Tech guides

[chomama23]

Hey, is anyone interested in writing some tech guides for this forum?

They can be on pretty much anything technology related, including the forums, google, programming languages, and even hardware.

To submit a guide, please post it here. I reserve the right to edit it, request for you to edit it, or delete it if it's absolutely terrible. But I doubt that will be the case =)

If you are submitting multiple Guides in a row, you have permission to double post within this thread.

Any other questions posted in this thread may be deleted after they are answered, if they are not part of a tech guide, to keep this thread neat and organized.

Idea for formatting from LM's Quest Guides, now in the Junkyard.

[mtspro]

I guess I could write a JAVA programming guide.

[Asian Rapini]

eh.... i could write a HTML guide... Or even a VB.NET guide....

and how bout instead of rep i'd get promotion in the clan? =)

[chomama23]

I think I could do that...especially since there isn't rep anymore.

[Mat]

The Spyware, Adware, Malware and Virus Guide!

List of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. What are these infections?
3. What can they do?
4. How do I stop them?
5. How do I prevent them?

1. Hey Members of RSA. I am pleased you have stumbled upon this guide, dedicated about telling you about all the nasty problems you can get on your computer. I hope you learn a lot about these infections and hopefully learn how to prevent them from causing damage to your computer.

2. Spyware, Adware, Malware and Viruses are infections you can get from opening and Email, going to a website, downloading a piece of software, putting a USB drive into your computer, the amount of ways to receive them are amazing. Computer programmers make the infections, just to cause trouble for everyone, whether you are at home using your personal computer, at a friend’s house, at your small business or working in a large corporation.

3. These nasty infections can do a whole heap of different things to your computer. The things that can happen, and often happen are:

Slow Computer – Your computer will slow down dramatically.

Freezing – Your computer may ‘lock-up’ or ‘freeze’.

Programs not working – Some of your programs might not work properly

Personal Details – Some infections have the potential to retrieve personal details such as bank account details.

Turn off – Your computer could sometimes just switch off without warning.

All of these things, and more, are possibilities when you have infections on your computer.

4. Hold on! There is hope for you though. There are many programs on the Internet these days that you can download, which runs a scan to delete these problems. Here is a list of programs, free of charge that you can download today!

Ad-Aware Free
Spyware Doctor
Spybot – Search & Destroy
Windows Defender
Clamwin Antivirus
AVG Free Antivirus
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

5. There are also a number of programs that allow you to stop the infections getting into your computer in the first place. They are called ‘firewalls’. Here is a list of free firewalls available to download.

Comodo Firewall
ZoneAlarm Firewall
Ashampoo Firewall
OutPost Free Firewall
Sunbelt Personal Firewall

I hope this guide has helped you learn about the different problems you will face with your PC, and how to treat them.

~ Mat

[Mat]

Setting up your own Website

Well, let’s face it, there are so many websites in this day in age on the internet, it’s kind of the matter as to who doesn’t own a website. There are hundreds and thousands. The chances are, you have come to this wanting to know how to set-up your own website. Never fear, this guide will help you out.

People set-up or use websites for a number of reasons. It may be to sell or advertise a product, it could be to give information about something, and it could be to explain your business. All of these and more are reasons why we have them. The other good thing about having a website is people would much rather go to their computer and look through a website then use the phone or have to drive around to find the answers you need.

But, before you set-up your very own website, you need to know the basics. A lot of websites, most in fact, require some sort of coding experience. Whether it would be HTML, Javascript, PHP, MySQL or others, you will need experience in this sort of coding. The most common would be HTML. I have gathered a few HTML coding guides below. Don’t worry! HTML is apparently the easiest language you can learn.

HTML Coding Guide 1 – Click Here!
HTML Coding Guide 2 – Click Here!
HTML Coding Guide 3 – Click Here!

Now, once you have learnt HTML Coding, it’s time to move onto planning. Write out a document on what pages you are going to have on your website, what they will contain etc. This is important.

Unfortunately, there is more coding. CSS Coding is coding that allows you to have the background on your website that you want, instead of just having a plain white background. Here is a few guides that will teach you CSS Coding.

CSS Coding Guide 1 – Click Here!
CSS Coding Guide 2 – Click Here!
CSS Coding Guide 3 – Click Here!

Once you have planned out, and are ready to get working on your upcoming site, it’s time to find a web hoster. Now, remember that it is important what hoster you choose. There are 2 types of hosting you can have. Free website hosting, which would have your website name as the sub-domain and if you pay for hosting, most of the time it would just be ::: YOURNAME.COM :::. Having just your name is a lot better, you will get a lot more visitors to your website.

Once you have chosen if you want free hosting or paid hosting it’s time to move onto choosing who will host your website. A website hoster, incase you didn’t know, is the organization that registers your domain name and keeps your website online. Now you can research a number of website hosts by just searching Google, but I have put together a list of my most recommended hosts.

StartLogic Hosting
Host Monster
IX Web Hosting
Dot5Hosting
Host Papa

These hosts are according to Hosting Review, the top 5 hosts out there. (April)

Well, from then onwards, you can play around and make your website. But hold on, there is something for them people who know nothing about HTML and CSS and don’t want to know. It’s called a ‘Website Builder’.

Website builders are actually used by a lot of large, often visited websites. Although, website builders may limit you to the amount of actions you can do, and they are sometimes difficult to work, they are very useful to a lot of people. So I have put together a list of website hosts that have a website builder.

FreeWebs
NetIDNow
HomeStead
Brinkster

That is all for this guide. I hope you like it, and have a great time making your website, whether it would be for your own personal blog, a company or to support something. It’s up to you.

~ Mat

[Mat]

Technical Acronyms

Here is a list of technical acronyms and what they stand for to help you figure out what your colleague is talking about when he says a couple of letters. Enjoy!

File Formats:

AIFF = Audio Interchange File Format
PDF = Portable Document Format
TIFF = Tagged Image File Format
RTF = Rich Text Format
PNG = Portable Network Graphic
BMP = Bitmap
JPEG = Joint Photographic Experts Group
DLL = Dynamic Link Library
GIF = Graphics Interchange Format
DOC = Document
SWF = Shockwave Flash

Internet Acronyms:

BCC = Blind Carbon Copy
CC = Carbon Copy
CSS = Cascading Style Sheet
DNS = Domain Name System
EDI = Electronic Data Interchange
FTP = File Transfer Protocol
HTML = Hyper-Text Markup Language
HTTP = Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol
ICF = Internet Connection Firewall
ICS = Internet Connection Sharing
IM = Instant Message
IP = Internet Protocol
IRC = Internet Relay Chat
ISDN = Integrated Services Digital Network
ISP = Internet Service Provider
PHP = Hypertext Preprocessor
Search Engine Optimization = Search Engine Optimization
URL = Uniform Resource Locator
VoIP = Voice Over Internet Protocol
WAN = Wide Area Network
WWW = World Wide Web
XHTML = Extensible Hypertext Markup Language

Software Acronyms:

DBMS = Database Management System
ACL = Access Control List
(D)OS = (Disk) Operating System
GUI = Graphical User Interface
RTE = Runtime Environment

Hardware Acronyms:

CD = Compact Disk
CD-R = Compact Disc Recordable
CD-ROM = Compact Disc Read-Only Memory
CD-RW = Compact Disc Re-Writable
DMA = Direct Memory Access
DRAM = Direct Random Access Memory
DSL = Digital Subscriber Line
DVD = Digital Versatile Disc
DVD+R = Digital Versatile Disc Recordable
DVD+RW = Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable
DVD-RAM = Digital Versatile Disc Random Access Memory
DVI = Digital Video Interface
DVR = Digital Video Recorder
LCD = Liquid Crystal Display
PC = Personal Computer
PDA = Personal Digital Assistant
RAM = Random Access Memory
ROM = Read-Only Memory

File Sizes:

Kbps = Kilobytes Per Second
Mbps = Megabytes Per Second
Gbps = Gigabytes Per Second
GB = Gigabyte
KB = Kilobyte
MB = Megabyte

Mods/Admins, feel free to add onto this guide if you wish.

[Mat]

Information on Forums

Forums are online communities that relate to a certain area of interest. Whether it would be a forum to talk about technical problems, a support forum or a gaming forum to talk about your games, there are hundreds of thousands of forums around today.

Forums have a number of features to them. For instance, you can have a reputation system where members can give people reputation for doing something right. You also can have different ranks in the forums, such as administrator, a banned member, or just your normal, plain member. You can give different styles to your forums. The different things you can do are amazing, the question is, are you ready to discover it?

But, if you are considering making a forum, go for it! You have nothing to fear except for the occasional rule-breaker of pest every month or so, depending or you situation. But you have a feature to permanently delete them, so no problems there. Forums are very easy to make as well, you do not need to be an expert, it is literally about clicking a button.

Well it’s time to get started on your forums. Here is the top 3; most used and most trusted forum providers in no particular order, linked so if you are considering setting up your forums, you know where to look.

Invision Power Board

vBulletin

phpBB

These forum providers are used by hundreds of people around the world. They are safe and trusted, what a winning combination. Good luck on your forums, I hope you get a rapid amount of members and have a great time making friends and meeting people around the world.

[Mat]

Search Engines

List of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. What are they?
3. How to optimize your search
4. Using them for your website
5. The top search engines around today

1. Search engines, the chances are, if you have Internet access you use a search engine. They are everywhere; there are thousands of them. But, that does not mean that any search engine is the right search engine. Find out about search engines by reading along below.

2. A search engine is basically the doorway to the Internet and it’s contents such as Websites. To use them, you type in words and then websites that are related to them words show up in your search, from the website you are most likely to be looking for, to the least likely. Most of the time, the website you are most likely to be looking for is the website that gets the most revenue, or visitors. The more visitors = The higher rating.

Search engines such as Google, can even be used on other websites when you type in a few words in a search box and you have the option to search that website or search on Google, or another search engine. Search engines all have different names as well, most of the time names that you can easily remember. Some networks even set-up their own search engines for you to enjoy, such as MSN.

3. Well, it is very simple of optimize your search to get the most effective and wanted answers on the net. It is all about what you type in that search box. For example, if you are searching for an announcement from a corporation/business/club, instead of typing in a few words from the statement, simply type in “____’s Announcement”. This will give you a lot better search results.

4. Well, if you aren’t getting a lot of revenue on your site, the chances are that the search engines across the web don’t know about your website at all. But, there is a way to change that. Most search engines, nearly all, allow you to submit your website to them, which will, according to them, increase your search results, listing you higher. Sometimes your website hosts give you the option for you to pay money to get listed in the top certain number of search engines. This is not actually a ‘waste of money’, as like I said, a search engine is like a door to your website, the more doors, the more people you will get.

If you run a business and you are advertising your business via the internet, I recommend you pay the money to get advertised by the top search engines, otherwise you will not be known.

6. Now, it’s time to tell you the top search engines around.

Google – The best search engine on the web, it has other features such as Email, image and video search, maps, and more!

Yahoo – Another great search engine, is again has many extra features such as Email, image and video search, games and more!

MSN – This search engine gives a lot of different features such as Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail, news and others.

Ask – Ask is a very simple, easy-to-use search engine with extra features such as image search, business search, news search, and blogs.

I hope you find your time using search engines great, and find what you want.

[Mat]

Images and the Web

Guide Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Formatting
3. Uploading
4. Screenshots

1. Images are on the Internet everywhere! You find them on websites, you find them when searching on search engines, you find them on forums, just about everywhere you look on the web, you will, somewhere or another, find an image. Here in this guide, you will learn all about images based around the web. I hope you enjoy this tech guide!

2. Now, on the Internet, you will find that images have a certain format. There are many different internet formats, there are .GIF - .BMP - .PNG - .TIFF - .JPG etc. But, there is a main format you should use when you put images on the web. This format is .PNG. This file format will give you maximum quality, and will look the best. Also, .GIF file formats are acceptable on the web only for really small pictures, such as emoticons and icons, otherwise it is recommended you use the .PNG file format.

3. You might be putting your images on your own website, maybe a piece of software you are developing on the web, or placing it in your instant message with a friend. But a lot of the time, it is required that you have a web address to place the image where you want it. In other words, you have a link to your image. A lot of people could be thinking: “What? How do I do that?”, well I will tell you now, and it is absolutely free and only takes seconds. To get your images to have a web address, you must upload them to an ‘Image Host’. There are a lot of image hosts on the web, I recommend these three image hosts.

Imageshack
TinyPic
PhotoBucket

4. Now, there is also another great thing that you can do, this is called screenshots. What a screenshot does is when you press a few buttons of the keyboard; everything that is in front of you is basically a picture. To do it, press the ALT and Print Screen buttons at the same time on your computer keyboard. You have now got your screenshot, but to view it, you will need to go onto Microsoft Paint > Edit > Paste. You now have in front of you, a picture of your computer screen. Now simply save it and you are done. Screenshots are used a lot to record online games.