InBox

By DON McALLISTER

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

Q. "The Page Cannot Be Displayed." Norma has a weird problem with secure web pages producing this error. She contacted her Xtra helpdesk, who discovered her Internet Explorer cipher strength was zero, when it should be 128. But they weren't sure of the cause. (Check your cipher strength in Help/About Internet Explorer.)

A. Don't worry, Norma, it can be fixed. You have a couple of damaged Internet Explorer driver files. The Microsoft knowledgebase explains the problem and supplies a solution.

Q. Brian has an old Star Wintype 4000 printer he'd like to run in Windows XP. As the drivers for this printer were designed long before XP, he has a problem.

A. The latest drivers I've located are for Windows 95/98 only. You'll have to run the Add Printer Wizard, selecting the "Generic/Text only Printer" driver. This will allow basic text printing, but type fonts and graphics will be unavailable. If a printer driver was available, you'd normally find it at DriverGuide.

Q. How do you bring up colour in backgrounds and fonts when writing HTML (the code that makes websites work)? asks Bert, who is struggling with this colour code thing.

A. I'll point you to a web page that tells all and uses a few colours within it, Bert - TeamWeb. Read the page, then click File/View/Source. You'll get a notepad screen that pops up with all the code that makes that page work. This way you can see it in action, allowing you to understand why.

Q. A mysterious red flag sits to the left of an email from a friend. "What is it?" Mena asks, "and what can I do about it?"

A. Check your Outlook Express filters, Mena. Go to Tools/Message Rules/Mail. If you look closely, one of the rules will be placing the flag to highlight the mail from that sender. It's only an attention getter, highlighting the mail for you to notice and act upon. If you don't want the flag, remove the offending rule and the flag will not appear again.


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