Q. (AskDacs) Outlook Express on my new Windows XP machine just plain wont remember the password for my mail account. Is there a way to make it remember? I have done searches on the web, and they refer to corrupted mailboxes and the like, but my mailbox appears to be fine. A. While no one at the meeting had a solution, we subsequently did find a promising page on the web: http://www.pchell.com/support/oepassword.shtml Q. I have converted to DSL - self install kit. I get the three green lights on the modem, but I just dont get a connection. I went to the SBC help desk and worked with them for an hour, but they just couldnt get the connection to work. A. If the DSL line is being shared by any other device, all other devices must have a filter between them and the DSL line. Be sure to check fax devices, answering machines, caller id devices, the phone connection for an alarm system, and wall phones. The filter can be shared - just make sure that no telephone device gets to the circuit without going through a filter, and that there is no filter between the DSL modem and the phone circuit. If there is only one PC connected to the DSL modem, then for SBC you also need their Enternet 300 PPPoE software. If you have a router/firewall between the PC(s) and the DSL modem then the router/firewall can have PPPoE activated within it, and you do not need (or want!) The Enternet 300 package on any PC. Q. On the topic of router/firewalls, are the ones built-into DSL/Cable Modem router firewalls any good? A. Yes, but make sure that you have a firewall in the device when you purchase it. For example, only one model of Linksys devices has a built-in firewall. Q. I am looking at a digital camera, it says that it is 4.3 megapixel, but that it has a 2.3 interlaced CCD. Is it a 4.3? A. No, not really. Some manufacturers are starting to play semantics games, just as they did with scanners, and wattage on stereos, etc. Q. I had a problem upgrading my notebook from XP Home to XP Pro - Dial-up networking disappeared, and isnt visible in the add network connection. A. If XP Home had the service pack installed, then the XP Pro upgrade doesnt recognize that Dial-Up networking exists. It will come back if you now re-install the service pack. Q. How good is the password protection in XP Pro? I am concerned about protecting data if the notebook machine is stolen. A. It is only fair. If you really need to protect the data, it needs to be encrypted. There are several add-ons that work - PGP can encrypt e-mail or your disk. F-Secures File Crypto can also encrypt your disk. It is recommended that you not encrypt the entire disk - for example, dont encrypt system folders. Instead, create a partition for data that is to be encrypted (it will look like another hard disk letter.) Q. I have been getting a lot of e-mails from organizations that I have never heard of, messages get bounced back to me because they say I am not correctly configured or that I have a virus. My anti-virus is up-to-date. Whats going on? A. You dont have the virus. There are several viruses or internet worms in circulation that do bulk mailings from infected machines. They select an address from the infected machines address book, and use that address to forge the From: on the message that is then sent to everyone else in the address book or inbox. What you are seeing is the result of a mailing from someones machine where your e-mail address happened to be the one that was selected. Q. I downloaded McAfee 7.0 Antivirus and Firewall. Somehow it changed my local printer to a network printer. I dont have a network, and now I cant print. A. We have never seen this. Go to McAfeeHelp.com and eventually you can get to a chat page where you can talk to a live person. They should be able to help. Q. I am thinking of getting a laptop - Dell has them for around $800. The new Centrino machines are not hitting the market - what do they have? A. The Centrino is much faster internally (a 1.5GHz Centrino might perform equivalent to a 2.4GHz P4) and also use considerably less power - battery life is perhaps three times that of a current laptop machine, and they run much cooler. Other than whether it is a Centrino or not, be sure to look at other things, such as: Does it have a floppy drive, or is that an add-on? Does it have a parallel port, or is that only available via a docking station or port-replicator? Be aware that some devices, such as parallel port multi-function devices (printer/copier/fax etc.) will not work via a port replicator. The newer multi-function devices use USB interfaces and will be fine. |
Bruce Preston is president of West Mountain Systems, a consultancy in Ridgefield, CT specializing in database applications. A DACS director, Bruce also leads the Access SIG. Members may send tech queries to Bruce at askdacs@dacs.org. |
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