Chapter 8: Free expert assistance

Wed, 14 Feb 96 14:57:18 EST
From: Robert Donahue
RE: FREQUENT DISCONNECTION OF PPP. NEED HELP!!!

In article <4ft882$18v@mloeff01.ived.nec.gmeds.com>,
bz418c@ttp.natp.gmeds.com says...

>problem. But recently I have got a very strange problem:
>I was disconnected every time after I got PPP connection
>for a while. The disconnection happens most likely when
>I was downloading a big file using Netscape or CuteFTP
>(I can only get about 200KB before the line drops), but
>it also happens sometimes when I click on regular web pages.
>This problem didn't exist before with the same software

Sounds a little like a problem I had a while back. My modem would hang up the phone at random (usually during a big transfer). It turned out to be the bios in my modem. The early US Robotics 28.8K Sportster had a bug that would cause them to hang up instead of down-shifting the baud rate when the phone line got cranky. I forgot the revision number of the bad bios. I had to get a new bios chip from US Robotics to fix the problem. I would never had known what the problem was if my service provider hadn't posted a warning.

Bob D.

Many users prefer open conference messages to private email for their technical discussions. This gives "the group" a chance to read, comment, provide additional facts, and return with new questions.
One simple question may give an overwhelming number of responses, but most contributions are likely to be useful and educational. Since the discussion is public, consider it a feature of your personal online university. Offer opinions when you have something to contribute, or keep silent.
Stop by a technical forum where beta testers and programmers hang out, and you'll probably get a concise, three-sentence answer. Stop by a forum dedicated to helping users fire up a new product, and you may find long, chatty, but informative diatribes. Different forums. Different responses.
In most conferences, some members are critical to "lurkers." A "lurker" is someone who read without ever contributing. Don't let them get to you. It is legitimate to remain silent. Most others are also there to watch and learn only.
If you consider buying a newly released computer program, tune in to the section of your favorite online service that deals with products from this manufacturer. Count complaints and error reports before buying.
When your new program has been installed on your system, return for other users' experiences and practical advice. Pay back your dues by reporting your own experiences in the process.

Focus on conferences and newsgroup where many competent users hang out. There, you will usually get faster and better replies to your questions. Asking other users may be faster and better than searching. Complement by searching Deja.Com (Chapter 10).

If you have never visited a BBS, call one in your neighborhood to get a feel for how they work. Most of them can be accessed free. Usually, their only requirement is for a self-presentation before being granted full access to their system.
Most bulletin boards have conferencing and archives filled with shareware and public domain software. Many have files or bulletins listing telephone numbers of other boards in your country or area.
The trick is to find know-how. The larger the online service or conference, the more skilled people are likely to "meet" there regularly. If the local bulletin boards fail to satisfy your needs, try the Internet or some large commercial services.
One exception: When you need contact with ONE particular person, who knows YOUR problem in detail, go where this person usually hangs out.
For expert advice about how to use the Eudora email program, check out the comp.mail.eudora.ms-windows (MS Windows), or comp.mail.eudora.mac (Macintosh) newsgroups. There are several online support forums for users of Eudora.
The site at http://www.internetvalley.com/top100mag.html provides links to the top 100 computer- and software-related Web magazines.

Resources on the Internet

Usenet's Winsock-based TCP/IP Application Software group contains:

comp.os.ms-windows.apps.winsock.mail		Winsock-based electronic mail applications and utilities
comp.os.ms-windows.apps.winsock.news		Winsock-based Usenet news readers and servers
comp.os.ms-windows.apps.winsock.misc		Winsock-based applications other than news and email

Usenet also has:

comp.os.msdos.mail-news		Administering mail and news software on Windows and MS-DOS.
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc		Discussions about the use of TCP/IP on PC systems

NETSCAPEWEBMASTER is a discussion list for Netscape Webmasters to trade tips, techniques, and other information.
There's a range of mailing lists and newsgroups focusing on the Linux operating system. Check Linuxnewbie.org for experiences, tips, and tricks, and assistance, and more.

For users of MS Windows and MS-DOS computers

Usenet has many newsgroups in the comp.os.ms-windows and comp.os.msdos hierarchies. Those focusing on Microsoft Windows are usually divided into these groups: Setup and Installation, General (Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT), Application Software, Winsock-based TCP/IP Application Software, Software (Compatibility Issues), Networking, Programming and Software Development (Techniques, Development Tools, and Device Drivers), Visual Basic and Delphi Groups, Windows Archives (FTP and Web sites), and Other Related Groups.
The Setup and Installation newsgroups are:

comp.os.ms-windows.setup.win3x		Questions and problems with setting up and configuring Windows 3.x
comp.os.ms-windows.setup.win95		Questions and problems with setting up and configuring Windows 95

The Windows Archives newsgroups are:

comp.archives.ms-windows.announce		Announcements for new and/or updated Windows ftp/web sites, uploads to sites and other information.
comp.archives.ms-windows.discuss		Discussions about Windows ftp/web sites.

Here are some other newsgroups to wet your appetite:

comp.os.ms-windows.pre-release		Discussion about unreleased and future versions of Windows
comp.os.ms-windows.apps.comm		Communications and fax applications

There are many mailing lists, including:

• The Windows 98 Give-And-Take List
• The Windows NT Discussion List
• WINDOWS NT mailing list (for users and administrators)
• The Windows 95 Give-And-Take List
• The MS Excel Question and Answer List: (EXCEL-G)
• QBASIC for discussions of tips, tricks, and instructions related to the QBasic and QuickBasic programming languages.
• WPWIN-L - WordPerfect for Windows
• ACCESS-L - the Microsoft Access Database Discussion List
• Visual Basic Beginner's List and Visual Basic List

ZDNet Updates.com is an excellent starting place to keep the software and drivers on your computer up to date. Windows 95 QAID offers interesting information, both on Windows 95 and Visual Basic. More interesting links:

• Windows 98 information
• Annoyances.org - hints for Windows 95 and 98 users
• Windows Registry Guide (Windows 95, 98 and NT registry hints)

FrontPage Technical Support Area offers 100+ pages covering Microsoft FrontPage Frequently Asked Questions, Active Server Pages, Databases, How To's and Tips, Problem Solving, and much more.
The Microsoft Technical Support Knowledge Base offers access to tens of thousands of product-support documents. Articles tell about new developments in software programs, and how to most effectively use a particular package. You can search by product name, and by keywords.
SearchWin2000 is a portal for Windows NT/2000-Specific information offering news, technical tips, resources, a search engine, and more.
Help.com offers tips and answers to a wide variety of computing questions. The core of the site is a collection of hundreds of thousands of questions and answers culled from Usenet newsgroups and submitted by users around the world. These are organized under these top headings:

• Hardware (Desktops, Notebooks, Motherboards)
• Software (Operating Systems, Business and Productivity, Graphics)
• Internet (Browsers, Email, Chat)
• Web Building (Web Development, HTML, Web Design)
• Consumer Electronics (Cell Phones, Digital Cameras, Audio)
• Games (Game Systems, Mac Games, Action)

Many CompuServe forums are operated or sponsored by software and hardware vendors, like: Adobe Systems Inc., Aldus Corp., Ashton-Tate Corp., Autodesk Inc., Borland International, Broderbund Software Inc., Buttonware Inc., Cadkey Inc., Crosstalk Communications, Customs Technologies, Enable Software, Datastorm Technologies Inc., Microsoft Systems, Nantucket Corp., Lotus Development Corp., Novell Inc., Peter Norton Computing, Quarterdeck Office Systems, Quicksoft, Sun Microsystems (TOPS Division), Symantec Corp., Toshiba, Turbopower Software, and WordPerfect Corp.
They also have hundreds of independent support forums with associated libraries of files and programs.

For owners of Amiga computers

Usenet's comp.sys.amiga hierarchy has entries like advocacy, announce applications, audio, datacomm, emulations, games, graphics, hardware, introduction, marketplace, multimedia, misc, programmer, reviews and more.
Exec-PC has the Amiga Hardware and Amiga Software conferences, and a large library with shareware and public domain files. ILINK has the AMIGA conference.
Most online services have "Find this File" commands. The most powerful ones are often found on free bulletin boards.
On CompuServe, type GO AMIGA to get to CBMNET. A while ago, we visited CBMNET to find a communications program. From the menu above, selection five took us to The Amiga File Finder service, and this menu:

   File Finder AMIGA 
 
    1 About File Finder 
    2 Instructions For Searching 
    3 How to Locate Keywords 
 
    4 Access File Finder 
 
    5 Your Comments About File Finder

Choice four lets us search for files using keywords, file creation dates, forum names, file types, file name extension, file name or author. Our choice was searching by keywords. The result was a long list of alternatives:

   Enter Search Term: comm 
 
   Amiga File Finder 
 
    1 AMIGATECH/C Programming  COMSRC.ARC 
    2 AMIGATECH/C Programming  PMDSRC.LZH 
    3 AMIGATECH/C Programming  PNTSRC.LZH 
    4 AMIGAUSER/Communications  BBSIND.LZH 
    5 AMIGAUSER/Communications  INTOUC.ARC 
    etc.

By entering numbers, we asked for short descriptions of file number 4 through 13. Here is one of them:

   Filename : INTOUC.ARC  Forum: AMIGAUSER 
   Lib: Communications  Lib #: 5 
   Submitter: [76702,337]   24-Mar-89 
   Size: 51200   Accesses: 157 
 
   This is a modified Comm1.34.  It supports both 
   VT100 and ANSI.    The VT100 emulation is based
   on Dave Wecker's VT100 program. There is automatic
   dialer, split screen that is configurable, phone
   book, and other nice features.

This is what we were looking for. First, enter GO AMIGAUSER to get to the forum. Enter "DL 5" to get to Downloading Library number 5. INTOUCH.ARC was retrieved using the CompuServe Quick B transfer protocol. This protocol is usually the most efficient choice on this service.

CompuServe has several File Finder services. These include PCFF (MS-DOS computers), MACFF (Macintosh), GRAPHFF (for Graphics), ATARIFF (Atari computers), AMIGAFF. Use the GO command to access, as in GO PCFF .

Apple users

Macintosh users check http://www.nexor.com/public/mac/archive/welcome.html. For shareware, try The Virtual Software Library. VersionTrackeris an excellent starting place to keep the software and drivers on your Macintosh up to date.
Apple's Web server maintains interesting links to the company's libraries, and to sites where freeware and shareware for Apple products may be retrieved.
The Apple Technical Information Library is Apple's official technical- support database. In late 1995, it contained over 12,000 articles on all aspects of Apple products, old and new. The Apple Assistance Center uses the same database to answer customer's questions.
Articles offer advice on trouble shooting, compatibility, workarounds, and more (see http://support.info.apple.com/support/support.html).
Usenet has several newsgroups, including:

alt.sources.mac		Source file newsgroup for the Apple Macintosh computers
comp.sys.apple2		Discussion about Apple II micros.
comp.sys.apple2.comm		Apple II data communications.
comp.sys.mac.digest		Apple Macintosh: info&uses, but no programs.

Similar services are found on many other online services. You will also find conferences devoted to support of popular commercial software for Apple computers.

Other computers

There are so many types of computers and operating systems. First, Unix, of course .(See the Unix Wizards Mailing list). Then : Atari computers, the TRS-80 series and others from Tandy, DEC computers, mainframes from IBM, Hewlett-Packard computers, CP/M machines, users of LDOS/TRSDOS or OS9, Apricot, Z88, Timex/Sinclair, Archimedes, Psion, and Armstrad.
Even so, there is a high chance that you can find online support for most of them, even if the vendor went out of business years ago. For such computers, CompuServe is a good place to start.

For journalists and authors

ProfNet is a cooperative of more than thousand international public information officers giving journalists and authors quick and convenient access to expert sources. Mostly, members represent colleges, universities, and a wide range of government, corporate, and non-profit entities oriented to scholarship and research.
There is no fee for conducting ProfNet searches, nor is there any limit to the number or frequency of your queries.

Virtual Knowledge Communities

Internet lets us share knowledge with others across geographical boundaries, and often also across language and culture borders. We can easily work with someone in Montevideo, Tokyo, Kautokeino, Moscow, and Accra, just as if they were living in your local neighborhood.
The effects of being visible in the net's knowledge sharing communities include learning from others, having an inter-personal network you can share, finding great people to work with on issues affecting you.
For an example, check how the Kidlink organization reach out to network teachers around the world.
Where to find a suitable knowledge sharing community? Check our pointers in Chapter 10 (Mailing lists and web forums, Usenet).

Marketing

For a list of mailing lists of interest for advertising, public relations, and marketing, try http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html.

Utilities

Sure, you can use the Internet as a calculator! Check the Calculators On-Line Center for links to converters and calculators. It has thousands of links to calculators for Unit Conversion (temperature, weight, area, etc.), Agriculture & Horticulture, Automobile, Code Translators, Distance (How Far is it?), Finance - Loans, Mathematics, Statistics, Medical & Health Science, Navigation/GPS, Nutrition, Radiation & EHS Safety, Science & Engineering, Aeronautics, Sunset & Tide, Weather, etc.
Online Conversion lets you perform thousands of different types of conversion calculations. Conversions are organized by type (temperature, length, cooking, etc.), and each conversion page includes numerous options.
For more information about currencies, try the Currencies of the World page. Besides valuable background information, it provides daily exchange rates for 49 currencies.