Dennis Faas

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)

Recall: Last week, Jake Ludington wrote a review on a program called "Move Me", which transfers programs and user data from an old computer to a new computer: Move Me Review After the review was published, I received the following question from ... Infopackets Reader Vernon B.: " Will the 'Move Me' software convert programs from Windows 98 to XP such as Microsoft Works, Word, Roxio, and many other programs? PS: Thank you for the infopackets newsletter each week." I forwarded Vernon's question to Jake, and he responded: " Move Me will transfer applications between any two ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I use Windows 98 and Outlook Express to read my email. A buddy of mine thought he was helping me by 'tweaking' my computer system, but now I cannot open any email attachments! What can I do? PS: How ... may I retrieve a file that has been deleted? " My Response: It sounds like your friend "tweaked" your computer by upgrading you to the latest version of Outlook Express -- version 6. By default, Outlook Express 6 will not allow you to open email attachments on the assumption that the email may contain an malicious attachment ( ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gaye B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm a newbie on the computer, and I have a big problem with popup advertisements. When I first got my PC, I let a friend use it to surf the web (unsupervised). Since that day, my computer has been ... infested with despicable ads appearing on the screen. What can I do to stop this from happening? " My response: The first thing you should do is tell your friend to mind where he surfs because it has caused you and your PC a lot of trouble! The next thing you should do is download some software that can remove / block popup advertisements ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Amy O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently installed Roxio Easy CD Creator (ECD) 5 Platinum on my PC. Ever since then, my CD Autorun feature would not work. I later decided to uninstall ECD5 in order to restore the Autorun feature, ... but my CD ROM still refuses to Autorun a disc whenever I put it in the drive. Do you have any suggestions to get my Autorun to work? " My response: Autorun won't work unless a feature called Auto Insert Notification and/or AutoPlay is turned on. Auto Insert Notification works by periodically polling a CD ROM drive for the purpose of ... (view more)

Continuing our conversation on Steganography from Tuesday's edition of the Gazette, Infopackets Reader Mike D. exclaims how he downloaded a .WAV sound file that also contained a Trojan: " Hi Dennis, As part of a talk I gave some time ago on IPSec ... [the IP Security Protocol Working Group], I wandered into the area of Steganography. The topic was of particular relevance to me because I had only just discovered (thanks to PestPatrol ) that a Star Trek sound file that I downloaded from the Internet contained a Trojan!" Side note: Digital Steganography is the ability to hide a file inside ... (view more)

Die-hard Infopackets Reader Reverand William A. writes: " Dennis, thanks for such a great news / info publication. I do have a question. I use Outlook Express and would like to know if there is a way to send a message to multiple recipients without ... showing all the names in the TO: field once the message has been delivered. There are times we'd like to send a quick note to many people, but don't want each email address published. Any ideas? Thanks for the help. " My response: What you are referring to is called a Blind Carbon Copy, or BCC. The BCC field allows you to send a message ... (view more)

" Dear Dennis, I recently read your article regarding 'PC won't go into hibernation mode with Digital Camera?', dated November 19, 2003. I have somewhat of a related problem. When I click Start -> Standby, my monitor shuts off and the PC appears ... to go into a low power state, but then quickly comes back to life a second later. Any idea why my computer won't remain in Standby mode? " My Response: There could be a number of reasons why the computer won't remain in Standby mode. If Standby mode is enabled, normal PC operation resumes once an interrupt (such as a key press or mouse ... (view more)

I received a fascinating question the other day from Infopackets Reader John B. He writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read about a new privacy program which is able to hides files inside jpeg image files. My question is: If I downloaded a jpeg file from ... the Internet, can it have a virus hidden inside? The reason why I ask is because I found a jpeg image file in my temporary Internet file folder. When I tried to open it, I was told that the file .exe could not be located. I immediately deleted the jpeg and am worried that my PC is now infected. What do you think? " My response: What you ... (view more)

Since yesterday's article on Tracing the Origins of an Email Abuser through IP addresses, I have received two interesting comments from Readers. The first message comes a user named 'Luvaas', who writes: " Dear Dennis, I suspect that someone has ... accessed my online cell phone account and has snooped around my phone records. I have a pretty good idea who did it, but the phone company tells me that they have no way they can trace this individual. Any ideas? " Side note: IP address stands for Internet Protocol. All computers connected to the Internet have a unique IP address, which is ... (view more)