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Front Range PC Users Group Newsletter k-Byte |
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| v. 19, n. 11/12 November/December 2002 | Users Helping Users |
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Contents 1 State of the Group - Rick Mattingly 2 About k-Byte 3 October/November Meeting Reports - Mike Meyer 6 Belkin USB 2.0 Upgrade Kit 7 MDHub.com 8 Practicing The Black Art 10 Anyone Remember This From 1987? 10 Remember What? - Jack Linder 11 All Purpose Notepad 11 Browser Tip - Clearing Out Explorer's Autocomplete 12 Internet Cable Modems 14 Calendar of Events 16 December/January Calendars 18 Membership Application 20 My Registry Is Dead! - Don't Reactivate After Reinstalling 21 Google Is Great! 23 The Department Of Homeland PC Security 26 An Excellent Plan For All 28 AOL Scam Alert 30 Trading Post 31 FRPCUG Contacts State of the Group by Rick Mattingly Yikes-the Holiday season is already upon us yet again! At the December Meeting we have decided to have some fun and, in the process, learn something useful. We plan to have an interactive demonstration of online shopping just in time for Christmas. More and more people are learning the advantages of online shopping to stay away from the crushing crowds during the holiday season. But, knowing how to purchase online is just half the story. We will also demonstrate comparison shopping to find the best price on an item and provide tips on protecting yourself from scams and credit card fraud. And yes, the rumor is true. We will have a Door Prize Raffle featuring top line Microsoft software products, so bring a few dollar bills to the meeting! Published bi-monthly, k-Byte is the official newsletter of the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group (FRPCUG): our mailing address is PMB 152, 305 W. Magnolia, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521. Opinions expressed in k-Byte are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the group or its members. Publication of information in k-Byte constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither k-Byte, nor its officers, nor k-Byte, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication. Submissions Articles, letters and short items of interest on computer-related topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Send your contribution to the editor via e-mail attachment or submit on disk. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the editor for information. Copyright k-Byte is copyrighted ©2002 by the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group. Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit users groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in k-Byte without prior permission, provided that proper author and publication credits are given and that a copy of the publication in which the article appears is sent at no cost to k-Byte at the above mailing address. User groups wishing to exchange newsletters with FRPCUG are invited to send a copy of their newsletter together with an exchange request. IBM PC, OS/2, Compaq, MS-DOS, UNIX, Windows and other trademarks occasionally mentioned in k-Byte are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc., Compaq Corporation, Microsoft, Digital Research, AT&T or their owners respectively. Neither FRPCUG nor its newsletter k-Byte are connected in any way with any manufacturer or seller. We, however, gratefully acknowledge sponsorship of our group by Data Service Center, Jim Becker, owner. Advertising Classified advertising is free to members for non-business ads. See “Trading Post” for pricing for camera-ready display ads. Charges for ad makeup from sketches, etc., are available on request. Deadline for camera-ready and classified ads is listed in the Calendar of Upcoming Events. Deadline for ad-makeup is the same as for articles. About FRPCUG FRPCUG is an independent nonprofit computer society, open to anyone interested in MS-DOS, OS/2, or UNIX microcomputers. Its purpose is to provide an educational and scientific forum of mutual benefit for members of the micro-computer community. FRPCUG holds a monthly meeting and conducts various special interest groups (SIGS) and seminars. Members have voting privileges, subscription to k-Byte newsletter, SIGs and selected seminars. Annual dues are $25 for individual/family membership and $50 for corporate/group membership. October Meeting Report by Mike Meyer 22 people attended the October 1st meeting. During the Announcements Period, President Rick Mattingly again reminded the membership of the need for training assistants to help our regular instructors with the Senior Center computer courses. Membership Coordinator, Jack Linder, reminded the membership that the annual dues should be paid in November. Rick also mentioned that Microsoft would provide some software for our November monthly raffle. Rick then introduced our speaker for the Main Program, Chuck McJilton, who handles our Telecom and Internet SIG's. He gave a very informative and timely discussion on some of the basics of Internet e-mail, utilizing the widely used Microsoft products, "Outlook" and "Outlook Express", but emphasizing the latter. He first covered protocol types (e.g., POP and IMAP), and then discussed important configuration issues in some depth. This was followed by other topics, such as proper creation of folders, SPAM, Active-X codes, file attachments, electronic signatures, and some security matters. Chuck's formal presentation concluded with a discussion of subject headings, sending copies to others, (regular and blind), and efficiently utilizing the address book and the FIND function. A very enthusiastic discussion then ensued among the membership, concerning both subject matter questions and sharing of personal experiences with e-mail issues. During the Open Forum session, a number of questions were addressed concerning Internet security, such as virus hoaxes (Jack Linder), viruses that turn off your anti-virus software (Rick Mattingly), and replicating viruses, especially those that utilize your e-mail address book to spread themselves. November 2002 Meeting Report by Mike Meyer 22 people attended this month's meeting. During the Announcements Period, President Rick Mattingly stated that nominations for the slate of officers for the coming year were now being sought. All positions are open, but the current officeholders have expressed a willingness to continue in those posts, except for the Secretary, Mike Meyer, who wishes to step down. Candidates for the post will be sought prior to the December meeting, when elections will be held, since there were no volunteers at this meeting. Jack Linder proposed that the present slate of officers, except for the open Secretary's position, be elected by acclamation at the December meeting, since no other candidates have come forward so far. The Main Program was presented by Jim Watt, who is a local area financial planner and an active FRPCUG member. Jim regularly writes an informative business column on alternating Sundays for the Ft. Collins Coloradoan. He first discussed the matter of analyzing mutual funds, using financial software developed by Morningstar Mutual Funds (Chicago, IL). Following the analysis portion of the operation, the program then can be used to design a mutual fund portfolio, based upon the needs of an individual investor. Although Jim's program was quite sophisticated, there are rather less expensive versions available for the "Do-It-Your-Self" investor. The format was essentially an open forum-type presentation, preceded by an overview and demonstration of the program. Its capabilities certainly were impressive, especially in the hands of a knowledgeable investment consultant. It was particularly interesting to be made aware of certain potential pitfalls associated with mutual fund investing. During the course of his presentation, Jim also addressed some specific questions raised by individual club members. His presentation was quite timely, considering the current investment climate in the nation, and was very well-received. The speaker is to be congratulated for his effort, and, once again, the material presented clearly shows the value of being a member of FRPCUG. Those members interested in obtaining further information about this subject can contact Jim directly and/or visit the Morningstar web-site (Morningstar.com). Issues that were raised for discussion during the Open Forum session included anti-virus software up-dates, which seem to be causing annoying PC problems (e.g., system slowdowns and "lock ups"), and ink-jet printer issues (e.g., refill cartridges, head-parking problems, and proper cleaning of the equipment.) 
Mike Meyer, FRPCUG's long-standing Secretary, needs to relinquish his position due to family commitments. Mike intends to remain active with the club. We need YOU to assist with this position. Please plan to nominate yourself our another member at the December Meeting. Company: Belkin www.belkin.com Pnce: $89.99 System Req: Open PCI slot in your computer to install USB 2.0 PCI Card, Windows 98 or higher for operation with USB 1.1 devices, Windows 2000 orXP for operation with USB 2.0 devices The Kit includes: Hi-Speed USB 2.0: 4-Port Hub, 2-Port PCI Card and Device Cable Summary: An easy to install way to upgrade your computer to USB 2.0 Almost every computer sold in the past several years has come with 2 USB ports which can be used to attach devices, like joysticks, digital cameras scanners, etc. to your computer. Unfortunately, version 1 of USB, which is in your computer, was slow, especially when compared to the other new Standard IEEE 1394 or Firewire. The backers of USB went to work and increased the speed of their port almost 40 times from up to 12 megabits per second to 480Mb/s, making it comparable to Firewire which has a maximun speed of 400Mb/s. As you read the ads, you will notice numerous new products coming onto the market which take advantage of the much faster speed of the new standard. Items like external hard drives and CD-DW drives as well as digital video input now become practical. But you are stuck with the old port or are you? Belkin now makes an upgrade so your older computer can be equipped with the latest devices. I should note here that “old” may be an incorrect term as only some of the newest models shipped in the last few months have USB 2; many still come with USB version 1. The Belkin Upgrade Kit includes not only a PCI card which you install in your computer, but also a USB 2- Four Port Hub so you are not limited to the two ports on the card. And they even included the cable to connect them, something you don't always see. This also allows you to have the hub in a convenient location on your desk and avoid crawling behind the computer to plug m new devices. My newest computer, a PIll 700, was a bargain when I purchased it on closeout but, it has a major flaw - no open internal drive bays, so if! want to add a Zip drive, DVD or second hard drive, it must be external and USB 1 was too slow for there devices. Now I can upgrade my computer to attach these devices without having to purchase a new machine. Installation was very easy and the card and powered hub worked perfectly. I have purchased an external hard drive for extra storage and now have enough space to experiment with digital video. A bonus with USB 2 is that it is backward compatible with USB 1.1 devices so you can continue to use any older USB devices along with the newer ones or until you upgrade. Unfortunately, the faster bus speed will not increase the speed of the older devices but the increased bandwidth will theoretically allow for more devices to operate at the same time. The Hub is very compact. Measuring just 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches. This makes it easy to find room for it on your desk or the top of the CPU case. The Portstatus LEDs on the front show you which ports are in use. This is a very inexpensive, reasonable way to keep your computer up-to-date without the expense of purchasing an entire new system. If you have been looking longingly at the new USB2 devices, give this complete solution serious consideration. Cache newsletter - September, 2002 Since most doctors do not yet use the Internet in their practice, your message is automatically delivered to the doctor's FAX machine as well as online. With nearly 400,000 physicians available, MDhub includes virtually every doctor involved in patient care in the US. Every practicing physician's web site is already up and running waiting for patients to send messages online instead of having to use the phone. MDhub.com is a free service. All messages are encrypted for security and privacy. There is no advertising and no data is collected. Most people find reaching their doctor to be a very frustrating experience, with busy signals, waiting on hold, press 1 for... press 2... and telephone tag. MDhub is a solution to this problem. I hope you will let your members know about MDhub via your web site and newsletter. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Thank you. Jerry Spitz, M.D. Founder, The Little Blue Book Companies Medical Office: 860-525-3434 MDhub: www.MDhub.com/8605253434 "Mdhub. . .for Patients Who Love Their Doctors but Hate Their Phones" by Vinny La Bash Special Characters & Symbols Windows applications have many typefaces or fonts to choose from. The number of fonts you are able to select in your applications will depend on how up-to-date your version of Windows is, what kind of applications are installed on your system and in some instances, on what options were chosen during installation. Sometimes you might want to insert a special character in your document and the font you are currently using either doesn't seem to have any or doesn't support the symbol you're looking for. The first thing you can do is check to see if your font supports extended character sets by bringing up the Character Map, as in the example screen shown. Let's suppose you are using Times New Roman and wanted to insert the fraction 1/2, which is not part of the standard character set. The standard character set is limited to the characters you can access directly from your keyboard. The first three rows of Character Map represent the standard character set. Everything else is called the extended character set. An empty box means there is no character defined for that position. To insert a special character from Character Map: 1. Open the Character Map from the Systems Tools Menu. 2. Click the Font box and then select a font. In most cases, this will be the same font your application is currently using. 3. Double-click each character you want. The character(s) will appear on the Characters To Copy box. 4. Click Copy. 5. In your application, click where you want the character(s) to appear, click the Edit menu and then click Paste. 
Note: To magnify a character in Character Map, click it and hold down the left mouse button. Special characters and symbols can come in handy to dress up your documents or to emphasize a point. Use them carefully for effective document creation. Character Map works only with Windows-based programs. So if you still have programs you're running out of a DOS box, you won't be able to use Character Map.Copyright Sarasota PC Monitor, Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. PC News, October, 2002 A couple were driving toward Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and got into an argument over the pronunciation of the town's name. They argued back and forth until they stopped for lunch. As they stood at the counter, the husband asked the girl behind the register, "Before we order, could you settle an argument for us? Would you please pronounce where we are .... very slowly?" The blond employee leaned over the counter and said, "Brrrrrrr, gerrrrrrr, Kiiiiiiiing." At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration. There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning! He was being drilled by some senator; "Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?" Ollie replied, "Yes, I did, Sir." The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, "Isn't that just a little excessive?" "No, sir," continued Ollie. "No? And why not?" the senator asked. "Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir." "Threatened? By whom?" the senator questioned. "By a terrorist, sir" Ollie answered. "Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?" "His name is Osama bin Laden, sir" Ollie replied. At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn't pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn't. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?" the senator asked. "Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of", Ollie answered. "And what do you recommend we do about him?" asked the senator. "Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth." The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip. By the way, that senator was Al Gore. Also: Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called "political prisoners". However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands. The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, "insisted" that all prisoners be released. Thus, Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center. This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified. It was censored in the US from all later reports. Political censorship is alive and well! If you agree that the American public must be made aware of this fact, pass this on. Thanks to Dr Bruce Chrisman Comment from jl: If you don't happen to remember this, don't feel bad. It's probably because it never happened! This product of the Internet Rumor Mill has been going around for over a year now. Yes, Oliver North did testify at the Iran/Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration and Mohammad Atta did fly an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center are about the only true statements in the above article. The home security system was actually $16,000 not $60,000. Also, North was convicted in 1989 of accepting an illegal gratuity for that very same security system given to him by Richard Secord. North was also convicted of altering and destroying documents and aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress. His convictions were overturned due to legal conflicts with his testimony before the Senate Select Iran/Contra Committee. The terrorist that threatened North and his family was Abu Nidal, a Palestinian politician and guerilla leader who at the time was working for the Libyans, not Osama bin Laden. And finally, it was the committee counsel, John Nields, not a senator who was doing the questioning. In fact, the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition did not include Sen. Al Gore. As for the second part of the statement, the Atta that blew up a bus in Israel on April 12, 1986 was a 33 year old Jordainan native named Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta, a.k.a. Mahmoud Abad Ahmad. A year later, he was arrested in Venezuela and deported to the U.S. (Atta was a naturalized U.S. citizen.) In October of 1990, Atta was extradited to Israel for trial. A year later, an Israeli court found Atta guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The Jerusalem Post stated that Atta "was eventually freed after the Supreme Court ruled there were faults in the extradition process." That would be an Israeli court that freed him, not an American court or official. As for the pilot that flew the first plane into the World Trade Center, in 1986 Mohammed Atta was an 18 year old Egyptian architectural student at Cairo University. I'm not quite sure how the 2 men ever got confused seeing that there's a 15 year age difference and a difference in national origin, but apparently a number of newspapers, both domestic and foreign, helped to misidentify the two Atta's in the hectic days following September 11. If you would like to read more about this and other urban legends try these links: http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/north.htm Another nice "legends" site - http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/ollienorth-osama.htm The Urban Legends Site - http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/ollie.html The Urban Legend Research Center - http://www.ulrc.com.au/html/report.asp?CaseFile=ULRR0114&Page=1&View=Request The Anti-Defamation League's page on Atta - http://www.adl.org/rumors/atta_rumors.asp The Jerusalem Post's page on Atta - 7 Nov 2001 - http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/11/07/LatestNews/LatestNews.37713.html For a refresher on the whole Iran/Contra matter, see the FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERS - http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/ At the very least, check out his Concluding Observations - http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_xi.htm If you spent any time looking at some of the other legends at the above sites, no doubt you came up with the conclusion that there's a lot of garbage out there. Now you're probably wondering if there's any way to protect yourself from this onslaught. Unfortunately, about the only advice I can offer is to stay upwind and back away slooowly because if it sounds a little fishy, it probably smells a lot worse once you get close to it! - jl I've found it useful to have a shortcut to Notepad in the QuickLaunch area of the taskbar (just to the right of the Start button. If I see something on the Internet or anywhere that I want to save, I can select exactly what I want by highlighting it, pressing Ctrl-C to copy, opening Notepad, and pressing Ctrl-V to paste the selected text into Notepad. Then I can save or print it. I use it on the Scot's Newsletter archives a lot. To place Notepad on your taskbar, open the Start Menu > Programs > Accessories. Depress the Ctrl key. Click and drag the Notepad icon off the menu and drop it onto the QuickLaunch area on the taskbar (directly to the right of the Start button). That's all there is too it. A single click summons Notepad from the QuickLaunch area (XP users, you may have to enable QuickLaunch first.). Michael Wark Browser Tip - Clearing Out Explorer's AutoComplete By default, newer versions of Internet Explorer (v5.0+) can automatically "remember" stuff you've filled in on Web forms (including passwords). Well, if you've ever entered the wrong item, you know what a pain it can be. Every time you fill in a form, you get multiple choices from the little auto-complete drop box, but only one (usually the one at the bottom of the list) is the correct one. How do you shed the excess? Depends on how far you want to go with it. If you just want a word or two gone, next time you see one in the auto-complete drop box, arrow down to it and press your Delete key. Poof! David Copperfield ain't got nothin' on you! If you want to clear the whole thing out, you can do that too. Open Internet Explorer, hit the Tools menu, Internet Options. Next, click the Content Tab, then the AutoComplete button. On the resulting screen, click the "Clear Forms" button to clear out web form info and the "Clear Passwords" button to get rid of any password info you have stored. Note that this does not get rid of the web addresses in your address bar. Go to the General tab of the Internet Options screen and hit Clear History to do that. Finally, if you want to shut this feature off (or turn it on) you can do so from the AutoComplete screen. Just check or uncheck the appropriate boxes. Copyright Pikes Peak Computer Applications Society PC News, September 2002 by Rich Chernock We've all heard the come-ons: "Blazing speed!" "Connect 100 times faster than over the phone!" Unfortunately, two very important phrases are left out: "sometimes" and "up to." Most of the hype that we hear about high-speed, broadband access is driven by the marketers rather than by the techies. But for the reasons mentioned below, that hype is rarely delivered. Lest this sound too negative, I'm pleased to note that the cable modem provider in the Newtown, Conn, area has taken a much more realistic approach to its marketing and is promising what it can deliver. [delivering what it promises?] The Reality After switching to cable modem access, many people discover that they rarely achieve the kinds of speeds that they are promised in the marketing hype. Typically their access speed is significantly improved over their old POTS connection (Plain Old Telephone Service), although in some cases when things get very bad this may not be true. The basic problem with achieving high speeds is that the cable modem connection is shared, and the speed that is achieved is determined by how many other users are competing for the pipe. In addition, one important consideration that is often overlooked is the end-end view of a connection on the Internet. The cable modem represents only the "last mile" between the home and the cable head-end (essentially, the ISP). From that point to the server providing the content, the packets flow over the ISP connection to the Internet, the Internet backbone, and whatever connection the server is using. In many cases, one of these is the rate-limiting link: No matter how fast the last mile is, data will not flow any quicker. In addition, users quickly discover that bandwidth is only a part of the equation. As outlined below, other factors (especially the "always-on" characteristic of cable modem connections) become more important. Feature attractions Besides bandwidth, cable modems do offer many attractive features. One of the first things that new subscribers notice is that they regain a telephone connection. When using POTS modems for the Internet, the phone line is tied up. Probably of more importance is the "always-on" nature of the Internet connection. Whenever the computer is on, it is connected to the Internet. Initially for those coming from a connection-oriented service, this may not seem like much of an advantage. But once habits are unlearned, this characteristic becomes quite important, as illustrated by the following two examples: With an always-on connection, e-mail becomes less of a batch process and more like checking a telephone answering machine. I've begun leaving my mail client running whenever my PC is on, automatically checking the server for new e-mail every 10 minutes. Whenever I walk by the computer, I check for a new-mail indication (similar to looking for the blinking light on an answering machine) - or listen for the "mails-in" sound (similar to the phone ringing). CD player: A feature that many people aren't aware of for many CD-audio players under Windows is the capability of looking up a CD in a database located somewhere on the Internet. I was quite amazed the first time I played a CD after installing my cable modem: shortly after closing the CD drive tray, I was presented with not only the name of the CD I'd inserted, but also a list of all the songs on the disk. Even when their service is oversubscribed, resulting in slow speeds, numerous studies have shown that few people are willing to give up their cable modem and go back to their old access. The Alternatives Today, there are essentially two alternatives to cable modem technology for high-speed Internet access - T1 and ADSL access. Both of these are phone technologies using twisted-pair copper connections to the telco's central office. Some may remember ISDN, which although quite successful in Europe has and gone in the U.S. without much impact. T1 technology has been in existence for a long time and provides approximately 1.5 mbps dedicated bi-directional connections. Unfortunately, it is also extremely expensive and requires a high-quality line between the subscriber and the central office. The combination of these two factors takes T1 connections out of the realm of possibility for most home users. ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a lower-bandwidth technology that is considerably cheaper and more forgiving of line conditions. ADSL connections coexist with your telephone connection without tying up the line (you can talk and compute at the same time). Typically, ADSL subscriptions are sold as multiples of 256 Kbps, with prices comparable to cable modem access. Unlike cable modems though, ADSL connections are not shared, so network loading will not affect your speed. Outside of the high tech areas of the country, it is rare to have a choice between ADSL and cable modem connections. This makes the decision quite easy: You subscribe to what is available. In this area of Connecticut, cable modem seems to be the choice. The Technology Cable Modem signals travel on the same coax that delivers cable television service. In order to understand some of the limitations of cable modem service, it is necessary to understand something about the topology of the cable network. Today's systems use an infrastructure called hybrid fiber-coax, which essentially means that all signals from the cable head-end travel along fiber optic connections to a network node. At the node, the signal is converted to RE, which travels through coaxial cable running along the telephone poles to the home. While each node may be fed different information, all of the signals from the node to the homes are the same (two different houses on the same coax line will see exactly the same information). There are typically two different paths with quite different characteristics for the data delivered to you (the "downlink") and the data you send (the "uplink"). The downlink channel is provided by modulating digital information on one of the 6 MHz television channels within the spectrum provided by the cable system. As mentioned above, this channel is shared amongst all of the users. Depending on the technology used, a single 6 MHz analog channel can carry up to about 27 mbps of digital data (typically much less often 10 mbps). Only the information for a given user is presented at the interface from the cable modem to the Ethernet card in the computer. As you can readily see, the bandwidth available to an individual user is a function of how many others are trying to get information at the same time. If there are 100 others vying for the same pipe, then each user will get 100 Kbps, far from the total capacity of the pipe. Matters aren't quite as grim as they seem though, since most Internet connections are connection oriented: A brief flurry of data is sucked down, followed by a quiescent period while the information is digested (for example, reading a Web page). In addition, some of the providers are being careful about how they provision their networks, essentially guaranteeing a high level of service. The uplink channel is a bit more problematic, since it is typically carried in the "low-split" region (the frequency band below the television signals). The main reason for using this band is historical: This was the only way to sneak a return path by the amplifiers on what was originally a one-way distribution system. The low-split region has much less data-carrying capability and is much more susceptible to noise (before today's technology matured, there were numerous stories about how turning on a vacuum cleaner knocked out cable modem service for an entire neighborhood). The lack of bandwidth for the return path is usually not a problem, since the most common use of Internet connections is for Web browsing, which has very asymmetric characteristics--a short request brings a flood of data. Running a web server behind a cable modem connection is a different story-very little data on the downlink and a large amount of data on the uplink, which often swamps the return connection and destroys performance for other users. This is the reason most cable modem contracts prohibit running servers. Security As usual, there's a dark side to the always-on characteristic of cable modems the issue of security. Unfortunately, there are people lurking on the Internet who are looking for openings they can exploit. A common practice among hackers is to run port probes on machines in a network, looking for openings. A cable modem connection has no additional security exposures over any other form of Internet connection, except that the connection lasts longer. The pervasive connection makes it more likely that a poorly protected machine can be found by someone running port probes, and once a hole is found, it is more likely that the machine will be available for mischief later. How to deal with the security issue is the subject of another article. But for now, here are the major points to remember: • Don't run any unnecessary daemons (for example telnet or ftp). • Don't enable any unnecessary protocols over the cable modem connection (TCP/IP should be all that is necessary). • If you are using file/printer sharing, change the workgroup name from the default and don't enable the protocol for the cable modem. • Consider running a firewall to protect the connection. Richard Chernock is at IBM Research, working on ways to bring data and interactivity to your television set. You can reach Rich at mpeg2@earthlink.net. October 2002 issue of PC News Calendar of Events - IMPORTANT NOTICE - FRPCUG meetings are held at the Fort Collins Senior Center. Check below for directions to the Senior Center. December General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, December 3 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:30 Announcements & Election of officers for 2003 7:30 - 8:30 Shopping Online - A live demonstration of shopping online, including comparison pricing and tips on security. Just in time for Xmas! 8:30 - 8:45 Break 8:45 - 9:30 Open Forum January General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, January 7 at 7:00 pm. Meeting Agenda 7:00 - 7:15 Announcements 7:15 - 8:30 MP3 Music - High quality music on your computer system. 8:30 - 8:45 Break 8:45 - 9:30 Open Forum See you at the meetings! Directions The Fort Collins Senior Center is located at 1200 Raintree Drive. This site is situated at the northwest corner of the Shields and West Drake intersection, on the north side of the Raintree Shopping Center. Check the marquee at the main entrance for directions to the specific meeting room. Up-Coming SIG's, Seminars and Meetings Board Meeting FRPCUG's executive board meets on Wednesday of the week following the General Forum Meeting at 7:00 p.m. All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend. These meetings are held at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 311 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. LINUX SIG This SIG, supports LINUX and other non-Windows operating systems for PC compatible hardware. This includes all distributions of LINUX, the BE Operating system, and OS2. These meetings are held at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 311 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. For more information contact Chuck McJilton at 493-2987 or email linuxsig@jymis.com. Northern Front Range Netware Users Group NFRNUG meets at 5:30 pm on the second Wednesday of each month at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife building, 2101 Oakridge Drive in Fort Collins. NFRNUG meetings are open to any users that are involved with Novell networking products and integration of other networking products into the Novell environment (Unix, NT, Mac, etc.). Contact Jim Stephens at 303-541-3376 or jcsteph@concentric.net or contact Chuck Kluko at 970-663-4770 or c.kluko@ix.netcom.com for further membership information. Yearly dues are $000.00 (yes, FREE) with pizza and pop served at 5:00 pm prior to meeting. Saturday labs and training sessions open to NRFNUG members only, space is limited. Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group Meets on the second Tuesday of 'odd' months at NCAR in Boulder. Meetings start at 7:00 pm, but members are encouraged to arrive at 6:30 pm for informal networking and refreshments. NCAR is located in Boulder at 1850 Table Mesa Drive. For more information see the RMIUG Web site at: http://www.rmiug.org/. Telecommuncation SIG The Telecommunications SIG covers topics related to computer communications hardware and software including modems, xDSL, networking, ISDN and the Internet. The meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the third Thursdays of each month at the offices of JYM Information Systems: 311 S College Avenue in Fort Collins. For more information contact Chuck McJilton at 493-2987 or email telecomsig@jymis.com. Web Design SIG If you're an HTML author/WEB page designer, or would like to learn, contact SIG coordinator Doug Boicourt at 495-6949 or e-mail db@jymis.com for the date and location of the next SIG meeting. Upcoming FRPCUG Meetings Along with presentations of new hardware and software, we will certainly continue to present tips, hints, solutions, as well as what is new with Public Domain and Shareware offerings. If you have ideas for presentations which you would like to see at future General Forum meetings or seminars, please let us know. We would appreciate the input and opportunity to improve your meetings. Know of a another computer-related meeting in our area? Please let us know so we can post it here. 3 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM 11 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM NRFNUG Meeting 5:00PM 19 Telcomm SIG 7:00PM 25 Christmas 26 LINUX SIG 7:00PM 31 New Year's EveJanuary 2003 1 New Year's Day 7 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM 15 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM NRFNUG Meeting 5:00PM 16 Telcomm SIG 7:00PM 23 LINUX SIG 7:00PM Occasionally, something happens to cause damage to your Windows 95/98 registry. As bad as this can be, there is some help. If your computer is completely dead, and it appears that the registry may be the culprit, shut down, or turn off your computer. Take a deep breath. Turn on your PC, and while booting, hold down the F8 button until the startup menu appears. Select the "Command Prompt" option. When the DOS appears, type SCANREG/RESTORE at the prompt. Press Enter at the MRC (Microsoft Registry Checker) screen to restore the most recent of the five backups that Windows creates. Now, reboot. If this also fails, you may have had a serious virus attack. Time to get the professionals involved. Don't Reactivate After Reinstalling If you reinstall Windows XP, you normally have to reactivate it, but there's a way around reactivation. Windows XP maintains the activation information in the file Wpa.dbl, which you'll find in the Windows\System32 folder. After you activate, and any time you add hardware to your system, back up the file to another disk. If you need to reinstall Windows XP for any reason, go through the installation routine, then copy the latest version of Wpa.dbl to the Windows\system32 folder. PC Magazine by John Lenihan, Pikes Peak Computer Application Society Listen to any of the technology talk shows or read articles that discuss "search engines" and you'll see that Google has been rated high for a long time. I find it accurately displays whatever I'm looking for, so much so, that it's like having an encyclopedia of knowledge at my finger tips. Newer engines are coming out, but I still trust Google to find my answers. But have you dug deeper down into what's available with this search engine? Well read on, because there's a lot more to it. Let's start by using the basic search window found on http://www.google.com. When my computer runs into a problem and can give me enough of an understandable error message, I've found that typing the message into a Google search window usually gives me enough hits to help me narrow the problem. My son called me a few months ago and said he thought he had sent me a virus, and wanted me to delete the file called sulfnbk.exe. It sounded a little fishy, and since he was close to his computer, I asked him to type the file name into Google. He saw the words HOAX come up in big block letters. Google saved me the hassle of trying to resurrect that file later. If you want to narrow your searches to just Microsoft-related pages, you can click on "Advanced Search" and go to the bottom of the displayed page and click on "Microsoft." Thus, if you have an operating system or Microsoft application question, this narrows the boundaries of the search. You can also get there directly by going to http://www.google.com/microsoft.html. Notice from the "Advanced Search" page that other narrow searches can be done for Apple, BSD Unix, Linux, and Government-related sites. Try doing a "vanity search" by typing your name in the search box. Or even try it with friends you've lost contact with. I've found some long-lost souls just by doing this. Enter a name, city, state, or zip code for a business or a person and see if you get a hit. You may be surprised at how easy it can be to find information about yourself. Enter a phone number and see if you get a name back. If Google recognizes what you entered as an address, you'll get a street map back. Google is so good at finding things that there was even a game called "googlewhacking" where people would try typing in a combination of words that just returned one search reply. It's fairly hard to do unless you use some really obscure word variations. Looking at the basic search screen on the opening Google page, you'll notice four tabs on top. The default is the Web tab, which we were just using. The next one is the Images tab, taking you to http://images.google.com. This will allow you access to millions of images on the Web. Suppose your child is doing a school report on oak trees. Type "oak trees" into the images search engine and you'll find plenty of pictures for the report. Of course, I need to pass along the disclaimer that lots of stuff on the Web is copyrighted, so you need to be careful how you use what you find. But I doubt you'll get into too much trouble using a picture in your school report. But I did hear that teachers could use Google to search for text phrases in reports to check for plagiarism. There are thousands of newsgroups in cyberspace, covering thousands of topics, and only so much time in a day. The third tab over is the "Groups" tab and it will let you find out what is (or was) being discussed out there that you would be interested in. For example, if you're thinking of buying a new digital camera, type the model number in the Groups search window. You'll see messages from people in various newsgroups that discussed that item. You can use this method to monitor almost any topic you have an interest in. The last tab over at the top is the "Directory" tab. Click here and you'll see Web pages organized into directories by topic, much like you'd see at Yahoo. For example, click on "Computers" and you'll see almost 50 computer topics arranged by categories, any one of which takes you to many other Websites. They advertise they have over 1.5 million pages indexed in this directory. Want to keep up with current news stories? Go to http://news.google.com and enter in a news topic. Say you wanted to stay abreast of the Hayman Fire that burned close to us a few months back. Entering those words into the search window resulted in stories from newspapers all across the country. Google would even tell you how old the stories were, with many only hours old. For the linguists out there that need help translating short pieces of text from one language to another, there's http://www.google.com/language_tools. Need help translating "yo quiero" from Spanish to English, then give it a try. Want to see additional tools being worked on by the Google development team? Look at http://labs.google.com. Four tools are listed, the most interesting to me being the glossary. If you come across an unfamiliar word or phrase and go here, you'll get a link or pointer to pages that offer a definition. Another tool at this site is Google Sets, where you can type in a few related words, and it give you a list of more related items. There's also a voice recognition tool to help you search Google by phone, and a keyboard shortcuts tool that lets you search Google without a mouse. I hope I've convinced you why Google is great, not only as a search engine for the Web, but also for its many other capabilities for specialized searches. Do you ever wonder how history would look if recorded by the types of searches being done on the Web? Then look at the year 2001 laid out at http://www.google.com/press/timeline.html. You can see what was on the minds of many people that year by the searches that were requested. So search wisely--historians may learn about us, while we learn about what interests us. The Latest Maintenance And Protection Tools Safeguard Your Data. Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge now heads a new federal department with the off- kilter title of the Department of Homeland Security, sort of evoking Aaron Copland's music and amber waves of grain. We all know why such a move became necessary. Just as we now have to keep an eye on things around us in these United States, you must do likewise with your Windows-based PC. Think of computer security as a microcosm of the larger society in which your computer exists, with two fronts of defense against losing your precious data and your software's carefully cobbled-together configuration, what with patches and upgrades and all. The first front of defense ironically involves protecting your data from the computer in which it resides. Let's begin with the fearsome registry, that chamber of horrors that holds information about your hardware and software and, if allowed to corrupt with a slowly mounting volume of incorrect or outdated entries, will bring about the demise of your entire system. Finally, someone has invented a program that corrects erroneous entries and removes unneeded data. It does so thoroughly and carefully. It scans every line of the registry and builds a list of wrong entries. It then sweeps this list to find new references in your system for the list's entries. In two mouse clicks, the whole registry is scrubbed clean. This wonder of wonders is Registry Healer 3.0 from www.zoneutils.com. It costs $19.95, the best double sawbuck you ever spent. Next, remove fragmentation, the tendency for data to break up into multiple pieces that scatter around your hard drive, with Diskeeper Pro 7.0 from Executive Software (www.diskeeper.com). The program runs $45 as a download. Diskeeper is the most honest defragger around; sometimes, even multiple passes won't completely defrag a drive. Diskeeper shows you the before and after, and sometimes the after requires another pass or two. And then you might never get to 100% defragmentation. My son's computer has a 60-gigabyte hard drive, and it fragmented so terribly that Norton Utilities couldn't read it. Diskeeper made some progress, but that drive is beyond even Diskeeper's ability to put digital Humpty Dumpty back together again. Moral of the story: Defrag at least every other day. And then there are those stray DLL files that hang around long after you have removed an application from your system. DLL files sit in C\Windows\System and act as code libraries for Windows programs. Think of them as executive assistants to .EXE files, (e.g., word.exe). Word.exe needs an army of DLL files to help it do things like creating Word's screen images with which you are so familiar. It also needs them to help it perform actions (e.g., saving files, etc.). The popular "disk cleanup" programs you see on store shelves no longer seek and destroy old DLLs. But AnalogX's DLLArchive does. Actually, DLLArchive stores DLLs it removes from C\Windows\System in another directory. Once you are absolutely certain that the DLLs that DLLArchive has banished are no longer needed, you can empty that folder (C\Windows\DLLArchive). One final note: I do recommend Norton's Clean Sweep. It does safely rid your hard drive of unneeded files that build up during Web browsing. Get Clean Sweep at any store that sells software. Add a final touch with DiskPie, an application from www.pcmag.com that tells you which programs are hogging your drive. Voila! You've gained back hard drive room and rid your system of stuff it doesn't need and could get you into trouble. And, I'm going to make a statement that I swear is true. Since I have been using the products described above, I have had no problems, none, with Windows Me. It has been as solid as a rock. No kidding. What better endorsement can I give these programs than that? Let's move on to the other PC defense front, protecting your data from outside influences. First, stop using Microsoft Outlook. Because there are none so deaf as those who will not hear, I'm going to be pushy and obnoxious in the rest of this paragraph. It's the only way I can get through to those who need to read this. Ready? I know that there are obstinate corporate wanks out there who over glorify this deadly program, and they do so with a certain level of stuffy arrogance. Fine. You people are exactly the problem every virus writer in the world writes to Outlook's well-known (and permanent) design flaws. But the Microsoft mindset is a wondrous thing to behold, so you folks will continue to gather and spread viruses at unprecedented rates. Here's a news flash: there are alternate programs out there that work just as well and that do not help the spread of malicious e-mail code. OK, that's off my chest, and it ought to generate a certain level of e-mail traffic to the editor and publisher of this newsletter. At least I hope so. You need firewall software, a Trojan horse sniffer, and an effective antivirus program. This is such well-trodden territory that I won't reiterate the obvious. I will tell you that my favorite trio of protection in this arena is ZoneAlarm Pro (finally, thank heavens, available on retail software shelves everywhere); Trojan Remover from www.simplysup.com ($24.95); and Norton Antivirus 2002, newly redesigned with the smartest antivirus engine that automatically grabs updates from its home Web site. I've tried them all and Norton gets my vote. ZoneAlarm Pro, by the way, makes my Windows based computers totally invisible to everything on the Internet. Essentially, my PCs can see the world, but the world has no idea that my PCs even exist. Go one more mile, then, and visit www.scumware.com. Download and run AdAware, Surf + and Gator. These programs remove spyware from your system. Spyware is insidious code planted by advertisers in your registry and Windows folder. This, friends, is going to be a big deal in Congress as users face off against marketing muscle. These guys want to climb into your wallet, psyche and soul, and they'll stop at nothing in terms of Web bugs and bots to get there. Be on your guard. Tell them to take a hike. I find it sad that we must invest so much time and energy into protecting us from each other. What a glorious tool the computer continues to be. But with good comes evil, and you have to gird your digital loins against the world that exists past your firewall. I leave you with a few thoughts. First, sometimes these programs can give you wrong information, but it's easy to tell when they do. I tried to install the new Real One, the latest edition of Real Audio, into my Windows Me computer. After installation, Real One would not open. So, I tried to use Add/Delete Programs and the uninstaller failed. I manually extricated the program from my hard drive and registry. When I ran DLL Archive, it found 1,700 DLL files suddenly orphaned. Registry Healer found 1,548 registry errors. Clearly, this was nonsense and you learn what to trust and what not to trust with these programs. The installation and forced removal of Real One tipped my Windows Me over the edge and into the Chasm of Registry Oblivion. I reformatted the drive and installed, gasp!, Windows XP. Since I had not installed a new operating system on that drive in years (Windows 95 became Windows 98 which became Windows Me), it was time to rebuild everything from scratch. Real One was the program that finally did my system in. Second, all of the programs I described in this article are for protection in the Windows environment. On my Linux computer, I need none of this. And I rarely have a problem. Now, as they say, "pila in area tua est". [If Caesar were alive today, he'd translate that to "the ball is in your court." Go forth and conquer your system.] Cache newsletter, September, 2002 A blonde in her fourth freshman year at UCLA, was asked by the Professor of her U.S. Government class if she knew what the "Roe Vs. Wade" decision was about. After pondering this very profound question, she sighed and said, "I think that is the decision George Washington made prior to crossing the Delaware!" Thanks to Amy Moruso Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine [or a computer flatbed optical scanner]. Then copy both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will now know exactly what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Be sure you keep the photocopy in a safe place. A corporate attorney sent this out to the employees in his company. I pass it along, for your information. We've all heard horror stories about fraud. Unfortunately I (the author of this piece who happens to be an attorney) have firsthand knowledge, because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know. 1. As everyone always advises, cancel your credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them easily. 2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). 3. But here's what is perhaps most important: (I never ever thought to do this) - Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and SS#. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost 2 weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in.) It seems to have stopped them in their tracks. The numbers are: 1. Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 2. Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742 3. Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289 Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271 Do think about passing this information along. It could really help someone. by Steve Bass My mother received recently received a beautifully done AOL scam. It's the kind of thing you read about but rarely get to see firsthand. The message she received is from the AOL Billing Services Team. She forwarded it to her accounting department - moi - because I pay for her account. (She has me to blame for using AOL I know). lt took less than a minute to figure out something wasn't right. Telltale clues For one thing, the e-mail header showed that the AOL Billing Services Team was blind copying her using version AOL 5.0. You'd think they could use a more current version, right? There's more: The return address was remindingyou@aol.com and the subject line had a misspelling. I followed the Billing link in the message. At first glance I saw an AOL Welcome box. Take a careful look and you'll know why something's not quite right. Yep, lots of misspellings. < http://www.pibmug.com/lfiles/aolwelcomescreen.jpg > I went along with the game plan and clicked OK. Now I was staring into what looked like a remarkably authentic credit card payment form. < http://wvw.pbmug.com/fiIes/aolcreditcard.jpg > Is it really you? To make sure it's really you, they also want your Social Security Number, date of birth, driver's license number, and mother's maiden name. With that, the scammers can get to “identity theft” heaven before you shut down your PC for the night. But they're not finished. How about throwing in your AOL screen name and password, something even novices know AOL wouldn't do. To add a level of legitimacy they warn you that, “For your safety, Please do not download any files from strangers. AOL will never ask you to download anything.” Who is? l went to < http://www.samspade.org > my favorite Web examination site, and traced the Billing link. It's an obfuscated URL: < http://www.aol.com-billing:july-2002@072002.hypermart.net > that leads to http://O72002.hypermart.net. (That's because any characters before the @ sign are ignored.) And all it took was a quick web search with Google.com to find locations loaded with other AOL scamming files. I found one at the top of Google's search: < http:llkenel.hypermart.net/aol-scam/ > What I did I contacted Rich D'Amato, one of AOL's security people. I met Rich years ago because of a story I did on AOL. It's been four days and I haven't heard back from him. I also sent a message to: abuse@hypermart.net. Nope, I didn't hear from them either. And the site's still up and running. What you should do The best AOL protection strategy is to be alert to constant scams. You know, if it looks like a duck, smells like one, and occasionally quacks, there's a good chance it is one. If you're unsure about a billing question, it's best to call AOL's billing services directly at 800/827-6364, or their Screen Name/Password line at 888/265-8004. Here's the message, complete with headers: Return-path: Remindingyou@aol.com From: Remindingyou@aol.com Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 04:26:47 EDT Subject: Possible Service Interuption X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 138 Dear Member: Thank you for choosing America Online. Unfortunately there has been a problem processing your billing information for the month of July, 2002. Please review our billing requirements at KW: Billing. You will be able to update your billing information quickly and easily using our secure server webform. Please understand that without promptly updating your billing information, your America Online Internet service may be discontinued. To update your billing at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the hyperlink below. America Online Billing Services. We appreciate your business and hope to keep you as a customer for life. America Online is so easy, no wonder it's number I! Sincerely, The AOL Billing Services Team AOL Scam Alert Steve Bass is a Contribution Editor with PC World and runs the Pasadena IBM Users Group. The Digital Viking newsletter, August 2002 FOR SALE: Gateway 800C Desktop w/Monitor, 20GB Hard Drive plus Epson Stylus Color 777 printer. Less than one year old. Only $600 complete. Contact Frances in Fort Collins at (970) 224-0776. FOR SALE: FUJI MX-1700 Zoom digital camera. 1.5 MP with 3X digital zoom and 2" LCD monitor. Like-new condition in box with manual, cables, software and two Smartmedia cards. This subcompact digital camera has it all and takes gorgeous vivid color photos - $250. Contact Rick Mattingly at (970) 223-6618 or email rmatt@jymis.com. FOR SALE:CTX Ezbook 700 Notebook Computer Pentium 200 Mhz MMX with 1.6 MB hard drive, 16 MB RAM, 20X CD-ROM and 56K modem. System configured with Windows 95 and includes Microsoft Works 4.5. Auto DC power converter and custom carry case included. Excellent notebook system - Only $450 complete. Contact Rick Mattingly at (970) 223-6618 evenings or email rmatt@jymis.com. FOR SALE:Computer - $75.00 or $100.00 delivered and installed. Pentium 166mHz, 64MB, 2 drives - 6GB & 8GB, CD player, 2 serial, 1 parallel, 2 USB, 250w power supply keyboard, Kensington wheel mouse, speakers, Win 2000 Pro, Office 2000 Pro, McAfee antivirus, case looks like it's been through 2 wars, but it's served me well for a long time, still works fine, just not real fast. 19" monitor, 1 year old, works great - $100.00 Also 2 hubs: Asante 10 Base-T 12-port w/manual - $20.00 HP J3300A Rackmount 10 Base-T Hub-12 w/manual - $35.00 Contact Calvin Cline - 970-669-4183 or Calvin@Cline.nu About Trading Post Members: Place your FREE ad here! k-Byte runs classified ads in Trading Post for three consecutive issues. Trading Post ads up to 10 lines (or 70 words) long are free to FRPCUG members: $5 for non-members. To place an ad in Trading Post contact Will Horton at 223-2154 or email whorton@willsigns.com. Commercial Advertising Specifications (Monthly rate) Full Page (8 1/2” X 7”) $30 Half Page (3 1/4” X 7”) $20 One Third Page (3” X 4”) $15 Business Card (2 3/4” X 1 1/2”) $ 5 We offer a substantial discount for repeat ads and continuing contracts. For additional charge, we will design your ad for you. Contact Will Horton for information on this service at 223-2154 or email whorton@willsigns.com. |