I've Had It With AOL

Q.
OK, I’ve had it with AOL. Is there a way to quickly and completely uninstall AOL?

A.
A quick answer is, ‘NO’
You can remove AOL through the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel, but to remove All the changes made to your registry by the AOL software you'll need to also uninstall and reinstall Dial Up Networking and any remaining AOL adapters.

To uninstall AOL: click the Start button then Settings then Control Panel, when the Control Panel window opens double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon, locate and click on AOL then click the Add/Remove button, when it's finished removing it click OK to close the window and allow the computer to restart.

To remove AOL adapters: click the Start button then Settings then Control Panel, when the Control Panel window opens double-click on the Network icon and remove any AOL adapters, when it's finished removing it click OK to close the window and allow the computer to restart.

To uninstall Dial Up Networking: click the Start button then Settings then Control Panel, when the Control Panel window opens double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon, click the Windows Setup tab (up at the top) then double-click 'Communications' and remove the checkmark next to DialUp Networking, when it's finished removing it click OK to close the window and allow the computer to restart.

To reinstall Dial Up Networking: click the Start button then Settings then Control Panel, when the Control Panel window opens double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon, click the Windows Setup tab (up at the top) then double-click 'Communications' and click to put a checkmark next to DialUp Networking, click OK to close the window and allow the computer to restart.

P.S. Remember to jot down your AOL username and password before uninstalling AOL, you may need it later to access your email through www.aol.com or for billing purposes.

Keep check on your credit card or bank account, as it is next to imposable to stop them from billing you forever.

AOL Has Done It Again

Q:
I currently use AOL as my ISP and am having trouble sending photos to my friends that aren’t on AOL. They tell me that they can’t see the pictures that I send them. Apparently all of these photos are in the .art format.

A:
AOL has done it again. Some of the brilliant minds over there decided that it would be a good idea to use a different compressed image format for the photos that get delivered to you in the AOL "browser." They say that this will speed up your browsing experience, but really, it just delivers substandard quality graphics that don't play well with any other application besides AOL. Isn't that nice of them? Because of this, sending pictures to your friends outside of AOL can be a challenge.

My real suggestion to you would be to dump AOL and move to another ISP, but if you still want to stick with them for whatever crazy reason you may have, this page http://www.peoplewithsigns.com/support/aol.asp
will tell you how to turn off the compressed graphics madness. Now you'll be able to view the images in their native format, and save and send them in a much easier way.

Thanks for destroying the Internet, AOL.

This text was taken from the Lockergnome windows newsleter.
http://channels.lockergnome.com/windows/archives/20050114_aol_graphics_format.phtml

ISP Spam Filters

Q.
Sometimes I do not receive email that people send,
where does it go ?

A.
Now that we are in the times of spyware and virus infestation ISPs have software on their mail servers that will block any suspiciously looking email. It depends on your ISP as to how these messages are treated, some just trash them, others will bounce them back to the sender. G-mail puts them in a spam folder and this is the best approach I feel to the problem. This way you decide if you want the email or not. If you do not want to read it you may delete it or the mail server will delete it for you after a specified time. But you say I sent a non-spam email to a friend and it was put in the spam folder of his mail server, why? Look in the subject line and see if you put a punctuation mark like (!) (?) this is a tip off for the software to flag the message to the spam folder. Also look in the body of the message to see if you have a word or phrase that might look like it may be from a spammer. Suspect word examples may be bank, Rolex, girls, pills, medicine, Canada, and so on. It will just depend on the ISPs software as to how strick the filters are. If you are lucky your mail server will allow you to turn the filter off, but then you must sort out the spam for yourself. I receive over 100 spam messages per day, this means I decide what is spam and what is not. I have used about every piece of anti-spam software and none of it is perfect. You must look at all the email every time you download new mail from the mail server just to be sure. The best answer I can give you at this time is to use G-mail, then look in the spam folder to see if there is a message that you really want. As long as there is money to be made or the laws are changed “spam will continue to be a big problem for us all”.

Thank you for your question, sorry I don’t have a better answer.

If you have a ??? send it to: wb9otx@gmail.com

Prefetch

What Is Prefetch anyway ?
Taken From Microsoft Website:
Windows XP monitors the files that are used when the computer starts and when you start applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP can prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and start applications. This information is logged and stored on your hard drive taking up space and requiring a process to be kept running monitoring which applications are being run. This has a performance impact on your PC. Disabling the Prefetch function or at least only enabling it for the Boot Files will allow you to free up some system resources and preserve some disk space.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This is a unique technique for WinXP home or pro. We know that it is necessary to wash registry and TEMP files from Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP for some time, the prefetch folder can get full of rarely used or obsolete links which can slow down your computer noticeably. My suggestion is: open C:/windows/prefetch, delete all files (or at least those more than 3 weeks old), reboot. I recommended that you do this every month or so. Just don’t over do it, once a month is just fine. If you are a rookie, here is a program that will perform the above task for you. It is free.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2495.html