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Andorra Computer Club
YouSendIt is a free service which lets you send large attachments by email easily and safely. The recipient receives a link to the file which can be downloaded or viewed on the YouSendIt server. This is great if you are sending to someone on dialup or someone travelling who might not want to get big files. Your files are also scanned for viruses. There is a simple facility for sending whole albums of photos as well. The service also means you can send to multiple recipients without uploading the large file multiple times if you are on a slow server. A similar free service is offered by dropload.com.
Belarc Advisor is a free program which inventories all of the programs and hardware on your computer. I highly recommend using this program to create a report on your currently healthy computer and printing it out. When things go wrong, this report will help you or someone assisting you to identify what has changed from when the computer was working properly as well as providing answers to questions about what you have installed and other technical details about your system.
Brian Keep has recorded some interesting Friday Meat lectures. If you missed the talk, you can download the recording by right-clicking the link and choosing Save Target As from the menu. Once you have downloaded the file, double-click it to listen to it.
Microsoft has an excellent web site with clearly written information on how to secure your computer. Check it out. Start with the First Three Steps. Then try the new Anti-Spyware tool from Microsoft. Also highly recommended is the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool.
Find everything on your computer with Google’s new Desktop Search. When you search on Google, you will find things on your own computer as well as on the web. Including your emails and pages you viewed last week that are still in the cache. Highly recommended. Page Contents
The web is constantly evolving and free services come and go.
If you find any of these links broken, or would like to recommend other free services, please
contact me.
Online virus checkers: All of these are good and any one will scan your hard drive. Because virus definitions change regularly it is not a bad idea to scan often. For extra protection use a different scanner each time. BitDefender does a particularly good job of scanning your email files. McAfee Stinger quickly removes the 40 most common viruses. Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool quickly checks for the 8 most common viruses and trojans. AVG Virus Checker is free and highly recommended for checking incoming emails as well as your system. Firewall Security Check: Click on the link to ShieldsUp, then scroll down and click on ShieldsUp again.Wait for page to load completely (watch bar at bottom of window) and you will find out if your computer is identifiable by reverse DNS. Then click Proceed. Click on the buttons: File Sharing and Common Ports to see whether your computer is accessible to evil netizens. If you do not have a firewall built in to your modem or router, you may want to use the free version of Zone Alarm or the free Agnitum Outpost Firewall. Internet Connection Test:
Reading email using the web: When you are in an Internet Cafe or using someone else's computer, you can use a web based email client to read your email without having to change the configuration of the other computer. You will need to enter your email address and the password used to retrieve your POP3 mail. These services are also useful to delete huge messages that are blocking your access to the rest of the mail when you are on a slow connection. Sending email when there is a problem with the STA server: When the STA smtp server is not working, or if your email to a recipient is returned due to the STA server being blacklisted, there are two solutions: You can send your message from the web using Mail2Web. You will have to register with the service in order to use it to send mail. The text from your failed email can be copied and pasted into the browser form. Files can also be attached. You can send yourself a copy for your records. Another solution is to use an SMTP server which runs on your own computer. This requires changing the smtp server setup in your email program to "localhost" and running the server software before sending the email. Messages can then be sent directly to the recipient using Outlook Express (or your usual email program) without going through the STA. For Outlook Express, select Tools | Accounts. Double click the desired account and select Servers. Change the Outgoing mail (SMTP) box to "localhost". When the STA server is running again, you can change the setting back to correu.andorra.ad.Another approach is to set up a separate account in Outlook Express to use when the STA server is down or when travelling with a laptop. Spyware Removal Spyware is installed on your computer when you visit certain web sites. It results in popup ads and targeted ads based on the web sites you visit. Spyware can also slow down your computer and your perceived internet connection speed. The following tools are recommended for discovering and removing spyware. They will also discover and identify some common viruses. Beware of anti-spyware tools that contain their own nightmares, such as spyware, adware, and other ills. Check the SpywareWarrior List before trying any program not listed above. Two programs from Merijn.org are also useful to discover what is running on your computer without your knowledge. StartupList and HijackThis will give information about all programs and services that start with your boot. Some of these will slow down your computer, be spyware, or at the very least make your boot time longer. HijackThis will also create a log file which can be sent to helpful experts when you don't know what is normal and what is a problem.
Restoring Deleted Files and lost photos on memory cards: What do you do if you accidentally delete a file from your system? First, look in the Recycle Bin. If you deleted it normally, and not too long ago, it is probably still there. If it is not in the recycle bin, there is a good chance that the data (or some of it) is still on your hard drive. Refrain from using doing anything on the computer with that disk installed until you have recovered the lost files! If possible, remove the drive and only use it as a second drive in combination with one of the 3 tools listed below. Download Restoration.zip to a second drive or floppy, unzip it and run the exe to find files that are deleted but still available for recovery to the second drive. The reason to use a second drive is to avoid writing over the deleted data which the drive thinks is available space. Even better, use another computer if one is available.
If you accidentally delete a photo or reformat the card in your camera, the photos may be recoverable. Download PhotoRescue.zip and install the program. It will show you what it can restore. Registration required for actual restoration. Macintosh users download PhotoRescue.sit.
Language Help:
Translation between English and many other languages (but not Catalan): Driving Directions: If you know where you want to go, Michelin will tell you how to get there, how long it will take, and how much you will pay in tolls. If you want to skip the toll roads, you can view the cheapest route and see how much longer it will take.
Yahoo Group The Andorra Yahoo Group has a searchable archive of all the
messages sent to the email reflector since 2000.
Only members with a Yahoo ID can access the archives.
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Web based applications allow you to view or create Microsoft Office compatible documents
without Word or Excel.