• PC World
• »Software
• »Operating Systems

Connection Conundrums

Banish Wi-Fi Pop-Ups

The annoyance: Several wireless networks I connect to have weak signals. The connection is usually there, but occasionally it wavers in and out of existence. Each time this happens, Windows notifies me (via little text balloons that pop up from the connection's system tray icon) that the connection has been lost and then reestablished. After 10 or 15 of these messages appear, I'm ready to live without a wireless network, if only for the freedom from incessant status updates.

The fix: Fortunately, I found a way to pop those bothersome balloons permanently. Right-click the connection's system tray icon and choose Open Network Connections. Right-click the connection there, choose Properties, uncheck both Show icon in notification area when connected and Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity, and click OK. This works with wired network connections, too.

Put ActiveX on Hiatus

The annoyance: I'm surfing along the Net with Internet Explorer, when suddenly hypertext links appear on a page that I'm sure didn't have them before. The culprit? Adware that surreptitiously installed itself on my PC, due to overactive ActiveX controls, which open the door to programs downloaded from Web pages.

The fix: The safest policy is to hobble ActiveX. Choose Tools, Internet Options, select the Security tab, choose the Internet zone, and click Custom Level. Scroll down to the 'ActiveX controls and plug-ins' section, and set 'Download signed ActiveX controls' and 'Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting' to Prompt--or get really tough and set them to Disable. (Prompt will generate dialog boxes asking you to approve ActiveX downloads. Disable will cause sites that require ActiveX not to work right.) Set 'Download unsigned ActiveX controls' as well as 'Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe' to Disable (if they aren't already; this is the default in SP2). Legions of Firefox converts who surf daily without ActiveX don't miss it, and for the most part neither will you. If you can't do without a site that requires these settings, temporarily enable ActiveX for safe or signed controls. By the way, XP SP2 adds some protection against malicious ActiveX controls, and the forthcoming Internet Explorer 7 browser promises to make ActiveX safer when used under Longhorn by making the browser fully functional in a low-rights user account.