Ask DACS
November 2007

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. How can I make a PDF file out of a Microsoft Publisher file so that I can email it?

A. There are a number of available software packages that will give you the ability to save a file in PDF format. If you don’t mind paying for this software, you can buy a copy of Adobe Acrobat. There are also a number of free software options that will accomplish what you are trying to do. A few of the programs that were mentioned at the meeting were PrimoPDF, which can be found at PrimoPDF.com or PDFCreator, which is located at SourceForge.net.

Q. I live in Newtown and use Charter Cable as my ISP for my high speed internet connection. I used to pay $30.00 a month for this, but now I am being charged $44.00. Is this a good price or are there better options available? I am currently using Vonage for my telephone service.

You may be able to lower your monthly high speed internet costs by switching from cable to DSL, but you may also need to change your phone service. Some DSL providers require that you buy a package that includes residential phone service from them, but this is recently beginning to change. In the last few months, some of the larger DSL companies including AT&T and Verizon are beginning to offer what is called “dry loop” DSL Service, which is DSL service with no landline. At this time, the dry loop option is only offered in selected areas and the price is usually higher, since the company would need to provide a dial tone in order for the DSL to work.

The monthly costs for DSL are typically less than those for cable and range in price from as low as $14.99 to as high as $34.99, with the higher costs offering faster download speeds. When looking into DSL service it is important to find out how close you are to the provider’s central office. The farther away, the weaker the signal becomes.

Now that Charter Cable is also offering phone service you could also look into lowering your monthly expenses by purchasing a package that includes both high speed internet and phone service.

Q. I have several computers running Windows XP, most of which have been running very slow lately. I just did a fresh install of the Windows XP operating system and this didn’t seem to help. Is there anything I can do to speed up my computer?

A. Over time, computers tend to get slower due to a variety of reasons some of which include unused network drives, unnecessary software running, and files simply getting disorganized. Here are a few ideas you can try to speed up your Windows XP computer. You should do a complete backup before you begin.

Remove software programs that you are no longer using, but have forgotten to uninstall.

Use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool to free up space on your hard disk.

Defragment your computer’s hard drive.

Disconnect from any unused Network drives, since Windows XP attempts to connect to network drives when Windows starts.

Identify and eliminate programs that start up automatically and steal memory and processing time from your computer.

Check for viruses, spyware and rootkits.

Examine Device Manager for old drivers and update them. Drivers can become outdated and damaged to the point that they slow system performance.

Check for failing computer hardware, such as your hard drive, especially if you are using an older computer.

Submit any question to: askdacs@dacs.org.