VOIP (Voice Over Internet)

I am currently trying out a telephone service that uses the internet rather than the traditional telephone companies. The name of the new supplier is Vonage and it is available online at vonage.ca. Just click on the title of this posting and a live link will take you to their website. The service is now up and running and, after a few missteps in the installation procedure, it now seems, so far at least, to work as advertised. The voice quality is as good or better than what you are used to from a telephone company. In addition, it comes with all sorts of features (call display,call forwarding, voicemail which can be emailed to you) and a whole host of other "included with the program" extras and all this, in my case at least, for about half what I have been paying my old telephone service provider. Only time will tell, of course, whether this turns out all it's been cracked up to be but I do note that Vonage claims to have about 500,00 customers so they must be doing something right. This not a recommendation of any type, just an information posting. Check it out and see if it's the kind of thing you might be interested in. I will do a follow up posting on this after I have had and used the program for a while.

May 1, 2005 - Follow Up!

I have now had and used the Vonage broadband telephone service for a month and, even with a few small problems, I am quite pleased. The service has been good and the sound quality excellent. On the downside, I have discovered that telephone numbers using the #310 prefix, mostly fast food ordering numbers, cannot be reached by either broadband telephone and/or some cellphones. This is because the #310 numbers are used exclusively by "landline" telephone service providers who make no provision for the connection of services other than their own. Vonage.ca assures me that they are working to find a way around this slight bottleneck. In the interim, both broadband and some cellphone users must locate and dial the "regular" numbers with area code, etc. which were in use before fastfood companies began their alternative dialing system for use in some localities. I must reiterate that the #310 dialing sequence is not in effect in all locations, and so this is a problem only in specialized areas.

Other than the item mentioned above, I have been satisfied with the telephone service, the quick customer service response, and the ability to review your calls and billing on a daily basis to keep track of costs. We have opted to pay automatically by credit card, and Vonage sends a confirming email on the payment date that this has been accomplished and for which amount. All the "included" features that one would pay extra for with a regular telephone service provider more than make up for the small problem noted above. We have tested the 911 service and, while the emergency services people cannot automatically tell who is calling (another feature Vonage is working on), 911 calls do reach the local emergency services office, in our case the local RCMP, who were not surprised by the lack of a viewable caller ID on their equipment. So no real problem exists, unless one was unable for some reason to give them an address or describe a problem. So far, not a perfect solution as the same problem occurs with cellphone emergency calls, but certainly a step in the right direction.

All that being said, we have decided that we will keep Vonage as our broadband telephone service provider for all the positive reasons noted above. Terry

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Lost DSL/Cable Connections

The Annoyance:
I spend a couple of frustrating hours trying to figure out why my DSL connection can't access the Internet. I check my connection with utility programs, reconfigure my pop-up and ad blocker, fiddle with Windows' TCP/IP settings, and call tech support--still nothing.

The Fix:
A simple, 2-minute reboot of your DSL or cable modem may be all it takes to get you back online. The mystery is why there isn't a diagnostic tool that can tell you it's time to reset your Internet access device. Frustrating, yes, but don't get so annoyed you forget to do it.

Thanks to PC World!(link)

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Vanishing Web Data?

The Annoyance:
I spend an hour filling in a lengthy form on a Web page only to be told after I submit it that it's missing an item. My fault, sure, but when I hit my browser's back button--zap!--everything's gone. Now I have to start from scratch. Aggravating? You bet.

The Fix:
Instead of growling, fix your browser's cache settings to hold on to the information. In Internet Explorer, click "Tools", "Internet Options", select the "General" tab, choose "Settings", and then check "Every time you start Internet Explorer". In Netscape, click "Edit", "Preferences", double-click "Advanced", and click "Cache". In Firefox, it's "Tools", then "Options", and finally "Privacy".(Note that Firefox has only one adjustable cache setting.) For the others: set the memory cache to at least 1024KB, and the disk cache to a minimum of 7680KB. Then clear both caches. Note that you may have to click your browser's refresh button to see a revisited page's dynamic data.

Thanks to PC World!(link)

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Shortcut to your favorite Favorites?

If you have several often-visited Favorite sites, here's a quick way to access these:
When you have a favorite site on screen, notice the address shown and to the left of the address you will notice an icon. Put your mouse cursor on this icon and hold down the left mouse button. Then drag the icon to the task bar and position it near the Start button or a little bit to right of it. Then release the button and a small pop-up menu appears. Click on "move here" and that will do it. You will have the short-cut icon on your task bar for easier access. You can do this with several of your favorite Favorites. At some point you may have too many on your task bar, so you will see a >> symbol. Put your mouse cursor on the >> and left-click it. You will then get a pop-up menu and you can select your favorite link. You can remove these shortcut icons from the task bar by simply right clicking and selecting delete. Simple, yes???

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Internet Explorer Tips!

In some applications (such as Internet Explorer), holding the "Control" key while turning the mouse wheel will change the font size.

In Internet Explorer, hold the "Shift" key while turning the mouse wheel to go forwards or backwards.

In Internet Explorer, hold the "Shift" key while clicking on a link to open the Web page in a new window.

In Internet Explorer, use "Ctrl"+"D" to add the current page to your Favorites.

This and many more keyboard shortcuts can be found by going to Internet Explorer, clicking the "Help" menu, then selecting "Contents and Index". From the table of contents, open "Accessibility" and click "Using Internet Explorer keyboard shortcuts".

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How to Delete Temporary Files...

Click on your start button, then go to "Search", then "All files and folders"......in this "Find All Files" dialog box, make sure where it says "look in" that you enter your search object into "All or part of the file name"and that it is looking at your C: drive (or, if you have multiple hard drives or partitions, be sure "All Local Drives" is selected) and be sure there is a check in the box next to where it says "include subfolders" (scroll down to "More Advanced Options" to find this).....Now, click your mouse pointer in the box that says "Type of File" and type the following, exactly as it is here. *.tmp
Once it finds all the files, it will list them in the box below and at the bottom it will tell you how many it found. Hit ctrl+A to select them all, then hit your delete key. If it won't delete some of them, that's because they are attached to some program running in the background, so you may have to delete them one at a time. All of these files are safe to delete. Once they are all deleted, you can save this process as an Icon on your desktop so you can repeat it with one click. Still inside the "Find All Files" box, go to the File menu (on the top toolbar) and click on "Save Search". This will put an icon on your desktop that you can click on any time you want to delete temps again!

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