The first C&C meeting for the year was held at the Irish Club.
Many people who normally attended the northside group were there.
The gavel was taken over by JohnS.
Topics discussed were:
1. Blackice Defender and Shieldsup! - EmilJ
BlackIce Defender is a shareware for personal fire wall to stop
intruders. The number of such intrusions while not frequent is not
uncommon. The software halts the intrusion, identify the intruder and
includes a lot of help files explaining internet security.
The risk is in inverse ratio to the time connected to the Internet.
The range of available personal firewall software was reviewed in the
January 2001 issue of Australian Personal Computer (APC) magazine at
p102+
Others at the meeting (including Allan M) recommended "Zone Alarm".
Many of these software are readily available in the cover CDROM of APC
and other computer magazines in recent months.
There is a very useful diagnostic web page that was recommended by
BigPond early last year.
It will test whether your PC has the security weakness exploited by
intruders, Follow the instructions provided by the service in the
event it detects any security weaknesses.
The free Shields UP! service is at
http://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
2. Christmas gift to group - TrevorF. Trevor presented another package
like the one presented to the meeting last year by JimH - an AOL CD
ROM package.
3. InnoculateIT Lockup - RodS
After upgrading to InnoculateIT 5.2.5 the computer locked up entirely
the first time it was booted each day. Most times, after a reset, it
worked the second time.
Three other people at the meeting reported similar problems so there
seems to be evidence the problem is connected to v 5.2.5, even though
other people reported a trouble free upgrade.
Since adding the minor upgrade dated 29 December, not only have the
problems disappeared but the time to the orange 'Safe to...' screen is
much quicker than previously.
4. a. TIP connection speeds
4. b. Windows task scheduler - Graham
The popular view is that connection speeds deteriorate in wet weather.
My experience is that my connection speeds (verified with TIP) had
deteriorated since the hot dry period has taken over. I used to get
at least 48,000 and sometimes 49,300 but have seldom achieved better
than 46,555 in the past month. A stunned silence followed this
revelation and another sacred cow went to the meat works!!
For some reason Windows task Scheduler comes up each boot up with
advice that virtually every task is overdue yet the details show that,
on the schedule set no task is due. Even if the tasks are run out of
sequence and the Missed advice removed then they all show as Missed
again at the next boot up. The advice was to check whether there were
more than one Task Scheduler running at once. A check when I returned
home was that this was not the case. Remains unsolved.
5. Stuff - JohnS
JohnS recommended www.technocopia.com/ as a useful site for simple
explanations of hi-tech devices. Also www.search66.com for a simple
multiengine search tool.
John has also recently installed PCStitch Vrs 5 which can turn any
clip art, drawing, jpg picture file, etc., into a counted cross-stitch
pattern. The impressive thing is that the program generates a (floss?
list - number of skeins needed in what colours for 3 different
manufacturer's range) in however many colours you specify. Find it at
http://www.pcstitch.com/
6. Netscape6 - TedT
Ted T said he had downloaded Netscape 6 but had not installed it
because the instructions were too complicated. Other members present
also reported problems with this new version of Netscape. Anyone
thinking of upgrading might be advised to wait until existing problems
are sorted out.
TrevorF: As an aside to the above, Netscape 6 has been published on
the CD ROM that came with PC User January edition. I tried it and it
does work OK but I found nothing to write home about. I've since
uninstalled it.
It certainly beats using up time online and downloading it from the
Netscape site and then running the install. Mostly because of the file
sizes
7. Word - Anne
Anne found that she couldn't print certain pages of a document from
Word.
Suggestions were to strip out page breaks and multiple spaces within
the document.
Another suggestion was to make sure that all the text was formatted to
print black on white.
Another was to select all the text within the document by opening it
and pressing CTL-A to select all the text, then CTL-C to copy it. Then
starting a new document and using the menu: Edit - space special and
selecting plain text only.
Still not resolved.
Another issue raised: Anne was able to remove two items from the task
bar which were in the Startup folder that she didn't want.
Regards, Trevor
¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤øø¤º°`°º¤¤º°`°º
"There is no such thing as fact - only interpretation."
- Patrick McGrath
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