Let your computer plan your next Road Trip

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa Canada

Your best friend Charlie has never been to Eastern Canada and wants you to go with him to visit several cities in Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Since you are the one who knows how to drive, you have been given the task to create a driving route.

One easy way to do this is to use Google Maps. By clicking on the "Get Directions" link, Google lets you specify a "Start Address" and an "End Address". The website will then output a map of the driving route but will also write out the directions in text which is useful because Charlie is not very good at reading maps :).

For the weather, you can get a full report at the Environment Canada website. You select the cities you are interested in and the website will tell what the weather will be like.

Security: Does my E-Mail have a Virus?

Computer Coaching for Seniors

The email today in your inbox is from your long time friend Charlie. He writes

Hey check this out. This is soo funny!!!!

Do you double or single click on the picture ? NOOOOOOO

This email may have a virus. The picture in this email represents a file that may be executable. By double/single clicking on the icon you might execute a progam that will cause harm to your computer.

But why would such a good friend do this to you? Well it wasn't really Charlie's fault. This email has a virus because Charlie's computer was infected. This virus replicates by going through Charlie's contact list which includes your email address :( and emails everyone on that list with a copy of itself infecting other computers.

Here are some tips to determine whether or not you can open a file from an E-Mail.

1. Scan your email with a virus scanner. If the scan is not clean then obviously delete the E-Mail.
   
2. If the E-Mail is from someone you know and you were not expecting to get a file, call the person up or email them and ask if the file attached was created by a trusted source. If they don't know then do not open.
   
3. If the email is from someone you do not know then it is better to side on caution and not open it
   

Security: Is this E-Mail really from My Bank?

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa Canada

This E-Mail appears in your inbox:

Dear Sir,

We have detected some illegal transactions with regards to your accounts at our bank.
Please login immediately using the link below to rectify the situation.

www.bankofottawa.com

Thank you
John Smith
Account Advisor
1-800-465-2567

Do you click on the link www.bankofottawa.com? The answer is NOOOOOOO :).

Many times emails are sent pretending to be from EBay or from financial institutions like TD or CIBC. This is known as phishing. By clicking on the link in the email it will take you to a spoof website and not to the website that you wanted to go to. Once there, if you sign in with your userid and password then the owners of the spoof website would now have your userid and password and could use it to access your account.

In our E-Mail above even if Bank of Ottawa was a valid bank in Canada and their official website was www.bankofottawa.com the problem is that the link in the E-Mail points to another website. Take your mouse and hover over the link. You will see in your browser's status bar that the address is really www.google.ca.

Rule of thumb: Try not to click on links in an E-Mail to access your accounts.

Below are some ways you can safely assess the status of your account.

1. Call the company up by phone and ask if there are any issues with your account. DO NOT USE THE PHONE NUMBER IN THE EMAIL! Call using the number from the phonebook.
2. Sign on to the company's website by typing in their official web address in your browser (e.g., if it is TD it is www.td.com, if it is ebay then it is www.ebay.com) and see if you have any messages about your account.
   
3. Forward the suspicious E-Mail to the company using the email address FOUND ON THE COMPANY'S WEBSITE. Ask if this email is valid.
   

Finding a Doctor in Ontario Canada

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa Canada

Finding a new doctor in Canada is hard. A lot of doctors are not even excepting new patients.

"The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario" have a doctor search on their website that lets the public find doctors that are located in their city within Ontario. You can specify several search parameters like if the doctor is accepthing new patients or not.

Please click on Doctor Search for more details.

I can't see this website!!!! The text is toooo small!!

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa Canada

You stumble upon an interesting website but it is too hard to read because the text is too small. Luckily web browsers have the ability to make the text bigger and here is how.


Internet Explorer

• Go to the menu bar select View. Then select TextSize from the submenu. The next submenu will give you a list of text sizes you can choose from.

• Another way is to hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and at the same time move the Mouse Wheel (located between the left and right button of your mouse) up or down to change the text size.

Firefox

• Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and push + key (from your numeric keypad on your keyboard) repeatedly until the text is big enough to read. To make the text smaller hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and push - key repeatedly until the text is the right size for you.
  

• Go to the menu bar select View. Then select TextSize from the submenu. The next submenu will give you the option to increase or decrease the text size.
  

• Another way is to hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and at the same time move the Mouse Wheel (located between the left and right button) up or down to change the text size.

Opera

• Push + key (from your numeric keypad on your keyboard) repeatedly until the text is big. To make the text smaller push - key repeatedly until the text is the right size
  

• Go to the menu bar select View. Then select Zoom from the submenu. The next submenu will give you the option of how much you want to zoom.