Two Mad Geeks

Open Office is a freeware solution to Microsoft’s Office program. The product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office.

Link: Open Office

Central Processing Unit.The CPU controls the operation of a computer. Units within the CPU perform arithmetic and logical operations and decode and execute instructions. In microcomputers, the entire CPU is on a single chip.

The start menu gets more real estate in XP than in previous versions, and it’s more customizable. To make the Start menu display only the applications you want, rather than the default determined by Microsoft, right-click in an empty section of the Start menu’s left column, and select Properties > Start Menu > Customize. Here you’ll find a list of your most frequently used programs. (XP keeps track of what you use and what you don’t, then updates this list dynamically.) Don’t want your boss to know that Pinball, Solitaire, and Quake all make your list? Go to the General tab, click Clear List, and set the counter to zero.

Does the new Windows XP Start menu take up too much space on your desktop? You can easily change the look back to the Windows Classic Start menu by following these steps:

    * Right–click the Start button, and then click Properties.
    * Click Classic Start menu.
    * Click the Customize button to select items to display on the Start menu.

By default, selecting the Classic Start menu also adds the My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and Internet Explorer icons to your desktop.

Well, in your car it’s the "wall" of metal behind the dashboard between you and the engine that prevents engine fires from roasting you and your passengers.

A firewall for your computer is much the same - it’s to keep you from getting burned.

A firewall’s purpose is very simple: to block, or filter, certain types of network traffic from reaching your computer. What do I mean by "certain types"? There are things you want to get, like the pages of web sites you visit, or the software you might download. And then there are other things you might not want, like people accessing your computer remotely, or viruses and worms infecting your machine.

It controls and allows you to decide which applications can and cannot use the Internet.

Some firewalls will also monitor outgoing traffic for suspicious behavior. One characteristic of many viruses is that once you’re infected they attempt to establish connections to other computer to spread. Many software firewalls will detect, and either warn you or simply prevent it.

And that leads to a very important distinction in firewalls - there are two types: hardware and software.

A hardware firewall is just that - a box that sits between you and the internet that performs the filtering function. Traffic that is filtered out never reaches your computer. Broadband routers perform the function of a firewall quite nicely, and are typically what we recommend.

A software firewall is a program that runs on your computer and at the very lowest level, monitors your network traffic. The firewall prevents filtered traffic from getting through to the operating system.

The good news is that if you’re running Windows XP, you already have a firewall built-in. It’s a simple matter of turning it on to get the protection you’re looking for.

If you decide to go with a hardware firewall we recommend Linksys or if your the adventurous type and have an old PC collecting dust you can build your own firewall

Software firewalls are just as effective as and cheaper than their hardware counterparts. We highly recommend Zone Alarm from Zone Labs. Zone Alarm makes configuring a firewall, which sounds like a daunting task to the majority of computer users, incredibly easy with a wizard. Best of all it’s 100% free!

Link: How Firewalls Work, Internet Firewalls: FAQ