How Much Memory?

I just installed 128 MB of memory in my PC, which is running Windows 98.  I forgot how to check how much memory that I now have on my PC (somewhere between 190MB to 212 MB - I think).  In DOS, I believe that I just have to type "mem".

Can you help me?

Thanking you in advance,

Myles

Myles

You can check the amount of memory in DOS or Windows.

• In Windows, right-click on MY COMPUTER, left-click PROPERTIES, and from the COMPUTER section of the GENERAL page, read the total system memory that is installed - should be the last line above the OK button.
• To get a more detailed report, drop to DOS:  click on Start  »  Run  »  type Command if in Win 9x or Cmd if in Win XP  »  OK.  At the DOS propmpt, type MEM and press <Enter>.  Type Exit <Enter> to return to Windows.

Popup Spam

I have a couple of friends and a paying customer that are all clamoring for an answer to pop-up spam.  I was looking for an answer and found  this article in Business Week — no help, but it's a funny article, especially the reference to Nigeria.  Do you have any answers that I haven't found yet?

And, will ZoneAlarm alone solve the problem?  The customer took Zone-Alarm off of her PC because she couldn't get her email, and Road Runner said that ZoneAlarm was the problem.

Roger

Roger,

You're right, it is a funny article.  Informative, too.  I hadn't heard of UDP 135 before...  but to answer your question..

Both the holes mentioned in the article will close if you're using ZoneAlarm, and Crazy Browser will block (most of) the pop-ups that are tied to Web pages.

I'm surprised to hear Road Runner say that ZoneAlarm was the source of a problem.  I think that it is much more likely that the Road Runner technician didn't know the settings that the user needed to apply to ZoneAlarm that would allow proper operation of Outlook Express or Eudora.  At the Resource Center, we've installed the free version of ZoneAlarm on several machines that use Road Runner, and the only problems that we had were as a result of not setting up Road Runner BEFORE installing ZoneAlarm.  (Note that you can't just disable ZoneAlarm to make network changes.  You have to uninstall it, make your changes, then reinstall it.)

Not that I've helped any, but it sure was fun typing to you...

DaLe

Yet another note:  at the time I wrote this column, I was recommending Crazy Browser over Internet Explorer. It was a 'front-end' program, which added tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking to Internet Explorer's rendering engine, which it used to display Web pages. This was before Firefox, the Google toolbar, or Internet Explorer 7.  Its enhancements now come standard in IE7 and Firefox.

Modem Is 'Way Too Slow

Dale,

Thank you for the assist by telephone when I was having a problem connecting to AT&T using the XP wizard.  You were right, it was not a problem with the modem.  It worked when I removed the icon that the wizard had created and started all over again.

There is one new thing that you might be able to help me with.  I have the Sportster Modem 56 K, but I am only downloading at 2.4 KBS.  As you can appreciate, this causes me to time out when getting Web pages.

Any ideas on this new problem?

Jerry

Jerry,

1. Click on Start  »  Control Panel  »  Printers and Other Hardware  »  Phone and Modem Options.
2. Click on the Modems tab, select your modem, click on Properties, then on the Advanced tab.
3. In the Extra Initialization Commands input box, type AT&F1.  This is the modem command that tells the modem to use hardware-based error correction if it's a hardware modem, or to pretend that it's a hardware modem if it's really a WinModem (yours is a hardware modem, so it should perform much better than it has been).
4. Click Ok  »  Ok  »  then exit Control Panel.
5. Reboot and see if it works any better.

Result:

Putting in the AT&F1 string did the trick — all the difference in the world!

Thanks again.

Jerry

For Windows 98 users, the process is very similar.

1. Click on Start  »  Control Panel  »  Modems.
2. Select your modem and click on Properties.
3. Click on the Connection tab, then on the Advanced button.
4. In the Extra Settings input box, type AT&F1.
5. Click on OK, OK again, then Close.
6. Exit Control Panel and reboot.