Auldfart's How To Guides   Windows XP's Internet options          Windows XP relies on an Internet connection for lots of features. I dig out the hidden settings that make it all work             Windows XP handles a lot of Internet tasks better than any other version of Windows. Sharing your Internet connection (dial-up or broadband) is quick and easy rather than difficult and discouraging.              All you have to do is run the Network Setup Wizard and XP hands out the IP addresses each PC needs and manages them for you automatically.             Windows XP also relies on having an Internet connection. It wants to phone home with errors, and to bind a Passport login to your Windows account to use for Windows Messenger – that starts up automatically unless you tell it not to – and online support.              It wants to download updates in the background and install them for you. The Help and Support Centre grabs new headlines for the Did you know? section and when you search in Help you obtain results from the Microsoft Knowledge Base as well as the local files.            Yet for an operating system that relies so much on being online, the tools for dealing with problem are, as usual, scattered far and wide throughout the Control Panel and the Registry. I have picked the most common problems we experience with XP and the Internet: here’s how to fix them with minimum effort. Where did the IP configuration tool all go?           Windows 95, 98 and Me include a handy graphical utility that you can load to check the details of your IP address (WINIPCFG.EXE). Few ISPs give you a static IP address: for some programs you need to know what your IP address is and that changes every time you dial up.  If you’re sharing your Net connection and two machines have ended up with the same IP address, neither of them will network properly.              If you use a cable modem connection that needs you to supply the unique MAC address of your network card, you can get it from Windows rather than opening up the case. For some reason this tool isn’t in Windows XP.            You can obtain the IP address and MAC address from the System Information tool (under Accessories, System Tools on the All Programs menu).            Oddly enough, the details are hidden under Components, Network, Adapter rather than in Internet Settings, which just shows Internet Explorer settings in one handy place.              This can be confusing because it shows all the network adapters on the system that includes a lot of software drivers you don’t need to know about: scroll down until you see your network card. Furthermore, if the IP address that Windows XP has picked up is wrong you can’t change it from here either.            There’s a command line utility called IPCONFIG that gives you the same tools as WINIPCFG. Use Start, Run CMD to open a command line and then type in IPCONFIG /ALL.                If you type it directly into the Run box the window closes before you can read it. Use the /RELEASE option and then the /RENEW option to produce a new IP address.             If you prefer the graphical interface, you can download the Windows 2000 version, WNTIPCFG.EXE, from www.microsoft.com. It works with XP but it’s not added to the All Programs menu so you’ll need to either make a shortcut or run it from a command window. The program is installed in c:\Program Files\Resource Kit, and you don’t need to enclose long file names in double quotes any more.               Click the More Info button to see all the details and click Release All and Renew All to update the IP address to a new, trouble-free one. To copy the details quickly, right-click the title bar and choose Copy. Why can’t I save JPEGs?             Whether you’re using the Image toolbar in Internet Explorer 6 or just right-clicking and choosing Save Picture, sometime you can’t save images as anything except BMPs. If you want to use them in a Web page you have to convert back to JPEG or GIF, and BMP files tend to be rather larger.             This happens when the Temporary Internet Files folder fills up: choose Tools, Internet Options, General and click the Delete Files under Temporary Internet Files.  It doesn’t seem to matter how much space you set for the folder, you have to empty it periodically, which takes a long time. Where are all my unread mail messages?             When you start up Windows XP the welcome screen tells you that you have unread email. If you’re not online at the time it’s not going to be accurate, and sometimes you get the same number of unread messages even if your inbox is empty.                 Find out which email account XP thinks these unread messages are in by clicking the link on the Welcome screen to see which email accounts it’s tracking.            If you’re always seeing two unread messages it’s probably welcome messages in Outlook Express or the Hotmail account that goes with the Passport you use for Windows Messenger. You can also see the accounts in the Registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ UnreadMail.            Delete any accounts you don’t want it to track or change the Message Count key to zero if there aren’t any messages for the account XP claims has new mail.           You can turn off the welcome screen links from here by creating a new key under UnreadMail called Message ExpiryDays and setting it to zero, but it’s easier to do it with TweakUI. Choose Logon, Unread mail and clear Show unread mail on Welcome screen. Problems with NAT           If you’re sharing an Internet connection between several PCs you only have one real address – the other PCs get a ‘private’ IP address called Network Address Translation (NAT).            Normally, this doesn’t cause problems but for video and voice chat, file transfer, application sharing, shared whiteboards and setting up a Remote Assistance session,           Windows Messenger needs to create a connection between your PC and the person you’re talking to and it tries to do that by IP address. If your IP address is hidden by a firewall or made up by NAT, it can’t make the connection.             If you run a firewall on your PC you can open up the ports that Windows Messenger uses so it can send your IP address out and make the connection. Video and voice chat need the ports between 5004 and 65535.  It’s not that a voice conversation uses all of those ports – Windows Messenger dynamically picks an available port depending on what other applications are using at the time.            Application sharing and whiteboard data use port 1503, Remote Assistance uses port 3389. File transfer uses the ports from 6891 to 6900. If they’re all available you can transfer up to ten files, and if you only open 6891 you can only transfer one file at once.             XP’s Internet Connection Firewall only enables Messenger to make connections when you’ve got administrative privileges. Standard users get those in XP Home but if you’re running XP Professional you’ll need to set them up.           Even if the ports are open so Windows Messenger can send your IP address, if it’s a fake address that only works on your local network that’s not going to help.              If you’re using XP’s own Internet Connection Sharing this will translate the addresses back and forth as necessary. However, if you’re using a router or firewall that does the NAT for you it won’t know to translate the addresses.              Microsoft’s way of fixing this is to use Universal Plug and Play to enable Messenger to control the NAT device – which means you don’t need to open the ports by hand either.            So far, D-Link and Linksys have UPnP boxes and Intel, Buffalo, NetGear and Arescom are working on them. Usually, you can just get an upgrade to the firmware rather than buying a whole new device.          A few ISPs use NAT in their network, so they don’t need as many real IP addresses. This means nothing you do at your end will make Messenger do more than basic instant messaging. If you think that’s the problem you’ll need to ask your ISP what to do about it. Silent modem?               It’s not an Internet issue, but XP does silence your modem. These days, most ISPs are pretty reliable, but sometimes you do want to listen to see if there’s a problem stopping you from getting online.                Open the Phone and Modem Control Panel. Pick your modem from the list on the Modems tab, then click Properties and adjust the Speaker Volume.          If that’s already set to High and you can’t hear the modem dialling or the dial, ringing and busy tones on the line, check if XP has installed your modem as a generic 56K modem rather than a specific model. The initialisation string that turns the modem volume on and off is in the specific driver.             You can look on the manufacturer’s Web site (put the FCC approvals number into the search at http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/ if you don’t know who made it) or activate Windows Update for a driver. Why does my password look wrong?            When you tell XP to save your Internet passwords it disguises them with blobs and it pads them out to 13 characters so no-one who sees the screen can tell how long your password is, which might help them guess it. It’s still the right password underneath. Reinstalling Internet Explorer 6 There hasn’t been a new version of Internet Explorer since XP came out, so XP users have never installed IE.         That’s why it’s not in the Add or Remove Programs list, which is where you find the Repair option in other versions of Windows. XP’s System File Protection covers the key IE files so you shouldn’t often need to repair IE.              If you’re used to repairing it regularly to speed it up, try deleting Temporary Internet files instead, or running the Disk Cleanup (on the System Tools menu under Accessories) if you’re low on disk space generally.            If you’re having more serious problems you’ll need to reinstall IE. You’ll need either a Windows XP CD or a good Internet connection to download it. Choose Start, Run and type in rundll32.exe setupapi, InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\inf\ie.inf.          If that doesn’t work, use the Registry Editor (Start, Run, Regedit) to change the value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Active Setup \ Installed Components \ {89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383} from 1 to 0 and XP will start the installation automatically. Getting rid of Passport             You need a Passport to run Windows Messenger but you don’t have to have one and you don’t have to store it in XP. In the Users Accounts Control Panel you’ll see the option to ‘Change my .NET Passport’ but you’re unable to delete it.             Instead, click Manage my network passwords in the Related Tasks pane and remove it from there. This takes you to a dialog from the hidden User Accounts Control Panel – access this by clicking Start, Run, control userpasswords2.