Membership Director Mike Zellmer gave a brief description of what happens when one joins the group. "Basically, we take your money and send you a membership card. For $30 a year, you have access to Sacra Blue and chances of going home with any one of several nice door prizes."

Brian Smither takes care of the Web site, creates eBlue— the Web-based version of Sacra Blue— and generates the passwords for access to the latest two issues. (Milt hopes that he won't burn out from the work load.) Brian asked the audience of who regularly visits the SPCUG Web site. He specifically wanted to know if anyone caught the typo on the home page as the description of tonight's meeting was dated for September. He was distressed to see that no one had noticed.

Brian said managing the Web site is a labor of love, as well as everything else he does for the group. Brian almost said that the work is rather easy but quickly corrected himself and said that no, it's not really as easy as some may think. But if anyone is interested in helping the Webmaster, or interested in helping the group in any capacity, their participation would surely be appreciated.

The audience was reminded that the group makes available three SPCUG Answer Guys, of whom Brian is AnswerGuy #1 and #2, while Milt is #3. AnswerGuy #1 handles the simpler questions and responses are usually delivered within the same day. AnswerGuy #2 handles more difficult questions which may require some extensive research and responses may take up to a week. AnswerGuy #3 handles difficult multi-workstation, LAN networking, and server questions, and covers other topics most people have never heard of. A typical AnswerGuy #3 question: If you are in your car traveling at the speed of light with your headlights on, can you see in front of you?

Milt ran down the list of future speakers. For October, Microsoft tentatively has the entire night but Ken has a line on a second speaker he thinks can be squeezed in. Milt's trip to COMDEX should generate leads for next year's schedule.

Milt brought up a new annoyance afflicting users of Windows NT, 2000, and XP connected to the Internet. All Windows operating systems from Win3.1 on up have a messaging service. It was once called "Win Popup" but is now called "messenger service." By default, Win2K/XP have this service enabled. Unless protected by a firewall or NAT'd router, spammers can "net send" a system message to your machine. These messages are not related to Instant Messaging provided by the likes of AOL or MSN. This messenger service function is a necessary component to managing a LAN. It's now been hijacked. You can read an article about it at The Register.

Q. When doing a fresh install of Windows XP on a 7200 rpm hard drive mounted in a removable rack, I eventually get "file not found" errors. I also tried installing while the drive was connected directly to the motherboard. I am using the 80-pin ATA-Fast IDE cable. Still same problem.

A. There might be a compatibility issue that XP has with the motherboard's IDE chipset. There might also be an issue with the IBM 7200 rpm drive with that chipset. Some additional information can be found at Hardware Analysis which implicates the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard (rev 2.0) causing a BLACK screen and the cessation of all hard drive activity. Other anecdotal evidence suggests conflicts with high-end video cards. Others who report

"\i386\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded.
The error code is 4. Press any key to exit"

had successful installs if the BIOS is set to "safe defaults" while letting the XP installer create the partitions and format the drive.

Q. A Lexmark Z45 printer connected by USB. When connected to the Internet, the printer locks up during a print job and takes the whole printer with it. When not connected to the Internet, all print jobs complete successfully. (But once in a while, printing an e-mail message will cause a lock-up.) The computer connects by internal modem.

A. Standard Answer #5: Make sure there are no resource conflicts identified by the Device Manager.

Standard Answer #7b: Make sure you have the latest printer drivers from Lexmark's site.

Standard Answer #7c: Make sure you have the latest motherboard drivers (probably VIA 4-in-1 set and the USB drivers from VIA Arena).

If the internal modem is a "Winmodem," consider replacing it, if possible, with a "hardware modem." You might also consider connecting the printer to a powered USB hub and connect the hub to the computer. Please stay away from USB switch boxes.

Q. I keep getting this message box that pops up and says, "Message from PowerChute at walter.com. Walter has lost communication with the UPS."

A. There is a Walter.Com (Walter International, maker of abrasives, chemical tools, power tools, and machining tools) and there is a program called PowerChute supplied for Uninterruptible Power Supplies made by American Power Conversion Corp. (APC) (registration required to download). Obviously, walter.com has misconfigured PowerChute's settings to send alerts to you at your IP address.

If you are not running a firewall or have not placed a router between your computer running Windows XP and your Internet access, you are vulnerable to receiving these messenger service alerts. We suggest you learn how to list services available on XP and specifically how to disable the messaging service. Even though XP may have its firewall active, it's not the greatest and may, in fact, be allowing these messages through.

Q. In order to share my printer on another machine with WinXP on this machine, I need NetBEUI. How do I install NetBEUI on WinXP?

A. The protocol's availability has been discontinued in a standard Windows XP installation. We cannot answer why Microsoft decided to do this other than the other protocols are more efficient. The files are located on the XP CD-ROM in the Valueadd\MSFT\Net\NetBEUI folder. Copy Nbf.sys to the "System32\ Drivers" directory and Netnbf.inf to the "Inf" hidden directory. Then install the protocol as you would any other.

Q. Which is preferable, a USB-based Cable/DSL modem or an ethernet-based modem with installed NIC?

A. Get the NIC installed for overall versatility and expandability for your home network (eventually, other family members will be wanting their own computer, right?). With a hub or switch, all systems can independently access the 'net. Even if the ISP's Customer Service fails to ask which "Personal Installation" package you want, be sure you specify the networking card and external ethernet modem version.

C. Dennis Duffy is looking for experienced users of WebCam security setups. Contact him at dennis@biz-builder.com.

Q. I downloaded a DVD-player program but quickly found that my system had acquired "Gator." How do I get rid of it?

A. Sometimes freeware and shareware have a small "install stub" attached, called Trickler. Trickler is a program that will silently load whenever you start your computer, and will slowly download the rest of the spyware package. All this happens unbeknownst to the user. The spyware is completely separate from the functionality of the program they really wanted but is included because of an association between the author and online marketing firms. Gator may look and act innocent, but it's far from it— not to mention it is excruciatingly annoying. For a list of spyware, see CEXX/Adware.

Be advised of a couple trends in the virus/anti-virus and spyware/anti-spyware wars. The bad stuff attempts to disable scanning, or completely destroy the installation of anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Radlight DivX movie player has been found to search for and remove Ad-Aware during its installation, before proceeding to install several harmful programs.

To remove Gator, some versions of it can be taken out via the Add/Remove Control Panel: look for "Gator" and "Offer Companion." Next, download and install the free (for individual use) program Ad-Aware. Boot your computer in safe mode (prevents most spyware from launching) and run Ad-Aware to remove the rest.

The final difficulty is if the program you really wanted re-installs the spyware the next time it is run. If that's the case, find a different program.

Because browsers, especially Internet Explorer, have become malleable to external influences, it is imperative that you study up on the browser's security settings. Many things can come floating in along with Web pages and get installed, such as browser search toolbars, without being asked. Set your browser's ActiveX options to high security. An excellent suggestion is to also obtain a popup killer program. In the October 2002 issue of Sacra Blue, President Milt Hull lists his evaluations of several candidates.