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Computer Q&A Newspaper column Norm Morin writes a computer Q&A column for the local newspaper, the Lowell Sun. The column addresses reader's computer questions in common, everyday, non-computerese language. If you are a Lowell Sun subscriber, check out "On the technical side" in the Monday edition on the computer page. Past columns will be posted on this website for folks who don't subscribe to the Lowell Sun. You are welcome to forward my column to any interested parties. Information is something to be shared. Please note that there may some differences in what is printed on this page and what appeared in the newspaper column. The articles on this page are the columns as they were submitted to the newspaper. Please email your questions and comments.(see Contact us) If you would like a reprint of the column as it appeared in the Sun, email your request and a .jpeg will be emailed to you. Find column by subject 1/27/2003 sticky mouse 2/3/2003 deleted files 2/10/2003 ebay 2/17/2003 email 2/24/2003 backup 3/3/2003 virus 3/10/2003 backup strategy 3/17/2003 virus recovery 3/24/2003 system maintenance 3/31/2003 linux 4/7/2003 more than 1 computer on broadband 4/14/2003 boot problems 4/21/2003 safe mode/broadband 4/28/2003 slow computer 5/5/2003 backup pointers 5/12/2003 RTC, word attachments 5/19/2003 add CDROM 5/26/2003 slow shutdown 6/2/2003 boot floppy 6/9/2003 virus hoax 6/16/2003 computer terms 6/23/2003 operating system 6/30/2003 email? 7/7/2003 popups 7/14/2003 email scam 7/212003 wireless 8/4/2003 ISP and AOL? 8/11/2003 internet on vacation? 8/18/2003 blaster worm 8/25/2003 buying a new computer? 9/1/2003 boot problems 9/22/2003 wireless on the go 9/29/2003 UPS 10/6/2003 service problems 10/13/2003 drivers 10/20/2003 recycle 10/27/2003 trojan programs 11/10/2003 busy hard drive? 11/17/2003 lot of files 11/22/2003 slow computer? 12/1/2003 software piracy 12/8/2003 upgrades 12/15/2003XP 12/22/2003 popups 12/29/2003 new computer? 1/27/2003 sticky mouse Question: My mouse is acting funny. Some times it sticks and doesn't move as smoothly as when it was new. Is there something that I can do besides getting a new mouse? Answer: There is something that you do to repair a mechanical mouse yourself. There are two basic types of mouse on the market today. One is the optical mouse. It has no moving parts and almost never jams unless some fairly large foreign matter has clogged the bottom. The other kind of mouse is the mechanical mouse. It is more common and is easy to identify. Flip the mouse over and look at the bottom. You should see a partially exposed ball with a release panel. Usually the release is a round panel that you turn to release the ball from the mouse. Look at the symbols on the bottom of the mouse to determine how to release the ball. After the ball is released, clean the ball with a damp cloth. Be careful when using cleaners, they may dissolve the ball's material. Now take a look in the opening that holds the ball. You will find some rollers that usually accumulate lint and dust. The lint collects on the rollers and make the ball roll erratically. This will cause the mouse to roll funny and the icon on your screen to move in spurts. After you clean both the ball and rollers, you should notice an improvement in the mouse response. go to the top of the page 2/3/2003 deleted files Question: I have deleted a file by mistake. It was moved to the recycle bin and the recycle bin was cleared. Is the file recoverable? Answer: When a file is deleted, it is moved to the recycle bin. If the recycle bin is cleared, any files in the bin are removed from the system. ...well, sort of... Just because a file has been deleted and cleared from the recycle bin doesn't mean that it is gone. There are a few things that happen behind the scenes when a file is deleted. The file is not actually erased. The directory entry for the file is changed and the disk space allocated for the file is given back to the system. The system will give the deleted file space to a new file when space is requested. You can think of disk space for a file like a bag. When the file is created, the bag is filled with the file's information. When the file is deleted, the bag goes back into the drawer where bags are stored but the file information is still in the bag. If a new file is created, a bag is given to the new file. It might be the deleted file's bag. The new file will fill the bag with its information and any old information in the bag will be lost. If you looked at a directory where a file was deleted, the file would not be visible but most of the file information is still present. A computer user is able to view the left over information with special utilities. There are many free recovery utilities on the internet that use the file information left behind after a file has been deleted. There is an important thing to remember regarding file recovery. File recovery is only successful if the deleted file is recovered as soon as possible. The deleted file's blocks were given back to the system to use. If another file is created, the deleted file's blocks might be given to the new file and any attempt to recover the file will not be successful. go to the top of the page 2/10/2003 ebay Question: Everyone is talking about Ebay. How do I buy and sell on Ebay? Will I get what I pay for on Ebay? Answer: Ebay is a very convenient way for people to buy and sell goods on the internet but there are some disadvantages too. Go to www.ebay.com and read the instructions about how to register and set up an account. You need to be registered to be able to buy or sell on Ebay. You will find it convenient to set up a Paypal account too. This account will allow you to pay for an item with a credit card. Paypal acts as a middle man. You transfer funds to Paypal and Paypal forwards the funds to the seller. This is a great service if a seller is reputable but the credit card company will not aggressively pursue a bad transaction when Paypal is involved. If you find an item that you wish to purchase, don't forget to check out the feedback on the seller. Buyers and sellers can post feedback or a report about each other. Do you want to deal with someone who has a lot of negative feedback? The most important thing to remember is the value of the item to you. Don't get caught up in the excitement of the bid. Establish a price that you are willing to pay and stick to it. There have been cases of fraud where the seller has a friend bid to drive up the price. There are some interesting strategies to winning an item. Some folks say to wait until the last possible moment before you send in a bid. The best strategy is to set a price and stick to it. Most of the time, your transactions will go through without a hitch but there are exceptions to the rule. In a recent Ebay transaction, the seller had an interesting response to not completing a deal. "Your negative feedback has hurt my business and as far as I am concerned once negative feedback is left the transaction is over. This is my last communication with you." His response contained an interesting phrase, "as far as I'm concerned". It takes two people to make a deal but some characters forget that point after money has been exchanged. Do your research before bidding on an item. Know the item and check out the seller. Email the seller if you have any questions about an item. If the seller is lax in his response, that might be a good indication about how he will deal with you after he gets your money. There are many reputable sellers on Ebay but carefully consider things before you send your money. Do you really want to buy that $10,000 Ming vase over the internet from someone that you have never met? go to the top of the page 2/17/2003 email Question: I don't know anything about computers. What do I need to send and receive email? What will it cost? Answer: Believe it or not, you can send and receive email for little to no out of pocket cost. ...in other words, ALMOST FREE! You do not need an advanced degree in computer science to use a computer. My mother learned how to use a computer and email at 70+ years YOUNG! OOPS! Sorry Mom, I meant to say that you were 39 years old. ;) There are 3 basic components that you need to be able to send or receive email. The first thing that you need to use email is a computer. If we compare computer email to regular mail, think of the computer as stationary. You need stationary to write a letter and you need a computer to write email. You also need a connection to the internet. Think of the internet as the mailman. The mailman doesn't write mail but he makes sure that the mail gets from sending to delivery point. (if there are any women mailmen out there, please don't be offended by my gender bias) The last thing that you need is an email address. You can't receive mail if you don't have an address. Here's a quick and almost free way to use email. Most public libraries offer the use of computers that are connected to the internet. Using a library computer satisfies the first two requirements for email. You have a computer and a connection to the internet but you still need an address. Think of a unique name for yourself that is easy to pronounce and spell. If you think that you would like to use "fish" for your email address, someone might have already taken that name. Be prepared to add a number or some letters to your desired email address. If your name is Jim Smith and you wanted to use "fish", you may have to settle for "jimfisher" or "fisherjim1". Watch out for any confusing email addresses. It is easy to confuse the letter, "o" for the number "0". There are many free email address providers on the internet. Yahoo, hotmail, netzero, and juno are few of the largest email providers. Go to www.yahoo.com or one of the other email providers and follow the directions to set up an email address. Your new email address will be something like "something@yahoo.com". Now you have everything that you need to send and receive email. When you want to read your email, go to the library and log on to the website to send and receive email. Please be aware that public computers may leave interesting pieces of information about you available to someone who uses the computer after you. This information could be used to impersonate you. Don't forget to learn how to clear history and flush the cache if you use public computers. ...but what if you want to receive email in the privacy of your own computer? You need to have a computer and an internet connection. If you are hesitant to buy a computer, there are devices that look like keyboards with small LCD screens. Earthlink, a major Internet Service Provider or ISP, offers a device, MailStation, that will send and receive email. You need to purchase the device and pay a service fee each month to allow you to use the email service. The device requires a phone line to access the email. This device is very simple to use and can be a good solution for someone that is interested in simple email. For the more adventurous, you need a computer and ISP to use email. You do not need the latest in computer technology to set up your computer for email. A ten year old computer is very capable of sending and receiving email. Maybe you have a computer in a closet that is not being used. If you are considering purchasing a new or used computer, DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Ask your computer literate friend to help you. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Choosing an ISP to provide an internet connection for your home is just like choosing your phone service. Check out the different ISPs and what they have to offer you. This column touched a lot of issues that you must consider when setting up your computer for email. It is hoped that any new, budding, email users weren't scared away. Keep those questions coming.. go to the top of the page 2/24/2003 backup Question: "The problem started when I was running Norton Disk Doctor ..... Norton reported a changing free space problem and I opted to let it fix it. NO, I did not save to an undo file! After that it would not boot nor was the drive even recognized." Carl email Answer: Unfortunately, "the horse is already out of the barn". Your data may already be gone but you should contact Symantec, the manufacturer of Norton, before you proceed with any data recovery attempt. Consult with a professional before you conclude that your data is gone. Your question also brings up a very important computer issue. ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA!!! You should have backups scheduled and stick to your schedule. Any time that you do anything that will drastically affect your hard drive, you should also backup your data. It is not necessary to back up everything but you should backup any data that you can't afford to lose. A recent hard drive failure forced me to remember that there is a reason for doing backups. One day, my hard drive died suddenly. There was no warning, the drive just started making a clunking sound. That drive contained digital photos of my kids that can never be replaced. I was desperate and took the drive to Excalibur Data Recovery in Billerica. John Trask, the General Manager, offered a few pointers about hard drives. If you think the hard drive is damaged. STOP!!!! He offered the analogy of a flat tire. If you stop and change the flat, you might be able to repair the tire. Driving on a flat tire will surely eliminate any chance of repairing the flat tire. Most people forget another important backup concept. DON'T STORE YOUR BACKUPS NEAR THE COMPUTER. If there is a catastrophic event such as a fire, your backups will be destroyed with your computer. Disk recovery is a very expensive operation. It costs a few hundred dollars just to determine if the data can be recovered. The cost to actually recover the data could be another $2000. My hard drive failure did not have a happy ending. The data was not recoverable but it is hoped that you can benefit from my VERY DUMB mistake. Don't forget to backup your data. Catastrophic events do occur when we least expect them. Plan a backup schedule and stick to it. Replacing a failed hard drive is no fun. Losing all the data from years of research can easily be avoided with a simple backup plan. go to the top of the page 3/3/2003 virus Question: Help!!! I think that my computer is infected with a virus. What should I do? What will the virus do to my computer? Sheila G. Answer: You are lucky to realize that something is wrong. That's half of the battle. The first thing that you should do is run a virus scan on your computer. What! You don't have a virus scanner on your computer! Don't feel too bad, I didn't believe in virus scans either until my system became infected. Don't become a believer after it's too late. If your computer is connected to the internet, go to www.symantec.com or www.mcafee.com and download a free trial virus scanner. If you know the virus that is on your system, it is very possible that symantec or mcafee has a FREE fix available on their website. The behavior of viruses range from a simple pranks such as mysterious beeps to more serious actions such as erasing your hard drive. There was a particularly nasty virus a few years ago named "Chernobyl" that erased the BIOS. The BIOS is a small program that resides in a chip on your motherboard. It tells the computer how to boot itself up. If that chip is erased, your computer is useless. You need a technician to reprogram or replace that chip. Who knows how many motherboards were replaced because of that virus? One type of virus called a worm, emails everyone in your email addressbook. Everyone that receives the email is potentially infected. It is a nasty process, one system is infected and the virus attempts to email all the computers that it knows. Even systems already infected can be reinfected. The volume of email generated by worms can disrupt networks. Another bad effect to consider about worms is the content of the email sent by the virus. Some viruses send out pornographic email. Do you really want to send your mother a pornographic message? Do you remember the story of the trojan horse? A trojan is a program that looks like one thing but it has another hidden purpose. You might think that you are getting a neat program but the program might actually be emailing your username and password to the bad guys. Trojans are particularly difficult to detect and eliminate. It has been suggested that the virus scan companies are releasing viruses to keep themselves in business. A quick reality check would quickly dispel that theory. Can you imagine the lawsuits that would be initiated? ...not to mention the criminal prosecution. The most important thing to remember is, ALWAYS USE A VIRUS SCANNER! ...AND MAKE SURE THAT IT IS UP TO DATE. The virus scanner data must be kept current to detect new viruses. Enter a drawing for a Norton Antivirus 2002 CDROM. Send me email at techside@nkcsystems.com with your name and address before Friday of this week. Your name will be entered in a drawing for a Norton Antivirus 2002 CDROM. (your name will NOT be distributed to anyone) I will randomly select 4 winners and mail them a Norton Antivirus 2002 CDROM. It doesn't cost you anything, not even postage! go to the top of the page 3/10/2003 backup strategy Question: What is a good backup strategy? Answer: You only need to backup things that you can't easily replace. A backup can be as simple as copying files to a floppy disk or you can use the backup utility that is an optional MS Windows program. There are also other 3rd party backup utilities available on the web at your local software store. It has often been said that the most important part of a computer is the data on the computer. You can easily replace a computer but you can't easily replace the data. Backups are important. It doesn't make any sense to backup your operating system and applications, you can just reinstall them. You need to to backup your data that you have added to your computer. For example, if you use Quicken, you don't need to backup the Quicken program but you need to backup the Quicken data that you have added. You need to remember to keep your backups in a safe place. If your computer catches fire and your backup media is stored next to your computer, it is a good chance that you will loose your backups too. The documents that you have written should be backed up. It is a good idea to keep documents that you have written under the "My Documents" directory. This will provide a good central place for you to locate your information. Email is something that a lot of people take for granted. Don't forget to backup up your email. It is also an important source of data on your computer. Floppy disks were the default backup device in the beginning of PCs but they are very limited in size and have a limited shelf life. Computer tapes were used for a lot of years but CDROMs are being used as the backup device of choice. CDROMs are a much more stable media and you can easily move a CDROM from one computer to another. Almost every computer has a CDROM. It is a good idea to set a schedule for backups and follow that schedule. If you add a lot of information each day, back up that data daily. Something to consider when doing your backups would be your restore plan. How will you recover your system in the event of a system failure? It is a good idea to think about this possibility before it happens. It is also recommended to verify your backed up data. There are horror stories about businesses that spent large amounts of money on backup equipment that didn't work. They had been doing backups for long periods of time but their irreplaceable data was not being backed up. After a catastrophic failure, they discovered that their backups didn't really work. It's too late to backup after the failure. The most important step to doing backups is to do the backup. Make sure that your backup is really backing up your data. Think about how you will recover your system in the event of a failure. Consider these issues before something happens and you will be able to recover quickly from a computer failure. Winners from the Norton Antivirus 2002 drawing were notified over the past weekend. Keep watching this column for more computer product and accessory drawings in the future. go to the top of the page 3/17/2003 virus scanner Question: I think that my machine has a virus but the virus scanner won't install successfully. What can I do? Answer: The first thing to do is to back up your data but there is a good chance that the backup media will contain the virus. Sometimes the virus goofs things up so badly that you can't backup your data. You have to make a choice. Is there anything that you can't afford to lose? Are you willing to experiment to try and recover your system? You should call a computer service professional if you don't feel confident removing an active virus. There is no one answer that will tell you how to eliminate a virus when you can't install a virus scanner. You are not admitting defeat, you are calling for reinforcements. It is a very wise person who knows when to ask for help. Sometimes a hint or some suggestions are all that you need to successfully complete a virus inoculation. The most aggressive approach is to format and reinstall everything on your hard drive. You need to be sure that you don't have any critical data on your hard drive that isn't backed up. You also need to have all your installation media to reinstall everything. Don't forget to install the virus scanner after you complete the reinstallation or you might be repeating the reinstallation procedure. You could think of this approach as getting a fresh start. Another approach is to use the virus scanner cdrom to boot your system. The Norton Antivirus cdrom can boot the machine, scan, and remove the viruses. It should be noted that the virus must be known by the virus data file on the cdrom. If the virus is new, there is a good chance that this method will not work. You must take the most tedious approach when the virus cdrom does not find and remove the virus. This approach is not for the faint of heart. This is a good time to ask for help. The first step is to look for irregularities on your computer. Are there any strange processes running on your machine? Are there any strange files present on your machine? Are there any failure messages on your screen? You need to look for clues about the virus. You are attempting act like a virus on the virus. You have to look for ways to disrupt and turn the tables on the virus. If you are able to disrupt the virus, you may be able to install the the virus scanner and eliminate the virus. This process can take hours to recover your machine but your alternative is to get a fresh start by formatting the hard drive. The hardest part is identifying the virus. The www.symantec.com and www.mcafee.com websites hold all kinds of great reference data and tools to help you identify and remove viruses. In an ideal world, you have a virus scanner installed and you are regularly updating the virus data file. You will never have to consider how to recover from a virus infection but it is always good to plan for the unexpected. Winners for the Norton Antivirus 2002 drawing were: David C. Lowell, Ma Henry R. Nashua, NH Geo G. Chalmsford, Ma James P. Chelmsford, Ma go to the top of the page 3/24/2003 system maintenance Question: What can I do to keep my computer trouble free and running efficiently? Answer: There are a few simple things that a user can do the keep their system in tip top shape. One of the most important utilities to use on your computer is a virus scanner. When a customer tells me that their computer is not acting correctly, one of the first things that I ask about is their virus scanner. Do you have a virus scanner and is it up to date? This is not the first time that this column has mentioned the importance of an up to date virus scanner and it won't the last. It is a good idea to run the scandisk utility every few weeks. The scandisk utility checks out the hard drive for locations that are not able to reliably store data. When a bad location is discovered, scandisk will mark that location. The computer will recognize the marked areas as unusable. If your computer starts to indicate bad blocks, it is a good idea to consider replacing that hard drive. Defrag is another hard disk utility to run every few weeks. When the computer writes a file to the hard drive, disk space on the hard drive is assigned to the file. When a file is removed, disk space is free for the computer to use for new files. After the computer has been running for a while, there are lots of pieces of free space available on the hard drive. When a file is not be given contiguous disk space, the file is fragmented. If the disk has too many fragmented files, the computer will slow down. The defrag tool will arrange all the files in contiguous blocks. You might have noticed that when you try to run scandisk or defrag, the utilities never complete. The utilities keep restarting but never seem to finish. This is caused by applications that are running on your computer. If something changes on the hard drive, the utilities must start again. You can solve this problem by starting your computer in Safe mode before you scandisk or defrag. After scandisk or defrag is complete, reboot your system in normal mode. Safe mode is a minimal system to allow you to do system maintenance without loading all the applications and drivers that are loaded when your system boots normally. Safe mode is entered by tapping the F8 key before the windows screen pops up during reboot. Keeping your virus scanner up to date, scandisk, and defrag are good steps to keep your computer running efficiently. Think of these operations as tune up for your computer. virus email tip from Sean S. "I read your column about the person with a possible computer virus. FWIW, I have seen that exact scenario before and had to use stinger.exe to remove the virus prior to installing the AV software. The person actually had four different viruses on the system. http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/" go to the top of the page 3/31/2003 linux Question: Is there an alternative to Microsoft Windows software for my PC? Do I have to run Microsoft Windows on my PC to make it more than a paperweight? Answer: Most PCs are running Microsoft Windows but there is an operating system that has been gaining interest over the last few years. About ten years ago, a college student named Linus Torvalds developed an operating system called Linux at the University of Helsinki. Linux was not originally developed to compete against Microsoft Windows but it has become a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows. There are a few basic concepts to understand about the software on your computer. Everyone knows that the computer runs software but do you know the difference between an operating system and an application? The operating system controls the computer and does all the housekeeping like controlling the hard drive and allowing you to input information. Examples of operating systems are Microsoft Windows and Linux. An application is a program that runs on the computer like Microsoft Word or computer games. Linux is available for FREE on the internet at many web sites. You can find Red Hat, Slackware, Mandrake, or many other Linux distributions but they are all the same Linux. They are just different packaging of the Linux operating system and applications. There are some other issues to consider before you declare your PC free of Microsoft operating systems and applications. You really need to consider how you want to use your computer. Do you need to write documents and pass them to other PCs running in the Microsoft environment? Do you need to create spreadsheets for Microsoft Excel? I use a Linux system as a firewall on my Comcast broadband connection. It runs for months without interruption. Can you say that about your Microsoft Windows system? There is a really nice application, OpenOffice, that is available for FREE at www.openoffice.org. You could consider it to be a Microsoft Office alternative. The really interesting thing about OpenOffice is that it is also available to run on Linux and Microsoft Windows machines. You just need to download and install the right executable. At first glance, OpenOffice looks just like Microsoft Office. There is a document processor, spreadsheet, and presentation manager. The application can even edit and save Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents. You can send your document to your friends with Microsoft Windows and Office computers. The most common argument against using a nonMicrosoft product is the claim that you don't get any support. Microsoft is a big company and will support you. Right? Have you ever tried to call the support lines for your Microsoft product? There is a joke about a helicopter pilot lost in a fog bank. He finds a building and circles it. A person in the building opens a window and shouts to the pilot, "Are you lost?". The helicopter pilot responds, "Yes, can you tell me when I am?". The person in the window offers his response, "I live at 22 Mockingbird Lane. My wife works at the Mercy Mount Hospital. My children attend Grant Elementary School....". The Pilot shouts, "Thanks, I got it." He makes a few turns and safely lands at the airport. A passenger asked how he was able to determine his location from the conversation. The pilot said, "I knew the building was the Microsoft support building because I got answers to questions that I didn't ask and the information was completely useless." While most people are not be willing to install Linux on their computer, many of my customers have decided to try OpenOffice. It is a nice alternative to Microsoft Office. You can't beat the price and it has the same "look and feel" as Microsoft Office. Free Drawing for an optical mouse.... Email me your name and address to enter a drawing for an optical mouse. Entries must be received by Friday evening. The winner will be notified by email during the weekend. go to the top of the page 4/7/2003 more than 1 computer on broadband Question: Can I connect another computer to my broadband connection? Connie C. Lowell Answer: Yes, you can connect more than one computer to your broadband connection. You should understand a few networking concepts before deciding how you want to add your second computer to your Comcast connection. These concepts can also be applied to Verizon DSL connections. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP), Comcast or Verizon, provides a cable or DSL modem at your location. A wire enters the house and is connected to the cable modem. Another wire, an ethernet cable, connects your computer to the cable modem. Your computer must have an ethernet port to physically connect the wire from the cable modem to your computer. A wire is not enough to connect the computer. Your computer also needs to know how to talk over the wire. Think of networking like a telephone. You need the phone to talk to your neighbor but you also need to know the language. There are numerous protocols or languages to allow your computer to communicate but you have to use the right protocol and settings to attach your computer the to Internet. TCP/IP is the protocol that your computer uses to communicate on the Internet. Have you ever heard of an “IP address”? This is your computer's address on the Internet. This is how information is routed to your computer. How would you receive mail from the post office if you didn't have an address? The simplest way to connect another computer to your broadband connection is to call your ISP and request that another computer be added to your connection. The ISP will allocate another IP address to your home and add another box called a hub between the cable modem and the computers. Think of the hub as a funnel. It combines signals from both computers into one cable that is connected to the cable modem. The ISP will “see” two computers connected to the Internet. The other way is to buy a router and connect it just like the hub. The router may physically resemble the hub but it does much more. The router acts like a funnel but it also “looks” at and changes the data that is passed from the computers to the wire. It performs Network Address Translation (NAT) and firewall functions. The NAT function will make your two or more computers "look" like one computer to the ISP. The ISP doesn't need to give you another IP address. The router firewall functions keep the bad guys out from your computer. The first solution requires the least technical skill and costs the least immediate investment but it will be the most costly over time. The second solution requires an investment of purchasing a router but it offers lower long term cost, more flexibility, and safety from hackers. go to the top of the page 4/14/2003 boot problems Question: My system doesn't boot. The monitor power light is yellow and the screen doesn't display anything. What could be wrong? Denah T., Dracut Answer: This problem was caused by a stuck power switch but it is a good lead into a basic PC troubleshooting checklist. There are a lot of things that you can do to isolate and diagnose a boot up problem on your PC. Did you just recently perform any system maintenance? Did you just finish adding a new hard drive or CDRW drive? Does your system boot after you undo your last change? Here's a few steps to take in the event that you didn't change anything recently. * Check your power Is your computer power cord plugged into a wall outlet? Is it plugged into the back of the computer? Don't laugh, it is very easy to forget to plug in something. I won't mention the number of times that I have forgotten to plug in something. Is the circuit live? Plug in a lamp or some other appliance to check if the socket is live. Some PCs have multiple power switches. Is there a power switch on the back of your PC? Check the front switch, push it a few times. Does it push and release properly? Do you hear the fans start up after you touch the power button? * Do you see any messages on the screen? The computer will usually tell you what is wrong. Most modern PCs display simple messages that will indicate what is happening while your machine is booting. Your PC should print something while it is attempting to boot up. You might want to wait for at least 5 minutes before you stop any boot up attempt. Your system might still be able to boot even it takes longer to start. * A bad system battery could cause your system to lose it's configuration. Your system may not boot properly when the battery is bad. Has your system been losing time? Do you always have to correct the system clock after you boot your system when it has been powered down for a few hours? Think about replacing the battery when you notice that your system is looses time. * Are you able to boot your system with a boot floppy? If you don't have a boot floppy, ask one of your friends to make you an emergency boot floppy. IS YOUR FRIEND'S VIRUS SCANNER UP TO DATE? Are you able to boot your system with an emergency boot floppy? Don't be afraid to ask for help if you have any system problems that you don't understand. You may make things worse or lose your valuable data. The winner for the optical mouse drawing was Ann P., Tewksbury go to the top of the page 4/21/2003 safe mode/broadband Question: I was attempting to do an error scan on my hard drive but a message appeared that the error scan started ten times. I started my system in safe mode but the error scan did not complete. Is something wrong? Mildred R, Stoneham When you start your system in safe mode, the system is started with minimal drivers. Safe mode is intended to be a way to start your system and recover it if you loaded a something that isn't well behaved. Safe mode is especially useful if you attempt to set your screen options to a value that the monitor can't display. You may have noticed that the screen icons are larger than normal but this is normal for safe mode. If you execute anything on your system while you are performing an error scan, the error scan utility will restart. The utility will notice that the hard drive has changed and restart. Start the utility and let the machine complete the task. Plan on it to take a few hours. Don't forget to shut off your screen saver when you run the utility or the screen saver will trigger a restart of the error scan. Comment: You missed some other network options in your article about connecting to broadband. John F. Yes, that is a good point. There are some other connection options. If you want to connect two computers to broadband, you can use one of the computers to act as the firewall/router. This option is available if the intended firewall/router machine is running a recent version of Microsoft Windows. The machine acting as the firewall/router requires two ethernet cards. One of the cards is used to connect to the cable modem. The other ethernet card connects to the other machine. If you have more than one other computer, a hub is required to connect the other machines. Think of the hub as a funnel. I do not recommend this approach because I do not have a high confidence level in placing Microsoft operating systems directly on the internet. I realize that this is a highly inflammatory statement but there are security bugs frequently uncovered for Microsoft products. This approach also requires some system administration skills by the user. John F. uses this option and has no problems but he is a computer professional. I use a variation of this approach. I use a computer running Linux to act as my firewall/router. It runs for months with no problems but the configuration is a bit more than most people want to tackle. A simple stand alone firewall/router is the best approach for most people. An initial configuration is the only task that is required when the unit is installed. Most of my customers install, configure, and forget about their firewall/router. is your computer's address on the Internet. This is how information is routed to your computer. How would you receive mail from the post office if you didn't have an address? The simplest way to connect another computer to your broadband connection is to call your ISP and request that another computer be added to your connection. The ISP will allocate another IP address to your home and add another box called a hub between the cable modem and the computers. Think of the hub as a funnel. It combines signals from both computers into one cable that is connected to the cable modem. The ISP will “see” two computers connected to the Internet. The other way is to buy a router and connect it just like the hub. The router may physically resemble the hub but it does much more. The router acts like a funnel but it also “looks” at and changes the data that is passed from the computers to the wire. It performs Network Address Translation (NAT) and firewall functions. The NAT function will make your two or more computers "look" like one computer to the ISP. The ISP doesn't need to give you another IP address. The router firewall functions keep the bad guys out from your computer. The first solution requires the least technical skill and costs the least immediate investment but it will be the most costly over time. The second solution requires an investment of purchasing a router but it offers lower long term cost, more flexibility, and safety from hackers. go to the top of the page 4/28/2003 slow computer Question: My system is suddenly running very slow. A report that used to take 2 minutes to generate is now taking 30 minutes. What could be wrong? Debbie G., Dracut This particular problem was caused by a runaway process or program. The program was stealing all the available CPU utilization and not allowing anything else to execute on the computer. Here's a few things to consider when your system seems to be running slow. Is there a process or program hogging all the CPU utilization? Press the CTRL, ALT, and DEL keys. A Windows 95, 98, or ME system will display a list of all processes running on your machine. An NT, Windows 2000, or XP machine will display more detailed information about the processes. CAUTION: Make sure that you close any programs before you attempt to end any processes. Your system may become unstable if end an important process. You may lose any open documents and your system and require a reboot. Do you have a virus scanner? Is it up to date? The majority of my service calls are made to remove viruses. You really should have a virus scanner on your computer. Purchase a virus scanner or find a free one on the Internet. Did you recently install a new program? Did your computer slow down after you installed something? Is there any spyware or adware running on your system? Most of the music sharing programs like Kazaa don't just allow you to download music. These programs also allow others to download files from your system. They also install programs to tell marketers information about you. While some spyware and adware isn't giving away confidential information about you, your computer is doing work for someone besides you. Here's two excellent spyware/adware utilities, spybot available at spybot.eon.net.au and adware available at www.lavasoft.de. Is your hard drive fragmented? Have you defragmented your hard drive in the last few weeks? A fragmented hard drive will slow down your system performance. A fragmented hard drive doesn't happen suddenly, it is a gradual process. If your computer has gradually decreased in performance, defragmenting the hard drive will most likely improve performance. Does your system have enough memory? Check the system requirements before you add a new program to your computer. You should be aware that system memory and disk space are both are measured in megabytes. It is easy to confuse the two. Memory refers to memory that is installed on your computer's motherboard. Disk space refers to available space on your hard drive. Keep these questions in mind and you should be able to successfully diagnose your improve your computer's performance. go to the top of the page 5/5/2003 backup pointers Question: Do you have any pointers for doing backups? Dot S., Tyngsboro Answer: Here is a few things to consider when planning your backup strategy. Before you do any backups, you need to consider the hardware to do the backup. Do you have a CDR or CDRW? CDRs are a write once device. You need to use a new one after each backup. The CDRW is the better choice for backup because it is reusable. A CDROM can hold 650MB (megabytes) of data. Is 650MB enough to save all your data? If you need to back up more than 650MB, you might consider a DVD RW drive. DVDs can store about 4GB (gigabytes) of data but the hardware and disks are still pretty pricey. You can also use tapes if you need to store large amounts of data. Consider what you need to backup. Do you have Quicken or Quickbooks to manage your business? Your Quicken data is definitely something that you should backup. Do you know the name of the data file? Consider all of your applications that save data. You need to back up the data for those applications. You should consider backing up your email. What application do you use to read your email? Do you know the name of the data file where your email is stored? Windows XP has a nice CDRW management functionality built into the operating system. All the other Windows operating systems require that you use an application to write the CDRW. It is pretty easy to use the CDRW write functionality built into Windows XP or the application that controls your CDRW when using another Windows operating system. Just highlight and drag the important subdirectories and files into the area of files to be written to the CDRW. Don't forget to verify that your backup procedure really does work. You might be forgetting to do something to properly write the CDRW. You don't want to find out that your backup procedure doesn't work when you need to recover your data. If 650MB is enough space to backup everything, make a stack of 5 CDRWs. Take the top CDRW and use it to backup all of your important data. Place it in the bottom of the stack. When it is time to do the next backup, use the CDRW from the top of the stack. Backup your data and place it on the bottom of the stack of CDRWs. If you need to use more than one CRDW keep the CDRWs together that make a backup. The latest backup is always at the bottom of the stack. If you don't have a backup strategy, think about one today. It is too late after a disaster strikes. go to the top of the page 5/12/2003 RTC, word attachments Question: My computer loses time when it is left on. The clock freezes. The computer is not responsive and needs to be rebooted. What could be wrong? Mike B, Chelmsford Answer: Your computer actually has 2 clocks. One clock is called the RTC (real time clock). It keeps track of time when your computer is turned off. The RTC is powered by a small battery inside your computer. If you start to notice that your computer's time is a few minutes behind when you turn it on in the morning, you should consider changing the RTC battery. The RTC also stores configuration data. If the battery gets too low, you could lose your configuration data and your computer may not boot properly. The other clock, the system clock, reads the RTC to obtain the time when you turn on your computer. The system clock time is usually displayed in the lower right hand corner of your screen. Think of how you set the clocks in your house when you lose power. When the power is restored, you check your watch for the time to set your wall clocks. The RTC is like your watch in this example. The original question about the system clock actually indicates that the system has crashed. The system clock will not run after the system has crashed. This is a side effect of the more serious problem of a system crash. The recommended action is to determine the program that caused the crash. What was your system doing when the crash happened? Do you have a virus scanner? Is it up to date? Does the crash occur when you run a particular program? Did you add a new piece of hardware to your system? Did you add any new programs? Did you add any new drivers? Has this problem just suddenly started or has it happened in the past? You have to do some troubleshooting to determine what caused the problem. After you determine the cause of the problem, you need to think about how to fix it. If you determine that a program caused the problem, can you do without the program? Is there an update for the program? Does the program have a web site? Check the website for any known problems. Question: I use Outlook Express for email. My friends sent me attached word document files but I can't see them in my email. What is wrong? Denah T., Dracut Answer: Outlook express has a security setting that doesn't allow attachments. In Outlook Express, click on Tools->Options->Security. Uncheck the “Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that ....” Since many viruses and trojans are sent in attachments, this will increase your chances of catching a virus. Make sure that your Anti virus software is up to date. go to the top of the page 5/19/2003 add cdrom Question: My friend “who knows a lot about computers” added a new CDROM to my computer. Now, it doesn't boot. What could be wrong? Anonymous phone call Answer: Here's a checklist of things to consider when you add or change your CDROM in your computer. REMOVE THE POWER CORD FROM THE BACK OF THE COMPUTER BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE COMPUTER! The computer doesn't normally have any voltages that can electrocute you but you can get a nasty burn if you short something. There are harmful voltages inside of the power supply. There is no reason to open it. The power supply is the square metal box inside the computer where the power cord is attached. You should use a wrist strap to discharge any static build up especially in the winter when the air is dry. The wrist strap should be attached to the metal chassis of the computer. If you don't have a wrist strap ALWAYS touch the chassis to discharge any static that you might have acquired before you touch any parts inside of the computer. Open the computer chassis. There are a lot of different styles of cases, make sure that you know how to open the case before you attempt to open it. It is a good idea to do your servicing on a hard table top. Lay down some newspaper so you won't scratch the surface of the table. Use a saucer to hold the screws. You'd be surprised how easily screws can get lost. Keep track of any screws that you remove and place then where they won't get lost. A loose screw can cause a short and destroy your computer. It is could also start a fire. It would be extremely embarrassing to burn down your house while you were attempting to service your computer. Check out the new CDROM. There should be a label that explains the jumpers that must be set. You should also check your hard drive to make sure that the jumpers are set properly too. Mount the new CDROM in the case. Plug a power and interface cables into the CDROM. Make sure that you oriented them properly before you connect them. After you close up the case, shake it and listen for any loose parts. The next step is the plug in your computer and power it up. If the CDROM is not recognized or the computer doesn't boot, recheck the jumpers on the CDROM and hard drive. If you don't feel confident performing this upgrade, contact a professional. If you make a mistake, it might cost a lot more than a simple CDROM installation. go to the top of the page 5/26/2003 slow shutdown Question: When I attempt to shutdown my system, my system takes forever to shutdown. What could be wrong? Anonymous Answer: Try this test. Start your system in SAFE mode. SAFE mode is a reduced functionality version of windows but it offers you the chance to gain control of your system. You can enter SAFE mode by rebooting your system and tapping the F8 key after the BIOS messages appear on the screen. A boot menu will appear on the screen. Pick the option to boot in SAFE mode. Don't be concerned if your screen doesn't look normal. SAFE mode loads a generic video driver. Your icons may look larger and the colors won't be the same as when you boot normally. Try to shut down the system. If the system shuts down normally, it's a good indication that you have a bad driver being loaded when the system is started normally. You are going to have to do some detective work to determine the bad driver. Did you recently add some new hardware to your system? Did you update a driver before the slow shutdown started to occur? Most of the time you can determine a badly behaved driver or program just by remembering what you did just before the problem started. You can disable any questionable drivers in the device manager in the control panel. It should be a simple process of disabling a questionable driver, rebooting the system, and determining if the shutdown works properly. Once you determine the badly behaved driver, contact the manufacturer of the driver for a more recent driver. Call a professional if you don't feel confident about disabling or installing drivers. Comment: “....I have one correction to add (to last week's column). You directed readers to unplug the computer, then to attach the static wrist strap to the chassis. If the computer is unplugged, and, hence, ungrounded, this will not allow static discharge, but, rather, will transfer the charge to the computer chassis itself. It might partially dilute the charge, but will not eliminate the threat of damage.” Bruce P. ANSWER: You are correct. In my wish to remove an electrical hazard from the procedure, I neglected to consider that there was no ground connected to the chassis. The fact of the matter is that the chassis should be grounded. When the power cord is connected, the computer is grounded. Another safer solution would be to connect the computer chassis to a cold water pipe or some other good source of ground. IF YOU DO DECIDE TO LEAVE THE POWER CONNECTED TO YOUR SYSTEM, MAKE SURE THAT THE POWER SWITCH IS OFF BEFORE YOU OPEN THE CASE. go to the top of the page 6/2/2003 boot floppy Question: How do I make a boot floppy for my windows 98 system? Bill D., Tewksbury Answer: A boot diskette can help you to troubleshoot a hard drive startup problem but it will not boot full windows. Windows 95, 98, and ME allow you to boot your system from a floppy disk to a command line prompt. This will allow you to troubleshoot and repair some hard drive problems. Windows NT, 2000, and XP do not normally allow you to boot from a single floppy but there are some floppy diskette utilities available on the Internet. The following instructions apply to making a Windows 95, 98, or ME boot diskette. Go to the Control panel, click on Add/Remove Programs. Click on the Startup Disk tab. Insert the floppy disk in the drive and follow the directions. You may need to have your Windows operating system installation CDROM available to complete making the boot diskette. If you purchased a computer with the operating system already installed, the installation files are usually on your hard drive. When you attempt to make the boot diskette, the system should be able to find the required files. Be careful if you attempt to boot a Windows XP system with a Windows 98 boot floppy. You will be booting Windows 98 but attempting to read a hard drive that was created with a different operating system. The hard drive may not be readable. It is a useful test to use a Windows 98 boot disk to see if the system will boot but don't do anything to the hard drive. It is very easy to make the mistake of assuming that the hard drive needs to be formatted. If you format the hard drive, you will unnecessarily loose the operating system and any information that was on the hard drive. It may not be necessary to create a boot floppy to troubleshoot a boot up problem. Most PCs manufactured within the last few years allow you to boot from your CDROM. Save yourself some time and check your system specifications for bootable devices. You might have to adjust your BIOS settings to allow your system to boot from the CDROM or boot diskette. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN ADJUSTING YOUR BIOS SETTINGS. Check your system documentation or consult with a computer professional if you have any questions about BIOS settings. The wrong settings can render your system unusable. Question: When I view some websites with Internet Explorer, the text is too small to read. How do I adjust the size of the text? Ellen M., Lowell Answer: While in the Internet Explorer, click on View, and Text Size. Try the different sizes and choose one that is right for you. go to the top of the page 6/9/2003 virus hoax Question: I received email that warned me about a virus and instructed me to remove some files from my computer. The email states that the files are part of a virus that is not detected by virus scanners. Should I follow the directions to remove the virus? Jackie H., Westford Answer: You need to be careful when you receive an email that notifies you to take an action to remove a virus. There are many virus notifications that are hoaxes. The notice will instruct you to remove files or do some other action. After you perform the action, your computer will not operate properly and you will think that the virus damaged your computer. Always confirm that the virus notice is real. You can find information about viruses and virus hoaxes on the Internet. Two websites, www.norton.com, and www.mcafee.com, are very helpful when confirming virus information. It also doesn't hurt to ask your computer savvy friends or a computer service professional about any virus notices that you receive. Jackie was the victim of a virus hoax but she received over a hundred emails from her friends to warn her about the hoax. There is a bright side to this situation. The damage to Jackie's system was minimal and over a hundred of Jackie's friends recognized that the virus notice was a hoax. Question: Can I copy files to move an application or program to another computer? Bill D., Tewksbury Answer: No, you can not simply copy application files from one computer to another and expect the application to work. Always use the installation program to install an application on your computer. When an application is installed on a computer, files are usually installed in more than one directory and entries are made in the registry. The registry is a database where information can be stored in your computer. An example of the information that is stored in the registry would license keys. You need a license to run many applications that are available today. You should always use the uninstall that is included with applications that you want to remove. It is not enough to just delete files to remove an application from your computer. Tip: Here's an easy way to preview fonts. John G, Lowell Have you ever wondered what different fonts look like but didn't want to start word and play with the font settings? Go to the control panel, click on fonts. A long list of fonts will be displayed. Click on the font that you wish to see. The entire font and the different sizes will be displayed. It's a lot easier than opening word and setting blocks of text to view the font. go to the top of the page 6/16/2003 computer terms Q: What's inside a computer? What is a HARD DRIVE, CDROM, MODEM, etc..? Anonymous student at the Lowell Senior Center A: All personal computers are not exactly the same but there are components that are common to all computers. Computers have become very simple in the number of components but don't be fooled into thinking that your computer is not an engineering miracle. The transistor is the major technical breakthrough that has fueled the computer industry. Do you remember your old transistor radio of the 1960s? When you changed the battery, you saw the transistors, resistors, capacitors and inductors. All of the parts were about the same in size, so you have an idea of the size of a transistor. Each computer chip inside of your computer consists of MILLIONS of transistors. If you open your computer case and look inside, you will see the major parts that make a computer. Don't forget to disconnect the power cord before you open the computer case. There is a metallic box, the POWER SUPPLY, inside of your computer. The power supply has a socket for the power cord. It converts 120 volts from your wall outlet into voltages that the computer can use. There should also be a bundle of wires connecting the power supply to the other parts of your computer. DON'T OPEN THE POWER SUPPLY, IT HAS VOLTAGES THAT CAN SEVERELY INJURE YOU. A large circuit board in your computer, the MOTHERBOARD, provides most of the electronics for your computer. You should see a fan and heatsink on the motherboard. The CPU, Central Processing Unit, or microprocessor is under the heatsink and fan. It is the brain of the computer and does all of the calculations and controls the hardware. The RAM, Random Access Memory, is also located on the motherboard. The RAM is where programs are loaded and executed. The amount of RAM on your computer is measured in MEGABYTES. The motherboard also contains slots to insert optional cards like modems, network, or video cards. The HARD DRIVE is where your programs are stored. The computer loads programs from the hard drive into memory to be executed. Today's hard drives have densities that are thousands of times higher than the first personal computer hard drives. The capacity of your hard drive is measured in MEGABYTES. The CDROM drive allows you to insert CDROMS to load software or play music CDROMS. Today many computers contain writeable CDROM drives. Your computer will have a MODEM or NIC, Network Interface Card, to connect to your ISP, Internet Service Provider. The modem uses the phone lines. The NIC uses broadband or DSL. There are many good books available that describe the inner workings of computers. It is never too late to learn. Satisfy your curiosity and discover what makes computers tick. go to the top of the page 6/23/2003 operating system Q: What is an Operating System? anonymous A: Your computer is not just an inanimate box that sits on your desk. It is a combination of HARDWARE and SOFTWARE. Hardware is the part of your computer that you can touch. It's the monitor, computer case, and other physical parts of the computer. Software is the list of instructions that your computer executes to make it more than just a paperweight. You can't really touch the instructions so the term, software, is used. The software on your computer is like an onion. It has different layers. Think of the onion as an insulator between you and the hardware. The hardware is in the center of the onion. You don't control the hardware directly but pass information between each layer of the onion to the hardware. The layer of software closest to the hardware is the BIOS, Basic Input Output System. This software is permanently programmed into a computer chip in your computer's hardware. The BIOS is the first program that executes when you power on the computer. It tests the computer hardware and loads the operating system. The OPERATING SYSTEM is the piece of software that is loaded from your hard drive when you “boot up” your computer. The term “boot up” comes from the concept of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. An example of an operating system is Windows 98. The Operating System gives you a user interface like Windows. It allows programs or applications to do things like read or write files and do other system functions. The last and outer layer of software is the APPLICATION. Applications are the programs that you run on your computer. An example of an application is your word processor. When you start the word processor, the operating system will load your word processor or application. If you type something on the keyboard, the application tells the operating system that something has been typed. The operating system tells the BIOS to print something on your computer screen. I'll bet that you're asking yourself, “Why not just write a program that does everything? Do you really need those different layers?”. The different layers make writing programs easier and more efficient. One program doesn't need to know how to do everything on the computer. The application makes requests to the operating system and the operating system does the work or passes it to the BIOS. Think about an assembly line. Does one person do all the jobs? No, there are specialists for each task on the line. Computers are not a mystical black boxes. They are complex devices but you do not have to be an engineer to learn how to they work. go to the top of the page 6/30/2003 email? Q: How does email work? Anonymous A: If you have a standard ISP like Comcast, your email application talks to the Comcast email servers to send and receive your email. An example of an email application is outlook or outlook express. When you try to send your email, your email application will send your email to the SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server. The SMTP mail server will send your email to the appropriate party. When you want to read your email, your email application will ask the POP (Post Office Protocol) server for your email. The email is downloaded to your email application. After your email is downloaded to your email application, the POP server will erase the email from the server. You do have the option to keep your email on the server but you have limited space on the server. If your space budget is exceeded, you won't receive any new email until you reduce the email stored on the server. Your email is not erased from your computer until you determine that you no longer need it. You can think of Internet email like a telegram. The telegraph doesn't send messages directly but there are a lot of intermediate stops before the message is received by the intended receiver. Each one of those intermediate stops has recorded the message. When you send email, your email application sends your email to a server. That server will send the mail to another server and the sequence repeats until the message arrives at its intended location. Always remember that sending email is just like sending a written letter. Your email is recorded at many locations on the Internet. You can erase your email from your computer but each one of the intermediate hops has a record of your email. This allows law enforcement to find the authors of threatening or unacceptable email. Some ISPs offer you the option of reading your email on their website. You don't need an email application and you can read your email from any computer connected to the Internet. Use common sense when reading your email on a public computer. You don't want someone watching over your shoulder when you enter your username and password. Don't forget to logout and remove any traces of your email from the public machine. For all you AOL customers, AOL uses a different system. AOL is your email application. You don't talk directly to SMTP and POP servers. AOL acts like a middleman to send and receive your email from the Internet. TIP FOR COMCAST INTERNET SUBSCRIBERS: June 30th is the transition date for your old attbi.com email address. Don't forget to follow the directions on the Comcast website. DO YOU NEED SOME HELP LEARNING HOW TO USE A COMPUTER? I teach an introductory computer class at the Lowell Senior Center. The center also offers a wide range of computer classes. There is no excuse to not know how to use a computer. go to the top of the page 7/7/2003 popups Q: HELP! Unsolicited pornography has suddenly started appearing on my computer. I close the popup but more keeps appearing on my machine. What can I do to get rid of it? Philip D., Dracut A: This problem doesn't necessarily indicate that someone in your home has been spending time on adult websites. A virus or spyware can open the door for adult material providers to bombard your computer with unwanted material. There are a few easy things to do to combat this problem. Make sure that your virus scanner is up to date. I will not diagnose a problem until I'm sure that a virus is not the cause for the problem. Someone may have downloaded a seemingly innocent program file that infected your machine with a virus or trojan horse program. Check your browser security settings. Go into your internet security settings and set the security level of the browser to the highest level. This may not stop a current problem but it will prevent any new problems. If you notice that some of your favorite websites don't work properly. Go back and reduce the security level to a lower state but make every attempt to keep your security settings at the highest level. Install Spybot. Spybot is available on the Internet at http://security.kolla.de. It is a great program and is available for free. If you have any doubts about the program, PC Magazine, www.pcmag.com has rated this program as the number 1 choice in spyware control and removal. Restrict the use of any Kazaa, Imesh, and other file sharing programs. Most of the file sharing programs install spyware on your system. File sharing programs like Kazaa and Imesh are notorious sources of some nasty viruses. You may find some interesting sources of expensive software but don't waste your time. The free version of the software that you download could install a backdoor to you system. Virus scanners don't always catch ALL viruses and trojans. If you need a program, buy it, don't pirate it. It is not worth all the agravation that a trojan horse program can cause. TIP: Do not respond to any get rich schemes on the Internet. There has been a rash of spam email from various African nation high level government officials that will offer you a percentage of millions of dollars. They need to use your US bank account to transfer money out of their country. This is an old scam but it seems to have been revived in the last few months. They clean out your bank account and you are left with NOTHING. “If it's too good to be true, ....” It's a scam! Don't get taken. Do yourself a favor, keep any private financial information to yourself. go to the top of the page 7/14/2003 email scam TIP: There is a new twist to network scams. Some Paypal customers received email requesting them to go to a website to confirm their private customer information including their charge card numbers. Paypal is service that allows users to send and receive money over the Internet for very little cost. All the customer had to do was to click on the link that was embedded in the email. The link looked real but it actually brought the customer to a fake website. The fake website asked the customer for private information. Once the hackers at the fake website had the personal information, they were able to steal customers money. This type of news can terrify a computer newbie but there are a few things that you can do to protect yourself. Use your common sense when responding to any questionable email. Would you blindly respond to a letter that requested your credit number or bank account information? I don't think so! If you have any questions about the validity of the email, directly ask the business. If the email was sent by your bank, call your bank to confirm. You might be asking yourself, “why would I want to send and receive money over the Internet?”. Parents could use Paypal to send their children funds while they are away at college. I've used the service to sell computer equipment on ebay. The item to sell is listed on ebay. When a customer buys the item, the funds are immediately transferred to my Paypal account. The item is shipped after the funds are received by my Paypal account. It really makes things quick and easy. Buyers and sellers are able to almost immediately consummate a deal. There is no waiting for a check to clear. There are a few tricks that dishonest buyers and sellers can use but it is a pretty safe system. The seller can send broken merchandise. Ebay and Paypal will not investigate fraud as long as “something” is sent to the sender. It doesn't matter if a brick was sent to the buyer. A buyer can claim that they never received their item but the seller should always send the item with a receipt requested. If you do decide to use Paypal, consider opening a checking account just for Paypal transactions. Keep only enough money in the account to satisfy your immediate needs. It's just an extra precaution.... TIP: The Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell offers FREE computer classes. Here's a great place to start your introduction to computers. Call your local library and ask if they offer computer classes. The library is not just a place to store dusty old books. Your local library has a lot to offer. go to the top of the page 7/21/2003 wireless Q: I wish to install a wireless network in my house but it is sooo confusing. “LOST in Space”, Lowell A: Yes there are a lot of confusing issues to resolve when considering a wireless network. There are 3 standards or types of wireless networks. The speed and characteristics of the different types are specified by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and E lectronics Engineers). The different types are identified by 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. Believe it or not, 802.11b compliant equipment became available on the market before 802.11a. The newest equipment on the market supports all three standards. You have probably heard the terms WiFi and Bluetooth. WiFi is used to network computers but Bluetooth is used to primarily connect wireless peripherals such as wireless mice and keyboards to computers. Have you heard of the term WiFi “hotspots”? This term refers to the short range wireless networks that coffee houses and libraries are creating. If you bring your computer that is equipped with a wireless card to a WiFi hotspot, you will be able to get on the Internet. No wires are required. Wireless networks bring up an interesting problem. It is very easy to purchase a wireless router and install it in your home. You don't need to worry about running wires through floors and walls. However; there is one thing that you should not overlook. Encryption should be set on. The Encryption option is usually called WEP (Wired Equivalency Protocol) in the wireless router setup. Please note that WEP is usually turned off in the default setup. If you don't turn on WEP, anyone can gain access to the Internet on your equipment. Think of it like your neighbor coming by and plugging his extension cord into your electrical outlet. There are hackers that cruise neighborhoods looking for unprotected wireless networks. A wireless network can extend for 1500 feet from the equipment. That gives hackers a pretty good range for their antics. If your computer network characteristics are not set correctly, the intruder can not only get on the Internet on your dime but can do as he wants with your private information. A few years ago, a local major network provider was audited by some security experts after low cost wireless equipment became available. The experts were able to connect to the company network and gain access to proprietary information. Employees had purchased wireless equipment and installed it without notifying the company's network department and overlooked security. If you are considering installing a wireless network in your home or business, ask an expert for advice. Don't forget about security. Ralph Lombardo, a local wireless network consultant and member of the wireless standards committee, served as technical advisor for this column. go to the top of the page 8/4/2003 ISP and AOL? Q: I have an AOL account but I want to subscribe to Comcast. Do I need to keep my AOL account? John G., Lowell A: No, you don't need to keep your AOL account but you need to be aware of some issues when making a decision about your telecommunications options. It's a lot like choosing your telephone long distance provider. Plans frequently change and there are a lot of choices. Your computer's connection to the Internet could be a telephone wire, DSL, or cable connection. There are some other options but the average home computer user will usually limit their choice to a phone line, DSL, or cable connection. There are a few issues to consider when choosing your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Do you need connection speed? Are you going to just read email? What is your monthly budget? Will you be surfing the Internet? No, you don't need a surfboard and waves to surf the Internet. Surfing is a term used to describe looking at webpages. The ISP that you choose will provide the connection to the Internet. If you chose a dialup modem ISP, you will need a modem and a phone line to connect to the Internet. Don't forget that you tie up your phone when you are on the Internet. If you choose your cable provider as your ISP, you will need an ethernet card to communicate with the cable modem that is connected to the cable. Most ISPs offer you an email address. If you have AOL and want to convert to Comcast, you don't need to keep AOL but there is an important issue to consider. Your email address will change. Since you will no longer have an AOL account, you will not be able to receive email using an AOL email address. It is a headache to change your email address but it is manageable. Comcast has been very busy lately converting customers from the old dial up Internet connection to cable modem or broadband. Don't forget when you convert to cancel your old dial up ISP or you will be paying for service that you don't use. TIP: There are some interesting email scams that frequently circulate the web. Have you received email that you have won the lottery? Has someone posing as your bank emailed you to ask private information? Did a foreign official email to ask for help moving money out of his country? Don't get suckered into responding to this nonsense. Be wary of any email that promises something too good to true or asks you for private information. Don't forget the old saying, “If it's too good to be true, it usually is”. go to the top of the page 8/11/2003 internet on vacation? Q: I plan to go away on vacation but I don't want to be without access to the Internet. Is there a way to stay in touch with email and surf the Internet when I'm away from home? A: You have a few options available to you for staying in touch with your friends while you are away on vacation. Most Internet Service Providers allow subscribers to read their email on the ISP webpage. If you are staying with friends or family, you can use their computer to read your email. Public libraries offer the use of computers that are connected to the Internet. When using a friend's or public computer, there are a few security issues that you should consider. Are you sure if the computer is free of programs that record your keystrokes? Does the computer have an up to date virus scanner? A major chain, copy store employee was recently convicted of stealing from people's bank accounts who happened to use the store computers. The employee had loaded a program on the store computers to track the keystrokes of his victims. If a customer used the store computer to do their banking, the program recorded the information and the employee used the information to steal from customer's bank accounts. The scam went undetected for a couple of years but the employee's scheme was eventually discovered. If you are an AOL or dial up customer, just bring your computer with you. Don't forget to change the phone number to a local telephone where you are vacationing. Find out if your ISP offers a nontoll call access number. If you are a broadband customer, you can't take your internet connection with you but you do have an economical dialup solution. Netzero, www.netzero.com, offers FREE email and 10 hours of FREE Internet access per month. You can't beat the price! Netzero also offers different dialup plans if you need to access the Internet for more than 10 hours per month. Q: My computer is making a funny sound. It sounds like something is buzzing inside the computer. Should I worry about it? A: You should take action on any funny sounds coming from your computer. The most likely cause of the sound is one of the cooling fans. Most computers have 2 fans. One fan is mounted on the processor and the other fan is inside of the power supply. The fans are necessary to keep the computer from overheating. When a fan starts making funny sounds, it is saying, “HELP ME!”. Don't ignore your computer's plea for help. Get that noisy fan serviced. go to the top of the page 8/18/2003 blaster worm Q: What is the deal with this new virus that is in the news? I keep up my virus scanner up to date and don't open any suspicious email but my system was infected by the virus. What did I do wrong? Tony, Lowell A: You really didn't do anything wrong. This worm caught a lot of people off guard. This new threat is called the blaster worm or W32/Lovasan.worm. It is a very nasty problem because it demonstrates the need for everyone to have a firewall. This worm only affects Windows NT, 2000, and XP systems. If you have a Windows 95, 98, or ME system, you are safe. ...this time. Even if you keep your virus scanner up to date, as you discovered, you are vulnerable to this type of attack. You need a few basics about networking to understand how the worm attacks your system. TCP/IP is the network protocol that computers use to communicate on the Internet. A protocol is similar to a language. A language is not just words but it is also rules about how words are arranged to communicate information. Your system needs an address to connect to the Internet. That address is provided by your ISP. If another computer wants to talk to your computer, it needs to know your address. Think of it this way, you need to know your friend's address to go to his house but computers have a slight twist. Imagine that your friend lives in a big building with 100 doors. You need to know the proper door to find your friend. Computers need an IP address and a port or “door” to make a connection. The computer has programs that are associated with specific ports. When you connect to another computer to look at a web page, you usually connect to port 80. The worm attacks by entering on a port and taking advantage of the program that is on that port. This worm is a new type of attack and it caught a lot of people by surprise. There are some important lessons to be learned. You need a good virus scanner and a firewall to protect yourself. You have a few choices for a firewall. You can install a software firewall on your computer or you can install a hardware firewall between your computer and your ISP. If you have a dialup ISP, you are limited to a software firewall to protect yourself. If you have DSL or broadband, you have the option of installing a software or hardware firewall. I usually recommend that customers install a hardware firewall. You plug it in, do some configuration, and forget about it. go to the top of the page 8/25/2003 buying a new computer? Q: I'm considering buying a computer. What should I buy? A: Buying a computer is a lot like buying a car. Do you go to a car lot and buy just any car? You need to do your homework to choose a car that will meet your requirements. Do you want a luxury model or a just basic mode of transportation? Do you need a vehicle that can carry 2, 4, or more passengers? When you are considering buying a computer, you need to ask yourself some questions too. What do you want to do with the computer? Do you want to send and receive email? Do you want to play the latest computer games? Do you want to surf the Internet? Do you want the fastest computer available? If you plan to connect to the Internet, you need to consider how you plan to connect. Are you going to use a dial up modem or high speed Internet connection? If you are considering high speed Internet, make sure it is offered in your neighborhood. You may also have a friend or a relative who is upgrading to a new computer. They may be looking for a new home for their old computer. It is very easy to find a used computer for very little money but a computer that is malfunctioning or not properly configured will only frustrate you. A computer consists of hardware and software. Hardware is defined as the things that you can touch like the keyboard or monitor. Software is the programs that run on your computer. If you don't have software on your computer, it is just an expensive paperweight. You need to think about the software that you will need for your computer. A computer is not a nightmare device with a mind of its own. It operates on a simple set of rules. In many ways, it's like a car. You don't need to be a mechanic to drive a car. You may have to learn the rules of the road and obtain a drivers license but you can drive a car without knowing how to rebuild an engine. ...and you might not be aware of this but all cars manufactured today have computers. The computer is embedded in the car and not normally accessible by the operator but it's working behind the scenes. There are many people who are considering buying a computer because they want to learn about computers. You don't need to buy a computer to get some time on a keyboard. Visit your local library. Most libraries have computers available for public use. ...and here's an even better deal, many libraries offer courses to teach you the basics of computers. go to the top of the page 9/1/2003 boot problems Q: My computer doesn't boot up. When I turn it on, there is a something about bad blocks printed on the screen. What is a bad block? What could be wrong? Rhonda L, Lowell A: Your computer is complaining about the hard drive. Here's a few concepts about hard drives to help understand what is happening. The hard drive consists of a set of thin spinning platters, a pick up head, and a circuit board to control the hard drive. Remember old vinyl music records? The music was recorded on one long track that spiraled from the outside of the record to the inside. You could pick a specific song by looking for spaces in the “tracks”. The hard drive is similar but there are individual circular tracks and not just one long spiral track. Each track is broken up into sectors or blocks of 512 bytes. The hard drive has tracks that are reserved to store information about the location of files on the disk. When the computer needs a file, it reads the reserved information to find the location of the location of the file on the hard drive. The platter has a magnetic coating that allows data storage. A head or pickup device that is able to read and write moves over the platter to specific places to read or write data to the platter. Most hard drives today have more than 1 platter. Each platter requires a pickup head. A few years ago, you had to know the geometry or number of tracks, sectors, and heads when you installed a new hard drive. Things are much simpler today. When the computer boots up, it checks for the disk geometry and stores it for later reference. When the drive gets old, if starts to “forget” things. The magnetic media looses the capability to store data. The computer can compensate for a few bad blocks on the hard drive but the number of bad blocks will usually increase until the drive becomes unusable. You can get an idea of the state of your hard drive by doing an error scan or scandisk. When you are consistently finding new bad blocks, get a new hard drive. There are a few catastrophic hard drive failures that can happen. The circuit board can fail. The bearings on the spindle for the platters can fail. The heads can crash into the platters. This type of failure doesn't allow you to read anything on the hard drive. Scan the disk about every few weeks to catch a slowly failing hard drive. There isn't much that you can do to prevent a catastrophic hard disk failure. You can minimize the damage by keeping your backups up to date. go to the top of the page 9/22/2003 wireless on the go Q: Can I use my laptop in my car to connect to the Internet? A: Sure you can but you need a wireless Internet provider. That little wireless router at home doesn't have much range. Do you know that there are places where you can bring your computer and connect to the Internet for free? These places are called “hotspots”. All you need is a portable computer and a wireless network card. Some hotspots are open to the public while others require a registration process before you can connect. You can search the Internet for lists of hotspots but there are many undocumented wireless access points. Recently, I read an article about wireless networking where the author wondered if there was a hotspot in his hotel. He turned on his computer and discovered that he was able to connect and the surf the Internet but he had no idea who was providing the wireless network. There are many free hotspots made available by network savvy folks but there are also unintended hotspots. Before you go to the local computer parts store and purchase wireless network equipment, you need to understand a few things. Have you heard of wardrivers? These are characters who roam the streets with their wireless computers searching for open wireless networks. Some just like the challenge of finding an open wireless network but this is a weakness that bad guys could exploit. Would you like to be the focus of an lawsuit for downloading copyrighted material? Would you like to be identified as the origin of a threatening email to the president? Having an open network is just like putting your telephone out on the street for anyone to use. You can only hope that someone won't make long distance calls on your dime. What can you do to prevent this activity? When you set up your wireless network, always set 128 bit WEP. WEP enables encryption and doesn't allow any unwanted folks on your network. You set a key on the wireless access point and each device that connects to the network needs that key. This is the same encryption method used by the government. It is extremely unlikely that anyone could break the code. There are a few other things that you can do to limit damage from hackers but WEP is the first and best defense. If your computers are stationary, think about a wired network. Businesses are having an especially difficult time keeping unauthorized wireless access points on their networks. Employees have been known to add wireless access points in their offices. They didn't consider that they were exposing their employer's network resources to the public. Technology is a great thing but you need to know how to use it properly. go to the top of the page 9/20/2003 UPS Q: What is a UPS? What is a surge protector? Does my computer need a surge protector or UPS? A: A surge protector will guard your computer or other valuable electronics against surges and spikes in the power that is supplied to your house from the street. If something like a lightning strike causes the voltage to increase, the surge protector will offer some protection from the increased voltage. A surge protector will not offer much protection from a direct lightning strike but it willprotect from the effects of lightning on power lines. You can think of a direct lightning strike as a runaway locomotive, nothing will stop it. The best approach is to just get out of its way. Some amateur radio operators unplug their equipment from the wall socket and throw their antenna leads out the window.The tactic of getting out of the way doesn't always work. There are some lightning strikes that occur on a clear day with no warning so you can't always know when to get out of the way. If you are interested in purchasing a surge protector, you need to check out a few properties of surge protectors. Three properties to consider are energy absorption, clamping voltage, and response time. Energy absorption is measured in the joules. This property determines how much energy the surge protector can safely absorb. A higher rating indicates better protection. Clamping voltage is the voltage that will activate the dissipation function. A lower value is better. Response time is measured in nanoseconds or millionths of second. Lower is better. Another device that compliments the job of providing stable power to your computer is the UPS, Uninterrupted Power Supply. Most UPSes offer surge protection but they also provide a source of power in the event of a power failure. A battery in the UPS stores a limited amount of energy and can not provide power indefinitely. Not all UPSes are created equally. The biggest difference in UPSes is the amount of emergency power that the UPS can provide. Unless you need a computer system 24 hours a day with no service interruptions, the best strategy is to obtain a UPS that provides backup power just long enough to shut down your computer in an orderly fashion. When you have a UPS, it isn't necessary to shutdown the computer manually. Most UPSes send a signal to the computer to indicate a power failure. The computer has a program that receives the signal and shuts down the computer. Some of us are lucky and live in neighborhoods with very stable power. A surge protector or UPS are good investments for an occasional power spike. You may never see a power spike damage your electronics but is it worth the risk? go to the top of the page 10/6/2003 service problems Q: My system failed to boot. I took it to a major computer repair facility. The technician told me that the hard drive had failed and he was unable to recover the data. All my business records were on that failed hard drive. He recommended that I take the hard drive to a data recovery specialist. Anonymous A: This was a disturbing situation. The customer trusted the computer repair business but the technician failed to provide the correct solution. The computer was not properly reassembled when it was returned to the customer. The hard drive was disconnected. It was very obvious that the technician was either not interested in providing proper service or was not qualified to do the job. The customer is not entirely blame free in this situation. He should have been backing up his data. If you can't afford to lose your data, BACK IT UP! There was a happy ending to the story. The customer was not charged for the failed service attempt. The repair facility did not corrupt the customers data. The technician advised the customer to consult a data recovery specialist. After consulting another computer service technician, the customer's important data was easily recovered. The problem was not serious enough to consult a data recovery specialist. Taking your hard drive to data recovery specialist when it not necessary is like going to cardiac surgeon to remove a splinter from your finger. That would be a very expensive splinter removal! You could take the doctor analogy a bit further. When you have a serious health problem, it is always a good idea to get a second opinion. A second opinion for a serious computer problem is always a good idea too. When you need a doctor, do you just pick the first name in the phone book? Don't you ask your friends and family for references? When you need a computer technician, you have to be proactive to find the right person for your situation. When you are looking for the right computer technician, don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't forget, you are the customer. You are paying for a service. You do not have to apologize for not knowing how to fix your computer. If you knew all the answers to your computer problems, you wouldn't be hiring a computer service technician. You can compare using a computer to driving a car. There are a lot of licensed drivers but not all licensed drivers are mechanics. Computer users are similar, you don't have to be an expert in electronics to use a computer. ...and don't forget, you didn't learn how to drive a car in a day. go to the top of the page 10/13/2003 drivers Q: I bought a printer for my computer. What do I need to do besides adding paper to make it print? A: There are a few things that you need to know about computers and printers to make them play well together. It is always a good start to read the manual or documentation that accompanies your new printer. Sometimes if you ask a computer technoid a technical question, they will respond, “RTFM” which translates to Read The ----ing Manual. If you overlook the deleted colorful word, this is very good advice. Don't forget to remove all the shipping materials from the printer when you unpackage it. There is usually tape or plastic to hold things in place during shipping. Most inkjet printer cartridges have a piece of tape over the ink nozzles. It is very easy to forget and has been the cause of many new inkjet printer failures. The computer needs a way to communicate with the printer. There is usually a cable that connects the computer to the printer. Today the most popular method is to use a USB cable to connect to the printer. A few years ago, the printer or parallel port was used to control the printer. Some printers even used the serial port. A computer also needs a driver to tell the printer how to print properly. A driver is a program that translates the computer's print instructions into commands that the printer understands. You might wonder why a computer needs a program to translate instructions into something that the printer will understand. There are a lot of different printer manufacturers, the operating system like windows would need to know about all printers. This would make your operating system very large. The solution was to load a driver for each printer that the computer needs. This keeps the operating system size reasonable and the computer only loads the necessary drivers. After you plug in the printer to the wall outlet and the computer. Do you know how to install the driver? Most of the time the computer will notice that a new printer is connected to it. It will look for the driver and install it if it is available. Make sure that the software that arrived with the printer is in the floppy or cdrom drive. If you didn't receive a floppy or cdrom when you purchased your computer, you can go to the printer manufacturer's website and download the proper driver. It is important to know that you need the proper driver. Just any driver won't allow your computer to printproperly. Driver installation is usually a simple task but occasionally problems occur. Don't be afraid to ask for help if you run into problems. go to the top of the page 10/20/2003 recycle Q: Recently I bought a new computer. What can I do with the old one? Susan S. Billerica A: There are a few things that you can do with an older computer. Are there more than one computer user in your home? You could think about using the older computer to read email or perform some non processor intensive operations. If you want to play the latest computer games, the older machine might not be up to the task but it should be sufficient to surf the web or read email. If the machine isn't too old, you can donate it to a charitable organization. Your donation might even qualify for a tax deduction. Do you have any family members or friends that need a computer? Consider giving it t someone. Did you ever think that computers would be pass on like clothing? There are organizations that are refurbishing old computers and sending them overseas to underprivileged countries. The organizations install Linux, a free alternative to Microsoft products, to avoid any legal problems. Don't forget, you need software licenses for each machine that you install a software package. You can't install windows on one computer, give it away and install it on another computer. If you are considering just putting the computer out in the trash, computer monitors are considered toxic waste. Your town most likely has some sort of old television and computer monitor pickup program. Check with your town for the proper way to dispose of old computer monitors and televisions. There have been some other more exotic ways of recycling older computers. A few years ago, one company recycled old Macintosh computers into fish bowls. I wonder if the aquarium screen saver originated from that idea? If you have decide to dispose of the computer, consider removing the hard drive, memory, and floppy drive. The memory might be usable on another machine but make sure you understand the different memory types before you attempt a transplant. If you attempt to install the wrong memory in a computer, you could seriously damage the computer. Before giving that old computer away, don't forget to destroy any personal information on the hard drive. You wouldn't believe the personal information that people leave on their discarded computers. There are some interesting utilities available to remove and restore files on hard drives. The government used to burn old hard drives with a flame thrower to remove any possibility of data recovery from discarded hard drives. A simple file delete is not enough to remove information. Consider using a utility that insures old files are completely erased from the hard drive before giving the computer away. go to the top of the page 10/27/2003 trojan programs There was an interesting computer story in the news recently. Aaron Caffrey, 19, of southwestern England was charged with a hacker attack on the port of Houston's computers. The attack was a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) that inundates a computer with messages and causes it to crash or become unresponsive. Consider what can happen if the computers that track ship movement in the sixth largest seaport in the world malfunctioned. This seems like just another hacker story but the teen's defense in court was unique. Caffrey did not dispute that the attack was launched from his computer but he claimed that hackers took control of his computer without his knowledge. There was no evidence of any hacker tampering on the computer. The proscutors argued that all traces of the intruders could not have been removed from Caffrey's computer. Last Friday, October 17, 2003, the court found Caffrey not guilty. This news item has few underlying messages. Is your computer open to hackers? If you don't have a virus scanner, get one. There are many free antivirus utilities on the Internet. There is no reason to use your computer without virus protection. Even if your computer is not connected to the Internet, you need virus protection. It been suggested that computers have been shipped from the manufacturer already infected with viruses. The news item also highlights the point that people can be hurt by computer failures. It is not a simple prank to disrupt computers that affect people's safety. In the movie, “The Italian Job”, one of the movie's heroes hacked into traffic control computers and caused accidents that forced an armored car to proceed along a route determined by the thieves. The movie was entertaining but it was just a movie. The movie viewers didn't see the serious results of malfunctioning traffic lights. People get hurt in car accidents. Remember the first Dessert Storm? There are rumors that the allies disabled the Iraqi defense computers with viruses. It should be pretty clear that viruses and hacker attacks are serious business. Hackers can take control of an unprotected computer and command it to do their dirty work. Would you want to be implicated in some type of catastrophic computer hacker attack? Don't overreact and disconnect your computer from the Internet but be an informed computer user. What can you do to prevent the bad guys from taking over your computer? There are three programs that you should install on your computer. A firewall, virus scanner, and spyware utility all complement each other and keep your computer free from hacking. The examples previously described were extreme cases but they should make you aware of what can happen to an unprotected computer. go to the top of the page 11/10/2003 busy hard drive? Q:” ...my hard drive is clicking all the time, even if I am not working on it. What is happening?” Bill M. Dracut A:. Even when you aren't aren't typing on your keyboard, your computer is very busy. You also mentioned that your computer is connected to a network. When you computeris connected to the network, information is always being processed. It's very similar to what you do when you pick up your mail at the mailbox. Don't you sort your mail and discard things that aren't addressed to you? The computer does the same thing. It is always listening on the network to all the traffic. It keeps things that are addressed to it and it discards the rest. Press the CTRL, ALT, DEL keys at the same time. This works best with XP and Windows 2000. If you have Windows 98 or ME, there isn't as much information available. You need an add on program to get the same amount of information. These keys stokes will pop up a window to display what your computer is really doing. If you chose applications, you will see all the programs that are running on your machine. If you chose processes, you will see all the processes. You can think of processes as sub programs. Some processes are part of the operating system. You should notice that the system idle process is using most of your computer time. It is kind of funny, even when the system is idle, it is busy. You might notice less hard drive access if you have the appropriate amount of physical memory. Q: “...I know there is a virus in my computer. I even got an E-mail from someone I didn't know thanking me for the virus.” Nancy, Tewksbury A: You always want to have a virus scanner on your computer. Viruses are a fact of life. Believe it or not, there was a virus that uses an infected computer's addressbook to pretend that you are the sender of infected email. If your name is in the infected computer's addressbook, you are the one that is blamed for the virus. There isn't much that you can do to prevent this situation. All you can do is watch your own computer. An infected computer can use your email as the source of spreading a virus but anyone with an understanding of the attacks will know that you aren't the “bad guy”. Q: “....you mentioned that a monitor was turned into a fish bowl. How ....did they do that?" Rhonda L., Lowell A: I'll bet you thought that I was joking. If you don't believe me, here is the website, www.macaquarium.com. It's a pretty expensive conversation piece. go to the top of the page 11/17/2003 lot of files Q: Will my system performance increase if I erase files from my hard drive? A: Having a large number of files on your hard drive will not affect your system performance. You don't want to have junk laying around on your system but the number of files on your hard drive will not affect system performance. Consider this, why would hard drives on the market keep getting larger if the number of files on your hard drive causes system performance problems? If you bought a larger hard drive, did your computer's performance decrease? You will have problems, however; if the files on your hard drive are fragmented. A fragmented file is a file that has parts of itself spread over the hard drive. When you defragment the hard drive, all the files are placed in contiguous hard drive space. A file is accessed efficiently if the file is in one contiguous space. If you want to defragment your hard drive, left click on My Computer. Right click on the hard drive. Click on properties and then click on tools. If the defragment tool keeps stopping and restarting, start the system in safe mode and execute the defragment tool again. You should be defragmenting your hard drive every few weeks. Tip: Microsoft is going to issue a monthly update notice. Microsoft has had a lot of complaints from people who performed an update but received another notice to update again a short time later. It is to Microsoft's credit that customers are notified in a timely manner about updates that are available. Hackers are not going to wait for monthly updates before they attack systems. It might not be convenient to update systems but systems should be updated ASAP. You should start to notice less update notices in the near future but only time will tell if a monthly update notice is the right approach to take. News: Microsoft has established a bounty fund for hackers. The fund has established $250,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest of the originators of the blaster and sobig viruses. Microsoft wants to give us all incentive to be bounty hunters. You probably heard that a teenager was apprehended for releasing a modified blaster virus. The teenager just modified the original virus. He was not the author of the original virus but just another “self appointed genius”. Did you notice how quickly he was apprehended? It will be interesting to see if the bounty offer results in arrests. The person behind 911 and the ex ruler of Iraq have $25,000,000 bounties on their heads. They have yet to be apprehended and held accountable for their actions. go to the top of the page 11/24/2003 slow computer? Q: Why is my computer running so slow? A: This is the most common question that people ask about their computer. If your computer has slowly decreased in performance over a long period of time, defragmenting the hard drive could be a solution to your computer performance problem. When defragmenting with older operating systems like windows 98, you need to start your computer in safe mode to successfully complete a disk defragmentation. If your computer has suddenly started to crawl, it is a good bet that your computer has picked up a virus, trojan, or spyware. The first thing to do is to run a virus scan on your computer. If you are able to connect to the Internet, www.norton.com and www.mcafee.com offer online scans. You don't need to buy anything to scan your computer for the latest viruses but don't think that you don't need a virus scanner. The trick is to stop viruses before they infect your system. Adding a virus scanner to an older computer may make a slow computer run even slower but you need to have some strategy to do virus scans. Newer virus scan technology does a scan on every file opened. This feature can really bog down older computers. There are a few things that you can do to optimize a virus scanner for your particular situation. Virus scanners don't find spyware but there is a great freeware tool, spybot, available at www.kolla.de. This tool has saved me and my customers countless hours of trying to find and remove spyware. The progam is free with no strings attached but the author requests donations. You don't want to forget to donate or software engineers will not be motivated to develop great tools like spybot. If you don't find any viruses, trojans, or spyware on your system, did you recently install anything on your computer? Believe it or not, sometimes troubleshooting computer problems is a lot like detective work. Many times you can find and solve a problem by recalling what was recently done on your computer. News: Here's an old story with a modern twist. Hackers from the dark side are resorting to protection rackets on the Internet. They attack an online business with a DOS (denial of service) attack. There are a few variations of this type of attack but basically, the victim is overrun with computer traffic. Think of this like your phone constantly ringing. Eventually you disconnect the phone. How would you conduct business without your phone? Imagine if you had an online business and your computer was constantly being disconnected from the Internet. The bad guys approach the business and demand money to prevent another attack. Sound familiar? go to the top of the page 12/1/2003 software piracy Q: Why do I have to pay for software? Is it ok to load my software on my friend's computer? It isn't a crime, is it? anonymous A: There are a lot of people who load unlicensed software on friends computers. They are probably not aware that they are committing a crime. Every software package has a license agreement that describes what you may or may not do with the software product. You need to check the license agreement when you purchase the software to check for limitations. Some programs called shareware or freeware have relaxed licensing agreements. Shareware is a program that you can load on your system and share with your friends. After a trial period, you are expected to pay for it. Freeware is a program that is free for you to use and distribute to your friends. Even though freeware and shareware has relaxed licensing requirements, most of them specify that you are not allowed to reverse engineer the program. Reverse engineering a program would be determining how the program works and making changes to the behavior of the program. There are many safe sources of shareware and freeware programs on the Internet but keep away from any free versions of popular expensive programs. A “free” version of Microsoft windows from a hacker website is not something that you should load on your system. Companies will not write programs if there is no financial reward. Think about it, would you work on a project for a few months or a year and not expect any type payment? There are a lot of costs associated with developing software. You might think that a software package is expensive but companies are entitled to receive payment for their products. NEWS: There is a new email trojan, Sysbug, circulating on the Internet. Email containing the virus arrives in your mailbox with promises of “interesting” pictures. This one isn't too bad, you have to open the attachment, unzip and execute it to get the virus. Some email viruses only need to be opened and your system is infected. This trojan sets up a backdoor to your system and allows bad guys to have access to your system. Don't get a false sense of security because you have a virus scanner on your system. If the virus is a new one, the virus scanner won't know about it. What is the best way to prevent this problem? Don't even open any suspicious email. TIP: “I received email that looked like a bounced email. I opened the attachment and realized too late that it was a virus.” Mike B., Tyngsboro. Watch out for this clever trick to get you to open infected email. go to the top of the page 12/8/2003 upgrades With everything on sale during the holiday season, it's a good time to upgrade your computer. Does your computer need more memory? Don't forget, both physical memory and disk space are measured in mega or giga bytes. The average windows 98, ME, or XP system will run just fine with 256 megabytes of physical memory. Have you heard about too much of a good thing? Windows 98 and ME don't manage large amounts of memory very well. If you add more than 512 megabytes of memory, you are throwing your money away. The operating system won't even use it. XP can properly use more than 512 megabytes of memory but do you really need it? Do you have enough space on your hard drive? Are you saving family pictures on your hard drive? If you are a real disk space consumer, you might want to think about a new and larger hard drive. The hard drive manufacturers used to normally warranty hard drives for 3 years but about a year ago, the normal warranty was dropped to 1 year. When you consider that the hard drive platter is spinning at 5000+ RPM, the hard drive takes a beating. It's a wonder that they last a year. Hard drives are like cars, there are some that just keep running and others that drop dead after the warranty period. Since hard drives were mentioned, do you have a backup strategy? What will happen if your hard drive crashes? Everyone over looks their backup strategy. Don't feel too embarrassed, its an easy thing to forget. ...but you will remember it quickly if you have hard drive problems and it's usually too late. Does your system have a CDRW drive? What about an DVD drive? A CDRW or DVD drive might make a nice addition to your computer. A recordable CDROM drive makes a nice backup device. If you are going to be opening your computer, DON'T FORGET ABOUT STATIC DISCHARGE. Cold, dry days will increase the chance of static discharge. Static discharge is not very pleasant for humans but it is deadly for computer components. Use a wrist strap or at the very least, touch the metal of the computer to discharge any static build up before you touch the computer circuitry. How about a computer “face lift”? Would you like a new look for your computer? You can buy a computer case and transplant your present computer components. There many choices for computer cases on the market. Have you seen the new neon light computer cases? If you are looking for a low tech gift idea, have you considered a computer desk or chair? go to the top of the page 12/15/2003 XP Q: What is so good about microsoft XP? Why should I consider XP? Can't I just use old “reliable” windows 98? A: A lot of folks think that XP is not stable because a blue screen pops up and the computer reboots. Believe it or not, the blue screen, affectionately known as “blue screen of death”, is a good thing. Windows XP is telling you that it detected a program or driver touching something that it shouldn't be touching. When an operating system like XP executes, it has a private area in memory that nothing else should be using. If XP detects a badly behaved program writing to its private memory, XP will display a blue screen and reboot. That blue screen looks like a bunch of gobblygook but it contains some key information about what caused the crash. Windows 98 does not let you know that something has touched system memory. It just keeps running until the corrupted memory causes the system to crash or hang. You never really know what caused the system to fail. How do you troubleshoot something that fails randomly? Do you just buy a new computer? Most of the time, the XP blue screen is caused by a badly behaved driver. A driver is a program that is loaded when you install new hardware. The driver allows the operating system to talk to the new hardware. If you buy a new piece of hardware, your system needs a driver to control the new hardware. Many times, the driver is already included in the operating system but if hardware is newer than the operating system, you will need to install a new driver. If your XP system ran fine until you installed a new program or driver, try removing the new program. If that fixes the problem, you need to find a new program or driver. Make sure that the program or driver you install is supported by XP. A badly behaved driver can give you the wrong impression of XP. XP is extremely stable and will run for weeks without problems. SOFTWARE PURCHASE TIP: Is there a new computer game or program on your holiday gift list? Make sure you know the operating system, processor, memory, and disk space for your intended gift. Check the system requirements on the side of the box before you buy that new game. Ask the store sales staff, if you don't understand the requirements. If you receive a new game, check the system requirements before you install it. Parents used to be frustrated by assembling bicycles on Christmas eve. Installing a program on a computer can be much more frustrating. Grandparents, get even with your children and give your grandchildren new computer games. go to the top of the page 12/22/2003 popups Q: Help! My husband has been receiving threatening pop ups from the FBI. The pop ups state that he under surveillance. He's afraid to go near the computer. What should I do? Jean, Dracut A: First of all, if you were under surveillance, the FBI is not going to warn you about it. A trojan program must have been installed on your machine, you are the target of a joke. How did that trojan get on your machine? You may have opened an email or an email attachment that contained a trojan. Most malware, another name for virus or trojan, is usually in an email attachment. It usually is not enough to just open email to get a virus. You have to open the attachment too. ...but before you get too confident, some email will infect your system by just reading the email. If the email is an html script, a command can be embedded in the email to do bad things to your system. Email that is an html script looks like a webpage when you read it. Don't panic but be careful. The malware could have also gotten on to your system by opening a webpage that is intended to infect your system. There are security settings in your Internet xplorer that can prevent a webpage from installing a trojan on your system. Occasionally, setting the security too high for web access will prevent flashy websites from displaying fancy features but “better safe than sorry”. Another way to get a virus is to execute “neat” software that someone gave you or you might have found on the Internet. There are many sources of free software on the Internet. Make sure that you obtain the software from a safe source. Always virus scan the program before you install it on your machine. It is a good idea to scan your whole machine after you install any questionable software. The best strategy is not to install anything when you have doubts. One thing that you should never overlook is your virus scan software. Always make sure that it is up to date. It is ok to use a virus scanner from 2002 as long as the virus data is up to date. Many people purchase new systems but neglect to verify that the virus scanner is current. A virus scanner is a small but necessary expense compared to the cost of a new computer. TIP: Don't forget to check system requirements and read the instructions before you install any gift software. The holidays are a time to relax, you don't want to spend your time computer troubleshooting. go to the top of the page 12/29/2003 new computer? You received a new computer for the holidays. It's brand new, you don't have to do anything to it, right? WRONG! A computer is just like a new car. The car might be brand new but if the mechanic didn't check the oil, you are going to be in trouble quickly. Here's a few things to check on that new machine. Does the computer have all the hardware that you expect? Look at the back of the computer. Do you see a place to plug in your keyboard, mouse, and monitor? Your keyboard and mouse may connect to a ps/2 or a USB connector. Do you know the difference between USB and ps/2? Are you going on the Internet? How do you plan to connect? If you are going to use a dial up service, is there a place to plug in the telephone wire? Are you going to use dsl or broadband? Is there a connector for the ethernet cable? You may also use USB for a broadband connection but ethernet is a more efficient way to connect. Are there enough USB connectors to connect your printer, digital camera, and other USB devices? You'll need a USB hub or USB expansion card if you don't have enough connectors for all your USB appliances. What about software? Is there an operating system like Windows XP loaded on the computer? Is there a COA (certificate of authenticity) sticker on the computer? Make sure that you have the COA, it is your proof of ownership if you need to reinstall the operating system. Check any plastic wrapping for any license stickers before you discard it. Does the operating system support all your peripherals like the printer? Do you need a driver to allow the printer to work with the computer? Is the virus scanner installed on the computer? Many new computers have a 90 day virus scanner installed. Don't forget to keep the virus scanner updated or you'll have problems after 90 day evaluation expires. Is there a word processor installed on the computer? Consider open office, www.openoffice.org , if you need to write documents or spreadsheets. You don't have to be held hostage by Microsoft for all your software requirements. Open office will allow you to create, edit, and save documents in popular Microsoft formats. It seems like there is a lot to check before you enjoy that new computer but it is time well spent. Think of the computer like a tower of blocks. If you don't lay a good foundation, the stack will come tumbling down. Proper preparation will make your computer experience much more enjoyable. Happy Holidays go to the top of the page