InBox

By DON McALLISTER

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

Q. Spybot keeps finding "DSO Exploit"; fixing it doesn't get rid of the message, says Jan. "Four times I've tried yet Spybot continues to find it, fix it and find it again!" What am I doing wrong asks Jan?

A. Run Windows update, Jan. It's an old issue that Microsoft has fixed, and as long as you are up to date with Microsoft patches it should be a non-issue. Spybot for some reason seems to find and fix it incorrectly. This means that next time it finds it again and so on. It is aware of the problem and should rectify Spybot in the next update.

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Q. Full speed Jetstream was installed this week at Clair's house. "Will I exceed my one gigbyte limit?" she asks. Clair can't figure out the complicated data usage meter - it doesn't tally with what she seems to be downloading and there's a sting in the tail if the 1GB a month limit is exceeded!

A. Most bandwidth or data checkers are a mess of numbers that you need a degree to analyse, Clair, but what may be happening is that the reading is a cached result from within Internet Explorer or on an internet server. You need to bypass this stored historical page.

In Windows, do this by holding down the Shift or CTRL key while clicking the refresh or reload button in your browser.

On a Macintosh, hold down the Option key while clicking reload.

How much data should a new Jetstream customer expect to use?

A user who browses web pages, collects an average amount of email and downloads only system updates should stay well under 1GB.

If you have many machines networked, have supervised internet surfing kids or like downloading music and videos, expect to top 2GB.

If you have a "leach" in the house that floods the connection 24/7, get the unlimited data usage account with a lower speed or your pocket will be emptied.

New broadband users should start on a low-speed account with high data limits.

Once monthly data use is established, change to the package most suitable! Shop around, as each internet provider has its own offerings.



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