FAQ : Other issues | abbywinters.com

How do I copy and paste exactly?Top

Copying and pasting is a very useful skill, not just for erotica sites! It allows you to use the computer to copy down information, then put that information somewhere else. You can use it for usernames and passwords especially, as they are sensitive to upper-case and lower-case, but it's also really useful for website addresses (say, to email a web page address to someone - these are often extremely long and complicated, and getting them a little wrong will mean they will not work) and many other things.

Ok, so to do it, it depends if you're using Mac or Windows. We'll use the example of a username and password for this site. If this is totally new to you, you might want to print this page out, as it can be confusing to juggle several windows at once.

It looks complicated, but it's easy (we have included some tips, and a lot of detail so you cannot make a mistake. In a nutshell, you're going to copy the username, switch to the website's page, paste in the username, then repeat for the password. Once you know how to do it, it'll take less than three seconds!

For Windows: (for Mac, see below)

1. Open the email that has your username and password information in it.
2. Open a web browser and get to a page where you need to enter your username and password (http://www.abbywinters.com/members - Right click on that and choose "open in new window")
3. Go back to your email, and find where it says your username.
4. With the mouse, drag from JUST to the left of the first letter, to JUST to the right of the last letter. The letters will "highlight" in an opposite colour - if you have black text on a white background, the text will turn white and the background black, just for the word you have selected. TIP: be careful not to select a space or tab or anything like that - it won't work if you do.
5. While the word is still highlighted, go to the EDIT menu on the same window, and choose "COPY". This will copy the text to the computer's memory. Now it's there, you can do stuff with it!
6. Go back to the web browser, by looking at the task bar at the bottom of your screen, and clicking on the thing for Internet Explorer (or perhaps you use Netscape, or Firefox?). The window should pop up, with our news page, and in the top right hand corner, the orange box asking for your username and password.
7. Click in the white username field, so you have a flashing cursor.
8. Go to the EDIT menu of your web browser, and choose PASTE. Your username should pop up there. It will stay there while you do the next steps. We're halfway done!
9. Go back to your email, and find where it says your password.
10. With the mouse, select the word by dragging from first letter to the last letter. Again, the letters will "highlight"
11. Go to the EDIT menu on the same window, and choose "COPY".
12. Go back to the web browser with the news page of abbywinters.com
13. Click in the password field to get a flashing cursor
14. EDIT menu, choose PASTE. Your password will pop up there, but it will show up as black dots (or maybe asterisks). This is for security.
15. Enter the security code (upper or lowercase, it does not matter) as it is in the graphic.
16. Check the "remember me" box, so you won't have to go through all this again on this computer.
17. Click the login button - you're in! If it does not work, most likely, you copied a "space" character. Go to step 3 and try again.

More Tips to make it easier and faster:

• In most cases, you can just double click on the username or password to select just it (make sure your computer has not selected a space as well!).
• If you have a cursor in your email (you probably will), you can click near the word, use the cursor UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT keys to get to the left of the first letter, hold down SHIFT, and tap the cursor RIGHT key. This will select the word letter by letter - a very accurate way of selecting text.
• Once you have selected a word, you can RIGHT CLICK your mouse near it, and choose COPY from the pop-up menu. You can paste in the same way - RIGHT-CLICK on the field on the web page, and choose PASTE.
• You can do it EVEN QUICKER, after selecting a word, hold down the CONTROL (might be called CTRL) key on your keyboard, and tap the C key. This is the "shortcut" for COPY. You can use CTRL-V (hold down CTRL, tap V, let CTRL go) to paste. This is what the pros do! See how close C, V and CTRL are to each other? The idea is, you can do this all with your left hand, while your right hand is on the mouse.
• Still want more? Instead of using the task bar to switch between applications, hold down the ALT key, and tap the TAB key (if you keep holding down TAB, you can see all the applications you have open right now; each time you tap TAB, you'll move to the next application. Let go of ALT to select the application you want. The last application you used will always be second, so you can be sneaky and do this:
  • Select the username with a double click (right hand)
  • Press CTRL C to copy (left hand)
  • Press ALT TAB once
  • Use the mouse to click on the username field on the webpage (right hand)
  • Press CTRL V to paste (left hand)
  • Press ALT TAB once to get back to your email (left hand)
  • Double-click on the password (right hand)
  • Press CTRL C to copy (left hand)
  • Press ALT TAB once
  • Use the mouse to click on the password field on the webpage (right hand)
  • Press CTRL V to paste (left hand)
• For Mac
  Open the email that has your username and password information in it.

1. Open a web browser and get to a page where you need to enter your username and password (http://www.abbywinters.com/members - you can click on that and it will open in a new window.)
2. Go back to your email, and find where it says your username.
3. With the mouse, drag from JUST to the left of the first letter, to JUST to the right of the last letter. The letters will "highlight" in an opposite colour - if you have black text on a white background, the text will turn white and the background black, just for the word you have selected. TIP: be careful not to select a space or tab or anything like that - it won't work if you do.
4. While the word is still highlighted, go to the EDIT menu on the same window, and choose "COPY". This will copy the text to the computer's memory. Now it's there, you can do stuff with it!
5. Go back to the web browser, by looking in the dock, and clicking on the thing for Internet Explorer (or perhaps you use Netscape, or Firefox?). The window should pop up, with our news page, and in the top right hand corner, the orange box asking for your username and password.
6. Click in the white username field, so you have a flashing cursor.
7. Go to the EDIT menu of your web browser, and choose PASTE. Your username should pop up there. It will stay there while you do the next steps. We're halfway done!
8. Go back to your email, and find where it says your password.
9. With the mouse, select the word by dragging from first letter to the last letter. Again, the letters will "highlight"
10. Go to the EDIT menu on the same window, and choose "COPY".
11. Go back to the web browser with the news page of abbywinters.com
12. Click in the password field to get a flashing cursor
13. EDIT menu, choose PASTE. Your password will pop up there, but it will show up as black dots (or maybe asterisks). This is for security.
14. Enter the security code (upper or lowercase, it does not matter) as it is in the graphic.
15. Check the "remember me" box, so you won't have to go through all this again on this computer.
16. Click the login button - you're in! If it does not work, most likely, you copied a "space" character. Go to step 3 and try again.

More Tips to make it easier and faster:

• In most cases, you can just double click on the username or password to select just it (make sure your computer has not selected a space as well!).
• If you have a cursor in your email (you probably will), you can click near the word, use the cursor UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT keys to get to the left of the first letter, hold down SHIFT, and tap the cursor RIGHT key. This will select the word letter by letter - a very accurate way of selecting text.
• Once you have selected a word, hit CTRL and click your mouse near it, and choose COPY from the pop-up menu. You can paste in the same way - CTRL-click on the field on the web page, and choose PASTE.
• You can do it EVEN QUICKER, after selecting a word, hold down the COMMAND or Apple key on your keyboard, and tap the C key. This is the "shortcut" for COPY. You can use COMMAND-V to paste. This is what the pros do! See how close C, V and COMMAND are to each other? The idea is, you can do this all with your left hand, while your right hand is on the mouse.
• Still want more? Instead of using the task bar to switch between applications, hold down the COMMAND or Apple key, and tap the TAB key (if you keep holding down TAB, you can see all the applications you have open right now; each time you tap TAB, you'll move to the next application. Let go of ALT to select the application you want. The last application you used will always be second, so you can be sneaky and do this:
  • Select the username with a double click (right hand)
  • Press CMD-C to copy (left hand)
  • Press CMD-TAB once
  • Use the mouse to click on the username field on the webpage (right hand)
  • Press CMD-V to paste (left hand)
  • Press CMD-TAB once to get back to your email (left hand)
  • Double-click on the password (right hand)
  • Press CMD-C to copy (left hand)
  • Press CMD-TAB once
  • Use the mouse to click on the password field on the webpage (right hand)
  • Press CMD-V to paste (left hand)
    

Ok, this is getting silly now. Go look at some pics and vids!

How do I make a screenshot and upload it to the boards?Top

CREATE SCREENSHOT

Open windows inbuilt image program, in XP it's called Paint. Click Start / Programs / Accessories / Paint

Bring the screen you want into view and hit the Print Screen (Prt Scr) key on your keyboard. (NB: If you hit Alt-Prt Scr, you will only capture the window, and not the whole screen)

Bring up the Paint program and click Edit / Paste (Ctrl V). You should now have a copy of the screenshot contained within Paint.

Save a copy of that image. In Paint, click File / Save and save it as a jpeg file in your My Documents folder, or perhaps on your Desktop eg: c:\temp\selectuser.jpg

ATTACH FILE TO POST

At the Quick Reply box at the bottom of each thread page is the "Go Advanced" button. Click it.

On the next page that loads, hit the "Manage Attachments" button.

On the popup window that appears hit the "Browse" button and find the jpeg file you previously saved from above.

Then hit the "Upload" button and wait while it uploads. When the image is ready hit the "Close this window" button in the popup window.

You now should be back in the forum so add text to your reply and then hit the "Submit Reply" button.

Your new post should now have a screenshot in it.

How come I have to provide so much info when I contact you?Top

We understand it's frustrating to have to supply answers to so many questions that seem irrelevant, but a little bit of time spent now will save you a lot of frustration later. Without all the details up front, we'll need to email you back and ask some questions, you reply with answers, and more often than not, we'll have to ask you even more questions. It could be days before your issues are resolved (especially if you're not online much, or in a different time zone to us)!

If you send us an email saying "nothing works", that's useless to us! We need to know, specifically, WHAT is not working and what is, and in what way it's broken. Do you get an error message, for example? What does it say (exactly!)? Here's an example:

1. You: I can't see pictures
2. Us: Are you logged in?
3. You: Of course! but I can't see pictures!
4. Us: ok, please tell us the name and version of the operating system and web browser you're using?
5. You: Apple Mac
6. Us: Ok, but we need to know the VERSION of the OS, AND the web browser name, AND the web browser version.
7. You: oh, sorry. Mac OS8, and Netscape 3.
8. Us: ...

If you just supply us with all the info up front, in 90% of cases, we'll be able to solve your problem with just one email, which is good for you, and us.

Also, many things are inter-related, for example, if you say you cannot view Mary's pictures, we need to know the name and version of the web browser and operating system you are using, because these things can affect how you see things on our site.

You can seek help on our contact page.

How do I find out my monitor resolution?Top

Sometimes you need to know what your settings are for your computer, especially if you wish to compare with the minimum settings a website may suggest, or if you wish to alter them to fit an update in technology.

PCs

Right-click on your desktop and choose Properties. Under Settings there will be an adjustable slider that shows your Screen Resolution as a width-height ratio. The default in XP is 800x600, our minimum specs recommend 1024x768. Ideally you would want 1280x960 at least to see our images fit the screen dimensions better.

Some CRT monitors and video cards do not allow some resolutions to display without also adjusting the refresh rate frequency to accommodate flickering. To do this go to Advanced and choose the Monitor tab, where you can choose a Hertz frequency. The higher the number, the less flickery the screen will be.

Macs

Choose the Apple menu System Preferences, and then Displays. There will be choices of screen ratios available. Our minimum specs recommend 1024x768. Ideally you should use 1280x1024 at least to see our images fit the screen dimensions better.

What are the minimum specs for accessing this site?Top

If you join and have problems viewing our content, we will not be able to offer support or issue a refund, unless your system is above minimum spec. Cookies must be enabled; Javascript must be enabled; Anonymous Proxies are not supported.

	PC	Mac
Minimum Specification Software	Windows XP, Vista, or higher Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Firefox 2.0 and up Windows Media Player 9.0 Mpeg1 codec installed	OS X 10.4 or higher Safari 2.x, 3.x Firefox 2.0 and up Quicktime 6.0 Mpeg1 codec installed We DO NOT SUPPORT MacOS 9!
Minimim Specification Hardware	Celeron class processor or better At least 256 MB of RAM 150Mb free HDD space on your C (or swap) drive 1024x768 screen resolution 128kbps broadband connection to Internet	A PowerPC G3 or higher, or an Intel Core2 Duo or higher At least 256 MB of RAM 150Mb free HDD space on your main drive 1024x768 screen resolution 128kbps broadband connection to Internet

 

* If it's not on this list or below spec, we don't support it. Sorry.
* While this site might work on a lower spec, we do not guarantee it.

Blackberry, iPhone, Android:

We don't yet "officially" support these, but we aim to. If you're using a mobile device with our site, please let us know the specs of your device and how it's working for you.
Note for Linux users:

We do not have many Linux users currently, but we're keen to support them (within reason). If you use Linux, please contact us with your system specs (hardware and software) so we can add that data to our list.

Here's what we know works currently:

• Any Linux kernel
• Redhat
• Fedora
• SuSE 9.3
• Ubuntu 6.10
• Any version of XFree or X.org
• Firefox 2.0
• Any video player software (VLC, xine, kaffeine and mplayer are known to work, gstreamer should work as well)

I want streaming video. Tell me about Flash.Top

INTRODUCING FLASH VIDEO

Starting from April 2007, abbywinters.com supports streaming video in Flash Video (FLV) format. Flash Video provides near-instant playback of videos right in your browser window - no more waiting for an entire video to download before you can watch it.

Naturally, we will continue to offer high-quality versions of all of our videos in WMV and MPG formats (and mp4 for videos added to the site since October 2008) for downloading. Even if you prefer to download your video, you will find Flash Video useful for previewing videos before downloading.

In order to make a video streamable, certain compromises must be made. Regardless of format, streaming video is generally of a smaller resolution and of lower quality than downloadable video. See the section on "Quality Settings" below for details on how you can fine-tune your settings to get the best streaming video experience.

System Requirements

The good news is that most abbywinters.com members will already have everything they need to watch Flash Video. All you need is the latest Adobe Flash Player plugin installed on your browser of choice.

If you do not have the Flash Player plugin installed on your browser, you will be provided with a download link when you try and play a Flash Video.

Playback

To start playing the Flash videos, several options are presented to you in different areas of the site:

Click the URL link:
In the Model Profile pages where the videos are listed, you need to click on the link labelled with the FLV icon. FLV.gif

Click the thumbnail image:
In our Tour, and the Video Newsletter box located on our News page, you can click on the thumbnail image of the clip.

Click the icon:
On the Video Gallery pages, click directly on the FLV icon FLV.gif

The player window that opens is part of the Flash file itself, and cannot be moved or selected once it has appeared. It will display in the centre of your browser window when clicked on, and will begin playing as soon as it has "buffered" enough content, which should only be a matter of seconds, depending on your connection speed. See the progress meter which indicates how many percent complete the buffering process is.

You are able to pause the video, which will continue to download while paused until the file is complete, or you can click the CLOSE [X] button which will cause the player to disappear and free up your internet bandwidth even if partway through downloading.

Navigation

You can navigate, or "seek", through the video, by simply clicking where you want it to play back from on the progress bar below the image. The video needs to rebuffer from that point (takes a few seconds), then it plays as normal. You can jump forward or backwards. Note, there is no fast-forward or rewind - you need to click where you want to play back from.

Quality Settings

Flash Video provides cross-platform, fast streaming, instant video playback, but the compromise comes in resolution, image quality and framerate. To ensure that each of our members get the best possible streaming video experience, each video is supplied in a range of quality settings to suit different internet connection speeds.

When you first visit an abbywinters.com page containing streaming video, we run a "speed test" that automatically determines the optimal quality setting for your particular internet connection. This may not be optimal for you, or to your preference.

You can manually change the quality setting on your MyAW page. Note that this setting is made on your browser, so if you access abbywinters.com from different machines, each will have their own quality setting.

The different video dimensions (image size) and bitrates (rate of data transfer) we provide are as follows:

4:3

384px by 288px = 120kbps Best for low-speed DSL
384px by 288px = 400kbps Best for medium-speed DSL
576px by 432px = 900kbps Best for high-speed DSL or Cable

16:9

512px by 288px = 120kbps Best for low-speed DSL
512px by 288px = 400kbps Best for medium-speed DSL
768px by 432px = 900kbps Best for high-speed DSL or Cable

Problems

If you experience problems trying to watch Flash Videos on abbywinters.com, please ensure that you have the most recent version of the Flash Player plugin.

In rare instances there may be no newer version of Flash available for your particular blend of OS and browser. You will be unable to play our Flash files at all until a newer version of the plugin is written for your system. In this case, download the WMVs, MPGs, or mp4s instead; they are all still available for you, so you are never forced to go without.

If the video plays, but stutters badly, first make sure you have no other video downloading at the same time, including a second Flash file. If all is fine there, then your Download speed may not be enough to handle the size of the video file. Please go to the My Account page under "Streaming video quality" and choose a lower bandwidth setting for the Flash videos.

We have had reports from people who have found problems playing our Flash Video with Norton Internet Security enabled. We are working on a solution to this problem, but in the meantime we suggest that you temporarily disable Norton Internet Security if you want to watch Flash Video on abbywinters.com

If you experience any other problems with our Flash Video, please contact our support team.

I have a problem viewing the site with my Apple MacTop

Cannot view profiles on a Mac using Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer for Macs has not been supported by either Apple or Microsoft for many years. It has therefore not been upgraded while new developments in web technology have advanced. As our site uses cutting edge technology in some of its design, IE for Macs no longer cuts the mustard.

To view our site correctly, you need a modern browser. We recommend Firefox or Safari, and some have suggested Camino. They are free to download, and are much better browsers than IE in all ways, including increased security, greater usability, and they are constantly kept up to date with newer web developments. You will not regret this change.

On OS9, my browser just isn't working with your site at all
We do not really support OS9, as mentioned in our Minimum Specs, so the best we can offer is a single browser that will work acceptably, which is Mozilla 1.2.1. We have provided a copy for download.

Cannot log on to your site - I'm stuck with the logon dialog
It is very important to set your browser to enable Javascript and accept cookies. Our identification system is cookie based and if your browser doesn't accept them you will not be able to log on. You can access this setting via the "Preferences" menu of your browser.

Also, make sure your browser is up to date (check out the Minimum Specs), and try hitting the refresh button (or hit Command+R/Apple+R) when you're at the main page.

It is also a good idea to check the "remember me" check box, so you won't have to log on every time you visit us.

Cannot playback videos on Safari with Quicktime 7
When you click on a video link in Safari, expecting the video to playback on Quicktime 7, and instead you get a question mark and nothing seems to happen, this fault lies not with us, but with Safari's Quicktime plugin.

Streaming our video is not recommended, as we do not use proper streaming servers, they are file servers only. These are MPEG-1 video files, not Quicktime MOV files, and the plugin has a bug that does not seem to like them.

There are several solutions:

1. Our recommended suggestion is for you to ctrl-click and download the videofiles, or use a Download Manager, so you can play them back from your hard drive at your leisure. (option-click the link to bypass the list of options and go straight to downloading)
2. Alternatively you can use a different browser, Firefox, in which the Quicktime 7 plugin seems to work just fine.
3. Or you can try to eliminate one of the plugin files in Safari. Go to the folder "~/library/Internet Plug-ins" and delete the file: "Quicktime Web Plugin". You will see two Quicktime plugins there, the one you delete is the one with the word "web" in its name. Simply pull that plugin out, restart the computer, and video streaming should return to normal within browser windows.

How come the images are so damn big?Top

All the images on this site are around 1280x960 or 1470x980 pixels for large size images and 3504x2336 for XL images. When viewing images through the new site these images are automatically re-sized in your browser to fit your screen resolution and size of your browser window.

If you wish you can click on the image to view the full image in the browser or right-click and click "save image as" if you want to save it to your harddrive.

You can also select your preferred size for images from the preference in the my account page. This will affect the size of image that is loaded by default when browsing images and also the image that is downloaded when clicking on the download image icon (disk icon) on the image page. If you have selected XL as your preferred size and an imageset is not available with XL images it will default back to Large image size for that set.

Resizing images in a browser can result in lower quality images - they often distort and cause jaggy edges - so we recommend you download the images first (by zip, if you want more than several), and use an image viewing program on your computer.

Image viewers have many advantages over a web browser. There are many viewers to choose from, but we recommend ACDSee (paid version), or there's IrfanView (free), or WinXP's inbuilt viewer (free if you have XP). Some other suggestions from our members can be found in this thread on our discussion boards.

The simplest way to see the complete picture in your chosen image viewer is to use "Fit Image To Screen". Most viewers can achieve this "on the fly" using a keyboard shortcut (e.g. in ACDSee it's Ctrl and Numpad minus), and you can set this to be the default.

Your chosen image viewing application should come with a comprehensive Help file that will guide you through everything, but we have a lot of very knowledgeable members who will be happy to help you if you post on our discussion boards.

Can I use a download manager with your site?Top

Absolutely, we encourage and support the use of Download Managers.

Download managers (DLM's) are useful in many situations:

• If you are having problems maintaining extended downloads, getting partial files downloaded instead of whole ones
• If you are on some kinda slow connection like dial-up
• if you want to queue our larger files to download overnight while you sleep or are at work
• If you want to concurrently download several files at once (most web browsers are limited to two concurrent downloads per server)

 

These are applications that provide a feature called Keep-Alive, which should maintain an open connection and continuous download that overrides any unexpected interruption, and also can resume interrupted downloads should you be disconnected midway through (some can even re-dial your ISP if the connection drops out).

When you set up your DLM, please note these points:

• First, you MUST log into the site and check the "remember me" box - without this, the required cookie will not be set. It's best to do this in IE if you're on a PC, as most DLM's only look for information in IE, and not other browsers.
• Your download manager need to be configured to accept cookies from your default web browser (they may do this by default)
• Your web browser may need to be set to explicitly allow cookies from us (more info on this on our cookies help page.

 

Recommended Download Managers For PCs

If you're willing to put up with reminders to buy it, Get Right is free. It's one of the older more established download managers out there, and works for our site as long as you have cookies enabled. You should be able to use any browser with it, even Firefox as long as the cookie is set via IE originally.

Firefox has an awesome addon download manager called DownThemAll. Free, simple to install, effective.

Lightning Download Shareware (after 30 days some features are disabled) but inexpensive anyway, Lightning Download seems to work well as long as you have installed a cookie via IE and then set the app to allow cookies.

Recommended Download Managers For Macs

Download Deputy, Speed Download & igetter are not bad, apparently, and each seem to be pretty similar to each other. They all have many useful features and attractive logical interfaces.

Recommended Download Managers For Linux

In Ubuntu 11.10, for firefox the, combination of the flashgot plugin and the external download manager uGet works very well.

Wget (Linux) (http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html) The following, simple option for the Linux/Unix wget command will allow the download of files.

wget --header "Cookie: user=[value]" [file_to_download] Replace the [value] with the cookie value for user, which you can find with your browser's cookie manager. Of course, replace [file_to_download] with the zip file or video you want to download.

It will also work if you tell it to load your Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox cookie file (cookies.txt).

How can I keep my use of your site confidential?Top

We hope you'll share your subscription with your life partner. We have a lot of feedback from members who have done this, and found it to be a great experience. Many people - especially women - once viewing our site, are pleased to see that erotica can be produced with respect and empowerment. But at the same time, we know that some partners are just not accepting of viewing erotica.

Some of our customers want to keep their surfing of our site confidential. There are a number of techniques you can use to do this, depending on the level of privacy required, money available, and technical expertise. These are listed in rough easiness order, easiest first. You can always find out more about these methods by doing google searches - this is a basic list to give you some ideas of the possibilities.

Warning: many of these methods will not provide confidentiality from children (who tend to know a lot more about computers) or legal authorities. If viewing our site is not legal in your jurisdiction, you're on your own! You can read up on the legal standards we meet. The methods below will mean no obvious trail to your browsing is left lying around, but we cannot guarantee anything. Also, these methods work for any adult site or media content, not just ours.

We request you do not make our site available to children of any age, but it is beyond the scope of this FAQ to provide details on how to do this. One good place for help is at http://www.child-internet-safety.com/

Pay by cash, instead of credit card

Paying by cash ensures there are no "mysterious" billings to your credit card. More info on our pay-by-mail page.

Do not bookmark our site

Bookmarking our site leaves a clear and obvious link to us from your computer. You could either not bookmark the site at all (make sure you remember our name - you can always google it!), or use a bookmarking service like delicious.com, where you can choose to keep your bookmarks online and private. You remember a password to log in to Delicious, and all your bookmarks are stored there. You can tag them, send them to others, and do lotsa cool stuff - including have your bookmarks with you any time you access the internet, no matter where you are, or whose computer you are using.

Clear history

Clearing the "history" when you browse abbywinters.com means the next person who uses the computer cannot see where you have been on the internet. The browser history can go back many months, and is searchable in most web browsers. Most browsers have a "History" menu, with history options there, or on the web browser's options page.

If you cannot work it out, do a google search for your browser name and version and "clear history", like this (note that the version of your browser can affect the instructions):

internet explorer 8 clear history

You can set some browsers to never record your browsing history, or to go into "stealth mode" for particular sites or periods, where no history is recorded. We use and recommend the FireFox web browser, which provides this and many other features.

Don't save your username and password

Most web browsers, and our web site, offer to remember your username and password, to make it easy for you to log in each time you visit. If you use those tools, you may leave signs of visiting our site. Select "no" when asked by your browser to save your login info.

Delete Cookies

We also provide tools to keep your info each time you visit (review our privacy policy for details on specifics). To remove that from your computer, you must delete abbywinters.com cookies. Cookies help you in a lot of ways, and you will find changes you make on the site - your preferences - will be forgotten if you remove our cookies. However, cookies can also lead a snoop to us. You can set your browser to never accept cookies from our site. This can be set in the "options" part of your browser.

If you cannot work it out, do a google search for your browser name and version and "clearing cookies", like this:

internet explorer 8 clearing cookies

Don't download, only view online

If you download and save files to your computer, there will be content on your computer which could easily lead someone to our site - all our images and video have our name on them, for example. You can view our images and video (as streaming Flash) online-only, and make lists and groups of your favourite stuff. That means that you have to be online to view our stuff, and that you will see reduced quality compared to downloading, but the privacy may be worth it, and the quality-hit is not too bad (depending on the speed of internet connection).

Create a separate user account on your computer, that only you use

It's possible to create a separate user account on all modern computers. Your partner logs in on her account, and you log in on yours. The web browser settings will be yours alone (e.g., history, cookies), but any files stored on your computer will still be visible, so some of the methods we describe below should still be used.

This does involve some messing around with computer settings, and is particularly difficult in some operating systems, if you do not know how. Google is your friend.

SHIFT-delete media

If you do download media, after you have checked it out, you can delete it. Deleting, on most computers, puts the media in a "list of things to delete one day" place, and does not actually remove it from your computer. This is useful if you delete something accidentally, and want to get it back - look in your "recycle bin" on the desktop of your computer.

However, you can force a complete deletion, by selecting the files, holding down a SHIFT key on your keyboard, then tapping DELETE. Double check by opening the recycle bin, and ensuring the files are not there. If they are, you can select them and tap the DELETE key again, and they will be gone for good.

Note that SHIFT-delete does not make the files IMPOSSIBLE to get back - anyone with moderate computer skills (say, a child 12 or older), and an inquisitive mind, will be able to get the files back, if they know they exist. SHIFT-delete protects you from casual browsing of your computer.

If using a Mac, the equivalent is command-shift-delete.

Store downloaded media in a hidden directory

You can store media you download from us in a hidden directory (or, "folder"). Make a new folder somewhere (the less obvious place you store this folder, the safer it is), move media into it, then right click on the folder, select Properties, and check the "hidden" box, then click OK. The folder will disappear - but it's still there.

To get it back, in Explorer, go to Tools, Folder options, view tab, select "show hidden files and folders". Anyone can do this, of course, so placing the folder in an out-of-the-way place initially helps. Don't forget to set this same setting back to "do not show hidden files and folders" when you are done!

Also, don't forget where you put your special folder - that would be very disappointing!

Store downloaded media in an encrypted partition There are many programs around that can make an encrypted "partition" of your hard drive. You select the capacity of this partition, and it makes it super-secure (even the CIA would take years to crack it, for example). This is extremely secure, but the presence of the program on your computer may raise questions itself. These programs sometimes have a "stealth mode" to fix this.
There is a minor speed-decrease when using encrypted partitions, but if your computer is reasonably new, this will not be noticeable. The more secure the encryption you use, the bigger the speed decrease.

We recommend TrueCrypt, free and effective. Don't forget your password - you'll lose access to your files forever!

View the site on a computer only you use

Buy a brand new computer for your partner, and use your old one "just for tinkering". Put a password on the BIOS, so only people who know the password can do anything. Do a google search on "setting BIOS password".

Download material, store and view it offline

You can download material from our site, then store it offline. This might be on USB sticks - you can get 32Gb ones now, which is a heck of a lot of AW content! - or USB hard drives, which can be 320Gb, run from your USB port, and cost around US$110. Storing this drive somewhere safe is easy and discreet and portable.

Run your whole OS on a USB drive

It's possible to boot an operating system from a USB flash drive as well. You use this OS for your personal browsing, and everyone else who uses the computer uses the computer's installed operating system. It can be a fun project (and is very useful if travelling), but requires significant computer skills. Google is your friend!

How come I can't download content correctly?Top

If you have trouble downloading our content please follow the steps below.

First check the requirements for viewing the site;

1. Check that your browser is supported here
2. Check that you have javascript enabled here
3. Check that you have cookies enabled here

If all the above checks out OK, perform the following steps;

1. Remove all AW related cookies from your browser (except the forum ones). Info on how to do this is here.
2. After deleting them, close your browser (all windows/tabs) and start it again (this will clear any cookies stubbornly staying in memory).
3. Now log back into the site, check the 'Remember me' box.
4. Go to 'My Account' and run the bandwidth test.
5. Go to the main page, do NOT use the back buttons on the browser. Go directly to this link (main member page).
6. Navigate to a set that you were having difficulties with and try downloading it again.

If the above steps do not resolve your problem please contact us and mention that you have already tried the above.

What are these 'zip' files?Top

A zip file is a collection of (in this case) picture files, in one convenient-to-download package. So, if you prefer to look at pictures on your own computer in your own time (we recommend this), you might find downloading 200 pics at a time easier than saving each individual image, one by one.

You'll need a small application that can read and manipulate zip files. We use and recommend Winzip for PC users, and Windowx XP comes with a crude unzip program built in.

By the way, all the images you see in the galleries are included in the zip files. Or, you can create a smaller zip file which contains only the pictures you select. For information on how to create a custom zip file, see our FAQ, How do the Customised Zips work?.

I keep getting popups like "Free Sexxx", or security warnings which must first be closed before opening the photo or video on your site. Why are you doing this to me?!Top

These, and any other malware or viruses, have nothing to do with us - you have been infected with Spyware! These small programs make their way into your computer from insidious webpages (usually, when you agree to install some sort of plugin, but also with "funnies" that buddies send you - jokes, animations, and so on).

It can be easy to fix, however. Get copies of the free software, AdAware and SpyBot. Install them on your system. Delete the nasties, and try to access our site again. All should be well!

New kinds of spyware, known as malware, can hijack your computer to the extent where you almost cannot access any site at all, especially the ones that provide the above anti-spyware applications. This is becoming such a huge issue that we can barely begin to support this at any level, so we suggest you search such informational sites as Spyware Info to help you step by step. Be warned, however, that you can't expect something like the nastiest malware to be a simple job to repair; it can be quite technical and time consuming.

And next time, think before double-clicking on things that get emailed to you, unless you KNOW the person sending them knows what they are doing!

How do the Customised Zips work?Top

Instead of downloading an entire set's zip file, the personal zip file feature gives you the possibility to select what exactly you want to download.

Refer to Multi-Select Mode to find out more.

How do I do a traceroute?Top

A trace route is a command that you run that sends a small file from your computer to an internet server that you specifiy. It shows you the path that file takes, the names of each computer it touches, and the time it takes from each computer to the next one. It's an etremely useful tool to find problem places on the internet.

For Windows (any version), this is what you need to do. In a nutshell, you'll be opening a DOS prompt, typing in some commands, the result will be written to a file, and you'll send the file to us.

You may wish to print this page, so you do not have to keep swapping windows around.

First, you'll need to know which of our mirrors you're downloading from. To find out, go to My Account and look at the flag icon under "Bandwidth Usage and Settings". Note whether it says "USA" or "NL" (Netherlands); you'll use this info in step 2.

1. Open a DOS prompt, START menu, Run..., type "command" without the quotes. A black window will open up with a flashing cursor. Very 1991, eh?

2. Type one of the the following, depending on which mirror is serving you. It has to be exact, letter for letter, space for space.

   • For USA servers, type:
     tracert media-us.abbywinters.com > c:\abbytrace.txt
   • For NL servers, type:
     tracert media-nl.abbywinters.com > c:\abbytrace.txt
3. Press the ENTER key on your keyboard. Not much will happen. After a minute or so, you'll go back to a DOS prompt with a flashing cursor. If you get a message, you'll need to type it again.
4. You're done here. Type "exit", press ENTER, the black screen will go away.
5. Double click on your "My Computer" icon (usually, top left corner of your screen)
6. Double click on your C Drive icon
7. Look for a file called "abbytrace.txt" (it may be just "abbytrace"). Double click on it.
8. It will open a program called Notepad, with a bunch of web addresses and numbers and stuff in it.
9. Hold down the CTRL ("control") button on your keyboard, and tap the "A" key. This is a shortcut to "select all". The text will go white, and the background black. Let go of the CTRL key.
10. Hold down CTRL again, and tap the "C" key, then let go of the CTRL key. This will copy that stuff into the computers memory. If it all disappears and is replaces with the letter c, you need to hold down CTRL again, and tap the Z key. This will undo the last action. Go back to step 9 above, and try again.
11. In the text area marked "Please provide a full trace route to...etc", click once, so you have a flashing cursor.
12. Hold down the CTRL key, and tap the V key. Your trace info should appear there as if by magic. Let go of the CTRL key.
13. Fill out the rest of the form.

How do I add you to my "whitelist"Top

To receive emails from us, you will need to "whitelist" our email addresses, so your mail program does not assume our messages are spam. It's best to do this when you first join, so you're assured of getting all messages from us. We use these email addresses to send to you:
 

• abby@abbywinters.com
• support@abbywinters.com
• bugreport@abbywinters.com
  
• support@gmbill.com

Because there are many mail providers, and they are upgraded all the time, rather than provide instructions here, we have linked to some search results. If your Mail provider is not listed, simply do a good search for

 

• "how do I whitelist in<your mail provider>"
• for example, "how do I whitelist in hotmail".

Here are some of the most common email providers, with links to search results:
 

Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, AT&T, Yahoomail, SBCGlobal, Outlook, Outlook Express, MobileMe.