Child Security in Chat Rooms. top of page
Chat rooms have long been a favourite pass-time on the internet for kids, they can be great fun and they can make some great new friends online, the problem with chat rooms is they are generally anonymous so the person they are chatting to may not be who they say they are.
Unless you supervise your children whenever they are in a chat room then controlling who they chat too can be a problem, although, there are some general guidelines that your children can follow to make their online chatting safer:
Stay anonymous, they should use a nickname while online, and never reveal their real name.
Never tell anyone where they live, not even if they have been chatting to the person for years.
Never tell anyone what school they go to.
Never give out phone numbers.
Never agree to meet someone without a parent present, and ensure the person they are going to meet knows a parent will be accompanying them.
Tell an adult if anything strange happens or anything is said to them that makes them feel uncomfortable.
Introduce yourself in the chat room to their online friends, especially if your child wants to meet them.
Although these guidelines may seem fairly obvious, by ensuring that your children follow them they can help remove some of the dangers.
Is it hoax or is it true? top of page
Before you believe everything you read on the internet, consider visiting the following sites to help determine whether or not the amazing story you just read is fictional or true.
Urban Legends
Truth or Fiction
Snopes
Laptop touchpad/keyboard not working all the time? top of page
Did you know its not healthy for your laptop to be running on ac power all the time. From time to time you should run your laptop on battery power only to reduce the risk of your battery adapter and battery dying. If this does happen we can supply you with new batteries and adapters.
How can I enlarge text on web pages? top of page
You can enlarge the text on any web page. In windows hold Ctrl and press plus or minus (for bigger or smaller fonts)
What do Microsoft Genuine Advantage Notifications actually do? top of page
Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notification and Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage Notification are updates which, when installed send notifications to microsoft every time you start you computer without letting you know, which by definition makes it spyware. This constant sending of information to Microsoft is very unneccesary and wastes your internet so its recommended not to do these updates. If you have these installed and would like them removed we can do this for you quickly and efficiently.
Never click on internet ads. top of page
The rare exception to this would be if it's a well known, reputable company. But verify in your web browser's status bar (typically on the bottom of the screen) that the link is actually going to take you to the correct web site. Avoid clicking links that go directly to IP addresses.
The truth behind optimization software. top of page
Optimization programs are things like Registry Booster 2009 & PC-Checkup which claim to clean your computer and make it run faster when realy they are trojans, spyware and any other nasty software you can think of. If your computer has one installed it would be best to remove it and if it gives you trouble we will gladly remove it.
How do I use keyboard shortcuts in Windows? top of page
Ctrl + C : Copy
Ctrl + X : Cut
Ctrl + V : Paste
Ctrl + Z : Undo
Ctrl + B : Bold
Ctrl + U : Underline
Ctrl + I : Italic
How can I improve me search results on Google? top of page
When you're searching for something using Google, put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example if you put quotes around "fruit trees", Google wont waste your time finding one set of web pages containing the word "trees" and another set containing the word "fruit".
How can I improve me search results on Google? top of page
When you're searching for something using Google, put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example if you put quotes around "fruit trees", Google wont waste your time finding one set of web pages containing the word "trees" and another set containing the word "fruit".
How can Microsoft Word help me more? top of page
To find a word's synonym
or antonym , simply highlight the word and hit Shift + F7. This will also provide a thesaurus.
How do I set multiple home pages? top of page
To set more than one page to load when you open your web browser you can do the following:
This applies to web browsers installed on Windows computers.
Mozilla Firefox: Open all the pages you would like to open when Firefox starts in separate tabs, then on the top of your web browser click Tools then from the drop down menu select Options... Once that has opened up a new smaller windows, click the tab at the top that says General then under the Startup heading is a field where you can manualy put in the web address of any home pages you want to set using a | to separate different pages e.g. www.google.co.nz|www.acrepc.co.nz etc or there is a button underneath that says Use Current Pages, which will set all the pages you have open to load when Firefox starts.
SeaMonkey: Open all the pages you would like to open when SeaMoneky starts in separate tabs, then on the top left of your web browser click Edit then from the drop down menu select Preferences... Once that has opened up a new smaller windows, select Browser from the menu on the left then under the Home Page heading are buttons that let you set the current page as the home page and the current tabs as the home page, or you can manualy add web addresses to the field underneath the Home Page heading, which will then open those pages when SeaMonkey starts.
Opera: Unlike the other browsers you cannot do it the same way, alternatively you can create a new bookmarks folder by clicking the bookmarks tab on the top, then on the drop down menu click Manage Bookmarks... then on the top left click the small downward pointing arrow next to Add and click New Folder. The new folder will appear to the right and you then name it whatever you like, inside that folder you add the web sites you want to load when Opera starts, once you have done that you then go to Tools>Preferances... and next to the Home page text, in the field you type the folder name you gave to the one you want to load when Opera starts.
Google Chrome: Open all the pages you would like to open when Google Chrome starts in separate tabs, then near the top right of your web browser click the spanner then from the drop down menu select Options. Once that has opened up a new smaller windows, click the tab at the top that says Basics then under the On startup heading are buttons that allowing you to open your Home Page, open the pages you had open last when you closed the prgram or to open the following pages. If you select this option you then must click add on the right to add them manualy or you can click the button which says Use current, which will set all the pages you have open to load when Google Chrome starts.
Safari: This cannot be done in Safari although you can use the following as a work-around. Create a new bookmarks folder on the bookmark menu by right clicking the bar and selecting New Folder. Then call the folder whatever you please, open all the pages you would like to use in separate tabs and then right click any one of the tabs and select Add Bookmark for These X Tabs... ,then from the drop down menu select the folder you created and save them to that folder. Now you can just click on the folder and select Open in Tabs.
Internet Explorer: Open all the pages you would like to open when Internet Explorer starts in separate tabs, then near the top right of your web browser click Tools then from the drop down menu select Internet Options. Once that has opened up a new smaller windows, click the tab at the top that says General then under the Home page heading is a field where you can manualy put in the web address of any home pages you want to set using a new line to separate different pages or there is a button underneath that says Use current, which will set all the pages you have open to load when Internet Explorer starts.
