Dennis Faas

Recall -- Last week I asked Infopackets Readers for a freeware color-coded Text Editor capable of editing certain file types (such as HTML documents with JavaScript embedded). Infopackets Reader Keith B. writes: " I use Notepad2. It's much better ... than the standard Windows Notepad, and I use it for editing pages on my own web site. From the web site: 'The original Notepad shipped with Windows is probably the handiest program of all times, small, fast, without frills! Notepad2 tries to follow this principle, it's a small, fast and free text editor with syntax highlighting for HTML and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Annie' writes: " Dear Dennis, I'd like to know how to copy and paste something into HTML but don't know how to do it. I am trying to save an animated 'Java' clock I saw on a web site into another HTML document, but I just can't ... seem to get it to go. Can you please help me? I don't really know a lot about computer languages. Thanks. " My response: It sounds like you're trying to copy and paste Java code through the browser; regrettably, it's not as simple as this, as Java is a transparent feature of the web browser. If you want to copy and paste Java that is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Katie' asks: " Why is it that some sites ask that you type in your email address twice using a web form? What does typing in your email address two times have to do with anything? It's simple enough to cut and paste the email ... address into the second line, but a hassle. What do you think? " My response: A web site with a form to enter an email address twice is for the purpose of verifying that you've typed in the address correctly. For example: any web site with a subscription service (via email) would implement this type of verification scheme to limit the number ... (view more)

Are you being scammed? Need to know the definitive answer right now? READ THIS ARTICLE and then come back to this page when you're finished (if you like). -- Infopackets Reader Rupert H. writes: " Dear Dennis, Last Sunday, I saw a one-day sale for a ... Harley Davidson Sportster 883 motorbike on eBay. The seller had around 500 or 600 positive feedbacks. The sale required that you contact the buyer first before you were allowed to bid, and so I did. The seller wanted to do business through a company called Square Trade. I checked out the website and the company seemed legitimate. 'Square ... (view more)

Recall -- Yesterday, I posted a comment on the fact that the new Windows Firewall (present in XP Service Pack 2) does not monitor outgoing traffic. As we discovered, this is especially problematic for Spyware attacks, as it may be possible for a ... Spyware program to extract personal information from your computer and relay it to a third party -- all without you knowing about it. Infopackets Reader Tom M. writes: " Dennis: [in reference to your original article], you mused as to why Microsoft hasn't followed the ideology of full firewall protection. Might I cynically speculate that it may ... (view more)

I'm making oodles of progress in my quest to finish a Failsafe guide on installing XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). The majority of the eBook is completed; all that is left now is to finish off the "post installation" section, make a video tutorial, answer ... 300 emails related to SP2, and put together a mini FAQ (frequently asked questions). A lot of work? You bet -- but certainly not impossible. I really thought I'd have this guide complete last week, but ran into a bit of a delay when I realized that it would be best to streamline a major portion of the book in order to simplify and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Felix P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a brand new Dell 8400 computer. Whenever I boot the computer, I receive an error message which reads, "Digital Input: cannot display this video mode". I've made numerous calls to Dell, have ... checked my settings, video card drivers, etc, but to no avail. Dell even sent me a new flat panel monitor and a tech came to my house and replaced the video card, but the problem persists. The computer and monitor appear to operate properly. Any suggestions? " My response: The problem you are describing is normal behavior for ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Mike F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just installed MS Office and Windows XP Pro on my machine. When I first launched MS Word, I was asked for a user name. At this point, I didn't want to use my own name and instead used the user ID ... 'XYZ'. I share my documents with others and later found that the documents had the user ID 'XYZ' embedded into the file. I now would now like to change my user ID to my name so that the correct information is reflected. Can you tell me how I can do this? " My response: Load MS Word, then go to Tools -> Options, and look for a tab that ... (view more)

Yesterday , I wrote an article concerning a hidden Administrator account in Windows XP. As we discovered, this poses a significant security risk (especially for XP Home users) because it means that virtually anyone can gain unrestricted local access ... to the machine if the Administrator password is left blank. Side note: The term "remote access" means to control / gain access to a computer which is physically housed in another location (typically over a network, such as the Internet). In a similar respect, gaining "local access" to a computer means to utilize the machine at ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Les M. writes: " Dear Dennis, Firstly, well done and many thanks for a most informative newsletter. Today I am writing you because I have a most annoying and frustrating problem with web pages not displaying properly. I use ... Windows XP (Home Edition), and have recently upgraded to broadband (with AOL 9.0) ... [What is happening is that] web pages are loaded through Internet Explorer with at least a paragraph of garbled HTML code at the top, followed by other odd elements of the page scattered randomly, and sometimes repeated 3 or 4 times down the page. I suspected that ... (view more)