Specifications

Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group
April 2004
10
by Siles Bazerman
For now,this is
good-bye
Siles Bazerman is ORCOPUG’s APCUG Representative and well-known user
group columnist. His expert help has appeared in UG newsletters in the US and
Canada. We’ve long appreciated his help through his columns and we’re going
to miss them. —LG
Orange County IBM PC Users’ Group
April 2004
10
T
his is a column I have known was coming for quite a while.
Yet, I hate to write it. This will be my last for now. I have
found itincreasingly harder and harder to find topics that
interest both me, to write about, and to you, to read about. I am
running out of things to say.
This has been a long run, starting in October 1995. That first article
was a review of a Windows 95 uninstaller. Bits and Bytes and Windows
xx started in January 1996 and has been published ever since. It evolved
from Windows 95 to Windows 98 to Windows 98 SE to Windows Me to
Windows XP. It has been an interesting journey. Along the way I have
met many fine and interesting people, learned much and enjoyed more.
Frankly I am tired. Tired of being creative every month; tired of
monitoring three to five hundred postings to the various Windows XP
newsgroups; tired of seeing the same five or six questions multiple times
a day. So, I am going on an extended vacation from writing this column.
Will I be back? Quite probably. Will I write another monthly column?
Possibly, but not high on my priority list at this moment. When I will
resume writing is dependent on when something catches my interest. It
may be later this year when Windows XP SP2 is released. It may not be
until “Longhorn” is released in 2006, or some point in between.
In the meantime I would like to thank all the editors I have worked
with, Sonny Locke, Linda Gonse, Kay Winnert, Judy Taylor, Sue Crane
and Mitchel Chesney. It has been fun working with you and being friends
with you. I hope to keep this up in the future. I would also like to thank
the unknown editors around the US and Canada that have occasionally
reprinted my articles. It is a very nice feeling to find your name in some
newsletter from a far off place. I have had one article, about the hoax
“Microsoft” letter with a virus attached reprinted at least fourteen times
that I know of.
In the meantime if any of you come up with any ideas that you think
might interest me, let me know. Who knows, it just might inspire me to
write again.
Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank my readers, especially
those of you who stuck it out through all 100 columns. Without your
positive reenforcement and helpful comments I would not have been able
to go on for so long. Your support made it all worthwhile.
So for now
-30-
Siles
How and when to enable
Windows XP’s firewall
by Linda Gonse
Most users are aware of a need for
an antivirus program and a firewall in
order to be protected from regular,
daily Internet threats.
What some may not know is that
Windows XP has a built-in firewall.
While it lacks the bells and whistles of
a full version firewall, such as Norton
or Zone Alarm, it is still useful.
You can enable it by going to
Control Panel and clicking on the
Network Connection icon. In the
Connections window, right click on the
name of your connection and click on
Properties in the drop-down menu.
Click on the Advanced tab. Check the
box next to “Protect my computer
and network by limiting or prevent-
ing access to this computer from the
Internet.” Then, click OK.
Follow these steps each time you
wish to enable the firewall for other
Internet connections on your computer.
But, before enabling XP’s firewall,
you should be aware of these points:
• It must not be used through
software or hardware routers.
• It only works on incoming Internet
traffic, not outgoing traffic from spy-
ware, Trojan viruses, or hacker tools.
• On local area networks (LANs)
with other computers, it will block File
and Printer Sharing.
• It can be turned on or off for each
of your dial-ups, LAN, or high-speed
Internet connections.
AutoPlay Options in XP
When you insert a CD in Windows
XP, you’ll get a screen providing
several options:
• Play media files using Real One
Player;
• Play using Windows Media
player;
• Open folder to view file using
Windows Explorer, or take no action.
(Continued to page 11)