Subscriber Winona Leaman wrote to ask about a significant problem she was having with Firefox 3:

A question ... I'm using windows XP, with SP2, and Firefox 3 browser, which I prefer over Internet Explorer. Recently I have not been able to save, or delete my bookmarks. I have searched for solutions, but none successful, including reinstalling Firefox. Both saving, and deleting bookmarks worker for me before, so I do know the proceedure for both of those tasks. Thank you for any help you can give. I enjoy and look forward to your helpful weekly newsletter. Winona

I wrote back to Winona to tell her that I had experienced the same problem about 3 weeks ago and solved it. Of course, I told her how to solve it, too...

The key was that I had to do a "clean reinstall" of Firefox, not just uninstall and reinstall.

The steps were:

1. Export the Firefox 3 bookmarks
   • From the toolbar, Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Backup...
   • pick the location and file name to save your bookmarks for importing into Firefox later. Save them somewhere in My Documents or elsewhere of your choice — just not in the Application Data\Mozilla\FIrefox folder The filetype will be .json.
2. Just in case, make a different type of backup, also.
   • Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Export HTML..., which will create an HTML file of the Bookmarks. If I recall correctly, this is the file that worked for me. I think I had problems with the .json file
3. Uninstall Firefox:
   • Start > Add or Remove Programs > Firefox > Uninstall (or Remove, whichever it says)
4. Open Windows Explorer: Right-click on Start > Explore
5. If you have not already done this, set Windows Explorer to Show Hidden Files and Folders
6. Move to C:\Documents and Settings\[YourUserID]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
7. Either (a) delete the Firefox directory or (b) rename the Firefox directory to something like Firefox-old
8. Reboot
9. Install Firefox
10. Now import your bookmarks that you saved: If I recall correctly, importing from the saved HTML file seemed to work, while importing from the .json file (the "backup file") didn't work right.

Hello Terry,

I would like to thank you very much for your helpful, and very quick reply to my bookmark problem. After following your great step by step instructions this issue has been solved.

Thanks again,

Winona

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Reader Glenn Bryson wrote to me this week via the to ask:

Message: Terry, Thanks for your very helpful advice. On your recommendation, I upgraded to Vipre antivirus and antispyware. Since then, I have a lot of ads blocked with this error statement: "Ad blocked here by SPF" Does this have anything to do with Vipre? How do I lower the bar on what ads are blocked? Once again, thanks for all your help. Glenn Bryson

I wrote back to Glenn to tell him that Vipre wasn't the issue — the message indicated that the ad-blocking was being done by Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

I strongly recommended that he turn off that feature in SPF. It works by wrapping a big JavaScript around the whole web page as its being downloaded. Then, before the page displays, the JavaScript runs to block the ads.

When I tried it initially, I found that the ad-blocking slowed up my web browser. More importantly, ads are a critical part of the "free Internet" — advertising supports almost all the free web sites.

Of course, my site and newsletter are supported by ads, so I feel strongly about people blocking ads.

Since Glenn wanted to know how to control SPF's ad blocking, I referred him to my review of Sunbelt Personal Firewall (http://www.terryscomputertips.com/computers/sunbelt-personal-firewall-review.php).

As part of my review, I show screen shots of the settings that I use for all my web surfing. There's a clickable image just below the adblocking section of the review, which shows my web filterig settings:

• Enable Web Filtering — OFF (unchecked)
• Block Advertisements — OFF (unchecked)
• Block JavaScripts — OFF (unchecked)
• Block VBScripts — OFF (unchecked)
• Block ActiveX — OFF (unchecked)

I also referred him to an earlier article that I wrote when the program was still called Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.terryscomputertips.com/archives/news_20060730_3.php)

3.  My Computer Security Software Recommendations

Anti-Virus

I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."

For the last five years, until very recently, my personal choice has been ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 one of the best in anti-virus protection. Unlike some of its competitors, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, and includes program updates in the multiple-year license.

Now, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.

I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.

Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.

Related articles:

• Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
• Free Online Antivirus Scan
• NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32
• VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Review

Click here for more information about VIPRE.

Firewall Software

While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.

The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.

Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?

I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.

I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.

Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.

Related articles:

• The Internet Versus You
• Do I Need a Firewall Program?
• My Sunbelt Personal Firewall Review

Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software

CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It has been my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.

Sunbelt's CounterSpy v2.5, both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.

Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions — the current version is v3.1. Nicely, they do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed.

Now, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.

I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. My computer seems to have much more pep and power than it had previously. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.

Related articles:

• Fighting Against Spyware & Malware
• My CounterSpy Review
• My VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Review

Anti-spam Software

In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"

I use and now I recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.

POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.

Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.

Mailwasher Pro would be my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists. Note: I found that PopFile generally meets my needs and stopped using Mailwasher Pro, even though PopFile works AFTER the emails have been downloaded. If I used a dialup connection, I would be more interested in Mailwasher Pro.

Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.

Related articles:

• Spam Filtering
• Keeping spam out of your Inbox
• Getting Control of Your Inbox
• How Can I Prevent spam?

Cable/DSL Router

If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.

Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.

A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.

For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I'm using the relatively new version 6 of this router.

If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41 wired router, which I also use. Either way, based on my experience, I recommend Linksys routers for price, reliability and Linksys' habit of releasing updated firmware for their products..

See these related articles:

• Wireless Security
• Wi-Fi Hotspots and Computer Security
• Wireless Networking Problems & Wireless Networking Security

Program:   OpenOffice.org v3.0
Publisher:  OpenOffice.org
Category:  Office Suite — word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentations, and more
License:  GNU Lesser General Public License Version 3. Also includes 3rd party code subject to other license terms (included)

OpenOffice.org v3.0 has been released — it's not a beta version any more!

The first thing I noticed about OpenOffice.org v3.0 (yes, the .org is really part of the program's name, as well as being part of the web site's name and the organization's name), was that it was a 145MB download.

If you've got a high-speed cable connection or a direct Ethernet wired connection, you'll be happy. If you've got a slow DSL connection, it will take a while to download. If you've got a dialup connection, check around — there are vendors who sell CD's of OpenOffice.org quite cheaply via the Internet.

When I installed it, I ran into a little problem with Vipre — it wanted to scan the 145MB file and it took a long time to do it. I'm not sure why I had to do it, but I ended up having to turn off my "active protection" while I did the installation. Of course, immediately afterwards, I turned it back on.

When I started OpenOffice 3.0 (let's drop the .org for now) from the redesigned desktop icon, I was impressed by the glitzy opening interface, shown below.

(click on the image for a larger version)

OpenOffice.org's Writer, the word processor, looks very familiar. Writer can read and write Microsoft Word files. You can even set it to automatically convert Word to Writer format on opening, and converting back to Word format upon saving. Alternatively, you can configure OpenOffice.org to always save a wordprocessing file in MS Word format, or any of a number of other formats.

(click on the image for a larger version)

OpenOffice.org's Calc, the spreadsheet program, looks very familiar, too. Calc can read and write Microsoft Excel files. You can even set it to automatically convert Excel to Calc format on opening, and converting back to Excel format upon saving. Alternatively, you can configure OpenOffice.org to always save a spreadsheet file in MS Excel format, or any of a number of other formats.

(click on the image for a larger version)

And, as does OpenOffice.org's Impress, the presentations program... Impress can read and write Microsoft Powerpoint files. You can even set it to automatically convert Powerpoint to Impress format on opening, and converting back to Powerpoint format upon saving. Alternatively, you can configure OpenOffice.org to always save a presentations file in MS Powerpoint format, or any of a number of other formats.

(click on the image for a larger version)

OpenOffice.org can create a number of different working files via its File > New menu command. In addition to the Writer, Calc and Impress programs and files, it can create Drawing, Database, HTML, XML Forms, Master Documents, Formulas, Labels, Business cards.

There is even a catch-all for add-ons/extensions to OpenOffice. Some of these are templates. Others actually add functionality (rather than layout) to OpenOffice.org. You can find them via the Templates and Documents selection on the New menu item.

(click on the image for a larger version)

The "Templaes and Documents" menu item opens the corresponding dialog box — and the very valuable "Get more templates online..." link.

(click on the image for a larger version)

The Extensions Repository is structured so that we can easily find extensions and templates by searching. It also has some categories Some of the extensions and templates I quickly found and wanted in Most Popular were:

The first one I saw that I wanted was a beta version designed for importing PDF documents into OpenOffice.org so the user can edit the PDF file.

(click on the image for a larger version)

The Professional Template Pack 2, which contains 120 templates for word-processing (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc) and presentation (Impress). Of course, the original Professional Template Pack is also available.

(click on the image for a larger version)

Writer's Tools looks like a nice selection of additions that appear to be designed for book and article writers.

(click on the image for a larger version)

Want an easily customizable calendar program? This calendar template may be what you want...

(click on the image for a larger version)

Here's the original Professional Template Pack of 80 templates for Writer, Calc, Draw and Impress.

(click on the image for a larger version)

How about some labels designed for OpenOffice?

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

To find and download templates and other extensions:

1. File > New > Templates and Documents menu choices.
2. Click on the link in the bottom left that says "Get more templates online..."
3. Pick an extension or template you want
4. Download it and save it somewhere on your hard drive where you can find it again; perhaps create a folder "OpenOffice extensions" in My Documents and put them there.
5. Repeat the last two steps until you've downloaded all the extensions and templates you want right now

(click on the image for a larger version)

The installation step is easy! To install templates and other extensions:
1) File > Open

2) Navigate to the location where you stored the extensionns and templates you downloaded

3) Select the extension/templates that you want to install

4) Confirm that you really intend to istall the extension

(click on the image for a larger version)

5) Read and agree to the Extension Software License Agreement (you have to scroll through it in order to agree

(click on the image for a larger version)

6) and, almost instantly, the extensionn is added annd will show in the Extension Manager.

(click on the image for a larger version)

I've used OpenOffice.org since version 1.0. Version 2 was a major upgrade in compatibility from the v1 series, and was very, very usable.

Now that version 3 is here, I expect to see a lot more of OpenOffice.org on my computer. I'm getting tired of buying expensive copies and upgrades to Microsoft Office.

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