Waypoint Communications

Here in this posting section we will start to provide some of the latest news and reviews on the hottest tech subjects around.

Lets kick it off with the March 7 debut of the iPad3:

Read here for CNETs live coverage and news on the iPad3

deleting your browsing history before March 1 when Google’s new privacy policy comes into effect will limit Google’s ability to track and record your every move online. The process is simple. Follow the steps below:

1. Go to the google homepage and sign into your account.

2. Click the dropdown menu next to your name in the upper-right hand corner of your screen.

3. Click accounts settings

4. Find the “Services section”

5. Under “Services” there is a sub-section that reads “View, enable, disable web history.” Click the link next to it that reads: “Go to Web History.”

6. Click on “Remove all Web History”

When you click on “Remove all Web History,” a message appears that says ” Web History is Paused.” What this means is that while Google will continue gathering and storing information about your web history it will make all data anonymous, that is, Google will not associate your Web History information with your online accounts and will therefore be unable to send you customized search results.

Google’s ability to gather personalized information about you by assigning data to your Gmail and YouTube accounts will remain “Paused” till you click “Resume.”

Lately Port Townsend has been seeing a whole lot of high winds. Please be aware that this can affect your Internet connections. Some may experience no problems and others at the far ends of the service line may see slower or no connections what so ever.

One way to check is to power-cycle your modem. To do this you need just unplug the round black plug from the back of your modem, give a long 10 count and then plug it back in. If your DSL light stays flashing then there is an issue with the CenturyLink system. If all the lights come back on you should be fine.

Wind can cause branches and whole trees to topple which may result in down lines with the end result of an offline status for your connection.

I hope this helps you with the issues you may have arise during high wind times.

Not that you can fill out a piece of paper and drop it in a real box, but you can make a suggestion here.

Some of the things we are looking for feed back on are;

• Around Town: Page for local Port Townsend information
• All Pages: Feedback on the site. Let us know what you like and don’t like
• Features: Features that you would like to see us have here.

Thanks in advance for your input. We rely on our customers to help make Waypoint services better.

Waypoint has a page on Facebook. Click the like button to the left if you are enjoying you services through us. You can also follow us on Twitter by adding @wayptcommsinc to your follow list. We have started to utilize more social media outlets to improve our services.

Look for Waypoint on Google+ soon.

Thanks for being a loyal Waypoint customer. We are here to help you with all of your internet needs.

Most of us use email in one form or another. Be it Gmail, Yahoo, WLM or an ISP. The one thing all of these have in common is SPAM. More often than not we think of spam as the garbage emails which annoy us to no end. And then we also wonder why some of our regular mail ends up in the SPAM folder.

Regular emails can end up in the spam folder for one or more of many reasons:

• Too much HTML code in the message can trigger false positives.
• Too many recipients and its thought of as SPAM.
• Specific words or phrases that most spam filters look for are used and it gets pigeonholed.

To fight off most of these errors the easiest way is to add the sender to your contacts list or safe-senders list. You can also click a button or check a box that says “Not Spam” and it will be sent to your inbox or marked as safe for future emails. Any way you look at most of the errors are due to the person sending it and hitting on tags that say it may be spam.

As a provider I am often called upon to find out where an email went to. More often than not its in their SPAM folder and they just need to mark the sender as safe.

Hope this little tidbit helps.

Ever wanted to find a place to get some basic computer courses but didn’t want to pay?

Well HP provides a place just for you!

HP Learning Center gives you just that!

Most of these classes are 6 weeks long and can cover anything from the most basic and mundane computer tasks to some advance user courses.

Take a minute and browse what they have to offer. You never know what you may learn

One thing we all need on our PC is a good antivirus program. Why is it then that it is the one thing we more often then not forget to do. With this in mind here are links to a few free ones for you.

I have listed them here for you in order of my personal preferences:

• AVG Free is one of the better ones out there. You have to deal with the advertising from AVG but only if you open the user interface and you can close the ad by clicking the “x” in the corner. It is self updating and will run on schedule as long as your computer is on.
• Malwarebytes is an excellent tool for removing those pesky ones that the other antivirus programs miss. This program is a manual run program to use when you think your computer is running slower than usual and may have infections.
• Spybot Search & Destroy this one can be a little harder to use but works great and can keep you clean of spyware.
• Avast Free version many people swear by this one but I have found it to be as clunky as Norton or McAfee

I hope this helps!

Through out my time in computer repair I notice that one thing pops out with consumers and their computers. UPDATES!

One thing to keep in mind with this is updates keep your PC running at peak performance levels. Keeping the OS up-to-date will make new programs run better and allow for more secure activities.

Many of the updates are not security updates. That being said you must go to either the Microsoft Update site or check the “Other” updates available and install them.

Also keep your PC running smoothly by performing periodic disc cleanup and defragmentation. This may keep you out of the PC doctors office and extend the life of your computer

One thing I am asked on an almost daily basis is “How did you learn so much about computers?

Practice, reading and repetition. Yes I went to school for a degree in Information Technologies: Network Engineering but most of my knowledge is hands on work.

If you are interested in learning about your computer or the programs installed you can simply “Google “what you are looking for and get the answer you need.

One place I do recommend is the HP Learning Center. They offer a variety of beginner to expert level FREE courses that average about 6 weeks long.

Take a look there and see if you can maybe get a leg up on your neighbor.