A Warning For Viewers!

If you visit or bookmark this site or any other site about domestic violence, your abuser can find out that you have been getting information on domestic violence. For your safety, if you can, clear all cache/history files from your web browser. If it's possible, you may want to access this site from somewhere other than your home, possibly a friends house or the public library. Follow the instructions below for eliminating traces that you have been browsing the internet for domestic violence web pages.

At the top of every page in this website you will find the Warning Lighthouse. You can click on the lighthouse if you are discovered by your abuser, by clicking on the lighthouse you will be taken to an escape page that will redirect your browser to your default home page.

Instructions for Internet Explorer

To delete temporary internet files, cookies and pages listed in your History:

1. On the menu at the top of the browser window, click on Tools>Internet Options...

2. In the dialog window that opens, click on the "General tab.

3. In the section labeled Temporary Internet Files , if you wish to delete all the files and cookies, click on the "Delete Files... button. A confirmation dialog will open asking if you want to delete all files in your temporary internet folder. Click "0K".

4. If you wish to selectively delete files and cookies, click on the "Settings..." button. A dialog window will open. Click on the "View Files..." button. A window will open with a list of all your temporary internet files and cookies. You can highlight the files you wish to delete and hit the delete key or click Edit>Delete.

5. To empty the History folder, click on the "Clear History" button and then the "0K" button.

Instructions for Netscape

To delete pages listed in your History

1. Click on Communicator>Tools>History on the menu bar at the top of your browser window.

2. When the History window opens, highlight the addresses you want to delete and hit the delete key on your keyboard or click on Edit>Delete on the menu bar.

3. If you wish to clear the History file, click on Edit>Select All then Edit>Delete.

 To empty your cache

1. Click on Edit>Preferences on the menu bar at the top of your browser window.

2. When the Preferences window opens, click on the "+"sign in front of "Advanced" in the frame on the left then click on "Cache" to open the cache dialog.

3. In the Cache dialog window, click on the "Clear Memory Cache" and the "Clear Disk Cache" buttons and click on the "OK" button to close the window.

There's no simple mechanism for deleting cookies in Netscape. At the same time though, it's not very easy to locate the cookies that are placed on your computer when using Netscape. If you want to delete the cookies in Netscape, you have to open "Windows Explorer" and browse to the "Netscape" folder which is usually in your "Program" folder on your "C" drive. In the "Netscape" folder is a folder called "Users". Open "Users" and then the "default" folder contained within. In the "default" folder there's a file called cookies.txt". You can delete that file without harming your computer but all your cookies will be removed and some websites that you visit frequently may not recognize you when you return. If you double click the file name, it will open in Notepad and you can edit out the cookies related to domestic violence websites you've visited despite the fact that it says you can't edit the file.

Remember that if you clear all the history and cache and eliminate all the cookies, that will also clear any history your abuser may have. If he uses the history and finds it cleared he may become suspicious.

Cookies

Each time you access websites, "cookies" can be created. Cookies are cryptic bookmarks that a Web site can place on your computer to acknowledge your prior visit, authenticate your access or let you continue on through a site from where you last left off. They are really no big deal and will not do anything to damage your computer, however, they can leave a trail of evidence of where you have been on the web. If you visit a website on domestic violence and a cookie is created as a result of that visit, your abuser can trace your trail and discover where you've been.