Dial-Up Service

McLennan Community College does not offer Student Dial-up Internet access.

Waco, Texas – Internet Service Providers (ISP):

Heart of Texas Internet Central Link Internet

McLennan Community College does not endorse any of these providers. This information is intended solely as a convenient reference for prospective and current McLennan Community College students. Please be aware that all arrangements for these services must be between you, the customer, and the ISP.

Blank screen when accessing Web Advisor

• When accessing Web Advisor you might end up with a blank page. To fix this, you need to clear the internet cache and delete all cookies. If you are running a personal firewall on your computer (Zone Alarm, Norton Personal Firewall), you need to disable the popup blocker so that the browser will display the page correctly. If that doesn't work, you need to disable your firewall, when accessing Web Advisor.

What are some shortcut keys to use in Internet Explorer?

How do I empty my temporary internet files?

• In Microsoft Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu, and then select Internet Options.
• On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet files section, click Delete Files.
• Click OK.

How do I delete my History

• In Microsoft Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu, and then select Internet Options.
• On the General tab, in the History section, click Clear History.
• Click OK.

***You can also change the number of days to keep pages in your history.

Narrowing your Internet Search

•  Checking the sites the search engine returned will automatically narrow your search! Since many of the search engines do not regularly update their links, some of the sites they return will no longer be available.

•  Almost all of the search engines feature a link to an "advanced search," with instructions on how to combine or eliminate terms.

•  Most of the search engines rank the occurrence of terms so that, if you type in college scholarship, you will get the pages with the most matches on both of those terms first. Usually, you will see a percentage, indicating how closely the words on the page match your search terms.

•  Some of the search engines use OR as a default. This means that you will get a list of sites that include one of any of the terms you used to search. If you search for blue moon, you will get a list of sites for blue suede shoes, moon pies, etc.

•  To retrieve sites with all the terms you have entered, try AND or +. To eliminate terms, try NOT or -. To search for a phrase, try WITH or put quotation marks around it ("blue moon").

•  Most of the search engines will ignore and, not, with, adj in the lowercase.

•  Vary your vocabulary. Try cyan, azure, or cornflower instead of blue.

•  Vary your spelling. The Internet is a global network, so, to search on the word color, try color and colour, and maybe even Farbe or couleur.

•  Truncate your words, usually with a * (for instance, color* will turn up coloring, colors, colorized).

Citing Internet Resources

• List the author's name, if it is given.
• List the title of the page.
• List the URL.
• Indicate the date you visited the page (Web pages often do not list the date they were created or updated, so this is a way of indicating how current the information may be).
• For more specific information, refer to online style guides for citing electronic sources.
• Columbia Guide to Online Style (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html).
• SUNY-Binghamton's excellent guide to Citing Electronic Resources (http://library.lib.binghamton.edu/search/citing.html)

Internet Searching Strategies, http://www.rice.edu/fondren/tmp/netguides/strategies.html, Oct. 19, 2005.

What is Spyware?

Spyware covers a broad category of malicious software designed to take over and/or damage a computer's operation without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate user. While the term taken literally suggests software that secretly monitors the user.

Spyware differs from viruses and worms in that it does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware - by design - exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

How to prevent Spyware?

1. Update your Windows software
2. Adjust your Internet Explorer security settings
   • You can adjust your Internet Explorer Web browser's security settings to determine how much—or how little—information you are willing to accept
     from a Web site. Microsoft recommends that you set the security settings
     for the Internet zone to Medium or higher. To view your current Internet Explorer security settings:
     • In Internet Explorer, click Tools and then click Internet Options
     • Select the Security tab.
3. Use a firewall
4. Surf and download more safely
• Only download programs from Web sites you trust. If you're not sure
  whether to trust a program you are considering downloading, ask a knowledgeable friend or enter the name of the program into your
  favorite search engine to see if anyone else has reported that it
  contains spyware.
• Read all security warnings, license agreements, and privacy statements
  associated with any software you download.
• Never click "agree" or "OK" to close a window. Instead, click the
  red "x" in the corner of the window or press the Alt + F4 buttons
  on your keyboard to close a window.
• Be wary of popular "free" music and movie file-sharing programs, and
  be sure you clearly understand all of the software packaged with those
  programs.
5. Download and install anti-spyware protection.
   • Microsoft currently offers anti-spyware beta software for download; more information is available on the Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) site.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/spywareprevent.mspx

How can I get rid of Spyware?

Microsoft currently offers anti-spyware beta software for download; more information is available on the Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) site.

Ad-Aware also offers anti-spyware software for download. It is for personal use only. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/