Da daaa!

:-)

PS. Show us your legs. ;-)

Wi-Fi problems,we use 2 laptops connected to a access point up stairs and has worked great for a couple of years but yesterday we bought a Lexmark wi-fi printer but i can get either the laptops talking to the net or just the printer but cannot get both to talk at the same time.

The wife uses the laptop mainly but i cannot fathom out how to keep the laptop still connected to the net and also be able to use her new printer.

Any help or suggestions on this one please.

Mega........

What model Lexmark printer?

Mega, your printer appears to be acting as an access point, i.e. taking connections from individual computers in the same way as a wireless router would. There is bound to be an option to disable that and have the printer behaving as a computer connecting to your existing access point.

CrowdedHouse printer X4550

Kayak,that is what i am thinking,will try and have a look later,trouble is OH thinks these things are broken as it should be up and running straight out of the Box.

But i guess most woman are like that anyway,they all want it done yesterday,little do the realise men aint like that :-)

Thanks for your help folks !!!

Mega....

You need to select 'infrastructure' mode in the wireless settings, Mega.

Spot on Kayak ... here is a link ...

http://support.lexmark.com/cgi-perl/knowledgebase.cgi?ccs=227:5:0:583:0:0&framed=&docid=ENUS27601&relevance=1

I know that MM is an Opera fan. Indeed, Wagner. As to the browser, sorry Hil, only just seen your post and you seem to be sorted now.

As to Execline's request to see your legs, shall you oblige or shall I (but with your legs)?

I bet this is a really simple question and I'll kick myself for not knowing how but....how do I know what my data usage figures are? I'm looking at broadband suppliers via usb modem for when I'm in Spain and want to know how much data per month I might need.
TIA

Depends on your setup.

If you have a firewall/router then it may well have the total bytes received/tramsmited availible on the status page though it will probably reset the data whenever the ADSL connectio is reset (which may not be very often).

The same info is availible on each computer on the etwork connections status window. This is also reset every time the connection comes up and will also include computer to computer traffic on your LAN.

It may be that your ISP can tell you how much your using, or you could Google for a network monitoring program.

Thanks Optimist. Status page on the wireless router does the trick although I have ethernet, dsl and wireless to pick from of which I assume the dsl stats are my internet traffic.

Hi you learned lot!!!
Anyone help a client of mine?
He is being inundated with pop ups, all from something called CiD.
I have managed to stop it changing his home page, but the pop ups are coming thick and fast and pop up blockers seem unable to help.
When I googled CiD, I got the equivalent of a garage mechanic shaking his head and drawing in his breath. I could find no auto removal for it and the best I could find was opening up some kind of windows system file and using a text editor to delete things.
This fills me with dread as my PC knowledge stops at the on/off switch.
Any kind soul wish to inform me what on earth malicious adware he has got and how to remove it safely.
Thanks in advance,
Alan

I haven't researched it but it sounds like some sort of trojan adware/virus.

You could check the major AV sites to see if they have a cure, or try running programs such as Spybot or Windows Defender.

Another thing to check is whether the trojan has infected the entire computer or just the one user profile.

A drastic solution would be a complete reinstall of XP.

if on windows XP, install IE7 (free from MS) and Defender (free from MS) and run scan.... remove malicious software .... ensure IE is set to block pop-ups (tools-> internet options -> privacy, tick 'turn on popup blocker')....
If on windows 2000, you have little defence ....
(Not promoting MS, I just know their packages better) ...

I'm not familiar with this one but . . .

I'd use the Firefox browser rather than IE. http://www.firefox.com It's a bit less vulnerable than IE.

I'd immediately install Spywareblaster and keep it regularly updated. This will block malicious sites in both IE and Firefox. http://www.spywareblaster.com will get you there.

I'd also install and use Spybot. http://www.spybot.com

Finally, install and use AdAware. http://www.lavasoft.com

All of the above are free (although some offer enhanced paid versions as well).

All are excellent software products.

Good luck.

MM

MM,

I mention IE cos if MS broke it, I expect MS to fix it ...

Heard lots about Firefox, never installed it, does it differ much from IE?
Have heard it is more compatible with the HTTP DOM than IE as MS often go off on their own path adding classes and event procedures and expect the world to follow (typical MS) ....

One of my developers prefers it and uses it as a benchmark for both MS and non-IE browsers, comments/pros/cons most welcome ....

thanks

MM

I understand your reasons for suggesting Firefox. I'm not sure whether you meant to, but your post implies that it it would help solve the problem in this case.

From the description given, this could well be a trojan or virus and while running Firefox might have prevented infection, the most that it will do now is hide the symptoms.

I agree with your other suggestions although I think Windows Defender should also be included.

Thanks a lot, guys.
My own research on this shows it to be a very invasive bit of malware that resists all attempts to destroy it and even when one is succesful in finding it and removing it, reports suggest it hijacks the startup so that when the computer is restarted, it installs itself again.
Sounds very nasty from what I read and a complete reformatting might end up as the only answer, so beware out ther!!
Thanks again,
Alan

I've seen such viruses before. They tend to be in two be made up of two or three seperate parts each one of which is capable of recreating the others. I would expect them to be trigered by a registry entry at startup. There are a few standard places where those reside, and a lot more potential places. You need to delete all of the files and the registry entries to ge rid of it.

I don't want to frighten you too much, but the last time that I encounterd something like this, it also acted as a password sniffer. I found textfiles on everyones computer with logon url's, names and passwords which the virus would email to someone.

Get your friend to search for all files on his computer, containing a commonly used logon name. If that is what is happening, that might flush out where it is storing the stolen info. In any case, change ALL PASSWORDS.

A good first line of deffence against such an attack is to use an exernal firewall to block all outgoing SMTP port 25 traffic. Which will prevent the email being sent. You will have to allow por 25 traffic to your ISP's mail server or better still use a secure mail server. This will not stop ID theft, but it makes things harder for the low life.

Another question, guys (Jeez, what would we all do without you?)

I have finally arranged things so I can dump AOL as my ISP.
From Friday I will be with Sky. They have sent me the activation date, my username and passwords and the router and installation software to set it up.
The question is, can I install the router and software, plug it in to my existing ADSL line and carry on as normal as from now, using the line that on Friday will switch from AOL to Sky, because the problems I have with AOL are terrible?
Thanks,
Alan