WeaponX

Does those all-in-one IM programs count also? I have tried Trillian, Miranda and GAIM before.Trillian is really great, but can be a huge resource hog at times, especially when you're chatting with a bunch of users. Miranda is lightweight, but I had some problems with it connecting to MSN and IRC.The one I'm trying out right now is GAIM, which is an open-source program. So far, it looks and works good. Plain and simple, which is how I like it.

I recommend using Grisoft AVG. I've been using it for years now and have no complaints. It's not perfect, but no antivirus program is. I have asked lots of users to switch over from Norton or McAfee and they love it - sometimes they actually found some trojans that netiher Norton or McAfee found.Grisoft AVG shouldn't use that much system resources either

It depends on what you are going to use it for. Like in Sarah's situation, she uses it for school so it would be more convenient.I personally like the laptop also, but not the most powerful as you probably should know by now. If you want this for gaming, I would say go with the desktop instead. Even though laptops today can be good for gaming, it's just better to have it on a desktop - you can upgrade easily in the future if you need too, so it will most likely last longer than the laptop.Just got out of college and still have this old laptop (PIV 2.2Ghz). The thing weighs a ton so I'm gearing towards a lighter one in the near future.

I agree, Alcohol is probably the easiest to use to do what you want. If you want another alternative, try out Nero. It has a few more steps but will do the same job. Nero will also burn your CDs and DVDs as well. Both of the above are paid/commercial programs. If you want a free one that only does emulation of cd drives, then take a look at Daemon Tools.

How do I configure this in ZoneAlarm? I never added another computer to the list before. I only know how to allow programs to have access.

Hi, I have a similar problem to another user here, except mine deals with Windows 98 and XP.I have a Windows 98 desktop in the living room and a Windows XP laptop in my room. They are both connecting to the internet wirelessly without any problems. Both have an assigned IP address by the router and their IP settings/addresses are set to automatically get one from the router.For the 98 machine, I have chosen a folder (c: drive - is that ok?) and right clicked on it and went to Sharing...Then I gave it a name and clicked on Full Access. Entered a password and confirmed it. I made sure both the 98 and XP machines are on the same workgroup (MSHOME). I called the desktop PC, "DESKTOP". Then I wen to my XP laptop and went to Start->Run and typed in \\DESKTOP and hit OK. Shouldn't that bring up the c: drive on my desktop PC? It gave me an error. I went into Network Places->View Workgroup Computers and only see my laptop listed there.TCP/IP is checked and it's set to automatically get a new address (not static).Both computers have ZoneAlarm as the firewall program. I'm not sure if that may be causing the problem, but I don't want to ever turn the firewall program off if it's not necessary.Thanks.

Don't know why I didn't look there yesterday Thanks Houdini, I will check that out. Can I just delete it from the Control Panel? I don't recall this being possible to do.I know that sometimes things don't report the correct information, but there were two entries for the Modem in the Device Manager before I removed it. Is it possible that the modem is still bad? It looks normal (no yellow markings or exclamation marks). I was thinking about swapping it with one of my modems yesterday when I got home, but will probably need drivers for that also Brining my laptop over today since they only have one computer there.It's been a while since I did this (I usually install drivers using setup.exe files on the CDs), but do I install them using INF files? Right click->Install? I just downloaded a bunch of "possible" drivers for his PCTel modem (there are so many) and will try testing them out on his machine.

I actually had the same problem like you, but I work so I could buy it myself There is a new mini mac that came out and they cost around $500 for a 1.2Ghz version I think. If you can afford it (or if mom and dad says it's reasonable) then go for that one.Else, you can get the lower end models like the iMacs. Most are still pretty decent to run the latest versions of Mac OS X Tiger. I just bought one myself yesterday for about $300. But like I said, if you can afford it, fork over the extra $200 to get a newer and more powerful mac mini. The one I bought was under 1Ghz. You're only learning from this right? So no rush to get the most powerful mac out there That's what I'm doing now. Get a older one first to learn how to use it, then upgrade to the more powerful models.

I guess it depends. Sometimes you might use the two terms interchangeably. They usually refer to a portable computer as in the normal use of the word "laptop" or sometimes they call it notebook (I know, I know it's confusing ).The reason I say it depends is because I recall that the word notebook are frequently used for Macs. The macintosh laptops (there it goes again) are more often referred to as notebooks.If you ask me, I say laptop is for regular Intel/Windows PCs and notebook are referring to the Macs.

If that restore CD is just used to do a restore once you insert it, then you might have to use a bootdisk to do the formatting. If it's a restore CD with options that allow you to partition your drive, then you may partition using your restore CD. If it doesn't have the partition function, then try getting the XP bootdisks and see if you can fdisk and partition there. I haven't tried this before since I usually use my original Windows XP CD to partition. So if that doesn't work, then get a Windows 98 bootdisk and use fdisk there. It probably won't work, so try getting this fdisk version to see if it will see that NTFS (if that's what you have) partition so you can delete it and create new partitions. Linux has so many "flavors" (versions) that you can choose from, so I say go with that. If you are new to Linux, I suggest using Mandrake. If you like the command line more, then go with Red Hat. There are other distros which you may like, so explore and try them out. Most of them are free. To install Linux, make sure you installed Windows first on the main partition and then install Linux so that you can get the Linux Boot Loader to install properly. Otherwise, you will have to get it back manually from the CD again.

So you can't access cPanel right? I have the exact same problem here but was repeatedly told that they (Admins) restrict the amount of bandwidth for cPanel since they usually want users to do things using FTP. I don't think that's it though (at least not 100%) because at my old workplace I logged into my cPanel (using browser) with absolutely no problems at all. Once I get home (be it day, afternoon, evening, night or whatever) I can't access it. Well, I could access it if I wait like 20 minutes or so, but even then I only see text and no images in cPanel. If I want to go to, say, the File Manager, that would take me another 20 minutes or so to load up. I just can't believe it's the bandwidth issue. Work, it works. Home, no go at all (20 minutes or so is not considered to be working).Just curious, what ISP do you have? I have Verizon DSL and I got their higher end package 3Mbps, so that can't be the problem. Unless it's a Verizon conflict problem with the server here?

Yeah, this one is really wicked. I want to get this so badly but the $130 price tag is just too much for me right now. It's so small The name of this mp3 player is mobiBLU. For those interested, take a look at the Walmart site. Keep in mind that you can't get this in-store. I heard that someone tried before and the salesperson was clueless as to what he was asking for So online only You thought the iPod shuffle was small, I think mobiBLU beats them all My recommendation is the Creative Muvo TX FM. This small mp3 player (not nearly as small as the mobiBLU - nothing is ) can play MP3s, store data, play FM radio, record FM radio and also acts as a voice recorder. I love this mp3 player and give it a 10 out of 10. I guess it also depends on what kind of mp3 players you want to get. There are several kinds: 1. Hard drive based - these can store a lot of data (since they have hard drives) but it's not recommend to use if you want to have it during your morning jog (shaking a hard drive is not a good idea ) 2. CD Based - most cd players today will support the mp3 format so you can burn MP3s on CDs and play them on the cd players. Good for jogging, but may be kind of big. 3. Flash based - these are probably one of the more popular ones. They are more expensive that cd players but usually less expensive than the hard drive based mp3 players. Flash based mp3 players are also the smallest of the 3 main kinds of mp3 players I listed here. They are great for jogging and, as you can see, can be quite small in size. To answer your question, if it's a flash mp3 player you want, I have to say Creative Labs hands down. For hard drive based, I can't really say since I only had one and I don't use it much. The one I have is the 20GB Archos Jukebox Recorder. It's a little big but it won't cost me an arm and a leg like the iPods. They have the Archos gMini and the last time I heard of this, it can play DVDs also. It's very light and compact. So you might want to take a look at that also.

Hi, I usually don't have problems like this, but this one has got me stumped (at least for the time being).I was trying to see what was the problem with this computer (it's my mom's co-worker's PC) that's not allowing it to go online. They said it's been like this for months already so I went by today and took a look at it. I did everything including remove the spyware which I hope was preventing them from going online, but to no avail. I then thought about removing the modem drivers via the Device Manager and did so. Restarted and it didn't reinstall itself back. So I asked them for the CD that came with this computer. Inserted the CD and said it's not compatible with this PC (asks for Windows 2000 I think?). Well, I hit Ignore and continued anyway. Found the Modem folder and went in there. I see a PCTel (something like that) and another folder starting with P..some numbers. They both seem to have the same contents. There were like 10 files in each of them and they both had a ini file and a exe file. First, I right clicked and chose Install on the ini file. I did it for both. Restart and still it's not showing up in Device Manager. I then clicked on the exe file, but it seems to be an uninstaller. I hit Yes to continue to uninstall anyway. Restart. Same thing.Why isn't the modem recognized as a new hardware in the Device Manager? I was hoping it will come up so I could at least determine what the model of the modem was. According to the information I have on the CD, it's seems to be PCTel. Will a program like Belarc Advisor tell me what the modem model is if it can't even be seen in Device Manager now? I want to see if I can get the drivers online at my home before heading back over to their place.Thanks.

I'm not sure on the rules here regarding log files. Some of these logs can get pretty big and I don't want the Moderators to think this is a form of cheating for the points system. So if you want, I suggest directing this question to my forum instead. I have a forum setup to deal with spyware. This one is not an easy one to remove if you don't have the proper tools. And no, Spybot and other spyware removal programs can NOT remove this little critter. It will pop right back. Go here and follow the steps outlined there. If you did a step already, just skip it and move on to the next one. When ready, post the HijackThis log in my forum (unless it's ok with the moderators to post them here?).

There is no program out that that will fix all the known (and unknown) spyware infections out there. It's just impossible to do this.The two I recommend using are Ad-aware and Spybot. Both do a terrific job. Someone here said that Spybot doesn't seem to do a full scan, but it does. It's just that Ad-aware probably got rid of them already (if you ran that program before Spybot).Microsoft AntiSpyware used to be one of the programs I asked users to run, but not anymore. Microsoft has decided to take out some of the known spyware infections that we (security analysts) remove because they made a deal with the other companies. So what's happening now is that when you run a scan, these known spyware entries are set to Ignore in Microsoft AntiSpyware instead of the usual remove. Due to their actions, this program is now not recommended to use anymore.Someone here mentioned getting Aluria Software. That's not a good software you would want to get. They have joined forces with the advertising company called WhenU and I definitely wouldn't trust them.I will give one of the user's here a brief breakdown of what's spyware since it was asked. Spyware can be anything from a software that's installed without your permission to actual programs monitoring your actions. They can also bog down your system if it gets to that point. Let's just say it's not a good thing to have.Since there is no definite way to remove some of these spyware, we usually ask users to use other tools to help us determine what's the problem. Most of these tools are not automatic removal and require a helper to assist you with using it, so a normal user should not be doing this by themselves (it's not like Ad-aware and Spybot where you can just point and click remove).

Hi, I want to create some images (or just simple graphics/text) but I'm not sure how to start this. Some of these want a image that's 2,000x2,000 pixels. What programs do you use to do this? I don't need very complicated programs like Adobe Photoshop. Probably best to avoid those since I'm not a graphic savvy user.Also, if anyone has used CafePress before, do we just open up the template file they gave us and wipe it out (leaving the major outlines intact of course )? I assume they are just giving us the template so we can see the main outlines there and the overall image size.Thanks.

Do you want to get hosting here at Xisto or at the sister site - Xisto? I don't think you can pick and choose whichever one you have at will. If you have enough credits here at Xisto, you can only apply for webhosting at Xisto.What do you mean you get hosting credits in bunches? I know that the more credits you have, the less they will give you as time goes on. This is probably used so that you don't get way too much days. Yes, the amount of credits you have is the amount of days you can stay inactive in the forums.See my above reply on why it may take long posts and get little credit.

Sorry about that Soleq Why is the firewire port needed? I don't recall that being part of the installation for Mac OS 8.6, 9.2 or 10.2.4 (I think that's the version). I actually have been considering a notebook now. House is filling up and I don't have much room. But I will definitely check out the prices and compare them to see where I can get good deals. So far eBay, has some decent prices. I pulled out on a bid for a nice clam notebook because the user said the clock battery might need to be changed. I wasn't sure what that was (did a search and found PRAM?), so I just backed out at the last minute. From what I understand the clam notebooks perform better than the icebook versions. Do the same 233Mhz requirement still apply here? How about having firewire ports? I wish I could shell out that much money for the Mac Mini. I have thought about it but didn't want to waste my money. If I get better with it and like the OS, then I might go with the mini or even get the G5 towers that I have seen. :laugh: Rumor or not I heard that Steve Jobs showed a Mac OS (Tiger?) during the MacWorld convention using a regular desktop PC. My co-workers were actually talking about this today too That "Intel" Mac OS is a fake from what I gather. So I'm not wasting my time getting it.

Nope. From what I understand, Sempron is just the lower class of the Athlon chip as mentioned earlier by FantasyFootballGuy. I would compare AMD's Athlon processor to Intel's Pentium processor; and AMD's Sempron processor to Intel's Celeron processor. It's just the lower class model and probably not the best choice if you want good performance.

I'm in New York and have Verizon DSL for $29.95 with speeds of 3Mbps/768Kbps.hehe. I see SocietalEclipse is like me. I can't wait to get Verizon's FiOS also. I heard that it's $34.95 though (for the 5Mbps package)...could be wrong .I don't think I have any cap limits on my DSL line. No calls or letters, and hopefully will never receive one from them either

I'm not into processors that much, but I think the Sempron's are just a newer Duron-like chip. So it's the lower end chipset for the AMD processors. I recommend getting the AMD Athlon since they will give you better performance with the higher L2 Cache (which the Sempron lacks - it's lower and decreases performance).I don't think you should get SATA unless speed is an absolute issue. I heard that the increase is probably not a lot especially if you are not into using programs that require heavy cpu resources.

Miamihost is basically one of those sites that make money by sending out those advertisements to the user's email account. Once they got a bounce from your account, they must have set up their software to take you off the list. Almost everything have a catch, but there are some that do provide good service for free (we're using it now at Xisto - just need to keep the posts up...only catch ).Never heard of ImageCASH.net before. I can't trust it though. My computer has some spyware prevention programs installed and 9 out of 10 times (rough estimate) they are correct if I'm blocked. In the case of ImageCASH, I'm being blocked from that site. So I can only think that there is some catch somewhere there.Anyone else used it before?I agree with what the other two members said. I have used PhotoBucket for a while now and have absolutely no complaints about them. Great service that's free.

Thanks for the replies. Great details Soleg. That sure jogs the mind a little. Yeah, I don't really need a very powerful machine. Just want to learn the Mac a little since I want to learn the OS a more.I will probably go with the G3 and get a longer ethernet cable (since I never use it much - all laptop and desktop PCs are wireless here).I have two more quick questions.1. I'm not sure what programs (like word processing or spreadsheet program) come with the Mac (probably Mac OS 8.6), so is there any sites that have freeware/open-source programs for them? I know a bunch of sites for the Windows side, but don't have a clue on the Mac-side.2. If I want to run certain files (word document, excel spreadsheet, maybe some music files), will they run properly if I get it from the PC and use it on the Mac? How about inserting a music CD into the Mac?Thanks again. I will begin looking for the G3 Mac now and see what deals I can get.

I'm not too sure about this, but it might be salted MD5 hash algorithm. I don't know too much about this but there was a user who asked about this before. I think he was working on some mod and wanted to know how the password was encrypted.I don't know what you are doing here exactly, but why not convert the whole phpBB forum to SMF if you want to do the switch? SMF has a converter for this so you can just run it and it will convert the database to be used for SMF instead. Actually if you still want to find out what encryption they use, see if the phpBB to SMF converter has any code that may give you a clue.

Hi, I have never bought a Macintosh computer before but I want to play around with this Operating System now. I know a little on how to use it (training on the job and we need to know the basics), so I want to get one where I can learn more on how to using it.I will basically be using this for general work and testing. Maybe going online even. But all my regular work will most likely be done on the regular desktop PC until I get more familiar with the Mac OS.So, my questions are:1. How fast of a processor should I get? I want the iMacs (eMacs?) that just have the monitor (built-in system). Are those good? Either the slide CD tray or the no tray is ok with me. I want to have Mac OS 9.2 or higher installed on this machine if possible. So a more decent processor is probably best (don't like the lag ).2. How much memory/RAM should I get? I probably won't be doing anything heavy-duty, but want to have a decent/usable Mac for several tasks once I know how to work it a little more.3. Will the Mac have access to my wireless DSL router? I assume I need to get one of those wireless cards for the Mac? How much do those run for and if I don't want to use wireless for the Mac, can I plug the ethernet cable into it?4. I see the new Mac towers. Are those the only one that have the faster processors? I'm asking because the iMacs and eMacs that I'm working on currently at the workplace are around 400Mhz only.5. Any sites out there for Mac beginners? Maybe some tips and tutorials just to get me started?Thanks in advance.