FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  349 (04/02/03)

Q

Three of us in our family work from home; one works on the Internet, one is a heavy Internet and email user and one a light user. Add in a 13 year old son who uses the net for homework research and a daughter who sends a lot of emails and uses the net to talk to friends who live abroad. At present we have three separate FreeServe Anytime accounts on three different phone lines but wonder about changing to broadband. Right now two of us use PCs – an Evesham (Windows XP Home) and an HP (Windows 98); one uses a laptop – Mesh (Windows 2000 Professional) and one is about to start using the Apple Powerbook he took delivery of today. The 13 year old is saving like mad for a PC and would like to game online. Two work downstairs and one upstairs – and I have visions of working outdoors in the summer but need constant email access. What is our best and cheapest method of getting Internet access for five?

Kati Nicholl

A

Broadband and ‘WiFi’ (802.11b) wireless networking will solve all of your problems, and you’ll be able to dispense with at least one of the phone lines. It should even work out cheaper than three dial-up connections and needless to say it will be a lot faster, even with several people sharing one connection. The simplest approach would be to nominate one PC as the ‘Server’; this is normally the one with the connection to the Internet. To this PC you need to connect a wireless broadband router – cost around £150 – and each of the ‘Client’ PCs, that you want to share the connection will have to be fitted with wireless network cards or USB adaptors (cost £50 to £80 each). Alternatively if one or more of the PCs are physically close they can be connected by cable using network cards (around £10 each).

The most flexible wireless option is to use PCMCIA wireless cards, which plug directly into the PC card slot on a PC (the best type of connection for the Powerbook). The desktop PCs can be fitted with PCI/PCMCIA adaptors (£25 to £30). This means that you won’t have to equip every PC with a wireless card, just insert a card into the PCs that need to go online. You will need to configure all of the PCs for network operation first then you can set about Internet connection sharing using a software utility called a Proxy Server (readily available as freeware and shareware). Internet Explorer and Outlook Express on each of the client PCs will also need configuring but this only takes a few minutes. This is something we covered in detail in Boot Camps 228 to 231.

Q

I find that I have 24 programs running on my PC. I recall seeing in previous F!F!F! advice on how to reduce the number of programs run on startup. Your suggestion was to go to Start>Run>Msconfig. I use Windows 95, but when I try to follow this advice I get the message " Could not find Msconfig or any of its components.

Leslif Lines

A

Msconfig was included in Windows from 98 onwards, though I have it on good authority that msconfig.exe will run under Windows 95m it can be copied from Windows 98 (you’ll find it in the System folder). Alternatively try a freeware utility like Startup Control Panel, which can be downloaded from http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Q
I run a website which I am using for a little small-scale file sharing with family and friends. I am also using this site for hosting my own backups of important, but not vital, files including personal correspondence. I am storing these files in password-protected .zip files in a sub-directory, which is not linked to any other pages. Do you consider this system suitable for backup of private material?
A. J. B.

A

Off-site storage on a web site is definitely a good idea in a belt-and-braces approach to backup and the encryption algorithms in programs like PKunzip and WinZip are reasonably secure, certainly it will deter most casual attempts at hacking into your files so provided it’s not used for sensitive material it should be quite safe. However, it’s still preferable to have some form of local backup, preferably on a medium like CD-R/RW, which will allow you to restore or access your files on almost any PC, irrespective of whether or not it has an Internet connection. It’ll also be a lot quicker, especially if there’s a large volume of files and you’re not using broadband

Q

I am defeated when trying to access by Internet. The Message: "Internet Explorer Script Error ... Do you want to proceed Yes! No! " appears and I get no further.

William Hatty

A

Try this, open IE and go to the Tools menu then Internet Options > Advanced. Under 'Browsing' you should see an item 'Display a notification about every Script Error', and make sure this is unchecked.

Q

I purchased my PC about two years ago and decided to specify a 100Mb Zip drive to give me a more convenient means of backing up personal data.

Recently I needed more disks for it and was surprised to find that they are becoming difficult to obtain, the 100Mb system apparently being superseded by the 250Mb system. This causes me to question this form of storage as a viable back up solution!  If my PC fails terminally I will no doubt have little chance of being able to read my 100Mb disks on a replacement PC or on a PC of a friend. Despite the advances in storage technology PCs are still shipped with 1.4 MB floppy drives.  Must I revert to the old floppy disks if I need a viable form of back up?

Richard Ball

A

I’m very much afraid that the Zip drive has had its day. Apart from anything else even 250Mb is not enough to back up the increasingly large files we accumulate on our PCs these days. Zip drives also have a bit of a reputation for unreliability, (the dreaded ‘Click of Death’ syndrome) the discs are quite expensive and since relatively few PCs have Zip drives it makes it difficult to restore files to another PC. Forget backing up on floppies, they simply do not have enough room. The alternative is recordable CD. Drives are relatively cheap (£50 upwards) and blank discs, with a capacity of 650MB or more only cost a few pence each when bought in bulk, moreover they can be read on almost any up to date PC. Using the Packet Writing or UDF filing system they can be treated just like giant floppies.