Question Time

The Age

Tuesday March 4, 2008

George Skarbek

Q Does Windows XP get its time of day from some authentic website, and if not, how I can be sure my computer clock is set accurately?

N. Cohen

A This is very easy to achieve. Right-click the time display on the bottom right-hand side of the taskbar, select Adjust Date/Time, then click on the Internet Time tab, and for the time server select time.windows.com. From then, your computer should always have the correct time as it will synchronise weekly. You can manually synchronise by using Update Now.

QI was recently upgraded to a new Telstra Bigpond ADSL Liberty 12 GB 1500/256 kbps plan from a Bigpond ADSL 400 MB 512/128 kbps plan. It doesn't seem any quicker. I queried whether I could actually receive 1500/256 at my address in Falcon, WA. Telstra replied that they were "...unable to tell you what speeds are achievable at your address". Is there any way for me check what speeds are being achieved please?

I. Bickerton

AYour internet speed is limited by many factors: your modem, your ISP, the phone line quality, the congestion on the internet and the load and bandwidth allocated to the remote server that you are visiting. Doubling your "quoted" download speed will not double your actual download speed in most real-life cases. The best way to determine your maximum speed is to eliminate as many variables as possible. E-mail yourself a largish file, preferably over 2 MB. While it is being sent, open the Task Manager by right-clicking on the taskbar and then select the Networking tab. A few seconds after the sending is completed, check your mail and then observe the network utilisation during download. Then do the maths to determined your download speed. For instance, if you have a 100 Mbps network card and you see a maximum of 1.5% utilisation that means you are downloading at 1500 kbps (1.5 Mbps).

Downloading mail should be unaffected by any other internet problems, as you are receiving a file directly from your ISP. If your actual speed is noticeably less than promised, you should contact Bigpond and demand an explanation.

Q I have decided to partition my laptop hard drive with Vista on D drive and XP on C drive. Can I make XP boot first rather than last?

C. Perry

A The program EasyBCD (neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1) will do what you want. Download and run it in Vista. Alternatively, you could use a program that comes with Vista called Bcdedit. Unfortunately, Bcdedit is not easy to follow - see the Microsoft site via tinyurl.com/ysr92w for all the commands.

Below is a sample BAT file that I have created for my own use to overcome the same problems as yours. It renames my XP and Vista headings, sets the order to display XP and the last line makes XP the default operating system.

bcdedit /set {legacy} Description "Windows XP"

bcdedit /set {current} description "Vista Ultimate"

bcdedit.exe /displayorder {legacy} {current}

bcdedit /default {legacy}

You can either type each command from a DOS box (click on Start, Run and enter CMD) or use Notepad and enter all four lines and save it in some folder as "MyFix.bat" and then double-click on it to run that file. Note that the quotes are essential for saving otherwise it will be savedas .txt.

GeorgeSkarbek's book, Computer Guide, is available from skarbek.com.au.

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