IT Queries: Computer problems answered

Since installing Norton Antivirus I can’t access the Internet. I already have a firewall so why is NAV stopping me getting online?

The culprit is the Internet Worm Protection in some versions of  Norton Antivirus. You’ll need to disable this function.

First, open Norton by clicking the Start Button, selecting Programs and Norton Antivirus. If you have a number of Norton Products installed you may have several different Norton folders in your programs list.

In the Norton screen click Options, select Norton Antivirus(this may vary on the version) and on the left pane click Internet Worm Protection.

On the right, turn off the box for Enable Internet Worm Protection or Turn Internet Worm Protection on. Click Okay and exit the program.

When you restart the computer the system will no longer have Internet Worm Protection working and you should be able to access the net.

For last 5 days none of the browsers that are on my computer are working even though there is no problem with the internet connection.

I also tried to disable the windows firewall and windows defender but they are still not working.

The suprising thing is gtalk and msn messenger are working fine. I have windows vista operating system and norton antivirus.

There are a number of things that could be causing this; the common problems are router settings, firewalls and our favourite, the malware infection.

With any Internet connection problem, it’s worthwhile checking for malware. Follow our instructions on Removing a Trojan, keeping in mind you’ll have to use another computer to download the programs.

The next thing to check are the firewalls. As you are using Norton Antivirus it is possible one of its functions is blocking the system, look for Internet Worm Protection in your Norton settings and try turning this off.

Finally, it could be your modem or router blocking Port 80 access. You’ll need to refer to your router manual and check that the WWW service or Port 80 hasn’t been blocked.

On ABC Radio last week you advised how it is possible to keep a bigpond email address by paying $25/year and then being able to have internet with another provider. Please advise these details.Thanking you.

If you have a Bigpond.com email address it is possible to retain it by moving to Bigpond’s Casual User plan which charges $25 a year. The plan also allows dial up Internet access at $3 per hour so it can be a handy fall back connection as well.

There is catch though. If you are on an older Bigpond ADSL or cable plan, then you won’t be able to retain your bigpond.net.au address.

If keeping an email address is important, then it’s important to register your own domain name which will follow you wherever you go.

I’m buying a new computer and have a choice between the 32 and 64-bit version of Windows 7. Which one should I choose?

The 64 bit version is the better of the two but it comes with some traps, mainly that older software and hardware may not work on it.

Because you are getting a new computer, you should be right on the hardware front. Although if you do have an older printer, scanner or other hardware you’ll have to check they will work on a 64-bit system.

For software, you’ll need to make sure all your programs will run on 64 bit Windows. While 32-bit programs will work they may be slower so keep that in mind too.

Generally our advice is to go with 64 bit systems if all your equipment is up to date, if you want to run older software and hardware go for the 32-bit option.

I’ve been told some of my software won’t run on my new computer because it is running 64 bit Windows. How do I find out which version of Windows I am running?

To find out if your computer is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, click the Start button , right-click Computer, and then click Properties.

Under the System tab, you’ll see which version you are running.

If your computer is running Windows XP, click Start, right-click My Computer, and click Properties. If “x64 Edition” is listed under System, you’re running the 64-bit version of Windows XP, if there is no mention of “x64″ then you’re running 32 bit Windows XP.

What is the setting on Macs & PCs To make jpg files readable when transferred by email?

Both Macs and Windows systems should be able to read JPG image files. If you have any problems, then two good image readers are Irfranview and Picasa which are free and have some editing capacities.

I was thinking about buying my daughter a netbook. She wants to go on facebook so would a netbook be good enough for that. Thanking you in advance for your advice, Bev.

It’s a good question, Bev. The idea of a netbook is simply to get onto the Internet so it’s perfect if your daughter simply wants to be on Facebook.

The trap with netbooks is going on the net is all they are designed for. To keep the costs down, they have smaller hard drives, few USB ports and usually no DVD drive.

So if your daughter decides she wants to do something more than go onto Facebook, write blogs or Twitter she’ll find the netbook will struggle.

All of that said, netbooks are cheap and the best choice if you want a starter computer for a teenager. We have a little more on netbooks at our PC Rescue website.

I have some names & urls I’d like deleted off my tool bar. When I highlight them & click the delete button, they appear gone; however, when I begin typing the previous name & url is right back there again. How can I get rid of unwanted names & urls permanently?

You can delete Internet Explorer’s history by clicking Tools, History and clicking Delete under the Browsing History section.

Another quick way of doing this is using a clean up tool like CCleaner or Cleanup! These have the advantage of tidying up a lot more than just browsing histories.

When ever I try to open anything in windows media player it freezes the computer and the only way to do make it respond is to shut down computer with power button on computer.

The first thing to do is clean up your computer as it may well be something lurking in your temporary files which is upsetting Media Player.

Should the problem continue, you may have to reinstall Windows Media Player. Open the Control Panel and click Add/Remove Programs, or Programs in Windows Vista, and select Internet Explorer.

To right of the selection there are two buttons; change and remove. Click the Change button and follow the wizard to repair the existing installation.

When trying to watch a news or lifestyle video or Youtube it goes for a few seconds and then stops for quite a few seconds, then starts again. It is virually impossible to comprehend what it is about. very frustrating. What is the cause of this?

Your Internet connection  isn’t moving data to your computer fast enough for the videos to play smoothly. The computer has to stop and wait for more data to be loaded from the server.

The problem is you simply need a faster Internet connection and you should talk to your ISP about moving up a plan or considering moving your service elsewhere.

For the moment though you can fix the problem by pausing the clip once it starts playing. Flash based clips will continue to download and if you wait a few minutes you should be able to watch the full clip without interruption.

You can also change the buffer settings which control how much video data your computer will download by right clicking one of the clips you want to play and choose settings.

In the Flash Player settings you then choose the yellow folder icon and move the Local Storage setting to the far right which is unlimited. This means the entire clip will be downloaded while you wait.

Waiting for clips to download and increasing buffers won’t fix your underlying problem that your Internet connection is simply too slow, so you’ll still have to see about getting a better plan.