INews Newsletter - Feb 04, 2003
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A publication of Internet Nebraska, composed and distributed by
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Volume 6, Number 1 February 4, 2003
Welcome to another issue of INews. This newsletter communicates service
bulletins, announcements, and other useful information to our customers.
Please let us know what you think of it. Archives of INews are located at
http://www.inebraska.com/inews
In this issue: Spam, Spam, Spam. And Spam.
Latest and Greatest Mac Internet Utilities
$5! Mmm. Yummy.
Getting Just the FAQs on Computer Gaming Tips
Quick Look at Parental Controls for the Web
Expanding your Software Utilizes for Web Enjoyment
Reviewing A New Peer to Peer Software
Mr. Internet
*** MailAgent and Postini, Powerful Anti Spam Tools ***
Internet Nebraska wants to keep your e-mail experience safe and happy. We
have a few simple solutions for your inbox if you are already "under
attack."
Easy Solution #1 - MailAgent
Cost: Only $1.00 per month!
The first commercial option offered by Internet Nebraska, MailAgent, offers
superior protection for users that want a nearly foolproof way to keep
their mailboxes clean. While Postini's MailFilter blocks messages on the
basis of suspicious content, MailAgent temporarily blocks messages sent
from unknown addresses. Rather than flatly refusing messages, MailAgent
maintains a list of senders that are not just mindless bulk-mailers. This
list can be set up manually by the user, but you aren't required to do so
-- this is the beauty of MailAgent!
We encourage you to test this technology out. Send a test message to the
following address: tmdatest@inebraska.com. This message can be blank if
you want, and the subject is not important. You'll immediately receive a
response from MailAgent that says: "Please confirm your message." This is
what your friends, families, or business associates would receive. They
simply reply with a blank message, and they're forever free to mail you
without going through this process.
Imagine all the people who might send you messages...
-- If it's some worthless advertisement, you don't have to waste your time
deleting it. If it's an obscene bulk mailing, it won't make it into your
mailbox, and your children are safe from objectionable content. This makes
MailAgent an ideal choice for your kids' e-mail accounts.
-- If an old high school friend looks you up on the Internet to say
"Hello," all he or she has to do is follow the directions in the MailAgent
response to get onto your list of permanently accepted senders.
Another favorable element of the MailAgent system is that it is all
installed locally at Internet Nebraska -- there's no possibility of having
to wait for another company to bring their services back online.
-- Visit IN's MailAgent Information Page at
http://www.inebraska.com/mailagent/
Easy Solution #2 - MailFilter (aka Postini)
Cost: Only $1.00 per month!
The second of the e-mail protection services offered by Internet Nebraska
is known as the Postini MailFilter. Postini is a service resold by
Internet Nebraska that "catches" anything that looks suspicious before it
ever reaches your IN mailbox.
Another benefit of the Postini MailFilter is the automatic e-mail virus
protection built into the service. Though it is meant merely to supplement
home computer virus-protection software (such as Norton or McAfee
Anti-Virus), a little extra security might not be a bad idea!
Postini's service also has the ability to filter out certain kinds of
content more aggressively than others. If, for example, you have been
receiving offensive e-mails from websites offering explicit content or
racially insensitive material, you can set your Message Center to filter
that kind of mail more aggressively while leaving the protection for other
types set to normal strength.
-Postini Message Center, for IN users with MailFilter:
http://login.postini.com/
-IN's Postini Information Page
http://www.inebraska.com/postini/
A Last-Ditch Solution - Username Change
Cost: Free
If your budget is tight and your e-mail is growing more and more
frustrating due to the junk e-mail, Internet Nebraska can help you out free
of charge. Simply call us up and let us know that you would like to change
your username. The downside of this is that your e-mail address is
permanently changed, and anyone sending mail to you at your previous
address will receive a failure notification from our mail server. Also
note that if you choose a common name, dictionary word, or the username of
a previous user, you might still get spam from indiscriminate spammers.
*** Schaefer's TV & Appliance Center - Advertisement ***
Schaefer's is an independently owned and
operated television, appliance, and home
theater retailer in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Born out of a small corner drugstore four
decades ago, Schaefer's TV & Appliance is a
22,000 square-foot "superstore" today,
specializing in commercial/professional-grade
appliances, whole house sound systems, home
theater and central vacuum systems. The
success of Schaefer's is key to repeat
business. If a customer happens to have a
problem with a product, Schaefer's will bend
over backwards to get it solved. Our service
center is the largest in the city, and has been
voted Lincoln's #1 servicer for 10 years in a
row! A knowledgeable sales staff, express
delivery, easy financing, and our customer
service representatives are just a few of the
ways in which we at Schaefer's distinguish
ourselves from the rest. Stop by our showroom
at 48th and R in Lincoln, or call us at
and see for yourself.
-- http://www.schaeferstv.com/index2.htm
*** Latest and Greatest Mac Internet Utilities ***
If you are a Mac user, in recent years you may have felt a little left
behind by software developers. While Microsoft has released many new
exciting versions of Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Windows Media
Player, Mac users have been left with "patched" older copies of Internet
Explorer for the Mac. With the release of Apple's next-generation
operating system, Mac OS X, one of the greatest criticisms has been that
even with the "new" versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape,
Macs still do not browse as fast as their Windows XP counterparts. E-mail
was another big issue, as initially the only e-mail client available was
the much-lacking Mail included in Mac OS X.
However, in recent months Apple and other third party developers have
released some exciting new software to make the Internet a friendly place
for your OS X-enabled Mac. There are two great new apps for e-mail: the
newest version of Apple's Mail and a new Mac OS X-only version of Eudora.
For browsers, there is the latest version of Mozilla, a small but fast
browser called Chimera, and Apple's own browser, Safari.
If you have a new Macintosh running Mac OS X version 10.2 (aka "Jaguar"),
there are many new and exciting things under the hood. The first of these,
and the only one we will be concerned with today, is the newest version of
Mail. Older versions of Mail were slower, buggier, and less user-friendly
than Outlook Express. The newest version of Mail is not only easier to
use, but now sports some very advanced and innovative features.
The first is a total integration with your Mac OS Address Book, a new
application in Mac OS X version 10.2. This will allow you to use all the
contacts in your address book with the newest version of Mail. So, rather
than having all of your programs with different address books, you can use
the Address Book as a central storehouse for your contacts and their e-mail
addresses. If you have a Palm-based PDA, you can even sync that with your
Address Book.
Another interesting feature is that when typing a message to someone, if
they are included on your iChat buddy list, and are online, an icon will
appear beside their name indicating that they are online. This can save
you time, in the event someone is online and simply chatting with them is
good enough.
Finally, the most innovative feature in Mail is a junk e-mail filter built
in to the program itself. This filter will act in "learning mode" until
you feel it is ready to decide for itself what is junk and what is not.
While a very good tool, and a very innovative step from Apple, this Junk
mail filter is not 100% effective. However, when combined with a filter
such as MailAgent or Postini, which are offered by Internet Nebraska, the
junk e-mail filter could easily make your Macintosh a spam-free zone.
The other e-mail program available is Eudora. Many Eudora users were a
little unhappy when initially there was no version of Eudora available for
OS X. However, Qualcomm seems to have heard their cries and has finally
released a Mac OS X version of Eudora.
Beyond a new OS X-style user interface there are no real changes to Eudora,
and this is what many people find they like most about it. If you use
Eudora on a PC or a "classic" Mac, the OS X version simply works the same
way. In fact, this author turned his own mother loose on the new OS X
version of Eudora, and she had no problems after using the Windows version
for more than a year.
The best thing about both of these programs is that they are absolutely
free. Mail is included with Jaguar (Mac OS 10.2), which is shipping on all
new Apple machines and available as a very cost-effective upgrade for older
machines. Eudora 5.2 is available as a free download from Eudora's web
site.
More information about Eudora can be found at http://www.eudora.com . More
information about Mail can be found at
http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/mail.html .
Now, as far as browsers are concerned, the Mac developer community has been
hard at work, and now there are three greatly improved browsers available
for Mac OS X.
The first of these is Mozilla, which is an open source browser that has
been in development for the past several years. It has now reached the
point where it is a very fast and stable browser for the Mac OS X operating
system.
Mozilla boasts a huge array of features. It is very fast -- at least twice
as fast as Internet Explorer. Opening pages on your DSL or Cable
connection no longer feels sluggish.
Mozilla also has an innovative feature called tabbed browsing. Tabbed
browsing lets you have more than one webpage open in a single browers
window, and you switch between them by clicking small tabs at the top or
bottom of the window. This is a superbly useful feature for those of us
who like to quickly navigate or reference multiple sites at the same time.
A spin-off of the Mozilla project is a browser known as Chimera. Chimera
is based on Mozilla, however it has been written specifically for Mac OS X
from the ground up. What does this mean? It means that Chimera is even
faster than Mozilla, more stable, and has a more Mac user-friendly
interface than Mozilla.
Both of these browsers are available as a free download. Mozilla is
available for all versions of Mac OS X and in addition it is available for
Mac OS 8.5 and up. Chimera is a Mac OS X only product, but can be used
with any version of Mac OS X. Mozilla can be found at
http://www.mozilla.org . Chimera can be found at
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/chimera .
We have, however, saved the best for last. In January, Apple CEO Steve
Jobs introduced Safari, a browser built from the ground up by Apple for OS
X. During his presentation at the MacWorld expo, Jobs lauded it as the
"turbo browser" for Mac OS X. Does it live up to his claims?
In a word: yes. Safari on a fast Macintosh is as fast or faster than
Internet Explorer on most Windows computers, and it's simply not possible
to compare other OS X browsers to this speed demon.
Safari is not just fast. Exciting new features set Safari apart from the
competition. Safari imports your Internet Explorer favorites to Safari
without hassle, to make switching hassle-free. Safari boats a Google
search bar right next to the address bar, making searching as fast and easy
as the rest of the browser. Just type in your query and go.
Finally, since Safari is still in development, Apple has included a "bug
report" tool that makes it easy to report Safari bugs. All you need to do
is click on the "bug" icon, and type your problem into the dialog box that
appears. The message is automatically send on to Apple for perusal. Not
only does Apple make it easy to report bugs, they're really fixing them.
Many users quickly found several serious bugs in the first release of
Safari, and Apple had an updated bug-fixed version of Safari just a week
later. Now, that's fast!
That's not to say there are no bugs left in Safari. For example, you ca't
use it to sign on to Wells Fargo's on-line banking, meaning many of us will
have to keep another browser handy at least some of the time. Other less
serious problems have also cropped up on sites such as ebay.
Recommendation: keep Internet Explorer around for compatibility with sites
that don't work correctly (yet) in Safari.
Safari is a free download from Apple, but is only available for users of
Mac OS X 10.2 or later. More information, and a link to download Safari
can be found at http://www.apple.com/safari .
With all of these exciting programs available for your use, it has never
been a better time to be a Mac user. If you have any questions about any
of these new products, or need any Internet help with your Macintosh
computer, please feel free to call the Mac-friendly Internet Nebraska
technical support staff at 800-438-4638 (434-8680 in Lincoln and 371-6897
in Norfolk).
*** $5 Goody ***
SIGNUP FOR EFT AND RECEIVE A $5 CREDIT
How can you earn $5? Easy. During February, sign up for EFT (direct
checking account withdrawal) and receive a $5 promotional credit on your
account.
EFT payments are made by direct withdrawal of funds from your bank account
when subscription renewal time rolls around -- no need to worry about
mailing that check to us or late fees! You have _total control_ over
whether this is done, and you are free to discontinue it at any time. The
EFT form is available in the Forms area on our home page. Simply print out
http://www.inebraska.com/sysinfo/eft.html, fill it in and send it to us
with a VOIDed check.
*** Getting Just the FAQs On Computer Games ***
Are you stuck in a game that you are currently playing? Can't seem to beat
a particular enemy, don't know where to go next, or can't seem to make
sense of the latest puzzle? Don't worry, the Internet is here to help.
There are many sites out there devoted to FAQs (or Frequently Asked
Questions), walk-throughs, and cheat codes. Some FAQs you may find are
highly specialized, while others are very broad. This article will outline
some of the better and more complete sites.
One such site it IGN.com. While IGN is a respected site for computer and
console game reviews and previews, it also has an extensive FAQ and game
guide section. IGN's game guide section -- http://guides.ign.com --
provides nice, helpful web-based guides to many games released in the last
few years. While IGN's most recent content is available only to their
subscribers, most of the older game guides are available for free public
viewing. Their guides are well laid out, and provide quite a bit of basic
info and strategy as well as walk-throughs.
IGN also has two other helpful sections on their website:
http://faqs.ign.com and http://codes.ign.com . Their FAQs page contains a
large listing of games for various consoles and PC's. Most of these FAQs
are submitted by individuals not affiliated with IGN, just common gamers
like us. Want to find out how to get some extra cash in your game of The
Sims? (Hit CTRL+SHIFT+C, and then type rosebud in the prompt, if you're
curious.) IGN's codes site has a large listing of known cheat codes.
Another site is GameFAQs ( http://www.gamefaqs.com ). GameFAQs is
considered by many to be the most comprehensive FAQ and walk-through site
on the Internet. While their website might not be as flashy or well laid
out as IGN's, they make up for it with pure content. It's practically
guaranteed that they will have some info on any game that you've played or
heard of, for just about any system. The best part is that it's completely
free.
GameFAQs gives you access to FAQs, walkthroughs, cheats, secrets, game
reviews, discussion boards, and for more modern games, current prices.
Most games have multiple FAQs posted, so if you do not find the info you're
looking for in one FAQ, you have a good chance of finding it in another.
All the content is provided by gamers just like you and me, who devote some
of their time to documenting their favorite games.
All in all, these FAQ sites can be extremely useful and can save you time
and plenty of headaches. For more complex games, they can help fill in the
blanks and let you know about different side quests, or they can just help
you to plain have more fun the next time you play.
*** Integrated Computer Systems - Advertisement ***
ICS, an A+ Authorized Service Center serving western
Nebraska for over 14 years, is ready with over 40 years
of combined experience to professionally and expertly meet
your computer needs. From large networks to stand alone
PC's, ICS proudly offers their knowledge and expertise to
work for you. Whether it be Windows (95, 98, 2000, NT, ME),
Novell or Unix, new installations, trouble shooting,
networking, print sharing or repair, ICS will be there to
assist you or your personnel on arriving at the best
possible solution to fulfill your needs.
Located in North Platte, Integrated Computer Systems serves
over a 100-mile radius reaching communities such as Kearney,
Valentine, Thedford, Mullen, Sidney, Ogallala, McCook, Grant,
Imperial, Gothenburg, Lexington, Chappell, Sutherland, and
Hershey, to just name a few. So give us a call at 534-1500,
toll free 800-400-1527, or stop in and see us at 101 South
Chestnut.
*** Parental Control On The Web ***
Many of us have children of various ages. What might be appropriate for
one child may not be for another. Whether we like it to or not, the
Internet has become part of our society and culture, and parents wonder
whether what their children are seeing or reading is good or bad. As with
other activities such as watching television or playing video games,
talking with our kids and being involved is the first line of defense.
Most Americans work and many single parents do not get the luxury of
spending as much time as they would like with their children. Being
involved in what they are doing on the Net all the time is just not
possible. For those times when parental supervision is not possible, there
are options besides taking the power cord to the computer to work with
you. (You know they keep back-ups, anyway. This editor recently found his
back-up TV power cord above a false ceiling some 30 years after the crime.)
There are various software options you may want to explore. We will do a
quick review of three of the more popular choices of content advisor
software. The first is Net Nanny. It's the most widely-distributed
software in its field and costs $39.95 with no subscription fees. The site
is http://www.netnanny.com/ , obviously, where you will find extensive
documentation. It is fairly simple to purchase and set up.
Another very popular title that appears well-developed is CyberPatrol,
which is similar to NetNanny but has narrower options. It appears to have
extensive content filtering technology, and it is something that you must
pay a subscription fee to use beyond the first year. It, too, is $39.00 to
get set up. The web site is http://www.cyberpatrol.com/ where you can find
links to trial subscriptions.
Cybersitter is a mixture of the positives of other two services without the
negatives. Cybersitter looks a great like deal Cyberpatrol. There are no
subscription fees. It has the simple-looking setup of NetNanny and the
strong content-blocking features of CyberPatrol. $39 is the one time charge
for this software. The website is http://www.cybersitter.com
Another option that will not cost any money is using the content advisor in
Windows Internet Explorer. Simply click on Tools along the top tool bar of
IE. Choose Internet Options from the drop down menu. Once in the Internet
Options, choose the tab marked Content Advisor. You can set limits as to
what is viewable and what is not on the Web browser. There is a password
feature so that while you are gone, the kids cannot change the advisor back
to original settings. You can also use the links listed below for further
examination and assistance is using the Content Advisor.
For IE5.5:
http://www.searchengines.com/kids/safe_searching_ie.html
For IE6.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/contentadv/config.asp
*** Expanding your Web Experience with Utility Software ***
While none of the following software is really essential for using the
Internet, the following Internet utility software is specifically designed
to help you get the most out of your Internet experience. We've
conveniently collected the programs that we think are the best of the best,
and placed them on our web site for convenient download. You can download
the listed programs from http://www.inebraska.com/essentials/
These titles are for Windows Platforms Only: (The Mac software is listed
further down.)
ACDSee 5.0 - ACDSee is a powerful and fast program for viewing graphics
files. (10.3M)
Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 - Used for viewing documents in Portable Document
Format (PDF). Many complex documents are placed on the Internet in this
format. (8.42M)
Netscape Communicator 4.79 - Web browser and e-mail program, some sites
look best with Internet Explorer, others look best with Netscape. We
recommend having both on hand. (22.5M)
Free Agent 1.93 - A Usenet news reader that's easier than Outlook Express
to use for downloading and decoding binary posts in the newsgroups.
(2.29M)
ICQ Pro 2003a - ICQ is the most widely used personal Internet chat
software. Use it to keep in touch with your on-line friends. (3.79M)
mIRC 6.03 - The most popular Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for Windows.
IRC is the most popular on-line chat service in the world. (1.15M)
Real Player G2 - Real Player is used to view streaming audio and video at
many Web sites. (3210K)
Shockwave 8.5.1 and Flash Player - Shockware is used to view active
content on many web sites. (3.48M)
WinAMP 3.0 - WinAMP is used to listen to various Internet audio formats,
especially music in MP3 format. (2.36M)
WinZip 8.1 - WinZip is an easy to use program designed to decompress
software compressed in the "zip" format, as it is often found on the
Internet. (940K)
For you Mac users we also have a list of utilities as well. They can be
found at the following address: http://www.inebraska.com/software/mac/
Note: These programs are for Macintosh computers with PowerPC Processors.
Older Macs with 68k processors will NOT be able to run these applications.
Netscape Communicator 4.7.9 (15.4MB, Web browser)
Netscape Communicator provides a great Web browser, as well as e-mail
client.
Ircle 3.0.4 (1.27M, IRC client)
Ircle, is the most common, stable program for chatting on IRC (Internet
Relay Chat) with Macs.
MT Newswatcher 3.1 (1.2MB, Usenet News reader)
MT stands for Multi-Threaded Newswatcher, a great program for reading
usenet news posts.
Nifty Telnet 1.1 (190K, telnet client)
Nifty Telnet is the best telnet client for Macs. It supports terminal
window resizing, making it more convenient to use.
Internet Explorer 5.21 (15.06MB, Web browser)
Internet Explorer is the most current free Web browser from Microsoft.
MacAMP 1.0 Preview (1.9MB, MP3 player)
MacAMP is a great MP3 player for Macs.
Transmit 1.5 FAT (1.5MB, FTP client)
Transmit is a great drag-and-drop FTP program. It has a very Mac-like
interface, and is a must for any Web designer who uses FTP.
Real Player G2 (4.2MB, streaming audio/video player)
Real Player is the standard Internet streaming protocol for audio and
video over modems.
If you are still thirsty for goodies after checking out our oasis of
web utilities you can go to the following sites.
DOWNLOAD.COM
A full range of software available for download. Some free, some not. The
best way to find out what they have, check out the website.
http://www.download.com
MAC USERS
For Mac OS X only
http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps
For other macs
http://www.pure-mac.com/
*** Reviewing A New Peer to Peer Software ***
There is a new p2p file sharing utility available called BitTorrent which
allows file to propagate across the Internet much faster than they could
before. The key to this increase is that the files are relayed along
users' Internet connections and files don't need to be completely
downloaded before they can be uploaded.
Basically, you upload your partial download to someone else while your
download finishes. Person A serves the file. Person B downloads from A.
Person C downloads simultaneously from B, etc. So if there were enough
people with decent connections, a few hundreds, thousands, or even tens of
thousands of people could all get the file simultaneously with only one
person initially serving.
You don't have to worry about finding someone to download from because a
server handles all all the work.
Compared to other p2p utilities such Kazaa or Napster (Requiescat In Pace),
BitTorrent relieves bandwidth usage, makes it easier to get files faster,
and is safer for your computer than other utilities. BitTorrent was
created by one person so you don't have to worry about spyware and adware
payloads installed with other similar utilities put out by corporations and
software firm. Plus, there are fewer malicious users seeding viruses and
corrupt files over the network which is a huge problem for Kazaa.
See:
http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/download.html
*** The Capital Soccer Association - Advertisement ***
Capital Soccer Association specializes in
teaching soccer. However we recognize that
soccer, or any other youth sport is merely
one tool in the development of a young
child. Teamwork and sportsmanship through
knowledge and proficiency of the game are
our main goals.
-- http://www.capitalsoccer.com/
*** Mr. Internet ***
Q: My friends are upset when they try to call me because my kids are
always online and causing busy signals. I am not able to get DSL
or cable service and I really do not want to pay for a second
phone line. Is there anything I can do to get my calls?
A: I ran across a product called Catch-a-Call while Christmas
shopping. Catch-A-Call uses your telephone company's call
waiting service (call waiting is required) to detect incoming
calls while you are online. Catch-A-Call immediately rings and
flashes a red light to notify you of the incoming call. If you
choose to take the call, simply pick up the telephone plugged into
the Catch-A-Call and your Internet connection will automatically
be placed "on hold" for a short length of time (anywhere from
2 to 30 seconds). After you are finished with your phone
conversation, simply hang up. If your computer has not yet
disconnected, you can resume surfing the Internet. If you stayed
on the phone long enough to cause your computer to disconnect
simply click the Refresh button on your browser's tool bar and
your computer will dial up again and reconnect to the same
Internet page where you left off. I've used this for a month now,
and it works great. It's compatible with Caller ID, so I can
decide if I want to interrupt my Internet or not. Normal price is
$49.95, but I found it on sale at Radio Shack for $39.95 during
the Christmas holidays. I've also seen it at Walgreens.
http://www.catch-a-call-online.com is the Website.