Q. I am having problems with dial-up networking. I connect and often before the password gets entered I lose the line. Sometimes I’m in for just a few minutes and again I lose the line. The computer’s modem test says the modem is fine. Any suggestions? A. The modem test is only looking to see if the computer’s processor can communicate with the modem, but does not test the quality of your telephone line. If you have a spare telephone, connect it to the line and see if you have a lot of static. If you do, report it to your phone provider (e.g. SNET). Years ago I had chronic problems if it was a windy day. The problem turned out to be that the line running in from the pole to the house was slapping against a tree trunk at about mid-span and had cracked the wires inside the cable. Q. I have a DSL connection from Verizon. It comes ‘bundled’ with MSN 8. Must I use MSN 8? A. The DSL service is a ‘carrier’ connection service only—MSN 8 provides you with ‘content’. You may establish the connection and then use any browser or mail client or TCP/IP application (TelNet, ftp, etc.) that you wish once the connection is established. For some broadband connections you may also have to run a communcations layer called PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet). A common source of this is EnterNET 300, it is installed by SBC Yahoo, for example. If you are using a broadband router/firewall (such as LinkSys, SMC, NetGear, Belkin, USR, etc.) then it has PPPoE support built in, and you may remove it from your PC. Just be sure to make note of any connection parameters that you might need. Lastly, some of the ‘free’ services require that you run their software - such as NetZero, Juno, etc. Their software puts banner advertizing in your face - the price you pay for the ‘free’ service. Q. Every time I open a document Word XP it tells me that macros are disabled. How can I get rid of this message? A. On the main menu, go to “Tools” then “Options” then “General” and clear the check box for “Macro Virus Protection”. This presupposes that you have an anti-virus program that will look for macro viruses in any document that you open. Q. I understand that Microsoft is discontinuing support for Windows 98 within a few weeks. I have several machines that are not up-to-date with ‘Critical Updates’. Can I get them on CD as I don’t have a broadband connection? A. A check of the Microsoft site came up empty - the only way to get the critical updates is via the Windows Update service page - following links on www.microsoft.com/security as suggested by a member eventually took you into the standard Windows Update page where it scans your machine and then provides a list of updates that it will install. If you can find a CD with Internet Explorer 6 on it that will considerably reduce the size of the downloads that they will try to push down to you. Nowever, before you install IE 6, check to make sure that your machine meets the minimum requirements. Q. I have read specs for a Compact Flash memory card - it states that it is good for 100,000 cycles. Has anyone ever gotten up this high and had it fail? A. No one reported any failure with memory cards. Q. I get ads saying that Cable broadband is faster than DSL. Is it? A. It can be sometimes, and other times not.
The cable has a fixed capacity for all subscribers on that cable
segment. If there are a lot of subscribers, your maximum throughput
will degrade as the others load up the system. With DSL you should
have a consistent throughput as your circuit is not shared. The
December issue of DACS.DOC has an article about it. Further,
both cable and DSL have various rated capacities (at various
prices.) You can measure your throughput via utilities Q. My son-in-law has a security system in his house. Will it co-exist with DSL? A. Alarm systems are wired into a telephone circuit and will ‘seize’ the telephone line if they need to report an alarm condition. The dialer is electronically equivalent to a regular phone (or fax device) and as such must be isolated from the DSL signal by way of a filter. Filters are provided with the DSL modem - each ‘regular’ phone in the system (or fax, or alarm system, or answering machiune, or ‘regular’ computer modem) must have a filter between it and the line coming into the house. They may have individual filters, or share a common filter. Q. How far can an 802.11b wireless connection be from the access point? A. It really varies depending upon obstructions between the access point (typically your router) and the device. If there are metal cabinets, appliances, desks, etc., they will severely hinder the signal. Generally speaking, if you have the access point centrally located, it should service all the rooms in a typical residence. The type of transceiver on the PC also will have some bearing - a notebook machine that uses a “PCcard” 802.11 adapter will have a built-in antenna which is considerably less sensitive than, say, an external USB device with a whip antenna. In similar fashion, a PC with a PCI card with a small whip antenna on the back of the PC may not get as good a signal if the PC is between the antenna and the access point. Q. Are there problems with interference from wireless telephones that use the 2.4GHz bands? A. There can be. If the telephone uses ‘spread spectrum’ technology, then as part of its anti-eavesdropping security it moves to frequencies that aren’t in use. There are a large number of channels and frequencies available—the only problems I have heard of are those where the telephones do not do a channel search and happen to collide with the channel used by the wireless. You can control the channel used by the wireless via the router’s configuration screen (accessed via your web browser.) Q. What else should I configure for 802.11b or 802.11g? A. Enable WEP encryption and be sure that the level of encryption you select is the same on all nodes. WEP encryption makes use of a ‘key’ that you specify. On some routers you can have the device generate the key by typing in a “pass phrase” such as “The quick brown fox”—this will generate a number of hex character pairs (pairs of characters from the set of 0 to 9, A through F) that you then put into the key field on all devices. Think of it as a network-level password. Disable SSID broadcasting once you have set your network up. This will prevent others from being able to link to your access point as your access point will not advertize its existence. You might also consider activating the use of MAC addresses for connection management. Each network adapter has an absolutely unique identification number (combination of manufacturer’s id and a sequence number). You can tell your router to only communicate with network adapters whose MAC addresses are in a list in the router. |
| Bruce Preston is president of West Mountain Systems, a consultancy in Ridgefield, CT specializing in database applications. A DACS director, Bruce also leads the Access SIG. Members may send tech queries to Bruce at askdacs@dacs.org. |
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