Steve's Computer Resources

In 2005, we all know how important antivirus software is, but that's not enough anymore.

Here are some free ways to protect a Windows PC against security threats.

1. Get the latest security patches from Microsoft. For the operating system itself, visit Windows Update at windowsupdate.microsoft.com. After the site downloads an applet to your machine, it will scan the software you have and let you know what security patches are available. After you're done with Windows Update, you can try Office Update at office.microsoft.com/productupdates to get fixes for Microsoft Office if you're running that.
2. Now at least you're safe from the known (and fixed) Microsoft bugs, but that's not enough. While you're online, your computer may be vulnerable to people who want to break in. You can fortify your computer against break ins with a firewall program. A pretty good one that's free for personal use is Zone Alarm, available from www.zonelabs.com. After you install it, it will protect you from outside threats as well as from the programs that are already on your machine. The first time you use a program after the installation, Zone Alarm will ask you whether it's OK for the program to talk to the Internet. You will now know if any application is doing any unexpected communication.
3. The last threat we'll address is calls "spyware." Spyware hides behind a legitimate application or website and tracks information about you or about what you do on the web. This can take the form of special applications or even Internet "cookies" left by one site to tell others what you're up to (a company called "Doubleclick" is the worst offender here). A free solution to this problem is Ad-aware by Lavasoft. You can download it and get more information on spyware from http://www.lavasoft.nu. Ad-aware will scan your system for spyware and delete it for you if you like, along with all of those Doubleclick cookies. You can set it up to scan when you start up your system, which makes it almost effortless.

I hope you find these tips helpful!

-Steve

Computer Information

Tips, Advice, and News

• CNET - provides reviews and the best prices for many computer and consumer electronics products
• ZDNet - on-line computer magazine site with reviews of hardware and software, new, how-to tips, etc. (Also see their subsidiaries PC Magazine and Macworld for Macintosh users. For hardcore techies, there's also ExtremeTech.com)
• PC World Magazine - same kinds of stuff as above - somewhat more user-oriented.
• Jeff Levy's Windows lessons - learn to do cool things on computers running Microsoft Windows.
• For general computer nerd news, see ExtremeTech.com.
• For hard-core software types, see slash-dot news.
• For hard-core hardware types, see Tom's Hardware site.
• Interested in Linux, a free operating system that replaces Microsoft Windows?  See Linux.org for more information

Web Tools

• Search the web with google.com - faster, better, fewer ads
• Maps at maps.yahoo.com - Get street maps and driving directions
• Stock and mutual fund quotes at quote.yahoo.com
• See my church and theology page for Bible study, theological, and devotional resources.

Setting Up Your Own Website

You can have your own website for no money at all!  The address will be something like mysite.tripod.com or www.geocities.com/mysite, but hey, it's free!

• Tripod.com - If you don't mind some advertising on your page, this isn't bad.  They give you lots of space and some helpful tools.  Still, some of the ads are a bit obnoxious (e.g., "See what the stars are wearing or not wearing," "How to meet a hottie," etc.)
• Yahoo - Geocities - Simple site.  The ads are still here, but they don't seem quite as bad,  They ask you what kind of site you have and target the ads to it, which seems to help.
• Your Internet Service Provider (ISP): Many ISPs provide free web hosting for a small site. AOL does and so do WorldNet and Earthlink. I expect that others do as well. Check with your ISP.

To get something like www.mysite.com, you need to register a domain name.  You can pay an annual fee to have someone send your domain name (www.mysite.com) to your real site (like www.geocities.com/mysite).  You can also get e-mail at your domain (sometimes for extra cost).

• My www.WhitneyHQ.com, www.TrinityWestSac.org, www.NatomasFamilyChurch.com sites and Eleanor's www.PintSizedPicassos.com are hosted at dreamhost.com for $7.95/month you can get 4800 MB of space and 600 e-mail accounts. You can even run a blog or do streaming media. The customer service and uptime have been excellent. If you use the promotional code DREAMSAVE20 when you sign up, you can save $20 on one or two years' hosting paid in advance.

Church Web Presence

• A useful tutorial on how to create a web page for your church
• You can have more than one web address. Our church (Trinity Presbyterian Church) had www.trinitywestsac.org and also www.trinitywestsac.com in case people type the wrong top-level domain. Then for a while, we were on page 14 of the web search results for West Sacramento Church so we registered www.westsacramentochurch.com. We also want to do outreach to an area of Sacramento called Natomas so we registered NatomasFamilyChurch.com to help people looking for family-friendly churches in Natomas find us. You can do that kind of stuff. (We even registered cowchurch.com for a promotion.)
• Also note that you can use capital letters to make your web address more readable. We use www.TrinityWestSac.org, www.WestSacramentoChurch.com or www.NatomasFamilyChurch.com. The standard is not case sensitive so capital- and lower-case letters don't matter. You could get to our site from www.WhITNeYhQ.cOm if you wanted - though it would not be particularly helpful.

Web Design Resources

There are tons of sites for this on the web.  If you host a site with a free service, they'll have tools for you.  If you use something like AOL or Earthlink, they'll have tools for you, but in case you want more (or more advanced) resources, check out these.

• Web site usability is really important. Check out usability expert Jakob Nielsen's Home Page (useit.com) for some great web design tips - especially note his tips on homepage design.
• WebMonkey has lots of advice for people at different levels. (For nice design tips, including usability advice, check out their "site building" section.)
• W3C - the Worldwide web consortium - Some of this is a bit technical, but they're the authority on what HTML, DHTML, CSS, XML, XHTML, and more alphabet soup.  If you don't know what any of these are, maybe skip it for now.
• Some more basic HTML (but still code) is available from Getting Started with HTML by Dave Raggett.
• You can also learn about the open tool PHP for creating dynamically generated pages at PHP.net.
• But the easiest way to design a web page is to use a tool built for the job!  You can use the ones provided by your web site host or else something like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage (which are both available in a much cheaper academic edition for students and teachers at college bookstores). Even Microsoft Word (Word 97 and later) can "Save as Web Page" so you can use a tool you already know to design a web page.