FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  235 (26/10/00)

WHAT’S A PING?

Further to your suggestion in a recent 'Boot Camp' I downloaded ZoneAlarm, which seems to work fine but I have one query. When I access the Internet I get a message that Zone Alarm has blocked a request from my computer to allow  'Ping'. What does 'Ping' do and should it be allowed to request access?
Derek Raine

PING stands for Packet INternet Groper. It’s a rather contrived acronym, ‘ping’ is a reference to sonar equipment, which uses high frequency sounds or ‘pings’ to locate objects and vessels underwater. An Internet Ping works in a similar way, it’s a packet of data sent by a computer to check the identity of other PCs that are on-line and listening. When an unprotected computer is ‘pinged’ it sends back a burst of data called an ‘Echo Response’. This contains, amongst other things, the PC’s Internet address and a time stamp. PCs protected by Firewall programs like Zone Alarm can be set to intercept pings; unless you want to allow others access your PC say no to any ping request

REGIONAL CONFLICT

Every time I boot up my PC I get a message that states "Are you still in the UK" to which I have to answer yes in order to proceed. Can you advise how I can get rid of this message?

Guy Davis

The PC is clearly confused, probably by conflicting language and keyboard settings. Check Regional Settings and Keyboard in Control Panel or put the thing out of its misery and answer yes…

PRIVATE ADDRRESS

When put just one ‘w’ in the Address bar in Internet Explorer, I get a drop down menu of some of the sites I have visited. I have gone to Internet Options and deleted both History and Temporary Internet Files. Can you please tell me how I can get rid of these entries, as personal details may be accessible through some of these sites?

John Winter

This particular list of addresses is meant to make web surfing easier by automatically completing a partially typed address. Unfortunately it’s not very easy to get at since it’s buried deep in the Widows Registry. The Registry is a no-go area for novices; if you want to know more have a look at Boot Camps 214 & 215, June 1^st and 9^th, on this web site, and never attempt to edit the Registry without first making a backup.

Assuming that you do know what you are doing start the Registry Editor by typing ‘regedit’ in Run on the Start menu and navigate your way through the following keys:

HKEY-CURRENT-USER/software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Typed URLs

The addresses or URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) displayed can edited or deleted by right clicking on the icons. You’ll see that they are numbered; if you delete one those after it will no longer be displayed, you can renumber them by right clicking on the icons and selecting rename.

LOST WITHOUT BLUE

I am enquiring about the disappearance of the blue bar in Microsoft Internet Explorer that indicates connection to a web site. I have tried shrinking the screen, but it did no good. Any ideas?

James Coulthard

The value of the blue progress bar is debateable since it continues to grow even when no data is being received... However, you should be able to get it back by going to the View menu and clicking on Status Bar.

CAPITAL GAIN?

When writing text in Microsoft Word, if before arriving at the end of the line you press Return and go to the next line, it gives an upper case on the first letter. How can I get rid of this annoying feature?
Richard Fuher

Word is just trying to be its usual helpful self and assuming that the first word on a new line is the start of a new sentence. You can switch this off by going to AutoText on the Insert menu, click AutoText, make sure the AutoCorrect tab is displayed and deselect the item ‘Capitalize first letter of Sentences’

EASY PRINT?

How can I print the list of files in the directory of a floppy disk? I need to be able to format them to print on a label designed for 3.5" disks. It must be easy, surely?
David Morganm

We haven’t managed to find anything that will print directly to a 3.5-inch floppy label template – if anyone knows of such a utility please let us know – but there is an excellent add-on for Windows Explorer called rjhExtensions, which prints out directory listings in a small font; if there not to many files it should fit easily on a floppy. It can also shred, duplicate and encrypt files and folders and much more besides. The options appear in the Context menu, by right clicking on a file icon. Versions for Windows 95/98/ME and 2000 are available from shareware sites like Tucows (www.tucows.com), and best of all it is freeware. The ‘zip’ file is just under 700kb so it only takes a few minutes to download.

THE NUMBERS RACKET

Help! We use Word 2000. No problem inserting page number on documents going via Insert, Page numbers, but how do you delete them?

Guinette Davies

It is a surprisingly long-winded business and doubtless users of other word processing programs will write in to tell us how easy it is in theirs… The trick is to select Headers and Footers on the View menu, scroll down until a page number comes into view then click on the ‘Switch between Header and Footer icon on the toolbar (third from the left), and the footer containing the page number is outlined. Next, click on the page number and use the Backspace or Delete key to get rid of it then click on Close on the Header and Footer toolbar and all of the page numbers in the document should vanish.

NORTON AND ME

Further to your comments about Windows ME and Norton Antivirus 2000 (F!F!F! October 12th), when I was about to upgrade to ME I uninstalled Norton, upgraded to ME and then reinstalled Norton. I have no problems and everything is working fine.
Mike Ward

Thanks for the useful advice, ME upgraders take note.

PRIMAL SCREEN

I have recently started to play around with the appearance my desktop and have downloaded a new desktop theme.  I installed my new desktop with ease and was very impressed with it, this was until I restarted the computer and found that the Windows 98 start-up and shutdown screens had been replaced with over-stretched images. I have managed to replace both the shutdown screens, Logos.sys and Logow.sys but I can't restore the original start-up image. I've tried looking in all the rest of the *.sys files in the Windows folder but I'm unable to locate it, any suggestions?
Simon Westcott

Windows ‘Splash’ screens are stored in two locations. The shutdown screens (Logo.sys – ‘Windows is shutting down’, and Logos.sys – ‘It is now safe…etc’) are in the Windows folder whilst the startup screen (Lo.sys) lives in the root directory of the C: drive. If you delete, or better still, rename the existing file (call it lo.old or similar) then Windows will revert to the default clouds image, which is stored in an inaccessible system folder.