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Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, Dr. Bombay Computer Column: Access to Secure Web Sites Seems a Bit Too Secure

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Dr. Emilio Bombay, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Mar. 23--Access to secure Web sites seems a bit too secure

Dear Dr. Bombay: I can load normal Web pages but not secure ones (bank, kids' school progress, etc.). I've called AOL and eMachines. AOL says it's a computer problem. The store says they can fix it for $90-$200, but the wonks won't do it under warranty. They said it was something with ActiveX controls. I hate to bother you with such a petty problem, but I refuse to pay.

-- Insecure

Dear Insecure: Isn't that typical? Some tech-school dropout trying to cash in on such a minor, easy-to-fix problem? That's why I always tell people they need to learn about the tools they use so they won't be at the mercy of a four-eyed social misfit who think it's cool to dress up as a Klingon. This stuff isn't hard. Why else would I be so good at it?

The most common way of sending private stuff to and from your browser is through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a way of encrypting the data. You can easily recognize such sites, since they start with https:// instead of http://. If you're having trouble connecting to one, it's not a really a computer problem, no matter what Four-Eyes says. It could be as simple as changing one or two settings in your browser.

In the Tools menu of Internet Explorer, pick Internet Options, then click on the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the Security section and make sure PCT 1.0, SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 are all checked. Sometimes that's all it takes.

You should also take a gander at "About" in the Help menu. It will tell you the cryptographic strength supported by the browser. That means it can undo a certain level of encryption. If it's anything less than 128 bits, you've got trouble. It also means you haven't been doing Windows updates the way you should. Go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and update everything you can, making sure that Internet Explorer High Encryption Pack is one of the downloads.

If you haven't run a virus check and spyware scan in a while, get off your rear end and do it right now. You ought to know by now that that's one of the rules you must obey to continue reading this column.

If you want the official Microsoft take on the problem, check out support.microsoft.com/kb/q181147/. You'll probably have better luck at www.duxcw.com/faq/win/xp/secure.htm, where there's a whole laundry list of things you can try, more things than Four-Eyes has ever dreamed existed. That guy's really not very smart, you know. Why else would he be bamboozling people at a big-box store instead of Halliburton?

Dear Dr. Bombay: Sonic Update Manager popped into my computer. I don't know how it got there, and I can not remove it.

-- Sonic Boom

Dear Boom: That's one of those useless "helper" utilities that gets foisted on your computer by the installation of some other legitimate application, probably some sort of backup or CD-burning software. Its sole purpose -- other than eating up resources -- is to remind you if you haven't backed up your files recently.

Go to Run in the Start menu, type in Msconfig and press Enter. In the configuration editor, look for "sgtray.exe" in either the Startup or Services tab, uncheck its box, then restart the PC.

Dear Dr. Bombay: Concerning the recent letter about no XP CD coming with new computers, I recently bought a name-brand computer and had the same experience. Following directions, I made the recovery disc right away. When I was loading some of the programs from my old computer, I got a message that I was missing a DLL file and needed to insert the XP disk. Of course, the recovery disk didn't work. I called tech support and they said the disk often can only load XP and all the originally bundled programs. He also suggested I use one of my old copies of XP to try and find the file. That didn't work, either, and lots of people won't have an old XP disk lying around.

-- Slipped Disc

Dear Disc: If you were loading programs from your original CDs, there shouldn't have been a problem, because any installation CD worth its salt already contains what you need. Could be you're loading stuff not meant to run under XP, could be you got a very stripped-down version of XP.

Whichever the case, you might be able to find the DLLs (those libraries of routines I was jabbering about earlier) at www.dll-files.com or www.dll-downloads.com. Or Google for "Missing xxxxx.DLL" or whatever your error message is. And read the instructions. It's not as simple as just downloading the file. You have to stick it in the right place and register it with Windows. Google for "regsvr32" and see what I mean.

Dear Dr. Bombay: There is an article in the March BoatU.S. magazine on downloading nautical charts from chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov. The charts could be used for navigation and would be less bulky than the large charts and would great for my 20-foot boat. I have had trouble, and I wonder if I am missing a step. Can you help others boaters and me? What we should do?

-- Old Salt

Dear Salt: I always thought that real boaters didn't need charts, that they relied on their keen sense of the sea to unerringly draw them to the closest bar in port. I guess I never knew about you sissies who insist on knowing exactly where you are. That would seem to take the fun out of it.

I didn't have any problem downloading the raster (digitized) charts and unzipping them. The trouble came when trying to view them. They're in a proprietary file format, so you need special software to open them. There are some links to free demos at nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/resources.htm.

If you had problems getting as far as I did, you probably don't have the right version of Java, a deal that allows some Web-base programs to operate correctly in your browser. Go to java.com/en/download/index.jsp and get the self-installing version. Isn't that sun over the blasted yardarm yet?

-----

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Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas)

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