Cogitator

Content of my Blog

2011-12-07T22:00:00.000+13:00

Anti-Spyware and Freeware
Backing up and restoring simplified.
Building Your Own Computer
Do we need a Registry Cleaner?
Getting the best out of your computer inks.
Google Maps and Google Earth - Quick Help Links
How to avoid computer viruses and other malware, identity theft, and spam
How to Improve the Readability of What is on Your Computer Monitor
Lost Your Blog?
No User Picture on Start Menu in Windows XP
Searching on the Internet
Travel Planning on the Internet

How to avoid computer viruses and other malware, identity theft, and spam

2011-06-20T12:06:00.011+12:00

Malware -

Malware includes all forms of malicious and unwanted intrusions into our computers for a wide variety of improper purposes.

Wikipedia summarises it thus:

“Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.

Software is considered to be malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware, scareware, crimeware, most rootkits, and other malicious and unwanted software or program.”

The Wikipedia entry notes that while early malware was designed as a prank it developed into computer vandalism and use for profit. It includes:

· infectious malware known as viruses, which require user intervention to spread, and worms, which spread automatically;

· concealment malware known as Trojan horses or trojans, rootkits, and backdoors:- a trojan is any program that conceals a harmful or malicious content, a rootkit modifies the operating system so that the malware is concealed in the computer, a backdoor is a method of by-passing normal authentication procedures on the computer.

As Wikipedia notes malware for profit can take the form of spyware, botnets and keystroke loggers. Spyware gathers information about your use of your computer. Botnets are co-ordinating systems used by attackers. Keystroke loggers are software designed to give information from your key strokes of your credit card and other commercially sensitive data. The objective of all this malware is data stealing for profit by direct or indirect dishonesty. For a fuller overview read the Wikipedia entry.

Malware does not include phishing or spamming which are dealt with separately below.

What can we do about malware?

Let’s look at what Microsoft suggests in its very good guide to PC Security and more:

“Build up your malware defenses

Install antivirus and antispyware programs from a trusted source

Never download anything in response to a warning from a program you didn't install or don't recognize that claims to protect your PC or offers to remove viruses. It is highly likely to do the opposite.
Get reputable anti-malware programs from a vendor you trust.....[See below.]

Update software regularly

Cybercriminals are endlessly inventive in their efforts to exploit vulnerabilities in software..... That is why you should:

Regularly install updates for all your software—antivirus and antispyware programs, browsers (like ... Internet Explorer), operating systems (like Windows), and word processing and other programs.
Subscribe to automatic software updates whenever they are offered—for example, you can automatically update all Microsoft software. [If you are an experienced user you will probably adopt one of the other alternatives Microsoft offers.]
Uninstall software that you don't use. You can remove it using Windows Control Panel.

Use strong passwords and keep them secret

Strong passwords are at least 14 characters long and include a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Find out how to create them. [Microsoft has a useful guide to this. Better still use a good password manager like LastPass, which is excellent and free, or RoboForm, which is excellent but isn't free. In any event bear in mind that a longer password of at least 10 characters using a combination of numbers, upper and lower case letters, and symbols is the strongest type of password. If you create your own consider using Vesik Method Revised to defeat key loggers.]
Don't share passwords with anyone.
Don’t use the same password on all sites. If it is stolen, all the information it protects is at risk.
Create different strong passwords for the router and the wireless key of your wireless connection at home. Find out how from the company that provides your router.

Never turn off your firewall

A firewall puts a protective barrier between your computer and the Internet. Turning it off for even a minute increases the risk that your PC will be infected with malware.

Use flash drives cautiously

Minimize the chance that you'll infect your computer with malware:

Don't put an unknown flash (or thumb) drive into your PC.
Hold down the SHIFT key when you insert the drive into your computer. If you forget to do this, click the cross in the upper-right corner to close any flash drive-related pop-up windows.
Don't open files on your drive that you're not expecting.

Don't be tricked into downloading malware

Instead, follow this advice:

Be very cautious about opening attachments or clicking links in email or internet mail, or in posts on social networks (like Facebook) — even if you know the sender. Call to ask if a friend sent it; if not, delete it or close the IM window.
Avoid clicking Agree, OK, or I accept in banner ads, in unexpected pop-up windows or warnings, on websites that may not seem legitimate, or in offers to remove spyware or viruses.

Instead, press CTRL + F4 on your keyboard.
If that doesn’t close the window, press ALT + F4 on your keyboard to close the browser. If asked, close all tabs and don’t save any tabs for the next time you start the browser.

Only download software from websites you trust. Be cautious of "free" offers of music, games, videos, and the like. They are notorious for including malware in the download.”

Scareware or Rogue Ware:

This is worthy of separate mention. Click on Scareware for the Wikipedia entry. The FTC says this:

“Free Security Scan”Could Cost Time and Money

Messages telling you to install and update security software for your computer seem to be everywhere. So you might be tempted by an offer of a “free security scan,” especially when faced with a pop-up, an email, or an ad that claims “malicious software” has already been found on your machine. Unfortunately, it’s likely that the scary message is a come-on for a rip-off.

The free scan claims to find a host of problems, and within seconds, you’re getting urgent pop-ups to buy security software. After you agree to spend $40 or more on the software, the program tells you that your problems are fixed. The reality: there was nothing to fix. And what’s worse, the program now installed on your computer could be harmful.

According to attorneys at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, scammers have found ways to create realistic but phony “security alerts.” Though the “alerts” look like they’re being generated by your computer, they actually are created by a con artist and sent through your Internet browser.

These programs are called “scareware” because they exploit a person’s fear of online viruses and security threats. The scam has many variations, but there are some telltale signs. For example:

you may get ads that promise to “delete viruses or spyware,” “protect privacy,” “improve computer function,” “remove harmful files,” or “clean your registry;”
you may get “alerts” about “malicious software” or “illegal pornography on your computer;”
you may be invited to download free software for a security scan or to improve your system;
you could get pop-ups that claim your security software is out-of-date and your computer is in immediate danger;
you may suddenly encounter an unfamiliar website that claims to have performed a security scan and prompts you to download new software.

Scareware purveyors also go to great lengths to make their product and service look legitimate. For example, if you buy the software, you may get an email receipt with a customer service phone number. If you call, you’re likely to be connected to someone, but that alone does not mean the company is legitimate. Regardless, remember that these are well-organized and profitable schemes designed to rip people off.

How Do the Scammers Do It?

Scareware schemes can be quite sophisticated. The scam artists buy ad space on trusted, popular websites. Even though the ads look legitimate and harmless to the website’s operator, they actually redirect unsuspecting visitors to a fraudulent website that performs a bogus security scan. The site then causes a barrage of urgent pop-up messages that pressure users into downloading worthless software.

What to Do

If you’re faced with any of the warning signs of a scareware scam or suspect a problem, shut down your browser. Don’t click “No” or “Cancel,” or even the “x” at the top right corner of the screen. Some scareware is designed so that any of those buttons can activate the program. If you use Windows, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open your Task Manager, and click “End Task.” If you use a Mac, press Command + Option + Q + Esc to “Force Quit.”

If you get an offer, check out the program by entering the name in a search engine. The results can help you determine if the program is on the up-and-up."

Minimum protection for malware:

A firewall, which you should have in your Microsoft operating system and if you have a broadband or wireless router in that as well. It’s only if you have an old version of Microsoft’s operating system and dial-up that you really need to think about a firewall. Check that your Microsoft firewall is on.
One, only one, anti-virus programme or security suite. It can cause problems on your computer to have two different anti-virus or security suite products installed at the same time. There are at least three free anti-virus programmes you can choose from and use with confidence, Microsoft Security Essentials, Avira AntiVir Personal and Avast!, and there are a number of excellent non-free anti-virus programmes and security suites. Every new review seems to score a different anti-virus programme or security suite as the best. If you want one of them make sure you get a well-regarded one.
One or two anti-spyware or anti-malware programmes in addition to your principal anti-virus or security suite programme. If you have a security suite programme one should do and it can be a passive one that you run from time to time and not an active one giving real time protection. If you are running a good anti-virus programme you might want to have two anti-spyware or malware programmes as well. Whether you have an active one or just run passive ones is really up to you. It seems reasonably safe to just run a free one or two passively if you take normal precautions when using your computer and your e-mail and the internet.
There are at least two free anti-spyware or malware programmes that are well regarded, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware.
Whichever web browser you use will have options and extensions that can make your internet browsing safer. Go to one of the workshops about browsers or look for help about your particular browser.
Make sure your security and other software and Microsoft updates are up-to-date. In particular always have the latest version of your anti-virus software
Consider using Secunia PSI to check that your essential software is up-to-date. First try using the on-line version to see whether you want it.
Consider using KC Softwares’ SUMo, in its "Free of all sponsors download links : SUMo" light edition, to check all of your other software.
If you think you have an infection or want to check out your machine independently of your installed programmes try using the Microsoft safety scanner or Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware or one of the free on line programmes of one of the reputable security companies like Kaspersky, ESET, Trend Micro, McAfee, BitDefender or Symantec. If you are really stuck have a look at one of the excellent articles in Windows Secrets by Fred Langa or Ryan Russell.
Microsoft is developing a Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper, at present in a Beta form, a recovery tool that can help you start an infected PC and perform an offline scan to help identify and remove rootkits and other advanced malware. In addition, Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta can be used if you cannot install or start an antivirus solution on your PC, or if the installed solution can’t detect or remove malware on your PC.

Identity Theft –

Malware may or may not disadvantage you financially. The whole purpose of Identity theft is to make you poorer. So if there is some repetition in what follows it is with the hope it will stop you losing money through identity theft.

The US Federal Trade Commission, US FTC, says this about identity theft:

“What is identity theft?

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes.

The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. …..

How do thieves steal an identity?

Identity theft starts with the misuse of your personally identifying information such as your name and Social Security number, credit card numbers, or other financial account information. For identity thieves, this information is as good as gold.

Skilled identity thieves may use a variety of methods to get hold of your information, including:

Dumpster Diving. They rummage through trash looking for bills or other paper with your personal information on it.
Skimming. They steal credit/debit card numbers by using a special storage device when processing your card.
Phishing. They pretend to be financial institutions or companies and send spam or pop-up messages to get you to reveal your personal information.
Changing Your Address. They divert your billing statements to another location by completing a change of address form.
Old-Fashioned Stealing. They steal wallets and purses; mail, including bank and credit card statements; pre-approved credit offers; and new checks or tax information. They steal personnel records, or bribe employees who have access.
Pretexting. They use false pretenses to obtain your personal information from financial institutions, telephone companies, and other sources. For more information about pretexting, click here.”

The NZ Police give this general advice about identity theft:

“How to prevent identity crime

Security of personal and business information is critical. Criminals commonly rummage through the rubbish bins looking for personal identifying data that they can steal and use to commit fraud and other offences in your name.
Take time to shred or destroy old bank statements, credit card bills, utility bills or other documents to prevent this material falling into the hands of criminals.
Be careful to whom you give personal information. If you have to reveal personal information, ask some questions about the security of the information and be very cautious giving out any information over the phone or Internet unless you know who you are dealing with.
Guard your mail from theft by securing your letterbox. Criminals value your mail and will use it to commit fraud with your accounts or open loans or credit in your name.
Minimise your identification and the number of cards you carry in your wallet to what you actually need.
Check your bank and credit card statements to make sure there are no unauthorised transactions - this may be the first sign someone has stolen your identity.
If you believe that you, or your business, have become a victim of identity crime, or that your name or someone else's has been used for criminal purposes, you should report the matter immediately to your local police.”

Don't forget that if your computer or any technological aid, of whatever kind, with personal data on it is lost or stolen the data will be in someone else's hands. The degree of protection you adopt might depend on how much data is involved and how easy it is to lose the item involved or have it stolen. For example, you can encrypt your hard drives and your flash drives and protect your smart phone in various ways. I have got in to the habit of encrypting any flash drive that I take with me travelling by using TrueCrypt, a free open source software programme. Most smart phones enable sophisticated security protection just as good as that available for computers, including encryption. remote locking and remote wiping, as well as anti-malware programmes. If you are in doubt web search for "smartphone security" for your smart phone.

However, in the context of our computers perhaps the commonest form of identity theft relies on “phishing”.

The US FTC says this:

“Phishing is a scam where internet fraudsters send spam or pop-up messages to lure personal and financial information from unsuspecting victims. To avoid getting hooked:

Don't reply to email or pop-up messages that ask for personal or financial information, and don't click on links in the message. Don't cut and paste a link from the message into your Web browser — phishers can make links look like they go one place, but that actually send you to a different site.
Some scammers send an email that appears to be from a legitimate business and ask you to call a phone number to update your account or access a "refund." Because they use Voice over Internet Protocol technology, the area code you call does not reflect where the scammers really are. If you need to reach an organization you do business with, call the number on your financial statements or on the back of your credit card.
Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as a firewall, and update them all regularly.
Don't email personal or financial information.
Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges.
Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them…..”

Both our Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the NZ Police give somewhat similar advice. The Police site gives some good examples of phishing scams:

“Common scams sent by spam email

· Get rich quick schemes - offering opportunities to earn thousands of dollars a week, but your earnings may be dependent on selling the scheme to others.

· Nigerian fee scam - this age-old scam offers you a percentage of millions of dollars in exchange for letting the sender use your bank account to transfer the funds out of where they are currently held. The Nigerian letter has many variations. For more information see http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/scamwatch/protect-yourself/no-the-scams/upfrontmoney.html. An American perspective is available at http://www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.html. New Zealand IT commentator Bruce Simpson describes his experience with this scam athttp://www.aardvark.co.nz/daily/2001/0517.shtml. If you have never received a Nigerian fee scam email seehttp://internet-fraud.com/internet-fraud/ for examples.

· NEW! IMPROVED! fee scam - new versions of the Nigerian scam feature authors ranging from deposed African leaders to Afghan refugees to an alleged U.S. commando http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,53115,00.html.

· Prize notifications - you are told you have won a prize in a lottery you haven't entered. But, you have to pay money to the operators before they will release the money. For more information see Ministry of Consumer Affairs' Scamwatch

· Internet auction scams - where buyers use stolen credit card numbers to buy high price items. Sellers may also try selling a lot of items at once then take the money and run. In many cases the fraudster is based overseas. See Consumer's Click 'n Buy report on online auctions.

· Phishing - Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them. See Anti-Phishing Working Group.

What should I do with scam mail ?

· Check the Ministry of Consumer Affairs' Scamwatch service to see if there is a warning about that particular scam. If there is, delete the message.

· Don't reply. A reply only serves to confirm that your email address is active and ready for further "offers".

· Notify the spammers Internet Service Provider (ISP). If spamming is against the ISPs policy for email account holders, the ISP may sanction the sender.

· Notify your own ISP or IT support. They may be able to advise you about whether filters can be placed on your email programme to stop such emails.”

The Ministry site gives this advice:

“Protect yourself from banking and phishing scams

· Keep your ATM and account details, PINs and passwords secret and safe.

· Check your account statements and credit card bill to make sure no-one is accessing your accounts.

· Don't share your PIN with anyone.

· Use difficult passwords that cannot be guessed.

· Don't give your account details to anyone you do not know or trust.

· Don't give out details over the phone unless you made the call and you definitely trust that the number you called is genuine.

· Don't open suspicious or unsolicited emails (known as spam). Delete them.

· Don't respond to these emails in any way. Don't reply. Never click on any links in a spam email, or open any files attached to them, or call a number included in the email.

· Never visit your bank's website by clicking on a link. It can activate all kinds of hidden programmes. Type in the website address yourself.

· Check the website address carefully. It may be similar to your bank's, or paypal's, but not quite right.

· Never enter your personal details into a website unless you are sure it is genuine.

· Never send your personal details or accounts or passwords in an email. Email is a very insecure system.

· If you receive a call, ask for a name and number so you can call them back. Check that number against a number you know to be genuine.

· If, despite everything, you think the email may be genuine, call the institution, using a number you know to be genuine. Ask their advice. Do not use the number listed in the suspicious email, unless you know it is the right one. The scammers may have used it to add to the email's false sense of legitimacy.

· Don't buy anything over the internet using your credit card details unless you know and trust the business. Ensure that if you make a payment to a trader via the internet that the payment page is secure, normally demonstrated by a padlock symbol somewhere on the page, and that the website address starts with 'https://'. The 's' stands for secure.

· Don't use software on your computer that fills in forms for you. [There are safe exceptions to this such as LastPass and RoboForm.]

· Keep safe from credit card skimming. This is the type of fraud that copies the contents of your card's magnetic strip. Never let your card out of your sight at a store, say 'no' to requests to swipe your card through more than one machine, and if an ATM has a suspicious device attached to its card slot, don't use it (and report it immediately). If you think your card has been skimmed, or you notice unexpected items on your credit card statement, contact your bank immediately.

· Order a credit report every year to make sure no-one is using your name to borrow money or run up debts.”

The US Securities and Exchange Commission gives similar advice to the above under the heading "Phishing" Fraud: How to Avoid Getting Fried by Phony Phishermen.

If you have a Skype account beware as such accounts seem to be particularly vulnerable to scamming. At the very least ensure you have a strong password for it.

The simplest advice of all is to focus on getting to the correct site rather than trying to identify a fake one. All users need do is bookmark (add to favourites) all the web sites where they conduct financial transactions and use these bookmarks whenever they need to access these sites rather than the links contained in any email. The best way to bookmark those sites is to login to the site and bookmark the opening page, which is almost always a secure site.

Here is the Wikipedia page on the topic.

Spam –

If you want a reasonably brief overview of e-mail spam have a look at this Wikipedia page.

Here are five of six suggestions from Cloudeight InfoAve on what to do in respect of spam, the second of which is really an anti-phishing tip:

“1. Never respond to unsolicited email. One response or “hit” from thousands of emails is enough for spammers to justify the practice. In addition, a response lets the spammer know that your email address is active, which makes it more valuable and opens the door to more spam.

2. Never send your personal information (credit card numbers, passwords, etc.) in an email. Spammers can fake the format of ANY trusted sites. Banks and other trusted sites will never ask you to send your password or credit card information by email. Not really an anti-spam tip, but a reminder… OK?

3. Never follow a spam email’s instructions to reply with the word “remove” or “unsubscribe” in the subject line or body of the message unless you are sure of and trust the source of the email. Normally, this is a ploy to get you to react to the email, which tells the spammer that your email address is valid.

4. Never click on a URL or web address listed within a spam email, even if the message tells you that’s how you unsubscribe. This is another trick to that tells the spammer your email address is valid. Once they know your address is valid it can be added to databases which are sold to professional spammers on DVD or CD for a few hundred dollars. And this will result in you getting more spam for sure!

5. Don’t fall for sites set up to help you remove your name from spam lists. Although some of these sites MIGHT be legitimate, most are really collecting valid email addresses to sell to spammers. If a collector gets your address and they know it’s a valid, working email address, it is worth a lot of money to them. They’ll put your email address in one of their databases and sell these databases to professional spammers. Not only won’t your email address be removed from spam lists, it will added to many spam lists. And you’ll get more spam.

6. "[This relates to ISPs who filter your mail for spam. It points out that you might not get all of your good email and might not even be aware it existed. It recommends to get a Gmail account and set it up in Windows Mail, Outlook Express or your favourite email program. Gmail provides instructions on how to do this. Gmail also has spam-filtering but you have the final say. If something ends up in your spam folder all you have to do is mark it ‘This is not spam’ and it should never be dumped in your spam folder again.

I haven't set out the suggestion in full as the odds are that all of us are using an ISP with a spam filter. Just don’t worry about it. What it does mean is that you must regularly check your web mail for that ISP and look in the spam folder to see if by some mischance mail you want has got into it. If there is genuine mail in your spam folder select the “This is not spam” choice for that mail.]

Our Department of Internal Affairs, ICO, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office, and Microsoft all give somewhat similar advice to Cloudeight’s.

Most e-mail programmes contain their own spam filters giving a second line of defence to that provided by our ISPs.

If you are annoyed beyond endurance by the amount of spam you receive then the simplest free answers are:

· Use GoogleMail, either as part of your existing e-mail system or by using a GoogleMail address or addresses.

· Use a free spam filter such as MailWasher or SPAMfighter, both of which are recommended by various reviewers and whose Pro products are equally highly regarded. [See Gizmo’s Freeware for a discussion and links to other ways of reducing and filtering spam.]

Whatever you do you are likely at some stage or other to receive spam from yourself as someone, somehow, has adopted and adapted your address for sending spam. There is nothing you can do about it. Usually it goes on for a relatively short period and then stops.

Wireless Network Security

Not mentioned above except in passing in the quote from Microsoft about passwords under Malware is the need for security if you are using a wireless network within your home using wi-fi and a wireless router. Your home broadband router has its settings fixed by your ISP. Your wireless router must be set up for maximum internet security. If you have had it installed for you the installer should have attended to that. If you did it yourself you must ensure the security is the tightest you can make it. In particular you need Wi‑Fi Protected Access (WPA or WPA2).

WPA and WPA2 require users to provide a security key to connect. Once the key has been validated, all data sent between the computer or device and the access point is encrypted. If possible, use WPA2 because it is the most secure. Almost all new wireless adapters support WPA and WPA2, but some older ones don't. In WPA-Personal and WPA2-Personal, each user is given the same passphrase. This is the recommended mode by Microsoft for home networks.

I hope its not necessary to add a warning about using public facilities in libraries or cafes or free Wi-Fi for accessing any private information, such as e-mails or banking or anything else that requires you to log on to a site. You simply don't know whether they are safe or not.

ESSENTIAL PROTECTION AGAINST DISASTER

Ensure you have recovery disks for your operating system and back ups of all your essential data.

Make sure you have a set of instructions on what to do if your computer crashes. Before you do anything extreme stop and walk away from the computer for a little while. Get them and read them through before you do anything.

If you are inexperienced in computer repair follow these rules:

Keep your cool. It may not be as bad as it seems.
Don't fiddle with anything you don't understand.
Call your technical support number or your knowledgeable computer nerd friend.
If the computer won't start up, turn it off. Otherwise leave it on until you know what to do.
If the computer is asking you for a decision, do not turn it off. Also, don't guess at the answer.
Always read everything on the screen, especially if being asked a Yes/No or Yes/No/Cancel question.

If you are experienced in computer repair but have no set of instructions on what to do look at H2G2 from BBC and, perhaps, PCTechNotes.

ABBREVIATED SUMMARY

Minimum protection for malware:

An active firewall(s).
A single anti-virus programme or security suite.
One or two anti-spyware or anti-malware programmes to at least run passively from time to time.
Whichever web browser you use will have options and extensions that can make your internet browsing safer. Go to one of the workshops about browsers or look for help about your particular browser.
Make sure your security and other software and Microsoft updates are up-to-date. In particular always have the latest version of your anti-virus software
Consider using Secunia PSI to check that your essential software is up-to-date.
Consider using KC Softwares’ SUMo, in its "Free of all sponsors download links : SUMo" light edition, to check all of your other software.
If you think you have an infection or want to check out your machine independently of your installed programmes try using the Microsoft safety scanner or Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware or one of the free on line programmes of one of the reputable security companies.
Microsoft has a Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper, at present in a Beta form, a recovery tool that can help you start an infected PC and perform an offline scan.

Other Protection against Malware, Identity Theft etc:

Use strong passwords, at least 14 characters long and including a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, and keep them secret.
Use flash drives cautiously.
Don't open files on your drive that you're not expecting.
Don't be tricked into downloading malware.
If you’re faced with any of the warning signs of a scareware scam or suspect a problem, shut down your web browser. Don’t click “No” or “Cancel,” or even the “x” at the top right corner of the screen.
Never respond to unsolicited email. Don't reply to email or pop-up messages that ask for personal or financial information, and don't click on links in the message.
If you need to reach an organization you do business with, call the number on your financial statements or on the back of your credit card, not that in an email.
Don't email personal or financial information.

Travel Planning on the Internet

2011-04-21T16:40:00.008+12:00

An idiosyncratic list of available web sites to give the flavour of what is out there. Just right click on the site to open it in another tab or window.

The Big Picture: Google Earth: World weather: Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory

General: Consumer NZ.

Thinking Ahead Never forget that some things just cannot be done at the last moment, e.g., passports, visas and the US Visa Waiver consent and immunisations. And if you want the travel of your choice with the greatest savings some forward planning is essential, whether it be for air, rail or accommodation bookings or to gain access to some things you might really want to see or hear. Its not much good booking to stay in a place on the day your destination of choice is closed or of arriving without an essential permit or visa.

Safe & healthy destination or airline? safetravel.govt.nz: Travel health: Air Safety

You want a tour? Try Affordable Tours for a simple overview or look at one of the sites under "For Seniors" near the end of this blog.

Cheap Air travel?

There are some general tips:

Be flexible with your proposed schedule.
Book well in advance.
Time your travel, e.g., avoid holiday periods.
Opt for multiple flights function, returning from a different city from that you arrived at.
Flights involving a stop over are often cheaper than non-stop.

You probably know the airlines push out early bird or companion travel lures in the last and first quarters of the year. The travel agents usually have a better handle on these than we can get ourselves and if you are looking for the best long distance deals it almost certainly pays to use an agent if you can find one that does not charge fees. Often the best deals involve multiple carriers and the avoidance of departures from airports with high taxes, such as Heathrow. It can be difficult to handle all this for yourself while the agents have it at their finger tips on purpose made software. However, don't be dissuaded by that comment from looking for yourself. Even if you end up using an agent it is best to work out what you want to do and get a handle on what is offering for yourself. For example, the sites of the individual air lines nearly always list their promotions and specials.

If your travel is a single hop from New Zealand it is much easier to do it for yourself on-line.

FareCompare and Hipmunk are useful ways of seeing what's available and whether your choices are the best. And if you're in to Twitter, I'm not, I believe its a good source.

For cheap Air NZ flights go to Air NZ Grab a Seat, where its specials are shown. For a comparison of cheapest NZ fares for some air lines go to the Flight Centre or Webjet.co.nz. However, beware of booking on those sites as there are fees involved. [There are similar sites for other countries such as the Australian Webjet site and the more general Jetweb site.] FineTravel is another New Zealand site listing deals to overseas destinations.

For flight information generally try Zuji, a division of Travelocity, which covers flights from New Zealand and Australia in particular. Zuji's home site gives links to its other sites world wide. There are no fees involved with Zuji. An alternative, although not the cheapest, is Matrix, a division of Ita Software. There are global search engines for flights such as Expedia, which is a NZ site, DoHop, Yahoo, Kayak, and Mobissimo. There is also Rome2Rio, in Beta at present, that helps you plan from anywhere to anywhere.

If you are doing it for yourself it is not a bad idea to sort out what looks good and then go direct to the airline(s) involved.

For more general sites about the world's airlines there are SoMuchEasier [with links to most airlines] and Airlines on the Web. For tracking flight prices and travel bargains generally, US oriented, there is Yapta.

Skytrax enables you to find out how other travellers have found individual airlines and airports.

Go to Frequent Flyer for all about frequent flyer programmes. And if you want to know about the art of sleeping in airports, as opposed to hotels at airports, and which airports are best to sleep in there is sleeping in the airport.

I haven't mentioned above that there are better times of the year, as there are high, low and shoulder seasons for fares, and better days of the week, usually mid-week, for cheaper travel. Red eye, early morning, flights are often cheaper than others.

If you are concerned about jet lag there are all sorts of suggestions such as flying at night and from east to west: see Wikipedia, Avoid Jet Lag and Hit the Ground Running.

The best plane seat? Wikihow: SeatExpert: SeatGuru: BestFlatSeats: Air Lines on the Web. To get the seat you want you will probably have to go through an agent as you usually have to commit to your travel before you can get a seat on-line.

Rail travel everywhere and much more? TheManInSeat61 Is there a more comprehensive site anywhere? Go there for links to rail sites everywhere including German Railways, particularly for on-line bookings, for Germany related European travel, sites relating to New Zealand, Rail Plus and NZ Only. For undergrounds or urban rail try everything you need to know about the world's undergrounds including maps or just maps or urban rail generally.

You'd rather cruise? VacationsToGo: www.seascanner.com: Fielding's Cruise Finder and search for Cruises: TravelPage.com: Small Ship Cruises: CruiseOpinion.com: Canal Boating: French Waterways: Yacht Charters - Europe

You need a car? NZ? Car Rentals Compared: Australia, USA, UK? Car Rentals Compared: Europe? Driving in Europe; CitroenDriveEurope; Peugeot Eurolease; Renault Eurodrive.

Route planning and maps: General: Google Maps, Wikimapia. New Zealand: AA NZ, NZ Topo On Line. Australia: RAA. Further afield: UK has Transport Direct and there are numerous other sites such as BingMaps, Via Michelin , an excellent route planner, Nokia Maps, Mappy and MapQuest. Incidentally if you have a Nokia smart 'phone you should be able to download Google or Nokia Maps on to it, so that your map is in your pocket. Similarly if you have a different smart 'phone you should be able to access Google Maps or download your maps of choice on to it.

Accommodation?

What’s it like? TripAdvisor

Last minute cheapos? Wotif: NeedItNow: Rates To Go: Last Minute Au: Late Rooms

Worldwide: In most countries the information office of the city or town of your choice will have a guide to local accommodation, e.g., to take two French examples, Parisinfo.com or Colmar. Then there are often national accommodation guides, such as some of the ones referred to below under individual countries. Then there are the international sites such as Hotels Combined: BookIt.com: Hotel Club: World Hotels: Michelin Guide: Hotels Worldwide: Accor Group: Places to Stay: B and Bs: B and Bs and more: More B and Bs: HomeLink International: HomeExchange: HolSwap: InterVac: Vacation Rentals by Owner: Owners Direct: Green Theme. There are no apartment sites listed but if you're staying for more than a few nights it always pays to check out whether you can get an apartment in the place of your choice. For example in Paris there are a number of agencies specialising in apartments. Just Google your preferred place for apartments and see what sites and addresses most appeal.

NZ? AATravel: Jasons: Qualmark: B and Bs: Friars Guides

Australia? AAA Tourism Australia: RAA: Jasons: Dawsons

UK? AA: Information Britain: Charming Small Hotels: B and Bs

France? France.com: Logis: Gites: Bonadresse.
USA? Travel Hero: B and Bs

How far is it from your accommodation to your destination? Various city transport systems will tell you how far it is from where you are to where you want to go and how long it will take, e.g., in Paris, Los Angeles or Philadelphia. You can also find out via Google Earth or Maps and other mapping tools.

What will it Cost? Always check on the web through different sites and with any travel agent you might be using. There is no rule as to what the cheapest and best alternative for you might be - sometimes its from the "home" site, sometimes it is through an agent, sometimes it is for a package, sometimes it is well in advance and sometimes last minute. However, you can almost always be sure it will be cheaper through the internet than over the counter. For example did you know you can get parking at Wellington Airport cheaper on-line than at the airport? And if you are booking direct or by telephone it doesn't hurt to mention what you can get it for on-line as sometimes the price will be met or you will have it confirmed that its cheaper to book on-line.

Money - You can't go without it. Sometimes there are wrinkles as to the cheapest and best ways of getting it. Cash, credit cards, travel debit cards in the currency of your destination, travellers' cheques and US $, all have their place depending where you are going. Make sure you protect yourself as far as you can with how you carry it and keep details of your cards, cheques or whatever and who to ring in case of loss or theft.

ATMs Worldwide: Visa: Mastercard

Currency exchange rate guides: NZ & Universal

Another Essential: Travel Insurance Link it to a high level credit card if you possibly can as that is the cheapest way. Otherwise its a case of trying to compare apples with apples. If you're a member of Consumer look at its site as it has a good article on the topic with useful comparisons. Don't forget that North America is the most expensive place, which makes it all the more essential you have appropriate cover.

Eating out: Michelin Guide: Zagat: Gault Millau guides to major European countries.

A Different Kind of Necessity: Find a toilet worldwide at SitOrSquat, The Bathroom Diaries or Toilet Guide.

Baggage and package: Think light. As has been said elsewhere, not entirely in jest, take half what you think you will need and twice the money. For bags look at US slant but you can't have everything. Does your baggage comply with airline requirements? NZ: International overview. If you're going to the USA make sure any lock complies with US requirements.

Simple Security: Don't forget to make copies of all essential documents such as passports, visas, travel insurance policy, driver's licence and credit cards, any medication or eye lenses prescriptions and copies of essential telephone numbers in case you need to use your travel insurance or cancel credit cards or contact your Government's Embassy or High Commission office or your family or bank. And while you are at it why not scan copies of essential documents and essential information on to a document on your computer and not only put it on a thumb or flash drive but e-mail it to yourself, your travelling companion (if any) and a member or members of your family so that wherever you are and whatever happens you can access what is necessary.

Create Your Own Itinerary: Use TripIt on the web or an Excel worksheet or try Microsoft Office Travel Templates.

Got everything? Valid passport and visa(s), up to date health immunizations, tickets and booking vouchers, travel insurance, money, best ATMs for your bank, mobile global roaming, bags [with name and telephone numbers inside and out] and packing lists, travel itinerary, medications, power adapters and chargers, emergency contacts list and copy essential documents. Are your essential documents, money, medications [not exceeding permitted quantities], keys, phone charger on you or in your carry on luggage? Does your carry on luggage comply with security rules? Forgotten anything - an NZ approach? Or for an Australian approach go here. Advised your bank/credit card provider of your movements? Does your insurer require to be advised? Your house security? Stopped your paper and your mail? What else can you think of? Pets? Power switches? Watering systems? Key to your house? Away for more than three months? Look at suspending your vehicle registration?

Special dishes Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough: Barnes Foundation Philadelpia: Hermitage Museum: La Roseraie du Val de Marne: Museums of Paris: Australian Botanic Gardens

For Seniors: Elderhostel: Calder & Lawson Travel and Learn: VUW Study Tours: Footprint Tours: Savvy Senior Travellers

Duty Free: For additional concessions think of joining the Frequent Buyer Club of Duty Free Stores NZ. And it may be you can get duty free goods from your favourite store once you have your flight booked. Its worth enquiring.

You want to communicate? By e-mail? Why not carry a smart phone? Or if you want to lug something heavier a netbook or notebook? Or use an internet cafe? By telephone or text? Use your mobile and global roaming but that can be expensive for telephoning. Consider buying a local sim card if you're going to be anywhere for a period. Pay as you go sim has information about pay as you go mobile phone plans from all over the world.

Basic terms in all the main languages. Gestures to avoid 1 and 2. International Etiquette Guide and much more.

Want a web site? Times-on-line 1 or Times-on-line 2

Travel Guides: Eyewitness: Lonely Planet: The Insider's Guide: Rough Guide: Frommers: Fodors: Time Out

Want to be paid for travel writing AND see travel guides? http://www.simonseeks.com/

Travel Resources on the Internet: Travel Yahoo: Wikitravel: SmarterTravel.com: Round the World Travel Guide: Travel Document Systems: About.com: Travel Resources on the Internet 2: Library Lounge PBWiki: Travel Guides and Reviews

[Updated 21 April 2011.]

HOW TO IMPROVE THE READABILITY OF WHAT YOU SEE or don't see ON YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN

2011-04-21T16:30:00.001+12:00

1. Your monitor should be set to its optimum resolution already. It is not a good idea to fiddle with it to improve what you see. Microsoft has built in aids in each of its operating systems to help us and our e-mail and web server programmes and a few keyboard shortcuts help further.

2. Did you know you can increase or reduce the size of your screen text by holding down your Ctrl key on your keyboard and either press the plus or minus key on your keyboard or roll the wheel on your mouse?

3. The major built in aids are the Accessibility Wizard in Windows XP and the Ease of Access Centres in Vista and Windows 7. The wizard in Windows XP is easily opened and used through All Programmes –Accessibility – Accessibility Wizard. Go to it to learn all about it and other aids. When you are opening it you will see there is also a Magnifier in the Accessibility menu. If you are using Vista or Windows 7 go to Control Panel – Ease of Access – Ease of Access Centre and follow up what you want. There is not only access to a magnifier but other more sophisticated aids.

4. You can also take advantage of Clear Type technology, with the reservation that some people find it does not suit them. If it does not suit you turn it off. To use it go to Microsoft’s help sheet. Once you have made sure you have clear type click on the link and follow it.

5. If you are working regularly in your own documents make sure that your font and font size are easy to read and set them as your defaults. You might find bold type like this helps as well. When you are sending e-mails you can adopt the same ideas up to a point in whatever system you use.

6. These steps help with what you generate and see on your own screen but they don’t much help with what other people create and show you through web servers or e-mail programmes.

7. In both Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird you can set your own default fonts through Tools – Options. In Outlook Express you go to Read and Fonts to make what changes you seek. In Thunderbird you go to Display – Formatting – Fonts and Encodings – Fonts.

8. There are similar aids in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox as to what we see on their screens. In Internet Explorer you get to the controls through Tools – Internet Options – General – Appearance and then use Fonts and/or Accessibility to improve what you see. In Firefox you go to Tools – Options – Content – Fonts and Colours.

9. I’m sure there must be other ways as well to improve the ease of reading material on your screen but I hope the above will help. This note uses Verdana font.

Searching on the Internet

2011-04-21T15:15:00.014+12:00

Summary:

To use the Internet you need a computer of some kind, an internet service provider, a web browser and a search engine. I take it for granted that you have access to a computer, be it a desktop, notebook, netbook or smart phone, and an internet service provider. This workshop concentrates on the other two essentials, a web browser and a search engine, with particular emphasis on Google, the commonest search engine at present.

A web browser:

Before you can search on the internet you need an internet or web browser provided by a software supplier. The commonest are Microsoft's Internet Explorer, now up to version 9, with about 39-55% of users in April 2011, followed by Mozilla Firefox, now up to version 4, with about 22-30% of users and Google's Chrome, now up to version 11, with about 12-19% of users. Some of you will have heard of Safari or be using it, as it is the Apple Mac browser, with 7% of users. You are probably less likely to have heard of Opera, which has about 2% of users. If you have a smart phone with an integral browser it is probably based on the same technology as Safari.

Browsers, like most computer tools, have been reviewed on the internet and some links can be found in the addendum at the foot of this blog. For most of us the choice is between Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. Each of these has different strengths and characteristics and which you use will be a matter of personal choice. There is no "best" browser as our priorities are different and the qualities of the various browsers change with the versions.

You can run several browsers on your computer at the same time and there is no reason why you shouldn't do that and decide which you prefer for yourself. If you're an Apple Mac user there is nothing wrong with Safari. If you need a browser on your smart phone - most have their own - or on an old operating system with little memory then Opera is the way to go as it is the only one generally recommended for such use.

Next requirement - a search engine:

Once we have opened our web browser most of us seem to have our favourite search engine and it’s not unusual for it to be our home page. Google is the best known and most popular of the web searching engines but, like any of the others, it won’t always give you what you want and you need to go elsewhere. However, as Google is the first choice of so many of us I will enlarge on its use before indicating where else you can look and why.

"Googling"

Lets just look at the Google search page and see how you can use it. You immediately see there are words along the top left hand corner of the page. Most of those are self-explanatory even although they are not all related to searching on the web.

In the top right hand corner there is a gear wheel Tool icon. A left click on that shows three options at present. Search Settings is the most important at the moment as it enables you to make various decisions as to how your searches are to be carried out and where you see the results.

Then in the middle of the page there is the box for entering the detail of your search. To the right of that there is the choice to open the Advanced Search box or Language Tools. Below the box for entering your search details are the selection boxes for Google Search and I'm Feeling Lucky. You can left click on anything you see on the page to develop it. You will also note the page is available in Maori.

Google has its own GoogleGuide called, 'Making Searching Easier". It also provides a Web Search Help page, which gives you the same information, mostly, in a different and perhaps simpler format. That has links to pages such as Basic Search Help. You can explore this material for yourself. Like everything else Google does there is incredible detail and much repetition. Don't be put off by that. Another page which can be very useful is Search Features, which gives leads to very useful tools.

You should be aware that Google, like other search engines, keeps a record of everything you look at unless you have the rather sophisticated know-how necessary to carry out the steps available to prevent that. For more on this you can look at 6 Ways to protect your privacy on Google, from ComputerWorld, Protect your Privacy from Google and PCWorld's ironic comments. This is so hard to avoid that a simplified version of Google, Scroogle Scraper, was developed, which claims to give you far greater privacy than Google.

Google has country specific search sites. You will have noticed our home site is Google NZ. I have sometimes found it very useful to use its Australian, UK or USA counterparts.

In addition Google provides specialist search sites like Google Scholar, and even a Google Alert service, e-mailing you as to new results, the latter still in a beta form.

Some practical hints:

1. To make your search engine of choice your home page first open your search engine. If there is some other tab open close it.

If you are using Internet Explorer as your web server then go to Tools, Internet Options, General, Home Page, Use Current and left click on it. Then go the bottom and left click on OK and it is done. If you want to reverse that just open whatever page it is you want to have as your home page and use the same method.

If you are using Firefox as your web server then depending on the version go to Tools or Options, Options, Main, Start Up, Home Page, Use Current Page and left click on it and then on OK and it is done. If you want to reverse that just open whatever page it is you want to have as your home page and use the same method.

If you are using Chrome go to Tools, Options, Basics, Home Page and copy in the address you want.

2. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer then you have other search engines available to you through the box on the right hand side of your Navigation Toolbar. If you are using Chrome you can specify your default search engine of choice by going to Tools>Options>Search.

3. If you wish to enhance your Google home page by making it an iGoogle page you left click on the gear wheel Tool icon in the top right corner of the Google page and choose iGoogle Help and follow the guide on how to create a personal home page. There are numerous options open to you. I find it a far better form of home page than the standard ones offered by so many.

4. When using Google:
- Open Search Settings by left clicking on the gear wheel Tool icon in the top right corner of the Google page and choosing Search Settings. Make sure the Safe Search Filtering and Number of Results, I suggest 30 or 50 per page, settings are as you want them, and I suggest you elect to open your search results in a new browser window. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer you can elect to have Autocomplete with no restriction on the Number of Results per page but if you are using Chrome it will be Google Instant and if it is turned on your Number of Results is limited to 10 results per page. Then save your preferences. You may find that from time to time your preferences have to be reset.
- Keep search terms simple or just try typing in your question.
- Use advanced search to search for an exact phrase or words until you know the shortcuts you find helpful.

Is there a “best” search engine or a “best” way of finding what we want on the Web?

A search on Google for “searching the web” gave about 207,000,000 results in 0.22 seconds. A Google search for the “best search engine” gave about 829,000,000 results in 0.18 seconds. Mind you, the number of results isn’t everything as there is often much duplication in them.

If you search for the same thing on different search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask, the five most popular search engines in the USA, the search results can be different. The University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania State University in July 2005 released results of a study which showed that only 1.1% of results on the first page from four of those five leading engines were the same.

Search engines, like browsers, have been reviewed on the web. In April 2009 Consumer Search updated an analysis of reviews of search engines. It ranked Google top and Yahoo!Search next and covered a number of others, of which Ask, Exalead and Windows Live Search - now Bing - get honourable mention. The site has much other very useful information about search engines.

That analysis relied in part on a review by the University of California Berkeley Teaching Library, that certainly seems to have an objectivity lacking in some other reviews. It prefers Google, Yahoo! Search and Exalead, with an analysis of their particular features, in its assessment of the “best search engine”, last updated 5 April 2010. If you want to look at just one site about search engines this is possibly the best. It evaluates the engines and helps to guide you as to the best way to find what you want on the web. Equally if you want just one basic tutorial on searching the web look at the University of South Carolina Beaufort Library site, last updated 7 October 2010.

Different search engines function differently. Google and Ask.com are link–ranking engines, which mean they consider the relevance and importance of the links that link to a website and the sites the website links to. On the other hand, Yahoo and AltaVista rank by general content. They look at keywords in metatags and in the webpage’s content. Therefore, different search engines provide different results.

If you want to delve further and get some idea of the full range of search engines, the ones best for particular subjects and their main strengths try going to Internet Tutorials, Search Engine Colossus, Search Engine Guide, About.com, Search Engine Showdown or Phil Bradley's site, a very neat helful site mentioned again below. Examples of specialist sites are NameBase, TechNet, Pipers, which has a NZ connection, and NZ Search, a specialist NZ search engine. A different kind of resource is Mygateway.info linked to the Wellington City Libraries and giving access to materials not otherwise readily reached. Another unusual one worth special mention is The Guide DB, which enables you to source over 47 million different guides and manuals. Google maintains a list of search engines.

If you want to use a number of search engines at the same time you can use a so-called meta-search engine such as Dogpile and Mamma Metasearch. They search other search engines and give you their version of the results. However, they have real limitations, some spelt out in the UC Berkeley Library pages and others at Search Engine Showdown.

There are also multiple search engines. You enter a term into a master window and it gets copied to the search engines, including meta-search ones, that it lists. You then click on the engines you want to use. Each opens in its own window. One of the better ones is a local product, Engines2Go, the work of a Dr David Hingston of Heke St, Ngaio, which also has separate Australian and New Zealand editions. I have sometimes got an answer through them when the main search engines have not been able to help. For example, I was once asked if I could find the source of -

"The craw's killed the poosie-o, the poosie-o, the poosie-o,

The mickle cat sat down and grat

In Willie's wee-bit hoosie-o."

Google was no use at that time so I tried Engines2Go. It couldn't help with the first line but it helped source it from the second line.

If you want to know what is offering with a New Zealand emphasis restrict your Google search to New Zealand, take a look at the sites already mentioned NZ Search, Phil Bradley's list of 51 New Zealand search engines and Search Engine Colossus or use the NZ Engines2Go site.

Good guides to the best searching techniques, simple and advanced, can be found at sites like the UC Berkeley Library and the University of South Carolina Beaufort Library ones already mentioned or the following pages: Kent State University, About, Search Engines Showdown, LearnWebSkills or Internet Tutorials.

For a resume of new search engines see Phil Bradley's site. Phil Bradley, like UC Berkeley Library, has good things to say about Exalead in other parts of his Blog. He also has an excellent page on his site with tips on the best search engines for particular purposes.

If you just want lists of other people’s favourite 100 search engines there are sites like ReadWriteWeb.

For the history of search engines see Wikipedia.

Once you think you have a handle on searching the web its time to think of searching the invisible web, what is not available through ordinary search engines. Have a look at this UC Berkeley page to get to grips with databases the search engines don't reach and follow up this link to Wikipedia for more information.

Good luck for successful searching.

ADDENDUM ON WEB BROWSERS:

A list of reasonably up to date articles about web browsers and their preferences:
Wikipedia comparison of web browsers 3 May 2011.
CNet - Firefox, IE9 and Chrome – all March 2011 – Firefox 4.
ZDNet - 2 May 2011 - Chrome 11
Gizmo's Freeware - 3 May 2011 - Firefox 4 and Opera
PCPro – 23 March 2011 – Firefox 4 or Chrome 10 depending on priorities.
PCWorld – 24 March 2011 – and PC World - 28 April 2011 - personal preference.
PCMag.com – 29 March 2011 – Chrome 10
TurnedOn - 4 April 2011 – Chrome 10.
Tom’s Hardware – 4 April 2011 – IE 9.

Older reviews:
WebUpon - Firefox and Chrome.
TopTenReviews – Firefox.
HubPages – general.

Other:
FabBrowser.com – dedicated to browser developments.
Browserscope – a tool to compare your browser with others.

[Updated 25 May 2011.]

Backing up and restoring simplified

2011-04-20T22:18:00.018+12:00

How to avoid the worst consequences of a computer disaster - backing up and restoring your computer simplified

One thing is certain. If you have a computer at some stage you will lose something or even everything on it. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it almost certainly will, regardless of how computer savvy and careful you might be.

The loss might have been caused by a hardware failure or by a software problem or by a virus or other malware or by simple human error. Whatever the cause you will have lost something important to you unless you have protected it properly. If you haven’t protected yourself properly you are almost sure to regret it and the cost can be far greater than the cost of protection.

What should you do to protect yourself properly?

1. If you have a notebook or netbook computer, ensure you make a set of repair disks in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions so you are able to restore the manufacturer’s essentials for your computer. Instructions about this have almost certainly come with your new computer.

2. Regardless of what kind of computer you have, make a system repair or recovery disk for your operating system. You might have had instructions about this but if not look at your control panel for backup and restore or similar.

3. Ensure you have regular System Restore points for your hard drive so that at the very least there is a copy of your registry that you can return to if something goes haywire. Your operating system makes its own copies of the registry from time to time and, depending on your operating system, when you make important changes to it. System Restore is the means by which your registry and certain parts of your system can be restored to a previous state from a record on the hard drive. It will enable your computer to run as it did at the time of the earlier restore point. If new software or a Microsoft download have caused some incompatibility leading to your computer crashing the use of an earlier restore point can save an enormous amount of time and effort. You can be up and running again in minutes instead of hours. However, it usually does not enable lost personal files or other material on the hard drive to be recovered. If your hard drive fails then System Restore is no more and cannot help you. For more on System Restore see below.

4. Ensure you have a regular backup system in place so that if there is a disaster all essential material can be recovered. You don’t create a Word document without regularly saving it in case something goes wrong. Equally you must regularly save the content of your hard drive by a backup system so that it can be easily recovered after a disaster has struck.

A backup is simply a copy of a file, folder or your entire hard disk saved in a location other than your main hard disk just in case of any of the disasters mentioned happen to you.

If your computer does crash irretrievably, with your hard drive or motherboard dead or the material on your hard drive totally corrupted by malware, much or all of your documents and folders and e-mails and favourites or bookmarks and other personal material are going to be lost if you do not have a backup that is accessible. Yes, you can restore your operating system and all your software from your support disks or the internet but everything that is personal to you is lost unless it is backed up somewhere beyond your main hard drive.

The backup cannot be on your main hard drive. It must be on a second hard drive, preferably an external hard drive, a DVD or CDs, an internet backup system or, as a last short term resort, on a flash drive. And better still you should have two backups of what is really important. That’s because there’s no such thing as a completely safe backup. Any backup medium can fail.

What should I do after I've completed steps 1, if necessary, and 2?

Ensure you have System Restore Points.

Creating system restore points is reasonably straightforward and it is good practice to do so before you download new software or make any major changes on your computer. Fortunately even if you overlook doing that it is often not fatal as restore points are created on a fairly regular basis anyway by the better software downloads and by your operating system.

There are various ways of accessing System Restore to create a restore point or restore your computer from an earlier restore point. One way common to some Microsoft operating systems, and certainly Windows XP and in part Vista, is to go to Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > Create a Restore Point. In Vista once you get to System Restore you have to left click on Open System Protection and left click on Create. Another way in Windows XP is to go to Control Panel and look for Performance and Maintenance and then System Restore.

In Vista and Windows 7 you can left click on the start button in the bottom left corner of your screen, right click on Computer, left click on Properties, left click on System Protection and go to Create. Once you have System Restore open it is really just a matter of carefully following the instructions. If you are in any doubt look at:

· if you have Windows XP, see this Bleeping Computer XP tutorial and/or web search for “creating a system restore point in Windows XP”;

· if you have Windows Vista, see this Microsoft page or this Bleeping Computer Vista tutorial or this HowToGeek one, which also covers Widows 7, and/or web search for “creating a system restore point in Windows Vista”;

· if you have Windows 7, see this Microsoft page or this SevenForums Tutorial and/or web search for “creating a system restore point in Windows 7”.

If the worst comes to the worst you can use System Restore in Safe Mode, but I do not intend to develop that here as it is not something for the beginner.

Back up your computer.

It’s theoretically easy to back up a computer and there are lots of different approaches that can be taken. Options range from making simple, manual drag-and-drop copies of important files, right up to complete copies of the entire hard disk.

However, for most of us it is not easy in practice and it’s made more difficult by the many different answers and software dedicated to the topic, a lot of which are guaranteed to confuse and a number to cost you money. It is not made any easier by the fact that the best answer depends to some extent on which operating system you are using.

Moreover for most of us the biggest problem about backing up is that it requires us to think about it and to do something regularly.

Let’s try and keep it simple.

Your primary objective is to be able to recover your personal data so that you don't lose anything of importance to you. Whether we like it or not the only simple way that enables us to put it out of mind costs money. It involves an automatic backup system either on an external hard drive or through the internet. Even then if we want a second backup media we have to apply ourselves to it in some other way.

Many of us don’t really need to spend the money on an automatic backup system and there are cheap alternatives if we can discipline ourselves to use them. If you think you can do that that’s fine but if you find you cannot then the cost of an automatic backup system is worth it for peace of mind if nothing else.

There are three basic questions to ask: what sort of backup would suit me best, how often should I backup and what should I use to store my backups?

It’s worth having a think about how you use the computer and investigating the options at your disposal before splashing out on expensive backup products or setting up an overly complicated system. The most appropriate level of backup will depend on how frequently you use your PC and how many new files you generate each day.

The cheapest form of backup: A Manual Backup

Backing up manually is the cheapest and easiest method if you don’t use your computer very often. However, you do have to perform the backups regularly, preferably about once a week and certainly not less than once a month.

If you just use your computer for visiting websites, sending and receiving emails, and creating the occasional letter, spread sheet or newsletter, for instance, then making a regular copy of your My Documents folder (called ‘Documents’ in Vista) and a few other things may well be enough. This option can be the cheapest although it is made easier and safer if you have an external hard drive.

The simplest way to protect those things you really need is to copy your full documents folder and other essential data to an external hard drive, another computer, an iPod or the like or a DVD[s]. You can even use a second hard drive on your machine, just remembering that it won't be immune to malware or possible electrical damage in quite the same way as something independent of your computer. Flash drives are not robust enough to be a safe long term backup medium but as a short term measure they are fine, particularly if you carry them with you, when if your house goes you still have the essential content of your computer. Do not forget that even external hard drives are vulnerable to damage if dropped. CDs are possible but not very practical. A blank rewritable DVD holds more than 4GB of data and costs very little, making it the cheapest practical format for backing up modest document folders. Remember to store the disc in a case away from sunlight, direct heat and moisture.

What you need are copies of your documents, pictures and other personal data, including address books, e-mails, favourites or bookmarks and your essential settings and profiles.

To back up your documents manually there are three simple ways.

· You can right click on your My Documents folder and then left click on where you wish to send it to.

· You can simply drag and drop everything in your documents folder to the backup drive you want to use.

· You can right click on your My Documents folder select Copy and then go to where you intend to save the copy and right click and select Paste.

Don't forget to look in other folders like your My Music, My Pictures or My Videos for other personal material you might want to backup and follow the same method. And if other family members use the PC with a separate user account, remember to back up their My Documents folders too.

A most important thing is to make backup copies of anything that you couldn’t do without as soon as possible after they arrive on your PC. So, for example, if you transfer a fresh batch of photos from your digital camera to your computer, try to make sure that these get backed up before you wipe the originals off your camera’s memory card. The same goes for music you have purchased and downloaded from online music stores.

If you have large folders such as video film you don't have to copy the lot over every time if you manage your folders in a different way, e.g., having one folder for backed up film and another for new film. Then once the new film is backed up it can be moved to the backed up folder on your main drive so that effectively you are just backing up the new increments in large folders.

You also need to make sure your address books and e-mails are saved. Your address books should be in an Address Book folder in your Documents Folder. They certainly are in Windows XP and Windows 7. Your e-mails are a different matter as they are not saved in your Documents Folder.

Backing up your E-mail manually:

E-mail data is a particular problem but Microsoft supplies the answers for its programmes Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express and there is an independent tutorial programme that covers both. Windows Live Mail has various independent tutorial programmes which can be found by web searching relating to that programme and your operating system. Mozilla Thunderbird is best dealt with by MozBackup, which also handles Firefox.

Advantages and disadvantages of manual backups:

Pros:

· It’s the simplest.

· You don't need any backup programme to manually backup the content of your computer fairly regularly.

· You have the assurance the copies haven't been mangled by third party software and can easily be restored to wherever they are needed at a later time.

· It is the neatest way of restoring your personal data after a clean install of your old operating system or if you need a new operating system.

Cons:

· It doesn’t deal with everything you might need copies of. To back up the settings for the programmes you use, the applications themselves and the latest updates and licences you need something more than copying and pasting.

· It can result in a slower method of restoring your computer than other methods.

· It requires discipline to implement regular backups manually.

Automatic backups on hardware:

This type of backup involves the use of software in your operating system, downloaded on to it, built into an external hard drive or into hardware put between your computer and a USB driven backup medium. I refer to them below. It is simpler and easier than manual backing up but apart from what is built into your computer’s operating system or using free software it does involve money.

The easiest option is to use the backup system provided by Microsoft, particularly if you have Windows 7 as it has the best backup system yet provided by the much maligned manufacturer - see, for example, what PC World and Paul Thurrott have said about it. NZ Consumer in a recent survey of backup software said:

"Microsoft 7 Windows Backup is very much a set-and-forget program for the average user – it performs well, is easy to use, and it’s free. Only advanced users are likely to gain more benefit from the best pay programs.

As Microsoft Windows Backup 7 is integrated and does the job well, there seems little need for any of the other free backup programs we tested – none performed as well."

You can use Microsoft's own tutorial on it. Or you can use Fred Langa’s excellent advice in Windows Secrets under the heading “Build a complete Windows 7 safety net”.

If you are still using an older version of Windows don't fret. Just use the backup system provided. You can usually find it pretty easily under Control Panel, Backup and Restore, or under Programmes, Accessories, System Tools, Backup. Use the Wizard provided making sure you select Backup and not Restore.

[If you are a Windows XP Home user you will have to install the back up system manually from the Windows CD. Put it into the drive and double-click the CD icon in My Computer. When the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP screen appears, click the Perform Additional Tasks link. Now click Browse this CD and use Windows Explorer to navigate down through the ValueAdd, Msft and Ntbackup folders in turn. Finally, double-click the ‘ntbackup.msi’ file and follow the prompts to install Windows Backup. Once this is done launch Windows Backup by clicking on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and Backup.]

Nevertheless these different Windows backup systems haven't been immune from criticism and you can if you wish use one of the free backup software packages that are available such as Comodo Backup, GFI Backup, Cobian Backup, SyncBack or FileGee Personal Edition. Remember, however, that each of these also has its drawbacks, some spelt out in the NZ Consumer survey already mentioned. Most of these and other freeware alternatives are mentioned in sources such as Bright Hub, Gizmo's Freeware, Simple Thoughts or ghacks.net.

Drive Imaging Software:

The software mentioned thus far is not, for the most part, drive imaging software. What is the difference between file and folder copy backup systems and drive image backup systems? With file and folder copy backup systems you cannot restore the whole of a drive. You can only restore the content you have copied. With drive image backup systems you can copy and restore the whole drive, warts and all.

There are very real advantages in having both a drive image and a full backup of the material on the drive. It is much quicker to restore a whole drive from a drive image than to have to re-install an operating system and all essential software before restoring your own personal material. On the other hand the restoration of the whole drive might contain material that caused the drive to fail or it might be inconsistent with any new operating system you want to use.

Windows 7 does provide for a drive image and full backup software for the whole of your drive. Otherwise there is good freeware available such as EASEUS Todo Backup, recommended by Paul Thurrott, Dennis O'Reilly in CNet and Gizmo's Freeware or Paragon, also recommended by Gizmo's Freeware.

If you want to go the extra step and spend money on one of the commercial programmes for either drive imaging or backing up then there are a number of them including programmes such as Acronis True Image Home, Paragon System Backup and Symantec Norton Ghost. However, before you spend money in that way you might prefer to consider spending it on software built into an external hard drive or in hardware placed between your computer and the backup medium.

First, some external hard drives come with their own backup software built into them. Such drives have been reviewed and a useful starting point is ConsumerSearch, where incidentally it is noted "An external hard drive should most definitely be part of a larger backup and storage plan -- not your only repository for important, irreplaceable dat files, photos, video or other information." These days you can get an external hard drive with such a capacity from around $100 upwards. Well known makes include Seagate Free Agent, Verbatim Store 'n' Save and Western Digital My Book. These have the advantage they run off their own power supply, independently of your computer. Slightly cheaper are portable hard drives, which run off your computer’s power through the USB connection, with the disadvantage that if your computer fails for power reasons your portable drive might also be affected. Once again all the well-known drive makers have such products as does Clickfree and others. [An external or portable hard drive without its own backup software can be bought for less, as you would expect.]

Online backup services:

Regularly sending copies of your most important files to an online backup service is, in many ways, the ultimate way of making sure your data stays safe.

Technically it’s much safer from hardware failure and corruption than your own external hard disk at home, and the fact that it’s stored geographically far away from your house makes it immune to theft and flood or fire damage. Online backup can also work out relatively cheaply if backing up is of real importance to you.

Gizmo’s Freeware notes five alternatives for free on line storage from your ISP through web mail to programmes like Windows Live SkyDrive, which gives 25GB free storage, and Dropbox Basic and Mozyhome Free, which both give 2GB of free storage. [A Mozyhome or Dropbox subscription costs from US$5.99 or US$9.99 respectively per month for 50GB and invisibly backs up selected files and folders automatically and securely, encrypting everything as it goes.]

Similar services are offered by others. The downside of such a service is that it can be slow, even using a broadband connection, since uploading data is generally much slower than downloading it.

For your photos think of using an online photo-sharing service such as Flickr. For the backup to work properly, you might need to make sure that you keep your account active, or your photos might be deleted. Watch out also for file size limits, since you want your backups to be kept at the optimum resolution. Also try Picasa Web Albums, Webshots and Photobucket.

For most of us file storage on the Cloud is probably unnecessary but it can be a very secure and safe form of backup as it is beyond the risk of a house fire or theft or vandalism. If you want to delve more into this here are links to some fairly recent surveys of sites, including the free ones, ConsumerSearch, Computer World, OnlineBackupReviews, Backup Review, Gizmo's Freeware and Gadget Advisor.

Other aids:

I have not touched upon other recovery tools such as a copy of your operating system disk. Some of the more sophisticated backup software, like Acronis, also provides for a recovery system.

An alternative way to do a simple backup is to use a device such as Clickfree Transformer SE, which costs about $110 to $130, and is a simplified method of manual backup. It is described in one of the PC mags thus: "The Clickfree Transformer SE is a simple cable that can turn any external USB 2.0 hard drive into a backup device. It can automatically backup your data as soon as you plug it in to your computer and it requires practically no user intervention to work. Even if you have to fiddle with the Clickfree software, it's very easy to use. Basically, if you want a simple to use backup solution, this is it." It gets similar reports from every PC mag I could find and in the NZ PCWorld of November 2010 the reviewer, who confessed he doesn't backup, ends by saying in his summary: "So easy to use you might even start backing your files up regularly." It can be used with any USB device that has sufficient capacity to handle your material.

You need help as to how to backup?

I've already mentioned Microsoft's tutorial for Windows 7 and they have guides for their earlier programmes under Help. Most third party software has its own help guide. Tutorials for the main backup software, including Microsoft's, for the main operating systems can be found at Top-Windows-Tutorial.com.

Some notes about the different kinds of backups:

There are three common forms of backup - full, incremental and differential. Full is self-explanatory. Incremental saves the differences in data between the last backup, be it incremental or full, and the new one. Differential backups save any files that have changed since the last full backup. Hence incremental backups are faster than differential ones, while full backups are the slowest. However, should you have to restore from a backup then the speed factor more or less reverses, and an incremental backup can be the slowest to restore, even although some programmes like Acronis claim they use "special snapshot technology to rebuild the full image quickly for restoration" to make incremental backups more practical. There are advocates for each different kind of backup.

Some other views on backing up:

If you want to look at a range of other views on backing up try one or more of these sites: WikiHow; wiseGEEK; Free-Backup.info; Online Tech Tips; howtohaven.com; PCBackupReview.com. For an encyclopaedic 2007 view covering every aspect authoritatively, and incidentally showing just how complicated it can be, see Michael Horowitz's class notes.

Are you still puzzled?

Keep it simple as otherwise you won't do it. It becomes too much of a hassle. At the very least make sure you have what is important to you saved somewhere else, with at least one copy off your computer. Doing it manually is fine so long as you remember to deal with your e-mails as well. Using what Microsoft has provided is fine. Otherwise why not look at an external hard drive with in-built backup software or Clickfree Transformer SE. Or if you are more computer savvy one of the other ways already traversed.

If you are lost try typing into your Google or other search bar "how to backup your computer" and add if you wish what you want advice about, e.g., a particular operating system like Windows XP, Vista or 7, a particular backup system or medium, or whatever. For example, one of us wanted to know about the Western Digital Passport External Drive system so search for "Western Digital Passport External Drive backup system" or something similar until you get a reference that seems to address your interest. WesternDigital, like other suppliers, has its own pages on its products that you can consult. Here is the WD link. Other external hard drive suppliers include Verbatim, Seagate, Iomega, Transcend, Samsung and La Cie.

Summary:

Recovery Disks and System Restore: Follow notes above.

Backing Up:

1. Copy your documents and other personal materials like Pictures and send them to another drive or drives, with at least one being off your computer. To do this first ensure you have a second hard drive, a disk in your disk drive, or an external hard drive or other computer or a flash drive linked to your computer that can take your documents folder. Then open Windows Explorer or your Computer and follow one of these three ways:

a. Right click on your My Documents or other folder and then left click on where you wish to send it to.

b. Ensure the folder to be copied is shown in the right hand pane. Left click on it and drag it to where you wish to paste it in the left hand pane.

c. Right click on the folder to be copied and left click on copy. Right click on where you wish to send it to and then left click on paste.

2. Backup your address books, if they aren't in your Documents Folder.

3. Backup your e-mails by following one of the ways already mentioned:

For Outlook Express go to Microsoft Outlook Express e-mails. If you are using Microsoft Outlook go to the File Menu and Backup and select your backup destination. Mozilla programmes such as Firefox and Thunderbird are best dealt with by MozBackup.

3. To ensure your various computer settings are backed up it is simplest to use the backup system that is part of your operating system. You can usually find it pretty easily under Control Panel, Backup and Restore, or under Programmes, Accessories, System Tools, Backup. Use the Wizard provided making sure you select Backup and not Restore.

4. If you do all that regularly and have your essential stuff in two other places you have reasonable protection. If you want to do more first use the Windows backup system, particularly if it is Windows 7, and then think of an external hard drive with a backup system built in to it or a software device like Clickfree. They are as close as you can get to a simple system. Otherwise look at one of the free backup software systems mentioned and also if you want to do so at one of the free image backup software systems available.

5. Either schedule your backups or diary them to ensure you do them at a frequency compatible with your use of your computer. For those of us whose usage isn't too great that's probably between once a week and once a month.

6. By all means have your own copy documents and essential data AND use a backup programme AND use a drive image backup programme AND back up to the Cloud as well. However, your priority should be on having secure copies of what is essential to you. You might find an image backup useful in some circumstances but it might not save you. If you have your essential data copied and saved somewhere else, preferably in two different locations, you are safe whatever happens. As has been said elsewhere "every storage medium and device will fail, the only question being 'When?' "

7. Should you be unfortunate enough to have to use a backup to restore data have a look at Fred Langa's How to Recover Data from Your Backups in Windows Secrets.

8. If the worst comes to the worst and you have to re-install your operating system remember the advantages are that you will get rid of almost any problem that isn’t hardware related, such as deeply embedded malware, and of the accumulated garbage on your machine. How to do a Custom re-install depends a bit upon your operating system: for Windows 7 have a look at this Microsoft page.

Personal comment:

Most advice on this topic suggests you want a system that will enable you to replace everything in the case of a disaster. So the orthodox response is to have a bells and whistles approach with an image backup of your main hard drive and regular backups of your personal data. I've gone along with this for years and have invested in different state of the art backup systems including Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, Genie-soft's and Nero's programmes and a number of others. Usually when the crunch has come I have not used any of those aids. I've done a clean re-install of my operating system, as if you've lost everything why would you want to restore the detritus built into the image backup of your hard drive? Then I've reinstalled my software and finally I have pasted in copies of all my files and folders and personal data including e-mails and favourites or bookmarks. On various computers using various operating systems, all of which have had to be re-installed in one way or another at some time, I have never had resort to a software backup system except MozBackup for my Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird profiles and data. And it has worked as I have never lost anything of note.

Last year when my system failed totally I moved from Windows XP to Windows 7. My Acronis True Image backups were of no use whatever in respect of an image of my XP set-up and while the file backups might have been usable it was a long way around when I could simply paste in the copies of my files and folders from my external hard drive and use my download disks and files to restore my essential software.

I've certainly used software backup systems but they've never been of use to me. I prefer to ensure I have copies of what I don't want to lose in a variety of places, for example, a second hard drive, an external hard drive, a second computer and/or DVDs. Although I still have a very recent Acronis programme I'm not sure that I want to spend time using it again. I'm content at the moment to rely on the Windows 7 backup programme and a WesternDigital external hard drive programme as my second and third lines of defence. Otherwise I think I would look at one of the free programmes already mentioned. I've paid out for a number of editions of Acronis and before that on Genie, Norton and others without the expenditure being of any benefit whatever. I feel why not use a free one as a second line of defence when my first line of defence is my own copied material, which is all I have ever needed to date.

[Updated 29 November 2011.]

Getting the Best Out of Your Computer Inks

2010-11-07T21:08:00.005+13:00

Here are some simple ideas for getting the best out of your computer inks.

Use the On/Off switch on the front of your printer and keep it off unless you are using it. Not only is the power cost less but the ink is less likely to dry out. However, do not turn the power to your printer off as that will result in it going through a cleaning exercise every time it is turned on, which increases power and ink costs.
Unless you really want colour and good quality prints for some reason set your printer to default print in black and printing draft quality instead of high quality. Black ink is usually cheaper and draft quality uses only about half the ink.
To achieve these two things you have to go into your printer settings to change the default settings as otherwise you have to do it every time you print. Go to (Windows) >Start >Printers, right-click on your printer and select >printer settings. Now the exact options you’ll see here depend on your printer. You’ll have to figure out the details yourself. I’ll use the usual settings for an HP printer as an example. In the Printer Settings box click on Printer Settings. There are two changes to make. First, click on the Paper/Quality tab. On the right hand side under Print Quality open the selection menu and click on Fast Draft. [On some printers it will be Draft you are aiming for and in others you change the graphic resolution. This option is usually found under >advanced settings. 300 dpi (dots per inch) are usually sufficient for most purposes.] Secondly, click on the Colour tab. Under Colour Options click on Greyscale and Black Only. [Whatever your printer those are the choices you want to aim for.] Click on OK and you're done. The quality isn't quite as good but it’s not only acceptable but much faster in printing.
If you want a first class print job you don't have to reverse the default settings. Instead when you come to the document or photo you want a colour/first class print from just change the settings for that print job. To do that when you click on print and the selection panel appears click on Properties next to the name of your printer. Then you’ll again have to figure out the details for yourself. For an HP printer click on the Paper/Quality tab. On the right hand side under Print Quality open the selection menu and click on Automatic. Then click on the Colour tab. Under Colour Options deselect Greyscale and click on High Quality. Click on OK and you're done.
There are other changes you might be able to make to your default settings. You may be able to print several pages on a single piece of paper or you may be able to print on both sides of a page. Both options can save a lot of ink and even paper. You can reverse any such changes for any particular print job using the Printer’s Properties as mentioned above.
Please remember that if you change your default settings, every print job will be printed that way unless you undo it under your Printer Properties for a particular print job. If you don’t want that hassle do not change your printer’s default settings.
If you want to print just a portion of a page, only print a portion of the page. Highlight what you wish to print and then on the print selection panel under Page Range click on Selection. Similarly if you only want one or several page(s) out of a range use the choices available in the Page Range.
Sometimes it pays to copy your selection and paste it into a Word document and get rid of bold type headings and the like and even select a font that uses less ink like Arial Narrow, Century Gothic, Garamond or Courier. Each of those has ranked first in various tests that haven't included the others!
Use the print preview function that lets you see just what you are going to be printing before you print it.
Ignore any irritating messages about the ink level or expiry dates for your inks until they show empty but make sure you have a replacement ink on hand.

Google Maps and Google Earth - Quick Help Links

2010-05-26T11:33:00.000+12:00

This is a very brief note of the easiest methods of accessing the principal Google User Guide and Help sites for Google Maps and Google Earth as there is simply too much relevant material for them to be fully explained in an hour or so. Don't be put off by the the fact that there seems to be so much material on the Google sites. It is intimidating but it tends to include a lot of repetition.

Google Maps - this site not only has links to all the more specialised sites you are likely to want or need but also to the Help Forum and much else. To start using Google Maps just click on Maps on your Google search page. As a result of recent changes by Google you can now access Google Earth from Google Maps so long as you have the Google Earth plugin downloaded on your web browser. To create and save your own maps you have to have your own Google account. It is simplest to follow the instructions from the Help pages. Or you can start by opening Google Maps. Please remember that any map you create will be in the public arena unless you ensure it is unlisted.

Google Earth User Guide - this is the principal site to assist users with links to many more specialised sites. You can access Google Earth either through your Google search page, Google Maps and the Google Earth plugin or by downloading the Google Earth software programme. This can be done through the Google Earth user guide page or from the Google Earth home page. There are, at this time anyway, differences in what you see on your screen depending on whether you have used the web server plugin and Google Maps or the Google Earth software.

Once you have Google Earth installed you might find it easier to go to the Google Earth Tutorial site than the User Guide site but that will be a matter of personal preference.

While the various help videos can be accessed through the different help sites, e.g., Google Earth Tutorial or Product Tour, you can also access them through Google Earth Video Help in YouTube. It is easy to access the individual videos that interest you.

For those of you interested in the ocean depths that is now possible through the Ocean Layer in Google Earth Version 5.0 but you will need to access some of the underwater videos for the best images.

For all those interested in an opportunity to try flying on your own computer there is the Flight Simulator entered through Tools – Enter Flight Simulator with its own Using Flight Simulator help page.

Those of you who enjoy a challenge might want to look at the Google Earth: Learn site and work your way through it.

Note: I do not intend to refer in any way to Google Earth Pro as a subscription costs US$400 per annum.

Lost Your Blog?

2009-08-30T10:25:00.002+12:00

You had a Blog? I'd been happily running a blog for quite some time, creating it with a Blogger account. I had a Google acount, an IGoogle page and a GMail address. All was well until I decided to help a friend set up a GMail account. I thought I'd better set up a new one for myself to make sure I gave accurate advice. I did that and then I wanted to delete the new GMail address. I found I could only do that by deleting my Google account. That's not a problem I thought. I've only got it for IGoogle. My Blog is separate from that and it shouldn't affect my other GMail address. I was, of course, asked whether I really meant to delete my Google account but there was no mention of Blogger so why not. So I did delete my Google account and then found my Blog had gone and that it could not be recovered. What a trap for the young, or not so young in my case, players! The irony was that I had soon re-created a new Google account in the same name and with the same password as before without any difficulty and still had my GMail address and easily re-created my IGoogle page

Your Blog has been removed? After fruitless hours of searching it was clear that although my Blog page still existed in Google's resources I wasn't going to be given it back. My Blog had been removed and I wasn't allowed to use my address again. Most frustrating of all was the run around all the Google so-called help pages gave. There was no way you could ask a question of a real person and get a simple response. Reasons given for not enabling the re-creation of one's old account and Blog were pretty feeble.

What to do? Well a number of sites recommended the pretty obvious solution of creating a new Blog page as close to the old as possible and that was simple enough. But how could I recover the material on which people who had attended workshops given by me recently might be relying?

How to recover your material? At last I found that I could recover almost all of the material from Google caches by using two methods. The simplest, explained in different blogs of which the Blog Doctor is the easiest to read, merely requires a search through the Google search page for "cache:[your old Blog address]". You can then copy and save the content of your old blog, although the cache is unlikely to be up-to-date. The alternative method, which might get you a later copy of some or all of the material is to Google search for all the old Blog address[es] you have and open the cached material. You could have a separate address for each post and I recovered a more up-to-date version of one or two posts using this alternative.

What next? What to do when you have recovered as much of the material of your old Blog as you can in to Word or Notepad or wherever? Two sites are both helpful about this, EHow and Tips for Bloggers. Even before I got on to them I had re-created most of my original blog by similar copy and paste methods.

How to avoid a repetition? Don't delete your Google account is pretty obvious, but it is equally sensible to protect yourself through two recognised techniques, saving a copy of your template and exporting a copy of your blog from which it can later be restored if need be. The first of these requires you to go to Dashboard, Layout, Edit HTML and Download Full Template and then saving it to a folder of your choice. The second of these is well explained in Blogger Tips and Tricks. Ideally you would be wise to do both of these every time you update your blog.

Building Your Own Computer

2009-08-30T10:00:00.002+12:00

[These are some notes prepared for people, like myself, without experience of building a computer. They result from my building a computer in New Zealand in the first half of September 2006.]

We all have a fair idea of what a desktop computer is.

There is the metal box [the case] that holds the works. On its front there is a power button to turn it on and sometimes a reset button to close and restart it. And there is usually a slide out thingummy operated by another button that takes a CD or maybe a DVD [the optical drive] and a slot of some sort where we can put a floppy disk [the floppy disk drive].

On the back of the case there are lots of sockets and plugs starting with the power plug and switch. Other sockets, some of which may be duplicated on the front of the case, take a variety of cables. There are Ethernet sockets for cables for joining us to the internet or perhaps a LAN [Local Area Network]. There are USB sockets for cables for connections to a whole range of things, including flash drives for storing things. [USB is short for ‘universal serial bus’, not that that makes anything clearer.] There may be a firewire socket for cables connecting us to things like video cameras. And then there are pinned sockets and cables maybe linking us to our printer and our scanner, if we have one, and our screen [the monitor] and usually our keyboard and mouse, although sometimes some of these things run off USB connections. Then there is another sort of plug connecting us to loudspeakers and microphones of some sort or another.

Inside the case are the things that make it all work. The absolute essentials are the CPU [the central processing unit that is the brains of the whole affair and usually has a heat sink and fan to enable it to be cool enough to work], the motherboard festooned with chips and bits that drive most of the things we use, the power supply unit [PSU], a hard drive that holds all our data, memory cards to deal with the data when it is first entered into the computer, a video card to handle what goes to our monitor, perhaps a modem to connect you to your internet server provider, and the optical and floppy disk drives. There is also a mass of cables and ties and mini-sockets and plugs and usually a case fan to try and keep the whole enclosure at a reasonable temperature.

All of these things, collectively called ‘the hardware’, support or are driven by an operating system, for most of us one form or other of Microsoft Windows. And then there is all the software, called ‘applications’, that makes things work or enables us to do other things with our computer.

If you’ve heard of most or all of the things I’ve mentioned you can probably build your own computer if you really want to do so. First though it pays to think whether an upgrade of various components might do the trick for you. I looked at various articles and decided that was not the answer for me. There is, incidentally, an article in NZ PC World, November 2006, p61, similar to other articles elsewhere, which would help you make that assessment and give you an idea what is involved in installing various parts of your computer.

Why build a new computer? There are lots of reasons including updating essential components, getting to know what makes your computer tick and understanding it better, having what you want and not what someone else has put in the case, having a quieter machine, or having a new challenge.

In my case it was a combination of those. My computer experience dates back to the late 1980’s. For about 16 years I used desktop and laptop computers for my work. Over about the last 12 years I have had three personal desktop computers, the first off the floor from a now defunct New Zealand manufacturer and the latter two built by a friend. There is certainly nothing wrong with the last of these as I am still using it, although it is now running Windows 7 RC1, .

I thought it would be a good idea to be familiar with the newer 64 bit system, which seems likely to replace the 32 bit system that runs most of our current operating systems and programmes. The new generation CPU’s from AMD and Intel, who between them control the market, seemed to be galloping in the 64 bit direction, Microsoft’s later operating systems, Vista and Windows 7, are providing for either 32 or 64 bits and all Apple MAcs are now 64 bits. Don’t ask me to explain exactly what 64 bits means but it affects the code the programmes are written in. Sixty four bits systems process bigger chunks of material and make better use of RAM [random access memory]. Thus 64 bit systems are faster and more stable and what everyone is likely to be using before too long. I wanted a quieter set up than I had as my attempts to make my old computer quieter had only been partially successful. I wanted to understand more about computers and have a new challenge.

Well, what do you do if you do want to build a new computer? I went to the internet and searched high and low, using ‘build computer’ and similar words in Google and other search engines, bought a booklet called PC Upgrade Guide, 2nd Edition, and combed the computer magazines I look at like NZ PC World and the Australian PC User and PC Authority. I looked in the library and book shops to no good effect.

You first need to sort out what you want from your computer. Is it just for basics, or do you want to use it for more complicated things or do you want to play electronic games on it? My objective was to have a mid-range computer with the capacity, with some add-ons, for me to play with old photographs, edit videos and use voice recognition software.

Then you have to choose the components you need to achieve your objective. The CPU is the key to everything else. That is because everything else has to be compatible with it, whether it be the power source, the motherboard or whatever. You really have a choice just between AMD and Intel. My choice, because of what was offering at the time, was an AMD Athlon AM2 CPU. To-day, three years later, your choice depending on your needs and priorities is still between AMD and Intel. I wanted other components to be of good but not top of the range quality.

Here is the list of components I worked from:

• Case, including PSU and case fan, although you can get them separately.

• CPU, including CPU cooling, which you can get separately.

• Motherboard, including various cards and adapters than can be separate.

• Hard Drive

• Memory Modules

• Graphics/Video Card

• Optical/CD-ROM Drive

• Floppy Disk Drive

• Operating system

• Monitor

• Keyboard & Mouse

• Speakers

• Modem.

As I wanted a quiet PC I also researched that side of things carefully and chose components including the case, PSU, CPU, hard drive and video card that scored well for quietness.

In choosing components I found articles and reviews in the Australian PC magazines already mentioned, particularly PC Authority, combined with web reviews of components on sites such as ConsumerReview.Com the most helpful. After I had my list I took the precaution of having it checked for component compatibility.

You can buy your chosen components in all sorts of ways. Once I had my list I looked for a local supplier who could supply everything I wanted and got everything from that one company. That had the advantage its technical adviser also checked my chosen items for compatibility.

When it came to building the computer there was no really good information available. Just by chance NZ PC World, September 2006, p82, had quite a good article on building a new computer. However, like nearly everything I read, it is a bit once over lightly as it assumes knowledge novices just don’t have. However, at the end of the day, that article, one or two articles found on the web, with some excellent material on the AMD Athlon site, combined with some notes of a friend and the material that came with the components, usually for the initiated and not the new chum, were what I relied upon. Most of the material on the web was very out of date. For example, some articles say you need a huge array of tools. I found that apart from an anti-static wrist band all I really needed was one non-magnetic Phillips screw driver. [The article in NZ PC World, November 2006, p61, on upgrading your computer has a reasonably clear guide to installing most of the essential components.]

In a way putting the hardware together was the easy part. I made one minor mistake as a result of unfamiliarity with the input/output fitting plate that goes into the back of the case to take the plugs of the motherboard but otherwise there were no insurmountable difficulties. I did have some difficulty in reading various instructions and names on parts. Even although I had done it once before, I found the placing of the CPU on the motherboard, the most important thing of all, a difficult business. However, it took me just a day and a half to assemble everything and get it going properly.

What I had been far more casual about was checking the compatibility of my printer, keyboard, mouse and essential software, particularly security software, with a 64 bit system as opposed to my old 32 bit system and I got some unpleasant surprises.

My HP printer was incompatible with the 64 bit system but fortunately software making it 64 bit compatible was available for download. My Logitech keyboard and mouse software was incompatible, although they work in the standard basic way. Programmes such as Acronis True Image, which I use for back-ups as well as drive imaging, are compatible. However, Bart's PE Builder is incompatible as was my previous Genie back-up programme.

None of my security software was 64 bit compatible but much is now - September 2009.

Fortunately, most things one commonly uses and needs are compatible with the 64 bit system as for the most part it enables the use of 32 bit software.

Nevertheless if I’d read what appeared in PC Authority, October 2006, p22 or had read more carefully what one or two other reviewers on the web had said I think I would have stuck to a 32 bit version of Windows. If I was starting again to-day I probably would be in two minds. There still seems to be a lack of drivers for the 64 bit system and some software as well as hardware is incompatible with it. However, I suspect that with Vista and soon Windows 7 providing both 32 and 64 bit alternatives things will continue to change as a number of providers both of freeware and commercial products do have changes on hand. Significantly there are no problems with freeware such as Mozilla Thunderbird and Firefox or Open Office or with “essential” software such as Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007. There can be no doubt 64 bit represents the future and 32 bit the past.

I found only a few web sites that were of any particular help for 64 bit matters. There are now many more.

My two worst problems, which caused me no end of frustration, had nothing directly to do with building a computer and so are really outside the scope of this note. Windows kept on opening in the Administrator's screen and not my own. No web search gave me even a clue on that one. Indeed I was led down some very useless paths. I at last discovered that I had accidentally cleared a box in the Logon menu in TweekUI, for which there is a 64 bit version available through Neo Smart Technologies, and when I ticked it all was well. The second thing was scarier as I found myself with a totally blank screen and the computer wouldn’t even fire up into boot mode. I’m still not sure what went wrong, but think it was possibly a loose connection in the case as I eventually fixed whatever it was and have had no trouble with my basic set up since.

Would I do it again? Yes, with less anxiety than the first time. Was it worth it? I think so. I have a very quiet computer that seems fast and robust. I know precisely what is in it and I have the satisfaction of knowing I built it.

Addendum: I prepared the bulk of the above notes in September and October 2006. I have now been running my 64 bit set up for about three years. There have been some difficulties unconnected with my build that would not have arisen if I had used a 32 bit version of Windows XP Pro or, more recently, of Windows Vista. Whether there will be the same difficulties with Windows 7 only time will tell.

No User Picture on Start Menu in Windows XP

2009-08-30T09:45:00.000+12:00

Others have had this problem and many an answer has been given in the forums. A Google search for "show user picture on start menu" gets the widest range of answers. Surprisingly none of them mention one of the simplest answers of all as I found after hours of search and experiment. The answer lay in ensuring you had activated "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" in System Properties. To check that you have it activated right click on Computer. When the System Properties pane opens left click on the advanced tab and then under "Performance" on the "Settings" box. When the "Performance Options' pane opens left click on the "Visual Effects" tab. If the "Custom" settings have been chosen scroll to the last item in the list and ensure you have clicked on "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" so that it is activated. Your chosen picture in the User Accounts section of the Control Panel will then be shown at the top of the start menu pane.

A different method of getting the same result but losing the benefits of your other custom settings is to go to Desktop Properties and under the appearance tab choose Windows XP style in the "windows and buttons" box.

Anti-Spyware and Freeware

2009-08-30T09:03:00.005+12:00

ANTI-SPYWARE

Anti-spyware falls into two broad categories; programmes to prevent the installation of spyware and programmes to identify it and remove it. Some anti-spyware programmes do both.

There is general agreement you should have at least two anti-spyware programmes. There is an excellent overview, which also mentions good anti-spyware programmes, at Anti-spyware Guide.

The following is from a more detailed overview of available anti-spyware software in March 2009 by Consumer Search. However, there are tests noted in the materials mentioned in this post showing some different results.

“According to reviewers, Webroot Spy Sweeper (*Est. US$25) and PC Tools Spyware Doctor (*Est. US$30) are the most effective commercial anti-spyware programs. Software developers constantly tweak these programs and issue incremental updates. In some cases, the update enables one program to leapfrog a competitor in spyware detection and removal ability. The downside is that updates are sometimes rushed to market, and often introduce system and software conflicts that didn't exist with the previous version. Recent user reviews are the best gauge of such problems.”

For tools designed to prevent the installation of spyware you will almost certainly have Windows Defender, installed with Windows XP and Vista. CNet recently ranked it the best of the freeware programmes. You may have a Security Suite that tackles spyware although none of them are as good as a specialist programme. There are two other free programmes with a good name. Consider Comodo BOClean or Spyware Blaster. Both are reasonably easy to use.

Two of the best tools for preventing as well as identifying and removing spyware have already been identified as PC Tools Spyware Doctor, especially for Vista, and Webroot SpySweeper. Neither is free although a starter edition of the former is free in Google Pack. Sunbelt CounterSpy 2.0 has been placed first by CNet and PCWorld and second by TopTen Reviews in recent reviews and is well worthy of consideration as it is cheaper than the other two.

There seems to be less confidence in the popular free programmes Lavasoft AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy, which also has some active protection available in it. They are undoubtedly better than nothing. AdAware is probably the easier to use. The latest versions, AdAware 2008 and SpyBot Search and Destroy 1.6, seems an improvement on recent editions although I have seen no objective test results of them. SUPERAntiSpyware comes with both a free and a commercial version and attracts favourable comments as does Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.26 and although I use both of those I have seen no objective test results. There are other free programmes such as HijackThis that are excellent, but they are for advanced users.

I have personally tried a considerable number of the anti-spyware programmes and quickly junked a number of those that cost money and are sometimes recommended. Some actually deliberately allowed spyware. If you are going to buy a programme get one of those with the greatest support.

The following materials focus on which are the best programmes:

Consumer Search [March 2009]; Top Ten Reviews [for 2009]; 2Spyware [2009]; Best-Anti-spyware-Review [for 2009]; Spyware-Adware-Reviews [Undated].

Prevx 3.0, not mentioned in those materials is the recent choice of Neil J Rubenking in PC Mag [May 2009].

The latest detailed reviews as at March 2009 are referred to both in Consumer Search and the Anti-spyware Guide.

And for what not to use as at May 2007 see Spyware Warrior.

FREEWARE

Here are some sites dedicated to freeware. A web search will produce others. Before you buy software see if there is a free alternative.

Its worth having a look at Secunia's Software Inspector as to the security of your system. They provide a version, Secunia PSI, that can be downloaded on to your machine.

For freeware generally, but the first part relates to security in particular, see

pcmag.

General:

bestfreewaredownload.

Download.com.

www.winaddons.com/top-300-freeware-software

freeware-guide.

Microsoft only.

Look here if you subscribe to NZ Consumer on line.

Individual choices:

pcmag and techsupportalert.

Do we need a Registry Cleaner?

2009-08-29T17:41:00.003+12:00

I've played around with registry cleaners for a long time and believed in them, by and large. That was until using one, Advanced System Care, required me to do a clean re-install of my Windows XP x64 operating system if I wanted to continue accessing Microsoft updates manually. [No such problem was caused by ASC on a x32 bit operating system.] That experience made me think twice about them and caused me to do a little research. To my surprise I found the cognoscenti were not only divided but that some very knowledgeable commentators were opposed to the use of registry cleaners. Here is a brief summary of what I found:

BASICALLY ANTI: Ed Bott ; Leo Notenboom ; Blair, relying on Mark Russinovich and Bill Castner.

IN THE MIDDLE: Scott.

BASICALLY PRO: Fred Langa ; Bob Rankin.

IF YOU WANT ONE WHICH IS THE BEST? For comments and reviews see Steve Bass of PC Advisor, August 2008 ; Top Ten Reviews 2009 ; Mark Anderson ; Neil J Rubenking of PC Mag, August 2004 plus the two sites above which are basically pro and Leo Notenboom's.

My conclusion was that if you are going to use a registry cleaner make sure it is a conservative one like CCleaner's. Others can have unintended and unexpected side effects.