Other Ways to Use Your PC When Your Internet Dies

Nothing is more annoying than getting your Internet connection shut down, due to weather, or perhaps forgetting to pay your bill. Let’s take a look at some ways you can be productive and entertained without the Internet.
While a lot of people rely on the Internet daily for their work, like we do here at How-to Geek…if you lose your connection for a while, you’ll still have ways to finish work, listen to music, watch movies, and play PC games. The things you won’t have access to is your email, IM, Social Networking sites, online documents, and browsing in general. Here we’ve put together a list of suggestions of what you can do while your Internet connection is down.

Perform PC Maintenance Tasks

Since the Internet provides so many distractions, you might have neglected system maintenance and file organization for a while. Go through and uninstall programs you no longer use or need. One of the best ways to clean up old programs and leftover items is with Revo Uninstaller Pro or Revo Uninstaller Free edition. Hopefully it is already installed on your hard drive or thumb drive.

If you don’t have it installed you can certainly still use the Programs and Features option in Control Panel in Vista and Windows 7 (Add or Remove Programs in XP) to remove them. But this will leave a lot of leftover folders and registry settings, especially if you’re trying to completely remove iTunes and everything associated with it.

Other maintenance tasks you might want to catch up on is making room on your hard drive by doing a Disk Cleanup. Before doing the disk cleanup, save any work you have open and close out of all programs. Then click on Start and type %temp% into the Search Box or Run line in XP and hit Enter.

Then hit Ctrl+A to select all of the files then hit Delete. This will clear out the Temp folder, which Disk Cleanup often misses.

After that empty the Recycle Bin and run Disk Cleanup.

You can also run a computer cleanup utility such as CCleaner…either the full installed version or the portable version.

If you decide to clean up the Registry, scan for issues, then click Fix Selected Issues. CCleaner allows you to backup the Registry before fixing the issues it found, which you definitely want to do in case something doesn’t work and you need to restore it.

If you don’t have Windows set to automatically defrag the hard drive, this might be a good time to run the process or set it up on a schedule. In Windows 7 type disk defrag into the Search box in the Start Menu and hit Enter.

Now you can Turn on a schedule, analyze the amount of fragmentation, and kick off the defrag process.

Here is an example of setting up a schedule for for the Disk Defragmenter.

If you don’t want to use the built in defrag utility, there are other 3rd party apps that run more quickly like Auslogics Defrag or Defraggler.

Clean Out the Physical Desktop and Laptop Hardware

Over time your desktop collects dust and it’s important to blow out the case periodically. Get some Canned Air, and clean out all the dust bunnies in the machine. Also, this is a good time to reseat the systems RAM, check cable connections, Video & sound Card…etc.



Another thing you might want to do is clean your keyboard and mouse. If you haven’t done it recently, you’ll be surprised how much dust, crumbs of food, or perhaps cat hair that is lodged between the keys. Again you can use Canned Air for this, or if you want to be very thorough, take out each key and get all the junk out of there.

Productivity

Even with your Internet being down you can still be productive. Here are a few suggestions on ways to still be productive with no Internet. Provided you have local copies of Office Documents, you can certainly still work on them. Maybe you have a PowerPoint, Word Document, or Excel Spreadsheet to work on or review.

Organize your To Do Lists and Notes
You can use this time to organize your notes and To Do list without any distractions. Since Evernote and OneNote keep your notes synced between your machine and “The Cloud” hopefully you’ll have what you need to work on.

Update your To Do List…a nice free app for this that we’ve previously covered is Doomi. It’s light on system resources and is easy to work with from your desktop.

Use the Time to Brainstorm
While you have some downtime from the web, you can use the time to brainstorm ideas for work projects, your website, or other collaborations you’re working on. You can use simple apps like Notepad, Word, or more complex apps like Action Outline.

Clean Up Your Inbox
While you won’t be able to send or Receive any emails, you can take the time to clean it up if your using an email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird. Go through and delete unneeded messages, clean out your Deleted Items, and run Auto Archive. This will help you to get better organized when you connection comes back.

You can also take the time to help speed up Outlook

Get to Know Portable Apps
If you have a thumb drive with PortableApps or Lupo PenSuite, it would be a good time to explore the apps and find ways to use them to make you more productive while on the go.

Entertainment

While your Internet is down you can also find ways to be entertained while waiting to get it back. You can watch or listen to whatever is currently on your hard drive like Podcasts, Movies, Music, eBooks…etc.
You can take this time to organize your local photo collection with tools like Picassa or Windows Live Photo Gallery.

If you subscribe to Podcasts, chances are there are a few that have been downloaded prior to your Internet connection going down. Use this as an opportunity to get caught up on them.

If you have a TV Tuner card or HTPC setup you can still watch Over the Air broadcasting, or your cable channels (provided the cable isn’t down as well). But you should still be able to get Over the Air channels at least by hooking up an HD Antenna.

Of course you can still watch movies and other videos you have ripped or downloaded to your hard drive. Or you can do it the old fashioned way and just pop in a DVD.

PC Video Games
A lot of PC games require you to be online for multiplayer action, but a lot also include a single player mode that doesn’t require you to be online. Go through and have fun with the story line of single player mode.

Or go back and relive the enjoyment you experienced with older games.

eBooks
If you have Kindle for PC or Barnes & Noble’s Nook for PC you might want to take the time to get caught up on your reading lists.

Take the time to organize your music collection in WMP or whatever your favorite desktop music player is. Remove DRM, convert music file formats, and find duplicates in your collection using TuneClone, Audio Dedupe, or AudialsOne.

Go to a Public Wi-Fi Hotspot

If you just can’t stay away from being online to complete work, check out Facebook, or find the latest Lady Gaga videos, you might want to bring your Laptop, Netbook, iOS, or Android device to a location with Public Wi-Fi. If you do, make sure to follow our guide on staying safe while on a Public Wi-Fi Network.

Take Time Away from Your PC

As geeks, most of us spend far too much time on the computer anyway, so take a break from it! Get outside and go for a walk, read a book, hit the treadmill, work on neglected house chores. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from anything to do with technology for a while to clear our heads.
There’s actually a real world out there to be explored. You can use Internet downtime to use your geek skills to get out and meet new people. 



These are just a few suggestions on how you can still use your PC even when your Internet connection goes down for a prolonged period of time. Or use it as an opportunity to get outside and meet people. Most of us don’t know how we got by without the Internet, but when the unthinkable happens, you can still use your PC for productivity and entertainment. What about you guys? What things do you do with your PC when your Internet connection is down? Leave us a comment and let us know!

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Keep Your Windows Computer Secure on Public Wireless Hotspots

If you have a Netbook or Laptop that you would like to use on a Public Wi-Fi hotspot, there are security precautions you need to take. Here we look at keeping your computer secure at public Wi-Fi hotspots.
Public Wi-Fi hotspots seem to be available in more locations than ever before. If you move between them a lot or are just getting started, following these security precautions can help keep your machine safe and secure. For this article we look at security steps in Windows 7, but most of these tips and suggestions will work in XP, Vista, and even other operating systems as well.

Enable Your Firewall

Whether you use the Firewall built into Windows or a 3rd-party app like ZoneAlarm, make sure it’s enabled before signing on to a public hotspot. Click on Start then Control Panel, make sure View by large icons is selected then click Windows Firewall.

Then select Turn Windows Firewall on or off…

Then make sure it’s turned on under Home or Work and Public network location settings.

Turn Off All Sharing

File and folder sharing is a great feature in Windows 7 at home, but when you’re on a public network, you don’t want others to see your data. To turn it off, click on the Network icon in the Taskbar and select Open Network and Sharing Center.

Then click on the Change advanced sharing settings hyperlink.

Now make sure to Turn off file and Printer Sharing and Turn off Public folder sharing…make sure you save the changes when you’re done.

Use Correct Public Wi-Fi Connection

Rather than having to worry about changing your settings every time you log on to a Public Network. When you first connect to the Public Hotspot, Windows will ask you to select a location for the Network. For example here we want to connect to the local coffee shop Wi-Fi.

Make sure you choose Public Network…

This will automatically turn off File Sharing, Network Discovery, and Public Folder Sharing.

Use HTTPS Protocol

If you use regular HTTP protocol when connected to a public network, all of your text information can be easily found by an evil geek with a packet sniffer. You will want to use HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) or SSL wherever you can. For example you can set your Gmail and other Google services to always use https when connecting. Open your Gmail account settings, under the General tab scroll down to Browser connection and select Always use https. Again, make sure you click to Save Settings at the bottom of the page.

Then when you go to any Google services linked with that account, you will see https:// before the URL in the Address Bar.

It will work for any browser you’re using.

Another thing to check on your browser to ensure you’re using https is to look for the lock icon in the lower right corner of your browser.

Firefox Addons
If you’re using Firefox and don’t want to worry if Google services switch to https, then check out the OptimizeGoogle addon. Among other awesome ways it allows you to customize Google, you can set it to have all services use https when able.

Another handy Firefox addon from the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is HTTPS Everywhere. It will switch to https protocol for several major sites, and you can write your own rulesets with it as well. 

Private VPNs

Even with using the addons above, not all sites you visit will be protected with SSL encryption. If you want to make sure you have extra protection, go through a VPN (Virtual Private Network). This allows you to route your data traffic though a separate and secure network. There are several different free and subscription services that will do this for you but we’ll just take a look at a couple.
ProXPN is an easy to use VPN client. You need to create an account first, then download and install the client. After that log into your account and you’ll be connected to their secure VPN without worrying about traffic from your machine being on the hotspot.

They offer a free and premium version. We found that our connection could be slow at times using the free version, especially on multimedia sites. If you find you’re using Hotspots a lot, you might want to pay the $5/month for the premium version which did produce faster speeds, and ensures higher levels of encryption.

Hotspot Shield is another popular and easy to use VPN utility that runs in the background and creates the VPN automatically.

The biggest caveat is it will display ads and try to install crapware on your machine. Make sure to uncheck any crapware it tries to offer you.

While it will annoy you with ads, it is free and easy to use. If you only need to use it occasionally while at a Hotspot, it might be worth the ad annoyance.

Another thing you might want to consider is setting up your own VPN on your computer or on Windows Home Server. We’ll be writing up a full step by step tutorial on how to create your own VPN in the near future, so stay tuned.

Disable Wi-Fi When not in Use

If you’re not using your Wireless connection while you at a hotspot, simply turn it off. This can be hard to remember, and annoying if you’re constantly doing research online while working. But if you can plan your work around times when you don’t need to be online for good chunk of time, just turn it off. Click on the Wireless icon on the Taskbar right-click the network you’re connected to and Disconnect.

Windows Updates

Make sure you’re keeping your machine updated with the latest security fixes from Microsoft. In the geek community we all know the 2nd Tuesday of every month is called “Patch Tuesday”, when the team from Redmond send out the latest security fixes to plug holes and fix vulnerabilities in the OS, hardware drivers –including wireless patches, and other installed software like MS Office.

However, some vital patches might be released before then so make sure you’re receiving Automatic Updates. You don’t have to have them download and install automatically, but you can have Windows notify you when fixes are available and you can research if you want to add them or not. When in doubt, it’s usually best to just install the updates, and keep note of what they are so you can uninstall them if you find something isn’t working.

Update Antivirus Software

This should also go without saying, but keeping your Antivirus software is extremely important on all of your machines especially on a large public network where there can be a lot of malicious software lurking.

While Microsoft Security Essentials is ok, no matter what brand you use, make sure Real-time scanning is enabled.

Use Best Judgment

• Get to know the folks who are operating the Wi-Fi Hotspot. Ask them the type of encryption they are using on the router and if they seem to know basic Wi-Fi security. If not, you might want to use a different location – especially if they have it wide open.
• Don’t enter personal information connected to a Wi-Fi Hotspot unless you’re completely sure everything is safe and encrypted. If you need to do Internet Banking, wait until you’re at home or in the office.
• Busy hotpots like at an airport or hotel can have a lot of people on it, who knows what their looking at, but there most certainly are some “bad guys”. Try to use smaller locations like at a library or coffee shop.
• When in doubt, just don’t connect. If your online activity can wait, just hold off until you’re sure you’re on a secure network.
• Make sure and follow the guidelines described above, if you just connect and leave everything open, there is only yourself to blame.

Conclusion

While there really isn’t a 100% solution to keep your data secure on a public Wi-Fi network from a determined hacker or thief, following these basic guidelines are sure to help keep you safe. Of course with more mobile devices being used today like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android devices…you’ll want to keep them safe as well.
In the future we’ll be taking a look at using more advanced solutions for protecting your Laptop, Netbook, and mobile devices, but if you’re not inclined create your own VPN or setting up an SSH Tunnel, these basic settings should definitely be followed.
What about you guys? What precautions do you take to keep your data safe while on a Public Wi-Fi Hotspot? Leave a comment and let us know!
Install HTTPS Everywhere
Hotspot Shield
ProXPN

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