(((((( Batavia Computer Center ))))))

Virus answers

What is a computer virus?
1) A computer virus is a program designed to spread itself by first infecting executable files or the system areas of hard and floppy disks and then making copies of itself. Viruses usually operate without the knowledge or desire of the
computer user.

What kind of files can spread viruses?
2) Viruses have the potential to infect any type of executable code, not just the files that are commonly called 'program files'. For example, some viruses infect executable code in the boot sector of floppy disks or in system areas of hard drives. Another type of virus, known as a 'macro' virus, can infect word processing and spreadsheet documents that use macros. And it's possible for HTML documents containing JavaScript or other types of executable code to spread viruses or other malicious code.
Since virus code must be executed to have any effect, files that the computer treats as pure data are safe. This includes graphics and sound files such as .gif, .jpg, .mp3, .wav, etc., as well as plain text in .txt files. For example, just viewing picture files won't infect your computer with a virus. The virus code has to be in a form, such as an .exe program file or a Word .doc file, that the computer will actually try to execute.
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How do viruses spread?
3) When you execute program code that's infected by a virus, the virus code will also run and try to infect other programs, either on the same computer or on other computers connected to it over a network . And the newly infected programs
will try to infect yet more programs.
When you share a copy of an infected file with other computer users, running the file may also infect their computers;
and files from those computers may spread the infection to yet more computers.
If your computer is infected with a boot sector virus, the virus tries to write copies of itself to the system areas of floppy disks and hard disks. Then the infected floppy disks may infect other computers that boot from them, and the virus copy on the hard disk will try to infect still more floppies.
Some viruses, known as 'multipartite' viruses, can spread both by infecting files and by infecting the boot areas of floppy disks.
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What do viruses do to computers?
4) Viruses are software programs, and they can do the same things as any other programs running on a computer. The actual effect of any particular virus depends on how it was programmed by the person who wrote the virus.
Some viruses are deliberately designed to damage files or otherwise interfere with your computer's operation, while others don't do anything but try to spread themselves around. But even the ones that just spread themselves are harmful, since they damage files and may cause other problems in the process of spreading.
Note that viruses can't do any damage to hardware: they won't melt down your CPU, burn out your hard drive, cause your monitor to explode, etc. Warnings about viruses that will physically destroy your computer are usually hoaxes, not legitimate virus warnings.

What is a Trojan horse program?
5) A type of program that is often confused with viruses is a 'Trojan horse' program. This is not a virus, but simply a program (often harmful) that pretends to be something else.
For example, you might download what you think is a new game; but when you run it, it deletes files on your hard drive. Or the third time you start the game, the program E-mails your saved passwords to another person.
Note: simply downloading a file to your computer won't activate a virus or Trojan horse; you have to execute the code in the file to trigger it. This could mean running a program file, or opening a Word/Excel document in a program (such as Word or Excel) that can execute any macros in the document.
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What's the story on viruses and E-mail?
6) You can't get a virus just by reading a plain-text E-mail message or Usenet post. What you have to watch out for are encoded messages containing embedded executable code (i.e., JavaScript in an HTML message) or messages that include an executable file attachment (i.e., an encoded program file or a Word document containing macros).
In order to activate a virus or Trojan horse program, your computer has to execute some type of code. This could be a program attached to an E-mail, a Word document you downloaded from the Internet, or something received on a floppy disk. There's no special hazard in files attached to Usenet posts or
E-mail messages: they're no more dangerous than any other file.

What can I do to reduce the chance of getting viruses from E-mail?
7) Treat any file attachments that might contain executable code as carefully as you would any other new files: save the attachment to disk and then check it with an up-to-date virus scanner before opening the file.
If your E-mail or news software has the ability to automatically execute JavaScript, Word macros, or other executable code contained in or attached to a message, I strongly recommend that you disable this feature.
My personal feeling is that if an executable file shows up unexpectedly attached to an E-mail, you should delete it unless you can positively verify what it is, who it came from, and why it was sent to you.
The recent outbreak of the Melissa virus was a vivid demonstration of the need to be extremely careful when you receive E-mail with attached files or documents. Just because an E-mail appears to come from someone you trust, this does NOT mean the file is safe or that the supposed sender had anything
to do with it.
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General pc answers

What type of files are on my hard drive?
1) Every day you create and delete files on your computer, install and remove programs that add and remove files, copy files, rename files, etc. You have tens of thousands of files on your hard drive. After a basic clean installation of Windows 98, you'll already have well over 2000 files. To see how many files you have right now, open up Windows Explorer by going to Start/Programs/Windows Explorer. Click once on your hard drive in the left column. Now hit Ctrl-A on your keyboard, which will highlight all files and folders on the right. Then right-click on the highlighted files and select Properties from the menu. In the resulting window, you'll see at the top the number of files. More than you thought, isn't it?
Now if you take a look at the list of files on the right, you'll see rows of folder icons, followed by rows of file icons. Each file has its own unique name, since you cannot have two files with the same name in the same folder. If you're looking at the root directory of your C: drive, you'll probably see a few file names such as Autoexec, Command, etc. Some others might have pretty cryptic names such as RG2CATDB or SFCSYNC. But what does that mean and what do those files do? Read on if you're curious what files there are, what they do and how to identify them easily.
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What is a file extension?
2) almost every file now has a dot after the file name followed by three more letters. That is called a file extension. These extensions make it a lot easier to identify a file, see what type of file it is, what it does, and what program it is associated with. The following table shows a list of the most common file extensions and explains what they mean:
avi Video clip - A type of video file format
bak Backup - When a program makes changes to an important file, it should make a backup first. Bak is a common extension to indicate a backup file
bmp Bitmap - A type of graphics file containing an image
cab Cabinet - An archive file containing compressed files, usually used by installation programs to store compressed setup files
dll Dynamic Link Library - A critical file to Windows and applications. It stores additional commands and information for applications that are called from the program as needed. If a dll file is deleted, the program probably will not work anymore and needs to be reinstalled
doc Document - A Microsoft Word document
exe Executable - This file is an actual application that can be launched. For example, Notepad.exe contains the Windows Notepad application.
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gif Graphics Interchange Format - A type of graphics file containing an image
hlp Help - This is where Windows and applications store the information that you get when you access the Help menu
html Hyper Text Markup Language - one of the several languages used to create documents for the Internet
ico Icon - The little pictures next to filenames or on your desktop are sometimes stored in this type of file
inf Setup Information - This file type comes with most applications and drivers. It contains information that Windows needs to install that application or driver
ini Initialization file - Windows as well as most applications store some configuration settings, e.g. user preferences, in ini files. If such a file is deleted, the program probably will still work, but all custom settings are lost
jpg/jpeg Joint Photographic Experts Group - A type of graphics file containing an image
log Log - Some applications keep track of certain activity, it is stored in a log file
mid/midi Musical Instrument Digital Interface - A music industry standard for electronic forms of music
mp3 Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3 - Compressed audio file
mpg/mpeg Moving Picture Experts Group - A type of digital compression standard
pdf Portable Document Format - A cross-platform file format developed by Adobe
tif Tagged Image Format - A type of graphics file containing an image
tmp Temporary file - A lot of times Windows or other applications will save some information temporarily on the hard drive. Normally those files are supposed to be deleted when they're no longer needed, but sometimes they remain. Usually these files can be removed
txt Text - This indicates a plain ASCII text file that can be read by pretty much every word processing application
wav Wave - Another type of sound file
zip Zip - An archive file storing compressed files
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What do extensions mean to windows?
3) Extensions help Windows understand what to do with a file. Extensions tell Windows what program to use to open a file or what action to perform when a file is double-clicked. Some files, e.g. exe files, are full-fledged programs that don't need any help from Windows to run (in a simplified manner of speaking). Other files cannot do anything by themselves, they need an application that can open them and make them useful. To open graphics files, you need software that can open that type of image file. To open text files, you need software that is capable of word processing.
Let's take text files for example. Go to Start/Find/Files or Folder, type *.txt, select Local hard drives and click Find Now. You should get a long list of text files that are on your hard drive. Pick a text file from the list and double-click on it. Most likely an application called Notepad will pop up on your screen and display the text that is contained in the text file you selected. But how did Windows know how to do this?

What is the windows registry?
4) Windows registry is the heart and soul of Windows. This is the place where Windows stores a list of file types it knows, what these files do, and what to do with them when one is selected. Thankfully we don't have to hack around in the registry to take a closer look at this list and to modify it. There is a relatively simple interface for that. Open Windows Explorer, go to View/(Folder) Options, and select the File Types tab. Here you'll see a long list of registered file types that you can scroll through. Take a moment and browse through this list. You'll probably see all the file types I mentioned earlier and a whole lot more.
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For our example, let's scroll down to the T's and find the listing for txt. Click on it once and observe the details displayed below. You'll see that Windows indicates that the extension for this type of file is txt and it opens with Notepad. Now we know why Windows automatically opened Notepad. When you double-clicked the file earlier, Windows looked at the extension, compared it against its list of registered file types, found it, and followed the instructions and opened it with Notepad.
How did this list come into existence? Windows knows right out of the box how to recognize a bunch of different file types. In addition, every time you install a new piece of software that uses a certain type of file, during the installation of this program the required entries are made into this list. This process is called registering a file type.
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What does the V.92 mean to my 56k Modem?
5) The latest modem standard is V.92, which was determined by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) at the end of 2000. Modems using this standard are still 56K modems, but three new features have been added -- faster connections, better uploading, and, data and voice support:
Modem-on-Hold . . . When you are online and receive an incoming call, Modem-on-Hold suspends your online session, and then without redialing reactivates your online session after your incoming call is completed. NOTE that Call-Waiting service from your telephone company is required. Although this still doesn't allow browsing and talking at the same time, it does allow such things as suspending the downloading of a file when a voice call comes in, and then resuming the download when the voice call ends. Modem-on-Hold also works in reverse, so you can initiate a voice call while connected and keep the modem connection.
Quick-Connect . . . Quick-Connect bypasses portions of the negotiation process that occurs between your modem and your ISP's equipment when you dial in by "remembering" line conditions from the previous session. This can get you online up to 50% faster.
PCM Upstream . . . Using a special technology called Pulse Code Modulation, large file transfers and email attachments being sent from the user to the ISP upload faster. Upstream speeds up to 48 Kbps are supported, and on some modems you can choose either the fastest downstream speed (up to about 52 or 53 kbps), or balanced upstream and downstream communication. This basically cuts your download speed in order to raise your upload speed. This enhancement makes the online experience faster and better for those who send a lot of information (digital photos for example) instead of just Web surfing.
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NOTE that for end users to use the new features of V.92, both ends of the "call" must be compliant with the standard, including the end user's PC or other access device, and the remote access equipment in your ISP's network This means that the V.92 features will not be immediately available with many ISPs because it requires upgrades at their end -- so don't rush out and buy a V.92 modem until you know your ISP has installed it. As of mid-2001 V.92 was really catching on with chipset and modem equipment manufacturers (Conexant, Intel, Motorola, PCTEL, USR, 3Com, Cisco, and others), and a number of ISPs were beginning to add V.92 ports.
While many people now have cable or DSL Internet access, the majority do not and may not for several years to come. So V.92 may be the technology many of us will use to hold us over until higher speed access is available.
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How do change the volume on my PC?
6) Setting or changing the volume on a PC can be easily done, as follows.
Choose Settings from the Start menu.
Choose Control Panels.
Open up Multimedia.
Move the volume slider at the top of the multimedia menu to the left or right to select the desired volume.
Click on Ok.

Internet answers

What is the Internet?
1) In short, the Internet is a network of networks. It is made up of thousands of computer networks interconnected by major links, called backbones, and many smaller nodes which are usually connected using high-speed phone lines.
The Internet is a worldwide network. Latest estimates indicate that the number of users in the USA alone is almost 30 million. It is reported that the Net has doubled in size every year since 1988.
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What is a URL?
2) URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator".
URLs look like this:
http://www.adkwebdesign.com/index.html
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors
news:alt.hypertext
telnet://dra.com
The first part of the URL, before the colon, specifies the access method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted specific to the access method. In general, two slashes after the colon indicate a machine name.
When you are told to "check out this URL", what to do next depends on your browser; goto "help" on your particular browser. In graphical browsers, there's usually an "Open URL" option in the menus.
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How do I access the Web?
3) You have two basic options: Use a an application on your machine called a browser, (this is the best option). Or, access the web by email, (this is very marginal). Browser applications are available for download from the Internet or are generally made available through Internet access providers or online services which now offer web access to some extent.
Access to the web by email is possible, but obtaining a better grade of Internet access that allows you to run a web browser is strongly encouraged.

What's on the Web?
4) By now, the Web is becoming a mainstream publishing medium in its own right. As such, virtually everything is available somewhere on the Web. Because it is cheaper to publish on the web than it is to publish on paper or in the other electronic media, a wide range of interests are represented. This is limited only by the fact that the population of the Internet is not yet as diverse as the population of the real world. Fortunately, that is changing as web access becomes more and more readily available.
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What is Email?
5) Internet e-mail is the most widely used function of the Net. While some networks may take hours or days to deliver a message, it normally only takes minutes or seconds on the Internet. E-mail allows any business to exchange information with other companies, salespeople, and most importantly, customers.
Cost-savings from the use of e-mail could take many forms including reduced Postal and Express Mail expenses, and lower long-distance bills, not to mention the sheer convenience and timeliness of being able to get a message to someone really fast

ISP customer answers:

How do I disable my call waiting when I am online?
1) Typically what happens if you have call waitng and a call comes in while you are surfing the Internet you will lose you connection to the incoming call. To disable this we need to bring up our Internet connection. This is the dialog box that comes up with a connect button and your username and password. You will see a line with a telephone number in it. Place a *70 in front of the phone number to disable call waiting. (I.E. *70 815-6017)
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How do I set up and email account inside of Microsoft Outlook Express?
2) We encourage beginning users to use our webmail. Advanced users may wish to set up their own email accounts inside of Outlook Express. If this is you we have compiled a step by step to setting up Email accounts in Outlook Express.
a) Open Outlook Express, Click on the Tools menu and select Accounts
b) Click on the Mail tab Then Click on Add and select Mail
c) In Display name type the name you want people to see. Then Click Next
d) In E-mail address, add the e-mail address that you want people to reply to then Click Next
e) Make sure the incoming mail server is POP3 (ours Are)
f) In Incoming Mail, type mail.bccis.com
g) In Outgoing Mail, type mail.bccis.com
Then Click Next
h) In Account name type the username supplied by us
In Password type the password supplied by us
Click on remember password (optional) then Click Next
i) Click Finish
j) If you Need To Add More E-mail accounts then you need to start again from section 2 above if not just Click Close
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How do I access my dialup account's 10mb of web space?
3) Every customer who signs up with BCCIS gets their own 10mb of web space on our servers. To access this space you may use your FTP program of choice. The FTP server is ftp.bccis.com. Login using your full username (johndoe@bccis.com) and your password. This will take you to your storage area. To view your pages on the Internet go to www.bccis.com/~username .