thedelraynian

I'm a little fuzzy on exactly how I fixed that. I know that I spent some time in my Word Options menus looking for a fix. I believe that I did this: Open Word--->Options--->General Tab---->put a check mark in the "Provide feedback with Animation" box. Hope it helps. Dan

What's up TAiN? Thanks for the tip on LAMP. It sounds pretty impressive. Ya know...I'm beginning to think that I should dump my Windows-based server related softare. Yeah, they've all got great GUIs, lots of documentation, a large online community with vast resources, intergrate with my Office software (Word, Outlook & Excel) and a seemingly abundant supply of free tools. The problems I worry about are not only that once I get involved in building web sites with them that I'll discover that the other shoe will start falling via the need to pay for additional tools or services, but that I'll cut myself off from the growing open source community; LAMP is simply another example of the dynamic upward trend in that direction. The people at Microsoft aren't dummies; they see the writting on the wall, thus the push on their free stuff. I still haven't created anything close to a comprehensive plan for the tools, applications and services that I want to use to build my web sites on so I feel that the leap has got to be made in one direction or the other--soon. In order to go the open source route, I assume that I'd have to get rid of: Visual Web Developer and go with Apache built on LAMP? SQL Express and go with MySQL? Visual Basic and VBscript-no need for them except locally? By the way, have you had any exposure to or have an opinion on Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/platform/) or DBDesigner4 (http://www.fabforce.net/)? Thanks for trying to keep me hip, Dan

Thanks again TAin for a thorough response. About the avatar; I thought for sure that a moderator would have scolded me by now. I'm trying to quit smoking...whatever. I almost replaced it with the IBEW logo, but I didn't want to get in trouble for attempting to "organize" the forum so I think that I'll settle on the main IBEW graphic. Let me soak up everything that you've told me and I'll post some more sophomoric questions later. I'll chain myself to the Apache website this weekend and get a better feel for what kind of tools they offer. Microsoft sure does dish out some really nice tools, but all in all I feel that Microsoft is rather bulky and unpredictable, therefore, my gut tells me that Apache is the better route---we'll see. I read the source of lots of the web sites that I visit, so I'm aware that The Web seems to run on Apache. A GUI is nice, but I'm beginning to believe that GUIs spoil me--I'll learn more managing my site via text files. What you said about Steve Gibson is fascinating. His was one of the first web sites that I spent any considerable time gleaning when I was in my web security learning phase. I felt that he was quite philanthropic with some of the free tools and decent information he laid out. I bought the SpinRite 6 almost as a thank you to him. I'd be very interested in how you feel about him if you want to send me a personal message or email and fill me in--I heard similar scuttle butt on a different forum (Not my man Steve!!!!, I thought). What does it mean that you're a "sponsor"? Are you a vendor? I take it from your last comment that you're a Linux slave....please don't tell me that you're a MacinBoob. My girlfriend's a MacinBoob....she was as cocky and arrogant as The Lord himself until I, a WinWeenie, had to go over to her house and lock down her WiFi security for her---a handful of people were using her machine as an email pub. Take care and have a good weekend, my friend. Dan

Thanks Littlebr00k, I thought that I had tried that, but I can't remember if I rebooted before I tested the results. I'm pretty sure that if you modify Apache's httpd.conf file, you have to reboot before the change takes effect. I'll try it again. Cheers, Dan

Thanks for replying TAin, "...interesting" you say. That sure sounds like a polite way of saying "foolish". I literally laughed out loud when I read the first sentence of your reply post. I had a strong feeling that I was once again doing what seems to be my forte--over doing it or stacking like applications on top of each other. Man...let me tell ya'...I test drive so much software that I run my registry scanning software Registry First Aid twice a day looking for dead entries. Although I run my system pretty hard, I do try to keep it clean, prevent applications from interfering with each other, maintain my hard drive (I run SpinRite 6 three or four times per week) and generally practice the duality of brutalizing and “mother henning” my machine. I'm just an electrician who turned on his first computer two and a half years ago. I spent the first year studying the Windows file system and registry; the second year cramming Windows & Internet security and for the last six months I've been trying to figure out the best approach to gathering up the necessary tools for building a web site--a real web site that can deliver services. Along the way, I've learned all of my lessons through mistakes because, as you can imagine, not too many of my comrades are too interested in computers beyond email & porno, therefore, I've kinda' been on my own. I rely heavily on Googling my problems and reading everything that I have time to absorb. Recently, I've been utilizing forums, and this one has been the most hospitable to me; I appreciate it very much. If you could give me another token of wisdom, I think that I can focus my energies much more efficiently. I understand that it’s difficult to impart detailed knowledge in a forum, so if you’d allow me to sputter on a bit about what I’ve got going on and give me your best “this is what I’d do if I were you” advice, I would be even more grateful. You’ve got to believe me when I say that if anything goes wrong, you’re not going to hear me attribute it to you in anyway whatsoever; I know better than that. Besides, even if I’ve got to start all over I will be successful with getting a quality web site up and running no matter what happens. I’m running a Dell (don’t laugh) WindowsXP Pro with a small business software package (Office suite) with dual 500 Mb CPUs at 3.2 GHz with 160 Gb of storage. In terms of tools & software that I’ve installed on my computer within the last six months, I first started with installing the Apache 2.2.2.; it sits in my Program Files. Previous to installing Apache, I had already installed Perl, Python24 and Tcl from Active State and also have PHP 5.1.2, OpenSSH and OpenSSL as well; all of the latter sits in my C:\ folder. I had also previously installed Microsoft SQL 2005 Server Management Studio Express. Before I posted my inquiry about port forwarding, I had been able to experiment loading documents & images with Apache locally; all seemed to be going in the right direction. You might be wondering “…how interesting…do you know how to use any of that stuff?” Well…I can write some XHTML pages; a little PHP & Perl; a tad of SQL and haven’t started trying to learn much of the Tcl or Python, although I’ve got tons of snippet libraries and documentation for everything. I use HTMLKit with about 50 installed plugins to manage it all. Yes, my computer is a loaded shotgun with a hair trigger, I know; and no, I don’t practice my electrical trade in the same manner that I approach web development---I’d be dead by now if I did. The real complications began when I started reading about Microsoft’s Visual Studio. I had never experimented with Visual Basic and from what I had read, VB wasn’t too daunting of a language to learn. Then I discovered all of the tools that Microsoft was willing to allow me to download for free, and away I went. I installed Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. In order for the VWD to work properly, I had to install IIS 6.0 and a few other components from my original Windows installation CD. It all seemed to integrate nicely with my SQL Server Management Studio Express; they got along well with each other anyway. But immediately afterwards, whenever I attempted to access my Apache server I started getting “ASP error 201 cannot load page” errors. I got rid of them through some configuration and permission changes in the IIS configuration panel, but it still wouldn’t allow me to access Apache’s directory via my browser. The three days that I spent studying how to properly forward ports, create a static IP address and otherwise get a good feel how my router configuration was set up didn’t go to waste, but I never got a chance to implement any of the things I learned because I got side tracked with not being able to access my Apache server. Now you pretty much tell me what I suspected but didn’t have the guts to admit; I probably have to get rid of one of the web servers. The BIG question I have for you is: what little you know of my situation, what would you do? I know it sounds like a loaded question, but when I asked a few other knowledgeable (well…fairly knowledgeable) people the same question the responses are either “Get that Windows crap off of your computer and stick with Apache”, or “dude…Microsoft rules…ditch that open source garbage and go with a proven winner.” I appreciate personal taste, but I’ve got a feeling that these guys have never used both of these applications; they started with one or the other and have become brand loyal. If you could give me nod one way or the other, it would help me out. Thanks for your consideration, Dan

Sorry that I haven't posted something earlier, but in the course of following some of the excellent suggestions given to me in this and other forums I've discovered that my newly installed IIS 6.0 and Visual Studio 2005 is getting in the way of things. It seems that IIS won't recognize (or I haven't learned how to make it do so) my Apache 2.2.2. In other words, I've gotten side tracked trying to figure out why IIS seems to concentrate entirely on ASP applications. As you all know, I'm pretty new to web applications. I've got to do a lot more research into how these apps. interact. Thank you all for your help. Dan

Thanks a million TAin and JZ, I don't think that I would have stood a chance at getting it right without ya'lls help (ya'll is a word in Winchester Virginia). I now have something that makes sense. I'm going to go and try your suggestions, have someone try and access my server and post the results. Much thanks, Dan

Thanks a lot Janus Zeal, I did create an exception in my firewall, but for my internal IP address. That free service that you mentioned is an excellent tool!! If I weren't to use it though, I suppose that I'd have to configure a static IP address in my router, or is that used for internal (private) IPs only? Thanks again, my friend. Dan

Hello all, I can't seem to get my router (I assume it's my router configuration giving me the trouble) to allow access from the outside to my server. I spent most of the day yesterday at http://www.portforward.com/ trying to follow the instructions on how to properly forward a port. I think (there I go again) that I followed the instructions for my specific router correctly, although the instructions were a little incomplete. I don't have any other computers on my network, therefore, I surmised that I didn't need to create a static IP address. I forwarded one port to my router and that port is attached to my internal IP address. I then call a friend and ask them the try and connect with the address: http://MyInternalIPaddress:ForwardedPort#. Everytime the attempt to connect is made, my friend gets the message "cannot connect to server". Let's say I wantd Apache to use port 7777; in the port range of the router configuration page, I inserted: 7777-7777, and as the base port-7777. This is what the PortForward.com suggested. Any suggestions?

Hello all, I produce a small newsletter on basic electrical trouble-shooting, installations & safety. I've got a vast library of animated gifs collected from many resources and incorporate them into the newsletter freely. Lately, recipients have been emailing me expressing disappointment that the gifs don't animate anymore and why did I change the format. Frankly, I didn't think the little animated suckers were that popular. Whatever. When I produce these newsletters, as I insert the animated gifs Outlook doesn't animate them in the draft, only after the newsletter is sent. I used to review them by viewing them via my sent email folder. I haven't reviewed them lately until the recent complaints. And they were correct. None of the animated gifs animate anymore. The gifs themselves animate fine in any other program. When I check the properties of the gifs in the sent folder section, I'm told that the gif format is not gif but Metafile. I've been through all of the options in Outlook and can't see a conflict, but that's not to say I'm not misinterpreting what the options mean. Is it possible that some of the recipients email programs don't allow for the gifs to animate and, therefore, Outlook doesn't animate them for me when they're reviewed in my sent email folder? Please help me out here, Dan