March 2003
Net tips
by Salman Siddiqui
Can we take phone calls when the same line is being used to connect to the Internet? Is the solution available in Pakistan?Arif Thanvi <thanviarif@yahoo.com>
Yes you can take telephones calls without dropping your Internet connection but for that you’ll need to make use of a V.92 dial-up modem; a specification from ITU that comes along with a Modem-on-Hold (MOH) facility. Typically with this facility you can take calls from anywhere between 10 seconds to an hour without dropping your connection. However in order to utilize MOH you will first and foremost require call waiting services to be enabled from your telephone company, i.e., PTCL. You will also need to check in with your ISP to see whether or not they support V.92 at their end. Although no ISP in Pakistan yet has advertised this service, according to some reliable sources all major ISPs have done the setup and will be announcing this feature soon. Currently, new modems such as the Smart Cobra Lite 56k V3 support V.92, and are easily available. Most V.9 modems can be easily upgraded to V.92. For more information check out the V.92 link given at the end.
Is it possible to use a normal dialup account through ISDN? Also what other devices are needed to connect a LAN to an ISDN connection except that given by PTCL?Nadir Ahmed <get_nadir@hotmail.com>
If your ISDN modem has POTS (plain old telephone system) ports then you can plug your 56K modem into it to use your dial-up account. Although this might help you get a faster 56K connect rate, this will also be an inefficient use of your ISDN line since ISDNs have a minimum bandwidth of at least 64K.Although there are ISDN modems available-- such as the 3COM OfficeConnect ISDN LANModem--that provide direct interfaces to connect the computers in a LAN, no such interface exists in the ‘box’ provided by PTCL. However you can use a CAT-5 cable to connect your ISDN modem to a router (or a switch); you can then connect all the other computers of your network. Or if you want to share the line between only two PCs then you can use two LAN cards on one of your PCs, connecting one card to the ‘box’ and using the other to connect to your other PC.
When I use my dial-up account, I get the error svchost.exe. Upon using my cable net connection, the error just disappears and I’m able to browse the sites. How can I get rid of this error and why does it appear only when I use the dial-up connection?Junaid Sikander Khadbai <jshak@hotmail.com>
The file svchost.exe deals with applications using DLLs. Unfortunately, this file has been exploited by malicious coders and to date has been used in a variety of worms such as the W32.Welchia.B, W32.BlueCode etc. The easy way to get rid of all of these is to update the virus definitions of your antivirus program and run a full system scan.Now let’s examine the more interesting phenomenon in which the problem occurs only when you use a dial-up account and not when using a cable net connection. In a dial-up account, each time you connect to an ISP a different IP is assigned to you dynamically. However in a cable net connection things aren’t as simple, since your system is basically part of a LAN where a dummy IP address is assigned to your system each time you connect to the network. This dummy IP remains the same each time you use the cable connection. You can check this by typing the dos command ‘ipconfig’ at the Command Prompt (Start->All Programs->Accessories) to note the IP address of your system. The point to note here is that although your cable connection assigns you the same dummy IP address each time you use it to connect to the Internet, the connection used by the LAN itself might be connected to a dial-up account getting IP addresses dynamically.The reason you don’t see the error in your cable connection is that services using a dynamically allocated IP address are more secure when connecting a number of PC’s on a LAN to the Internet. Here the LAN hides all the computers behind a single IP address through NAT (Network Address Translation). Check out links for LAN and NAT for more details in the end.
A few days ago, a friend of mine told me that there’s a new technology on the Net called “monitor camera” through which one can take photographs from your monitor. I searched Google and found many sites related to this technology but all of them were fake. When the user clicked on the ‘TAKE A PICTURE’ option, it displayed a picture of a monkey with the caption “there’s your picture”. I want to know if there’s any kind of real site or software that can take my actual pictures through my monitor. Faraz <farazkhan16@hotmail.com>
This has to be the cutest email submitted to our Net Tips section. You still didn’t get the joke did you Faraz? How can there be any technology or software available on the Net that can take pictures of you without making use of a camera? My friend, this isn’t a software issue, it’s a hardware issue. If you want to take a picture of yourself and see it on your computer monitor then you can use a digital camera, scan one of your pictures or snap yourself with a webcam. For your reference, I’ve also given a link to a similar hoax site in the end so check it out. And no it doesn’t display a picture of a monkey.
Ever since I removed the Blaster worm from my system, I’ve been facing problems with my MSN Messenger. Each time I try to connect I get the error ‘The communication service failed. The service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later’. Even though I enter my correct ID and password why am I not able to sign-in to this service? Hammad Ayub <hammad188@yahoo.com>
Although the Blaster worm has nothing to do with your MSN Messenger problems, it would still be a good idea to double check your system, especially if you hadn’t removed that virus under Safe Mode. Check out the link to Symantec’s website given at the end for instructions on how to do this. “The service is temporarily unavailable” error in MSN usually occurs when either the servers from MSN are down which is quite a rarity nowadays. But since you’ve suggested that it was working fine before you removed that virus, it is quite possible that some of the files used by MSN might have been moved or corrupted. Now to get your messenger working, first uninstall whatever version of MSN you have on your PC. You can do this by going to Start->Control Panel->Settings->Add or Remove Programs. Then go to the MSN messenger link given at the end to download and install the latest version 6.1 of MSN. Hopefully this should solve your problem.
I have to ask two questions: Me and my friends want to work on Network Neighborhood. Do we need a hub or a LAN card? Also, can we use the Net without a telephone connection?Waqar Hajano <waqarhaslove@yahoo.com>
It really depends on the number of computers you plan to connect. If you have only two computers, then all you’ll need is two LAN cards one on each system. However if you want to connect more than two computers then you can use either a hub or a switch along with LAN cards on each of the systems.And yes you can connect to the Internet without using a telephone line, by means of broadband solutions, but it really depends on the availability of that technology in your area. Check out the links given at the end for details on networking and the Internet.
Even though I have an Intel P4 machine, my system’s speed is very slow. When I play a song, my system stops responding. I have tried reinstalling Windows, formatting my whole HDD but I still have the same problem. Is there any hardware problem or a virus?Muhammad Imran irshad <imran_902@hotmail.com>
It could be both; there are a number of potential reasons for your slow system speed. One of them is the use of your system resources by viruses, Trojans and spyware programs. The other most frequent reason is the installation of a large number of programs on your system, which you probably don’t use too often but which eat up loads of system resources each time you boot your system. The first step is to uninstall all such useless programs from your system especially PC games which you don’t use. Next, update the virus definitions of your anti-virus program and run a full system scan of your PC. Certain virus programs aren’t removed even if you have formatted your entire hard drive. Also install a spyware removal utility such as SpyBot Seek and Destroy (check the links) to remove all the spyware/adware from your system. If all this doesn’t work then increase your RAM if you still have only about 128 MB. However if the problem occurs only when you play a song, then the sound card drivers or the software that you use to play those songs could be corrupted and you should reinstall them.
How can I stop the error messages from popping up every time I boot my system?Shoiab <shoiabshoiab@yahoo.com>
When I start my computer, the first message that appears after Windows loads is ‘Unable to load wscript.exe’. How can I get rid of this nuisance? Waqas Ali Memon <aflashback@hotmail.com>
There could be a number of reasons for the error messages that pop up during Windows startup. The most common reasons are the outdated shortcuts present in the start menu your PC. You can remove these useless shortcuts by pointing to Start->Programs->Right click the program for which the error generates and select delete. Other common start-up errors can be caused by a missing file, a faulty driver or a virus. check out the links section for more start-up error details.Wscript.exe is an important application provided by the operating system installed on your system that allows one to execute scripts. The good news is that there is no security risk, such as a virus or spyware, associated with it. However it seems that this file is missing from the WINDOWS folder of your system. To check whether this file is located in your system at all, search for this file on your system (Start->Search). On finding it note the path of the file and check whether it is located in C:\WINDOWS\WSCRIPT.EXE or C:\WINDOWS\system32\WSCRIPT.EXE. (where C:\ is the drive where you installed the OS). If not then copy the wscript.exe file to these destinations and restart your system. If the file is not there on your system to start with then install the file from your Windows installation CD by choosing Repair.
How can I save my chat logs in Yahoo Messenger? Also, I have noticed that MSN Messenger stores chat files in XML format. Please tell me about this.Nadir Ali Bhatti <alinadir@hotmail.com>In order to save your conversations in Yahoo or MSN messenger, simply go to File->Save in the chat window. MSN doesn’t keep the files in XML format; in MSN you have the option for saving chat logs in RTF (Rich Text Format), which allows one to save conversations along with emoticons and the font styles used. Check out the links for more information.
I have DirectX 9 on my computer but it doesn’t support some games that require DirectX8.1. How can I uninstall Direct X 9 and install DirectX 8.1?Salman khan <sunnykhanz2004@hotmail.com>
The latest versions of DirectX are backwards-compatible, meaning that the games which require DirectX 8.1 should work just fine with your currently-installed version. You don’t need to install an older version over the latest version; besides it is not recommended for performance reasons. However if you’re having problems with your current version of DirectX, you should try reinstalling it. You can do this by executing the DirectX installation program called Dxsetup, which may be on one of your installation CDs, and choosing the option to reinstall. Once done reinstalling it use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (Start->Run->dxdiag) to check whether everything works fine.
by Salman Siddiqui
Can we take phone calls when the same line is being used to connect to the Internet? Is the solution available in Pakistan?Arif Thanvi <thanviarif@yahoo.com>
Yes you can take telephones calls without dropping your Internet connection but for that you’ll need to make use of a V.92 dial-up modem; a specification from ITU that comes along with a Modem-on-Hold (MOH) facility. Typically with this facility you can take calls from anywhere between 10 seconds to an hour without dropping your connection. However in order to utilize MOH you will first and foremost require call waiting services to be enabled from your telephone company, i.e., PTCL. You will also need to check in with your ISP to see whether or not they support V.92 at their end. Although no ISP in Pakistan yet has advertised this service, according to some reliable sources all major ISPs have done the setup and will be announcing this feature soon. Currently, new modems such as the Smart Cobra Lite 56k V3 support V.92, and are easily available. Most V.9 modems can be easily upgraded to V.92. For more information check out the V.92 link given at the end.
Is it possible to use a normal dialup account through ISDN? Also what other devices are needed to connect a LAN to an ISDN connection except that given by PTCL?Nadir Ahmed <get_nadir@hotmail.com>
If your ISDN modem has POTS (plain old telephone system) ports then you can plug your 56K modem into it to use your dial-up account. Although this might help you get a faster 56K connect rate, this will also be an inefficient use of your ISDN line since ISDNs have a minimum bandwidth of at least 64K.Although there are ISDN modems available-- such as the 3COM OfficeConnect ISDN LANModem--that provide direct interfaces to connect the computers in a LAN, no such interface exists in the ‘box’ provided by PTCL. However you can use a CAT-5 cable to connect your ISDN modem to a router (or a switch); you can then connect all the other computers of your network. Or if you want to share the line between only two PCs then you can use two LAN cards on one of your PCs, connecting one card to the ‘box’ and using the other to connect to your other PC.
When I use my dial-up account, I get the error svchost.exe. Upon using my cable net connection, the error just disappears and I’m able to browse the sites. How can I get rid of this error and why does it appear only when I use the dial-up connection?Junaid Sikander Khadbai <jshak@hotmail.com>
The file svchost.exe deals with applications using DLLs. Unfortunately, this file has been exploited by malicious coders and to date has been used in a variety of worms such as the W32.Welchia.B, W32.BlueCode etc. The easy way to get rid of all of these is to update the virus definitions of your antivirus program and run a full system scan.Now let’s examine the more interesting phenomenon in which the problem occurs only when you use a dial-up account and not when using a cable net connection. In a dial-up account, each time you connect to an ISP a different IP is assigned to you dynamically. However in a cable net connection things aren’t as simple, since your system is basically part of a LAN where a dummy IP address is assigned to your system each time you connect to the network. This dummy IP remains the same each time you use the cable connection. You can check this by typing the dos command ‘ipconfig’ at the Command Prompt (Start->All Programs->Accessories) to note the IP address of your system. The point to note here is that although your cable connection assigns you the same dummy IP address each time you use it to connect to the Internet, the connection used by the LAN itself might be connected to a dial-up account getting IP addresses dynamically.The reason you don’t see the error in your cable connection is that services using a dynamically allocated IP address are more secure when connecting a number of PC’s on a LAN to the Internet. Here the LAN hides all the computers behind a single IP address through NAT (Network Address Translation). Check out links for LAN and NAT for more details in the end.
A few days ago, a friend of mine told me that there’s a new technology on the Net called “monitor camera” through which one can take photographs from your monitor. I searched Google and found many sites related to this technology but all of them were fake. When the user clicked on the ‘TAKE A PICTURE’ option, it displayed a picture of a monkey with the caption “there’s your picture”. I want to know if there’s any kind of real site or software that can take my actual pictures through my monitor. Faraz <farazkhan16@hotmail.com>
This has to be the cutest email submitted to our Net Tips section. You still didn’t get the joke did you Faraz? How can there be any technology or software available on the Net that can take pictures of you without making use of a camera? My friend, this isn’t a software issue, it’s a hardware issue. If you want to take a picture of yourself and see it on your computer monitor then you can use a digital camera, scan one of your pictures or snap yourself with a webcam. For your reference, I’ve also given a link to a similar hoax site in the end so check it out. And no it doesn’t display a picture of a monkey.
Ever since I removed the Blaster worm from my system, I’ve been facing problems with my MSN Messenger. Each time I try to connect I get the error ‘The communication service failed. The service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later’. Even though I enter my correct ID and password why am I not able to sign-in to this service? Hammad Ayub <hammad188@yahoo.com>
Although the Blaster worm has nothing to do with your MSN Messenger problems, it would still be a good idea to double check your system, especially if you hadn’t removed that virus under Safe Mode. Check out the link to Symantec’s website given at the end for instructions on how to do this. “The service is temporarily unavailable” error in MSN usually occurs when either the servers from MSN are down which is quite a rarity nowadays. But since you’ve suggested that it was working fine before you removed that virus, it is quite possible that some of the files used by MSN might have been moved or corrupted. Now to get your messenger working, first uninstall whatever version of MSN you have on your PC. You can do this by going to Start->Control Panel->Settings->Add or Remove Programs. Then go to the MSN messenger link given at the end to download and install the latest version 6.1 of MSN. Hopefully this should solve your problem.
I have to ask two questions: Me and my friends want to work on Network Neighborhood. Do we need a hub or a LAN card? Also, can we use the Net without a telephone connection?Waqar Hajano <waqarhaslove@yahoo.com>
It really depends on the number of computers you plan to connect. If you have only two computers, then all you’ll need is two LAN cards one on each system. However if you want to connect more than two computers then you can use either a hub or a switch along with LAN cards on each of the systems.And yes you can connect to the Internet without using a telephone line, by means of broadband solutions, but it really depends on the availability of that technology in your area. Check out the links given at the end for details on networking and the Internet.
Even though I have an Intel P4 machine, my system’s speed is very slow. When I play a song, my system stops responding. I have tried reinstalling Windows, formatting my whole HDD but I still have the same problem. Is there any hardware problem or a virus?Muhammad Imran irshad <imran_902@hotmail.com>
It could be both; there are a number of potential reasons for your slow system speed. One of them is the use of your system resources by viruses, Trojans and spyware programs. The other most frequent reason is the installation of a large number of programs on your system, which you probably don’t use too often but which eat up loads of system resources each time you boot your system. The first step is to uninstall all such useless programs from your system especially PC games which you don’t use. Next, update the virus definitions of your anti-virus program and run a full system scan of your PC. Certain virus programs aren’t removed even if you have formatted your entire hard drive. Also install a spyware removal utility such as SpyBot Seek and Destroy (check the links) to remove all the spyware/adware from your system. If all this doesn’t work then increase your RAM if you still have only about 128 MB. However if the problem occurs only when you play a song, then the sound card drivers or the software that you use to play those songs could be corrupted and you should reinstall them.
How can I stop the error messages from popping up every time I boot my system?Shoiab <shoiabshoiab@yahoo.com>
When I start my computer, the first message that appears after Windows loads is ‘Unable to load wscript.exe’. How can I get rid of this nuisance? Waqas Ali Memon <aflashback@hotmail.com>
There could be a number of reasons for the error messages that pop up during Windows startup. The most common reasons are the outdated shortcuts present in the start menu your PC. You can remove these useless shortcuts by pointing to Start->Programs->Right click the program for which the error generates and select delete. Other common start-up errors can be caused by a missing file, a faulty driver or a virus. check out the links section for more start-up error details.Wscript.exe is an important application provided by the operating system installed on your system that allows one to execute scripts. The good news is that there is no security risk, such as a virus or spyware, associated with it. However it seems that this file is missing from the WINDOWS folder of your system. To check whether this file is located in your system at all, search for this file on your system (Start->Search). On finding it note the path of the file and check whether it is located in C:\WINDOWS\WSCRIPT.EXE or C:\WINDOWS\system32\WSCRIPT.EXE. (where C:\ is the drive where you installed the OS). If not then copy the wscript.exe file to these destinations and restart your system. If the file is not there on your system to start with then install the file from your Windows installation CD by choosing Repair.
How can I save my chat logs in Yahoo Messenger? Also, I have noticed that MSN Messenger stores chat files in XML format. Please tell me about this.Nadir Ali Bhatti <alinadir@hotmail.com>In order to save your conversations in Yahoo or MSN messenger, simply go to File->Save in the chat window. MSN doesn’t keep the files in XML format; in MSN you have the option for saving chat logs in RTF (Rich Text Format), which allows one to save conversations along with emoticons and the font styles used. Check out the links for more information.
I have DirectX 9 on my computer but it doesn’t support some games that require DirectX8.1. How can I uninstall Direct X 9 and install DirectX 8.1?Salman khan <sunnykhanz2004@hotmail.com>
The latest versions of DirectX are backwards-compatible, meaning that the games which require DirectX 8.1 should work just fine with your currently-installed version. You don’t need to install an older version over the latest version; besides it is not recommended for performance reasons. However if you’re having problems with your current version of DirectX, you should try reinstalling it. You can do this by executing the DirectX installation program called Dxsetup, which may be on one of your installation CDs, and choosing the option to reinstall. Once done reinstalling it use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (Start->Run->dxdiag) to check whether everything works fine.
posted by Salman Siddiqui | 8:34 AM
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