Add backup
I have an IBM ThinkPad with a CD drive but no floppy. This causes problems when I want to back things up - I can't! - or transfer files to other machines. What is the most economical way forward? Christopher Dobson

Jack Schofield replies: The cheapest way to transfer files to another machine is via a cable. Use a USB (Universal Serial Bus) cable if possible, as it is faster than a serial port or parallel port cable. If you plan to use the DCC (Direct Cable Connection) software in Microsoft Windows, make sure you specify that a cable must work with DCC when you buy it.

Alternatively, you can buy LapLink software complete with one or more proprietary cables. A quicker and less intrusive approach would be to buy a "thumbdrive" or "pen drive". These small devices are packed with memory and have a USB plug on the end. Stick a thumbdrive into a USB port and Windows treats it as a fast disk drive.

However, you should really take back-ups on some type of removable disk so that you can have multiple copies, and store some away from your machine. The main contenders are Iomega Zip drives and CD-R writers, both of which are available with USB connections to plug into your ThinkPad. (There are also faster Firewire versions for machines with Firewire ports.) Zip drives are cheaper but Zip disks are expensive, so a CD-R drive is likely to prove more economical in the long run. Since you can also use cheap CDs for file transfer and to create audio or video CDs, a CD-R burner is also more versatile. Finally, when you upgrade to a new notebook PC, you will be able to use the same Zip or CD-R drive.

Phone home?
Home Phone Networking (HPNA) sounds like a simple networking solution for us, a small business. It seems all we need to do is buy three adapter cards, put them in our PCs, connect each one to a phone socket and let Windows XP do the rest! However, I can find no UK suppliers. John Mathews

JS replies: HPNA equipment is not widely available in the UK, and few products are imported, but you can buy the Linksys Homelink Phoneline 10M Network Starter Kit from Amazon.co.uk for £69.99. This includes two PCI expansion cards with phone sockets. However, for similar money you could buy a 10/100Mbps Ethernet hub and have a high-performance, industry standard Ethernet network. If your PCs are recent models, you won't even need to take the lids off: they probably have Ethernet built in. Check the backs for something that looks like a phone plug, only larger. (It's RJ-45 instead of RJ-11.)

The disadvantage with Ethernet is that you need to install Cat5 cable to connect your PCs together. However, at least you will be confident of its quality: this is not the case with telephone wiring, which was not designed for the task. If the extra wiring is a problem, you could set up a Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless network, albeit at a significant extra cost. HPNA sounds as though it could be an attractive option for some home and small business users, but I've never used it. If you have, tell us your thoughts.

Junk Hotmail
I receive up to 100 junk mails a day on my Hotmail account. Because they are counted towards Hotmail's 2MB account limit, I am denied real messages until I can clear them. How can I arrange for junk messages to be deleted automatically on receipt? Anne Murray

JS: Log on to Hotmail and click Options, select Junk Mail Filter, and then click the radio button next to "Delete junk mail immediately". Your junk mail folder will then be empty when you log on, though there will still be spam in your Inbox. More popups We have bought a new computer running Windows XP. Now, on a daily basis, we get pop-up dialogue boxes from Windows Messenger advertising University Diplomas. I have reported the pop-up dialogues to Microsoft, with no response forthcoming. I have looked on the web for ways to stop these pop-ups, the only answers being to disable Messenger or edit the system registry. I wonder how many other readers are suffering from this unsolicited marketing direct to their desktop, and whether anyone has found a way to stop it.
Eddie Smerdon

JS: Sorry to say, I do not know of a way to stop these pop-ups without disabling Windows Messenger (which is different from Microsoft Messenger). For directions, see here.

Alert
I'm fed up getting all the spam that arrives at my Hotmail address and would like to change. However, what I value above all else is Windows Messenger alerting me to the arrival of new emails. Stephen Pollard JS: You could switch to Yahoo's mail service, which offers more storage space (6 megabytes), and has a cleaner, faster user interface. You will still be able to get email alerts using Yahoo Messenger. See: http:// messenger.yahoo.com/messenger/mail.html. If you want to use a standard POP3 mail service, you can download an email notification utility. For examples, see www.5star-shareware.com and www.filetransit.com/category.

Backchat

· Last week, Anne Karpf wanted to transcribe interviews on her computer. Robin O'Connor says he uses a MiniDisc recorder. "The problem is how to extract the useful bits from a disk containing up to two and a half hours (mono) of material. The only solution I've come up with is to look at the recorder's readout and make a note of the timing when anyone says anything interesting, pressing the record button while recording to put in a marker. Back at base, I record the essential pieces on to my hard disk either as MP3s or wav files using a simple freeware program, Harddisk Ogg. Another great freebie, Irfanview does a very good job of replaying audio, giving a read-out of timings and allowing you to scoot around to find the bits you want."