Ask The Tech Guys 2

Thanks to Nick for performing as recording secretary during the show. His fingers are still recovering!

One of the big trends of 2003 was Internet Telephony or Voice over IP, VoIP. One of the best VoIP applications of the year was www.skype.com Skype from KaZaa. On the Mac side, iChat A/V works very well, especially if you have an iSight camera.

If you don't have an anti-virus and you're using Windows, get one. The free AVG from Grisoft is a good start. Then keep it up to date to avoid infection.

Now on to the calls….

Joe in West Covina asked for firewall recommendations. He's suffering from messenger spam and out of control pop-up ads.

If you're running behind a broadband router you're off to a good start. Even if they don't claim to be firewalls, routers hide your network from the outside world, providing considerable protection against hackers. Some routers, like the SMC Barricade, wired or wireless, have built-in firewalls for additional protection.

If you've only got a single machine you should use a firewall of some sort to protect yourself from hackers. Windows XP has a built-in firewall that is just adequate. Turn it on by right-clicking My Computer, selecting Properties, then clicking the Advanced tab. Check the Firewall box to turn it on. A more powerful free firewall, ZoneAlarm is available from ZoneLabs. More expert users might prefer the additional control of the Sygate Personal Firewall, also free.

Mac users are protected by the built-in firewall that comes with BSD, ipfw. You can get very fancy with ipfw, but for most users turning it on using the Sharing System Preference pane is enough. Click the Firewall tab and press the Start button. The default settings are fine for most people. If you want to get really fancy, you can use the shareware application Brickhouse to write rules for you. True geeks who want to do it by hand should read Daniel Cotes's excellent article first.

(A little warning is in order here for people who plan to install a third-party firewall. Software firewalls are complicated programs that modify system files, so some people experience problems with after installing them. I've tested and used ZoneAlarm and Sygate and have found them to be reliable, but it's a good idea to backup your data and set system restore points before you install. The firewalls built-into XP and OS X are safer to use if not as sophisticated.)

A hardware firewall is more effective and less likely to cause problems, but they're not cheap. After the show I received an email from a listener who suggested the Netgear 318 (FVM wireless, FVS wired). He says it's relatively inexpensive and does a great job. If you're looking for a new Wi-Fi router and are concerned about security the FVM-318 sounds like a good choice at under $300.

Turning on a firewall should turn off messenger spam in Windows NT/2000/XP. If you're still getting it, disable the messenger service by opening the System Management Console, clicking Services, and setting the startup state of the messenger service to "manual." Web-based pop-up ads use Port 80, the standard http port, so a firewall won't stop them. I recommend using the free Google Toolbar. It's not only a useful addition to IE, it blocks pop-ups. Mozilla (Win/Mac) and Safari (Mac) also block pop-up and both do a very good job.

As many have pointed out in the comments, pop-ups can also be generated by programs running in the background. It's not a bad idea to run a spyware checker to eliminate these beasties, as well. I recommend

• Adaware (free)
• Spybot Search & Destroy (free - my favorite)
• Pest Patrol ($40 shareware but there's a free online checker)

Steve in Rancho Cucamonga was looking for a recommendation for a good big screen tube TV that's HD ready. I've always liked Sony's XBR WEGAs but TV preference is somewhat subjective so try before you buy. If you're really serious bring your favorite DVD and make sure to adjust the color, brightness, and contrast settings before you watch. I also mentioned that signal pre-processing is very important on big screen TVs. Faroudja is the best in the business. They make their own gear but many high-end TVs incorporate Faroudja processors. This is something we'll definitely talk about this weekend at CES.

Lori in Fountain Valley wants to get her Outlook and Palm database files off her old desktop and onto the laptop. She has a crossover networking cable, so all she has to do is turn on Windows file sharing and copy the outlook.pst file and the Palm data folder. If you're not sure how to get file sharing working Windows Help has good step-by-step instructions, or check the tutorials at the World of Windows Networking site.

The location of the Outlook data file varies so it's best to find it by right-clicking on Outlook Today and selecting Properties… Click the Advanced… button and note the file path. All your Outlook data including email, address book, and calendar are stored in that one file. On the new machine, open Outlook, click on the Import and Export item in the File menu then import your copied PST file. That will merge its contents into your existing Outlook database. Microsoft also offers a free backup program for your Outlook data file.

Your Palm data folder is within the Palm folder and has a name that's the same (or similar) to the name you use with your Palm. Copy this folder to the same location on the new computer. You can also use the Export and Import functions of the Palm Desktop to copy the data.

Brett in Santa Barbara answered my call for Apple rumors. He says he's heard from very good sources that Apple will announce a simple to use clustering solution for the Xserve. He also believed that dual-processor G5-based Xserve systems were on the way. I predict Apple will introduce a low cost, solid state iPod to complement their very successful hard drive based unit. We'll find out tomorrow.

Larry in Tujunga is in the market for a new camcorder. He was wondering if I recommended using MiniDV tapes or buying one of the new DVD-R based camcorders from Panasonic and Hitachi. I think the DVD camcorders are gimmicks. In most cases the DVD-RAM discs don't work in standard DVD players. You can use DVD-R but the quality is lower. He and I both liked the new Panasonic GS-70 three CCD camcorder for under $1000. Three CCDs give you much better color accuracy and a crisper more saturated picture than the usual single CCD cameras.

A number of people wrote to explain 3:2 pulldown. It's the conversion process necessary to convert 24 fps film to 30 fps video.

Dean in West Covina was having a problem with spontaneous rebooting of his D-Link router. He's traded it in several times with the same result. After doing some digging I've found other people who've had similar problems with a Netgear router. In that case Netgear had a larger than usual number of buggy routers. I'm wondering if the same thing isn't happening here. The same message board had a thread about rebooting issues with a particular D-Link, but it doesn't seem to have been widespread. Sounds like it's time to return it and go with another brand.

john in redondo beach

Rick in Panama City trojan horse beast 2.0 grisoft.com zonealarm.com

monica in bakerfield cell phone for parents

bill in laguna hills which G4 mac?

graham in menifee syndll missing after virus cleanup

Mark in Redondo Beach wants to know how web sites create a mailto link that supplies a subject line as well as an address. It took me a while to remember the exact syntax. It's

<leo@leoville.com?subject="hello">

If you're going to put an email address in the HTML on a web page you're risking discovery by spammers who trawl the net looking for @ signs. I replace all the leo@leoville.com links on my site with the following javascript to hide the address from spam robots. (Obviously you'll want to replace my name and address with your own).

<script language=“javascript”>
  <!--
  var contact = “ Leo Laporte”
  var email = “webmaster”
  var emailHost = “leoville.com”
  document.write(“<a href=“ + “mail” + “to:” + email + “@” + emailHost+ “>” + contact + “</a>”)
  //-→
 </script>

luke in san pedro wireless hates him mixing b and g

maureen in chatsworth high speed fax machine

nicole in hollywood memory for her micron

jimmy in montebello daughter's imac won't read discs

The Mac Shoppe in Westlake Village, There is also LA Computer Company in Anaheim (714–630–8200), and Crywolf in San Diego (858–277–9653)

doug in burnee tx ipod rumors

marty in arleta high speed compact flash

Jeff in Solana Beach

Halley in Highland

Dan Hendricks, who is one of the moderators in our Leoville chat room has the following suggestion for recording the KFI audio stream for later playback:

"The Streaming Download Project (SDP) is a freeware utility to record the ASF stream from your live show, it can be set with a timer like a vcr and records to an ASF file.

All you need to do is go to open in the app and use the url for the stream, which is http://ccdig.liquidviewer.com/kfi and it records in the background. I used it to record most of today's show. it turned out to be around 30 megs for the entire show."

Great tip. Thanks, Dan!

Next week: Live from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas!