Educational Assistance

I am addicted to the Internet. I am a busy working parent and still I find the time to check my e-mail, chat with my friends in Yahoo Instant Messenger, read news, forums and on and on.
I need “to know” and I need “to have” more than ever before. I want to get my latest news. I want to spread the news to my on-line and off-line friends, who, I might add, are doing exactly the same. I need to get a new book or … shoes or … gadget just because it is there and easy to buy, no need to drive and look for parking at the mall. Don’t you love these FREE shipping offers? All this is in addition to already being entertained on the Internet watching YouTube, listening to iTunes etc. Do you do the same?
It is not hard to find out if you’re addicted to the Internet. Do you find that when you get online you’re frequently surprised by the amount of time that has passed? Do you find yourself staying home instead of enjoying a beautiful day outside because you’d rather use the Internet?
A recent study from Stanford University School of Medicine found that more than one in eight Americans show signs that they could be suffering from some form of internet addiction.
How do you cure this problem? Google “Internet Addiction” and log on to a bunch of websites? Instant Message other sufferers? Join an Internet support group? Or buy self-help books from our favorite on-line store (after performing an extensive price comparison)? You might as well offer a drink to an alcoholic trying to cure his addiction.
In China, parents send their children as young as 12 to the first officially licensed clinic for Internet addiction at the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital. That is after their kids skip school to spend time playing online games and visiting chat rooms. These kids are admitted suffering from depression, nervousness, panic, fear, agitation, unwillingness to interact with others, sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands. The daily schedule at the center begins at 6 a.m. and includes electric shock treatment and the administration of intravenous drips to “adjust the unbalanced status of brain secretions”.
This sounds a little extreme to me. How about a gentler American way of approaching this problem? How about using a new high-tech device called SnoopStick?
SnoopStick is a very small USB flash drive device that will allow someone to fully monitor and limit your access to the Internet from any other computer on the Internet. Just run the set-up program on your computer then unplug the device and give it to your trusted friend. Your friend will plug Snoop Stick to any Windows-based computer (in her home or office) and at any time will be able to monitor your Internet use and disable your access to the Internet if needed. You can also specify the times when you will be able to access Internet and SnoopStick will enforce this schedule.
Stay aware, alert, and in control of your Internet with Snoop Stick.

Your browser saves browsing histories and stores quite a few temporary files on your computer’s hard drive as you surf the Internet. You should clear your Internet history after each browsing session to safeguard your privacy as well as your Internet browsing habits.

Before we start talking about how to clear Internet history from your computer, you would do well to know about browsing histories and temporary files in brief. Browsing histories are the tracks of those web pages where you have landed during your online session. Temporary files on the other hand consist of cache files.

Though no harm will be done if you don’t clear Internet history, these browsing histories as well as temporary files will make it easy for anyone using the same computer to access your browsing history and know what sites you have visited during your browsing session. Moreover, these browsing histories and files occupy a reasonable amount of space on your computer’s drive. So, it is better to clear Internet history.

If you are wondering how to clear Internet history, the following steps will guide you:

For Internet Explorer:

After selecting “Internet Options” from the Tools menu, click on the “General” tab. You will find that a window marked Internet Options opens up. If you want to clear cached files, choose the Browsing section’s “Delete” button. A window will appear where you will come across quite a few sections like Form Data, Cookies, Temporary Internet Files, Passwords and History. To erase selected files, search for the corresponding buttons in this section and click on them. However, to clear your Internet history entirely by means of a single click, click the “Clear History” or “Delete All” key. You will find this key at the lower segment of your browser window.

For Firefox:

Clearing your Internet history is a walkover if you use Mozilla Firefox. To begin with, click “Tools” to find a drop down box from where you have to select the tab marked “Clear Private Data”. The window that opens next will have different sections that are named as Search History, Cookies, Saved Passwords, Browsing History and Saved Form. Check the matching boxes from this part for deleting selected items. On the other hand, if you desire to clear your entire Internet history, click the button having “Clear Private Data Now” written on it.

For AOL (America Online):

Trace the “Settings” button at first. You will find this button on the top segment of your AOL browser window. Once you find it, click on it and then select the button marked “Preferences”. Your next step is to choose “toolbar and sounds” tab and click the “clear history trail now” button to clear your Internet history.

Apart from the steps that are talked about till now, you also need to erase third party applications (if any) from your computer. If you don’t do this, your job will remain half done as the passwords, text, images and other sensitive statistics stored by these applications in your computer’s hard drive will allow anyone to know what your browsing habits are. You can clear such third party applications by using some software as it is not an easy task to locate and erase these files by hand.

Why clean Internet history

When you surf the Internet, all your actions are recorded by your browser. So, each website that you paid a visit to, every search string that you used while looking for certain things or information using search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN etc, files that you have downloaded, information that you submitted on websites, programs you ran and even more are stored. If you are wondering why to clean Internet history, the answer is simple: to protect your privacy.

In many cases, the Internet history that your PC stores can make the entire process of web surfing easier as it increases the webpage’s loading speed. However, you may not be the only person who uses that particular computer. It is likely that you share it with your spouse, children or roommates. If you don’t erase Internet history , these people could see everything that you have done while surfing the Internet. This in turn may harm your privacy and land you in an embarrassing situation. So, that’s why clean Internet history is a basic requirement that you need to consider.

You can clean Internet history either manually or by means of some special software. However, as different locations of your computer store the Internet history, if you simply clean browser history, cache and cookies, that won’t be enough. Even if you use the “Delete” button to erase Internet history files and make use of the “Empty Recycle Bin” alternative, it will not wipe off the Internet history forever. Nevertheless, you can follow these simple steps to erase your Internet browser history: For Firefox:

For Internet Explorer 7:

For AOL (America Online):

Though the basic steps to remove such Internet browsing history are identical, you can come across minor differences from browser to browser. So, use these techniques to clean Internet history, keep your privacy unharmed and enjoy the experience of surfing the Internet.