A rather obscure little snippet that may cause a few of us to inexplicably timeout when trying to access well-known sites resides in the HOSTS.SAM and HOSTS.BAK files. The HOSTS file is used in the process of resolving IP addresses such as http://207.46.131.21 into a host name such as support.microsoft.com/. Occasionally the file will become corrupt and cause the user to be unable to access Web sites. The easiest way to deal with this is to hunt these files down in your Windows folder and rename them -- say, X and XHOSTS.BAK. They should no longer be accessed by Windows and should cause no more trouble. If you experience other Internet or network problems, though, you should restore the filenames and look for an alternate solution. Info on this little tweak is at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q172/2/18.asp. (A more generic explanation of the HOSTS file is found earlier on this page.)

Windows gives you a handy little modem icon in your system tray that flashes when you're connected to the Internet (some ISP users may not get this). If the flashing red and green lights annoys you, you can lose the icon by following this procedure. First, go through Start/Programs/Accessories and choose Dial-Up Networking. In the resulting dialog box, right-click on your dial-up connection icon. From the pop-up menu that appears, choose Properties. In the resulting Modem Properties dialog box, click Configure and then Options. Uncheck the checkbox beside "Display Modem Status." Click OK. Now that flashing annoyance should be gone. Warning: if you have more than one ISP or dial-up connection, you may have to do this for each connection.

Tired of being disconnected while you feed the cat? Many ISP's, most notoriously America Online, disconnect you at a moment's notice, even if you're downloading a file or writing an e-mail. These annoying little features are called "internet service timers," and no one sees them disappearing any time soon. Fight back with "anti-timer utilities." Check out a program called StayConnected! from www.inKlineGlobal.com/products/sc/index.html. Not all ISP's are provided for by this program, but AOL is. Another freebie that works with AOL is Keep It Alive 2.2, from www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Garage/7334/Kpalive.html. Also, AOL can be difficult to connect to, with infuriatingly long delays in getting through, endless busy signals, etc. etc. A freeware program called AOL95 SuperFreeTools used to be available for AOL/Win 9x users; check out the shareware boards, since SFT's home page, www.bluefront.com/aolsft/, seems to have disappeared. SFT automatically redials AOL until it makes a connection, enters your screen name and password, minimizes the Welcome news window, and zaps AOL's reminders that you've been online for x minutes. You can even set it to answer intrusive IM's. (The author of AOL SFT, Lou Moccia, has discontinued offering his products for the time being due to his extreme dissatisfaction with AOL. If you don't already have his wares, you can't easily find them now.) Another stay-on utility is the $20 Stayon Pro from stayonpro.com/. You can also try RAS+95 (available for free at www.zdnet.com/downloads/) and activate its ping monitor. Terminator (www.tpasoft.com/) is a $5 goodie that works with AOL only. RascalPro (from www.basta.com/) includes a pinger that pings your ISP every few minutes to keep you connected; drawbacks are its inability to work with AOL, and its cost ($30). Other ways are to set your mail reader to check for new mail every 10 minutes (Outlook Express and Eudora do this easily), to use your Active Desktop or PointCast system to "push" information over your connection just frequently enough to keep connected (see the Real Time Push archive at www.davecentral.com/realtime.html for good push content options), or to crank up RealNetwork's RealAudio and listen to Internet radio (www.real.com/, www.spinner.com/, radio.lycos.com/, and radio.yahoo.com/ are some of the best Net sources, but many local radio/TV stations also feature Internet broadcasting). You might also consider switching to a regional ISP; they tend to be much less sticky with their interrupts. (AOL says that the use of anti-timer utilities is a violation of the user agreement, but they don't enforce it...and how could they?)

Another way to stay connected is by pinging your ISP every few minutes to keep your connection alive. Several free- or shareware ping utilities are out there: some of the best are the Internet Anywhere Toolkit 2.1 ($15) from www.tnsoft.com/products_ia_tk.html (turn on automatic pinging by clicking on the Endless button on the Ping tab, and setting the Delay interval for however many microseconds you want to wait between pings -- a 5-minute delay would be 300,000 milliseconds), the Stealth Ping ($25) from www.mcs.net/~orvonton/ (sends a ping undetectable by ISPs, which sometimes have anti-ping devices operating), Top Jimmy TJPing Pro from www.topjimmy.net/tjs/ (the freeware version doesn't have automatic pinging, and you want this, so ante up $12.50 -- it also offers traceroute [see below] and lookup functions), or NeoTrace ($19.50) from www.neoworx.com/, which also offers traceroute.

If you're still using Win 95, make sure you have the latest Windows Dial-Up Networking software, DUN 1.3. Check your version by going into Windows/System, right-clicking on RASAPI32.DLL, and selecting Properties. If the version is not 4.10.1903, you're out of date. Download the current version from www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/
contents/dun13win95/default.asp. Ignore the message that tells you to get the new version of Winsock before installing DUN 1.3, but make sure to install the Winsock2 DLL file immediately afterward: get it from www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/ws2.htm. Win 98/ME users, don't worry about this one.

If you get punted offline a lot, try this to stay connected longer: Go through Start, Settings, Control Panel, Modems. Select Properties, Connections, Advanced. In "Extra Settings" type S10=50. This will force your modem to stay connected for 5 seconds after receiving a disconnect signal; often this will be enough to stay connected. You also may want to do a little self-diagnostic with the Modem applet in Control Panel. Go through Control Panel, select Modems, and choose Diagnostics. Select your modem from the list and choose More Info. You should get a bunch of incomprehensible info about port settings, interrupts, and AT register settings.

Sometimes pages take an annoyingly long time to load. One way to handle it is to hit the spacebar; this will force the text to load first, and let the graphics load later. That way you can read while the graphics load. Another trick is to click Stop and then click Refresh. Sometimes just starting over will get you a faster download.

By the way, you can't stop file downloads by clicking Stop. To stop a file download, click Cancel in the Download dialog box.

Stop your modem from squealing by setting the speaker volume in the Control Panel/Modem applet, or go through Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, and select Dial-Up Networking. Right click your key dialup connection. Select Properties and the Configure button under "Connect Using." You should see a volume level for the modem you have installed internally or externally.

Like borrowing graphics from Web sites? Well, the fact is that almost every graphic on the Web belongs to someone, and more than likely when you snag it (right-click and choose "Save Picture As," if it had slipped your mind) you're stealing it. In practice, unless a Web author takes steps to "watermark" or code-protect his work (many artists do this), almost every graphic appearing on a Web site is fair game. If you're into creeping serious graphics and using them yourself, the more visible and less commercial your site, the more likely you are to get noticed. Myself, I follow the same line of thinking as with home taping -- it's what you use it for that matters. As for saving Web graphics, you're limited as to what format you choose to save them as. Basically, your choices are whatever the format of the graphic (usually .GIF or .JPG/JPEG, though you see others such as .PNG) and .BMP, the Microsoft bitmap format. AOL users who like the .ART work on AOL, save these graphics as .BMP files.

Want free unlimited Internet access? Swap your demographic data for free online service at NetZero (www.netzero.com/). Aside from giving NetZero basic personal info designed to make it easy to target you for advertising purposes (spam spam spam spam....), NetZero appends a permanent, cycling ad banner to your open browser window. It also forces you to go to its home portal page, Guide.Com, before you blast off into the Web itself. And most annoying, NetZero constantly tracks your Web surfing, noting the sites you visit in order to "target" you for ad content that appeals to you. Definitely not a choice for those interested in private surfing, but if you don't mind being a target for ads, NetZero lets you surf for free. (NetZero and Juno have joined forces, and NetZero may not offer free surfing any longer. It's still cheaper than regular dial-up.) NetZero isn't the only player in the free-ISP game; IFreedom and MSN have leapt into the fray, and AOL is considering providing low-cost or free Internet access to members of its associate, MyShoppingClub.com. In the U.K., Freeserve and AOL (!) are two of the biggest free providers. Others newbies in the game are 1stUp.com, Address.com, BlueLight.com, Free ISP, FreeI.net, Juno (the venerable e-mail service and Web portal, which may not offer free Web access any longer), Lycos, Surfree.com, WorldSpy.com, Xoom.com FreeISP, and for free DSL use, FreeDSL and INYC. Note: I have it on very good authority that Juno is horrendous. I can't tell you what ISP to use, but I know I won't ever have it on my machine. Sorry, Juno. As for free ISPs in general, I can't do better than to quote DummiesDaily on the subject: "Free Internet service providers have a lot to offer, but they are not for everyone. Here's the basic idea, from the free ISP's point of view: They want to gather information about you and use that information to sell you stuff. If you're comfortable with that arrangement, you and the free ISP will get along famously. If not, your relationship will always have an undercurrent of tension."

Keep up with the ever-changing world of free ISPs at www.freedomlist.com/.

And speaking of "unlimited access," you might want to reread your ISP's Terms of Service regarding that subject. Some local, and national, ISPs are prodding customers recording "unusually high amounts of time online" to reduce their surfing. Lots of ISPs frown on software designed to keep users from getting punted offline, and there are other rules -- one e-mail provider even gets shirty if one of its clients uses it to transmit profanity over the Net. Read your TOS agreement and be ready to defend your inordinate surfing time if necessary.

Here's another way to create a home page with custom links by using Microsoft Word. In Word, select Tools and choose AutoCorrect. Select the "Format As You Type" tab and make sure the "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks" check box is checked. Create a new document in Word and type in a description and URL address for each of the sites you want listed on your custom home page. Save the document in "Web Page (*.htm; *.html)" format. Now open your browser. If it's Internet Explorer, click on File, Open, Browse and select the page you just saved. If you use Netscape Communicator, click on File, Open Page, Choose File. When the page is displayed in your browser, make it your default home page. To do this in IE, click on Tools, Internet Options, and click on the Use Current button. In Netscape click on Edit, Preferences, Use Current Page. From now on whenever you start your browser your custom home page will appear.

Both MSIE and Navigator can be used as search engines. In IE, type the words GO or FIND or ? followed by a space and then whatever keywords you want, and MSIE will launch a MSN search (you can choose a different engine if you like). Type two or more keywords in Navigator's address bar and Navigator will search Netcenter for those keywords. Searching for only one keyword in Navigator requires you to type a +, a space, and then the word. Navigator 4.5 even offers you a feature called What's Relevant that finds related content to your searches.

Some framed sites force their frames on you when you try to leave them, making new pages display inside their frames. Not cool, and a deliberate attempt on the Web designer's part to keep his site in front of your face. MSIE users can get out of this by going back to the framed page, right-clicking the link that you clicked on earlier, and choosing "Open in New Window." Close the old page. Netscape users, right-click within the frame, choose "Open Frame in New Window," and close the old page.

Want to just refresh what's in the frame and not the whole page? Right-click inside the frame and choose Refresh. (Clicking Refresh on the toolbar reloads the whole page.) In MSIE, choose Refresh to reload only what's inside the frame; in Navigator 4x, right-click and choose Reload Frame.

Sometimes nasty Webmasters design their sites to "hijack" your browser's Back button -- no matter how many times you click it, you can't leave the site. Bad manners, to say the least, and annoying for us. There's no quick fix because it's in the site code, but you can get around the problem by right-clicking the Back button, which will give you a list of the sites you've recently visited. Choose one, left-click it, and you're out. Sometimes the Forward button is similarly hijacked; the same trick works with that button, too. You can also go through your History menu to get out of the obnoxious site. You might also e-mail the site and tell them that you don't appreciate their little code trick and won't be back. Note: a new technology nicknamed "Ooqa Ooqa" is now available for Webmasters to use in reconfiguring your browser. Weather.com is experimenting with it, as are some other major providers. If this technology takes hold, expect to see your browser routinely have its search engine, home page, toolbar design, and other configurations changed. United Virtualities, the maker (and creator of "shoshkeles", the pop-up ads that take over a browser screen before loading of the clicked page is complete) says that users will always have the option to turn the intrusions off, but I doubt that. We can just hope that for every intrusion, some white knight software programmer provides us with a counter.

"Spyware" is software, usually free, that performs a useful function but also sends back info on your computer to its parent company. Go!Zilla is a notorious example of this, but there are others (Gator comes to mind -- see for yourself at www.cexx.org/gator.htm). Programs like Ad-Aware and OptOut hunt down spyware on your system. You can find lists and descriptions of spyware programs and vendors at the following sites: www.spychecker.com/, www.spywareinfo.com/, www.alphalink.com.au/~johnf/dspypdf.html, www.infoforce.qc.ca/spyware/enknownlistfrm.html, and www.globalnet.cz/spyware/list.html, among others. Find out more about spyware at my Virus and Spyware page.

Something similar, and relatively new, is "foistware" -- products that install unwanted extras on your system without your permission or even knowledge. Two culprits, NewDotNet and Webhancer, are currently making the rounds. Both can interfere with the functioning of your machine, sometimes to the point of making it unworkable. Check out your system in Add/Remove, and if you find either of them, lose 'em. According to a Langa List reader, NewDotNet seems to come with Earthlink, @Home, Juno, Webshots and NetZero; Webhancer comes with AudioGalaxy and Bearshare (both post-Napster P2P programs). Another one is Surf Safari, a surfing/shopping links program that runs in a small area on top of the browser window. Surf Safari comes along with NetZero, so be warned. We can also add TopText, which adds ad-sponsored links to any Web site you visit. TopText comes with a utility called Kazaa Media Desktop, among others; keep this one off your machine also. (Kazaa has just added a "stealth P2P network" access utility inside their program, which can turn on your PC without your knowledge and use its resources for its own ends. Now that's going over the line!) Others that come to mind are Gator and eZula, two firms that bundle foistware programs along with just about everything they market, whoever lurks at www.lop.com/ (I don't know who they are, since I ain't getting near the place), and VX2, a little beastie that creeps in from AudioGalaxy, Onflow, and other sources. Sneaky little buggers, all. The best way to purge your system is to use the free Ad-Aware program, available from www.lavasoft.com/.

While we're on the topic, some slick Webmeisters are placing a .DLL file called IEHELPER.DLL on people's machines. This file causes pop-up ads to appear every time you turn around, even on sites like this one that don't use ads. Go through Find (or Search) to see if this file is on your computer; if so, send it to the Recycle Bin. Assuming your browser behaves without it (it should), then delete it. Presto, fewer pop-ups.

A less obtrusive browser plug-in is Snippets, a freebie from www.snippets.com/. The idea is that Snippets constantly searches selected Web sites, such as eBay, stock market update sites, or whatever, and displays selected information whenever you run your cursor over the Snippets-provided icon. Get the lowdown from the above URL.

Recently a site called GoHip has blitzkrieged some users by adding an unwanted "browser enhancement," which sets itself as their default start-up page, drops pop-up ads galore on them as they surf, etc., and has proven remarkably difficult to remove from people's computers. One user complained that even after uninstalling and reinstalling both MSIE and Netscape and deleting all GoHip entries in his Registry, he still couldn't purge the infestation. GoHip has bowed to pressure and has made a removal utility available to users plagued with too much GoHipness. Surf to www.gohip.com/remove_browser_enhancement.html to find the utility, along with instructions on how to use it to de-hipify your machine. I've thought about surfing to GoHip to see what the ruckus is all about, but on second thought, I think I'll just pass this along and stay the hell out of that little Web swamp.

One of the latest and most egregrious of hijackers is Lop.com. If your home page, default search engine, and even 404 Error pages are being yanked to Lop, you've been hijacked. The owners, C2 Software, profess ignorance of the problem -- it's just advertising, they mewl, what's the big deal? -- but the rest of us hate it. Some folks, who have to download Lop's software, often from sites such as MP3-2000.com and MP3Yes.com, find themselves with new browser toolbars, desktop icons, and more, all courtesy of the aggressive admeisters at Lop. Most sites advertise "Lopware," as we'll call it, as adware designed to allow access to premium content. Sneaky, especially when scurrilous "advisors" have been advising Lop on how to make the download completely automatic and surreptitious. If you've been Lopped, visit lop.com/help.html for an uninstall routine, and keep your browser security settings on "high" to prevent automatic downloading of Lopware or anything else.

Overall, I have to agree with Anne Kandra of PCWorld on pop-ups, "hijacker" ads (those animations that jump out at you when you click into a site), and the like: "To the companies that use these ads: Stop it. They only make us hate you."

Toggle back and forth between Netscape's Bookmarks and IE's Favorites with FavTool, a little goodie from Microsoft. It's free for the download from www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ieplatform/favtool/favtool.asp.

Think that by dialing that 800 number to connect with your ISP, you're getting free phone access? Think again. Most ISPs charge a hefty rate to connect to them via 800 number, usually between $5 and $8 per hour. Only use an 800 number if you don't have a local phone number available and you can't find a cheaper long-distance connector (10 cents a minute works out to $6 an hour, for the math-impaired among us). Worse, with the constant restructuring of area codes, what is a local call today might not be a local call tomorrow. Just because you or your ISP connection don't dial an area code doesn't mean you're not making a long-distance call. Keep abreast of access number changes and make sure you're always using a local number. Americans can keep up with area code changes at www.nanpa.com/. British users, I understand that you're really nailed to the wall, as most British ISPs don't provide free access numbers. Yeesh.

This brings us to the dilemma of the road warrior who travels enough to make connecting with an ISP a potentially expensive process. We're talking 8 to 10 cents a minute on dialup fees here. A few alternatives: if most of your traveling is to the relatively civilized parts of North America, you might consider using AOL, Earthlink, or another national ISP as a backup. The big boys usually have a local number available in all but the wildest parts of the continent. (Other larger ISPs often have local access nationwide, more than you'd think.) Other ways to save money include:

• Downloading your e-mail in one big batch and reading it offline. Compose replies offline, then go back on to send them in a second quick call.

• Avoid pointless surfing. Find what you need online and get off.

• Stick to the e-mail newsletters from the Web sites you frequent, and skip the rest. That keeps you in touch with the essential information you need, while keeping online charges down.

• Download your favorite Web pages automatically each time you connect, then hang up and switch to offline browsing. Why pay for the time you spend reading a Web page's content?

If you're with a content provider such as AOL or MSN and you're tired of the Internet delays, replace that provider with a smaller ISP who just provides Internet access. A local ISP might be ideal, since you're not competing for bandwidth with a nation full of Webheads, but instead are sharing bandwidth with a relatively small number of locals. However, the frequent traveler might find an AOL account handy, as it provides easy access to your account from wherever in the US you happen to be. A number of hotels and conference sites even provide AOL hookups. Carry an AOL startup disk for backup, and log on with ease from just about anywhere. Or you may want to consider joining CompuServe, the granddaddy of 'em all. AOL bought out CompuServe and since then it has all but vanished from people's minds, but it's still there, with strong, relatively intelligent discussion forums (particularly on computer-related topics) and a huge variety of downloadable software, much of which isn't available anywhere else. CompuServe 2000 is much more buttoned-down and sedate than AOL, but some features of AOL have migrated over to CompuServe's structure, such as the Preferences icon-based menu and the embedded MSIE browser. CS 2000 uses a clone of AOL's e-mail service, also, which doesn't endear it to some users. But so far CompuServe hasn't quite become a pale, gray-flannel ghost of AOL, which is what many pundits and users feared. It's still worth consideration. Check it out for yourself at www.compuserve.com/.

Printing Web pages can be a frustrating task, resulting in dozens of blank pages spat from the printer, oddly printed or offset pages, pages printed so lightly that they can't be read, graphics stranded on pages by themselves, bizarre text formattings, or even printer lockups, browser crashes, or system screwups. Fun, huh? While you can't do much about the Web pages' formattings that give your printer schizophrenia, there are some things you can do to lessen the problems. MSIE 5 users, use the File, Print command to access the Print dialog box. From here you can have your printer print a table of links associated with the Web page. (Warning, a Web page with lots of links can crank out lots and lots of pages.) Under the File, Page Setup menu, you can adjust the page margins and orientation, as well as customize Web page prints with header and footer info. Play with the options to see what you can force the printout to contain. Navigator 4.08 and beyond handles things similarly to MSIE 5, providing a Page Setup menu that lets you set page options, margins, headers and footers, etc. Navigator's Print Frame option lets you print the contents of a selected frame without printing the entire page; MSIE lets you do that by having you right-click the interior of the frame and selecting the Print option from the menu; you'll get a box giving you the option of printing everything, printing only the selected frame, or printing each frame individually. MSIE has a neat little effect called Print Target; right-click a link and select this to print a page without actually loading it in the browser. Hewlett-Packard and Canon provide useful Web printer utilities for use with their printers; visit their Web sites for more info.

One way to actually do something about keeping your children's minds free from Internet smut is to check out www.neted.org/. This site gives information about the efforts of a 15-member tech company coalition to offer Net safety tips, a guide to browser filters, how to report offensive sites, and guides to child-friendly content.

Currently AOL is the only "content provider" worth the label, since it assimilated CompuServe, MSN is struggling (though Microsoft still has plans to topple AOL from its throne using its new, very hyped version of MSN), and Prodigy has reconfigured itself as an ISP. However, the void is being filled by "web portals" - Web-based content providers who offer news, chat services, stock reports and other business interests, shopping, e-mail, personal home pages, and other proprietary goodies, with the idea being that you select one of these "portals" as your home page and make it the hub of your Web surfing. The best news is that these new portals are free. Who are they? You've probably already visited some of them. Search engines such as Yahoo!, Excite, AltaVista, Lycos/Hotbot/Tripod, InfoSeek, and NBCi (formerly Snap!) are plunging into the fray, along with entries from rivals Netscape (NetCenter, now merging with AOL.com) and Microsoft (Internet Start) and less satisfactory offerings from AOL.com, Planet Direct, and GeoCities (now combined with Yahoo!). At the moment Yahoo! and Excite seem to have the jump on their competition, but look for the other guys to improve. (Yahoo! and Excite are driving hard towards the "online community" concept, including user-configurable chat sites, personal start pages, message boards, and calendars. Yahoo! is even sponsoring Yahoo Clubs, which allow you or me to start online communities based on any topic of interest, and Yahoo Calendar, a Web-based personal schedule service. Find out more from clubs.yahoo.com/ and www.excite.com/ respectively.) National ISPs are often affiliated with portals themselves: Earthlink and Mindscape both provide (or they used to provide) home pages connected to NBCi (formerly Snap!), MCI provides Yahoo!, Prodigy Internet connects with Excite, and several others such as Concentric and AT&T Worldnet give you a choice of several portals. Lycos has opened Tripod to its Asian, Indian, and European members. Other sources such as computer magazines and local newspapers are putting together portals of their own. A new concept is the "vertical portal;" a portal designed to appeal to a smaller audience and featuring tightly focused content, such as Family Education's portal, which is designed to attract children and their parents. Yahoo!, Excite, and others with broader appeal are being called "horizontal portals." Not everyone is thrilled by web portals; one tandem of columnists dismiss portals as "bus stops for newbies," and say that most experienced Web surfers use their own collection of bookmarks and turn to generic search engines/portals only as last measures. They point out that savvy surfers know to go to Amazon.com for book buying, Autobytel.com for car shopping, or to Newsbot for a headline fix. This seems reasonable for some, but this reasoning applies more to the relatively small number of technically savvy, highly Web-literate users out there. Many users are content to use a portal as "free parking" or an easy-to-grasp home site and leave the heavy-duty, streamlined surfing to those who spend the majority of their days on the Internet - which ain't the majority of users, believe me. Many ISPs have also embraced the concept of "personal start pages" as customizable portal pages for subscribers. Web gadfly John Dvorak has made his own "portal page" available for use as a home page; it's packed with useful links and boasts no advertising. Look it over at www.dvorak.org/home.htm. Make your own "portal page" with the help of Page1, a free utility from www.pcmag.com/download/. An easier method is to download PC Magazine's Page 1 from www.zdnet.com/downloads/; this preformatted personal start page can be easily customized to fit your needs by following the online directions. And MSIE 5x users can make home pages for themselves with the browser doing all of the hard work.

Lots of folks use both Netscape/Mozilla and Microsoft browsers, but they sometimes have trouble making the secondary browser understand that it isn't the one they wish used as the default browser. Here's how to make the other browser take a back seat: First, open the browser you want as your default browser; if it gives you a dialog box offering to let you choose it as the default, choose it. Then open the other browser and when it puts up its own dialog box, instead of choosing it as the default, choose the option that forces that browser to not show you that box again. Click No. What if you want to change default browsers from one to the other? To select MSIE 4.x over Netscape, open MSIE, choose View/Internet Options, click the Program tab, and check the box labeled Internet Explorer Should Check to See Whether It Is the Default Browser. The next time you open MSIE, it will offer to become the default browser. (MSIE 5 users, go through Tools/Internet Options.) To select Netscape Navigator over MSIE, find your personal Netscape user directory (typically a folder like C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\USER\username. Use a text editor like Notepad to open PREFS.JS, the JavaScript file that loads your preferences when you open Navigator. Find the line that reads USER_PREF("BROWSER.WFE.IGNORE_DEF_CHECK",TRUE) and change TRUE to FALSE. Save the file, exit Notepad, and restart Navigator to have it reset as the default browser. The easy way, of course, is to let a software utility do it for you. Try BrowserSwitch ($20) from www.coolware.com/switch/ to change default browsers with a single mouse click. (This is not shareware; it requires you to purchase it. Sorry.)

Most browsers are preset to their maker's home site (Netscape or Microsoft) or the PC manufacturer's home page. What a waste. Choose a Web portal (see above) or any other Web site that suits your interests. News junkies may want to select the CNN, USAToday or Nando site; business mavens might want to choose Business Week Online; sports fans might select ESPN's or CNNSI's sites; computer types might prefer ZDNet or C|Net. Or choose any site that you'd like to start from every time you fire up your browser, even this one if you like. For a list of Internet news sites, go to my own News Sites page.

Win 95 keeps a tight rein on your modem speed because the baud rate on the COM Port doesn't allow you to crank it. Go through Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, and access Device Manager, or use your shortcut. In Device Manager, click the + sign next to Ports (COM & LPT). Select the port your modem uses (probably COM1) and set the Bits Per Second to 115200 bps. This is the maximum for a "standard" COM port. If problems arise, set it back to its original value. System Monitor can also tell you if you're having trouble. (To determine which port your modem uses, click on the + sign next to the Modem icon in Control Panel and select your modem. Click on Properties and choose the Modem tab. Here you'll see which port your modem uses.) Also, for most modems, you can click Hardware in the Flow Control drop-down box.

Both Netscape and IE feature some of the same keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+D sets bookmarks or adds to your Favorite list; Alt+Left Arrow takes you to the last page visited; Alt+Right Arrow takes you forward; Esc stops a page from loading; Ctrl+N launches a new browser window. Ctrl+W closes the active window. Ctrl+H opens the History folder. Ctr+l-F opens the Find dialog box. Ctrl+L lets you open a new web page. Ctrl+B opens the Bookmarks or Favorites window.

Browser accelerators are programs that force Web pages to appear more quickly in your browser without forcing you to lay out the cash for a new modem or a fancy connection. They also add another level of complexity to your browsing. One of the most common ways these programs work is to "pre-load" pages from a Web site; while you're reading through Page 1, it's downloading the rest of the pages. A good program of this nature is Go Ahead Got It!, available for $20 downloaded from www.goahead.com/. Other programs of this nature include Imsi's Net Accelerator and Innovative's Java Booster, which also preloads the Java applets from the web pages you visit, preserving them on your disk so you don't have to reload them every time you visit that site.

You always hear about "Internet traffic jams;" get traffic reports from The Internet Traffic Report at www.internettrafficreport.com/, from the Internet Weather Report at www.internetweather.com/, from MCI's traffic site at traffic.mci.com/, from MIDS Internet Weather Report at www.mids.org/weather/, from Netstat at www.netstat.net/, from UCLA's site at www.cns.ucla.edu/weather.html, or if you really want to dig into the nitty gritty, MAE at www.mfst.com/MAE/.

Some sites like to hide stuff from you. Locate the goodies by finding the ROBOTS.TXT file. In the URL address box, type www.fubar.com/robots.txt, of course substituting the URL of your site. This displays the files and folders that aren't in the search engines. To bring them up, type their filenames in the address box.

Downloading at 3 a.m. is a good way to avoid Internet snarls, but can be a good way to make your sweetie snarl at you. Try an automatic downloader such as NetAttache to download your programs for you. Visit www.tympani.com/ for a free 15-day trial. Other shareware and freeware utilities are available as well; one of note is GoZilla, a $15 goodie from www.gizmo.net/gozilla/. Another one that is almost as highly recommended as GoZilla is GetRight (www.getright.com/). You can drag file names off the Internet and drop them into either of these little "sidekick" programs, and they'll search the Net for the fastest FTP sites from which to download the file and grab it for you at the time you choose. They also pick up where they left off if the gremlins kick you offline before the file finishes downloading ("downloadus interruptus"). You can also configure them to log on at 3 a.m., download the specified files, log off, scan the files for viruses, store them in specified folders or directories, and create shortcuts on the desktop so you can easily find them after a night snuggling your sweetie. Just remember, peak Internet traffic times are between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. EST, so be prepared for slow downloads during those times.

When you're given a ton of download sites to choose from, don't just pick the one at the top of the list. Check first to see if they are ranked in terms of reliability, and choose from the most reliable. Second, choose one closest to you. If that site gives you trouble, choose a site in a time zone that is out of business hours, even if that means choosing a European or Asian site. There's a neat freeware utility called Dipstick (www.klever.net/) which, when you're presented with multiple download sites, will select the fastest link for you.

So what the hell did I download last week? I once downloaded a file called WQ310EN.ZIP; I forgot what it was long before I was ready to open it and check it out. There's an absurdly simple solution: rename the file to something sensible when you download it. To use this example, the WQ310EN.ZIP file is for a utility called Word Quiz. I can just rename it to WORDQUIZ.ZIP and have a much better idea what it is. If you aren't sure what's in that zipped file, and you're using WinZip to do your decompressing, double-click the zipped file's icon. When WinZip's screen comes up, if you're using the Wizard, click on WinZip Classic. That lets you know what files are compressed within the .ZIP file. You can even read the README.TXT or similar files through WinZip without unzipping the file. (I'm sure other utilities like ZipMagic have similar functions.)

Don't wait for pages to load before going to the next one; your browser will run more efficiently if given more to handle. Try running multiple browser windows; read one page while another is downloading. Drag links from one browser window to another to quickly start loading a page. Keep surfing while you download, or download two files at once. The double downloads take turns retrieving data so there's less chance of either one timing out.

"Browser handling objects," or BHOs, are little goodies that many shareware sites use to distribute and implement their products. Unfortunately, most BHOs are adware, meaning that they send info about your machine back to their companies. Sometimes BHOs are configured to disable their associated shareware if uninstalled, meaning that if you want to use the downloaded program, you have to put up with tattletale BHOs on your machine. A partial workaround has appeared in the form of the freeware BHO Cop 1.0, a goodie from www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,270,00.asp. BHO Cop disables BHOs without uninstalling them, meaning that you can still run the associated software, but the damned things are no longer squealing on you. Another freebie, BHODemon from www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm, is also quite well recommended.

To create a Quick Viewer for Web pages's source code (HTML files), open Explorer and from the menu choose View, Options.... Go to the File Type tab and find the association for Web pages. The name for those files is determined by the Web Browser that created the association and should be something similar to "Internet Document." Select the association and click Edit. Now put a check mark next to "Enable Quick View." You can now view the HTML source code of any Web page by right clicking on the file and choosing View.

Page stuck? Try Stop, Refresh (or Reload). If a vertical scroll bar is displayed, try paging down. This may get the page up and loading.

If you visit a Web page with a tilde ( ~ ) in its address, chances are that it's a personal page. Not that that's a bad thing.

It's no coincidence that the words "spam" and "scam" are so nearly identical. E-mail and Web surfing in general has opened new vistas of scams to plague the world's Netizens. A few are as follows:

• Bulk e-mail program offers: Not only are most of these illegal and excellent ways to get your account with your ISP canceled, some of them even insert false return addresses, which opens you up for lawsuits.

• Chain letters and e-hoaxes: There is no little boy in Uruguay dying of AIDS who wants to break the Guinness record for most e-mail replies; there is no cancer-stricken little girl who will get 3 cents for each e-mail sent to her; Bill Gates is not donating new computers or cash prizes for the millionth e-mail reply received at some address. There are, however, unscrupulous spammers sitting in front of computer monitors cutting-and-pasting each newly received e-mail address onto their latest XXX spam offering. Keep up with e-mail hoaxes at www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/filters/ehoax/.

• Envelope stuffing. The only way for you to make money is to get dozens of others to sign up via e-mail recruitment -- now you're the spammer.

• Television/Internet devices. Aside from WebTV, this item lures the technologically challenged into paying dues for entrance into a program, and making money back by recruiting others. Another combination pyramid/spam scheme.

• Internet kiosks. These sound promising, with your operation of a Web-connected machine in an airport or hotel lobby. In reality you pay thousands for inferior PCs installed in bars and pizza joints.

• "Internet consultants" are actually hawking their firm's Internet yellow pages (chronically and woefully out of date), or offering "members-only" Internet malls chock full of "enticing business opportunities." You could pay several thousand dollars for training that never materializes, and should you even ask if the business opportunities are real?

As for Internet auctions, some are genuine and some are bogus. Restrict your trade to well-established auction sites, always pay by credit card in case you don't get the goods, and shop around. Another good way to protect yourself is to let a reputable escrow service such as Tradenable (formerly i-Escrow, now at www.tradenable.com/) hold your money for you and pay the auctioner only when you tell them to release your funds. Find out more about using your credit cards online at Internet Fraud Watch at www.fraud.org/internet/inttip/cardtip.htm.

Get to a site quickly: In Windows, from Start, Run, type the address of your desired Web or FTP site, and click OK. Windows will dial your ISP, load your browser (as long as it's Netscape or MSIE) and send you to the site. (This may not work for all ISPs.)

Do you need detailed information about your Internet connection, as with a DHCP server assigning you an IP address when you log on, and your need for that address to access a distant TCP server? While online, go through Start, Run, and type WINIPCFG in the Open box. Press Enter. This undocumented little program gives you the info you need. See below for more info on WINIPCFG.

If you notice that you're getting "pinged" a lot (you need a firewall to keep track of this), then you might be worried that someone's trying to hack your computer. And well you should worry, even though almost all of the pings you get are relatively harmless. As Fred Langa tells us, one way to determine if you're somehow being singled out is to get a new numeric IP (internet protocol) address. Most dial-up and cable systems use what's called "dynamic" addressing, where your PC's online numeric address is assigned when you first make a connection. In some cases, you get a new address every time you make a connection with your ISP; in other cases, whatever address you first get is "leased" to you for some period of time, as determined by the service provider. If the "lease" is long, or if you're online for long periods (a cable modem may be online for days, weeks, or months at a time), you can end up with the same IP address for that extended period. The longer you're online at a given address, the greater the odds that some hacker will discover that there's a live PC at that address, and they then may try attacking some or all of the 65,000 online "ports" your PC has. But it's relatively easy to change the IP address, when dynamic addressing is used. You usually can do this with the WINIPCFG or IPconfig tool built into Windows. In Win9x, the tool is called "WINIPCFG," which stands for Windows IP Configuration. It lets you see lots of information about your internet connection; and to "release" and "renew" any dynamically-assigned address. In other versions of Windows (XP, for example) the tool is called IPCONFIG. It's not as sophisticated, as it's a text-based tool operating from the command line, but it also lets you explore information about your Internet connection and to release/renew your IP address. In either case, if your ISP uses dynamic addressing, you usually get a new IP address by running the WinIPCfg or IPconfig tool, selecting "Release all" or "/release" (depending on which tool you're using) to discard all currently active IP addresses. Then unplug your modem, reboot, plug the modem back in, and you'll probably have a new IP address. (If not, check with the ISP about how to force a new IP; it may involve leaving your modem off for several hours, or overnight, but usually can be done.) If hackers were beating on your system at the old IP address, they'll now have to start over, and try to find you at the new address. Find out more about WINIPCFG at support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;141698, and IPCONFIG at www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/proddocs/ipconfig.asp.

Take my word for it: go to www.macromedia.com/ and download the latest version of Shockwave if you haven't already. Just do it. You'll see cool things on the Web that you couldn't see before.

Streaming audio and video are a source of big fun on the Net. RealNetworks (www.real.com) offers RealPlayer, which handles RealVideo programs and RealFlash animation as well as RealAudio programming. To make RealAudio really cook, snag RealAudio Tuner; it works just like the FM tuner in your car dash. Get it from www.dragontek.com/ratuner/. Or try RealAudio's RealJukebox, another free download that shuffles MP3 files, CD-based songs, streaming feeds, downloaded data, etc. etc. The number of Web sites using streaming media has skyrocketed, and 85% of them use Real technology. More Real info is available from www.realguide.real.com/. Apple's QuickTime 4 media player, free from www.apple.com/quicktime/download/, is another strong contender in the streaming media biz, as is Microsoft's Windows Media Player (more info on this from windowsmedia.com/mediaguide/default.asp). Netscape bundles RealPlayer with NS6, while Microsoft provides its Windows Media Player with Win ME and Win XP.

Online shopping mavens, get your buddies to visit WishClick (www.wishclick.com/) and register their shopping wants. Next time you need to shop for someone, their wish list is just a click away.

PC telephones? You can turn your PC into a free long-distance caller by downloading PhoneFree 2.0 from phonefree.com/phone.exe (note: this is a direct download link). You need a microphone, a sound card, and speakers to hear your messages. The hitch? You can only talk to people who have PhoneFree, CoolTalk, or Internet Phone installed on their own PCs.

Your browser often gives up hunting for a site when in reality the site is out there, just waiting to be found. Make your browser search harder by editing the Registry. First, back up the Registry (see above) and be ready to reinstall the old Registry if these changes foul up your computer. Next, open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VXD\MSTCP. Choose Edit, New, String Value, and call the new value DEFAULT TTL. Right-click on the new key, choose Modify, and enter the value 64, thus doubling the previous number. Exit Regedit and restart your computer.

Check your browser's performance by using Fred Langa's Web-based BrowserTune 2000 utility at www.browsertune.com/. It's free, comprehensive, and noninvasive. If it finds problems, plenty of help links are there to help you finetune and streamline your browser's performance. Other test sites are at browsercheck.qualys.com/ ((MSIE-only), and www.pcflank.com/. I've tried the site at Qualys; it was a sobering experience.

A $30 utility called PeakJet (www.peak-media.com/) replaces your browser's cache with itself. While you browse, PeakJet loads the pages it "thinks" you'll load next. PeakJet doesn't work well with a relatively wimpy computer; if you have less than 32mb of RAM and a speed slower than 100MHz, don't bother. If you think PeakJet might do it for you, try it for 30 days before you pay.

Sometimes it just makes sense to stay offline. The day a bigtime utility, game, or browser becomes available is not the day to try to download it. Something really, really big (such as MSIE's new release) might clog up the Net for nearly everybody. Do something else until the demand slacks off a bit.

Don't provide Internet sharks with personal information. You can surf the Web anonymously by letting a third party conceal you. Go to The Anonymizer at www.anonymizer.com/ for free, stealth surfing (free if you don't mind a slight delay and a goodly number of ads popping up; you can pay the Anonymizer people $50 annually to surf without delays and ads). You can also use the Anonymizer by typing anon.free.anonymizer.com/ in front of the Web address, but be prepared for a 30-second delay, a 10MB restriction on your downloads, and blocking of several flavors of streaming media. Anonymizer also provides info on what kind of service each individual site is asking your machine for when you visit it -- check out the "Who Are You?" section. (A similar service is provided at the-Cloak, free at www.the-cloak.com/, and at SafeWeb, www.safeweb.com/.) Another way to surf anonymously is to use either of the fee-based ProxyMate at www.proxymate.com/ or Anonymity 4 Proxy at www.inetprivacy.com/a4privacy/, or free services such as Aixs Net Privacy at aixs.net/aixs/, SpacePROXY at www.spaceproxy.com/, and Janus at www.rewebber.de/. You can get a whole list of anonymous proxy surfing services from www.proxys4all.cgi.net/. A $14 kit from www.ultimate-anonymity.com/ gives you what you need to surf incognito. The people at www.hideaway.net/ have a whole "privacy boutique" going, with plenty of programs, utilities, and suggestions for keeping your anonymity safe. When you hit a Web site that asks for personal information, you should consider refusing to provide it, or just flat out lie (this applies to forms, too). Don't sign guest books for Web sites that you don't trust. Any Web site that you visit can collect your IP address, but the rest of the info is harder for the average site to track. You need to investigate the privacy policy of Web sites that you frequent: are they selling your personal info to marketers? Your own browser can tattle your Web preferences to anyone who wants to know by simply cruising through your History folder; eradicate your browsing history by emptying the History and Cache files from your browser, or using a program like Cache Compactor. Don't forget to get rid of your cookies (see above). Usenet junkies, don't let your messages be archived in newsgroups by starting every post with the line X-NO-ARCHIVE:YES.

Anonymizer has some pricey, but powerful, competition: IDSecure, from IDZap, offers similar services plus a few extras for $50/year, with free lighter services also offered. Check out the offer at www.idzap.com/. If you want more protection at a stiffer price, check out what Somebody.net is offering for $229 a year at www.somebody.net/.

Another privacy protector, Freedom 1.1, is provided by Zero-Knowledge Systems, at www.freedom.net/. Their utility creates a Web pseudonym which blocks nosy Web sites from ferreting out personal information from your system. The trial version lasts 30 days; you'll have to pony up $50 to keep it. Unfortunately, the users who could profit most from this, AOLites, can't use it. A similar, less full-featured privacy system, Privada Proxy, is available from www.privada.com/; AOL users can use this system, but it's not compatible with the AOL browser.

Keep your browser from tattling your identity by temporarily stripping your e-mail address, user ID, real name, and whatever other info you prefer to keep to yourself from your browser settings before surfing. Strip this out and the only info you're providing nosy servers are your ISP's address and your geographical location. (Copy the info from the various fields before you delete it; you'll need it to access your e-mail later.) In IE4, click on Internet Mail and select Options. Click on the Server tab and delete the text that appears in the fields. In Navigator, go to Edit/Preferences, click on Identity, and delete the information in each field. Next, click on Mail Server and delete your information..

A remailing service that will render your e-mails anonymous is located at www.publius.com/.

Several Internet marketers have begun providing you with the option to "opt out" of their databases, thereby removing yourself from their hotlists and stop their ongoing attempts to collect data on you. Here's a list of the Internet ad agencies and the URLs to use in removing yourself from their databases:

• 24/7 Media at www.247media.com/privacy.htm The fun part of opting out with these guys is that you have to send an e-mail with personal info to them to have it removed from the database. Squirrely enough for you?

• Adsmart Network and Engage Technologies at www.engage.com/privacy/koptout.htm Just click on its opt-out link.

• AdForce at www.adforce.com/home/comp3_priv.html Actually, you can't opt out from these guys because they claim not to store personal information. Harrumph.

• Doubleclick and Netgravity at www.doubleclick.net/company_info/about_doubleclick/
  privacy/privacy2.htm#optout or at ad.doubleclick.net/cgi-bin/optout? Ignore the spiel about why cookies that gather your personal info are good for you.

• FlyCast at www.flycast.com/about_us/
  index.cfm?sub=pri&content=privacy#optout

• MatchLogic at www.matchlogic.com/privacy/policy.htm You'll need to visit www.delivere.preferences.com/OptOut for details on getting out of this databank.

• RealMedia at www.real.com/ Claims its Privacy Proxy software prevents collection of personal data, so no opt-out options are provided.

Andrew Brandt of PC World gives us a letter template to use in asking companies to let you opt out of their databanks. Here's what you do: First, collect the URLs and/or postal addresses of the companies who you think have personal info on you. Then send them the following letter, customized to your personal needs:

Re: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Privacy Opt-Out Notice
To Whom It May Concern:

This letter constitutes notice that I wish you to restrict the transfer, sale, trade, or barter of all information relating to my account(s) numbered XXXXX [insert numbers here] either to any subsidiary or to any non-affiliated third-party business partner.

Please also refrain from sending me any marketing materials via postal mail and e-mail, and from soliciting me by telephone.

My phone number is XXXXX, my postal address is XXXXX, and my e-mail address is XXXXX.

Thank you.

This legally forces compliance according to the new federal privacy act. Assuming these companies actually obey the law, this should keep much of your personal information off the market, and cut down on some of the spam clogging your inbox.

Another way to sneak up on a Web page is by using Telnet, an older Internet protocol, to snag pages in their raw HTML format. Use your Telnet access, if you have it, to access port 80 of the Web site you wish to visit, like so: www.fubar.com:80. After you connect, type GET followed by the URL location of the particular page, like so: GET /page2.html. (Yup, gotta know the particular page's address.) Some servers reject this kind of request, but if you were successful, no record of your visit will exist on anyone's servers.

Gee, what's Telnet anyway? As the gnomes of Lockergnome inform us, Telnet is similar to FTP (File Transfer Protocol) in that it enables two computers to communicate with each other while connected to the Internet. When you use Telnet, you're using software on your computer to connect to another computer, and be able to use it as if you were physically at that computer. The other computer is generally one that stores files for you and it may be located anywhere. So why would anyone want to use it when we have FTP and the Web? Lots of reasons: students use this to access class materials and learn how to do things on a Web server for just one example. Some folks use Telnet to load their Web site's HTML files onto the Web server hosting it. System administrators can manage system activities on servers anywhere in the world. Companies don't always have all their servers in one room or even one city; using Telnet gives the administrators the ability to enter and execute commands as if they were doing it directly at the server's physical location. Telnet, unlike FTP, requires knowing commands to enter into the system so it will know what to do. Also, using a mouse with Telnet is futile because it accepts only character (via keyboard) input...yes, this means DOS. However, administrators have the ability to do more activities than FTP programs can handle. While FTP programs can change directories, transfer files between systems, and change the file name, Telnet can do these things and more: restart a server, query a database for specific words in a specific order, and manage accounts and passwords. Most personal computers come equipped with a basic telnet program. If there isn't one on your computer, then there are shareware programs that are available for downloading. Microsoft Windows users can typically find this by going to Start, Programs, Accessories, Telnet. Like FTP, you must connect to a server by entering a special address that you received from the administrator or Internet Service Provider (ISP). Once connected, it will request an ID and password, which you'd also need to obtain from an administrator or ISP. Easy enough.

Web privacy a hot-button issue with you? The Electronic Privacy Information Center at www.epic.org is a large, well-organized site offering more resources than you can shake a directional microphone at. If you're more into activism, try TRUSTe at www.truste.org; these guys publish a Webzine, certify Internet sellers for honesty, organize electronic petition drives, and monitor the Internet for privacy violations. And a newcomer, Zero-Knowledge Systems at www.freedom.net/, offers a product called Freedom 1.1, which, as discussed above, provides you with an encrypted pseudonym that filters all the data your PC sends to the Internet...sort of like telling the electronic world your real name and location is John Doe, Anywhere U.S.A.

Project Echelon. It has that X-Files ring to it, and so it should. A massive intelligence-gathering project, Echelon is currently hard at work scanning all Internet traffic, monitoring cell phone conversations, fax transmissions, pager signals, even long distance phone calls, ostensibly looking for indications of terrorist activity, military threats, and transnational crime. Feel safe now? Right. Echelon is a project co-sponsored by the super secretive U.S. NSA and its counterparts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.K. They may indeed be looking for "thugs and drugs," as one expert says, but they're scanning the material you and I are transmitting. Not enough is known about Echelon to clearly understand how it works, much less how to protect yourself from its spying digital eyes -- it is black-box technology at its most secretive. Currently the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center are doing their best to ferret out information about Echelon and its relative Carnivore, but except for the fact that all of our privacy is being flagrantly violated, very little information is forthcoming.

If you go through AOL, CompuServe, MSN, or another online service, check your profile. When you signed up, you might have wanted the whole world to know your name, age, sex, interests, and genital size, but now that you're older and more paranoid, you probably want to get that information out of there. Some online services require you to have a profile in order to make use of their full range of services; if that's the case, go with the bare minimum of info needed. If you connect to the Net with an ISP, check to see if there's info listed about you in the ISP's finger system. This is a program running on many ISP servers that stores basic user info in a publicly accessible database. Check yourself out at www.rickman.com/finger.html or www.cs.indiana.edu:800/finger/gateway/. Enter your e-mail address in the search field to see what, if any, info is stored about you. If you see anything you want deleted, check with your ISP to have them erase your info.

Actually, most people's information isn't stolen over the Internet, it's ripped directly from their PCs by unscrupulous co-workers or "friends." Microsoft has a free utility called the System Policy Editor that can keep your data away from sticky-fingered folks in the next cubicle. Get it from www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ to an empty folder and run it (Win 95 CD owners, just look under ADMIN\APPTOOLS\POLEDIT; Win 98 owners, find it on your CD at RESKIT\NETADMIN\POLEDIT; to load it, go to Control Panel's Add/Remove applet, click Windows Setup, choose Have Disk, browse down to either POLEDIT.INF or GROUPPOL.INF, depending on your version, click OK, click the System Policy Editor box, click Install, and click OK. You're now good to go). Restart your computer and press Esc at the login box to log in as the default user. Launch Policy Editor from the Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools menu. Click File, Open Registry. Double-click Local User, select System Restrictions, and check all the boxes under the Restrictions subhead. You can allow others to run certain apps by selecting "Only run allowed Windows applications," then selecting Show, Add, typing the program's executable file name in the Add Item dialog box, and clicking OK. Whatever you choose, make sure you include POLEDIT.EXE in your list of allowed apps, otherwise you won't be able to change the settings in the future. Now, to ensure privacy, copy POLEDIT.EXE onto a floppy, put the floppy somewhere secure, and delete POLEDIT.EXE from your hard drive. This makes it harder for anyone to reverse your changes. Warning: This won't keep the dedicated hacker from breaking into your PC, but it should foil the average shmo. It will make it much more difficult to access your own data, and if you don't follow the directions precisely, you'll lock yourself out and have to find a dedicated hacker to break into your own machine. Is it worth the trouble? You decide. You might prefer a utility such as SecureWin, a $50 file encryption utility that provides plenty of file security and is easier for the legitimate user to access - sneak over to www.securewin.com/. And while we're on the subject of PC privacy, remember that anyone can change the Windows passwords with no trouble (by going through the Passwords icon in Control Panel and selecting "Change Windows Password"), anyone can log in as the default user by simply pressing Esc during the startup procedure, and anyone can create a new login account and password. A BIOS-based password is harder to defeat. Internet connections which ask for passwords don't provide much security either; freeware available on the Web allows the unscrupulous hacker to easily decrypt your password and log on under your account. Many people believe that password-protecting their screen saver protects their PC from prying eyes; it's a simple matter to restart the PC and log in as the default user. Those of you who are seriously worried about Windows security need to forget about Win 9.x and start looking into Windows 2000 or XP.

You may find yourself looking for a new ISP without wanting to; the current merger/buyout mania of ISPs is leaving many users high and dry. If you're one of the thousands whose provider got bought out, here's a few hints on handling the changeover. First, don't panic -- the new ISP might be better than the old one. You might even get access to cable or DSL before you would have otherwise. Research the new ISP by going to www.inversenet.com/ for a rating of national ISPs, and checking the online mags such as PC World and PC Magazine for their ratings. Talk to the new guys, and ask if you'll be able to keep your old e-mail address, billing plan, and connection type. Web site owners, find out if you can keep your old URL, and if not, how long you'll be able to keep a "We've moved!" site up at the old address. Give the new guys time to work through the changeover -- expect problems and glitches for a month or two. If the new guys do indeed suck, don't hesitate to bail -- do some research and find out which ISP might provide you with a better home. Definitely plan ahead -- business owners need to be able to provide customers with notice about changing e-mail addresses, URLs, and the like. And make sure that if you register a domain, you and not your ISP is listed as the administrative and billing contact.

Continue your fight to restore your online privacy by visiting as many online telephone directories and people finders as you can find, and looking yourself up. The major ones include Yahoo! People Search (formerly Four11) at www.people.yahoo.com/, Bigfoot (www.bigfoot.com/), Infospace (www.infospace.com/), and Switchboard (www.switchboard.com/). People Search and Switchboard will let you modify or delete your entry. (Getting an unlisted phone number, or changing your listing to your pet's name, goes a long way to purge you out of the databanks, as most directory sites base their listings on the local phone books.) Check out genealogical sites to find out if relatives have posted your name and contact info to online family trees. Peruse government databanks for your name listed under property records, civil suits, criminal records, bankruptcies, liens, and judgments. You may not be able to delete your name, but you may be able to amend records to hide some information, correct erroneous entries, and in some cases block your personal information from being sold on the open market. Check Web sites that may store personal information on you, such as professional organizations, licensing agencies, schools, alumni associations, and corporate pages. Run searches through Lycos, AltaVista, and other engines to find yourself - you never know what's been entered on the Web about you. Do the same with Google Groups if you're a Usenet user. Request copies of your credit record from the "big three" credit reporting agencies, Equifax (www.equifax.com/), Experian (www.experian.com/), and TransUnion (www.tuc.com/). Most of them provide one free report a year, depending on state law. You can find out if anyone's asked for your credit record in the last six months, and check your info for errors (almost 1/3 of credit reports include serious errors). E-mail caveats: don't ever send questionable content over the e-mail clients at your job; in fact, don't do anything non-job related from your work e-mail. Use freemail accounts for your chatting, shopping, and other highly trackable Net activities. For serious e-mail privacy, Eudora, Outlook Express, and Netscape Mail all support encryption, but encryption is a serious hassle for the user and the recipient both. An easier way to retain e-mail anonymity is to use a remailer. Visit www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html for the List of Reliable Anonymous Remailers, or a similar list at www.epic.org/; some of the better-known remailers are Anonymizer (www.anonymizer.com/), AnonMailNet (www.anonmail.net/), MailAnon (www.mailanon.com/), Zero Knowledge (www.freedom.net/), and Replay Associates (www.replay.com/remailer/). Chat mavens, be aware that online chatting seriously exposes you to snoops, particularly (but not restricted to) users of AOL's Instant Messenger or ICQ. (Compare the amount of spam received by AOL chatters as opposed to non-chatters. Huge.)

Want to know how fast your ISP connection really is? NetMonitor, a free utility from www.modemwizard.com/, can not only help you find out how fast your connection is, but if your Net accelerators are actually doing you any good. If you like NetMomitor, you'll love its $25 big brother, Modem Wizard.

Looking for a new ISP? The folks at www.isps.com/ have put together a comprehensive, informative list that might steer you towards the ISP you want; a similar site, ISPFinder, is at ispfinder.com/. ZDNet's site at www.zdnet.com/products/internetuser puts together lots of info about ISPs also, and The List at thelist.internet.com/ is a definitive buyers' guide. ISPCheck at www.ispcheck.com/ provides a checklist to help narrow down individual choices, and Online Connection at www.barkers.org/online/index.html provides lots of third-party reviews, news, profiles, and resources.

Remember Gopher, the text-only predecessor to the World Wide Web? Plenty of info is still out there, much of it unavailable anywhere else. Surf to Gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu to hook up.

Some surfers like to make paper copies of the pages they select. Assuming that your needs transcend the occasional Print command available with your browser, you might try the freeware printing utility HP Instant Delivery, from Hewlett-Packard's site at www.instant-delivery.com/. It works with most printers, not just HPs. Download and install the program, then set up the print schedule. You can set the program for delivery of the selected pages at whatever time works for you, along with a time for printing the pages. Be aware that if you use this utility a lot, you're going to go through paper and ink like wildfire.

The new buzz among Windows users is Internet Printing. Microsoft's new Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) comes with Win 2K, and is available for download for Win 95 and 98/ME. More and more network-ready printers can handle IPP (though many, especially the older ones, cannot). If you want to give IPP a whirl (which is making life much easier for network printing and giving users much more control over their print jobs), here's what to do:

1. Download and install the upgrade. Currently it resides at windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ under Product Updates, but knowing Microsoft, it may move. Go through the list you're given, and under "Communications," choose "Internet Print Service." Being Microsoft, the info you're given here is wrong: it says you have to connect to a Windows 2000 machine to print, and this is dead wrong. Hopefully by the time you read this, Microsoft will have corrected their error. At any rate, check the box and choose Download. The file self-installs, and asks you to approve a reboot. Do so.

2. Now you need a compatible printer driver. This should be available on the printer manufacturer's Web page. Download and install it as per the instructions (in some cases, you may have to install the driver to the LPT1 port, then change the port setting later).

3. Go through Start, Settings, Printers, and choose Add Printer to crank up the Add Printer Wizard. Choose Next, then Network Printer, then Next again, and type the printer's URL (usually a numerical IP address) in "Network Path or Queue Name." Choose Next; if you immediately go to the next screen, you're in business. If your PC tells you that the printer is offline, check to see if you entered the proper IP address; if you did and you're still getting an offline message, for some reason your machine is not locating the printer. You have a networking issue. Resolve it and come back when it's ready to try again.

4. Here you install the driver; choose "Have Disk" and complete the installation as you would with any printer. Since you probably downloaded the driver to your hard disk, just point the wizard to the proper location. Now test the new installation by giving it a print job.

5. If you had to install the driver to an LPT1 port, go through Start, Settings, Printers again, right-click the printer and choose Properties, then Details. Choose Add Port, then Network, and type the URL (IP address) in the text box labeled "Specify the network path to the printer." OK your way out of the setup boxes. You should be good to go.

If you see these little orange XML buttons on the Web, you may wonder what they're for. They indicate that the site offers an RSS (Rich Site Summary, or perhaps Really Simple Syndication) feed. The code is similar to HTML that uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Feed the feed (the URL you receive after clicking on the orange button) into free aggregators like NewzCrawler, AmphetaDesk, and FeedReader, and you'll stay updated on any fresh news from that site. (You can find a ton of newsreaders in my Shareware Browser page.) The nice thing is that you can keep track of updated sites all in one place. Typically, the feed provides a brief summary. If the story sounds interesting, click on the link to get the rest of the story. There is a similar button that's blue with RSS that functions in the same way. Large Web sites with news coming from different sources use these feeds to update their pages with the latest news from the various sources. News Is Free, at www.newsisfree.com, is an ultimate news portal that has many XML and RSS feeds for your use; Syndic8 at www.syndic8.com is another. There's a good introduction to RSS Feeds at www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/. Bloggers and RSS feeds are dovetailing; see my Blogs page for more info.