Presidio Computer's Newsletter

Welcome to the 2nd edition, year 3, of Presidio Computer's Newsletter.

Vol 3. No. 2

A. General Audience

1. Hard drive warranty correction.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/warranty/english.htm

2. Secondary email accounts - small revision from newsletter V3 N1.

3. Windows XP Firewall & AOL

4. AOL’s Instant Messenger has a security issue.

5. Sony is changing hand held device strategies

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5223580.html?tag=zdaresources

6. Symantec Chief comments on security of Windows & Linux

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5224379.html?tag=zdaresources

B. Intermediate Users

1. Online assistance

2. Symantec email tech support

3. SpywareBlaster

C. Advanced Users

6. Slipstreaming

7. Spell Check in Outlook Express

7. AOL’s Instant Messenger has a security issue.

http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/26806730

www.aim.com > “security center” , lower left > http://www.aim.com/help_faq/security/faq.adp?aolp=

Typically, AOL blames Microsoft.

Q: Are there any known security issues which might affect AIM?
A: A security hole in the Windows version of Internet Explorer allows a malicious web site to run dangerous code on your computer if you visit that web site. The attacker can then control your computer, and sign on with your AIM Screen Name if your password is stored (although your password would not actually be revealed). If you think your computer has been compromised, you should immediately change all of your AIM passwords here. All users should immediately install the security patch, available from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security.

Are you aware of http://secunia.com/advisories/12188/ ?

This evening, I was researching an AOL IM defect I had seen on the CNN crawler, during the past 48 hrs, which took me to http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17750

which took me tohttp://secunia.com .

More at http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/26806730

Different but similar

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx

8. Mozilla - security issue

http://secunia.com/advisories/12188/

9. Legal music download sites

http://news.com.com/Watch+for+falling+music+download+prices/2100-1027_3-5177937.html

http://www.apple.com/itunes/ Yes, this will work with Windows!

http://www.napster.com/ Not the same Napster that caused problems for people.

10. Why you may need a firewall.

11. popups

Popups

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/browse/0,cat,1448,sortIdx,1,00.asp

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,8060,00.asp

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22573,00.asp

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,15203,00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1538809,00.asp

http://www.download.com/3150-2366-0-1-5.html?legacy=cnet

12. Optical Disk rot

B. Intermediate Users

1. Online assistance

2. Symantec email tech support

3. SpywareBlaster

C. Advanced Users

1. Windows XP License generation

http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt

2. MSN logon problems

Well, wouldn't you know it. The tips in http://www.updatexp.com/0x800B0004.html fixed both problems.

Sym AV error 1005,1 makes no mention of my fix!!

If you can't be good, be lucky!

3. Product reviews

You might want to check www.tomshardware.com, www.neoseeker.com , www.pcworld.com , www.pcmag.com and www.hardocp.com for product reviews.

4. Why SP2 deserved scrutiny & the alternatives.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5344180.html

5. XP troubleshooting articles http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin/troubleshooting/index.cgi?subject=1036292531

6. Slipstreaming

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

A. General Audience

1. Hard drive warranty correction.

In a previous newsletter, I wrote that hard drive manufacturers had limited their warranties to 1 year. Subsequently, I have found new information. Hitachi, for example, has warranties that range from 1 year to 5 years.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/warranty/english.htm

2. Secondary email accounts

I have a number of email accounts, that I use for personal and professional tasks. You may want to create at least one of these secondary [ junk ] accounts, for purposes such as on line purchases and registrations. Be sure to read the conditions of these accounts. Hotmail, for example, requires you to check your account every 30 days. If you fail to check your account during any 30 day period, you will lose access to your email messages in that account.

The use of a junk email account will reduce the amount of spam that arrives in your real email account.

Here’s a web page with 10 tips to help you reduce the spam in your email account. http://www3.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113611,00.asp

For years, I have used hotmail [ http://login.passport.net/uilogin.srf?id=2 ] which is now owned by Microsoft. While teaching computer classes at Oasis [ ,http://www.oasisnet.org/ ] I learned about Yahoo’s email. Hotmail offers a free email account, with an account limit of 2 MB. Yahoo offers a free email account with an account limit of 100 MB. Hotmail recently informed me that they are going to increase the account limit to 250 MB. I suspect that this is because Google is offering free email accounts with a capacity of 1 GB. See this link for more information http://news.com.com/Hotmail+to+offer+250MB+of+free+storage/2100-1032_3-5245523.html?tag=nefd.top .

Please note that one of the conditions with the Google account is that they will read your email and send you ads associated with products relevant to material contained in your email messages. On this offer, I will pass!

3. AOL’s Instant Messenger has a security issue.

4. Sony is changing hand held device strategies

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5223580.html?tag=zdaresources

5. Symantec Chief comments on security of Windows & Linux

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5224379.html?tag=zdaresources

B. Intermediate Users

1. Online assistance

I have recently discovered 2 new online [ internet ] computer help & support sites.

http://forums.techguy.org . Membership is free. In order for one to ask [ new post ] a question, one must register. Registration is free. I strongly recommend using an alias, NOT posting your email address within the message [ this is referred to as anonymous posting ] and using a secondary email address for purposes such as these. See A.4 for my comments regarding secondary accounts.

http://www.pcbanter.net/ Again, membership & registration are free, and required for one to post a question. One must be over 13 years of age.

You can also go to www.experts-exchange.com , where, I think, you can create a free account and post [ for free ] the issue.

You can post questions at http://discuss.pcmag.com/n/main.asp?webtag=pcmag&nav=start . You have to create an account, but again, that is free.

You can post questions at http://reviews.cnet.com/4002-7600_7-5082864.html . You have to create an account, but again, that is free.

You can also ask questions at a service provided by Microsoft. But to ask questions, you need a “passport”. Basically, you just need an email address from msn.com or hotmail.com .

Create a junk email account, for example at mail.yahoo.com . You will need to supply an email address for some of the above support groups.

C. Advanced Users

6. Slipstreaming

7. Spell Check in OE

http://michaelstevenstech.com/spellcheck.htm

Reminder: You can now access previous issues of the newsletter, from my website. When you visit www.presidiocomputers.com, no cookies are placed on your computer.

As always, Presidio Computers, is available to assist you with any of the computer issues described above.

If you want your name removed from this mailing list, please let me know. Your name is not kept in an address book. Your name is neither shared with nor sold to anyone. You will not receive any junk mail from Presidio Computers.

The information contained in this newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. No guarantees nor warranties are expressly given nor implied.

Best of success.

Sincerely,
Ed Sloup
Presidio Computers, LLC
520 731 6446
www.presidiocomputers.com