Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Bonnie V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I keep getting unsolicited emails that claim they are from a web address which in fact does not exist. Is there a mail rule that I can create in Outlook Express to check for valid web addresses, ... and block the ones that aren't valid (I.E.: a 'faked' web address)? " My Response: Rather than attempting to block all the offending emails, why not just create an anti-spam filter to delete all emails that are not from a list of your friends? Example: Apply this rule after the message arrives; Where the From line does not contain ' friend1 ... (view more)

Are you sick of hearing about my mis-adventures yet? I've got more to talk about, and if you want to keep informed about the status of the web site and newsletter delivery, you'll have to read up on it. So, here goes: The current host will literally ... pull the plug on the (current) web server effective November 30th which is at the end of the 30-day "money back guarantee" period. Access to the infopackets web site might be interrupted temporarily until the rest of the Internet catches up to par with my nameserver update. If you don't know what a nameserver is, or if you want to know ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Lavandran R. write s: " Dear Dennis, I have a program called Bargain Buddy installed on my computer, and I don't know where it came from! I'm not sure, but I think it's Spyware. When I tried to uninstall it, it refuses to ... uninstall and gives me error messages saying that I should make sure that the disk isn't full (which it isn't). It also asked me to make sure that the disk is not write protected and to make sure that the program is not actively in use. I'm confused! " My Response: Personally, I'd like to take Bargain Buddy and his cousin Bonzi Buddy and shoot ... (view more)

Recall Jack G.'s question from last week: " Every now and then my mouse is frozen when I boot up Windows XP. Is their anything I can do to fix this problem? " Since then, I've received a whole whack of suggestions from readers of the Gazette. In ... fact, I couldn't believe how many people share the same problem as Jack. Unfortunately, it would appear that there is not a one-set solution to this problem. So, I'll give you the best of the suggestions I received and hopefully it may resolve some of your problems. Suggestion #1: CTRL + ALT + DEL The most popular (temporary) solution was to ... (view more)

Does the drama ever end? No, and it's costing me a bundle. Unfortunately, I have to drop my current web-host because (among other reasons), bandwidth has been capped at 1.5 megabits. According to current server statistics, a 1.5 megabit connection ... isn't enough to meet the demand of knowledge hungry Infopackets Readers and the other web-owners who are sharing the dedicated web-server. And now, the rest of the story (for now)... If you read the last issue of the Gazette , the infopackets web site was originally configured for a 10 megabit connection. According to my current host, the server was ... (view more)

Much has been happening since I last wrote to you about the web server upgrade. If you want to read up on what's been happening, here's Part 1 and Part 2 . A quick recap Due to an increased in the amount of visitors hitting the infopackets web site, ... I had to upgrade the web server. I am now leasing a lightening fast Pentium 4 1.7 GHz Apache Web Server with 512 Meg DDR RAM a 60 gig hard drive. My web server package includes a "T1 Connection" which allots a continuous flow of 1.5 megabits of bandwidth per second at any given moment. The saga continues! Since the server has been ... (view more)

Recall yesterday's Visitor Feedback question which dealt with a disappearing Shutdown menu: " I'm running Windows 2000 Pro. When I try to shut down the machine by clicking on Start -> Shutdown, I no longer have the option to Shutdown, Restart, or ... Hibernate! In fact, the machine automatically does a restart, offering *no* choices when Start -> Shutdown is clicked... " There were many good suggestions sent in from the Infopackets Readers. Since I've never experienced this problem before, I can only guess at the most probable answers, starting with Pattie W.'s suggestion: " ... (view more)

" How can I make my computer faster? " The simplest answer to this question is to add more RAM to your PC. RAM allows your computer to process things faster by holding frequently used information for a longer period of time. The longer data is held ... in memory, the greater chance that this data will be used again for computation. The end result is that data is loaded and unloaded at a faster rate, which saves you time. In order to answer the question of how much RAM is required for a computer, we need to inspect two main areas of interest: how much RAM is already inside your machine, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Larry O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 2000 Pro. When I try to shut down the machine by clicking on Start -> Shutdown, I no longer have the option to Shutdown, Restart, or Hibernate! In fact, the machine ... automatically does a restart, offering *no* choices when Start -> Shutdown is clicked. The only way I can actually shut this computer down is to either pull the plug from the outlet or to hit the sleep button on the keyboard. Any ideas? " My Response: I have no idea on this one -- aside from maybe a Registry Tweak (where to start?) or, worse yet ... (view more)

Have you ever had a RAID before? RAID is a technology used to increase hard drive performance and fault-tolerance. What is fault-tolerance? The hard drive inside your computer is responsible for storing programs and user data. RAID performance ... refers to the time that it takes the hard drive to read and write information; fault-tolerance deals with the means to protect data stored on the hard drive. RAID is an acronym which stands for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks. Generally speaking, the word 'Array' is a techy-term which represents related information formed in a ... (view more)