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Tuesday, 27th May, 2008 MEETING Our Website is: http://brightoncomputerclub.org Preamble: A discussion on how to use the Club CD. It is not necessary to “Save” the file as it is already saved on the CD. Use “Run” when installing from the club CD. It is different than downloading from the website. When downloading from the website always “Save” it first to a folder on your hard drive, then find it and “Run” it. Use a folder name such as C:\Downloads to make it easy to find. Questions and Answers. Moderated by Frank Myers A member downloaded AVG 8 via the club website and got a message that Microsoft had not verified it Answer: MS gives that message automatically for any software that it has not issued a certificate that ensures users that the software will run on Windows. The club verifies that all software on the website and the club CD will run on Windows. Further, all the Club CD software has been vetted with AVG. Top of Page A member downloaded a dictionary. Windows could not identify the program. The member did not know what to do with it. Answer: Windows checks the suffix (the last three character after the dot) to get the type of file so it knows which program is used to run it. You have to go on the net and find the program that created the file: http://www.filesuffix.com/ Example: A document ending in “.doc” is a Microsoft Word document and you must have MS Word/MS Word Viewer or other compatible programs, such as Wordperfect, to open it. Top of Page A member installed AVG 8 and everyday the update fails. Answer: AVG 8 checks for updates as soon as Windows is loaded. This appears to be happening before your internet connection is made. After you have connected to the internet: Right click on the AVG 8 icon near the clock Select “Update now”. NOTE: The "Update Manager" is used to set the time of day for "Automatic Updates". If you always turn your computer on at 9:00am, just set the time to 9:30am. Top of Page What is a Blog? Answer: A blog is an acrynom of the term web log. It is is a website usually maintained by an someone, with entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video and even one’s life story. Blogs are free. If you want to create and maintain one: http://www.blogger.com/ Top of Page Can you take yourself off someone’s facebook? Can you stop it from loading? Answer: A quote from the Facebook web site: At Facebook, we believe that people should have control over how they share their information and who can see it. People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. You can use our privacy settings at any time to control who can see what on Facebook. To remove yourself from someone's "Facebook", you must contact the owner. Top of Page In auto update I get an optional update called Silverlight. They have an EULA that states they will go into your computer and get info. What is it? Answer: First of all, an EULA is an "End User's License Agreement" Microsoft Silverlight is a web browser plugin that provides support for rich internet applications such as animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback. Silverlight competes with products such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Adobe AIR, Adobe Shockwave, JavaFX, and Apple QuickTime. Version 2.0 brought improved interactivity and support for .NET languages and development tools. Part of the EULA states... AS DESCRIBED BELOW, THIS SOFTWARE HAS AN AUTOMATIC UPDATE FEATURE THAT IS ON BY DEFAULT. UNLESS YOU EXPRESSLY OPT OUT OF THIS FEATURE, YOU CONSENT TO THE TRANSMISSION OF CERTAIN STANDARD INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER TO MICROSOFT AND TO THE AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLATION OF UPDATES ON YOUR COMPUTER. NOTE: This is what Microsoft does now, to ensure you have a valid copy of Windows when you install Windows Defender, IE7 and updates. Top of Page What is Phishing? Answer: Phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Frequently, bank accounts and PayPal are used. Some group in Nigeria, for example, have been sending emails with deals - asking you to reply, for a long time. If you do, they sell your email address to others and they then send you spam or more phishing. If you get an email asking you to go to a link in the email, be careful, you may be going to a website that looks like your bank or other financial institution and next they may ask you to verify your account info. If you give it, you will be in trouble. MS Live Hot Mail has phishing protection, as does IE7, Firefox, Windows Live Mail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail and others. Note: A Member received an EMail supposedly from the TD Bank. It looked suspicious so the member sent it to the TD Bank and were thanked. The RCMP are also very interested in this type of phishing. You can contact them by clicking: PhoneBusters Web Site - this connector normally found near the bottom of the Club Information page. PhoneBusters Web Site Top of Page Live Hot Mail asks if you have high speed internet service. Does it work on dial? Answer: When the question was Googled, it appears that it does work on dial. Top of Page Sympatico could not display a website. Why? Answer: It happens from time to time when they are busy. Many things affect ISPs like Sympatico, Xplornet, etc. They have heavy usage during lunch hours and when the kids come home from school. Gmail waits one minute and then stops loading. Sympatico had some delays this morning. A member suggests there are often delays after a heavy rain. Top of Page I don’t have "Spell Check" in Outlook Express. Answer: In OE click on Tools, Options, Spelling. You should see a choice of English languages. If not, try and re- install MS Office with the Repair option. If you don't have MS Office, you could download a freeware dictionary: OE Spell Checker from MajorGeeks Top of Page Member has 5000 emails in his inbox. Member entered many contests. What does he do? Answer: Highlight all the emails and report as spam. They have your address and may give to others. You will get spam for a long time. You should change your email address Because you are with Sympatico, contact their site and get a new address. You could also try using Gmail or another web-based email. Top of Page Member explained that you can get info from the email as to who the sender is. Can we use that to find out who's phishing us? Answer: There is some info there. You can right click on the email in OE and click properties and get some info but it is not very useful. Even if you get the sender’s address they will change theirs before you get to them. Frequently, Phishers/Spammers use other folks computers by infiltrating and emailing (using folks' address books). If you use that source, it may be totally innocent. Better to let the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) go after them - tell them. Top of Page Is bouncing emails back to the sender a good practice? Answer: No! This tells the spammers that they now have a valid email address. Top of Page A member asked if we had a chance to evaluate the program "Multiclipboard 3.7". Answer: Frank has worked on it and Charlie tried it and found getting the clips back somewhat difficult. Frank uses another method to store his clips. - He uses "Notetab Lite" from our Software page. It has tabs, which allows him to separate each clip item. When is is following one topic, he puts all the clips inside one suitably named tab. Top of Page How do I delete cookies? Answer: Use CCleaner, available from the club CD or website Before using CCleaner - review Charlie LeBer's: CCleaner Presentation Top of Page Member reports that Spybot indicated that cookies could take all the info from the site they visited. Answer: There is info on your computer (cookies) about your preferences while visiting a website but they are not considered harmful. For example, a web site will make a cookie to indicate that you visited the site. If you come back later, it sees that original cookie and updates it with your second visit. This will happen with each visit. It is valuable info for a commercial site to know their repeat visitors. Avoid smiley faces if you don’t want cookies. Many websites will not let you in unless you allow their cookies. Take their cookies and if you wish to remove them, run CCleaner before you power down. Top of Page How do you find the cookies? Answer: Click on Start, then click Run. Type in “cookies” without the quotes and click "OK". They are text messages you can read with notepad, etc. Top of Page Outlook Express or MS Outlook, which is better? Answer: MS Outlook is a business email client. It works with a Calendar and a Scheduling program. Outlook Express is included with Windows XP and MS Outlook comes with some versions of MS Office. In MS Outlook, the addressing of an email is not as easy as with OE. Frank is not a fan of either. He uses Gmail almost exclusively. Windows Live Mail is rumoured to be the replacement for OE and Outlook. Charlie plans to give a presentation on Windows Live Mail on June 17. Top of Page Top of Page With thanks to Marg Whitaker who recorded the questions.