|            |            |            |            |            |



Welcome to our weekly
T I P  S E R V I C E


Sign Me Up! Join our free weekly tip service and have a new tip emailed to you every week! It's easy! Just send an email to BlueScreenTips@BlueScreenComputer.com. Make sure to send it from the address you would like the tips to come to.

Our tips are completely FREE and there is no obligation to you whatsoever. We always keep your email address private. If you ever wish to stop receiving tips, simply send us an email.

Some examples of tips from past weeks appear below. If you have ideas or feedback on what kind of tips would be most useful to you, we would love to hear them!


Tips by Week


Tip #81: PHISHING SCAMS

“Phishing” scams are on the rise. In the typical phishing ploy, you receive an email that appears legitimately sent by a large company or government agency. The email asks you to click a link to visit a website and verify some account information. The website looks authentic, and requires account numbers and passwords to log in.

The emails and websites are hoaxes. Phishers create realistic-looking messages and websites in the hopes that you’ll give them your personal information. Once they have it, they’ll abuse it.

If you receive any dubious messages, use these easy tips to protect yourself:

If you’ve fallen victim to a phishing scam, you should act immediately to limit the damage the phishers can do to you. For example:

If you provided an account number to a phishing site, contact the credit card company or bank to learn about any recent activity and to discuss canceling the account.

If you provided a social security number, you should contact one of the three (or perhaps all three) of the national consumer reporting agencies:

  1. Equifax (http://www.equifax.com)
  2. Trans Union LLC (http://www.tuc.com)
  3. Experian Information Solutions (http://www.experian.com)

When contacting these agencies, you should request a copy of your credit report and should place a fraud alert on your accounts.

In the case of identity theft, also visit the FTC's Identity Theft Web site (http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft) to file a complaint. This site will also help you learn more about how to minimize your risk of damage from identity theft.

Tip #37: RESUSCITATING A FLOPPY DISK

A previous tip of ours described the fragility of floppy disks and how to prevent their damage. But despite proper care for disks, they can still develop problems that prevent you from getting at your files. Through no fault of yours, the disk may suddenly prevent you from opening a file, or may even act like it’s not there!

In this situation, you have one last hope before throwing the disk away. You can have your computer scan the floppy disk for errors, correcting them where possible. Better yet, it’s an easy process!

For PCs running Windows

  1. Put the problematic floppy disk in your computer’s floppy drive.

  2. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer.

  3. Locate your floppy drive, usually labeled as “A:”. Right-click it and select Properties.

  4. Click on the Tools tab.

  5. Click the Check Now button in the Error-Checking section.

  6. Put a check next to all options for scanning and fixing problems.

  7. Click Start and await the results.

For Macintosh systems

  1. Put the problematic floppy disk in your computer’s floppy drive.

  2. Open your hard drive on your desktop.

  3. Enter the Applications folder, then enter the Utilities folder.

  4. Find and double-click Disk First Aid.

  5. Select the icon for your floppy drive and then click Repair and await the results.

Please realize that this is not a miracle cure-all. Depending on what is causing the disk to malfunction, it may fix or alleviate the problem—or it may have no effect.

Also, these procedures sometimes work with other malfunctioning disks, such as Zip disks, SuperDisks and 5 ¼” floppies (but not CDs, which use a different technology). Just insert your disk and follow the same steps above. The only difference will be which drive you select when you go to check for errors (that is, if you want to scan a Zip disk, you will just choose your Zip disk drive instead of your floppy disk drive).

Tip #19: MEMORY LEAK

If your system becomes more and more sluggish as your work day progresses, memory leak may be the culprit.

As a program or operating system runs, it uses memory and then returns it to the computer (by memory, we mean RAM—random access memory). But due to bugs in many programs, sometimes not all the memory is returned. That retained memory sits unused and locked up. As programs repeat this process, they inadvertently hoard more and more memory. Eventually, the computer runs too short of free memory to function properly. It slows to a crawl or crashes.

Every time your computer boots, it refreshes its memory. This process frees up any memory that may have been hoarded—and is the only antidote for memory leak.

Memory leak is also influenced by what operating system you use. PC users will find that Windows 2000 and XP do a better job of reducing memory leak than earlier versions.

If you use Windows 95, 98 or Millennium, take note! These operating systems are far less stable and more prone to memory leak issues. Expect the occasional crash if you are using large files or high-end programs. Plan to reboot in the middle of your day if you’ve been opening and closing multiple programs.

Whatever operating system you use, make a habit of shutting down your computer at the end of each day. If your computer starts acting sluggish, stop and reboot. A voluntary reboot is much less frustrating than a surprise system freeze (just as you were about to click that Save button!).

Tip #16: Mail Filters

Programs like MailWasher and CoffeeCup’s Spam Blocker help cut down on the spam (or junk email) you receive. Before you consider trying one, though, you should know how they work.

These programs are basically mail filters. Typically they contain a long list of keywords and key phrases (such as “get rich quick” or “guaranteed millions”). When you receive an email containing one of the key phrases, that email is captured and dealt with.

Most of time, the captured emails are moved to an out-of-the-way place. They are not immediately deleted—because you may want to check through them for friendly messages! Filters are not smart; they find keywords, but don’t distinguish between spammers and friends.

For this reason, newly installed mail filters require extra effort from you to double-check the program. In many cases, you can teach the program to never delete mail from certain senders. But you shouldn’t expect the program to be perfect as soon as you install it. It will take some care and upkeep.

Before you spend money on third-party mail filtering software, try out the existing mail filtering abilities of Microsoft’s Outlook or Outlook Express. Here’s how they work:

In Outlook Express:

You can choose to block emails from any given sender. Select a message in your main Outlook Express window by single-clicking it (don't double-click it or open it!). Then click the Message menu and select Block Sender. The sender of that email will be added to your Blocked Sender’s list, and all future messages from that person will be deleted automatically.

You can also teach it to block entire domains, which means every possible sender from that domain will be blocked! (The domain is the part of the email address after the @ symbol.) To block a domain, go to Tools -> Rules -> Blocked Senders List. Click the Add… button and type in a domain name (ex.: freestuff.com, simpleoffers.net). Click OK on both windows and you’re done. You’ll never see another email from that domain!

The more entries on your Blocked Sender list, the more spam you block.

In Outlook:

You have two filters to choose from: Junk and Adult Content. You can turn on either one or both. Each of these filters has its own base list of keywords; to see these lists, visit Microsoft at: http://office.microsoft.com/Assistance/9798/newfilters.aspx. These lists are static, and cannot be added to or otherwise changed.

To turn on an Outlook mail filter, go to the Tools menu, select Organize and then click the Junk E-mail link. Now consider the settings: you can either move or color junk email.

The coloring option makes it easier to spot messages from your friends that were mistakenly marked as junk email. Unfortunately, it also leaves the real junk email in your Inbox.

The Move option relocates junk email to a folder of your choice. If you choose the Deleted Items folder, your junk email will be deleted. If you choose another folder, you will keep your junk email separate from your inbox. Keeping junk email is safe—it will take up little space on your hard drive. Still, you should occasionally browse the folder and check for friendly messages.

If you activate either filter, you can also add senders to the Junk Senders or Adult Content Senders list by right-clicking an offending message and choosing Junk Email. This function is similar to Outlook Express’ Blocked Senders list; if you add a sender to this list, every email they send will be treated as junk email.

Other programs:

If you use other programs for receiving email, check the help menus to see if there are any built-in filtering abilities before you buy third-party software! Some others have features similar to Outlook’s; others have lesser functions (or none at all).

Final notes:

Because junk email comes from such a wide variety of ever-changing sources, it is unlikely that mail filters will eliminate all of it—but they will, slowly but surely, reduce it. The trade-off is the time you invest double-checking and fine-tuning the filters to work their best.



[ back to top ]



Noncommercial / Educational Reproduction
You may share our tips with the employees of your company without charge or special permission from us as long as you (1) prominently credit BlueScreen Computer Services as the source and (2) make no changes to the materials. Sharing our tips in any other context requires written permission.

Commercial Reproduction
Reproduction of materials on this website, in whole or in part, for the purposes of commercial redistribution is prohibited except with written permission from BlueScreen Computer Services. To obtain written permission, please contact us at BlueScreen@BlueScreenComputer.com.

All materials on this site are protected under international copyright law.
© 2005 BlueScreen Computer Services. All rights reserved.