internet

Killer Download: Better ways to download the big files

Anybody who downloads software knows that the size of the file is going to effect the time it takes to download. The bigger the file the longer you wait, right? For those of you who are on a dial-up connection (I know you're still out there), the size of the file can be the difference between downloading and moving on to something else. Even with a fast connection, some of the popular game demos and larger software apps can mean an all-night download party for your computer--particularly when that download is in high demand.… Read more

House OKs four-year extension of Net tax ban

Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:18 p.m. PDT.

Most Americans should see tax-free Internet access bills for another four years if a proposal overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law.

By a 405-2 vote on Tuesday, the politicians threw their support behind a bill that would generally bar state and local governments from taxing Internet connections, including DSL (digital subscriber line), cable modem and BlackBerry-type wireless transmission services. The measure also prohibits "discriminatory" taxes that treat products sold on the Internet differently than those in brick-and-mortar stores--not to be … Read more

Is stranger contact a 'cost of doing business' online for teens?

A recent Read/WriteWeb post pointed me to a new Pew/Internet Survey that suggests that "teens" (defined in this study as 12- to 17-year-olds) may view contact by people they don't know as a "cost of doing business" in the online social network environment.

The Pew survey found that about a third of online teens had been contacted online by someone with no connection to them or their friends. Overall, studying all online teens, 7 percent of them had experienced stranger contact that made them feel scared or uncomfortable.

It is important to note that when you look at group of teens who had been contacted by a stranger, nearly of a quarter of them say they felt scared or uncomfortable. Girls were more likely to feel this way, 27 percent compared with 15 percent of boys.

What do these results mean for parents? Social networks are becoming the norm for kids and teens, and "networking" means meeting new people. The question is always how to help kids learn to safely negotiate the public contact that comes into our home through online exposure.… Read more

PCLive offers a free security suite

PCLive.com, a service offered by SecurityCoverage Inc., is attempting to upstage security giants Symantec and McAfee by offering a complete suite of security tools for your desktop--for free. Included within the basic PCLive Security package is a firewall, the open source ClamAV antivirus product, antispyware, a pop-up blocker, plus system cleaner (removes old temp files). PCLive will also check for the latest Microsoft Windows updates that haven't yet been applied to your PC. For a mere $4.95 a month, PCLive Premium Security includes all the basic PCLive Security along with Web content filtering, parental controls, disk maintenance and 24-7 live technical support. SecurityCoverage also offers users of their free PCLive service instant 24-7 technical support for a flat fee of $49.95 per session.

How does it work? OK. The ClamAV product is designed for UNIX and Linux systems. It hasn't been independently tested by Windows-based antivirus testing labs. Also we found that PCLive runs three active processes on your desktop. A couple of times, for no apparent reason, the PCLMonitorService process consumed up to 53 percent of our system resources, considerably slowing our test PC.… Read more

PCLive.com provides a free security suite

PCLive.com, a service offered by SecurityCoverage, is attempting to upstage security giants Symantec and McAfee by offering a complete suite of security tools for your desktop--for free. Included within the basic PCLive Security package is a firewall, the open-source ClamAV antivirus product, antispyware capabilities and a pop-up blocker. What's more, PCLive will take out the trash (clean out old temp files) and check for the latest Microsoft Windows updates that haven't yet been applied to your PC. PCLive will also e-mail you a monthly report of any changes it has made on your computer.

SecurityCoverage offers users … Read more

PCLive.com offered as free Internet security suite

What kind of information technology user are you?

Do you cringe when your cell phone rings? Do you suffer from withdrawal when you can't check your Blackberry? Do you rush to post your vacation video to your Web site?

Answer a few questions to see where you fit in the typology of information and communication technology users developed by the Pew Internet Project.

Take the Test

IE7 is missing and a sad tale of tech support

Internet Explorer 7 was missing on a brand new Dell Latitude D630 running Windows XP SP2. I tried to find out why, which resulted in the saga below. Consider this a tip for anyone purchasing a new XP based computer and a heads up on how Microsoft and Dell treat their customers.

The machine arrived a few days ago, and one of the first things I dutifully did was run Windows Update from Internet Explorer (Tools -> Windows Update). I was surprised to find the machine came with Internet Explorer 6 considering that IE7 has been available for a … Read more

The game of subconscious spam filtering

I was combing through the piles of uncollected e-mail this afternoon when this nugget grabbed my attention: "OnlineBootyCall message for Daniel Terdiman."

Putting aside the entertainment such a message might contain, it got me thinking about the subconscious filtering system I use to sift through the mounds of e-mail I get, looking for the ones I actually need to read.

There are all kinds of cues that signal spam: poor spelling; no caps when there should be; caps when there shouldn't be; extra periods; the whole, "I'm responding to your message" thing from some … Read more