FAQs
If you have a question or problem with your computer, send me an email.
If I can answer the question, I will do so and post the question/reply here for general access.
If you think your computer has a virus...
How can I get Windows 95, 98, ME to stop making me get the CD every time I add hardware or software?
How can I stop email spamming?
How do I setup my own website?
If you think your computer has a virus...
If you suspect a virus, try to think of where you got it. Did you use
a floppy disk or CD that might have had it on there? If so, make sure
you destroy the disk or send it to someone you really don't like. If
you think you got it from email, delete the email permanently and
block that sender from sending you email in the future.
Next, you'll want to run a virus scanner which will try to get rid of
the virus. It doesn't always work because the virus may have emailed
itself to you from you, it may get sent back to you from one of the
other people's accounts to whom it sent itself, or it may be loaded
in the boot area which is difficult to clean if the computer is running.
If the free scanner fails to eliminate the virus, you'll have to go
out and buy a virus scanning software package. It will be a CD which
you insert into your computer and install. This will usually clear
out all viruses and continue scanning so that any future threats will
not be allowed to infect your machine.
If the free scanner succeeds, you may still want to go get some
scanning software. It's fairly cheap and will continue to protect you
in the future.
Further, it is possible that some of your programs may throw an error
when you try to use them. This may be because the virus got into the
program, so when the scanner removed it, part of the program was removed. If
you find that this is the case, you might try running the installer for
those programs, or you might uninstall them and do a clean install. In
either case, you should back up your data first.
Best free online virus scanner : To get a free virus scan, search
Google for "free virus scan" or go to
http://housecall.antivirus.com
Best software virus scanner : McAfee Virus Scan - you only need the
Scan software, not the pro or other versions with extras.
How can I get Windows 95, 98, ME to stop making me get the CD every time I add hardware or software?
The only way I know to do this requires a fresh installation of Windows.
The following instructions will stop Windows from prompting you to
insert the cd every time it needs to install something.
Coincidentally, it will also make the installation run faster.
BEFORE you install anything on the hard drive, make sure it is
properly partitioned and formatted. Then type the following lines,
following each with <enter>
c:\
md winME (or win95 or win98, depending on which one you are installing).
copy e:\winME\*.* c:\winME (your cd-rom may be on a different drive
letter than e).
cd winME
setup
This will run the setup from c:\winME so that the system knows to
look there for any future OS needs.
How can I stop email spamming?
Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have an option which will
filter out spam for you. If your ISP does not have this feature,
you can ask them to install such a feature but for small ventures,
it is expensive.
How do I setup my own website?
If you want to run the whole thing from home...
Connection - A website needs to run on a computer somewhere,
so if you want to run it on your own computer, you should have an
internet connection which is always on and has good bandwidth(speed).
Tech Note - If your connection
does not have a permanent IP address, that's fine - many dns services
also have a dynamic IP service which handle that, and some routers
have a "renew forever" option which will hang on to your dynamic IP.
So, you could run a website from your computer even if you only have a
dial-up connection, but it could get booted off if your ISP(Internet
Service Provider) detects that no one is actively making use of the
connection. Also, the bandwidth on a dial-up connection is fairly low
so if more than one person hits the site at one time, it would be
extremely slow.
Server - The computer which runs a website can be any computer.
The term "server" merely refers to the fact that it will "serve" content
on demand. In order to serve content, it has to have a program which
will respond to the requests. For a free web server, check out the
Apache project :
http://httpd.apache.org/ABOUT_APACHE.html. This is a great,
commercial-quality server program (which is actually used by many
companies on their servers). Once you install this, you'll notice
that you can now go to
http://localhost/.
localhost is the machine you are on. When the server is installed and
running, you will get a page in the browser window which asks, "Seeing
this instead of the website you expected?" Since you just set this up,
it's exactly what we expected. Your server is now up.
This server will serve "static" html pages, which means that the pages
are the same all the time, no matter who is accessing them. Dynamic
pages are usually jsp or asp, and these pages can be different for
each user. To run these kinds of pages, you need to put in an
additional program, such as the Apache Tomcat or Microsoft IIS.
Domain Name - In truth, you don't actually need a domain name,
because every machine on the internet has an IP address assigned to it.
Behind the scenes, this is what is actually being used to get the content
from the servers to the users. We use them to make it easier for people
to remember how to reach the site they're looking for. For example,
www.topherc.com is easier to remember than 12.236.180.42.
Click
here to get your current IP. You can then Remember - your IP may
change if your ISP uses DHCP(Dynamic Host Control Protocol).
To get a domain name, you have to go to a domain name registrar, such as
http://www.123cheapdomains.com.
It doesn't matter who registers your domain name for you, so always look
for the cheapest offer (this is one of the cheapest I've seen). Use their
site to search for a domain name you like, then register it. The lease is
annual and you can set it up for several years at a time, if you want to.
Important note - 10 months after you register a domain name, some underhanded
registrars like VeriSign, will try to tell you that you have to renew your
registration through them. You can register through any registrar you want
whether it's the same one or a different one each year. Don't get duped in
to paying too much for a $15 domain name.
DNS entry -After you have your server working and you've registered
a domain name, you need to have that name entered in the Domain Name System.
The DNS is the central listing of what Domain Names are linked to what IP
addresses (like looking up a phone number based on the person's name). Go
to a DNS service company like
http://www.zoneedit.com to sign up for free DNS service. It may take
a few days for your entry to propagate through the internet, but once it
does, you will be able to access your web server through the domain name
you registered.
Publish to search engines - Actually, I can't comment on this
topic, as I've never published anything. As you can tell, you don't have
to publish anything to make it accessible. The only effect of publishing
is - anyone can find your website by searching for it.
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