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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, October 8, 2006
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Please have a mammogram or take someone you love for one.
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Security Freeware
This Week's Topic: Folder Views
Question: Outlook Express Mail Formats
Websites of Interest: Join the Fight Against Breast Cancer; Breast Cancer Awareness Month; What's That Stuff?; Best of History Websites; All Nature; Famous Trials
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Special Feature: Security Freeware
The following article is from worldstart.com. Used with permission.
You may not know it, but everyday as you conveniently surf the Web, countless numbers of viruses, adware, Trojans and other nasty things are transported into your computer. Scary, isn't it?
Contrary to popular belief, just installing antivirus software onto your computer isn't a solution to all the problems out there today. Gone are the days when one could install a Norton or a McAfee program and forget about any dangers. You need to secure your computer a wee bit more than you used to. Thankfully for us, there are plenty of software programs on the market that can help us accomplish this task. What's even better is that some of them are freeware, meaning they are free, but they do perform jobs equally well, if not better, than most software you have to pay for. Let's just go over a few of them that are available to you today. There are also some links at the end of each section that you can use to check out each freeware.
Antivirus
The first name that comes to mind when I think about free antivirus software is AVG. They have been dishing out quality AV software since 1991 and you can count on them to secure your system. The free edition of the AV is essentially the Pro edition. The only disadvantages are the disabling of a few non-critical features and the non-availability of direct technical support. AVG is easy on resources, updates itself regularly and also provides the option of e-mail scanning. Another option in the free antivirus category is AntiVir, which is slightly better than AVG, in terms of performance. However, it doesn't include the option of e-mail scanning.
http://free.grisoft.com
http://www.free-av.com
Spyware
The latest buzzword in Internet trash is spyware. Spyware refers to small, hidden programs that are embedded in larger applications to report your information to advertisers. And, sadly for us, antivirus software isn't omnipotent, so they can't handle spyware. To guard your system against spyware, you need an anti-spyware program. One of the best in this category is Ad-Aware SE Personal. It scans your computer, including removable drives for advertising spyware and it safely removes them. Ad-Aware destroys adware, as well as spyware. If you don't want any piece of this spyware cake and you think that these hidden programs invade your privacy, you should download this utility now.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download.asp?fid=7423&fileidx=1
Browser Protection Utility
Everywhere you go on the Internet today, there is scumware. All you need to do is enter a site and they are busy installing unneeded software onto your computer, which may change your homepage, start unwanted popups, etc. A browser protector is a piece of software that stops these unwanted things right at the point of infection. SpywareBlaster is one of the better free software programs that will do this for you. This is especially useful if you use Internet Explorer, as it guards you against thousands of ActiveX based exploits. Apart from this, it also offers protection against hostile sites and unwanted cookies.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Firewall
Most computer users have come to terms with the fact that everyone needs a firewall. Gone are the days when a firewall was the fancy software used in big offices only. With attackers having such easy access to PCs these days, a firewall is a must.
One of the best free firewalls on the market is the Kerio Personal Firewall. For even beginners, it's not at all complicated to install or to use like some of the other firewalls out there. A similar second choice, which is equally good, is the ZoneAlarm Firewall. Both of these are free to use. However, with the Kerio Firewall, some of the advanced features are turned off automatically after 30 days of usage.
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover
I have seen instances when an antivirus program wasn't able to detect Trojans and I am talking about paid antivirus software. It is recommended that everyone using their PC on the Internet have a Trojan scanner installed. It's smart to have it perform weekly scans as well, especially if you frequently use P2P. It's a must for you, as you can never be too sure what all is being passed between files.
Ewido is one of the better Trojan scanners available today and it's totally free for you to download for your personal use. Ewido is also good at removing some spyware infections and has an excellent on demand scanner. Also note that currently Ewido is only meant for Windows 2000 and later. The free version of Ewido is the same as the paid version however, after 14 days, the active protection becomes non-functional.
http://www.ewido.net/en/
Rootkit Scanner/Remover
A rootkit is a special set of software tools that hackers use to hide Trojans, viruses, etc. from your antivirus or other security programs. They are extremely effective and usually aren't detected by antivirus software like Norton or McAfee. Their effectiveness has lead to development of a new category of security products called rootkit scanners. As you can make out, their prime job is to detect and remove rootkits from your system.
One of the most effective and simplest to use is Blacklight. This software will effectively detect most rootkits missed by your antivirus program. Another big gun in this category is a free Chinese software called Icesword. It was originally used in Chinese, but is now also available in English. The only drawback is that this program requires technical expertise from the user and the patient learning curve to figure out the program. Honestly, using a combination of different products to protect your PC against rootkits isn't that bad of an idea anymore.
http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/try.shtml
http://www.xfocus.net/tools/200509/IceSword_en1.12.rar
Intrusion Prevention and Detection
So, we have covered so many aspects of computer security, from the antivirus programs to rootkit scanners. The last layer in your security blanket that I'd recommend to anybody is intrusion detection software. Up until now, in this article, we have documented various ways to prevent, remove and detect virus or spyware infections. With intrusion detection, we take it one step further.
For most Internet users, especially beginners, the free version of Winpatrol will provide adequate coverage. It maintains a critical watch and tells you when any product is trying to make critical changes to any of your system settings. The usage is as simple as a yes or no. Winpatrol will just ask you if you want to allow the program to make changes or not. Of course, you've just go to know when to allow a program to change settings and when to not.
http://www.winpatrol.com/
Anonymous Surfing Service
Why would you I want to surf anonymously, you ask. You're not a spy or a contract killer. When you go out to shop, you don't write your address and your phone number on the back of your shirt, do you? Then, why would you want to do that when you're cruising around the World Wide Web, which is full of people waiting to know your system's information so they can get inside it?
How do you do it then? Well, there are many commercial services available that let you surf anonymously, but the good news is that one of the best services (JAP) is absolutely free. Every computer has a specific IP address. You and your activities can be traced with the help of your IP. When you use JAP, it hides your IP and assigns its own IP address to you and many other users, so if someone tries to follow your trail, they end up head first in a solid concrete wall. Meaning that when you connect to a Web site, it doesn't take you to the server of that Web site directly. Instead, you go through JAP's own servers first.
So, go ahead and make your system completely secure by fooling the intruders.
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html
http://tor.eff.org/
Phew, that was long, wasn't it? It does look like a scary list, but don't say I didn't warn you in the beginning! : ) The good thing is that you now know about the enemy and you know what shields you can use. What's even better is that all of the programs I mentioned are completely free! So, go get them now and begin to explore the Web without any worries!
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Today's Topic: Folder Views
Question: Is there a way I can rearrange the files in my folder? Sometimes I would like to sort them alphabetically and sometimes by date. It would make it easier for me to find what I am looking for.
Answer:
There are several ways you can view and sort the files and folders that are inside a folder. First, click View on the menu and you will see the following choices: Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List, and Details. (This is from Windows XP; some of these may not appear, depending on your version of Windows)
The Thumbnails view is very helpful if you have a folder with pictures in it. Choose Thumbnails and you will see a small version of each picture in addition to the filename.
The Tiles, Icons and List views will display the file icon and filename. The only difference between these views is the size of the icon.
The Details view will give you the most information about your file and allow you to sort by filename, file size, type or date modified.
To use Details view, click View on the menu and then Details. You will see four columns in the right pane: Filename, Size, Type and Date Modified. To sort your files alphabetically by filename, click the word Name at the top of the filename column. You will sort in ascending order, A to Z. To sort in descending order, Z to A, click the Filename column heading again.
You can also sort by size, type and date modified. Click the column heading to sort in ascending order; click again to sort in descending order.
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Question: Outlook Express Mail Formats
I recently switched to optimum Online and Outlook Express for my email. Now, when I receive emails that are supposed to have pictures in them, all I get is a square with a small red X in the corner. Am I doing something wrong?
Answer:
No, you just have to change the format.
Outlook Express has two formats for email: HTML and plain text.
If you want to insert pictures into your emails or view pictures that people send to you, you must use the HTML format. HTML emails take longer to send, and some e-mail programs do not view them properly, so the recipients of your emails may not see what you send.
In plain-text format, only text characters, with no special formatting, are available.
You can change the format of your emails. Here are the steps:
Click Tools on the menu and then Options. You will now see the Options dialog box.
Click the Send tab at the top. Under Mail Sending Format, click the circle next to HTML or Plain Text.
Click the OK button.
Now all messages will be in that format.
You can still change an individual message to the other format. If you would like to send one email in the format other than the one you choose, you can do that. To do so, open a new email. In the New Message window, click Format on the menu and then click Rich Text (HTML) or Format, Plain Text.
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Websites of Interest:
Join the Fight Against Breast Cancer
Eat M&Ms to fight breast cancer. For each package sold, M&Ms will donate fifty cents to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
http://us.mms.com/us/news/promotions/komen
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Visit this website for information on early detection, breast cancer and mammograms and women’s health.
http://www.nbcam.org/
What's That Stuff?
The web explains the contents and processes of familiar products; you will see paper, ink, jello, hair coloring and much more. It is a very interesting site.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff.html
Best of History Websites
This site has links to over one thousand history-related web sites.
http://www.besthistorysites.net/
All Nature
Visit eNature.com, where you will find world-class nature content, from amphibians to wildflowers.
http://www.enature.com
Famous Trials
An interesting collection of original works, government records and other information about some of the most famous trials in history.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm |
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