Southwest Airlines
to test in-flight broadband

By TERRY MAXON
The Dallas Morning News

Southwest Airlines Co. plans to test broadband Internet service on its planes beginning this summer, using a satellite provider, the carrier said Wednesday.

Dallas-based Southwest would become the latest carrier to plan onboard Internet access for passengers. Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. has begun a test using Boeing 767-200s, following JetBlue Airways Corp.'s test on Airbus jets.

Southwest's partner is Row 44 Inc., a California-based company that has already announced a partnership with Alaska Airlines Inc. to test its system on one airplane beginning this spring. Southwest hopes to start testing the technology on four of its Boeing 737 aircraft this summer.

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Technology Tips

Have you checked to make sure that your applications are Vista Compliant?

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Vista Overview
Hardware requirements
 

Just for Laughs

Welcome to our March edition of our Progressive E-News. This is our second edition of the newsletter and we are working hard to ensure that this newsletter is providing you with informative content. Enclosed in this edition, you will find information about network security, ways to speed up your computer, tips to streamline your Internet searches, and ways to check to ensure that your applications are Vista compliant.

In the event that you have any suggestions for topics of interest, please feel free to email llambert@pc-net.com. We hope that this newsletter finds your businesses surviving these tough economic times well. In the over 20 years that we have been in business, we have seen quite a few tough economic times. Our goal is to help each of you weather this tough time by understanding budgetary constraints and trying to extend the lifespan of current equipment in good working condition.

For our next edition of our newsletter, we would like feature one of our clients, so please let us know if you are interested in being included in our newsletter. As always, we understand that you have a choice when it comes to partnering with an IT company and we appreciate our continued relationship with you.

Thank you,
Mark Michal and Lisa Mitchell
 

Your small-business network may be protected by firewalls, intrusion detection and other state-of-the-art security technologies. And yet, all it takes is one person's carelessness, and suddenly it's as if you have no network security at all.

Let me give you an example. In March 2006, a major financial services firm with extensive network security disclosed that one of its portable computers was stolen. The laptop contained the Social Security numbers of nearly 200,000 people. How did it happen? An employee of the firm, dining in a restaurant with colleagues, had locked the laptop in the trunk of a SUV. During dinner, one of the employee's colleagues retrieved an item from the vehicle and forgot to re-lock it. As fate would have it, there was a rash of car thefts occurring in that particular area at that particular time, and the rest is history.

The moral of that story is clear: No matter how secure your network may be, it's only as secure as its weakest link. And people--meaning you and your employees--are often the weakest link. It's important to note that poor security puts your business, as well as your partners, at risk. As a result, many enterprises and organizations, such as credit-card companies, now specify and require minimum levels of security you must have in order to do business with them.

So what can you do? Here are nine ways to minimize the risks that people can pose to the security of your company's data.
 

One of the most common complaints heard by IT helpdesks is: “My computer is running too slowly – what can I do?” There are actually a number of reasons why this could be happening, and luckily, a number of ways to solve the problem.

Here are our top five recommendations to help boost your desktop or notebook PC's speed and performance.
 

Sometimes looking for quick information on the Web can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. With so many billions of Web pages in cyberspace, finding specific information can be a daunting task. "Often when I use search engines I get so many irrelevant results that I just give up," admits a frustrated Lorraine Adams, mother of two and a disability consultant.

Perhaps Adams isn't aware that there are ways to get more out of your favorite search engine, whether that's Live Search, Google, or Yahoo!. A few searching tips, tricks, tweaks, and techniques can help you find what you are looking for in cyberspace quickly and easily .

Follow these 10 suggestions with your favorite search engine.