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Welcome
Ed – Jonathan Burnside
Welcome to volume 2, issue 8 of LSM and again we have two cracking little articles for you to enjoy.
In our first article we look at Windows shortcut keys. You may be aware that we have brushed on this subject before in an article titled: ‘10 Time Saving Keyboard Shortcuts’ in volume 2, issue 3. However in this article we go into much more depth, in-fact once you have read it you should be able to operate a PC, which has a faulty mouse, with just the keyboard!!
In our second article we highlight the dangers of broadband. There are few businesses that have not made the move to broadband from dial-up for their internet access; because of this and that broadband allows 27/7 internet access company networks are vulnerable to attack… it is these vulnerabilities that are addressed and solutions given.
We hope you enjoy this issue and we again look forward to reading any feedback you have as well as researching any future subjects you would like us to cover. |
Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
by
Paul van Zyl
When I observe most colleagues and friends working on their PC's they mostly use the mouse as they are unaware of the powerful Windows keyboard shortcuts that will make their lives so much easier. Some people might be aware of the keyboard shortcuts, but they are used to be working mostly with the mouse and old habits are hard to let go.
In this article I will take things step by step so you can learn the keyboard shortcuts that are required to navigate your way around the Windows operating system.
Let's assume your machine is starting up and due to a faulty mouse or some other related problem your system cannot be accessed with the mouse. A user that is not using keyboard shortcuts on a regular basis will be completely lost. Ok it's relatively cheap to replace the mouse, but what if you had to quickly perform a task that cannot wait until a new mouse is acquired or the problem is fixed?
Navigating the Start Menu in Windows XP
I will firstly explain how to launch an application without the use of the mouse and instead use keyboard shortcuts. Immediately after system start-up if you are required to log in, type out your password and press the Enter key. Once the system have fully initialized you will be presented with the Windows Desktop. As an example we will launch Notepad. Follow the steps exactly as explained below:
Press Ctrl and Esc to show the Start menu or press the Windows Logo key. Now press the Up Arrow until you can see the selection rectangle moving upwards in the Start menu. Once the selection rectangle enters the Start menu press the Left Arrow to move to the left section of the Start menu. Then press the Down Arrow until "All Programs" is selected. Press the Right Arrow to expand the "All Programs" menu. Press the Down Arrow until "Accessories" is selected. Press the Right Arrow to expand the accessories menu. Now press the Down Arrow until the Notepad menu item is selected and the press Enter. This will cause the Notepad application to launch.
Armed with this basic keyboard shortcut knowledge you will be able to launch any application without the use of the mouse.
Moving Around the Desktop
Frequently users place icons on the desktop to quickly access some application, files or folders they regularly use. What now if the mouse packs up and you have to get to that file? Here is how to make use of the Windows keyboard shortcuts to get that done: Depending on the current situation different steps might be required so keep in mind that you do not have to do all the steps.
Press the Windows Logo key and M simultaneously to minimize all Windows. Press Ctrl and Esc simultaneously and then press Esc again. (Only required under certain conditions so you might only need to perform this step if you do not get the desired results from the step below). Press the Tab key and release it. Keep on pressing and releasing it until you see a "focus rectangle" surrounding one of the icons on the desktop. If there are a lot of icons on the desktop you might need to look carefully if any receives the focus indicated by the focus rectangle. Also occasionally use the arrow keys to see if you can move between different icons if it is difficult to notice the icon with the focus rectangle. Normally the focus will move between the Windows Taskbar and the last icon that had the focus (being selected) on the desktop when the Tab key is pressed. Once you got the "focus rectangle" on any icon on the desktop it is just a matter of moving to the icon of your choice using the arrow keys. When the required icon got the focus or is selected press the Enter key to open the file, folder or launch a program.
Working with Windows
Our next step in this Windows keyboard shortcuts article is to manipulate windows in the context of minimizing, maximizing, moving and closing them. To minimize the currently active window press Alt and Spacebar. The Control Menu for the window will appear. Now press N to minimize the window.
To maximize or get a window to its restored state when it is minimized to the Windows Taskbar hold down Alt and then press and release the Tab key until the desired window is selected. When the window of choice is selected also release the Alt key which will ensure that the window will either be maximized or restored depending on its previous state.
If you want to maximize a window from its restored state press Alt and Spacebar. After the Control Menu appears press X to maximize the window. To restore an maximized window press Alt and Spacebar. When the Control Menu appear press R to get the window from its maximized to restored state.
To move a window press Alt and Spacebar. When the Control Menu appear press M. Now use the arrow keys to move the window to the desired location and press the Enter key to round of this operation.
When you want to re-size a window press Alt and Spacebar. When the Control Menu appear press S. Now press the arrow keys depending on which side you want to size the window from. Right will take you to the right edge of the window for sizing and the Down arrow will take you to the bottom right corner for sizing purposes. When pressing the left key first you will be taking to the window left border to carry out sizing from that side. Once you have selected your sizing location by pressing the left or right arrows and up or down arrows do the sizing by using any of the arrow keys. When finished press Enter to complete this operation. Pressing the Esc key will leave the original size of the window intact.
To close the currently active window press Alt and F4 or press Alt and Spacebar, then press C.
General Use Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
Take note that the WINDOWS key is the Windows Logo key on the keyboard.
ALT+TAB
Display list of open programs and switch to next program.
(Press TAB again to advance to the following program).
ALT+SHIFT+TAB
Display list of open programs and switch to previous program.
(Press TAB again to select the pervious program).
WINDOWS or CTRL+ESC
Displays the Windows Start Menu.
WINDOWS+E
Open My Computer.
WINDOWS+D
Toggle between Show Desktop and Show Open Windows.
WINDOWS+M
Minimize All Windows.
F2
Rename selected folder, file or shortcut.
CTRL+N
Create a New document for the active application.
CTRL+O
Display the Open dialog box of the active application.
CTRL+S
Save the current document of the active application.
CTRL+P
Print the current document of the active application.
CTRL+A
Select All content of the current document.
CTRL+X
Cut the selected text or object.
CTRL+C
Copy the selected text or object.
CTRL+V
Paste contents of clipboard into active document.
CTRL+Z
Undo the last operation.
CTRL+Y
Redo the last Undo operation.
CTRL+B
Make selected text bold or remove bold formatting.
CTRL+U
Underline the selected text or remove underline.
CTRL+I
Make selected text italic or remove italic formatting.
CTRL+F
Displays the Find dialog box.
CTRL+H
Displays the Replace dialog box.
To download keyboard shortcut reference and training software with 100's of shortcuts referenced, visit http://www.best-of-computing.com/shortcut-wizard.html
Paul van Zyl is a programmer and has written the software applications available at http://www.lifestylesoftware.net. He has also written Shortcut Wizard available at http://www.best-of-computing.com and is also listing high quality products from other developers at this site. |
How Small Companies Can Overcome the Security Risks of Broadband
by
Simon Heron
More and more small and medium companies are switching from dial-up Internet connections to broadband, particularly ADSL. While the benefits of broadband are valuable, companies must ensure they understand the risks, particularly security issues. With some simple steps, these threats can be minimized.
The most fundamental danger is simply that with broadband, a small company will be online for longer. This gives more time for hackers and automated programs, or "bots", to find and abuse the company. Automated bots don't care who they attack -- it isn't personal, but an SME is likely to get attacked at some point. Gartner estimate that 1 in 5 companies will suffer an intrusion attack (above and beyond a virus attack) in the next 2 years (http://vnunet.com/News/1142933).
A survey carried out in May 2003 by the Yankee Group estimated that SMEs with dial-up were online an average of 2 hours a day, whereas with broadband this went up to 8 hours or more, and might well be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Yankee Group research estimated that a DSL connection increased the chance of an attack by a factor of five, purely due to the increased time online.
If a connection is left on 24/7, attacks can happen at night when nobody is there to notice. An example was the Blaster worm which was able to access unprotected machines, it will have installed itself on many networks overnight. People will only know they are infected because the machine operates slowly and crashes; behaviour which often difficult to detect with certain operating systems. After an attack like this, the IT manager will have to install the necessary patches and then go looking for the worm on each of the vulnerable machine.
Beyond the simple risk of being online for longer, there are other issues with broadband. Spam can be a problem: if a mail server is not adequately protected, our experience has shown that it will probably be in use by a spammer to forward their messages within only 12 hours. As well as using bandwidth, this can mean that the innocent SME is branded as a spammer and blacklisted by its ISP or by Realtime Black Lists (RBLs).
With some ISPs, the IP address is dynamically assigned when the connection is made and not changed until the connection is dropped. This is effectively like a static IP address because broadband connections tend to stay up longer than dial-up accounts. This means that a spammer or hacker can find a company again, once it has identified it as a soft target.
Another risk is peer-to-peer applications like Kazaa. These can be abused by others outside the company to store all sorts of undesirable files. While best known as a means of sharing MP3s and other music files, Kazaa can also be used to transfer other types of less desirable data.
One of our customers reported a problem when their email system ground to a halt - we discovered this was due to a Kazaa programme on their network, which had been hijacked by an external user to store porn on their server. As well as being unpleasant to deal with, this kind of problem could lead to legal action, and is not that easy to block unless a company is willing to spend time chasing down the problem or has a remotely-managed security service that can monitor activity.
So what can SMEs do to protect themselves?
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get the basics in place: A firewall is best accompanied by Intrusion Detection and prevention (IDP) if there are any services running on your network; anti-Virus, anti-Spam, IDP and content filtering need to be updated regularly: Companies should be sure to do so;
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if they notice that the system seems to have ground to a halt or be very slow, investigate; this can often be a sign of an intrusion, a virus or spyware;
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have a security policy; for instance you might ban the use of peer-to-peer software such as Kazaa;
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consider a remotely-managed security service: this will ensure that problems are spotted and blocked overnight, will maintain and update security patches and virus signatures, and is affordable for SMEs these days.
Simon Heron, Technical Director, Network Box UK (www.network-box.co.uk).
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