kind of sketchy at this point. Then the next tell is that the link is not from PNC.com but it is a bit.ly link. I am not saying all bit.ly links are bad but that service is used to shorten long links like https://www.layer2computers.com/our-blog/scam-alert-pnc-bank-scam-message to short links like this one: https://bit.ly/2P8yodQ that goes to this blog post... You see what I did there? So, since the link is not from PNC.com that is another tell. Other than that you have to just take a second and think "does this look legit" and if you have any doubt call your bank.

I am sending this out in a blog post and in an email in hopes to help stop this from tricking you or someone you may know. Please feel free to share it with your family and friends! We wish you the best of luck and don't just randomly click a link if you are unsure of what it is. 

Leave a commend below if you got this message and tell us what gave it away that it was fake. 

There are tidy desktops, and cluttered desktops, organized desktops, and ones with icons scattered everywhere. Which one do you have?  Clean your Virtual Desktop day is your opportunity to bring a little order to your desktop.

An orderly desktop has been said to be the sign of an orderly mind, someone who has their work together, and knows what their tool is for and how to use it.

There are a number of ways to celebrate Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day. Go through your files on your desktop and determine which ones are no longer necessary and send them to the recycling bin.  Then sort the others into folders on your computer or on your desktop.  Transfer photos from your desktop to storage devices like flash drive or just save them in special folders on your hard drive.

Cleaning out your desktop will make it easier to find things and be more productive. 

While you’re at it, be sure to consider changing your theme to take advantage of your beautifully clean desktop! There’s a lot of options out there in just about every style that you can imagine. 

Email has allowed us to send and receive messages more easily than ever before. While this is a good thing, it can also be a bad thing.  You may receive dozens or even hundreds of emails in a day. At this point, it feels like you’re wasting your entire day dealing with those incoming messages. Even worse, it makes it difficult to find important messages in your inbox.

You can quickly become overloaded with emails. So how can you deal with this overload? The first step is to reduce the number of emails you receive. 

• Restrict who you give your email address to. For example, if you enter a lot of contests, this often automatically subscribes you to several email campaigns. If you type your email into every popup box asking for it, these add up. Reduce who you give your email to.
  
• Unsubscribe!  Go through your inbox and unsubscribe to newsletters that you never read. If you haven’t opened one of their emails in months, chances are that you won't in the future.  Turn off notifications from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you like emails from these networks, then at least adjust the settings so they email you highlights once a week or month instead of several times per day.
  
• Do you need that notification? If you receive emails that contain information you can find elsewhere, switch those notifications off. Make sure not to use your email as a to-do list. When you need to remember to do something, put that on a list elsewhere to clear up your inbox. If this is a hard habit to break, at least make a folder for things you need to do and move emails there and out of your general inbox.
  
• Change your email habits.  If a topic is complex and will require a lot of back and forth conversation, consider discussing it in person or over the phone. Sending fewer emails will reduce how many you receive in return. You do not need to respond to every email you receive. Resist the urge to send messages with a single word like “Thanks!” or “Ok” and you’ll notice others will stop sending you similar, unnecessary messages. When sending group emails, you can also remind others not to use “reply all” unless it’s information relevant to the entire group.
  

Now you can start emptying out your inbox and getting rid of any old emails you don’t need to keep. Delete old calendar invites, advertisements, or any emails where the problem has already been resolved. Respond to any messages that can be answered quickly.  File everything that is left until you have a completely empty inbox. Archive messages where you don’t need to take an action, but you think might be useful. You can search and find these later if necessary. Put other emails into folders based on the type of email and priority level.

All of this can be automated. You can have receipts automatically go into a receipt folder, calendar invites go into another, etc.  A cluttered inbox leads to your mind feeling just as cluttered. Free up your inbox to free up your mind and create more time in your day-to-day life.

If you need help with your emails, give us a call at 937-660-4899.

It’s that time of year again! The next big feature update for Windows 10 is arriving and if it has not arrived on your system it will be soon.
A few additions that may interest you:

• For those of you who spend time going through your file explorer for things like pictures there is a nice change that you may like. The addition of a togglable dark mode, this will allow you to change from the bright white colors of the file explorer to be dark instead. Nifty if you don’t enjoy being blasted with all that white light late at night.

How to get version 1809:
We at Layer 2 Computers highly recommend shutting down your computer at regular intervals to maintain the health of your system. Now that a major windows update is arriving it is even more important to let your computer shut down so that these updates can apply. This has the added bonus of reducing the chance of operating system failure due to bad update to minuscule levels. 

If you want to manually get the update go to start and type "Check for updates", hit enter and then click "Check for updates". Windows should search for the newest version of Windows and start the process.

If you have any trouble or issues with the update, please feel free to reach out to Layer 2 Computers here or giving us a call 937-660-4899.  

Microsoft Office has been THE office suite for more than a decade whether for business or students doing their homework. Other applications have come and gone.  While you may have an older version of Office that you love, there are three good reasons you should upgrade to Office 365.

1. It’s more accessible: Office 365 operates in the cloud, which means you can use Word, Excel, Outlook and other office products from anywhere. This means no more forgotten homework, files you can’t access until you get to work or lost documents. The cloud has them all ready and waiting for you, wherever you are.

Since it’s in the cloud, the barriers between Mac and PC have been erased. It runs on both platforms and on any device - iPhones, iPads, Android, tablets and many other smart devices. A big allocation of cloud storage comes with it too, in the form of OneDrive, so you can access your documents from any device. Many people have started using their OneDrive to store all of their important data, including photos, media and recipes. You can even share your files with a simple link, and you always have complete control over who sees what.

2. It’s more affordable: Previously, there was a large upfront cost per computer and you were stuck with that version.  For people with more than one computer in their home this was a very expensive way to get software. Office 365 has no large upfront costs, no matter how many computers or devices you need to install it on. It’s actually a monthly or annual subscription for a small amount, with no contracts. Depending on your location you can have five Office 365 licenses for a whole year, for less than the cost of your previous version.

3. It’s always updated: You always have the latest version of Office. You aren’t stuck with the one you paid for years ago, like Office 2007, 2013 or 2016. Office 365 is always the very latest. If you’re still using an older version, you’ll be surprised by how much Office has grown.  Gone are the annoying paperclip helpers, tacky looking clipart and templates and confusing buttons. Everything is easy to use, so you no longer need to take classes or tutorials on how to work it.

Plus, any updates, upgrades or patches happen automatically.  Switching to Office 365 is like a breath of fresh air, it’s essentially a sign up and go situation. Older files remain intact, your hard drive doesn’t get cluttered, and you’re up and running in minutes.

With Office 365, you’re essentially getting more while spending less. The fact that it’s always available, always the latest version and works anywhere is reason enough to make the switch particularly if you have students or work-at-home users. The baked-in security features also mean you’re less at risk of cyber-attack, so you can get on with your tasks and let Microsoft deal with the dirty work. It really is a stress-free solution, saving you time and money.

Switch to Office 365 - call us today at 937-660-4899