Accessing and Reading Usenet Newsgroups

By terry Leave a Comment

Reader Greg H. wrote recently to ask for help solving his inability to access the Usenet newsgroups on Verison’s servers.

For those not familiar with Usenet newsgroups, think of them as a mailing list type of system that has been around for well over 25 years. Rather than emails sent to our computers, though, the postings stored in special servers at the Internet Service Providers or at companies that specialize in serving newsgroups (I use GigaNews as my Usenet newsgroups provider).

The postings to the newsgroups are readable by special newsreader software, but some more ubiquitous software like Outlook Express, Opera and Netscape also read newsgroups. They’re also readable via Google Groups, as are other groups that are available only via Google Groups.

I’ve been reading and posting to the newsgroups for 24 years, and even ran my own DOS-based email, news server and newsreader program called Waffle. Now, I use the Agent newsreader, from www.forteinc.com , which is available in free and paid versions.

Anyway, Greg made some changes and could no longer access …

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Filed Under: Internet Access, Software, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thunderbird to the Rescue!

By terry Leave a Comment

Thunderbird, from the Mozilla Foundation and sometimes called Mozilla Thunderbird, is my new email program of choice. I had tried Thunderbird several years ago, but didn’t use it because I couldn’t do some of the things that I did with Eudora. About a year ago, I switched from Eudora to Eudora OSE, which was built upon the Thunderbird code base.

I made the move after a brief trial this week, changing from Eudora Open Source Edition (Eudora OSE). The transition was amazingly easy.

While Eudora OSE was more than just a “skin” for Thunderbird, the underlying functions were all, or mostly, Thunderbird’s. One big hint is that Eudora OSE stores the user’s personal files (and personalizations) in the same folder that Thunderbird uses. Even more obvious of the link, that folder (in Windows 7) was
C:\Users\[userID]\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\Profiles\[uniqueUserProfilename].

That meant, when I installed Thunderbird onto my computer, Thunderbird didn’t even try to import my emails, my email address book, or my email filter rules. They were stored in Thunderbird’s usual location, so it just opened them and proceeded normally.

Cool!

My filters work perfectly, I can edit their test conditions now, and sending and receiving emails works fine.

Continue reading Thunderbird to the Rescue!

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

Adding Another Address Book to Thunderbird

By terry Leave a Comment

Subscriber James Biddle wrote asking for help with a problem he was fighting with Thundebird.

Here, I’ve just started using Thunderbird, and I’m already getting questions that assume I know what I’m doing. Fortunately, it worked…

I have a question about T-bird.

I currently have 3 address books, Friends, Personal Addresses, Collected Addresses.

I want to add another one. But can’t. It will let me add one under one of those 3. But when I try to add info it just adds it to the parent (one of the 3) I wan to add a 4th one. But there just doesn’t seem to be a way.

Thanks.

James P. Biddle
Quartz Hill, CA

I wrote back to James to tell him how he could create another Address Book.

The first step is not particularly obvious…

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

Windows 8 and Secure Boot versus User Choice

By terry Leave a Comment

Now that some of the information about Windows 8 is coming to light, there are some very disturbing bits being picked up and extrapolated from the announcements and information released.

First, in order to be Windows 8 Certified, new PC’s are going to have to use the new UEFI replacement for the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) firmware built into the motherboards. Why? Because UEFI has a new Secure Boot option.

Oh, that’s good, we all think…

Another aspect of that requirement is that, also in order to be Windows 8 Certified, the new PC’s have to ship with the Secure Boot option enabled.

OK, no problem. Right?

Well, not exactly.

Continue reading Windows 8 and Secure Boot versus User Choice

Filed Under: Software, Windows 7

Security Software — Backup Software

By terry Leave a Comment

When we think of security software, we usually think of antivirus, firewall, antispyware and antispam software. But, what other kind of software is security software? Backup software, of course.

We need to make backup copies of our important data. That data may be financial, such as your checkbook in Quicken, or your spreadsheet tracking your investmants. Or, it may be personal, non-financial data such as digital family photos.

What if your hard drive won’t start one day? What will you lose? What if your computer is stolen (let’s ignore, for now, whether you should encrypt data on your hard drive to protect it from others — let’s just think about the inconvenience and loss to us!)?

There are two basic types of backups you should do.

You need to regularly back up your individual data files to another computer, to an external hard drive, or even to an online repository (but realize, if you have to rebuild the data on your computer, it may have to be downloaded for days and days). An external hard drive is the best choice if you don’t have a home network where you could copy to another computer.

If you have a home network, …

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Filed Under: Backup, Software, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP

Comments on Upgrading to Windows 7

By terry Leave a Comment

Longtime subscriber Clif of the Clif Notes Newsletter wrote about my Windows 7 installation experience articles in last week’s online issue:


Hi Terry,

Thanks for the preview of the hassle to come when I move my laptop to win7 from the RC. Hopefully the drivers I have backed up will work. I’m hoping the driver backups I have will help me avoid the issues that you had getting the correct drivers installed.

See the following:

Continue reading Comments on Upgrading to Windows 7

Filed Under: Software, Speed-up, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Updates, Upgrades, Usability, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Repair, Windows Updates, Windows XP

A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

By terry Leave a Comment

Recently, one of my subscribers wanted to know about a free program to let him fill in PDF forms.

I made a quick check and realized that the free PDF reader Foxit Reader would do this. While Foxit Reader also has a Pro Pack available to add additional functions, the free version does almost everything that most users need.

More importantly, it does it without the baggage of Adobe Reader and its huge memory requirement, the huge delays in starting up (unless you let Adobe Reader preload and take up a bunch of your memory all the time, and its automatic updating, which caused me problems.

I’ve been using Foxit Reader for a couple years, off and on, but now it’s my main program for reading PDF files.

Before responding to the subscriber, I checked the Foxit website and found that I was using a version that was several iterations old. I had v2.0 installed, while the current version is v2.3. Needless to say, I downloaded Foxit Reader 2.3 and installed it. I also realized this was a good time to write about Foxit Reader.

Continue reading A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

Filed Under: Free, Other, Software, Specials, Storage, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Vista, Windows XP

Stopping Microsoft Word From Calling Home

By terry Leave a Comment

Subscriber V.R. wrote to ask about Microsoft Word calling home…


Terry, I need your advise. How do I stop Word 2003 from wanting to access the internet everytime I launch the program? AVG pops ups asking if want to allow. It then takes about 10/15 seconds for Word to come up. I’ve googled and went to several sites, tried what they suggested but no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

I wrote back to V.R. to tell him that if he always wants to deny that communication, he should be able to tell AVG to deny the connection and remember that answer. It might also be in a configuration dialog box in AVG.

However, I don’t use AVG and so I can’t advise him on specifics of it.

Regarding making Word stop trying — good luck. I haven’t found a way to do it other than to control it with a good third party firewall (I use Sunbelt Personal Firewall ). See my review of SPF on my site.

Filed Under: Internet Privacy, Office, Office Suites, Software, Terry's Computer Tips

A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

By terry Leave a Comment

Recently, one of my subscribers wanted to know about a free program to let him fill in PDF forms.

I made a quick check and realized that the free PDF reader Foxit Reader would do this. While Foxit Reader also has a Pro Pack available to add additional functions, the free version does almost everything that most users need.

More importantly, it does it without the baggage of Adobe Reader and its huge memory requirement, the huge delays in starting up (unless you let Adobe Reader preload and take up a bunch of your memory all the time, and its automatic updating, which caused me problems.

I’ve been using Foxit Reader for a couple years, off and on, but now it’s my main program for reading PDF files.

Before responding to the subscriber, I checked the Foxit website and found that I was using a version that was several iterations old…

Continue reading A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

Filed Under: Software, Terry's Computer Tips

Which Program Has Locked My File?

By terry 1 Comment
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One of the problems that plagues Windows users is the “locked file” problem. You know, the one that you want to rename or move, but you can’t because the file is in use…

If you’ve opened a document in Word, you can not rename the document on the disk drive until you close the copy in Word. You can save the copy that’s in Word, either with the same name or a different one, but that’s not always what you wanted to do.

Tech Tip
I’m using Word as an example, but the same issue applies to any file that you open in a program. Until the program tells Windows that it has released the file, Windows protects you from making a dumb move.

Sometimes, though, Windows gets connfused. It won’t let you rename or move a file, but you’ve already closed the program that was accessing it. There doesn’t seem to be any reason that Windows should balk and refuse to make your change.

Continue reading Which Program Has Locked My File?

Filed Under: Other, Software, Speed-up, Stability, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting
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