by M.L. Giggleman
Every once in a while I find a “tweak” that really works. This next item is one of those! I tried it, and it dramatically improved internet access — download time was definitely improved and webpages loaded faster. As with most magic of this type, it involves making changes to the Windows 95 Registry. But for those of you who are reluctant to change the Registry or those who don’t know what the Registry is and don’t want to know (you know who you are!), there is a free utility, PPP-Boost, to make the changes for you. Best of all, it allows a “one-click” method to back up the Registry and will make recommendations for the settings. The latest version, 1.4, is available from the author, C3 Systems, at: www.demonweb.co.uk/c3sys/ppp.htm
The setting involved is the MTU, an acronym for Maximum Transmission Unit. The MTU basically defines the size of a transmission packet. A packet is simply a measure for a “block of data” to be moved between computers through a network or the internet. Windows 95 defaults to an MTU of 1500, as this was determined to be the optimum size for a packet transmitted through a network.
However, this setting is too large for Web access, as the larger packets must be broken down into parts for their trip through the modem and then reassembled at the destination.
For those of you who can’t wait to manually edit the Registry, don’t forget to backup the Registry first. Locate MaxMTU using Regedit’s Find feature. When found, choose Modify, and change Value Data to 576. Once out of the Registry, remember to reboot for the changes to take effect.
To read more about this and related subjects, point your browser to: cnn.com/tech/computing/9805/26/net.access.idg/index.html
Another excellent source of information on modem connections as well as the MTU setting is the Navas Group, at the following address: www.aimnet.com/~jnavas/modem/faq.html
WinTune 98: TEST AND TUNE-UP ONLINE!
WinTune 98, the Windows Magazine Test and Tune-up Kit, is available free from the Windows Magazine website. This new version covers Windows 95, 98, and NT. If you are running Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 or later, you can test your system online at: winweb.winmag.com/WinTune98
This location is the WinTune 98 home page. Select “Test and analyze this PC” to test online. Other options available from this page include browsing the database of test results, details about WinTune (troubleshooting, FAQs), as well as downloading an offline version of WinTune 98 and downloading previous versions of WinTune.
If you are not running Internet Explorer, you can download the version of WinTune 98 that runs without a browser directly from: winweb.winmag.com/WinTune98/Download.htm
Users of Windows 3.x will want to download WinTune 2.0. Development on WinTune 2.0 has been discontinued and it is offered as unsupported freeware. To download, point your browser to: www.winmag.com/software/wt20.htm
INTERNET EXPLORER: INCREASE CACHE SIZE TO SPEED UP BROWSING
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer cache size defaults to about three percent of the hard drive. To speed up browsing, increase this value slightly, but not more than around ten percent.
The cache size is set from the menu bar of Internet Explorer under View, Internet Options, and the General tab. Under Temporary Internet Files, click on Settings. Once the Settings dialog box appears, move the slider to the right to increase the size of the cache.
Click on OK when finished. Finally, click on OK when the Internet Options dialog box appears again.
INTERNET EXPLORER: RECOVER DISK SPACE BY CLEARING THE CACHE
You may have noticed while viewing or changing the cache size (above), the button — Delete Files — to the right of the Settings button. Clicking on this button deletes the files in the cache. You will be prompted for confirmation, press OK and the cache of temporary files will be cleared. Press OK again to exit the Internet Options dialog box.
INTERNET EXPLORER 4.0 and 4.01 for WINDOWS 95: BUG FIX
Microsoft has a patch for the “Embed” bug in some versions of Internet Explorer. These versions could produce an “Embed Buffer Overrun” error by viewing a malicious web page containing an Embed tag. This could cause Internet Explorer to crash and a chance existed that the page might then be able to run an executable on the system.
The simplest way to update is to connect to the site below running Internet Explorer. If you need the patch, you will be informed and prompted through the complete patch installation process online. Point your browser to: www.microsoft.com/ie/security/embed.htm
On the same page, patches are available for the following versions of Internet Explorer:
Windows 95, Internet Explorer 4.0Filename: em4095.exe
Windows 95, Internet Explorer 4.01Filename: em40195.exe
Windows NT, Internet Explorer 4.0Filename: em40nt.exe
Windows NT, Internet Explorer 4.01Filename: em401nt.exe
Patches are also available for the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (4.0, 4.01), Macintosh (I.E. 3.0/3.01a/3.0a/4.0) and UNIX Sun Solaris I.E. 4.01.
If you are running Internet Explorer, you might want to check out Microsoft’s Security area located at: www.microsoft.com/ie/security/main.htm
WINDOWS 95: DETERMINING THE PRINTER DRIVER
To check out the printer driver and port settings, as well as a demonstration of a printer’s abilities to print text and graphics, run a Windows 95 Printer Test Page. The result is a page containing the driver name, version, port, data format, and a listing of all files (with locations and version numbers) used by the printer driver.
To print the test page, go to My Computer, Printers. Select the icon for the printer to check. Double-click on the selected printer. Choose Printer from the menu box, then Properties. Under the first tab, General, near the bottom right is a button titled Print Test Page.
An alternate (i.e., faster) way to the Print Test Page button is to select the printer icon, right-click the mouse, and select Properties from the list.
UPDATES FOR WORDPERFECT
The support site for Corel contains a number of useful files for those using the Corel products, including WordPerfect. You may view a detailed list and download files from: www.corel.com/support/ftpsite/ftpindex.htm
An update, Service Pack 4, is available there for Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 and Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 Professional. The filename is wp8wp4.exe.
Also available is a utility to restore damaged Corel WordPerfect document files. It fixes problems with password protected files as well as repairing other problems, such as corruptions. Note: this is for users of Corel WordPerfect for Windows 6.0 and newer. The filename is wp8rest.exe and is available from the address above.
Another update available at the above location allows you to import Excel 97 and Word 97 files directly into WordPerfect Suite 8. The filename is wp8cnv97.exe.
TROPICAL STORM UPDATES VIA E-MAIL
Hurricane season is here. You can receive e-mail notification and updates on tropical developments in the Gulf, Atlantic and Pacific by submitting your e-mail address to Hurricane Central at: www.storm98.com/email/
The Weather Channel also provides tropical weather updates from it’s website at: www.weather.com/breaking_weather/trop_update
Severe weather alerts via The Weather Channel are available at: www.weather.com/breaking_weather/severe
A site that loads very quickly is the Texas A&M Severe Weather Watches and Warnings Page at: www.met.tamu.edu/warning.html
It displays a map of the United States. States with watches and warnings shaded in red. Clicking on a state provides further information. The site also provides links to current weather, etc.
WINDOWS 95: FREECELL CHEAT
And finally, the Windows 95 FreeCell “cheat”. While playing FreeCell, use the keystroke combination Ctrl+Shift+F10 (hold down both the Ctrl and Shift keys and press F10) to get a dialog box offering the following choices: abort, retry, cancel.
Select ‘Abort’ to win the game, ‘Retry’ to lose or ‘Cancel’ to continue playing.
You must then make some sort of a move to complete the choice. If no moves remain, which is probably why you would use this, just click on a card.
M.L. Giggleman is a HAL-PC member who can be reached at supgigg1@airmail.net
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.