CLC at the Farmers' Market. The CLC has expanded its outreach to the LO Farmers' Market. Materials available to visitors include a computer slide show presentation and the CLC brochure.

(Photo at right) Volunteer Jerry Trageser staffs the CLC booth, Summer 2004.

There are many resources available to computer users through downloads from the internet. However, many of our members still connect to the internet through a dial-up connection, often using their only phone line. This makes downloading large files, such as Windows® Service Pack 2, difficult. To help our members with access to these downloads, the CLC provides a download service. We have highspeed access to the internet and will download and copy requested files to a cd for a voluntary suggested donation of $1. In some circumstances where we anticipate that demand for a particular download might be high, we will create cds in advance to insure availability.

Obviously, it is our intention to comply will all laws protecting intellectual property, and will not download any files unless authorization is provided by the vendor.

CDs that are currently available at the CLC include:

• Windows® Service Pack 3 [more info on SP3 from the Microsoft web site and under Internet | News below ]
• Open Office [more info on Open Office from openoffice.org]
• Type Faster Free typing tutorial [more info at the Type Faster web site

How to get a CD

• The CLC is open during Users' Group (Mondays: 9:30 - 11:00) and during Open Lab (Wednesdays: 12:30 - 2:00). These are the best times to pick up a cd (please consider a voluntary $1 donation to cover our costs.)
• The CLC is also staffed when class is in session, but there is no guarantee that the teacher will be able to handle the transaction.

Info. The CLC volunteers provide a weekly tip on the CLC home page to address issues or questions that may be of interest to CLC students and users. Tips are archived in the Tips Archive.

Contact. Send suggested tips or questions you would like to see addressed in the Tip of the Week to the Tip Master, Mary Lou.

We send out periodic emails to students and users about CLC activities, including class schedules and updates and users' group activities. Use the buttons below to do one of the following:

• Sign Up. Fill out a sign-up form for the email list. (We will use your info only to send out email notices about the CLC.)
• Change. Change the email address used for CLC List messages to you.
• Remove. Remove your email address from the list.

There are many reference materials available to help you master any subject that has captured your interest. It is difficult to recommend books because we all have different need and styles, and there is so much to choose from. The best thing to do is wander through a bookstore and see what takes your fancy.

As you know, Portland is the bookstore capitol of the universe. Our home-grown mega-store is Powells. Powells has a wonderful technical bookstore in downtown Portland at 33 NW Park Avenue, around the corner from the main store. Be careful, though. Some of us have been known to pass through a time warp when entering the store. Thirty minutes inside corresponds to an hour and a half in the real world, as the parking patrol well knows.

Whatever store and book you choose, check it out before you buy. Is it readable? Does the content meet your needs? Some computer books include a cd. Look for that extra resource.

We have enjoyed Peachpit Press computer books. Look for their Little PC Book, Windows XP Edition.

The O'Reilly series is also reputable. You might look at Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual. Again, check the book to make sure it is not too hard or too easy.

If you are a rank beginner, take a look at the Easy series, published by Que. For example, Easy Windows XP Home Edition. Lots of pictures and basic, step by step instructions.

You can find other online bookstores by enter "Bookstore" in your search engine. My Google search for "online bookstore" produced 4,380,000 results, so you might want to think of some additional qualifying factors. Also remember the little guys. They have to make a living too. Or, even though you are on the internet, you could shop local and keep the money in Oregon. You can find a local bookstore in you yellow pages, or look online at www.portland.citysearch.com.

Also, you could wander over to the Lake Oswego library at Fourth and D and check out what they have. You can also peruse their catalog online at the Library Information Network of Clackamas County (LINCC) or you can look at the Library page of the City of LO site

• Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email CAUCE
• ComputerTim.com. See the Featured Articles on ComputerTim.com
• Elder Geek. http://theeldergeek.com/ lots of information about Windows XP®
• Florida Gulf Coast University. MS Office Tutorials on the web site
• Help-site.com. Links to lots of documents about WindowsXP (which is a trademark of Microsoft) on help-site.com
• Indiana University Knowledge Base.
  • Lots of information here. Good general definitions. Some information is old though.
• Internet101. Terminology Lots of other basic information as well. Start out on their home page.
• Learnthenet.com How Tos on the learnthenet site
• Open Directory Project. “The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.”
• Pacman's Portal. Learn all about system start-up. What is running and why it is slowing your system down. Kind of a sweet site called Pacman's Portal
• PC Fearfactor site. Companion piece to the PC Fearfactor book. Take a look at Disaster Prevention.
• PC World. Browse around the PC World web site. There are lots of ads, but also some useful or fun information.
• Whatis.com. Definitions and explanations on whatis.com
• World Wide Web Consortium. Go to the Source w3.org

• W3C HTML
  • Home Page
  • Getting Started with HTML
• Elements
• Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction
  • Tutorial

• Test your internet connection bandwidth with CNET's bandwidth meter. Click here to go to the CNET site:
• PCPitstop Bandwidth test

• www.hevanet.com (local) [member recommended*]
• www.earthlink.net
• www.verizon.net
• www.juno.com
• www.aol.com
• www.msn.com
• www.comcast.net
• www.netzero.net
• www.phreego.com [member recommended*]
• lots more

• Registry Cleaners/Utilities
  • Reviews
  • Systweak Advanced System Optimizer
  • V-Com Fix-It Utilities
• Tests
  • pcpitstop.com
• Driver update resource. http://www.driverguide.com/

• CNET Tech news
• CAUCE Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
• ZDNet
• TechRepublic
• Newsletters
  • Windows Secrets newsletter You can subscribe for free or make a small donation to get access to more stuff from this site.
    • Anti-adware misses most malware (Jan 27, 2005 free issue)
    • Lock attackers out of your pc (June 3, 2004 free issue)
    • Index to past free issues
  • PC Pitstop Newsletter create an account and sign up for the PCPitstop newsletter
• News about Service Pack 3
  • Get a CD from the CLC (see Complimentary CDs above)
  • Info from Microsoft
  • Also see Research/Resources below

• CNET
• ZDNet
• PCWorld
• PC Magazine

Security has become a vital issue for computer users. The following links provide information about this issue from various sources. See Security Software below for links to specific programs designed to protect your system.

At the very least, you should do the following to keep your Windows XP system secure.

1. Protect from pests and ads loaded onto your computer without your knowledge or consent: (see pests and ads above)

2. Install a third party firewall that provides two way protection. (see Security Software: Firewall below)

3. Install and automatically update an anti-virus program (see Security Software: Anti-virus below)

4. Keep your software updated by turning on the automatic update function. (See Windows Update below)

• Computer Security definitions on computerhope.com
• Virus/Spam Hoax Information
  • CIAC HoaxBusters (Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability)
    • Virus information on this web site is intended for professionals. However, the Hoax page is interesting and easy to understand. You should check here before you act on any virus/spam warning received on your computer, even from trusted friends. We have all been tricked at one time or another.
  • About Urban Legends. Find out about the urban legends that circulate on the internet
  • Snopes.com This link connects to specific info about a credit card scam but the site also contains lots of other info about scams and hoaxes. The site home page is located here.
• The web page for your security software company are also a good resource for information. For example:
  • Trend Micro Scams and Hoaxes
  • Symantec Viruses and Risks
  • McAfee Virus Information
  • FSecure Security Info
• Spam warning signs from Symantec
• CAUCE Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
• Indiana University Knowledge Base.
• See what Microsoft has to say on its Security home page.
• Security is the focus of the lockdown.co.uk site
• The Symantec (Norton) security response page has information about the latest virus threats.
• Anonymizer.com. Information about online privacy as well as products for sale
• Safe Computing information from Trend Micro
• GetNetWise is a public service brought to you by Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations to help ensure that Internet users have safe, constructive, and educational or entertaining online experiences. (text from the GetNetWise web site.)
• Dell computers has added a page dedicated to computer security
• Email Scams. An email scam circulating around the country pretends to be a bank confirming your account information. The message will include a link that looks like it will send you to the bank website. This is a fraud. Internet criminals are trying to get you to provide them with your account information. Do not respond to such an email. Call you bank on the next business day and ask if they sent the email.
• Telephone scams. Do not give out credit card information over the phone without first confirming the identity of the inquirer. Many web sites have info about this type of scam. Here is a place to start at Snopes.com

• See also Spyware and Spam
• Security Suites. For price and ease-of-use reasons, security experts recommend that consumers select a security suite (bundled package of security products from the same company) rather than a firewall, antivirus program and antispyware program from different companies. Security Suites are reviewed periodically and you would be well served to check out those reviews when you are in the market for security software. For a couple of review sites, go to the Product Reviews section of this page.
• Firewall. A firewall puts a barrier between your computer and the internet. Windows XP: Enable the Windows firewall*, and then check out other options.
  • *Enable Windows firewall: Start | Control Panel | Network Connections. Right click on your connection, select Advanced, and check the Internet Connection Firewall box. Note that the firewall is automatically enabled when you load SP2
• Free Firewall Zone Alarm (firewall)[member recommended*]
• Most Internet Security products now include a firewall component
• Free Virus/Security Scans
  • Kaspersky Lab
  • McAfee
  • PCPitstop
  • Symantec (Norton)
  • Computer Associates
  • Trend Micro
• AntiVirus Software and Security Suites
  • Review
• Free Active Virus Shield fron AOL
• Free AntiVir [member recommended*]
• Free AVG (Grisoft) [member recommended*]
• McAfee
• Zone Alarm Security Suite 6 [highly rated]
• Symantec
• F.Secure
• Computer Associates
• Trend Micro [member recommended*]
• Malware Protection
  • Haute Secure
  • PREVX [member recommended*]
• Software Inspection
  • Secunia Personal Software Inspector
• Secure File Delete
  • File shredder
• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
  Download the analyzer from the Microsoft site and run a security analysis of your system.

• Open Office. Openoffice.org. Text documents, drawing, spreadsheets, presentations, html. Open source and free. Get a complimentary installation cd at the CLC.
• WordPerfect Officefrom Corel Corporation
• Firefox Browser. A Mozilla product -click on button below
  • Plug-ins. You will also need some plug-ins that allow websites to provide content through your browser. Plug-ins are necessary to view many web pages. Here is a link to the Firefox plug-ins page with more info and links to files you may need, such as Java by Sun Microsystems. Some CLC users have reported that they abandoned Firefox because it "didn't work". Loading the plugs-ins on the above page will fix the problem.
  • Here is a quote from the Firefox help file explaining plug-ins.
    "Plug-ins are helper applications that extend functionality within Firefox and run within it. Plug-ins like Sun Java, Macromedia Flash, and RealNetworks RealPlayer allow Firefox to show multimedia files and run small applications such as movies, animations, and games."
• Opera Browser

• Netscape Browser (includes Netscape Mail as well)
• Thunderbird email (click on button below) , alternative to Outlook Express (a Mozilla product)

Spam is a term applied to unsolicited commercial email and unsolicited bulk email. See a complete definition on the Indiana University site.

Spam Filters. Spam is a difficult problem to control because any automated filter you install or that is used by your internet service provider will inevitably filter out an email that you wanted to receive. Most filters will give you the ability to direct filtered messages to a folder you create (or that is created by your isp). You should check the folder periodically to make sure you haven't lost anything.

Your Internet Service Provider. It is best to check with your internet service provider and find out what they are doing about spam. Some providers have the option to allow messages only from people already in your address book. This is no guarantee, however. Malicious software can harvest address books from unprotected computers and send infected messages to all the addresses in the book.

Avoid contributing to the spam database. We can all help a little to avoid contributing our friends' email addresses to the spam database. When you receive a message that was sent to several people (including you) do not simply forward it on to a different group of friends. Take a look at the message and notice that the previous recipients are all included in the message. When you forward such an email you share all of those email addresses as well as the addresses of all the recipients you include in the forward. As this message progresses around the world more and more emails are added to the message. Eventually, a spammer is going to gain access to the message and all the email addresses it contains. This is a disservice to your friends and to all the other people you may never have met whose addresses get carried along with the message.

If you think the message will be of interest to others, copy the interesting part and paste it into a new message window. This separates the text of the message from all the email addresses. This isn't all you can do, however.

After you copy the text into a new message window, consider how you will address this message. If you put your friends' email addresses in to To field, you are just starting the problem all over again. Instead, put the addresses of your recipients in the "bcc" field. (This means blind carbon copy, from the old paper mail days when you would send a copy of the letter to a third person and not reveal that to the recipient.) If your email client will allow it, leave the To field blank. When sent, it will show "undisclosed recipients" in that field. If your program will not allow that, you can send it to a fake email such as undisclosed@recipients.com. You will receive a "Mail Delivery Failed" message on that address. Just delete that and go on your merry way.

• Learnthat Windows XP
• TechTutorials
• MS Office Tutorials on the Florida Gulf Coast University web site

• Senselang typing tutor
• Typing Master demo version
• Type Faster typing tutor

Windows Service Pack 2 adds some tools to Internet Explorer that you should examine.

• In IE, click Tools | Internet Options.
• Click the Privacy Tab
• Settings: Click on the Sites button to customize the acceptance of cookies. You can add sites to always allow or always block. You may need to do this for certain sites that need cookies to provide a service but are blocked by the default cookie setting.
• Pop-up Blocker: Check the box to block pop-ups. Click the settings button to customize pop-up blocker to allow pop-ups on specific sites as you desire.

See News about Computers and the Internet above for links to info about SP2.

Windows Easy Transfer Companion enables you to automatically transfer your most important programs from your Windows XP-based PC to your new Windows Vista-based PC. The software will move more than 100 of the most popular programs, as well as many others that you may have installed. You have complete control over selecting which programs to transfer, so only the programs you care about will move. The software will alert you if some programs may not be able to transfer, or may not transfer with high confidence. Most security software is not able to transfer due to technical reasons.

Easy Transfer Companion is designed to be used in addition to Windows Easy Transfer-which is part of Windows Vista and automatically transfers your data and settings. Connecting your two computers can be done with either an Easy Transfer Cable (available online, from retailers, and from PC manufacturers), or a home or small business network. If using an Easy Transfer Cable, you must first install Windows Easy Transfer on your Windows XP-based PC. By using Easy Transfer and Easy Transfer Companion you will be able to quickly and easily setup your new PC with all the data, settings, and programs that matter to you, so you can be productive on your new PC right away.

Easy Transfer Companion only transfers programs from a Windows XP-based PC to a Windows Vista-based PC. Easy Transfer Companion is currently in Beta, and only available for the US market.

Too many items running in the background can be a cause of system slow-down. Also, some programs may not be running for your benefit, so it is a good idea to investigate what is running on your system and remove those unnecessary and possibly invasive files and programs. Here are some resources to help understand and solve possible windows startup problems.

• Pac-man's Portal Startup Page
• Startup Inspector Web Page (includes downloadable program)
• Sysinfo.org (very detailed info on possible startup files

To see what is running at startup, use the Windows System Configuration Utility (msconfig). Click Start | Run. Type "msconfig" in the box and press Enter. Select the Startup tab so see the list. Use one of the resources immediately above to learn more about each entry and detemine whether it can safely be disabled.

Some programs run at startup because shortcuts are placed in the Startup Folder. You can examine the Startup folder using Windows Explorer. Right-click on the Start Button and select Explore. Explorer will open at the Start Menu folder for your profile. Click the plus next to the folder name, then click the plus next to Programs to reveal the Startup folder. Click on the Startup folder to view its contents.

Services. Many Windows Services are directed to run at Startup. You can control windows services with Start | Run | services.msc. You can find information about services at:

• Black Viper
• The Elder Geek
  

• Update History

  In a recent Users' Group meeting, someone was asking how to figure out what Windows Updates have already been loaded on your computer. This report is one of the features of the Windows Update page. Follow this link to the Windows Update site. www.windowsupdate.com. The site will check your system for the latest version of Windows Update software and then the windows update screen will appear. In the left column you will see a list of options, one of which is View Installation History. Click on that option and your update history will be displayed.

• Automatic Updates

Windows Update is automatically turned on by Service Pack 2. Do not turn it off.

If you do not have service pace 2 loaded you can set your xp system to load and install updates automatically as follows:

• Click Start
• Select Control Panel from the right column on the Start Menu
• If you find a Windows Update icon on the Control Panel, open it and select the Automatic option
• If there is no Windows Update icon on your Control Panel, open the System icon and click on the Automatic Updates tab and select the Automatic option

If you cannot find it in either place, open Help and Support (or just help in pre XP windows) and type Windows Update in the box. Instructions should appear.

If you are still having problems, come to a CLC Users' Group meeting and ask the question there.

1.  For Mac users who would like to learn about the new OS X operating system, there is help available:

a. You can go on-line at www.apple.com/retail/washingtonsquare/  to view the free classes available at the Washington Square Mall.  The store is two doors to the right of Sees Candy Store.  The Store has every device to warm the hearts of not only Mac users but also PC users who want to see computing at its finest.  There are Mac users to answer every question you might want to ask.  You can buy a computer, but there is no pressure to buy.

b.  If you want to learn about OS X on your own, there is another option.  You can subscribe to a .Mac account for $99.00 per year and have access to software, but best of all, video tutorials which guide you through all the intricacies of Apple software and the operating system as well as set up your own personal website.  The Washington Square Store helpers will also assist you in setting up a .Mac account or you can do it on-line by yourself.

2.  Some of the problems we have experienced at the Lake Oswego Computer Center are as follows:

a.  We lack a data base of students who have used the Computer Center or have taken classes.  We need telephone numbers and email addresses so that we can contact you to see what we can do to provide programs for you.

b.  We need instructors to provide classes for you, so if you know of persons, including yourself, who would like to provide instruction on some specific aspect of a Mac please feel free to contact the Center.

c.  We need some newer equipment to provide instruction for you.  If you know of someone who would like to donate used equipment  such as G3 or G4 Desktop computer, please contact the Center and let us know.  Mac computers have a long life, and desktop computers, especially towers can be upgraded.

d.  We also need to know if you are interested in forming a Macintosh Users Group like the PC Group which  is very active at the Computer Center.  Let us know and provide us with an email address and telephone number so that we can contact you.

3.  For help in buying a new Mac computer, you can go to the Washington Square Mall and find out what you need and either buy there or go on-line and buy from MacMall, MacZones, MacConnetion, Smalldog, and Powermax.  You get the same computer at a store or on-line except for one important item.  Online stores will bargain on such things as free printers, extra ram, speakers, etc.  It is good idea to go to a Mac store with the online bargains and websites in mind so that you can challenge to stores to bargain as well.

4. For upgrading a computer, one of the best sites is otherworldcomputing.com.  This site has high quality ram, hard drive, video cards, external firewire/usb drives, which are huge for storing photos and dvd's, as well as your own files, and software, and superdrives. The advantage of an external drive is that it stays with you if you buy a new computer.