This article is from Seniors Site:

Are you growing tired of failed blind dates and fix-ups that usually end miserably? Are you losing hope in finding that perfect partner to live with you and care for you for the rest of your life? Most probably, you’re ready to throw your hands up in the air right now and preparing yourself for all those long and lonely nights alone forever. If you’re about to, then don’t do it yet. There’s still one reason not to and this is something that might work since its success rate is higher than traditional means:  the senior online dating sites.

Senior online dating is gaining popularity among techie seniors nowadays; maybe because it’s convenient for seniors with limited range of motion and for those who don’t have much time on their hands to do socializing more often. Online dating proves to be a great way to meet new people in and out of the city you’re currently living in. Senior online dating sites are communities for single seniors looking for potential partners in life and are quite ready for love–again.

It’s quite amazing to see eligible seniors populate these sites. This also brings hope to single seniors who are still searching for love but haven’t found it yet. All you need to do is sign up and become a member of reputable online dating services, post your profile and join community forums to have a good grasp of what’s going on. Even if you don’t go looking for a date yet, someone’s bound to find you.

Although there are horror stories surrounding online dating, not to mention the existing notion that this activity is for young, free and reckless singles only, its success rate is quite high and it’s not bad to give something new like this a try. As with any other modes of dating, there’s danger; and quite frankly, some even find online dating safer than going out with a complete stranger. When you meet someone over online dating sites, you’ll be able to test the waters first before actually going out with that particular person. These dating services simply open up new horizons and offer a lot more choices to choose from.

There are many senior online dating sites out there that you can join; some of them are for free but you may want to stick with paid ones which guarantee quality, serious love seekers and of course, for safety reasons—the fee is not that expensive anyway. Here are some precautions before joining senior online dating sites:

• Beware of lurking scammers waiting for the perfect prey. Although there are hundreds of eligible seniors listed to the site, expect half of them to be perverts; double that number if it’s a free site. The golden rule around these sites is never to trust anyone until you’ve tested their credibility.
• Be sure to check the site’s membership fees and extra charges. Read fine lines and small prints thoroughly before signing in your credit card number. Internet safety experts always recommend applying for separate online-payment processor such as Paypal just for these types of activities. The same goes for email accounts.

If you want to get into online dating in Australia, the following sites may be useful for you (but be warned, we have not checked them for reliability or legitimacy, so make sure you exercise a degree of caution):

• SoulMades.com.au
• MatchFinder.com.au
• OasisActive.com.au

Also be extremely wary of people who ask you for your contact details within the first conversation or two. Chances are they’re an unscrupulous individual trying to sell your personal details to a marketing company or similar, or perhaps they’re after far more than that (access to your bank account or identity itself!).

Don’t let those cautionary words dissuade you though. If you are wise, Internet dating can open up a whole new world of fun for you!

If you have just set up the Internet with a company such as Optus, Telstra, Dodo, Virgin or any other Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) you will have been told how many megabytes (“Mbs”) or gigabytes (“gbs”) you are entitled to use each billing cycle (usually each month). The amount of data (measured in Mbs or Gbs) you are entitled to use per billing cycle is known, amongst other things, as your data quota.

Although ISP plans with very small data quotas are becoming less common, if you told the salesperson that you did not intend to use the Internet very frequently, you probably have not signed up for a high data quota (>5gb/month).

It is absolutely critical that you know how much data you are allowed to consume per month, or you may incur substantial excess data usage charges from your ISP. Optus charges in excess of $0.15/ Mb that is used over the data quota in a given billing cycle – and to give you an idea of how quickly that can add up, just one video watched on Youtube can be more than 30Mb – 30 x $0.15 = $4.50.

If you, your children or your grandchildren are sitting on the computer for hours watching videos on Youtube, this $4.50 can easily be multiplied by 10 or even 20… $4.50 x 10 = $45.00.

If this happens each day, without even knowing it you may be in for a terrible shock at the end of the month.

So, this is what you should do without delay:

1. Call your ISP and ask them how much data you are entitled to per month… you can find their phone number by visiting their website now – and you can find their website by typing in their name into the white box in the middle of the webpage www.google.com;

2. Do some research as to how much data videos on the Internet typically use, and conduct some calculations to find out if your data plan is suitable, if it isn’t, negotiate with your ISP for another plan;

3. Insist that your ISP telephones you with a courtesy call when you are almost over your data quota. They will almost certainly decline this request, but it’s worth a shot! Most ISPs will send an e-mail to you to warn you that you’re at perhaps 80% of your data quota and to be wary, so make sure your ISP does this, and that you are regularly checking your e-mail.

4. Be ready to change your data plan with your ISP as you become more Internet-savvy.

The Internet is a HUGE place, and there’s no need for your fun/work/research to be limited simply because you’re on a tiny data plan (<5gb/ month), especially when prices for Internet access are plumetting everywhere.

There is one extremely important button that really should become your best friend when you’re browsing through the Internet.

The ‘Back‘ button.

The button looks like this if you use Internet Explorer:

Click the Back Button in Internet Explorer to get out of trouble!

Or this if you use Google Chrome:

Click the Back Button to get out of trouble in Google Chrome

… and it will look slightly different in other web browsers (web browsers are the programs that are used to look around the Internet).

If you find yourself at a website that you do not want to be at, simply click the ‘Back‘ button – the left-pointing arrow near the top of your screen, usually on the left.

Click it once, and you will return to the last page you were at. Click it once more and you will move back another page in history… every time you click it, you will retrace the steps of your latest Internet browsing session.

The ‘Back’ button can do this because in most situations your computer records every website you visit, especially for the purpose of revisiting them later!

So, if you find yourself at a site filled with nudity when you hoped to be looking at a spicy recipe for food, or an online casino when you were trying to find the bus timetable, simply click the ‘Back‘ button, and keep clicking it until you return to familiar ground.

Also, the ‘Home’ button will take you right back to your Home Page – it’s another useful way out of trouble on the Internet.

Finally, if you accidentally click the Back button, click the Forward button – the right-facing arrow sitting right next to the Back button!

Have you ever wondered how the Internet or World Wide Web (WWW) came into being?

Click here for a full history of the Internet’s genesis… very interesting reading!

This is what only a tiny part of the Internet looks like...