k-Byte, May/June 1999
v. 16, n. 5/6
Contents
 1 State of the Group - Rick Mattingly
2 About k-Byte
3 April/May Meeting Reports - Mike Meyer
4 Yikes - A Virus! - Rick Mattingly
5 Universal Serial Bus Tips
6 Cybermedia's Oil Change - Bob Lowe
7 Caught In The Web - Al Massey
9 News from the Y2K Front - Al Massey
11 A Call To Tech Support - humor
12 Inkjet Printer Tip
14 Calendar of Events
16 June/July Calendars
18 Membership Application
20 Adding A Second Hard Drive
20 Zounds! Win95 Sounds - Joe Rudich
22 PowerDesk Utilities 98 - Bob Lowe
25 The Never Ending Virus Battle - Rick Mattingly
25 Y2K Tool - Nuts & Bolts 98
25 Add USB to Older PCs
26 PowerQuest's Drive Image
28 Camcorder For Office - Rick Mattingly
Special Online Bonus - FrontPage 98 Review - Arnold Stevens
28 FREE Internet Discussion Group
31 FRPCUG Contacts

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. - Emerson

State of the Group From The President
by Rick Mattingly

Volunteers - we need them! We are beginning to find ourselves a little thin in the volunteer department. Most of you are probably aware that several months ago we began a project to enhance our club Web Page.

Doug Boicourt has donated his time to get the Page to the stage it is at now but there is more work yet to be done to add new features. In addition, there is the issue of ongoing maintenance, i.e., Calendar of Events update, links to useful and relevant sites, etc. And, there is the plan to add a “help line” to assist people in need of help.

We have a lot of great ideas for features to add to the Web Page. What we need now are volunteers to help with implementation. If we can spread the workload out it will not be a burden on just one or a few people.

The FRPCUG Web Page can be a great asset to the group. Please - contact any of the group officers if you can assist us.

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About k-Byte
Published bi-monthly, k-Byte is the official newsletter of the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group (FRPCUG): our mailing address is 305 W. Magnolia #152, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521.
Opinions expressed in k-Byte are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the group or its members. Publication of information in k-Byte constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither k-Byte, nor its officers, nor k-Byte, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication.

Submissions

Articles, letters and short items of interest on computer-related topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Send your contribution to the editor via the FRPCUG electronic bulletin board system (BBS) or submit on disk. The deadline for articles is listed in the Calendar of Upcoming Events in each issue of k-Byte. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the editor for information.

Copyright

k-Byte is copyrighted ã1996 by the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group. Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit users groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in k-Byte without prior permission, provided that proper author and publication credits are given and that a copy of the publication in which the article appears is sent at no cost to k-Byte at the above mailing address. User groups wishing to exchange newsletters with FRPCUG are invited to send a copy of their newsletter together with an exchange request.
IBM PC, OS/2, Compaq, MS-DOS, UNIX, Windows and other trademarks occasionally mentioned in k-Byte are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc., Compaq Corporation, Microsoft, Digital Research, AT&T or their owners respectively. Neither FRPCUG nor its newsletter k-Byte are connected in any way with any manufacturer or seller. We, however, gratefully acknowledge sponsorship of our group by Data Service Center, Jim Becker, owner.

Advertising

Classified advertising is free to members for non-business ads. See “Trading Post” for pricing for camera-ready display ads. Charges for ad makeup from sketches, etc., are available on request. Deadline for camera-ready and classified ads is listed in the Calendar of Upcoming Events. Deadline for ad-makeup is the same as for articles.

About FRPCUG

FRPCUG is an independent nonprofit computer society, open to anyone interested in MS-DOS, OS/2, or UNIX microcomputers. Its purpose is to provide an educational and scientific forum of mutual benefit for members of the micro-computer community. FRPCUG holds a monthly meeting and conducts various special interest groups (SIGS) and seminars. Members have voting privileges, free use of the FRPCUG and PC-SIG software libraries, subscription to k-Byte newsletter, SIGs and selected seminars and privileged access to the FRPCUG BBS. Annual dues are $25 for individual/family membership and $50 for corporate/group membership.

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Scribe's Corner
April Meeting Report
By Mike Meyer

Forty-five people attended the April meeting. Don Anderson, our Vice President, ably chaired the meeting, due to the illness of President Rick Mattingly. During the Announcements Period, updates were provided on SIG activities, and members were reminded about the FRPCUG CONTACTS section in K-Byte for useful information on club contacts (e.g., officers, web page, SIG's, etc.). We also were reminded of the Saturday morning "get-togethers" at Data Services Center on Remington Street in Fort Collins beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Mention was made of a couple of "hits" by the Melissa Virus in the local area, although the virus did not seem to have had a wide-spread effect in our area. A rather large number of questions were addressed during the Open Forum Session. They included reactivation and adjustment of the volume control for playing CD music in WIN95; access loss to the DOS screen during bootup after upgrading from WIN95 to WIN98; Y2K issues; and some configuration problems with Netscape Navigator 4.0 in Windows.

The Main Program, which was arranged by Glen York, was intended to be a panel discussion on computer privacy and security matters. Such matters were to include proprietary "shopper cards", Internet "cookies", on-line banking practices, and certain personal/personnel issues. Unfortunately, despite Glen's best efforts, the "shopper card" representatives declined his invitations, and then the banking representative did not show, presumably due to a scheduling conflict.

One panelist, Dean Beers, who is a Certified Master Investigator (CMI), actually appeared for our meeting. We were most fortunate in that his presentation was very entertaining and informative. He provided us with an interesting glimpse into the business of being a private investigator. He kindly gave everyone a handout to follow, which contained a good portion of the subject matter presented during the formal part of his talk. After his presentation, a very lively Q & A session ensued. Dean resides in LaPorte, Colorado, where his business is as well. Kudos to both Dean and Glen for all their efforts.


May Meeting Report
By Mike Meyer

Despite a somewhat slow start, 50 people ended up attending what proved to be a very interesting meeting. During the Announcements Period, Glen York stated that there would be an introductory Internet course offered at the Senior Center on Saturday, May 22nd, and a second course on Internet privacy and security on Tuesday, May 25th. There will be a nominal charge for these courses, since they are being hosted by the Senior Center. Further information can be found in the recent Fort Collins Recreator insert in the Coloradoan newspaper. Chuck McJilton then reminded the membership of the monthly Internet meetings at the Stone Lion Bookstore on the first Monday of each month starting at 7 p.m. It is open to all levels of competence and lasts until about 8:30 p.m. It is sponsored by both the bookstore and JYM Information Systems. Doug Boicourt stated that there would also be an HTML SIG meeting this month.

During the Open Forum Session, President Rick Mattingly discussed at some length the subject of macro viruses, which a number of us had encountered recently, especially when using the Microsoft Office programs (e.g., EXCEL and WORD). Rick also covered some of the various anti-virus programs that could be used to detect and "kill" them. A number of questions then were addressed which included Quicken (problem with monitoring mortgage payment entries); Q & A sessions on the FRPCUG web-page; use of the "Camera" function in WIN95/WIN98 and Windows NT (we later learned that this tool is actually named "Camcorder for Office"); use of the Windows Up-date Wizard, including an annoying problem when working in NOVELL networks; and an inquiry about programming with the PCL language and sending escape codes to an HP 4000 printer.

Margaret Croll, the Rocky Mountain Region marketing rep for Microsoft, demonstrated the new Office 2000 program. Her presentation was interesting and well-received. She discussed the evolution of the Office software from the original Office Suite through Office 97, and then on to the newest features incorporated into 2000. The Office 2000 programs include the Standard version, the Small Business version, the Professional version, and the Premium version. As you might expect, more and more capabilities are included in each of the versions as you proceed upward in price. They are anticipated to become available sometime in June. The first three versions are expected to cost about the same as their corresponding versions of Office 97. The Premium version will cost about $100 more. Key focus areas within these programs are ease of use and management, as well as better information sharing and collaboration. Margaret also spent some time discussing Microsoft's efforts to deal with the Y2K issue (web-site location, Resource CD, and "Product Analyzer"). She provided a nice, quick tour of Office 2000 programs and capabilities, including "Outlook", “Word", "Excel", "Powerpoint", "Frontpage", "PhotoDraw", and "Publisher". She then requested that we participate in a Microsoft Internet survey, and with a response of 50% or better, the club gets two copies of Office 2000. Will Horton then held a drawing for some neat door prizes donated by Microsoft for the occasion.

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Yikes - A Virus!
by Rick Mattingly

Recently, I have been contacted by several FRPCUG members seeking assistance with strange behavior experienced with Microsoft Office modules, specifically Word, Excel and Access. In each case the described behavior involved a legitimate tool or feature of the program and I talked them through the task of simply turning off that feature. In most of these cases the situation involved Microsoft Word starting up with the Visual Basic Editor activated, although several involved similar behavior from Excel and Access.

Last week Mike Meyer, our FRPCUG Secretary, called me at work to report that several of the Microsoft Office equipped systems at his offices has suddenly begun to act up as well. Again, Word was starting up with the Visual Basic Editor somehow being automatically activated. I talked Mike through the process of turning off the Visual Basic Editor but Mike informed me that restarting Word again mysteriously opened the Visual Basic Editor again. Curious!

And then it dawned on me -- Macro Virus! I faxed over to Mike a Microsoft Faq on known macro virus issues. Mike called back to inform me that the descriptions provided in the FAQ fit their situation to a tee and that the measures to disarm such macro virus did, in fact, stop the problem temporarily. The networked computers in Mike's office were infected by a Word macro virus.

That evening I was thinking about Mike's problem when it dawned on me that Mike, as club Secretary, had recently emailed me two Word files for the K-byte newsletter. All of my computer systems are equipped with McAfee Viruscan. I ran Viruscan and -- Bingo! -- the two files which Mike had e-mailed me were infected with the "W97M/Sat.b" macro virus. Viruscan had prevented this virus from activating on my system. I then utilized Viruscan to kill and remove the virus from my computer

Although typically not destructive, macro viruses are particularly insidious in that they utilize the program's own features to cause disruption and frustration. And, just like other, more destructive viruses, they are capable of replicating like wildfire. Each time the infected file is accessed on another computer that copy of the software program involved is infected, and so on. It does not matter if the file is delivered on disk or as an e-mail attachment -- the results are the same!

In fact, the recent Melissa Virus, which was all over the news recently, is exactly such a macro virus. In that case the macro virus, designed to run within Microsoft Word, utilized the programs own e-mail capabilities to replicate itself over an Internet connection to forward the infected e-mail message to the top fifty entries found in the victims own e-mail address book without the user's knowledge. Again, while not destructive in the true sense of the word, the Melissa Virus quickly began to overwhelm Internet servers around the world with the huge volume of infected messages. Thank goodness that the demented individual, who had nothing better to do with his time then dream up this giant pain, has since been identified and arrested. It is imperative that this individual, and the many others out there like him, be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. No exceptions!

For details of how to kill the macro viruses which affect Microsoft Office products you should visit the Microsoft Support Web site. Choose the Microsoft Office products support area and perform a search on macro virus. Microsoft provides a wealth of information on this issue and advises that the ultimate solution is to equip your system with a quality virus protection program, of which they provide a list of suggested products. There are any number of such programs available, such as McAfee's Viruscan previously mentioned. Check with your local computer software outlet. When making your choice though, keep in mind that any of these software packages are only as good as the frequency in which the all-important data files of known viruses are updated by the author. Deranged people are writing new viruses every day. It does no good to have a virus protection program installed if the associated data files are outdated and cannot detect that new virus! If you already have a virus protection software installed -- good for you. But, invest the time to check for updated data files for this product frequently and keep it current.

A long time ago, I made it a habit to not open e-mail file attachments from people I do not know. With my e-mail program, I created a special storage subdirectory expressly to address this issue. Whenever I receive an e-mail with an attachment from an unknown source I immediately move that file, with attachment unopened, to this special subdirectory. If, after several days, I do not hear from someone clarifying that message I delete the questionable e-mail messages without ever opening the attachment. As the old adage goes -- "Curiosity killed the cat."

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Universal Serial Bus Tips
TipWorld - PC World Online

WOES OF MULTIPLE USB DEVICES
Many users report errors when they install multiple USB devices. The main problem: Installing a new USB device may stop existing USB devices from working correctly. Whenever you Plug and Play a new USB device, double-check that the other USB products attached to your system are still functioning. In most cases, a reboot solves the problem. After the first installation of a new device, the "hot swap" process should work smoothly.

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Cybermedia's Oil Change
by Bob Lowe

Because of intense competition in the software industry, new products are brought onto the market at such dazzling speed that the software you purchase may be outdated by the time it hits the shelf.

The real losers in this are the consumers, who spend a lot of their hard-earned dollars for what they believe is a brand new product only to find that they have just purchased an obsolete piece of software.

Up until recently, the only solutions were to obtain a bug fix or patch -- or wait until a news version of the software is release.

Enter CyberMedia's Oil Change, which automatically replaces outdated, bug-filled software and hardware drivers with clean, new updates. It does so by incorporating an Internet subscription service which detects the old programs and replaces them with current updates.

The program searches through and indexes all the software on your hard disk and then scouts the Internet for the latest updates. New versions of computer programs are downloaded using your modem and self-install.

Most users never find out about the new patches, fixes and drivers until their software fails to perform the way it should. This can result in hours of frustrations waiting on the phone for technical support, not to mention lost productivity when a bug causes their computer to crash or malfunction.

Part of CyberMedia's mission is to empower computer users to fix computer problems on their own instead of calling technical support hotline for help

Most people don't have the time to read magazines or search dozens of different vendor web sites to find the "fixes" for their software. With this digital oil change, this program aims to become the "Jiffy Lube" of the Internet -- a one-stop service that takes care of this tedious maintenance chore automatically.

Oil Change is so hip that it even updates itself periodically. It's like having a program that never gets out of date.

Oil Change requires a 100% IBM compatible 486 or Pentium PC with Windows 95; at least 8 MB of RAM; VGA or better monitor; 14.4 or higher modem; 6 MB of hard disk space and an Internet connection through an Internet service provider or online service.

The software sells for $39.95 and is available in retail stores. It also can be purchased from CyberMedia's Internet Web site at http://www.cybermedia.com or the America Online forum (keyword: CYBERMEDIA) or CompuServe forum (GO CYBERMEDIA).

For more information, call the Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm at their toll-free number, 800-721-7824.

Fox Valley Technical College Personal Computer Users Group

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Caught in the Web
by Al Massey

The Nether reaches of the Web

Before I start this month's excursion into the nether reaches of the Web, let me turn your attention to just one of the quirky little problems that befall a reviewer of computer technology. I truly enjoy getting to take a look at the latest toys this industry has to offer but as with all good things there is a price one has to pay.

As my daddy used to say, “The school of hard knocks is a good teacher but the tuition is too high.”

I recently happened upon a Canon BJC 5000 printer that needed evaluating and while this unit proves to be pretty good at what it does do, such as printing your average document from Windows 95/98, it has a few niggling little problems.

First off it installed like you would expect it to in Windows 98, was recognized as a plug-n-play device and found the right drivers and started setting itself up just fine. Then a box came up and asked if I wanted to print a test page. Sure, I replied, print it. No joy! The little darlin just sat there doing nothing for about 5 minutes or so and then up popped a dialogue box saying it couldn't communicate with LPT1 and suggested that I install one of the new IEEE high priced cables and try again. Well I already had such a cable installed, I know about these things and figured it would need one but I went ahead and changed the cable anyway thinking it might be bad. Such things do happen in the real world. But it still didn't work.

Three hours later after reinstalling, uninstalling, cursing, discussing and running around the room screaming at everything in sight it still wouldn't work. I got on the blower to tech support, introduced myself as Joe User and explained the problem. In true vendor fashion they allowed as how I had a problem but assured me it was MY problem not Canons. Their machine was certified, clarified and mystified where Windows 98 was concerned.

Sure enough, I then hooked it up to a Windows 95 machine and installation went smoothly, it printed up a storm. Why wouldn't it work in Windows 98? Late that night I drilled deep into Canons Web site and there, somewhere was a FAQ on the BJC 5000. They outlined the exact problem I had been having and posted a fix. It seems that Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom expects all of us, you and me, to have a parallel port tape device hooked up to LPT1 so it sends a stream of data to that port on start up just to check that all is well. The trouble is this stream of data chokes some printers, including the BJC 5000 and they refuse to operate.

The fix was to disable the VxD that controls this operation by renaming it and then rebooting. Voila, all is well and the BJC started printing. I'm mildly upset that Canon tech-support didn't tell me about this the first time I called. I had to find it on their Web site. It was their tech-support web site, why don't they tell people about these things? Oh well I only lost a few hours.

But wait, don't stop reading now, things are just getting good. This printer was set to be tested in a “real life” environment, one in which people work at real jobs and one of those jobs is accessing a FoxPro DOS database. Now this database is working fine and has been for some time. It is a heavy-duty application and users regularly enter information and print to the attached printer. Other printers have been tested and used in this environment and all have worked, some better than others, but they all worked.

That is until the BJC 5000 was introduced into the mix. It printed well as long as we were in Windows but when we called up FoxPro in a DOS window, it simply would not print. Naturally I got back on the horn to Canon and they assured me it had to be me. Either me, or my system because the BJC 5000 should have no problem printing from a DOS window if it printed from Windows. I called three times over two days and got the same answer each time.

Finally, I resorted to my secret weapon. I hate to use it but in this case I felt justified. I fired off an email to that very same tech support but this time I let them know I was planning a review of the product and just wanted to confirm that I had all the facts straight before I proceeded with the article. Three hours later I had my answer. “Dear Al, Thank you for your inquiry. The BJC 5000 printer is compatible with Windows 95 & 98. It will not operate on Windows NT, Ce or DOS due to the operation of the BJC 5000. There is no known emulation to allow the printer to print from DOS (DOS window) as it is a Windows only printer.”

Of course I had suspected this all along but wanted to see how far Canon would go before fessing up. Nowhere in their documentation, advertising or Web site do they allude to Windows Only. They are not alone. Hewlett Packard and others have come out with printer versions of the WinModem that only operate in Windows but fail to tell us up front.

There! Thanks for letting me vent a bit. Next month, if you are good I will let you in on the joys of networking Windows 98, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 in the same peer-to-peer network. What fun! I was talking with a network type at Bay Networks, explaining some of the problems and he allowed as how it was probably enough to make me pull my hair out. I told him “No, I haven't had any hair since ten minutes after I sat down to my first computer.”

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News from the Y2K Front
by Al Massey

Y2KINDERGARTEN: A retired schoolteacher in Echallens, Switzerland, has been ordered to attend elementary school. The unnamed 105-year-old man was included in a roundup of 5-year-olds identified by the town's computerized census of residents because his birth year was recorded using only two digits. “We have changed the computer program in question,” the town hall secretary said. Those who do not remember school are doomed to repeat it.

In a recent report the U.S. Small Business Administration said it is worried about the capability of small business, those with sales of less than $50 million a year, to keep on top of the Y2K problem. The agency was prompted to issue a special warning after a recent Gallup Poll survey indicated 82% of small businesses are at risk from the so-called Year 2000, or millennium, bug. Worse, 75% of small-business owners have taken no steps to make sure their computers won't mistake the year 2000 for the year 1900. The agency warns that 330,000 of the estimated 23 million small businesses are at risk of closing down as a result of Y2K, and another 370,000 could be temporarily or permanently hobbled. All this is expected to lead to service shutdowns, shipment problems and job losses.

Finally, taking cue from the Commander in Chief, the Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) has admitted it lied. No, wait, I'm sorry. It didn't admit to telling lies, the agency only “acknowledges falsifying readiness reports,” on the Y2K computer problem.

The DSWA claimed that three of five so-called “mission critical” computer systems, essential to conducting its most primary duties, were fully prepared to face the computer crisis despite never conducting necessary testing, according to a recent Defense Department Inspector General's Report.

Al Massey is a HAL-PC member who can be reached at almas@hal-pc.org.
January HAL-PC Magazine

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A Call To Tech Support

Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...
Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...
Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...
Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...Ring... Ring...

Thank you for calling Technical Support. All of our technicians are currently busy helping people who are even less competent than you, so please hold for the next available technician. The waiting time is now estimated at between fifteen minutes and eternity.

(muzak...)

In order to expedite your call, please punch your 58-digit product identification number on to your telephone, followed by your product serial number, which can be found in a secret compartment inside your computer where, for security purposes, it is printed in the smallest typeface possible to prevent being seen.

Please note that you made need a size 11 3/4 torx screwdriver which may only be available from your original equipment manufacturer.
Do that NOW!

(muzak...)

Thank you again for calling Technical Support. We recommend that you sit at your computer, preferably turning it on at some point, and have at hand all your floppy disks, CD-ROM disks, computer manuals and original packing materials in order to allow the technician to aid you in the unlikely event that he ever gets to your call.

If you were an inconsiderate jerk -- we mean forgetful customer -- and threw away your original packing materials, please call the company that sent you the computer and ask them to resend you the empty box with the plastic bubbles, fake popcorn and the wasted paper advertising that they recycle.

We will hold your place in line on the phone while you wait for your boxes to be delivered. (yeah right!)

(muzak...)

It would also be helpful for you to refrain from sobbing while explaining your problem to the technician. Shouting obscene threats will cause you to be immediately disconnected and blackballed from further communication with Technical Support, not only from ours but that of every other electronics-related firm in the industrialized world. (we all talk you know) ...

(muzak...)

Thank you once again for calling Technical Support. In order to enable us to better assist you, it would be helpful to know more about you and your equipment.

Have you called Technical Support before?
If you have, please press the numeral "one" on your telephone touch pad.
If not, press the numeral "two."
If you are not sure, using the letters on your touch pad, spell the phrase: "I am confused and despondent and quickly losing the will to live."

Once you have finished, hang up your phone and make arrangements to sell your computer because by the time the technician takes your call, it will be obsolete, and you will be too senile to use it anyway.

(muzak...)

Thank you for calling Technical Support. Unfortunately, all of our technicians just went out for lunch. This means that to the estimated waiting time we gave you earlier, you may now add at least another two hours.

(muzak...)

Thank you for calling Technical Support. Before talking to the technician about your problem and risking the possibility that you may be wasting his valuable time, please ask yourself the following questions:

1. If my monitor screen is dark, is it possible I have forgotten to plug in my computer?
2. Have I exhausted every possible means of help before utilizing the sacred, last-resort-only telephone option?
3. Have I sent a fax to Fast Fax Technical Support?
4. Have I consulted my manual?
5. Have I read the Read-Me notice on the floppy disk?
6. Have I called up my know-it-all geek cousin who I can't stand but who can probably fix this thing for me in under five minutes?
7. Have I given the central processing unit of my computer a good, solid whack?

If you can not honestly answer "yes" to all these questions, please get off the line immediately so that our overworked technicians can help those truly desperate customers whose suffering is so much greater than yours.

You must be really be so bored that you have to call technical support just to have someone to speak to about geek stuff.

(muzak...)

Thank you for calling Technical Support. You may not be aware that this week we are featuring a discount on a number of popular CD-ROM titles you may wish to purchase, such as the best-selling Porn Doubler, which allows you to access erotic material from the Internet twice as fast. If you would like to hear all 26,000 titles read to you, shout "Yes! Yes! Yes!" into the telephone now.

This will not cause you to lose your place in line for Technical Support; in fact it may jump you ahead of several other callers.

(muzak...)

Thank you for calling Technical Support. Our System has been overloaded, and unfortunately you have lost your place in line. Please push "one" if you would like to be connected again to technical Support

.. 1

(muzak...)

Thank you for calling Technical Support. Our electronic sensors indicate that you are about to slump over and die from a massive frustration attack combined with severe dehydration from lack of food and water. Before doing so, please take a moment to place your telephone receiver back in its base and switch off your computer so as not to wear down its internal battery.

As a non-living person, you will have no further need of Technical Support and so we regretfully must remove you from our list of registered product users.

Remember, we valued your patronage and were happy to serve your needs. Do not hesitate to have your heirs or beneficiaries contact us should any further technical problems arise.

Thanks to Brad Kell

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Inkjet Printer Tip

It is extremely important to power down all inkjet printers using the printers own on-off switch. Why? Inkjet printers utilize a docking bay to park and seal the print head. Turning the power off from another source, such as a power strip, leaves the print head unparked where it will dry up and clog.

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Calendar of Events

- IMPORTANT NOTICE -
FRPCUG meetings are held at the Fort Collins Senior Center. Check below for directions to the Senior Center.

June General Forum Meeting

We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, April 6 at 7:00 pm.

Meeting Agenda
7:00 - 7:15 Announcements
7:15 - 7:45 Open Forum
7:45 - 8:00 Break
8:00 - 9:30 Digital Imaging: Karl Snyder will have a presentation on dealing with computerized images - how to create them and how to use them.

July General Forum Meeting

We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, May 4 at 7:00 pm.

Meeting Agenda
7:00 - 7:15 Announcements
7:15 - 7:45 Open Forum
7:45 - 8:00 Break
8:00 - 9:30 HPC's: We will have a presentation on the current crop of Handheld Computers; i.e., CE powered and others.

See you at the meetings!
Directions
The Fort Collins Senior Center is located at 1200 Raintree Drive. This site is situated at the northwest corner of the Shields and West Drake intersection, on the north side of the Raintree Shopping Center and just one-half mile east of our normal meeting location. Check the marquee at the main entrance for directions to the specific meeting room.

Up-Coming SIG's, Seminars and Meetings

Board Meeting
FRPCUG's executive board meets on the Thursday immediately following
the General Forum Meeting at 7:00 p.m. All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend. These meetings are held in the Poudre Fire Authority administrative meeting room which is located in the parking garage building, at the corner of Remington and Mountain in Fort Collins.

LINUX SIG
This SIG, supporting the LINUX implementation of the UNIX operating system, meets at 7:00 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month. Participants have adopted the LINUX manual titled "RUNNING LINUX" by Matt Welsh and Lar Kaufman as their learning tool and will be reviewing a section of the manual at each meeting. Meetings are held in the basement meeting room of the Friends Church, 601 S. Whitcomb Street in Fort Collins. Coordinators: Glenn York (224-5266) and Chuck McJilton (493-2987) or e-mail at linuxsig@jymis.com.

Northern Front Range Netware Users Group
NFRNUG meets at 5:30 pm on the second Wednesday of each month at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife building, 2101 Oakridge Drive in Fort Collins. NFRNUG meetings are open to any users that are involved with Novell networking products and integration of other networking products into the Novell environment (Unix, NT, Mac, etc.). Contact Jim Stephens at 303-541-3376 or jcsteph@concentric.net or contact Chuck Kluko at 970-663-4770 or c.kluko@ix.netcom.com for further membership information. Yearly dues are $000.00 (yes, FREE) with pizza and pop served at 5:00 pm prior to meeting. Saturday labs and training sessions open to NRFNUG members only, space is limited.

Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group
Meets on the second Tuesday of 'odd' months at NCAR in Boulder. Meetings start at 7:00 pm, but members are encouraged to arrive at 6:30 pm for informal networking and refreshments. NCAR is located in Boulder at 1850 Table Mesa Drive. Contact Chuck McJilton for information (493-2987) or e-mail rmiug@rmiug.org.

Telecommuncation SIG
Telecommunication SIG meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m. Topics usually discussed include modem hardware, communication software, internet resources, and solutions to any communication problems and questions brought up at the meeting. Please contact coordinator Chuck McJilton (493-2987) for confirmation of the meeting place or e-mail Telecomsig@jymis.com.

Web Design SIG
If you're an HTML author/WEB page designer, or would like to learn, contact SIG coordinator Doug Boicourt at 495-6949 or e-mail db@jymis.com for the date and location of the next SIG meeting.

RIBUG Meeting
The Regional Internet Business Users Group (RIBUG) deals with issues of business utilization of the Internet. This group meets the last Wednesday of each month. Contact Will Horton in Fort Collins at 223-0330 or e-mail whorton@jymis.com for details.

Internet Safari
Free Internet discussion group meets first Monday at Stone Lion Book Store in Fort Collins. Meetings start at 7:00 pm. Sponsored by Stone Lion and JYM Information Systems. Coordinators: Glenn York (224-5266) and Chuck McJilton (493-2987).

Upcoming FRPCUG Meetings
Along with presentations of new hardware and software, we will certainly continue to present tips, hints, solutions, as well as what is new with Public Domain and Shareware offerings. If you have ideas for presentations which you would like to see at future General Forum meetings or seminars, please let us know. We would appreciate the input and opportunity to improve your meetings.

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June 1999
1 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM
9 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM
NRFNUG Meeting 5:00PM
14 HTML SIG Meeting 7:00PM
17 Telcomm SIG 7:00PM
23 RIBUG Meeting 7:00PM
24 LINUX SIG 7:00PM


July 1999
4 Independence Day
6 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00PM
12 HTML SIG Meeting 7:00PM
14 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00PM
NRFNUG Meeting 5:00PM
15 Telcomm SIG 7:00PM
22 LINUX SIG 7:00PM
28 RIBUG Meeting 7:00PM

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Adding A Second Hard Drive

If you are adding a second IDE hard drive to your system, you should consider making the newer drive the master and reconfigure your older hard drive as the secondary. The newer hard drive is likely to have more advanced controller capabilities and is probably faster. You want the fastest drive as your Boot drive.

Also, you should attempt to install the old hard drive as the master device on your secondary IDE channel. Most IDE controllers utilize the same timing signal for like devices (hard drives) on the same channel. If both hard drives are installed on the same channel, the older, slower drive may drag down the access time on the newer drive.

Another important consideration is whether your system will provide access to hard drive space above 540MB, as virtually all new hard drives are larger than this. In order to take advantage of that large drive your BIOS must support Large Block Addressing (LBA). To determine if your system supports LBS check your motherboard or IDE controller documentation. You may also make this determination by checking your BIOS configuration on Bootup. Look in the drive configuration area for reference to an LBA choice.

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Zounds! Win95 Sounds
By Joe Rudich, Kansas City UG

SoundBlaster is the only card for multimedia in the Windows world.

I'm going to spend a little time with Multimedia and Windows 95 in particular, sound card problems and how to fix them. The truth is, a lot of people spend good money on sound cards while others spend $10 when they hear the salesman say it's “just as good as a SoundBlaster."

I hate when they say that!

See, nothing is as good as a SoundBlaster: I record literally gigabytes of stereo wave files. My machine has direct connections between video editing, capture cards and sound cards. Through the years of upgrading, recording, synching external MIDI with stereo wave files and putting all that together with video, I promise you, my Sound Blaster 16 has been the only dependable card.

It is still in my overpriced computer with two other sound cards and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Scratches? Here's Why...

Sometimes, when you install your sound card, your wave files come out scratchy I have seen friends pull their hair out over this one. If this is your problem, there is a good chance that you have an incorrect DMA (direct memory access) setting. Some sound cards need two DMA settings: one for 16-bit sound and one for 8-bit sound (for example, high DMA and low DMA).

The quickest way to fix this is to remove the sound card from the device manager and have Windows 95 auto-detect it. To remove: Right mouse click on the My Computer icon, choose Properties, and select the Device Manager tab. From here, expand the Sound,Video & Game Controllers tree, select your sound card and click on the Remove button near the bottom of the window.

To reinstall: Reboot your machine and double click on Add New Hardware in the Control Panel. LetWindows 95 do an auto-detect for it. When it finds your sound card and installs the drivers and configuration settings for it, you should be okay. If the same problem occurs, you will have to change the jumper switches on your card to match the settings Windows 95 has allocated for it.

Remember, when setting up new hard-ware, write down the jumper settings from your card inside the manual. This way, when conflicts arise, you won't have to pull any hardware to see what's set Now when you match up the jumpers, your 16-bit audio should sound great

Error! Error!

Another common problem is that most of your audio plays but you seem to get errors on about 20 percent of it that reads “Cannot play audio file” or something like that. This problem sounds like an issue with the Codecs (compressor/ decompressor) in your system. These Codec files control compression of all the audio and visual files that you play.

The first thing you want to do is check and see if a file is corrupt. You can do this by finding the file in Explorer, right mouse clicking on it, choosing Properties and selecting the Details tab. If the Audio Format detail is blank, you have a corrupt file. If it gives the details, than the file is good but a particular Codec may be the culprit
There are ways you can find the corrupt Codec and remove or reinstall it. But for the sake of space, time, and patience, the quickest and cleanest way is to clean up all the audio Codecs at once.

To clean up all the Codecs, double click on the Add/Remove Programs icon in your Control Panel and select the Windows Setup tab. Scroll down the Components list, select Multimedia and click on the Details button.

Now that we are in the Multimedia Components, uncheck Audio Compression, click on OK, and reboot your system. Once we are rebooted, you will need to go back and place a check mark back in the Audio Compression box, load the Codecs and reboot once more.

Now try to play an audio file. Sound better yet? It should. If not, then it could be a 16-bit versus 32-bk Codec conflict Look in your System.ini file:
[Drivers] section for these lines:
msacm.msadpcmmsadpcm.acm msacm.imaadpcmimaadpcm.acm msacm.trspch=tsjoft.acm

Semicolons turn active lines of system.ini code into comments. These lines are an upgrade left-over from Windows 3.x.

The letters msacm stand for Microsoft Audio Compression Manager, and if you find lines that begin with them, put a semi-colon (;) before them to stop that line from loading at boot That should take care of any conflict.

Contributing Editor Joe Rudich is a network administrator with The St Paul Companies in St Paul, Minnesota, He can be reached at jrudich@interserv.com

From The Digital Viking newsletter, January 1999

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PowerDesk Utilities 98
by Bob Lowe, FVTC PCCG member

One of the biggest disappointments of Microsoft's Windows 98 is that it left its Windows Explorer virtually the same as it was in Windows 95.

Windows Explorer -- not to be confused with Internet Explorer used to access the Internet -- is a feature that you use to view the contents of your computer and network drives in a hierarchical structure. It can be brought up by clicking Start-Programs-Windows Explorer.

Instead of opening drives and folders in separate windows, you can browse through them in a single window. The left side of the Windows Explorer window contains a list of your drives and folders and the right side displays the contents of a selected folder.

You would have thought the 500-plus Microsoft engineers and technicians who developed this operating system would have included some innovative functions that would make file management quicker and easier to use.

Windows Explore still doesn't allow for dual-pane viewing, a feature that has been incorporated into Xtree Gold for years.

Windows Explorer is a clumsy mixture of two very different computing programs: DOS and Windows. It still uses some DOS terminology, which is why most users who grew up on Windows find it somewhat awkward.

What Microsoft should have done before rushing Windows 98 to the market in June was to check out a recently released program called PowerDesk Utilities from the Mijenix Corporation of Boulder, Colo. It is better and more comprehensive that Xtree Gold.

PowerDesk integrates hundreds of utilities into a single $39.95 package. It features an enhanced file manager that overcomes many of the deficiencies of Windows Explorer. Among its key features are multiple drive of directory views for fast drag-and-drop; integrated zip file manager that supports every major compression format like PK-ZIP, ARJ, CAB and TAR. A robust file viewer that supports 80 file format; easier file finding over multiple drives; comprehensive graphics file conversions of 24 formats, including JPG, GIF, TIF. EXP, PCX and BMP; fast e-mail attachment decoder that quickly descrambles unreadable e-mail attachments, including UUencoded, XXencoded, MIME/Base 64 and BinHex without requiring a separate program and several file security features like "permanent delete" option that completely wipes the traces of a file from your hard disk.

The Size Manager uses a graphical bird's eye view of where space is being wasted on a hard drive. The Synchronizer makes it easy to compare and synchronize folders.

Two of PowerDesk's most useful features is the ability to launch programs from the file management window and the fast and easy zipping and unzipping of files.

If you click on a Windows 95 or 98 program in the Windows Explorer that the operating system can't launch, it gives you a menu of applications (called file association) under which this program was created that must be utilized to bring up this program. This can be a hassle that sometimes includes some guess work.

If you are among those that find the extracting and compression of files confusing, PowerDesk has a built-in utility that enables you to view, zip or unzip files with ease. It supports all popular forms of compressed formats.

The nice thing about this program is its multiple capabilities. In other words, you don't have to install a separate utility to accomplish certain tasks -- a great space saver for people with limited hard disk space.

Windows Utilities 98 requires Windows 95, 98 or NT, at least 8 MB of RAM (16 for NT users) and 19 MB of free disk space. For more information, call Mijenix at 1-800/MIJENIX or visit their web sie at www.mijenix.com.

Fox Valley Technical College Personal Computer Users Group

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The Never Ending Virus Battle
by Rick Mattingly

With the recent spate of macro virus attacks in our locale it is all the more critical to pay attention and to seriously consider installing an anti-virus software application on your system. Anti-virus software works by searching your system for specific code or functions which match known viruses. With this in mind, it is then important to realize that any anti-virus application employed is only as good as it's database of known virus code. New viruses are being written by deranged people every day. Most of the companies which provide anti-virus applications release new databases of known virus code on a regular basis.

How extensive is this problem really? Well, consider the following fact. The May, 1999 update of the database for McAfee Viruscan, a well known anti-virus application, contains the following notice:

"What's New in the Network Associates 4024 .DAT Files
Copyright (c) 1992-1999 by Network Associates, Inc., and its Affiliated Companies. All Rights Reserved.

With this .DAT file release, the new scanning engine detects a total of about 43,219 viruses and variants,
Trojan horse files, and other malicious software. Of this number these 50 viruses are new."

Now, that is a pretty staggering statistic. Hopefully, this will help you to visualize the potential danger lurking in the background just waiting to gobble your valuable system and unique data files.

Advise to consider:

1. Obtain and install a quality anti-software application
2. Update the database faithfully
3. Choose to install the anti-virus software to continuously filter all transactions or make certain to check your system manually on a regular basis.

Good luck in the ongoing virus battle!

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Y2K TOOL--NUTS & BOLTS 98

You'll find that many of the familiar PC utility packages now include Y2K testing features. One example is Nuts & Bolts 98. This suite of tools contains several popular tools and utilities in a single package, including a Year 2000 hardware diagnostic and fix. Nuts & Bolts can verify whether or not your system's hardware will successfully roll over from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000. It ensures that the RTC (Real Time Clock), BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), DOS, and Windows successfully roll over, and it verifies other important dates known to cause problems related to Y2K. Nuts & Bolts 98 runs on Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows 98.

For more information on this Y2K tool, visit the following Web site:

http://www.nai.com

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ADD USB TO OLDER PCS

ADS Technology, http://www.adstech.com, offers products that let you add USB ports to PCs that did not originally ship with USB ports. For desktop PCs, ADS supplies a PCI card solution, and for notebooks, ADS offers a TYPE II PC Card product. Both kits require that your system run Windows 98, not Windows 95.

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PowerQuest's Drive Image

Backup! Backup! Backup! How often have we heard those warning words?

Does anyone remember the 20k hard drive (HD) of the IBM XT computer? Backing up that HD was a picnic, even to a series of 5.25" floppies. Then came the `huge' drives of several hundred thousand bytes and the high density 3.5" floppies some still use today. But backing up a modern 1 to 8 gigabyte-sized hard drive calls for more options than simply copying files to either floppy disks or even a tape drive, as slow as this is. Ergo, enter the various removable media systems able to copy up to 2.6 GB on cartridges or CD-R disks.

Now, PowerQuest Corporation of Orem, UT, in version 2 of Drive Image, has produced software that allows a complete compressed image of one or more partitions of a hard drive to be copied and stored on a medium of choice. This software provides backups of large hard disks containing several partitions in a simple process. If one is using, for example, JAZ, Zip, or SyQuest removable media devices as the storage destination, even the largest HD can be protected. Drivers for these devices are recognized and loaded automatically.

On the other hand, one might even use 3.5" floppies for the backup medium, but here a limit is reached at 50 disks, each of which must contain at least 100Kilobytes, making this solution impractical at best. Image files cannot currently be created directly on CD-R or tape drives, but this can be overcome by saving the image files onto a second hard drive or Zip drive and subsequently copying them to a CD-R or tape drive, although this solution certainly seems to be the long way around. The recordable CD would seem to be a next-step move in the Drive Image support progression.

Unlike most backup programs which copy all clusters and sectors in the drive's original layout, Drive Image, if so directed by the user, can skip empty clusters and copy only those clusters and sectors containing data, thus speeding the processing time by a factor of five to ten as opposed to file-by-file or sector-by-sector methods, the company claims. However, this SmartSector technology also can be disabled in those instances in which the full partition structure must be retained.

Drive Image (DI) is DOS-based and easily can be identified as a PowerQuest product, as the family thread pops up immediately. Anyone familiar with Partition Magic will recognize that he or she can manually perform certain tasks (in both programs) relating to the HD partitions which DI will take care of automatically in the process of imaging the disk. For example, a partition can be resized, it can be hidden or unhidden, a primary partition can be made the active or bootable partition, it can be deleted or an extended partition created when a primary partition is to be restored as a logical partition. All of these procedures are common to Partition Magic but are manually effected .

All of this tech-talk concerning partitions may not be useful to everyone. Those computerists who may only be involved with a computer on a part-time or a peripheral basis may say partitioning is not for them. However, anyone with a modern computer, having a HD of significant size (such as a 2-5 Gig HD), must give consideration to partitioning that HD, simply for the economical use of that much space. If that dictum (or opinion?) can be conceded, then the products of PowerQuest, including Drive Image, should be investigated as an efficient tool for handling the brute.

Fortunately, for those of us who find operating systems other than Microsoft's Win95 more to our liking, PowerQuest has made Drive Image compatible with DOS, Win3.x, Win98, Windows NT, and OS/2. There also is complete support for the current family of file systems; i.e., FAT, FAT32, HPFS and NTFS. Further, DI allows sector-by-sector copying using Linux, UNIX and NetWare, plus copying of hidden files and those with long file names. Restoration of individual files from within an image can also be accomplished. All in all, PowerQuest's advertising has it right, describing DI as "The Complete Solution for Imaging Hard Drives". The street price for this software falls somewhere between $59.95 and $64.95, depending on the source, and this purchase certainly would be an intelligent choice for the person wishing to protect a valuable asset, her or his HD files.

Alternatively, there is Drive Copy, a PowerQuest program designed to allow those computer owners who have just upgraded their HDs and wish to move the contents of the old, maybe smaller hard disk to the new one without the usual hassles. Ordinarily, one must first back up all data on the old drive; then format and partition the new drive; also, one must reinstall the chosen operating system(s) and all relevant applications; and finally reinstall the data from the backup tape or disks. Since Drive Copy is designed as a power fail-safe program, should there be a hardware or power failure midway in the copy operation, the company states that no data will be lost, which eliminates the necessity for a protective backup step in the disk copying process.

The program requires a system containing at least a 386 SX processor with 8MB RAM (16MB required if FAT32 or NTFS are involved), and since Drive Copy must be booted from a DOS floppy with DC loaded on it, a 3.5" drive is essential. The price is said to be about $25, a bargain if the program is needed for a fast and easy HD replacement task. Drive Copy handles FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and HPFS partitions in all versions of Windows 95, Win98, Win NT, Win 3x, DOS, and OS/2. No one is left out. (However, NetWare, Linux, and UNIX partitions are transferred to the destination drive using a sector-by-sector copy only and are not expandable.) Should it be desirable, individual partitions as well as the entire contents of the old HD can be copied in an exact duplicate of the existing operating system and all applications. Every preference or program setting, every byte of data including hidden files, long file names and the master boot record, are all transposed to the new disk using Drive Copy.

Drive Copy has many of the same attributes of its big brother. For example, one may speed up the copying process by using the "SmartSector" technology described earlier. While DC has the look and feel of a Windows interface, it is a DOS program which runs from a diskette ensuring that no system files are in use on either the old or new hard drive. Drive Copy itself is not directly installed.

Northern Neck Computer User Group

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"Back up my hard drive?
How do I put it in reverse"?

Do you know where your hard drive backup is?



Camcorder for Office
by Rick Mattingly

My mouth is sore! It's sore because I stuck my foot in it! -- again! At the May FRPCUG General Forum meeting a question was submitted as to a suggestion for a software tool to create computerized tutorials. My faulty brain cells kicked in and I proceeded to describe a Microsoft software tool called "Camera", which could be found on the CD versions of Microsoft Windows 95 or 98.

I was close. The actual name of the software tool is "Camcorder for Office" and it is not on the Windows 95/98 CD, it is on the CD versions of Microsoft Office 97 and 98. The Camcorder tool is also available for download from the Microsoft Office Internet support site at:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/camcordr.htm

(actually, within the Microsoft Office support site you will find Camcorder for Office listed under the download category for any of the individual Office products.)

I guess that the only bright side of my gaff is that many of you are probably a lot more familiar with the contents of your Windows CD after searching for the non-existent Camera tool -- please accept my sincere apologies!

Now, with that out of the way, let me describe what the Camcorder for Office tool is and what it can do for you.

Camcorder is a screen-capture utility which allows you to record all actions which occur on the screen, including sound if your system is so equipped and you choose to use it in your session. The results may be saved as an AVI video file (with 40% file size compression) or as a stand-alone EXE version, also with compression. AVI video files are then played back with Camcorder or with Windows Media Player (included with Windows 95/98). In the case of the EXE save format, the resulting file can be played without having Camcorder installed.

The Camcorder tool is extremely easy to utilize. To create your own video masterpiece, simply choose Movie>Preferences to set the desired options and then press the dot icon to begin recording. When you are done press the square icon to stop recording. You can also stop recording with a key combination (user configurable). You can also choose to have the Camcorder interface window display or not in your production. Save the result with desired file name. That's all there is to it. Now, you can play back the video any time you want and distribute it to others by disk media or as an e-mail attachment.

Congratulations on becoming a video producer with Microsoft Camcorder for Office!

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FREE Internet Discussion Group

JYM Information Systems and the Stone Lion Book Store are sponsoring a monthly "Internet Safari" discussion group. This group meets at 7 PM in the Stone Lion the first Monday of each month. This is an open discussion and we examine current issues involving the Internet, how to use the Internet and subjects raised by those present. This group is open to the public without cost or obligation. This is a good chance to learn how others are using the Internet.

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FrontPage 98
Software review by Arnold Stevens

Publisher: Microsoft
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Personal or multimedia computer with a 486 or higher processor Microsoft Windows® operating system or later, Microsoft Windows NT®
Workstation operating system 4.0 or later, or Microsoft Windows NT Server
4.0 or later (will not run on earlier versions)
16 MB of memory for use on Windows 95; 32 MB for use on Windows NT
36 MB of available hard-disk space required
VGA or higher-resolution video adapter (Super VGA, 256-color recommended)
Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft IntelliMouse™, or compatible pointing device
Online features require Internet access; access to and use of the Internet require payment of a separate fee to a service provider
Additional hard-disk requirements for included tools:
11 MB for Microsoft Internet Explorer
1 MB for Microsoft Personal Web Server for Windows 95
2 MB for Internet Mail and News
To use Microsoft Image Composer, you need:
486/66 Mhz processor or higher (Pentium processor recommended)
16 MB of memory (32 MB recommended)
Hard-disk space required: 28 MB minimum; 44 MB typical depending on
configuration
VGA, 640 x 480 24 -bit TrueColor with 2 MB of video memory recommended)
Microsoft Image Composer options:
Windows-compatible tablet with mouse emulation for basic mouse support, or
WinTab-compatible tablet for Full Pressure support
TWAIN-compatible scanners or digital cameras
LIST PRICE: $149 est. street price
EQUIPMENT USED FOR REVIEW: AMD-K6 200 System, 2.1GB Hard Drive, 64MB RAM,
Logitech Mouseman Mouse, 17" VGA Monitor, Epson Stylus Color Printer,
Microtek ScanMaker E3 Color Flatbed Scanner, Casio QV100 digital camera, US
Robotics 33,600 Internal Fax/Modem, Netscape web browser.


If you have been thinking about creating a Web Site and have put it off because you thought it was just too complicated, Microsoft FrontPage 98 is a program that will change your mind. There are many features and tools included with the program but for me, the most important thing about the whole package is the ease of use. Even if you don't have any experience in Web Site creation, the tutorial included with Microsoft FrontPage 98 will have you up and running in almost no time.

Don't let this ease fool you though, the title of the program tells it all: Microsoft FrontPage 98, Web Site Creation and Management Tool for Professional Web Sites Without Programming. Several applications are included with this package to help you with all this: FrontPage 98 which includes Microsoft FrontPage Editor and FrontPage Explorer for creating and managing your web site; the Microsoft Personal Web Server tool; Microsoft Image Composer for image editing; along with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.

One of the improvements included with this version of FrontPage is in the Microsoft Explorer you can select from 7 different views to view your work..
I liked the Navigation view which organizes your site in an org-chart type setting. In this view, you can double click on one of the folders (HTML pages) and that page comes up in the Microsoft FrontPage Editor where you can make changes to the page. (While in this FrontPage Editor view, you can edit the page and it is just how that page will look on the web.

One of the things that set apart good web sites, is their "Look" and "Feel".
With FrontPage 98, you can get that by using the new Themes function. You
can select from 62 themes which include backgrounds, buttons, text fonts
and border arrangements. This theme you select will be applied across the
board to every page you create. One of the features included with FrontPage 98 is the ability to publish your Web site to the Internet. However, you need to be aware of an item that may effect your decision to use Microsoft FrontPage 98. The Publish to Internet feature is excellent and does the job all by itself, but in order for it to work, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) must have the Microsoft FrontPage extensions loaded on their site and especially in your personal directory at their site. My ISP uses these extensions but in order to load them in my personal folder I would have to pay an initial fee of $10 and then an additional $5 fee each month thereafter. Also, I could not use that folder for anything other than Microsoft FrontPage and I had to use Microsoft FrontPage 98 to make changes to my web site. I am not ready to make that commitment. However, I can see that professional web site designers could well make use of FrontPage 98. It is a very good program and extremely easy to use. The end result is a very professional looking Web Site.

Perry, GA P.C. User Group

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FRPCUG CONTACTS
Telephone Area Code 970


          FRPCUG Officers         Name            Work        Home      e-Mail 

          President               Rick Mattingly              223-6618  rmatt(at)jymis.com 

          Vice President          Don Anderson    498-3534    482-0943  dona(at)jymis.com

          Treasurer               Dennis Nimetz               686-2212  nimetz(at)ibm.net

          Secretary	          Mike Meyer      482-5600    223-0919  mmeyer(at)holnam.com




          k-Byte Staff

          Editor-in-Chief         Open - We need a volunteer!  Contact Rick Mattingly in interim.

          Features Editor         Open - We need a volunteer! 

          Calendar Editor         Rick Mattingly	      223-6618  rmatt(at)jymis.com

          Review Editor

          Advertising Coordinator Will Horton     223-0330    223-2154  whorton(at)will-design.com

          Team Member OS/2 Column Brad Kell	              495-1184  bkell(at)holly.ColoState.EDU

          Nuts & Bolts Column     Chuck McJilton  416-9286    493-2987  cdmcj(at)jymis.com

          On the Web Column       R. Glenn York   493-1895    224-5266  rgyork(at)jymis.com




          Other Contacts

          Membership Coordinator  Jack Linder                 663-2151  jelinder(at)aol.com

          Telecommunication SIG	

             and RMIUG	          Chuck McJilton  416-9286    493-2987  cdmcj(at)jymis.com  

          NRFNUG		  Chuck Kluko     663-4770 x224         c.kluko(at)ix.netcom.com

          Door Prize Coordinator  Will Horton     223-0330    223-2154  whorton(at)will-design.com

          HTML SIG		  Doug Boicourt   495-6949    495-6949  db(at)wwwdata.com

          Programmers SIG	    

          FRPCUG Fax Line	                  493-1408

          FRPCUG Home Page w/E-Mail               http://www.frpcug.org

          FRPCUG Officer E-Mail		          frpcug-offer(at)frpcug.org




          k-Byte

          Front Range PC Users Group

          305 W. Magnolia #152

          Fort Collins, CO  80521
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