No Answers, where to go from here?

I posted the following yesterday and received no replies. Either my question is
too stupid for anyone to take seriously, or else no one knows the answer. Can
anyone point me in a direction where I might find some answers to these
questions? Thanks.

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My sister and her husband recently subscribed to a satellite internet provider.
The representative also networked their two computers--one is a desktop running
Windows 98, and the other is a laptop running Windows XP.

Ever since they have had this done, they've had nothing but problems. For one
thing, none of the pictures load on websites, but only on the desktop computer.
The laptop doesn't get any email through Outlook Express, but the desktop does.
The Scandisk and Defrag won't run (stay stuck at 10%), even with everything but
Explorer closed out (on the desktop computer). She says she even disables the
firewall, but it still won't run.

I've been helping with their computer troubles until this point, but this kind
of stuff is beyond me. Can you point me to some resources that I can refer her
to, to help solve some of these issues?

Also, does the firewall need to be installed on both computers, or just the
"hub" computer (that's the term she said the representative used--I know
nothing!)

Or, perhaps, your questions are too vague for an easy solution in this
type of forum.

Possible causes of the problems:

1) on the laptop, start->Control Panel->Internet
Options->Advanced->Restore Defaults. That will sometimes correct the
picture issue.

2) on the laptop, check the Outlook Express mail server settings.
Make sure they match up with the Outlook Express mail server settings
on the machine that works. Since you didn't give any other symptoms
except "doesn't get any mail" I can't go much further.

3) Run Scandisk and Defrag in Safe Mode(Press F8 at startup). Very
common issue with Win98 and WinXP.

4) I assume that since you reference a "hub" computer, the tech
installed Internet Connection Sharing to share the signal. If so, the
firewall really only needs to be on the ICS host system that is
connected directly to the satellite service...the ICS client doesn't
need a firewall, but a properly configured firewall can't hurt and
will add an extra measure of protection.

5) If all else fails, call the satellite company for tech support.
They installed the network, so they should support it.

Good Luck, and hope that helps...

GLCrews,MCP


On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 10:19:23 -0500, "cc" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I posted the following yesterday and received no replies. Either my question is
>too stupid for anyone to take seriously, or else no one knows the answer. Can
>anyone point me in a direction where I might find some answers to these
>questions? Thanks.
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---------------------------------------------
>
>My sister and her husband recently subscribed to a satellite internet provider.
>The representative also networked their two computers--one is a desktop running
>Windows 98, and the other is a laptop running Windows XP.
>
>Ever since they have had this done, they've had nothing but problems. For one
>thing, none of the pictures load on websites, but only on the desktop computer.
>The laptop doesn't get any email through Outlook Express, but the desktop does.
>The Scandisk and Defrag won't run (stay stuck at 10%), even with everything but
>Explorer closed out (on the desktop computer). She says she even disables the
>firewall, but it still won't run.
>
>I've been helping with their computer troubles until this point, but this kind
>of stuff is beyond me. Can you point me to some resources that I can refer her
>to, to help solve some of these issues?
>
>Also, does the firewall need to be installed on both computers, or just the
>"hub" computer (that's the term she said the representative used--I know
>nothing!)
>
>
>