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Please email comments, abuse, jokes, dinner invites, & suggestions to
geckology@smoothsilicon.com, or phone Gecko 5485 3131, 0449575978


Welcome.

Hope you got through the rains without too much drama
If you did, you are in the fortunate minority.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Great Wall of Australia.
( It's to keep the rabbits in )
The internet filter is a joke in my eyes. We already have one of the
slowest networks
in the developed world. The filter will slow it down & will not stop the
baddies.
Now to explain my frustration. One other country I know of uses one.
The fact that they do, presents a source of grim comedy for the tech savvy.
Have a look yourself. Go to google.com.au and look up Tiananmen square,
then go to google.com.cn (China) and look at the difference. I fear the
inadvertent blocking of legitimate content.
My 2 cents.
Listening to the wireless the other day, they were talking about net
security software and such. A survey had found that a huge reduction in
undesirable content viewing, was as simple as putting the PC in an area of
the house that was open to others and traffic.
Makes a lot of sense.
That's my gripe for the month anyway.

Now, how did you go with the mouse help last month?
Drop me an email. No such thing as a silly question,
just means I might be able to answer it.
This month, we tackle the issues commonly faced with email.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of them. The very first thing to check is if
you are actually connected to the net, so open Internet Explorer or
Firefox and see if you can get to a site you trust, like google or ebay. (
Google loads quicker). If you can get a site up, we are right to go. If
you can't, check your wires, power to modem/router and plugs, then ring
your ISP.

The secret is to be very slow and methodical. If you get an error message,
STOP and read it. Often they will give you a clue.
We will now set up Outlook Express from scratch. If you have been using
the program, some of this will have already been done. Still, you can use
this guide to check your settings.
To follow along, open Outlook Express, go to "Tools", "Accounts" & click
on the "Mail" tab.
Click your email address and choose "Properties".
When you start Outlook Express for the first time, you will get asked to
enter the name you wish to appear in the "From" field. This is not
critical to getting or sending mail, it is purely so when you send someone
a message, they will know who it is from.
The next screen will ask for details of two servers. These servers are
actual distant machines run by your ISP, Optus, Dodo etc, and these
details are critical. Leave out one dot, or put one letter wrong, and it
will not work, trust me. The first is called a POP server (actually POP3).
Find the details in the email or letter you got when you started your
account, don't guess or speculate. This handles incoming email's from
others to you. Commonly, if you are with Optus, say, it will be
"mail.optus.com", without the quotes. Now, using your mouse skills,
highlight this and copy it, (try Ctrl and c ). Now click in where it says
SMTP server, and paste. ( Ctrl and v ). Yes, these two machines live at
the same address. The SMTP server is responsible for taking your mail, and
sending it to the person/s you addressed it too.
( Outlook Express will jam up if it cannot send one, so if get mail, but
you can't send, have a look in your outbox for a wrongly addressed message
you tried to send recently.)


The next screen shows your account name, and password.
This one is also critical. No mistakes allowed here. Again, refer to the
details provided when you signed up. Your account name is usually your
email address, which will be in the format of "you@your ISP.com". (Some
ISP's may only need the "you" bit, some need ".net" or ".biz", at the
end.)
The password is the biggest reason for help calls, so make very sure of
this. A common problem is that the ISP gives you a temporary password, and
you are forced to change it when you first log in. Now, your old one will
not work. Your sacred piece of paper won't help now. Ring them straight
away if you have an authentication or wrong username/password error
message, while checking or sending mail.
If you need to use SAP, by ticking the box below these, leave it ticked.
If in doubt, leave it ticked and try it.
You have finished.
To go through this, or create a second email account, go to Tools, and
second last should be "Accounts". Then click on the "Mail" tab, choose
your account, and click "Properties".
On the "General" tab, you need only have the email address correct, and
the "Include this account when receiving or synchronizing mail" box
ticked, for it to work.
The "Reply to" is handy if you send an email from home, but wish to check
your mail from elsewhere. You can set this to say, you@gmail.com, then you
can send it from home, and get the reply from anywhere.
Some trouble is encountered if the port numbers are wrong, on the
"Advanced" tab.
110 is standard for POP, and 25 for SMTP, although this should be given by
your ISP, and may be different to reduce SPAM.
Another notable in the "Advanced" tab, is the "Leave a copy of messages
on server"
box. Very important to tick, if you check your mail from two or more
computers.
Otherwise, the second machine won't be able to get it.
By far the easiest way to have all your messages synchronized on two or
more PC's,
is to tick the box, and check mail from both/all of your computers. Your
sent messages will still be only on the machine you sent them from though,
so when you send a message, you may wish to send it to yourself as well.
That way, you can have all your sent and received messages on more
computers than one.
This doubles as a very nice backup, for when you lose data one day. Yes,
when.
Every hard drive made so far, will fail. 1 year or 6, but it will go.

Now, go and send your mail to yourself and make sure you have all your
computers set to leave a copy on the server. ( Your online mailbox will
fill up, so make a note to check it and delete the trash.) Do not stop
there. Get in the car, or drag the dog for a walk.Go and get a thumb drive
or three, (they cost next to nothing), plug them into your computer and
save your documents and pictures NOW.
A spare email and document computer is a good idea too.
A reliable old computer with a free copy of Linux, can give you a backup
web browser, document producer, & emailer that just works, for less than
$100 dollars.
Re-use, re-cycle and rejuvenate, don't let it become a "Toxic Asset" to
our planet.Tell me how you dispose of old IT Equipment? I want to know.

Watch out for the wildlife,

Back to you.
Smooth Gecko ]]> General http://smoothsilicon.com/LinuxGecko/index.php?itemid=10 Mon, 11 May 2009 18:58:50 -0700 http://smoothsilicon.com/LinuxGecko/index.php?itemid=8
Let me introduce myself.
They call me Gecko.

I will be writing a monthly IT column for The Hinterland Voice.
Feel free to email suggestions to geckology@smoothsilicon.com.
Having lived on the Sunshine Coast since 1991, and repaired computers
since 1995, I can claim the title of "Local Technician".
My official IT training was conducted in W.A., where they take it to be
a priority.

This column will be dedicated to you, the computer user, and will
encompass common problems that my clients face, and my two bits worth.

Tip of the month: This time of year, thunderbolt and lightning,
  very,very frightening.
  Unplug ALL your equipment at the wall   Savings: Hundreds

I thought I would start with broadband basics.

I often get asked to clarify what the go is, and how to go about it.
Here is my angle.
Earlier in the internets life,dial-up was fast enough.
Here is what happened.

Web site developers, ( me included ) used to have to "weigh" every page
we produced to make sure it wasn't too "heavy". This was because the
majority of people that would visit our site, would use dial-up.
Then, if the page would not load in under ten seconds, we would have to
pull it down and lighten any pictures etc, that could be slowing it
down.
Practically no-one builds a new site to work well on dial-up connections
anymore. All the interaction that the latest sites use relies on a fast
connection.
Regarding which broadband plan to get, I would advise you pick up a copy
of APC magazine. ( Not an add for them, but they have a regular
broadband comparison chart that is very good. )
Not all off these will be available where you are, but it will give you
a good idea of what is available, and what it should cost.

TIP: Be VERY wary of any long term contracts.
Broadband is rapidly becoming faster and cheaper, don't get caught.


Another big one to watch is the minimum data amount.
In English, if you get a 200MB plan say, thinking you only do emails,
then hook up a new machine to the net.
Your first batch  of updates ( Important ) will blow your monthly
download limit, and worse still, you could end up with a big bill.
And don't kid yourself, when you get broadband, and you can watch
and do new things, most people will at least explore some of the
features that you couldn't on dial-up.

Now, you probably use Windows?
Never mind, I can still help you.
Myself, I have chosen Linux as my Operating System of choice.
I became a full blown convert in 1998, when the pop ups and rebooting
became a pain, not to mention viruses.
A properly set up Linux box is a very quiet environment to work in.
It is akin to completing a complex task after the kids have gone to bed.
It allows me more time to concentrate, and has been known to run for
years without a reboot.
Think of those two little champion machines running around on Mars,
Yep, Linux is everywhere.

      * Linux (or GNU Linux, to be correct ) comes in many varieties
        that are referred to as "flavours".My choice is the German
        distribution, SUSE.
Their new desktop is a beauty to behold.
SUSE-11, (pronounced (Sue zaa ), has more than enough eye candy for
anyone, and, inline with Linux's heritage is frugal on the hardware.
In English: Very pretty, and fast too boot. ( Pun intended )
The Enterprise version, SLED-10, is very mature and industry orientated.
Don't bother if you want games and video.
This one is serious.
But who cares ?, I hear you ask.
The operating system is no use without the programs to do your tasks.
This is where Linux ( GNU Linux to be correct ), really comes into its
own.

For example, Photograph editing.

The Gimp.
 This oddly named program has great functionality.
Layers, paths and all that is just the start.
It is often compared to PhotoShop.

Sodipodi.
Even stranger name, and a perfect partner program to The Gimp if you are
really serious.



Office software:

Linux users are justifiably proud of Open Office.
A very comprehensive suite that handles spreadsheets, .docs, databases
and many others, whether they were created on Linux or not.
One nice feature is the ability to transform your work into a pdf file,
right from the toolbar.

AbiWord.
This can be used to work with word documents.

Scribus.
If you are into desktop publishing, have a go at this.
Excellent software and capabilities.

There are similar choices in just about any sphere you can name.

Email me with your PC specs, and I can send you a Linux installation
disc, for the cost of postage & burning.
A lot of Linux flavours will run very well on a machine that is no
longer adequate for the latest of other operating systems.

So, there is an intro to my world of Linux.
Derived from a concept that powered military computers in the 60's,
it is very stable and secure, and now it has grown up.

Did I mention that it is free?

That is free like freedom of speech free too, not just as in free beer!

Back to you

Smooth Gecko.]]> General http://smoothsilicon.com/LinuxGecko/index.php?itemid=8 Fri, 6 Feb 2009 16:58:06 -0800