Q. Two or three years ago you had an article on a site to get a “Popup Monitor” that would keep America Online from timing out after you passed its limit of no activity. I have taken a hit on my hard drive, and that is part of the data lost. Could I get the site address again from you?
Donald Dye @aol.com
A. Nothing irks computer users more than the America Online automatic hang-up if the customer doesn’t touch mouse or keyboard for 15 minutes or so.
Designed to keep as many phone lines as possible open when users forget they are on-line and step away from their machines, the automatic disconnect feature also kicks in to spoil lengthy downloads.
The best solution this writer has seen is called Download Wonder, a free program from Forty Software LLC that not only outfoxes AOL’s hang-up feature, but also makes downloading far easier by creating a database of all downloads and handling the decompressing of ZIP files.
Check out the sample version of Download Wonder at www.forty.com.
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Q. I have a 266 mHz Pentium II, with Windows 98. One of the big things Microsoft had said when they came out with Windows 98 was the claim that it can support a split screen. How could I go about installing and setting it up?
Abhay Anigam @rocketmail.com
A. That dual monitor feature in Windows 98 is very slick indeed, but you need extra hardware to make it work, such as an extra video card or a video card with two outputs. When you connect two monitors to the same PC that way, Windows 98 lets you drag icons from one screen to the other and thus run one program on Screen A and a completely different program on Screen B. For example, you can use one screen to run a Web browser and conduct research while you are writing a report based on that same research on the other screen.
This same dual display power also lets one output whatever is playing on the computer’s screen into a television set. For example, most of the high-end laptops from Dell, IBM and Gateway include a video-out port that directs the monitor display to RCA or S-Video signals, a boon for road warriors who can use customers’ TV screens for their presentations.
Q. While using Norton’s CleanSweep to do a little house cleaning, my Windows Desktop suddenly arranged icons in reverse alphabetical order; i.e., top left corner has “Zip” where “My Computer” used to be and which is now the last listed. It didn’t work to rearrange them using right-mouse click then Arrange Icons and By Name. You seem like the sort of fellow who loves the curious and the arcane along with the spurious and the mundane. I like my alphabet left to right. Any ideas?
Eric Sharps, Cupertino, Calif.
A. How about turning the monitor upside down? That certainly would reverse the alphabetical order of the icons.
So much for the spurious and the mundane. My suggestion is hardly curious but maybe a bit arcane. I suggest that you free yourself from the tyranny of letting Bill Gates dictate how your icons get presented on the desktop by right-clicking on the desktop and then selecting Arrange Icons and then switching off the Auto Arrange feature.
This will let you place the icons on your desktop anywhere and in any order you want all over the screen, regardless of alphabetization or other rules, except those you set yourself.
Q. Some day I plan to update my computer, but I also want to add 200-ampere service and electrical wiring updates to my house. My question for you: What phone jack, cable TV outlets and so forth for computer use should I add? I’m thinking that maybe a computer-friendly house will help in resale, although I’m not planning on moving soon. My thinking is to do it at the same time as the wiring. Thoughts?
Jim Tilson, Peoria
A. Oddly enough, the idea of wiring houses for computer networking and various video and audio hookups is sinking in to many of us technology users just as a revolution of wireless connections appears on the horizon. When (and I do mean when, rather than if) wireless networking becomes commonplace, having a house hardwired for computers will be about as useful as having a coal bin in the basement.
My sources at Intel Corp. tell me that the chipmaking giant is about to offer a wireless home networking system that will allow linking of computers through a house by simply plugging a USB transmitter into the back of each PC. Apple’s superb AirPort is selling like hypertext hotcakes, and it offers wireless Internet connection and file sharing among Macs.
If you do want to go ahead with the hardwiring plan, check out Lucent Technologies’ HomeStar system, which is available for about $700 to $2,000 installed. It is a home wiring network that allows homeowners to integrate the control and management of telephones, VCRs, cable televisions, security systems and environment management systems. For details, check out www.lucent.com/networks/homestar/index.html.
Q. I am using Microsoft Word 97. I don’t recall what I did to mess up the way the Open File display works, but recently I noticed that my folders in the Open box are arranged in descending alphabetical order. It used to be in ascending alphabetical order. How can I set this display option back to what it was? By the way, the Save As dialog box displays the folders in ascending alphabetical order.
Rob Riteim @aol.com
A. You stumbled onto a feature of Windows-based software that makes a lot of folks crazy, Mr. R. You managed to change the viewing protocols of your word processor to what is called a List view. This feature allows one to manipulate the display to do things like alphabetize in ascending or descending order, show file sizes and glean other information.
Go back to the Open File dialog box and look for a square icon that looks like a clipboard. Click it to scale through all the views and when you get to the one with a bar at the top marked Name you can click on it to change displays from ascending to descending.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or via snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through the column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com