A great majority of the readers of this blog are pet lovers. If you happen to attend our live seminars or follow me on Social Media, you probably recognize our Cairn Terrier, Gus, in the picture above. He is just five years old and he is a character. He's funny, very smart, protective, just a …
Category: Internet
Mind-boggling Stats
Most of us use the Internet every day yet we often lose sight of what others are doing on the Net. Here are some stats which you might find surprising: Chinese tech giant Huawei says it's the target of about a million cyber-attacks a day.As of January 2019, there are almost 4.4 billion active internet …
How “In The Know” Are You?
Okay, my 4KCC blog readers, let's see how much you've paid attention! Take this quiz by Pew Research and see how your answers compare to a nationwide poll.
Stuart Rotary
Yesterday, I was privileged to be the guest speaker at the Stuart Rotary Club's weekly meeting. I felt very much at home as this was my third time presenting a program for the men and women of this great organization. Plus, a number of friends and customers belong to the club and were in attendance …
Online Dating – A Warning
We see ads about online dating all the time. These ads are on TV, online when we're shopping and on Social Media platforms. There are online dating apps for young kids, for "seniors" and for those "starting over." According to some sources, in the US, 40 million people have used online dating sites or apps …
But First…
Recently, I had an inquiry regarding delayed emails. I want to address the issue in depth. But first, I want to give everyone a simple but thorough explanation of the hardware components that make up the Internet. Here is a fairly complete "parts list" of the Internet hardware: Cable (wire)Fiber Optic CableDense Wavelength Division Multiplexers …
www What?
If you've been using a computer for any length of time, you're probably familiar with the beginning letters of many web addresses: www. The www is often used to represent "World Wide Web" but, in reality, it is simply the host name of a web server. In the example above, for HP Drivers & Downloads, …
Suspicious Site?
Starting yesterday, Google is offering a "Suspicious Site Reporter" extension for its Google Chrome browser. When you install this extension, a small green flag will appear in the upper right-hand corner of Chrome. If you come upon a suspicious site, you can click the flag and a menu will appear: For instance, I went to …
Multiple Clocks
There are many great features about the Internet. One of those is the ability to almost instantly interact with people all over the globe. Language isn't a barrier as there are translator apps that allow you to communicate with people when you don't speak or write their native tongue. Access to others isn't an issue, …
The Dark Web
In this week's Question of the Week (click to read) email, we answered a customer's question about his credit card being found on the dark web. We gave a very brief definition of "dark web" but I wanted to expand that definition a bit. I'm actually going to quote and paraphrase from our October 23, …
It Can Happen To Anyone!
Yes, even to computer companies! Yesterday, around 2:00 p.m., our Internet went down. This will happen from time to time and it usually comes back up in 5 minutes or so. Not yesterday! We were down, down, down! As you can see from the picture above, we had to resort to doing things without the …
This Is Not A Short Joke
Shortened URLs are no joking matter! Although there are plenty of jokes around about short people (and even a pop song), today I want to talk about shortened URL addresses. There are a number of great services that will allow you to shorten a web page's address (more technically known as its URL - Uniform …
A Different Kind Of Fishing
On January 29, 2019, I posted about phishing. (https://www.4kcc.com/blog/?p=774) Today, I'm posting about another kind of fishing - catfishing. No, not fishing for the "freshwater or marine fish with barbels resembling whiskers around the mouth, typically bottom-dwelling." Rather, pretending to be someone else online in an attempt to deceive others. There are some real horror …
Caveat emptor
You didn't have to take four years of Latin like I did to know that "Caveat emptor" means, in English, "Let the buyer beware." It's a phrase we've heard for years and years and it's always been an important precept for making purchases. One of the many advantages of the Internet is that people are …
Happy Birthday, Rod
Or... How I Used The Internet To Celebrate Rod Stewart's Birthday Today, January 10, 2019 is Rod Stewart's 74th birthday. In today's blog post, I'll explain how I used the Internet to celebrate Rod's special day. First, I had to find out that today is his birthday! I did that by visiting a site that …
Secure Wi-Fi?
People often call or log into Remote Technical Support (https://www.4kcc.com/rts) asking for help with connecting to a Wi-Fi network. If you look at the picture above, you'll see the Wi-Fi networks that are in our shop. At the very top, where you see the icon that looks like a monitor with a cord, that's an …
It’s Gonna Be A L-O-N-G Night!
Today is a pretty interesting day! This is one of those days where you should really do some searching to gain knowledge about the shortest day of the year. In Bing, search "winter solstice" without the quotation marks. If you prefer Google search, use the same term. No matter which search engine you use, you'll …
Bad Anti-virus?
FAKE VIRUS WARNING The proliferation of fake webpages is mind-blowing! Fake pages like the one above seem to be popping up everywhere. Many will warn you to NOT turn off your computer. These messages will attempt to panic you into making the mistake of calling the number listed or clicking on a link. Customers often …
ZAP!
Yesterday morning, Joyce and I were both in the office working away on our computers. We had people in Remote and all was well. Suddenly, we couldn't go anywhere - not on the people's computers in Remote and not on our on computers. No need to panic, this happens from time to time and we …