THE

LIST

This newsletter tracks new information, and improvements in existing information, on the Windows Support Center, my Web site supporting Windows desktop systems and leading application software. I also include small, useful items that might not find a permanent place on the site, but that I would like to pass along, and anything else I feel like writing!

Click here to subscribe. If you subscribe, you will receive email notification when there is a new issue of the newsletter. (You will not receive the newsletter itself by email. That’s why I call it low-tech.) My intention is to provide a new and further way to serve the one million people per month who visit my site. Previous newsletters are available online, and their content searchable through this site’s search engine. Enjoy! — Jim Eshelman

WINDOWS SUPPORT SITES

E-LIST FEATURED SITE:
JON HILDRUM’S PAGE by MS-MVP Jon Hildrum

With all of the flash and dazzle that marks so much of the Web these days, it’s a pleasure to come across a computer site that accurately and helpfully deals with nuts and bolts. Enter, Jon Hildrum! While other sites are busy trying to give you preview pictures of Microsoft’s next two operating systems, Jon is answering questions like: How do I make a boot disk with CD-ROM support? Or install a hard drive or motherboard? Or move Windows from one hard drive to another? He discusses networking basics (why you may want to install one, and how to do it), then adds separate sections on TCP/IP, IP addressing, and such topics as how to do sub-netting. The instructions are patient and rock-solid. They are exactly what you hope you will be able to find when you want to learn how to do some of these tasks.

And, as is usual with the sites I recommend to you, there is more. Plenty more. Much of it deals with hardware and related matters, such as Jon’s discussions of IRQs, DMAs, and ports, his instructions on how to install various hardware components, and more. It’s all good stuff! His “Hot List” links section includes numerous useful hardware links (including a shopping and pricing guide), as well as several links to keep your Windows 95/98 systems in tune. You’ll find a lengthy section on Windows NT resources and tips, and Internet resources such as domain registrars and Internet traffic reports. Going for your A+ certification? There’s an awful lot that you need to know that you can review right here on Jon’s page. Keep looking. It’s amazing what you’ll find here. Like a list of the socket port numbers used by various services. Or thoughtful consideration of backup options. Or a link to the Microsoft Products Insider. Check it all out.

LEARN HTML: NEW INSTRUCTION PAGES

A new page on my site is the Basics of HTML page. It isn’t the type of patient tutorial that you will find on sites such as the excellent PageTutor.com, but it does start at the beginning and walk you through the steps from knowing pretty much nothing about Web page creation, to the stage where you have all of the basic information to do so. If you learn easily by simply having the facts presented to you in a meaningful sequence, and a basic reference available thereafter, I believe this page will be just what you need to learn the subject.

With the popularity of HTML composers such as FrontPage, many people really aren’t clear why they might actually want to go to the bother to learn HTML itself. I can tell you that all of the main pages on this site shrunk 40% in size when, a year and a half after starting the site, I went back and took the composer-generated pages and hand-edited them. If you’re paying for hosting, that means that almost twice as many of your pages can be viewed by visitors with the same bandwidth limits. Also, more efficiently coded pages will take less time to load. This not only is nice for your visitors, it actually will save you money in hosting fees. Plus, you have more control over exactly how things look, something that WYSIWYG editors only partially succeed in doing. Finally, with just a little bit of practice, I found that I actually create pages faster by hand could coding then in HTML than by using a WYSIWYG composer.

It’s the difference between a frozen dinner and cooking a real meal! Except, in this case, the real meal takes less time to cook!

The new Basics of HTML page joins existing tutorial pages I wrote last year on Coding Tables in HTML and Coding Frames in HTML page. Another on Forms has been nearly done for a few weeks (I’m just trying to figure out how to introduce new users to accessing CGI routines), and a page on graduating from conventional HTML to Cascading Styles is on the drawing board. I hope these pages are of interest and use to you.

Happy computing, everyone!

Jim Eshelman

THE NECESSARY LEGAL STUFF
DISCLAIMER: Any information given in this newsletter, or on any other part of the Windows Support Center Web site, is researched by me and believed to be accurate. However, I cannot guarantee, and do not guarantee, that all the information provided will work on all computer systems, for all users, all the time. Also, I sometimes make mistakes (that’s life!), and it is possible I made one or more of them here. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. In other words, I rely on the best information sources I can, but you take your life in your own hands if you trust me on it. Neither James Eshelman, this site, outside contributors to this site, people quoted on this site, nor my cat is/are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application of any information presented here.

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