Every few minutes my internet freezes for about 45 seconds, then starts up again. This has happened with two different ISPs, both my telephone lines, and all the browsers I have installed (Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 4.75 and Netscape 7). However, when the freezes occur, I am still able to send and receive mail, and access FTP. So it only affects browsing the WWW. I am running Windows 98SE on a Dell laptop with a Xircom Cardbus Ethernet 56 modem. (more…)

After installing a Hercules Prophet 9000 64 MB PCI graphics card the computer locks up frequently, especially when playing Descent 3 (even after installing the latest drivers). In order to restart I have to manually turn the computer off, using the on/off button. When installing the Hercules Prophet, I disabled the onboard card via the BIOS and installed the card according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The computer is an IBM 733 Pentium III with 256MB RAM running Windows ME. The motherboard has an onboard SIS graphics chip. Would installing Windows XP help the problem? (more…)

An insidious program is interrupting my browsing. It first appeared as a pop up menu that would not go away. I downloaded Ad Aware 6.0 which removed the popup but now Lop.com keeps jumping in every time I type in a new web address and Lop.com pops-up advertising inappropriate material. How do I rid my computer (running Windows XP) of this problem software? (more…)

I put out a weekly email newsletter and several of the addressees use the same ISP. Unfortunately, this ISP (and some other ISPs) now seem to reject messages saying ‘One recipient per message from external hosts, please’. Is there anything I can do about this? It is very time-consuming (and more expensive) for me to send out the newsletter to each person individually. Maybe I should just recommend to our members that they change their ISP? (more…)

My computer has been in operation for two months and has developed an annoying habit of removing attachments which it brands as unsafe. This may well be true in some instances. However, photos sent to me of family members have been branded as “unsafe” and removed. The following message appears on the email: ”OE has removed access to the following unsafe attachments in your mail” and then refers to the title of the attachment. This wasn’t a problem on my old computer with Windows 98. Any ideas or suggestions that may help to solve this problem would be appreciated. I am running Windows XP. (more…)