FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  318 (18/06/02)

Q

When checking numbers on an itemised telephone bill I often come on a number I cannot recall and some do not even have a geographical content. Is there a program or method of ascertaining the name of a number or if it’s
ex-directory?

Garrick Bowyer

A

Finding a name or address from a phone number is known as a ‘reverse search’ and it’s not something BT allow nor will they assist you. However, for a fee you can reverse-search the telephone database at 192.com (http://www.192.com/), which contains over 55 million residential and business listings, has been compiled from public records

Q

I went online for my email, which appeared to contain nothing unusual, just my weekly mails from Nature and Science, and my freeware Zone Alarm put up a red alarm banner saying I was being "pinged".  What does it mean?

John Law

A

It’s nothing to worry about, this is ZoneAlarm doing its job and protecting your PC against intrusion from hackers and various other nasties floating around the web. Pinging is a technique to find out if a PC connected to a network or the Internet is listening and accessible, (incidentally, ping is a reference to sonar detection). Mostly these pings are generated automatically by hacker programs looking for PCs to infiltrate and it’s not unusual to be pinged several times a day. It’s usually pointless trying to track the location of the pinger – more often than not it’s somewhere in Eastern Europe or Russia. 

Q

Recently Outlook Express has refused to open any attachments to my emails. When I click the paper-clip the attachment details are grey and cannot be opened. I then highlight the appropriate message in the list on Incoming messages, then click Open. The message opens ok but has the notice "OE removed access to the following unsafe attachment in your mail". I sent a test message to myself with an attachment from My Documents (perfectly safe) but got the same refusal.

I had recently installed AVG anti-virus, and fearing that it might have set up a problem uninstalled it. However the problem did not go away. Can you suggest anything?

John Broster (70 year-old novice)

A

It sounds as though OE has been inadvertently set to prevent access to all attachments. Go to Options on the Tools menu and select the Security tab. There you will find the item ‘Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened…’, uncheck the box and click Apply.

Q

I want to send and receive Russian (Cyrillic) script e-mails but, although I can produce same on my WP, when I send it as an attachment, it goes to gibberish. Any advice?
Peter Goonan

A

You need to enable Multilanguage support. To do that dig out your Windows CD-ROM and go to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, select the Windows Setup tab and click Multilanguage Support then OK and follow the instructions, not forgetting to select Cyrillic when asked. Incidentally there’s a useful article on how to ‘russify’ your PC at: http://www.russialink.org.uk/ keyboard/russify.htm

Q

Not long ago I had a problem with my scanner. A friend suggested me "uninstalling" it, and then re-installing it. Alas I am a computer dunce. I confused uninstall with "delete" and went to Windows Explorer, found a folder called "scanner" and deleted it. Now, every time I try to run Windows 95, about 20 seconds after switching on, I get a long error message listing "C:\SCANNER\SCANDEV.38’ and the instruction ‘Press key to continue’.

When I press a key, all is okay and the PC starts normally. Is there a way I can get my scanner back working again? I also want to be able to switch on my PC and go out of the room while it warms up.... and NOT have to wait 25 seconds for this screed to appear.
Miss Lara Bolicheva, Grimsby

A

As you’ve probably guessed the error message was caused by the deletion of the Scanner folder. This doesn’t remove all of the other files that the program load into other parts of your system, nor does it undo changes made to the Registry and Windows System files. As far as Windows is concerned the program should still be there but it can’t find files it’s being asked to load at boot up. With a little luck the solution should be fairly straightforward, simply re-install the scanner program and normal service should be resumed. The next time you want to uninstall a program go to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

Q

In reply to a query from Steve Hooley about print size in Outlook Express (Connected June 4), you mention it's controlled by Internet Explorer, and suggest going to View/Text Size.  However, if he wants more than just a size change, he can also change the font, again via Internet Explorer.  Go to Tools/ Internet Options, General tab, Accessibility button, from which you can check the box to ignore the font, and it will then print in whatever you select yourself, using (on the same General tab in Internet Options) the
Fonts button.

This not only applies to emails in Outlook Express, but also to CD-ROMs that use Internet Explorer -- something you would never think of looking for under Internet Options when you're not even using the Internet! But if you select an inappropriate font/size, you may, in the case of a CD-ROM, get lines truncated/overlapping.
Dick Wilson, Stafford.

A

Thanks to Dick Wilson and several other readers who pointed out this facility.

Q

In your article on Windows Start-up, (Boot Camp May 28th) you suggest speeding things up by clearing out the Startup folder. I found in mine, Epson Status Monitor 3 Environment Check, Event Reminder, M.S.Office, Shockwave Init, Textbridge Instant Access Occ, and Watch. I sent these to the Recycle Bin, and all seemed to be well. Shortly afterwards however, my young grandson inadvertently unplugged the PC. When I re-booted, it started up, but did not give me the usual warning that I had switched off incorrectly and that it was checking the files etc. Perhaps somewhat recklessly, I switched it off again by pressing the start button on the tower, and restarted, and again there was no sign of the usual warning. I am worried Have I deleted something that I should not have deleted, and if so what?
John Martin

A

Deleting those Startup items had nothing to do with it. Scandisk is set by default to run a check on the PC’s file system after an incorrect or unexpected shutdown, however it may not bother if the PC was switched off a few moments after boot up as the PC won’t have run any applications and the filing system will be unchanged. The other possibility is that the Scandisk auto check has somehow been switched off, in Windows 98/SE/ME this option is in the MS configuration utility, go to Run on the Start menu, type ‘msconfig’ (sans quotes), click the Advanced button and uncheck the item ‘Disable Scandisk after bad shutdown’.

Q

Each time I click on to Word Pad a message appears on the screen,  'Illegal Operation'. Word Pad caused invalid page fault in module MFC42.DLL. at 0167: 5f 414431. Is their any way I can correct this fault myself?
Fred Jordan

A

Maybe… It’s caused by corrupt Registry entries, which you will have to delete after uninstalling and re-installing WordPad, there’s a useful article in the Microsoft Knowledgebase at:  http://support.microsoft.com/ default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q218632

Editing the Registry is not difficult but you must make a backup first, for more details have a look at Boot Camps 126 and 127.