When most people think of the Internet, they think about sending email (Chapter 12) and surfing the Web (Chapter 13). But those aren’t the only things you can do with a PC and an Internet connection. This chapter covers some of the many fringe benefits you get with an Internet-connected PC: sending and receiving faxes, gambling online, playing games against others, printing directions for your next road trip, sending greeting cards, sending and receiving instant messages, creating and maintaining your own Web site, and dialing up long-distance friends with the Web’s newest darling, Internet-based phone calls.
If your PC or laptop includes a dial-up modem (Section 11.2.2)—and almost all of them do—here’s a secret: almost all dial-up modems can send and receive faxes. That’s right, folks stuck with dial-up Internet connections can finally do something that broadband modems can’t.
This section explains how to dust off Windows XP’s free fax software, send and receive your own faxes, and delete the junk faxes that appear in your fax’s Inbox.
Tip
No dial-up modem? No phone line? No problem. You can still fax through eFax (http://www.efax.com) or FaxAway (http://www.faxaway.com). Both sites let you receive a limited number of faxes for free. The services give you a local or toll-free fax number; any faxes to that number are then automatically routed to your email account. To send a fax, a perk available for an extra fee, email a document or scanned image to your fax account. (Both services recognize a wide variety of popular document types, including Word and most spreadsheets.) The service reads the file, and then faxes it to the recipient. Combine one of these fax services with a Web-based email account (Section 12.1.4.1) to create a personalized fax machine accessible from any Internet-connected PC.
To send and receive faxes with Windows XP, you need three things:
A fax modem. Most PCs and laptops built in the last five years come with a dial-up modem that can sling faxes as well as data. If you’re already able to connect to the Internet using a dial-up account, your modem’s already connected to the phone line and ready to go. And if you’re using broadband, there’s certainly nothing wrong with connecting your dial-up modem to the phone line; the two modems will coexist peacefully without mucking about with each other’s settings.
If your dial-up modem isn’t connected, plug a telephone cord between the modem’s jack and the phone jack in your wall (Section 1.8.4). Some modems come with two jacks—plug a telephone into one jack for convenience, and plug the phone line (from the wall) into the other to connect to the phone system. If your modem’s jacks aren’t labeled, use the trusty trial-and-error method to figure out which plug goes where; you won’t harm any phone lines or connections in the process.
No dial-up modem? Broadband modems can’t send faxes, although you can use eFax or FaxAway, as described in the tip above. Some VoIP systems (Section C.7.4)—the miracle gadgets that let you make free long-distance calls over the Internet—can send and receive faxes. And most PCs and laptops still include a dial-up modem, even if you’re not currently putting it to use.
A phone line. You need a working land line; cell phones won’t work. If you’re planning on sending and receiving faxes daily, invest in a second phone line.
Warning
The digital phone lines used in some offices and hotels can damage your modem. Before faxing in a hotel, ask the operator if the phone line’s digital; if it is, ask where you can find a standard phone jack—a standard analog phone connection may be provided on the side of the phone in your room. If you fax a lot with your laptop, protect your laptop by buying a digital line tester/converter from LaptopTravel (http://www.laptoptravel.com) or a similar store.
Windows XP’s fax program. Windows XP’s built-in fax program pulls a rabbit out of a hat by letting you fax anything you can print. To fax any document from any program, just call up the Print window (File → Print), choose the fax program as your printer, and then click the Print button.
Finding the fax program in Windows XP Professional takes a bit of menu diving (go to Start → All Programs → Accessories → Communications → Fax—Fax Console). Finding the fax program in Windows XP Home is even more difficult, however, because Microsoft left it out of the installation process. Instead, Microsoft placed the program inside a secret folder on the Windows XP Home Edition CD. Follow these steps to install the fax program:
Start the Windows Components Wizard (Start → Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs → Add/Remove Windows Components).
The Add/Remove Windows Components window appears, letting you install any missing parts of Windows or dump parts you no longer use. (Many people find Windows Messenger a prime candidate for removal.)
Turn on Fax Services from the list of Windows Components and then click Next to install the program.
Here’s where it gets tricky. If a Files Needed window appears and asks for your Windows XP Home Edition CD-ROM you need to slip in a Full or Upgrade retail version of the Windows XP CD. If you have that particular CD, insert it, click OK, and the program installation finishes after the wizard fetches the necessary files.
Unfortunately, PCs that came with Windows XP preinstalled rarely come with this particular CD. Instead, most PC vendors include only a Recover or Reinstall CD, which isn’t the same thing. Some nice vendors hide the fax program on your hard drive, so instead of inserting a CD, click Browse from the Files Needed window, and navigate to the c:windowsi386 folder. If you’re lucky, the installation program finds and installs the fax program.
If your vendor doesn’t care about karma, you’re left out of Windows XP’s private faxing club. However, you can still send faxes through the Internet with one of the two fax services described in the tip at the beginning of this section. Or, you can drop by a computer store to pick up a specialized fax program like Symantec’s WinFax Pro.
Setting up the fax program is normally a one-time thing. After that, you need fire it up only to make changes—changing your last name after a quick trip to Vegas, for instance, or tweaking one of your initial settings. Whether setting it up for the first time or changing a setting, follow these steps to set up the fax program on your PC:
Launch the Fax Console.
Go to Start → All Programs → Accessories → Communications → Fax → Fax Console.
Start the Fax Configuration Wizard by selecting Tools → Configure Fax.
The wizard sends you on a journey of seven screens: polite welcoming and closing screens that sandwich five other screens that each ask you to enter a bit of information and click Next:
Sender information. The information you type into these fields—name, address, phone number, email address, company, title, and more—will appear on every cover letter you send. To avoid telling your life story to the plumber, stick to the basics: your name and fax number. Then you can tailor the specifics for each fax you send.
Device for sending/receiving faxes. Choose the only modem listed here, since you most likely have only one fax modem. (Spammers with a flock of fax modems can select their primary workhorse.) Then turn on Enable Send, so you can send faxes. Give some thought before turning on the Enable Receive option; pick from one of two strategies depending on whether your PC has its own phone line or shares your voice line.
Your PC has its own dedicated line. Turn on Enable Receive and select “Automatically answer after 1 ring.” (You can set the number of rings anywhere from 1 to 99.) Setting it to one ring tells your PC to answer every incoming fax quickly, receiving it in the background as you work uninterrupted. That gives you the benefit of never missing that important-but-unexpected fax. You may receive a lot of junk faxes this way, but they don’t waste paper, and they’re easily deleted.
Your PC shares your voice line. Turn off Enable Receive. Later, when you expect an incoming fax, turn it back on by rerunning the Fax Configuration Wizard. Or, if you spend lots of time at your PC, turn on Enable Receive, but select Manual Answer: Your PC then informs you whenever the line rings, as shown in Figure C-1, and waits for your decision: to answer the phone or ignore it. When you pick up the phone and hear a friend, ignore the message, and the “The line is ringing” message fades away. But if you hear the whine of an incoming fax through your phone, click the message to pass the call to your fax machine.
Figure C-1. Your fax can share your voice line, if you choose. When the phone rings, Windows displays this message, letting you first answer the phone and decide whether or not to pass the call to the fax machine. If the call turns out to be an incoming fax, just click anywhere in the message balloon, and Windows deploys the fax program to handle things. Another option is to tell the fax program to answer automatically if you haven’t picked up the phone after five rings. That gives you plenty of time to answer the phone, but still lets the fax machine grab calls when you’re not home.
Transmitting Subscriber Identification (TSID). This obfuscation simply means to enter your own fax number, which subsequently appears atop every faxed page you send. To keep your fax number private, especially useful when sharing your voice line, leave this line blank and pretend you don’t know that this omission may be illegal in some areas.
Called Subscriber Identification (CSID). This screen also asks you to enter your own fax number. When somebody’s fax machine connects with yours, they see this number so they can know whether they’ve reached the right number. Again, leaving this blank preserves your privacy, with the same legal caveats mentioned above.
Routing Options. Most people ignore these two options. First, if you’d like your PC to print every incoming fax upon arrival, turn on the “Print it on” checkbox, and then select your printer. Return here to turn it off when you tire of printing every junk fax. The other option, “Store a copy in a folder,” saves a copy of every received fax in a folder of your choice. Since a copy of every fax always appears in your Inbox, few people need this second copy.
The wizard ends with a summary of your chosen settings. If anything looks suspicious, click the Back button to change the setting. Otherwise, click Finish to end the job.
Receiving faxes doesn’t require any effort on your part. When somebody sends a fax to your phone number, your PC automatically receives the fax, as shown in Figure C-2. If it doesn’t answer, you may not have turned on the Enable Receive option, covered in the previous section.
Figure C-2. Top: When a fax machine calls your fax number, your sound card makes a ringing noise and your PC answers. The fax program automatically jumps into action, announcing the arrival of a fax and displaying its sender; in this case, “Mortgage.” Bottom: When the fax arrives, the window disappears, and the “New fax received” message appears above the little fax machine icon in your taskbar. Click either the message or the fax icon to see your newly received fax waiting in the Inbox of the Fax Console.
When your PC finishes receiving the fax, it heralds the arrival with a lively “ta-da” sound. To view the fax, along with any others you’ve received, open the Fax Console (Start → All Programs → Accessories → Communications → Fax → Fax Console). Faxes live in folders, similar to the way that Outlook Express (Section 12.4.4) sorts your email. Received faxes fall into your Inbox, outgoing faxes camp in your Outbox until sent, and the Sent Items folder contains copies of each fax you send.
To view any fax, double-click it; Windows XP’s Picture and Fax Viewer (Section 5.4.2) tosses it onto the screen, letting you view it like a digital photo.
Tip
When a viewed fax contains two or more pages, the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer displays the number “1” on its row of buttons. Click the “1,” and a drop-down menu reveals the fax’s other page numbers, letting you quickly jump to any page number. To flip forward or backward through that fax’s many pages, click the little left or right blue arrows straddling the number “1.”
To view, delete, email, or print any fax in one of the Fax Console’s folders, right-click the fax’s name; then choose the option you want from the shortcut menu that appears. (Choosing Save As lets you save the fax as a TIF file (Section 6.4) in the folder of your choice, which is useful for making a quick backup.)
Tip
When your PC answers the phone and detects a fax machine on the other end, it sends you the message box shown in the top of Figure C-2, after which you get to hear the screeching sound made by the two fax machines as they try to connect. If you hear the other fax machine hang up before the two machines mate, feel free to click the box’s Disconnect button so you don’t have to listen to the dial tone (which drones on until your fax modem finally hangs up).
Sending faxes through Windows XP isn’t going to win Microsoft any awards from the Intuitive Product Design Society. For example, opening the fax program from the Start menu lets you send only a cover letter with nothing attached, handy for faxing short messages, but not when you need to fax a document. Instead of going through the Start menu to fax a document, you need to treat the fax as a printer and “print to it.” Follow these steps to send a document from a folder or a program on your PC to any fax machine.
Note
Although a PC can send faxes, it doesn’t behave like a regular fax machine since it can’t easily accept the usual faxed items—newspaper and magazine clippings, restaurant menus, receipts, handwritten notes, and other paperbound bits of life. Solve that problem by adding a scanner to your PC (Section 6.1).
Open the document you want to fax in a program suitable for displaying it, and then choose File → Print.
To fax a document loaded in Microsoft Word, for instance, choose File → Print. (It’s always a good idea to save your work [File → Save] before faxing it.)
Tip
The time-saving trick of right-clicking a document and choosing Print doesn’t work here; that only sends the program to your default printer, which is almost always your real printer. But if you fax more than you print, feel free to make your fax your default printer (Section 4.3). That gives you the luxury of right-clicking a document and choosing Print to quickly fax it.
Select Fax as your printer, and then click Print.
The Send Fax Wizard appears, asking for details about these topics.
Recipient Information. Enter the recipient’s name and fax number. If she’s listed in your Windows Address Book—the same collection of addresses used by Outlook Express—click Address Book and double-click her name. (Hold down Ctrl and click multiple names to select several recipients.) The fax program scoops the selected names and fax numbers and places each one on the recipient list.
Preparing the Cover Page. When you’re just sending something to a friend who’s expecting your fax, skip the cover sheet by turning off “Select a cover page template with the following information.” But if you’re faxing to somebody at an office, turn on that cover page option, add the recipient’s name, and write a short description of your fax.
Schedule. Most faxes are usually rush jobs, warranting a click of “Now” in the “When do you want to send this fax?” area. But if you’re faxing cross country, choose “When discount rates apply” or schedule it to be sent during the wee hours. (Remember to leave your PC or laptop turned on, though, so it can send your fax.)
Preview. Since the fax converts everything to shades of gray, click the Preview button to make sure it’s still legible. If it is, click Finish, and your PC sends the fax according to the chosen schedule: now or later.
Note
You can share a printer on a network, letting any PC print to it. But even though Windows treats the fax as a printer, you can’t share a fax modem on a network.
While your PC sends the fax in the background, feel free to work on other tasks. Unlike fax machines, your PC easily juggles several tasks.
In the past, bypassing any U.S. law was simple: move to a country where those laws don’t apply. But since the Internet spreads its electronic tentacles worldwide, which country’s laws apply? That’s the multimillion dollar question facing online gambling sites (which are illegal in the U.S.), like the online poker game shown in Figure C-3.
Figure C-3. Based in Gibraltar and out of reach of U.S. laws, a company called PartyGaming (http://www.partygaming.com) lets Internet visitors play poker for cash on sites like PartyPoker (http://www.partypoker.com), shown here. PartyGaming, the world’s largest online poker company, went public on the London Stock Exchange in July, 2005. In its filings, PartyGaming reported a profit of $125 million for the first quarter of 2005; it draws more than 80 percent of its income from U.S. gamblers.
The U.S. Justice Department points to the Wire Communications Act of 1961, which outlaws betting over the telephone. But does a broadband connection remain legal for betting? And since gambling sites traditionally run from countries like Costa Rica, where gambling’s legal, the legal waters become cloudier. Throw in the fact that some state laws exempt poker from gambling statutes—viewing it as a game of skill rather than chance—and the already murky legal waters become black as squid ink.
As a result, online poker sites serve nearly two million people worldwide each month, according to PokerPulse (http://www.pokerpulse.com), a Web site claiming to track the online gaming industry. Players visit an online poker site, hand over their credit card number, and start playing cards, adding or subtracting dollars to their account with each hand.
Before becoming too attached to online poker sites, consider that the person sitting across from you at the table may not actually be a person. Some players send in poker “bots” (like “WinHoldEm;” see http://www.winholdem.net), which mimic real players, employing statistical analysis to bump the odds in their owner’s favor. Just as computers can now beat the vast majority of chess players, they can also beat most poker players, considerably reducing the thrill of the game.
These sites carry more information about online gambling, the law, and the best online poker sites:
Gambling Law U.S. Web site (http://www.gambling-law-us.com). Before dropping your credit card on the virtual table, visit Chuck Humphrey’s site. A longtime poker-playing attorney, Humphrey analyzes the complex online gambling laws on both state and federal levels.
Play Winning Poker (http://www.playwinningpoker.com). Brush up on your poker skills here, with tips, tutorials, and strategy advice, as well as links to online poker sites.
Net Bet (http://www.netbet.org). Net Bet answers a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions about online betting, from “How do I start playing?” to “How can I gamble now that I’ve been blacklisted at a casino?” The site ranks online casinos by popularity and posts short reviews, handy when trying to choose between Party Poker, Pacific Poker, Poker Room, Inter Poker, and Poker Stars.
Casino City (http://casinocity.com). This directory ranks online casinos, poker rooms, bingo halls, sports books, and lotteries by popularity.
After dominating the search engine wars, Google made huge inroads into email (Section 12.1.4.1), and offered popular software for blogging and photo management (Section 5.4.1). Now, Google’s eyeing even more territories by charting the earth itself. Google Maps (http://maps.google.com), shown in Figure C-4, lays out all the streets in the United States and Great Britain. The service even comes with a satellite view for a high-flying bird’s eye look at the terrain.
But Google Maps is more than just a Web site. Google released the map’s API (Application Programming Interface)—a set of simplified rules for manipulating the maps—that help programmers mesh Google’s maps with other Web sites to create mixtures of the two sites, shown in Figure C-4. Don’t be surprised when you spot Google’s maps appearing in places besides Google’s own Web site.
If you’re not a programmer, Google Maps’ most-used feature is probably the way Google plots out a map between your location and your destination, offering detailed driving instructions and printing them all out to create a handy reference for driving to and through unfamiliar territories. Plus, Google’s maps are fun to explore without moving from your desk. The next two sections explain how to put Google’s maps to work when plotting trips or just plain sight-seeing.
When your car doesn’t have a GPS navigation system in the dashboard, Google Maps could be the next best thing—and it costs a lot less. To create customized, turn-by-turn directions from your doorstop to your destination, follow the steps dicusssed next.
Figure C-4. Google lets programmers mesh its maps with other sites, allowing for innovative online services. For instance, this site (http://www.housingmaps.com) mixes real estate listings from Craig’s List (craigslist.com) with Google Maps to combine the best of both. You can browse listings by clicking on a physical location, letting you weed out the losers before meeting the realtors. Switch to Satellite view by clicking the Satellite button. Then zoom in by dragging the slider upwards to view details that maps can’t show: a specific home’s distance from neighboring homes, for instance, and whether it’s sitting next to a canyon, atop a mountain, or next to a gas station.
Visit Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) and then click the Directions link at the top of the browser window.
Google Maps displays an image of the United States, complete with names of states and major cities.
Fill out the “Start address” and “End address” boxes.
When traveling within your own city, enter the exact addresses of your starting point and destination. But when driving from one city to another, Google lets you cheat a little—to map out your cross-country drive, for instance, type “Los Angeles, CA” as your starting address and “New York, NY” as your destination.
Click Search.
Google calculates the trip, lists your journey’s travel distance, time required, and instructions on when to make each turn. Click Print for a handy copy to leave on your dashboard.
Plotting long trips on maps eventually turns awkward, forcing you to either refold the map or flip the pages of the guide book to see the next part of the trip. Google’s maps work much more easily: just drag the map in the direction of the destination you want to see. For instance, if you’re looking at New York City, drag the map a bit to the right and New Jersey comes into view; drag to the left and Long Island appears. One quick drag from left to right lets you move from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast.
To zoom in on a particularly interesting area—your own home, for instance—double-click its general location:.Google shifts the map’s view, placing that area in the center. Then drag the slider, a vertical bar along the map’s upper-left edge. Sliding the bar upward zooms the map in for close-ups; sliding downward zooms out, letting you see more outlying areas.
For a little practice in manipulating Google’s maps, visit Google Sightseeing (http://www.googlesightseeing.com). Aimed at desk chair tourists, the site displays links to zoomed-in satellite photos of sights like the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch, whales, Area 51, Chernobyl, and other interesting objects.
On the more practical side, call up Google maps to locate things close to a particular location, which is great for scouting out a vacation destination’s resources. Type free wifi and a zip code, for instance, and Google maps that region, pinpointing each place with wireless Internet access (Section 11.1.1). Similarly, typing pizza 10001 shows all the pizza joints in lower Manhattan.
When it comes to expressing goodwill, few things speak more eloquently than a short, handwritten note. But when you’ve misplaced the calligraphy set, or need to deliver a missive to Mom before the clock strikes twelve, an online greeting card works in a pinch. Most of the big names in cards will email a virtual greeting card, shown in Figure C-5, to anybody’s Inbox.
Most sites offer animated cards for all the traditional holidays, as well as borderline events like “Lefthander’s Day,” “National Mentoring Month,” and “Administrative Professionals Day.” To send a card, drop by the site (see below for some suggestions), select your occasion, and select one of the many cards commemorating that particular day. After previewing the animated greeting, type in a personalized message, and enter the email address of yourself and the recipient.
Figure C-5. Most online greeting card sites like Hallmark.com let you send a card immediately, or schedule delivery days in advance, letting you set up a year’s worth of birthday greetings in one whirlwind afternoon.
A Web link arrives at the recipient’s mailbox a few minutes later; the recipient clicks the link to visit the site and view their personalized card.
Note
Most sites rely on Macromedia Flash software (Section 13.1.2.6) for displaying animations. Most PCs have Flash already installed; if not, you and the recipient need to click a link to install it—a situation now exploited by Internet thieves to lure visitors into installing viruses onto their PCs. If you have doubts about a card invitation you’ve received, email the card’s sender to make sure it’s legitimate. Never open cards sent from an email address you don’t recognize.
Visitors can send free cards from the following sites; some also offer subscription plans for access to fancier cards. (Unlike the traditional, paper-based card business, the Web sites don’t sell cards individually.)
Blue Mountain (http://www.bluemountain.com)
American Greetings (http://www.americangreetings.com)
Hallmark (http://www.hallmark.com)
123 Greetings (http://www.123greetings.com)
Instant messaging programs, shown in Figure C-6, work like email, but much more, well, instantly. You type a short message on your PC’s instant messaging program, click a button, and your words pop up on your friend’s screen, whether he lives in Paris or works in the cubicle next door.
Figure C-6. You can’t send instant messages between instant messenger programs made by competing companies like America Online (left) and Microsoft (right), so many people end up with both programs on their desktop. Both work similarly, displaying your list of friends and whether they’re currently online and able to chat.
Some people love instant messaging; others find it too casual and intrusive. Love it or hate it, instant messaging has attracted more than 400 million people for several reasons.
First, it’s free, which is always a big plus. Also, it lets you know at a glance who among your friends are currently sitting at their PCs, letting you fire off a quick message and avoid telephone tag. It’s a multitasker’s dream, letting you simultaneously hold several instant messaging conversations while talking on the phone and motioning to coworkers to not drink all the coffee.
Although instant messenger programs started as a way to swap text messages, they’ve expanded their powers considerably, letting people swap files, as well. Strap on a headset (Section 7.2.1) or add a microphone to your PC (Section 7.2.1), and you can talk with your friends too. Connect a small Web cam to your PC (Section 5.11) to create the videophone that comic books have promised us for years.
Unfortunately, the simple concept of instant messaging turned into a complicated mess: different companies released their own instant messaging programs that didn’t work with their competitor’s programs. With that in mind, here’s the breakdown on the biggest instant messaging programs.
Microsoft’s Windows Messenger (built-in to Windows XP). Windows Messenger comes with Windows XP, so it doesn’t require installation. It sends messages through Microsoft’s .NET service, so it can also send messages to Microsoft’s MSN Messenger, described next.
Microsoft’s MSN Messenger (http://messenger.msn.com). This looks and feels much like Windows Messenger, but runs on any version of Windows. MSN Messenger can talk with Windows Messenger, and vice versa, so you can install either program; you needn’t install both.
AOL Instant Messenger (http://www.aim.com). America Online’s instant messenger, known more commonly as AIM, grew so popular that America Online now lets anybody—even people who don’t subscribe to AOL, install it. AIM talks only to other AIM owners and Apple’s iChat program.
Yahoo (http://messenger.yahoo.com). Yahoo’s instant messenger doesn’t attract as much of an audience as the other big players, but it works very similarly to the three listed above. It won’t talk to anything but other versions of Yahoo instant messenger.
Google Talk (http://www.google.com/talk). The newest messenger service, Google Talk communicates only with other Google Talk programs, and members must have a Gmail address (Section 12.1.4.1). But like everything Google makes, it’s worth keeping an eye on.
So, which instant messaging program should you use? That depends entirely upon on whom you want to chat with—you and your friend both need the same messenger program to communicate. The simplest solution is for you and your friends to agree on the same messenger. But if you agree to disagree, you can always run several messengers simultaneously on your PC. That lets you talk to everybody.
Tip
If you’re a fanatic about instant messaging, but can’t get all your friends onto one service and don’t want all the clutter of three IM clients on your desktop, try Trillian from Cerulean Studios (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com). Trillian lets you talk to folks who use AIM, ICQ (a play on the words, “I seek you”), MSN/Windows Messenger, and Yahoo IM—all in the same window.
Once installed, every messenger program runs from the Start menu’s All Programs area. The rest of this section describes how to chat with friends through the two main messaging contenders: Microsoft’s Windows Messenger and AOL’s Instant Messenger.
Note
Windows XP also contains a service—a piece of software running in the background—called Messenger Service. Unrelated to instant messengers, it’s meant for network administrators to send messages to PCs on a large network, letting people know about system shutdowns and other events. Unfortunately, some Internet vandals wrote programs to spam messages to everybody on the Web, and even to shut down their PCs. To protect your PC from rogue Messenger Service commands, turn on Windows XP’s built-in firewall (Section 15.7.3).
Instant messaging programs don’t let people send messages to or receive messages from strangers, so don’t worry about polishing your bar talk. Instead, the programs banish both bad guys and spam by restricting messages to your existing circle of friends. You can enter new friends into your IM circle only with their approval, and vice versa.
Because of this security, your newly installed instant messenger program simply sits on your desktop until you begin adding friends. Microsoft’s twin messengers refer to friends as “contacts;” America Online’s messenger calls them “buddies.”
No matter what they’re called, be careful whom you add to your circle of online friends. Instant messaging programs constantly broadcast whether you’re at your PC or have stepped away—a bit of information you may not want to share with your boss. To tailor your privacy veil in Windows Messenger, choose Tools →Option, and then click the Privacy tab. In AIM, choose My AIM → Edit Options → Edit Preferences → Privacy.
To add friends in Windows Messenger, choose Tools → Add a Contact. You can add a friend in any of three ways: using their sign-in name or email address, or letting Messenger search for them by name.
Sign-in name. A sign-in name is really just a user name, like the user names you must create for any other account on the Web. If you already know that person’s sign-in name for Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger, type it in here to add them to your Contacts.
E-mail address. If you know your friend’s email address only, be aware of one thing: Microsoft’s messenger adds only people with a .NET Passport email address, meaning people who’ve been added to Microsoft’s vast Passport database. (If they have an email address from Hotmail or MSN, they’re fine.)
If Microsoft doesn’t find your friend’s email address in its .NET Passport database, Microsoft offers to send your friend a message, prodding them into signing up for a .NET Passport account. If your friend refuses, you’re stuck. Switch to your friend’s messaging program. Plenty of people run several messaging programs simultaneously.
Search. Don’t bother with this one. It won’t search your entire Outlook Express address book; it won’t find many people by name, either, because most people decline to be listed.
Windows Messenger sends you a pop-up message whenever somebody adds you to their Contact list; it does the same for your friends when you add them to yours, letting either of you stop the transaction.
Installing AOL’s Messenger software (http://www.aim.com) requires setting up an AIM account, just as you must create accounts for many other Web sites. Creating an account really means creating a ScreenName—a one-word nickname—to identify you on the AIM service. That’s quite a challenge, actually, because several hundred million people have beat you to it—they’ve snapped up all the good names. Remember your screen name, since your friends need it to add you to their Buddies list.
Adding friends to your Buddy List is as simple as typing in their screen names: choose My AIM → Setup Buddy List → Add Buddy, and start typing. If you don’t know their screen name, though, it’s time to pick up the phone or send them an email. So much for instant communication.
Once you’ve stocked your messenger program with people, it’s easy to send them messages, files, or videos—if they’re online, which is something that’s easy to check. All messenger programs constantly keep track of who’s sitting at their PC and list that person’s status next to their name: Online, Busy, Be Right Back, Away, and similar descriptions.
To send a message to an online friend in any messaging program, double-click his name to summon the message window. Type in your message and press Enter; your friend immediately receives your message, and the conversation begins (Figure C-7).
Once you’ve connected to a friend in Windows Messenger, you can also send him files, your voice, or video from your Webcam on an invitation basis. You choose what you want to send from your PC; when you click the Send button, the other person receives a message asking for approval. If he accepts your gift, the transfer begins.
Be careful when receiving files or video unless you know that person very well. They could be sending you a virus or something you really don’t want to view.
Figure C-7. Top: After double-clicking a friend’s name on the Contact list (see Figure C-6), start typing your message, which you’ll initially see in the message window’s bottom half. Middle: When you press Enter, your friend receives a little pop-up message in his screen’s bottom corner. Your friend clicks the pop-up message, and then his instant messenger window appears so he can type a response. Bottom: You and your friend always type in the bottom halves of your message box; both sides of the conversation spread out in the message window’s top half.
Sending files. To send a file in Windows Messenger, choose File → Send a File or Photo, and select a file to send. If the other person accepts the transfer, the file begins moving to his PC. To send a file in AOL Messenger, choose File → Send File.
Sending video. If you and your friend have Webcams (Section 5.11) attached to your PCs, you can see each other while typing; add a microphone to create a videophone. In Windows Messenger, choose Actions → Start Camera; in AOL Messenger, choose People → Open Video. In either case, your messenger sends a message to the other person, asking for permission. If he clicks Accept, he’ll see the spot at which your camera’s currently aimed.
Instead of seeing the transferred files or video, you may see a message complaining about a “firewall,” a security blanket that protects your PC from unsolicited communication. That means the file and video are being blocked by either a firewall or, if you have a home network, your network’s router. You can cure the problem by “opening ports” on the firewall (Section 15.7.3) or turning on UPnP (Universal Plug ‘n’ Play) on your router (Section 14.11.4).
Continuing its campaign to move people from their TVs to their PCs, the Internet offers evermore enticing online games where strangers meet to engage in everything from winning a quick game of checkers to exploring and even mastering virtual worlds.
For a first taste of online gaming, start with Windows XP’s stable of built-in games: Backgammon, Checkers, Hearts, Reversi, and Spades. Open any game (Start → All Programs → Games), and your PC connects to the Internet. An opponent soon appears, and the action begins, as shown in Figure C-8.
Windows XP’s built-in games let you grow accustomed to the odd feeling of playing against complete strangers online, as there’s no way to play against a friend. But the built-in games are only the first layer in a huge online gaming world. At their most minimal, these games feature two people shooting a free game of online pool; at their most elaborate, thousands of people meet to create online cultures as they explore detailed, graphics-rich worlds.
Online games appeal to gamers who’ve grown tired of “normal” games, where, once you figure out how to spin the snowboarder three times during the jump, it’s all over. Online games, by contrast, add a human element, keeping things lively and adding a true competitive spirit. Plus, some online games constantly change, adding more forests to explore, new galaxies to conquer, and ever-present monthly fees to fund the endeavor.
Online gaming takes several forms, including arcade games, simulation games, role-playing games, and strategy games.
Figure C-8. Windows XP includes several built-in Internet games, including Internet Checkers. All of them let you connect to the Internet and begin playing immediately against a faceless, nameless opponent drawn randomly from a pool of other players. The games allow for chat between players, but not in the traditional sense: players choose from a handful of polite messages like, “Be right back,” and “Good move.” This keeps the games safe for children, but doesn’t allow much in the way of social interaction.
Arcade games let you compete against others on a small scale. Players compete one-on-one playing games like chess, or in small groups playing cards. Since the games are small, you don’t need to download a program. Instead, you play online directly through your Web browser. Visit any of the sites listed below, click the link, and the game appears onscreen.
Most online skill games pop up in your browser as soon as you visit the site, and many require a Flash plug-in (Section 13.1.2.6) to display the graphics onscreen. These games are a big step up from Windows XP’s built-in sanitized games, letting players chat as much as they like while playing cards, for instance, or shooting pool.
Yahoo, for instance, offers several dozen free online games that typically draw more than 100,000 players at any given time who gather to play cards, board games, solve puzzles and word games, or play simulation games like bowling or pool.
To play, visit Yahoo’s game section (http://www.games.yahoo.com) and choose your game. (You need a free Yahoo account to play.) When you sign in, Yahoo lists the active matches, as well as the waiting players for each match. From there, you can either join an existing game or start a new game and let waiting players join.
The Open Directory Project’s Browser Based Video Games section (http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Browser_Based) lists more than 300 online games playable against others directly from your Internet browser. There’s nothing to buy, nothing to download, and nothing to lose except time and, perhaps, your pride.
Stepping into a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) lets players step out of their own lives, putting aside their 9-to-5 jobs and creating their own character in an imaginary setting. Since you can choose your character’s race, sex, social class, and even species, an accountant by day could spend evenings roaming online worlds as a Level 48 Troll Rogue from the Voodoo Tribe in the realm of Tichondrius.
Players start by assigning their character’s attributes—crafting a balance between strength and cunning, for instance—to defining their character’s role in the online society. Playing the game becomes a test of how well you play that role, be it a manic space warrior, seductive empress, or a merchant profiting by selling swords and shields.
New players traditionally start at the lowest rank, eventually working their way up in prestige and rank until they become commanders, wizards, or lords with more influence on the action. Most games offer a free trial period to let players see if the game fits well with them, be they dwarf, space cadet, or high priestess. Should you join, you pay a monthly access fee of around $20 for continued access to the virtual world and your character’s accrued accomplishments.
Online gaming can be addictive; some players don’t want to stop paying the monthly fee after amassing a fortune in battleships. Others take the online merchant role one step further, auctioning off high-level characters and other virtual goods on eBay; a level 60 World of Warcraft Priest account with a few thousand pieces of gold currently sells for several hundred dollars.
Role-playing games take place in a wide variety of settings. Depending on the game, you could be carrying out missions in distant galaxies, historical times, and fantasy worlds, with roaming wizards, sorcerers, and dragons.
Although role-playing games attract the most patrons, other popular Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMOGs) include first-person shoot-'em ups where players can join forces to shoot opposing teams. The other category, strategy games, test intellect more than reflexes—players try to outwit opponents by sending spies to enemy installations, for instance, locating their strengths, and crafting ways to exploit weaknesses.
Several sites devoted to online gaming offer reviews, news, discussions, and games categorized by name, genre, status, price, platform, player ratings, and other criteria. They’re a good place to find a game that runs on your equipment and meets your interests.
Multiplayer Online Games Directory (http://www.mpogd.com)
OGaming (http://www.ogaming.com)
Online Multiplayer Games Network (http://www.omgn.com)
Here are some of the more popular MMOGs:
Role-Playing: World of Warcraft (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com), Everquest (http://www.everquest.com)
Strategy: DarkSpace (http://www.darkspace.net), Eschaton: Chain of Command (http://www.eschaton-online.com)
First-Person Shooter: World War II Online (http://www.wwiionline.com), PlanetSide (http://planetside.station.sony.com)
Some people bring beverages, food, or gifts to a party; at a LAN party, gamers bring their PCs. At the smallest LAN parties, a few friends meet, connect their PCs through a makeshift network (Section 14.1.1), run the same game, and either join forces or battle each other.
Organized LAN parties can draw hundreds of players to large auditoriums for the action. Video card manufacturers sometimes sponsor large LAN parties, as hardcore players seeking to beef up their PCs represent a big market.
Popular games for LAN parties include:
Quake III: Arena (http://www.quake3arena.com)
Warcraft III (http://www.blizzard.com/war3)
Counter-Strike (http://www.counter-strike.net)
To find upcoming LAN parties in your area, visit LanParty.com (http://www.lanparty.com). The site lists upcoming LAN parties by date, region, game, and name.
The Internet boom of the late 90s left people embarrassed if they didn’t have their own Web site. After all, it was the Gutenberg press of the masses—your own mouthpiece on the Web. Today, people seem more concerned about their Body Mass Index than having their own Web site.
That’s because new tools have replaced personal Web sites for many people. For instance, blogging software lets people publish to their own corner of the Web almost as easily as opening a word processor. And many photo sharing sites (Section 5.5.2) let you post your photos on the Web, sharing them with everybody at last night’s party quickly and easily.
But if you’re dead set on creating your own personal Web site, you need these four things:
Content. Some Web sites are vacant lots with a sign saying, “This page under construction.” But most sites offer a combination of text, pictures, ads, and links to other pages; your job is to create those things.
Web editor. This specialized software lets you arrange your pictures, text, and links onto a page so they’re pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate. Web editors let you preview your page in your browser to make sure it looks right.
Web space. Web sites don’t run on your own PC. Instead, they run on larger computers called “Web hosts” or “Web servers,” capable of displaying their sites to hundreds, or even thousands of people simultaneously.
Delivery system. You need a method to copy your newly created content to your Web space.
The rest of this section explains these four things in more detail.
At its most basic, a Web site can be a simple file dump, as shown in Figure C-9. Yes, it’s ugly. But it’s also a quick and easy way to store some favorite files for easy access. It’s also convenient for temporarily moving files from one PC to another, as long as you don’t mind visitors being able to snatch them along the way.
To create a file dump like Figure C-9 on your Web site, all you need is a Web host (Section C.7.3) and a way to put your files onto the site (Section C.7.4).
But if you want something a little nicer looking, you need a Web editor, described next.
Figure C-9. Web sites needn’t be elaborate. Some folks treat their Web sites as storage tanks for backing up files, leaving them accessible from any PC. Should you come across a Web site like this in Internet Explorer, you can download any file by right-clicking its name and choosing Save Target As.
Web editors let you lay out your files on Web pages, mixing graphics, text, and links that let your visitors move from one page to another. Web editors string together your files with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), a standardized programming language that lets any brand or model of PC read any Web page on any computer.
Although some hardcore folks write their Web pages by hand, laboriously adding the HTML codes, most people stick with Web editors that work like word processors. You create your tables, slap in your pictures, add the text, and push a button: the editor converts your work into a Web page by inserting all the appropriate HTML codes to make everything look neatly formatted.
Word processors like Microsoft Word can save documents as Web pages (File → Save as Web Page), but most professionals opt for dedicated Web editing software like Dreamweaver (http://www.macromedia.com) or FrontPage (http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage).
You don’t need to be online to create a Web site. Instead, you can create a working model of your site inside a folder on your PC. When you finish your site, fire it up in your browser to make sure everything looks right. Then stake out some Web space to display it to the world, described next.
Most Internet Service Providers (Section 11.3) offer free “personal” Web space as part of your Internet service. They usually provide about 10 or 15 MB of storage space, which is plenty of room for a small site with a dozen or so pages. If you sign up with Comcast (http://www.comcast.net) as your ISP, for instance, your Web address is http://www.home.comcast.net/yourname, with “yourname” usually being the first part of your email address.
If your ISP doesn’t offer Web space, Yahoo’s GeoCities (http://geocities.yahoo.com) provides 15 MB of free Web space to anybody who wants it. The catch comes in the form of ads, which Yahoo places in the top corner of every freebie site (you can pay a monthly fee to get an ad-free site).
If you’re willing to pay, zillions of companies will host your Web site. When scouting out possible Web hosts, look for the following three things:
Data transfer limits (bandwidth). Every time someone visits a page on your site, the Web host sends them that page’s files. Your allotted bandwidth is the amount of information your site’s allowed to send. The only time bandwidth becomes an issue is when your site grows too popular: somebody blogs about your site’s cute dog photo, and zillions of people rush over to visit. Ask your Web host what happens if you overstep your bandwidth limit. Does the site shut down? Are you charged extra? How much?
File space. How much space does your Web space hold? To figure out what you need, right-click the folder on your PC that contains your Web site and choose Properties; the Properties window lists the Web site’s size as “Size on Disk.”
Price. Most Web sites cost between $10 and $50 per month. You shouldn’t have to pay more than $10 or $15 for a small site. If your quoted price is higher, ask why.
The beauty of creating a site in a Web-editing program is that the software usually includes built-in tools that send your newly created pages to your Web site. But if your editing program doesn’t come with those tools, you need to copy the information to the site yourself.
To send files to your Web site, you need these three pieces of information from your Web host:
Host address. This address is your Web space’s parking place on the Internet. An address for John Smith on Comcast would be something like this: http://home.comcast.net/johnsmith/.
User name. If you took up your ISP’s offer of free Web space, your user name is probably the same as your email account’s user name.
Password. Just like the user name, this is often the same password you use to log onto the Internet or check your email. The combination of user name and password keep strangers from deleting or changing your Web site’s pages.
Most ISPs let you deliver files to your personal Web space from their own Web site. If you’re a Cox subscriber, for instance, you’d visit the Web Tools portion of Cox’s Web site (http://www.cox.net) and enter your user name and password to see a list of files currently on your Web site. From there, you can click an Add Files button to copy your Web site’s files from your PC to your Web space.
If your Web host doesn’t offer delivery tools on its Web site, you can upload them with FTP (File Transfer Program) software like CuteFTP (http://www.cuteftp.com), shown in Figure C-10. To use an FTP program, enter the three key pieces of information: your host address, user name, and password. The program then connects to your site, automatically enters your user name and password, and lets you transfer files from your PC to the Web site.
Internet-based phone calls go by several names—Voice over IP (VoIP), Voice over IP Telephony, and Voice over Internet Telephony—but they all mean the same thing: sending and receiving phone calls through the Internet rather than over traditional phone lines.
Figure C-10. FTP programs like CuteFTP let you copy files to and from your PC and your Web site. The FTP program lists your PC’s files in the left pane, and your Web site’s files in the right pane. To move files, drag them between the two panes.
People have been yakking it up through instant messaging programs (Section C.5) for years: plug a microphone into your PC, connect with a friend’s instant messaging program, and start talking about the weather.
But VoIP adds something missing from instant messaging: a real phone number, and a way to dial up real phones. And best of all, VoIP is free. Well, parts of it are. The free part is when you and your friend both download VoIP software from the same company, like Skype (http://www.skype.com), which was recently purchased by eBay (so you know they must be doing something right). When you and your pal are both online, you can talk for free from any two Internet-connected PCs—a huge attraction for people with relatives in Hong Kong.
The money part comes when you want to send or receive calls to real phones with real phone numbers. All VoIP software vendors charge for that privilege.
You need three things to start making calls with VoIP:
A broadband Internet connection. Only a broadband Internet connection (Section 11.1.2) has the horsepower required to carry voice conversations along with your regular PC information. Add VoIP as yet another Internet feature unavailable to dial-up connections.
VoIP software. Skype (http://www.skype.com) gives away its VoIP software, hoping you’ll start paying to extend your reach to “real” phones. More than 1,000 other companies offer VoIP software, as well, and a trial account from Vonage (http://www.vonage.com), another popular VoIP provider, comes bundled with some VoIP accessories. Some frightened phone companies are quickly getting into the act, as well.
A mouthpiece and speaker. On the low-end, recruit your PC’s built-in sound card, speakers, and microphone. One step up in quality and privacy is a headset, available for less than $20 (Section 7.2.1). The Cadillac of VoIP is a VoIP push-button phone that plugs into your USB port (Section 1.8.1) or network port (Section 1.8.4). Search VoIP on Amazon for more VoIP-related equipment.
Tip
If you’re setting up a home network with a router (Section 14.1.3), a gadget that passes information between networked PCs, VoIP is even easier. The latest routers sport a phone jack or two, letting you plug in a normal phone to send and receive VoIP calls. For example, the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router (model number WRT54GP2) provides you with a WiFi router with 2 built-in phone jacks.
As if the prospect of free long-distance phone calls isn’t attractive enough, VoIP’s phone/Internet combination brings out the best of both worlds. You can drop by any Internet-connected PC to collect your email, and then plug in a VoIP phone to listen to your waiting voice messages—something travelers find hard to resist. VoIP phones even work on airplanes that offer Internet access, solving the problem of banned cell phones during flights.
Of course, anything that touts “free long-distance calls” is bound to have some problems, and VoIP has its share. The government heavily regulates phone companies, and even though the FCC recently took a relatively hands-off stance on the growing VoIP industry, don’t cancel your land line yet.
First, traditional phone lines usually keep working during power outages, since they don’t require electricity. VoIP equipment requires power, so when you lose power, you lose your phone, too. VoIP relies on the Internet’s ragtag wiring system of satellites and cables, with dozens of computer hops between destinations. That means conversations occasionally drop out, like a cell phone in the hands of a driver moving between towers.
Also, VoIP doesn’t yet universally support the government-mandated 911 emergency system, making it less than ideal for emergencies. And since VoIP doesn’t use a physical, wired connection, operators may have trouble figuring out your location unless you’re able to speak.
If you’re ready to take the plunge with Skype, first download the software from Skype’s Web site (http://www.skype.com/download). Then double-click the downloaded setup program to install it on your PC or laptop. As part of the software’s installation process, you create your own account with a user name and password—much as you do when setting up an email account, instant messaging account, or a user account on any other Web site. Skype refers to your user name as your “Skype” name, and it’s what your friends need in order to find you and call you on Skype’s system.
As you create the account, you’re asked to type in your country, city, and email address; in essence, you’re filling out your entry in the program’s telephone directory. Many people choose an unlisted number by typing in a fake name or leaving everything blank. Old friends won’t be able to look you up, of course, but anybody with your Skype name can still call you.
After installing the software and creating your Skype name and password, you’re left with one final chore: filling in your Skype program’s address book with the Skype names of your friends. Completing this chore may present a problem: your friends won’t be listed in the Skype directory unless they filled out their real name, country, city, and email, something few Skype subscribers divulge. Your only solution is to ask for their Skype names through email or during a real phone conversation.
Once you’ve typed your friends’ Skype names into your Skype address book (Tools → Add a Contact), you’re both ready to send and receive calls to each other, described in the next two sections.
Once you install Skype software and you’ve got your headset or VoIP phone ready, you can start calling friends with Skype accounts. To call somebody you’ve added to your Contacts list, either right-click his name in the Contacts list and choose Call This Contact, shown in Figure C-11, left, or click his name and click the Green Phone icon at the screen’s bottom.
You hear the phone ring either through your PC’s speakers or your headset, and when your friend picks up the phone, you hear his voice. If he’s not home, you hear his Skype answering machine message, shown in Figure C-11, right. Simple.
Figure C-11. Left: To call a friend in Skype, right-click his Contact name and choose Call This Contact. The sound of a phone ringing plays through your headset, followed by his voice when she answers. Right: If the person doesn’t answer, you hear his voice message on the other end, asking you to leave a message.
You need your friends’ Skype names only when calling them for free; you can set up a paid account, which lets you make calls to “real” telephones, by handing over your credit card number. Then calling a friend is as simple as dialing his phone number on the software’s onscreen keypad.
Tip
Skype offers a Skype Me mode, which signals that you’re ready to accept calls from any Skype member; it’s a handy way to test Skype’s free service. To find people who are ready to be “Skyped,” choose Tools → Search for Skype Users → Advanced and then choose “Search for people who are in ‘Skype Me’ Mode.” Then click Search. Although some “Skype Me” fans are bound to be weirdos, others want to connect with foreigners to hone their foreign language skills; some just want to test their equipment, and others are simply bored. To put yourself in Skype Me mode, choose File → Change Status → Skype Me.
Receiving a call with Skype doesn’t take much action on your part. Skype loads automatically when you start Windows unless you’ve specifically turned off that option (Tools → Options → Advanced; then turn off “Start Skype when I start Windows”). Once loaded, the program lies in wait for incoming calls. You’ll spot Skype’s round, lime-green icon in your Windows taskbar. (The little white checkmark inside the icon, shown in the bottom corner of Figure C-12, bottom, lets you know you’re online and able to receive calls.)
If you don’t spot that icon, launch your Skype software manually (Start → All Programs → Skype). When a call comes in, a message pops up, as shown in Figure C-12, top. Click the phone icon to answer the call.
Figure C-12. Top: An incoming message in your screen’s bottom-right corner alerts you when somebody calls you using Skype; click the phone icon (circled) to answer the call. Bottom: To see who’s calling before you answer, look at the bottom of the Skype window. Skype lists the user name, which not necessarily the caller’s real name.
As simple as Skype sounds, it can be technically complicated, as it combines multimedia with the Internet and networking. If one link in the chain goes down, so does your fancy phone call experience. Here’s how to fix some of the most common snags you’ll experience in Skype:
Sign off and on again to show your listing. Sometimes this trick refreshes your program and reconnects with Skype’s database, letting other Skype owners see that you’re online and accepting incoming calls.
Make sure you’re listed as Online. If your Status doesn’t read Online, nobody can call you. To make sure you’re Online, choose File → Change Status → Online.
Check your sound levels. Skype relies on your PC for both transmitting and playing back sound. If you or your friend are having trouble hearing the other, visit Windows mixer program (Section 7.5.2) to make sure the Mute option isn’t turned on for any of the following settings: Microphone, WAV/MP3, and Play Control. Also, slide their volume levels to the top of the bar to ensure full volumes.
Check your Internet connection. Without an Internet connection, you’re isolated from the outside world. Make sure your PC has a working broadband Internet connection (Section 11.1.2). If you can use your Web browser to visit Web sites, your Internet connection isn’t the problem.
If you’re really serious about VoIP, and want to learn more about the technical underpinnings, pick up a copy of Talk is Cheap (O’Reilly) for more detailed information.
Tip
Many Skype fans enhance their Skype experience by downloading and installing “plug-ins” to add voice mail, voice recording, integration with email programs, and so on. To check out add-ons like these, read about VoIP phones, find lists of other Skype community sites, or mingle with other Skype fans, drop by SummitCircle (http://www.summitcircle.com).