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Internet: Facts, fiction and getting started.
Getting on the internet is the most likely the most important thing that you will ever do with your home computer. we cannot overstate this point. Get on the internet - now. Your livelihood, your happiness and your future can be at stake. Staying away from the internet is the social equivalent of committing social suicide. The internet is more and more becoming a means of paying utilities and other bills, shopping, etc...
What is so great about the internet? Put simply, it's communication. The internet gives everyone on this planet the capability of communicating with anyone else (assuming they are on the internet also) at any time about anything that they want. Perhaps the most basic human characteristic is communication. Humans are always chattering about something, whether it be written, spoken, drawn, painted, hand-signaled or coded in electronic waves. We have a basic, fundamental need to talk to someone, anyone. And when we're not talking, we want to be listening.
Just
as important, the internet allows, uniquely in history, the ability to
communicate virtually instantly and almost completely uncensored. Never
before (and probably never again, if some people have their way) have
you had the opportunity for open communications that you have now. Take
advantage of the internet like you've never taken advantage of anything
before in your life. There are more opportunities here than you can
imagine. There is money to be made, friends to be found, product to
purchase and places to explore. Quite literally, there is something for
everyone. There
is danger also, but if you are careful you will be fine. Load up your
virus checking, install a firewall, watch out for scams, and protect
your children and you should be fine. So
what are you waiting for? Get going, make a fortune and have fun. And
email us with your success stories ... We'd love to know the cool
things you've done on the web.
Sometimes people seem to make a choice between making their site pretty or for building powerful search engines - making it useful for people. We are always fascinated when we hear this discussion. In fact, it is interesting to hear someone say "I'm removing my Website because others will get annoyed" or "I'm deleting my links page because God, uh, won't like it", or "search engines don't use meta tags, so I took them all out". These comments all ignore the basic datum about the internet. It's about PEOPLE! The internet is not about some silly, stupid little robots, or some faceless idiotic rules enforced by their creators. The internet is about communication.
Yes,
search engines are a part of that communication, as it is one (and only
ONE) want of getting people to your site. But there are an infinite
number of other ways to get people to your site, from virtual marketing
to Webrings to link exchanges to contests to newsgroups to whatever
else you can think of.
But if your site does not cater to PEOPLE, it will fail. Period. Yes,
it's a good idea to make sure your site is known to the engines and
known well. But that is NOT the purpose of the site. The purpose of the
site is to communicate. Pure and simple.
Basics
Everyone must be a beginner at something sometime in his life. And at some point, all of us were new
to the internet. Even the most arrogant webmaster who can create sites
with his eyes closed was, once, struggling with the concepts of the
vast network that now connects most of the planet.
So
what's the best course of action when you are a beginner? We mean, most
people want to look like they know what they are talking about.
Sometimes the hardest thing in the entire world is to admit you know
nothing or very little about a subject. Yet,
when you are a beginner at something, that's what you have to do. You
must admit to yourself (at least) that you are a beginner and you must
understand that there is something to learn about the subject. Learning
about the internet is no exception to this rule.
Learning
Our advice
is to just jump in and start learning all you can learn. How you learn
about the internet depends upon your own preference and style. Also
remember that you can combine learning styles as desired or needed to
suit your taste.
High School or college courses -
Some people learn best in a scholastic atmosphere. Personally, this
drives us up the wall, but others thrive on a campus with lecture
halls, teachers, home room and hall monitors. If this describes how you
best like to learn, then by all means go for it. If you are pressed for
time, remember there are night and weekend classes available at most
educational facilities. Not much money? Try community colleges - they
are inexpensive and often have excellent computer curricula.
Informational Web Sites -
Our site has a large amount of information designed to help people
learn about the internet. There are many other such sites and some of
them are quite useful indeed. In fact, we learned much of what we know
from many of these sites, and use them to this day to expand upon our
knowledge. Just be careful, however, that you understand the motivation
of these web sites - often they are honest, but sometimes they are
attempting to get you to purchase something that you may not need.
Trade Courses -
You can find many trade schools which offer courses. These differ from
college in that they very short (a day to a week), they are usually
very expensive (a few hundred to a few thousand per class), and they
are of limited focus and duration. Courses are great for focused,
specific knowledge or for earning a certification - and they are
wonderful when the bill is picked up by the company you work for.
Otherwise, there are cheaper, better ways to learn your skills.
Books -
Don't forget books. Your local library or bookstore is one of your best
friends, if used properly. It never ceases to amaze me to watch people
spend small fortunes on books, courses, tapes, and classes when a book
checked our from their tax-supported library would serve their purposes
just fine. Think about it - how often will you be reading that book on
Microsoft Excel again?
On The Job Training - This is the absolute best way to learn. If you want to be a webmaster, then pick up a book, learn the basics, then find a client who will pay you a few hundred bucks to create a web site. If you want to become a computer specialist, then go get a job as a computer operator. This is the best way to learn.
How Does A Virus Spread?
Great
question! There are several ways for a virus to spread from one
computer to another. Let's look at those, and ways to prevent the
propagation of pestiferous programs.
The most common is via an email attachment. I'm not aware of any current exposures in popular email software that allow a virus to spread simply by opening or reading an email. But plenty of people are still willing to open anything that pops into their inbox. Opening an attachment without verifying its contents with the sender is asking for trouble. Never run a program that you save to disk from an email attachment without having maintenance programs like Registry First Aid or Ad-Aware SE Professional. The same goes for Word documents, which can have viruses in embedded macros. Maintenance programs can remove them before they become serious.
Another
common way for a virus or spyware to spread is by piggybacking on other
software that you download. If you just can't resist the latest
toolbar, file-sharing gizmo, coupon dispenser or email enhancer, you
may be at risk. Often these and other downloads come with malware, free
of charge. Running a good anti-spyware program will reduce your risk.
Ever been to a website and gotten one of those "Click here to install and run {Whatever}" popups? Just click NO! Unless you know for sure that you need to press OK (such as when downloading security updates from Microsoft) then treat these popups as threats to your computer.
If you are on a network, and you allow your hard drive to be shared (enabling other network users to read and write your files) then you are WIDE OPEN to the stupidity of the other users on the network. If any one of them got a virus, there's nothing to prevent it from copying itself to your computer via the network share. Unless you absolutely have to share your hard disk, don't. You can check to see if you have enabled sharing by right clicking on the drive icon in My Computer, then select Sharing. And don't forget portable media, such as floppies, CD ROMs, and those nifty little flash drives that connect to a USB port. Assume that any file you copy from external media could be infected. Keeping your anti-virus protection enabled and updated should protect you here. There are many hundreds of ways viruses can spread... There just isn't enough room to explain and you would get bored anyway...
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Web Accessories, tools and software...... Tweak Windows to your own specifications.
Web Accessories: This kit contains eight terrific utilities that let you zoom in and out on any image, highlight text, do custom searches, and much, much more.
Note: These accessories from Microsoft are marked for IE 5 only, however they work just fine in IE 6 .
Power Tweaks: This pack of Web Accessories is designed to make your life easier. It adds an Offline/Online button to your toolbar that's especially useful for notebook computer users. Restriction commands right in the tools menu help you set sites as trusted or restricted without having to wade through the control panel to find the controls. Finally, with a right click of the mouse you can copy a URL right into the clipboard so you can paste locations in e-mail or any document.
Web Developers Accessories: These two tools help the web developer or those who are just curious about how pages are coded. The DOM tree tool lets you view all the Document Object Model properties in tree form via right click or the tools menu. And for those who are tired of scrolling through hundreds of lines of HTML to find that one section of code that does what you want, search no more! Simply highlight the area of Web page that you want to see the source for, right click on it and select: View Partial Source.
Toolbar Wallpaper: Turn the Internet Explorer toolbar into a work of art! Run the download, close Internet Explorer, then start it up again. Choose Toolbar Wallpaper from the Tools menu and pick your wallpaper!
There is a small glitch in the Zoom In/Out function, mainly when you view an image in IE that is undefined in size the Zoom In/Out becomes distorted. Download a corrected version. Replace the originals in Windows Web folder.
[Exception 2] The Image List option also has a small glitch, when you select the Image List from the right-click menu the page appears but it's blank. As a workaround press F5 or select: Refresh, the page will produce the Image List.
Power Toys for Windows:
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[Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1]
- Windows XP Home
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~Tweak UI 1.33W2KNTME9895]
TIFF Image Viewer
AlternaTIFF: is a web browser add-on (ActiveX control or plug-in) that displays most of the common types of TIFF files. It works in most web browsers for Windows 95 or higher (98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP).
Cannot Open a Tagged Information File Format (TIFF) File in Internet Explorer
Tune your ClearType settings
Editors Note: XP users can download the ClearType Tuner PowerToy
Tweakomatic (advanced users)
The Tweakomatic: is a nifty new utility that writes scripts that allow you to retrieve and/or configure Windows and Internet Explorer settings. (Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP)
Spell Checker for Internet Explorer
ieSpell: is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes.
Editors Note: has an option to integrate the database from other spell checkers.
Internet Explorer Tips & Tricks
- Create a new Desktop shortcut
- In the command line, (highlight and paste the below)
"C:Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome - Name the shortcut: (example) IE6 Blank
From now on you can paste a saved URL without loading your ISP software, etc. - You can also drag this shortcut into your Quick Launch area.
Note: this is the same as setting your Home Page to: "about:blank"
Ad-Aware users, setting your page to "About:Blank" causes a false CWS detection.
- Add Internet Explorer to your Send-To folder
- Start - Run (type) "send-to" (no quotes) File - New - Shortcut
- In the command line, (highlight and paste the below)
"C:Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE"
- Right-click the Toolbar and select: "Unlock the Toolbars"
- Left-click the Address Bar button, it changes to a four-way arrow
- Drag the Address Bar into the empty space next to Help in the Toolbar
- Next, right-click on any of the Icon Buttons, and uncheck Text Labels
- Also you can select: Small Icons from the Customize menu.
- Then right-click the Toolbar and select: "Lock the Toolbars"
Did you ever get your Toolbars in IE set just right only to reboot and you lose your settings? Many times when Toolbars are added or removed the Registry entry that controls these settings does not get updated or has become corrupt. You can download a small reg file to reset (to default) and correct this behavior.
- Download: ResetBrowserToolbar.reg[right-click and select: "Save Target As"
To use: right-click and select: Merge - Ok the prompt and reboot.
Ever notice sometimes you right-click on a link and open a new window and it's not full screen? This usually occurs because IE remembers the last window size when closed. Many times a background pop-up will do this too, if it is the last window closed. To resize the window and regain control:
- Close all instances of Internet Explorer except for one.
- Right-click on a link in the page and select: "Open in New Window"
- Close the first browser window using the [ X ] (upper right corner)
- Resize the window manually by dragging the sides to the desired size.
Note: Do NOT click the Maximize button, you must do it manually. - Hold down the Ctrl key and click the Close button (upper right)
To reset the "Window_Placement" entry to default. You can download a small reg file to reset (to default) and correct this behavior.
Download: ResetWindowPlacement.reg[right-click and select: "Save Target As"]
To use: right-click and select: Merge - Ok the prompt and reboot.
- When all else fails, paste the below line into Start Run
javascript:window.open(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight)
Note: then make sure the above window is the last one closed.
- Create a one line .css file [example] "NoImages.css", copy the below line to Notepad and Save As: NoImages.css. Open Internet Options General tab Accessibility button, place a check in "Format documents using my style sheet", click OK.
IMG { display: none !important;}
Download: NoImages.css[right-click and select: Save Target As]
The next time you want to print the contents of a web page but don't want to waste the time and ink printing all the ads, banners, etc. just Toggle the above option on/off.
Note: there is no need to restart IE as this trick works on the fly. Also be aware that CWShredder detects any/all .css files as suspect and deletes them.
Lately there has been a rash of incidents where either a web site or email spam has contained a hidden javascript that changes your Home Page entry, then disables the users ability to change it back. To prevent this from happening ... be one step ahead of these characters. Set your Home Page then disable the ability to change it via a Registry restriction. It is also recommended you use a
Startup Monitor. Be aware that in some cases this method does not work as some of these parasites will re-write the registry entries on each restart. However a "Startup Manager" will prompt you if your setting are being changed.
HKCU_Hide_HomePage.reg(Current User)
HKCU_Undo_HomePage.reg(Current User)
To download: Right-click the above link(s) and select: "Save Target As".
To use: right-click and select: Merge (to view: open in Notepad)
HKLM_Hide_HomePage.reg
If your Homepage gets hijacked, you may need to "undo" both locations.
For more info and a reg file to unlock the Home Page
By default IE reserves 10% of your drive space for the Temporary Internet Files. This was fine several years ago but since then the hard drive capacities have increased dramatically. If you happen to have one of these large disks the 10% is truly unnecessary and wasteful.
- Close all instances of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
- Control Panel Internet Options General tab
- Click Settings and move the slider to 50mb, click Ok
- Click Delete Files and also select: "Delete all offline files", click Ok
- Click Clear History, click Ok, Apply-Ok
Get Rid of Pop-Ups
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Are you annoyed with pop-ups everywhere? |
Next make sure these pop-ups are not "Messenger Service Spam". These are generated by the same type sleazy characters (parasites) however they take advantage of the fact that the user does not have a Firewall installed or not setup properly. Make sure your system isn't vulnerable with this
one-click test. A Firewall is a must-have if you are on a broadband connection.
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Windows Messenger Spam Elimination Freeware Test Your Shields by Gibson Research
Even Windows XP Firewall can be "stealth" if setup properly!
Messenger Service is now turned off (disabled) in XP SP2 ... - Note: you'll find most of the spammers are targeted (blocked) by the HOSTS file.
You can prevent many of these browser pop-ups by using a HOSTS file and placing many of these 3rd party ad pop-ups in the "Restricted Zone". Even Microsoft has acknowledged this problem.
Many of these web site operators try to generate revenue by bomb-barding you with "click-thru" pop-ups. They use a variety of tricks such as javascript pop-ups, delayed pop-ups, pop-unders, and what they call "Show Behind". All this just to generate a few cents-per-click. You'll find that many of these actually lead to adware, spyware and parasites installs (hijackers).
- Once you update your XP version to SP2, you can use the new built-in pop-up blocker.
Does your pop-up blocker pass the test? IE with SP2 does!
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Editors Note: be very careful
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