The AI Help Desk Archives

Q: I have two computers but only one printer. Is there a way to connect the printer to both ?

A: If the computers are networked together, enable printer sharing on the computer with the printer. This is done under the Network icon in the Control Panel.

Then, install the networked printer you created above on the second computer. You do this from the Printers folder in My Computer (XP users, head to the Control Panel). Just click "install Printer" and when asked, tell it you're installing a network printer. There's a handy little wizard to guide you through the process (it's actually very easy). That should get you printing.

The only potential problem I can see is if the printer is not able to be used on a network. Most can be, but there are some that will refuse to run.

OK, but what if the computers aren't networked together?

If they're not networked, you still have an option. Most computer stores sell a switch box device that can be used to connect a single printer to several computers. Although this doesn't work every time (some printers are funny about switchboxes), most of the time it does the trick. You should be able to get these switch boxes for under $30.00.

A word of caution - you may want to check your printer documentation to make sure that the switch box is safe for the printer in question. I've never really seen a problem with using a switchbox, but it never hurts to check.

Q: My Internet Explorer homepage is wrong. I don't know how it got switched, but now my normal homepage is gone and I have this new one in its place. How can I get my old one back?

A: Actually, it's very easy - assuming you know what the address was to your original homepage. Open Explorer and head to your old homepage. Once there, click the Tools menu, Internet Options. A tabbed screen will pop up with the General tab selected. Click the "Use Current" button and that should switch your homepage back.

This seems to happen a lot, usually due to an underhanded tactic of some unscrupulous site. What they do is put a line of code in the web page that generates a pop up box asking you if you want to set their site for your homepage.

In order to actually get you to say yes, they'll put some kind of message in that same box to "trick" you into saying yes to them - hoping you'll miss the part about getting your homepage switched. So, be sure to read carefully.

One last thing - if you really like your current homepage, place it in your Favorites folder. That way, should your homepage accidentally get changed, at least you'll be able to get back to it easily. Sometimes a custom homepage URL can be long and complicated, so this is a good way to "back up" your homepage.

Oh, and speaking of backups...

First, what exactly does it mean to "backup" your files?

To backup simply means to copy files to another disk. This can be in the form of using a program designed to do backups or just doing a straight copy from your computer to a floppy (probably a lot more than one floppy), a zip disk, or CD-RW.

For a zip disk, just copy and paste the files you want to save onto the disk. For a CD-R or CD-RW, use your CD burning software. (Note that most CD burning software and Zip drives come with some kind of backup utility you can use if you like).

If all your files will fit on a single CD or Zip disk, then you're in good shape just copying your files straight to it. If your files are too large, you're probably better off using a backup utility, since they can "split" your files up automatically and most can even compress them.

That's really all there is to it. You just take the files you want to be sure to save and copy them to a disk or CD.

Source: Computer Tips & Techniques
http://www.worldstart.com
Copyright 2001, Worldstart - Reprinted with permission.

NEWS AND LINKS

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49581,00.html - Internet users fight back against Spam.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20020401/tc_usatoday/3986493 - Millions of free email users soon may pay fees.

http://www.fotofixit.com/ - Get those old photographs restored for free.

http://www.freecartridges.com/ - Buy one - get one free (plus free shipping).

http://www.sealtexstainprotection.com/Stain%20Removal%20Guide.htm - The ultimate stain removal guide.

Until next week,

"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best." -Henry Van Dyke

Q: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "BOOKMARKS" AND "FAVORITES"?

A: Not much. "Bookmarks" are Netscape's term for what are essentially internet shortcuts. "Favorites" are MS Internet Explorer's term for them. They both work the same way. When you're on a page you want to get back to, you click the Favorites or Bookmarks menu (depending on the browser) and usually you'll find an option to add the page to your favorites / bookmarks. Click that, add the page, and it appears on your favorites or bookmarks menu. FAVORITE FUN

If you use Internet Explorer, you know that your favorites can sometimes get out of hand. Well, here are a few tips and tricks you'll appreciate (note that some of these tips will not work with older versions of Internet Explorer):

1. To put your favorites in alphabetical order, right-click any favorite and select "Sort by name" from the resulting menu. All the favorites in that folder will be sorted alphabetically.

2. If you have tons of favorites, you should probably put them in groups using folders. For example, if you love tomato plants, and have bookmarked all 12 internet sites that feature them, you can put all of these favorites into a folder. To create a new folder, click your Favorites menu and select Organize Favorites. A screen will open that lets you create new folders, as well as move around your favorites.

OR

You can do the same thing by right-clicking your Start button, Explore. That should open Windows Explorer with focus on the Windows directory. If you're using XP, it will put focus on your personal directory (this tip works the same either way) Next, open the Favorites folder. Now, right-click the right-hand pane and select New, Folder from the resulting menu. Name the folder and hit Enter. Now just drag & drop the favorites that belong in that folder straight to it. Seems like this would be quicker to me.

3. If you would like to rename one of your favorites, (you know, the one that just says "homepage" or "Untitled document") to something slightly more descriptive, you can do so from that same Organize Favorites screen we mentioned earlier. Open up the Organize favorites screen again, select the favorite you would like to rename, and click the "Rename" button. If you're not sure what the favorite is for, when you click it you'll see that you get a little info in the box on the left, including the URL. If that still doesn't help, double-click the link and Explorer will open the link for you.

MORE FAVORITE FUN

1. To find out how often you access a particular site, right-click the favorite in question and select Properties. The Web Document tab should be selected. You'll see a little "Visits" item that shows the number of times you've stopped by the site in question.

2. Have you ever clicked a site, only to find that you get re-directed to a new page? Well, copy the new URL, right-click the favorite in question, and select Properties. Delete the old URL and paste in the new one. Hit OK and you're done.

3. Notice on that same screen you can assign a shortcut key. Just click your mouse in the "Shortcut key" box (click the word "none") and hit the key you would like to use. Then click OK. To use your new shortcut key, just hold down CTRL & ALT then press the key you assigned to the favorite. You don't even need to have Internet Explorer open for this to work.

4. Finally, if you want to see when the last time you accessed a page was, right-click the favorite in question and select Properties from the resulting menu. Click on the General tab to see information on last access, date created, and more. Oh, and you can also re-name your favorite from this screen too if you like.

Whew, that's about it. You should be an expert on favorites now!

Q: WHAT ARE PDF FILES?

A: If you've been using the internet for any amount of time, you've probably run across these little buggers. They're an Adobe Acrobat file. Normally, you download them and use Adobe Acrobat Reader to read them. You can get Adobe Acrobat Reader for free at Adobe's web site:
http://www.adobe.com

People use PDF files for everything. The most common use seems to be documents (both interactive and regular), but I've also seen PDF files used for maps, catalogs, presentations, and even e-books. Additionally, I've seen it used for non-web applications as well, including stuff like software help files.

Oh yeah, I had someone ask me if they can save files in a PDF format using their word processor. I think that some word processors can do this, check under the File menu and see if you can. I don't think MS Word does it, but WordPerfect may. Of course, you can always make PDF files with Adobe Acrobat ($249.00). There's also an online Adobe service that allows you to create them. You get your first month free, after that, it's $9.99 /mo. If you only need the occasional PDF file, this would may be something to check out:
https://createpdf.adobe.com/index.pl

Source: Computer Tips & Techniques
http://www.worldstart.com
Copyright 2001, Worldstart - Reprinted with permission.

LINKS

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20020411/tc_nyt/seeking_profits__internet_companies_alter_privacy_policy - Seeking profits, internet companies alter privacy policy.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cn/20020408/tc_cn/web_surfers_brace_for_pop_up_downloads - Web surfers brace for pop-up downloads.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/dowjones/20020410/bs_dowjones/symantec_says_worm_attacks_e_mail__instant_messages - Symantec says work attacks E-mail, instant messages.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cn/20020410/tc_cn/fbi__auction_fraud_tops_net_scam_list - Auction fraud tops net scam list.

http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv2.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=153383&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=21135 - 50 ways to save money.

Until next week,
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart." -- Helen Keller

Hi everyone! Sorry for my absence last week, but our new family member is taking up a lot of my time. Her name is Maddie and she's getting along great with the established canine of the house, Lacy (a German Shepherd Mix). Maddie is a 13" beagle (she actually measures 12") so there is a huge difference in their size, but they have started to play together. Maddie's favorite pastimes (so far) are hiding Lacy's toys in all the corners of the house, dragging the rug out of the bathroom and burying toys in the backyard. She doesn't know her name yet, so that will be my goal for this week.

Ready for some computer tips? This week we'll talk about spam.

Q: I keep getting e-mail from people with advertisements for porn sites. How can I get off these lists?

A: Well, it's tough. There's not really a good answer to that one. I don't think anyone has a sure fire way to keep them from sending that junk to you once they get your address. That said, there are some things you can do to minimize it:

1. Never, ever, reply or respond in any way - just delete the e-mail. When you ask to be removed, all it does is tell them they have a "real" e-mail address. After all, anyone who would send out junk like that probably doesn't really care if you're angry about being on the list. Besides, most of them use a fake e-mail address, so you can't reply to it anyhow. So, don't respond to junk mail. Just delete it. (And if you visit one of these sites, either accidentally or out of curiosity, they've got you!)

2. Be careful what you sign up for and tell your friends not to sign you up for stuff. You don't want to accidentally sign up or get on a list that freely sells its subscribers to anyone who will buy (no, we don't - in case you're wondering) and they didn't inform you of this.

Unfortunately it works the same way online as it does in the real world of direct marketing. You purchase something and give your phone number away. The place you make your purchase from then sells your information and suddenly you start getting telemarketers calling constantly (especially at dinner).

So, maybe you signed up for or purchased something on the web and the company sold your e-mail address. Now your address is on a CD with millions of others that's being sold for $150.00 to whoever wants to buy it.

3. Another way to get your e-mail address on these lists is to post stuff somewhere. You post a classified ad or stick a link on a free for all links page and your address is sitting out there for the taking. There are little programs that "harvest" e-mail address from all over the net, so any time you post something, you risk getting added to a list somewhere.

Chat rooms, especially on AOL, are good targets for these e-mail harvesters too. Sometimes it's a good idea to maintain a free e-mail address for this kind of thing, so you can avoid getting lots of spam in your regular e-mail account. Check out Yahoo or Hotmail for these.

4. And finally - tell people to use BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) to forward you e-mail. Have you ever gotten something forwarded to you with hundreds of e-mail addresses in the header? If so, your e-mail address may be getting unintentionally passed all over the net. Tell people to BCC forwarded messages to you so your address isn't exposed to the world.

Filtering Your E-mail

So, you want to filter the "bad stuff" out of your e-mail huh? I don't blame you!

You can set up "message rules" or filters in most e-mail clients. These can grab an incoming message and make it history before you ever lay eyes on it. You can have the message rules set up to check for certain subject lines, e-mail addresses, or even words.

Since we've been on the subject of trying to get the porn e-mail our of our lives, I'll show you how to do that using Outlook Express. Please note that most e-mail clients work in a similar way (in Netscape, you set this up using the Edit menu, Message Filters).

Here's the steps - it's not at bad as it looks:

1. Click the Tools menu, Message Rules, Mail.

2. On the screen that pops up, click the New button (for newer versions of Outlook Express, you don't have to hit the New button - the screen you need pops up automatically).

3. At this point, there should be a screen that lets you set up your rules. Check the options you want to filter. As soon as you check them, you'll get a new item under the Rules Description section. Click the underlined area to set the actual stuff you're filtering for.

For instance, if you're trying to filter out porn e-mail, click the checkbox in the first section, "Where the message body contains specific words". Now, click the link in the Rules Description box for "Contains specific words" (this looks just like a regular web page link). On the window that opens, type in the words you want to filter. I'll leave the selection of those words to you since this is a G- rated newsletter :-)

A word of caution though. Pick your words very carefully. If you choose a word like "naked", you'll never get an e-mail that contains that word, even if it was used in a harmless way like "the naked baby streaked through the yard" or something similar. A few clicks of the OK button and you should be back to the message rules screen.

4. Now, you'll need to decide what you want done to the message once it gets filtered. This is done in the second section of the screen, "Select the actions you want to rule". In this case, you're probably best to scroll down to the Delete From Server checkbox. That should prevent it from downloading. Or you can just send it to the Deleted Items folder, that works too.

That should help you keep the porn spam out of your inbox, but keep in mind that you can also use message filters to send stuff to specific folders you create. For example, if you have 3 e-mail accounts, you can set up a filter that sends each address to a different folder. The possibilities are endless.

Source: Computer Tips & Techniques
http://www.worldstart.com
Copyright 2001, Worldstart - Reprinted with permission.

Recommended Links:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/04/btv.htm - Complaint Filed Against Internet Spammers.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020419/wr_nm/tech_privacy_dc_8 - Online privacy back in spotlight.

http://www.investigationline.com/ - Sprint's 100% owned ASC Telecom Inc. makes big money victimizing the disabled, the dyslexic, the elderly, our children, and the poor.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020424/wr_nm/column_livewire_dc_29 - Bargain hunters are hooked on the Web.

http://secure2.inetu.net/ssl/safetpet/cart.cgi?page=freesample.html - Free sample of dog or cat food.

http://www.herbalessencescolor.com/ - Free hair color from Clairol.

http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/index.html?1.8b - Download "Easy Thumbnails" (freeware) to manage and organize your digital photos.

Until next week,
If you see people without a smile today, give them one of yours! :)

Q: What is BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)?

A: BCC lets you send messages to multiple recipients without revealing the address of each person to the entire list. If you BCC someone, they get a copy, but it looks to them like they were the only one who received that copy.

You can access this feature by using the address book in Outlook Express. Most other e-mail programs work in a similar way. Oh, if you want to BCC without the address book in Outlook Express, you can do so from the send message screen by hitting the View menu, Show all headers. Your BCC field should now be visible.

Skip The Recycle Bin

Every now and then you need to really delete a file. Right now. Well, most people delete the thing, then go to the recycle bin and remove it from there. It works, but there's a better way. Next time your 100% sure, without a doubt, for certain, that you want to delete a file, hold your Shift key down while you delete. The file will be deleted - skipping the Recycle Bin completely.

Who knew you could wield such power with such a simple key?

Quick Stops:

Have you ever clicked the wrong link while you were browsing? Don't you just hate that? You frantically try to get your mouse up to the Stop button before you end up at the wrong page, but you don't always make it. So, here's a few suggestions:

If you've clicked the wrong link and still have that left mouse button pressed down, just drag your pointer off the link to a blank spot and release. No harm done.

But what if you've already clicked the link and you're off to the wrong page? Is there any hope?

Yup, just hit your Escape key. That will stop your browser in it's tracks - it's also a good way to stop an onslaught of pop up windows.

What's new in cyberspace:

Consumer data findings on Worldcom

Dell's service has slipped, but company is working on it

Spam bill is bound for the Senate floor

Wearable chips - put on your dancin' shirt

Ten ways to shop online

Some truly amazing photos of 9/11 - Crystal clear photography by a NYC resident

Until next week,
"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." -- Anon.

Happy Mother's Day!