dacs.doc electric

Random Access
June 2003

Bruce Preston, Moderator

Members who are unable to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to "askdacs@dacs.org" by the day prior to the meeting. We will attempt to get an answer for you. Please provide enough detail, as we will not be able to ask for additional information. Q. (AskDACS) I am having a problem with Internet Explorer - I can not view live images from a frequently-visited webcam, but I can view still images. I go to a website that I visited several weeks ago, I now get a message that my security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on the page. I tried to resume a download from Microsoft and it was unable to download. A. It sounds as if your “Security Settings” have been set too “High” - this prevents java, scripts and ActiveX. In IE, go to TOOLS; then Internet Options; then the Security tab. Click on ‘Custom Level’ and try the drop-down list “Medium” setting. Q. (AskDACS) When I boot my machine, I get a message that says that my drive is being “Imaged”. What is this? A. Sounds like you are running Norton Utilities, which has a component which takes an image of the boot sector and various other parts of your hard disk upon starting the machine. Less likely, but also possible is that you are running McAfee’s Safe & Sound. Q. I installed the Yahoo! upgrade and it essentially took over my machine. It has radically changed the behavior of Internet Explorer. I don’t like what it has done at all, but I can’t seem to get rid of it. How do I get rid of it? A. First, in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, see if there is a Yahoo! entry. Remove it. Next, look under the IE VIEW menu at Toolbars; then Customize, and see if that offers a mechanism. Next, again in Add/Remove Programs, select Internet Explorer. It won’t let you ‘Uninstall’ it, but it will allow you to ask for a “Repair”. There followed a discussion of other Internet Explorer ‘enhancements’ by others such as SBC/Yahoo!, AOL and EarthLink. The general consensus was that all were to be avoided. Lastly, because some of these ‘enhancements’ include ‘spy-ware’ components, the utility Ad-Aware from LavaSoft http://www.lavasoft.de/ may be able to remove the component. It was pointed out that many times when you sign up for a service, you do not need to install the ‘enhanced’ software to make use of the service. Q. Does anyone have any experience with the e-mail client called “The Bat”? A. One person present had experience and said it works, quite well. It’s claim to fame is that it isn’t susceptible to the various virus and worm exploits that have plagued Outlook and Outlook Express. We found the vendor’s website here: www.ritlabs.com/the_bat/ Q. Does anyone have a preference as to vendor/brand for wireless broadband routers? A. We had people using NetGear, LinkSys, and SMC. We had one person who had used D-Link, but changed brands for an undisclosed reason. The general comment was that within a residence, a range of about 50 feet was considered to be average. It was pointed out the the US Military Academy (West Point) is installing SMC equipment campus-wide. There followed a discussion of the newer 200mw units (as opposed to 50mw units) that are just now in the retail channel, but typically out-of-stock. Q. Are there problems with interference between wireless networking components and 2.4GHz telephone systems? A. For a home network that has only a few wireless nodes, there won’t be a problem. If you have many nodes, then there will be a problem as the various devices fight for a channel within the band.