Please do:

• Update Windows often to ensure the latest security
• Update your virus software frequently
• Send pictures in JPEG or PDF format
• Send large files using a FTP service
• Larger files sent by email should be zipped to reduce the size of the message and to ensure speedy delivery

Please do not:

• Send spam mail or large email messages
• Subscribe to spam sent to you
• Click OK if you are not 100% sure
• Contribute to quick money making schemes, as they are fake and are meant to deceive you

Searching the Internet effectively:

Searching for information on the Internet is a lot like using the computerized card catalog at your public library: the more specific you can be, the more likely you are to find what you're looking for. Keep these tips in mind when you search.

• Be as precise as you possibly can when you choose words to search for. Don't specify dogs, for example, if you want only information about collies. If what you're looking for is longer than one word, enclose the words or phrase in quotation marks. For example, "border collies".,/
• Make sure you have spelt the word correctly.
• Don't include words that appear so often that they overload the search engine. These include "it," "and," "me," "of," "a," and "the," among others. Other less obvious words are "1998," "1997," and "available."
• Use the plus (+) and minus (-) signs to refine your search. The plus sign tells the search engine to retrieve only pages that include this word. The minus sign tells the search engine to discard pages that contain this word. Don't include a space between these signs and the search words (for example, +collies, not + collies).
• Be careful about using punctuation in your search query. Including a question mark, for example, might result in a "No matches found" message.
• Narrow down your search by entering keywords in quotes e.g. 'south africa' 'soccer matches' 'under 20' will only find matches for sites with info on soccer matches for under 20 players in South Africa.

Registering a domain:

When registering a domain name for your business or organization, consider registering any common misspellings or typos of the name too. The fact that it's illegal for someone else, in bad faith, to register a misspelling of your company's trademark or domain name does not prevent cyber squatters from doing exactly that and therefore feeding on web traffic that is meant for your company. It is much cheaper and easier for businesses to buy up their misspellings in the first place (and then have these domains re-directed to the correct URL) than to pay thousands in filing fees and legal costs to get these domains released from a cyber squatter later.

Hiding your e-mail address from spam 'bots:

Many automatic spamming programs are programmed to constantly search the Internet for email addresses and then send out whatever they're hawking without discretion. So if you want to have your email address posted on your website but want to avoid receiving large amounts of spam, use an image of your email address (i.e. jpg or gif image) instead of text. And do not make the image of the email address a "mailto" link either, as some programs can pick those out of the html code as well.

Using Your Credit Card Online

Like traditional shopping, using credit cards online requires that the shopper be aware of the risks. Improvements in technology as well as better safeguards on the part of credit card companies, banks and online merchants have greatly reduced the risks. Online shopping is now easier and safer for everyone.

The best advice when using credit cards to make online purchases is to only place orders through merchants who have partnered with web browser companies to ensure secure ordering systems.

Both Microsoft Internet Explorer's and Netscape web browsers use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt transaction data before it is sent over the Internet. In other words, when placing an order online using a credit card, the information will likely pass through several computers before arriving at the merchant's server. The SSL technology "scrambles" these transmissions making it virtually impossible for an order to be "hijacked" and decoded.

Look for an unbroken key or lock at the bottom of your browser window when filling out your order online. This indicates that the merchant utilizes software which allows the transaction to be encrypted using SSL technology. Another way to make sure the merchant has a secure server is to check the URL in your browser's address or location window. The web address will begin with "https://" rather than just "http://" if your transaction is secure. The "s" stands for secure.

Today, credit card companies have stringent guidelines to ensure that participating merchants use firewall protected, secure servers and limit the number of people that can access the credit card information. After all, static information is easier to obtain than information that is in transit. Thus, in actuality, it is far easier for a waiter at a local restaurant or a clerk at a nearby convenience store to copy the details of your credit card and use it dishonestly than it is for credit card information to be stolen online.