Internet

Today, David M. sent me an email asking me how to go about Repairing Internet Explorer: " Hello Dennis! The May 20, 2003 issue of the Gazette mentioned the very useful Internet Explorer Repair Tool, accessed from Add/Remove Programs in Control ... Panel. In the past, this method has worked for me when using Win98 and IE5. However, I now run Win2K and IE6 and the IE Repair Tool isn't listed in the Add/Remove Programs, so I can't repair it. Do you or any of your learned readers have any ideas, please? " My Response: I get asked this question a lot from readers, so I've decided to provide ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Larry K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I use dial-up Internet, which is the *only* service available in my remote location. I am on call at my work, and my son will be home from University soon. Is there software / hardware / or some ... type of service available which can alert me of an incoming phone call when I'm online? I really don't want to purchase another phone line. " My response: I remember seeing a piece of hardware advertised on TV which plugs into your phone line and alerts you of an incoming call. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the product [ ... (view more)

Recently, Infopackets Reader 'Cinnamon' asked me a question about how to organize her downloaded ZIP files. She writes: " Is there a guide one can use in attempting to [organize] some or all of them? I'm afraid I'll remove something that I need! " ... My Response: We've been talking about archived files for the last few issues of the newsletter. Incase you've missed it: Zip files are archived files and usually contain many smaller files inside. Finding out what an archived file is (without extracting and utilizing the program) takes too long to do, so there must be a better way. I ... (view more)

Today I received very disheartening email. Al G. writes: " Why has my subscription to the Infopackets Gazette newsletter suddenly ceased? " I decided to check the subscriber base, and found Al's email address still in the list. I know that most of ... the newsletters have been successfully delivered because the web statistics reflect normal activity. So, why wasn't the newsletter getting delivered to Al? The only logical explanation I could think of -- other than Al's mailbox being over-quota -- was that his Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be incorrectly blocking this newsletter due ... (view more)

Cinnamon asked me a very good question over the weekend: " Hi Dennis! In an attempt to clean out old and/or unnecessary files, I accessed my Winzip files. In scanning through the list and opening (or attempting to) open them to find out what they ... belong to, I find it just a bit mind-boggling. It's very hard to tell what some of them are. Is there a guide one can use in attempting to delete some or all of them? I'm afraid I'll remove something that I need! Thanks, and keep up the great work! " My Response: Zip files are archived files and usually contain many files. Chances are you ... (view more)

How can poetry stop spam? Answer: Habeas . Habeas is a new company on the Internet which has developed a technology that permits legitimate bulk mailers -- such as infopackets.com -- the ability to deliver authentic emails and eliminate spam at the ... same time. Legitimate bulk email service providers are able to inject Habeas copyrighted Haiku poetry into outgoing email headers to ensure authenticity and delivery. Internet Service Providers and Spam Fighting programs are able to pick up the headers which can then be used to determine if the message is spam or legitimate. Wait a sec, what's a ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bonnie V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I keep getting unsolicited emails that claim they are from a web address which in fact does not exist. Is there a mail rule that I can create in Outlook Express to check for valid web addresses, ... and block the ones that aren't valid (I.E.: a 'faked' web address)? " My Response: Rather than attempting to block all the offending emails, why not just create an anti-spam filter to delete all emails that are not from a list of your friends? Example: Apply this rule after the message arrives; Where the From line does not contain ' friend1 ... (view more)

If you share files online the Internet (trading MP3s, movies, software), you have undoubtedly already heard of Kazaa -- maybe even Kazaa Lite . In a nutshell Kazaa uses its own P2P (peer to peer) technology which allow users across the Internet to ... share files online. The last time I checked, there were about 2.2 million users online Kazaa, sharing some 5 million files. That's a lot of files. I'm not going to get into the complexities of how things work, because I've already discussed that in a previous issue of the Infopackets Gazette. Kazaa is free software which gets its funding from the ... (view more)

Tracert.exe? Ping.exe? What the heck is that? Trace Route (tracert.exe) is a DOS command line utility program that traces connection pathways along the Internet using the TCP / IP protocol. Ping (ping.exe) calculates how long it takes to transfer a ... packet of information from origin [you] to destination [a web site] and back again [to you]. What is TCP / IP? The TCP / IP protocol is a method used to communicate computers on the Internet. Any computer using the TCP / IP protocol has a unique address, referred to as an IP (Internet Protocol) address. An IP address can be thought of as a special ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Linda S. write s: " Dear Dennis, With regards to the last newsletter , is it possible that you are assuming that Christine R. accidentally stated that Windows Explorer was trying to access the internet and that she actually meant ... that Internet Explorer was trying to get access? My firewall also will not allow me to have access to the internet unless I give both Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer access. Her question may have been a typo but I think maybe she is having the same problem as I am. Can you offer any suggestions to remedy this? " My Response: I'm ... (view more)