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Tips and Tricks
Browsers
Frames
You may have run across a site that does something I really hate. Namely
bringing up another site's pages inside of their frame. While sometimes this is
unavoidable (as I have discovered during the course of building web sites), there is
something you can do about it.
If you are using Internet Explorer, there are two ways to bust out of a frame. The first
is by right clicking on the frame you wish to view in it's own window and selecting
"Open frame in new window." The other is to drag the link of the page/site up to
the Address bar.
In Netscape right click on the page you wish to view in it's own window and select
"Open frame in new window."
Either way, you'll see the site in it's intended form.
Internet Explorer
If your a fan of IEs auto-complete feature, here's a tip for you. When you type
in say "www" it'll auto-complete the last URL that you went to. Let's say that
the URL is close but not exactly the page you wanted. While holding down the CTRL key,
select the down arrow and you'll see a list of closely related URLs. For example:
You type in "www" and it auto-completes
"www.0rdernet.com/VBOK/about_me.htm"
You want a page that's close, so you hold down CTRL key and click the down arrow to get:
"www.0rdernet.com/VBOK/newsletter/index.htm"
"www.0rdernet.com/VBOK/computers/computers.htm"
"www.0rdernet.com/VBOK/thebat/index.htm"
A little faster if you're working in the same domain.
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Dial Up Networking (DUN)
Authorize to
Connect
I don't have an unlimited use ISP account-- getting only 90 hours per month, and I have a habit of leaving web pages open in my browser after I disconnect so I can read them at my leisure off-line. One of the bad things about this is that some web pages have timed advertisements so the page reloads every some odd number of seconds. This is bad for me and others who also don't have unlimited ISP accounts, because the Dial-Up Networking (DUN) will redial the ISP in order for the page to reload.
My quick fix for this is when your DUN window displays while dialing, uncheck the "Connect Automatically" option. The other bennie to this is if you are infected with a dial home trojan of some sort, it won't connect to your ISP to do its nasty business without your approval. This includes many "adware" programs-- especially if you have one that starts up when Windows is started.
Yes, it's an extra step to connect to the Internet, but my having to click the "Connect" button gives me the peace of mind that no funny business will happen while I'm in bed sleeping.
Taking Forever to
Connect to the Internet?
Since installing Win98, has the time that your computer takes to connect to the
internet increased considerably? I've gotten quite a few calls about this problem, and
each time (seven so far) the "Log onto network" option was the culprit.
So how do you fix this real pain in the neck "defaulted" Win98 option?
- Double-click "My Computer"
- Double-click "Dial-Up Networking"
- Right-click on whatever you named your Internet connection
- Select "Properties"
- Select the "Server Types" tab
- Un-check the "Log onto network" option in the "Advanced
Options"
- Click "OK"
You should notice a *huge* decrease in your connect time now.
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Tools
Getting information on your IP and
networking configuration
In the realm of hidden but very useful applications, comes ipconfig. You can use Winipcfg to get much of the same information, but if you're looking to either print out the information, or file it away for later reference, then Winipcfg just won't do the trick.
From a DOS window, type ipconfig /all
Did the info fly by too fast? Try ipconfig /all | more. The "|" is called a pipe and it is usually located above the "\" key. It takes the output of the previous command and "pipes" it to the input of the following command.
In case the pipe character is not above your "\", then it looks like a colon ":" but instead of dots, it has two short vertical lines.
If you'd like to get a copy of the output in a file, you can do it this way
ipconfig /all > ipconfig.txt. The ">" is a redirection command that works like a pipe, but is used to send it to an output rather than another command. Another example, is if you'd like to send the output to a printer, try
ipconfig /all > prn.
If your computer days didn't include DOS, you can use the redirection command to print other things like text files too. i.e.
mytextfile.txt > prn.
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