IT Queries: Computer problems answered

everytime I open my internet explorer there is an error appear on the lower right corner of my monitor saying”System Messaged click here for details”. then when I click the message it automatically go to one site. what is the problem? is this a virus? thanks.

Unfortunately you probably are infected with something, follow our Removing a Trojan advice. If you have clicked for details and paid any money to these people then you should contact your credit card company. We’d also strongly recommend changing banking and other important passwords after your computer has been cleaned.

I am operating Vista, with a Bigpond account.  I continue to have problems with my e-mail account.  Bigpond instruct me to have no firewall, so it is turned off.  I am not comfortable with this solution, however they say the firewall interfers with the e-mail.

Can you give me some advice on this please?

It sounds like the firewall or anti-virus program is blocking access to the mail server. You’ll need to make sure your email program is trusted by the firewall and the email server is trusted, in Bigpond’s case this is mail.bigpond.com.

In the Windows firewall,  you should add your email program to the trusted applications list by Start, Control Panel and Network Connections. Select your Internet connection, the name will vary with your computer.

In the General tab of the Internet connection properties, click the Properties button and the Advanced tab. Click Settings under the Firewall heading and click Exceptions.

In the Exceptions list, select your email program by ticking the box beside or clicking the Add Program if it isn’t listed.

There are some settings in Norton Antivirus where you can make similar exceptions. In recent versions, this has been under the heading of Internet Worm Protection.  The location of these settings varies between programs.

Can you please tell me how I can speed up page downloading with my current web browser, which is Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12. I also seem to have difficulty loading pages with ‘youtube’ attachments, as per the news.com daily news website. I am running Windows 2000 Professional with 256 meg ram,  cpu 550mhz, modem 56kbps and a dial up ISP

Can you please refer me to a free tool as I am on a disability pension.

We’ve covered speeding up your computer previously and you may get a speed boost from these sites by downloading  the latest Flash and Java updates.

The real problem though is your Internet connection. Content rich sites like youtube and increasingly newspaper web sites require a broadband connection. Dial up is really only suitable for basic email and surfing to simple sites.

If you want to watch YouTube clips then you are going to have to get a broadband connection. This is not as expensive as it seems as it will save the cost of a phone call with each connection. A $30 a month plan can easily pay for itself in saved telephone costs.

The important thing though is to make sure your plan has no excess charges. Make sure your plan is capped, that is you don’t pay for additional usage if you go over your monthly data limit. Our sister PC Rescue site has advice on plans for Australian users.

It’s important to shop around on these plans as prices and features vary dramatically. If you are a member of a local seniors computer group you may find there are discounted plans available and your fellow members can guide you in making the right choice.

I am having problems accessing my Yahoo mail. It was all OK until about a week ago. I installed Nortons 360 about a month ago but it worked OK with that for a while. I now get a bland screen coming up with just blue text and no pictures or boxes etc.  I have 3 computers linked and it is happening on all 3. I am with Bigpond. It is most frustrating as I am running a project and all my operating files are stored in the emails.

I have Windows and am using Internet Explorer as my browser. I am wondering if ther is anything in the properties which may have been unchecked with regard to the Yahoo website. I can access all other websites OK. The problem sometimes fixes itself for a few hours then it seems to freeze and I have to restart it and it comes back as only text. PLEASE HELP!

We’ve had a  few reports of Yahoo! Mail having these problems recently. It appears there’s been some changes to their system which causes these problems.

The first thing we would suggest is to install the latest version of Java. Before doing it, it’s worthwhile uninstalling the earlier versions.

It’s also a good opportunity to update your Flash Player and Windows Scripting Host.

If the problem continues you could try using Mozilla Firefox, this will show if the problem is with Internet explorer or deeper in the system.

The final suggestion is to exclude the Yahoo! domains from the Norton 360 firewall. To fix this open Norton 360, click Tasks and Settings then Advanced Settings and Firewall Protection Settings, Symantec have full instructions on doing this at their website.  You may need to ask Yahoo! what addresses should be added to the trusted list.

My husband has recently learnt how to use our computer(prevoiusly my domain)
he has discovered Ebay (aka Aladins cave) and our 1500mb quota blew out to over 3000mb,is there a simple inexpensive (free) program to measure downloads as the day goes on not just the end of day that my provider (Bordernet)shows.We run xp, recently put IE 7 on.
So we can pinpoint which programs & processes chew up the most mb.
Thanks Regards Veronika.

Good to see your husband has discovered the net. It’s a worry your usage has blown out as Ebay shouldn’t be causing this and we’d strongly suggest you check your computer for viruses. It would also be a good idea to setup a limited user profile for your husband as we explain on our PC Rescue site.

As far as Internet monitoring programs go, we’d recommend the excellent Netlimiter. The free version lets you monitor usage while the paid for versions allow you to control how much data specific programs can use.

It may also be worthwhile seeing about increasing your data quota as well given many families will struggle to keep under a 1500mb limit.

The whole idea of the Internet is to use the information so don’t let restrictive limits cramp your usage.

Every time I try to install messenger so i can chat on computer by typing it says something is interrupting it from connecting

If you can connect to the Internet through your web browser or email program then it is almost certainly your firewall blocking Messenger.

To fix this, you’ll have to tell your firewall that Messenger is a legitimate program. To do this with the Windows firewall, click on Start, Control Panel, Windows Firewall.

In the Windows Firewall control panel, click the Exceptions tab. If Messenger is listed, tick the box beside it. If it isn’t listed, then click “Add Program” and select it from the list.

If you have a different firewall then you’ll have to go through a similar process. Unfortunately there are dozens of different firewall programs so we don’t have space to go through them here.

I’m using a Telstra Next G Sierra Aircard 880U modem to connect to the Bigpond Wireless Network

The connection seems okay but after a few minutes it freezes up, if I swap ports the status shows “Device not Connected” the only thing I can do is restart the computer.

This is a common problem we’ve been hearing a lot about. It appears to be a problem with the software and drivers provided on the CD.

The solution is to download the drivers and firmware for the 880u from the Sierra website, they have both Mac and Windows software. Make sure you download both the software and firmware upgrades and print out the instructions.

Follow the instructions, running the software update first. It’s important to let these installation wizards complete without interruption so make sure your laptop is plugged into a power source.

Be careful in the setup process with the service you choose; if you are Telstra subscriber the settings are different to the Bigpond service. You may have to contact Telstra or Bigpond for further instructions.

I have bought a webcam and can see myself clearly but not the person I am talking to. I get stripes down the screen?

The fact you can see yourself means it is a problem with the software you are using or the Internet connection. The first thing to check is if this problem is happening in other programs.

Discuss the problem with the people you are trying to talk to and try using another program to see if the problem goes away. Trillian is a popular program but you can also use Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, ICQ or any other service that supports video.

If it is still a problem, you’ll need to check with your Internet provider as certain ports or services might be blocked or your plan is too slow to support video calls.

In this case, without knowing what the software is that you’re using it’s difficult to give detailed advice.

Have updated to Norton 360 on main computer now can’t access this computer on my network places

Regards John

Hi John,

The problem is almost certainly firewall related. The Norton 360 is blocking access from other computers.

This is proper behaviour for a firewall, unless told otherwise the system will block anything that’s potentially a problem and other people trying to connect to the computer is certainly a problem.

To fix this, you’ll need to tell Norton 360 to trust your local network.

Open Norton 360, click Tasks and Settings then Advanced Settings and Firewall Protection Settings.

In the Firewall settings, click Network Location. In there your network will be listed under Limited Locations, highlight it and click the arrow to it the Trusted Locations box.

There are some other errors that can cause this with the network sharing in Vista and XP which can be fixed through changing file permissions and network locations in the Vista Network and Sharing Center.

I’ve been told to find my IP address. What is it and how do I find it?

IP stands for Internet Protocol, it’s the way computers talk to each other over the Internet. To do this, each computer has it’s own address on the network or Internet.

To find your computer’s IP address, open the Run (Windows XP) or Find (Windows Vista) and type CMD. A black screen will appear and you then type IPCONFIG (capitals don’t matter).

This will list all your IP addresses. IP addressed appear in the form of four groups of three separated by fulls stops (eg 192.168.100.203) disregard those that say “not connected” or have a number starting with 169.

One thing to be aware of is if your computer is connected to a home or office network then the IP address shown is that of the local network, the address on the Internet itself will be different and you can find that through online services like What is my IP.

If you require the IP address for something like Virtual Private Networking, it may be necessary to obtain a fixed IP address from your ISP. It may also be necessary to organise a computer tech to setup your service..