Inbox

Compiled by DON McALLISTER

Welcome to Inbox, where we attempt to answer your internet questions.

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John has a pesky mouse - ironically named "Genius". The cursor at times refuses to follow the direction of the mouse and he asks, is it faulty or just requiring some attention - like a good smack?

I suggest you clean it, John. Turn it over and you'll find a little twist or slide- cover over the ball. Remove it and then the ball. Carefully remove the fluff and gunk build-up from the rollers. Refit the ball and cover and it should work like new.

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Walter's Windows Me is hiding the option of 24-hour time.

An easy one to fix. In Start/Settings/Control Panel, click on Regional Settings. Select the Time tab, the time format with the HH, not the hh at the start. No more AM or PM for you Walter.

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An update for Martyn about his "illegal operation" message in Internet Explorer.

Thanks to Riley and Henri who pointed out this more obvious solution: Go to Start/Settings/Add Remove Programs. Select Internet Explorer and Add/Remove. It will then ask you if you want to repair Explorer. YES you do.

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Free hosting update for Terry's question of a week ago: Thanks to Nathan, and Dylan for suggesting Orcon and Ben for Sphosting.

Neither of these sites seem to need advertising. Ken also suggested that Terry contact his own internet provider, as most offer free web space without any advertising, as part of the monthly fee.

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We've had a heap of questions about e-mail viruses - far too many victims to list. In the last two weeks I've found six e-mails with virus-infected files attached. So far none have infected my machine ... yet.

Here are the rules: DON'T open e-mail from suspect sources; hit delete. NEVER open attachments unless your virus scanner scans your e-mail. Norton and McAfee both do this. NEVER expect a virus checker to find all viruses, but DO keep the checker's virus list up to date. DO notify the sender, who probably has no idea he or she has been infected.

Links:


Orcon

Sphosting

Symantec

McAfee

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