Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
July 20, 2008
Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.
Volume 4, Number 6 — Sunday, July 20, 2008
IN THIS ON-LINE ISSUE:
1. Speeding Up a Slow Dialup Connection
2. HowTo: Use a Drive Letter for a Shared Folder on Another Computer
3. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
4. HowTo: Use a Drive Letter for a Folder on Your Computer
5. Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends
IN THIS WEEK'S EMAIL ISSUE:
"Article 0." JUST FOR EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS!
0.1. Do I Need a Network Switch or a Router?
0.2. Read the Articles in This Week's On-Line Issue
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Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.
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1. Speeding Up a Slow Dialup Connection
Hello,
I have a desktop and a laptop and live in a remote area so the only internet I can get is dial-up. We recently moved and in our previous home, my desktop and laptop connected consistently at about 36.8kps. Now my desktop connects at 19.2kps while the laptop is still connecting at about 36.8kps. I have plugged them both into the same line and get this result. I am at a loss as to what is causing this...
Thanks for your help!
Teri Scott
I wrote back to Teri to tell her that sometimes, the problem is as simple as the pool of modems used by the ISP. One or more may be set at 19.2kbps. Been there, seen that... Unfortunately, not only is there little that she as an individual can do about that (other than to call Tech Support), that's probably not the problem here.
In this case, her problem is with one of her two computers. One always has a higher speed connection, while the other is always a low speed connection.
Tech Tip
I had to grin when I wrote that 19,200 bits per second (19.2 Kbps) is a slow connection. My first modem was 2,400 bps (2.4Kbps). At that speed, which included 8 data bits + 1 parity bit (8N1, as i was called), on a electronnic bulleting board system (this was way, way before the Web), I could read the information on the screen as fast as it arrived at my computer.
I suspect that the phone line is noisy (not audibly, but measurably by the electronics) and that the modem in her desktop is more susceptible to the line noise.
Teri's problem is probably the modem on her desktop computer. She should be able to download a new modem driver for your desktop modem. Depending on its age, she may not be using the latest version of the driver or the firmware for the modem.
Or, it simply could be more susceptible to a noisy phone line than the modem in your notebook.
If you don't find a new driver or new firmware for your desktop, you might consider uninstalling the modem software, taking out the modem, and then reinstalling it again, preferably in a different slot (if possible).
I ran into a similar problem with my mother-in-law's computer. The easiest solution, since she was in another city, was to purchase a new modem to go in one of the expansion slots in her computer. I bought it from Newegg for under $20.
I uninstalled her modem software, shut down her computer, took out the old modem, installed the new modem, turned the computer on, and installed the new modem's software. The modem package had easy-to-understand instructions for doing all of this.
I don't recall if I bought her a fax modem or not (one that can send and receive faxes, too), but the price differential is so low that I would not consider one that doesn't do faxes if you needed to send one.
So, Teri should be able to solve her problem for about $20 including shipping.
2. HowTo: Use a Drive Letter for a Shared Folder on Another Computer
Sometimes when you're working with multiple computers, life becomes a lot easier if you tell Windows to treat a shared folder on another computer as if it were a drive on this computer.
Tech Tip
Those of who have been around for a long time usually call it "Mounting" a folder as a drive letter. Mounting is a word left over from the old days of removable hard drives and tapes. You had to tell the system that the device was there and you had to tell it which how to access the drive.
Windows XP lets us do that via the one of the menu options in Windows Explorer. You can find it at Tools > Map Network Drive...
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Once we click on the "Map Network Drive..." from the pull-down menu, Windows opens the dialog box where we set our options.
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In the next two dialog boxes, we browse to locate the network, then the computerr and then, finally, the shared folder we want to map as a drive letter in our computer.
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After clicking the OK button on the Browse dialog box, I'm returned to the Map Network Drive dialog box. Notice that I've selecteded M: for the drive (to be known as on my computer) and the Folder now shows \\Aiel\Files\DragonI5000 (computer Aiel, folder \files\DragonI5000) as the folder to be shown as M:.
Notice the "Reconnect at logon" checkbox. This is your last chance to have the connection made automatically when you log into Windows, or when you start Windows, if you're not using multiple userID's on your computer.
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In the final image, we see that Windows Explorer shows the mapped, shared file folder from the computer Aiel as M:, just as I wanted.
(click on the image for a larger version)
WIndows will only mount a shared network drive folder, but fortunately, when you browse, it shows you your computer as part of the network neighborhood. I successfully shared and then mounted a flash drive on the same computer. If I did the "safe removal" and reinserted it, it still worked. But, when I rebooted, Windows lost the "shared" status. So, it looks like you can re-reference a folder on one of your internal hard drives as a drive letter.
3. My Computer Security Software Recommendations
I review my security software recommendations and update them, for each weekly newsletter issue, if I think they need to change.
My Philosophy: Many people want to pick their most economical solution and prefer an all-in-one anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall solution. In concept, that's a great idea. In actual practice, this type of package is not likely to be the best in all the protection categories you need.
Other people want to pick the best of each type program. I'm one of the these folks. Read about my security software choices.
Anti-Virus
I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."
My personal choice is the ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 to be the cream of the crop in anti-virus protection. Unlike some of the others, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, including updates to the program in the multiple-year license.
Many antivirus programs will offer you an anti-virus signature subscription renewal when your subscription renews. I strongly recommend against this option — buy the full program or make sure you get program updates with the subscription renewal (like NOD32 does). Vendors routinely improve the capabilities and speed of the programs, too.
If you update only the signatures, you miss any program improvements. Fortunately, NOD32's subscriptions include both program updates and signature updates.
Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.
Related articles:
- Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
- Free Online Antivirus Scan
- NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32
Firewall Software
While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.
The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.
Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?
I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.
I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.
You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.
Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.
Related articles:
Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software
CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It is also my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.
Sunbelt released their CounterSpy v2 in February 2007 and I promptly updated my computers to it. Version 2 greatly improved CounterSpy's performance and reduced its load on the computer when it was scanning.
In July, 2007, Sunbelt released v2.5 of CounterSpy, which again both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.
Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions. Nicely, they do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed!
Related articles:
Anti-spam Software
In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"
I use and now I recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.
POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.
Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.
Mailwasher Pro is my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists.
Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.
Related articles:
Cable/DSL Router
If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.
Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.
A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.
For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I'm using the relatively new version 6 of this router.
If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41 wired router. Either way, based on my experience, I recommend Linksys routers for price, reliability and Linksys' habit of releasing updated firmware for their products..
Tech Tip
By the way, if you get tempted by the new "802.11n" routers, please pay close attention. So far, the 802.11n specification has not been approved and finalized.
If you buy one, you may be locked into a specific vendor's implementation of a draft of a standard that never got approved. I recommend choosing 802.11g for now.
See these related articles:
4. HowTo: Use a Drive Letter for a Folder on Your Computer
Windows XP's Map Network Drive function only works with shared folders on your network. So, how can you mount a folder on your computer or a shared folder on an exterrnal drive or flash drive (including the root folder of those drives) as a specified drive letter?
Fortunately, when we use the Map Network Drives... dialog box, the computer we are currently using shows up as one of the computers on the network.
That means that, if we share a folder on our computer, we can map it to a drive letter, even on the same computer.
Few programs today require a specific drive. They usually required you to pick the folder you want on the drive you want.
Mounting a folder your own computer uses the same process as mounting a folder on another computer. First, you have tot "share" the folder. Then, you can use the Mount Network Drive... function.
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Here we select the drive letter we want to use for the mapped drive. Then, browse to find the folder we want to mount.
(click on the image for a larger version)
First, we select our own network workgroup ID (mine is "Malvern"). Then, the computer ("Dragon" is the one I'm using) and the specific folder want to mount as the drive letter.
(click on the image for a larger version)
This works best with your internal hard drive(s). I successfully shared and then mounted a flash drive on the same computer. If I did the "safe removal" and reinserted it, it still worked. But, when I rebooted, Windows lost the "shared" status, so it wasn't able to connect.
5. Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends
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Volume 4, Number 6 — Sunday, July 20, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.
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