FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  352 (25/02/03)

Q

In the summer I travel around Europe and need to be able to email and download web information in various EU countries. At the moment I ring back to the UK, both expensive and apparently not liked by my provider. I would have though a local hook up should be possible, but is it?

David Darby

A

Several of the larger ISPs, notably AOL and CompuServe have local ‘points of presence’ or dial-up numbers for most countries throughout the world, where you can access your email and surf the net for the cost of a local call (plus a small online charge). Alternatively, you could subscribe to a service like Net2Roam (http://www.net2roam.com/), which also provides Internet access using local numbers, in around 150 countries. The price of a basic 14-day package that gives 30 to 50 minutes online costs from £15, plus your call charges.

Q

I recently contacted an Italian company for information by email. It posted a mailing, which supplied all I wanted to know, and killed my interest, but they keep sending me long e-mail newsletters with no instructions for cancelling what they call my "subscription". They have ignored my every request to stop sending them. How do I cancel?
Alec Napier

A

Spam email is like any other sort of junk mail and very difficult to stop once it has started. Contacting the sender rarely helps, especially if they’re overseas, and may even result in an increase in junk, as they will know for sure that your email address is ‘live’. Of course you could change your email address, though that’s not very convenient, especially if you rely on it for business or you’ve built up a large contact base. One simple preventative measure is to open a free email account specifically for this kind of thing – making enquiries, entering competitions, responding to adverts etc., -- which you can easily close when it gets clogged up. Another solution is to use an email filtering program like MailWasher (http://www.mailwasher.net/). This freeware program checks the mail on your ISP’s server computer without downloading it then decides whether to delete it or not according to a set of rules and a ‘blacklist’ of undesirable senders, which you can control and add to. In addition it has a useful facility that ‘bounces’ unwanted emails back to the sender, flagging them as undeliverable or address unknown, which will hopefully prompt them to remove you from the mailing list.

Q

I find regularly that I receive two copies of photos because for some reason Outlook Express decides that if you tell it to attach a photo it insists on also placing it in the body of the email as well as an attachment. Why does it do this and how can we stop it happening? 

Brian Henderson, Caterham, Surrey

A

To disable this feature go to Options on the Tools menu, select the Send tab then click the HTML Settings button next to Mail Sending Format and deselect ‘Send Pictures with Messages’. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to stop Outlook Express displaying pictures in the body of emails without adversely affecting web page settings but they’re easy enough to ignore since they’re placed after the text message.

Q

For no apparent reason my computer regularly refuses to boot up displaying  "Disk Boot Failure".  I have found that if the room temperature is raised above 65 degrees it boots up perfectly well but this is time consuming and inconvenient. What could be causing this and how can I fix it?  The computer is about four years old and otherwise works perfectly.

Jonathan Wyatt

A

It sounds very much like a thermal fault, either on the motherboard or more likely, the hard disc drive. Since a disc drive is cheaper and easier to replace I would do that (after you’ve backed up you data) and do it soon, just in case this is a portent of a catastrophic failure. 

Q

I want to be able to know when I have an incoming call when I am connected to the Internet. I've been told I need a V92 modem. This I have, but still the call doesn't alert me. The computer manufacturer say’s it's down to my ISP. My ISP tells me it's the responsibility of the computer company or BT, and BT is telling me it should work! HELP!
Jill Henehan

A

The ‘Modem On Hold’ feature on V92 modems requires that you subscribe to BT’s Call Waiting service otherwise it won’t work. If do you have Call Waiting then you should have a look at the FAQs and troubleshooting tips on the modem manufacturer’s web site. 

Q

You once gave a "code" that could be entered alongside the address on a web page, which would show the date on which the page was last updated.  I have been looking at some estate agent sites in France, which do not seem to change months on end although property there is now selling like hot cakes.

Tony Starkey

A

Open the page, use backspace to delete the address and enter the following ‘javascript:alert(document.lastModified)’ without the quotes, hit Enter and the date will be shown. Incidentally, this only works on Javascript enabled browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape.

Q

A couple of weeks ago in Boot Camp you mentioned that programs like Pkunzip and WinZip have good encryption facilities. This is something I would find useful and I have found a free programme called PGP. Can this be cracked and is it more secure than WinZip?
Andrew Thomas, Chatswood, NSW, Australia

A

Encryption is a secondary function in data compression programs like WinZip so no, in the scheme of things it’s not terribly strong but it is good enough to deter all but the most determined intruders. On the other hand PGP or Pretty Good Privacy is a dedicated and extremely powerful, ‘munitions grade’ encryption program. A few years ago it was actually banned for export by the US Government because it was virtually uncrackable though the furore seems to have died down now, which suggests that they at least probably have the wherewithal to decrypt PGP, though it is still good enough to defeat everyone else, without access to a bank of super computers.