These calls can be made for free over the Internet if the person at the other end is using the same telephone computer software, or a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) hardware device.

VOIP phone device can save you lots of money!

Yes, that’s correct, free phone calls anywhere in the world! Well, not quite, you need an Internet connected computer. The sound quality isn’t always prefect, but its getting there. There are a number of ways of doing this.

Method One: (A no cost way to try it.)

You will need an Internet connected computer, preferably connected via a high speed broadband connection, to get the best results. Then you will need to download and install one of the free VOIP software packages. Skye is probably the best known at present.

It can be downloaded from, http://www.skype.com

Skype has Linux, Windows, and Apple Mac versions  available. Then you will need to have a microphone head set. You can use a desktop mic, and your computer speakers but this tends to create echo problems down the line.

Method Two: (You’re committed)

You will need to buy a VOIP hardware device. ( Some broadband modems have a VOIP device already built in.) Call quality can be an issue if your broadband service is not that fast, or there is a lot of traffic on the Internet.

The advantages of these devices over the software Skype method above is that the computer doesn’t need to be on. You simply plug another phone, or cordless phone into the VOIP hardware device, and connect it to your broadband router or modem.

(Skype does  provide a Skype phone that works the same as any stand alone VOIP box. Because Skype is an international service, calls to ordinary phones are international, therefore there are call charges, except for Skype to Skype calls which are free.)

As long as the modem / router is connected, you can make and receive calls. Plus, the hardware VOIP systems are more compatible with other VOIP systems, which means you can make free calls to friends and businesses that have these devices. You will need to know their VOIP device phone number, or ID to do this.

Yes, there are fees to phone someone’s normal phone, or mobile. Costs vary between the different systems, so shop around, and do some research before committing to any of them.

Method Three: (Naked VOIP, calls all through broadband phone.)

All phone calls in, and out are made through your Naked VOIP broadband system! Naked VOIP services are new and are now becoming  available as broadband speeds increase.   Naked VOIP services are only available on Broadband 2, or faster broadband services. These Naked VOIP services can allow free local, or national phone calls through the VOIP system to normal phones.

(Be aware that not all Naked VOIP services  may allow free local, or national phone calls through their Naked VOIP system, mine does.)

Naked VOIP also allows you to ditch the phone rental charges, because there is no need for a normal phone connection anymore. This means extra savings.  There are still charges for Naked VOIP calls to International, and Mobile phones  through Naked VOIP.

Naked VOIP system set up can mean your phone system will be down for a few days while they put the new equipment in the exchange and get it up, and working. You may also have compatibility issues using older broadband modems, and VOIP hardware with the new Naked VOIP system.  This could mean a few more days of trouble shooting until it all works. Make sure you have some alternate way of communicating with the Naked VOIP service provider to get technical help if you have set up issues, or you will be stuck with not phone for an extended period of time!

Tell friends, and relatives that the system may be down for a while. You should at least be able to get emails, even if the VOIP phone is not working quite right for a while.

International call rates, and mobile calls through these systems to an ordinary phone vary from country to country. VOIP service companies provide call rate lists on their web sites.

Because I was  able to ditch my  phone line rental, and can now get free local and national calls I have probably saved approximately AU $1000 in the first year. This has value added my ADSL  broadband system we already pay for.

If you don’t have a broadband Internet connection, and only make a few dollars worth of calls a month on an ordinary phone, it’s not much point setting up one of these systems!

© Peter Daley 2010

The playback of music in the home is being revolutionized. Forget about using disk based media CDs or LPs for music playback, network music players are the future. These devices let you listen to streamed music from the Internet, or to play back copies of your music CDs or LPs, stored on your personal computer, into your HiFi system. There devices plug into your broadband Internet connection and will stream the music of your taste directly from the Internet, into your home and business.

If you use a network music player for Internet streaming music playback, you don’t need to have a computer turned on. These devices will stream the music straight from your Internet connected broadband modem into your home or business sound system. The music will stream down the Internet at about 40 to 60 meg per hour on fast broadband connections, so you need a good download limit on your Internet service.

Transporter network player

There are lots of companies starting to produce network music players, http://www.logitech.com, http://www.netgear.com or http://www.linksys.com, are a few. The Logitech transporter seems to have very good reviews at present. Logitech make two models of network music players, Sqeezebox and Transporter, and they work on all operating systems, Linux, Windows & Apple Mac!

The squeeze box sells for US$249, while the Transporter,  is the Audiophile version, and is a no holds barred assault on producing the best sound possible, it costs US$1999.

Other companies have network music players models under US$100. As with all technology, they will become more feature rich and powerful, and prices will drop with more competition as manufactures vie for market share.

Plug a network music players into your broadband Internet connection, and directly connect it to your computer speakers or home stereo. Being able to play back the music through a good home stereo system makes a tremendous difference to the musical enjoyment.

You can also program the network music players to stream music directly from your favourite Internet radio station, or sites like,

http://www.pandora.com/,

or

http://www.rhapsody.com/

If you join Pandora or Rhapsody you can customize your network music playback so it will stream your style, and taste in music through your home or business stereo system.

No more waiting for the song you like to play on the radio. Not only that, they can send it wirelessly, into different rooms! With these network music players, you can also copy your CD or LP music collection onto your personal computer, and send them directly through your network music player, into you stereo system.

No more changing CDs!

Plus there is now technology that can be used to create better sounding music from your original CDs, or SACDs. Yes you heard me correctly.  Incorporate this with a network music player  and you will get unprecedented sound quality!

© Peter Daley 2010

The trouble with playing back music from your computer, is it is not very good quality, unless you have a high quality sound card installed.

Most computer sound is being processed by a cheap on-board sound chip. Even if you do have a good quality sound card installed, the card is inside a computer whose circuits are generating lots of electro magnetic noise. This noise affects the sound, causing listening fatigue, a less than enjoyable musical experience.

A way around this is to use an external sound processor. You could use the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, (http://www.soundblaster.com)at around $500. The Audigy 2 can just about do anything you would like to do with sound processing using your computer, reprocess, record, change, rip, and playback in surround sound.

A simpler, more cost effective device that would suit the needs of a person who just wants to improve their MP3 music playback, CD, DVD movies, or games sound, is to use the SilverStone Ensemble EB01 DAC at around $150. As described by Silverstone on their web site.

(http://www.silverstonetek.com)

“The SilverStone Ensemble EB01 is a convenient device that can instantly translate your PC’s digital signals into lifelike analog sound, suitable for personal high end stereo setups. EB01’s advanced internal circuitry will ensure that any sound effect or music from your CD, DVD, MP3 files, or games will be reproduced in quality, as the artist and content creator originally envisioned.”

The SilverStone and Creative Devices are Digital to Analog Converters (DACs), and there are lots of other brands of DACs available, Slimdevices, Headroom, Music Fidelity are a few.
Because digital sound and video are recorded as digital data, before we can view or here it, it has to be converted back to an analog signal. This is what the DAC does, converts the data back into viewable images or listenable sound.

The SilverStone, and Creative Devices we are talking about are sound processing DACs. Now the advantage of using an external DAC device to process the computer sound, is all those data digits can be transmitted externally away from the computer to the external box, and then turned into the music we want to listen to.

Because the digits are being transmitted, and not the sound signal, the sound quality is being protected from the distortion cause by the electro-magnetic storm going on inside the confines of your computer box.

Once the digital data gets to the external DAC, it is converted into the analog sound or music, which then can be plugged into a good  quality Hi-Fi system or good computer speakers. This will make a big difference to the sound quality you may be used to hearing from your computer.

It makes listening to CDs, MP3, music, DVD movies, and games a much better experience. The one disadvantage of the SilverStone DAC is at present it is a stereo device. Mind you, you can spend $10,000 or more on a DAC, but I think the SilverStone EB01 DAC can give a very pleasant improvement to your computer sound, for around AU$150. It is also one of the cheapest DACs  around if you want to try out the idea.

I have also found that if you plug a USB DAC into a good powered USB hub it can improve its performance. This is because the USB hub can supply more clean current than most computer powered USB ports. Firewire DACs are considered to be better than USB DACs, but are a lot more expensive.

© Peter Daley 2010

In this modern age we have all these wonderful gadgets that for convenience are designed to  instantly turn on. So you come home from work and grab the remote and turn on the TV.

Most people don’t realise for the TV to be able to be turned on via the remote, it was never actually turned off. That’s right, the on/off button on all those remotes does not actually  turn anything off completely. There is always mains power connected directly to the TV, stereo or computer when they’re in this standby mode. OK, it is using less power, but it is not turned off.

So what is the price of all this instant turn on convenience.

1. Approximately 10% of your electricity bill is simply being used to keep all these devices ready to be turned on instantly. All the devices in standby mode are directly connected to the mains and constantly on 24 hours a day. Ok, at a lower power use, but still on. They’re costing you money and polluting the environment with tons of green house gases.

If enough people just took the time to turn the TV, Stereo, or computer off at the wall, the
nation would instantly cut it’s power consumption by around 10%. You could potentially save 10% or more off your electricity bill. This depends on the number of devices you have in standby mode. I’m talking averages here. That is a big plus for the environment and your hip pocket.

(Note: Some devices will lose their timer, or record settings if you turn them off at the wall. You will need to reset everything again!)

2. More so during the storm season, electrical surges and power outages caused by lighting
and high winds, damage large numbers of consumer electronics. Why? Storm generated surges and power fluctuations blow them up because the devices are still on and connected to the mains. This can simply be prevented, by just turning the devices off completely, using the mains switch at the wall. People have not been educated about the importance off turning all these devices off at the wall when they go out, hear that storm coming or when going to bed at night.

3. There is also a fire risk. Ideally no electronic device should be left on or in standby mode
unattended. A lot of this stuff is made cheap, and you’re betting your home and your families life on it’s reliability. All electronic devices will eventually fail, no matter how well they’re made, and a percentage go up in smoke.

So turn all those electronic devices off at the wall switch when you’re leaving the room for any length of time, going out, going to bed at night, or when you hear that storm. Train the whole family in the importance of this. So by the flick of a switch you can save money, and clean up the environment, plus increase the safety of your home, your family and yourself. Wow, if everything was that simple!

© Peter Daley 2010

Yes, you can go and purchase a dedicated home entertainment centre computer if you want, but why would you, when all you need is a modern computer
system, no more than two years old, with a reasonable video card and 80 GiG or larger hard drive, with a minimum of 512 megs of RAM, and install one
of the excellent free home entertainment software packages, that will turn your computer into a sophisticated home entertainment centre.

For Windows based systems you install the free home entertainment software program, Media Portal, http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

For Linux use Myth TV, http://www.mythtv.org/

Both these programs will turn your home computer into an advanced home entertainment media centre. They will organize and play all your media files, music, radio, and allow you to watch your stored video, and DVDs, even display the local weather report. They also turn your computer into a recorder for your TV and Digital video.

To use the Radio, TV or scheduled TV recording features, you will need to install a High Definition or Analog TV/Radio tuner card into your home
computer, or use an external USB TV High Definition or Analog tuner plug-in device. These cost from $100 upwards. Dual tuner cards will allow you to watch one station, and record another at the same time.

(Tip: If you are using Linux, make sure you check out which TV tuners will work with Myth TV before purchasing a device.)

I personally prefer the USB tuners, because you can move them from one computer to another, with ease. If you have multiple computers in the house,
you can turn any one of them into a High Definition TV player/recorder, by simply installing the USB device’s software on each machine, and then plug
in the USB tuner into the computer you wish to use as a TV set at that time.

(Tip: make sure you purchase a TV Tuner card, or USB TV, with good signal sensitivity.)

In most areas  you will need to plug the TV/Radio tuner device into an external roof mount aerial, to get good reception. An important point that will greatly improve the enjoyment and usability of your home entertainment centre, is to have all your entertainment media, music and videos, organized
in a logical sensible fashion, in your computer filing system, before you install the media centre software.

(Tip: Make sure you do regular backups of all your multimedia files!)

During the installation process, these programs will search your hard drive and index all your stored media files as you have organized them on your computer. So it doesn’t matter how good the media centre software is, it’s ease of use will be determined by how logically you have organized
your media files on your computer.

© Peter Daley 2010

You can greatly improve the playback sound quality of your CD collection by purchasing a CD Nova Physics Group Memory Player, at a cost of
US$15,000, or you can do it for virtually nothing by following the instructions in this article! There are two questions you are probably asking at this point.

A. I thought the sounds of CDs couldn’t be improved, so what are you going to do, the impossible?

B. What is a Memory Player?

To answer question one, yes, the playback quality of your CD collection can be greatly improved.

How? We first need to give you some background on how a CD payer works. When the CD laser reads the digital information recorded on the music CD, it is reading microscopic pits on the CD while it is spinning at high speed. It makes mistakes! So rather than create silence, or a click or a pop sound, like vinyl LP records do, it makes an educated guess as to what the sound should be, and plays this back. Well that’s great, but it can make the wrong guess. This then creates sound distortions.

The Nova Physics Group Memory Player is a device created to solve this problem. Here is an extensive article on the device,

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue24/cjdiaries.htm

1. It has a special high quality CD transport to read the music CD on a very stable platform.Thus less read errors are created in the first place.

2. The Memory Player has specialized softwarethat re-reads the CD disk error location up to 90 times until it eliminates the data readerrors.

3. It stores the error corrected CD data in memory, and then plays back the error corrected music it recorded from the CD disk though a high quality Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), and amplifier.

Clever isn’t it! Well you can do all this, and get close to the memory player sound quality, by doing the things listed below, for very little cost.

You do need a computer with a CD/DVD player to do this. The better quality the CD/DVD player the better.

1. You download and Install this free software “Exact Audio Copy” (EAC) from here http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ and install it on your computer. This does the error correction for you. By the way, this software can also be used for damaged CD datarecovery.

2. You set this software up to copy your music CD collection in WAV format, in secure mode, in high quality sound. Once you have the error corrected CD recorded on your computer, you don’t need to do this again. It can take 20 minutes or more to error correct just one music CD.

3. You can now play back the super recorded CD version at will, off the computer hard drive. If you want even better sound, you copy the music files onto a plugged in high quality USB flash drive, and then play it back from there. Corsair Flash Voyager Flash Drives are well built and to a much better quality than your average USB flash drive. This eliminates drive jitter and other errors that may be created from playing back the music file from the spinning computer hard drive.

4. Play back the recorded CDs through a good sound card or Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), or network player, and then into your home stereo system, to get the absolute best playback sound quality.

Once you have heard the difference in sound quality between playing a CD normally, and playing back the error corrected version, there is no going back.

© Peter Daley 2010

With the advent of fast Internet connections and large hard drives, there is no reason for people in their right minds to be purchasing or using lossy audio files, that have mediocre sound when played on a half descent stereo system! There are lots of audio file formats that can be used to copy your music CDs onto your computer or music portable. WMA, Flac, Ogg, Mp3, WAV, or AAC, etc. are a few. Some of these files are lossless, (WAV & Flac). That means they do not degrade the sound file quality from the original, and some are lossy, (MP3, Ogg, WMA, AAC). They do degrade the sound quality.

The lossy types process the sound file and compress it leaving large parts of the original sound out of the file. This makes the file size much smaller but at the expense of sound quality. The main reason for the extensive use of lossy audio file types over the Internet, is that it is easier and quicker to transfer and store a small audio file than a large file. A compressed MP3 audio file downloads much faster, and will take up much less storage room, than a WAV file. Most people accepted this because they had slow Internet connections and limited space on their hard drives.

The dynamics have now changed, with large numbers of people now having high speed Internet connections, and oodles of room on their enormous
hard drives. There is really no reason to keep using, or purchasing lossy audio files (MP3, Ogg, WMA, AAC) to store and play your music, anymore.

(Tip: Flac is a free compressed file type that processes the audio file without loss in sound quality. So for those who still wish to save some room, but don’t want to loose sound quality, FLAC is the way to go.)

Using lossy audio file formats is like convincing people to use watered down petrol in their cars, to save on transport and storage costs. The car won’t
run too well, nor will the sound coming out of your music portable or stereo, with a watered down audio file.

I am totally amazed at how the public have been so totally convinced to use or purchase such poor quality music files! Make a smart change, and insist
that you get the best quality for your money. Isn’t that what you insist on when you purchase anything else? If you’re smart you will rip your CD collection in WAV or FLAC format using EAC (Exact Audio Copy http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) or only purchase lossless version audio files from music sites.

OK, downloading may be quick but sometimes it is better to purchase the CD or SACD (Super Audio CD) version. The CD then becomes a great backup if you need to get the music onto your computer, or portable in the future.

I generally order ten SACD/CDs at a time, so I cut down on postage costs. Here are some web sites most people may not know about, where you can

purchase lossless high quality music files, CDs, SACDs or LPS. I am willing to pay for good sound quality and good music. I realize I need to support talented artists financially somehow, or my source of good sounding music will disappear. This very much applies to classical music, because this type of music is not supported as much as popular music.

Arkiv Music http://www.arkivmusic.com

This site is great for classical music buffs because Music Arkiv has access to large amounts of the out of print LPS and CD music. With the extinction of the local record shops, this site provides a great source of classical music, in lots of different formats.

D Universe http://www.cduniverse.com

Lots of popular music as well as classical and jazz, plus samples provided for playback.

Linn Records http://www.linnrecords.com

Again a great source of classical and jazz, plus you can also still purchase high quality vinyl LP records. (The ultimate lossless format)

Telarc http://www.telarc.com/

Independent classical recording company: also crossover and jazz. This company also places a lot of emphasis on performance and recorded sound
quality.

Chesky Records http://www.chesky.com/

Web Site Extract: Philosophy, to create the illusion of live musicians in a real three-dimensional space. Chesky Records tries to achieve the impression of reality with the most advanced technology available, careful microphone placement, and, most of all, a recording team which pays attention to every
minute detail, making your listening experience tangible, pleasurable, exciting, and realistic.

Super Audio CD http://www.sa-cd.net/reviews/all

This is a terrific site for getting reviews from purchases on the latest Super Audio CDs which have been released.

© Peter Daley 2010

Blue Ray is the latest disc movie technology that promises a great improvement in picture, and sound quality. Blank Blue Ray disc are available at present for data storage that can store 25 GB per single layered, and 50 GB per dual layered. This format is open-ended, with a possible storage limit of 200 GB. So it could become the next high volume storage media replacing DVD discs.

It main purpose at present is to act as a medium to distribute the latest high definition moves, (High-definition video is 1920×1080 pixel resolution / 60 frames per second / 24 frames per second). If you buy a dedicated stand alone Blue Ray player you just put the disk in and play it. Getting Blue Ray to work on an computer can be whole lot more involved.

It is to do with the fact that you need a fairly fast computer, and have a Blue Ray player installed plus several layers of Content Management & Digital Rights Management (DRM). The computer Blue Ray player looks just like a DVD player, some are multi players that can read older technologies like CD /DVD discs. Some more expensive players can read and burn Blue Ray data storage disks as well as play Blue Ray Movies. Price ranges for Blue Ray Players are $200 to over $500 depending on what the player can do.

If you are looking at getting Blue Ray movies playing on an older computer, most of you should just forget the idea. Because of several layers of Content Management & Digital Rights Management (DRM), getting all the hardware parts to work together can be a nightmare. See all the hardware has to be certified to be Content and DRM certified and even then it may not work together. You also need Content and DRM certified software to play Blue Ray discs.

Blue Ray video movies have encryption to prevent copying and the Content and DRM looks to see if the hardware or movie disc has been tampered with. In other words to see if the Blue Ray content is being pirated.

It can,

1. See if a player’s keys have been changed.

2. Patch an insecure Content and DRM certified system.

3. Stop the viewing of Blue Ray content if any of the hardware, or software is not compliant.

Even if the hardware and software you are using is all legal, and you have installed Content and DRM compliant Blue Ray software, disc player, video card, and Blue Ray compliant monitor it may not work. All the bits may not talk to each other for some strange technical reason! So after many hours of technical support and research you may be faced with more expense, and have no choice but to purchase and try another compliant video card, different software, or monitor to get it all working happily together.

Alternatively you could purchase a computer that is already set up with everything, content and DRM compliant, and ready to play Blue Ray movies out of the box.

In reviews of Bue Ray movies reviewers have been complaining that the sound and video quality has not been up to the Blue Ray standard on lots of movies. This is because some content creators are capitalizing on the Blue Ray hype, and supplying movies with second rate video and sound quality. They then get top dollar for second rate material.

There are some very well made Blue Ray movies. I suggest reading reviews before purchasing any movie. There are no where near the number of movies available in Blue Ray format compared to DVD, which most people are happy with. Now the industry is pushing 3D as the next big thing! It is all about getting you to spend money on new technologies.

© Peter Daley 2010

Well what a merry-go-round I’ve been on! I had a 17” LCD monitor delivered by courier, the cardboard box looked a bit pressed in at the top, near the carry handle but nothing suggested that it was damaged inside.

You know what it is like. The courier rushes to the door carrying a new delivery, sweating profusely, and you feel you should take it, and sign for it as quickly as possible. Big mistake! It was late in the afternoon when it came in, so I didn’t open it until the next morning, only to find one very smashed monitor. See picture.

Well I rang the wholesaler, took lots of photo’s, and sent them to the wholesaler. Who said it had nothing to do with him. Why? Because the box had a mark on it , and I should not have accepted it, I should phone the courier. So I call the local office of the courier, who says it had nothing to do with them. Why? Because it was delivered by the courier in Brisbane, and they are a different franchise.

So I phone the franchise in Brisbane, It had nothing to do with them. Why? because I signed for the goods and by doing so, I accepted them. I was told this is clearly stated in the company’s legal policy document, which I could have read on the Internet! The representative said you are supposed to open every box, and inspect it before you accept it, while the courier waits.

Well that was news to me. I said “Are you people crazy? If your couriers have to wait around until all the deliveries are unpacked and inspected, your business will go broke!” I was then given a get out of jail free card, when they said, Well you can sign every delivery slip from now on, “Subject to inspection”.

I know lots of members are now purchasing items s on the Internet that have to be delivered by courier, so make sure you have the courier wait, while you open up the boxes and inspect the contents, before t you sign for them, or write “Subject to inspection”.

Note: I have not had the opportunity to test the “Subject to inspection”, card yet! Also most of the couriers are now using electronic signature devices as delivery dockets. So write “STI” after your signature. If you don’t take these precautions, you could end up wearing the cost for some expensive item, or being put on a merry-go-round trying to get recompensed for something that was clearly not your fault.

Well since then, the Brisbane head office told me to contact the company head office, which I did. After I told the young lady at the company head office my story, she said she would get back to me in 24 hours. After waiting another couple days I rang back n to be told the young lady had become ill, and the young man I spoke to would check it out and get d back to me. I am still waiting for his call.

This company has been paid to deliver goods safely and in good condition. I will now contact the, department of fair trading. Don’t hold your breath, too long for the end of this story! I think that the community should be educated in the finer points of courier deliveries, that no one told me about, until I received a smashed monitor. So even though the monitor was smashed by the courier, I am supposed to grin and bare the cost, because I signed for it. The state of the box did not indicate the damage done inside.

© 2010 Peter Daley

At present, the hacker black market is paying $100 per thousand hacked Australian computers. That’s correct, there is a black market for hacked computers, and Australian computers are fetching top dollar, compared to other countries. Why do you think that Australian computers are getting top dollar? It’s because we are easy targets as most of you don’t take computer security seriously enough, plus being an affluent country, the hackers can make better money from a hacked Aussie.

You could argue the affluent part, depends on whether the banks get to your money before the hackers do You can secure your computer with all the modern, up-to-date security tools, but if you don’t follow safe practices, you’re very likely to get hacked or ripped off. It’s just like driving a new car, with all the latest safety features, air bags and intelligent breaking systems, if you drive dangerously, you’re more likely to crash and get injured. You need to use some common sense on the Internet, and stay away from sites that are notorious for hacking visitors computers, pornography, software cracks, copy violated music sharing and movie sites etc.

One other major new treats used by hackers is to break in though security holes in web browsers. This poses a serious threat to all operating systems Windows, Apple and Linux. This article reinforces what I have been trying to get across to everyone.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9929861-7.htm l?tag=nl.e703

They can use malicious scripts hidden in web pages to exploit vulnerabilities in any OS. The way to defend yourself against this sort of threat is to turn off all scripts. Unfortunately scripts are so wide spread that if you do this you can lose a lot web page functionality. Alternatively you can use the the Mozilla Firefox web browser downloadable from here,

http://www.mozilla.com

and install a Firefox Add-on called “NoScript”, this will effectively block all scripts in pages you visit. You then use NoScript to choose when to allow scripts.

Once Mozilla Firefox is downloaded and installed on your computer, and you are connected to the Internet, click on the menu item “Tools”, and in the pop down box, click “Add Ons”. When an “Add-ons” box appears, click on the “Get Add-ons” tab.

In the search box at the top left of this box, type in “Noscript” and click the “Search” button, then when the Noscript add-on description appears click  the “Add to Firefox” button. The software installation box will now appear, click the the install button. The NoScript extension will be installed. Once it is installed, you will need to shut down,and re-open the Firefox browser before NoScript will become active.

(When you re-open Firefox I suggest you read the information about NoScript that will appear in a tab window in Firefox.)

Now when you visit web pages a Noscript options button, and symbol will appear at the bottom right hand corner of the Firefox browser window. A yellow bar will also appear indicating how many scripts are in the page that are being blocked.

Blocking all the scripts will speed up your web surfing because you will not need to wait until the all the fancy stuff loads. It will also mean you will need to make wise decisions on when to allow scripts in web pages. I suggest not allowing any scripts in pages unless you really need the service. For instance, if you go to your web bank service with NoScript you will not be able to log in until you tell Noscript to “Allow the bank site”, by clicking on the NoScript Options button. So login boxes for services, plus Flash, Silverlight, and Java scripts will be blocked until you click the Noscript allow site, or temporary allow option, when visiting any site. If you use it with another Firefox Add-on WOT, (Web Of Trust) a web site rating service it can make those decisions easier to make.

Statistically 1 in 9 web sites are dangerous at present! If you think I am exaggerating look at the web site rating stat’s at the bottom left hand corner of the WOT home page web site. So using NoScript wisely can give you a lot of protection!

© 2010 Peter Daley,