Andrys Basten's

    Some of the links to free sites may still require registration before the information can be accessed.

* General Interest: *
    Travel, Addresses, Cars, Learning sites,
      Product-Comparisons, General Reference sites

*QuickJump to GENERAL Interest section*

*QuickJump to general VIRUSES section*

Reminders/news/viewpoints:

Reminder: Don't open *.vbs or *.exe or *.doc attachments or any you're not expecting. (Go to Viruses section for more of the same.)

Older, but continuing examples of reasons
to get IE/Windows Updates regularly:

IE browser bug - gives webpages your data, passwords if Netscape is default browser. 5/9/00

Malicious web-link requests, explained - InfoWorld
    Cert advisory on malicious weblink requests, etc.
    Also, Cert FAQ - Questions/Answers re what to do

Win 2000 Security patches - 3/31/00, some have not done this.

---

FAST  Internet Access (General)
    SHIELD your pc - Free - Steve Gibson . Excellent
    Navas Cable Modem/DSL Tuning Guide
    Security issues of broadband access - ZDNet
    Internet access, a comparison - SF Chron, 4/8/99
ADSL:
    What ever happened to DSL? - Computer User, Sep 2002
    How it works and where it's available, ZDNet
See "Sharing an Internet Connection" in cablemodem section.
Cable Modem / DSL:
    Guide - basic info, pitfalls, how-to's, ZDNet
    Optimize your cable modem speed>
    (registry tweaking, carefully)
    Line speed tests Down/Up at DSL Reports site
        Very good.
    MSN's net test - very good also
    A simpler, and conservative, download SpeedTest
    CableModem Reference - Ostergaard
    CableModem Help page - good!   Also,
        and Sharing cable modem connections
    Sharing an Internet connection - DSL, cablemodem, etc.
    How to share cable modem or DSL on multiple pc's
    How to find your network card's MAC address   *New*
Satellite:   Guide   and   How it works

Y2K - Year 2000 links for companies still seeing Y2K oddities:

---

Older Miscellaneous, still useful items kept here for now:

Iomega external Jaz drives - safety hazard ! - Bugnet

Microsoft's WebTV - My brother, Glen, likes his.

General Interest:

Exactly what time is it?
    Get the Naval Observatory time

Air travelers:
          LowestFare - Good, easy to use
          LowAirFare (Fly4Less.Com) - Agents online.
    (1)  Travelocity - highest Nielsen NetRating
    (2)  Preview Travel - Nielsen NetRating #2
    (3)  Expedia Travel - Nielsen NetRating #3
           their Hotel Search - in city, near airport, etc.
    (4)  Trip Planner, by Nat'l Geographic
    (5)  SmarterLiving Hotel Search
        - Finds good hotel rates. When on results-page,
          choose their "click here" to get contact info
    (6)  Motel 6 - Basic rooms, inexpensive
    (7)  SmarterLiving Discount fares - General
    (8)  Cheap Tickets - Find discount air tickets
    (9)  "4Airlines" - "Find lowest priced airfare"
    (10)  TravelWeb - Hotels, flights, rates & availability
        - search and make reservations;
    (11)  The Ultimate Trip Planner- advice for each place
    (12)  Real-time Flight Tracker - Check friends' flights
        - Here's FlightView's version also.
           FlightView has more dependable graphics-view.
    For Travel (Int'l), see end of this section.

Travel references:   Essential phone #'s, etc.
    Also, U.S./Int'l AOL & Compuserve numbers

Addresses: Infospace - Most likely to yield a find.

Addresses: "All-in-One's" People-Searcher

Addresses: infoUSA - Reverse-phone lookups too (Commercialized)

Addresses: E-Mail and Snail-mail (NetCenter) - Complete, easy to use

Addresses: E-Mail and Snail-mail (TheUltimates site) - Very nice

Addresses: Homepage (and E-mail address) Finder - using full name

Addressing Help - "National Address Server" - adds zipcode, formatting, and map to any valid otherwise full address.
    Also, the U.S. Post Office's own zipcode lookup.
    Or just look up zipcode for city, state.    *NEWER*

Addressing - Shipment Tracking:  FedExpress, UPS,
    Airborne, DHL

AnyWho's Reverse-Lookup - Provides name/address info for phone numbers (if listed)
    Also, Freeality's Reverse Phone & E-mail lookups, etc.

Area Code/City/Country Lookups: (1) Americom (hard to reach);
    (2) UCSD's, by number ; (3) UCSD's, by state/country

Area Codes' "Telephone Prefix Locator" by area code and by state

AllExperts.Com - Ask volunteer experts with good backgrounds.
    Site gets good press.

AT&T's Toll-Free 800# directory

BookWire Index - Lots of info on current book scene

Books and writing: The Writers' Well - good resources

Cars: Kelley Blue Book, Edmund's, CarPrices,
    TheCarPlace reviews, AutoSite, AutoShopOnline
    Consumer Guide's New-autos Guide and their Used-autos Guide

Classmates Finder - Register free to be found but $ to mail others.
    Fee to mail people is a drawback, as is the awkward setup.

Companies: Business Listings - BigYellow's 16 million
    The faster text-version

Company Profiles (Business Info Sources on the Net) and
    Hoovers Online

Comparison sites:     (Some relatively NEW)
    (1) CompareNet - audio/cars/services/appliances/home-ofc
    (2) DealTime - searches stores, auctions, classifieds
    (4) MySimon searches w/Virtual Learning technology
    20-20

Consumer Guide Magazine-Best Buys, with reviews - Free

Consumer:   Photo/Video equip. mail-order companies -
    Blondin's excellent customer-survey

The Consumer Watchdog - Interesting budding site by a NY law firm

"Convert it!" - Convert just about anything to anything

Currency Converter (The Universal);   Also, CNN's

Desk Reference: "All-in-One's" collection

Geographica - Info on all parts of the globe

Grocery Stores/Delivery:   HomeGrocer   Peapod

"Investing 101" - L.A. Times's basic tutorial by Kathy M. Kristof

Investing: Cyberspace as an Investment Tool - good overview

Fed'l Web Locator - gov't info on web

Health Info on the Web - Finding good sites - ZDNet, 5/31/99

How Stuff Works - Terrific

Infoplease.Com - Great - an infomaniac's delight

Learn2... - How to do almost anything:
    especially the things people forgot to tell us. Fantastic.

Legal resources: Counsel Quest and FindLaw - excellent

MAPs: Driving Directions: (1) Yahoo,   (2) MapQuest,
    (3) MapBlast and Google maps - Click on "Satellite" too!

Maps: World Cities

Medline searches (advanced) with full-text results.
    Medline is free and an amazing resource

MoverQuotes - Get/Compare instant moving price quotes for moves

National Geographic Magazine

OneLook Dictionaries - I especially like WordNet's fuller examples

The Reference Desk's "My Virtual Reference Desk"
    a goldmine for information buffs

Search Pathfinder magazine articles (Time, etc.)

Smithsonian Institution - good educational resources

Translating webpages:
    Free Translation - full pages of long articles
    Google's translation area
    AWEsome int'l news translator
        Scroll down that page for webpage translater
          Works better with Mozilla Foxfire
          Sometimes pages don't come up though!
    Many in one (includes Turkish<->English
    WorldLingo and Systran/AltaVista
        Both good, but not full pages of long articles.

Travel (Int'l): (1) Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory;
    (2) State Dept. Travel Warnings , Counsular Info Sheets;
    (3) Guidebooks: which ones?; (4) Travel Notes
    (5) Learn language by hearing the words - (real audio needed)
    (6) Translating dictionaries - no conjugation help

World Clock/Calendar, etc.

Hypertext lists of free online newspapers, domestic and international:

Newslink - American Journalism Review's hypertext list of over 3600 newspapers worldwide - excellent

"My Virtual Newspaper"- an amazing 1-page resource for news buffs, starting with weather information sources

8,000 News Links - Comprehensive!

Newspapers - U.S., daily - San Diego Daily Transcript's listing

Comparison shopping (computer-related) - ongoing, general online reviews:

Cnet's reviews

CNet: Shopper.Com - Best prices, from several vendors - compare

Infoworld's Test Center

ZDNet's Tech Update

PC World's reviews

ZDNet's reviews and review-finder

DIGITAL CAMERA REVIEWS (excellent detail)

DPreview's Digital Camera News & Reviews

Steve's DigiCams

Digital Camera Resource Page

See Tutorial section below also

Megapixel's Monthly DigiCam mag

[Less General] (See Archives also)

The CPU Guide from Tom's Hardware Guide - very detailed.

Manufacturer reference searches:

Locate manufacturer tech support
"SupportHelp.com is your one-stop-shop for locating Technical Support Contact Information"

Top notebook vendor support phone #'s - PC Mag

Trish's Escape from Hardware Hell"...search for specific hard drive models and display extensive information, such as heads, sectors, cylinders, form factor, height, interface type, encoding, and more" (incldg jumper settings) - free

Artisoft 's (Lantastic, etc.) "Technical Support Services"

Creative Labs - KnowledgeBase - SiteMap

HP's Printers & Digital Imaging - Products & Svcs;
      Drivers and Software - Also FAQs, Q&A
      An HP Support Forum     *NEWER*

Iomega's "Tech Support for your stuff"

Microsoft's Tech Support Knowledge Base + links to downloads, faqs (free registration required)

NetWare Users International's "NUI Technical Forums"

FAQ - Novell Listserv - Excellent

Novell's "Support Section"

File-download sites - Manufacturer (Updated Drivers, etc.)

"Versions!" - sends you e-mail each time the developer of a product you've chosen offers an upgrade.

DriverGuide.com - 70,000 files. Rare ones too.   *NEW*

Walbeehm's Win95_Version_Updates and
    Win98_Version_Updates - *Amazing*

Brad's Internet Help & Resources Site - excellent

Creative Lab's "Drivers/Patches"

CTL3D32.DLL and other Support Files needed for
    several programs - RocketDownload.com

DLL Archive - useful for that missing or bad DLL

The Driver Zone - links to manufacturers' driver download areas

Frank Condron's driver-update info

Intelligraphics' "Driver Finder" - direct links to manufacturer download page

MS Office(97) Update page     *Fix those bugs*
  MS Office(97) FAQs and highlights

Security patches - 1/31/00

MS WINDOWS Updates (all OS versions) - Download and install Microsoft's updates for your computer

Direct to MS Updates for your current version     *NEWER*

Microsoft's Support Drivers, Patches & Service Packs", etc.

Novell's support forums

Novell's "Minimum Patch List"

Novell's Updates

Novell's "Top 20 File Downloads"

Novell's "New Files This Week"   and New this month

Novell files - Utah State U mirror site, plus

PC Computing: Computing resources

File-download sites - general

Freeware Home - nicely-organized freeware

Cnet's "Download.Com" - easy to use, 25 items per page, categories browsing at top

Cnet's "Shareware.com" - no categories browsing at top - focusing on New or Most Popular, and then by platform - good descriptions

TechWeb's "Filemine.com" - being reorganized

ZDNet Software Library ("Hotfiles) - "over 10,000" with generally good descriptions, some reviews, and ranking added

DaveCentral - well organized

Winsite - large site for Windows software

Jumbo, nicely organized files, but a slow process, and sometimes strangely limited, though they boast 200,000 files

Simtel - Walnut Creek CDROM's software archive

"Where to Find Shareware on the Web" - NetGuide's Michelle Schoenung, July 18 '97

The Reference Desk's "Free Stuff" - a large list of free offerings on the Internet

SAX - Shareware Author IndeX: home pages, reviews, etc.

File-download sites - Internet apps/utilities

Consummate Winsock Apps - Stroud's superb Internet software-comparison/reviews site, with downloadable files.

TUCOWS - an alternative to CWA/Stroud's reviews

Finding [better] Internet Service Providers - Internet guidance

What to remember when considering a new ISP - Anchordesk, 12/28/99     *NEWER*

Articles/Tips on finding another ISP

Internet Traffic Report - Monitoring of data flow around the world.

Info Columns/Features:

"Help!" - a good How-To and Info area from ZDNet

"Best of Internet Tourbus" articles, folksy

General Interest reference pages (free)

HighBeam's Encyclopedia
    leads to related newspaper/magazine articles, also free

Columbia Encyclopedia 6th Ed - 51,000 entries

Bartleby's multiple reference sources online
    includes the quotations feature

Microsoft Encarta Online - 4,500 articles

Encyclopedia Smithsonian

Wikipedia - well known participatory reference site

Educypedia - ad-free (Belgium), links to online sources

Encyclopedia Mythica - Mythology

Mything Links - Rich site of mythology links
    Also see other areas of Kathleen Jenks's site.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

MathWorld - for a few of you

Browse the 1911 Edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Medline Encyclopedia - 4,000 articles

MedlinePlus - info in everyday-speech

Also see search sites below

Good General Computer/Internet
  Reference/Tutorial pages:

"What Is ... ?"Answers to computer and Internet questions. Excellent, illustrated "How the Internet Works" is one feature.

Technology Encyclopedia - a very good one, from TechWeb

PCWebopaedia - Another encyclopedia, with links - Excellent

PC Lube and Tune - introductions, tutorials, etc.
"Good text site for anyone wanting to learn more about either the basics of computers or the more arcane - from Yale lecturer H. Gilbert's course.

Dan Kegel's ISDN page

ISDN intro/fundamentals, by PacBell

"Kodak's Digital Imaging Fundamentals" - a free online course

NYI's Digital Photography Primer - NY Institute of Photography

B&H Digital Camera Resolution Guide

Digital Camera Pixels/Resolution

Wayne Fulton's Scanning Tips - Excellent! Also see Tom Lane's JPEG FAQ

Steve Hoffman's web imaging (etc) tips - Excellent examples, comparisons

References and Tutorials - HTML/Webpages

NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML, Excellent starter

"HTML Goodies, by Joe Burns, Ph.D" - Very clear, with a light touch

HTML primer by W3Schools

HTML Code Tutorial

HTML Net - Clear, in-context learning  N E W

Interactive CSS tutorial  N E W

Schlüter's HTML Ref - GOOD, clear HTML tag reference

TagHelp - at Renza's Web Gallery

HTML tags - at Webspawner

Index to Html/Css - Brian Wilson

HTML element reference

Dynamic HTML - by Martin Webb

Dr. Website's FAQs/Archives - Great!

Netscape 4 and earlier HTML tags

Netscape Central, for later HTML guides, info

MSDN Online Web Workshop

Paint Shop Tutorials

Adobe Photoshop Tips & Techniques

Linda Weinman's "Non-Dithering Colors by Hue" - "safe colors" - compatibility

The HTML Coded Character Set, a list of code positions and characters of the HTML document character set

Spell Online's WebPage-spell-checker (yes)

Spellcheck a word or a paragraph

WebReference - Good reference site for Webpage makers

WebDeveloper - More advanced how-to's

CGI, Perl, JavaScript - programs, scripts and other advanced how-to's

References and Tutorials - Windows 95 (and Win3.x when I see any)

Windows Annoyances and workarounds -Excellent!

References and Tutorials - Unix/Linux

(Unix and Linux articles, references, tutorials)

56K Modems - Articles cautioning against overly-high expectations but with advice on how to get very good results:

Modem guru John Navas of The Navas Group ... Solutions to modem problems, breaking news, excellent FAQ

Concerned about your junk mail? Some excellent ideas in articles in archive:

Death2Spam! - article on great antispam program

Cauce.Org - EXCellent: latest on how to combat spam    *NEWER*

SpamCop - This site sends spam rpts to the right places.

(Other Anti-Spam articles, how-to's, etc.)

Look up mailer/IP/Domain/ISP information:

DShield.Org - Intrusion detection

DNS Lookup here or here, or a job for Sam Spade -
  input the source IP# to get real hostname/vice versa

DNSStuff - various, on one page

Arin's WhoIs - domain-source info

Internic Whois, the oldest, but very limited now.

Mail- and name-servers for an IP#

SearchBug - Check validity of e-mail address - Useful.

Find out who owns the IP# numbers involved in spam
    Newer, excellent sources:
    Geek Tools for Whom to Contact - good
    DSL Reports - WhoIs - good info
    WebReference: Get ISP MailServer name - excellent
    DNSstuff (works better with #'s)
See geographic location of the IP#
    (In 95% of cases, it's possible.)
      Most accurate Location getter currently
        The associate maps may show another country!
      IP# Location-Getter & more ID info
      Great trace route utility (free)   *New*
      Another region getter, somewhat buggy
      Alternate IP# Location-getter
WhoisReport.com now requires registration.
Here are some WhoIs regional registries:
    RIPE - Europe, Asia Pacific
    LACNIC - Latin America/Caribbean
    Country root-zone domain names

Older but ultra-reliable traceroute gateway - Trace who provides an IP-address' connectivity ("upstream provider") when Whois info isn't enough

Sam Spade's "The Art of Spam-Hunting" page and
    his IP and DNS Tutorial

DNS things explained

Check domains for problems

Reporting Fraud:

The Internet Fraud Complaint Center

The Office of the Inspector General

National Fraud Information Center

Bugs? Recent big bugs identified, some with workarounds [also see Archive section]:

BugNet - excellent bugwatch newsletter, from their free area

For those with old software, much Older bug reports (newer ones top of this page) in Archives

HOAXES - General (most seen) and also False Virus-Warnings:

Check or search these general ones before forwarding hoaxes: Search About.Com's Urban Legends page;
Search Snopes for Legends;   Also,
Snopes's general Urban legends/lore;   Hoax-Slayer;   Rosenberger's Internet Myths, Hoaxes;   CIAC's "Internet Hoaxes;  and re specifically VirusHoaxes, check both Computer Virus Myths and Urban Legend's VirusHoaxes.   Also see an easy-browse listing of
the most common hoaxes.

Virus info/warnings:

* See Current Viruses section at top of page first. *
    *Older* warnings are below:

W32/Badtrans-A worm - A bad one - 4/29/01

IE security hole launches e-mail attachments
    Microsoft security bulletin for this and Fix. Added story.

Destructive NakedWife.exe virus   How to remove it   and an example of the fake video screen it makes - 3/6/01

Virus Advice - read regularly - Ha Ha Ha virus etc.
    What to do about a variety of current viruses.

Security Portal, check this security site for Virus news

MAINLY: Don't open *.vbs or *.exe or *.doc attachments or any you're not expecting.
*Also, watch out for these:
* BE SURE TO READ * first few.

Dangerous IE and Outlook security flaw - can activate when a mail arrives in the queue, not opened.   Downloadable Microsoft fixes:
    E-mail patch     IE Script workaround

The KAK virus - Annoying

Résume virus (resume.doc, explore.doc + other names) in attachment, deletes key files.  5/26/00   Advice from FBI.
Again: Don't open *.vbs or *.exe or *.doc attachments or any you're not expecting.

New virus (more destructive)

"I Love You" virus CHANGED to
    1)  "Fwd: Joke" and "Very Funny"
    2)  Mother's Day notice of billing
          destroys *.ini and *.bat files too, so is worse.
    3) Poses as Symantec anti-virus help
And more changes will come of course.

"I Love You" vbs e-mail virus - **Very Destructive**Description     Symantec's generic instructions for removal - description also
    AVP has updated their software to detect and remove it.

Eudora security hole (executables can run w/o a click)

That '911' virus (Firkin or Chode)   Also, this background

PrettyPark.Exe - Bad one spreading quickly already - 3/3/00

ICQGREETING or W32/Mypics.worm.27648 - blank subject-line, 12/10/99

W95Babylonia/XMAS.EXE - NY Post Article describing problem
    Advice:   Netwk Assoc  Symantec.
    Virus threat downgraded- 12/10/99

Symantec Fix-page - Dangerous

Don't open "suppl.doc" e-mail attachment - 9/21/99

"Support@Microsoft.com" Y2K email can be virus - 9/17/99

IE 5 bug. Microsoft says deactivate Active Scripting to avoid - 9/10/99

"Thursday" virus (Word97) tries to delete drive on 12/13/99

AVP  is highly recommended by John Dvorak, PC Mag and others.

"Todie.exe" virus" - CNN/IDG, 8/30/99

*Destructive* Bug (IE, ,Outlook, Eudora) - Download the Fix - 8/26/99

Fix for latest Excel Y2K error - 8/22/99

Caution re "Bill Gates Joke" virus (aka "Monopoly") - 8/11/99;   and more detail from Computer Currents - 8/13/99

Mail-"Worm" - Executable [See *.Exe section a bit below.]
Destroys files while also propagating itself via your messages. Also, NY Times story on how lethal it is and the large companies already affected.

Malicious Java programs that can crash Win95/98
    Caution re unknown websites - Cnet, 4/27/99

AMD K6-2 CPUs that won't run Win95; Get Fix for Win95,SR2,
    but TechSupport for Win95,SR1 - Bugnet, Dec 3

*.Exe - trojan horses - Please note: You could get these
    under ANY executable name:
    "picture.exe" or   Happy99.Exe
    It's an old story. Virus-check any attachment
    and Don't Open or Run Attachments from Strangers.

Interesting columns/FAQs and articles:

(Other older articles)

Computer network articles/references/tutorials

(Network articles, references, tutorials)

Winsock help:

Webster Image's "P.C.'s Help Page" - Winsock

(See Archive section for Netcom and Netcruiser specific help.)

Unique:

Archived/ongoing Win95 and NT forums at www.32bit.com - icons indicate type of message

Send email to fax machines, by the makers of "Spam Hater"

Free general search-engines I use daily (advanced search options chosen):

Alta Vista - flexible searching, with date limits, boolean logic available

Google - terrific multiple-engine site, finds most-enjoyed by others

Infind - fast results, categorized

Searchalot - great multiple-engine searcher

Dogpile - good multiple-engine searcher, not as smooth as searchalot

Deja, now GOOGLE, newsgroup search

Newsgroup discussions, threaded. These have date-ranges.  This is their advanced page.
QUICK READing/POSTing, via Google/Deja for     Rec.Music.Classical.Recordings

Compuserve Classical Music Forums - Free to web-read/post.

Compuserve Music Forums - general info

Compuserve Forums (gen'l) - Free to web-read/post.

Other general search-engines

SearchEngineWatch - Rates, explains search engines

Go2Net - effective multiple-engine searcher (metacrawler)

Savvy Search - A multiple-engine searcher (beta version)

The Reference Desk's "My Search Engines" - 260+, by category and with tips and tutorials on searching

All-in-One's "Other" - miscellaneous searcher (some very nice things all on one page)

ForumOne - browse/search online forums, includ'g those at the NY Times, Washington Post, Salon, Cafe Utne, US News & World Report, Time, People, Yahoo, Excite, Slate, etc.

---

    Computer History

E-mail any feedback.
Spam will be reported to Spamcop.Net though.

I hope you'll sign the guestbook.
Additional info, corrections, suggestions, welcomed!

Guestbook for Computer, Music, and Peru pages.

To * PERU * pages (photos and text)

For some good buys, try the store below:

Often good book bargains    Remaindered, close-outs    All categories - "monthly blowouts"

                or to

Peru Photos: Copyright ©1997 Andrys Basten

My photo: Courtesy of M. Campbell, 2001