computer

Betty R. writes: " I have certainly enjoyed the newsletter as it contains very important information that I cannot find anywhere else. Thanks for that, and I have downloaded your eBook to lean how to install a hard drive. ... http://www.infopackets.com/how+to+install+a+hard+drive.htm My problem is that I am trying to set up my computer to act as as game server. To do this, I need to give other users my IP (Internet Protocol) address. Normally this would be an easy task, but my computer is sharing an Internet connection via a router. I have several computer friends in other states with whom I ... (view more)

Is your computer safe from the dangers of file-sharing? I know mine isn't. Just this past Monday, I received a message stating that the file I received (through Kazaa) was infected with malicious code that could harm my computer. I was lucky that my ... anti-virus program caught the malevolent program from infecting my machine, otherwise I would have launched the file completely blind that my actions may have corrupted my entire hard drive. Indeed, a scary thought. At this point, I paused for a moment and thought to myself, "Could there be other nasty software lurking on my computer that may ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Louise S. writes: " I recently bought a DVD disc through eBay from a gentleman in Britain. When I tried to play it on the DVD player attached to my TV, a screen popped up saying I was in the wrong region. I then tried it in the ... CD-DVD player (Samsung) in my computer and it said the same thing. My computer, however, did allow me to change over to region 2, which is Europe, but will only allow me to switch back and forth between Regions 1 and 2 a total of 4 times, and then it becomes permanent. I don't want that to happen as only the one DVD is a region 2. Is there ... (view more)

Popular media outlets, like television and newspapers, latch on to new computer virus outbreaks as if the story of the millennium just broke. Journalists report that there are dangers of using buggy software from Microsoft. How do we protect our ... computers from becoming compromised? Operating System exploits and security breaches can allow Hackers unprecedented access to a PC for the sole purpose of malicious intent. Viruses can wipe out an entire computer system, and email worms can spread like wildfire in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, there aren't a set of straight forward rules one can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader S. Doe writes: " I somehow inadvertently deleted Windows 98 'Picture Viewer' from my computer. Windows came pre-installed on my computer and I have all of the discs that came with it, and I think Picture Viewer is there somewhere. ... How do I figure out on which disk I can find it to reinstall that program? None of them list it specifically on the disk. Thanks in advance for your help! " My Response: If your computer came with a pre-installed copy of Windows, there is a good chance that the discs that also came with it may only contain a recovery disk image and will ... (view more)

I received some alarming email from my Internet Service Provider (ISP) today and thought I would pass along the word. There has been a major security threat issued for all users of Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP and Server 2003 (RE: Knowledge Base ... Article #824146). All of those who are affected need to download a patch immediately in order to resolve this breach. In short, "A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise a computer running Microsoft Windows and gain complete control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing an ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Brandon L. writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer has this really serious problem. I don't know what is causing the problem, but it only started happening recently. The whole day yesterday, my computer was frozen with a black screen ... at startup. You know: the first screen that says 'Press DEL to enter Setup'? I tried restarting my machine and left it there thinking that the problem would go away, but after a few hours, nothing changed. I decided to go into the computer BIOS and selected 'Load optimized defaults', and like magic, my system appeared OK. I don't understand why ... (view more)

Several "clean up" programs on the market today are designed to eliminate Spyware* and other tracking devices after a computer has already become infected. GhostSurf Pro, on the other hand, prevents Spyware from infecting a PC (before it can ever ... take place) and provides a wide array of security features which allows users to surf the world wide web with varying degrees of anonymity. Side Note: Spyware is software which records information about you or your computer usage (without your knowledge) and then relays this information to a third party -- quite often, for marketing ... (view more)

Recall -- A few days ago, I wrote about the latest virus threat which is currently clogging up email mailboxes around the world. In short, the "SoBig worm arrives via email as an attachment; once the attachment has been executed, the worm attempts ... to propagate itself by mass-mailing the contacts it has collected from the host computer [especially through the use of email Address Books / Contact Lists]." SoBig Email Worm Virus The SoBig worm has been an especially dreadful problem for me, since I receive email daily from folks around the world. Whenever someone decides to drop me a ... (view more)

Yesterday's feature article was about file recovery after a hard drive crash. File recovery after hard drive crash? In a nutshell, I outlined some steps one might take in order to recover files from a corrupt hard drive. I also asked Infopackets ... Readers if they knew of any good freeware or commercial file recovery software which could undelete / recover lost data. Here are some of the responses I received: Haukur B. and Pippe both recommended a program called "PC Inspector File Recovery". From the web site: " PC Inspector File Recovery is a data recovery program with support ... (view more)