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Microsoft Office 2000 File Open Dialog Tweak
If you use Office 2000, you're probably familiar with the FILE OPEN dialog window, where you have a list of five different "places" in the left-hand side of that window, which enable you to quickly switch to one of those places in order to select the file you want to open. This would be a handy feature except for the fact that of the five places listed, "My Documents" is probably the only one you really use! Most likely you've got folders set up on your system where you store all your important, most used files -- and there's no easy way to get to them except to navigate through the "Look In" pull-down list in that window. If that's the case, then this Office "tweak" is just what you need! This modification to Office 2000 will allow you to not only change the default five places that are listed in that dialog window, but it will also allow you to add up to five more places. And these places can be any folder that you select. The tweak adds an option under the TOOLS menu labeled "Set Places", and you use that menu bar command to customize the "places" in the FILE OPEN dialog window. To install this tweak, simply download and then run the file:
www.thirdring.net/download/o2kplacesaddin.exe

It will walk you through the process of installing the tweak, and will also store a README.DOC file in the appropriate folder which explains further how to customize the FILE OPEN places. 

For more info on this tweak, or if you would rather install it manually (using the tweak file referenced above is much easier, trust us!), see the following Microsoft KnowledgeBase articles:
support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q205/0/41.ASP
support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q260/1/90.ASP
 
What's My Current IP Address
From time to time when using the Internet you may need to know what your currently assigned IP address is. For example, if you are using a video conferencing program, you might need to know your IP address so the people you are connecting with know what address to find you at. Typically you can get this information by running a utility program such as WINIPCFG (on Windows 9X) or IPCONFIG (for Windows 2000 and XP). However, if you are behind a router, those won't give you the info that you need. But not to worry -- we've designed a web page that will tell you what your currently assigned IP address is. Just click this address:

www.thirdring.net/whatsmyipaddress.shtml

If this is something you need to quickly access from time to time, feel free to add this page to your bookmarks or favorites, so that whenever you need to see your current IP address, you can click directly to this page to find it!
 
Testing Your Connect Speed
One of the more widely debated aspects of the Internet is connect speed -- just how fast (or slow!) your connection to the Internet is.  You've probably seen ads for various broadband services like cable and DSL that promise you speeds 20 times faster than your dialup connection.  Well, those claims are highly subjective.  Your actual speed depends on a lot of factors -- and that's why we developed the INETBENCH program for testing connect speeds.  To read more about it and download it if you like, click here.  For a variety of other online speed tests, click here.