KAndle

Try shutting your 3rd party firewall off if you are using something besides XP firewall. If Firefox still doesn't work then it's most likely not a firewall problem. The proxy settings are also a good place to start. Disable them if they are enabled. Have you reloaded Firefox with 1.0.6, the lastest version? Do that too.

As long as you edit the Current User tree and not the Local Machine keys.

Right-click on Desktop & hover over Arrange Icons By & uncheck Lock Web Items On Desktop. You should be able to drag them around after that. If you want, lock again when done.

Has your IP address scheme changed since installing the new router. like 192.168.0.0 might be the old range and 192.168.1.0 might be the new one. That could be a problem with auto mapped drives. You should probably just remap them. Have you tried that? It might say that you have, not sure. It's also possible the firewall in the router isn't configured properly as well. You might have to allow more access to the local network if it's fresh out the box.

Umm Alt-H then Enter. In some programs at least ie Firefox...

You could create a text file with the same name (no extension) & make it read only. I don't know how to prevent Windows from creating them except make sure no programs you are using point to there. It's not Windows recreating them it could be Media Player though... I use the text file trick to block certain viruses when I deal with infected computers.

Haha most smaller companies don't have a computer use policy. Like the companies that put the general manager in charge of the pc's. haha

I think those add-on programs are written becuase Mircosoft doesn't want you to know where files are on your computer. You must even download a Powertoy for Send to Path... so you can manaully move file to a typed directory. They would rather the regular user be ignorant to such complexities. I think that Windows isn't written to do what you are talking about natively without somesort of VBS script or something. Even that I couldn't help you with. I use Nitrous Voice Flux to script my common keyboard commands. You might be able to make text copying into a voice command. I haven't tried. As to the editing the Right-click menu, dunno. I only know how to add to the Send menu. :>

Are you talking about it won't shut down past what screen? What happens at that point when you hit CTRL-ALT-DEL? It could be a BIOS setting but Windows in notoriuos for shut down problems when the wrong drivers are loaded. It doesn't happen in XP as much as previous OSes. You try try a system restore but if you don't reboot often that probably won't be very helpful. I doubt it is actually a hardware problem but you never know... Look and see what is running in task manager and try to kill every process you can before shutdown. That might help in troubleshooting.

I have a few things on my site that might help get you started. Far from every command but will get you started. http://www.kandleconsulting.com/tutorials/...omptLessons.htm

Copy Name as Text can be accomplished by highlighting the file hit F2 -- then Ctrl-C -- then ESC. There is an option 'Display the full path in the address bar' under Tools --> Folder Options --> View. You can then copy the path from the address bar. Hope that helps.

Do you have Automatic Updates turned on? You could have downloaded an update and on reboot it loaded. I would try doing a manual Windows Update & download all Critical Updates and Driver Updates. That might be an easy fix.

You could possibly get through the formatting part of the setup for one partition, shut off the computer start again & do the other partition instead. dunno

There are other ways to share the internet besides a hardware firewall. Nowhere did I say not to use one either, it's what I use. Don't just buy a firewall for the sake of buying it. Have a reason for going through the hastle & expense is all i'm saying. Some people just don't have important information. pwf is right though that his current router is probably sharing the internet now. I didn't actually see the word share though and I mostly don't use the Internet on my other networked computers. I only turn on sharing when I need it and do it through software and take them back off the Internet when I am done.. I still run software firewalls on the other pcs though to protect them from ME being on the Internet. Viruses spread through shares, ports, email, many different ways. Some open your computer as a server & broadcast the address. A hardware firewall will stop that almost everytime. Unless it uses port 80. Then a hardware firewall won't stop diddley. It won't stop worms & viruses that spread internally from computer to computer either. Only software can prevent that. It only takes an infected laptop no time to bypass your hardware firewall once it's plugged into your switch. You must have no friends on your network then. Without other protections in place you could be in trouble. It more likely you will be screwed by some bad software before you are actually screwed by a hacker. Alot of hackers these days want to borrow resources from your computer not crash you... Maybe your sister is trying to steal something off your computer in a home network though or parents are spying... Anything could happen with other computers in the mix. Prevent that sort of snooping with software. It all depends on how well you keep everything up to date & what sites you visit if you should just plan on relying on virus protection & a hardware firewall. It's hardly ever overkill in my eyes to run ZoneAlarm & the Windows firewall regardless of a hardware solution on home computers. Port 80 is always open with a hardware firewall. You can be attacked through it. Filesharing programs use it. Viruses that act like filesharing programs use it. Hence the need for more than just a hardware solution if you value your data. Rings of security...

Does netsh work? You could run 'netsh diag gui' form the command prompt and let it run though and see if there are errors. It's informative if nothing else. I think you might just want to assign passwords though.

There is no Local Security Policy in XP Homo? I thought you could set password policies and such. Hmmm... I reformatted my laptop as soon as I got it and reloaded with Pro. Dunno then. XP Home has terrible networking fuctioniality. There is nothing under Control Panel --> Administrative Tools? That blows. Try running MMC from the command prompt and adding that module. I think you can add a few snap-ins in XP Home but not all. The user manager snap-in doesn't work I know but the Group Policies may... not sure.

You have to change the Local Security Policy under Local Policies --> Security Options --> Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passowrds to local console login only to Disable or set the passwords to something. I think that should help.

A hardware firewall blocks unneeded ports. Most software firewalls just control which programs can use common ports. The Windows firewall blocks most ports unless your computer tries to use it and then it opens for you to use. That isn't very secure since viruses can open ports but it asks most times if that is allowed or not. Programs can add themselves as exceptions by adding keys to the registry so it's not so secure but it compliments ZoneAlarm pretty well. As far as i'm concerned it really depends if you need to stop hackers or just viruses & worms. If you want to stop hackers that might target you then do it all. Hardware, software, Windows firewalls. If you just want to stop bad software skip the hardware firewall for money's sake. You must value the information Vs. the cost of the hardware solution. Who cares if your computer is hacked if nothing important is on it. If he can't configure (or maintain) the software firewalls right they won't help unless he at least has a hardware firewall properly configured for him as backup protection though. blahblahblah.

Most hotels use someone else to run their wireless networks. All hotels I have stayed at have had tech support through that service. I would also think they would want to know about compatibility issues. I would want my money back as I have no option for using the 0 setting either. If the hotels runs the service internally they should want to accomodate you or at least future customers. I'd be staying for free or leaving if they didn't fix it since it is a requirement for my hotel stays. I'm not going back to 56K. I don't advise that attitude if you made reservations way in advance and you don't have another place to stay already in mind though. Get out the yellow pages first then really complain... haha I'm just like that.

Which machine are you logging on as Administrator so that you even need to change the password? You should have & use the same account & password on both machines. You can "Logon as" if you wish but still use the main account that you use on the "server" machine. If that is not working then have you checked the Windows firewall, not ZoneAlarm, on the machine that can't be connected to? That must have an exception set for "File and Printer Sharing". You can't have blank passwords either. You have to change the system policy to allow network access using blank passwords. Try checking those things.

You asked if there were any other applications for it's use. You are talking about a dual gigbit lan card, that is something it is for. If you had alot of users it might be beneficial. 2 $30 DSL connections might be worth it where cable isn't available even. I would probably try to run CoLinux and use that card to setup a firewall. Basically connect to the Internet through Linux & use it's firewall for all data into Windows & your network. It might be fun to play with.

Glad to help. Enjoy the weekend.

I was wondering if as part of your reload if you added back SP2. I didn't think I got that Seach the Internet option before installing SP2. I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you didn't want to see the prompt at all but you just want it to actually work correctly. I don't think my suggestion will help. Didn't mean to waste your time.

Did he just say the best was Win95? I think i'll go gouge out my eyes.

Have you checked fo a firmware update to the access point that might make it XP compatiable. It's possible that these devices need to be made XP SP2 compatible. I dunno. It's a place to check. It seems that it might be something Microsoft did intentionally since any machine with SP2 i've seen is like that. I can't find a SP1 machine to check though to compare...