Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
April 29, 2007

Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

Volume 2, Number 46 — Sunday, April 29, 2007

THIS WEEK'S SHORT ON-LINE ISSUE:
   1.   Temporary Files, Passwords, Cookies and Privacy
   2.   Updates Last Week

Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.

My emailed newsletter is sent weekly to individuals who have subscribed to the newsletter. Click here to subscribe. It's free!

Ads by Terry
Free NetZero Dialup Up to 10 Hours Per Month  Free! Great Backup for Cable Modem Users or for Travel terryscomputertips.com/NetZeroFree	NetZero Platinum Only $6.95/month - Limited Time Offer - First 12 Months only terryscomputertips.com/NetZero

0.  Short Newsletter This Week

I've been busy this week and haven't had much newsletter-writing time. So, rather than just skip a week, this week's on-line issue will be much shorter than normal.

Subscribers, on the other hand, received a normal-sized email issue — or maybe even a little larger than normal. If you don't already subscribe, you should —
the email newsletter has different content!

1.  Temporary Files, Passwords, Cookies and Privacy

You probably know that Windows and your favorite web browser, whether that's IE, Firefox, Opera or another, have a number of features designed to make YOUR life easier when you are using Windows or surfing the web.

One of the ways they do that is to create one or more caches, that is, temporary copies of downloaded images and other work files.

Many programs clean up (delete) their temporary files when you exit the program. Web browsers do not, although most can be set to do that. It takes longer to exit the program, though, so that option is turned off by default.

Similarly, IE, Firefox, Opera and other browsers will offer to remember your passwords when you visit web sites, if the site requires you to log in. Whether you choose to let it save the password or not is your own choice. Fortunately, you can make the decision on a site-by-site basis -- it's not an all-or-nothing decision.

Cookies provide a lot of useful functions on the Internet. But, first, what is a cookie?

Cookies are tiny text files that are site-specific. When tell your web browser to go to a web site, it sends any cookies that it has for that web site along with its request for a response from the site. That's how a site that uses cookies knows that you are you, even without having to log in again.

They're used by sites like the New York Times to remember you so you don't have to log in every time you go there. Shopping sites similarly often use cookies to remember you when you come back — or even to remember you when you go to the next page of the site.

Web site income is another use of cookies -- they allow an advertising agency to track a referral from a web site to the advertiser. This is a necessary part of the free Internet — if you want free content, the content providers have to make their money on advertising.

This is the cookie function that is blown all out of proportion by the anti-spyware companies. Cookies are easy to find, so it's easy for the program to say "I found Spyware!" That's why you'll find vastly different numbers of "spyware items" found on your computer depending on which antispyware you use -- some seem to declare ANY cookie to be spyware.

What do I do with cookies?

I don't worry about them. I have my web browsers set to accept them automatically.

I'm more worried about the amount of space that Windows assigns for Temporary Internet Files. Read more in Setting a Reasonable Temporary Internet Files Limit

So, what's the big issue with spyware and adware, if it's not cookies?

The problem is that there are slimeballs in the Internet world who want to actually install their programs on your computer so that they can monitor what you do and capture your user ID's and passwords.

They also want to put pop-up ads on your computer, install other advertising and spyware (they can get paid for installing other people's nasties, too), redirect your search queries to their search sites, redirect your banking or business to their fake web sites.

Also, these programs don't play nicely with your computer. Usually, the first thing installed is a "downloader" which handles installing a lot more junk. In addition to spying on you, feeding you their ads (and even overwriting website ads with their own ads!), these programs slow down your computer and can even make it difficult to boot.

In other words -- spyware and adware is nasty. It tries to do things to you and your computer.

I use CounterSpy 2.0 to prevent and disinfect spyware on my family's computers. For a limited time, you can get CounterSpy 2.0 and a 20-issue subscription to PC Magazine (U.S. customers only) for the same price as CounterSpy 2.0 alone.
CounterSpy 2.0 plus PC Magazine

When I do want to clean up my computer's Temporary Internet Files (cache), other Windows temporary files, cookies, and even wipe out the stored passwords in my web browser, I use either:

• WinClear, which is very Microsoft-centric. It's focused on IE, Windows and Office. It's easy to use (which also means that it doesn't have much fine-tuning capability). Or,
• XP Privacy Pro, which has much better configuration capabilities and handles Firefox, Opera and Netscape in addition to IE, Windows and Office files.

2.  Updates Last Week

Microsoft (operating systems, email, web browser, office suites):
Microsoft releases almost all updates once per month, on the second Tuesday. I saw none this week.

Firefox (web browser, http://www.mozilla.com, free):
Versions 2.0.0.3 and 1.5.0.11 were released on March 20, 2007.

The Mozilla Foundation will continue updating Firefox 1.5.x until April 24, 2007. That's this month! Now's the time to upgrade to Firefox v2. Firefox is free.

Opera (web browser, http://www.opera.com, free):
Version 9.20 was released on April 11th. This release of a recommended security upgrade, in addition to having several new features.

Netscape (web browser, http://browser.netscape.com, free):
Version 8.1.3 was released during he week of April 1.
Quoting the web site:
  What's new in this version? Security fixes

SeaMonkey (web browser, email, HTML editor, newsreader; http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey; free): Version 1.1.1 and version 1.0.8 were released on February 28, 2007. These are security update and stability releases.

Eudora (email, http://www.eudora.com, options: paid, sponsored or free/lite):
No update last week. Version 7.1.0.9 was released October 11, 2006. This was announced as to be the last commercial version before Eudora becomes open-source in the first half of 2007.

Warning: If you were running "Sponsored Mode" in a version before 7.1.0.9, it's probably too late now. Sponsored mode in the earlier versions expired on March 31st — and will revert to the less-functional "Lite" mode. Fortunately, Eudora is very nicely designed. You can install a new version in a new directory and then copy the data files from the old version to the new.

If you want to consider the Paid Mode of Eudora, you will need to act quickly. Qualcomm will stop sellig the paid version on April 30th.

Mozilla Thunderbird (email, http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird, free):
New Version!Thunderbird version 2.0.0.0 was released during the week ending April 22nd. Quoting the web site: "Mozilla’s Thunderbird 2 email application is more powerful than ever. It’s now even easier to organize, secure and customize your mail."

OpenOffice (office suite — spreadsheet, word processor, presentations, graphics, web design; http://www.openoffice.org; free):
Version 2.2 was released on March 29th.

From the OpenOffice.org web site:

OpenOffice.org 2.2 is an important new release and all should download it, as it resolves security issues and includes significant enhancements. These are both general and specific. A full list of the new features and fixes is given in our release notes, but among them:

• Enhanced text display throughout
• Better support for Pivot Tables in Calc
• Several key improvements in Base
• A more robust Mac version for X11
• ... And many more

Volume 2, Number 46 — Sunday, April 29, 2007

Copyright © 2007 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.