Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Kevin C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read your article on Guardian Monitor 8.0 . I checked the Washington Post article that you included in your review and read the comparison of Guardian Monitor versus the other surveillance ... programs ... but none mentioned the possibility that an outsider (hacker) could access your PC and obtain the data captured by the surveillance software -- and possibly obtaining passwords, account numbers, etc. Should this be a concern? " My response: Excellent question. As I previously discussed, Guardian Monitor records key strokes ... (view more)

Three days a week I entertain Readers with articles I write based on real life computing problems. This time, I'm the one with a dilemma on my hands. Since April of this year, readership of this newsletter has blossomed from 50,000 to (now) 237,000 ... readers -- with 1,000 new members subscribing each day. Not long ago, things were very different. Up until this past August, the newsletter was sent out in full length / HTML (graphical) format -- but all of that came to a halt when it was no longer efficient or financially feasible. I have since reduced the size of the email newsletter by making ... (view more)

Recall -- Last week, Infopackets Reader Ian B. asked if there was a way to make his Windows 98 computer shut down and power off: " ... I have a win 98 computer that used to shut off the power after a Start -> Shutdown command was clicked, but now ... it just stops at that the 'It is now safe to shut down your computer' screen. Can you advise if this is a hardware or software fault, please? " In my response , I addressed a number of issues which may cause Windows 98 not to shut down properly, including: BIOS settings, Advanced Power Management (APM), device drivers, and programs which ... (view more)

Have you ever wondered what your loved one is doing online? Infopackets Reader Lisa E. addressed a few of her concerns over the weekend: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows XP. I have several people using this computer and would like to know how to access ... chat files. Everyone has their logon password protected, and my children do a lot of chatting on Yahoo and MSN Messenger. Can you tell me how to find and access these files?" My response: I only use MSN Messenger on my Windows XP system, so I downloaded and installed the latest versions of Yahoo Messenger, ICQ Pro 2003, ICQ Lite, and AOL ... (view more)

Can Digital Steganography be used with good intent? Recall -- Last week, I wrote 2 articles on Digital Steganography (pronounced "Stay-Gan-Aw-Gra-Fee"). By definition, Steganography is simply the art of hiding plain data from sight. In the same ... respect, Digital Steganography is the ability to hide a file inside of another file, called the "carrier file". Both articles focused on a question sent in from Infopackets Reader John B., who proposed the question, "If I downloaded a jpeg image file from the Internet, and it has a virus hidden inside ... [can the virus execute ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Lorraine M. writes: " Dear Dennis, Way too often while I am online, I receive an error message that says: 'Iexplore has caused an error in BTLINK.DLL. Iexplore will now close.' This seems to happen out of the blue and it is ... extremely annoying. Each time it happens, it takes me off the web site I'm visiting and back to the Windows desktop. How can I stop this from happening? " My response: I went to Google and researched "BTLINK.DLL". From what I understand, the BTLINK.DLL file is part of a Spyware program, called HuntBar. In a nutshell, HuntBar docs ... (view more)

Recall: Last week, Jake Ludington wrote a review on a program called "Move Me", which transfers programs and user data from an old computer to a new computer: Move Me Review After the review was published, I received the following question from ... Infopackets Reader Vernon B.: " Will the 'Move Me' software convert programs from Windows 98 to XP such as Microsoft Works, Word, Roxio, and many other programs? PS: Thank you for the infopackets newsletter each week." I forwarded Vernon's question to Jake, and he responded: " Move Me will transfer applications between any two ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I use Windows 98 and Outlook Express to read my email. A buddy of mine thought he was helping me by 'tweaking' my computer system, but now I cannot open any email attachments! What can I do? PS: How ... may I retrieve a file that has been deleted? " My Response: It sounds like your friend "tweaked" your computer by upgrading you to the latest version of Outlook Express -- version 6. By default, Outlook Express 6 will not allow you to open email attachments on the assumption that the email may contain an malicious attachment ( ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gaye B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm a newbie on the computer, and I have a big problem with popup advertisements. When I first got my PC, I let a friend use it to surf the web (unsupervised). Since that day, my computer has been ... infested with despicable ads appearing on the screen. What can I do to stop this from happening? " My response: The first thing you should do is tell your friend to mind where he surfs because it has caused you and your PC a lot of trouble! The next thing you should do is download some software that can remove / block popup advertisements ... (view more)