Monday, January 22, 2001		Dr Tribune

— Jagdeep Rai

Dr Tribune: You have not written about the operating system you are using. This problem is common in Windows NT. The solution to this problem is to uninstall the dial up networking feature from your computer from Control Panel>Add/Remove Program>Windows Setup. And then restart your computer. Once your computer is restarted, install dial up networking again and then restart your system again. This will solve your problem.

Dr Tribune: We have done an article on Internet sharing recently and it has details of Internet sharing methods. However, for your benefit you can share Internet with other computers either by using specialised software like Internet sharer etc. Or if you have Windows 98 Second edition onwards, then you do not need any software, as Internet sharing is built in these operating systems. All you need to share Internet is LAN. However, if your Internet speed is slow, then you may not get desirable results by Internet sharing. Regarding your inquiry about ping, this command is programmed and you are not required to give it. It is indeed useful for reliable and stable connection as it communicates with the server regularly and keeps the connection alive even in cases of inactivity.

Dr Tribune: Since you and your friend live at different locations, thus only way to connect your computer is through dial up networking. In dial up networking also there are two ways out 1) connecting your computers directly 2) connecting your computers through Internet. Since the speed in connecting computers directly is more than through Internet, thus I feel that it will be better that you use programs like Hyper Terminal, PC Plus, PC Anywhere etc. Though through the Internet also you can share the files as you can open a free account at www.driveway.com and upload your file there. Share the password with your friend so that whenever he wants, he can download these files from the Internet. driveway.com initially offers 25 MB of free file parking space. Thus this way you can have the convenience of uploading and also downloading the files at your convenience. However, this is a more costly exercise at it involves expense of telephone charges and Internet charges at both ends.

—Gurdev Singh

Dr Tribune: You can run all the software mentioned above on one single computer and can install Linux operating system on another hard disk partition. Since you have 20 GB hard disk, there should be no problem. Now as far as the best hardware configuration is concerned, it is entirely subjective. Since all these programs can run on your current configuration so, you may not require anything new. You may however want to increase your system RAM 128 MB

Dr Tribune: Your problem is not very serious, as it seems that your display card driver is clashing with another driver, which you might have installed in the past. Normally, some games, which use very high-end graphics, add their display settings and when these programs (games) are improperly uninstalled, they normally create problem. Now the best solution for your problem is to reinstall your operating system, in your case Windows 98 again and install the display driver in reinstalled Windows 98. This will remove any conflict of drivers and will thus help you in getting over this problem. However, you are not required to format your hard disk. This will not affect your files etc. But it is in your interest to take a back up of all the necessary files before doing this operation.

Dr Tribune: You need not worry on any of these issues. Starting the computer by switching on your UPS could happen in case the computer has ATX motherboard. However, this is not a problem. The issue mentioned by you is also not a problem and it is a matter of minor settings. If the light in the CD-ROM remains on at the time of booting the machine, then this could be because you have set the boot sequence in the order of reading the data from CD ROM first i.e. CD ROM, C, A. However it should be C, CDROM, A. So, In case the light in the CD ROM remains on then you should change your boot sequence to the later. However, if the light in the CD ROM remains on after loading Windows, then it means that there is some program in the start up menu, which tries to read from the CD ROM. You must remove that program from the start menu in order to correct this problem.

—Amit Dhillon

Dr Tribune: There are many players available on the Internet, which can play not just .mp3 files, but a host of other sound files. One such player is Real Player. This is a very good player and can play a host of file types like .rm, .ra, .ram .mp3 etc. You can download this player from www.real.com. This software is free and is also very simple to use. Other popular music players are WinAmp, Sonique etc. You can also get these players from cover CD’s of many magazines, which regularly offer a host of such players on the CD. Regarding the previous issues of Login…Tribune, you can log on to www.tribuneindia.com and access the previous issues of Login… Tribune.

Dr Tribune: Windows Me is based on the Windows 98 platform, whereas Windows 2000 is based on Windows NT technology. Both these new operating systems are good and offer very good features to the users. People normally prefer Windows Me as it is relatively cheaper to Windows 2000. Now if your requirement is such that you need to work on NT like environment and features, then you should go for Windows 2000. However, if there is no such requirement then Windows Me will also good enough.

Dr Tribune: Linux has compatibility with all the Windows operating systems and it can co-exist with any of Windows operating system on one single computer. You can safely install Linux on a separate partition.

Dr Tribune: There are a number of motherboard available in the market in different price range. Moreover, the 133 MHz FSB (Front side bus) has become a standard now. So, there are many motherboards available in this category. In the lower range Tiga motherboard support the features mentioned by you and is also good. However in the higher range Asus motherboards are considered good. As far as processors are concerned, Pentium – III & 4 as well as AMD Thunderbird have their own strength and weaknesses. It all depends upon the usage that you would like to put your computer to. Thus if you wish to do some work related to graphics, then AMD Thunderbird is a good processor. However, if your work involves data processing, then you may get better performance from Pentium –III & 4. Second a lot depends on your budget also. On an average AMD processors are more competitively placed as against Intel Pentium – III & 4. Thus the choice of processor is very subjective and largely depends upon your nature of work and budget.