PressEnter Internet: ISP Serving the Twin Cities and Western Wisconsin. DSL

Like fall leaves turning color, this September eNewsletter focuses on change. You'll learn about a change in e-mail format that spammers now use to attempt to fool spam-filtering software. You'll get lots of handy keyboard shortcuts when surfing the Web to speed-up your online experience. And for a fun change of pace, visit the Great Sites we've selected. You'll fly through WWI, gaze at stormy skies, catch NFL action, and explore new music handpicked for you.

We think you'll find the information contained in this newsletter to be a valuable tool for enhancing your Internet experience. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, please Reply to this message and put "REMOVE" in the subject line. Please e-mail any questions or comments to newsletter@pressenter.com. If you have any technical questions, please e-mail <helpdesk@pressenter.com>.

Here's what's inside our September 2006 Newsletter:

A. Warning! - Image-based Spam Outfoxing Some Filters
B. PressEnter News - Holiday Hours and Internet Safety for Kids
C. Ask The Help Desk - Stop The Wrong Links From Loading
D. Great Sites To Check Out In September
E. Short Tutorial - Keyboard Shortcuts For Internet Explorer, Safari, And Firefox

The PressEnter Newsletter Team

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A. Warning! - Image-based Spam Outfoxing Some Filters

Disreputable marketers are increasingly using a new strain of spam that's cleverly attempting to sneak by spam-filtering software. Called image-based spam, it embeds messages in attached, randomized .gif or jpg image files and these images are changed each time a message is sent. The difference in each image may be just a change in the border or the variance of one pixel, but it's enough to get past traditional spam filters that analyze keywords. Like traditional text-based spam, image-based spam often includes pitches for things like pharmaceuticals and penny stocks.

According to research released by security gateway provider IronPort, image-based spam has increased twelve-fold in the past year. It now accounts for over five billion messages per day and 78 percent of this spam passes through first- and second-generation spam filters. The company estimates that about 30 percent of spam delivered to an individual's inbox is of this type. And it can be more than just annoying. Image-based spam eats up space and create storage problems because each message can be up to seven times larger than text-based spam.

Another factor that's led to greater volumes of spam being sent around the globe recently is the increased number of zombie computers ˜ infected PCs that have been hijacked by spammers for their own use. Spammers rotate through zombie networks every few hours, constantly changing the IP address of the source of the spam in order to evade detection. CipherTrust, a leading message security company, reports that they identify nearly 250,000 new zombies each day, and it's estimated that 80 percent of today's spam is sent via zombie computers.

We appreciate our customers doing their part in protecting their computers by using firewalls, receiving and downloading system software upgrades each month from Microsoft, Apple, etc., and installing and then regularly updating their anti-virus programs.

B. PressEnter News - Holiday Hours and Internet Safety for Kids

Holiday Hours
PressEnter Offices will be closed on Monday, September 4th for Labor Day.
Normal office hours will resume on Tuesday.
We hope you have a safe and happy holiday weekend.

Internet Safety for Kids

The internet is a gigantic resource full of a wide variety of information.
However, it also contains things that we may not want our children to be exposed to. There are lots of great tips to help keep your children safe online. Here are some of the tips that we found and links to sites for even more.

Tips for Parents (information from sites listed below) 1. Set Rules for Internet use - what sites, how long they can be on
the Internet
2. Keep the computer in a common room, not your child's room 3. Ask about who they chat with online 4. Use a parental lock on websites 5. Learn chatroom lingo and acronyms 6. Know how to check history files 7. Talk to children about who they can email, e.g. people they know,
such as family and friends from school 8. Talk to your children about pop-ups and possibly use a pop-up blocker 9. Become family with the sites your child visits, e.g. myspace /
xanga / friendster
10. Develop, create, or download an "Internet Safety Pledge", review
and sign it together

Tips for Kids on the Net (information from http://www.icra.org/kids/)

1. Always keep your personal details (name, address) private. It's like
giving out keys to your house!
2. Your personal password is your own special identity, so keep it
secret and don't share it - even with your best friend of someone who
sounds official.
3. Making new friends while online is cool, but tell your parents about
who you have met and introduce them to your new friends.
4. If you want to meet someone you have met in cyberspace, ask your
parents/guardians for permission, and then only meet when they can
be present.
5. There's great stuff on the Net, but some bad stuff too! So always
tell a parent of teacher if you come across anything which makes you
feel uncomfortable.
6. Chat can be fun, but don't hang around in a chat room if someone makes
you feel uncomfortable or worried. Remember you're in charge out there!

Useful Websites for Parents and Kids about Internet Safety

Some more tips are available at the following sites:
http://www.cybercrime.gov/rules/rules.htm
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm

C. Ask The Help Desk - Stop The Wrong Links From Loading

Question: If I accidentally click the wrong link on a webpage, do I have to wait for this page to fully load before selecting the correct link or can I "bail out" sooner?

Answer: Good news ˜ there are two easy escape routes to take when you realize you've clicked on the wrong link. Which one you use depends on where you are in the selection process.

If you've clicked the wrong link and still have the left mouse button pressed down, just drag your pointer off the link to a blank spot on your screen and release. Problem solved.

If you've already released the left mouse button, just hit your Escape key ("esc") on your keyboard. This will stop your browser in its tracks and the page will not continue to load. It will also prevent those pesky pop-up windows from appearing.

D. Great Sites To Check Out This Month

Legendary Pilots Fly Into Theaters
==================================
http://flyboysthemovie.com

On September 29th, Flyboys takes off from the pages of history and
lands in theaters. The movie was inspired by the true story of first
squadron of American combat pilots, Lafayette Escadrille, during
WWI. As a squadron of only 38 mismatched but determined American
boys, they learned to fly and embarked on a great romantic adventure
that became legendary. Visit this site for a behind-the-scenes look
at how Flyboys got off the ground and a sneak peak at the special
effects. Rated PG-13.

Hurricane Tracking
==================
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical

Hurricane season continues through the end of October, and the National
Hurricane Center forecasts that this year's north Atlantic hurricane
season may be even more active than last year's. Keep on top of these
powerful storms with the help of this powerful site. It includes
tropical storm and hurricane updates, tracking maps, interactive flash
maps, computer models, and public advisories. You can also check out
fascinating hurricane history and see a list of the 2006 storm names.

Grade "A" Homework Site
=======================
http://homeworkspot.com

It's back-to-school time. No matter how many questions your student
has, here's one place to find the answers. This homework information
portal features the best K-12 homework-related sites together with
a wide variety of educational resources. Subjects include English,
math, science, history, art, music, technology, foreign language, and
college prep. You'll also find links to the world's best libraries,
museums, and current events sources.

Your Taste In Tunes
===================
http://pandora.com

Like some help discovering new music you'll love? This innovative site
promises to do just that. It was created by the Music Genome Project,
a group that analyzes music by breaking it down into its fundamental
elements like "repetitive melodic phrasing" and "subtle use of vocal
harmony." You simply enter the name of one of your favorite songs and
the site scans a century of popular and obscure recordings to finds
songs with musical similarities to your choice. On an even better note,
it's all free.

NFL Regular Season Kicks Off
============================
http://nfl.com

It just wouldn't be football season without NFL.com. Get in the
middle of the action each day with free video clips from NFL Total
Access <http://nfl.com/nflnetwork/total_access> and the Best of NFL
Films plus special features such as In Their Own Words, Playbook,
and Point After. Never miss a game thanks to schedules posted by
the week, team, and national TV listings. And enjoy access to all the
latest in team standings, stats, rosters, injury reports, and depth
charts. This site's a winner!

E. Short Tutorial - Keyboard Shortcuts For Internet Explorer, Safari,
And Firefox

Microsoft Corp. provides simple keyboard shortcuts for it's Internet Explorer browser. Likewise, Apple's Safari browser and Mozilla's Firefox browser provide similar shortcuts. Use these easy keystroke shortcuts and you may never need to use your mouse again ˜ well, almost never. Here are a few of the more commonly used shortcuts for each of these browsers:

- Press on the "CMD" key and the "F" key to open a "Find" box. This
allows you to find words located on the web page you currently have open.
- Press on the "CMD," "Option," and "F" keys simultaneously to select
the Google search box.

Moving within a web page:

- Press on the "tab" key to move forward through the items on a web page.
- Press on the "Arrow" keys to scroll up, down, left, or right within a page.
- Press on the "Option" and an arrow key to scroll in larger increments.
- Press on the "Page Down" key or "Space bar" to scroll down a screen.
- Press on the "Page Up" key or "Shift" and the "Space bar" to scroll
up a screen.

Moving between web pages:

- Press on the "CMD," "Shift," and "]" keys simultaneously to select
the next tab.
- Press on the "CMD," "Shift," and "[" keys simultaneously to select
the previous tab.
- Press on the "ESC" key (the Escape key) to stop a web page from
downloading.
- Press on the "CMD" key and the "N" key to open an additional browser
window.
- Press on the "CMD" key and the "W" key to close the current browser
window.

Internet Explorer WINDOWS

- Press on the "CTRL" key and the "F" key to open a "Find" box. This
allows you to find words located on the web page you currently have
open.

Moving within a web page:

- Press on the "tab" key to move forward through the items on a web page.
- Press on the "up arrow symbol" to scroll up toward the beginning of
a document.
- Press on the "down arrow symbol" to scroll down toward the end of
a document. (You can also press on the space bar on your keyboard to
scroll down the page.)
- Press on the "PAGE UP" key to scroll toward the beginning of a
document in larger increments.
- Press on the "PAGE DOWN" key to scroll toward the end of a document
in larger increments.
- Press on the "HOME" key to move to the beginning of a document.
- Press on the "END" key to move to the end of a document.

Moving between web pages:

- Press on the "CTRL" key and the "N" key to open an additional browser
window.
- Press on the "CTRL" key and the "W" key to close the current browser
window.
- Press on the "F11" key to toggle between full-screen and regular
views of the browser window.
- Press on the "ALT" and "HOME" keys to go to your Home page.
- Press on the "ALT" and "Right Arrow" keys to go to the next page.
- Press on the "ALT" and "LEFT ARROW" or "BACKSPACE" keys to go to the
previous page.
- Press on the "ESC" key (the Escape key) to stop a web page from
downloading.

Firefox MACINTOSH and PC

Moving between web pages:

Back
(PC) Press on the "ALT" and "Left Arrow" keys to go back one page.
(Mac) Press on the "delete" key to go back one page.

Forward
(PC) Press on the "ALT" and "Right Arrow" keys to go forward one page.
(Mac) Press on the "Shift" and "delete" keys to go forward one page.

Home
(PC) Press on the "ALT" and "Home" keys to go to your startup page.
(Mac) Press on the "Opt" and "Home" keys to go to your startup page.

Stop
(PC) Press on the "CTRL" and "." keys to stop a page from loading.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD" and "." keys to stop a page from loading.
(BOTH) Press on the "Esc" key to stop a page from loading.

Close Tab
(PC) Press on the "CTRL" and "W" keys to close a tab.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD" and "W" keys to close a tab.

Close Window
(PC) Press on the "CTRL," "Shift," and "W" keys simultaneously to close
a window.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD," "Shift," and "W" keys simultaneously to close
a window.

Next Tab
(PC) Press on the "CTRL" and "Page Down" keys to go to the next tab.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD," "Opt," and "Right Arrow" keys simultaneously
to go to the next tab.

Previous Tab
(PC) Press on the "CTRL" and "Page Up" keys to go to the previous tab.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD," "Opt," and "Left Arrow" keys simultaneously
to go to the previous tab.

Bookmark All Tabs
(PC) Press on the "CTRL," "Shift," and "D" keys simultaneously to bookmark
all tabs.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD," "Shift," and "D" keys simultaneously to bookmark
all tabs.

Bookmark Current Page
(PC) Press on the "CTRL" and "D" keys to bookmark the current page.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD" and "D" keys to bookmark the current page.

View Bookmarks
(PC) Press on the "CTRL" and "B" keys to view your bookmarks.
(Mac) Press on the "CMD" and "B" keys to view your bookmarks.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our office. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, send us an e-mail at newsletter@pressenter.com and type "REMOVE" in the subject line.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

The PressEnter Newsletter Team
PressEnter! Internet

Web: www.pressenter.com
E-mail: <newsletter@pressenter.com>

421 North Second Street
P.O. Box 409
River Falls, WI 54022

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information
published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any
and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions,
whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident,
or other causes.)

(c)2006 Press Enter LLP
(c)2006 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

PressEnter Newsletter Archives > September, 2006

PressEnter Newsletter Archives
> September, 2006