Random Access
December 2005
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) Occasionally, when I am in Outlook (POP3 mode), I delete a message in error. It sets up a filter such that I don’t get any subsequent messages from the sender. I tried removing the filter—it appears to be gone, but the sender is still blocked. How do I repair this condition?

A. It sounds like you have added the sender to your blocked sender list rather than created a filter. The recommendation from the floor was to look in INBOX / ACTIONS / JUNK MAIL. Doing a search in Outlook HELP with the words BLOCK SENDER gives details.

Q. (AskDACS) I need to send a monthly report to a committee with about a dozen members. I have a distribution list established in Outlook that I use. However, when I sent it, the members are not disclosed. I then get messages back from committee members asking if I sent a copy to someone on the list. Is there a way to force the members of the distribution list to be revealed?

A. Usually, we get the opposite question, as many people do not like to have their e-mail addresses shown on large (and yours is not) distribution lists as eventually these lists fall into the hands of spammers. For that reason, Outlook does not offer the capability. We’d suggest that you create a small file with any text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad and place just the individuals’ names (without e-mail address) in the file. Then copy and paste the names into your document whereever you want it.

Q. Whenever I start my web browser, it always takes me to a site named Morewill—I don’t want to go there, I never asked to go there, but that’s where it takes me. How do I fix this?

A. Your browser has been hijacked—one of several annoying things that can happen on the web. If using TOOLS, then INTERNET OPTIONS, then DEFAULT PAGE in your web browser doesn’t cure it (and we doubt that it will) then you need to use a tool that will find where it is being overridden and fix it. We would suggest that you download Hijack This! – a free utility that you can get at http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html. When you run it, you will get a list of everything that is currently running in your machine, or that is set to launch when the machine starts. Note that Hijack This! makes absolutely no value judgment whatsoever as to whether a program, driver, utility, browser helper object, etc. is good or bad. It will classify items as to what kind of item it is, and indicate what caused it to load. If you are unsure about an item, use Google to do a search on the item and see what is said about it. There are also many sites which have posting boards where you may copy-and-paste the log from HiJack This!, and board members will analyze the log and tell you what to delete. Each item in the HiJack This! Listing has a check box – if you check it and then click “Fix Checked” it will remove the offending item. Just be sure that you don’t remove something you really need, such as the Windows Kernel.

Q. I am running Windows Me, and have Zone Alarm and Cookie Cop installed as well. When I connect to the internet over WiFi, I get disconnected after about 5 minutes, even if I am active. What is causing the disconnection? I don’t get any error messages, and the signal strength is fine.

A. Do you have an unused on-board network interface adapter (for a wired connection) ? If so, Windows is getting confused because there is no activity on that connection which it thinks is the preferred connection. Go to Control Panel / Network Connections and see if you can change the priority of the network adapters. Alternatively, go into Control Panel / System / Device Manager and disable the unused network interface card. If it is a notebook machine that you sometime connect to a wired network, you may want to set up a hardware profiles (wired, wifi) that you select at boot time.

Q. I have set up a Verizon DSL Commercial account. They tell me that I don’t need Anti-Virus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware software etc. as they provide it. Should I trust them?

A. More and more ISPs are now providing security features as part of their service. Some are great, some are adequate, and there are probably some out there that don’t do a good job. We don’t know which group Verizon falls into, as we don’t know which tools they are using. The conservative approach would be to still run your own defensive mechanisms as well. If you get into a situation where you need some support from Verizon, they may require you to temporarily disable your firewall so that they may use a remote access tool. But this should be the rare situation, and once you are configured it shouldn’t be needed at all. “You trust your mother, but you still cut the cards.”

Q. What is Wild Tangent, where did it come from, and how do I remove it?

A. Wild Tangent claims to be the leading on-line game developer, they develop and distribute first and third party downloads. Their games are popular with many as they have implemented 3D effects, etc. However they are also advertising ridden, and some classify them as spyware, as it sends back information such as OS, CPU, memory, video card, sound card, and the web site that did the installation. It is also said to do periodic checks to see if there is an update, and may perform the update without approval. The latest version of AOL’s AIM includes it. It is especially annoying and hard to remove. This page
http://www.pchell.com/support/wildtangent.shtml has manual removal instructions.

Q. My boot of Windows XP Pro sometimes goes for several minutes, then stalls before it gets to the desktop. Doing a power off/power on cycle usually fixes it. Any suggestions?

A. We suggest the following: (1) Bring up the machine in Safe Mode. You do this by tapping the F8 key several times during the power on self test (POST). This is long before you see the “Windows Flag” logo—if your machine displays the memory check during POST, then that’s the time to do it. If your machine displays a manufacturer’s logo (such as a DELL screen or HP or COMPAQ or IBM etc.) then that’s the time to do it. You will get a character-mode menu that offers SAFE MODE, SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING, SAFE MODE WITH COMMAND PROMPT, etc. Select just plain SAFE MODE. Your boot will proceed (but very slowly) as Windows brings up the machine with baseline drivers. When it starts up, you will get a notification message that you are running in Safe Mode—you will get the words “Safe Mode” in the four corners of your screen, and your video will be set to VGA mode (640x480 with just 256 colors). That’s all normal. When the machine settles down (hourglass is gone) just do a standard shutdown/restart. When you do a boot into safe mode, windows resets many files such as the desktop cache which might be the problem. Once you get the machine up in normal mode, we’d suggest that you do the normal system maintenance, such as clearing your Internet cache (Control Panel / Internet Options / Delete Files ) and delete temporary files. Remember that any file or folder in C:\TEMP, C:\TMP, or C:\WINDOWS\TEMP that is dated prior to the time of your starting the machine is “fair game” for deletion. When in Windows Explorer click on VIEW then DETAILS to expose the tabular view of folders which includes the file’s timestamp.

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.