Archives for June 2009 | The Teaching Box

Archive for June, 2009

Tune Up Your PC Video Series – Speed Up Your Vista Computer

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

There are many tips and tricks on Windows Vista. This next video will add to this knowledge in order to help your PC run as well as possible.

This video is specific to Vista, but the underlying information is also applicable elsewhere. The ability to disable "eye candy" features will always help your computer run faster, regardless of the operating system. I do similar tweaks to my Windows XP installations.

I know lots of people who bought computers when Vista first came out, and they have systems with 512MB – 1 GB of memory. This is the absolute minimum amount of memory to have running Vista. A memory upgrade is first and foremost what you should do to speed up ANY computer, but if you are not able to increase the amount of memory you will need to conserve what you have.

In this tutorial you will learn the basics on how to return the look of your PC to the Classic look of windows, thus saving memory and speeding it up. If performance is more important to you than fancy looks and visual features this video is for you.

Speeding it up: How to speed Vista up

If you’ve used or owned Vista, you know that Vista uses a lot of RAM or memory because the design and way it was created. However did you know that there are small tweaks you can make to Vista that will speed it up? You’ll learn just that in this video.

Here are the Six Video Topics with Links to the ones we have covered so far:

Introduction
Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses
Antivirus and Firewalls
Speeding it up: How to speed Vista up
Speeding it up: Internet Browsers and Internet Cleaners
Speeding up: Start Up Programs, Defragging, Buy More RAM

Tags: computers, Education, educational, Teaching, Technology, The Teaching Box, tutorial, Tutorials, Vista
Posted in Technology, Tutorials | No Comments »

Tune Up Your PC Video Series – Antivirus and Firewalls

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Having a reliable Antivirus program installed on your computer is NOT an option in these days of high speed internet. In the third episode of the Tune Up Your PC Video Series you will learn about Antivirus software and Firewalls.

This author likes Avast Antivirus (the free version), and shows its basic operation. I personally use AVG Antivirus, (the free version) and have had great success. After viewing this video, I will be trying out Avast.

He talks about using the free version of Zone Alarm as a firewall. Using a NAT router makes a Firewall not totally necessary, but having one can save a person who is not very internet savvy. If you are running Windows XP or Vista you will already have the Built-In Windows Firewall installed by default. Whether or not you use a firewall, I like his simple and straight forward explanation of how a firewall works. It’s all about education of users, right?

So without further delay here is the Video!

Antivirus and Firewalls

What about protecting from outside attacks? …and viruses? Like I said earlier. Most people have antivirus softwares, but a lot of people forget about a personal firewall. Especially if you use wifi and you’re computer is not protected by your router’s firewall, how will you monitor people or programs trying to get onto your computer?

Here are the Six Video Topics:

Introduction
Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses
Antivirus and Firewalls
Speeding it up: How to speed Vista up
Speeding it up: Internet Browsers and Internet Cleaners
Speeding up: Start Up Programs, Defragging, Buy More RAM

Enjoy the Video!

-Loren

Tags: Antivirus, computers, Education, educational, Firewall, Google Applications, online learning, Online Tools, Teaching, Technology, The Teaching Box, tutorial
Posted in Technology, Tutorials | 2 Comments »

Tune Up Your PC Video Series – Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Spy Spyware, Malware, and Trojan Horses – three things that should strike fear into the PC user. Learn what these are, and how to NOT get them. TheTeachingBox is happy to present the next installment of this great educational video.

The first installment was popular, and here is Video #2 in the Tune Up Your PC Video Tutorial Series.

As with the Introduction Video, this again is a basic introduction into the concept of these three evils that can infect your computer. I believe the author does a very good job of describing this threat, what it does, and how to deal with it.

He talks about Keeping Spyware out of your computer and mentions my personal favorite program (Spybot Search and Destroy). I have had great success with this program, and best of all it is FREE!. He also mentions Spy Sweeper as a good tool. To be truthful, I was not impressed with Spy Sweeper when it first came out a few years ago, but I have read good things about it of late, so I would recommend it if you want to head down the Pay route for Spyware protection.

So without further delay, here is the Link to the Video:

Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses

Have you experienced un-necessary popups that come out of nowhere when you are simply surfing the web? Or has your Internet surfing experience slowed down to a crawl? It’s possible it is your connection, but if it used to be fast and now it’s slow…the problem is likely to be spyware, malware, or some sort of trojan horse. Now, while you don’t need to know those technical terms, these types of security attacks, generally run behind the scenes on your computer, w/o appearing to you. Their job is to spy on your, your important data, and what you type, and send it back to the hacker. So while you can speed up your computer by removing them, you will also protect your personal data.

In order to keep you interested, and coming back.

Here are the Six Video Topics:

Introduction
Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses
Antivirus and Firewalls
Speeding it up: How to speed Vista up
Speeding it up: Internet Browsers and Internet Cleaners
Speeding up: Start Up Programs, Defragging, Buy More RAM

Sit Back and Enjoy!

-Loren

Tags: computers, Education, educational, Malware, Online Tools, Spyware, Teaching, Technology, trojan horse, tutorial, Tutorials
Posted in Technology, Tutorials | 1 Comment »

Tune Up Your PC Video Series – Introduction

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

TheTeachingBox.com is proud to present the Tune Up Your PC Video Tutorial Series. Part 1 – Introduction

In the ongoing battle to help you keep your computer running at peak efficiency I will be rolling out a series of videos. This is a series of 6 tutorials. They come from a series called PC Tune Up.

I consider the content of these videos basic computer knowledge that everyone should have. I encourage you to follow along with this series. I was very pleased with the quality of the videos, and the content.

As with some of my earlier postings, these are flash videos, so they should play easily on your computer. They stream well, and I have them open in a new window so you can focus on the content.

Because TheTeachingBox.com provides a focus on Teaching and Technology, these video tutorials are a perfect fit with this theme. If you are interested in your own personal copy of the tutorial set it is available for a small fee at my store: EbookPackageDeals.com

Here are the Six Video Topics:

Introduction
Spyware, Malware, Trojan Horses
Antivirus and Firewalls
Speeding it up: How to speed Vista up
Speeding it up: Internet Browsers and Internet Cleaners
Speeding up: Start Up Programs, Defragging, Buy More RAM

I will be starting out with the Introduction, not the most exciting of the videos, but in it you will get some useful background information.

1) Introduction

You’ll get an introduction of your computer, how viruses and malware can affect it, and the basic understanding that is necessary before we move onto the rest of the video series. We’ll also talk about different types of security attacks so you know what to expect. It’s better to know what to expect than not know at all.

Sit Back and Enjoy!

-Loren

Tags: computers, Education, educational, online learning, Online Tools, Teaching, Technology, The Teaching Box, tutorial, Tutorials, video
Posted in Teaching, Technology | 1 Comment »

Free Video Tutorials on cPanel – Watch Them Here

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Free cPanel Videos on TheTeachingBox.com

It has been a while since I have posted something that I would consider a tutorial. I came upon this set of tutorials on the operation of cPanel. Now I’m sure some are wondering, "What is cPanel". These cPanel Video Tutorials will help you learn.

cPanel is the web hosting control panel that is widely used by web hosting companies. It provides a graphical interface that enables the user to manage all aspects of a website. cPanel is a commercial product and has a website here: http://www.cpanel.net.

cPanel can be very intimidating to new webmasters. It has a lot of functionality that takes some time to learn. Sometimes it is scary to just dive in because many of the functions are a bit cryptic once you get in, and you must be careful so that you don’t break your website.

This set of videos is pretty useful, and covers what I would consider all the basics. It does take some time to view them as most are around 4-5 minutes long. They are in flash format, so you will need to have flash enabled in your browser (should not be an issue nowdays). I also have the video links open in a new window. It should not trigger your popup blocker, but if it does you may need to adjust your browser settings.

In addition to these instructional videos I suggest you visit cPanelGuide.net as I consider it the foremost authority on all of the features of cPanel and the details behind their operation.

Now on to the Video Links!

Video #1: Logging to cPanel®
In this video I’ll walk you through the ways on how to login to your cPanel® account.

Video #2: Setup Email Accounts
This video will show you how to create and set up your email accounts.

Video #3: Outlook Express™
This video will show you on how I configure my email account with Outlook Express™.

Video #4: Yahoo™ Email
This video will show you on how I configure my email account with Yahoo™ Email .

Video #5: Change Password
This video will show you on how to change your password.

Video #6: Update Contact
This video will show you on how to update your contact information.

Video #7: Style
This video will show you on how to change the skin style of your account.

Video #8: Web Mail
This video will show you on how to setup, configure and use your Web Mail account.

Video #9: Forwarders
This video will show you on how to forward your email to another different email address.

Video #10: Autoresponder
This video will show you on how create your autoresponder accounts.

Video #11: Default Email
This video will show you on how to change your default account email.

Video #12: Mailing Lists
This video will show you on create and manage your mailing lists.

Video #13: Backups & Restore
This video will show you on how to backup and restore your databases.

Video #14: File Manager
This video will show you on how to work with your website files using File Manager.

Video #15: File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
This video will show you on how to use the ftp tool to transfer your files between your server and your computer.

Video #16: Sub-Domain
This video will show you on how to create your own sub-domain.

Video #17: Add-on Domain
This video will show you on how to add your own add-on domain.

Video #18: Parked Domain
This video will show you on how to create a parked domain.

Video #19: Redirect
This video will show you on how to redirect your website links to other different links.

Video #20: Password Directory
This video will show you on how to protect your directories and folders of your site.

Video #21: MySQL Database
This video will show you on how to create and manage mySQL Databases.

Video #22: Error Pages
This video will show you on how to change your error pages so that they will create profit for you.

Video #23: Fantastico™
This video will show you on how to work with Fantastico™ to install scripts easily.

Video #24: Crons
This video will show you on how to create your cron jobs.

I am positive you will not be able to view all these videos in one sitting. You may not even want to view some of them as they are very basic. I found the file manager (#14) quite useful. Also the videos that deal with Domain manipulations (# 16, 17 and 18) will help you navigate some tricky functions in cPanel. I also recommend #21 because sooner or later you will need to create SQL Databases.

These videos are good quality and have decent resolution so you can see what is happening on the screen at all times. Let me know what you think. If you are interested in a copy of the entire video package for yourself or your website send me an e-mail or contact me through the comments section.

Enjoy the show!

-Loren

Tags: computers, cPanel, cPanel help, Education, educational, online learning, Online Tools, Teaching, Technology, tutorial, Tutorials
Posted in Technology, Tutorials | 1 Comment »