Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and computers

All header and no content

Lokheed — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:09:50 -0800

Why won't metafilter load for my wife, but it does for me? Me: running WindowsXP and using Firefox 3.5.6
Her: running Windoes & and using Firefox 3.5.6

Home network is a cable modem going to a wireless G router.

When I go to the metafilter sites, everything loads fine. When she does to any of the metafilter sites, the header area loads up and then none of the posts show. The same thing happens with Internet Explorer. Most other websites load fine, although she sees similar issues with TelevisionWithoutPity where the header loads and then no content.

I tried turning off the windows firewall, and that had no effect.

Any ideas?

I can't stay logged in to any websites

peep — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:17:42 -0800

Suddenly today, I can't stay logged into anything - Google, Facebook, Metafilter, Twitter, Flickr, etc. I've run through a bunch of possibilities, but could the power cutting out last night have done something? I'm using Firefox, and I've already uninstalled and reinstalled it. Privacy settings allow cookies and I don't have it set to clear history when closing a window. And obviously I've tried many times to log into different sites, making sure I click "remember me." I've never had this problem before today. Last night the power went out for about 20 seconds and my computer shut down, but all was otherwise fine this morning. I've restarted and it's in regular (not safe) mode. Any ideas?

How can I tell if someone is trying to hop onto my wireless signal?

invisible ink — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:46:16 -0800

I have a MacBook Pro running OS 10.6.1, and an Airport Extreme Base Station. Is there a user-friendly way to see if someone is trying to use my internet connection or hack into my network? I live in a large apartment building, and am curious to see if anyone has tried to hop onto my wireless signal. Thanks in advance:-)

help me play well with others

crazylegs — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:49:26 -0800

Looking for a universally compatible word processing program that can I download for free off the internet. I'm using Open Office on my computer, which I got for free. It works fine for me but sometimes when I send files to other people they're unable to open them. As I'm applying for academic jobs, this doesn't make me look very good, to say the least. What word processing program, can I get off the internet, for free, that will be universally compatible with any other computers to which I might send files? Thanks!

Apple Airport Extreme or Express?

invisible ink — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:13:34 -0800

What is the difference between an Apple Airport Express Base Station, and an Airport Extreme Base Station? I have a tiny 500-square foot apartment. All I want is to be able to surf the web wirelessly. Can I go with the cheaper Express Base Station? Why is one cheaper than the other (in other words, what can the Extreme do that the Express cannot)?

Help me connect!

scarylarry — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:02:01 -0800

Help me connect to my girlfriend's wireless network! My lovely girlfriend has a closed wireless network set up at her house (it requires a WPA2 Personal password to access and it's hidden from Airport's network scan). I have the network name and the password, and I've joined through Airport. I get full bars, but no actual internet connectivity whatsoever.

Neither my girlfriend nor I are particularly computer-savvy. We're not sure if maybe she needs to give my computer special permission from hers, or what. I don't know if this matters, but we both use Macbook Pros--she's running Leopard and I'm running Tiger.

Thanks so much.

Wireless Network Lag

bobertdude — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:18:37 -0800

What are some ways I can improve latency over a wireless network? When i do the ping test on google i get an average of 90ms, which is not good enough for online games. Are there any ways you can improve latency over a network? I have a Wireless G adapter with 3 computers connected to it. Switching from wireless is not an option for me. Please ask me as many questions as you have to about my network and I'll be happy to answer.

PS - I switched over to OpenDNS. Is that bad news for my network latency?

Websites for Elementary Kids?

debbie_ann — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:09:30 -0800

What are some school appropriate websites I can use in the classroom? I find myself teaching computers K-8 this year. What are some good sites for the kids? I've found a few typing games that are educational enough to use in the classroom and they love it when I send them to one punch sites like isitchristmas? and doineedanumbrella. We also use internet tutorials pretty heavily, but I know this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'd like to have a whole list of appropriate sites (like games and funny things) for free days, as well as some really easy sites to teach the five-year-olds how to point and click.

Wire(less) me up, Scotty!

cachondeo45 — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:20:19 -0800

Wireless Filter: Internet is free in my apartment complex but our connection is crap. Help! Quick facts:

-13 unit (old) complex
-we are on the third floor
-the wireless router is on the first floor of the back apartments, so we get spotty internet only in the back part of our apartment, and absolutely nothing on the front end.
-landlord says it is a Gateway 2Wire either 100 ft or 150 ft.
-service is from SBC, which the landlord pays.
-the wireless is WEP protected and all tenants have the password.
-(i don't know if this matters but) I have a PC and my roommate has a mac.

He said he'll do whatever it takes to get us better service. So what does it take? Just a stronger router that goes the distance? I think he is illegally distributing the wireless among all of the apartments, and is unwilling to call SBC but he says if we find a solution, he'd see to it that it gets purchased / installed.

Please, oh techie mefites with great and powerful knowledge, help us!!!!

help me format too-big websites

crazylegs — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:37:28 -0800

Why are some websites too big for my screen? Hi -
I've got myself a new Acer Aspire One, have hooked it up to an external keyboard, mouse, and 17" monitor, and almost everything is great. The only problem is that some websites don't want to format to my screen. Ebay is one example. The screen is too big so I have to scroll around to see it all. It's quite annoying for many repetitive actions such as listing things on ebay. The problem isn't with the change from the laptop to the 17" monitor, as they both look the same. It doesn't happen on all websites, only a few. What can I do?

Learning Ruby on Rails 2.0?

BoldStepDesign — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:02:51 -0800

Foreword: No ruby background aside from basic tutorials. Here's the deal. I've tired the Agile Web Dev (2nd edition) book for rails, very out of date. I need to learn something. I want to learn ruby on Rails. I've gone through the Rails guide on creating a rails blog (http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started_with_rails.html). So, rather then buy it now (3rd edition of book as beta) or just wait, I want to get on the fast track to learn rails 2.2 (soon to be release 2.3) . Basically I'm looking for a online resource super cheap or free that provides quality information relating to rails and ruby. Help and suggestions welcome

Facebook, delicious and flickr not loading!

carofowler — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:30:12 -0800

My facebook, delicious and flickr aren't working, but all other sites are fine. What's wrong and how do I fix it? I have been trying for over a week to use my facebook account unsuccessfully.

I use Firefox 3.0.5 on a MacBook although I have also tried on Safari 3.1.2.

Usually, I am able to sign in and arrive at the home page successfully. Then, when I try to go into any other page, the page won't load and I get a "failed to open page" error or "page load error - connection interrupted" or something of the sort.

Clicking on links in my email to posted pictures or messages also doesn't work and the page will not load. I have tried deleting all facebook cookies, all cookies, restarting Firefox, restarting the computer and nothing has worked.

My account is working fine on other computers, but since it doesn't happen with any other site, this must be an issue with Facebook AND my computer.

Also, my delicious account won't load either. I tired on Safari and the home page loaded but none of the other pages and I get "connection interrupted" as well.

When I try logging into flickr (through the Yahoo! sign in page, which is where flickr redirects you when you click to sign in) i get sent to a blank page: https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?

These sites work fine when I sign in through other computers and all other sites and the internet in general are working fine on my computer. I have also tried deleting cookies for these. For delicious it works and allows me to enter the home page, but then I still can't access any of the other pages.

Does anyone know what is going on and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

Batch Printing from Gmail

Raichle — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:15:22 -0800

Does anyone know of a way to batch print multiple emails from Gmail? Looking to print 30+ emails and don't want to have to open and print each one. Thanks!

What are external links, and what value do they provide to my site ranking?

Nixie Pixel — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:07:40 -0800

What are external links, and what value do they provide to my site ranking? Are they important? What are external links, and what value do they provide to my site ranking? Are they important? I understand the basics of external linking, but I'd like to know a more in depth explanation. Thanks a lot in advance! =)

how to route 2 wans with the same subnet

brent_h — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:23:31 -0800

Is there a firewall that will let me have two separate wan connections that are both on the same subnet/ have the same gateway? I have a fortinet fortigate 60 that has two wan ports. We recently upgraded our wan connections to two fios lines, and would like to use them both. Only problem is that the fortigate does not allow us to have two connections that are on the same subnet.

line 1 = 192.168.1.34 with a gateway of 192.168.1.1
line 2 = 192.168.1.173 with a gateway of 192.168.1.1
( addresses changed to protect the innocent )

We are currently engaged in a 2 week epic battle with verizon to see if we can get one of the lines changed to a different subnet, but so far, they have managed to just change the ip address within the same subnet. three times. word.

I feel that I need to start planning for the possiblity that they may not be able to change the ip addess for us. So I figure we could look at other firewall solutions that might be able to do what we want.

1) is it possible to have two wan connections on one firewall that are in the same subnet? I know a bit about routing, but nowhere near enough to know how this would be possible.

2) If it is possible, any suggestions on firewalls that would work? ( I think I am more interested in linux based opensource firewalls, rather than dedicated firewalls, but if thats all you got, let me know anyways ).

Why do mine keep breaking?

jon1270 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:58:37 -0800

What's the normal lifespan of a wireless router for home use? I'm asking because mine seem to fail awfully quickly. We've had two, both basic linksys models. The first lasted about 2 years before the wireless part quit (computers hardwired to it still worked fine). The replacement we bought barely seemed to outlast its warranty, lasting maybe a year before failing the same way.

The technician for our ISP says he sees failures like this all the time, that wireless routers are inherently unreliable. I don't want to believe him. I want to believe that I can buy a decent router and expect it to last several years if I don't abuse it.

So, how long should they last? Did I get two consecutive lemons? Is Linksys junk? I'd like to have wireless at home, but I'm getting gun shy about throwing more money at the problem without understanding what's going on.

Online Encryption of Passwords?

snap_dragon — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:16:58 -0800

Is there any free or cheap service where I can store all my passwords, uh, online? Is this a reasonable question or am I being foolish? I have all my passwords in a Word document but don't like carrying them on my usb as a)I lose it. Is there such a site for security that I can encrypt this tiny but precious document?

Flash gallery?

BoldStepDesign — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:13:35 -0800

I'm looking for a Free Flash gallery with admin panel, something similar to SlideshowPro (http://slideshowpro.net/). Know of anything?

Tool for automatic email header extraction for Outlook?

Jackie_Treehorn — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:31:12 -0800

Is there an easier way to select a group of emails in Outlook and extract their header information to a file or to the clipboard - together, all at once? An Outlook plugin perhaps? Outlook's method sucks because you can only get one header at a time via right-click and view options. I've got a load of spam that I need to send to my host for investigation.

Limiting internet time for teenagers

roshy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:05:49 -0800

My teenage cousin is staying up too late on the internet and my aunt has asked me to help her limit how much time she is spending on it. It is very similar to this question which has come before. But I'm looking for a software solution. Now obviously any kind of program is NO SUBSTITUTE for parental supervision. Just to get that out of the way. I can't reasonably have any effect on my aunt's parenting style. She lives with the kid-- I'm just housesitting with her next week.

While I am there, my aunt has asked me to try limit my 14 year old cousin's internet time. It isn't the internet that is a problem-- it is the fact she is staying up past midnight chatting to her friends on msn and myspace. She's not getting up in the morning in time for school and is constantly late. My aunt is a single parent who tends to do late and early morning shifts so she's struggling to set appropriate time constraints/boundaries.

I'm coldhearted so I recommended unplugging the modem and taking it away but I don't think my aunt wants to set herself up for that battle. I tried to show her how to change permissions on the router using the other computer in her room, but she's unable to really grasp it. I think an automated program limiting internet access would be helpful as it is something that my aunt would not have any direct control over. If my cousin has a tantrum over her limited internet access, my aunt has no option to fold under the pressure. My cousin can't handle computers beyond internet explorer so I'm reasonably sure she would not be able to circumvent this. And if she did, well, at least she finally learnt something useful on the computer.

What I imagine would be best is software on the computer that would block the internet connection after 9:30 or some other arbitrary time on a weekday, and could possibly be controlled over the network using the other computer in the house. Does anything like this exist?

Thank you for any assistance.

How to watch shows together?

arniec — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:52:50 -0800

How can my friends and I, all in different time zones, watch TV together during its FIRST airing? We're all tech savvy, but not nocturnal. Help us! My friends and I are excited about some new TV series coming out this fall and would like to watch them as a group, connected via Skype to talk about the shows. However, we are all across the country, PST to EST. By the time the show is airing PST it's been 3 hours since it started EST; by the time a 9 p.m. 1 hour show is over it's only 10 p.m. PST but it's 1 a.m. EST and some of us have to work the next day.

So we're trying to figure out a way that we can all watch the show during its EST/CST premiere.

We are familiar with broadcating systems like NowLive.com, etc. but the best solution we've come up with is awful....point our webcam at a television and go. It would suffice primarily for audio, but the viewers watching on the webcam would not really get much in the way of visuals.

Is there any way to do this where the quality is better than "webcam pointed at TV"? I know it won't be broadcast HDTV quality, but...something?

(Also this is truly just for personal use among 5 geeky friends who want to watch sci-fi shows as a group, and it's on stations we all get...no piracy is involved, we just want convenient timing).

Any help is appreciated.

Need an alternative to MyHQ for my homepage(s).

iamkimiam — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:30:17 -0800

Need to find an alternative to MyHQ.com. MyHQ is a web-based homepage that is simply lists of links that you can add to, customize, and organize into categories. You set it as your homepage, and voila!, every place you regularly visit on the internet is right in front of you. Their site is currently down, which has happened before, but this time I fear its for reals. I am literally lost without it (not to mention the 100+ organized links that I no longer have access to). This is different from social bookmarking (please do not recommend delicious.com; its a wonderful site, but won't suffice for this purpose). This would be like if you had access to your computer's bookmarks list as a homepage, from any computer, anywhere. There has GOT to be another website that is comparable to MyHQ. Anybody know what that is?

Thanks. I'm staring at the blank browser window and am completely clueless without my handy homepage! (I actually had to TYPE "ask.metafilter.com" into the URL bar...oh, the horror!)

Help me use GMail Better

arniec — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:25:14 -0800

My company recently switched from a standard POP mail server to having GMail as our MX server and hosting all our business accounts. Overall the benefits are quite positive, but I'm having some usage issues that bug me. Can you help me use gmail better? Specific questions inside. Part 1: I love the benefit of the IMAP mail system, allowing my inbox to be anywhere I am, rather than centralized around a specific computer. Previously I had my POP work account for 3 years and amassed thousands of emails coming in at about 4GB, all of which I must keep for reference of correspondence, e-mail addresses, etc. I had my mail sorted into folders, about 30-40 different folders depending on correspondence type. All of that mail was in Outlook until I recently became a Mac convert. Now it's all in Thunderbird.

So I can have ALL my mail available where I can get to it from anywhere, I'd like to migrate it all to GMail. I read that using IMAP I can just drag these old e-mails into my Inbox folder in Thunderbird, but given that I have about 40 folders, I'm not sure how to get them to GMail without just having a very large Inbox with a conglomeration of e-mails in it. I am guessing I could drag one folder to the Inbox, then organize that on Gmail, drag another folder, etc. but that leads me to problem #2:

Part 2: I know GMail uses labels...are there no folders? Would I need to drag in the e-mails, then label them all to use GMail's label system instead of my current folder-based system? And is that the most efficient way to do this?

Part 3: I am really NOT a fam of the "message threading" that GMail does. Often I will send solicitations to business partners and each subject line will be identical, the messages nearly so. However because the subject lines are the same, GMail takes e-mails from different business partners and puts them all in one thread, filling me with paranoia of sending the wrong e-mail to the wrong person or, worse, sending an entire e-mail chain from one business partner to another business partner which may contain confidential data. Is there any way to alter the functionality or, perhaps ideally, turn OFF this "feature" in GMail?

Part 4: As I'm still new to GMail, any "Power User" tips for me?

Final Notes: I still plan on using Thunderbird as my client of choice when at my work PC. I just want the ability to have ALL my mail accessible from ANY location as I feel it will enable me to work more efficiently, rather than having to hold some e-mails until I get back to my primary PC.

Thanks for any suggestions!

moving old emails from outlook express to gmail

conrad101 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:01:07 -0800

What is the simplest way of transferring old outlook express mails to gmail? I've set it up so that new mails received are forwarded automatically to gmail but moving old mails is proving more difficult

Can you fix the Internet I broke?

Airhen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:29:28 -0800

My computer is showing that I'm connected to the Internet, but it's not actually connecting. My usual trouble shooting tricks aren't working, so does anyone have any ideas? I'm sorry if this has been answered before. I don't seem to have specific enough terms to search here or on Google.

The Interwebs were working fine, and then I restarted because I was prompted to for an update. I have a PC (an HP laptop) running XP. The laptop is about four years old. It shows that I'm connected (wirelessly) to my signal, but I can't get to any Web sites, use instant messenger, etc.

I've tried: repairing my connection (that seemed to happen as usual, but with no results), restarting, restarting and repairing again, turning off the wireless router and turning it back on, connecting to another signal, turning off my computer's wireless card (do we still call it that in 2008?) and turning it on again, restarting and repairing again, just for good measure.

One of those usually works, but not this time.

Any other ideas?