• You can create Aliases on a Mac by highlighting the item you wish to alias, then using a keyboard shortcut (Apple Key + L), or go to the “File Menu” and select “Make Alias.”
• On a PC, you highlight the item you wish to make a Shortcut of, then right-click with your mouse. A contextual dialog menu will appear. Within the menu select “Create Shortcut.”

Password
It is important to keep your netID password to yourself, and not share it with anyone. This netID password identifies you as an authorized user on the NU networks. Having your netID fall into the hands of someone who is malicious, can cause you great trouble with accessing the NU network. Therefore, it is important to keep your password secret.

You password should consist of at least 6 (six) characters. Within the six characters, your password should contain one of the acceptable symbols, other than numbers and letters. This will keep your password secure, and make it harder for anyone to copy your password and use it with your netID. You should get into the habit of changing your netID password every three months. This will provide more security for your netID and you. NUIT sends out notices when it is time for you to change your password.
To find out more about changing your password, updating your directory listing, activating/deactivating your email while on vacations, mail forwarding, etc., and policies about your netID, please go to the following URL link: http://snap.it.northwestern.edu

OS and Virus Protection
The best way to prevent your machine from becoming infected with a virus, worm, Trojan horse, or any other type of malicious code, is to always keep your machines as updated as possible. You should have your machine automatically set to check for OS (Operating System, ie…Windows 2000, WinXP, Mac OS 10.3.X) updates on a regular basis. If your machine is not set to do it automatically, or you choose not to have this feature turned on, then you should get into a regular schedule of checking for OS updates. You should also run Norton’s Live Update on a frequent schedule. Running this utility will update your machine’s virus definition file. This file is comprised of a listing of all known virus strings. Keeping this file
updated will help reduce the potential for infection.

Macintosh
• To update your Mac OS software, open the System Preferences (found under the Blue Apple Menu).
• Locate the Software Update icon. Double-click on it to open it.
• Select the “Check Now” button to run the Software Update application. The software will contact Apple’s OS download site and scan to see if any new updates are available for your machine.
• You can set Software Update to check for new software automatically by selecting the “Check for Updates” feature within the dialog window. Once you have checked this feature, you can determine how often you want the software to go out and check for update. It can be daily, weekly or monthly. Weekly seems to be the best selection.

Email
When using email, it is important to closely monitor what is being delivered to your machine.
Mail that is not from the NU community, or from someone you know, should be directed to the “Junk” mailbox. Adjusting the “Junk” mailbox properties can be done by accessing the “Settings Menu” from within Eudora. At the left-hand side of the dialog window, locate the “Junk” icon and select it. The dialog window will change at the right, showing you a slide-bar and different features concerning junk mail. You can make adjustments to these settings to filter unwanted and/or unsolicited email to the “Junk” mailbox.
If you receive an email message from someone you don’t know, please do not open it or any associated attachments. Hackers frequently distribute malicious code through e-mail attachments. If you are unsure about a specific email, the best practice is to just throw it away…un-opened. Please do not forward any email that you are unsure of. This can cause an epidemic of malicious code coursing through the NU network community…just throw it away.

Web Browser
There are a few things that you can do to help protect yourself while “surfing” the web. They are; clear your history directory frequently, clear your web cache, and delete Cookies. You can do this by opening the Preferences and/or Internet Options (depending on which browser you are using). Within this dialog window, you can clear out your web disk cache, delete your history (web sites you have visited), and/or delete your Cookies.
The last item in the above paragraph is important. You want to get into a regular schedule of performing the above tasks, especially with deleting Cookies. Cookies are little identifiers for specific web sites. These little applets gather information about your web surfing activities, etc., and send this information back to the site that has downloaded a Cookie to your computer. You can shut this feature down within the Preferences/Internet Options, but you will loose the ability to access some sites. It is best to leave this service on within the browser, and getting into the habit of deleting the Cookies on a regular basis. I would recommend deleting your cache and Cookies at least every other week. This will prevent you from unknowingly infecting your machines, and/or the NU network. Not only do Cookies track user information and activities, they are also being used as vehicles by hackers to deliver malicious code to unsuspecting users. Deleting Cookies will also help in reducing the number of “popups” that appear when browsing. In a lot of browser applications, you can turn this feature off, to block all pop-ups. Depending on which browser application you are using, would determine whether you can turn pop-ups off. It is best to have the latest version of the browser application you are using. You can obtain Netscape, Internet Explorer and Safari at their respective manufacturers’ web sites. You can also obtain them from; www.download.com.

This web site has the current versions of Freeware, Shareware and Paid software available for download. You can also download other browsers, outside form the three industry standards.

Disk Maintenance
It is important to keep you hard disk up to optimal performance. On a PC, you will want to run Defrag.exe on a regular basis. This will defragment your hard drive and help your machine run smoother. On a Mac, you will want to go to your Utilities Folder, found within the Applications Folder, and open Disk Utilities. Launch this application. This application will analyze you hard drive and accounts for any problems, and give you the option to fix, and/or repair any bad items.

You should get into the habit of running these pieces of software of a regular basis. I would recommend running the software at least once a month. While running these softwares, please make sure no other applications are running. This will impair the application and prevent it from making necessary changes and/or repairs. Plan on time. These applications take some time to run and perform their tasks, because they are performing intensive inspections of your entire hard drive. With hard drives much larger than a few years ago, times to run diagnostic softwares has increased. Plan on doing something else while the diagnostic software does its work.

The memory device used for short term memory storage is known as RAM whereas long term data is stored in the hard disk. The RAM is only active when you are making use of the computer. The greater the capacity of the RAM chipset the faster your computer will be able to operate. Hence loading up on your Computer Memory can work wonders to facilitate your work and help you to accomplish tasks without any delays in the process.

When buying additional RAM chipsets you need to ensure that the Motherboard that you make use of is compatible with the type of memory that you will be buying. There are a number of Motherboards that produce slots for SDRAM and DDR Memory chipsets. Both of them cannot be used together however but it is always better to have the choice.

The different kinds of RAM work at various speeds. The Motherboard will support these speeds and for your computer to work at its best both the RAM and Motherboard must have a good speed and should be totally compatible with each other.

DDR Memory chipsets have however proven to be far more effective in terms of their memory capacity and speed. This is why they are steadily replacing SDRAM because they are relatively cheap and provide the user with increased efficiency. DDR chipsets are comes in a number of speed varieties such as the pc2100, pc2700 and pc3200.
The RAM memory works at different megahertz variety. The megahertz will however be restricted by the capacity of the Front Side Bus of your Motherboard. This is one of the things that you need to take into  consideration because if your motherboard has a value lesser than that of your RAM, the capacity of your RAM will be limited by your Motherboard’s capacity.

Clean up your hard disk drive with ScanDisk:
Through normal use of your computer, files on the hard drive may become damaged, cross-linked or become dissociated with their file names. Running ScanDisk on a weekly basis can correct much of this corruption. To run ScanDisk, use the following procedures:
. Click the Start button.
. Point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click ScanDisk.
. Click the drive you want to scan, and choose either the Standard Test (Checks files and folders) or Thorough Test (performs standard test and scans disk surface for errors).
. Click Start.
. Note that Windows XP and 2000 will inform you that you cannot run scandisk till next time you start Windows. This is normal and you should say “YES” to the question asking you if you want to go ahead with this.

Create a startup or “boot” disk for your computer:
A “boot” disk performs two key functions: First, it will boot up your computer when your computer is not capable of doing so by itself. Second, it allows you to run diagnostic
programs to see what is causing the problem. To create a boot disk, follow the procedures below:
Note: You will need a blank, 1.44MB floppy disk. Any information on the disk will be erased during this procedure.
. Insert a blank floppy disk.
. Click Start.
. Point to Settings and click Control Panel.
. Click Add/Remove Programs.
. Click the Startup Disk tab.
. Click the Create Disk button.
. When finished, click OK to exit the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box.

• Insert a blank CD–R or CD–RW in your CD drive. You must have a CD–R (writable) or CD–RW (rewritable) drive. A dialog box opens, asking if you want to open a writable CD folder. Click OK.
• On the Start menu, click My Computer, and navigate to the drive and folder where the files you wish to copy are stored.
• Select the files you wish to copy, and drag/drop or copy/paste them to the open CD recording folder.
• In the left pane of the CD folder window, click Write these files to CD.
• Now you’re all set. Just remember not to copy more files to the CD than it will hold: a standard CD holds 650 MB.

Tips for Windows XP Users
Compatibility Mode
If you’re having trouble running older programs originally developed for previous versions of Windows, you’re not out of luck. Luckily for consumers, Microsoft built Compatibility Mode into XP. Compatibility Mode allows you to run a program using the shell of the original program it was developed for.
Here’s how to access a program’s Compatibility Mode in XP:
• Find the executable or program shortcut icon you’d like to run.
• Right-click the icon and select Properties.
• Click the Compatibility tab and place a checkmark next to the text labeled “Run this program in compatibility mode.”
• Select the operating system that the program was originally intended to run on.
• You may need to fine-tune the three fields under “Display Settings” if an older program requires 640×480 resolution or 256 colors.
• Click Apply.
Try starting the program after making these changes. If it still gives you trouble, try a different operating system. If the program was written for Win95 and worked fine in Win98, there’s nothing that says it still won’t work fine with Win98.

Device Driver Rollback
One of XP’s new features is the Device Driver Rollback. With this feature you finally have the option to quickly go back to a previous version of a device driver if the updated driver causes problems. When you update a driver, the old one will be saved to a special directory in Windows.
You won’t have the option to roll back a driver if you’ve never updated it. Since every device has the ability to roll back its driver, you’re going to need to access your Device Manager to do this.
Here’s how to access the Driver Rollback feature for a particular device inside the Device Manager:
• Left-click the Start menu and then select Control Panel.
• Double-click the Performance and Maintenance icon.
• Double-click the System icon.
• Click the Hardware tab.
• Click the Device Manager button to open the Device Manager.
• Expand the device menu you’d like to roll back.
• Locate the device you’d like to roll back and double-click it to bring up its properties.
• When you launch the properties for a particular device, click on the Driver tab.
• Click the button labeled “Roll Back Driver” to complete the process.