Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Rick J. asks, " How do I get back something that I deleted from the recycle bin? " My Response: One way to empty a Recycle Bin is to right-click over top of the Recycle Bin and select "Empty Recycle Bin." If you deleted a file (or ... files) permanently by emptying the Recycle Bin, there is no way for you to get it back -- it's gone for good. This is true, unless you use some sort of special software to retrieve a deleted file from your hard drive -- but even that is not not always 100%; furthermore, the effort involved in file recovery is usually 'over the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Arlene M. asks, " For some reason, the little speaker icon is gone from my system tray. Do you know how I may get it back? " My Response: If you're talking about Windows XP, the volume control is available from the Control Panel ... under Sounds and Audio Devices; place a check-mark by the Place Volume in Task bar. If you don't have Win XP, you can try to reinstall your sound icon by going to Control Panel -> Add / Remove Programs, Windows Setup tab and then double click the Multimedia icon and place a checkmark on Volume Control. If it's already there, take the ... (view more)

With respect to the title of this newsletter: you might be wondering, "What the heck is a poll?" -- better yet, what is a "mail queue?&quo t; Those are definitely good questions. A poll (in computer lingo) is responsible for sending the computer ... a special request -- usually at a specific time frame. A mail queue is a place where emails are deposited on a computer (for example, a web server) where it awaits to be sent or resent at a later time. How it all Works Whenever I send out the Gazette newsletter, some emails don't get through to their destination. These emails are then ... (view more)

This Sunday, I received the "friendship4u" (W32.Yaha.E) email virus about 30 times. I couldn't believe how this little bugger of a virus kept emailing itself to my mailbox. Thank goodness I have a virus scanner in place and Outlook Express 6 which ... do a decent job of protecting me from dangerous email attachments . Although this is a somewhat effective combination of software to combat an email worm virus, it didn't stop the fact that the virus kept showing up in my INBOX under Outlook Express. Every time I received the virus, I would have to weed through good emails and delete all ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bob T. write s: " Dear Dennis, First of all, thanks for all the great info. I have a security question for windows. With all the security I have, such as a firewall, and virus protection, I thought I was pretty safe when online. ... However, the other day I stumbled upon a web site that had the contents of my hard drive revealed to me through a link. The software is called Spy Detect . This is from a security firm that is selling software to stop this sort of thing from happening. I would like to know -- is my computer at risk? " My Response: This is a scam that preys ... (view more)

After typing up some heavy-duty Gazette articles this week, I thought I'd take a break and just shoot the breeze. Yeah, yesterday's article was pretty hardcore. I kind of figured that it would be over the head of some readers... but maybe that's the ... kind of stuff you need to appreciate. Hey, I never understood everything while I was at the University of Windsor as a Computer Science undergraduate. My biggest problem when learning / reading new information was accepting the fact that I didn't understand it. It's hard to visualize things that you don't understand. Eventually I just accepted ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Diane K. asks, " How can I uninstall Hotbar? It is now an integral part of my Internet Explorer. PS: Thanks for your great newsletter. " My Response: First things first: Hotbar is Adware [now more commonly known as 'Spyware']. It ... explicitly states so on their web site, although, you have to "read their terms of agreement". There are three methods you can use to uninstall Hotbar: 1. Try to uninstall it from your system using Add / Remove programs in the Control Panel; if it isn't listed there, look for an Uninstall program in the Program Files (Start - ... (view more)

It appears that the last issue of the newsletter sparked some real interest amongst many Infopackets Readers (RE: tracert.exe and ping.exe ). At this time, I would like to address the problem that Infopackets Reader Stephen C. wrote to me about not ... being able to access any MS DOS commands from the command prompt under Windows. He writes: " When I [attempt to] run [MS DOS commands, such as ping.exe or tracert.exe] under the command window, I get an error message which reads: 'ping' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Any ideas? I have ... (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)