Sale of Your Personal Data May Be a Hidden Cost of Free DSL Service
Q: I’m thinking of signing up for free digital subscriber line service to get on the Internet. What should I know before I sign on the dotted line?
--Stan L., Yahoo.com
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A: Free DSL has been kicking around the Internet for some time. A company called FreeDSL.com started it all. I looked at FreeDSL’s terms-of-service agreement and didn’t like what I found. The company makes money by selling information about you that you must supply to qualify for the free account. You pay for the installation and modem, and you may have to make a toll call to your “free” DSL account.
When you finally connect, your link will be slow compared with DSL connections from major providers. The idea is to get you to pay a monthly fee for your “free” DSL account, starting at about $9.95 a month for faster connections.
All things considered, I’d rather pay for DSL and keep my personal information private. The price of DSL connections will come down, as will the cost of cable Internet access. If you value your privacy more than your checkbook, the decision is simple.
Program Helps Move Files Between PCs Q: I have a laptop computer without a CD-ROM drive. Is it possible to copy information from my desktop computer (which has a CD-ROM drive) to my laptop?
--Dolly B., Thousand Oaks
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A: I would use a program called FastMove, available in computer stores. The program comes with a cable that connects your old computer to the newer one. A program called “remoted.exe” resides on the FastMove CD-ROM disk included with the program. You can copy that file to a floppy disk, and with that floppy disk, copy the program to your old computer.
Run the remoted.exe program on the old computer, and then start FastMove on the new computer. You’ll see a split-screen presentation that shows your old computer on one side and the newer computer on the other. You can then move files and folders to and from either computer by clicking on the appropriate left and right arrows on the screen.
Erasing Tracks of Recently Used Files Q: I use Microsoft Word on a computer that several people share. When I click on File from within a document, the drop-down menu shows what appears to be a list of recently used files. There are times when I won’t want other people to see the files I have been working on. Is there a way to remove them from this “recently used files” list?
--Leo C., El Monte
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A Every time you work on a document, the document makes it to the list of recently used files. You can, however, remove individual files from the list. Here’s how: Press the Ctrl, Alt and minus keys at the same time. Your cursor will change to a minus sign. Click on File and then click on the file you wish to remove from the list. The file will be removed and your cursor will return to its normal state.
Sending Explorer.com Directly to New Drive Q: I often use Explorer to work on files in my hard drive. Is there a faster way to have Explorer go directly to my C drive?
--Ben T., Whittier
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A: When you right-click on My Computer and then click on Explore, Windows launches a program called Explorer.com. By default, Explorer.com opens with My Computer, displaying your floppy and hard drives as well as your CD-ROM and Zip drives if installed. The list also includes Printers, Control Panel, Dial-up Networks and others. There is an easier way to use Explorer.com and open directly to any drive you specify.
Here’s how. Click on Start and then on Run. In the Open: dialog box type “explorer /e,c:.” (without the quotes), and Windows will open Explorer.com to your C drive. You can open to any other installed drive by changing the C: to the appropriate drive letter.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Outlook Q: I use Microsoft Outlook to manage my daily calendar and phone number lists. In the Calendar view, can you suggest keyboard shortcuts that will help me navigate to different dates?
--Marty S., Brentwood
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A: Microsoft Outlook features a Date Navigation system that appears as a small calendar in the upper-right section of the Calendar view. Both the current and the next month are displayed. From within the Calendar view of Outlook, you can press and hold the Alt key and at the same time press the Up arrow or the Down arrow to navigate to the same day (e.g. Tuesday) of either the previous or the following week. You can also move directly to the first or last date of the current month by pressing and holding the Alt key and then pressing the Page Up or Page Down key.
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Jeff Levy hosts the “On Computers” radio talk show from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on KFI-AM (640). He can be reached at jefflevykfi@hotmail.com.
