Spaceman/CC/Optimist. Thank you very much indeed for those comments. I will have a job assimilating them all, but I will print them out and my computer man John (I am a computer idiot) will come down whenever I wish, to go through them. He is a bit baffled, and has suggested, as CC said, that I contact BT. I did this once before and they said there was a problem and fixed it within two days, when everything was much better. John (who built the computer) also suggested that perhaps there was a problem with cmc's software. As you say, I have a second computer, now via the router, and have to load cmc onto it in the next few days, so that should show up whether it's a fault on my windows software or not, and whether I should re-load the software. Although to be honest I can live with it as it is. I should add that things have been much worse since cmc updated the Marketmaker platform with the new screens etc, and they sometimes load much more slowly than they used to - but not always. Occasionally it takes only seconds, other time it takes minutes.

Sometimes I get the blue screen when cmc closes the computer down, and I always get a 'serious error' message which has also baffled John, and in fact this has happened when he was here and he did all the checks he thought might find any problem, which showed that the voltage was a bit low (11.67 or so) and he has got a new bit for the computer. The fans and temperature are OK.

He pointed out that I am getting only 512 kbps on broadband instead of 1mb, and I contacted AOL who said my area is not enabled for 1mb. But that I might get it by June 28 this year... we shall see. John says that's a load of b*****s, as he has 1 mb , and will check with another computer in the same road as I live in to see what they get.

I don't understand much, but the main computer has 1024 mb RAM, which I think is quite good..

Before I had the router I was often cut off every few minutes via AOL, particularly around 3.45 pm and particularly on a Thursday. This leads me to that something outside might be influencing it. Yesterday (using the router) cmc kept clicking off (prices all go green), and E*Trade, GNI and even Money am went down, all except GNI reconnecting within 30 seconds without my doing anything. But there's no discernable pattern to this yet. And the previous day (my first using the router) it didn't happen at all.

I don't look at ADVFN normally, but will do a check with John as you suggested, CC, to see what happens. He will come down anytime I ask. He's a computer pro and I pay him pro money. The main computer and three screens and bits and pieces cost over 4,000. I know that means nothing, but he has set everything up, and done as many checks as he can, to ensure I need to do as little as possible. And I am quite happy to pay him - it's worth it to me. At 62 I am far too old to assimilate anything more than very basic info - trading is far easier.

Thanks again all for your help. I will let you know how I get on. And I will look at the Ctrl-alt-del, CC, to see what I am using. I think John has had a look and said it was OK.

Tim. I will ring about another Swaffham meet - or you might like to come over and see my set-up, but it's not as grand as Ruth's, and there are no dogs (except the wife).

edit. Have just done a broadband check-up from the Moneyam site and got the reply: 'Unfortunately, we have been unable to verify serviceability for the postcode and telephone number you provided. We would recommend contacting BT on 0800 800 151 and asking them to do a line check for you.'

bloody hell CC ,I tried your check on task manager-WOW,and that was just this
web-site, I hadn`t realised how much power they sap from us , the "free"
info.doesn`t come cheap then, to add an oxymoron.,


ps I pay for mine and don`t expect this to happen.

To be fair to moneyam sequestor they don't loop the adverts all day like advfn do.
They may take a chunk of processor power for a while but it is only 30 seconds or so and I think that's not unreasonable for free (except I pay of course - lol).
It's advfn that are the real offendors as they take the processing power forever until you close the internet explorer window. I can see the situation just getting worse and worse though.
I've had to pay now to not receive the advfn adverts.

Very interesting stuff, you guys.

Thankyou for enlightening us, CC

Can somebody tell me please how to get rid of Windows Messenger.

I run XP Pro and, every time that I start Outlook Express, Windows Messenger opens. I've removed it from the "Add/Remove Windows Components" and stopped it from starting using the "Tools" in Outlook Express but the blasted thing is still there.

Hilary,
If you go into Messenger tools, options, general and unckeck "Automatically run messenger" in the sign in section.

skg

Thanks skg, but I don't seem to have those options in my version (4.7).

hilary - try this

I used it successfully, along with nearly 1.5 million others, but I'm on XP Home.

In case the link doesn't work properly, it should point to:

http://grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm

If you want to remove it completely:-

Start Button - Control Panel - Add/Remove programs - Add/Remove Windows Components - uncheck Windows Messenger - click next.

Thanks Piptrader, but I didn't really want to install an additional program just to remove another program.

Optimist,

Thanks also, but I've done that as per post 3434 and it's still there. Every time that Outlook Express opens it opens Messenger too.

OK hilary, don't think that would have done the trick anyway - looks like it's for a different messenger service.

I have created a new email account. I have the username etc all done but I'm completely foxed as to how to create a format that automatically shows a coat of arms and the name and address of tbe organization the email will be from. I'm assuming it's something to do with macros but cannot find anything on how to set it up. I use Microsoft Outlook Express. Could anybody offer any guidance, please?

Priscilla, Tools/Options/Signatures tab. Not sure whether you can put an image in there, it would be via the usual &ltimg src="file:///c:/folder/file.jpg"&gt but you would have to enable HTML outgoing messages and try it.

Thanks, Kayak. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.

I am thinking of getting a wireless connection for my pc's in the house so I can transfer files between them, one is upstairs and downstairs which one should I get?

Jason, I use a 3Com ADSL wireless 11g Firewall router modem - 3CRWE754G72-A and it works fine, obviously don't get 11b as that's slower although the most up to date have 11b and g, and I think there's a new standard just coming out which is even faster.

Seymour, thanks ;-)

Jason

Here's a couple of sites I bookmarked:

http://www.pcguidebook.com/homenetwork.asp

http://www.amset.info/broadband/sharing.asp

Hope they are of some help.

Jason, just a thought - are you still running windows 98? It's a bit more difficult to set up under W98 I believe.

DocProc, thanks ;-)

Seymour, one of the machines has Windows 98se and the other has Windows xp home edition