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Internet Tips
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 A lot of people find browsing the internet
to be frustrating and confusing. There are some tricks to making things
easier. Most of these are for use with Internet Explorer version 5
and above, though there are links here for other browsers (ie. Netscape,
Opera, etc.). Hopefully these ideas will help your browsing experience be
better, help you find information more quickly, and have things work how
you want on the internet. An excellent website that shows how to change
many options in many browsers for many operating systems (Windows,
Macintosh, Linux) with screenshots so you can follow along is www.netfaqs.com.
Changing Font Size
Have you ever gone to a web page and found
that the words were so small, you couldn't read them, or that they were
too big they filled up your whole screen? Well, there's an easy way to
change the font size in Internet Explorer. It affects all text-based words
on the page. Click the View menu at the top, click Text Size, and choose
your favorite size from Largest to Smallest. You can change it back any
time.
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Stopping Pop-ups
I don't know many people who like popups,
annoying advertisement windows taking up bandwidth and precious time.
While there is no browser setting (in Internet Explorer) that I know of
that will completely eliminate popups, there is a lot of third-party
software that can do just that. My favorite is called Pop-up
Stopper, made by Panic Ware. They've got several versions with
different features, some are free, some cost money. Another product
is called Popup
Blocker.
You will want to beware, however, that some sites require
that you have popups. For instance, some banks or credit union require a
popup window in order to pay bills online. So, you have to disable the
pop-up stopper in order to use this feature. But that's simple to do -
just right-click the icon in your taskbar and disable it. There are
also browsers such as Mozilla,
that have built in pop-up blockers.
The Back Button Doesn't Work!
 Have you sometimes noticed that clicking
the back button just refreshes the page. Some pages make it so you have to
click it two or three times rather quickly in order to back to the
previous page. Now you know.
Also, have you ever opened a page that disabled the back button or didn't
have the toolbar, but you found yourself wanting to return to the previous
page? You can simply right click anywhere in the window (except on a
picture or a link) and click "Back." There you go.
You can also go back by using the keyboard -- hit ALT + [left arrow key].
Anti-Spam tips
We all dislike spam. There are some things
you can do to help limit spam, though sometimes it's too late. Here are
some tips:
 | Never respond to spam -- They
really don't remove you from their list, they just verify that it's a
valid email address and will send you more. And often the
"from" or "reply to" email address is either
invalid, or actually belongs to some poor soul who had nothing to DO
with the spam.
| Don't give out your main email
address on the internet -- Once you type your email address in a
line and click Submit, someone knows it, and soon, many people may.
Unless you trust the person or organization, don't give them your real
or your main email address. Of course if you are buying airline
tickets or other item online, then by all means do give them a valid
email address!! I recommend setting up a secondary email account
- perhaps a free one at yahoo.com (which has less spam than hotmail)
and use it just for lists you join or when you aren't quite sure if
you trust the site asking for your email address. I have several
email addresses I use for various purposes. Just remember to
check them all.
| Verify before you forward - This doesn't
really stop spam, but it DOES help keep junk mail down and prevent
otherwise sane people from going on murderous rampages! 
If you receive some scary virus
warning, or an alert of some serious danger from rat urine on soda pop cans,
or the latest rumor about the pledge of allegiance being in peril, or
nasty rumors about presidential candidates, or a
promise that by forwarding to everyone you know you'll win $1000 (are
you getting the idea?)... ...PLEASE, PLEASE
PLEASE!!! verify
it before forwarding. 90% of them are hoaxes
or downright lies. Before panic sets in, see if the virus is a hoax at
Mcafee,
and check out 'urban legends' and other stories at http://snopes.com
| Delete addresses from forwards!!!
-- If you insist on passing on junk mail, inspirational stories,
jokes, etc., PLEASE delete all the information
containing other people's addresses first, and then use the BCC (Blind
Carbon Copy) field for the email addresses you are sending
to. And encourage others to do so as well. Otherwise, anyone who
ever gets that message down the chain will have all the address of
anyone who it's been sent to. And when that gets in the hands of a
spammer, you're in for an increase in junk mail.
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| Use a spam
filter -- Although most mail programs allow limited filters
(like Outlook Express' "message rules"), those only let you
block certain words and aren't very effective if you're getting lots
of spam. Many ISP's offer server-side filtering, though occasionally
it blocks email that you WANT to receive - and spammers are cleverly
finding ways around them. We use SPAM
ARREST, and it has filtered out literally THOUSANDS of
spam emails.
| Don't buy things advertised in spam
-- that just keeps them in business and keeps them sending you more.
| Change your email address -- If
you're just getting too much spam and a server side filter isn't
available, change your email address to something more unusual and
more difficult to randomly generate. If your email address is john@something.com,
you are almost guaranteed to get lots of spam. If instead, you use
1j0hn54@something.com, it looks a little strange, but spam should be
reduced, especially right after you change it since no one knows your
address. |
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 It's so hard to find what I need!
After typing in a phrase using the Google
or Yahoo search engines, isn't it
amazing how many thousands of pages can come up? How do you possibly find
the information you're looking for in all that information? Here are a few
things that may be
helpful in narrowing the searches:
| Use many descriptive words (don't just
type one word; even sentences are fine)
| If you're looking for an exact phrase,
put quotes around it, "Like this"
| Use the advanced
search feature
| Try different search engines like: www.alltheweb.com
| Try using topical directories like this
one at Google (Yahoo has one too). |
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A very complete list of ways to utilize
search engines better can be found here: http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.php
Also, there are often much better ways to search for information the
internet than through regular search engines. For example, there are
newsgroups such as groups.google.com
which lets you search through decades of posts from people like you and me
on nearly every subject.
There are also more scholarly sources such as the National Public Library
(www.npl.org).
http://www.slco.lib.ut.us/databases.htm
Perhaps your local library does, too.
Other informational sites such as www.howstuffworks.com
have very complete explanations of the topics they cover.
Remembering where you were....
 Does it bother you sometimes when you're
browsing somewhere, you click on a link, but it opens in the same window,
overriding where you previously were. Then if you spend long enough there,
you might forget to go back. If I'm ever at a page that I know I'll want
to go back to, I'll sometimes open up the links in a new window instead of
having them take over the page I'm reading. To do this you can simply
right click the link, and choose "Open in New Window."
If you don't like having a lot of windows open, you can also just use the
History function to find and return to a page you were visiting. If
there's no history button on the toolbar, you can bring it up by hitting
CTRL+H on your keyboard.
Shortcut keys
If moving your mouse all over the place
bothers you and you want to be faster at performing common functions, keep
these windows hotkeys in mind (also good to use if your mouse stops
working):
| Copy |
CTRL+C |
| Paste |
CTRL+V |
| Cut |
CTRL+X |
| Undo |
CTRL+Z |
| Switch between windows |
ALT+TAB (If you hold ALT
button down, while tapping TAB, you'll get more options) (Also
try: "Window key"+TAB, then SPACE to select) |
| Maximize a window |
ALT+SPACE, then X |
| Minimize a window |
ALT+SPACE, then N |
| Restore a window |
ALT+SPACE, then R |
For a more complete listing, click here.
Setting your home page
 Have you ever gone to a site that reset
your homepage to something you didn't like. Or maybe you're tired of
having the same page come up every time you open your browser and you want
to change it to something new, like http://crowndiamond.net?
In Internet Explorer, just click Tools
-> Internet Options, and type your favorite web page in the address
bar, then click OK. Quite simple.
Clearing your cache and cookies
Did you know that a copy of every web page
you visit gets stored on your hard drive? If this storage gets too full it
can sometimes slow down your browsing, instead of speed it up like it's
supposed to. Cookies allow other web sites to store information about you
on your computer so they'll know who you are the next time you visit their
site. Sometimes they're nice to have. Sometimes not. In Internet Explorer
6, you can clear the cache and cookies by clicking Tools Menu ->
Internet Options -> Delete Files -> Put a check in "Delete all
offline content" -> Click OK. Then click Delete Cookies. In
Internet explorer 5, deleting the cookies is a little more tricky. You
have to click Settings (next to Delete Files) -> View Files -> Edit
-> Select All -> File -> Delete. Sites
that 'remembered' you when you visited won't when you visit again.
You'll need to login in again so they can give you another cookie (which
isn't a bad thing).
Spyware
 Spyware
allows others to see files and information on your computer, to watch you
as you navigate, to download or upload anything from/to your hard drive,
and even to reformat your hard drive in some cases. Some people have
spyware on their computer and they don't even know it. Download
software to remove the spyware and prevent it from coming back! Some
options are: NoAdware
and Ad-Aware
Want cheap internet service?
For those who don't qualify for
high-speed access, or who can't afford it, you're stuck with dial-up
connections. The cheapest dial-up service I've found is www.access4less.net,
which offers unlimited service for $5.95/month plus an $8 setup fee.
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