Help Reduce Viruses And Worms Microsoft Corp. Provides Free Monthly Security Update Alerts Ask The Help Desk What Is FTP And How Does It Work? Sites Of The Month Great Sites To Check Out In July! Short Tutorial Reducing The Clutter On Your Bookmarked Favorites List

July 2004 It's another beautiful summer and a perfect time to enjoy the great outdoors with friends and family. But it's also a great time to kickback, relax, and hop on your computer to surf the Internet for awhile. We hope this month's eNewsletter will help you protect your computer, cook dinner, catch up on the latest news in the cycling world, and/or help you increase your knowledge base in case you're called to be on Jeopardy! Enjoy! The goal of each of our monthly eNewsletters is to keep our subscribers informed regarding their Internet connection and to improve their Internet experience. To meet this goal, each monthly newsletter will usually contain information related to: Warnings on a recent virus or e-mail hoax that may affect you An update on new services and other local interests An answer to a frequently asked Internet related question Some fun, seasonal websites to check out A short, step-by-step tutorial on an e-mail or browser related task To see what's inside this issue, take a look at the index to the left and thanks for reading! QNET

Help Reduce Viruses And Worms - Microsoft Corp. Provides Free Monthly Security Update Alerts

Beginning in October 2003, Microsoft Corp. initiated a new systematic program of posting security bulletin updates on its website on the second calendar Tuesday of each month. You can see this page by going to: http ://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/alerts2.asp. Prior to October 2003, security notices advising users to download updated security patches, service packs, etc., were posted on a random basis within the security section of the Microsoft.com site.

If you run any of Microsoft Corp.'s software programs on your computer, i.e. Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, MSN Messenger, etc., be sure to go to link listed above either on or shortly after the first Tuesday of each month for the latest Microsoft Security Bulletin.

An even better idea is to sign-up to have a "Microsoft Security Updates Alert" e-mailed to you each month by Microsoft Corp. Simply go to THIS LINK and you'll have the choice of signing up for either the "Simple Terms" monthly e-mail notice, which is geared toward home users and small businesses, or for the more technical version. In either case, the Microsoft Security Updates Alert e-mail is sent to subscribers on the first calendar Tuesday of each month.

As a reminder, authentic Microsoft Security Bulletins NEVER INCLUDE SOFTWARE UPDATES OR PATCHES AS ATTACHMENTS. Malicious individuals have been known to send spoof e-mails that appear to be coming from Microsoft Corp. The message of the bogus e-mail encourages the recipient to download the accompanying attachment to prevent the possible infection of a virus or worm. When the recipient opens the attachment, his/her computer is infected. Resist the temptation to open the attachment! Always go to the Microsoft.com website to download any Microsoft-related patch or service pack.

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Ask The Help Desk - What Is FTP And How Does It Work?

Question: I've heard that the spread of the Sasser Worm back in early May was unique in that it spread to other computers via FTP instead of by e-mail. What is "FTP" and how does it work?

Answer: FTP is the acronym for File Transfer Protocol. It's a communication language that allows computers to easily transfer files from one to another either over a local network (a group of connected computers --like within a company) or a wide area network (like the Internet). FTP is used quite often, especially by companies, when transferring large files that would be too large to send as e-mail attachments. Other common communication protocols that you may have heard of are the "HTTP" protocol (HyperText Transfer Protocol) used to transmit web pages and "MAILTO" protocol used for sending e-mail messages.

In the case of the Sasser worm, the infected computer took advantage of a vulnerability in Windows to FTP itself (rather than sending itself via e-mail as most worms have previously done) to computers whose owners had not patched their PCs to fix that vulnerability. (See the first article above for more information on "patching" your computer.)

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Great Sites To Check Out This Month

Cooking By Numbers This Summer
http://cookingbynumbers.com/frames.html -  This is the perfect recipe site for families on the go this summer. You simply put a check mark next to the ingredients you have available both in your fridge and in your cupboard and then click on the "Find Recipes" button. Dozens of simple recipes then appear based on the ingredients you have available. It really is "cooking by numbers!" The site also has a fun "Tomato Attack" game you can play while your meat is defrosting in the microwave.

Cheyenne Frontier Days
http://cfdrodeo.com -  Looking to take an "old west" trip this summer? Why not head out to Cheyenne, Wyoming for Cheyenne Frontier Days going on from July 23rd through August 1st? It's billed as "The Daddy Of 'em All -- The World's Largest Rodeo and Western Celebration." Nine straight days of rodeo action includes over forty bucking bulls and over seventy saddle and bareback broncs in each performance. Plus, nightly concerts by stars such as George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis and Brad Paisley. See this site for all the details ... and giddyup!

Great Abbott And Costello Site
http://abbottandcostello.net/ -  Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were one of the most entertaining comedy teams in show business history. First partnering in 1936, the straightman/clown act was successful in radio, on the broadway stage, in film, and later on television. They were the first non-baseball-playing celebrities to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. in great part due to their infamous "Who's On First" routine. This site includes downloadable radio shows, humorous e-cards, scripts of popular routines, whimsical audio clips, and more. It's a very fun site.

License Plates From Around The World
http://worldlicenseplates.com -  This site isn't the most aesthetic, but it sure is comprehensive. Just like its domain name implies, this website provides images of license plates from most every country in the world. The site also includes plates from all U.S. states, Canadian provinces, military forces, and more. Many of the images are of vintage plates. So, if you've ever wanted to see what the license plates from the Vatican, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Estonia, or Chile look like, this is your site.

Lance Armstrong Goes For Record Six Straight Tour de France Wins
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/tour04/index.php?id=default -  Are you looking for a fast way to drop a few pounds this summer? Why not race in this year's Tour de France? These guys will burn up to 9,000 calories a day, make well over 320,000 peddle strokes, and go through over 40,000 water bottles during this month's 2,109 mile (3,395 km) event. Over fifteen million spectators will line the roads to watch 198 cyclists compete -- making this the biggest bicycling event of the year. Adding more excitement and drama to this year's event is the U.S. Postal Service Team's Lance Armstrong's quest for his sixth consecutive win. Visit this site often to catch minute-by-minute reports, see action photos, read daily tour diaries, and catch live coverage.

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Short Tutorial - Reducing The Clutter On Your Bookmarked Favorites List

If you've been surfing the Web for a while, you've probably accumulated a large number of bookmarked Favorites on your browser. The list can become almost unmanageable over time. Wouldn't it be nice if your browser sort of kept things neat for you? Internet Explorer 6 in Windows XP has a hidden feature that will do just that -- reduce the clutter of bookmarks you have collected. (This feature is not available for Netscape or Mac users.) You can make setting changes so your Favorites list only shows the favorite sites you visit most often. It doesn't eliminate your less frequently visited bookmarked pages, it just stores them out of the way for you. Here's how to set this up:

1. Open Internet Explorer 6 (using Windows XP only).
   
   
2. Click your cursor arrow on the "Tools" menu.
   
   
3. Drop down to and select "Internet Options."
   
   
4. When the "Internet Options" window appears, click on the "Advanced" tab.
   
   
5. Look for "Enable Personalized Favorites Menu" and click on its check box. This will limit the number of visible favorites.
   
   
6. Click on the "Apply" button.
   
   
7. Click "OK" to close the "Internet Options" window.
   
   
8. Enjoy your simplified "Favorites" menu.

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