Help

First Steps | Handling | Data Protection | Privacy

For Visitors and Web Beginners

Welcome to my Web Presence!

Here I explain a few essentials to make browsing around and finding interesting articles easier.

Page Navigation – where is the Menu?

At the very top right there is an icon with three horizontal lines one above the other, this is a “Hamburger button”.
After clicking/tapping on it, the Hamburger menu opens.
This type of menu is particularly well suited for small screens, as no precious space is wasted on an elaborate menu. A Hamburger menu is no disadvantage on large screens. Visitors concentrate better on the content of the displayed web page and only deal with the page navigation when it is needed.

Many people now use the internet more often on a small smartphone than at home on a large computer screen.

Language Selection

This website is bilingual: German (DE) + English (EN).
You can change the language at any time via the Hamburger menu.
That's why it now shows there DE in red colour at the top right. Click on it to load the German translation of the current page, if available. Otherwise the German start page (“Homepage”) will be loaded.

Browser Language

Tip: Store your preferred language(s) in your browser!
Many websites use language preferences of their visitors to present themselves instantly in a suitable language. This website does that too.

Every browser offers the possibility to select preferred languages under “Settings/Language” (or similar). Take the opportunity to set your mother tongue and, depending on your language skills, additional languages!

This language setting comes into play if you are looking for something on the Internet: the search engine recognises your language preferences and finds a good search result, even if the information you need is not available in your native language. This is convenient and saves time.

Attention!

Do not change the region, as this will also change system language!

Uniform Date Format

I write the date in a uniform format: DD.MM.YYYY.
This also corresponds to the British spelling in this abbreviated form.

Click, Tap or Touch?

On a Mac or PC with a computer mouse, on a MacBook or notebook with a touchpad, on devices with a touch screen by tapping the menu. In my articles I write “mouse click” instead of constantly mentioning all the possibilities. So please replace “mouse click” in your mind with “tap” if necessary.
By the way, a good touchpad works just as well as a computer mouse.

I have only used notebooks privately for years and always prefer a good touchpad to a mouse. It's just a matter of getting used to it.

Sitemap

General overview of the menu structure, direct selection of every subpage possible. See at the bottom of the website.

Search Function

In the opened menu you will see the input field for the search at the top. So type in the search term, then click on “Search” to the right of it or tap “Next”, “Search”, “Enter” or “Return” on the screen on your software keyboard (depending on the device).
Attention: Search only possible in the selected language!

Read all on one Page

I have restructured former multi-page articles (such as this one): all sub-pages have been attached to the respective title page with a jump label.
The table of contents at the top of the page provides a quick overview.
Advantage: if you want to read a particular paragraph quickly, you save time.

Turn Pages

For multi-page content, it is more practical to be able to scroll backwards and forwards through it. This includes i.e. Literature, Links and Glossary. Therefore, I have reactivated this function.

Text Highlighting

Underlining is only used for hyperlinks (demonstrated here) to avoid confusion. When touched, their colour changes from black to red. To emphasise text, type is displayed in bold, italics or sometimes in colour to match the content.

At a glance, even before you click, you see where my Hyperlink leads to:
• internal links: you stay on my website Smiley
• external links: you leave my website    Sad Smiley

• internal links are simply underlined

• internal link to other paragraph on same page: arrow downwards

• external links have an arrow pointing diagonally upwards:

So that you do not “lose” my page by clicking on an external link, foreign websites are always opened in a new window. I also pay attention to security (technical term: noopener).

Reading Mode makes reading long Texts easier

Mac, PC, Notebook, iPhone, Smartphone, iPad, Tablet:
As soon as a paper symbol appears at the very top left of the web address or the letter A appears twice in different sizes (example: A A), the reading mode can be used by clicking on this sign and the font size can also be changed.
Works with all versions of Apple's Safari, Google´s Chrome, Mozilla´s Firefox, Opera and Microsoft´s Internet Explorer. Possibly also with others.

Fig.: Icon for Fontsize and/or start Reading mode

On some systems you can also reach the reading mode by clicking on a Double-A in two different sizes (similar to the illustration), then the call for reading mode and font size setting is combined.

Adjust Font Size using a Key Combination

Mac/PC/Notebook (replace [Ctrl] with [command] on the Mac):

[Strg] and [+] to enlarge,
[Strg] and [-] to reduce the size.
[Strg] and [0] resets to default.

Glossary: Technical Terms A-Z

Technical terms are used as sparingly as possible here.
However, a technology-heavy website cannot do without it.
Also as a technical challenge, I began years ago to build up my own glossary. In the meantime, this glossary has been filled with many technical terms and explanations and is linked thousands of times.

The aim is to explain every technical term used on this website. Many foreign words not used here are also already explained.

If there is an explanation for a technical term used on this website, it is linked to the Glossary as shown here as an example: browser.
A mouse click is all it takes. You can then return to the previous page via browser navigation by clicking on the arrow pointing to the left. Browser button/icon: Arrow left

Privacy – just for your (Data) Protection

With the following lines, I would like to stimulate reflection on the protection of your privacy. Wink

Optimise Web Browser Settings

For all browsers: update regularly!
To stay safe, use only official websites of the developer/publisher!
Software recommendations from Tests and Tips always link to the publisher.

Avoid Internet Explorer

For security reasons, also avoid its successor named “Edge”!
It is not compatible with some web applications – you can save yourself time on troubleshooting!

By the way: Microsoft Edge, as the successor to Internet Explorer, does not support ActiveX, which means that Microsoft has unofficially announced the end of ActiveX technology.

Microsoft is known for never updating TLS certificates promptly.
The encryption that is temporarily weakend in this way makes the secret services' work immensely easier, as it virtually opens backdoors.
Company bosses should be aware of this and use browsers whose developers update TLS certificates promptly.

If you don't want to do without Internet Explorer because company secrets are not that important to you or your employer forces you to use it:

Disable ActiveX

Set the security settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer to Medium or better High and disable ActiveX!
Then some “playful” websites are no longer usable, but reputable websites with ActiveX can also be individually enabled in the browser.

Mozilla Firefox

Does not use dangerous ActiveX and JavaScript should not be enabled by default, because:
If you call up a prepared website with JavaScript activated, your computer is acutely at risk! Malicious software can attack your computer immediately and if your operating system is not up to date and your antivirus programme does not recognise the malware, you will become a victim!

Symbol: Light bulb as a reference to the following tipThe Extension “NoScript” makes Firefox very secure

(if you use it deliberately)!

Google Chrome

Does not use dangerous ActiveX.
Very secure: every website (session) runs in its own sandbox!
But: Google is constantly snooping after you (tracking).
That's why it's better to use Firefox or Brave.

Vanadium

Browser based on Chromium. Particularly secure.
Part of the hardened Android version GrapheneOS.

Send personal Data only via secure Websites

Transmit confidential data only on websites with transport encryption!
You can recognize active transport encryption by the lock symbol in the address bar of your browser and by the URL displayed therein, which begins with https://.

Look out! The lock symbol says nothing about the seriousness of a web address!

Important: SSL 3.1 = TLS 1.0 is outdated! Version 1.1 is also insecure!
TLS version 1.2 is just acceptable. It only becomes really secure with TLS version 1.3 (incl. AES-256 and PFS)!

Most Internet servers still allow connections with TLS version 1.0 and 1.1 to avoid excluding visitors. Browser and web server always negotiate the most secure connection. Attackers can manipulate this and force the web server to use the least secure method available. The most secure web server is the one that rejects old methods and thus fends off manipulation attempts (good admins always use the latest security standards)!

Look out! Some service providers and shop owners (!) only encrypt the login process and save on transfer encryption because it saves a little bit of computing power. But then the connection is not really secure!
Moreover, this is a violation of the GDPR. It is better to steer clear of such companies, as they may be just as lax in their handling of customer data. A bargain purchase at such a shop can cost you dearly if customer data is stolen there later.

Picture: Light bulb as hint for a tip Tip: do the TSL test yourself! Test websites with encryption for their quality!

Protection against Phishing

Attention!

Criminals try to invite Internet users under flimsy pretexts by e-mail to specially prepared pages where confidential data is retrieved for later misuse.

Ordinary E-Mails are not forgery-proof, so please note

  • Your bank will never ask you for access data!
  • Deutsche Post DHL will never ask you for Packstation data!
  • do not open file attachments of unsolicited e-mails!
  • with dubious e-mails always call the sender first and ask!
  • Be careful if something is offered "super cheap" or "for free"!
  • even if you had taken part in a lottery – the organizer would know your data!
  • because you had not ordered any goods, you do not react to alleged "package notifications"!
  • Side jobs with fantastic earning opportunities are never serious!
  • Caution is always advisable when advance payment is requested!

Light bulb as symbol for the following tip Note: There is (also on the Web) nothing (valuable) for free!

Delete unsolicited incoming e-mails with unknown sender unread, especially if the subject is not written in your language.
Exception: you often have international correspondence, but then it is much more difficult to recognize the serious mails.

Spam Filter

E-Mail Provider or Mail Client

An e-mail box or mail program with a spam filter protects against spam.
A combination of both is much more effective.

Spam senders use special programs (bots, spiders, harvesters) to automatically search the entire World Wide Web for mail addresses.

Attention, Webmaster Fellows!

Your Meta Tags will also be scanned!

Symbol light bulb = tip! Enter a fictitious mailbox in the meta tag and on the page “Contact” as well as the provider identification (“Site Notice”) the real mail address only as graphic with a link to the e-mail form (!). According to the current state of knowledge, robots cannot use this yet.
Or write the e-mail address with spaces and replace @ and the dot with a paraphrase. But then a short explanation for beginners, who do not know the topic yet.

In the past, it helped to enter the email address as a graphic with a link to the email form.
According to the state of knowledge at the time, robots couldn't do anything with that. However, since the Internet mafia even uses cheap labour to recognise captchas and OCR software is now also better and better at recognising texts in graphics, it is urgent to refrain from doing so.
Update: Apple's iPhones and MacBooks and Google's Pixel Phones can now read almost all text in photos!

Also very good, but some solution bad for performance: Protection via JavaScript – ready-to-use plugins are available for many CMS.
With such a JavaScript solution, protect only one page (“Site Notice”) if possible and do not publish your own or even foreign e-mail addresses anywhere else.

Symbol light bulb = tip! Exclude the “Legal Notice” and “Privacy Policy” from sitemap creation, also do not let search engines index it (noindex,follow).
This makes it more difficult for spammers to find valid e-mail addresses.

Unhindered Access to Privacy Policy and Site Notice required

Symbol light bulb = tip! Human website visitors must be able to quickly find and access the privacy policy and site notice without switching on Flash and JavaScript, otherwise they will be threatened with a warning! Spam harvesters (electronic mail address harvesters) should not get your e-mail address and search engines should better not include an site notice in their search results. This is superfluous and even dangerous, because a possibly temporarily erroneous site notice may cause warning letters to be issued unnecessarily, even though the corrected version has been online for a long time. Just saves trouble.

Keyword list: AES, Android, Browser, CMS, Client, Computer, E-Mail, EDGE, Glossary, Google Chrome, HTTPS, Help, Hyperlink, IT, Internet, JavaScript, Link, Links, Literature, Mailbox, Mouse, Mozilla Firefox, Notebook, Online, PC, PFS, Phishing, Pixel, Privacy, Protection against Phishing, Providers, Recommendations, SSL, Safari, Search Engine, Server, Service, Services, Smartphone, Software, Spam, TLS, Technical terms, Tips, URL, Update, Web Beginners, Web Browser, Web Page, Website, Who, World Wide Web, iPhone, why

Last edited: