CAREFREE COMPUTER GROUP NOTES - FEBRUARY 19, 2007

Welcome all.

Our main object is to get everyone feeling comfortable with computers. We are not here to teach you how to use any specific program you may have, unless you are lucky and we happen to have the same program, then we can help. Mainly, we prefer to get you to the point where you can feel comfortable enough to learn how to operate the program yourself.

Now, when we get phone calls describing problems, we often find that people have no idea how to even describe what their problem is. For instance, many people will call up and say, I can’t get my computer to work. Well, after considerable probing, it usually turns out that what they mean is they can’t get their Internet connected. So tonight, I am going to try and straighten out some of the terms and names used with computers.

So, if you turn on your computer and it boots up to that nice desktop page you have and your icons show up, your computer is probably working fine. Now, if you can’t get your Internet working – that’s a different matter. If you are on dial up (meaning your telephone is totally tied up when you are on the Internet) it could be that your server is busy. Now - what is a server? The server is the one that you pay to get your Internet. Whether it is dial up and Net Zero or Juno, or DSL - meaning that it is high speed on your telephone (and you can still talk on your phone) or Cable meaning roadrunner around here. That’s a server. You pay - you get your connection. With dial up all you need is a phone cord (because the modem is usually part of your computer) B but with both DSL and Roadrunner you will need a separate modem to interact with your computer to complete the connection.

Once you have that connection, you can take whatever the server offers you as an email address and as a home page B but you don’t have to. It’s up to you. We are on Roadrunner, but Bill has Google as his home page and I have Yahoo as my home page. Now, we certainly do not use Roadrunner for our email address, we both use gmail which is web-based meaning that everything is actually kept at the gmail end - not on our computers. I can see no advantage anymore to using the email address given by the server. No. 1 advantage to having a web-based email account is that no matter where you go, you can use the same email address. Up north, down south, if you visit Europe, or Africa, or anywhere. Second advantage is that I don’t get any more spam. It goes in a separate file and disappears all on its own. And at the same time does not require such a high degree of security that I can’t get email from new people not on my list.

We are all getting used to the term WiFi - for a wireless connection. The signal coming in from the server has to be transmitted through the air via a Router. New laptops come with built in WiFi and older laptops can have an external WiFi which you have to plug in. In quite a few Carefree homes, people have high speed Internet - using a modem and then they get a router as well so that they can use their laptop with it’s WiFi - anywhere within the signal range.

I would like to talk about Google for a minute. Once upon a time Google was a little fledging search engine, which we all gradually took a liking to - because it is so friendly and usable and free. Now North America, that includes Canada and the USA has a great way of life. We all love a winner and we all love to see people succeed. To a point. But once a company gets to the very top, such as AT&T, or Microsoft, or Wal-Mart, or Google,-- individuals, organizations and the governments start taking pot-shots as them and try to find ways to break them down again. They say they are too big, a monopoly, or they are using nefarious means to stay on top. Google right now seems to be in the hot seat because everything they have is open to the public and people are upset that everyone is going to know everything about them. Well, I suppose if I were doing something illegal, I might be worried about it, but if your life is an open book, who cares. And if someone wants to find out something about you so they can do something illegal with it, (such as steal your identity) they could find it elsewhere, . Google is all about information sharing, and I say, Long Live Google.

The new computers in the last month or so have the new Microsoft operating system Vista already installed. That’s the way it is, eventually most of us will be using Vista. But if you bought a new computer in the last half of 2006, you probably have XP and, perhaps were given a free coupon for Vista. Get the free copy of it, but don’t necessarily feel that you should install it immediately. If XP works fine, you can stay with it. As well, all those of us with older computers using XP can keep right on using it. You don’t always have to have the most up-to-date operating system. I’ll tell you when you will have to change to Vista B when you get a new program that you really want to install and it will only work with Vista. Then install Vista B or do without the program.

The Internet is getting very crowded with websites - some of them legitimate, some of them fraudulent. For instance, I like my iPod video and I downloaded iTunes, which you need to manage it. Bill liked some of the features so he decided to download iTunes. He searched, found a website and decided to download it. The website said there would be a $15 charge per year. I hadn’t paid for it, so I phoned my iPod hotline and asked why he was going to have to pay as I had an iPod.. The answer was B no one pays to download iTunes, he is on a fraudulent website. So I gave him the right website and he downloaded it free. Don’t get caught.

How many people are now using Avast for their antivirus? Well, they gave us a list of twenty known scam sites that might try to charge you B because the site name is very similar to the real Avast site. Be aware, B if you think it could be a scam site, exit, talk to someone who knows the right site, get the correct address from them B and never give your credit card number if you know something should be free.

Here is an interesting fact, the average computer user has 17 passwords and 30% of all calls to tech support are because people have forgotten those passwords. Keep a little book with all your passwords and important computer functions B Not a piece of paper, not a little pad of paper, they get lost, have a separate booklet B and always have it with your computer along with all the software that belongs with your computer. Now when you get a computer and they ask if you want a password to get into it B say NO. Who is going to walk into your house and use your computer? That is for offices or people with teenagers -- Folks that have other people living or working with them. Another point. If you go into a website and they want a password to sign in, - don’t use your main password - pick something different - and write it down in your little book.

Most new computers have what is called System Restore. If you have XP or a late version of Windows 98 it will be in your computer. You go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Then you can follow the instructions and restore you computer back to an earlier date before you were having problems with it. This is not a quick fix for every little thing that goes wrong with your computer. First, try shutting your computer down, leave it for a minute or so, then reboot it. That solves a lot of problems. There are at least two times when System restore works well. If you install a new program and it really messes up your computer, and uninstalling the program doesn’t fix the problem, then go to System Restore and pick a time and date just before you installed the new program. That should do the trick. Or say your computer starts acting up, maybe something comes up repetitively that interferes with certain programs, or something disappears that your really liked. Try to remember when it first occurred and restore to just before that time. Don=t go back to day 1 when you got the computer. Because everything you installed after day 1 will be gone. Just go back to before the problem. I have a little trick - I never install two programs in one day. I give each program a chance to work properly or not. Then if I have to go back, it’s only that one program that will disappear.

This applies mostly to Canadians coming down here for the winter, but it also applies to Americans travelling to other countries. We now travel with expensive cameras, laptop computers and other electronic gear. When you buy anything and you know or think you might be taking it to another country B check before you buy to make sure that the warranty is good in other countries. Check for each product from each company - that can vary. We’ve had good and bad experiences. We bought a printer in Canada, it failed the day we got down here and the warranty was no good. It’s a long story. But last year, we bought an HP printer down here B comes with a worldwide warranty B we got to Canada, had a problem B they replaced the entire printer, up in Canada - no questions asked.

Don’t forget to learn how to use tabs in MS Explorer 7.0 and Fire fox 2.0. The work quite similar and by opening new tabs as you browse you can easily exit a window and go back to the previous window. This is very handy when you are working links on a web site such as Carefree Country Club. You can force a new tab by pressing the Ctrl key while you select the URL of the site you wish to link to.