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Solutions: Router vs. software-based Internet sharing
By JOHN TORRO Q. You published my problem with my home network (June 10) and your solution worked. Thank you! You also recommended using a router in place of software-based Internet connection sharing. I had previously rejected this idea because doing so would connect four computers directly to my cable Internet service provider, and it would charge me for each computer, raising my (already too high) cable bill. By using the Internet sharing method, I have only one computer connected to the ISP. A. Glad things worked out with your network problem. Regarding the router vs. software-based Internet connection sharing, when using a router, all your ISP sees is the router, not each of the computers. The router is provided with an IP address by your ISP. This is what you're paying for. The computers connected to the router are given internal nonroutable IP addresses from the router and are invisible to the outside world. This is not unlike how the software-based Internet Connection Sharing works, so in this respect, there is no difference. The advantages to using a hardware-based router is that you don't have to have a proxy PC turned on for the other PCs to have access to the Internet. Increased speed and some basic firewall capabilities are also advantages to using the router. Increasing legibilityQ. I have macular degeneration in both eyes but still have some limited reading ability in one eye. I have Windows XP and a 15-inch monitor. Are there settings to increase the letter size on existing programs and Web information? Are there any software programs to do this? A. There are several features available in Windows XP for users who have difficulty reading the normal display. Look under Control Panel, Accessibility Options. One is a magnifier that can be moved around the display or set to follow the mouse cursor, magnifying the area underneath (just as you would use a magnifying glass). Another is the Voice Narrator. This feature provides audio assistance for the different windows appearing on your display. It announces the window titles as they open, along with the menu options as you mouse over them. You can manually enable these options or use the Accessibility Wizard to step you through. You can find the Accessibility program by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, then Accessibility. To open the Accessibility Wizard: Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, then click Accessibility Wizard. Besides the features mentioned, there are options for font size, high-contrast color schemes, cursor-location features and a few others. Uninterruptible ScanDiskQ. I have Windows Me, and once every two weeks I run my disk defragmenter. It stops and restarts many times. I have tried to run ScanDisk, and I get this message: "ScanDisk has restarted 10 times because Windows or another program has been writing to the drive. Quitting some running programs may enable ScanDisk to finish sooner." I disabled my Norton Antivirus, but I don't have a clue as to which programs are running and how to disable them so that I can finish running ScanDisk. I have given up trying to run it after an hour or so. A. Instead of playing PC detective to figure out what process is causing the ScanDisk to continually restart, it may be simpler to boot Windows Me into Minimum Boot mode from your Windows Me startup disk and run ScanDisk from there. If you don't have a Windows Me startup disk, here's how to create one: Click Start, Settings, then Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. Click the Startup Disk tab, then click Create Disk to create the Startup disk (you'll need a floppy disk). You may be prompted to insert the Windows Me CD-ROM when you click Create Disk if the installation files that are required to create the startup disk are not on the hard disk, so you may want to have it ready. Reboot the computer with the floppy disk inserted, and from the Startup menu, choose Minimum Boot. At the command prompt, type scandisk, then press Enter. When it completes, remove the floppy and reboot the PC.
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