Dennis Faas

Thu
19
Feb
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Are email and IM's private?

Infopackets Reader "Artsiii" writes: " Dennis, thanks very much for your informative newsletter. Someone told me that every email and Instant Message [IM] I've ever sent has been saved by my Internet Service Provider [ISP] or email program. Surely ... this can't be true? There must be millions of messages sent every day. Isn't this information private? I know I would not like what I have said at one time or another available to anyone. Explain please. Thanks for your help. " My response: Interesting questions. Let me try and break it down. RE: Is information that travels ... (view more)

Wed
18
Feb
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Retrieve files after hard drive crash?

Infopackets Reader Ronald O. writes: " My computer has crashed a few times and I have lost everything from the hard drive. What can I do to retrieve all my files on the hard drive? Please help! " My response: If the drive still works and detects ... under Windows but your files are missing, you can attempt to repair your master boot record (if it's damaged) by booting into DOS (from a DOS disk) and use the command "FDISK.EXE /MBR". Side note: The Master Boot Record [MBR] is located at the beginning of the hard drive. This part of the hard drive is referred to as the boot ... (view more)

Tue
17
Feb
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Verify Action Type for File Association

Infopackets Reader Berlin B. writes: " Dear Dennis, As part of my stringent preventive maintenance plan, I recently ran AdAware 6.0 and Norton AntiVirus software on my PC. Norton reported a number of 'at risk' files on my system. After I ran AdAware ... 6.0, the document files listed in the My Documents folder now show a .DOC extension with no associative icon. When I try to click these files, a window appears and asks me to select the appropriate file extension. It also warns me that if I select the wrong type, the file may become unusable. I was unsure what to do, so I ran System Restore ... (view more)

Tue
17
Feb
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Infopackets Main Server Woes

After announcing that most of the bugs have been worked out of the new infopackets mail server, the main web server started having issues of its own. Subsequently, I was only able to send out 2 newsletters last wee k. In not so many words, the main ... server appears to be choking on bounceback email messages. Since there are literally hundreds of bounceback messages received every day [due to viruses and spam], the infopackets server eventually became overloaded with processes which looped endlessly, caused high CPU usage, and ate away at valuable memory resources. The processes were overloading ... (view more)

Wed
11
Feb
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Javascript won't run on my computer?

Infopackets Reader Ed M. asks, " I seem to have lost Java script support for my computer. Could you please advise me how to re-install it?" My Response: The first thing you should do is check to see if Java has been accidentally disabled on your ... machine (Solution #1). If you have recently upgraded to Windows XP and have not visited the Windows Update website to update your system, skip to Solution #2. Solution #1: Check to see if Java has been Disabled If you use Internet Explorer 6, you can check to see if Java has been disabled by scrolling through your Internet Options. Load ... (view more)

Mon
09
Feb
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Infopackets Mail Server Update

Recall -- In mid December 2003, I mentioned that the infopackets web server was too stressed to continue delivering newsletter emails to Readers, and that an additional dedicated web server was needed. Early last month, I ordered the new server and ... began programming it to do nothing more than process and send the email version of the infopackets newsletter. Unfortunately, this required quite a bit of work and technical expertise using an operating system that I'm not very familiar with (Unix). Side note: The Unix operating system was developed by Bell Labs in the late 1960's. The main focus ... (view more)

Mon
09
Feb
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Print filenames listed in a folder?

Last newsletter, Infopackets Reader Brad B. asked if there was a way to import and print a list of filenames contained in a folder using an MS DOS command. Since then, I have received a number of comments from Readers with alternative solutions. ... Infopackets Reader Sam T. writes: " In your newsletter dated Feb 4, 2004, a reader (Brad B.) was looking for a program that would print the contents of a directory. There is a fabulous freebie program that does the job and it runs in Windows instead of a command line interface. The program name is called LS - File List Generator and I have found ... (view more)

Wed
04
Feb
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Can't list long filenames in MSDOS?

Infopackets Reader Brad B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I would like to create a text document which contains a list of my files in a directory. I asked a techie friend of mine how to do it, and he told me to open up an MS DOS Window and use the command: ... 'dir *.* > list.txt' I did that but my file names aren't showing up in full. Can you help?" Side note: MS DOS is the predecessor to Windows. The MS DOS prompt provides an optional way to access or modify files through a command line interface. An MS DOS command prompt can be opened by clicking Start -> Programs -> MSDOS, or if ... (view more)

Thu
29
Jan
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Transfer files / remote file access over Internet?

Infopackets Reader 'Captain HRY' asks, " I would like to send files over the Internet to my son. Any ideas how I can go about doing this? " My response: There are a number of ways to send files to someone over the 'net. The easiest way to send a ... small file is by email attachment or through an Instant Messenger [chat] program. I use both MSN Messenger and ICQ and happen to know that MSN will only allow 1 file transfer at a time. On the other hand, ICQ can send multiple files, providing that the files reside in the same folder on your hard drive. If you're looking to share large files ... (view more)

Thu
29
Jan
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Task Manager woes?

Infopackets Reader Gail from Houston writes: " Dennis, I *love* your newsletter! Thanks so much for doing it! I am having trouble with my printer. The more programs that are open, the slower my printer runs. I've pressed CTRL + ALT + DEL and brought ... up the Task Manager and closed as many applications as I could [in order to free up system resources in hopes of speeding things up]. My questions are: How come there's so much stuff open in Task Manager? How do I [prevent tasks that I don't want] from opening? How can I tell which programs are going to shut down my computer (because I always ... (view more)

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