Internet & Networking SIG

January 2012

Answers by Toby Scott & Michael Shalkey

Jessica Scott was in bed with the flu, so December's pre-meeting SIG was presented by Toby Scott and Michael Shalkey and combined the topics of both the social media and Internet and email SIGS. Questions were answered by Toby Scott unless otherwise noted.

Thunderbird, router issues

Q: Art Lewis reported more information on a question from last month and emphasized the advice given in a separate question.

Art said last month that he could not get out of one of his Thunderbird address books. He said he did a Google search after the meeting and found an answer that suggested xxxxxx.

He also repeated the advice from the Q&A about how to handle a problem with a router. Many problems can be solved by unplugging the router and then plugging it back in. It's not always necessary to also unplug the modem.

Firefox download

Q: I downloaded Firefox but it doesn't open. When I click on the icon I just get the spinning circle.

A: You'll probably have to reinstall it. First, bring up Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del or right click on the taskbar and click on Start Task Manager). Go to the Services tab and look for Firefox-related services. They are probably stubs of the installation program that is still running so stop them by right clicking and choosing Stop Service. Download the installation file again and install from that.

Michael Shalkey: Firefox is going to automatic updates, so it's possible that it was updating when you tried to open it.

iTunes update

Q: I had an automatic update on iTunes, and it didn't work.

A: Michael Shalkey: One of the problems with iTunes is that it supports many devices - computers, smartphones, tablets - and that can create problems. Fixing a glitch for one device might create one for another device.

Toby Scott: Apple's got some issues coming. It's not one of my favorite companies. AOL, which used to be my candidate for the worst software, is pretty much a dead fish. You can tell because it stinks. Apple's playing catch-up.

Michael Shalkey: Speaking of issues, some later versions of Firefox have a memory leak problem related to Flash. Adding Memory Fox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-fox) should solve the problem. This problem shows up if you keep lots of tabs open.

Toby Scott: I usually have lots of tabs open and leave my computer on most of the time. A memory leak in that kind of use can bring the computer to a halt.

Opera Speed Dial

Q: What do you think of Opera's Speed Dial?

A: I like it. If I'm on my laptop and want to do just a quick look at the Internet, I use Opera because it loads faster. Speed Dial comes up when you open a new tab and shows thumbnails of your most visited Web sites, ones you have selected for the page or some Opera suggestions if you just installed it. Clicking on the thumbnail takes you directly to the site. (ADD PICTURE)

Michael Shalkey: Chrome has a similar feature.

Toby Scott: Opera has had Speed Dial longer than there has been a Chrome.

Google "advertisement"

Q: When I open Google's home page in Internet Explorer, I always get a box that says, "Install Chrome." How do I stop it from coming up? I can close it, but it comes back the next time I go to Google.

A: You can't make it go away. It's part of Google's home page because Google wants everyone to switch to Chrome. It doesn't detect that you already have Chrome on the computer, just that you're not using Chrome at the time.

Michael Shalkey: You could use a different search engine - you can set the default search engine by going to Tools > Internet Options > General. Open Settings under Search / Change search defaults. Right click on the search engine you want to make the default and set it as the default. Or you can ignore the search engine home page and type your search query into your browser's address bar.

USB printer

Q: I have a USB printer and want to convert to a wireless network server for the printer. Some of the computers run XP and some run Windows 7.

A: Michael Shalkey: You might luck out and have no problems setting it up. If not, search for the part number of the router and see what comes up in the way of instructions.

You'll probably have to install the printer as a USB device to install the driver and then unplug the USB. Sometimes you must then install Ethernet software. If all works well, the router will recognize the printer. That procedure worked with a TRENDNet router for us.

Q: Do you have to install the printer on each computer?

A: Toby Scott: Yes. For standard home users we've had good luck with D-Link routers.

Q: So basically what you're doing is connecting the USB printer to the server and the server allows the wireless connection? For every USB printer, you need a dedicated server?

Michael Shalkey: Generally, unless you just share the printer and every machine can recognize it.

Toby Scott: The different wireless print server boxes have different ways of installing. For some you install the software for the printer box and then tell your other computers to go find it. Others require to you plug the USB cable into the computer, install the drivers, unplug it and then tell the server to find the printer. You have to read the instructions for each one to make it work.

HP is coming out with a wireless printer that will allow you to print on it from anywhere. You could print your Grand Canyon pictures from the canyon on your printer at home. This does raise some questions, however. Would everyone be able to print on your computer? Could someone use up your ink/toner and paper by sending multiple print jobs? What if there's a paper jam?

Moto Print Q: My mobile phone has Moto Print, which lets me print from the phone off a laptop to a printer. It works fine on the laptop, but when I try to use it from the desktop I get a message that says I need to open ports 1900, 2809 and 5808. Should I open them, and, if so, how do I do it?

A: Does the program offer to open them itself or do you have to do it manually? (The questioner was not sure.)

If the program offers to do it, you can tell it to go ahead. If it does not, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Windows Firewall with Advanced Security > Inbound Rules > New Rule. Select Port as the type of rule you want to create. Select Specific local ports and type in the port numbers.

In the next step, be sure to uncheck Public for the type of network. You will be asked to provide a name for the rule. I generally use something; like Moto Print open ports with the numbers so I can find the rule easily if I stop using the program.

Be careful when you answer the question about whether this is for a home, private or public network. Be sure not to have public checked.

Sending large file

Q: How do I send a large file?

A: Not with email. For large files you need a file-sharing mechanism, such as Dropbox or Windows Live Mesh, which I prefer. However you do it, the other person will have to have the same thing installed. There are many others.

I have to send some music to someone in Europe, and lots of sites don't allow you to post music because of copyright issues. The material is copyrighted, but we own the copyright. It's still likely to be a problem. I used Dropbox because the other party had it installed.

Chrome problem

Q: I was having problems opening Chrome. I got a message that said Windows couldn't open index.aspx, so I removed Chrome through Add/remove programs. I tried to download and reinstall, but the installation got to a certain point and stopped.

A: It might be a virus or some other malware. I'd run both an antivirus and malware scan. Lots of the malware attaches itself to browsers, and sometimes browsers won't install with that. (Questioner says she did that and got a message that the free Malwarebytes has expired.) That shouldn't happen; the free version does not expire.

Michael Shalkey: Unless she accepted the trial version of the Pro package, which would expire.

Toby Scott: That's a possibility. You could try downloading and installing a new version of Malwarebytes. [A question on the Malwarebytes website {http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=94362} about expiration says that a person who accepted the trial of the paid version will be offered a choice when the trial ends of purchasing or ending the trial. Clicking on End Trial makes the product convert to the free version. - Editor] But it sounds like you have some kind of problem.

If it was clean you have some other issue that's stopping Chrome from installing, and it's usually well behaved. Try turning off the anti-virus program to install Chrome. You shouldn't have to, but it's a possibility. I don't know. Try Opera.

Michael Shalkey: Or even Safari. I read about someone who couldn't get any browser to work except Safari, which was enough to let remote support go in and get rid of his viruses.

Questioner said that at one point she couldn't get Firefox or Chrome to work. Firefox reinstalled but she prefers Chrome.

Toby Scott: The problem is that the problems you're having installing the browsers are symptomatic of something. You have a rootkit or something in your computer that shouldn't be there. It's possible someone is getting your information (to her question), but I suspect some sort of malware. (Questioner asks if it's dangerous.) If it's there, it was created by a hacker and it's hidden well. Is it dangerous? I don't know without more information, but if it were my computer I'd sure try to track it down and not ignore it. Are the Windows updates occurring? (Questioner has not looked at history, but when she shuts down, she sometimes gets the message not to shut down because updates are being processed. She's using Windows Security Essentials for her anti-virus.) It could be a hard drive problem. Run Check Disk. Go to Start > Run and type in cmd (for command). Then type in chkdsk /r. Hit Enter, and you'll get a message that says it can't run the check until the next time it's booted. Type Y (for yes) and reboot. You'll get a message that Check disk is scheduled but you can stop it by hitting any key. Let it run. Depending on the size of the drive and any problems it finds the /r can take up to three hours, but if it does you definitely wanted to run it. The longer it took the more desperately you needed to run it.

From audience: On my Vista Home, I almost lost my computer. My tech said it was only one or two restarts from losing the drive.

Toby Scott: I'm not sure how he knew that, but OK.

Acronis problem

Q: I tried to run Acronis True Image and it ran for quite awhile and then said it failed. Windows Backup ran OK on a different drive. I ran a check disk on the backup drive and it found an MBR (Master Boot Record) error (she's not sure whether it's on the C drive or the backup external drive). It said to run the Check disk again.

Michael Shalkey: Do it. For those who don't understand what we're talking about, the MBR is the Master Boot Record, which is like the index or table of contents of the drive. If you have that problem you definitely need to get it fixed.

Audience: I've been using Acronis without problems and tried to back up to a USB drive. It wouldn't do that, but it did back up to an internal hard drive, so maybe the USB drive just couldn't keep up with the software.

Security problem

Q: I read somewhere there's a problem with Firefox. Is that true?

A: Probably the memory leak we discussed earlier, but there was also a minor security problem found that has been fixed.

Michael Shalkey: At the recent hacker conference in Canada, Safari was the worst browser. The conference sets up several computers of different makes and with different operating systems and challenges those attending to get into them. The same person routinely is the first one to hack Safari, usually in less than 10 seconds.

Toby Scott: He doesn't have a lot of competition because most of the guys can't type that fast.

Also, all of the Adobe programs with problems run on Macs the same as they do on PCs. And Apple went for a month denying there was any problem while people were going crazy with the difficulties.