Saturday 21 December 2002

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How can I divide a large file into smaller segments so it can be sent via email or backed up to a floppy disk?

One option available to you is to use a freeware program known as HJ Split. The beauty of this tool is that it is tiny and no installation is necessary to run it. Just double click on the the file's icon, select the file you wish to break up, let HJ Split know the size of the resulting chunks you would like to create and finally click on the start button to begin the process. HJ Split will also recombine these files for you once they reach their final destination, so if you want to email them to a friend make sure you also send them the program itself.

Since most people will already have installed on their system some sort of compression tool, you may instead like to create a spanned, compressed archive. Winzip, Winace and Winrar are equally adept at this task so you may as well use whichever one you happen to have installed.

Take Winzip, for instance; to span a file across multiple disks, create a zip file in the usual manner and when requested to choose a location to store the resulting archive in, select your floppy drive. If the file exceeds the capacity of a single disk, when it becomes full, Winzip will request you to insert another disk to which it can continue backing up your data.

From within the same menu, it is also possible to use Winzip to chop up compressed archives using arbitrary cut off points and save the files to your hard drive.

You want to create a rar archive instead? You would wouldn't you, you awkward so and so. ;) Luckily, that's no more difficult than spanning a zip file. Locate the files you wish to add to your rar archive and highlight them, right-click on one of them and select 'add to archive'. When the 'archive name and parameters' menu appears, give your archive-to-be an appropriate name and then in the box that reads 'split to volumes, bytes' type in, or select the size of the data chunks you would like Winrar to create. Click OK and your task is complete. That wasn't too painful, was it?

Monday 16 December 2002

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To browse or not to browse, that is the question

Here's a good tip for anyone who still pays for their time online by the minute (you silly people you!). Have you ever found a really interesting, information packed web site which you'd love to read from start to finish, but couldn't concentrate on it because you were constantly watching the clock? Well the ideal solution is to download the pages to your hard drive so you can read them offline at your leisure without running up a huge phone bill.

While you can save individual pages one by one using your browser's save button, this isn't exactly very convenient when you want to download a whole web site, which could include thousands of pages, images, movies and sounds.

So what's the alternative? Spidersoft's Web Zip will quite happily crawl through every page of a target web site and save an exact copy of it including its directory structure to your hard drive. Once you have given the program a few simple instructions regarding what exactly it is you wish to save, the transfer process is completely automated.

Just one word of warning though; before hitting the start button remember to restrict the level of external links you want Web Zip to follow - specifying no exclusions at all is the equivalent of asking it to download the internet per se, rather than just the particular site you're interested in!

Friday 6 December 2002

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What are .mdf and .mds files?

These constitute the native image file system of the CD/DVD cloning tool, Alcohol 120%. You can think of them as a proprietary version of the better known bin/cue duo. Mds files are tiny as they only contain the bare minimum of information required by the cloning software to successfully burn the relatively mammoth mdf, or image, file.

Other image manipulation tools such as ISO Buster and Ultra ISO will let you peek inside mdf images and extract their contents, but not create new ones.

Saturday 23 November 2002

Monday 4 November 2002

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What are Serv-U, War FTP and Bullet Proof FTP Server?

Since the name of the latter program was changed from Gene 6, newbies have had less trouble guessing its purpose. Here's a further clue: War FTP and Serv-U do exactly the same thing.

For those of you still fumbling in the dark for answers, these are all FTP server clients, which allow you to setup your computer as a file distribution system known as an FTP site. These allow you to selectively share your data with people who you have given your IP (internet protocol) address to.

When you log into an FTP site, the name of the server software being employed is usually one of the first details about the server to be displayed by your FTP client.

To discover how to set up your own FTP server consult the relevant tutorial elsewhere in my blog.

Friday 18 October 2002

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FXP (File Exchange Protocol) - Flash! Ahhh-ahhhhhhh... He'll save every one of us!

No, I'm not repeating myself; there is a subtle difference between the FTP and FXP protocols. The former allows you to transfer data from a remote computer to your hard drive, while the latter enables you to transfer data from one FTP site to another FTP site.

By setting up an FXP transfer you are tapping the slower of the two connection speeds of the computers you wish to transfer data between. So even if you only have a 56k modem, it is possible to transfer data at the speed of a T3 connection for example. The speed of your own connection has no bearing on the transfer rate because you are merely acting as the catalyst; the data never actually touches your own hard drive. One instance in which you might find this technique useful is when switching web hosts - if your site contains a sizeable library of video or music content, transferring it from A to B will take a fraction of the time it would armed only with your meagre home connection.

To get started you will need an FXP client. There aren't that many around to choose from, but luckily what is available is top notch - head over to www.flashfxp.com and see for yourself. Before you can continue you will need a destination FTP site to transfer your data to. This could be any computer providing it has been setup as an FTP server and you know the login details.

Whenever you open a Flash FXP session you will be presented with a split screen display. The left side of the screen is used for browsing the remote FTP site you wish to transfer data from, and the right side of the screen is used for browsing the destination FTP site.

To begin with you will have to enter the IP address of the FTP site you wish to transfer data from. To do this, click on the yellow lightning bolt icon, select 'quick connect', fill in the login details and click on the 'connect' button. Switch to the opposite side of the screen, select 'quick connect' once again and enter the login details of your destination FTP site.

All that remains to be done is to decide what it is you wish to transfer and give Flash FXP the go ahead. The procedure is as follows:- highlight a selection of files, jab the 'add to queue' option and push the 'go' button. Finally, sit back and put your feet up while you watch the megabytes accumulate.

Ah, this would be the paragraph where I moan about some of the drawbacks that blight FXP - just for the sake of completeness you understand. One of the most pertinent issues is that not all FTP sites will grant you permission to transfer data to another FTP. The reason for this is that to use FXP, both hosts must support PASV mode and allow PORT commands to foreign hosts, and clearly not all do.

Something to consider when using free web space or a paid, shared, virtual account is the type of files you are allowed to store in your account. Some web host administrators, for example, will forbid you from transferring mp3 or zip files just in case they contain copyright infringing material.

These considerations aside, FXP is a skill worth mastering by any webmaster or server admin who deals with large files on a regular basis. You are unlikely to ever have access at home to the kind of bandwidth available through corporate networks so this is the next best thing.

Saturday 12 October 2002

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Web forums under the microscope

These are an invaluable resource - say you've been struggling with a technical dilemma and there's no-one with sufficient computer know-how around to ask for help. Your next move shouldn't be to ring up a premium rate technical support line. Why bother when you can always guarantee there will be someone out there in cyberspace who knows exactly what the problem is and how to fix it, and who will be more than happy to impart this knowledge for free?

Let's skip the preamble for a change and jump straight in at the deep end, shall we? - don't worry, I'll supply the armbands! Having found a bulletin board/forum (the two terms are used interchangeably) you like the look of, click on the 'register' link. Now choose an alias, make a polite request for assistance and wait for a reply; you will discover that more often than not, people will do their best to help you out without asking for anything in return. Even if you aren't seeking specific technical support, forums are great places to help you keep up to date with news and rumours relating to a myriad of disparate topics, discover new web sites or simply meet and talk to like-minded people.

You will find that many bulletin boards are attached to particular web sites and so share the same name, while others are 'stand-alone' - the forum is the web site. These forums will fall into one of two categories; they will either be hosted on a private or rented server and will be maintained by the owner, or they will be remotely hosted and managed by a third party company.

A further factor which differentiates forums is the scripting language used to produce them, the most familiar flavours being PHP, Perl and ASP (refer to my forum construction tutorial for further details). The busiest and longest established boards tend to use the Ultimate Bulletin Board or vBulletin script. The main advantage with using UBB or vBulletin is that they can be run from your own server allowing you to have complete control over their implementation, yet another attraction is that they are literally brimming with gadgets and gizmos which can't be found in the majority of remotely hosted boards. Any features not included by default can be 'hacked' into the board manually using nothing more sophisticated than Notepad or an equivalent text editor. These 'hacks' can be added or removed at any time to enhance the board's functionality, tighten up security or just improve its aesthetic appeal.

UBB and vB are expensive, commercial-grade scripts and so are not best suited to small hobby sites running on a shoestring budget. This isn't to say you can't get hold of a top-quality, professional forum script without investing lots of cash - there are plenty of completely free alternatives available which are considered worthy rivals to the two market leaders (again, see my DIY forum guide for examples).

So, at least in theory, anyone can set up their own forum. The main reason many people choose not to do so is that it is so difficult to find the right kind of free, reliable hosting with ample server space. Then again, another stumbling block which tends to put people off setting up a do-it-yourself bulletin board is that initially, the installation procedure can appear quite a daunting prospect - although, in actual fact, if you can read a text file and follow a set of instructions you're well on your way to setting up your very own board.

This drawback leads me quite nicely onto explaining the second category of bulletin boards; those which are remotely hosted and managed by a third party organisation, the most common one being EzBoard Inc. The name derives from the fact that they are very straight forward to set up and configure - who'd have thunk it? Anyone can run their own EzBoard simply by visiting the home page and filling in a few brief forms. The difference between a remotely hosted board such as EzBoard and a DIY board is that the former are maintained by someone else, the clear advantage being that you can avoid all the frustration and expense of searching for a web host.

Another significant plus of opting for a remotely hosted solution is that they mostly require zero investment - you aren't required to purchase the pre-installed script, or pay for hosting since these expenses are recouped through selling advertising space. EzBoards are entirely customisable and therefore can be configured to suit your personal preferences. Also, as they are constantly being updated and improved, many people now believe they are just as functional as the more complicated, DIY forum scripts.

Although by using an EzBoard, or any other remotely hosted board for that matter, you avoid all the maintenance hassles which go hand in hand with DIY scripts, you do have the added worry that the company hosting it could pull the plug at any time should they discover that their services are not financially viable - it happens all the time in the .com industry.

No matter which type of board you are using, a very useful, often overlooked feature is the humble search button. Many people just jump straight in with both feet to make a plea for help without searching through the previous posts first. More than likely someone else will have already asked the same question or posted the same must-visit link, so before adding your two penny's worth, take the time to make sure one way or the other.

If you are looking for a technical solution that specifically relates to the latest version of an application or piece of hardware, it is often more productive to limit your search to messages that were posted within the last month or so. This will improve your chances of finding relevant information. On the other hand, if your query isn't quite so time-sensitive, you should search the whole back catalogue of posts for best results.

The search function is also useful if you yourself have made many posts and have lost track of which forums you have posted in and which people you have replied to. In this case, instead of searching for keywords, you would conduct a search using your own username. This is effective as long as you remember to type your alias into the 'search by username' box rather than the 'search words' box; a very common mistake which will return very few hits.

While we're on the subject of keeping up to date with other people's replies to your posts, another good tip is to enable the email notification feature whenever you make a new post. That way whenever someone replies to one of your messages you will receive an email to say, "what's-his-name has replied to the following topic and you can read their comments by clicking on this link". To enable this feature for individual posts make sure you tick the 'email notification' box whenever you initiate a new discussion or contribute to an ongoing discussion. It is also possible to switch on this feature on a global basis so as to make email notification the default option.

If you have already visited a few bulletin boards you may have come across a range of icons, which look like little faces making exaggerated expressions. These are known as 'smilies' - simple keyboard characters used to convey emotions such as a smile or a frown. Providing you are using a board that supports these smilie faces, all you have to do to produce them is type a two, three or four-character code (without spaces) into your post. These are then automatically converted into the relevant graphical representation. Five basic smilies are supported by almost all modern bulletin boards. These are as follows...

:) = a smile

:( = a frown/unhappy

:o = embarrassment
:D = a big grin

;) = a wink

Note that they make much more sense if you tilt your head to the left like an Andrex puppy. The dopey, befuddled expression is optional.

For a more comprehensive array of smilies, you can insert into forum posts pay Crack's Smilies a visit. You won't find a larger collection anywhere.

There are many more smilies you might want to familiarise yourself with. Even if these aren't automatically converted into a graphical icon most people will know what you mean. The use of smilies isn't just restricted to bulletin boards. They can appear anywhere where it is possible to post information for others to see; web sites, chat rooms, mailing lists, email and so on. If these are used in email, none of the codes will be converted to icons so you should quickly be able learn what each symbol represents and use them without thinking about it. A few of the less obvious examples include:

:-/ = perplexed

:-* = oops

:-x = a kiss

%-/ = hung over

8-) = excited

;-( = grumpy
:-@ = a scream

:-0 = shock

;-} = a leer

$-) = yuppie

7:-) = baseball cap

:-& - tongue-tied

Bulletin boards (and the net in general) are home to a hotbed of abbreviations so it also helps if you can recognise what these shorthand expressions mean whenever they crop up. Here are some of the most commonly used examples:

BTW = By the way

ROTFL = Rolling on the floor laughing

LOL = Laugh out loud

FWIW = For what it's worth

CYA = See ya around

IMHO = In my humble opinion

SGAL = Sheesh, get a life

CUL8R = See you later

IANAL = I'm not a lawyer, but...

SOHF = Sense of humour failure

TTTT = To tell the truth

HTH = Hope this helps

PTMM = Please tell me more

YIU = Yes, I understand

BFN = Bye for now

WTF = What the f*#k?

LMAO = Laughing my ass off

ROFLMAO = Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off

JK = Just kidding

DL = Download

UL = Upload

RTFM = Read the f*#king manual

TIA - Thanks in advance

IC = I see

FYI = For your information

THX = ThanksL8R = See you later

TTFN = Ta ta for now

TTYL = Talk to you later

PLZ = Please

REQ = Request

UIN = Universal identification number (or ICQ number)

NFO = Information

L/P = Login/password

M8 = Mate

AAMOF = As a matter of fact

AFAIK = As far as I know

AFAIC = As far as I'm concerned

AFAICT = As far as I can tell

ASAP = As soon as possible

CWOT = Complete waste of time

TOS = Terms of service

WYSIWYG = What you see is what you get

OMG = Oh my god

As a board grows in popularity it becomes necessary to give a certain few, carefully selected people 'moderator' status. A moderator is like a policeman/woman who patrols the board making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible. They are usually assigned control over an area of the forum specifically designated for the discussion of a particular topic of which they have the most knowledge, but quite often you will see the same mods watching over multiple forums - these are known as super mods, and to prove it they sport 's' shaped quiffs - actually, I made that last bit up. Both varieties have the power to edit, delete, censor or prune any posts in the forums they manage. Related duties include keeping posts spam-free and friendly, and answering any questions the board members may have.

If you're not sure who the moderators of a particular forum are, look out for users who have accumulated hundreds or even thousands of posts and have lots of flashing stars or other distinctive paraphernalia under their name. In any case, the words 'moderator' will usually appear under their username - bit of a giveaway that! If you're interested in becoming a moderator yourself, the best route to take is to get yourself well established on a board by making a lot of helpful posts.

On a computer-oriented forum, it's especially useful if you have a lot of technical knowledge. Try not to become preoccupied with fast-tracking your way up the status hierarchy. Instead relax, learn to enjoy yourself and help out as much as possible without expecting to be rewarded. If you're right for the role, your talents will be recognised sooner or later. Whatever you do, don't join a forum solely for the kick of becoming a moderator - they have far more to offer than earning the right to wear a badge.

A few other forum-related issues worth a mention include the use of cookies, HTML and javascript and the disappearance of posts. Firstly, cookies, the non-edible kind that is, are tiny files (usually occupying less than 1kb of hard drive space) created by scripts embedded in the web sites you visit. Cookies are stored in their own little niche within your Windows folder and are used to remember information such as the last time you logged into a web site, your username and password, and any personal preferences you may have set through your 'profile' page.

In the past, cookies have been maligned for supposedly facilitating unwarranted access to people's private accounts - dismiss what you've heard; this is a myth. Cookies can only be deciphered by the web site from which they originated, and not by just opening them in a text editor such as Notepad. They can be a problem if you use a shared computer and do not have a personal login to keep your preferences separate from those of other users, but this is hardly a cookie design fault; it's a matter for individual end-users to resolve.

Another fallacy is that cookies can transmit viruses. Again, this is nonsense so don't let it concern you. Cookies are simply there to enhance the speed and efficiency of your web browsing, not to cause damage to your system or steal your username and password.

Second on the mention-worthy list; the removal of posts. You may return to a forum to check if anyone has replied to a post you made the previous day and to your annoyance discover that it has mysteriously disappeared. Unless you have violated some forum regulation, have been endlessly flaming someone for no apparent reason or have posted something that is completely outrageous, your post is unlikely to have been deleted. More often than not, it will have been moved to a more relevant forum where the discussion has been allowed to continue.

This brings me to one of the most basic rules governing the use of bulletin boards - post in the correct forum. This is just as much for your sake as to keep the board tidy and easy to navigate. For instance, if you post a question about web design in the games discussion forum you are unlikely to get the best possible response because anyone who has specialist knowledge of web design is more likely to spend their time visiting the web design forum, and as a result could miss your post entirely. This is one of the quickest ways to annoy the moderators so make sure you think before posting.

Third and final consideration; HTML code and javascript. On some boards, you will be able to insert HTML code or javascript into your posts. If you're familiar with web design, this will enable you to add pictures, special effects and sounds to your posts or alter your text aesthetically. Many forum administrators disable this feature, quite frankly because it's annoying, it slows down the board and uses excessive bandwidth, but also because it poses a security risk when exploited by bored miscreants. If you're not sure whether or not you're allowed to post HTML code etc, keep an eye open for a phrase stating something along the lines of, "HTML code is off/on" appearing adjacent to the message dialogue box whenever you make a post.

If you have visited a web design forum where HTML code/javascript is enabled you will be aware of the problems this can cause for people wishing to exchange scripts or code snippets. Under these circumstances, anyone viewing posts containing HTML code or javascript would see the effects of this code rather than the raw code itself.

To work around this problem some forums allow you to place web script snippets inside [code] tags to instruct the forum software to display the code between the tags instead of attempting to interpret and transform it. Before the [code] tag was introduced it was commonplace to see posts containing images of HTML code - yes, people would actually open up their favourite paint program, type out the HTML code they wanted to post, save it as a .gif or .jpg image and then submit the picture rather than the actual code. Absolute insanity!

If you are hoping to become a well-regarded member of a bulletin board community, it is imperative that you read any guidelines laid down by the administrator. Aside from a handful of unwritten rules of conduct, such as being friendly and polite, and not SHOUTING etc, these guidelines can be as diverse as the internet in general so don't assume that because you've been around the block a few times, you know it all.

Seeking out these forums can be quite a chore, which is why I've rounded up what I consider to be some of the best ones and listed them on my forum links page. However, if none of these appeal to you, you can visit the EzBoard home page or pop along to Google and carry out your own search. A final point to note is that forums cover a much wider range of topics than computers alone, so wherever your interests lie there is almost certain to be a forum out there to cater for your needs.

Friday 4 October 2002

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Why do I get CRC errors when I unzip compressed archives? What is a CRC error?

These occur relatively infrequently, but most people have experienced such problems at one time or another. CRC is an acronym for cyclic redundancy check, a mathematical method used to calculate the validity of the data in a given archive.

CRC errors can transpire when files are resumed too many times during the download process and as a result lose a few bytes along the way. Consequentially they become corrupt and are ultimately useless. Some of the more advanced download managers have a kind of 'roll back' function to counter this problem, which re-copies the last few bytes of a file each time it is resumed. It's also possible to choose to what extent you would like to backtrack. This is useful because the amount of data which can become corrupt upon resuming a transfer is directly proportional to the speed of your connection.

Compressed archives, or any file type for that matter, can also become corrupt if they are downloaded too fast. If your computer is unable to write data to the hard drive as quickly as it is being downloaded, some of the data can be lost. What you must ensure is that your computer is sufficiently powerful to keep up with the demands of your modem. If not, you will have to employ your download manager to impose a speed limit on your transfers.

Several different methods can be used to repair damaged archives with varying degrees of success. To access Winace's archive repair function, browse along to 'archive' then 'repair archive' within the menus at the top of the interface. Similarly, Winrar's equivalent tool can be located under the 'commands' > 'repair archive' option. Don't be surprised, however, if they both fail dismally.

The developers of Winrar, in realising how useless these tools are, have now created a new system used to repair damaged archives and have made it available in Winrar versions 3.0 and above. It uses 'rev' files (recovery volume) to maintain a record of how to repair a given archive if it should become corrupt.

These work in much the same way as 'par' files (the topic of another blog entry) and in addition to providing the means to repair damaged archives, also allow you to rebuild missing segments of archives. Rev files can be created along with the archives they are designed to rebuild providing the relevant box is ticked beforehand. If a rev file is present when extracting the archives it will automatically be used by Winrar to repair and rebuild the archives on the fly.

Nevertheless, a less sophisticated yet dependable way of ensuring that your archives are error free, is to download them again and re-test them for CRC problems. If you experience recurring errors it would be wise to download the same files from a different location.

Friday 13 September 2002

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I've opened a rar archive using Winace. Whenever I try to extract it, almost every file is said to be corrupt. Do I need to download it again?

No, in most cases the files will be perfectly fine. This problem is caused by the way older versions of Winace handle rar archives. You can avoid these false error reports by using Winrar instead, a trial version of which can be downloaded from www.rarlabs.com.

This is arguably the best compression/extraction program available in any case, so it would be beneficial to have it installed on your system. One of its most useful features is its ability to handle multiple file extractions, yet it has a plethora of other invaluable tools too.

In future, make sure you use Winace for extracting ace archives and Winrar for extracting rar archives if you encounter problems.

Sunday 8 September 2002

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I keep seeing the word 'bump' in bulletin board posts. What's that all about?

Well, when someone posts a question and it receives no replies, it gradually falls to the bottom of the pile and eventually drops off the first page where no one can see it. Instead of giving up and letting the thread die gracefully, some people reply to their own post to bring it back up to the top of the forum in the hope that it will get a better response the second time round. You could type anything in your reply and it would have the same effect, but 'bump' seems most appropriate because it elevates the thread to the top of the forum.

Tuesday 3 September 2002

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Clawing back control of your internet browser

I've visited a web site that has taken it upon itself to change the web site from which my browser searches are conducted. How can I change this back to the way it was previously?

You can resolve this situation by editing the Windows registry, which can be accessed using the 'run' dialog box located under the start menu. Once opened, whack 'regedit' into the empty space and press enter. When the Registry Editor appears, double-click on the entries in the left hand column in sequence until you find yourself looking at the following key...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Now scroll down the list of entries in the right hand pane until you see the 'Search Page' string. Right-click on this phrase and select 'modify' from the context menu. You can now edit the offending URL to something a bit more suitable; google.com for example.

If you've failed to isolate the rogue URL for whatever reason, or you believe there to be a similar, additional entry lodged in a different area of the registry, another handy hint is to use the registry search option - found under the 'edit' menu - to track it down. If you type the web address of your new unwelcome search engine into the 'find' dialogue box and hit the return key you will quickly be able to pinpoint all the references to the site in question, and remove or replace them accordingly.

Note that this trick also works when you're trying to re-establish your favourite search engine as your default home page.

Tuesday 13 August 2002

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Can't update, won't update

I'm trying to update my copy of software x. I've uninstalled the old version of the program, but when I try to install the new one I'm told to completely uninstall the old one first. I thought I'd already done this. What's it talking about?

When you uninstall a program, despite what you are led to believe, lots of junk is left behind which can conflict with later installations of the same program. The chief concern is that the program's now redundant registry entries are left untouched and first need to be swept out before you can re-install the new version. This can be done manually using regedit.exe, but it will take a very long time to flush out every last useless entry, and even if you are very thorough, you can't be sure that you've got rid of everything.

A much more sensible solution is to delegate the task of spring cleaning your registry to a heavy duty, third party alternative program such as jv16 Power Tools. This miraculous time saver will allow you to identify all the entries associated with a particular program so that they can be removed safely. Not that this involves any effort on your part - all that is required is that you tick the relevant boxes and run through the whole suite of clean up options to ensure that an exhaustive search is conducted.

Tuesday 6 August 2002

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Internet Explorer window woes

I resized an Internet Explorer browser window for one particular site, but the changes have been stored and now affect every window I open subsequently. How do I restore the default height and width settings?

First of all, close any IE browser windows you have on screen.

Select 'run' from the 'start' menu, type in 'regedit' and navigate to the 'H_Key_Current_User/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main' entry.

Select it and then locate the 'Window_Placement' entry in the pane on the right hand side of the screen.

Highlight this and press your delete key to remove it.

Now if you open a new IE window you will notice that its width and height settings have reverted back to their default measurements.

Thursday 11 July 2002

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I password protected a compressed archive and can't remember the password. Is there any hope?

If you've really wracked your brain and still can't recall what it might be, a last resort is to go in search of a password cracking program such as The Password Recovery Kit or Advanced Zip Password Recovery. Shareware versions of which can be downloaded from their respective home pages.

These applications operate by bombarding the archive file, using a database of potential passwords, at speeds of up to thousands of times a minute. This may sound impressive on the surface, although in my experience, even at these speeds, such tools can be very inefficient and time consuming seeing as a typical password can be anywhere up to 30-ish characters long. Do the maths and you'll see what I mean!

Friday 21 June 2002

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How can I backup my PlayStation games?

Like PC games, PlayStation games are copy protected so in order to copy them you will have to find a way of bypassing this protection. Two methods of doing this are detailed below. By far the simplest of these is to use Clone CD to dump an image of the game you wish to copy onto your hard drive and then burn it to a CD-R. I'm not going to go into all the ins and outs of this procedure again here since it has already been covered in detail in the disk images tutorial. I would suggest you read around the subject there if you want to go down this route.

The second option is much more complicated and involves applying a patch to your game CD before being able to make a successful duplicate. The idea is that you create a CD image of the game you wish to copy using the 'raw' option of CD-R Win, apply a patch to remove any copy protection and then burn the image to a blank CD. Again, I'm not going to rehash what has already been said about this essential program here. If you're new to CD-R Win make sure you check out my advice in the disk images tutorial before reading any further.

PlayStation games are patched in one of two ways. You can either run a stand-alone executable file in the same directory as your image file, or use the PPF Patch Engine to apply a patch file with a pff extension. Stand-alone executables, as the name suggests, need no further tools to apply them and can be found in many of the same places where you would search for main exe replacements for PC games. GameCopyWorld for example.

Remember, the same rules which apply to the removal of PC game copyright protection also apply to PlayStation games, so make sure you get the correct patch version for the game you wish to copy, otherwise it won't work. For PlayStation games this means checking that the PAL or NTSC version of the patch matches that of the game.

If you have a more recent patch it is likely to be in pff format. Again, these files must reside in the same location as your CD image file to function correctly. Note that sometimes the patcher will be included in the same directory as your patch so you won't need to search for it elsewhere.

Once you have created your CD image file using CD-R Win, open the DOS console and enter the directory where your image is stored. Now type 'applyppf' followed by the name of your bin file, followed by the name of the ppf patch file. The correct command should look something like this: 'applyppf mybinfile.bin mypatch.ppf'. Providing the encouraging 'patch successful' message is displayed you can proceed to burn the image to a blank CD and subsequently play-test the game.

Friday 24 May 2002

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How do I find out if my IP address is static or dynamic?

Having this information to hand is especially useful if you intend to set your computer up as a web or FTP server. If you've got a static IP address you can redirect your domain name to point to your own computer instead of a remote host to enable people to access your data or web site. This can also be achieved with a dynamic IP address, but it's a bit more fiddly.

There are various ways of identifying your IP address, but I find the easiest method is to use IP Agent, available from the Gibson Research Corporation (click on the 'Shields Up' button, proceed to the freeware section and then click on the download link near the top of the page). You'll need a microscope to see this program as it's absolutely tiny - no bloatware here folks!

Once downloaded, if you simply double-click on the program's icon you will find that your IP address is staring you in the face - no searching through menus is required - that's all there is to it.

If you make a note of this number, disconnect from the net and then reconnect you can see whether or not you have been assigned with a new number.

Friday 17 May 2002

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How do bootleg software and movie releases end up in general circulation on the internet?

Once the release groups have stripped the copyright protection from software, or encoded leaked movies, they are packaged, quality assessed and then uploaded to 'topsites'. These are lightning fast, highly exclusive FTP servers with an abundance of hard drive space. Topsites are shared by a number of affiliated release groups, usually in the region of twenty. When new releases hit the topsites, couriers take hold of the reigns by distributing the releases to other topsites all over the world.

While they're at it, some of these couriers, who are sometimes referred to as 'dumpers', transfer copies of the latest releases to 'dump sites'. These represent the preceding rung of the ladder - like topsites they are private, fast and FXP enabled FTP servers.

From these dump sites, FXP groups and IRC channel operators distribute the data further. FXP groups scan for publicly accessible, anonymous FTP servers and then transfer the releases from the dump sites to these FTP servers by means of FXP (File Exchange Protocol). These free for all FTP servers are known as pubs. Once filled they are posted in public or private FXP forums so as to allow the members to share their contents.

The releases multiply exponentially as more and more people gain access to them. Once this process is set in motion it is virtually unstoppable - data transfers snowball until the releases have been spread to every corner of the globe via a variety of peer to peer applications.

Tuesday 14 May 2002

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How can I check an archive for CRC errors without actually unzipping it?

This can be done using either Winrar or Winace. The first step is to double-click on the archive you wish to validate to open it. If you are using Winrar, select the 'commands' option from the menu and scroll down the list until you find 'test archived files' and click on this option. Alternatively, if you are using Winace, select 'archive' from the menu bar followed by 'test archive'.

Now get on with doing something useful until the CRC checking process is complete - ah, the joys of multi-tasking. Once finished, look for the words 'no errors found'. If receive this all-clear message you can assume your files are A-OK. If it's bad news you will see the message 'CRC error' adjacent to the file which was currently being processed when the log was created. If this happens, you can either download the archive again and re-check it for errors, or attempt to repair it using Winrar or Winrar (I've covered the procedure in another entry so feel free to use the search engine).

Friday 8 March 2002

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How can I backup my Sega Dreamcast games?

You can't - at least not yet anyway. You see, Dreamcast games use a completely different file structure to CD-Rs, which allows them to hold up to 1gb of gaming goodness on a single CD. These CDs are known as GD-Roms (the GD stands for Gigabyte Disc). The upshot of this is that you can't just make a 1:1 copy using your ordinary CD writing software and CD writer. At present, ripping a Dreamcast game is a very complicated procedure, the exact details of which are still kept closely under wraps. For this reason, you can't just pop a game disk into your CD writer and make yourself a duplicate from it.

Tuesday 19 February 2002

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I've downloaded an MP3 track, but it won't play. All I can hear is distortion. Why?

More than likely the file has been 'cooked'. This occurs when the server you are downloading from has been improperly configured and as a result treats binary files as text files. The solution? Well obviously you have to uncook the files. Why didn't you think of that? ;) This can be achieved using a program known as Uncook 95.

Saturday 19 January 2002

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Relief for idle hands

Modem users, have you ever found yourselves downloading something you didn't really need just to keep your connection alive? Unfortunately this is a scenario more common than you'd expect for those of us still lumbered with a dial-up internet account who wish to evade those infuriating enforced idle disconnections.

For example, you'll be surfing the net when an email arrives in your inbox. If this is a particularly long email and you decide to reply to it there and then, it may take you ten minutes or more. In between the time it takes you to type and send your message it's very likely that you will have been booted offline by your ISP in order to free up an extra connection for another subscriber. There are a million and one other reasons you might want to leave your PC for ten minutes or so to take care of something which simply cannot wait, and it's no fun having to reconnect to the internet each time you return to your PC, especially if you are regularly confronted with busy tones.

And they expect us to put up with this sort of treatment? Ha, not likely! No, what we need is a program which can be set to connect to various web sites at specified intervals to make it look like we're making use of our connection and hence avoid being dropped like a hot potato. It could even sit unobtrusively in your task tray, blinking and flashing to indicate its current activity status. Eureka, I think we've got something here! Let's call it... oh I don't know, say Stay Connected.

Maybe you'd prefer a minimalist, 18kb, free alternative? If so Connection Monitor is the task tray gadget for you.