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Anti-Spam Program Choices

July 29, 2008 By

Subscriber and long-time reader Scott Adler wrote to me about his experiences with three of the various anti-spam programs. I’ve used Mailwasher Pro and PopFile and like both, but they are entirely different in their approach to spam. My current choice is PopFile.

I’ve also mentioned iHateSpam, which is from the same company that offers my choice in anti-spyware and firewall programs; however, I don’t use iHateSpam because I don’t use Outlook Express or Outlook as my email program (I use Eudora).

The three anti-spam programs you speak about have quite different impact on ones PC.. I’ve been using I Hate Spam but it’s use brings a slowdown to the reaction of the computer. As the files of friends and enemies build up the computer runs slower and slower until it almost freezes up. That’s what happened to me and it took three days of agonizing trouble shooting before I recognized where the problem lay.

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Filed Under: Anti-spam, Communications, Outlook, Outlook Express, Security, Shopping Deals, Software, Terry's Computer Tips

Adding a Computer to an Existing Home Network

July 24, 2008 By

OK, you have a new computer and you’ve made the decision to keep your old computer, and you want your spouse and children to be able to do email and surf the web without demanding your computer.

Let’s assume you already have an existing home computer network — if you don’t, the first article in this week’s online newsletter is for you…

There are two basic ways that computers on home networks can get the IP addresses and other network data they need in order to communicate with each other: we can enter the data into the configuration screens, …

Continue reading Adding a Computer to an Existing Home Network

Filed Under: Terry's Computer Tips

I Signed Up for LifeLock

July 22, 2008 By

For years we’ve heard the stories about identity theft. Maybe we know someone who has been a victim of identity theft. Whether it happens intentionally or accidentally, victims spend time, effort and money trying to solve the problems and restore their credit ratings.

I’ve seen the magazine and television ads recently advertising LifeLock, which is a company specializing in the prevention of identity theft. (The web site indicates the service is available in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.) Anyway, their product is the prevention of identity theft. They’re confident enough of their service that their president announces and shows his Social Security Number on the television and in print advertising, and even on their web site! They also advertise a $1 million service guarantee, saying they’ll spend up to a million dollars to "make it right" if your identity is stolen while you’re a member of Lifelock.

Fast forward to this week… At a dinner this week, the subject came up. Several attendees mentioned that they were looking at LifeLock and intending to sign up with it. One mentioned he had signed up and found that both he and his wife had active credit cards that they didn’t know about — and that had current balances. They quickly got them closed.

Meanwhile, I also had been thinking about signing up with the LifeLock service. In today’s world of personal information available on the Internet and reports of Internet companies, brick-and-mortar companies, political entities, and colleges losing personal information in their care, I decided that the time had come and the right product for me had arrived.

When I decided to sign up for LifeLock this week, I also checked and found they had an affiliate program. You can sign up and save 10% off LifeLock’s regular prices by using my link.  I don’t know how long this discount will last.

Filed Under: Other, Sales

Preparing An Old Computer to be Recycled

July 13, 2008 By

Recently, Agnes Brach wrote to me with a question that, eventually, applies to all of us:

Hello Terry,
I enjoy your newsletter very much. I have a question that has been on my mind for a while. I have an old computer which i would like to recycle, but have absolutely no idea how to wipe the machine clean. Could you please give me some ideas of what i can do. Have to tell you that I can work the computer pretty well, but do not have a deep knowledge of the inner workings of the machine.

Thank you.

Agnes Brach

If you’re going to donate or sell your old computer, or even throw it away, you have a basic decision to make — how bad do you want to wipe out your personal history and data on the drive?

None of the disk wiping systems are convenient, easy nor fast. In order to wipe the disk, they have to overwrite every spot on the disk multiple times with different characters.

Continue reading Preparing An Old Computer to be Recycled

Filed Under: Hard Drive Recovery, Hard Drives, Hardware, Software, Terry's Computer Tips

Problems with Program Installs and Updates

July 9, 2008 By

Occasionally when I’m installing a new program, or updating an existing program, I run into a special issue. Yes, that’s probably the right term for it — when my security software does exactly what it’s supposed to do — and blocks the software installation or upgrade/update.

Such was the case this week with the surprise update from Microsoft called .NET Service Pack 1.

I tried to install it on my desktop computer and on my wife’s computer. In both cases, the installatiton failed and didn’t bother to tell me why it failed, just that it had. In both cases, I had started the update and left the room, so I didn’t get to see any warning messages that may have occurred.

Anyway, my anti-spyware/anti-adware program CounterSpy prevented the .NET service pack from changing all the files that it wanted to change. I had CounterSpy set for some aggresive control by setting its Active Protection function to Cautious (the choices are Paranoid, Cautious, Trusting and Custom) and putting checkmarks on all the options.

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Filed Under: Optimize, Software, Terry's Computer Tips

WinClear Internet History Eraser the Review

July 4, 2008 By

Product: WinClear
Class: Utility — Privacy — temp file and Windows/Internet history deletion
License: Commercial product.
Version Reviewed: v2.0

WinClear is a computer history cleaner program designed to delete or erase the history of your activity on your computer. Obviously, it can’t dig into the guts of every program to find and delete the history each might retain (and you probably would not want that).

WinClear targets general Windows items, recent document lists in many programs, chat history, and all sorts of data that Internet Explorer records on your use of IE.

I wrote in my email newsletter that I had been trying out WinClear. I was impressed with it from the start.

On my notebook, after I had deleted my temporary files (I thought) and the Temporary Internet Files, I was surprised that WinClear found over 800 MB of temporary files for me. Since I was down to only 2 GB free on my notebook, getting 800 MB more was a significant find.

Continue reading WinClear — Internet History Eraser — the Review

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Filed Under: Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Windows XP