SP3 is not, at this time, to be installed for another month or so because the problems are still showing up. At some time, the patches for the induced problems will be ready and at that time, SP3 can be installed for XP and then the patches can be immediately applied that will make SP3 a useful product. However, SP3 is a good tool to install when a customer’s computer is so messed up that a desperation move is to install SP2 or SP3 in order to not lose the customer’s data.

Having Remote Access capability is a great aid to anyone that needs to keep someone else’s computer going--especially if there is a disparity in desires or skills to maintain a computer. Bob DeGrasse, at the last CompuSIR meeting put me wise for what I had been looking for: a free, simple, working remote access program. CrossLoop fits that bill quite nicely.

How to speed up your interface to the Internet is always a worthwhile endeavor. For quite some time I had been experiencing less-than-optimal responses from my Internet connection. I was paying for 1.5 Mb/Second but often had been receiving about half that. As a result, I had been contemplating paying more to the ISP or, if that was too expensive, transferring to Sonic.net. Then an online course at cnet.com (see URL below) stated that disabling the QoS (Quality of Service) option in XP would back off the monitoring function of QoS thereby allowing for the full use of the available bandwidth.

[Here’s an email exchange between a SPAUG member and Jim Dinkey that occurred while this PrintScreen issue was being prepared..—jb]
Hi Jim, I came up out of a fog of time and wanted to clean up my machine before running Acronis and defragging. I went to the SPAUG web site hoping to find a file with the procedures for deleting unneeded internet files etc. I remember watching you do it but can't remember program names etc. If there is a link on the site it isn't obvious.
Thanks Merry Christmas.
Paul