Manage Outside E-mail Hosting Accounts Through Gmail
If you have e-mail accounts through an ISP, your school, or your office, you may feel tied down because you can only access that e-mail from a specific computer. Outlook Express and other e-mail clients can be restrictive in this way. Gmail is a web-based e-mail client that allows you to access your accounts from anywhere; you simply have to log in with the proper credentials and you are good to go.
Through the options in Gmail, you can actually set your web-based mail up to accept and send messages from other accounts. Rather than having to use a separate application to get your e-mail from other servers, you can collect your Gmail and other e-mail messages in the same place quickly and easily. E-mail hosting is achieved through a variety of sites and services, not just Gmail. Some other email hosts include Hotmail, Yahoo, and Live.com.
In Gmail’s account settings, click on “Accounts” and then “Import.” You can also click where it says “Send Mail As” and follow the instructions to send e-mail from another account. You will need to verify that you own the address, but once this is done you will be ready to go. The e-mails that come to your other addresses will now appear in your Gmail inbox, and you will be able to send mail from those accounts as well. Doing this allows you to use one interface to manage all your accounts from any location, greatly simplifying your e-mailing process.
The Gmail interface is easy to learn and user friendly. It allows you to tag and archive mail as desired, so you can hang on to your messages and access them on the go. Gmail also offers apps for the Iphone, Droid phones, and other 3G smartphones, allowing you to access all of your e-mail even when you are away from a computer.
Technology Constantly Changes, Unlike a Kids Backpack
The kids backpack hasn’t changed much in the 100 or so years it’s been around. It’s a place for a child to store belongings and is the perfect size for a person of a smaller height and weight than an adult. It’s pretty much the same thing with only a few cosmetic changes over the years. The reason is because the model was right the first time. It made sense and therefore no improvements needed to be made. However, with technology nothing is ever the same as it was when it first came out and this is exactly the case for the Internet and the way we get online.
When the Internet first became available in homes you had to use the dial-up method. This was where the Internet literally called a number and was connected that way. Then came the advent of the DSL line where there was a much faster dial-up to the Internet through an Ethernet. This gave way to cable companies and fiber optic connection.
There are some that will contend that the cable connection is actually an improvement over the DSL model but that is not always the case. While the technology is a bit more advanced through the cable company’s system it does not always provide the best internet connection. The problem with the cable company is that depending on how far away you are from one of their mainframes you can have a serious toll on how well your Internet works, where as the DSL operates on a phone line which generally doesn’t have connectivity problems based on proximity because if the phone line works, then it works and there is nothing else that needs to be done. So when you are contemplating what to get, do not be so quick to dismiss DSL.
Protecting Yourself Against Viruses and Worms
The internet is an amazing tool and a testament to the integrative powers of technological and commercial development. The problem is, like anything else in the world, you can’t have the good without the bad. We use the internet for our transacting, our debt and loan repayments, our shopping, our bidding, and even our most intimate and personal communications. All it takes is one click, or the access to one file or website, and your entire life, financial (auto loan refinancing etc), professional, and private, can be skewed instantly.
It’s the infamous ‘computer virus.’ There are different types of computer viruses: Resident, Direct Action, Boot, Overwrite, Polymorphic, and other types of viruses continue to infect computers even now. And while virus protection software and computer self-cleaning systems have managed to regulate some of these more malicious viruses, like FAT viruses, Worms, and the infamous Trojans.
Some different types of virus protection software can manage and delete these viruses before they plant themselves in your computer. A FAT (or File Allocation Table) Virus, for example, if planted, needs to fixed from the back end. Without acute attention, a FAT Virus can actually prevent you from accessing certain important files and directories on your computer, meaning you could possibly lose the files most important to you and your system’s efficient function.
Trojans, or Trojan Horses, are types of files and programs that you can unintentionally install on your computer, which initially seem legitimate, but once installed, can give outside parties access to your system’s innermost functions. This may expose your personal information, including credit card information, and be a recipe for identity theft. Worms are much the same. They can occupy bandwidth and send out your computer’s information without you even knowing, except for maybe noticing that your network has slowed down a bit.
Downloading trusted anti-virus software, not following suspicious links, opening strange e-mails, or going to unknown websites are some of the best things you can do to prevent yourself and your system from infection.
The Evolution of Cell Phone Usage and Cell Phone Plans
The Internet is a handy tool to have around whenever it is needed. Few people live a life that is not touched by the Internet in one way or another. Another tool that is used almost universally these days is the cell phone. Twenty years ago, the cellular phone was usually referred to as a car phone because that is where it was designed to be used.
Cell phones were astronomically expensive to purchase back then, but it cost even more to buy the service that allowed the user to receive calls on the phone. These phones were a novelty item to the average person, whose only exposure to them was on the movie screen or perhaps the armed forces. Some folks did not even have a land line in those days. Today people are reverting to that trend by using their cell phone as the primary phone in the household.
Over the years, cell phone plans became more affordable as the technology for the phones improved. The phones did not look like a big black thermos but instead became smaller and more compact. The price made them available to the mainstream and service became available in every nook and cranny of the country.
Phones were no longer used for just plain old talking to people but gradually turned into the user’s indespensible right arm. Phones turned into personal organizers with address books, calculators, and calendars built into them. Keyboards were added to the body of the phone around the same time that they became Internet capable. Now for less than the cost of a cell phone plan from 1988 a person can have a cell phone plan that includes access to the Internet.
The Problem With Worms
If you’re an e-mail or internet user, then you’re susceptible to attack. It’s a fact of internet life. Like everything else in the world, with everything good, there is also something bad. While, as they say in the East, the ‘balance must be maintained,’ there is no reason why you should have to endure the countless types of harm and technical problems associated with the various ways Worms can compromise your computing system.
There are viruses, and then there are worms. What differentiates the two is that a computer virus, much like a biological virus, will attach itself to a host and cause malignant damage to whatever part of the body, or file, it calls its home. Sometimes you can get rid of a virus by simply deleting it, or removing different types of files (Unfortunately, human viruses aren’t so simple). Worms, on the other hand, are more discreet and, while not as actively malicious as a standard computer virus, they can cause harm in their own way.
Worms don’t just show up on your computer. You have to let them in. A user can do this by opening a strange file in a strange e-mail, or by following links on some more dubious websites. For example, you may get an e-mail from an eBay-looking company, and it may invite you to click the link and ‘find out more.’ Once you do that, you let the worm extend itself on to your computer, and once it’s there, while not affecting your computer’s files directly, it can occupy obscene amounts of bandwidth, send out spam e-mails from your computer, and in some cases, harm the function of your computer.
There have been attempts to create constructive worms, yet they haven’t yet proven truly effective. Worms work by stretching themselves across entire networks of computers, like a giant parasite. The best way to stay protected is by not opening strange e-mails, not following dubious links, and keeping your anti-virus software up to date.
How Does DSL Work?
Almost everyone has heard of DSL, but how many know exactly how it works? As far as most folks are concerned, as long as the latest Lindsay Lohan gossip gets to them a split second after they type the phrase into Google, their high-speed internet is working as well as it needs to be. But what is happening in all of those tubes and how does that information get to them so quickly?
Since Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, internet comes through the telephone lines, all of that information is traveling over copper wires. These wires are far more conductive than necessary for simple voice communication and DSL internet takes advantage of the extra room in the wires to send massive amounts of information without disrupting the normal functions of a telephone line. This extra space is possible since the range of frequencies at which the human voice can speak is a fraction of the frequencies at which information can travel along copper wires. By utilizing these unused frequencies, DSL service is able to send a lot of information along an existing infrastructure of wiring.
Another secret to DSL’s lightening fast internet speeds is the way it is set-up. Most computers are connected to an asymmetrical DSL line; this type of connection assumes that the user will be downloading far more than they will be uploading and assigns frequencies as such. This makes the entire network run both faster and smoother.
All of this information enters and leaves the user’s home through a modem. This piece of technology assigns and divides the analog voice communications and digital internet information along the various frequencies. It routes everything to the proper channel and helps to direct the flow of the information. This ensures that everything is headed to the correct place and that no service is disrupted when the phone rings.
The Future of the Internet
The internet has changed the entire face of communication, knowledge, and technological literacy. New people connect to the internet every day, and the population of the internet continues to grow, as do its mass stores of information and data. If there is anything you want to know, like the year when Annie Taylor tumbled down Niagra Falls in a barrel and survived (it was 1901); or if there is anything you want to buy, like the first English translation of Immanuel Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure Reason,’ – everything you want to know or have is literally a click or two away.
Connection not only offers you accessibility of knowledge and goods, but it helps keep you connected with people you’d never 
otherwise see. As the number of people on the internet reaches nearly two billion (just under a third of the world’s population), so too does the possibility of connecting and reconnecting between people. In fact, usage for the internet as a device for social media has actually surpassed the amount of people using the internet for various forms of entertainment.
Out of the nearly two billion internet users, 42% of them are based in Asia. The people of Europe form the second largest internet-using population, occupying around 24% of the world’s bandwidth. North America comes in at comparatively modest third place, at around 13.5%. Users in Latin America, Africa, New Zealand/Australia, and the Middle East make up the last quarter of the total system, though even their numbers continue to grow.
The average North American internet user spends about an average of 60 hours online per month. That’s 30 days and nights of continuous internet usage per year. Most people who use the internet use it for social networking and media, and this trend likewise is becoming more popular and integrated into every day behaviors. We can now be connected with our phones and video game consoles, and as technology continues to develop, so too will humans continue to integrate the world’s network into their way of life. The internet will be as ordinary as cereal and rainstorms.
DSL, Your Computer, and You
So you’ve moved in to your new apartment or house. You set up your computer or your laptop, check the Wi-Fi settings, and your computer can’t find any networks. If this happens, you’re facing a tough decision: to connect, or not to connect? That is the question.
If you want to stay up to date with your friends and family, and you want to check out new videos, news, and other things that keep 
you connected with the modern world, you need to have an internet connection. Because there is such a diversity of connectivity options, choosing the right type of internet for you is really the hardest decision you’ll have to make. Different providers work with different types of internet connections, so the search for the best type of connection is two-fold.
So you have your options for connectivity. First, there are analog connections. These were the primary form of connection early on in the internet’s life, but most analog, or ‘dial-up’ technologies have become outmoded. There is also the ISDN (integrated services digital network) option. This too uses a more dated, cable-based form of connectivity, and is likewise becoming less developed.
Finally, there is DSL, or digital subscriber line. Unlike some of the earlier forms of internet connection, DSL doesn’t use a traditional phone line system. Early on in DSL’s life, this was good news because it freed up the phone lines usually tied up with the analog internet signals. Though DSL does initially need to access a phone line, its primary network is digital, and the information sent and received is transmitted at a high frequency, so it won’t interfere with any actions on the ground telephone lines. DSL connection speed can go upwards of 20 mega-bits per second, which is a dozen times faster than any of the older forms of connection.
Once you find a provider, they will often help you set up your DSL and router units, which can run either Ethernet or Wi-Fi systems. And with the connections always open, the system will keep you connected and up to date.
Searching for the Best DSL Deals
In this day and age, being connected is important, and almost nearly essential if you wish to succeed and stay in touch with the world. If you’re lucky, you may live in a city or near a hub which will offer you a free, unlimited internet connection, but if you’re like most people, you need to pay to stay connected. This means investing in a router, finding reliable a provider, and trying to decide what service is best for you and your needs.
The first and most important thing you should do is research. Different providers offer different services, and the discounts you get with some may be greater than those offered by others. Companies are eager to accrue more and more customers, so the better companies offer some great sign-on incentives which may sway your decision – and this isn’t a bad thing. For example, some companies will make you pay for installation, but give you the equipment for free. Others give you the equipment and installation for free, but have higher monthly rates. And even some others may not give you anything for free, but will give you really great monthly rates.
Of course, with anything, some companies and deals are really just better than others. Ironically, the best way to shop for internet providers is to get online, and if you’re reading this, you’re halfway there. The key is to find websites that are easy to follow and clearly don’t have any incentive in any particular company. You want fair comparisons, not biased comparisons.
Once you’ve found this, you need to know what kind of connection works best. Do you want something fast, to enable a lot of downloading and uploading traffic? The faster connections cost more, and if you’re just looking to do some e-mailing and watch the occasional video, you don’t need the biggest and the fastest. The important thing is being connected and staying connected.