Technical Information and Advice

08-15-09 I am making all these files available to you from my own PC with a little program called HFS (HTTP File Server) from http://www.rejetto.com/hfs. I also have it in my Software folder. It is free and specifically designed to let you publish and share files from your own PC. It is not a Torrent or P2P (Peer to Peer) program since you are only downloading from one source, and not from multiple sources. If you are interested in using HFS, it is easy; you just drag and drop a file into it to share it. HFS runs as a standalone executable file (.exe) and does not require any installation. But you do need to forwarded port 80 in your router. http://www.portforward.com can help you with that if you dont know how. The only other issue is that you may not have a static IP address. If you have a dynamic IP (one that changes) and like the fact that the links you provide to others have a limited life span, than you are good to go. But if you want the links to remain good, you can do what I did. I used http://www.dyndns.com and created a domain name with them. They host it for free. Then I just installed a free little program from them called Update Client, which keeps them informed of my current IP address as it changes. HFS is also a great option for those times when you want to send a file that is too large to e-mail to a friend. Just open HFS, drag and drop the file into it, and send the link to your friend instead. When they get the e-mail, they click on the link you sent them, and they start downloading the file right from your computer. No third party service is needed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-25-09 I recommend everyone to have a router, even if you only have one PC. It makes you so much more secure since it is a hardware firewall instead of a software firewall which has many vulnerabilities. Dont get me wrong, a router only helps protect you from outside attacks, while a software firewall helps protect you on your local network, if you have one, and also blocks outgoing stuff that you did not send, alerting you to the possible presence of malware when it happens. But dont count only on either too much. A great deal of todays malware circumvents or disables your software firewall and anti-virus once its on your system. And though a router normally cant be infected, it cant protect you if you are going to compromised sites or clicking on links in your email. These days, even opening e-mail on your computer can infest you. Thats why using web-mail is so much safer. If you insist on POP mail, I recommend using a free program called Mailwasher. (mailwasher.net) It lets you sample your mail before it is downloaded to your computer, and allows you to delete any unwanted mail while it still resides on your internet providers server before it even reaches your PC, giving it no chance to infest you. Ive used it

for years, and still do, to keep my old POP mail account clean and to catch any old contacts that dont know my web-mail address. If you do have a router, make sure you have changed the default username and password. They are common knowledge. In the settings of your router, turn off UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), it is an open door to your system. Turn off WAN Administration, which allows outsiders to control your router. If your router is set to WEP, change it to WPA. WEP is easily compromised while WPA is over 29.9 million times more secure. It is also a good idea to periodically check and see if there is a firmware update for your router. And remember, http://www.portforward.com is a good source for all your router help needs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-25-09 If you use your PC every day, you may just want to leave it running all the time. That way your PC isnt prematurely worn out from all of the cold starts and heat up and cool down cycles that turning it off put it through. But more importantly, leaving it on also allows it to keep itself current on all the security updates from Microsoft every night on its scheduled Windows update check, which Im sure you have set to automatic, right? But if you do keep your PC off while not in use, the first thing you should do before getting on the net is check for any Windows updates (in XP: start/all programs/Windows Update), and wait for them to be fully installed and your PC restarted if the update requires it. Otherwise you will be vulnerable to a very common cause of infection. Black hat hackers look at the security updates Microsoft pushes out and figure out what they are patching. Then they quickly write software that takes advantage of that vulnerability, and use it on people who have not patched/updated their PC yet. Google the quote: time-to-own of an unpatched PC, and you will get the idea of how bad it is. Leaving a laptop on all the time is not something I suggest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-25-09 We all know that we should have surge protectors to protect us from voltage spikes, but I also recommend that everyone also have a battery backup, also known as a UPS (uninterruptible power source). Not just so you have time to save your work and properly shut down your system in the event of a power outage, but, more importantly in my opinion, it also protects you from brown-outs which are when your electricity drops below its normal strength. Brown-outs are a cause of many electronic component failures. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-25-09

If you do not know about Sandboxie, I would like to introduce it to you. Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer. In other words, it creates a sandbox-like isolated operating environment in which applications can be run or even installed without permanently modifying your operating system. That isolated virtual environment allows you to safely surf the web or even open e-mail attachments without the fear of being infected. When I get e-mail attachments, I close out my web browser, and re-open it with Sandboxie. Then I can safely open and view all the e-mail attachments I want, knowing that they will be completely erased when I close the web browser and any other program that was opened by the attachment in order to view its contents. Just remember: no photos or documents you save, or even new websites you bookmark or add to your favorites while running Sandboxie, will be there when you are done. They will have been wiped away. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-25-09 If your PC running XP seems to be running slower than when you bought it, you may want to try these steps. First: Just to be on the safe side, create a system restore point so that if anything goes wrong, you can go back to how it was. In XP go to Start/Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance then on the left you should see System Restore. Click that and select to Create a restore point. Second: Go to Start/Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs and go through that list and uninstall all the programs that you KNOW you do not want or do not use. If you are not certain of a program, just leave it there or Google it to find out what it is. Third: clean your system up with a nice free program called CCleaner. You can read about it and get it here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-file-cleaner.htm Fourth: Use EasyCleaner to clean up your registry. Get and read about it here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-registry-cleaner.htm (dont be too aggressive with it) Fifth: Defragment your C drive. In XP you go to Start/Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance and choose the Task: Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster. If you want a better defragmenter than comes with XP, try one of the free ones suggested here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-disk-de-fragmenter.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-25-09

This next program is Not a free one, but is well worth hearing about. It is called Spinrite, is $89.00, and can be obtained at grc.com. This program interacts with the surface of the magnetic storage media of a hard drive and actually has the ability to repair it in many cases. That means that if your computer wont boot or has other problems because of a hard disk error, Spinrite most likely can get you up and running again. The best way for you to find out about Spinrite is to Google Spinrite Review and check out all of the excellent reviews it gets. You can also read customer feedback at grc.com. It also has a money back guarantee. Spinrite also performs preventative maintenance on your drives. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-25-09 The web sites in this document are purposely not links. Links are one of the most popular tools used to spread malware. The way to follow a link safely is not to click on it, but to copy it to your web browsers address bar. That way you dont install any malware, and you go to where the link says it goes to, and not to a hidden and different destination, like a fake bank log-in page. Additionally, it is a very bad idea to type an address into the web browsers address bar. If you get even one letter wrong, or put on the wrong domain (.com .org .gov etc.) you could unintentionally open up a site that burns horrible images into your memory that every time you close your eyes for months that that is what you see. Or it could take you to a site that looks just like the site you really wanted to go to but is a fake. So when typing a web address, I recommend typing it into the search bar of your favorite search engine and choosing the correct site from the search results there. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-29-09 If you want to know if your connection to a certain web site is secure, look at the address bar. If it is a secure connection, the address will start with https. The s stands for secure. Whenever you are entering any sensitive data on a web page, make sure you see the s. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-29-09 If you use the web browser Firefox, you may want to take advantage of some of the add-ons that are available to you. I use: Adblock Plus to keep away a lot of annoying ads. Flashblock so I dont have to be annoyed by all that flash animation. Image Zoom so I can zoom in on an image of course. NoScript which turns off the ever dangerous scripting.

Nuke Anything Enhanced lets you right click annoying objects and remove them. Unhide Passwords so I can see what I am typing and correct errors.

If you open a lot of web pages at the same time, you may want to check out Tree Style Tab. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-29-09 If you like your opened windows to be neat and perfectly side by side, you may like the free program AllSnap. It makes all top level windows automatically align. http://www.ivanheckman.com/allsnap ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-29-09 KatMouse is a great little free utility that saves you time by acknowledging the window directly beneath your mouse cursor so you can instantly scroll up or down in any window you have your mouse curser over, without first having to click that window to redirect the focus to it. Once you use it, you wont want to be without it. You can get it at: http://ehiti.de/katmouse So I wouldnt have to restart KatMouse each time my XP machine rebooted, I dragged and dropped the KatMouse.exe file into the Start/All Programs/Startup folder. ----------------------------------------------------------------------04-29-09 If you have high speed internet, and have not heard of Google Earth, you are missing out on something amazing. It puts a globe of the earth on your screen and lets you zoom in and go sightseeing anywhere on the planet. It is made up of satellite images and some are more detailed than others. It is also three dimensional. You can zoom into a canyon or valley and look around at a level lower than the surrounding mountains. In many areas you can use the Street View option which is photos taken from a Google vehicle that drove around taking eye-level images. You can also choose the Sky View and look into the stars. You can zoom into distant space and check out the galaxies and other formations that are too distant to see with the naked eye. I use Google Earth to scope out the area when I am going to go to some place that I have never been before. It is so much more informative than a map. There are even options to see the current weather around the globe, Traffic, streets, 3-D buildings, Borders, and lots of photos uploaded by people who were actually there. I can, and have, spent hours looking at the beauty of Gods creation.

If you dont have high speed internet service, make sure you check this out at a friends who does. http://earth.google.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------07-18-09 Do you make long distant phone calls, perhaps even around the world? If you do, or would like to but the cost is prohibitive, you should know about a free program called Skype. With Skype installed on your computer and internet access (even dial-up usually), you can call for FREE, anyone else in the world that also has Skype on their computer and internet access. If both of you have web-cams and high speed internet service, you can even do video calls for free. There is a charge for calling a land-line or cell phone from Skype, but it is minimal, and even cheaper with a subscription. You can check it out at skype.com. Just remember that your PC has to be on for it to work ----------------------------------------------------------------------09-19-09 The reason I use the rtf document type is due to its interoperability. While many other document file types are not compatible across different word processing softwares and operating systems, the rtf format is supported by most, new or old. Microsoft users that do not have Microsoft Office can view rtf files in WordPad, Mac users can use TextEdit, and Linux users normally have the free Open Office. If you too would like an excellent free alternative to Microsoft Office, you should check out Open Office. For Windows users: http://www.openoffice.org For Mac users: http://porting.openoffice.org/mac for Mac

----------------------------------------------------------------------01-27-09 If you have any comments, or questions, or suggestions, please send them to me at: da.getmyip@gmail.com