November 2006
Jim Scheef, Moderator
Lisa Leifels, Reporter

We welcome questions from the floor at the start of our General Meetings. In addition, members who are not able to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to askdacs@dacs.org. We will ask the question for you and post the reply in DACS.ORG. Please provide as much information as possible since we can’t probe during the session.

Q. I am considering installing version 7 of Internet Explorer, what do people think of it?
A. Internet Explorer 7 is the new tabbed web browser from Microsoft with additional security features and a new user interface. To run IE 7 you need to be running Windows XP SP2. Make sure your computer is free of viruses and spyware and clean out your temp files before you install it. Unlike Firefox, Internet Explorer is deeply embedded in Windows, and harder to remove. You can remove it through Add/Remove Programs, but it doesn’t set all of your parameters back to what they were set to originally in IE 6.
In the fourth quarter of this year IE 7 will be delivered as a ‘High Priority’ item via automatic updates in Windows XP. If you don’t want IE 7 installed on your computer you can go to the Microsoft website and download the Blocker Toolkit to disable the automatic delivery of IE 7. You can then run the blocker program again when you decide you are ready to install IE 7.

Q. What are some of the new features in Firefox 2?
A. Tabbed browsing already existed in Firefox, but now when you open a new web page, it will open in a new tab. Spell checking is built-in and if you lose your connection while working in Firefox your session will open up where you left off. The search bar now comes pre-loaded with the search engine you choose to use.

Q. Why do you need to use drive mappings?
A. Drive mapping is assigning a drive letter to a remote network drive. Mapping a network drive enables working with files on a server as simple as accessing files on your own hard drive. With remote drive mapping, you do not need File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software to access network files. Mapped drives are sometimes necessary since some applications will not work properly with Universal Naming Convention (UNC) names.

Q. I keep reading about how you will be able to access the internet through your electric outlet, when will this be available?
A. This is an emerging technology called broadband over power lines or B.P.L. You plug a small power line modem into any wall outlet and then connect the modem to a computer with a USB, Ethernet cable or a wireless WI-FI connection. The advantage is that most of the wiring is already in place and there is no need to dig up the streets or rewire your home. The challenge is to carefully route the data over the data grid without interfering with public safety radio frequencies or signal degradation. This technology is probably a year or more from becoming widely available, but it is being supported by recent rule changes by the FCC.

Q. What is tabbed browsing?
A. Tabbed browsing is when you open up more than one website in a browser window and easily navigate between them with tabs on your screen.

Submit any question to: askdacs@dacs.org.