There is a new phishing attack passing around where you are invited in a brief message to log into Google to view a confidential shared document. If you visit the page and log into the system you are exposing your email account and password to compromise. This is what the message may look like:

The conference’s Moodle site learning.nccumc.org will be down for maintenance Tues. May 14th starting at 11:00 am.  It will be back up again as soon as the maintenance is finished. Sorry for any inconvenience.

The conference’s Moodle site learning.nccumc.org will be down for maintenance Fri. May 10th starting at 8:00 am.  It will be back up again as soon as the maintenance is finished. Sorry for any inconvenience.

The conference’s Moodle site learning.nccumc.org will be down for maintenance Fri. May 3rd starting at 8:00 am.  It will be back up again as soon as the maintenance is finished. Sorry for any inconvenience.

The Conference is currently experiencing issues with its hosted Google Apps email system. Access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Google Plus are currently intermittent for some users but unavailable for many. We are currently waiting to hear back from Google as to a resolution for this issue.

You can keep up with the status of this issue by visiting the Google Apps Status Dashboard.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause and will continue to pass along relevant information as we receive it.

Update: 4/17 @ 11:00 AM - All services have been restored. You should be able to access your Conference e-mail account properly.

Information on the upcoming technology webinars can be found on the Webinars page.  You can go here to find the latest information on our webinar events, outlines, and any resources that we discuss. Archived video will be available here after the event has concluded.

The Information Technology (IT) Office is pleased to announce an upcoming technology webinar series hosted over the Google+ Hangout system. We will be covering a variety of topics related to technology and using the Gmail, Hangouts and Drive systems.

The webinars will be held live online using the Google+ Hangouts system. You can watch the event from anywhere you have access to the Internet. Anyone who has a general interest in these topics may attend but they will be geared towards the clergy in the NC Conference. Video of the live training event will be available online after the event has ended. You can check back on the IT Office website for links to the video once it has been archived.

Information on each session is listed below:

Technology 101 Webinar - April 15th, 2013 – 10 AM – Noon

Google+ Event link: https://plus.google.com/u/1/events/c4gm8tfeh0kf7pbdo1hmv1dqc48

Are you confused by technology jargon? Do you know what the differences are between texting, tweeting, teleconferencing, chatting, Facebook message, etc.? This online webinar will focus on the basics of technology (hardware, social networking, e-mail, etc.) and how they are commonly used today. If you have always wondered what the differences between Facebook and Twitter are then this class is for you!

We will start with a broad overview of computer hardware, social networking websites and how they are being used across the Conference. We will then move into the Gmail system so that you can better learn how to do the following:

• How to set up a free Google e-mail account
• How to log into your Google e-mail account from any online computer
• How to open an e-mail
• How to reply to an e-mail
• How to forward an e-mail
• How to draft an e-mail
• How to address e-mails
• How to log onto the conference and district web sites
• How to navigate the conference and district web sites
• How to “subscribe” to get automatic updates from your District web site
• How “Google Hangouts” works (it’s a teleconferencing program)
• How to log into Google Hangouts
• How to start a Google Hangout
• How to respond to a Google Hangout invitation

Introduction To Gmail Webinar - April 16th, 2013 – 10 AM – Noon

Google+ Event link: https://plus.google.com/u/1/events/cmpvke63jmccs3mg5kid4sa52k0

Did you know that if you are a pastor in the North Carolina Conference then you have access to a free nccumc.org e-mail account? Did you also know that it is based on the free Google Gmail.com system? This online webinar will focus on the following:

• The basics of using your free e-mail account.
• Why the Conference uses this account as the primary means of communication with all of our pastors.
• Why it is important for you to use your Conference e-mail account.
• Setting up and accessing your free account.
• Navigating the Gmail screen
• Sending and Receiving E-mail
• Categorizing your e-mail using labels and filters.
• Online Chat & one on one video conferencing
• Profile Pictures, E-mail signature and Vacation responder (out of office assistant)

Managing A High Volume Mailbox Webinar - April 17th, 2013 – 10 AM – Noon

Google+ Event link: https://plus.google.com/u/1/events/co6k2ltnchsujei0h2n8cd27bi8

Do you receive a lot of e-mail? Do you receive messages from the Conference Office, the District Office, members of your church, family and friends? How do you keep up with all of it? This webinar will focus on how to use the built in tools available in your free Conference e-mail account to manage e-mail from all over the place. We will focus on the following:

• A quick overview of the Gmail interface.
• Conversation View
• Archive vs. Deleting
• How to mark messages as Important or Starred.
• Labels and Filters
• How to hide little used labels in your Inbox.
• Priority Inbox

Collaborating Online With Google Hangouts and Drive Webinar - April 18th, 2013 – 10 AM – Noon

Google+ Event link: https://plus.google.com/u/1/events/ck34fggbngpjm1uirkc9vmej2ss

What’s all of this online meeting stuff about anyway? Have you ever been driving to a meeting and wished there was a way to do it remotely? The Google Hangout system is a powerful way to bring participants together no matter where they might be. All they need is an internet connection, a camera and a microphone. The Google Drive system allows you to set up online documents for group collaboration. Everyone can see the same spreadsheet and modify it all from their remote location. This webinar will focus on:

• Setting up the Google+ system.
• What are circles? How do I find the people I am looking for?
• Setting up, using and joining Google Hangouts.
• Introduction to Google Drive.
• Creating documents and spreadsheets.
• How to share and edit a document collaboratively.

Many of you are using a mobile hotspot to access the Internet. This device allows you to get online from wherever there is a cellular signal. These devices are growing in popularity as they allow the user to access their favorite websites and e-mail from virtually anywhere.

One of the limitations of this type of internet connection is limited monthly allotments for bandwidth (also known as “data caps”). This means that usage of the hotspot device is monitored monthly. Once you go over the data cap you are charged for the additional usage. These overage charges can increase quickly, making your monthly bill unusually high.

If you use Google Hangouts to perform a video conference then you are basically downloading video during the entire duration of your meeting. If you are doing this over a hotspot connection then you may be consuming your data cap faster than you think. If you have any questions about your bandwidth usage you should contact your mobile phone provider. Please keep in mind that if you are just starting to use Google Hangouts then you cannot look back at your past usage history to estimate your current usage. You should keep a close eye on your bandwidth usage for the first few months that you are using Google Hangouts.

To help reduce the overall bandwidth usage you can turn down the quality of your video during each Hangout session. When you open the hangout you can specify how much bandwidth to use. Be sure to click the bandwidth icon next to the settings icon when you start each individual Hangout session.

You can use this slider to turn down the bandwidth usage.

The resulting video won’t quite look as good as the high bandwidth connection but your cell phone bill will appreciate it. Be careful with your data caps in the beginning so that you don’t get hit with a larger than normal bill!

*Important advisory for anyone still running Windows XP!*

I recently received the following message from Google:

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On January 15, 2013, users accessing Google Apps using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) will see the following changes:

- Gmail will automatically forward users to basic HTML view (http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=15049). Users will have the option to revert to regular view for each login session.
- Users on IE8 can only compose email in Gmail using basic HTML. Features such as the new compose experience in Gmail will not work in IE8.
- Google Calendar will provide read-only access (http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=33864).
- Google Slides and Drawings will not be available (as has been the case since early 2011) .

Google Apps support for Microsoft IE8 was discontinued on November 15th, 2012, per the list of supported browsers (http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=33864). Google Apps continues to fully support Microsoft IE9 and IE10 browsers.

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If you are still running Windows XP then you should consider upgrading soon. Many online products (including Google) will soon stop supporting the Windows XP platform. If you cannot upgrade now then you should at least switch to another browser. You could use one of the following:

- Mozilla Firefox: http://mozilla.org
- Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome

Either of these alternative browsers should be considered short term measures. You really should be planning now to replace your Windows XP operating system in the near future.

Google Apps is ending support for some older Microsoft software that it still widely used and may affect NCCUMC users.  Described below are the two potential issues and their resolutions.

In an effort to avoid anyone being inconvenienced by Google’s upcoming end of support for MS Office 2003-97 formats .xls for Excel spreadsheets, .doc for Word documents, and .ppt for PowerPoint presentations in their Google Apps product Oct. 1, I recommend downloading and installing the free compatibility pack for versions of Office older than 2007.  The compatibility pack will allow these older versions of Office to work with the new .xlsx, .docx, and .pptx formats.

Google has a policy of only supporting the latest and next to latest versions of the major web browsers.  This will impact NCCUMC Google Apps users using Internet Explorer (IE) on the Windows XP operating system in Nov.   Google will end support for IE 8 after the introduction of IE 10 on Nov. 15, this will be an issue because IE 8 is the latest version available for Windows XP.  My recommendation for this issue is to install Google Chrome which updates itself automatically or Mozilla Firefox.