Monday, July 28, 2003		Dr Tribune

Q. Is it possible to store all URL addresses in the Internet Explorer itself as reduces time in typing the address (URL) in the search box. Or is there any kind of browser available with this facility.

K.L. Cheralathan, SAS Nagar

A. By default, all previously visited sites are stored in the URL address bar and unless you remove them by clearing the contents of the address, these address remain there and while typing the address, it automatically shows the sites you have visited before. Another option, which is also quite better, is to bookmark the sites, which you are going to visit frequently and this way you can recall the bookmarks to open the site directly.

Q. I have P4, 2.4 GHz., 850E original box pack Intel motherboard, 40 GB 7200 rpm, Samsung HDD, 128 MB RD RAM with 52X Samsung CD ROM and 24-10-40 x Samsung CD Writer with Win ’98 SE on C drive and Win XP Pro on D: CD ROM is secondary master and CD-Writer is secondary slave. My problems are:

1. While surfing the Net for 15 minutes on both operating systems, my PC gets so slow that it writes one alphabet in 2 seconds in any program. I clean up junk files, temp. files, temp. Internet files, history and cookies daily.

2. When I try to copy a movie or .dat file on HDD through my 52X CD ROM, it takes 10-12 minutes to copy, but when I try same CD in my 40 X CD writer, it just takes 5-6 minutes.

3. Though my PC is of latest configuration yet it is slower than P III, 1 GHz PC of my friend. Please suggest a solution

Jagdeep, Jalandhar

A. It appears your system is affected by the problem of memory drain. In this case, if there is any 16-bit program installed on your system, then on running this some memory is blocked. However, when the program is closed it does not return the memory back to the system, hence causing memory drain. Since due to blocking of memory, the system runs short of memory therefore it causes the kind of problems mentioned by you. Please locate if there are any 16-bit programs installed on your system, if there are any please unload them to boost the performance of your PC. Also I would recommend you to increase the RAM to 256 MB for getting the best performance under Windows XP. I hope these solutions would solve your problems.

Q. I have a problem with my system. My PC configuration is P III, 1100 MHz, 20 GB HDD with C:, D:, and E:, 128 MB RAM and Win XP on D: and Win ‘98 on C:. I have Samsung 52x CD ROM and LG 52x24x52x CD Writer. My problem is my writer’s speed is slow. It takes six to seven minutes to write one blank CD. I also tried CD writer on Win XP. When I try on Win XP, it attains the writing speed of 2 to 3 minutes for one blank CD. But after writing 20 CDs, its gets slow. It now takes seven minutes to write one blank CD. I also reinstalled Win XP but the problem persists. I am using Nero Express (version 5,5,9,9) for CD burning. Please solve my problem.

Aman, Hoshiarpur

A. As you may have noticed that after burning some CDs, the CD Writer become little hot and therefore slows down. There is nothing abnormal in it. These domestic CD writers are designed to be an office or home solutions, and not to be used in duplicators. As far as variation in speed in Windows ’98 and XP is concerned, it may happen due to free resources and lesser load on the particular partition the writing speed of the CD writer may be affected. But this does not amount to problem as this is a result of many factors like free hard disk space, size of swap file, junk files present in the system in that particular partition, number of memory resident programs installed and running etc.

Q. I have P III, 866 MHz processor, Vintron 810e MBD, 256 MB SDRAM, Win Me OS, and ATX cabinet. My problem is earlier when I used to press the power button on my cabinet, the computer took 4 to 5 seconds to beep and start loading OS. But a few days ago, it started taking nearly one minute to produce a beep.

Vivek, Hisar.

A. For an effective solution of your problem, please load the default settings in the BIOS feature setup. This can be done by pressing the Del key immediately when the computers boots up and finishes checking the memory. I hope this will solve your problem.

Q. I own an Internet cafe. All my Internet explorers are set on blank sites and the sites to be opened are required to be filled in. I have checked up add/remove programs in the Control panel and there is no pornographic site over there also. However, since last few days, on a few of the computers while working or when nothing is being done, some sites showing explicit sexual content are displayed as home page prop up and have to be removed. Would you kindly guide me how to avoid this kind of embarrassment.

M.P. Mittal, Hisar

A. It appears your system security has been breached by some intruder and this looks like an act of misusing the vulnerable points of the Internet Explorer for unwanted purposes. Now, there could be three solutions to this problem. First, remove all cookies and also all temporary and history files from the system.

This will solve your problem. Some times it so happens that due to some cookies and temporary Internet files some pages are being set to pop up and periodically they are also being designed to acquire the slot of home page. This is obviously being done with a bad intention. In some cases it has also been noted that using a home page like www.msn.com or yahoo.com or for that matter any other site instead of leaving it blank has restricted this problem.

The second solution could be to raise the Internet security to maximum but this may not be the most practical idea as highest security may restrict the Direct X driver etc to load, which may not be in the interest of your business. However, as third option you can try some other efficient and faster but free browsers like Opera in your caf`E9, which are relatively safe with lesser loopholes.

Q. I want to know if I can use my computer as caller ID for my telephone line. Is there any software designed without extra hardware? My second problem is I am unable to open my Hotmail account. When I logon using my mail ID and password, I receive the following message: "Your Web browser options are currently set to disable cookies. To use .NET passport, you must enable cookies." Please guide me how can I enable my PC cookies.

Munish Garg, Sangrur

A. There are thousands of software available on the Internet, which work as caller ID without any need of installing any hardware device, except modem. You can check out some sites like www.yes-tele.com, www.sunny-beach.net /CallerIDVisitor.htm, www.kengolf.com/en/caller-id-software.htm, www.algonet.se/~ intertex/html/callerid.html etc. for free software for called ID. Regarding your second problem, please open Internet explorer, then click on Tools menu and then from the drop down window, click on Internet options. This will open Internet option Window. Now click on Privacy tab and then click on advanced option. In the subsequent Window, click on ‘Override automatic cookie handling’ and then click on ‘always allow session cookies’ and then click OK. This will solve your problem.

Q. I have a P 4 with 20 GB hard disk, 128 MB RAM, 1.50 GHz processor. Earlier, I had two operating systems - Windows ‘98 on C: and Win XP on F: Some days ago, when I started Win ‘98, a message appeared -Sync out of range. Win ‘98 did not start ever time that message appeared on the screen. So in Win XP, I tried to format C: but the computer was unable to complete the format so I selected and deleted the components of Win ‘98. Now a choice appears on the screen when I start the computer between Win XP and Win ‘98 as I have deleted Win ‘98. How can I remove that option and can I load Win ‘98 again. Please solve my problem.

Kamal, Morinda.

A. This goes little beyond solving your problem as it is in your interest and in the interest of lot many readers. Never format C: drive if you have any other version of Windows on any other partition, because if C: is formatted then all other drives having Windows will stop functioning. And secondly, do not use formatting as a tool of troubleshooting, but use it is as the last resort.

Regarding your problem, you can get rid of the entry for Windows ’98 in the boot menu by simply editing the boot.ini file and removing the entry for Windows ’98. But if you wish to reinstall Windows ’98 again, which you do for sure, then you do not need to delete this entry and reinstalling Windows will automatically restore it and make it functional in boot menu.

Q. I have an assembled P III PC with an internal modem and VSNL Internet connection. I want to ask you two questions:

1.How can I change my Internet connection password? Can I change the username? I also want to change the secret question.

2.How can I check the validity of my connection and the number of hours left?

A. The answer to your problem is simple. All you need to do is log on to VSNL’ site and then log in with your user name and password. Here you can check all details of your account like usage, hours left, validity etc. Regarding your query about changing the password, it can be done at the site itself, however you will not be able to change the User ID by yourself as for this you will need to contact VSNL customer care.