HARDWARE
I was reading about a 900-Mhz device with a base that you put into your laptop so that your laptop is basically cordless, even when you're on the Internet. While searching the Internet for information on it, I found a 1997 IBM press release about a device that they no longer sell, bundled with a package that is necessary for integrity, I guess. Does anyone know the name of the new company that is currently selling it? It's a transceiver that you plug into the RJ11 jack of your laptop. The sales people said they don't have it downloadable.
Ken Hopkins: IBM gave it up because they couldn't get over 9600 baud and people didn't like that restriction.
Milt Hull: But if IBM releases something, they usually have the software for it on their Web site somewhere. Trying to find it would be the hard part.
MISCELLANEOUS
I exported my Registry to Word so I could look at it. There were 5,983 pages. Is that unusual?
Milt Hull: You exported every key, right? Every time you hit "key" it creates another page. Then it will go to the next page and create a page just for that key. So every key you have might print out one page just for that key. Depending on how much software you have, there can be up to 10,000 keys. By "key" we mean how the Registry works. In the old way, there would be a WIN.INI file and an association with information about pointers and so on. The new way is with keys. I don't recommend you ever actually open RegEdit, because it's pretty damaging if you make a mistake; drag and drop is real simple to accidentally do. But if you ever want to look at it, open Start, Run, type in RegEdit. Hit the plus key, go down to the Windows settings, and you will get an idea of what the Registry is about. It's pretty sophisticated. The whole Windows environment runs on that.
While attempting to download Sacra Blue, using Quiknet, it gets about one third of the way through and dumps me. If I watch real close, I see a note stating I have 15 seconds before disconnect. Is there any way of splitting Sacra Blue into chapters that would be easier to download?
Milt Hull: No. In Explorer, Tools, Internet Options, Connections, Settings, Advanced, uncheck "If Idle." This is the setting that caused the problem. Even though you are downloading, because you are not clicking on anything it considers you to be idle. So be sure that this little check box is turned off. There is also the possibility the ISP may be doing something.
Brian Smither: If that little box is already off, then Quicknet is the problem. Just keep busy while downloading Sacra Blue. Feel free to continue browsing the web while the download is progress.
Tom Anderson: Quiknet disconnects you very quickly. I have that problem with them all the time.
Audience: There is also a shareware program you can run to keep you connected. I forgot the name, but there are many on the market.
Milt Hull: Do keep in mind that without this automatic idle disconnect setting, you could leave your Internet connection on for longer than you intended. You might also check with your ISP. If they are the ones dropping the connection, discuss the situation with them. Sometimes they are willing to work with you. CalWeb does and so will River City Internet Providers.
SOFTWARE
What utility software would you recommend for a brand new Athlon besides the obvious anti-virus?
Ken Hopkins: The problem is that right now the best operating system is Windows 2000 and the utilities for it are virtually nil. We're still waiting.
I started with Windows 98, so why don't we start from there?
Ken Hopkins: I like Norton myself, as long as you don't install everything. Installing the entire suite will eat up your machine; they are resource hogs. Turn off all that automatic stuff and only use it when you need it.
Thanks to your help last time, I got a copy of Partition Magic and made my C drive larger, but I did it the wrong way. I merged several partitions. I wouldn't recommend that. I merged C and D, then E moved over to fill up D, then F moved to fill up E, and the long and short of it was that a lot of programs don't work anymore. I have never been able to get my scanner to work right since then. It was on the F drive.
Milt Hull: There is something called "Magic Mover," which is an application mover. So it finds an application that was on E and moves it to D, and makes all the pointers point to the right drive. You have to do this beforehand.
Has anyone else used the GoBack software? Does anyone like it?
Audience reaction: One member has his hard drive wiped out, but a lot of people use and like it. In summary, it's recommended that you have a good backup before you install it.
I have a friend who was playing around with a later version of Excel and succeeded in removing the menu choice for File and all the items under it. Is there any way of restoring it without reinstalling the program?
Ken Hopkins: It's kept in the Registry so fixing it would require Registry hacking. It would be more trouble than it's worth just to avoid reinstalling.
I have Corel 8. When I save something, I want to put it in a GIF file but Corel will not let me do that. Why doesn't Corel do GIF's and JPEG's?
Ken Hopkins: Because Corel didn't have a license for it from CompuServe. You can do this if you upgrade to CorelDraw 9, which has the capability.
Is it possible to have two different versions of MS Word on your computer and to run either of them as you desire? I used to do this with Word for Windows 2.0 and MS Word 6.0 by moving the former program to a Zip Disk and running it from there.
However with Windows 98 Loaded and MS Word 2000 installed in the hard drive of my new Gateway Avalon 600 machine, all attempts to install Word 7 to a zip drive are refused because of the existence of Word 2000 in the Registry. Would it be possible to create a directory on a zip disk with another name (not using the word "Word" in the folder name) and install Word 7 to that drive from its CD-ROM disk?
Yes, it is possible. Installing Word into a directory of another name will not solve your problem. You do, however, need to install the second copy of Office into a completely different directory than the other version of Office. Whether or not it is on a different drive has no bearing. I do not advise installing Office into a drive that is removable media - such as a ZIP drive. There are shared files that may need to be used.
Why you are having problems is beyond me at the moment. There must be something else going on. You may have a registry problem that needs to be addressed first.
