Tips & Tricks for Net Surfing
1.) Tips & Tricks For Browsing
- Use the Firefox browser :
- Use Opera, if you are looking for speed and its tabbed
interface. Use Internet Explorer, if you do a lot of offline browsing.
Netscape 7, like Opera, allows tabbed browsing, ie., opening multiple web
pages in a single window under different tabs. Besides, it has numerous
add-ons such as Mail, AOL IM, Winamp, etc. The only thing that Netscape 7
lacks is IE’s panache for offline browsing with the History side-pane. In
Opera, settings can be changed by choosing Preference
under the File menu. To get a tabbed interface for
new windows, check Open windows inside Opera workspace
under Windows. In the same place, select
Open pop-up windows in the background under Browser
Windows. To use the cache effectively, check Never
under History and cache. Press F5 to manually refresh
pages.
- To save on the time spent online, start your browser
along with Outlook Express. Open as many windows in the browser and enter
the urls of the sites you need to visit. Do not click on
Go or press Enter. Now start your dialer. Once
you are connected, ask OE to send and receive messages. As the messages are
being received and sent, go the browser windows and click on the
Go buttons. When OE finishes its job, disconnect.
- Do not type your messages online. If you have an HotMAIL
account, integrate it with OE. Type and read your messages offline. If you
are using other accounts such as Yahoo, type them first in Notepad when you
are offline. Then, when you go online, in the Compose section, cut and past
the message.
- You can send messages to machines running the Messenger
service (Windows NT/2000/XP) by using the command net
send <address> message from the MS-DOS prompt. To send a message to
yourself, type net send 127.0.0.1 hello.
2.) Tips ∓ Tricks For Internet Explorer
Most people use Internet Explorer to browse the net. It
loads up fast because parts of it is loaded by Windows as the latter boots
up. Using the feedback from its huge user base, Microsoft has made numerous
improvements, which you can use to your advantage.
- Disable the Links toolbar and save space. Remove the
Explorer view for the same reason.
- Customize the toolbar via View »
Toolbars » Customize.
- Blank home page: Set your
home page to a blank one so that it loads up faster. This is done via
Tools » Internet Options » General » Use Blank.
- Offline browsing:You do not
have to connect to the Internet to revisit a page. You can access it
from the cache. This is done via Tools » Internet
Options » Temporary Internet Folders » Settings » Check newer versions
of stored pages: » Never. After setting up IE like this, you can
browse offline by, click on the History button.
This will open up the History folder in a left pane. Browse through this
to access the pages that you have visited earlier. You check the latest
version on the net however by clicking on the Refresh
button.
- Context Menu Extensions For IE:
IE allows you to copy the address of a link with just two clicks. But to
copy the address of an image on a webpage, you have make at least 5
clicks. To make things like this more easier, you can create your own
context menu extensions. For this, some new keys will have to be added
to the registry. These keys will refer to Javascript or VBScript
functions placed in some special HTML files. Extract the HTM files to
C:\. Extract the cmes.reg and double click on it. The keys will be
merged into the registry. Your IE context menu will have new options -
“Copy All Hyperlink Address” (default), “Copy All Image Addresses”
(default), “Copy Image Address” (on images), “Set Text Size To Medium”
(on selected text) and “Copy HTML Code” (on selected text). You will
have to make some modification to the cmes.reg file if you are not able
to place files at C:\, a common scenario for people who are on a
network.
- Computer Security: Some
websites have ads that tell you that your computer could be transmitting
vital/private information about you, which could be targeted by hackers
and viruses. They will tell you to download a security software.
Considering the fact that they are using wrong tactics to sell their
product, it is quite possible that their software could be doing more
harm than good. No matter which software you use, it is not possible to
completely hide your computer on the net. People who have always-on
Internet connections like broadband or cable should instead use
firewalls like the trusty ZoneAlarm or
Tiny.
There are other websites that will ask visitors to
install ActiveX controls like Gator or
Bonzi. These are spyware and Internet users should
avoid them.
Neither should you install programs like MP3 Dancer.
These are spyware. Even if you uninstall them, they will still remain on
your computer without your knowledge.
- Paranoia 1: IE’s autocomplete
feature may throw up some web addresses at the address bar, which you
may not want others to see. So, clear the history. This is done by
Internet Options » Clear History. If otherwise
you want to selectively remove history items, then delete the
appropriate folders inside the History folder. In Windows 9x/Me, the
History folder is inside the Windows folder. In Windows 2000/XP, it will
be inside the Documents and Settings\«User
name»\Local Settings\ folder.
- Paranoia 2: Deleting the
files in the Temporary Internet Files folder can
remove only part of your tracks. Cookies stored by websites usually
remain in this folder with their full web address. So, that is a
security violation. To remove them, choose Internet
Options » Temporary Internet Folder » Delete Cookies.
- Paranoia 3: All evidence is
still not removed. There is a file inside the
Temporary Internet Files folder called index.dat, which has some
evidence of your browsing history. Delete this file too. IE will
regenerate another index.dat later.
- Paranoia 4: When the
Autocomplete feature is enabled, all your personal information including
passwords are stored on the computer, which is available for others to
misuse. So, when you are done with browsing at your office or an
Internet cafe, follow the above three steps and clear the saved data by
choosing Internet Options » Content » AutoComplete »
Clear Forms and Clear Passwords. Sometimes,
the Internet Options menu option might be
disabled in your office or web cafe. So, delete the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IntelliForms
key from the registry. If you want to steal or backup passwords, export
this key and import it on a different machine or installation. You will
also have to copy the {username}.pwl file and cookies to the new
machine/installation. Sometimes, there are ActiveX programs that sit
silently recording everything. You can check them out at
Internet Options » Temporary Internet Files »
Settings » View Objects. This will open the
Downloaded Program Files folder in the windows folder. By
right-clicking the contents, you can either remove them or check out
their properties.
- Paranoia 5: In certain
Internet cafes, silent keyboard loggers are installed by certain people
to collect userids and passwords, and send them to their email
addresses. Remove these programs from memory and only then browse. Also
disable form fillers such as Gator in Internet cafes.
- Dialer: When you click on a
link, IE starts the dialer program. If this is annoying to you, disable
this via Internet Options » Connection » Never dial a
connection.
- Saving on telephone bills:
You can make optimum use of your online time by opening the links in new
windows rather than the current one. Take for example your
HotMAIL Inbox. Every time you go there, there are
many messages there. Instead of just clicking on a message and waiting
for that message to load, right click on the message’s link and choose
Open in New Window. Go back to the Inbox and do
the same for all other messages. By this time, your first message would
have been downloaded. When you finish reading it, all the other messages
would have been downloaded in their windows. Now, you can logout and
disconnect the Internet connection.
- Downloading recalcitrant files:
Most people use a downloaded manager to download huge files. But,
sometimes they run into problems when the download manager is not able
to catch the correct url of the file. In such cases, open the source of
the page via View » Source and do a search for
the download file. Usually, the full url of the file will be found here.
Copy this and paste it in the download manager. If some website prevents
you from right-clicking to save an image on it, just look inside the
Temporary Internet Files folder for it.
- IE Toolbars ∓ Desktop Tickers:
Add the
Google Toolbar to IE. With this toolbar, you will get to the results
without having to visit Google’s home page first. You may also use
Yahoo! Companion instead. With Yahoo! Companion
you will be able to harness the power of the Google
search engine and also get easy access to other Yahoo! services.
- If you have to keep in touch with the latest news,
then get the
Reuters Desktop Ticker. Reuters is the world’s leading news provider
and almost every newspaper and TV station in the world gets feeds from
it. Once connected to the Net, headlines flash across the ticker and you
can click on the headlines to see the news stories in a browser window.
- ESCAPE: Many people do not
know this. If a page is being downloaded and you want to stop it, then
pressing the Escape key will do that. Also,
pressing Backspace key will take you to the
previous page.
- Saving web pages: Beginning
with Version 5, IE allows saving a web page in a single file including
its images and other embedded content. To do this, choose
Save As from the File
menu. Here in the Save as type, choose
Web Archive, single file (*.mht). Sometimes, MHT
files may not show anything even though its thumbnail does show
something. If you disable Javascript, you will be able to see the
whatever something you saw in the thumbnail.
3.) Tips ∓ Tricks For Outlook Express
Outlook Express is free and comes bundled with IE. You
can integrate your HotMAIL account with it.
- Save some space by unchecking
Contact, Outlook Bar, and View Bar in the Window
Layout Properties. This is chosen by selecting
Layout from the View menu.
- Implementing Spam Filters For POP
Accounts: Create two folders in your mail client -
Filtered Inbox and Spam.
Create the following four Message Rules in
Outlook Express (Tools » Message Rules » Mail). Use your old messages as
a guide while picking the words for your filters. Check the
Spam folder once in a while for any
false-positives. If you find any spam among the flagged messages in the
Filtered Inbox, then update the filters in the third rule with new
words.
Mail Rule #1: Mail From Known Contacts
Where the From line contains 'friendname' or 'contact@emailaddress.com'Move it to the Filtered Inbox folder
and Stop processing more rules
Mail Rule #2: Mail Not Addressed To Me
Where the To or CC line does not
contain 'your@emailaddress.com'Move it to the Spam folder and Stop processing more rules
Mail Rule #3: Word filters on From, To, ∓ Subject lines
Where the From line contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or
'teens' or 'viagra' or Where the Subject line
contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
or Where the To line contains
'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
Move it to the Spam folder
and Stop processing more rules
Mail Rule #4: Suspect Mail
For all messagesMove it to the Filtered Inbox folder
and Flag it
and Stop processing more rules
- Integrating HotMAIL: You can
integrate your HotMAIL account with Outlook Express. Just go about as
you would do with adding a POP account. After you enter your HotMAIL
address, OE will automatically identify it as a HotMAIL account and
pre-fill the E-mail Server Names details. Click
Next enter the userid and password. When you are
done, OE will ask if you want to download folders for that account.
Here, choose Yes. After the folders have been
downloaded, you can use it like you would use a POP mail account except
that you will not be able to use the Message Rules
(available under the Tools menu) on this account.
- Handling Junk Mail ∓ Viruses
In HotMAIL: If you get a lot of junk mail, then through the HotMAIL
website activate the bulk mail folder. Create appropriate mail filters
to prevent junk from landing into your inbox. Despite this, you might
get junk mail and sometimes viruses. To handle these annoyances, you
have to configure OE to download only mail headers. Right click on
Bulk Mail and Inbox
folders, and follow this – Synchronization Settings »
Headers Only. Keep the Preview option off by clicking on its button
on the toolbar. Some viruses get activated when Preview is on. Now,
connect to the net and receive your mail. Then, read the from addresses
and subject lines. Leave mails that appear to be viruses or spam alone.
Mark the good ones by clicking under the column Mark
for Offline. After this, once more receive your mail. Now, the
messages that you had marked alone will be downloaded in full. The
viruses and junk would not have been downloaded. Sometimes, your
well-meaning contacts might be sending you viruses unknown to them. So,
instead of opening the attachments, save them to your desktop. If the
attachments contain any viruses, your antivirus should kick in at this
time. I am using AVG antivirus and it does a pretty good job of handling
viruses.
Email Headers: Spammers
and viruses do a lot of spoofing when it comes to leaving traces. Check the
screenshot for the header of a virus-laden mail that I received. Both the to
and from address belong to me but the sender was actually jmcneill@stx.rr.com.
By reading the header, it becomes clear from which ISP this guy has been
using. In this case, RoadRunner.com or rr.com. By sending a mail to abuse@WhicheverISP.com,
you will be able alert the ISP provider of the nuisance. When contacting the
ISP, make sure you send them a plain text message along with the Internet
header of the offending email. Without the header, they will not be able to
take any action. To read the email headers, keep the Preview off. Right
click on the message and select Properties » Details.
Most viruses usually
attack the Address Book. The virus reads the addresses stored in the Address
Book and mails a copy of the virus to all the contacts, sometimes along with
a file found in your machine. Some viruses forge the to and from addresses.
So, it may not be always be right to yell at your friend for sending
viruses. It is best not to keep any contacts in the Address Book not just in
the interest of your contacts, but also in the interest of your own privacy.
People who send junk
mail or spam have large databases of email addresses. They are paid by
companies that sell something. All current measures against spam are devoted
against spammers rather than the spam sponsors. Spam
sponsors are at the root of this evil. Is there a way to stop this group of
low life? Read
Reverse Spamming or How To Fight Spam With Spam.
- Archiving HotMAIL messages:
When you import messages from a backup copy of the message store folder,
your HotMAIL messages will not be imported. So, create two folders under
Local Folders called Archived Inbox and Archived
Outbox. Copy the messages from your HotMAIL folders to these folders
appropriately. Before you reinstall Windows or something drastic as
that, create a backup copy the store folder in some other location. The
store folder’s location can be found by going to
Options » Maintenance » Store Folder. After you are done with your
reinstall, ask OE or whichever mail client you are using to import the
messages from this folder. Now, your HotMAIL messages will be imported.
- Options: To change the
various settings of OE, choose Options in the
Tools menu. If you have a dial-up account, then
under the General tab, uncheck all the check
boxes. Under the Send tab, uncheck the
Send messages immediately. Under the
Compose tab, under Font
Settings choose the Verdana 9pt font or anything else that you might
fancy. Under the Signatures tab, create different
signatures for different accounts or one for all accounts. If you are in
India, then setting the dictionary to English (United
Kingdom) in the Language section of the
Spelling tab will prevent conflicts with American
spelling.
- Blind Carbon Copy (bcc): Not
many people know the advantages of bcc. When an email is cc’d to
different people, each one of them get to know the other ids. Many
people would be annoyed if their ids are distributed around in a
careless fashion. Also, many a time, people just cc all others when
replying. So, when broadcasting a message leave the “To” and “cc” fields
empty and instead fill up the “bcc” with the addresses. To send mails
using the bcc option in Outlook Express, choose View
» All headers in the New Message window. - Use the Firefox browser :
Sun, Sep 28, 2008
Tips & Tricks for Net Surfing