Help & Info - Technical Support Help

If you are getting a message that your member name or password is invalid, double check to make sure that there aren't any typos. Also, make sure you are entering your member name appropriately. Your member name is simply your email address without the @peoplepc.com. So, for instance, if your email address is blackcat@peoplepc.com, your member name would be blackcat.

Your password is another issue that could be causing you trouble. Many people use the "save password" feature in our software, so they may not remember their password precisely. Keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive. Try to remember as well if you or one of your family members has changed your password recently. If none of these ideas help you, call 1-900-285-8333, and ask the technician to change your password for you.

There are several possible explanations for losing a dial-up Internet connection, but the explanation all depends on the frequency of disconnection.

1) If you are losing your Internet connection in between 1-5 minutes of initial dial-up, the most likely explanation is noise or static on the phone line connected to your computer. Even minute static can interfere with data transmission. When you connect a phone to the line that you use for dialing out, do you hear any static, crackles, or the distant sound of other voices? Line noise can have a huge impact on a modem connection.

Ask your phone company to run a free test of your phone line. Just dial 611, and have them run a remote line test. They may try to get you to pay to have someone come out to the house, but you don't need to do that. They can check for noise on the line from their office.

From the results of the remote line test you can find out if the problem is in your house. In that case you will need to replace the phone line that connects your computer to the wall. If it is not in your house, the phone company will attend to the problem if you point it out to them.

2) If this is not the cause of the problem, make sure that you are not closing the PeoplePC dialog box while you are online. Closing this box will disconnect you from the Internet.

3) If your problem is that you disconnect every 20 minutes or so, you are running into the idle disconnect setting on your computer. If the computer cannot detect any Internet activity for 20 minutes, then it will automatically disconnect you. Click here for more information.

4) If you are losing your connection after 1-4 hours, what you are encountering is the service limitations we have that are based on standardized home computer usage. PeoplePC's Internet service is designed for private, home use. We do not support business use because we are not configured to provide 24-hour continuous modem service. Typically PeoplePC users will connect to the Internet for about one hour. If you are staying online for as long as three or four hours, you are utilizing our service more heavily than 95% of our customers. Unlimited Internet service means that you have the option to connect to our service at any time. It does not mean that you will be able to stay connected for an unlimited period. Even broadband Internet connections experience service interruptions at unpredictable times.

When a PeoplePC technical support representative recommends that you run a system recovery, it is because your system software has reached a point where it needs to be replaced by a fresh copy. If you bought your computer before November 1, 2001, your machine was shipped to you with a system recovery CD. This CD has all of the software your computer was originally shipped with.

The way to initiate recovery from the CD is to place the recovery CD in your CD-Rom drive, and then restart your computer. Your computer will reboot in recovery mode. Follow the prompts to run a full system recovery. Choose the format/recover option, as this will put your system back to its original state. The recovery process is self-driven, and can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour. Once the recovery process is finished, you will need to reconfigure your PeoplePC software to access the Internet.

Something important to keep in mind about running recovery is that recovery completely wipes your system hard drive, and all the data/files on your system will be lost. For this reason, it is very important to back up all of your data onto floppy disc (or CD if you have that option available). This includes your email address book, the emails in your Inbox, and your Internet favorites in Internet Explorer.

Your PeoplePC computer is covered under warranty for the duration of your contract with us. You are entitled to both software troubleshooting support and in-home hardware support. Software troubleshooting support is conducted via email or telephone. These software technicians will either help you solve your problems, or help you determine the nature of your hardware problem. If it is determined that your computer problem is hardware-related, then you will be referred to your warranty holder. Your warranty-holder will then conduct a problem determination with you, and once the problem has been pinpointed, a technician will be sent to your home to repair your system. There are some circumstances in which your warranty-holder may want you to send your computer to them. Certain hardware issues definitely benefit from the rigorous testing that can only be done in a high-level technical workshop. If your warranty holder recommends that you send your machine in to be worked on, this is because they feel that your issue is serious enough that they want to conduct thorough tests before giving your system back to you. If you own a laptop, all of your hardware repair must be done in a technical workshop, because of the specialized machinery needed to work on a laptop's tiny components. For further information, please visit our extended service agreement web site at: http://www.peoplepc.com/online/legals.asp?locid=3&pageid=9.

If you have found a virus on your computer, please read on. Since PeoplePC has no control over what you do on the web, or what files you put onto your system, we cannot take responsibility for any viruses you get on your machine. It is your responsibility to clean your system, but we do want to assist you with whatever information we have available that will solve your problem.

Keep in mind that regardless of what virus you have on your system, many viruses are not easily wiped out by simply running recovery. System modifications or infection errors may be the most obvious manifestation of the virus that has infected your system. You need to remove the infection from your system before you try to run a recovery.

If you know the precise name of the virus infecting your system, type it into this virus database search engine to find out exactly what the virus your system has been infected with is doing to your computer. Click on this link, http://www3.ca.com/virus/Encyclopedia.asp?MODE=SEARCH, or copy and paste it into your browser to start your search. Once the search page is open, type the name of the virus infecting your computer in the search dialog box and click "submit search".

If your system is infected with a "macro" virus, using virus-scanning software with updated definitions should work to clean your system.

If your computer is infected with a worm, Trojan, or boot-sector virus, or other variants that are not macros, you can only disinfect your machine by booting from a floppy or CD. Then you must run a virus cleaning program from either the floppy or CD. Almost all anti-virus packages do not clean active files, and since system files are always active when your computer is on, they will never be scanned by software running from the hard drive.

There are literally thousands of virus variants out there, old and new. If you received a virus via email, it is likely that you have passed it to email recipients in your address book. Some viruses are not very damaging but others can cause serious system problems. Bear in mind that there are complex viruses such as the Maigistr worm, Dark_Avenger, DelCMOS.B, Michaelangelo.A, and the W32 family that cause serious system damage and may require professional help in removal.

Once you have disinfected your system, you should probably run recovery. Bear in mind that running recovery will wipe out all the files that you have on your machine. You will need to back up those files that you want, (including your Outlook Express Inbox, address-book, and Internet Favorites) to floppy disc before you run any recovery.

Once your system has been cleaned, it is in your best interest to learn a little bit about how viruses infect your system, and what you can do to protect yourself against future virus infections. These web sites provide a wealth of information on the way viruses work and what you can do to avoid infection on your system. Please take a look at them to learn more about this modern Internet hazard.

For dictionary of virus terms, check out:
http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/virus_glossary.asp

For Frequently ask questions, current threats, and general information, try:
http://www.cert.org/other_sources/viruses.html

Unsolicited email, more commonly known as "spam" is the bane of the modern internet community. Every internet user has had to deal with this problem at one time or another. Spam can range from business offers and monetary scams, to chain letters, hoaxes, and orchestrated denial-of-service attacks. Many states prosecute senders of unsolicited email. Find out what the law is in your state.

If you receive a spam email, forward it, with full headers to the abuse server at the internet service provider where the spam originated. If, for instance, the spam came from bluebird@yahoo.com, forward the full email with headers to abuse@yahoo.com. Every internet service provider maintains an abuse server, so be sure you forward the spam to the correct abuse server.

You can also, in the case of possible illegal spam, have the option of forwarding a copy to the federal government, as the Federal Trade Commission has launched a campaign to halt illegal email broadcasts. Please visit their web site at: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/02/eileenspam1.htm.

To learn more about hoaxes, chain letters, and denial-of-service attacks, please visit these web sites: http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/, http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/, http://www.stiller.com/hoaxa.htm.

Here is how to use the SELECT ALL, COPY, CUT, and PASTE commands. All of these commands are available in the drop down menus (They are all located in the EDIT menu), but these instructions will explain how to use key-commands to utilize these commands. Keep in mind that "document" in this description can be any open file you are currently working in, including email compositions, notepad documents, and word processing documents.

To SELECT or HIGHLIGHT an entire document, use the SELECT ALL command. The key command for this is: <Ctrl> A
To MOVE the text to a new document, use the CUT command. The key command for this is: <Ctrl> X
To COPY the text to a new document, use the COPY command. The key command for this is: <Ctrl> C
The PASTE command is the second half of the transfer process. Create a new document, and key in <Ctrl> V. This will paste the text that you have either cut or copied from the old document to the new document.