Re: setting limits on my computer
From: Shenan (shenans@hotmail.com)
Date: 09/30/02
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From: "Shenan" <shenans@hotmail.com> Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 22:21:32 -0500
Then don't let them on the Internet.
That's truly the only SURE way to do it, assuming you meant "on the
computer" and you do not download pornographic material on your own.
You can get many 3rd party blocking softwares to help you with this (Net
Nanny, etc)
You could setup time limits for your children's Windows accounts(assuming
you use passwords to protect the other accounts at least and they are not
administrators..)
-- Situation: You want to restrict the logon days / times of a user account in XP and are a standalone machine. Reason: You may wish to restrict teens who arrive home before adult supervision from accessing your broadband always on connection, limit employees to only work hours access etc.. Steps: To Set restrictions: 1.. Click Start 2.. Click Run 3.. Type cmd in the run box and press enter. 4.. The following is a sample of what you would type: net user testuser /times:M-F,5pm-9pm; Sa,6am-9pm;Su,6am-9pm Where testuser is the local account name. To Remove Restrictions: 1.. Click Start 2.. Click Run 3.. Type cmd in the run box and press enter. 4.. The following is a sample of what you would type: net user testuser /times:all Where testuser is the local account name. -- There are likely other options out there. Perhaps a GOOGLE search. Other Tips: AntiVirus Software: Antivirus software is essential now. You can get viruses from emails(even from friends and family), web pages, instant messengers(AOL, MSN, ICQ) and many other places/ways. Therefore, the installation and proper use of an antivirus software is a necessity. Everyone will have their own individual experiences with the different packages available. All I can do is suggest a few based on my experience. Norton AntiVirus, if kept up to date, is one of the better AntiVirus systems in my opinion. Stick with it, keep it updated. There are other AntiVirus programs out there, some are even free, like AVG found at http://www.grisoft.com/ and Antivirat http://www.free-av.com/ for download. Some have online scanners you can use such as http://housecall.antivirus.com. At least run one. You will prevent future headaches. McAfee is Okay - but I personally cannot recommend it - I am sure other people have greatly differeing opinions. Ad-Ware and Spy-Ware: First off, I guess I should explain what these are. There are several definitions out there, but in its simplest form, adware/spyware is a hidden software program that transmits your user information via the Internet to advertisers. There is a good web page with some links and such at http://www.adware.info/ that you might want to look at for more information. So what can you do? Download and install and keep up to date and run frequently some spyware/adware detection/elimination software. I suggest "Ad-Aware" from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ as one of the best. There are others out there, but from all accounts, this one is the best. However, another product, Spybot - Search & Destroy, has really come a long way as of late and has been kept (at least recently) more up to date than Ad-Aware. You can get this product from http://beam.to/spybotsd as it is also free. I think you might be surprised by how much spyware/adware there is out there and possibly attached to software you would not have thought would do such things. All of those COOL toys and utilities for FREE!: Don't download and install everything you see. Things like "make your internet faster" and "remember you passwords" and "protect your system from privacy invasion" softwares are usually crap, to put it succintly. File sharing apps are dangerous for novice installers(Kazaa, Grokster, Morpheus) In general, if it sounds like a ploy - it is. That does not mean you should not download and try new things, that is part of the fun of having a computer with access to the Internet - but do it wisely. Do searches on Google and other places for people having used the product you are thinking about trying. Email and SPAM(If only it stayed a luncheon meat): I am POSITIVE others may have had different experiences than I have on this subject, but this is my ramblings, so here it goes. Ignore the email spam protection software and just don't sign up for everything you see and learn to use email filters. Also, go ahead and unsubscribe to the emails you get you don't want. I have actually found that the old advice of "don't unsubscribe, they just send you more because now they know the address is valid" to be false a high enough percentage of the time to make it worthwhile. Now, having experienced the issue for some time, I find (with some urging from others) that some more advice is still necessary. Although I stick with my unsubscribe theory - it is a 70% work-around. This means it will reduce your spam by about 70%. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a program called "MailWasher". It is not truly "spam protection" software in the meaning I always thought of - in that it is NOT automated and will not randomly delete email that COULD have been legit. It is a nice app that checks your email AT the server and based on a list of known SPAMMERS, marks email as blacklisted or unknown or friendly and so on. It lets you SEE all of this, making changes and lets YOU be the deciding factor. I have found its list to usually be perfect. You can download MailWasher at http://www.mailwasher.net/ and it *is* free. However, once you use it, you may want to consider contributing to the author. (I am not the author, I don't know the author, and I don't care how you feel about any of this - but I know this program is something I would DEFINITELY buy..) Hackers breaking into your computer: Does this REALLY happen? YES! Don't think of it as "What do I have that a hacker could POSSIBLY want?" That is a bad assumption. What they "want" is to use your machine as a practice ground for hacking elsewhere later, or they want to break into your computer then use it to break into other computers so they cannot be tracked as easily. Don't worry about too much more of a firewall than the built in XP one, especially if you are dial-up, but even if you are Cable Modem or DSL, you should be fine. Basically, the Internet Connection Firewall can also protect a single computer that is connected to the Internet. If you have a single computer that is connected to the Internet with a cable modem, a DSL modem, or a dial-up modem, Internet Connection Firewall protects your Internet connection. It is "one way" only - not blocking outgoing connections, but only attempts to get INTO your machine. For more information, go to: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q320855 If you feel this is not enough for your needs, I suggest Zone Alarm from http://www.zonealarm.com/ as an alternative. You could also get a hardware firewall, which has several other advantages. One of the easier to setup would be the Linksys routers( http://www.linksys.com/ ), and if you share a cable modem or DSL connection, it can help there as well. Keep it all "Up-To-Date": Keep your operating system and applications patched and up to date. You may ask, "Why?" - simple - it may fix problems you have yet to experience, have been experiencing or they may patch some vulnerability that would allow someone to really ruin your whole experience. I suggest visiting http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ often and checking for critical and other updates. Also, http://www.updates.com/ and install the updater, I consider this one of the best "all applications" updater out there. If you have Microsoft Office, you may want to also go to http://office.microsoft.com/ and download/install updates for that as well. Other tools to help you "tweak" your computer: If you are using Windows XP, you could download and install some of the XP PowerToys from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp and try some of those. You may find them useful. If you are using other Windows Operating systems, you can still get TweakUI from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTwea kUI.asp as well as other powertoys from places like http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/wutoys/w95kerneltoy/de fault.asp (some of them worked through Win2000 -- watch for URL wrapping.) There are TONS of great utilities and power-user toys out there to help you manage your computer and keep it running at peak efficiency. Most of them are free. My advice is to find something you are interested in, then research it to find the free alternatives - there is almost ALWAYS a free alternative. Still have Questions? There are tools out there to help you: Some other things you should learn to do is search the Internet for answers. The Google website at http://www.google.com/ is a great resource. I particularly like an application like WebFerret ( http://www.ferretsoft.com/ ) that searches a dozen plus search engines at once. You will be pleasantly surprised at the amount of information out there.. Answers to your problems are often a few clicks away. Also, learn what components you have in your system. For example, you may have a Creative Labs sound card, a 3COM network card, an NVidia video card, etc. You need to know the name-brand of the components in your computer so that you can keep the drivers(software that lets the hardware communicate with Windows) up-to-date and working for you instead of against you. You should easily be able to find the manufacturer of each component on the web. It's especially easy if you bought a brand name system(Dell, IBM, HP, etc.) They will have all of the hardware drivers you need to keep your computer running smoothly on their web page. Otherwise you could do a web search and find the support pages for a particular manufacturer. Some other places that have some GREAT Windows tips and some of the people contribute to the newsgroups often are: http://www.dougknox.com/ http://www.aumha.org/ http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/ http://www.xp-erience.org/ http://www.jsiinc.com/ http://www.winguides.com/ http://support.microsoft.com/ http://groups.google.com/ http://www.2e.org/bootdisk.htm http://www.driverguide.com/ http://www.annoyances.org/ http://www.windowsxp.nu/ http://slipstick.com/ http://www.answersthatwork.com/ http://www.pureperformance.com/ http://security2.norton.com/ssc/home.asp http://www.utilitygeek.com/ http://www.joeware.net/ http://www.microsoft.com/technet/mpsa/start.asp http://www.microsoft.com/technet/ http://catchup.cnet.com/ http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ http://office.microsoft.com/ProductUpdates/ http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups/ http://www.ferretsoft.com/ If you keep your computer patched/updated and cleaned up, you should enjoy the whole experience associated with your computer and the Internet. The real key is learning about your system, keeping it up to date, reading up on issues others are having and their solutions and basically not falling behind. Some people would be leaps and bounds ahead if they did simple things like reviewing stories at http://www.techtv.com/techtv/, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/, http://securityresponse.symantec.com/ and http://www.cnet.com/. Those are far from the ONLY sources out there, but for those people who want shots at the issues here and now and not wanting to put TONS of effort into it, those are great starts. One more thing.. Lost your XP product key? This app MAY display it for you: http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#View%20Product%20Key%20XP ( "Uncover Windows XP Product Key" is the link you seek.. ) I presonally would SAVE it and run it from my machine, but I doubt there is any harm in running it from where it sits. -- Shenan chantal wrote: > I dont want my children to view porn !!!!!
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