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To Update Web Browsers Or Not?

January 3, 2012 By

Longtime subscriber Chet wrote to ask about the need to update Internet Explorer and Firefox:


Hi Terry

Is it wise to update every time you get an email…for instance I’m still using IE8 and am hesitating to go to IE9…and now it seems FIREFOX, MY BROWSER OF CHOICE, (V3.6.18) is updating every 10 minutes!

I still haven’t gotten around to v4 and they are up to v5. Is it better to wait awhile rather than jump right in as soon as they announce something?

Thanks,

Chet (long time fan and subscriber)

I immediately wrote back to Chet to tell him that it’s time to update to Internet Explorer 9 and to Firefox the current Firefox version.

I usually wait a couple weeks for any "growing pains" to be resolved with IE updates, since I don’t normally use IE.

Firefox, however, I always update immediately. That’s even more important now, since…

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Filed Under: Communications, Firefox, IE, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web browsing, Windows Updates Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Network Is Down – No Internet Access

January 2, 2012 By

I sat down at my computer recently to finish writing my newsletter, only to find the hated words “Not connected.”

Windows 7 was informing me that I had no network connection. Not just no Internet access, but not even access to the other computers on my home network. This was a horrible morning.

Everything worked fine last night when I went to bed. It was time to put on my Debugging Hat…

My first step was to reboot my cable modem and my router. The process was easy and seemed to be fine. Unplug the power to the cable modem; unplug the power to the router; plug in the power to the cable modem; wait for the cable modem to download it’s configuration data from the cable Internet service provider and stabilize it’s lights, plug in the power to the router so it can make its connection to the cable modem and to the other computers and the Gigabit Ethernet switch connected to it.

But, it didn’t solve the problem…

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Filed Under: Communications, Networking, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Web browsing, Windows 7 Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Don’t Deleted Emails Appear in the Recycle Bin?

October 20, 2011 By

Subscriber JPB had a question about deleting emails, and why they don’t get recycled:

When you delete files (normally) they go to the recycle bin. How come E-mail doesn’t work the same way. it get’s compacted? I’m using Thunderbird and Windows 7.

The reason that deleted emails don’t show up in the Recycle Bin is that the Recycle Bin stores files after you delete them (note that some programs will delete files without putting them into the Recycle Bin). This is sometimes a problem with older programs or programs that are simplistically ported from another operating system.

Most Windows email programs store emails as data in large files containing multiple emails. They’re not stored as individual files. Email “folders” are actually files, in most cases, although some email programs may not create separate files for the folders.

Thunderbird is one such…

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Filed Under: Communications, Email, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Thunderbird

Solving Jerky Streamed Videos

June 2, 2011 By

Subscriber Gordon Shaw wrote for help to solve a problem with jerky streamed video:


Hi Terry

Wonder if you could help. I have a PC with AMD Athlon tm 64 processor 3800+. 2.4GHz, ASUS M2V-MX Motherboard & 2GB Ram. The video card is a NVIDIA Ge Force7600Gs with 256MB of Video Memory. I’m running XP Home 32 bit with SP3.

I recently installed a BENQ G2420HD LCD Monitor with a natural resolution of 1920×1080 but have had to reduce this to 1620×900 as videos I play especially on BBC iPlayer are really jerky. Even now at the reduced resolution it isn’t perfect.

Do I need to replace my graphics card with say 1GB of video memory to achieve the proper resolution? If you could recommend a replacement I would be very grateful.

I wrote to Gordy to suggest that he check the Nvidia web site to make sure he has the latest driver. I also suggested that he check the Benq web site to make sure he has loaded the latest driver for his monitor. While the standard Windows plug-and-play monitor driver may work, and the video card driver in Windows may work, they’re not likely to be optimized.

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Filed Under: Communications, Hardware, Notebook, Terry's Computer Tips, Video

Accessing the Internet While Travelling – 2011 Style

May 31, 2011 By

Several years ago, I wrote an article about how to access the Internet while travelling. It focused on using a notebook computer with dialup access, using a hotel business center’s computer (or a friend’s whom you were visiting) to access your emails. Little more than that

So much has changed…

Now, we have smart phones, whether Blackberry, iPhone, Android, that we can use to check emails and can use to surf the web. The small screen isn’t great, but it works!

We’ve also got the ability to use 3G wireless network adapters for laptop computers (assuming we have a laptop computer), Apple iPad’s with 3G service from AT&T or iPad 2′s with our choice of AT&T or Verizon 3G service (assuming we can find one in stock somewhere, or are willing to order one and wait!).

Finally, the best (in my current opinion) approach — tethering our smart mobile phone that has 3G access to our laptop computer.

I used to do that long, long ago with a laptop and a Motorola flip-phone. But, then AT&T got wise and changed their terms of service to prohibit tethering.

Continue reading Accessing the Internet While Travelling – 2011 Style

Filed Under: Communications, Networking, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How Can I Open An Email Attachment?

May 29, 2011 By

Email attachment type – the key to opening email attachments. This week, subscriber Gerry Seebach wrote:

I am having a problem opening some email attachments.

I can open anything to do with media player and you tube. I think the ones I can’t open are slide shows, not sure though.

I get a message saying "This file does not have a program associated with it.For performing this action create an association In the folder options control panel."

How do I do this? Thanks for your help.

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Filed Under: Communications, Email, Terry's Computer Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Wireless Problems Solved with New Router

June 7, 2010 By

Readers of my online newsletter will remember Bev’s problems of several weeks ago. Bev upgraded to Windows 7 Home. However, she was no longer able to get to Pogo.com to play games…

I had corresponded with Bev and made sure she had updated to the latest verison of Java (from www.java.com). But, Bev continued to have problems.

My last request to Bev had been that she write to tell me how she ultimately solved the proble.

This week, she wrote back to report that the problem was solved — and in a way that was quite surprising to me:

Hi Terry, Just wanted to update you on my Pogo.com issue that I wrote you about.

I ended up talking to Microsoft and they remotely assisted but after two days they couldn’t resolve the problem, called Linksys who wasn’t any help as router is outdated, called Pogo and they didn’t have any answer and called my ISP.

I finally called my friend who is super busy as computer tech and he did a few things like trying to download update firmware for my router of which wasn’t available any longer and his last fix worked, buy a new router as Windows 7 did not like my old router. So he had me buy a Netgear WNR2000-100NAS.

I did the switch and setup all by myself as their setup disc is so simple and by golly everything is working great besides being fast router for desktop as well. Thank you Terry for all your help, you are a trooper for sure. Happy Thanksgiving early.

The solution was surprising, but perhaps should not have been. Linksys has had a lot of versions upgrading and improving their WRT54G router that Bev used. Her’s was about …

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Filed Under: Communications, Networking, System Repair, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Wireless

IP Addresses and Security

February 26, 2009 By

A reader wrote me to ask about IP address security. I’m not really sure whether he meant keeping his IP address a secret, or whether he was asking if someone could break into his network and use his ISP connection with his IP address, so, let’s first look at the idea of keeping one’s IP address a secret…

Terry,I just recently came across your site and have joined your online email newletter. I have a question relating to I.P.addresses.I have a home network,router(encrypted /password required ),a firewall (not Win xp),several antispyware programs.The other day my ISP sent me an email,alleging I had violated copyright laws and had downloaded a movie from some place in [identifying information removed - Terry].I called my ISP and we discussed it,I did not download any movies and never heard of the film co.in question,my concern was how would they obtain my IP address,as it is like a fingerprint.I asked my ISP is there any way a 3rd.party could gain access to my wireless network and they could not provide an answer as to how this happened and advised me to disregard it.Is there a way for a 3rd.party to obtain my IP address ?? this is a security concern to myself and my wife. Thank you for your time

I wrote back to him to explain thatt the real question is not how they got his IP address, but how they tied that IP address to him. Only his ISP can do that, unless you logged in somewhere (or used an ID that linked to his name or email address) or in the program used to access it.

First, let’s go through how TCP/IP works – how the computers communicate like …

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Filed Under: Communications, Networking, Security, System, Terry's Computer Tips

New articles at Terry’s Computer Tips

December 30, 2008 By

There are a bunch of new articles at Terry’s Computer Tips:

Filed Under: Communications, Hard Drive Recovery, Hard Drives, Networking, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Switching to WPA2 Wireless Encryption

October 19, 2008 By

OK, after reading Improving Your Wireless Security about WPA2 wireless encryption, you’ve downloaded the WPA2 encryption patch for Windows XP — or you’ve installed XP Service Pack 3, which includes the patch.

How do you switch to it? It’s easy.

First, we need to get to the router to make the change there. The procedure will vary by brand, but should be fairly obvious. The steps are to:

1. Use your web browser to log into your router
2. Select the Wireless Security settings tab
On the Linksys WRT54G, that’s Wireless < Wireless Security
3. Now, change the Security mode to WPA2 Personal (the name varies by manufacturer —
...

Continue reading Switching to WPA2 Wireless Encryption

Filed Under: Communications, Networking, Security, Terry's Computer Tips, Wireless
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