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Internet

DSL Filters

Thank goodness that high speed connections are reaching more and more areas of the country. And I am thrilled to see that more and more people are taking advantage of the faster connections. Two customers I visited today brought to light for me two important tips to keep in mind if you use DSL (Digital Subscriber Line … layman’s terms: fast Internet over a phone line) or plan to sign up for DSL service.

1. You MUST install a DSL filter on all phone lines in your house EXCEPT the one you use to hook the DSL modem too.

Internet Explorer prints only HTML

Today I ran into a problem that I hadn’t seen before. A customer’s MSN and Internet Explorer browser (including MSN email and web mail) would only print the HTML coding of a web page or email.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and is the programming that is used to present web pages to us and the coding behind text color, bold, etc. in email. We had cleaned some spyware from this users computer earlier in the day, and even printed out some pictures, but a few hours later I received a call about this strange symptom. At first, I thought it was just a forwarded email gone awry, but after arriving on the scene and seeing that word processing documents, test pages, pictures, and spreadsheets all printed fine, the culprit was definitely in Internet Explorer 7.

How to Remove the Greeting Card Virus

Adam and I first mentioned this nasty little virus earlier this spring on our radio show. The email that spreads it poses as an electronic greeting card from your friend or relative. Because the email is so poorly constructed, is never from a known address, and the link it displays in the body of the message is a number (NEVER, EVER Click a link that is constructed of a number, ex: http://91.188.176.15/) we didn’t put much credence in how much damage it could do.

Great article on U.S’s lack of broadband

Astute listener/visitor, John, uncovered this well written and researched article, The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen, describing why the U.S. ranks only #17 in broadband Internet penetration world wide. You have heard me bemoan this fact many times over the past few years, and the author of this article, Robert X. Cringley, nails the what, why, and how of why we lag so far behind in Internet access.

The article is a worthy read…especially with elections coming up next year.

Internet Outages

A major fiber optic line was cut in Colorado today knocking out Internet to a vast number of customers all around Colorado. I swear that people get more riled by an Internet outage than a TV or water outage (me included).

Please remember my number one rule when troubleshooting an Internet problem: If you haven’t changed anything on your system and the Internet was working fine a few hours ago or yesterday, assume that the problem is on the providers end of things and DO NOT messs with any settings on your computer. Simply wait it out for a few hours or a day.

Fun with Cameroon Pet Scams

I really love English Bulldogs. Recently I became aware of a common pet scam that is based on every other over seas Internet scam. Someone from Cameroon posts a desired breed up for a ridiculously low price. He/she asks for money plus shipping. You never get the dog. Here is my recent correspondence with one such scammer. I have resorted… Read More »Fun with Cameroon Pet Scams

Updated gimmick feature list 2007

My list of gimmick features continues to grow. Gimmick features are features that companies add to technology to sell a product but don’t do what they claim to do in the way you expect them to do it.

One of of the first gimmick features I began discussing years ago were gimmick buttons on a scanner. These are buttons that say “email” or “scan and save”, etc. All these buttons do is activate the software the same as if you clicked on the icon. It is usually more work to reach over and hit the buttons than it is to double-click on the appropriate scanner icon.

Don’t miss iCaught on ABC

Last night I saw a program on Network TV that may go down as a landmark program in the evolution in the convergence of all things media. The program was called iCaught and based on what I have just heard today from clients and acquaintances, it opened the eyes of many casual web users to the wonders that can be found on the Internet.

Skype – Better than the phone?

Skype Tonight my brother and I talked again using what is becoming our regular medium…Skype. We both of have inexpensive web cams and a basic microphone and call and talk to each other for an unlimited amount of time for absolutely no cost. Video calls are fun because not only can we see each other, but we can show each other items that we might be talking about and also let other family members (including pets) get involved in the conversation.

Did you miss us last night?

Many thanks for everyone who attempted to tune in last night. It was a great trial run and we have most of the kinks worked out. We didn’t actually get the live video and chat up until around 10:45pm. Once everything was up and running it was pretty lively. By the time we got off at almost midnight we were getting computer questions right and left.

We are very excited to get this going. One thing we can promise is that the new show isn’t just going to be an Internet version of our radio show. Last night we had questions from all areas of technology. We discussed HDTV, wireless networks and Internet security with people who had never heard the show.