Free antivirus from
AVG Anti virus

I've always found Trend anti-virus site very helpful:

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/

Thanks guys.

I have been taking all microsoft xp security upgrades but have not installed sp2. In the last couple of weeks Outlook Express has denied me access to all attachments sent to me some of which have been very important. Can anybody tell me how to look at these - i.e. how to get around this "denied access"

It sounds as though you have got part of an SP2 fix.

SP2 modifies Outlook Express so that it checks what type the file actually is not what the extension says, therefore you can't get round it by changing the extension. ZIP files should be allowed through and Outlook 200x does not have that feature(?) although exe files are still difficult to get round.

Optimist , most of the attachments have just been ms word - I am very puzzled and frustrated by this. A business man took real umbrage.

md

Some good stuff on this at Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1

DocProc , many ta's - will try what it says.

My other 2 Desktop computers have arrived.So I now want to connect them.Ive decided to use Cable rather than a wirelesss Network.
I want them all to be able to connect to the Internet and not have to leave the host switched on to do that.
Whats the best Broadband Router/Network Card/Cabling etc.
The Cable runs will be about 20ft
Optomist/Kayak/Spaceman weave your magic :-)

Ian

If networking is not built in, you neeed to fit a 100Mbps ethernet card (< 10) in each computer. You will also need a network hub/switch and an ADSL router with an ethernet connection. The router and the hub can be purchased as one unit.

Make sure that you get an ADSL router that has a reasonable firewall some of the cheaper ones only have a NAT firewall which is not really good enough.

I have used the Netgear DG834G router which I can reccomend I'm told that Linksys do a good one but have not tried it. The Netgear one is a 4 Port hub and wireless router combined. Although you have decided (rightly IMO) to use a cable connection, you would not be paying much for the wirless part and it can be useful for occasional laptop or PDA connections.

With a combined router/hub, all you have to do is plug in the cables from your computers and the telephone line. Setup of the router is straight forward but read the instructions. The router will have a DHCP service which will send the correct settings to your computers so setup of them is easy. You will then have to set your internet explorer connection setings to use never dial a connection and use your LAN.

For connecting between the computers and your hub you can either buy some long network cables or fit some wall sockets near the computers and hub with permenant Cat 5 cable between them. The latter is neater but more trouble to set up, if you do this, don't bend the cable too much and make sure the connections are neat and good.

I have the Netgear DG834 router Iain, which is the non-wireless version of the DG834G. Haven't looked up the difference in price but if it isn't a great deal as Optimist says you might as well have the facility for the future.

Iain, I have a 3Com Officeconnect wired/wireless router modem which works well, I think any of the big names are worth buying. FWIW if you look at the various models on ebuyer.com people have added their ratings comments about ease of use / setup etc - I looked at this a lot before deciding which to buy.

Cheers All
Found a decent site for the stuff.Time for more shopping
http://www.dsl-warehouse.co.uk/

Ian - Big Al posted good site a few months ago, but can't find it now.

this one also: http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/default.asp

Running an old Celeron 400 on the PC I've given to the children. My son thinks it's really slow, is there another processor I can stick in to upgrade it significantly or is it a case of buy a new base unit?

SC

The best thing to do would be to put more memory in.

If you want to upgrade the processor it should be possible but you need to find out which ones your Motherboard will accept. I assume that it is a Pentium 2 Celeron. If that is the case, some of them were mounted on a daughter board that fitted into the proccessor slot which would also take a faster ful Pentium 2 if you can find one.

The other thing to bear in mind is that you can buy used P3 boxes for around 80.

Optimist, I've got loads of memory - I think the best thing is to replace the whole box with a used 1GHz system or something like that. I've added memory, gone for a bigger HD etc and still have a slow machine. Maybe it's time to just stop throwing money at it. Bloomin' games developers. The kids want to use my machine and that's just not on!!

ebay here we come.

SC

You may well be right especially if they are keen on games, your box probably can't be upgrades to the latest graphics cards.

If you ditch it, it could be configured as a great firewall.

Good idea, however I have a firewall in my broadband router / modem so not sure if this is neccessary. Can anyone enlighten me?

SC

You could probably build a better one but if you have a good quality router then it is most likely adequate.