Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Madelaine M. writes: " Lately, when I am trying to connect to the Internet, I get a message saying, 'Brute Force Server Error'. When I click the window, the error message disappears. I use Norton Anti-virus 2002 and Spy Sweeper to ... scan my system for viruses and Spyware. What else should I do to avoid this problem?" My response: I can say that I have never heard of this error message before. I did some research using Google, but wasn't able to come up with anything conclusive. However, what I did find is that the term "Brute Force" refers to a form of ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Brian P. writes: " Hello Dennis, My Epson printer has just given up on me and I suspect it may have a lot to do with the fact that I refilled my empty cartridges with generic ink, rather than replace them with cruelly expensive ... name-brand cartridges. As a result, my print head has gummed up to the point where I need to buy a new printer. Having re-read your article regarding your printing experience with your Canon BJ-200 , which is no doubt well out of date now [December 18, 2002], I wondered if you could recommend an inexpensive printer that's available on the market ... (view more)

Last week, I announced that the infopackets web server is stressed and needs upgrading. Since it is not within my budget to rent an additional dedicated web server, I launched a fund raiser in hopes that Infopackets Readers would contribute enough ... to help cover the spiraling cost of maintaining this web site. To rally support desperately needed from Readers, I provided three methods of contribution: Donate money via PayPal or by Credit Card . Purchase one or two of my supplemental eBook and Video learning tutorials (now up to 65% off, with an additional 25% off if you buy more than 2 ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Kevin C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read your article on Guardian Monitor 8.0 . I checked the Washington Post article that you included in your review and read the comparison of Guardian Monitor versus the other surveillance ... programs ... but none mentioned the possibility that an outsider (hacker) could access your PC and obtain the data captured by the surveillance software -- and possibly obtaining passwords, account numbers, etc. Should this be a concern? " My response: Excellent question. As I previously discussed, Guardian Monitor records key strokes ... (view more)

Three days a week I entertain Readers with articles I write based on real life computing problems. This time, I'm the one with a dilemma on my hands. Since April of this year, readership of this newsletter has blossomed from 50,000 to (now) 237,000 ... readers -- with 1,000 new members subscribing each day. Not long ago, things were very different. Up until this past August, the newsletter was sent out in full length / HTML (graphical) format -- but all of that came to a halt when it was no longer efficient or financially feasible. I have since reduced the size of the email newsletter by making ... (view more)

Recall -- Last week, Infopackets Reader Ian B. asked if there was a way to make his Windows 98 computer shut down and power off: " ... I have a win 98 computer that used to shut off the power after a Start -> Shutdown command was clicked, but now ... it just stops at that the 'It is now safe to shut down your computer' screen. Can you advise if this is a hardware or software fault, please? " In my response , I addressed a number of issues which may cause Windows 98 not to shut down properly, including: BIOS settings, Advanced Power Management (APM), device drivers, and programs which ... (view more)

Have you ever wondered what your loved one is doing online? Infopackets Reader Lisa E. addressed a few of her concerns over the weekend: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows XP. I have several people using this computer and would like to know how to access ... chat files. Everyone has their logon password protected, and my children do a lot of chatting on Yahoo and MSN Messenger. Can you tell me how to find and access these files?" My response: I only use MSN Messenger on my Windows XP system, so I downloaded and installed the latest versions of Yahoo Messenger, ICQ Pro 2003, ICQ Lite, and AOL ... (view more)

Can Digital Steganography be used with good intent? Recall -- Last week, I wrote 2 articles on Digital Steganography (pronounced "Stay-Gan-Aw-Gra-Fee"). By definition, Steganography is simply the art of hiding plain data from sight. In the same ... respect, Digital Steganography is the ability to hide a file inside of another file, called the "carrier file". Both articles focused on a question sent in from Infopackets Reader John B., who proposed the question, "If I downloaded a jpeg image file from the Internet, and it has a virus hidden inside ... [can the virus execute ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Lorraine M. writes: " Dear Dennis, Way too often while I am online, I receive an error message that says: 'Iexplore has caused an error in BTLINK.DLL. Iexplore will now close.' This seems to happen out of the blue and it is ... extremely annoying. Each time it happens, it takes me off the web site I'm visiting and back to the Windows desktop. How can I stop this from happening? " My response: I went to Google and researched "BTLINK.DLL". From what I understand, the BTLINK.DLL file is part of a Spyware program, called HuntBar. In a nutshell, HuntBar docs ... (view more)