Just Ask Matt!

Today, Richard asks:
I have a Vaio laptop VGN-NR21Z/T with Vista Home Premium, which has been very well behaved for 18 months.
I have 3 users set up: Admin, User A (standard user), User B (standard user). I generally use User A. I use wireless and the connection has been fine, until last week.
Now, if I boot [...]

Today, Allen asks:
I found your nice, friendly page, and wonder if it’s really this easy to find an answer to my question. You are definitely a lot more knowledgeable than I am, so here goes.
I live in New York City and have been using Verizon DSL for 5+ years. My ancient Westell Bell Atlantic modem [...]

Today, Amy asks:
Hey Matt I need help. Every time I put in any web address in to search for something it directs me to comcast.net. I have no idea why it started. It is on my laptop. I tried to do a DNS flush but it does not work. Please help [...]

Today, OLAWOLE asks:
I have an 8gb flash drive and tried to copy a 5gb movie to it. I could not! Can you tell me why please?
Second, I tried to convert the flash drive to NTFS and it was not successful either. What is the cause please?
While I cannot state for sure what the problem might [...]

Today, Claire asks:
I just stumbled upon your blog while googling for info about my current email problems, and in reading the various Q&As realized you could be a great source of advice for me.  This may be a bit more general of a situation than what you’ve featured on your blog - but I thought [...]

Today, Tricia writes:
I have a Sony Vaio laptop that is running Windows Vista. I am having issues with the wireless card disabling itself. I installed a bunch of Windows updates and now I cannot use my wireless. I enable the wireless card and it still doesn’t recognize the signal coming from my [...]

Today Coast Runner,
Need some help. Got a new machine with Vista Home Premium installed. Attempted to load Partition Magic 8.0 to no avail. Used Vista to partition the HDD. Loaded Windows XP Professional on the new partition and “lost” Windows Vista? Could not see the partition, only the partition with [...]

Today Ed asks:
I have two hard drives on my computer one 300 GB using FAT 32, the other 15 GB using NTFS. Is there away that both could be NTFS with no problem? And is it a good idea to have them both the same? If so which is better and faster?
Honestly, I would convert [...]

Today Craig asks:
A few months ago I bought a new laptop and set up a wireless connection, the signal from the router never broke and ran perfect for weeks, until the signal started to break up and disconnect roughly 2 times a day the only thing I remember happening is a piece [...]

Today Wayne asks,
I have 2 2Mb DSL connections and want to run both into one router so as to increase the speed, a number of routers are on the market but don’t want to be caught with one that do not deliver any suggestions as to the best brand to use?
Not an expert in [...]

Today Bruce asks,
I am trying to find a wireless router I can plug a usb verizon wireless modem into.  Any suggestions?
Understanding that I am going to speculate that when you say “Verizon”, you are refering to EVDO service as Verizon’s DSL and FiOS services work fine with most routers? If this is the case, [...]

Today Kevin asks,
I was browsing on the Web when my computer froze-it stopped responding completely. I shut the power off on my UPS and then turned it back on,  at which time my hard drive and fan began spinning and blowing about as hard as they could go. It sounded as if [...]

Today Jim asks,
I installed a new hard drive in my computer and placed my old one as a spare. I had some pictures on the old hard drive that I would like to transfer to the new hard drive. When I click on the icon in my old hard drive where the pictures [...]

Today Wayne asks:
I have been using mint 5 and really impressed with it. there is one drawback to it some sites require Adobe Flash Player and there is none available for mint 5. The KDE version works fine but i would like to stick with gnome any work around?
Well there are a number of things [...]

Today Rob asks:
I am always seeing ads for those slow system repair software applications. My questions is are they any good and should I consider using one?
In my opinion, most of these programs are either junkware or just plain dangerous. Even worse, a select few contain questionable software that might end up becoming something of [...]

Today Fiona writes:
I have severe problems with Wi-Fi. I have year round problems with itchy, dark-pigmented, sticky eyelids when around Wi-Fi. I have seasonal allergies, sneezing, but only suffered with the eyelid problem when we installed Wi-Fi in the house (which became year round). It is really debilitating. I went into [...]

Today, Joe asks:
I just got cable Internet. Bought a router (Linksys) and a desktop card for my downstairs computer. Over the past few weeks it is now apparent that the signal from the router could be “better.” Looked around for something to enhance the signal and found several that seemed to fit the [...]

Today, Jenn asks:
Matt I just bought a new Belkin N1 wireless router. I already have a Linksys wireless router in place and wanted to add this one on the main floor of my house, but still be able to access other computers on my network. Can you tell me how [...]

Today a reader asks,
My Vaio has been giving me Hell. The WLAN works fine at home, various coffee shops and restaurants, etc., but I’m on vacation at the moment. I stayed at a hotel last night at my halfway point and am now at the final destination, where my WLAN suddenly doesn’t work. I did [...]

Today Tom asks:
I have an old router using 802.11b. For security I have WEP and MAC address filtering. I have to ask, is this good enough or should I be considering an upgrade?
Yes you should upgrade for two fairly significant reasons:

The download speeds on 802.11b is pretty bad.
WEP encryption may keep casually passersby from [...]