Offline G-Mail Access:

Those of you that use G-Mail as your primary e-mail client, this will allow you to view your e-mail while not connected to the internet.

Login to your Gmail account, click on settings, and select the LABS link.  At the top of th elist wil be ‘Offline’  Select enable on the right and scroll all the way down adn select ‘Save Changes’  Follow the onscreen instructions.

Internet Explorer 8 RC1

Some New Features

• Suggested Sites
• Duplicate Tab under the file menu
• Compatibility View
• Accelerators – See Video
• Enhanced Tabbed browsing
• Reopen closed tabs
• Reopen your last browsing session

Improved favorites and history management

• One Click Favorites: Favorites now has its own toolbar in IE.  Click the ‘One click favorites’ button and immediately add the page you’re currently on to the favorites bar or link bar.
• RSS feeds on Link Bar:  (really simple syndication)  The links bar has beenupdated so you can drag an RSS feed to your link bar, making it easier to see when importan feeeds are update.
• History Sorting:  Allows you to sort your history by Site Name, Most Visited sites, Oder Visited today, and Date.  This makes it easier to organize and locate sites in your history.
• History searching: You can search for pages in history by typing keywords.  This makes it easier to locate sites when browsing your history.

• Tab Isolation: If a website or add-on casues a tab to crash in Internet Explorer 8, only that tab is affected.
• Crash Recovery: If one or more of yoru tabs unexpectedly closes or crashes, your tabs are autmatically reloaded and your are returned to the site you were on before the crash.

• InPrivate Browsing:  This helps prevent your borwsing history, temporary internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords from being retained by the browser.  This leave no evidence of your browsing or search history.
• This can be done by opening a new tab, selecting Browse with InPrivate.  
• At this point a new IE window will open and you will see the word ‘InPrivate” next to the address bar.

• Malware is software that is designed to damage your computer.  Computer Viruses are good examples of malware.  They can be downloaded without your knowledge or permission.
• Phishing allows the bad guys to obtain your personal information.  This could be your credit card or social security number.  They can do this by pretending to be a legitimate organization like your bank or your credit card company.

Next Weeks show:

According to DTVAnswers.com, the U.S. Congress approved an extension of the Feb. 17th deadline for full-powered television stations nationwide to broadcast  exclusively in digital format.  The new deadline is June 12, 2009.

1. Get a google account
2. On your PC with Microsoft Outlook, you can use the Google Calendar Sync software to sync your outlook calendar with your google calendar.
3. Next Download the Iphone or Blackberry version of Google Sync to your phone.
4. Start Syncing.

Protect your computer while on WIFI public hotspots:

Public WiFi Hotspots are usually found in:

• Coffee/sandwich shops
• Airports
• Hotels

Unfortunately, most of the Public Hotspots do not use any type of encryption.  This leaves your laptop vunerable unless you take the neccessary steps to protect yourself.  Using a firewall will greatly improve your security for your laptop.  Both Windows XP and Windows Vista have a firewall.

Windows Firewall:
Windows XP with SP2: Click HERE to find out how to enable this.

Windows Vista Firewall:
Click HERE to find out how to enable this.

Here is what to do to protect yourself while near a WiFi Hotspot:

• Do not enter your credit card information or passwords while using a public wifi hotspot
  • If you must, make sure your browser shows a padlock that tells you that it’s a secure site.
  • Check the URL that you are connected to.  It must show https://….
• Turn off your wireless when not in use:  If you’re not using your wireless connection, but still need to use the computer, turn off your wireless network.  Most laptops now have a switch where you can turn it off.  See your laptops manual for more information.

Protect Your Laptop on the Road

Protect your information If you keep personal or financial information on your computer, there are tools to protect your information through a process called encryption. To learn how to encrypt your data in Microsoft windows, visit techwithmike.com and see the notes for this show.

An Example of another option would be to use TrueCrypt: www.truecrypt.org

Protect your laptop with a strong password If you travel with your laptop frequently, you should secure it with a strong password. Check your computer’s Help and Support service to learn how to add or change your system password. To find out how to create passwords that are tough for hackers to crack, but easy for you to remember, see the show notes for this show.  I will provide links on ho to create strong passwords.  

Strong passwords: How to create and use them

Microsoft Password Checker can help you create a strong password.

Back up your computer before going. Always back up your information before you take your laptop on a trip. You can’t always avoid the financial loss of your equipment, but you can avoid losing all your information in the process. Listen to show  13 – Backup Up on how to learn how to backup your data www.techwithmike.com/?p=181 .

Be careful what you store on your thumb drives  If you travel with a thumb drive, try not to store sensitive information on it. If you lose the drive or if the drive is stolen it’s easy for anyone to access that information. Thumb drives can also carry viruses like many other types of storage devices can, so remember to update the antivirus on your computer.  If you need to carry sensitive data on the thumbdrive use Truecrypt to secure the data.

Tracking down your stolen laptop:  Many if not mall laptop manufacturers will give you the option to install special software that can be used to track down your laptop in the event of it being stolen.  Some software can erase your hard drive at your request so that someone that stole your laptop will not be able to access your data.  Check with your laptop vendor.

Set a System boot password:  This can be done in your system settings upon boot up.  Some system passwords can also encrypt your hard drive so that you can not remove the hard drive and access the data on another computer.