Skype has recently released Skype version 5.5.0.119, which – finally – fixes the bug where Skype Home appears every time the program launches.
If you downloaded the KillSkypeHome applet, you’ll now need to remove that from your system after installing the update.
The update is available through Skype’s own update system, or from FileHippo.
Not many of us use dial-up internet connections any more – gone are the days where we had to rely on internet connections that had a typical download speed of 4-8KB/s. Now we have speedy broadband with it’s always-on convenience and wireless capabilities.
However, some of us do rely on mobile broadband “dongles” or mobile phone internet connections to get online when we’re out and about. These can be fantastic, but if it’s set up as a dial up connection in Windows it can prove a nightmare.
If a connection isn’t currently available, Windows is (by default) set to repeatedly ask to dial the best available connection. This has been an issue since very early versions of Windows and Microsoft have never really solved it since.
If a box similar to this one frequently appears whenever an application tries to access the internet, here’s how to solve it.
Open up Internet Explorer (the dreaded) and find Internet Options. You’ll find this under the settings button of the latest version of Internet Explorer. When you’ve got Internet Options up, click the Connections tab.
Under the Connections tab, look at the selection buttons above “Local Area Network (LAN) settings”. Internet Explorer probably has selected on your computer “Dial whenever a network connection is not present”. Change that to “Never dial a connection” and click OK. Close any existing connection requests (you may well get a few more before they stop) and eventually you’ll stop getting asked to connect.
From now on, you won’t be pestered and will only connect to a dial-up connection at your request.
This is an issue that seriously irritated me for some time. I could run iTunes absolutely fine on both my Desktop PC and my netbook, but on both, as soon as I closed iTunes it would automatically reopen itself again.
It might repeat this process three or four times before it actually stopped reopening. I was beginning to think it was Apple ignoring a bug in the software, but I think I’ve found the problem.
If you regularly use Windows Live Messenger on your desktop machine, try this solution.
Go to Windows Live Messenger, click your profile name (below your display picture), and then click “More options”. Then untick the checkbox “Show information about the song I’m listening to”.
This will, of course, stop WLM from showing any song you are playing as your personal message. However, I’m not hugely fussed as I just use last.fm to note all the music I listen to.
That fix seemed to work for me. iTunes doesn’t seem to automatically reopen any more. Let me know if this fix works for you.
PS – sorry I haven’t posted in ages. I took a bit of a break in April!
I was recently very bewildered since the wifi singal range on my router was still very poor even after adding a huge 9DBi antenna to it. I couldn’t understand why, but then I did some research and found some rather interesting information.
It would appear that if you use a cordless phone, you may be aware that most common cordless phones run at a frequency band of about 2.4GHz. Sound familiar?
Well, you may also be aware that both 802.11b and 802.11g wifi signals (as well as some 802.11n) both run 2.4GHz.
What a coincidence. Anyway, what that means is that if your router and cordless phone base are close together (ie less than 50cm apart), they can interfere with each other and therefore reduce signal range quite dramatically.
This was the problem I seemed to be having. So I move my router so it was about 100cm (the further the better, ideally) from the phone base, and the signal range increased hugely. It also put an end to the regular connection drops I got while using wifi.
So, a simple thought, but it really does make a difference. It’s not just cordless phones, but anything near a router that runs at a frequency of 2.4GHz or 5GHz. Bare it in mind.
Together with my 9DBi antenna, I now get fantasic wifi signal that I’m really pleased with. It made a huge difference, so definitely consider it before blaming a router or router antenna.