There's an outside chance the problem could be a virus, but the most likely culprit is your antivirus program itself or your spam filtering program. These apps work by situating themselves between your mail program and your e-mail server, then taking a look at every piece of mail you receive. But if one of these programs crashes or needs input from you, it will hold up the e-mail download and your mail program will think the connection has died. If this happens, just restart your antivirus program and spam filtering program and try downloading messages again.

Microsoft Windows XP uses many visual effects to provide a rich, friendly interface. One of these settings allows menus to fade into view when you open them. This visual effect is so smooth that you may never have noticed it; however, the effect does cause menus to take a little longer to appear.

On a fast computer, this shouldn't be an issue. But on a computer that isn't responding as quickly as you'd like, you can make menus display faster.

To speed up menu display

1. Click Start. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab. In the Performance area, click Settings.
3. On the Visual Effects tab in the Performance Options dialog box, clear the Fade or slide menus into view check box.
4. Click OK.
5. In the System Properties dialog box, click OK.
Now when you click a menu, it will appear almost instantly.

If you like using a screen saver and have digital photos on your computer, you can easily make your own screen saver using the pictures that you have stored on your PC. You can set up your screen saver in Microsoft Windows XP to display a slide show of some or all of your pictures when you're not using your computer.

To set up a My Pictures slide show

1. Right-click on the desktop, and then click Properties.
2. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Screen Saver tab. Then, click the Screen saver list, and click My Pictures Slideshow.
3. Click OK.
The next time your screen saver starts, you'll see a slide show of all the pictures in your My Pictures folder.

You can save electricity and reduce your impact on the environment by activating your monitor's sleep feature in Microsoft Windows XP. Activating sleep settings on just one computer may prevent considerable CO2 emissions each year. Letting your monitor sleep allows it to go into a low-power mode when you're not using it. To wake your monitor, you simply touch your mouse or keyboard.

 

To set Windows XP to automatically turn your monitor off when your computer isn't being used

1.      Right-click the desktop, and then click Properties.

2.      In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Screen Saver tab. Then, click the Power button.

3.      In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Turn off monitor list, and select a time to automatically turn off your monitor. Five minutes is a realistic setting. If you have a portable computer, set the time for both Plugged in and Running on batteries.

4.      Click OK twice.

Windows XP will let your monitor sleep after your computer has been idle for the specified number of minutes. To reactivate your monitor, move your mouse, or press a key. You'll save almost as much power as if you had manually turned your monitor off, but you won't have to press your monitor's power button.

Usually Wi-Fi connection problems are the result of configuration errors, incompatible firmware, or interference with another router. It's easy to fix firmware issues-all you need to do is download the latest firmware for your wireless router from the manufacturer's web site (refer to your wireless routers manual for more information).

  If you've installed the firmware update and still can't connect, your next step is to temporarily disable WEP or WPA (security). If you can connect to the router when security is disabled, check all your WEP settings. You need to use exactly the same key on your router and any machines that connect to it wirelessly. Also make sure the Authentication Type on each of the PCs matches the setting on the router.

  Troubleshooting interference issues is more complex. First, you should change the default channel. Most routers shipped today are set at channel 6 be default, and the sheer traffic can create a lot of interference. You should also uncheck the field that says, "Automatically connect to non-preferred networks".  (There is no advantage to the feature and it can cause your computer to behave erratically if you're in the proximity of the other networks.)  Position your laptop right next to the router and try again.

  If you're still having problems connecting, there may be a hardware problem on your laptop. Check Device Manager and make sure there isn't an exclamation point beside your Wi-Fi device. You should also try connecting to another router that you know works properly. Finally, try connecting to your network using the same settings, but a different brand of Wi-Fi card or adaptor.  If all else fails, contact your router manufacturer's tech support line. You may actually have a faulty router.

Finding programs on your All Programs menu can become difficult if you have a lot of programs installed. When you install new programs, Microsoft Windows XP adds each new item to the end of the All Programs menu. You can, however, quickly sort the items on your All Programs menu in alphabetical order.

 

To sort items on your All Programs menu alphabetically

 

1.  Click Start, click All Programs, and then right-click any folder or icon.

2.  On the shortcut menu, click Sort by Name.

That's it! Your programs are instantly alphabetized. Enjoy your newly organized All Programs menu.

This same tip works for your Favorites menu in Internet Explorer. In both cases, you'll probably need to go back periodically and sort the lists again, because Windows XP doesn't automatically keep the list in alphabetical order.

When you first got your computer, it probably had shortcuts for My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, and the Recycle Bin on the desktop. If you or someone else removed any of those shortcuts and you'd like to get them back, you can easily restore them.

To restore your icons:

1.       Right-click the desktop, and then click Properties.

2.       In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Desktop tab, and then click Customize Desktop.

3.       In the Desktop icons area in the Desktop Items dialog box, select the desktop icons that you want to appear on your desktop.

4.       Click OK.

5.       Click OK again.

The icons you selected will be displayed on your desktop. You can also add shortcuts to your desktop or clean up unused icons on your desktop.

When playing PC games continuously for a long time, the computer randomly crashes or reverts to the desktop.

  Random crashes in games can be the result of a few different problems. Typically, it's heat, a driver, the Windows install, a virus, a software incompatibility, or a problem with the game.

  The first thing you should do is check for a patch for any of your games that are crashing. It seems like common sense, but frequently we receive complaints from people trying to run games that have been patches available but never downloaded. 

  Once you've updated your game, you may need to update your video card and chipset drivers. Download the latest video card driver from the company that manufactured your card's chipset.

  You should also check for newer drivers for your motherboard's chipset whenever you update your video card drivers. Outdated motherboard chipset drivers are one of the main causes of general system instability.

  If you've updated all your hardware, but are still having problems, you may have a heat issue. Open your case and look at your video card. Is there another card right next to it? If there is, you should consider moving that card to another slot. A card directly next to a high-end video card can disrupt airflow enough to cause overheating issues with today's top-of-the-line video cards.

  If freeing the neighboring slot doesn't alleviate your problem, try adding a fan that fits into one of your PCI slots and exhausts hot air from the bottom of your PC. 

Microsoft Windows XP lets you show the contents of folders in a variety of ways, such as a simple or detailed list of the files, or as thumbnail images. Each folder in My Computer or My Documents can have its own view. That's useful for folders like My Music or My Pictures, because you can look at your digital photos in Thumbnails or Filmstrip view, and see your song titles in Tiles view. But changing the view for every folder can be time-consuming.

If you prefer to have all your folder contents displayed in a particular way, you can save yourself some time by changing the view for all the folders on your computer at once.

To set your windows so they all have the same view

1.       Click Start, and then click My Documents.

2.       Click the Views button, and then click the view you want to apply to all folders.

3.       Click Tools, and then click Folder Options.

4.       Click the View tab, and then click Apply to All Folders.

5.       Click Yes.

6.       Click OK.

The next time you open a folder, it will be displayed using the view you chose. To restore your original folder settings, repeat steps 1-3. Then, in step 4, click Reset All Folders.

It’s been said that there are two types of computer users. Those who have lost data contained on their hard drive, and those that will. 

 

Western Steel Erectors had been fortunate – until they weren’t. On the Friday before Monday’s payroll deadline, a hard drive crashed. That’s when an emergency call was made to Bryson Computers.

 

“This was a problem we needed to have taken care of immediately,” said Mike Sutton, senior project manager. “We absolutely had to recover the information from the hard drive.”

 

Quick Action Required

 

Sutton called Bryson
Computers after  repeatedly attempting to get his server to start with the same dismaying
results each time. Owner Terry Bryson made an on-site visit only to find that the disk was too corrupted to recover the information.

Western Steel Erectors – known for building high-rise buildings in the western US maintains eight workstations for its staff. The company uses its computer system for general business applications, accounting, cost analysis and construction plans.

Problems continued after Bryson attempted to restore the hard drive back at his office.

 

“I found that several backup disks I’d been given by Western Steel Erectors were incomplete,” he said. “This is very common at small businesses, where people think their backup is complete but they don’t know because they’ve never used it.”

 

After pulling bits and pieces from several of the backup disks, Bryson was able to recover the majority of the current data.

 

A Familiar Tale

Sutton’s scenario is all too common at smaller businesses. In addition to overseeing the
operations of most major projects, he was also charged with serving as a quasi system
administrator.

 

“Western Steel Erectors had always tried to save a little money,” said Sutton, referring to his additional responsibility. “And when we had called computer techs in the past they
didn’t always know what they were doing.”

 

Quite the opposite proved true with Bryson Computers. After meeting with Sutton on
Sunday to set up two temporary workstations so payroll could be processed, the duo began to look at ways to avoid a repeat of data loss.

 

After a thorough examination of Western Steel Erectors’ existing infrastructure, Bryson noted that the 7-year-old hardware was inadequate to run a newer version of Windows. Without
upgrading the software, the company would be unable to reduce spamming. Management of the old system was difficult and confusing. It was also decided that the backup needed to be brought up to date.

 

A New, Managed System

Western Steel Erectors’ updated system
includes:

A custom-built server with dual Xeon processors, 4 Gbytes of RAM,
mirrored 500 Gbyte hard drives for redundancy, and the Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Suite.

Cloudmark spam filter.

AVG antivirus.

A full-system backup on an external hard drive. The server monitors the backup and sends Sutton a report if there are any problems.

To compliment the onsite backup, datashoot.com remote backup is
employed. “Now, if they have a problem with theft, flood or fire we can download the data to a new server and have them up and running in no time,” Bryson said.

 

After flirting with disaster, Sutton has turned the management of his system over to Bryson Computers. “Terry knows what we need better than we do,” he said. “Even though I’ve
always held it close, it makes me comfortable not to worry anymore about our computer
system.”

 

About Bryson Computers

Bryson Computers is geared toward the needs of small businesses. Our team of professionals can provide hardware, software, support
services, online backup, hosting and Internet.

 

For more information:

 

Phone: 866-486-6111

www.brysonnet.com
sales@brysonnet.com