URGENT - problems with my Windows 2000 Computer

[wian]

Gday

i need some help please - i am not that computer literate,. so i wont understand a complicated response, so please if you could keep that in mind , that would be great

firstly, i have an older computer that is using windows 2000.

my first problem is that when i plug my camera in to the usb port, and go into windows, explore , the drive isnt there on the list, so i cant copy and paste the photos and dump it onto the c drive.

secondly, when i am on the internet, i my silly windows explorer does not let me go into hotmail.com or msn.com

i tried to download firefox as another way of getting access to the websites, but even if i go through firefox, it still doesnt work

can someone please help as its very frustrating

cheers

wian

[mjdodd]

Windows 2000 was developed for business use and the drivers for things like music and photo cameras were in short supply before Xp became more friendly! They were not really developed at all! However the good news if that often (since it uses th same filing system NTFS) XP drivers work well. (I assume you are using NTFS if not then change to it!) So it may be that a search on google for drivers for your photo USB device using XP drivers will work.

As far as not getting to hot mail etc one problem may be the security level in explorer / firefox but another may be that for some reasonthose to sites have got onto your hosts.txt file (a file in windows stystem ,to prevent getting to certain sites).
search for the hosts file and openit and study it and if hotmail or msn is on the list delete that entry and then resave the file.
This file can also be used to prevent access to sites that are 'nefarious!'
best of luck
m

[wian]

gday mjdodd

i appreciate yr advice, but as i am a novice, how do i actually search for the usb driver on line, and how do i find the settings on my computer which may be preventing me from accessing hotmail

cheers ; )

wian

[mjdodd]

To search for a driver on line in Internet explorer go to WWW.google.com (or www.google.co.uk ) and then enter a sentence of less than ten words describing your problem. I wouold suggest something like

drivers for USB windows2000 or XP camera name download

where 'name' is the name of your camera. You should get a variety of sites and then it is up to you to choose the most likely.

As far as the other problem go to start menu and then use search then enter under files a word like

text*

the * means wild card. It should come up with a file in windows called hosts.txt as well as a number of other things!

Double click on this file and it should open in some word processor probably notebpad. (if it doesnt then go to the file using windows explorer or open it in notepad now that you know where it is)

Study the file (there are instructions at the beginning) but most lines begin 127.0.0.1 or similiar and then are followed by the name of a website eg

127.0.0.1 www.bbc.co.uk

If you have an entry line with 127.... and then MSN.com
or 127.... and then hotmail.com
delete these lines, save the file and continue.

I also had problems with emails to these addresses but that was a different problem!