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How can I reduce eyestrain?
There are a number of steps you can take to reduce eyestrain, both during the day and at night. One significant step is to make sure the room lighting is adequate and then to turn the monitor brightness down to the lowest level that's still easily readable. This is especially helpful if you're working with screens that have a lot of text and a white background.
Also make sure that your display adapter and monitor are set to a minimum 72Hz to 76Hz vertical refresh rate. If there is noticeable glare on your display, either reposition room lighting, move the monitor to lessen the glare, or use a nonreflective glare screen.
Look at inanimate objects away from the screen periodically to break the constant screen pattern. Also, blink consciously every so often to lubricate the surfaces of your eyes. For your eyes, your back, and your overall blood circulation, it's a good idea to get up and move about for a few minutes every hour.
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Monitor vs. TV: Which works better?
PC/TV convergence presents interesting possibilities, but the relative strengths of PC monitors and TV screens are not equal. The image quality of an expensive television set will be inferior to the quality you'll see on even a low-end computer monitor, because the signals are handled in entirely different ways. Using a TV screen for regular computing tasks, such as word processing and e-mail, will not be satisfactory. Conversely, if you use a TV tuner card in your computer, the image quality is likely to be as good or better than what you'll see with most television sets.
Unfortunately, the smaller size of computer monitors, compared with the now common 27-inch or larger TV screens, limits watching television on a PC to one or just a few people sitting fairly close to the display.
Many PC/TV tuner cards have RCA and/or S-video output jacks to send the signal alternately or simultaneously to a television or A/V monitor. This can give you the best of both worlds: Use your PC monitor when you just want to check the news or catch a few minutes of a sporting event, but send the signal to a larger monitor for group watching. On the other hand, using a TV screen for brief e-mail or Web surfing sessions is probably acceptable, but for anything more than just casual computing, stick to a computer display.
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When is a Bad Hard Drive Sector Bad?
Bad sectors are flawed portions of the disk where you can't write data. Don't let them freak you out. All hard drives have some.
The best way to guard against bad sectors is to not play basketball with your computer. Seriously, hard drives these days are pretty durable. If you run scandisk (either Windows or Norton) regularly, you can catch bad segments before they cause a problem.
There are two kinds of bad sectors:
A soft bad sector comes from the hard-drive formatting wearing out. You can map it out, or fix it by reformatting the hard drive. Remember, if you reformat the hard drive, you lose all your data.
A hard bad sector cannot be fixed. Data will never be able to be written to that sector of the drive. If you have hard bad sectors, it's a sure sign the hard drive is dying.
Your hard drive is divided into sectors where the computer writes data. Hard drives have literally thousands of sectors. Before a hard drive is shipped, the sectors where data can't be written are mapped out so the computer doesn't try to write data to them. Occassional bad sectors happen, say once every six months, from bangs and bumps. If you have continuing bad sectors, that's a sign that your hard drive is about to wear out or has a defect. If you have a rapid increase in bad sectors, it's time to back up all your data and watch it very carefully. It may be time to replace your hard drive if it's under warranty.
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***WINDOWS*** (Click here for Internet Tips)

Capture Text With HyperTerminal
Keep a connection transcript and capture your text during a HyperTerminal session in Windows 98. To do so, simply select Capture Text from the Transfer pull-down menu during your connection. Enter the path of the file to which you want to send the captured text and click the Start button. All text transpiring during your session will be saved to the file you specified. To finish the capture, simply reselect Capture Text from the Transfer pull-down menu and select the Stop option. If you wish to continue the text capture but want to temporarily pause the capture, simply select Text Capture/Pause from the Transfer menu and re-select the Pause option when you wish to continue the capture.
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Trace a Web Site
If you're having trouble accessing a specific site, find out the site's current details by tracing it in DOS. Access your DOS prompt by selecting the MS-DOS Prompt shortcut from the Programs category of your Start menu. Once the DOS prompt appears, type the TRACERT command followed by a space and the URL of the site you wish to trace, and press the Enter key. In a matter of moments, you should receive information on the site's tracing route, load time, and closeness to you.
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Turn a Web Site Into Your Wallpaper
Gain easy access to your favorite site by setting a Web page as your desktop wallpaper. Visit the site you wish to use and save it to the C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper directory using your browser's Save feature. Next, from the Control Panel, select the Display icon. From the Display Properties pop-up window, click the Background tab. In the pull-down menu labeled "Select an HTML document or picture," select the page you want to set as wallpaper. Click OK to save changes. Once the wallpaper is set, you can simply click links for easy access to the site's features. Keep in mind that Active Desktop must be enabled in order to set your page as wallpaper. If you have not enabled Active Desktop, simply click Yes when Windows prompts you to enable it.
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Remote Install Service Speeds Win2K Rollout
Companies that want to migrate their desktop clients to Windows 2000 Professional can get help from the operating system's Remote Installation Services.
Because RIS depends on DNS (Domain Name System), Active Directory and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), companies should use RIS only after they have migrated their network infrastructures to Windows 2000.
Success in deployment depends on correctly configuring the RIS server and making sure that the client computers have the supported NICs.
For large corporations with many sites, IT managers should set up an RIS server at each site for better performance.
1. To install RIS, administrators start by launching Add/Remove Programs from the control panel in either the Server or Advanced Server version of Windows 2000 with DNS and Active Directory installed. RIS can be installed using the Windows Components Wizard.
2. After the installation, RIS must be configured with the RIS Setup Wizard. Administrators should create, at the minimum, a 2GB NT File System partition in which the Windows 2000 Professional images reside and need to specify the RIS folder that contains the images.
3. The RIS server must be authorized as a DHCP server within Active Directory before it can respond to client requests. Open the DHCP console and right-click on DHCP. In the Manage Authorized Servers window, authorize the server that will host RIS.
4. To administrate RIS, open the Active Directory Users and Computers console, right-click on the RIS server, choose Properties, and click on the Remote Install tab. Hitting the Advanced Settings button in the New Clients tab allows client configurations to be customized.
5. To manage different images of Windows 2000 Professional, open Active Directory Users and Computers, right-click on the RIS server, choose Properties, click on the Remote Install tab, hit the Advanced Settings button, and click on the Images tab. Administrators can associate an answer file with an image for unattended installations.
6. The Remote Boot Disk Generator should be used if the client computer doesn't support PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) network booting. Open rbfg.exe in the Remote Install directory in the RIS partition and make sure that the client computer has one of the supported NICs.
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Problem with Format.com
When you use the command Format x: /s, you may receive the error message "Insufficient memory to load system files. Format terminated." Microsoft has reported that this is a randomly occurring problem with Windows 98, but offers no reason for the problem. There is a workaround, though. Simply format your hard drive without using the /s parameter with the command Format x:. Then, use the Sys command Sys x: to transfer the operating system over to the hard drive.
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Running Hover from your hard drive
When you first got your Windows 95 CD, you probably discovered the Hover game on the CD the Funstuff folder. If you're like most Windows 95 users, you enjoyed playing Hover, but have long since forgotten about it since it's buried on the CD. If you have an extra 16MB of space on your hard drive, you can copy Hover to your hard drive and play it anytime you like. To do so, open Windows Explorer or My Computer, locate the Funstuff\Hover folder, and copy the entire contents of that folder to your hard drive. Now, create a Hover submenu on the Start menu and create shortcuts to the files Hover.exe, Hover.hlp, and Hovrread.txt. Take a moment to read over the Hovrread.txt as it contains some good information on running the game. Then, spend some time perusing the Hover.hlp file to learn more about the objective of the game and to learn some great hints.
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Creating multicast scopes in Windows 2000
In addition to the typical scopes you can create to assign IP addresses to clients, you can also create multicast scopes on your DHCP server. IP addresses within the range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 are reserved for the purpose of multicasting. Multicasting enables you to communicate with a specific group of computers. Traditionally, on a TCP/IP-based network, you use either unicasts or broadcasts. A unicast is simply the communication between your computer and another-in other words, you're communicating with only one computer. In contrast, a broadcast is a communication you send to all computers on your subnet-or even the entire network.
What's the advantage to multicasting? Well, let's say you wanted to send 100MB of data to only ten of the computers on your network of 50 computers. You can't use broadcasting because that would send the data to all 50 computers. If you use unicasting, you must send the 100MB of data individually to each of the ten computers-for a total of 1,000MB of network traffic (roughly 1GB). With multicasting, you can send the same 100MB of data to all 10 computers simultaneously-so you generate only 100MB of total network traffic. Multicasting is used by network applications such as video conferencing.
Prior to Windows 2000, you couldn't assign multicast addresses to computers except as part of the multicasting application. In addition, you couldn't define multicast scopes within DHCP. You can now define multicast scopes within DHCP. Clients can lease addresses from a multicast scope provided they support the Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP) programming interface.
To create a multicast scope, begin by opening the DHCP console. Next, right-click on your server and choose New Multicast Scope. Finally, specify IP addresses within the supported range of 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255.
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Using the "CoolSwitch" in Windows NT
In case you've never noticed while looking in your Registry, Microsoft refers to the [Alt] [Tab] key combination as the "CoolSwitch." As you probably know, this key combination enables you to switch between your active programs by popping up a window called the Task Switcher. The Task Switcher displays icons for each of the programs you're currently running so that you can easily switch between these programs. (If you haven't tried this before, press and hold down the [Alt] key, and then tap the [Tab] key once.) By default, Windows NT is configured to display no more than seven program icons across and three rows in the Task Switcher window. If you find that you need more room in your Task Switcher, you can customize it by modifying your Registry. Begin by accessing the following Registry key:
\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
You can control the number of rows in the Task Switcher window by modifying the CoolSwitchRows value, and you can specify the number of icons across it will support by modifying the CoolSwitchColumns value. (You'll also see a CoolSwitch value; this value is used to enable the Task Switcher itself, and is set to 1 by default.)
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Get Your IP Scoop From DOS
Access your IP address and other information quickly and easily. First, access the DOS prompt by selecting MS-DOS Prompt from the Programs category in the Start menu. Then, simply type "ipconfig /all" from the DOS prompt. All relevant information will display instantly.
Better Internet Dial-Up Performance with Earthlink and Windows 95/98
If you use EarthLink as your ISP with a Windows 95/98 computer, you can improve your Internet connection speeds and reduce busy signals by downloading EarthLink's free utility, Fast Lane. The program is 1MB and you can store it anywhere on your hard drive. Fast Lane runs in the background on your PC and continuously monitors and reports on the characteristics of the modem connection to EarthLink.
You won't see the details of what Fast Lane is reporting to EarthLink, because the data is encrypted and stored in a nontext format on your PC. The updated file is sent to EarthLink with each successful connection, and the company uses the connection reports to isolate and repair network problems. If you're worried about security, EarthLink attests that none of your documents, e-mail, passwords, or browsing patterns are transferred or derived from their utility. You can uninstall Fast Lane anytime by accessing the Armcfg32.exe file in the program folder and unchecking the Enable Dialup Monitor option.
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Designing 3D Text Reminders
Windows 98 provides you with various OpenGL 3D screen savers. The 3D Text screen saver can display either text or the time on the screen when the screen saver is active. Since you can customize the text that the 3D Text screen saver uses, it's a good choice for reminders.

Pinging Numerous Computers Simultaneously
As an administrator of a TCP/IP-based network, on occasion you may need to ping numerous computers on your network. As an illustration, you may want to ping multiple computers to identify which IP addresses are currently in use. A way to ping multiple computers on the same subnet that isn't difficult is to use the FOR command. Consider the following command:
FOR /L %g IN (1,1,254) DO ping -n 2 200.200.200.%g
More simply, this command states that you want to "do" the ping command as long as the %g variable is within the range from 1 to 254. You specify the range for %g by using the syntax (start, step, end). Start indicates the starting value for %g (1 in this example), step indicates the number with which we want to increment %g (1 in our example), and end indicates the number at which we want to stop pinging. You can also limit the number of pings to 2 by using -n 2 (instead of the typical 4 for each computer.
When you run this command, you'll see that your computer pings the following IP addresses:
200.200.200.1
200.200.200.2
200.200.200.3
...
200.200.200.254
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Check Your Browser History From the Start Menu
Access your Web page History in a flash from your Start menu. Right-click the Start button and select Explore from the pop-up menu. Click the right pane of the Exploring window and select New/Folder from the File pull-down menu.Type "Web History. {ff393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}" as the folder's name (without the quotes). Press the Enter key and a folder called Web History should appear. You can then access your browsing history, categorized by date, from the Start menu shortcut.
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Changing Graphic Formats in Paint
In Windows 98's version of Paint, you'll find that you can open files in both the GIF and JPG formats, along with the standard BMP format. This enables you to easily change between GIF, JPG, and BMP formats. To do so, open the file as you normally would, then pull down the File menu and choose the Save As command. Now, pick the desired format from the Save As Type drop-down list and click Save.
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Go Back With Backspace
Moving backwards couldn't be easier! When navigating through folders, you don't have to click the Up One Level button to return to the previous directory. Flashback faster by simply hitting your Backspace key. You will move up one directory instantly.
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Navigate Through Directories Your Way
Want to learn how to navigate through directories without opening new windows? To display a subdirectory in the current window, click the My Computer desktop icon. Select Folder Options from the View pull-down menu. From the General tab, select the radio button labeled "Custom, based on settings you choose." Click the Settings button located directly to the right. In the Custom Settings window under the "Browser folders as follows" heading, choose the "Open each folder in the same window" radio button. Click the OK button to close the Custom Settings window and save changes.
To make your changes apply to all folders, click the View tab from the Folder Options window. Under the "Folder views" heading, click the Like Current Folder button. When prompted to confirm that you want to make all folders conform to this standard, click the Yes button. Click the Apply button at the bottom of the window and click OK to return to your single-window browsing.
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Using robocopy to copy files in Windows 2000
The Windows 2000 Resource Kit includes a utility, robocopy.exe, which enables you to maintain exact duplicates of a folder in multiple locations. For example, you might use robocopy to create copies of data files on multiple servers. You can use robocopy to copy from one folder to another on the same computer, or from a local folder to a network share, or even from network share to network share. One of the advantages of robocopy is that once you've used it to initially copy files, it will then copy only new and changed files on subsequent copies. If you're copying files across a network, robocopy thus enables you to reduce the total traffic generated by the copy.
To use robocopy, you might want to first copy it from the \Program Files\Resource Kit folder to your \system_root folder (such as \winnt) so that it will be in your search path. Next, to create an initial copy of a folder from one location to the next, open a Command Prompt window and enter robocopy source_path destination_path /mir. Replace source_path with the source folder you want to copy to another location (you can use both the format x:\folder and \\computer\share); replace destination_path with the folder to which you want to copy the files. By adding the /mir parameter, you configure robocopy to copy not only the source path folder, but also all folders within this folder.
Once you've completed your initial copy of the folder, the next time you run robocopy it will copy only the new and changed files to the destination folder. Keep in mind that you can automate the copy process by scheduling the robocopy command (along with the necessary source and destination paths) to run by using the Scheduled Tasks utility in Control Panel.
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Creating a Favorites Web page
If you would prefer a larger view of your Favorites menu, why not turn it into Web page? To do so, pull down the File menu and select the Import and Export command. Then, follow the instructions in the Import/Export Wizard to export your Favorites menu to an HTML file. To load the file into Internet Explorer, pull down the File menu, select the Open command, and use the Open dialog box to locate the file.
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Investigating your USB devices with the USB View utility
Do you have USB devices attached to your system? If so, you'll want to investigate a hidden utility called USB View. This utility can come in real handy for diagnosing problems or finding out whether Windows 98 recognizes your USB device. You'll find the USB View utility on the Windows 98 CD in the Tools\Reskit\Diagnose folder.
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Filtering Events in Event Viewer
Windows 2000 records error events in its logs in Event Viewer and warnings and informational events. If you discover that the amount of data you must wade through in Event Viewer overwhelming, you can utilize a filter to assist with locating the events you want. To configure a filter in Event Viewer, start by opening Computer Management MMC. Next, choose Event Viewer in the console tree, and then pick the log you want to filter (such as the System log). Select View | Filter. You can utilize the System Properties dialog box to filter events by a type (such as Warning, Information, or Error), range of dates, or even by User or Computer name. To turn off filtering, select View | All Records.
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Change Color Depth Settings With Ease
You can change the color depth settings in Windows 98 without restarting your computer. Right-click your desktop and select Properties from the pop-up menu. In the Display Properties window, click the Settings tab. Click the Advanced button and from the pop-up window, click the General tab. Check the box labeled "Apply the new color settings without restarting," located underneath the Compatibility heading. Click Apply and click OK to exit both pop-up windows. You now can change your color depth settings and see the changes without restarting your computer.
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Sending a Fast Email Message
If you're utilizing Microsoft Outlook, you can send a fast email message by using the mailto command. Start by selecting Start | Run. Next, type mailto: in the Open text box and select OK. You'll see a new message dialog box. Chhose Send when you're ready to send the message. Note: Although Outlook doesn't have to be running for you to write and send a new message using mailto, your message won't be sent until Outlook is opened.
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Send Text to the Notepad
Now Notepad fans can send text to Notepad quickly. Double-click My Computer and access the C:\ drive. Locate the Windows folder and double-click the SendTo folder. Right-click an empty space in the folder window and select New/Shortcut from the pop-up menu. In the Create Shortcut window, click the "Command line" text box and enter the path for Notepad "C:\Windows\Notepad.exe" (no quotes) and click Next. Choose a name for the Notepad shortcut when prompted and click the Finish button. Now, whenever you right-click a document, you'll be able to quickly send the document's entire text to Notepad directly from the Send To option in the right-click pop-up menu.
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Freeing Stuck Print Jobs on Shared Printers in Windows NT
Occasionally, you might find that a print job gets stuck in a shared printer's print queue: the printer won't print it, and yet you can't delete it. One technique you can use to resolve this problem is to stop and restart the Print Spooler service. Begin by opening the Services program from Control Panel. In the list of Services, select the Spooler service. Click Stop to stop the service. When Windows NT stops the service, click Start to restart it. Windows NT should now be able to print your job.
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A Faster Startup
If yours is a job where time is valuable and every second counts, then waiting for Windows 98 to boot must seem like an eternity. Fortunately, you can trim a few seconds off the boot process by configuring the file system to bypass the floppy disk check on start up. To do this, right-click on My Computer and select Properties from the shortcut menu. Next, select the Performance tab and then click the File System button. When the File System Properties dialog box appears, select the Floppy Disk tab and deselect the Search For New Floppy Disk Drives Each Time Your Computer Starts check box. Click OK to close the File System Properties dialog box and then click OK once more to close the System Properties dialog box. Restart your computer to see the difference.
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Magnify Your View
If you don't happen to be one of the lucky ones who own a nice 17" monitor, seeing what's on your desktop can be a challenge. However, it doesn't have to be if you take advantage of Windows 98's new Magnifier accessibility tool. The Magnifier displays a magnified view at the top of your screen of the area where your mouse pointer or insertion point is located. To use the Magnifier select:
Start|Programs|Accessories|Accessibility|Magnifier
If the Accessibility menu doesn't appear on your Start menu, you need to install the Accessibility Tools through Add\Remove programs.
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Configuring the Command Prompt Window in Windows 2000
You can configure a variety of Command Prompt window properties. As an illustration, you can alter the color of the window so that it has a white background with black text instead of a black background with white text. To do so, start by opening a Command Prompt window. Next, select the MS-DOS icon in the title bar. From the menu, pick Properties to display the Command Prompt Properties dialog box. To alter the colors of the window, select the Colors tab. You can then configure the colors of you want for both the screen background and text.
You can also utilize the Command Prompt Properties dialog box to configure the size of your window. To do so, choose the Layout tab. One of the most useful properties to configure on this page is the Height parameter below the Screen Buffer size. If you set the Screen Buffer Height to a value of 100 or more, Windows 2000 will provide you with a vertical scroll bar on the Command Prompt window. This scroll bar allows you to scroll backward or forward to look at the information in the window. You'll find this useful if you use commands that display too much information to fit in one screen.
When you select OK to close the Command Prompt Properties dialog box, you'll see a message box that allows you to pick whether you want your alterations to apply only to the current window-or to the shortcut for displaying the Command Prompt window. If you want your changes to be permanent, select the Modify Shortcut Which Started This Window option.
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Customize Your Telnet Colors
Turn your Telnet terminal technicolor by customizing your hues. Select Preferences from the Telnet Terminal menu. From the pop-up dialog box, click the Background Color button. Click the background color you want in the pop-up palette and click the OK button. Once you return to the Terminal Preferences dialog box, click the Fonts button. From the Font dialog box, select the font color you want from the Color pull-down menu under the Effects heading. Click OK twice to save your settings.
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Create a Printer Shortcut
Print anything you want in a snap by creating a printer shortcut. Select Settings/Control Panel from the Start menu. Double-click the Printers icon. Once you're in the Printers folder, drag your printer icon onto the desktop. A prompt window will appear confirming that you want to create this shortcut. Click the Yes button. You can now drag any file onto your new printer shortcut, and the print job will begin immediately.
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Change the Colors of Your Title Bars
Burned out on blue title bars? Brighten them up with a different color. Right-click the desktop and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. From the Display Properties window, click the Appearance tab. Scroll through the Item pull-down menu and select Active Title Bar. Click the color choices for the Color and Color2 options located to the right of the Item list. The Color option designates the color for the left-hand portion of the title bar; the Color2 option chooses the color for the right-hand portion. Keep in mind that these two colors will fade into each other in the middle section of the title bar.
You can also customize the font color for your title bars by selecting the Color option located to the right of the Font pull-down menu on the Appearance tab. When font and title bar settings are acceptable, click the Apply button to effect changes. To change your inactive window title bar settings, select Inactive Title Bar from the Item pull-down menu and customize Color, Color2, and font color in a similar manner.
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Adding to the Links toolbar
If you've configured Internet Explorer 4.0 to display the Links toolbar (View/Toolbars/Links) you know that it provides you with quick access to several of Microsoft's Web sites. However, did you know that you could easily add links to your own favorite Web sites to the Links toolbar? Doing so is easy and you can either delete the existing links or simply add your links to the Links toolbar. When you're connected to your favorite site, simply drag the Web site's URL from the Address box and drop it on the Links toolbar. You can also pull down the Favorites menu and drag various Internet shortcuts to the Links toolbar.
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Using the Windows Key
Use your Windows key to open a variety of commands quickly. The Windows key, denoted by the Microsoft symbol on recent keyboards, will access the Start menu when it's pressed. You can also depress the Windows key and press the letter E to launch Windows Explorer. The Windows-F combination will launch the File Finder. To minimize all windows, press the letter M while holding down the Windows key. Conversely, you can maximize all windows by depressing the Windows key and pressing Shift-M. To access the Start menu's Run command, simply hold down the Windows key and press the letter R on your keyboard.
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Manage the Size of the Recycle Bin
If your Recycle Bin looks less like a bin and more like a dumpster, keep your trash manageable by setting its hard drive space. Make sure the percentage of disk space your Recycle Bin uses is small. To do so, right-click the Recycle Bin from your desktop. From the pop-up menu, select Properties. Click the Global tab from the Recycle Bin Properties window and select the radio button labeled "Use one setting for all drives." Next, move the slider labeled "Maximum size of Recycle Bin" to control the percentage of hard disk space the Recycle Bin can occupy. Move the slider to the left so that the Recycle Bin occupies less space or move it to the right to increase maximum hard drive percentage.
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Change Your Language Settings
Make Windows speak your language by customizing your settings to a tongue other than English. To do so, click the Start button and select Control Panel from the Settings submenu. Double-click the Keyboard icon and click the Language tab from the Keyboard Properties window. Next, click on the Add button and choose the language you want to use from the pull-down menu. Click the "Set as Default" button to make the highlighted language your default
language. You can switch languages easily with the keyboard by selecting one of the hotkey options listed under the "Switch Languages" heading. Select the radio button of the hotkey you wish to add and press that key sequence anywhere in Windows 98 to switch languages.
By checking the box labeled "Enable indicator on the taskbar," you can access a system tray icon that will switch your language for you. Once all settings are to your liking, click the Apply button to effect changes. Click the OK button to close the Keyboard Properties window.
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***INTERNET*** (Click here for Windows Tips)

Import Address Books And Messages
Don't start from scratch with Outlook Express! It's easy to import your existing Netscape or Eudora email messages and address books. To import messages, select File/Import/Messages from the main menu. A wizard steps you through the process of importing the message. Importing an address book is even easier. Select File/Import/Address Book from the main menu. Select the email client you want to import from, then click the Import button. Voila!
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Keep Extraneous Baggage From Slowing You Down
If you have a telephone, caller ID box, or answering machine connected to the PHONE, or outgoing, jack of your computer, you may be experiencing interference or slower connections. By unplugging telephones or other devices from the output jack, you can sometimes experience faster connection times and fewer errors.
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Adding a Microsoft Agent to Your Web Site
Putting an agent on your Web site can do lots to make your content more lively and keep your visitors coming back for more. You can also utilize an agent to explain complex Web-based forms or other interfaces. Embedding an agent in your page is easy. You just add the following object tag within the body section:
<object id="theAgent" width="0" height="0"
classid="CLSID:D45FD31B-5C6E-11D1-9EC1-00C04FD7081F"
codebase="#VERSION=2,0,0,0">
</object>
Then, to load the Merlin character and make him do something when the user's browser initially loads the Web page, just add a little client-side script. We're utilizing VBScript here, but you can just as easily use JScript if you prefer. Here's an example:
<script language="vbscript">
dim theWebAgent
sub window_onLoad
theAgent.characters.load "theChar", "merlin.acs"
set theWebAgent = theAgent.characters("theChar")
with theWebAgent
.show
.moveTo 100,200
.play "wave"
.speak "Hello! Welcome to my web site! "
end with </script>
This code loads the required character and directs it to move around and speak. There are more than 50 distinct animations that this agent can perform along with speaking, so it's not likely that your visitors will get bored any time soon!
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Keep Your Characters From Going Astray
If you have received transmissions in which characters seem to be missing, you can increase your odds of receiving data in its entirety. Windows accommodates buffer space for 128 characters by default, but modems provide a continuous flow of data. Hence, your computer must stop the flow of data temporarily when this limit is exceeded. With a fast modem, or a slowed system, increasing your buffer size can become a must. To do so, open your SYSTEM.INI file, located in your Windows directory, using Notepad. Add a line within the file that reads as follows:
COMxBuffer=y
where "x" is the number assigned to your communications (COM) port, and "y" is a number between 128 and 10,000, dictating the new buffer size. Save the file, and restart Windows for changes to take effect. If you are experiencing dropped characters, your buffer size should be at least 2,048. If problems continue, increase the size of the buffer within your SYSTEM.INI file, doubling it until you eliminate problems.
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Enabling word wrap in FrontPage form fields
In FrontPage, page margins are set automatically unless you specify otherwise. If you don't want margins on the left, right, top, and bottom sides of a page, switch to HTML mode and modify the <body> tag as follows:
<body LEFTMARGIN="0" TOPMARGIN="0" MARGINWIDTH="0" MARGINHEIGHT="0">
If you're just concerned about the top and left margins, you can also change them from the Page Properties dialog box. To do so, right-click on the page and choose Page Properties from the shortcut menu. Click on the Margins tab to switch to the Margins property sheet and enable both check boxes you see there. Be sure that 0 appears in both Pixels text boxes.
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Converting IE 5 Favorites to NS Bookmarks
If you use Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape Navigator 4.x interchangeably, you might consider synchronizing your Favorites and your Bookmarks a tedious endeavor. Internet Explorer stores Favorites as a collection of individual HTM files organized in a special shell directory in the Windows system folder. Netscape Navigator, on the other hand, stores Bookmarks as a collection of hyperlinks in a single HTM file. Fortunately, you can synchronize Favorites and Bookmarks easily using IE 5's Import/Export wizard. To access the wizard, start IE 5 and select File | Import And Export from the menu bar. Using the wizard as your guide, export your Favorites to Netscape Navigator or import Netscape Navigator's Bookmarks list into your IE 5 Favorites collection. When you export your Favorites, the wizard converts them to a single HTM file called bookmark.htm and replaces Netscape Navigator's existing bookmark.htm file with the new one. When you import Favorites from Netscape Navigator, IE 5 converts the links in Netscape's bookmark.htm file to individual Internet shortcut files and organizes them in the Favorites shell folder.
If you're using IE 4.x, you can convert your Favorites to a bookmark.htm file using the FavTool utility. To download this utility, point your browser to
www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ieplatform/favtool/favtool.asp
Run the utility and save your Favorites to a new file named bookmark.htm. Then, replace Netscape Navigator's existing bookmark.htm folder with the new one.
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Send Hotmail Users Instant Messages
If Hotmail seems a little slow for your liking, you can exchange instant messages with another Hotmail user with MSN Messenger Service. Simply download and logon to Messenger with your Hotmail ID, and click the Add button to search for contacts, or add another Hotmail or Passport ID to your contact list. You can send another Hotmail user a message telling them to download the program. When both you and the other Hotmail user are logged in, you can trade messages instantly, without having to wait for e-mail delivery.
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Are You Being Scammed?
How can you tell if someone's trying to take you for a ride? Take this easy quiz.
--Have you received any e-mail from a source you didn't recognize?
--Was the e-mail's return address anonymous? (i.e did it look anything like: 1234@anon.penet.fi?)
--Did the e-mail involve a solicitation of any kind?
--Did it use the Honest-John approach, saying something like: "This is not a scam"?
--Did it use uncheckable references, such as "Before he died, Liberace himself endorsed this product"?
--Did the message use urgent-sounding CAPITAL letters?
--Was the body of the message addressed to someone else, as if you had accidentally received the e-mail? And did it seem as if the sender was revealing "inside" information on a product or service?
If you answered "Yes" to the first question and *any* of the other six, watch out. Someone's trying to pick your pocket.
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Accessing Dotcom Sites Fast
Why type more than you have to? If you want to access a dotcom site that you haven't bookmarked, you don't need to type the site's whole URL in your browser's address box to open it. Rather, type the domain name and then press [Ctrl][Enter]. As an illustration, to access www.elementk.com, forget about the "www." and the ".com" and simply type "elementk" (leaving off the quotation marks). When you press [Ctrl][Enter], your browser wraps the domain name in "www." and ".com" automatically and then opens the site. This method works with Internet Explorer and with a direct connection in Netscape Navigator.
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Speed Up Connections And Shorten Your Cords
Using a longer telephone cord, or routing two mid-length telephone cords through your telephone and computer hardware, can cause signal degradation. This can often result in slower connections and file transfers. If you do not seem to be connecting at your optimal baud rate, try using shorter or fewer telephone cords. If your trouble persists, contact your ISP or your telephone company to seek resolution. Sometimes certain geographical areas cannot connect at optimal speed.
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Fudging Email Addresses
These days, it seems that to enjoy any commercial service or other Web-page benefit via the Internet, you need to provide the site owner with your email address--even if you don't want them to send you anything! If you don't want to accept any email communications from the site in question, fudge your email address. The domain names "example.com," "example.org." and "example.net" have been reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for testing and experimentation. You can use these test domain names by making up a username and tacking it onto any of these three test domain names. Use the format:
username@example.com, username@example.net, or username@example.org and replace the word "username" with any word at all. This way you stay anonymous and your personal information remains secret while allowing you to enjoy the solicitor site's service with neither fear nor guilt.
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Encourage Your Modem To Speak Up
If you are not hearing sound from your modem, first attempt to adjust your speaker volume. You can also turn your modem sound up within the Dial-Up Networking Properties for your connection. If all else fails, check to make sure your modem jacks are connected securely and to the proper destinations.
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Creating Clickable Form Labels in FrontPage
It's not hard to design clickable form labels to make data entry easier in FrontPage. To add a clickable label in front of a check box on a form, you would choose Insert | Form Field | Check Box (Insert | Form | Check Box in FrontPage 2000) to create the field. Then, select to the left of the field and type your label. Lastly, choose both the label and the check box and then select Insert | Form Field | Label (Insert | Form | Label in FrontPage 2000). FrontPage adds a dotted-line border around the label to indicate that it's clickable; this border won't appear in the browser.
To test the label, select the Preview tab to switch to Preview mode. When you select the label, the check box becomes selected; select it again and the box becomes deselected. With text fields, selecting the label selects the field for input.
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Initialize Your Modem
If your modem refuses to initialize, you can attempt to fix the problem by entering modem initialization strings. When using a term program, typing "AT&F1" or "ATZ," followed by the Enter key, will often initialize your modem. Using "ATZ" will usually restore your modem to default settings, while use of "AT&F1" will return the modem to its initial factory settings.
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Boolean Tips
Are your Web searches resulting in too many hits but you're not motivated enough to deal with your search engine's advanced search options? It might be a good idea to use boolean operators in your searches. It's not difficult. The most common boolean operators are OR, AND, NOT, and NEAR. Nearly all search engines recognize these words as boolean operators rather than text strings. When used between two search terms,
1. AND retrieves hits that contain both of the terms.
2. OR retrieves hits that contain one or both of the terms.
3. NOT retrieves hits that contain the preceding term but do not contain the following term.
4. NEAR retrieves hits on which both terms appear proximate to one another.
Nearly all search engines default to the OR operator when one isn't specified (i.e., when there is just a space between search terms), but some default to AND. Also, most search engines recognize the + and - symbols used in place of AND and NOT operators, respectively. If you'd like to search for a specific phrase without the default operator making things difficult, place the phrase in quotation marks.
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How to Avoid Scams and Identity Theft
Feeling vertigo? Don't get swept up by the World Wide Web. Here are some tips to help you not get taken advantage of.
--Answer only the minimum questions when filling out forms
When you buy something online, you'll usually have to fill out a form first. And you'll be asked many questions, such as your annual income, age, phone number and similar information. Don't answer the questions. Many sites put an asterisk* next to the questions that must be answered, so only answer those. The shopping site wants your money, and it'll take your money even if you don't give them personal information.
--Never give out your Social Security number
There's no legitimate reason a site needs to know your Social Security number. If you give it out, someone could steal your identity, get access to your bank account and in many ways ruin your life.
--Always pay with a credit card
When you pay with a credit card, you're offered a wide variety of consumer protections. If you pay by check or money order, you don't get the same protection. So pay with plastic; that way you won't get burned.
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Fight Back Against Scammers
Here are some tips to help you not get sucked into a scam:
Don't respond to suspicious e-mails. Report them to the system administrators for your online service or ISP.
Make double-dog sure that the company you're dealing with online really exists. Call their local and 800 numbers to be sure.
Put suspicious companies through an ethical Breathalyzer by reporting them to the Better Business Bureau's home page. After you're done there, check out the database of complaints about online companies at the Netcheck Commerce Bureau, a site established to promote consumer confidence in making purchases on the Internet.
Inoculate yourself against the latest frauds by heading to the National Fraud Information Center and by signing up for Internet Scambusters, an e-mail zine that tracks Internet Scams. One of the most Web-savvy sites fighting the good fight of consumer protection is Public Eye Undercover Shoppers.
Use an ISP which offers protection against credit card fraud (America Online, AT&T, and PSInet are examples). AOL covers the $50 deductible if an unauthorized user charges a purchase to a customer's card while using their service. AT&T and PSINet don't charge for fraudulent credit card purchases made over the Web from merchants who use their services.
Through all this, though, keep in mind something that elder statesmen, G. Gordon Liddy, once said about the real world. It holds true for the online one, too: "Obviously crime pays, or there'd be no crime." But there are ways to reduce its wages.
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Keep Your Modem Quiet
For some, there is nothing more annoying than hearing your modem dial up and connect. To disable this grating screeching, access the Dial-Up Networking folder, located in My Computer. Right-click on the connection you wish to change, and click the General tab. In the section labeled "Connect using," click the Configure button. From the Modem Properties dialog box, select the General tab. Move the slide rule all the way to the left to turn off modem volume. Click OK twice to save changes. To turn modem volume back on, simply access Modem Properties again, and move the slide rule further to the right before saving your settings.
If you are accessing the Internet with HyperTerminal or another term program, you can turn off modem volume simply by typing "ATM0" on a single line, and pressing return. Doing so before dialing will quiet the modem as it connects. To turn on modem volume again during the same session, simply type "ATM1" on a single line, and press return.
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Secret Way to Close Internet Explorer
If you're using Internet Explorer 4.x or 5.0, you can close your browser window using the secret keystroke [Ctrl]-W. This secret keystroke can also be used to close Windows Explorer and My Computer windows.
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Use IE5 to Help You Remember Passwords
You can configure Microsoft Internet Explorer 5's AutoComplete to save your passwords.
In IE5:
Select Tools | Internet Options
Click the Content tab
In Personal Information, click the AutoComplete button
Select the appropriate checkbox for passwords
No need to worry about cookies and hackers, your passwords are stored and encrypted on your computer. You can remove a password by selecting and then deleting it.
It's not recommended to setup this feature for high security sites, like financial accounts.
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Silence Line Noise
Sometimes, when accessing the Internet, you might encounter trouble logging on, surfing, or the appearance of extra characters as you attempt to use UNIX-based features. This is caused by "line noise," or interference in your phone line, caused by faulty wiring, moisture, or other factors. You can test for line noise by picking up the telephone receiver (when you are not connected to the Internet), and listening for line static, or crackling noises. You can cut down on line noise by using shorter phone cords to connect your computer to the telephone jack. If all else fails, you can always contact your local telephone provider, and ask that a technician be sent out to analyze your line quality.
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Stop Connections From Timing Out
Connections can sometimes time out if Dial-Up Networking attempts to find a Microsoft Windows Network that does not exist. To fix this problem, simply access your connection, located in the Dial-Up Networking folder under My Computer. Right-click on the connection you wish to change, and select Properties from the pop-up menu. Select the Server Types tab, and uncheck the box labeled "Log on to Network." Click OK to save changes, and your connection will no longer search for Microsoft Windows Network. However, make sure that no such network does indeed exist. If you encounter the same or further problems with this change, simply recheck the "Log on to Network" box within your Dial-Up connection.
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Surf the Web Faster Using IE5
Here are some keyboard shortcuts to help make your Net surfing faster. For more shortcuts, press F1 and select "Keyboard Shortcuts."
F11: Toggle between full screen and regular view
ALT + HOME: Go to homepage
UP ARROW: Scroll up
DOWN ARROW: Scroll down
HOME: Jump to beginning of page
END: Jump to end of page
CTRL + F: Bring up dialog box to search for a word or phrase in current page
CTRL + R: Refresh page
CTRL + N: Open new browser window
CTRL + W: Close current window
CTRL + D: Add current page to Favorites
ALT + D: Select text in address bar
CTRL + ENTER: Adds "http://www." to beginning and ".com" to end of text in address bar
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Scope Out Your Connection
Get the scoop on your current Internet connection by running Windows' IP Configuration. To do so, click on the Start key and select the Run command. In the command line box, type WINIPCFG. You will receive information on your IP Configuration, from your current Adapter and IP addresses, to mask and gateway information. For more extensive information, just click on the button labeled More Info.Keep in mind that you must be connected for this process to work effectively.
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Customize Your Cache
Sometimes a browser's method of caching seems illogical. At times, pages visited recently have not been cached, while older pages remain cached. However, you can call the shots, and decide which pages you wish to cache and how often.
Explorer users can do so by setting up an Internet Explorer subscription. To do so, when adding a site to your Favorites list, check the box labeled, "Make available offline." Then, simply click on the Customize button to begin the Offline Favorite Wizard. First, decide whether you want subpages to be cached as well by choosing the "Yes" or "No" radio button and clicking Next. You can then decide how often you wish the page to be cached in the next step, by selecting "I would like to create a new schedule" and selecting the Next button. Decide how often you would like the page to be cached by specifying number of days, and a time to synchronize, and press Next. As most sites do not require a password, you can usually press Next to bypass the last step. Explorer will then cache the page according to your specifications.
Netscape users can access Preferences from the Edit menu. Navigate to the Advanced/Cache directory from the Preferences window. You can then specify how much disk and memory space you wish to occupy with cached pages. You can also specify to which folder you wish to save cached pages. In addition, you can decide how often pages are compared to their cached copies, and then updated. Under the heading labeled, "Document in cache is compared to document on network," select the radio button for "Once per session," "Every time," or "Never," according to your preference. Click OK to save changes.
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