Dennis Faas

There's lots o' interesting news to tell you in this issue of the Gazette. Recall that October 16th's issue of the Gazette proposed the question of whether or not Kazaa (Sharman Networks) implemented some sort of cap on bandwidth (downloads). I ... received a few suggestions from our readers, and without further adieu, let me attempt coordinate some of their thoughts. Kooby writes: " I updated to Kazaa v2 to find this new thing called a kazaa participation level. Because I have a cable modem (high speed internet) with only mediocre upload speed, I don't share any files with other Kazaa ... (view more)

Since we're on the topic of Outlook Express, I thought I'd add more coal to the fire and ask the Infopackets Readers for yet another problem that I do not have the solution to. Here is what Harold S. says about his problem: " When I go to send out ... my pictures as an attachment (using Outlook Express), the recipient receives anywhere from 5+ of the same email (from me) in a row. I checked for a virus several different ways, and found none. I also found that the I cannot change the font size, change the colors in the font, and plagued by several other minor things I can't change and it all ... (view more)

It looks like yesterday's problem of Outlook Express not displaying images via email stirred up a lot of responses. I woke up today to find that my Inbox was jammed full of excellent suggestions from our Readers. First, let me explain who might be ... affected by missing pictures in Outlook Express 6: Anyone who has upgraded to, has installed a patch for, or uses Outlook Express 6 Anyone who installed Windows XP, or XP Service Pack 1. These people also have Outlook Express 6 installed on their system. From what I can gather, that pretty much sums it up. There were multiple solutions to the ... (view more)

I've recently received the same question multiple times -- and I can't figure out why it is that some users have such a hard time sending an image to a friend via email with Outlook Express? So, I'm going to ask for help on this one -- hopefully a ... Infopackets Reader can give me some insight. Here are some of the most recent questions I've received about missing pictures in Outlook Express: " Hello, Since I replaced Outlook Express 5 by Outlook Express 6, my photos sent by email in the text or as attachment disappear. All my friends complain that they only see a small box with a red X in ... (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)

Infopackets Reader Lim Chee A. writes: " Greetings from Malaysia! I have been subscribed to your Infopackets Newsletter since May 2002, and I really enjoy your work! I have a question though: What's the difference between GUI and skins? " My ... Response: GUI is a short-term word which means "Graphic User Interface". A skin is an extension of the GUI which changes the GUI appearance. If you're interested in changing the way that Windows looks, you might be interested in checking out these web sites: http://www.shellcity.net/ http://www.stardock.net/ http://www.wincustomize.com ... (view more)

This issue of the Gazette is dedicated to "tying up a few loose knots" from our ongoing discussions about Hackers and Security threats . First, I'll give you all an update to Gazette issue dated October 10, 2002 (Windows Security Threat -- NTFS ... Alternate Data Streams ). To recap: an anonymous reader (John Doe) sent in an email that discussed a potential security risk in Windows which might allow a hacker to take a screen capture of a computer with the NTFS file system installed. I realize that this article was a bit on the "technical side", but I did my best to clear up ... (view more)

Since we're on the hot topic of hackers and hacking lately, I thought I'd share with you another great resource that Eric B. sent me. The web site is called myNetWatchman . The myNetWatchman program (agent) gives users a heads-up that they have a ... security problem, if their system becomes infected with an Internet Worm virus. There's also some super-cool reading on their web site (RE: ' Windows Forensics ') which shows how multiple non-hostile applications combined can lead to a hacking threat. I'm not going into great detail because I don't want to spoil it for you; however, I will say that ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Michael H., writes: " Dear Dennis, Firstly, let me thank you for your great newsletters. They are a wealth of information! I have Windows XP installed on system which consists of an Asus P4B (Pentium 4 capable motherboard). My ... problem is that whenever Windows XP begins to load, I hear a voice that says, 'System completed power-on self test; computer now booting from Operating System.' Can you please tell me how to remove this annoying feature?! I have to shut off my speakers every time I boot my computer to avoid hearing this annoying voice? " My Response: I can't ... (view more)