HTTech4U Troubleshooting

August 2003

25 August 2003


While on the internet, I get unsolicited porn sites and pop-up ads. I am afraid to open my e-mail in front of others. Secondly, there is one site which is stuck on my desktop. I have repeatedly deleted it, but it reappears. Besides, there are nine and ten years-old children at home who keep fiddling with the computer. How do I get rid of this bizzare problem?
- Shalini Mitra

The solution is simple and small, at 734Kb. Download a freeware called SecretMaker. A pop-up killer, a spam-fighter, a cookie-eraser, a history-cleaner, and a privacy-protector designed for the needs of most Windows users for private or business use. For your children, download and install Net Nanny 5.0, a parental control software that blocks objectionable web sites. With it, you can apply time limits to net access, restrict internet games, file-sharing, and other Internet applications. You can also filter words and phrases, monitor Internet usage, and customize settings for everyone or each user individually. Get both of these from cnet.com/downloads, by searching for each in the search-box at the top-right. You will also find 734 additional utilities to help you secure and protect your privacy while accessing the internet. Find them on the page, by clicking on the 'Internet' section, and then on the 'online privacy' link.


How do I know whether my PC is infected with the SoBig virus? How can I remove it?
- Kartik

This monday, warn industry experts, expect the SoBig virus to have devastating effects on PCs and networks as people return to work from the weekend. SoBig holds the dubious distinction of being the fastest-propogating virus. One in every 17th email transmits it, and some experts feel this figure may rise. It arrives with a random subject-line and a *.pif attachment. On Fridays and Sundays it attempts to connect to a server and download additional code and instructions to your PC. Read interesting details on its twisted nature, and how to remove it manually if your virus-protection is not updated, on antivirus.com.


I have more than 100 pages of A4-size with text from the top to bottom, and no pictures. I use a Umax scanner with its bundled OCR software to scan the pages and convert them to text. Some spelling mistakes always occur. How can I have a 100% accurate conversion?
- S.D.Senapati

You can't. No software that scans pages and converts them to text is certified 100% accurate. At best, such software, called OCR (Optical Character Reader) highlight possible mistakes and prompt the user for corrections. You can reduce errors by using more advanced, and therefore more expensive, OCRs like OmniScan. An alternative approach is to use Adobe Acrobat, with its Capture utility to save the scanned page as a PDF and to automatically hide the translated text 'behind' the scanned image so the 'find' or 'search' works.


Win98 and GnuLinux co-exist on my PC. How can I save my Master Boot Record when I upgrade to WinXP?
- - Vikas Madan

The MBR chooses which OS the PC boots into, when you switch it on. Read an excellent tutorial on MBR and GRUB in the howto section at tldp.org.


I work for a large organization. We have our own server. If we use our personal ID can we access our emails? How can we ensure privacy?
- Ritu Malhotra

Yes, you can access emails in your non-official accounts like Hotmail etc. No confidentiality or privacy can be ensured in this type of access.

18 August 2003


I use Windows with the latest Pccillin antivirus software. Earlier, I used Norton. I update the anti-virus pattern atleast thrice a week through heavy downloads over my dial-up connection. ZoneAlarm's firewall is also installed. Even then, the Blaster virus slipped through. Earlier, Nimda repeatedly trounced my PC. Please tell me an alternative strategy to permanently save my PC without downloading antivirus updates, and now, even Windows security patches, all the time?
- Vasudevan

You seem to be following your defense strategy by the book. Most users are not as diligent as you. The computer industry realizes downloading up-to-date virus patterns and security patches constantly is nearly impossible. A fundamental solution is yet to be found. However, most viruses target Windows-based computers. So a good interim solution is to use a dual-boot machine with Windows and GnuLinux. Unlike Windows, GnuLinux is not affected by win-targetted viruses, and GnuLinux can be configured to be as secure as you want. Use GnuLinux to dial into the internet, surf, chat, check your hotmail account, download emails, word-process, and more. Use Windows for all your other work. If you don't wish to partition your hard disk, boot up with the Knoppix CD instead to run GnuLinux. Once finished, just pop out the CD and reboot into Windows.


How do I know my PC is infected by the Blaster virus? How can I remove it?
- Anisha Durafe

Symptoms: Your PC constantly reboots, or reboots unexpectedly every couple of minutes you access the internet. You receive error messages about failures caused by the svchost.exe file. You get an error message about RPC service failure. You may also find the files, Msblast.exe, Teekids.exe or Penis32.exe in your Windows system directory, usually in the folder C:\Windows\Systems32. Solutions: To regain access to the internet, find and rename the TFTP file in the above folder. Also check the dllcache subfolder in the above path. Visit antivirus.com or kaspersky.com for free removal utilities and instructions. Install ZoneAlarm, available from cnet.com/downloads, and secure ports 69, 135, and 4444, which are used by the virus. The most important step: download the Microsoft patch to eliminate the DCOM RPC vulnerability else your PC is still in danger. You can also get a link to it from the kaspersky site.


When it comes to flat-screen monitors, vendors talk about TFT and Plasma screens. Can you please explain the difference between these two? What is the difference between a CD writer and a CD rewriter?
- - Praveen S.

For an easy tech-primer, check out http://www.hwupgrade.com/monitor/index3.html. All CD Writers in the market today can write to erasable Cds, hence the difference seems like a marketing gimmick. Just ensure your drive supports the 'CD-RW' format, and can erase a CD-RW disc.


Is it possible to burn a CD from my PC such so that nobody can copy it?
- Saif Khan

No. Using clever tools, almost all software locks can be broken. Some even duplicate the CDs with the locks intact. A combination of a hardware lock, called a dongle, that uses a spare USB or parallal port, and a software lock, seems to be a more resilient solution. Google-search for 'hardware dongle' for additional info.


How can I convert scanned images into a screensaver with music?
- Garima Prakash

Download software from a load of free utilities at cnet.com/downloads in the multimedia section.

11 August 2003


I lost my job in an IT firm five months ago and have yet to find a good job offer. Should I turn to freelance and consulting to keep myself gainfully self-employed? Who can guide me since I have no prior experience in freelancing?
- Pankaj

I could point you to a two-part article series that does encourage the unemployed to take up freelance technical support, including advice on knowing if this work is right for you, marketing yourself, learning on the job, handling and educating clients, managing the business, the temperament required, and the negative aspects of the work. Find it at http://homepage.mac.com/monickels/techjob.html


In your previous article, a reader has requested for a free English-to-Hindi translation software. Such a free software exists at the website http://anglahindi.iitk.ac.in. It has been developed by Prof. R.M.K. Sinha and his team, who is treated as the Father of Machine Translation in India. The technology will become multi-lingual with the help of thirteen language technology resource centres created by the Dept. of IT, Ministry of Communications and IT, for all the eighteen constitutionally recognised languages. This job is likely to take two years from now.
- Dr.P.K.Chaturvedi, Director, TDIL Programme, Department of IT, Ministry of Communication and IT

Thank you for sharing this with our readers.


IIT-Kanpur was assigned the task of developing an English-to-Hindi translation software. It is available at anglahindi.iitk.ac.in. I find the software suitable for simple sentences. Similar projects were given by the Government to Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology to develop a Punjabi wordprocessing software, and to C-DAC for an Urdu wordprocessor. TIET developed Likhari, available at punjabirc.tiet.ac.in. It has a technical word dictionary and a spell-check. However, TIET does not provide the standard INSCRIPT keyboard layout. Secondly, the spell-check has added to the confusion of standards. Punjabi Shabad Jor Kosh, developed by more than sixty well-known linguists for over twenty years and published by the Punjabi University, Patiala, could have been accepted as the standard. It will be good for the Punjabi language if TIET incorporates this into their software. Lastly, their free demo version has a severe limitation of 250 characters.
- Kulwant-Zubaida Madan, Husband-Wife Team of Translators, English<>Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu

Appreciate your sharing this information with our readers. I contacted TIET and confirmed they are working towards adopting standards for their language-encoding. They welcome any support experts from various domains could offer them. I hope the idea of offering language translation as a professional service over the internet, as stated in your email signature, inspires many of our readers.


I use Norton Antivirus. Can I use Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5? Can I use more than two software simultaneously? I also have an unformatted partition left for Linux, and have its installation CD. Please advise me on how to install Linux.
- - Nilanjana Modak

Yes, you can install Kerio, or ZoneAlarm, as a firewall, and Norton as the antivirus. They won't conflict. However, you should not install more than one firewall or antivirus software each. Boot with the installation Cds and follow the dialog boxes on installing GnuLinux. Do backup your data first. You could refer to tldp.org, linuxnewbie.org, as well as buy a GnuLinux book for more guidance.


I want to learn the PERL programming language. Is Windows suitable for this?
- Anil Singh Nayal

Yes, though serious PERL programmers prefer working under GnuLinux. You will find loads of free tools, tutorials, and guides, pre-installed on most GnuLinux distributions.

04 August 2003


I have taken a photo of my daughter's smiling face. I want to create a poster-size print of the image in such a way that when you look closely, you discover the smiling face is actually made of dozens of other photos of her. Viewed from a distance they look like her smiling face. How can I create this photo-mosaic?
- Avinash Kaushik

Any photo-mosaic needs a minimum of twenty different images to look effective, though I would recommend triple or four times that. Adding even more images creates a much better photo-mosaic. The idea is simple: divide the original image into small tiles, and then replace each tile with a photo, altering its colors and tonality to nearly-match those of the original tile. Find links to a step-by-step tutorial, and for the lazy, loads of freeware, shareware, and commercial software as well as plug-ins, for Windows, Macintosh, and GnuLinux, at http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photomosaics/. My favourite are the plug-ins for the image-editing software GIMP, that runs under GnuLinux. Many consider the free GIMP a worthy competitor or alternative to Photoshop.


I want to develop an online banking solution for co-operative banks as a project. How can I do this?
- Amit Singh

An online banking solution for cooperative banks has already been developed by Open Software Solutions. It is called 'Sanghamithra'. You can use the software free-of-cost, you can make copies and share it with your colleagues, you can view and study its source-code (its recipe), and you can further modify and add more features to it. The GPL (General Public License) in which it is released gives you all these freedoms. Download Sanghamithra from www.atpskerala.org/Sanghamithra/.


I need a free English to Hindi translation software. Does a good one exist?
- - Kanika Dua

According to an Indic-language developer, "You are asking for the moon!" However, some development work is happening at IIIT-Hyderabad, http://216.236.98.137/~shakti/. Also, there is a libray available from C-DAC that will transliterate Indian names from English to Indian languages, available at www.cdacindia.com/html/gist/products/ntrans.asp. You could also find some work done at http://tdil.mit.gov.in/mat/ach-mat.htm. Finally, another language expert suggests http://dmoz.org/Reference/Dictionaries/World_Languages/H/Hindi/. If readers know or can find a satisfactory and free software, please write to me. Your answer will be published in a forthcoming article alongwith your names.


Where can I find pirated MP3 music of the latest Indian films and also of the latest Western pop music? Is Kazaa the best software to use to find and download such music?
- - XYZ

Sharing and downloading pirated music is a punishable crime these days. The recording industry in the US is actively tracking down and legally suing offenders. They have mainly collected names of offenders who use Kazaa. A list of these offenders can be found at www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3484600,00.html. It may be a matter of time before similar severe steps are taken in India as well.


My friend tells me I cannot use Outlook Express, MSOffice, or Explorer under Linux. Is this correct? What can I use instead?
- Sudhanwa Jogalekar

No need to use these software under GnuLinux. Use Evolution, OpenOffice, and Mozilla for each one respectively. Find out more alternative and free software, especially in other categories, at http://bitwiser.org/~nwa/pub/alternatives/. Another list is at http://in.redhat.com/AppComparisonList.php3.

© 2003: Niyam Bhushan. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.