NCKCN.COM eNewsletter

Warning!
Scam E-Mails Seek H1N1 Profile

Concerning The Illegal Use Of File-sharing Programs

Ask The Help Desk
What Should I Do If I Lose My Internet Connection?

Sites Of The Month
Great Sites To Check Out In January

Short Tutorial
Sending E-mail Messages To Groups Of People

Hello NCKCN internet members

A New Year is here and it's a great time to expand your Internet knowledge with new information. In this January issue, we start by giving you a heads-up about a recent H1N1 scam e-mail pretending to be from the CDC. Take note of this warning to help prevent your computer from getting a virus. You'll also learn what steps to take if your Internet connection goes down, and how to save time by sending e-mail messages to groups of people. In Great Sites, there are plenty of new ideas to explore in 2010 including resources to help you stay healthy, recipes to spice up your meals, and online games to add fun to your day.

The goal of each of our monthly eNewsletters is to keep our subscribers informed regarding their Internet connection and to improve their Internet experience. We think you'll find this information interesting. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click here.

To see what's inside this issue, simply scroll down the eNewsletter or click on the links within the index to the left. Thanks for reading!

- The NCKCN Team

Keep an eye on your inbox. If you receive an e-mail that appears to be from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asking you to create a personal H1N1 vaccination profile, it's a scam. Ignore the e-mail and do not respond, or you may put your computer at risk for a virus.

These fraudulent e-mails talk about a CDC-sponsored state vaccination program, and tell recipients that they need to create a personal H1N1 vaccination profile on the CDC's website whether they're vaccinated or not. A link is provided for this "registration process" that leads to a fake webpage that looks similar to the CDC's. Once there, recipients are asked to download instructions on creating their profile. If they click on the link to download, they're in danger of getting a computer virus and giving scammers access to their personal information.

To avoid becoming a victim of such phishing attacks:

Do not follow unsolicited links and do not open or respond to unsolicited e-mails.
Be suspicious of any unsolicited e-mail that asks for personal information.

If you need accurate and current information on the H1N1 virus, visit www.cdc.gov or www.flu.gov.

NCKCN sends Cunningham Telephone and Cable notices that they have been contacted by Warner Bros, etc. on our customers who share out bootleg or illegal copies of movies using such file-sharing programs as Kazaa (and the other 30 or more such computer programs). The enforcing companies have an IP address of the offender and it's tracked to NCKCN.

We get contacted on your illegal use of file-sharing programs that have been traced to your internet account. We want to remind you that these activities can have serious consequences including fines and even in some instances jail time. If we are subpoenaed for the information, we will have no choice but to turn over the information to the appropriate parties.

In the meantime, we spend a considerable amount of time and expense logging and documenting these infringements including this certified letter you have received. These actions do violate our NCKCN/Cunningham acceptable use policy and we will be starting to recover our time and expense for these violations on repeat offenders.

Effective immediately, there will be a $20 per violation charge applied to your internet account for every additional notice we receive.

We hope you understand and take measures to stop these violations. If you have any questions or are unsure why you were issued this notice, please call our office at 800-287-8495.

Question: Every once in awhile, I lose my Internet connection at home. Do you have any troubleshooting tips for me? What can I do to get back online?

Internet Connection Picture

Answer: In the event of a temporary service outage or if you lose connectivity, you may need to reboot your modem. If your network features a router, it will need to be rebooted as well. Since the sequence in rebooting is important, we'll review the procedure one step at a time:

Check to make sure your modem has power.
If your modem has power, go ahead and disconnect the power to the modem and leave the power off for about 20 seconds.
Reconnect the power and allow the modem time to receive a new Internet connection. When the "link" light becomes active, your modem is connected (rebooted) to the network.
If you are using a router, disconnect the power to the router and leave the power off for about 20 seconds. Restart the router and your Internet connection should be restored.
If you are still not getting a connection, you may also want to try restarting your computer. Sometimes a quick computer reboot does the trick.

Gold Medal Resource on Olympics
http://www.olympic.org - Get all of your Olympic information here at the official site of the Olympic Movement. See details on upcoming Olympic Games (including the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver that begin February 12th), read athlete statistics, follow the activities of the International Olympic Committee, or relive highlights of past Olympics with photos and videos.

Get Healthier in 2010
http://everydayhealth.com - If your New Year's resolutions include getting fit, eating right, or taking charge of your health, you'll want to visit this resource-packed site. It provides thorough descriptions of common conditions, drugs, and symptoms, as well as information on how to eat healthier, manage your weight, and start a fitness program. Be sure to check out the Health Tools section for a calorie counter, meal planner, brain games, and more.

Beat the Clock With Fun Fill-in Games
http://sporcle.com - Got a few minutes? Try out one of the fun fill-in games on this site. Examples include One-syllable Things, U.S. Capitals, The Simpsons, and Book Covers. Fill in as many of the blanks as you can in the time allotted. Once you get the hang of it, you may be inspired to create your own game. Then share the fun by directing your friends to it in an e-mail, from your blog, or from your Facebook page.

Good Eats for Great Recipes
http://foodnetwork.com/good-eats - Whether or not you're a fan of the zany culinary-related antics of Alton Brown on his show Good Eats, you'll enjoy visiting the show's website. To celebrate the program's 10th anniversary, the site is featuring classic Good Eats videos. In addition, you can download some of Alton's best recipes for meat, pasta, fish, vegetables, fruit, soup, breakfast, and dessert dishes.

How to Teach Teens About Money
http://giveme20.com - If you're a parent of a teen, the phrase, "Give me $20" (for gas, the mall, etc.) is probably all too familiar. While your teen may be great at spending all those $20 handouts, he or she may not understand the basics of sound money management. That's where this site comes in, providing tips for educating teens on budgeting, spending, saving, and more. It includes calculators to help them reach spending goals, information about credit, an advice blog, a list of resources, a money terms glossary, and even some fun money games.

Do you frequently send the same e-mail message to groups of people such as close friends or members of a club? If the answer is yes, how do you do it? If you individually select the e-mail addresses of recipients and place them in the "To" field, we encourage you to consider a better way. Take a few minutes to create separate groups with these e-mail addresses and send future messages to the name of the group instead. Your recipients will appreciate the change, since their individual e-mail addresses will no longer appear in the "To" field (which can potentially expose them to scammers). Here's how to do it:

Sending Group E-mail Messages Using ...
E-Mail Program: Outlook Express 6
Computer Operating System: Windows XP

With Outlook Express open, click your cursor arrow on the "Addresses" icon on the toolbar. The Address Book - Main Identity window will appear.
Click on the "New" button on the toolbar and select "New Group..." from the resulting drop-down menu. The Properties window will appear.
Type in a name for your new group in the "Group Name:" field. "Work," "Family," or "Friends" are good examples. (Note that the name you use for the group is the name that will appear in the "To" field of future e-mail messages.)
Next, click on the "Select Members" button on the right side of the window. The Select Group Members window will appear showing a list of your contacts in the left-hand pane of the window.
Highlight a name, multiple names, or all of the names from the listed contacts and click the "Select" button located between the two panes. This will move the highlighted contact or contacts into the "Members:" pane. Click on the "OK" button when you have added the contacts and click "OK" again to close the new group's Properties window.
You will see the new group name folder listed under the "Main Identity's Contacts" folder located in the Address Book - Main Identity window and with your other saved contacts. Click on the red "X" to close the window. You are now ready to begin using the new group name when you create new e-mail messages.

Sending Group E-mail Messages Using ...
E-Mail Program: Mozilla Thunderbird
Computer Operating System: Windows XP and Windows Vista

With Thunderbird open, click your cursor arrow on the "Address Book" icon on the toolbar. The Address Book window will appear.
Click on the "New List" button on the toolbar. The Mailing List window will appear with the "Personal Address Book" already selected in the "Add to:" field.
Type in a name for your new group in the "List Name:" field. "Work," "Family," or "Friends" are good examples. (Note that the name you use for the group is the name that will appear in the "To" field of future e-mail messages.)
Next, in the "Type e-mail addresses to add them to the mailing list:" field, begin typing in the names of the contacts from your Address Book that you would like to add to this new group. Click on the "OK" button when all contacts have been added.
You will see the new group name folder listed under the "Personal Address Book" folder located in the Address Book window and with your other saved contacts. Click on the red "X" to close the window. You are now ready to begin using the new group name when you create new e-mail messages.

Sending Group E-mail Messages Using ...
E-Mail Program: Windows Mail
omputer Operating System: Windows Vista

With Windows Mail open, click your cursor arrow on the "Contacts" icon on the toolbar.
On the next screen, click on the "New Contact Group" button. The Properties window will appear and the "Contact Group" tab should be selected.
Type in a name for your new group in the "Group Name:" field. "Work," "Family," or "Friends" are good examples. (Note that the name you use for the group is the name that will appear in the "To" field of future e-mail messages.)
Next, click on the "Add to Contact Group" button. The Add Members to Contact Group window will appear showing a list of your contacts.
Highlight a name, multiple names, or all of the names from the listed contacts and click the "Add" button. This will move the highlighted contact or contacts into the "Contact Group" pane located in the Properties window. Click on the "OK" button when all contacts have been added.
You will see the new group name listed with your other saved contacts. Click on the red "X" to close the window. You are now ready to begin using the new group name when you create new e-mail messages.

Sending Group E-mail Messages Using ...
E-Mail Program: Address Book 4.1 for Mail.app
Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5

With Address Book open, click on the address book icon titled "All" in the Group column of the Address Book window. A list of all of your addresses in the Address Book will appear in the "Name" column.
Highlight a name, multiple names, or all of the names from the listed contact names by holding down the Command key (the key with the Apple logo next to the space bar), while clicking on the addresses you would like in the new group you are about to create.
Click your cursor arrow on the "File" menu, and select "New Group From Selection" from the resulting drop-down menu. A new untitled group will appear in the "Group" column and all the names you selected in step 2 will be visible in the "Name" column.
Type a name for the group in the highlighted field that says "Group Name." "Work," "Family," or "Friends" are good examples. (Note that the name you use for the group is the name that will appear in the "To" field of future e-mail messages.)

We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings here. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click here.

Thanks for your business!

Thank You

The Staff at NCKCN

NCKCN - North Central Kansas Community Network
109 North Mill
Beloit, KS 67420

785-738-2218

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2010 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this e-mail are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.