In This Issue

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

2

The HDMI Cable and Connectors

4

What’s a Screen Shot and How Do I Make One

6

Upgrade Your Router – Part 2

9

Three Tips Grandparents Can Teach Their Grandkids

13

The meeting that was – June

15

Officers, Membership App, Local Member Discounts

16

More Discounts 17

Meetings SCV Senior Center 22900 Market Street Newhall CA 91321

www.scvcomputerclub.org

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Troubleshooting Your Computer 101

Around the SCV VPN Tips

The Internet of Things for Seniors

Published by Santa Clarita Valley Computer Club … We’re User Friendly Volume XXIX, Issue 7 Serving the Santa Clarita Valley, CA since 1988 Editor: Judy Taylour

6:00 pm – I need to test run a Troubleshooting Your Computer 101 presentation that I’m giving to a group in New Jersey later this month. I’ll be looking for comments, suggestions, etc.

After break, we’ll have our Internet of Things for Seniors presentation as well as Around the SCV and some VPN (Virtual Private Network) tips.

Welcome to our new member Kathy Ellis and returning member Gerry

Hogan

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BY Greg Skalka, President, Under the Computer

Hood User Group

June 2017 issue, Drive Light

www.uchug.org / president (at) uchug.org Raindrops on roses And whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things (from “My Favorite Things,” by Oscar Hammerstein / Richard Rodgers) In The Sound of Music, Maria (played by Julie Andrews in the film version), a nun turned governess, sings of her favorite things to her seven young charges. I wonder how her list might be different if the story was set today, rather than immediately before World War II. Maria’s list is of simple things; would today’s Maria include tech items like smartphones and Facebook likes in a more modern list? What would a list of today’s favorite technology items look like? And what constitutes a favorite? Is it something you enjoy (like 3D movies) or are merely dependent on and addicted to (perhaps smartphones)? Rodgers and Hammerstein provided some guidance in their lyrics: When the dog bites When the bees sting When I’m feeling sad I simply remember my favorite things And then I don’t feel so bad So, if I were to make a list of some of my favorite tech things, it would need to contain things that make me smile and feel happy (perhaps even after being bitten and stung). They don’t have to be tremendously useful (raindrops on roses aren’t), but should have few negative connotations. That can be a high hurdle for a lot of our technology, as it seems there is a downside to most of the tech we know and love. Some of the things that would not make my list because of this include: Smart phones - While it is remarkable to carry access to the internet in your pocket (assuming you have a big enough pocket), these devices can also enable a lot of anti-social behavior. Smartphone addiction is real - the fear of being without your smartphone is called nomophobia. In spite of being one of the most popular devices and being in practically everyone’s hands, we are forced out of a concern for safety to enact laws prohibiting their use while driving.

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Twitter - While I’ll admit I don’t use it, it would seem to be a fun and useful way to communicate. It appears to be a poor way for a President to communicate. Drones - Quadcopters seem fun; I’d like to try one sometime. I’ve seen some that can fly by themselves, seven unskilled pilots could use them, and are pre-programmed to follow you and take photos and video. Unfortunately, they are sometimes used to invade privacy and interfere with fire crews and commercial aviation, and so now require regulation. Facebook - What could be wrong with a way to stay in communication with friends and relatives, and share personal information and photos? Unfortunately, its use can become an addiction, it can be a tool for bullying and it can be poor at protecting that personal information. Email - Another great way to communicate easily, quickly and inexpensively, until your inbox gets filled up with spam, your email account is hacked and you click on a malicious link in a phishing email. If you look at Maria’s favorite things, they are all pretty innocent and non-controversial, even by today’s standards. None of them would be subject to laws, regulations or prohibitions (as long as the brown paper packages tied up with string are not left unattended in a public place, and your doctor does not recommend limiting your intake of schnitzel or strudel). With all this in mind, a few of the favorite tech things I might pick to sing about are: Maps - I’ve always been fascinated with maps. I used to collect AAA road maps and have bought all sorts of map software, including Microsoft Streets & Trips and DeLorme Street Atlas USA. Now map software programs are pretty much obsolete, as Google Maps and Google Earth now provide all the maps you could ever want online. Satellite photography and street mapping / imaging provide accurate, detailed and up-to-date map information previously unavailable. GPS - The Global Positioning System was developed by the U.S. military to better locate warfighters and guide munitions, but the signals from its constellation of satellites are available to any user receiver on earth for accurate location and time. It provides the “you are here” to enable easy navigation for any means of travel. The Europeans are currently launching their own constellation of Galileo satellites to complement the U.S. GPS system, the Russian GLONASS and Chinese BeiDou systems. I own at least six discrete GPS receivers (handheld, car-mount and USB), though now most people get their GPS directions through their smartphones. Office / productivity software - For someone like me, an engineer that can barely handwrite my name (even my printing is not so great), the ability to write quickly and legibly with a word processing program is wonderful. There is no way you would have ever read a column from me without it. With my technical and math orientation, spreadsheets are so useful and actually fun.

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Google searches - With all the information available on the internet, it takes a good search engine to sift out what you want. Though there may be concerns about your browsing information being used to sell advertising, Google is still the king, and it lends its name (Googling) to searching the web for good reason. Digital music - Though vinyl records are making a bit of a comeback, digital music is now the only way to go for portability and streaming. I may not have as much interest in music as I did as a teen, but I appreciate that I can listen to my MP3 files anywhere. USB Flash drives - When you can have 128 GB of USB3 storage in your pocket (and a small pocket at that) for under $30, it is remarkable. And these drives just keep getting larger (in capacity) and cheaper. Chromebooks - These are so useful for most users’ computing needs. They are light, fast booting, long running (on battery), low cost and great if what you need is mostly web surfing, email and word processing. Star Wars - It was 40 years ago this Memorial Day weekend that this remarkable movie was released. Three George Lucas trilogies, two Disney movies, a cartoon series and untold numbers of books and other merchandise items later, Star Wars has become part of our tech culture. I was at the Reagan Library a few weeks ago and was reminded that it also informally lent its name to the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) missile defense system proposal that was a factor in the ending of the cold war and collapse of the Soviet Union. To me, Star Wars is just great entertainment that inspires real technology and scientific discovery. Gigabyte Flash drives and boxed sets of Star Wars Chromebooks and Fitbits and Amazon Prime stores Searches with Google (don’t switch me to Bing!) These are a few of my favorite tech things When the web’s slow When my screen’s blue When it’s filled with ads I simply remember my favorite tech things And then I don’t feel so bad (Apologies to R & H)

Secret Desktop Button This desktop button actually dates back to Windows 7 – do you use it? On the bottom-right corner of your Taskbar, there's a secret desktop button. Look all the way to the bottom and right, to the side of the date and time. There you'll find a small little sliver of an invisible button. Click that and it will minimize all your open windows to clear the desktop. You can change the behavior of this in Settings (Personalization / Taskbar) between having to click or just having to hover the mouse over the corner.

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The HDMI Cable and Connectors

By Jim Cerny, Forum Leader, Sarasota Technology

User’s Group, FL

April 20917 issue, Sarasota Monitor

www.thestug.org / Jimcerny123 (at) gmail.com

As technology changes, hopefully for the better, more and more devices are available to us. For most of us who use technology for personal and home use, we would like to connect some devices to our TVs to enjoy the big screen video and great sound experience. The latest connection cable type that does this for us is HDMI which stands for “High Definition Media Interface”. The cable connectors (the standard size and a mini size) are shown in the photo. They have a shape to them that allows them to be inserted only one way, so do not force it into the port, try turning it over (180 degrees) and try again.

The purpose of HDMI is to replace different kinds of connectors and cables with one type that, hopefully, can handle all your device connections. Do you remember the old days when there were separate audio/stereo and video cables? Today almost all of the newer devices (laptops, TV’s, DVD players, etc.) will come with at least one HDMI connector port. The older style connectors may also be present, but if possible,

HDMI should be your first choice to make those connections. Your TV remote control will have a button labeled “input”, and when you press this button different input options (that is, what is coming INTO your TV) will be displayed and allow you to select which one you want. One option will be “cable” which means your TV will show your cable programs – the cable you pay for each month. But other choices will include one or more HDMI inputs, usually labeled HDMI-1, HDMI-2, etc. If you have more than one device connected to your TV it is best for each device to connect to its own HDMI port on the back of the TV. You select which of the inputs you want to view on your TV by using the “input” button on your remote. Of course, there must be something (video and sound) coming into that port to the TV for you to see anything. For example, you may have a DVD player connected to HDMI-1, but if your DVD player is not on and playing something, you will not see anything on your TV when you select that input option. If you have some older devices which may not have an HDMI connector, you can purchase a converter device to allow it to connect. Lastly, I am always amazed by the cost of cables – after all, they are just wires with plugs on the ends, right? If you checkout the prices of cables at stores and the prices on the internet, you will be shocked at the high prices they can charge for these things. Yes, some cables are higher quality than others and may come with better “shielding” to protect the signal, but most prices are much too high for what you get. My advice would be to shop on-line and get the cheapest cable that meets your needs, but make sure you can return it if you are not happy with it. If it doesn’t work for you, then return it and move up to the next higher-priced (and hopefully better quality) cable.

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You can find out more about HDMI cables and connectors by asking Google, of course. But connecting them is easy, even for us amateurs.

What’s a Screen Shot and How Do I Make One?

By Leo Notenboom

https://askleo.com/2080 Reprinted with permission, see end of article for licensing. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a screenshot - an image of your computer screen, saved as a picture - can eliminate a lot of frustration when trying to describe to someone what you're seeing on your computer. A screen shot, screenshot, or screen capture is a way to “take a picture” of your computer screen (or a portion thereof). Why would you want to do that? Well, let’s say you’re trying to explain a computer problem to a technical friend of yours, and you’re trying to describe what you see on the screen — the dialogs, buttons, messages, whatever. You’re not sure of the terms to use, and your friend is having a difficult time understanding your description. And of course, your friend insists that the exact wording of everything you see is incredibly important (for the record, he’s right.) You know what they say: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” And it can go a long way to eliminating miscommunication. Let’s take a picture of your screen you can email to your friend. Windows 10

The Windows utility that allows us to take screenshots is called the “Snipping Tool”. Click on the Start button and start typing “snip”. One of the first search results will be the Snipping Tool. Click on Snipping Tool to run it. The tool has several modes, including Full-screen Snip (a picture of your entire computer screen), Window Snip (a picture of a specific window you designate), Rectangular Snip (a picture of an arbitrary rectangular area on the screen), or Free-form Snip (a picture of an arbitrary shape you draw on the screen). In the example below, I’ve selected Window Snip.

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Next, click on New to begin the Snip. The screen dims until I click on the window I want to capture. The Snipping Tool takes the picture and opens that picture up in its editor. In the editor, you can make annotations and mark-ups to the image before saving it to your hard disk as an image file. The Snipping Tool

supports many different image formats, but .png or .jpg are probably the most common formats used for simple screenshots.

Windows Vista & Windows 7 Windows Vista and Windows 7 also include the Snipping Tool. You’ll find it on the Start menu, in All Programs, Accessories: A couple of additional notes:

• PrtScn takes a picture of the entire current screen. • ALT+PrtScn takes a picture of the currently active

window only. The PrtScn technique works in all versions of Windows, but the Snipping tool is more convenient. On a Mac? Macintoshes have screen-shot capability as well. Check out How to take a screenshot out at Mac Help For Mom.

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What I do Submitting screenshots with questions. By default, I don’t allow attachments to be submitted with questions. This is mostly for my safety, as someone could easily attach malware. However, screenshots can be a very helpful resource when diagnosing problems. Should the need arise we’ll make arrangements to get one to me. The Snipping tool, or the paste-into-Paint method, provides a basic, yet powerful, approach to getting screen captures. They’re free, and included with every copy of Windows. Of course, if you have Windows Vista or later, the Snipping Tool is very useful. I use something else. I use Snagit. When run, Snagit replaces the PrtScn functionality with its own. It allows for full screen, partial screen, and even full scrolling-window capture, along with a number of capture-time options. It also comes with a fairly powerful image editor that allows me to quickly add call-outs, arrows, and the fancy “torn edge” effect I use in many of my screenshots, including a couple of those shown above. Most folks don’t need an additional screen capture utility, particularly if your version of Windows includes the Snipping Tool. That being said, if you take screenshots regularly (as I do), a more powerful tool with more options both in capture and annotation might well be a valuable addition, and Snagit is an excellent choice. A picture is worth… Hopefully, you can see the value of screenshots by now. You’re presented with a complex situation or a huge, long error message that you don’t want to re-type, and just wish you could show someone. Run the Snipping Tool or press PrtScn, and you’re on your way to creating an image of the screen, with everything exactly as you see it. Read more:

• Can I avoid retyping error messages when I need to report them? Windows error messages can often be quickly and easily copied to the clipboard with a single keystroke.

• Snagit – Quick and Easy Screen Capture and Annotation Windows includes screen capture by default, but if you use it often and rely on it alone, you don’t know what you’re missing.

• A brief overview of Snagit screen capture utility Snagit is a one of the utilities I install first on any new machine. I’ll walk through installing it and show a few of its features.

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• How do I print or capture the information from a “blue screen” error? Blue screens are bad enough, but they’re complicated by the fact that capturing the information presented is nearly impossible — without a trick. This is an update to an article originally posted June 22, 2004

Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18-year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed. After retiring in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers to common computer and technical questions.

This work by Ask Leo! is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Additional is available at https://askleo.com/creative-commons-license/.

Upgrade Your Router, Part 2

By John Weigle, Editor, Channel Islands PCUG, CA

www.cipcug.org

jweigle (at) vcnet.com

Last month we covered the basic things you need to do to your home router from a security point of view. This month we explore what you CAN do to enhance your router beyond what it could do when it was brand new out of the box. How is that possible? Simple – as we covered last month, companies don’t make a lot of money selling these devices and so are not motivated to do much to them once they’ve left the factory. The open source community have a whole different operating system for it based on Linux. To see if your router can be upgraded, just put in to Google the model and the words “alternative firmware” and you should see many results. One website, DSLreports.com, give me many choices each with different features. http://www.dslreports.com/faq/10537 Wifibox »www.linksysinfo.org - easy to use, home user oriented, good www interface Sveasoft »www.sveasoft.com/modules/phpBB2 - oriented to the power user/WISP, focus on routing, repeaters DD-WRT: »www.dd-wrt.com - some advanced features VoIP, Kaid, etc.

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OpenWRT »www.openwrt.org - hacker's version, rw file system, for do-it-yourselfers BatBox »www.batbox.org/wrt54g-linux.html - easy to install distro that runs completely from RAM HyperWRT: »www.hyperwrt.org Tomato: »www.polarcloud.com/tomato Since I had a problem in December with Tomato firmware, I will use DD-WRT for this process. Your choices will depend on what is available for you. Going to each of the websites and checking their database for your exact model and version will narrow down your choices. On this website, I clicked on the Router Database link. Putting in the model number WRT54G brings up many possibilities so that I had to narrow it down to mine. I found that info by logging into my router in a

new tab in my browser as shown last month and on the top right of the screen – there it was: Firmware Version v3.0.

Scrolling down and selecting Revision 3 brought me two different builds with MANY choices and I

selected the most recent one Build 14896 and just went with the standard generic. If I really wanted better performance with Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) or setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) I would have selected one of those.

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When I clicked on the .bin file I was sure to remember where it downloaded (for me it was my Downloads folder) Now the critical step takes me back to my tab with the route where I click on Administration and the Firmware Upgrade option.

Here is where I click on Choose File and go to my downloaded .bin file. Critical now is do not have anything running on your computer and pray the power does not go out for the next few minutes as you press the Upgrade button.

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What you are doing is erasing the “operating system” of your router and replacing it with a new one. You can see where any interruption could have serious consequences. Everything went fine for me and I knew that because I lost my connection to the Internet and my router. I was doing this wirelessly, so I had to reconnect to my router. First thing I notice is that my wireless router no longer has a password. I connect to it anyway and open my browser to start the setup of my “new” router. First thing I need to know is the default username and password to talk to my router. Reading the documentation on the DDWRT website I find a username of root and admin is the password. access Open browser – same ip address will bring you to your new interface for your router. In order to change settings, you need to log in.

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With this new firmware, your username has changed. The new username is now root and password is now admin. You will FIRST want to change that – YOUR username and password and also create a WIRELESS password. Here’s how we do it. Click on the Administration tab and then Management. Change the router Username and Password to what you like (I used my first name as the username and my last name as the password). Next, turn on your wireless security and set the password by clicking on Wireless tab and then Wireless Security and you want security on.

I prefer WPA2 and I used the same password I had before. Click on Apply Settings These basic steps apply to any router whose firmware can be replaced

3 Things Grandparents Can Teach Their Grandkids

About Online Safety

By Cynthia, WorldStart

July 4, 2017 - http://bit.ly/2t1gwXO

I know that narrative usually goes that seniors are tech novices and young folks can hook up your home theater in five minutes. And it is true that younger folks are generally more comfortable with devices. They can figure out how to get from here to there on your smartphone in ten seconds or how to get Netflix set up on your tablet. But that doesn’t mean they have a great deal of wisdom about using the Internet.

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In fact, studies show that folks over 55 tend to have much safer online habits than people in their teens and twenties. So, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt and Uncle, or guy in the office, here are three things the whippersnappers could learn from you. 1. Lock your devices and have strong passwords. Kids are on their phones so much, they hate to have to stop for even a minute. A lot of them don’t bother to lock their phones, even though modern phones can make it super-simple with fingerprint, facial recognition, and iris scan logins.

And when they do have passwords or PINS, they’ll often go for super-simple and easy to remember ones, and worse – use the same password across all their accounts and devices. Remind them of the importance of not only locking their device but having secure log-ins and a different log-in on every account. 2. Use good security software and keep it up to date. Like I said, many of these kids spend most of their time on a smartphone, so they haven’t learned good habits for maintaining a laptop. They may have one they need for work or school, but they might not take care of it. PCs need a good third-party security software plus malware protection. And that security software needs to be kept up-to-date. A young friend of mine let the trial security software that came with his laptop expire. Helping to remove all the junk on his PC was a real treat. It also doesn’t hurt to put a security app on that precious smartphone. 3. Don’t share too much. While you’d think kids today would be cynical, they are actually probably more vulnerable in many ways than older folks. They’re used to meeting people online and striking up friendships. It used to be that people you hadn’t met online stayed firmly in the category of “strangers.” That’s just not the case these days. Younger people are more likely to share private information or even take off to visit people they’ve never met before. They also tend to share a lot about their lives online. The type of information people can use to find you, stalk you, and scam you. Many of them need to learn how to set some boundaries between what’s private and what’s for public consumption via social media.

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The Meeting that Was...June

By Judy We cleaned our gadgets and went home with shiny screens as well as a micro-cloth and small bottle of cleaner. Thanks to those who let me know they enjoyed playing FRAUD bingo. It was a fun way to reinforce what we learn about security at our meetings. I think we all learned a lot about crypto viruses by watching Toby Scott’s video, Cryptovirus, a relatively new genre of virus. Many other APCUG-member groups have also used his presentation for their meeting. We learned that it’s a virus that, once installed on your computer, attempts to find all your data files, including the ones on shared and attached drives and encrypt them with a strong encryption key that only the hacker knows. Then they leave you a message demanding payment, usually via bitcoin, in order to unlock your data. Local companies have been hit with a crypto virus and have paid to get access to their data: Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center - $17,000 in 2016 and Los Angeles Valley College - $28,000 in 2017. According to CNBC, ransomware e-mails spiked 6000% in 2016. Industry estimates that more than $1B was paid in 2016. It’s scary to know that the hackers who deliver the virus need no significant computer or programming skills.

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2017/2018 SCV CC OFFICERS President Judy Taylour scvcomputerclub(at)gmail.com Information Line 661.513.4612 Snail Mail 18727 Nadal Street Santa Clarita, CA 91351 General Meeting 2nd Wednesday / month

SCV Senior Center

22900 Market Street Newhall CA 91321

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Areas of Interest Level of computer skills (please circle) Novice Average Expert Mail to: SCV CC, 18727 Nadal Street, Canyon Country CA 91351

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The information appearing in this newsletter is distributed solely for use by SCV Computer Club members. Permission is enthusiastically granted to reprint all or any part by similar non-commercial publications provided credit is given to the author of the article and the DATALINE. The publication of information in this newsletter constitutes no guarantee of accuracy and its use by readers is discretionary. All opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the SCV Computer Club. The SCV Computer Club is dedicated to supporting the needs of its members and to the exchange of information about computers, peripherals, services, hardware and software through meetings, its web page, and the distribution of this newsletter. The SCV Computer Club is a member of SCRUGS and APCUG (Southern California Regional User Group Summit) (Association of Personal Computer User Groups) Annual membership Dues $30.00 Annual Family $54.00 Senior (55) $27.00 Senior Family (55) $48.00 Student Membership $25.00

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