Smooth sailing possible with older laptop port

Q: I have a laptop running Windows 98 and a laptop running Windows XP. I want to use a 2-gigabyte flash-memory drive to transfer files between these computers. Now, I have a USB port, which I need to convert to a USB 2.0. How do I do this?

John Whiley

A: You can't "convert" an older USB port to a USB 2.0 port. You'd have to replace the port. On a laptop, that's pretty much impossible.

With a desktop computer, you can buy an add-in card with USB 2.0 ports. Most laptops don't afford you that luxury.

The good news is you can still move data between USB 2.0 devices and older USB ports. It just won't be at the full speed that is supported by USB 2.0.

Q: I'm running Windows XP Home on a Dell Dimension E510 that is a little over a year old. We signed on with Qwest about seven months ago and got DSL.

Love the connection speed, and all the connections and downloads were zippy. But after about three months, the time it took to download attachments (e.g. Word, Excel files) went from fractions of seconds to minutes.

Downloading other software directly from a Web site has not been an issue — just e-mail attachments. A simple 22KB file now takes more than a minute to download, if it comes through. The problem first surfaced with my wife's account but it has spread to me, too.

Dell and Qwest help lines point the finger at each other. A friend at work says that the user profiles may be corrupted. I've run the spy/virus software a number of times, but no evil has turned up. Help!

Mark Dix

A: If you're getting the same old zippy speeds downloading Web sites and the problem seems to be only with e-mail attachments, that pretty much lets your computer maker off the hook.

(Don't forget, though, Web sites can be cached while e-mail attachments aren't. In other words, if your Internet connection has slowed, you might not notice it at first cruising the Web if you're just calling up sites already cached. You would notice it right away, however, with e-mail attachments.)

First things first. Call Qwest and ask it to check your connection speeds — both uploads and downloads. If it says everything is fine, and if you're still experiencing the problem only when downloading e-mail attachments, contact your e-mail provider.

If that is also Qwest, don't let the tech-support person off the line until you get some answers.

Q: I received an e-mail from Microsoft saying my subscription to LiveOneCare would be automatically renewed in October, which agrees with the e-mail I got when I signed up. Both the e-mail I got today and the acknowledgment message last year told me to go to https://billing.microsoft.com to confirm.

Looked like phishing to me. I thought, "How secure can a secure site be if I can access it by using https?" So I tried it, and Vista/Internet Explorer said, "Not so fast ... we can't access that site."

So is it phishing? Does someone in Redmond think secure sites can be accessed by simply using https in the URL? I have taken no action, needless to say.

Bob Gardner

As for the site being an https: site, that's a good thing. Https: is the secure version of http:. When you enter a URL containing https: it tells your browser to use the http: protocol but that the connection will be made over a different default TCP port and there will be an additional layer of encryption and authentication.

In plain English? That means when you connect to an https: site, the communication is more secure than when you connect to an http: site.

This doesn't mean it's entirely protected, of course. It just means what's being sent between your computer and the Web site is encrypted and requires authentication. If hackers have gained access to either your computer or the server, well. ...

As for Internet Explorer not opening that site, I'd need the exact error message to be of any help. I don't know of any Microsoft error messages that include "Not so fast. ... " It's possible you may need to specify the Web site as a "trusted" site. You can find more information on this topic at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834489.

Questions for Patrick Marshall may be sent by e-mail to pmarshall@seattletimes.com or pgmarshall@pgmarshall.net, or by mail at Q&A/Technology, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.