PLEASE NOTE: In an attempt to make it a little harder for spammers to harvest e-mail addresses, most if not all, e-mail addresses listed in this electronic version of the newsletter have had the "@" symbol doubled. If you want to use any of these addresses, please remove the second "@" before sending. Vol. 18 number 2 The newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group February 2001 Calendar OPCUG General Meeting National Museum of Science and Technology 1867 St. Laurent Blvd. (Third in February!) Second Wednesday of each month, 7:30pm Wednesday, Mar 12, 2001: Computer Recyclers Inc + Tunstall Data Recovery Ottawa Paradox Users Group Corel Bldg, 1600 Carling Ave. Third Thursday of each month 6:15 pm Internet SIG(I-SIG) Second Wednesday of each month, immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting at the Museum. Developers SIG Second Wednesday of each month, immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting at the Museum of Science and Technology, and occasionally at other locations in the region. PIG SIG (or is it WING SIG?) After all the other SIGS. "Good Times" cafe Shoppers City West, Baseline and Woodroffe Please note that unless otherwise noted, SIGs meet at 9:00 p.m. (immediately following the OPCUG General Meeting). _________________________ SOFTWARE REVIEW Freedom(R) Internet Privacy Suite by Brigitte Lord Several months ago, two representatives from Zero- Knowledge(R) (http://www.Zero-Knowledge.com/) demonstrated their Freedom(R) Internet Privacy Suite (http://www.Freedom.net/). I had a chance to review Freedom (versions 1.1 and 2.0) on my home computer using Windows 98 Second Edition and dial-up networking (56K, V.90). The installation of Freedom was easy. There is a peculiar step in which you must generate a unique encryption key. You do this by hovering and clicking the mouse and pressing random keys repeatedly for a couple of minutes all the while receiving written encouragement that you are doing well and are almost done. You must then choose a password that will be used to launch Freedom every time. You must also select one of the servers in the Freedom network through which you will be routed. This consists of pinging any number of Freedom servers from an extensive list. You can do this with a single click from the Freedom interface or from a DOS window. From this list, you choose the server that returned the shortest ping time. Freedom routes your connection through three of its servers - you are required to choose only the first one (front server). Freedom has many features including a personal firewall, e- mail encryption, Form Filler, Cookie Manager, Ad Manager, and Keyword Alert. You can remain anonymous even while chatting on the Internet. The Personal Firewall is quite adequate and configurable. You can allow or disallow certain programs to connect to the Internet. You may even disable the firewall altogether. It readily reported pings to my machine and packets trying to access my computer. The e-mail encryption/decryption option only works of Freedom is running when you send or receive e-mail. Should you forget to load Freedom, the program will prompt you to start it before you send or receive any e-mail (you can disable this). You can, however, decrypt encrypted e-mail later by launching Freedom and selecting the encrypted file from your hard drive. Note that the encryption/decryption process happens within the servers of the Freedom network and that all the recipients of your e-mail will be able to read your mail without having to download a special key or even subscribe to the Freedom network. Your e-mail address will appear as your_nym@@privacy.net to your e-mail recipients. It is important to inform your friends about your new identity in case they decide they don't recognize you in the "From" line and delete your messages before reading them. People can send you e-mail at either your regular e-mail address or your_nym@@privacy.net in which case Freedom will forward it to your regular e-mail account. Form Filler is handy on any Web page with a form to fill. Freedom will prompt you to launch Form Filler should you wish to use it, even if Freedom is not running. This may also be disabled. Cookie Manager allows you to block cookies, let your Web browser manage cookies, or place cookies in the Freedom Cookie Jar. The cookies within the Freedom Cookie Jar can be deleted anytime with one click from within Freedom preferences. Ad Manager can block banner ads thereby speeding download time. Ad Manager can also be disabled. Keyword Alert warns you when you have inadvertently included personal information such as your name, e-mail address, or home address in the text of an e-mail. However, it will not scan for such information in attachments. The key feature of Freedom is the Nym. Think of it as a pseudonym. You have a total of five that you can use for one year. One Nym could be for chatting, another for shopping, and others for browsing various types of Web sites. In order to be protected, you must load one of your Nyms. It is important to know that Freedom can be loaded without selecting a Nym. Loading Freedom in this fashion reveals your true identity to the Internet since you are not being routed through the Freedom network. You can still use other features of Freedom such as the firewall, Cookie Manager, Ad Manager, and Form Filler. Connection speeds while Freedom is loaded with a Nym are slower. Without a Nym, Freedom download times did not suffer any lag. Bandwidth tests gave the following results (at 45.3 Kbps): Without Freedom: 39.1 Kbps With Freedom (Nym selected): 21.3 Kbps With Freedom (no Nym - no privacy): 39.3 Kbps All in all, Freedom is a secure solution for those who are worried about their Internet privacy. It may prove invaluable for those searching the Internet for information about health problems or bankruptcy. Freedom will hide their identity and allow them to easily delete cookies sent by these Web sites. As long as they use Freedom under the guise of a Nym, they need not worry that a current or future boss will find traces of their true identity at sensitive Web sites. _________________________ COMING UP Double-header for March by Tim Mahoney The March meeting will feature two 30-minute presentations. Trash, Blue Box, Black Box ???? Ever wondered what to do with your old computer stuff? These guys can help! Bo Brodie from Computer Recyclers Inc. will present on how they go about recycling different computer components to help free up our public landfill sites. "Insert Boot Disk in Drive A:" You've tried everything and have no backup. These guys can help. John Tunstall from Tunstall and Tunstall Data Recovery will present on various aspects of data recovery from magnetic media and the different approaches they use to tackle the problems. UPCOMING OPCUG MEETING TOPICS April: Ron Thompson from Information Technology Security Inc.will speak on the new Personal Information Electronic Documents Protection Act. Important information for Website developers or any business or persons involved with collecting personal data electronically. May: Chris Taylor, will talk about VMWare virtual computers software which is terrific for those who must test to see if things function properly under various operating systems. June: In time for summer this presentation will feature demonstrations of Olympus digital cameras, digital printers and digital audio recorders. Olympus reps Norm Dutcher and Jean Pierre Serre will have sample products on hand for attendees to try. _________________________ CLUB NEWS March Raffle by Bob Gowan Another reason to attend the March meeting is to take part in our monthly raffle. If you are interested in burning audio CDs from the MP3 files on your computer, you won't want to miss it! This month we are offering a copy of Audio CD Maker donated by Edmonton-based Avantrix Inc. Avantrix claims that creating high quality CD's from your MP3 files is a fast and simple task with Audio CD Maker. You create CD layouts by selecting existing MP3 files on your system or by simply dragging and dropping MP3 files into your layout, which can be saved for future uses. Re-ordering of the listed tracks is simple, and the files are converted from MP3 to WAV before burning with no user intervention. The software automatically normalizes all tracks to the same volume level on the new audio CD. According to a review on the Yippee shareware site (see http://www.yippee.net/html/win/audio/title12215.htm ), "Avantrix have created the easiest possible MP3 to CD creation program on then market. If you don't want any of the frills associated with bigger, more complicated applications and would prefer an interface so simple your grandmother could use it then this is it." As always, the raffles help keep your membership dues low. Tickets are $1 for one, $2 for three, or $5 for ten. _________________________ CLUB NEWS "Orphan" users by Henry Sims Members of OPCUG fall into three groups: there are the Pros, who have extensive training and experience; there are Gifted Amateurs who belong with this group. Together, they are the backbone of the Club. At the other end are the Beginners. We don't know how many of them there are; only a very few turn up at the Beginners' SIG. In between is another unknown crowd, which I shall call the Orphans, who know a little about computing, and may have been doing a bit of e-mailing and Web browsing for a long time, but they have very limited knowledge and never advance as far as they could. Being one of them, I call them ignorant. Chris Taylor is more generous and calls them "less knowledgeable". OPCUG can do more to meet their needs. The Board is interested in doing something for the Orphans besides the regular monthly programmes which are often over their heads. Being considered are special talks or demonstrations, starting probably at about the level of the Idiots' and Dummies' guides, and progressing as desired. Also, of course, Question-and-Answer sessions like the Beginners' SIG would be useful. Suggestions for other approaches would be welcome too. Possible topics for any of these sessions would be helpful. If any such programme interests you, please speak to me or write me at ha4326@@home.com _________________________ READERS' REPLY More on hardware routers by Naki Theocharides Thanks for the excellent article last month by Chris Taylor about the Linksys router. It was clear, informative and got me thinking about a hardware solution for my home network. While researching the subject (chatting with co-workers) I learned about a competitive product - the SMC Barricade, a 4-port router that has built-in print server capability. The hardware installation was simple. It took me only 20 minutes to configure two computers to connect to the net through my Sympatico connection. The paper manual is readable and easy to understand, but extremely incomplete. It covers the hardware set-up, which is ridiculously easy, and that's about it. The full manual on the CD is a must read. The Barricade has it's own default IP address on your network: 192.168.123.254. You have the option of specifying IP addresses for your computers along certain parameters (192.168.123.1, 192.168.123.2, 192.168.123.3, etc., through 192.168.123.253) or have DHCP do the work for you. The static IP address your ISP assigned to you, DNS settings, gateway, subnet mask, domain name, etc. - settings typically associated with a server - are entered into the Barricade's firmware via your Web browser. You just enter the Barricade's IP address (http://192.168.123.254) into the browser's address/location field, the firmware's GUI pop's up, you specify or enter your password, and configure your settings. Don't have a static IP? It can be configured to for dynamic IP addresses, as well as PPP over Ethernet, and Dial-up Networking. The Barricade also has a built in print server. You just connect your printer to the Barricade, set things up in Windows, and all the computers on your network can send print jobs to the Barricade and then to your printer. You get a Print Server, firewall, Internet sharing, NAT, DHCPserver and a switch all in one. Here is the kicker: at www.chapters.ca it is available for $134.99 CDN!! (plus $4.00 shipping and taxes). Hope this helps members who are considering a hardware solution for their home/business network. _________________________ I-SIG NEWS I-SIG reviews bookmark organizers by Bob Gowan If your web surfing involves only a few sites that you visit on a regular basis, then it is likely that you will soon learn the URLs and just type them in. The type-ahead feature of recent versions of the main web browsers makes this even easier - just type the first few letters and the rest is auto-completed for you. In this scenario, you probably will have few bookmarks, and you won't have any problem organizing them. But what if you have several hundred bookmarks, including many with long and complicated URLs; most of which are used regularly, but not that frequently? Or what if you use several workstations, at home, at the office, at other worksites or cybercafes, or a laptop on the road? And what happens when you use, whether by necessity or choice, more than one browser? What if you and your colleagues or friends want to share bookmarks? In any of these situations, you will have a difficult time in keeping track of favorite websites with the bookmark (or favorites) lists maintained by your browser. Fortunately there is an increasing number of solutions - some of which have been discussed at Internet SIG meetings over the past year or so. I will mention several of them in this article. Perhaps one or more of them may fulfill some of our readers' particular needs. I've observed that quite a few people try to keep all their bookmarks in a single list - often unsorted - and as it gets to be too long, they simply delete a few of the less important ones. With my kind of luck, those are certain to be the ones I will be looking for the next time I use the computer. The first step needed here is the creation of some Folders, and then a little time to move the bookmarks into them. As more bookmarks accumulate in any give folder, additional sub-folders should be created, and the bookmarks sorted and moved into these. Sub-folders can be as many levels deep as you need to keep the lists at a length with which you are comfortable working. When it comes to converting bookmarks to use in another browser, the newer versions of the two main browsers will import each others bookmarks, and there are some useful utilities to do the conversion and further organization. One of the earliest bookmark conversion tools was PC Magazine's SyncURLs, which first appeared in January 6, 1998. This useful program was one of the first featured on the I-SIGs web pages (check out our Software Archives page for the link to download SynURLs). It allows you to synchronize Netscape bookmarks and Internet Explorer favourites, by importing both into a single "Bookmark Library", rearranging them within SynURLs and then exporting the common set of folders and bookmarks back out to your browsers. You can also move these Libraries to another computer so that you will always have access to all your bookmarks. Bookmark Wizard, a freeware program by Moon Software (http://www.moonsoftware.com) combines your bookmarks in a single HTML page with all your links grouped and sorted in ascending order. With it's simple wizard-like interface, you can specify the colours to be used for links and for the page background, title, caption etc. The page template can be modified by more advanced users to make a fully customized links page. I saved the bookmark page generated by Bookmark Wizard on my desktop, so I always have easy access to my bookmarks. Similarly, you can use it as the startup page, or the home page, for your browser, or as a "links" page on your web site. To share your bookmarks with others, or to move them to another computer, all you have to do is copy the HTML page. For a few more features, then you may want to consider LinkSync, from Blue Squirrel Software (http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/ls/ linksync.html). This inexpensive accessory product does not just merge your Netscape bookmarks and Internet Explorer favourites; it also tracks any changes (additions, deletions, moves, cuts, copies, pastes or renaming) you make to links in one browser, and applies them to the other. Both browsers can be kept current at the same time. Using LinkSyn, you can alternate frequently between browsers without having to worry about where your recently saved bookmarks are located. In a future article, I will discuss several services for sharing bookmarks on the Internet. Until then, readers may want to check out Blink, Backflip, Hotlinks and other similar sites. I encourage readers to try out any or all of the solutions and services described and provide some feedback (on these or others) at the next I-SIG, which will immediately follow the main presentation at the March 2001 OPCUG meeting. Other topics posted on our Internet SIG message area, and those raised at the meeting, are likely, as usual, to make this another interesting meeting. If you have not yet joined the I-SIG Listserve, you can do so by sending the message "subscribe Internet-SIG" (without quotes, in message body) to listserve@opcug.ottawa.com. You can easily cancel your subscription by sending message "unsubscribe Internet-SIG" (without quotes, in message body) to listserve@opcug.ottawa.com. If you change your e-mail address change, first unsubscribe from the listserve using your old e-mail account, and then subscribe using your new e-mail address. _________________________ USER TIPS Keyboard shortcuts for browsers by Bob Gowan At the February 2001 general meeting, new OPCUG Board member Henry Sims spoke about his goal of promoting the "users helping users" role of the club. This can surely take many forms, but one way may be the inclusion in this newsletter of more short articles on tips and shortcuts for using common software. Already, a number of our members regularly post some of the tricks they've learned on the PUB II listserves. More tips and usability features can be found in many free e-mail newsletters. The following list of keyboard shortcuts that can help you be more efficient in your web browsing were taken mainly from EZComputing's The Weekly Windows Users Group Network's Tips Newsletter for PC Users (see http://www.wugnet/newsletters to subscribe to EZComputing Newsletter ). I've added one or two others found in the help files of MS Internet Explorer. Browser Shortcuts CTRL + B = organize favorites/bookmarks CTRL + D = bookmarks current Web page CTRL + E = open search frame CTRL + F = opens Find box to find on that Web page CTRL + H = display history list CTRL + I = open favorites frame (In Netscape, "Page Info" view) CTRL + L = opens Open dialog box (IE only) CTRL + N = to open in a new window CTRL + P = to print current page or active frame CTRL + R = refresh/reload CTRL + W = closes Web browser ALT + D = select text in the Address box ALT + F = goes to the next match with the Find box ALT + F4 = close current window ALT + HOME = goes to browser's home page (IE only) ALT + RIGHT ARROW = back ALT + LEFT ARROW = forward ALT + TAB = switches between open windows TAB = move from link to link on a Web page SHIFT + TAB = moves from frame to frame on a Web page (IE only) BACKSPACE = moves from frame to frame on Web page (Netscape) SHIFT + CTRL + TAB = move back from frame to frame on a Web page ESC = stop loading F1 = opens help screen F4 = display list of typed addresses (drop down address box (IE only) F5 = refresh/reload (IE only) F10 = activate menu bar F11 = toggles full screen view (IE only) CTRL + esc = pops up Start Menu CTRL + A = highlight/select all items on current page CTRL + C = copy CTRL + X = cut CTRL + V = paste Sources: EZComputing, Vol. 1, No. 28, Feb 18-23, 2001 Microsoft Internet Explorer - Help Files, 1995-2000 _________________________ WHAT'S NEW ON PUB II eClean 2000 for e-mail legibility by Chris Taylor It is a wonderful example of "Users Helping Users". Our Web Master, Brigitte Lord, was having problems extracting reviews from the plain text version of the newsletter and turning them into Web pages, for publishing at opcug.ottawa.com/public/soft_rev.htm. The main problem was the fact that each line ended in a hard carriage return and it was a laborious process to remove them. At the Internet SIG meeting some members discussed this and Bob Gowan, the Internet SIG coordinator mentioned he had been using a shareware program that could help. eClean 2000 v2.0 is a tool primarily designed to aid in cleaning up messages that have been forwarded many times. It is not all that unusual to get a message that looks similar to the following > >>Dear >Hank, > >>> > >>I have a great idea for a new > >>product line for the ACME Widget >Company! > >>> > >>Since we make the smallest and > >>fastest widgets >in the world, > >>why not make the most expensive? We > >>could add a new gizmo to the >wacha-ma-callit > >>or a whatsit to the thing-a-ma-jiggy >and > >>add 500% to our margin! > >>But Best of all, each gizmo will > >>only add 1% to >the cost of making > >>a widget and whatsit will only > >>add 2%. This could be colossal! I just > >>don't know what people did before > >>gizmo's and whatsit's where > invented, > >>but we have to add them to our > >>widget. Let me know what you think. > >> > >>Best regards, > >> > >>Bill Of course, in most cases the message is actually a joke that you want to pass on to someone else. But if you simply forward the message, it will likely just add some more greater-than signs and make the mess even worse. Unfortunately, nobody wants to take the time and trouble to clean things up. Enter eClean 2000. You can simply copy the whole mess to the clipboard, double click eClean's tray icon to open its window, paste in the text and with a single click you can have eClean remove all the forwarding characters. As well, you can have eClean reconstruct paragraphs as single lines (which is what Brigitte needed), and even perform global search and replaces to clean up any other weird things in the text. To make things even easier, you can have eClean work directly with text on the clipboard. This reduces the keystrokes or mouse clicks even more. The program is highly customizable and uses about 1.8MB or RAM on my Win2K machine. You can download eClean 2000 v2 from PUB II in the Miscellaneous Utilities file area as eclean20.zip _________________________ CLUB NEWS February winners by Mark Cayer The following members were prize winners at the February 21st general meeting: Chris Seal won a Corel tie ; Charles Schofield won a "classic" Corel T-shirt; Ray Arnold and Jean Vaumoron got Corel mugs ; John Walsh took home a Corel Jacket; and Cornel Bierman was the grand prize winner of a copy of Corel Draw 10. Many thanks to Corel and our presenter Martina Ryan. Bob Walker was the nightly raffle winner and took home a coffee table book on the history of Microsoft. Thanks to Microsoft for donating this prize. _________________________ CLUB NEWS OPCUG mugs and multitools are in! Check out these great thermal coffee mugs and multitools sporting our club logo at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings! OPCUG insulated mugs are $15 and OPCUG multitools are $20. _________________________ Club News Reuse, recycle Bring your old computer books, software, hardware, and paraphernalia you want to GIVE AWAY to the general meetings, and leave them at the table near the auditorium's entrance. Please limit your magazines to publication dates of less than two years old. If you don't bring something, you may want to TAKE AWAY something of interest, so look in on this area. Any item left over at the end of the meeting will be sent to the... recycle bin. ____________________________ Club Life Fly West The "Good Times" cafe at Shoppers City West, Baseline and Woodroffe, for chicken wings and a drink after the General meeting: may be the best and most informative SIG meeting of the evening. See you there! ____________________________ OTTAWA PC NEWS Ottawa PC News is the newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group (OPCUG), and is published monthly except in July and August. The opinions expressed in this newsletter may not necessarily represent the views of the club or its members. Deadline for submissions is four Saturdays before the general meeting. Group meetings OPCUG normally meets on the first Wednesday in the month, except in July and August, at the National Museum of Science and Technology, 1867 St. Laurent Blvd, Ottawa. Meeting times are 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Fees: Membership: $25 per year. Mailing address: 3 Thatcher St., Nepean, Ontario, K2G 1S6 Web address: http://opcug.ottawa.com/ Bulletin board - the PUB II (BBS): Up to 33.6 kbps v.34, 228-8951 Chairman and System Administrator: Chris Taylor, ctaylor@@nrcan.gc.ca, via PUB Meeting Coordinator Tim Mahoney, timothyr@@cyberus.ca, 225-2630 Treasurer: James Fridrich, jimbo@@magma.ca Secretary: (Mr.) Jocelyn Doire, jocelyn.doire@@opcug.ottawa.com Membership Chairman: Mark Cayer, cayemar@@statcan.ca, 823-0354 Newsletter: Bert Schopf, bert@@blackbirdpcd.com, 232-8427 Email: (Mr.)Jocelyn Doire, Jocelyn.Doire@@opcug.ottawa.com Publicity: Chris Seal, cseal@@istar.ca, 831-0280 Facilities: Bob Walker, skywalk@@iname.ca, 489-2084 Beginners' and Windows SIG coordinator: Duncan Petrie, gdpetrie@@accglobal.net, 841-6119 Fox SIG coordinator: Andrew MacNeill, andrew@@aksel.com, 851-4496 http://www.aksel.com/foxsig Internet SIG coordinator: Bob Gowan, GOWANB@@INAC.GC.CA Paradox SIG coordinator: John Ladds, laddsj@@statcan.ca, 951-4581 Webmaster Brigitte Lord Directors without portfolios Morris Turpin (c) OPCUG 2000. Reprints permission is granted* to non- profit organizations, provided credits is given to the author and The Ottawa PC News. OPCUG request a copy of the newsletter in which reprints appear. *Permission is granted only for articles written by OPCUG members, and which are not copyrighted by the author. ____________________________ To receive the newsletter by e-mail, send a message to listserve@opcug.ottawa.com with the text "subscribe Newslettertxt" or "subscribe NewsletterPDF" (without the quotes) in the body of the message. No subject line is required. You can help the environment and save us some costs by sending an e-mail to mark.cayer@@opcug.ottawa.com asking to cancel the delivery of the paper version of the newsletter (or ask him in person - Mark is usually at the back of the auditorium at General Meetings). To subscribe to the Announcements List, e-mail listserve@opcug.ottawa.com. Leave the subject blank. In the body of the message put "subscribe announcements" (without the quotes).Within a couple of minutes you will receive a confirmation message from the listserver. "Announcements" is a low volume list that the Board of Directors can use to get in touch with the membership. Subscribers can expect at least one message per month - the meeting reminder that goes out a few days in advance of the general meeting. Other than that, the only time it is used is when the Board feels there is some important news that should be brought to the attention of all members.