PPP software

When I use Remote Access on my G4 with an internal modem, I often get a message reporting that the connection has terminated just a couple of minutes after logging in. FreePPP seems to give slightly better results. Should I use Remote Access or FreePPP?

Thomas Karavis

Although there aren’t any really good reasons why you shouldn’t be using FreePPP, it has few advantages over Remote Access now. Neither is it likely that FreePPP is keeping your Internet connection alive any longer than Remote Access, as both will be using the PPP protocol in much the same way. You should make sure your computer is configured to use the correct modem script, and that the script is the latest release. Open the Modem control panel and make sure you’re using the correct modem script type in its pop-up menu. The modem scripts listed in the pop-up menu are found in the Modem Scripts folder, inside the Extensions folder, within the System Folder.

If the modem is properly set up, but you’re still getting disconnected after only short sessions, make sure you don’t have a short timeout setting with your ISP, or in the TCP/IP related control panels. Some ISPs seem to enforce short timeout disconnections, particularly during peak periods. You may be able to extend these by adding a longer timeout in your connection script ­ for example, by using command output such as:

PPP,idle=600\13

when asking for the PPP protocol; that will set the idle disconnection time to 10 minutes. You might also get your phone and phone line(s) checked, as disconnections can result from excessive line noise such as crackles and pops.

B-tree error

My 20th Anniversary Mac is reported by Norton Utilities as having ‘a major error in a directory thread record in the catalog B-tree’. Disk Doctor claims to fix the problem, but it keeps recurring. Eventually, it causes a freeze during startup, and I have to reinstall Mac OS 8.6. What should I do about this problem?

Chris Whatmore

In the immediate term, your best course is to fix the problem, back up fully (twice if you can), then reinitialise the hard disk and reinstall Mac OS and all your files. However, this doesn’t address all your problems, as the damage to your hard disk seems to be recurrent. That suggests you’re using an extension or other software which will cause the damage again. To find out what’s doing that, you should keep a written record of all the software you run (even utilities), and keep checking the disk using Norton Utilities. This should eventually tell you what’s corrupting your disk. Another line worth pursuing is to check you’re running the latest versions of all your major applications and utilities.

MP3 hardware player

Which portable MP3 players are compatible with current Macs?

Alan Griffiths

Diamond’s new Rio 500 is probably the best known, and most expensive, portable player which has good support for the Mac, through a plug-in for SoundJam. However, you’ll need a USB Mac, or an earlier model with a USB card. The other readily available player in the UK which is as easy to use with Macs as with PCs is Digital Dream’s DMS 100 player (www.digitaldreamco.com). This has no built-in memory, so is very cheap to buy (around £50). You then equip it with a Compact Flash card, which can also be attached to your Mac via any compatible reader, and Digital Dream offers a cheap USB card reader for this purpose. If you already have and use Compact Flash cards, this can be a very cheap entry-level purchase, although the DMS 100 player lacks the more sophisticated features of more expensive devices.

Sudden shut down

Recently, my blue-and-white G3 has taken to shutting itself down of its own accord. What’s wrong?

Wayne Smallman

As Macs have extensive software control over their running, this could (hopefully) be just a software problem. Before you go any further, and once you’ve ensured that the mains lead is securely connected at both ends, open the EnergySaver control panel and check you’ve not set your Mac to shut down automatically by mistake. If you haven’t, run Norton Utilities and Norton Anti-Virus (or another checker) to make sure you don’t have a disk corruption or viral problem. Some viruses can force Macs to shut down, although this isn’t a common symptom of an infection. If your Mac is clean, but still shutting down, strip out all unnecessary extensions, control panels, and items in the Startup Folder using Extensions Manager. After that, you should start to fear a hardware problem. Hopefully this will stem from a minor fault with the power switch, but it could be a more costly issue with the power supply (PSU), or even the motherboard.

Zip disk failure

I saved some work on an Iomega Zip disk, ejected the disk, and when I tried to access the disk again ­ after my iMac had been to sleep ­ I was invited to initialise or eject it. How can I access the files on this disk?

Lucy Freeman

An invitation to initialise or eject a disk like this indicates that the disk is unreadable, which would mean that your files have gone forever. However, all isn’t necessarily lost. As a first step, restart the iMac and try again, as sleeping can have odd effects sometimes. If that doesn’t help, download the latest Iomega Zip drivers (IomegaWare) and see whether they help matters ­ in particular, the Tools application. If you’re still getting nowhere fast, it’s possible Norton Utilities will recognise the disk, although it’s much less reliable with Zip disks. Finally, if the files are really important, sometimes Iomega itself can recover them through its support service. If you have important files whose loss would hurt you, make sure you keep at least two copies, one of which is on a robust and reliable medium.

Reading old files

I intend to upgrade from my IIsi computers to a new iMac, G3 or G4. How can I read my old documents, in FileMaker Pro 3, MacWrite Pro 1.5, Excel 4, and Microsoft File 2 on the new system?

J Christie-Brown

You should be able to access most of these documents from the current versions of each application. So upgrading to those latest releases should allow you to port across all your old files. The two exceptions are MacWrite Pro and Microsoft File, both of which are long dead. If you have MacWrite documents to which you need to refer, but not edit, try printing them to Adobe Acrobat files, using the Acrobat software suite. If you need to edit them, you’ll be best saving them as text, then importing that text into AppleWorks or Microsoft Word 98, although this will lose all formatting and so on. Saving in RTF format may help preserve some formatting.

Databases stored in Microsoft File are also likely to be more messy: perhaps the best solution is to export the contents in text files, using the tab character to separate fields (‘tab-delimited text format’). Most current database products should allow you to import files in that format, although, again, you’re likely to have to spend time getting them back up to scratch. A utility such as MacLink Plus may help some of these translations.

Music software

Are there any software synthesisers available for the Mac, or do I have to buy a PC to get good music software?

Avi Jordan

Macs remain the computers of choice for most professional musicians, and are very well supported by a rich range of fine software and hardware. However, Apple may be reticent about actively pushing the Mac for music-making because of its long-standing agreement with Apple Corps, set up by The Beatles: to use the name, Apple had to agree that it would not itself market music products. One of the cheapest software synthesisers is embedded in D-soundPRO (shareware, from Info-Mac archives worldwide), and one of the most sophisticated is Native Instruments’ Generator, which is also available in a superb synth-sampler combination, Reaktor (www.native-instruments.com). There are many others in between those extremes.

Office assistant

When I use Microsoft Word 98, a wretched TV set with legs keeps appearing on my desktop. How can I nuke him?

Edward Bowman

This is Microsoft’s Office Assistant, which is supposed to be a wonderful new context-sensitive help system. The great majority of Office 98 users seem to find it irritating in the extreme, and turn it off by simply clicking in its close box (top left of the floating window). If you ever really want to bring it back, you can always click on the Office Assistant tool in the standard toolbar.

Old Mac OS versions

Is there any legal way of getting old versions of the Mac OS, such as 8.1?

Andrew Newton

Two good ways of obtaining old releases of Mac OS are through dealers and over the Internet from Apple’s Web and FTP sites. Dealers who have kept their old Mac OS releases should be able to provide you with copies, although you may have to pay for them. However, some dealers aren’t interested in this element of support, or may have ditched their old CD-ROMs. Apple also makes certain versions of the Mac OS available, together with some updates, on its Internet support sites. If you’re an individual Mac user, you may also get help from a Mac user group. If you’re supporting a commercial user, you should consider registering as a developer with Apple, as you can then buy a set of CD-ROMs containing all versions of the Mac OS. You may also have success asking for copies in online newsgroups and forums.

Screen resolution

I have recently added a Radius 17f-II monitor to my Performa 6320 with 64Mb of RAM. How can I display thousands of colours at a resolution of 800 x 600 or better?

Rick Stevens

Your Performa has a fixed 1Mb of video memory, which is used to support its built-in video. This offers ‘thousands’ of colours at 640 x 480 resolution, or 256 colours at 800 x 600. It doesn’t provide any support for deeper colour at the higher resolution, nor for higher resolutions, although your monitor should be capable of them. The only way you can provide better support is by installing a video input/output card in the single LC expansion slot. These cards are hard to obtain now, and it might be better to put the money towards a better computer.

As a matter of interest, your model is also one of many Performas which takes a Rayovac 4.5-volt type 840 ­ quite a different PRAM back-up battery from the 3.6-volt half-size AA lithium battery found in most other Macs.

Simple Edit error

Having read your review of Simple Edit 3.5, I downloaded a copy, but whenever I try to use the toolbar, it crashes with an error Type 2. Is this usual?

Bryan Waldron

Simple Edit shouldn’t do this. The chances are that it’s either running low on memory, or it’s clashing with other software installed on your Mac. To give it more memory, select the application icon in the Finder, and use the Finder’s File/Get Info menu command, moving through to the Memory pane. Simply augment the figure in the Preferred Size box by another 1000K or 2000K, close the box, and see whether that helps.

If it doesn’t, open the Extensions Manager control panel, and select a set of extensions which provides the minimum essential for your Mac’s function, such as the Mac OS Minimum or Standard sets. Restart your Mac, and see whether that improves it. If it does, you’ll need to add back extensions using Extensions Manager until you find the one which was clashing with Simple Edit. Unfortunately, errors of Type 2 are general addressing errors, which could result from almost any problem.

AirPort Base Station

I want to install an AirPort Base Station on our network of G3 desktop systems. Can I do this without buying an iBook or another model with an Apple AirPort card?

Colin Flux

The CD-ROM which ships with the AirPort Base Station won’t run on Macs other than iBook, iMac or G4 models with an AirPort card already installed. However, the AirPort Utility application (not the AirPort Setup Assistant) will run on most recent Macs, and can be used to configure your Base Station.

You can either copy the software across from an iBook or another computer on which it has already been installed, or open the installation software using Tome Viewer, and extract the necessary components.

As your Base Station uses TCP/IP over an Ethernet physical connection, you must ensure that you switch your Mac’s TCP/IP configuration over to Ethernet, if you normally use TCP/IP for a dial-up Internet connection. When you start up the AirPort Utility, it will then detect the Base Station automatically, and you can proceed to configure it.

Further details are available at sites with AirPort help, such as MacinTalk (www.macintalk.com).