by Curtis Carmichael

1) Here’s another lecture about spelling errors, but we can’t stress its importance enough. Many e-mail messages are composed and sent rather quickly. As a result, many of these messages are contain numerous spelling mistakes. All of which could have easily been prevented.

If you use Netscape Communicator, go to the "Edit" menu, "Preferences", "Mail & Newsgroups", "Messages", and check the "Spell check messages before sending" option to decrease the chance of sending spelling errors through e-mail.

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, you probably use Microsoft Outlook as your primary messaging and collaboration client. To select the e-mail spell check feature here, go to "Tools" on the menu bar, "Options..." and click on the "Spelling" tab. Now check the "Always check spelling before sending" option.

It’s definitely worth the disadvantage of waiting for this extra step to perform. It serves as a safety mechanism to protect you from potential embarrassment.

2) Be particularly careful when using JavaScript password protection for your Web pages. An experienced Internet user can simply review your HTML code and find your password from within the script. We recommend you somehow blend your password to make it look part of the script itself. Be sure you don’t include important information behind these pages, such as credit card or bank account information, social security numbers, etc.

If you happen to be using specialized CGI/PERL freeware programs such as AccountFirst, a popular accounting system, you might want to consider renaming the directories where valuable credit card information may be stored. Just remember to change the methods within the script to reflect your directory change (which can be done by simply going to the "Edit" menu in most text editors and clicking on "Replace..." (or hit Ctrl+H as a shortcut for IBM/IBM compatible systems). Enter the original directory name you renamed that was associated with your script in the "Find" field and then input the new directory name you created in the "Replace with" field. And always remember to change default passwords!

3) If you built a personal Web site, be careful about the amount of information you post on the Net. Unfortunately, there are people in the world that make a living stalking people. Try refraining from posing your full name, address, phone number, or information relative to family. If you want to give you’re location, publish vague information (i.e. I live in the south-western part of New Hampshire). You shouldn’t have to be too cautious, but just be careful about giving out too much information.