SURFING THE INTERNET
Alan Winstanley
Welcome to this month's
Net Work, our column
specially written for In-
ternet users.
PLIGHT OF THE
NAVIGATOR
Microsoft Internet Explorer
4 recently arrived in my office
as an unwelcome guest prein-
stalled on a new Dell computer.
After delivery, Step One was to
disable the Active Desktop
which I found gimmicky, point-
less and irritating. Step Two was
to attempt to configure all my
Dial-Up Networking connec-
tions, and my E-mail software.
Unfortunately things rapidly
went downhill, with recurrent
modem nightmares, crashes
and re-boots galore and other
anomalies. And no I haven't got
Windows 98 (thanks).
A dozen phone calls to Dell
and Microsoft, a new mother-
board, a new memory, three
modems and several on-site
visits later, two technical sup-
port representatives suggested
that one way of curing problems
might be to type “ieremove” at
the Run line, and thereby
de-install Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4. In the event, we
decided to give it up as a bad
job and my shiny new PC had to
be shipped back to Ireland
anyway, and − credit to Dell
Computer Corporation − it was
collected within five hours of my
complaining.
Upon its return, I wasn't
surprised to see that Explorer 3
had been installed as the
default web browser: I would
Copyright © 1998 Wimborne Publishing Ltd and
Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc
have done the same myself.
When I queried this, though, it
was suggested that if I pro-
ceeded to re-install Explorer 4, I
ought not to use the Active
Desktop which has been known
to “cause problems.” As at
today, not having the Active
Desktop installed may now
cause a problem as well,
because my very latest version
of Hot Metal Pro 5 requires −
you guessed − the Active Desk-
top to be enabled if I am to
access all of Hot Metal's fea-
tures. The only alternative, says
Softquad, is to use Windows 98.
I guess this will be the
pattern of events for the next
year or two. Anyway, just for the
record, I am delighted to report
that the PC hasn't missed
a beat, and as an anonymous
customer I found Dell's
Customer Service highly
commendable.
BLACK SPOT
I was soon to find that using
version 3 of Explorer created a
few problems of its own, when
accessing the web sites of
Microsoft and Dell in search of
patches and drivers. Both sites
use Active Server technology.
My attempts at navigating
around their web sites repeat-
edly came to a dead end,
because of an error message
“The object has moved and may
be found here.” Trying to jump
“here” caused my session to
grind to a frustrating halt; funnily
enough the only way forward
was to return fully armed with
Netscape Navigator 4.0. Exactly
the same happened with my
CompuServe browser which I
EPE Online, December 1998 - www.epemag.com - 139
resurrected on the new PC.
(The latest release of Netscape
Navigator is V4.5, by the way:
more at www.browsers.com)
For many experienced PC
users, Microsoft Internet Ex-
plorer 4 is still one upgrade too
many which they can probably
quarantine alongside Windows
98. Unfortunately, the depen-
dency of some web sites on
displaying properly (if at all)
only if a certain browser is used,
is as frustrating for users as
ever. Let us also not forget the
myriad of browser plug-ins
extolled by some web sites:
checking the BT Home Highway
web site
(www.highway.bt.com), for
example, I found that the use of
Macromedia Shockwave did
little to present the data behind
BT's sales pitch more effec-
tively than a web site full of
static HTML would have done,
only the Shockwave-enabled
site took far longer to visit and
therefore told me less in the
time available. Some users
may find the images of spinning
motorway signposts captivating,
though.
SOFTWARE
SELECTION
Several popular FTP pro-
grams are available via the In-
ternet and the rule is to fetch a
shareware version and then buy
the one which works for you.
Features to look out for include
an automatic "reget" of trans-
fers, which means that if
interrupted, the transfer can be
restored from where it left off,
rather than having to fetch the

entire file again. Also, the ability
to store sessions (the configura-
tion, URL, passwords and other
set-up data) related to particular
FTP sites is useful. This month
I've provided a list of some In-
ternet software tools worth
checking.
Absolute FTP is shareware
and is said to boast an Explorer-
type interface, drag-and-drop
file transfers, reget, plus the
ability to run simultaneous
transfers from multiple FTP
sites, bandwidth permitting. Try
www.vandyke.com for more
details. For Macintosh users,
Anarchie Pro (v3.0) is now
available from
www.shareware.com with
enhanced web support, offline
browsing, and an improved
graphical front end.
Terrapin FTP and Terrapin
Postbox (E-mail client) are at
www.terra-net.com and Cute
FTP is available from
www.cuteftp.com. I like the
looks of Crystal Art Software's
Crystal FTP (www.casdk.com)
which installed and worked in-
stantly. It has a handy-looking
"Quick" button and could be just
the thing for struggling Windows
users. Web site maintainers
might also enjoy Crystal SiteUp-
dater [sic] from the same site. It
helps with the publishing, syn-
chronization and validation of
web sites, but it hasn't been
tested by me. FTPPro98 is an
Explorer-style FTP client from
www.ftppro.com, and Bullet
Pro FTP looks particularly at-
tractive at www.bpftp.com.
FTP Explorer from
www.ftpx.com has similar con-
trols to Microsoft Windows Ex-
plorer, which beginners might
appreciate, and Anawave
(noted for its “Websnake” soft-
ware) offers a W95 FTP client
interface called FTP Icon Con-
nection at www.anawave.com.
Net Work
Another popular Macintosh FTP
application is Fetch from
www.dartmouth.edu.
WinZIP (now in version 7) is
the totally indispensable Win-
dows Zip utility for compressing
or decompressing files. A handy
browser add-on means that you
can view the contents of zipped
files in your browser, without
having to unzip them sepa-
rately. Buy it! More from
www.winzip.com. “Zip up the
Web” is a W95/NT freeware
utility which (it says here) en-
ables you to zip up and E-mail a
collection of web pages without
facing the chore of downloading
the text and graphics. It creates
a self-executable file of the web
pages, which you can E-mail
onwards. It's at
www.shareware.com.
I welcome your suggestions
for links to share with fellow
readers. E-mail ideas to
alan@epemag.demon.co.uk.

Bebop BYTES Back

(An Unconventional Guide to Computers)
By Clive “Max” Maxfield and Alvin Brown
Free CD-ROM, 870 pages, $39.96 US Dollars (plus S&H)

This follow-on to Bebop to the Boolean Boogie is a multimedia extravaganza

of information about how computers work. It picks up where the first Bebop left
off, guiding you through the fascinating world of computer design ...... and you'll
have a few chuckles, if not belly laughs, along the way. In addition to over 200
megabytes of mega-cool multimedia, the accompanying CD-ROM (for Windows 95 machines only) con-
tains a virtual microcomputer, which simulates the way a real computer works in an extremely realistic
manner. In addition to a wealth of technical information, myriad nuggets of trivia, and hundreds of care-
fully drawn illustrations, the book contains a set of lab experiments for the virtual microcomputer. If you're
the slightest bit interested in the inner workings of computers, then you don't dare to miss this little beauty!

Available from the EPE Online Store at www.epemag.com

Copyright © 1998 Wimborne Publishing Ltd and EPE Online, December 1998 - www.epemag.com - 140
Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc