Free 7Gb Cloud Space with Microsoft SkyDrive

Microsoft has updated it's cloud offering SkyDrive, with 7Gb of free space and Apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad & Android, allowing you to sync files between all your computers

Other cloud provider offer the following free space; Applie iCloud 5Gb, Google Drive 5Gb, SugarSync 5Gb and Dropbox 2Gb


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/skydrive/download-skydrive

Outlook 2011 for Mac -Auto Archive Feature

You can automatically move mail out of your Outlook mailbox, and place it on your computer’s
hard drive using the Auto Archive feature.

Outlook 2011 has a file structure that allows for incremental backups, meaning you only have to
back-up the most recently changed files and not the whole database.

To use Auto Archive to back-up your mail:
1.  In Outlook 2011 for Mac, from the Tools menu, select “Rules”.
2.  From the Rules window, select “Exchange” and click the "+" sign to add a new rule.
NOTE: Rules are processed in order from the top of the list to the bottom. Use the arrows to
adjust the rule order.
3.  Name the Rule. (For example, “180 Day Auto Archive” or whatever you prefer).  
 4.  In the "If" area, select "Date Received" from the first list box and "is greater than…"
from the second and enter "180" in the “days old” field.
5.  In the Then section, select "Move message" from the first list box and "inbox (On My
Computer)" from the second.
NOTE: The location "My Computer" is your local computer’s copy. You can specify another
location, if necessary.
6.  Make sure the “Enabled” button is selected and click “OK”.

If you would like to apply this rule to your current mailbox:
7.  From the Message menu, select “Rules” and the rule you would like to process. (For
example, “180 Day, Auto Archive”)

NOTE: This process may take time to run initially, depending on how much mail you have in
your inbox.

Parental Control Software

Net Nanny is a product you’ve quite possibly heard of. Costing £20 for a single user license. It boasts an impressively wide range of features.

Net Nanny offers highly configurable internet filtering, and expansive instant message monitoring, scanning message content for any “red flag” phrases. The program also boasts social network monitoring, and sends parents alerts if any suspicious activity is detected on Facebook or otherwise (even in Facebook chats).

Video games can be blocked to ensure adult content isn’t experienced by youngsters, and time controls along with remote monitoring are available. Net Nanny also comes with some clever technology such as dynamic content analysis, which can intelligently block sites, for example a news website with a gory picture on it. In other words, the application is judging by the page’s actual content, not just its web address and remit.

Some users do complain that the program can get a bit carried away and block sites which don’t need to be censored, but when it comes to the kids, most parents would probably rather be safe than sorry, anyway.

Overall, it’s a thorough and well-rounded system, and represents good value for the asking price.

There’s also a mobile version of Net Nanny for Android phones. It comes with web filtering, text message monitoring and app management, along with data security and device location features. It’s slightly cheaper than the desktop version at £18, but that’s a bit of an ask for a mobile product.
http://www.netnanny.co.uk

AVG Family Safety, AVG is another name in security which most people will be familiar with. AVG’s parental control effort isn’t a free solution, however, but is cheaper than Net Nanny, offering a license which covers 3 PCs for £13.

AVG’s product, as you’d expect from a paid-for piece of software, has a host of features. As with Net Nanny, it allows parents to monitor a child’s activity on social media sites, and restrict access to chat rooms. It also has key logging capabilities, and can pick up on dodgy phrases being typed in chat rooms, notifying parents via email (or text).

The application also has a strong arm content filter with 58 categories of protection, covering all online bases, and search query monitoring on the main search engines.

Again as with Net Nanny, the usual time management facilities are available, as well as blocking of software or violent, age-inappropriate video games. And again like Net Nanny, it has stronger measures put in place against cleverer teens who might try to get around parental controls.

AVG’s effort isn’t quite as expansive a solution as Net Nanny – for example, its logging features aren’t quite as in-depth, and it lags very slightly in other areas. But then, there’s a price difference, with the AVG product being two-thirds of the asking price.

There’s also an iOS version of AVG Family Safety for the iPhone and iPad. It provides web filtering protection which works pretty well, and the best part is this app is a free download from the App store.
http://www.avg.com/gb-en/avg-family-safety

Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012

Kingsoft’s productivity suite comprises of three modules – the word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program. It’s designed to be highly compatible with Microsoft Office applications and files.

As well as impressive compatibility, the program has a relatively small footprint and is fast in terms of performance. While most folks concentrate on OpenOffice and its variants when it comes to freebie suites, this is another alternative well worth considering.

It does lack some more advanced features, however – such as VBA, macros, online updates and presentation templates. There is an option to upgrade to the paid-for version of the suite to get access to those features. .

Download the freeware version of the suite here:
http://www.kingsoftstore.com/kingsoft-office-freeware.html

Excel Easily Convert a Row to a Column & vice versa

In Excel select all the cells you wish to convert, right-click, and select copy (or simply press Ctrl+C):

Now, right-click in the cell where you want to put the data in rows, and select “Paste Special…”

Check the box at the bottom that says “Transpose”, and then click OK.

Now your data that was in columns is in rows!

This works the exact same for converting rows into columns.

Free Web-filtering services provide extra protection from malware

Getting infected is especially annoying when you thought you’d fully protected yourself by regularly updating Windows, applications, Flash, Java, and browsers — along with your antivirus software.

If you’re wondering what else you could possibly do (short of pulling your connection to the Internet), I recommend adding Web-filtering services offered by DNS providers.

DNS providers offer free, personal Web filtering

Whenever your PC connects to an ISP, the company updates your gateway/router with the information it needs to connect with the ISP’s Domain Name Services (DNS) servers.

Setting up is relatively easy, as long as you can access your operating system’s network properties or your router’s setup utility.
Symantec’s Norton ConnectSafe, which uses DNS-based filtering to block suspect sites. Like most content-filtering services, ConnectSafe uses site categorization, such as pornography, crime, gambling, and so forth. The easy-to-set-up service has three levels of filtering:

• Policy 1: This base-level filtering blocks malware, phishing sites, scam sites, and Web proxies. For this level, set your DNS entries to 192.153.192.40 and 198.153.194.40.
  
• Policy 2: Medium filtering adds pornography blocking. Set your DNS to 198.153.192.50 and 198.153.194.50.
  
• Policy 3: This stringent filtering blocks a host of sites that Norton ConnectSafe deems not family-friendly, filtering for mature content and other family-unfriendly content. To choose this filtering, use 198.153.192.60 and 198.153.194.60
  

Norton ConnectSafe does not provide custom white/black listings. And with just filtering by category, there’s no guarantee that all objectionable sites or content will be blocked. Also, using the strongest filtering setting might block sites you want to visit or that aren’t objectionable to you. Before committing to ConnectSafe, test that the filtering isn’t too restrictive.

Another consideration: If you change DNS settings in Windows, it applies only to that machine. If you change settings in a router, it applies to all systems that connect to the Internet through that router.

Web/content filtering for small businesses

For now, Norton DNS for Business is still free. DynDNS also offers free filtering for small businesses.

Most likely, these companies use the filtering process to gather information they can apply to their core business offerings. Symantec, for example, sees what websites customers visit. As noted on its privacy policy page, any data it might collect from site visits is discarded after two days. (It cannot view content sent over SSL connections.)

It might be cause for concern that an entity providing security solutions could see the sites you surf to. However, most — if not all — sensitive information should travel over SSL connections.
I’m convinced that using filtering can help keep home and small-business computers free of rogue antivirus and other malware posted on malicious websites. With so many threats coming from browser use, I see this as a security win — and not a privacy issue.