ScinteX

This is a real long shot but there was a bug with right-clicking in Internet Explorer and the context menu taking a while to appear. It might be worth Googling for something like "context" and "Norton". I think the bug was with McAfee and involved a small registry change. You just never know there might be a similar one for your antivirus and this particular menu. [EDIT] I decided to Google myself and found this: http://www.techspot.com/vb/archive/index/t-10105.html Also try searching this: http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/knowledge_base.html S

Some off the shelf software titles for your research: CopyToDVD 3.0.52 321 Studios Games X Copy 1.0.8 S

Nice link! Just as well MS never stayed with XENIX OS and poisoned the *nix flavour!! Just for the record I am running Fedora Core 3 - seems to run pretty good. One day I might just attempt a dual boot with XP on the same RAID array! For the moment, its living on a hitachi disk with my wonderful dual booting procedure of enabling and disabling the RAID (boots off RAID/XP when enabled and Primary IDE/FC3 when disabled) Im a complete nix n00b however I have learnt the basics - just need the time to keep on going. You know, if it wasn't for the gaming aspect I'd ditch XP forever. I am very impressed with FC3

I hope it all goes well Yeah I know the tiredness thing... dunno how familiar are you with Linux/Fedora but I recently installed it on SDA rather than HDA.. ..in english thats XP on a SCSI drive and Fedora on a regular IDE drive- that was until I landed Fedora on the SCSI and wiped the entire XP installation! haha oh well it was due a clear out at some point LOL

Hi Wicked, I just googled that DLL and the only half-reasonable "fix" I saw was to reinstall. Sorry dude, lets hope for a miracle!

Related to the post above - if you are using a router or other network and you cannot get an IP address from it (via DHCP) then you'll get a really odd looking one. Try running the /release and /renew switches with IPCONFIG. It's also possible that your ISP is giving a perfectly valid IP that appears to be bogus... btw what do you mean by bogus?? Also, verify your connection properties in network connections.

This has inspired me! Anyone fancy a "at startup I use X amount of RAM competition?"!! I'll start tonight and see how far I get. Where's Alec? Surely this is his type of thing too ;-)

Hi, I tried something like this a while ago on a relative's PC. I did try everything I could think of and couldnt get it to work. In the end it turned out that the Windows disc was looking at the BIOS... that would be different in a new PC. I imagine this goes along the lines of 'its an OEM CD'. I wish you luck but i thought id reply and pass on my annoying experience! This link explains http://windows.ittoolbox.com/documents/document.asp?i=2555 I actually ended up installing Fedora Core 3 (linux) on the PC since my relative only surfed the net and read emails. S

Found the link for XP: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-catalyst-8-09-041221m-020455c.exe

Hi, Just a thought but have your tried installing just the ATI graphic driver? I remember that there are 2 options on the ATI site for the Radeon drivers- one of them needs the .net framework and all of the bloat that comes with that.... maybe its causing a problem. So, maybe the driver labelled "driver only" would help? I would post a link but for some odd reason i cant get onto the ATI site!!

Not to rant or anything, I just wanted to let you guys know about my dealings with Tiscali .... you can draw your own conclusions! -pay special attention to the bit where I say don't sign up with them! Now normally I am a chilled out kinda person who actually finds it hard to intimidate anyone and usually doesn't have a bad word about anyone or anything unless it really deserves it. That time has come! Here's the rapid fire audit trail.......... In 2002, I got ADSL (yippee) with Tiscali on a 512K package. For 3 years I had a perfect service- 60K down the tubes a second, sometimes a little bit faster - all good Tail end of 2004 and up to present time things have been AWFUL! Not just for me - my mates too have serious speed issues. We are all on different exchanges across the UK. Speeds dropped steadily from Nov 2004 until today my maximum bandwidth is 18K, averaging around 11K. So thats 6 times slower (ish) than it should be. Want to know what the first kick in the goolies is? They just upgraded me to 1Mbps!! Haha ok so they tried but messed up Really annoyed with the lack of speed and any kind of technical support I decide to CANCEL !! yay cancel them; do it do it! Here's roughly what happened when I phoned the cancellation line: Monkey on the helpdesk: sorry but you have 6 months of your 12 month contract to fulfill. Me: I didn't renew any contract Monkey: Well sir I am only reading what it says here on the screen. Me: I have been a customer since October 2002. That's about 2 and 1/2 years. Tell me, is 2 and 1/2 years more than 1? Monkey: (no answer) Monkey: Why do you want to cancel? Me: I am getting 10K on this connection and nobody will fix it. Monkey: Did you email tech support? Me: Yes. And why do you think I want to cancel? Monkey: because you got the wrong email? Me: Are you seriously telling me that the best you can do is blame me for this? Monkey: Well no I just think you got the wrong email address Me: I think you got the wrong idea of customer service. I want to cancel my account with you as i said and the reason is because you guys cannot fix it. It's simple. Monkey: You will have to pay for the remainder of the contract which is 6 months. Me: but October to July is 8 months not six, so your dates don't even add up. Who can I speak to dispute this contract with? Monkey: This is the cancellation line. Me: And do you have a contracts department I can phone? Monkey: No you have to write to head office with a complaint. Me: Will I get a reply that specifically deals with my complaint? Monkey: Yes you will if you write to them Me: but i want to cancel my broadband now, as stated in para blah blah of your terms and conditions where I have to give 1 months notice. Can you consider this as that notice? Monkey: No as you have 6 months left on your contract Me: but it is a rolling one month contract I never agreed to anything further after the initial 12 months Monkey: I am just reading what it says on the screen Me: Can you provide me with the agreement that shows each 12 month period? Monkey: No I only deal with cancellations Me: Ok ok I give in- how much to cancel this contract? Monkey: 6 months at £19.99 Me: And if I pay that then that's it, no more you, no more Tiscali? Monkey: That is correct. It will take 2 days to cancel the account and 10-15 days for bt to release the line. Me: OK well don't do that yet I want to think about it. Thanks, bye Monkey: Thank you for calling Tiscali .... Me: CLUNK! So by now I am fuming! There's a principle here- Tiscali making up stories about this 12 month contract that they seemed to have got from somewhere. If they could provide proof then fine, if they could just justify what they are saying. Write to head office? Why when there is a problem do I always get told to go to head office? Anyway-I'm armed with snippits from the tiscali website and the terms and conditions plus the emails from when I signed up and I go for a walk..... ...i work in a building with a lot of solicitors. Handy.... Anyhow after my time of free legal advice I phone them up for a second time. I wont bore you with the details but I paid them £120 to cancel everything. Thing is I need this connection to work good for the work that I do. Did I give in? Nope, the credit card company are helping me out and I have a TEAM of lawyers picking them apart! haha, funny thing is one of them got stung too in a similar way so he was gagging to write them some nice letters. To be honest I couldn't be bothered with Tiscali- I just wanted out. Whatever you do don't sign up with them- take a look at http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/complain.shtml and you'll see they have a page up for complaints about Tiscali. Most of the ISP review sites are full of unhappy Tiscali customers. Tiscali were good in 2002- not now. Helpdesk staff are cheeky and if you have an issue forget any help. So, the end of my lovely tale (and looking forward to when I finally connect with Zen Internet (thx to Andy for the rec.)! S

As asked above im on the general "home user" 1Mbit package. Here in the UK theres really 4 routes you can go for broadband: 1- Down your phone line (2Mbit if u r lucky usually 1Mb) 2- Cable, usually supplied by the TV people (up to 4Mbit) 3- Satellite, kinda rare i guess, up to 2Mb but setup costs are high 4- Live in a school or other "public" building and get 10Mb, soon to be 1Gb!!! Labelled as "world’s largest Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network within the public and educational sector.". Nice. (EDIT- think this only applies to inner London for the time being) Still no news from Tiscali on the code and release of the line. Funnily enough the speed has got better- 50K downloads now which is a tad slower than a good 512K connection (usually 60) however still half the supposed 1mb connection i have apparently been upgraded to. At least I can use the net now! I like the technical slant on this topic now- i am pleased since im not one for a forum full of unjust rants! Alec u r excused! I am going at it alone for the time being since i agree with you- doing this by myself will make any 'victory' so much sweeter! By the way- Tiscali changed the terms and conditions and never notified me. I am currently picking apart the 'agreement' anyhow. So there was this question I had- how can i find out what the T&Cs were almost 3 years ago? Easy! - http://www.archive.org and "the way back machine". One of the most useful sites ever- i recommend it to anyone who is looking for how sites used to look.

Dungeon Keeper 2? If so, try up[censored] your graphics card drivers (ATI/nVidia etc) and also get DirectX from Microsoft (version 9.0c) Let us know how it goes

Thanks packman much appreciated. The facts it is then, no worries there. I only played the games cos somehow it made me less annoyed at them- never menacing in anyway. I hope they release that MAC code like good people should. I'll make a few enquiries with Ofcom and Otelo. Thanks again, kind regards

Wow guys I am humbled by your posts! It's actually times like these that you realise that you cant fight these people just by yourself. Solicitors and other bodies are usually needed. It's a real pain in the as$ since I would love to go down there and smash some stuff up! So for the time being I think patience is needed. I got bored earlier and just phoned them up pretending not to know anything and started to say fun stuff at them like (all done with 0 preparation- makes for the must amusing stuff lol): Tiscali:Whats your phone number? Me: I dont know Tiscali: Ok what's your surname? Me: I don't have one everyone calls me Joe Tiscali: Ok Mr Joe Me: No it's just Joe Tiscali: Your surname is Joe and your firstname is Just? As in Justin? Me: No not just in I have been waiting a while Etc.... Then: Me: Hi I have a real big problem I am trying to cancel my broadband can you help? Tiscali: Yes of course what wrong? Me: You have been investigating why my remaining contract period is never going down its always on 6 months. Tiscali: Have we? Me: You told me you have an investigation team on the case, have they found out anything yet? Tiscali: We don't have an investigation team here we just do cancellations Me: Of course you do, I am sure the Tiscali Investigation Team (TIT) are looking into it Tiscali: Sorry I don't know what you are talking about Me: Let me have a look through some old emails I'll get back to you later today. I really think you should look up what that team do as I think you could all work in there rather than being on a helpdesk all day Tiscali: Really? (sounds quite pleased) Me: Yes look up that team, be one of them Etc... haha what joy. Childish... yes... pleasing oh yes! S Them:

[cheeky] Now if they just used the security centre in windoze it would just tell you the AV had disappeared![/cheeky] ;-)

Hi, Ive been having some really odd problems with my connection over the past few days. Anyhow since I have ordered a new router, the troublesome netgear box (a DG814) has decided to work (typical!;( ). I was having a look at all of the settings since ive never really had need to look at them before. There is a section in there called Statistics. It reports: Modem ADSL Firmware Version 3.9.122 Modem Status Connected Connect Mode Fast Mode Down Stream 1152 Kb/s Up Stream 288 Kb/s VPI 0 VCI 38 By looking at this you may think its a fairly standard sight. However i dont understand the Downstream part. Its says 1152- not somewhere near 500 as id expect. I have the"512kbps" package apparently from Tiscali. I know lots of peeps hate tiscali but theyve been good to me for 3 years (touch wood) I did a speed test at zdnet.co.uk and got this: Your line speed: 306.1 Kbps 37.5 K bytes/sec This is on the slow side since when downloading ISO files from IBM's site I can get up to 71K bytes/sec. Would anyone mind voicing a reality check on this?! Am i getting a 1mb cennection that is limited somewhere? Is the netgear box just displaying a theoretical maximum?

Isn't that the right icon? Are you saying that you have multiple Windows Explorer windows open? I think the functionailty just uses the icon that is assocaited with the EXE- in this case Windows Explorer. If you open up a lot of Internet Explorers you would see the blue "e" there instead. Likewise if you opened up Paint 3 times you would see the Paint icon. ...i think

Wow thanks- you have no idea how your timing is so perfect I was just toying with either Zen or Pipex. Hmm another look at Zen i think! Thank again

Thanks for the reply! I lost this thread and found it via Google ;-) The most recent fun I am having is that Tiscali have upgraded everyone to 1mb... however my connection is now slower than a 256Kb package! Things used to be so good until those donuts in PCWorld starting flogging Tiscali packages to normal users! how dare they lol its tipped tiscali over the edge and everything is dying! (I need a crying smiley )

haha yes ok mentioning Sun is a bit pointless... who knows what we may see in the future from Intel and AMD. On Intel's site they are mentioning an EE at 3.8Ghz. Did some shopping around and the 800Mhz jobbie is retailing at £686 here in the UK.... I'm still hunting for that 1066Mhz!

Also try the DFI site and update your BIOS. Also worth checking out the other utils on the LanParty CD when you have it all built. You are right- the BIOS images arent the most wonderful around. I have the Intel 875P LanParty and its fine now its updated. Also verify each BIOS setting. I'd suggest loading "optimized defaults" and building your PC. Once done then you can go for the overclock. For what its worth my LanParty is running RAM at 500Mhz and the CPU at 3.4Ghz from 2.8, so its fully capable of overclocking-gloryness

Hi Mark, I'm not familiar with your router so my gut reaction is "not really possible since that means changing the software inside your router". However I *could* be wrong and there might be something. However, you can install this on both PCs (freeware, no nags)... Lan Monitor http://www.taotoon.com/tongsoft/ The other thing is to visit your ISP's website. Mine (tiscali, UK) lets me log in and I can see how much bandwidth I've used (up and down). Like you I wanted to know if a capped service would be better. Imagine my face when I saw that I downloaded 14Gb per month! haha oh well unlimited it is for me then :x S

Eeeek! I admit, I may not have read all of the material here however my knee jerk reaction is not only "eeek" but this to: MS keep adopting thier own standards especially where CSS is concerned. This does my head in since what with the Disability and Discrimation Act us web guys have to try and cater for everyone with most types of browser. Evolving CSS from MS usually means increased development cost. Also the W3C/WCAG followers will be a bit annoyed! Personally I feel that user awareness and robust web applications are more of a security issue than the pesky browser. For example, it doesn't matter what browser u have since I can still inject code into websites since this type of attack is on the server side, not really the client side. The only workaround I could foresee is if the browser itself filtered out POST HTTP traffic so that code (Vb/javascript/hex encodings/and SQL) never got to the server. This would no doubt cause all sorts of problems in so many ways. Regarding the user awareness there's so many ways to dupe a user its scary! A move in the right direction maybe but surely owners of web content should have a responsibility. I'm all for spyware built in however there is a massive industry around spyware. MS surely can't blast that away. Personally I'm expecting MS's efforts to be much like thier so-called "firewall"... i.e. half a job that inspires user confidence incorrectly. Surely this is more dangerous? Ok rant over S

Could be my pet bug! Try this, something i found out a while ago: http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread27472-1.html S