Solutions: COM port confusion not slowing down Net

Q. When I click on the Modem in Control Panel it shows it is connected to COM4. But when clicking on Ports Off Device Manager, System, Control Panel, it shows connection to: COM1, COM2, COM3, PLT1 only; not COM4. Could this be slowing down my Net speed?

A. I know it's confusing. You really have only two physical COM ports (1 and 2). Ports 3 and 4 are logical ports that share the IRQs, or interrupt request lines, of ports 1 and 2 respectively. As a result, you cannot use COM1 and COM3 simultaneously, or COM2 and COM4 simultaneously, for serial communications. This is not the reason you are experiencing slowdowns of your Net speed. Speak to your Internet access provider about possible problems and solutions.

The answer to it all

Q. According to John Torro, who is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and has a weekly computer article in the St. Petersburg Times, you are supposed to have the solution to the problem: "This program has performed an illegal operation and will shut down." This message keeps popping up on my screen. Will you please tell me how to delete it?

A. You make it sound as if I hold the secret to all the world's problems. The truth is, if I had the solution to this problem, I'd most likely be able to own the paper rather than just write a column for it.

The error message you describe is as generic as they come. All it means is that something is not right according to the program or operating system. The cause can be one or more of a thousand things. First, it's important to note which program is reporting the illegal operation. Chances are an external software component it is depending on has been clobbered by a software installation or other change in the system. Start with a thorough ScanDisk check, and move on to uninstalling, then reinstalling the offending program application. If Windows (Explorer.exe) is causing the problem, a reinstallation of Windows may be necessary. It may be a good idea to run the System File Check (SFC in Windows versions 98 and above) to check for altered system files. (Run Help and search for SFC for detailed information.)

Sometimes the problem could be hardware or memory related. These are the toughest to figure out. There are ways to pinpoint these problems, but it takes special software and knowledge of Assembly language and Windows procedure calling conventions to debug these problem, skills outside the scope of most users.

Tracking a PC's uses

Q. My wife and I share a computer at home. She uses it for business part of the time, and we both use it for personal use. We need to track the times it's used for business. We are tracking our times and purposes in an Excel spreadsheet. But this is quite cumbersome. Do you know of any software for use on a home PC that could track login activity?

A. This is more along the lines of Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP capabilities. In Windows 2000, you can turn on login/logoff auditing (Programs, Administrative Tools, Local Security Settings). You can find the same program at this same location in Windows XP, which seems to have these settings turned on by default. These events could then be exported from the Event Log file into a spreadsheet for analysis. I am not aware of any Windows Me/9x add-in that does this.

Missing Web site pictures

Q. Can you tell me why when I open certain pages on the Web I see a box with a red X in the corner where there is obviously supposed to be a picture?

A. What this means is that the browser could not find the picture on that Web site or had some sort of problem displaying it. Sometimes a refresh will display the picture. If not, it is probably a broken link.

Changing a file's attributes

Q. I downloaded a program from Net2Phone, decided I did not like it and tried to delete it. I found out it was a read-only file. I am using Windows Me. How do I use the DOS attribute command to clear the read-only file attribute for these files?

A. Right-click the file in Windows Explorer and select Properties. You will then have option select access to the file's attributes.

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