Hello!

Firefox Hello is a great way to chat with another person. It’s free, and it’s easy and you don’t need to create accounts or sign in.

Speaking of free, you can get more than one year of free coverage from you Avast! antivirus.

 

Would you like a dead simple way to conduct a video chat without both of you having to sign up for the same service? If you love Skype but your best long distance friend is all about FaceTime, or neither of you has the patience to deal with Google Hangouts, you probably don’t do much video chatting.

But now you can. With version 34, Firefox is rolling out Firefox Hello. You click on the Hello button, share a link with someone, and when that person clicks on the link you’re chatting. Only the person initiating the call needs Firefox. The person you send the link to can use any modern browser (except Internet Explorer). I have tested Firefox Hello from my Firefox browser to a Chrome browser on an Android phone and to Chrome and Firefox on computers. It works perfectly.

Firefox Hello is just out of Beta and is being rolled out gradually. You can easily check to see if you already have it. If you don’t, I’ll show you how you can get it now.

First, make sure you have at least version 34 of Firefox. (Instructions here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/find-what-version-firefox-you-are-using).

Next, see if you already have Hello. Do you see a little cartoon bubble in your Firefox toolbar? If so, you’re good to go. If not, check to see if it’s available but just not visible.

• Click on the Menu button
• Click on Customize
• If the Hello icon is present, drag it up to the top of your Firefox window
• You’re good to go

If you don’t see it anywhere, you haven’t received it yet. You can get it like this:

• Open a new Firefox tab
• Type about:config in the address bar (no spaces)
• Agree to be careful
• In the Search bar, type throttled
• In the loop.throttled entry, click to change from true to false
• Restart Firefox

Now follow that first set of instructions to get the Hello icon into your tool bar.

Ready to give it a try? Click on the Hello button and you’ll see a link. At this point you can either create a Firefox account or not. If you create one you’ll be able to add contacts (if they create an account, too) but there’s really no need to do this. You can simply click on Email and send the link to the person you want to chat with, or click Copy and paste the link into an instant message.

When the recipient clicks on that link, Firefox Hello will play an insistent little tune at you until you connect. You and your friend can communicate with video and/or audio.

 

I like and recommend Avast! Free antivirus. It’s a great product because it works well and because it includes two useful components, the Browser Cleaner and Software Updates. When you install and register the product you get a year’s worth of free protection. About a month before your year is up, Avast! pops up a little window notifying you that your protection will expire.

They make it very easy to upgrade to a paid version of the product, but you don’t need to do that. You simply need to renew your free version! It’s not easy to figure that out, so I made a short screen cast, that takes you through the process.

Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or business computer get along!

Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna (http://computercarekelowna.com/) a mobile service helping home users and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send email to [email protected].

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This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.