Messaging problems can be fixed

Question: I am having lots of trouble staying connected to Yahoo Messenger. Sometimes I am still connected; sometimes it just drops me. I can always reconnect, and it is fine for a while, but it seems like I am invisible.

Answer: I asked around and also checked the Yahoo support forums for people reporting the same thing. And there seem to be a couple of things at work here. One is heavy traffic; if you are trying to connect at the peak time (evenings in the United States), you will find more trouble connecting and staying connected. A second is firewalls. Try playing with the connection preferences (if you have a router, try the "firewall with no proxies" option as one try).

Question: A long time ago I burned thousands of files onto CD-R discs using a Windows ME machine and whatever software that came with it. Now I can't read the discs on my new Windows XP PC. I thought they were universal.

Answer: Well, kinda. The first time around you likely used what was called a packet-writing software that let you drag the files directly to disc. So now you have to use a packet-writing software to read them again. (Then never use such a thing again to burn CDs.) In Easy CD Creator it's called "drag to disc"; in Nero it is called InCD. If you can use that program to view a disc's contents, close the session. The disc will then be readable on normal CD drives. If you don't have any packet-writing software, use the program on your old PC if you still have it, or borrow a buddy's.

Question: The entire desktop background of my PC has changed to a black spyware warning. I can't get rid of it; the tabs for the desktop are removed from my display properties. What happened?

Answer: A Trojan has infected your computer. Run a complete anti-virus scan plus Microsoft Anti-Spyware, AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy. That will help remove the intruder. You may even need more of a deep cleaning.

Question: You mentioned that tape backup is no longer the way to go. What do you recommend, then?