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The Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection shares the same phone
wires with your telephone. The phones on the line with DSL have a loud
buzz sound, which goes up and down your phone line. To get rid of
the buzz, you need to install a DSL filter that filters out this sound
between the phone line and all your phones but not between the phone line
and your DSL modem. Filters are available from your DSL service provider
stores like Radio Shack. The ideal way to install a filter is to run a
separate wire from the box where the phone line enters your house to the
DSL modem and to install one DSL filter in that box into which you plug
the wire leading to all the phones. For the phone plug where your
DSL modem is connected, you'll want a splitter filter with a filtered jack
that is used to plug a phone and an unfiltered jack for the DSL modem.
For all the other phones, the filter just plugs into the phone jack and
the phone cord plugs into the filter. You can also get: wall phone filters,
which fit between the phone; the wall plate, which the phone's mounted
on; and baseboard phone jacks with built in filters.
Computer Security
Some establishments, with computers available for its customers’ use,
have installed keystroke software on their computers that logged individual
keystrokes. Thieves at these places have captured user names and
passwords and used them to access and open bank accounts online.
If you use public computers, experts recommend cutting and pasting individual
characters when entering sensitive information at public terminals to foil
thieves. When a computer user depresses no keys, no characters are
logged on to keystroke software.
Dialup Connection
With a dialup connection, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) often disconnects you after a period of inactivity. The free utility requires no setup nor must you have any knowledge of your ISP. Once downloaded, it checks for a dialup connection. If one is present, after a random interval of 30 seconds to three minutes, it will simulate Web browsing by visiting various Internet sites from its database of 50 addresses. It promises to keep you connected with all versions of AOL, NetZero, Prodigy, MSN, Juno, AT&T WorldNet, and many other ISPs.
Downloads
If you can't find the file just downloaded from the Internet, Internet
Explorer (and most of the other major browsers) offers a Save As dialog
box that you must complete before downloading a file. However, you
can too easily click OK without really looking at this dialog box when
it appears on your screen. Fortunately, all you have to do is choose
File, Save As to recall the Save As dialog box, which by default opens
the same folder opened by the last dialog box. Just check the Save
In field at the top of the dialog box to find out the folder where you
saved your file.
Famous Fonts
Smackbomb.com lists over 300 fonts used in TV shows, record albums, movies, etc. You could have a lot fun with these fonts. E-mail them to friends using the font used for the Dallas Cowboys, or you might want to use The Grinch Who Stole Christmas font for your annual Christmas newsletter.
Favorites
If you are changing computers and want to save your “Favorites,” this
tip may be of help if using Internet Explorer and Netscape. In Internet
Explorer 6, click File, Import and Export. Now select Export Favorites
and click Next. Under Import from a File or Address, use the pre-selected
destination file or choose your own with the Browse button and click Next,
select Favorites, click Next, Finish. In Netscape 7, press Ctrl+B
to open the Bookmarks window and click Tools, Export. Now navigate
to the folder where you want to save the Bookmarks and click Save.
Firewall alert numbers
If you have a firewall and a message pops us with a series of numbers, such as 144.144.144.144, these numbers are Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Web sites have IP numbers. A better way was developed to get to a Web site using words. To get to a particular Web site, you could type the series of those numbers preceded by http://. Thus, the numbers you see in the firewall alerts are the addresses of sites sending probes to your computer. They may be normal Internet traffic or intruders. You can track these numbers down to access basic information available on the owners. You can get information on IP numbers on the Web by going to Arin WHOIS Database Search Enter the IP number and Arin will tell you who owns it. There are also programs that will help you identify intruders. One program is called VisualZone and it's free. You will find it online. Foreign Languages
If you prefer to use a language other than English when on the Web,
Google, AltaVista and MSN can help. All have language options that put
the search interface into something other than English. At AltaVista,
click AltaVista USA in the upper right corner. At MSN, go to the search
page and click My Preferences. For the full list of languages, click
Other Languages. At Google, click Language Tools.
Free Products
Many companies will allow you to try their products for free. Register with Startsampling.com and get free samples to major products, such as pet food, cleaning products, over-the-counter medications etc.
Free Real-Time Stock Quotes
In the past, the average investor had to wait for newspapers to discover stock prices. Today, real-time and 20-minute-delayed stock quotes are available on the Internet. In fact, during the last few years, the number of Web sites offering free real-time and delayed stock quotes has proliferated. Here are a few examples on online quote servers: MSN Money provides free access to delayed and real-time quotes. Thomson Financial Network offers investors free delayed quotes and free real-time quotes with your registration. FreeRealTime requires registration for your free access to real-time stock quotes, financial news, and corporate profiles. There is no limit on the number of quotes you can get
per day.
Free virus scan
If you think you might have a virus but don't have anti-virus software, McAfee has a free online virus scan. It will scan and identify viruses on your hard drive. If you end up having a virus, purchase anti-virus software to remove it.
Frommer’s Travel Information
Frommer's is a trusted name in the travel industry. Its guides are chock-full of information on locations and attractions across the world. Frommer's Web site, is just as informative. Whether traveling to Alaska or Zimbabwe, you'll find detailed information on accommodations, dining, nightlife, shopping and more. Read the suggested itineraries to ensure you hit all the right spots.
Genealogy Online
If any of your ancestors were members of fraternal orders or service clubs, look for the names and addresses of local chapters so that you can contact them to see if they have original resources available for public use or if they can send you copies of anything pertaining to your ancestors. Here are a few general information sites on fraternal orders and service clubs:
Most genealogical programs support the GEnealogical Data COMmunications
(GEDCOM) standard. Thus, you can transfer years of genealogical
work in an old program to a new one. To use it, save your database as a
.GED file. Then open it in your new program. A popular genealogical
software is Family Tree Maker, which costs $29.99. The software is also
available as a package with genealogical data.
The USGenWeb Project provides a central resource for genealogical information (records and reference materials) pertaining to counties within each state. USGenWeb offers state-level pages for each state within the United States of America that have links to pages for each county, as well as links to other resources about the state. At the county level, the pages have links to resources about the county. While some states have uniform looking county pages with the same standard resources for each one, other states don't have them. The content and look of USGenWeb state and county pages varies tremendously from state to state. In addition to state and county level pages, the USGenWeb Project includes special projects that cross state and county lines. Some of these projects include the following: USGW Tombstone Project , a project in conjunction with RootsWeb.com to collect and transcribe tombstone inscriptions so that genealogists can access the information online; USGenWeb Census Project , an undertaking to transcribe all federal census data for the United States to make it available online; and USGenWeb Lineage Researcher Pages, a lineage project to provide resources for individuals researching all descendants of a particular ancestor. Google
Google may well be the best search engine on the Internet. It indexes more Web pages than any other engine. If you are after photos rather than text, click the Images tab on Google’s home page. Google’s indexing system insures that Internet content is extensively cross-referenced. If you enter search criteria in one Google area, it provides you with a shortcut into other areas. To fine-tune the way Google responds to you, click the home page’s Preference link. You can now specify a single language for future search results and the number listed per page, filter out explicit content, and always have your results opened in a new window.
Government Officials
The interactive map at Yahoo.capwiz allows you to find out who your federal, state and local elected officials are in your state, county, or city. It even allows you to send one letter or e-mail to all of your representatives at once!
Graphics for Webmasters
To put some neat graphics on your web site that loads just as fast
as text, select your pictures from the Wingdings font set. To get
the pictures into your Web page, you will have to run the Windows Character
Map applet. This tip applies to all versions of Windows. The
easy way to run this program is to choose Start, Run, type in charmap and
press Enter. When the Character Map opens, click the Font list box
and select Wingdings. Now, you can view the pictures or use Select to copy
a selection for pasting into your web page.
There are plenty of situations in which you use the Internet but not
the Web, such as, when you send e-mail messages, or send instant messages.
Some Web addresses don’t start with “www.” Today many browsers
do not require the user to type “www” before a Web address. When
you enter a Universal Resource Locator (URL), your browser sends a request
to a server to find the site. The server will often recognize the
site even without the prefix. The Web architecture is always constantly
changing. Surfing the Web is becoming a much more pleasant experience.
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