Your Questions answered!

From Jim:
Q: I have a 7 year old daughter. Would you be able to advice on suitable sites for her to use?

A: Great question, Jim (don’t they always say that in these Q and A columns!). Start your daughter with www.yahooligans.com - a great web search site for kids. My best buddy, Pip recently discovered www.mamamedia.com and my daughter loves www.ctw.org/sesame. If your daughter is the creative type, she may find www.ippyonline.gov.au really useful – it’s a fantastic, colourful site designed to help kids learn to protect their intellectual property.

 
From Patricia:
Q: Mega, could you please assist me, I am only new to this new internet world out there, my father has requested me to find his family tree, can this be done on the net?

A: Patricia, apart from doing a search on the net for your family name (start at www.altavista.yellowpages.com.au), you could check a website a fellow reader sent me at www.firstfamilies2001.net.au - it’s a database of Australian family stories.

 
From Karrin:
Q: Once downloaded from the Internet, how do I "unzip" files onto my computer?

A: That’s a very common question, Karrin. Files with a ‘zip’ extension can be unzipped with a program called WinZip. It can be downloaded for a free evaluation from www.winzip.com.

 
From Jim and Carol:
Q: You wrote recently about getting a couple of lines at home to share between modem, fax and telephone. - do you mean we should have a line EACH for the phone, fax AND modem?

A: Hi Jim and Carol, nope – no need to spend heaps of money having too many phone lines installed. If you already have separate lines for your fax and telephone, and assuming you don’t receive faxes regularly, just share your fax line with your modem. If you have only one incoming line and intend to spend a lot of time using your modem to access the Internet, it will be worthwhile having a new line put in for it.

 
From Marian Maher:
Q: I have a new computer - how do I go about choosing the right internet provider?

A: Marian, I usually advise going onto a casual plan to start with if you can find an ISP which has one...they are a dying breed these days! You only pay a registration fee, then an hourly rate – there are no ongoing monthly charges. After a few months, check how much you are using the internet and shop around for a plan that suits your patterns. For example, if you find you are using around 10 hours a week (40hrs a month), find a 50 hour a month plan, which you pay for monthly and which should end up reducing your hourly rate to as low as $2 an hour. The most important thing is whether the service provider has dial in access in your local area.