Skype & Avast

The other thing that I have been asked about a lot, is what I use for antivirus protection on all of my computers. I have nothing against McAfee or Norton, but again, when you have 4 or 5 of them, and you work part time, you must be smart. And remember my golden rule, FREE IS GOOD, especially if it is the best thing going.... Read on.

If you have a pc, you need this program. It's that simple. And it is available to all home users for free. You MUST have a home e-mail address to use it. So if all you have is a professional address (username@companydomain.com), then go to Google or Yahoo and get yourself a free personal e-mail address.

To do things right, you must uninstall whatever you currently have running, or what has expired, or what is not working or whatever you do not wish to pay for any longer. Go to your Start button, then Settings, then Control Center. Click on the Remove Programs icon and click on your current Antivirus program and uninstall it. Then reboot your pc, just to make sure it's gone.

Then come back here and click on the Avast icon at the top of the page and follow the download directions. It's a little tricky and when you have it downloaded, they will e-mail your license number (free, but required) to your home e-mail address. Just copy and paste it into the box that will come up asking for the number, and you are good to go. It may ask you to renew every once in a while, but it gives you a link to click on that reads "Existing user, just need another license key to keep using the Free version." It's been about 4 years now and I'm still using it for free.

I don't get popups or viruses. And your pc will talk to you and let you know when it has updated its virus database. Think of your database as whatever vaccines are available. If you don't have the vaccine, then you are susceptible to that disease... And, if you don't run the software at least once a month, then it will not work for you. It will check your e-mail, your internet usage, etc. Just run the new virus definitions (vaccines) once a month. All the instructions are on their site.

I'll gladly help anyone through it if you need help the first time. You will thank me when your kids start using your computers.... They go EVERYWHERE and chat, and cruise, and come in contact with live viruses all the time. I run the cleaner (right on

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html) once a week on the pc that they use.

Just e-mail me with any questions..

I have been asked about my Internet Phone so many times, that I thought I would just put an article right here to send people to.

If you already pay Time Warner or Verizon and have high-speed internet access in your house, then you have the option to use that internet service for your phone, not their version of Home Phone, but a real internet phone. It talks through your internet connection, and only works if you are connected. If you are like me, you are always connected. It sometimes works with dial-up service.

People all over the world use Skype to talk over the internet for free. The United States does not, as then the phone companies do not make their money. It involves getting an account at Skype (click on logo above for home page), and then hooking up a microphone and a headset to your pc. (or if you have a laptop, chances are you already have a webcam & mic built right in...) You can use the program (opens like a rolodex on your desktop) at any time to call anyone else who has a Skype account for free. Yes, totally free. And as we know, FREE IS GOOD.

Dean and I don't have a home phone--just the 2 cell phones and our laptops running Skype. The quality is much better than Vonage, but not quite as good as a regular Verizon phone. But, the price is right. We have a regular telephone that I purchased to use with Skype, and if you wish to use it a lot, you may wan to consider one also. It is a regular looking phone, has a speaker that works great so that the kids can use it, and it has its charger and stand. Just has to plug into its unit, that is plugged into your pc. Yes, it's a wireless phone and looks just like your land line. You can get them with extensions, etc. We have one in our kitchen and so far that is all we need. update: Now we don't even use that phone, so I'm selling it. We both have laptops with the mic & webcam built right in, so we have free video phone.

Skype is free to call out to any other Skype customer. If you wish to call regular landline phones and cell phones, then you will have to pay by the minute and blocks of time can be purchased with a credit card or PayPal. OR... you can just pay $30 per year, and it is unlimited minutes to all of the USA AND CANADA. Yes, $30 per year, and it includes Canada...

Another point, is that if you want people, besides people that have a Skype account, to be able to call you, you must pay them for a phone number to use. You may purchase a phone number at a cost of $18 every 3 months. You may keep the same number and renew every 3 months, or you can get a new number. Great for people that have cottages, vacation in Florida, etc. BECAUSE... you can get a phone number from any area code in the US. If you live in Florida for 3 months of the year, then get a Florida number... If you have a child going to school in Syracuse, get a Syracuse area code to save them money... Or you can keep the same number forever and renew for $60 annually. So all together, a phone that gets you unlimited calls/minutes to anywhere in the US and Canada, could end up costing you less than $100 per year.... ?? Smart??? How much do you pay Verizon or Time Warner per month? The phone that we have in our house is here, but they have them everywhere, including the Skype website. Theirs are the same phones and cost more, so check them out everywhere (cheapest on Ebay)...

Another point, if you travel, you can take a portable version of the phone and just plug it into your laptop and call wherever you want. I have a little one in my laptop bag. Anywhere you can get high-speed internet access, it will work. That phone is shown here.... It works great from hotel rooms, worked awesome from Mexico to home. MUCH cheaper than a calling card or cell phone. The going rate per minute if you pay per minute rather than unlimited, is about .021 cents.

Update: Check out Skype-to-Go. I pay Skype $2.95 per month now, and I have unlimited calls to the US & Canada, to phones or to any other Skype customer. Plus, I set up a number that I call with my cell phone and it dials the number to Canada for free. I'm using my Skype account, but dialing a local number and they're connecting me to Canada. No Canada minutes used or required. And it's all included on my $2.95 per month charge. Greatest plan around.

Just e-mail me with any questions..

And, all the time, I get asked about my kids' DS game cards that hold about 40 games....for free...well almost...

I got them both DS Lites and needed games. Some nice man e-mailed me when I put an ad on CL looking for games. You can get them for almost free ($30 for 2 months of unlimited downloads), so if you download 30 games, that $1 each....You do the math...

First, you must buy a rar card/cartridge. The easiest one and the one that I have 2 of is here. Called the Cyclo Evolution Card. You can buy them here (list for every country), and then you simply have to fill a micro sd card with games. My kids have 4 gb cards and have about 40 games on each card.

When you get the Cyclo cards, and you have the micro sd cards, go to www.romulation.net. Sign up for a couple of month for $15, and then download anything you want. Go to DS, and filter by US. Only US downloads work here. There are about 4,500 games to choose from. You can check out the list at any time for free and you can download for free as well, but it takes forever. With the $15 payment, I can download a game in under 3 minutes. If you have friends that are going to do the same thing, just share the cost and download all from one pc. We take turns.

When you download, you must download a .rar file and then get a free unzip program. Put all the game and the program in the same file on your harddrive. I then double-click on the game files and tell the unzip program to extract them to the micro sd card that I have in the sd drive of my laptop. That way the game file goes right to the card. When you have all the games you want, put the micro sd card into the Cyclo Cartridge and put it in the ds/ds lite/dsi and turn on the DS. It will show the Cyclo card on the screen and just tap that. Voila, a list of however many games you downloaded will appear in alphabetical order. I have downloaded about 80-100 games, have them all on an external drive and keep them all. I simply delete the ones off their card that they are not playing or have outgrown and replace them with new ones every few months.

Between the Cyclo Card, the sd card and the download fees, I think I have about 100 games for under $200. And that's for 2 kids. They also trade Cyclo Cards, etc. They let their friends borrow them, and then I end up telling this tale again.....So I just decided to put it here.

Just e-mail me with any questions..