This Week's Edition
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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, May 13, 2012
To all the Moms, we wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day!
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Creating Safe Passwords
Tips & Tricks: Top 25 Most Popular Anti-Spam Tips, Tricks and Secrets: Don't Delete Spam Automatically
Featured Computer Term: What Is an IP Address?
This Week's Topic: The Best Keystroke Shortcuts for the Internet
iPad Tips: How to Lock the iPad Screen Orientation
Question: Alphabetize Desktop Icons
Websites of Interest: Mother’s Day
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Special Feature: Creating Safe Passwords
From google.com Online Safety
Tips and advice for staying more secure on the web
There are so many fascinating things to do and explore online, but there are also times when the Internet can be a little bit scary. Just like in the offline world, it’s important to keep yourself safe and secure. Whether you’re a new Internet user or an old hand, it’s good to stay updated on the best practices when it comes to sharing your data online and browsing safely.
Here we give you advice for staying more secure on the web and an overview of some of the security tools that Google offers.
Creating Safe Passwords
Passwords are the first line of defense against cyber criminals. It’s important to pick strong passwords that are different for each of your important accounts and to change them regularly. Here are some ideas to help create strong passwords.
Use a unique password for all your important accounts.
Use unique passwords for your accounts, especially important accounts like email and online banking. You are likely to have dozens of accounts across the web, and you cannot guarantee the security of all of them. Criminals target sites that lack strong security, in order to harvest usernames and passwords that they test against other popular sites. When you use the same password across the web, a cyber criminal can learn the password from a less secure site and then use that password to compromise your important accounts.
Use a long password
The longer your password is, the harder it is to guess. There are almost one quintillion possible 10-character passwords (that’s 4,000 times as many possibilities as if your password only has eight characters) … and that’s if you only use numbers and letters.
Use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols
Using numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters in your password increases the difficulty of guessing or cracking your password. For example, there are more than 6 quadrillion possible variations for an eight-character password with numbers, symbols, and mixed-case letters – 30,000 times more variations than an eight-character password with only lowercase letters.
Make sure your password recovery options are up-to-date and secure
Make sure your recovery email address is up to date so that you can receive emails in case you need to reset your password. Sometimes you can also add a phone number to receive password reset codes via text message. Additionally, many websites will ask you to choose a question to verify your identity if you ever forget your password. If you’re able to create your own question, try to come up with a question that has an answer only you would know. Try to find a way to make your answer unique – you can do this by using some of the tips above – so that even if someone guesses the answer, they won’t know how to enter it properly.
Keep your password reminders in a secret place that isn’t easily visible
Don’t leave notes with your passwords in plain sight, on your computer or desk. If you do decide to save your passwords in a file on your computer, create a unique name for the file so people don’t know what’s inside. Avoid giving the file an obvious name, such as “my passwords.” If you have a difficult time remembering multiple passwords, a trusted password manager may be a good solution. Spend a few minutes checking out the reviews and reputations of these services.
Add an extra layer of security to your Google Account
When you leave your house you feel a bit safer knowing the door’s locked. But imagine how much safer you’d feel if the door was guarded too? The same goes for the information in your Google Accounts. By switching on 2-step verification you’ll have not one, but two security measures to help prevent someone from breaking in.
Once you’ve created a password for your Google Account, you can add an extra layer of security by enabling 2-step verification. 2-step verification requires you to have access to your phone, as well as your username and password, when you sign in. This means that if someone steals or guesses your password, the potential hijacker still can’t sign in to your account because they don’t have your phone. Now you can protect yourself with something you know (your password) and something you have (your phone).
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Tips & Tricks: Top 25 Most Popular Anti-Spam Tips, Tricks and Secrets: Don't Delete Spam Automatically
Spam, spam and spam. How to avoid spam, how to filter spam, and how to complain about spam are the items on this menu of junk mail fighting tips. With the help of Heinz Tschabitscher of about.com, we are presenting an ongoing series of tips and tricks that you can use to minimize the amount of junk mail that you will receive in your email inbox.
Filtering spam is a tricky matter. While many clever strategies exist that can significantly cut down on the amount of unsolicited mail in your Inbox, no filter can be 100% accurate.
There will be spam that slips through the filter or — worse — legitimate mail that is caught by the anti-spam filter.
That is why it is a good idea to build a safety net into your filters.
Do not delete mail immediately with an anti-spam filter; do not even put it in the trash. It is usually better to have a special "Possibly Spam" folder where filters put the suspected spam. Every few days you can have a look at the contents of this folder and, if it does not contain any legit email, empty it.
In our next edition: Watch Out for Those Checkboxes
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Featured Computer Term: What Is an IP Address?
Question: What Is an IP Address? Is It the Same as Domain Name?
Answer:
By Paul Gil of about.com
You see this "IP address" expression more and more. Your computer has an IP address, your phone has an IP address. Cops on CSI and other TV shows trace criminals by their IP addresses. But what exactly is an "IP address"?
IP address, or "internet protocol address", is a unique identifying number given to every single computer on the internet. Like a car license plate, an IP address is a special serial number used for identification.
Any machine connected to the internet has an IP address: Xbox games, cell phones, fax machines, and even soda pop dispensers have IP addresses. In every case, the IP address acts both like a car license plate and like a telephone number: it shows ownership, allows the machine to be located by other machines, and empowers authorities to track and protect people's safety, if need be.
How IP Addresses Look
IP addresses are comprised of four numbers separated by dots:
e.g. 127.0.0.1
e.g. 253.16.44.22
e.g. 72.48.108.101
IP addresses use the above dotted-number format called "dotted quad". Each of the four parts of a dotted quad can be no larger than 256, for a worldwide maximum of 4.3 billion different IP addresses.
IP Address Is Not the Same As WWW Domain Name Addresses
For nearly every web server, the IP address is invisibly translated into a natural English "domain name" for ease of use. But technically speaking, the IP address is the true identifier of a web server...the domain name is simply a redirector pointer to help people find the web server.
Here are three IP addresses, with their corresponding domain names. Both the IP address and domain name URL can be used to connect to the same web server:
e.g. 72.246.51.15 = www.nasa.gov
e.g. 152.91.56.138 = www.gov.au
e.g. 208.185.127.40 = www.about.com
Your ISP Has a Block of IP Addresses to Lend
Internet authorities allot IP address numbers to regional internet service providers in large blocks. Those ISP's, in turn, assign these IP addresses to every server and every user internet user who logs onto the internet. Yes, there are millions of IP addresses active at any instant.
More about IP Addresses
Trivia point 1: before the World Wide Web became popular in the 1990's, every computer was assigned a fixed ("static" IP address). But with so many millions of internet users today, ISP's now choose to "lend" IP addresses from a pool of numbers. This is much like dealer license plates being shared amongst test drive vehicles at a car dealership. This loaning of IP addresses is called "dynamic IP addressing", and is proven to work better for individual users.
Trivia point 2: often, it is possible to identify where a user is in the world by their IP address. Web sites like www.whatismyipaddress.com/ can read your computer's IP address, compare it to its database of ISP's, and attempt to guess your location on the planet.
Trivia point 3: it is possible to mask or digitally alter the appearance of your computer's IP address. You would do this for the sake of privacy or to avoid authorities tracking your online habits.
Trivia point 4: within office networks, each office computer is given an "internal IP address". As soon as an office computer accesses the internet, it then borrows the office's main IP address. This works much like office telephone numbers: a unique internal extension number is assigned to every user, but as soon as any person dials out of the office, call display will only show the office's main phone number. This is known as internal vs. external IP addressing, and is a necessary technique to reduce the number of IP addresses on the internet.
Trivia point 5: as of May 2008, the internet uses IP addressing standard Version 4 (aka "IPv4"). There is a new generation of addresses being designed called IPv6. The biggest change is in the number of available addresses. Instead of 4.3 billion possible IP addresses, IPv6 will bring us 34,000,000,000,000,000,000 billion possible IP addresses. Read more about IPv6 here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6
Is there a computer term or phrase that you'd like to see an explanation of? Email it to info@computerkindergarten.com and we'll put the term and its definition in an upcoming newsletter.
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Today's Topic: The Best Keystroke Shortcuts for the Internet
By Paul Gil of about.com
Computers are all about making the repetitive go faster. In the case of opening and viewing web pages, shortcut keystrokes are a real boon. Type ".com" in one stroke; reverse one web page; bookmark the current web page; launch a new tab; zoom the font size... all of these shortcuts and more are listed here...
These commands apply to Firefox, Chrome, IE9, and Safari.
1. CTRL-T to launch a new browser tab page
Tabbed pages are very useful: they let you open multiple web pages simultaneously without the same memory load as a full browser window. Simply press CTRL-T to launch a new tab.
Related: use CTRL-Page Up and CTRL-Page Down to navigate between the tabs.
2. CTRL-Enter to type 'www.' and '.com'
Once you have pressed ALT-D to focus on the browser address bar, you can save yourself even more typing. Since many website addresses start with 'http://www.' and end with '.com', your browser will offer to type those portions for you. You simply type the middle portion of the address (called the mid-level domain).
Try it:
Press ALT-D or click to focus on your address bar (the entire address should be block-selected in blue now)
Type CNN
Press CTRL-Enter
More Tips:
If you press ALT-CTRL-Enter, you visit the web page and launch a new browser tab page at the same time
SHIFT-Enter is for .net web addresses
SHIFT-CTRL-Enter is for .org web addresses
3. ALT-D to access the address bar
Your browser's address bar (aka 'URL bar') is where the website address goes. Instead of reaching for your mouse to click the address bar, try ALT-D on your keyboard.
Like all ALT commands, you hold the ALT key while you press the 'd' on your keyboard.
Result: your computer focuses on the address bar, and block-selects the entire address, ready for you to type over!
4. CTRL-D to bookmark/favorite a page
To save the current web address as a bookmark/favorite, use CTRL-D on your keyboard. A dialog box (mini window) will pop up, and suggest a name and folder. If you like the suggested name and folder, press Enter on your keyboard.
5. Zoom the page with CTRL-mouse wheel spin
Is the font too small or too large? Simply hold CTRL with your left hand, and spin your mouse wheel with your right hand. This will zoom the web page and enlarge/shrink the font. This is wonderful for those of us with weaker reading vision!
6. CTRL-F4 to close a browser tab page
When you no longer want the web page tab open, press CTRL-F4. This keystroke will close the current tab page while still leaving the web browser open.
7. Backspace to reverse one page in your web browser
Instead of clicking the 'back' button on your screen, try using your keyboard backspace key instead. As long as you are focused on the page and not the address bar, backspace will reverse you one web page into the past.
Related: Safari web browser also uses CTRL-(Left Arrow) to reverse one page.
8. F5 to refresh the current web page
This is ideal for news pages, or for any web page that didn't quite load correctly. Press the F5 key to force your web browser to get a fresh copy of the web page.
9. ALT-Home to go to home page
This is a favorite shortcut for many! If you set your home page to be Google or your favorite news page, simply press ALT-Home to load that page into the current tab. Much faster than reaching for your mouse and clicking the home button.
10. ESC to cancel loading your web page
Slow web pages happen often. If you do not wish to wait for all the graphics and animation to load, simply press the ESC (escape) key at the top left of your keyboard. It is the same as clicking the red X button beside your address bar.
11. Triple-click to highlight-select the entire web address
Sometimes, a single click will not highlight-select the whole web address. If this happens, simply triple-click the address with your left mouse button, and it will highlight-select all the text for you.
12. CTRL-C to copy
This is a universal keystroke that works in most any software. Once something is highlighted-selected, press CTRL-C on your keyboard to copy that item to your invisible clipboard storage.
13. CTRL-V to paste
Once something is temporarily stored in your invisible clipboard, it can be pasted repeatedly by CTRL-V. In case you are wondering why the unusual keystroke choice, it is because CTRL-P is reserved for printing.
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iPad Tips: How to Lock the iPad Screen Orientation
By Patrick Jordan of ipadinsight.com
The iPad is quite an intimate device, one that you may find yourself using while laying down on a couch or in bed quite often. At these times and others it can be very helpful to lock the iPad’s screen orientation into landscape or portrait mode to suit what is most comfortable for you.
The easiest method for this is to assign the button just above the volume control on the right side of the iPad to this function. You do this in Settings > General > Use Side Switch To – and choose ‘Lock Rotation’.
In our next edition:
Using Folders to Organize Your iPad Apps
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Question: Alphabetize Desktop Icons
I have a lot of icons on my desktop. Can I put them in alphabetical order? It would make it so much easier to find what I am looking for.
Answer:
Yes, you can sort the icons. Right click (press the right mouse button) on a blank spot on the desktop. A menu will open; point to Sort by.
A menu will display to the side. You will see several choices. Click Name to display the icons in alphabetical order.
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Websites of Interest:
Mother’s Day
For history of the holiday, tips on how to make it a success, poems, pictures for kids to color and more, visit Holidays on the Net.
http://www.holidays.net/mother
Here is a nice website with Mother’s Day projects for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school children.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/mothersday/
Visit this website to read a very nice tribute to Mothers and Grandmothers and learn the origins of this observation.
http://www.entourages.com/barbs/Mother.htm
10 Tips for Delighting Your Wife on Mother's Day
http://www.thefamilycorner.com/parenting/moms/10_tips.shtml
Everything Mother’s Day
http://www.everythingmothersday.com/