Internet

A little while back, a reader named Larry K. asked me if it was possible to answer phone calls while still maintaining a dial-up Internet connection. Receive phone calls while using dial-up Internet connection? Recall: " I use dial-up Internet, ... which is the *only* service available in my remote location. I am on call at my work, and my son will be home from University soon. Is there software / hardware / or some type of service available which can alert me of an incoming phone call when I'm online? I really don't want to purchase another phone line. " When I initially published this ... (view more)

... Continued . The following companies offer Internet Call Waiting Phone Alert Services. These services allow Dial-up / Cable / Broadband users to receive and manage phone calls while still connected to the Internet. Below is a cost and Feature ... comparison breakdown. BuzzMe / RingCentral 1 million subscribers world-wide Online Answering Machine with Caller ID Accept Call, Ignore, Reply (text-to-speech messaging), or Send to Voicemail Voicemail with Online/Offline option Toll-Free Access to Messages Accept Call, Call Forwarding, Callback Cell Phone & Pager Notifications Get messages by ... (view more)

Jay29 writes: " After a normal morning boot, the line at the bottom of Internet Explorer disappeared from my screen. This is the line that shows the URL status, the SSL lock, what's being retrieved, privacy icon, and other useful information. I've ... tried many approaches, including the Microsoft Support web site to reinstate the line, but with no luck. How can I reinstate this line? " My Response: The line at the very bottom of an Internet Explorer window is actually called the Status Bar. As Jay29 stated, the Status Bar is a very useful part of Internet Explorer: especially the lock ... (view more)

Bob and Jenny P. write: " For some reason, when I click on an email address link on an email rather than getting the email box, it tries to go to internet explorer opening about 50 explorer boxes.... and the right of my bottom panel bar lights up ... (task scheduler icon, volume icon, avg, icon, etc.) Any idea how to fix this? " My response: This question has been answered before in a previous issue dated January 7, 2003: Web Links in Outlook Express won't work?, Part 2 Since this question comes up quite often *and* largely depends on repairing Internet Explorer, I've decided to provide ... (view more)

Today, David M. sent me an email asking me how to go about Repairing Internet Explorer: " Hello Dennis! The May 20, 2003 issue of the Gazette mentioned the very useful Internet Explorer Repair Tool, accessed from Add/Remove Programs in Control ... Panel. In the past, this method has worked for me when using Win98 and IE5. However, I now run Win2K and IE6 and the IE Repair Tool isn't listed in the Add/Remove Programs, so I can't repair it. Do you or any of your learned readers have any ideas, please? " My Response: I get asked this question a lot from readers, so I've decided to provide ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Larry K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I use dial-up Internet, which is the *only* service available in my remote location. I am on call at my work, and my son will be home from University soon. Is there software / hardware / or some ... type of service available which can alert me of an incoming phone call when I'm online? I really don't want to purchase another phone line. " My response: I remember seeing a piece of hardware advertised on TV which plugs into your phone line and alerts you of an incoming call. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the product [ ... (view more)

Recently, Infopackets Reader 'Cinnamon' asked me a question about how to organize her downloaded ZIP files. She writes: " Is there a guide one can use in attempting to [organize] some or all of them? I'm afraid I'll remove something that I need! " ... My Response: We've been talking about archived files for the last few issues of the newsletter. Incase you've missed it: Zip files are archived files and usually contain many smaller files inside. Finding out what an archived file is (without extracting and utilizing the program) takes too long to do, so there must be a better way. I ... (view more)

Today I received very disheartening email. Al G. writes: " Why has my subscription to the Infopackets Gazette newsletter suddenly ceased? " I decided to check the subscriber base, and found Al's email address still in the list. I know that most of ... the newsletters have been successfully delivered because the web statistics reflect normal activity. So, why wasn't the newsletter getting delivered to Al? The only logical explanation I could think of -- other than Al's mailbox being over-quota -- was that his Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be incorrectly blocking this newsletter due ... (view more)

Cinnamon asked me a very good question over the weekend: " Hi Dennis! In an attempt to clean out old and/or unnecessary files, I accessed my Winzip files. In scanning through the list and opening (or attempting to) open them to find out what they ... belong to, I find it just a bit mind-boggling. It's very hard to tell what some of them are. Is there a guide one can use in attempting to delete some or all of them? I'm afraid I'll remove something that I need! Thanks, and keep up the great work! " My Response: Zip files are archived files and usually contain many files. Chances are you ... (view more)

How can poetry stop spam? Answer: Habeas . Habeas is a new company on the Internet which has developed a technology that permits legitimate bulk mailers -- such as infopackets.com -- the ability to deliver authentic emails and eliminate spam at the ... same time. Legitimate bulk email service providers are able to inject Habeas copyrighted Haiku poetry into outgoing email headers to ensure authenticity and delivery. Internet Service Providers and Spam Fighting programs are able to pick up the headers which can then be used to determine if the message is spam or legitimate. Wait a sec, what's a ... (view more)