Internet monitoring and blocking

Over the next couple of months, we will be installing new firewalls in most of the firm's offices.  In addition to standard security from outside attacks, the new devices will give us the ability to monitor and restrict Internet access to certain sites.

Before we start the new monitoring process, I thought this would be a good time to remind everyone about the firms Computer and Internet Use Policy.  If you are not familiar with it, you should be.  Violations of the policy can result in adverse employment actions, including termination.

A few of the key highlights to remember regarding Internet access:

• The firm reserves the right to monitor all of your activity.  This includes any access to personal web based email sites or other web sites you may think are private.
• The firm can view your activity if you are using the firm's Internet connection, even if you are on a personal device such as a phone, tablet, or laptop.  
• If you are connected via VPN from home, the firm monitors your activity just as if you were in the office.
• If you use a firm owned device, such as a phone or laptop, even off site and on another Internet connection, the firm may still be able to monitor your activity and reserves the right to do so.
• Firm policy prohibits using even a personal device with a personal internet connection for personal reasons when you are at work.  Talking, texting, or Internet access from your cell phone is not permitted.  Using any firm resources for personal use is also generally not permitted.
• If the firm logs you accessing inappropriate sites, including sites containing pornography or gambling, or even sites that have no obvious business reason, such as Facebook or a sports site, you may be called in to explain to Mr. McKenna the business purposes for you are accessing such sites.
• If you find a site blocked and you have a valid business reason to access that site, you may call the help desk to inquire about getting an exception.
• In short, don't do anything on the computer or through the firm's internet that you would not do if your boss was looking over your shoulder.  You should have no expectation of privacy when using firm resources.

Is someone ducking your calls?

As shocking as it may be to some, there are occasions when people try to avoid calls from a law firm.  Sometimes, this can require persistence to get through.

Our Vonage phones have a feature called Automatic Callback.  This can be set if a party you are calling is busy.  It will establish a call as soon at the other person hangs up.  Keep in mind that this only works if you are getting a busy signal.  If you are directed to voicemail, it won't work.  Because most phones now have call waiting and voicemail, this may not come up very often.  But if you find it useful, you can enable this option in the portal.  Once enabled, when you get a busy signal, you should see an option on your phone to enable a callback on this call.  As the other party hangs up, your phone and the other party's phone will both ring.

Suppose you have someone who is simply not answering the phone when you call.  They see your caller ID and let it go to voicemail.  Line ID Blocking hides your caller ID from people.  If you dial *67, your call will go out with an anonymous ID.  Unfortunately, this option is also of limited use.  Most phones today do not rely on the sender's caller ID to identify the call.  They  have their own database of numbers.  Similarly, if you call a cell phone of someone who has your number in their address book, it will identify you that way.

If you really want to be anonymous, I recommend making a call through your computer, using Google Hangouts, or using the Hangouts Dialer app on your smart phone.  Unless you have gone through the trouble of assigning a number and ID to your Google account, making a call this way will appear to come from a random phone number with no identification.

More on Faxes: Additional Ways to Send

In an earlier post, I explained how you can send a fax by logging into the fax2mail.com web site and uploading a file to be faxed.

For those who are interested, there are also several other ways to send a fax.

Virtual Fax Machine:

On the Fax2mail.com web site, there is a tab called "VFM".  This is a virtual fax machine that may be a little more user friendly.  You may browse for a file, and send through this device.

Alternatively, you may download the Virtual Fax Machine software to your computer.  Once  you have entered the login information, you can use this at any time to send a document.  You can even drag and drop a file right onto the application.  If you send many faxes, this may be a bit of a time saver.

Below is the link for the virtual fax machine application.

https://fax2mail.easylink.com/desktopfax/downloads/EasyLinkVFM.3.3.B6.exe

Print to Fax:

Also available on the fax to mail website are "print-to-fax" drivers that you can download and install on your computer.  Using this option will allow you to "print" to a fax from virtually any application (including WordPerfect).  Once installed, simply create a document and start to print as you normally would.  However, select the print to print-to-fax option from among the printers listed on your computer.  You will be prompted for the fax number and then hit send.  The one downside of this option is that there is no option for a cover page.  So you will want to make a cover page as the first page of the document you are sending if a cover page is needed.

Below is the link for the print to fax installer.

https://fax2mail.easylink.com/desktopfax/downloads/EasyLink_FL_GUI_Print2Fax.exe

If you send faxes regularly, or find the fax2mail.com web site confusing, you may want to give one of these options a try.